I watched Brody with curious eyes as he flung himself off the couch and threw his arms out wide. “Then let’s do what we came here to do.”
I shuddered. Not because of Val’s accusation, or that we were moments away from walking into what was most likely a trap. But because for the first time since he held me against the wall of my motel room at gunpoint, I saw that flicker of darkness and an overwrought need to break and control. The perfect combination of grace and civility packaged in a man whose veins coursed with poison.
God, we were both fucked up.
“You’re both to look for intel,” he said. “Adriana, I need you to sniff around your old contacts and see what you can find out about this Ignacio person.” I nodded, which seemed to appease him, or he lost interest because he turned his focus back to Brody. “Should you find someone of interest, your job is to secure him and call for backup.” Rocking back on his heels, he shrugged. “Or if needed, eliminate the problem. Be discreet and don’t raise any flags.”
Right.
Because the former queen of the Muñoz clan and a blond snowflake would blend in with no problem.
Brody and I exchanged curious glances as Val walked back to the bar and opened the lower cabinet. After retrieving what he wanted, he slammed it closed and crossed the room until he stood in front of us holding four metal objects.
“Two burner phones, and two revolvers,” he announced, handing one of each to both of us. Ignoring the phone, I went straight for the gun and opened the chamber.
“It’s not loaded. You’ll get your ammo and more weapons when you’re escorted off the estate.”
I slammed the chamber closed and scowled.
Brody tucked his phone and gun away. “Where are we supposed to stay?”
Still pissed off, I held the useless gun in my hand, tuning them out as Val rattled off directions and addresses. “They should be empty. If not, make them empty. When you get to Guadalajara, you’re on your own.” Pausing, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash and a set of keys, handing them to Brody. “You understand for security reasons, once you’re in Muñoz territory, the Carrera name doesn’t pass your lips.”
Brody pocketed the cash and twirled the key ring around his finger without answering. No one said another word until he glanced down at me. “You plan on getting up, or do you expect to be carried out of here?”
Rising to my feet, I found myself face-to-face with my brother. I started this, but he’d commanded control of it. Now, I had no choice but to trust him, but there was an air of uncertainty around him that I couldn’t put my finger on.
And feeling like I’d disappointed him really pissed me off.
“Val, I—”
He held up a hand. “Adriana, I told you last night I brought you here against my better judgment.”
“I know.”
“I also told you to never pull the same con twice. It makes you predictable, and I don’t give second chances. Are we clear?”
“Very.” Picking up my suitcase, I pushed all the unfamiliar emotions out of my head. I had a job to do and nothing would stop me from seeing it through.
“Adriana?” Pausing, I glanced back over my shoulder. Val opened his mouth to say something, only to close it and shake his head. “Don’t die.”
Chapter Nineteen
Brody
Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico
Adriana propped her legs up on the dashboard and groaned. “How many times are you going to mess with that thing?”
I ground my teeth, turning away from her smirk while pressing the tuner button on the radio for the tenth time. “As many times as it takes.”
“Okay, suit yourself. But, look around you, counselor.” She waved a hand beside me, gesturing toward barren fields. “We’re in the middle of nowhere. If you think you’re getting anything but static on this piece of shit,” reaching over, she gave the decrepit dashboard a firm pat, “you’re dreaming.”
I turned the damn thing off and squeezed the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turned white. “Fine, but I’m not driving three and a half hours to Morelia in silence. It’ll drive me batshit.”
“So, what do you suggest?”
I shrugged, doing my best not to stare at her bare legs. “We could play I Spy.”
She rolled her eyes. “What are we, six?” Drumming her fingernails against the console, she chewed on her lip for a moment before slamming her palm against it. “Oh, I know. Let’s play truth or dare.”
“In a car?”
She turned to me, a glint in her eyes. “Are you scared?”
“I’m driving in a piece of shit Toyota into Muñoz infested territory with a woman who I’m fairly certain is the antichrist. What do you think?”
She pursed her lips. “A simple no would’ve sufficed.” She was quiet for a moment, and I thought she let it die until a slow grin pulled at her lips. “When we get to where we’re going the loser has to do whatever the winner says, no questions asked.”
I wasn’t stupid. I knew a con when I heard it. “Your rules are flawed.”
“How so?”
“What’s to stop either of us from lying?”
“One,” she said, holding up her index finger, “I don’t have to lie, counselor. I’ve led a very full life. And two,” dropping the first finger, she lifted her middle and smirked. “I’ll know if you’re lying.”
I decided to ignore the fact that she was still flipping me off. “How?”
“You have a tell.”
“What is it?”
Folding down her middle finger, she waved her hand. “Telling you would ruin all my fun. Now stop stalling. I’ll even let you go first.”
“No, I insist, ladies first.” I cocked my chin. “However, since there doesn’t seem to be one around, you can start.”
Her cocky smile faded into a scowl. “Fine. Truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Boring.” She stared out the windshield in deep thought. After five minutes of silence, she twisted in her seat, her eyes flashing. “Have you ever had sex with a sicario?”
“That’s not fair. All my sicarios are men.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault you discriminate.” The smug grin on her face was almost enough to make me slam on the brakes just to watch the seat belt slingshot her back into the seat.
