I’d never been so excited to see an asshole.
“Did your feet grow in the night?” he asked, his eyes tracing my hand that dropped the shoe.
“Um, you know what? That’s a possibility given that I don’t remember much from last night. Did we…”
“Have sex? Funny. I like my women lucid and eager. Not drugged. Besides, those pants are so damn tight. I left you in the bed and slept on the couch. Coffee?”
I felt an overwhelming sense of both relief that we didn’t do anything, and embarrassment that I’d forgotten the night.
“I do have a few questions. A lot of holes in the night,” I said, and turned to look out the window. “Nice view by the way. We’re on the third floor? I’m surprised you got a place this nice right out of prison.”
Corbin cocked his head and gave me a funny look. “You don’t remember going on the balcony last night?”
“No.”
“We had this exact same conversation.”
A brick formed in my stomach.
“Looks like I have a lot of holes to fill in from the night.” I took a sip of the warm brown liquid in my hand. “My memory is hazy, but I remember someone giving me that drink compliments of Marco, and then...I think I saw you go home with a prostitute?”
“You don’t remember anything.” Corbin said matter-of-factly, a sip of his own coffee and nodded calmly.
I shook my head.
“Well, Ned sent me this text.”
He pulled out his phone and I read his screen.
Hi Corbin. Eva will be joining you undercover. Let’s come up with some possible undercover identities for her to go with you. Maybe your cousin who is looking to get in on the business?
I almost spit up my coffee.
“I’m your cousin who is looking to get in on the business?” I repeated aloud. “That’s about the dumbest cover story that I’ve ever heard.”
“You’re telling me,” Corbin agreed.
Corbin made a sipping sound and nodded at me. The cup looked tiny in his massive hand.
“Can I be frank with you for a moment?” I asked.
“I prefer you as Alexa, but you can be whoever you want with me. I do like role playing, and being Frank sounds like an interesting character choice. Let’s run with it.”
I rolled my eyes. “This is serious, Corbin. I can’t go undercover with you because I don’t trust you. I looked up your file. You didn’t even mention the fact that you were a convict when we hooked up the first night. Or that you killed a person. You lied to me.”
Corbin laughed out loud. “You’re getting mad at me for lying by omission? Might I remind you that you told me—ahem—a fake fucking name.”
“Touché. But that doesn’t matter. I did that for my own safety—so that you wouldn’t be searching for me or something on social media. I didn’t think we would end up going home together, I thought I’d only mess with you for a few minutes. Besides, a person’s name is different—you left out things about your character. It’s not the same.”
“Well it’s too bad you feel that way,” he said. “Because I was actually starting to enjoy the idea of bringing you undercover with me as my mistress sidepiece.”
My blood boiled, and I choked a little on my coffee. “Your mistress sidepiece? No no no. That is not happening. Absolutely not.”
“You’re funny,” he said. “Do you not remember me saving your ass last night from Marco by treating you as my mistress? That’s the only person you’ll be in front of Marco and his criminal associates from now on. Try anything else, and it will be incredibly suspect.”
I bit my lip and resisted grinding my teeth, because Corbin was right.
“I guess I’m still piecing together last night. Marco put something in my drink, I’m sure of it.”
I stared at the tattooed man in front of me, feeling infuriated. No one in my life had managed to make me that angry while still wanting to jump on top of him. It wasn’t fair.
Corbin took a step toward me and ran his hand through my hair. “On second thought, it’s probably best that you don’t come with me. I mean I’d love to go undercover with you. It would be a fun few days, but I just don’t think you could handle it. You wouldn’t be able to get in the role. You just wouldn’t last. It’s alright. Not everyone is cut out for this type of work.”
“Goddamn it, I can’t fucking win, can I,” I shook my head, feeling stuck between a rock and a hard place. I could either go undercover as a man’s arm candy, or I could say no, turn down the role, and who knew when Ned would offer me another chance to go undercover?
I looked toward the window. Corbin walked over to the venetian blinds and yanked them up, allowing light to stream in. “I don’t get why you’re so offended. This has nothing to do with your education. You’re a smart fucking girl—that’s obvious. A lot fucking smarter than a non-college educated thug like me. But you got so damn angry last night at me for just making sure those guys knew you belonged to me, so they wouldn’t fuck with you. I’ve been around these types of people my whole life, and they are experts at seeing through bullshit. So no, I don’t think you would last. And I don’t want you to get hurt.”
I rubbed my face with my hand. I hated to admit it, I had freaked out a little last night, even before Marco had (probably) drugged me. And it wasn’t that I had really been offended by anything he said. Maybe I freaked out because I really liked hearing him say those things.
“Wait a second,” I said, echoing Corbin’s last comment in my mind. “Did you just give me a compliment about my intellectual ability?”
“Yeah, it’s hot that you’re smart. Probably much too smart for a thug like me. Don’t go and get all uppity on me though, okay?”
I let a smile escape my lips. In spite of Corbin’s lack of formal schooling, the DEA had rated him one of the most intelligent criminals around today. But I decided it was best not to share that information. I didn’t want his ego getting any bigger.
“I need to shower off. Where’s your bathroom? Do you have a towel?”
