Make Me Melt by Karen Foley Page B

loyalty and commitment to the gang, Jason hadn’t stopped hanging out with the group. He’d deluded himself into thinking that it was okay to rob a convenience store or break into someone’s home when they weren’t there and steal their jewelry and electronics. He’d told himself that society owed him something for dealing him such a lousy hand. Still, on some level, he knew it was only a matter of time before he’d be told to kill someone. But by then he was too deeply entrenched to get out. Then his grandmother had died, and Jason had realized that if he didn’t extricate himself, he was going to end up dead or a junkie like his father. He’d been arrested three days later for jacking a car and had ended up in Judge Banks’s courtroom. Looking back, it was the best thing that could have happened to him.
    He flipped through Eddie’s file, noting that his former friend had been released from prison about fourteen months earlier, having served six years on a murder conviction. But Eddie’s younger brother, Mikey, along with another key gang member, were on death row, charged in the murder of two police officers. Eddie’s gang had threatened to take down everyone involved in the sentencing if Mikey’s conviction wasn’t overturned. Judge Banks had been the one who had sentenced the two men.
    Closing the file, Jason sat back in his chair, feeling as if he’d had the wind knocked out of him. He knew what Eddie and his men were capable of. They were ruthless criminals without consciences, and they would absolutely destroy anyone who got in their way. But would they go so far as to shoot a superior court judge in his own home? Jason didn’t know. He thought again of what Steven Anderson had said about seeing an old car parked in the Sea Cliff neighborhood, conspicuous because of its age and condition. Could it have been Eddie, or one of his gang members, in that car? Just thinking about that scumbag coming anywhere near Caroline made his blood run cold.
    Jason no longer identified with the troubled youth he’d once been, and he’d done his best to put his past behind him. But there were times, like now, when the memories of his upbringing clung to him like a dirty second skin that no amount of washing could remove. As much as the idea repulsed him, he knew he’d have to return to Hunters Point and get whatever information he could about Eddie Green and Judge Banks.
    He looked up when he heard footsteps on the stairs and saw Caroline slowly making her way toward him. She wore his discarded T-shirt and a pair of shorts, and she hadn’t bothered brushing her hair. She looked so sexy that Jason felt his heart thud in his chest.
    “Good morning,” he murmured, rising to his feet. “Did you sleep okay?”
    She nodded and moved into his arms as naturally as if they’d been lovers for years. She was warm and supple and she smelled good enough to eat. Jason closed his eyes and hugged her tightly, unable to believe that this woman wanted to be with him.
    “I missed you when I woke up,” she said and pressed a kiss against his jaw.
    “I wanted to let you sleep, and it gave me time to start going through these case files.”
    Caroline inspected the open file on the table. Jason wanted to slap it shut and prevent her from reading about the sordid details of Eddie Green’s history.
    “I remember overhearing my father talking about this guy when I was a kid,” she said, picking up the photo of Eddie and inspecting it. “He sure is a scary-looking guy.”
    Standing behind her, Jason studied the photo she held in her hand. Eddie had changed in the years since Jason had known him. He’d shaved his head, and the exposed skin was covered with intricate tattoos that extended down his neck and over his shoulders and chest. He had gauges in both ears and a piercing in one eyebrow, but it was none of these things that made him look frightening. It was the utter deadness of his eyes.
    “He lost his way a long time ago,”