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He could smell her coming before he saw her. She was the happiest thing in the entire building. Even when her brow wrinkled with worry, he knew that her optimism was always right. She was a good-looking girl. He called her a girl because she was only twenty-one years old. She was brown, tall, and shapely, and Trace saw nothing wrong with that, nothing at all. This week was her second week at her new job, and she was still smiling. Jason Kent had not seen her yet. The others must have told her to keep a low profile, and she listened to them.
Trace liked how Lauren Caulley's dark eyes always roamed over his tattoos on his arms and neck as if they would leave the next time she saw him. She always spoke to him even though he was sure the non-whites told her that he was racist. He had a prejudice against assholes. He could not help that if most of them at the time happened to be black.
"Hey," His deep male voice caused Lauren to turn and face him. He never spoke to her before. She was at a loss for words. She searched her brain for the perfect thing to say to someone who did not like black people and came up with nothing but,
"Hey,"
She watched a frown appear on his brow. So now, Trace would never speak to her again, and he was the only exciting person here she could talk to, without feeling as if they wanted something from her.
He looked like a skinhead, a very big skinhead. He was an enforcer that enforced one too many orders. At the age of twenty, he finally paid for what his body could perpetrate on others. He spent eight years in prison, getting stronger, knowledge, and a reputation as a man you did not want to see in your face. She liked the artwork next to the offensive words on his body. She tried to ask him about them but knew she had just destroyed her chance forever.
Lauren shyly smiled at Trace and turned towards the fridge. She felt his presence behind her and quickly turned and stared up at him. "Why are you always staring at my body?"
He wanted an answer, and he wanted it that very minute. Lauren stared up into the dark eyes and cleared her throat. "I was looking at the artwork of the wolf on your arm. I like it."