He pointed me in the direction of the master bathroom. I entered and turned on the water to heat it up. Corbin fetched a towel from his closet and brought it to me.
“You’re right about last night,” I said, wiggling out of my pants. “I freaked. But it wasn’t because I can’t perform under pressure. I’m just feeling a little weird about the whole me-and-you thing. We never talked about it. To me, you were just supposed to be a one night indulgence. I can’t have this affecting my career. Ned or anyone.”
“What me-and-you thing?” Corbin winked. “What happens in Mexico, stays in Mexico. Never happened. I’ve forgotten all about you kicking me out.” I noticed Corbin’s eyes were following me.
“Oh stop it already,” I said. “You act like you were going to try and wife me up, and then I kicked you out to end your fantasy. I was just some club girl who you got your rocks off with on the second night out of prison. Admit it.”
“Maybe,” Corbin said with a wry smile. “But now I’ve decided I’m not done with you.”
“That doesn’t matter. Because I’m done with you. Seriously.”
I took off my bra and hung it up. I was getting ready to take my panties off when I noticed Corbin was still staring at me, slowly hanging the towel up on the rack next to the shower.
“What are you looking at?” I said. “It’s not like you haven’t seen me naked before.”
“It was dark that night,” Corbin smirked. “You’re sexier in the light. Plus, one time is not enough with you, Alexa.”
He took a step toward me so his body was inches from me. I could feel the heat radiating from his body.
I wanted him to touch me so badly. Just take me again.
“Don’t do this,” I said.
“Do what?”
“Dammit, Corbin, you know exactly what. Don’t.”
He took hold of my hips and pressed his bare chest into the flesh of my breasts, his eyes staring into mine, lip
s curved upward in a slight smile. I thought of all the reasons why this couldn’t happen again. Reasons like my career and my future. Good, solid reasons. I tried to picture anything but the criminal forcing his body onto mine, making me moan. But I could feel him through his shorts, growing harder, and it was making me salivate.
“All I’m doing,” he said, stroking my hair, “is checking to see if you’re able to convincingly play my mistress undercover.”
“And?” His big hands moved from my hips to my ass, and he palmed my cheeks.
“Seems to me like you could do a pretty good job. But you’d have to step into the role a little bit more.”
“Corbin, no,” I put my hands to his chest and pushed him off. “I can’t go undercover with you. Now please leave me so I can shower, and then you’re taking me home.”
“Fine,” Corbin finally backed off, turned around, and began to walk out of the room. Before he closed the door, he turned to me. “I’ll be waiting outside in the car to take you home. Have a nice shower.”
With that he was finally gone, and I breathed a sigh of relief at being able to resist his charms. I took off my panties before stepping into the shower.
They were as wet as if I’d gotten in with them.
13
Corbin
I sat in the driver’s seat of my brother’s SUV waiting for Eva to come out of the penthouse so I could drive her home. It was a typical seventy and sunny morning in San Diego, so I put the key in the ignition, rolled down the window, and turned on the radio. A new Kanye song played and I didn’t even recognize it. It was funny how a couple of years in jail could make you completely out of the loop when it came to pop culture.
I took a deep breath. I had to get out of there after seeing Eva almost nude again. There was a monster inside me, and I knew how badly it wanted her. I was never intimidated by any woman, but the way Eva had no problem stripping down in front of me—with utter confidence—made me need to get the hell out of there, away from her. I was having a hell of a time keeping my hands off her.
Last night after she passed out on the dock, I carried her to my room and tucked her under the covers. She looked so damn sweet sleeping there that I wanted nothing more than to cuddle up to her. Instead, I slept on the couch.
A cold, hard, realization hit me. Just some passing words that my jail psychologist had said to me, but now rung truer than I originally thought. Corbin, when you really love someone, you run. It’s because your mom left you when you were young, and you never knew your dad.
I’ve never been someone who believed in the Freudian analysis bullshit, but maybe he had something there.
I tried to think about what Eva was making me feel—but processing my own emotions had never really been my strong suit. I was the king of wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am’s. I believed that people were really, truly, better off without me, especially women. I’d tear through them like the Tasmanian devil, giving them a few nights they’d never forget.
And then I’d stop calling. They wouldn’t.
The door to the penthouse swung open and Eva appeared, wearing some old blue sweat pants of mine and a white t-shirt, no bra. I couldn’t help but stare at her curvy body as she walked toward me in the sun like some kind of cheesy B romance movie scene. She was knockout gorgeous without even trying, which was infuriating. I reached over and popped the passenger’s side door open for her.
“I hope you don’t mind, I didn’t much feel like squeezing into those pants again, so I raided your dresser and found these,” she said as she hopped into the front seat.
“Keep ‘em,” I said as I kicked the car into drive.
“You’re doing pretty well for yourself for having just got out of prison. A motorcycle and an SUV?”
“It’s my brother’s,” I said, pulling out of the driveway.
“Oh really. Well it’s nice. What does your brother do?” Eva cocked her head toward me.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s not important,” I said. I didn’t feel like getting into my brother’s profession, which always yielded ten million questions as soon as girls found it out.
