Chino was outside Ericka"s place, sitting in his Beamer, waiting for her to come home. It was pouring rain and Chino was wet from when he"d knocked on her door, finding her gone. Sitting there, he knew the optics were bad. She would come home and think he was stalking her. And he was, he supposed, but not in that way. He was trying to save her, even if she didn"t want saved.
The afternoon was gray. The rain pounded as if God was taking a piss after holding it a while. Finally, after Chino had waited several hours, a black Ford Escape pulled up and stopped. Chino watched Ericka climb out, waving goodbye to the older black man driving. Chino guessed it was her daddy.
Ericka"s umbrella opened the second she stepped out, and after waving, she made a mad dash to her door. Chino watched the ma