“Truth or dare?” I growled.
“Truth.”
“Well, look who jumped on the boring express.” I rolled my eyes as I racked my brain trying to think of something to knock her down a couple notches. Then I remembered when she barged into my office, and I smirked. “Have you ever gotten yourself off to the thought of someone in this car.”
I was staring out the windshield, so I couldn’t see her reaction, but I felt her body shift, and from the sudden silence, I knew I had her.
“Funny, you never stop talking, but you’re suddenly really quiet, Adriana.”
“Shut up.”
“You have, haven’t you?” I couldn’t resist anymore. Turning my head, I saw that her cheeks were the color of fire, and the moment we made eye contact, she turned away. Shit, this was better than any radio station, and I wasn’t about to let it go. Keeping one hand on the wheel, I grabbed her chin with the other and forced her eyes on me. “Oh, no, princesa, this game was your idea, remember? Tell the truth. Have you touched yourself while thinking about me?”
She jerked her chin out of my hold. “Maybe. It’s not a big deal.”
“Oh, I think it is. When did this happen?”
It took her a few moments to find her voice. “After you left my motel room, all right?”
“You mean after I had you pinned against the wall, completely at my mercy?”
Her lips thinned but she didn’t respond.
Stubborn-ass woman.
“I walked away because two more seconds and I would’ve kissed you while ripping that little lace dress off,” I admitted, pushing her defenses a little harder.
That earned me
a sharp glare. “I don’t kiss.”
My tongue burned with a dozen questions but asked none of them. Instead, I kept myself in check and forced her hand.
She sighed. “You kiss someone you love. I fuck, Brody. I don’t kiss.”
I was stunned but focused on proving my point. “Fair enough, no kiss. Want to know what I would’ve done after that?”
“I’m on pins and needles.”
“I would’ve run my hands down those curves you keep throwing in my face. You wouldn’t have had to get yourself off, Adriana, because right up against that wall, I would’ve made you shake so hard, you would’ve collapsed.”
She curled her lips and stared at the roof of the car. “Uh-huh, right.”
“Don’t believe me?”
“Oh, I’m sure the socialites you’ve been with have no complaints, but we’re talking apples and oranges here.” She tossed out one open palm and then the other to demonstrate as if I were a complete moron. “I’m not saying your vanilla way is bad, but we’d never be sexually compatible.”
I was fucking with her before, but now I was pissed.
“How would you know?”
“Let’s just say my sexual appetite is like a car’s engine, and yours is more like a bicycle.” Again, she demonstrated holding on to invisible handlebars as if I were a chimpanzee who’d just learned to eat with utensils. “You strike me as more of a candlelight and roses by a four-poster bed type of guy. That’s not me, counselor. I’m more of a dirty fucking on the hood of a car type of girl.”
I should’ve let it die. My brain knew nothing good could come of taking this any further. Unfortunately, it wasn’t my brain that was in control.
“Who are you trying to convince, princesa? Me or yourself?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I think for once in your life, you want to hand over your coveted control and know what it feels like to submit. Only nobody has ever had the balls to make you do it.”
There. I said it, and every word was true whether she wanted to admit it or not. I saw how she responded when I had a gun to her head and my hand around her throat. I understood her better than she thought. Maybe I was the only one who’d ever come close.
Our lives paralleled, forming an extremely warped yin and yang. Adriana grew up in darkness, fighting for respect, blood and death her closest childhood friends. I, on the other hand, grew up in what I thought was the light, freely given respect and adoration, ignorance and justice my most trusted confidants. Somewhere along the way, our worlds imploded and reversed. I fell into darkness while Adriana, whether she saw it or not, desperately sought out the light.
Black and white. Dark and light. Yes and no. Control and submit.
She’d spent her life fighting. I’d spent my whole life giving.
For once, she wanted to surrender. For once, I wanted to take.
Yin and yang.
The sun kept me from seeing her face, but the tension in the car was palpable.
“You’re wrong.”
I’d had enough of this back-and-forth bullshit. Jerking the wheel to the right, I pulled the car over to the side of the road and threw it in park. Unbuckling my seat belt, I pressed one hand against her headrest and the other against the dashboard.
“Am I? Then tell me you wouldn’t have loved it if I’d pressed your hands against the wall and made you watch while I took out my cock and stroked myself. Tell me you wouldn’t have wanted me to grab you by the back of the legs and slam you into the wall so hard it would’ve knocked the breath out of you.”
“Brody…”
Taking a chance, I leaned over the console until there were only inches between us, her breath heavy as I took her face in my hands. “I would’ve stood there making you both fear and want what I would’ve done next, and when you were about to break, I would’ve driven into you so hard, you would’ve screamed mine and God’s name until you cried. It would’ve been rough and brutal until we both came harder than we’d ever come in our lives.”
Her eyes fluttered closed, and her tongue darted out to lick her bottom lip. Mesmerized, I brushed my thumb against it. She rewarded me with a whimper, wrapping her hands around my forearms.
“Adriana…” I groaned, my voice rough.
“Yes?”
Grazing my lips across her cheek, I traced them against the shell of her ear before whispering, “I win.”