“I think it is important. Very relevant, in fact. How am I supposed to trust you if you won’t even tell me a simple detail about your life? Here, I’ll start. I have one brother who lives in Chicago. His name is Jake. We grew up poor on the south side. I got out of there to start new and ended up at San Diego State. I was raised by a single mom, and I haven’t seen my biological dad in years. See? That wasn’t so hard. Now you.”
I drove in silence for a moment. We pulled up to a red light and I glanced over at her. “I appreciate your family tree honesty, but you don’t want to know about me. No one does. Trust me. It’s not a fun story. Just depressing. Wait...holy shit. Do you mean The Jake Napleton is your brother? Like the baseball MVP of the league last year?”
She nodded.
“Holy shit,” I added.
She put her hand on my knee. “So are you saying my story wasn’t depressing? My brother and I are self-made. We’re two of the only people from our neighborhood who made it out.”
I shrugged.
“Anyways, yes, I do want to know about you,” she continued. “You’ve piqued my curiosity. This isn’t an act. I’m genuinely curious. What drives a guy like you to get into dealing drugs at a young age? And can I trust you on the other side of the drug war?”
For years, I’d been trying to get over my past. I just wanted to forget about it. My upbringing was far from stellar. But she was looking at me with a look that conveyed true interest.
She had no idea what she was about to get into. My life had been a shit show up until…
I was going to say ‘Now,’ but it really was still a shit show. Who knew if I’d ever be out of the woods.
“If you insist,” I growled as I jammed my foot on the accelerator and hung a right at the corner to take a detour. Eva fastened her seatbelt. “It’s time for the Corbin Young roots tour.”
“Where are you taking me?” she asked, suddenly sounding a little scared.
“You’re completely right,” I said, ignoring her immediate question. “You have no reason to trust me at this point.” My eyes were glued to the road as I sped on. I gave a token pause at a stop sign before blowing through it. I turned left on a dirty old road with lots of potholes, the same ones since the nineties when I grew up there. “I want to teach you a little bit about my life so you understand where I’m coming from. Do you know where we are right now?”
“Of course I do. We’re in Vista Chulo. I have an uncle and a…” Eva paused, like she was remembering an old friend. “…a cousin who used to be from here,” she trailed off.
“Where does your cousin live now?” I asked.
“Javi’s not with us anymore,” she said, glancing at the cross dangling from the rear view mirror.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
A tear streamed down Eva’s cheek, and she immediately wiped it away, pretending that I hadn’t seen it. I massaged her shoulder for a second, and slid my hand down her arm and did something I hadn’t done in years: I held her hand just because I wanted to.
Fingers interlocked, we drove on in silence for a few moments.
I pulled over in front of a dilapidated red brick duplex wedged between two larger houses and put the car into park for a minute. I rolled down her window with my controls and pointed outside. “This is where me and my brother and sister grew up with my mom. It’s a tiny house, obviously. We had one bedroom between the four of us. I slept in a bunk bed with my brother, my mom slept on a futon couch in the main room, and my sister had her own room.”
Eva looked shocked. “Does your mom still live there?”
“Not since she left when I was fourteen.”
Eva’s eyes widened. “She just left?”
“She battled with drugs her whole life. Finally, the drugs won. I think she figured we were better off without her.” I swallowed, and took a deep breath. “Like I said, not a prett
y story.”
“What did you do? Like for money?”
I shrugged. “I started selling coke. I had a little brother and sister to raise. And I wasn’t about to go to child services, let them split up the family or whatever they would do to us.”
I felt her squeeze my hand. She turned toward me and looked me in the eye, running her free hand from my forearm up my bicep to my shoulder.
“Corbin, you know none of this was your fault, right?”
“Yeah, of course not,” I said, not really considering the words. Eva was getting all mushy on me and I was done opening up.
I kicked the car out of park and pulled off down the road. It wasn’t even noon yet and we both could easily spot the crack dealers who were circulating down the sidewalk, getting on with their unique brand of sales.
“See that corner over there?” I pointed to the intersection ahead of us. A few teenagers stood there smoking cigarettes and loitering by a corner gas station. Eva nodded. “That’s where we saw our first drive-by shooting when I was eleven and Casey was nine. We heard some pops, came outside, and saw a guy bleeding out on the concrete.”
“Jesus, Corbin, that’s awful.”
“It’s also the same corner I sold my first dime-bag when I was thirteen. Ironic.”
Eva seemed to have a visible, visceral reaction to my comments. Her body squirmed in the passenger’s seat.
“Why are you showing me these things?” Eva asked, still visibly shaken. “How is this going to make me trust you?”
I looked over at her and I had to smile. “I’m not sure how. I’ve never really told anyone about these things. The truth is I’m ashamed of the way I’ve grown up. I’ve always tried to hide my roots. I’ve done my time on the wrong side of things. But moving forward, I’m ready to do whatever it takes to put an end to this awful ring of crime and take down Luis Reyes. I know we had one crazy night together—before we knew who each other were. But a lot has happened since then. And I’m willing to put aside my past, as well as whatever it is that we have between us, if it means taking down Reyes.”
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