by Rebel Hart
I was all smiles like a schoolgirl with a crush. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”
A dark, borderline evil, smile came across his face. “I’m looking forward to your call, Mariana.”
The smile faded from my face, but the shit-eating grin remained on Bryce’s. He let me go, climbed on his bike, started it up and rumbled off down the street without a second thought.
Behind me, the sounds of the door to the house opening broke through the night. “Mari?” Nique called out. “You okay?”
I shook my head, staring after Bryce in complete shock. “Suddenly, I don’t think so.”
9
Bryce
I tried to remember the last time a night out with a woman left me so speechless, but nothing came to mind. I’d dated my fair share in Colorado, and even since coming to Las Vegas, I’d had no trouble finding someone to spend some time with, but Mariana was in a different league. It took a lot of fighting and effort to get her to drop her guard, and even then when she finally did, all it did was show me how incredible she actually was. She wasn’t just intelligent, but she was kind of sneaky. A gun stored in her dress? Tripping off to rifle through my stuff as soon as I left the room?
In a way, she was a woman after my own heart.
She was a fresh, exciting challenge, one I honestly didn’t think was out there. Whether or not she’d done it purposefully, she managed to deviate me from my plan with one single comment, and then spent the rest of the night charming me into submission. When I saw her looking through my bag of sex toys on the boat, all I could think of was using them with her—nothing else could occupy my mind. I probably should be feeling some type of way about the fact that I now had to admit to my family that I didn’t kill her like I was supposed to, but the only thing I could think about was how sad I was that the date was over and that next time I did see her, I’d actually have to follow through on what I told my mom I’d do.
Rather than heading back to my place, I went back to my parents’, knowing I’d have to wake up bright and early with an excuse to explain myself. What that excuse was going to be, I wasn’t entirely sure, but I was hoping something would magically come to me before then. I could tell the half-truth that I’d convinced myself, but my mom would probably see straight through that.
In spite of my attempts to be quiet, my bike always made more noise pulling in than I wanted. Even once I got it turned off, creaking in the front door and trying to tiptoe my way downstairs was causing just as much noise. One of my boots went rogue and decided to fling itself down the stairs when I attempted to kick it off to the side. I dropped my keys on the hardwood floor of the entryway, so they, of course, proceeded to breakdance and make the most noise possible when they should have just hit the floor and stopped.
“Dramatic,” I hissed down at the keys as I scooped them up, then shuffled my way downstairs.
It was all for nothing, because when I reached the bottom of the stairs, Baylor was sitting in one of the lounge chairs, working on a glass of whiskey, watching TV, almost like he was waiting for me.
“Hey,” he said, wide-eyed, then checked his watch. “It’s like three in the morning. Are you just now getting done?”
“Yeah,” I said. “And I’m pretty tired, so…”
I attempted to slide past him and down the hallway that led to my room, but he stood up and cut in my way. He didn’t say anything at first, just looked me up and down quietly before finally taking a step backwards and furrowing his brow at me. “You don’t look like you just killed someone and dumped them in a lake.”
Though I considered lying, that had never gone well with Baylor in the past. He could read me like he had a direct line to my brain. “Yeah. I didn’t.”
“What happened to your plan?” he asked.
I had to default to the only thing I could say that was both truthful and understandable. “She figured me out. Right before we got on the boat, she made a ‘joke’ asking if I was going to kill her.”
“That means she knows you know who she is?” he asked.
“Yeah. By the end of the night, we’d dropped all the pleasantries. I even called her by her actual name before we parted ways.”
His jaw went slack. “Dude! And you let her go?”
“What was I supposed to do?” I walked over and threw myself down onto the L-shaped couch in front of the television. “I was already bringing her on the boat, but I couldn’t kill her because she was expecting it. She even had a gun on her. It wasn’t like I could turn around and go, ‘Oh, well I really planned all this to murder you, so since you have me pegged, let’s just call it a night.’”
“So you got on the boat with her anyway?”
“Yeah.”
“What if she had killed you instead?”
I held out my arms. “Clearly she didn’t. Besides, I was as prepared for it as she was. We had dinner and… that was it.”
That half second hesitation was all Baylor needed. He closed his eyes as he leaned his head back then he looked down at me and frowned. “You slept with her.”
“She found my deprivation shit, and,” I stabbed a finger out at him, “she’s super hot. Like illegally hot. I’m only human.”
Baylor’s hands flew to his head. “Are you out of your fucking mind? What’s your plan now? You better not say some stupid shit like you wanna try and save her because you like her.”
“No, no, no. Don’t get me wrong, she was fun, but I know that can’t happen again. It’s a fucking waste, but I know I still have to kill her. It’s fine.” I sighed. “Trust me on this. Right before I left, we agreed to see each other again. She was probably lying when she said she’d call me, but then I called her by her real name. She knows I know. And this girl is smart. She’s not just gonna let me hang out as a loose end. She’s gonna call me with her own plans to knock me off, and when we meet up to do that, I’ll end her. It’s all gonna be fine. It was a little side-step, but I had a contingency prepared.”