I pulled back just as her eyes popped open and her jaw dropped. Letting out an almost inhuman growl, she flung herself back into her seat as I put the car back in gear and pulled onto the road wearing a satisfied smirk.
Yin and yang.
* * *
She didn’t talk to me the rest of the way, and by the time we got to the stash house, it was dark, which was a good thing since it was exactly what I expected it to be—a piece of shit. A run-down barnyard red box house. Not the most subtle of colors, but that was what probably why Val picked it. No one in their right mind would think the most feared man in Mexico would paint a bright red bullseye on himself. Which is exactly why he did.
The human instinct was trained to dismiss the obvious.
Adriana’s face puckered as soon as we walked in the door. Granted, the sheets slung over the windows and the stained mattresses on the floor didn’t scream hygiene, but unless she wanted to sleep in the back seat of the Toyota, we didn’t have many options.
Of course, saying the words out loud probably wasn’t the best idea. After growling at me, she stomped into the shoebox of a bedroom and slammed the door.
An hour later, she still hadn’t opened it.
Not that I’d tried to see what she was doing. I had enough on my mind without wasting time trying to decode her hot and cold routine. Grabbing a bottle of scotch from my backpack, I kicked one of the splintered chairs away from the rickety kitchen table and sat down, not even giving a shit when the bottom rung snapped in half.
Fuck it. If I fell, I fell.
Unscrewing the cap, I tipped the bottle back, draining a good four shot’s worth before taking a breath. My throat ignited, and my eyes watered, but I welcomed the burn. I knew from experience it was only temporary. A few more like that, and I’d feel nothing. Numb and sedated. Just the way I liked it.
Besides, drunk me was a hell of a lot more rational than sober me.
With eighty-proof logic coursing through my veins, I could devise a plan on what to do about the shitshow my life had become without all the useless guilt getting in the way.
Men like Val and Mateo were born in this life possessing the ability to compartmentalize their conscience. I wasn’t wired that way. I felt like Jekyll and Hyde molded together and stuffed into the same suit. The constant conflict between fighting to hold on to the honorable man I was and fighting the monster clawing inside my chest was wearing me down. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take before Hyde turned on everyone.
Of course, that was provided I lived long enough for it to be an issue. Letting out a huff, I turned the bottle up again. Val knew I went against a direct order and contacted Ronan Kelly personally to set up the Chicago port. And if that weren’t damning enough, when the Muñozes hijacked my shipment, not only did I not come clean, I let myself get backed into four different corners by Leo Pinellas and Adriana Carrera. Luckily, he hadn’t said shit about going through another Colombian distributor yet. Dragging Carlos into the mix might send him over the edge.
Dropping the bottle between my legs, I scrubbed a hand over my face, unfamiliar stubble raking across my palm. “What a fucking mess.”
“You’re just now realizing that?”
I rolled my eyes to the side, ready to tell her to go back into whatever hole she crawled out of when my mouth went dry and every drop of blood in my brain free fell straight to my groin.
Adriana leaned against the kitchen counter with her arms crossed, wearing Leighton’s Texas State University T-shirt.
Wearing only her Texas State University T-shirt.
It hit her mid-thigh, leaving the rest of her long shapely legs to spill out of the bottom. My eyes went all unfocused, and all I wanted in life at that moment was for her to bend over.
My hand fell from my chin, almost knocking the bottle off my chair.
Cocking a hip, Adriana traced the pad of her index finger around her bottom lip. “Everything okay? You look a little flustered there, counselor.”
That’s the understatement of the year.
I didn’t have to look down to know my cock was about to punch its way through my pants, so I dragged the bottle tight against my crotch. “Did you need something, or did the rats get tired of your bullshit too?”
“Funny.” Pushing off the wall, she pulled out the chair beside me and flopped down, legs splayed.
Fuck me.
Her T-shirt rode up her thighs, and my dick leaped with a battle cry, fighting against the constraints of the bottle. I looked everywhere but directly at her, and when she leaned forward with her hand extended, I wondered if it was possible for a human penis to shatter glass.
I pushed my chair back. “Whoa, what are you doing?”
Whatever it is, do it fast.
And hard.
With both hands.
Jesus, where did that come from?
She paused, her hand hovering over the bottle. “I’m shoving this bottle up your ass if you don’t let go.” When I didn’t move, she sighed and wrapped her hand around the neck. “Brody, it’s been a shitty day, and I want a drink. Are you going to make me beg, or not be a giant dick for once?”
“You said you didn’t drink.”
“Forget it.” Shoving the bottle against my chest, she stood to leave when I grabbed her arm. It went against everything common sense told me to do, but I didn’t want to be alone. “Fine, sit down. I’m the last one who should be casting stones here.”
Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t argue, slowly sinking back into the rickety chair. “Hand it over,” she demanded, holding her hand out for the bottle, but I shook my head and dug around in my backpack until I found what I was looking for. She lifted an eyebrow as I slid a crystal shot glass adorned with a golden crowned skull clutching a rose in its teeth. “You stole one of Val’s personal shot glasses?”
Drawn Blue Lines: A Carrera Cartel Novel Page 15