Black Onyx Read Online Free Page A

where she took him by a cooler and gave him a beer. He set it down and opted for a Dr. Pepper instead and she took him inside. Several women were taking Jell-O shots on the island in the kitchen and Jaime put her arm around one and said, “This is my sister, Amy. Amy, this is Dillon.”
    “So you’re Dillon,” the girl said. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
    “Really?” Dillon said, looking at Jaime. “You talk about me when I’m not around? I’m flattered.”
    “Don’t be an ass ; I just said I like your jeep.” She kissed her sister and yelled, “Let’s get some more shots!”
    Dillon waited b ehind the girls as they took shots. When it was clear Jaime wasn’t stopping, he went outside. A couple of the women tried striking up conversations with him but he couldn’t take his eyes off Jaime long enough to engage them. Instead, he just sat in one of her deck chairs and watched the ocean.
    After a while, she came and pulled up another deck chair and sat next to him.
    “Your sister’s nice,” he said.
    “What’re you doing, Dillon?”
    “What?”
    “Two of my friends threw themselves at you and you barely gave them the time of day.”
    “I’m not interested.”
    “Why not? They’re hot.”
    “No complaint about that. I just don’t feel like that type of girl right now.”
    “Really? And what type of girl do you feel like?”
    “I don’t know. If I was Dillon the garbage man instead of Dillon the guy with a big, nice house you think they’d even look twice at me? I bet you told them I’m rich.”
    “You are rich.”
    “That’s not the point. They don’t even know that for sure and they’re willing to give me whatever I want. Now, don’t get me wrong, most of the time, that’s just fine by me. But I just didn’t feel like it right now.”
    She looked to the ocean and then him. “Something’s bugging you. I can tell cause you wrinkle that little space between your eyebrows. What is it?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Don’t be coy. Just tell me.”
    “I have an opportunity to go somewhere I don’t want to go. But it could be a lot of money for me and James. Enough to retire.”
    “So are you gonna do it?”
    “I really, really don’t want to. I think it’s all theory and conjecture and it’s not going to payoff at all. But James asked me for a favor.”
    “You really care about him, don’t you?”
    “He took me in when I had nowhere else to go. I owe him everything.”
    “Well,” she said, looking back out over the sea, “what’re friends for?”
    He nodded. “I’m going to head home.”
    “Already?”
    “I’m beat, and if I’m actually going on this thing I have to leave in a day.”
    “When would you be back?”
    He grinned. “Why? You gonna miss me?”
    “Believe it or not, Dillon, I can get along perfectly fine without you always being around.”
    “I don’t believe you. But that’s cute that you’d lie to me.” He bent down and kissed her cheek. “Bye.”
    “Bye.”
    He walked to the sand and then across to his house before glancing back. She looked over to him and smiled.
    He got inside and flopped on his couch and turned on the TV. He absently flipped through the channels without paying attention to what was on. He glanced around to the photos on the wall. James had no children, so most of the photos were of Dillon when he was younger. There was one by the kitchen of Dillon and James on their first hunt together. They were after a jewel in the Congo. A villager had supposedly found some sort of diamond/emerald hybrid and had stashed it away from the authorities. They had contacted someone who contacted someone who eventually got in touch with James.
    The trip was hot, long and full of bugs that ate them alive, but Dillon couldn’t have been happier. It was the most time he had ever spent with anyone, and on top of that, James was nice to him. He treated him with respect and taught him things.
    When they arrived, the jewel turned out to be a hoax but James