“You know, this morning, I thought you had matured and were better prepared to take on these things. Now I’m beginning to think you’re just good at pretending you know what you’re doing. You can’t do this, Bryce. You can’t get all caught up in her and not follow-through with what Mom needs. It’s not just getting cut out of the business, she might full-fledged drop you to the bottom of a lake. She’s ruthless. Her high-school sweetheart’s body parts are scattered across the mountains of Boulder. She plays high-brow, but she’s nasty, don’t forget that.”
“I know.” I jumped up from my seat. “I know that.” I walked up to Baylor and set my hands on his shoulders. “Trust me, I don’t wanna fuck this up. I just underestimated Mariana. This is on me, but I’m gonna fix it, I swear.”
Behind the irritation in Baylor’s gaze was actual, brotherly concern. “I hope so, because I’m not prepared to try and navigate this world without you stressing me the fuck out the whole way. Please, please don’t throw our family’s whole legacy away on a woman.”
“I’m not. I’m not gonna do that. I know better.”
“Did you tell her what happened in Boulder?”
I shook my head. “No. Just that some things went wrong and we had to move.”
Something like relief flashed across Baylor’s gaze, and he walked out of my touch to go drop down onto the couch himself. I leaned against the wall and let the silence hang between us for a minute.
Finally, Baylor looked up with a smile. “So… it was just a regular date then?”
I shrugged. “For all intents and purposes.”
He leaned back on the couch, a grin of jealousy about his face. “Was it fun? I don’t remember the last time I went on a full-fledged date. What’d you guys do?”
“Well, I took her to Here downtown for drinks, then we took a bike ride out to the lake and I brought her on the yacht for dinner. We had parfaits for dessert, then when I left her to bring the dishes into the kitchen, she started snooping and found my bag. One thing led to another and… we sle
pt together. She was like a homing beacon. I couldn’t resist. Then we docked, bike ride back into the city, and I dropped her off at home.”
He lifted his eyebrows. “She let you take her home?”
“Not to the Westuns’ home, some place in the Vegas ‘burbs. A friend’s place I’m assuming. There was someone looking out the door who tried to hide as soon as we looked her way.”
“You’re so fucking annoying. You get all the fun.”
“I guess. I’m good at dates even if relationships aren’t really my thing, but you look like a damn model or something. If you wanna date someone, just date them. Just because I’m a suave, debonair individual, taking women at my whimsey and doing whatever I’d like. Waves of—”
“Okay,” Baylor cut me off.
I chuckled as I finished, “Doesn’t mean you have to do that. You’re not the hit it and quit it kind of guy. You’ve always been a romantic. Like dad.”
He shrugged. “What’s the point with a lifestyle like ours? I’m not gonna drag some innocent woman into all of this, and the last thing I need is to fall for some woman who is then going to start trying to convince me to give it all up. Believe me, cut clean is easier, but a date wouldn’t be bad. I haven’t planned something like that since high school.”
“So plan a really nice date and then just say it didn’t go well or something?”
“What’s the point of putting all that effort for someone I know I’m gonna just look the other way from?”
I gagged. “Ugh. I can’t do it with the sappy shit. Do what you want, I’m going to bed.”
As I started to walk away, Baylor called out, “What are you going to tell Mom?”
“A modified version of what I told you. That Mariana Westun and I are meeting up again and I’m going to kill her.”
“You’re so certain she’s going to call you?” he asked.
I grinned back over my shoulder. “Hasn’t been a woman yet that didn’t call me when I told her to.”
“Fuck you,” he barked at me.
Laughing, I turned around, slid into my bedroom and just face-planted on my bed. My brain filled instantly with the memories of the feeling of Mariana’s skin, the vision of her bound and responding to me, the sounds of her muffled moans. It’d be a long time, if ever, before I had such a good time again.
It really was a waste.
As expected, my sleep was unsettled and interrupted by the memories of Mariana lingering in my mind. What was more unexpected was the fact that some of my dreams weren’t about the sex, but just us enjoying our time out on the town. I’d never really had those kinds of dreams before, mainly because I didn’t really care to attach to women that way. That I just chalked up to Baylor being all sappy about wanting to date a woman, and when morning finally came, I put it out of my mind.
Mariana did throw me another curve ball, however, when I finally got out of bed and saw that she hadn’t yet called me. I honestly was expecting one almost immediately, but maybe she was playing hard to get. It was really up to her, anyway. She knew that I knew who she was, and that my mother now knew that the “Jade Meghan” she’d been fighting with for the past few months was actually the Westun heir. The fact that she wasn’t able to just be looked up on her own meant that her family had kept her secret, likely for a reason. I firmly believed what I’d told Baylor the night before.
She wouldn’t just let me hang out there as a loose end.
Still, the fact that she hadn’t called me yet was problematic, because it meant I had nothing for my mother. My best bet was to just drag out making my way upstairs as much as possible. I spent an extra hour laying around in bed, and then slipped into the bathroom for a shower, though I opted not to play any music. That was the sign that I was awake and moving around, so if I kept myself quiet, then if I needed to I could kill more time afterwards.
Fortunately, it wasn’t necessary.
Just as I was getting out of the shower, my phone rang, nervousness left my body and a smile fell across my face when I saw it was Mariana, and I answered it and put it on speaker. “Hello?”
“Hello,” she said.
“Mariana,” I replied, bleeding confidence into my voice.
“Mari,” she barked.
“Mari it is,” I responded. “I was hoping you’d call a little sooner. You had me on the edge of my seat over here.”
She scoffed. “I’m sure. I think you and I both know that not calling you wasn’t really an option.”
“Oh really?” I put on fake innocence. “I guess maybe I didn’t quite realize that. I thought everyone always had options.”
She was silent for a few minutes and I could hear her irritation in it, but I didn’t rush her, just waited for her to continue. “Now listen, last night was fun, but forgive me for not wanting to play any additional games with you.”
“Aw,” I groaned, “and here I was hoping we could have a little more fun.”
“You said you wanted to meet again, I’d like to as well. Let’s get together and just lay all of our cards on the table. We both have things to lose and things to gain. Let’s mitigate the damages for us both.”
“I’m not quite sure what I have to lose, but seeing you again is a gain.” Was I shamelessly flirting? “Hopefully you’ll leave the fake hair and eyes at home. I’d quite like to see your beauty in all of its natural glory.”
“Fine, but only if you stop with the overwhelming charm. It may have worked yesterday, I’ll give you that, but it’s just wasted effort at this point.”
If that were true, she wouldn’t be asking me to stop. “Very well.”
“I’ll text you an address. Meet me there at 3 o’clock. No games.”
“No games,” I said. “See you soon, Mari.”
10
Mari
Only because I needed her car and because it was a better option than leaving her at home to make up all of her own ideas, I chose to bring Nique with me to meet up with Bryce. She was creative by nature, and frequently let her mind run away with her. Trying to tell her that I needed her car for a secret rendezvous with someone simply wasn’t working, especially when I tried to tack on that I wanted her to contact my parents if, after a few hours, I didn’t come home. She was already running wild with ideas about me storming into some gun battle or running off into the night with the mystery biker, and if she let on to her parents or mine what was going on before I was ready, I’d be in real trouble.
So she was in the passenger’s seat burning a hole in my ear drum.
“I can’t believe it. A secret meeting. Is it in a back alley? Do you have a gun?” she asked.
I sighed, but nodded. “Yes. I always have one on me. You know this.”
“Are you gonna put the screws to him? Huh? If he doesn’t talk how you want him to talk then he’ll be swimming with the fishes?”
I took the opportunity at a red light to glare over at her. “You have to stop talking like that. No one actually talks like that.”
Nique looked back at me with wide, excited eyes. She had a darker complexion than mine; mocha-colored because her mom was black. Her curly, black hair had been pulled behind her head in an adorable, puffy ponytail and she was wearing some of her signature neon colors for the makeup on her face and outfit. Nique was a little larger than average, but wore it well. She could be a model if she really wanted to, but instead she hung around Vegas waiting for her chance to get more involved in my father’s business, something I actively worked to prevent. Her parents had deliberately kept her out of this lifestyle, but eventually couldn’t hide from her anymore what her aunt, uncle, and cousins did, and ever since that reveal, Nique had been trying to move her way into a position under my dad.
I wanted nothing less.
Though she claimed she was prepared for a world like ours, everything Nique knew about organized crime came from movies and television shows—evidently not even good ones. She thought that the censored stuff she saw in movies was the worst she’d have to deal with.
I didn’t want to demolish her innocence by giving her specific examples, but it was becoming harder and harder to convince her that my life was not one she wanted. I’d made my peace with it, it was in my blood, but she was someone I desperately wanted to spare. She was my best friend, more like a sister to me than a cousin, and the last thing I ever wanted was for her to get hurt.
“So, okay, when we talk to him, what do you want me to do?” she asked. “Like, you hold him and I punch, or…?”
“No,” I thundered. “You’re not going anywhere near him, Nique. He’s dangerous. Even with the two of us there, he could probably win in a fight. He murdered four people a few days ago. Are you not hearing the things I’m saying?”
“I get it,” Nique said. “That’s part of our world.”
“It’s part of my world. You are staying in the car.”
Her jaw fell through the bottom of the car. “What?! No! I’m not staying in the car! This is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done! Besides, I didn’t really get a good look at him when he dropped you off last night. I wanna see him up close.”
“Then google him!” I barked. “I would never forgive myself if something happened to you.”
“Why did you even bring me if you were just going to make me sit in the car? That’s so boring.” She crossed her arms and slumped into her seat. “You get to have all the fun.”
“Trust me when I say this, there is nothing fun about this. Killing people isn’t fun.”
She turned and looked at me. “What?”
“What?”
“You’re going to kill him?” she asked.
I sighed and my hands gripped a little tighter around the steering wheel. “I don’t want to, but if it comes to that, then yeah, I’m gonna have to.”
She flipped back towards me again, really stretching the limits of what her seatbelt was capable of with her trying to sit in the seat like it was a couch, not the front passenger’s seat of a car. “What does that mean? If it comes to that? What would make it come to that?”