by Aubrey Dark
“Stop! Oh my God, stop! I’m going to die of shame,” I mumbled.
“I want to hear all about Jessica’s fantasies,” Mimi said. “What’s your favorite?”
“Please stop.”
“I would never have guessed you would like this stuff,” April said, still scrolling through my Kindle. “I thought you would dream about… like, a nerdy poolboy who sits next to you and reads anatomy textbooks to you all day long.”
“Ohhhhhhhh,” I moaned. “Please stop. Turn around. Take me back home so I can throw myself off a roof.”
“Don’t worry, Jessica,” Mimi said, patting me on the back. “As soon as we get a couple of margaritas into you, you’ll be just fine.”
My phone rang. I looked down at the screen.
“Oh, holy God,” I said, the blood draining from my face.
“What?” April poked her head into the front of the car.
“It’s my mom.”
“Uh oh.”
“So what?” Mimi asked.
“Jessica’s mom is insane,” April said.
“She’s not insane,” I said, feeling weird for defending her. “She’s just a little overbearing.”
“She called you every morning during midterms to make sure you wouldn’t be late for a single test.”
“She’s protective!”
The phone kept buzzing in my hand.
“Aren’t you going to answer it?”
“There’s no way I can tell her I’m going to Mexico. She’ll flip her lid!”
“Here, gimme.”
Mimi plucked the phone out of my hand.
“Mimi! Stop!” I yelped and strained against my seatbelt to try and grab my phone back. Mimi leaned over to the window and answered it.
“Hello?” She held up her hand to shush me. I shushed, if only to get one of her hands back on the steering wheel.
“Hi Mrs. Quoyle. No, this is Mimi. One of Jessica’s roommates?”
I was dying inside, gripping my knees so that I wouldn’t be tempted to open the door and throw myself into traffic. My mom would kill me if she knew I was going on a trip and I hadn’t told her about it. Mimi grinned at me, driving with her fingernails tapping on the wheel.
“Yes, I understand. She’s very busy with her studies and she asked me to take her cell phone away so that she wouldn’t be distracted. If it’s an emergency, I can tell her—”
In the back, April and James were cracking up with stifled laughter. I glared back at them.
“No? Okay. Would you like me to tell her to call you back? She’s studying for the rest of the day, but she should be back from the library before midnight.”
April snorted, and James smacked her on the shoulder to shut her up.
“Great. Thanks, Mrs. Quoyle!”
Mimi hung up the phone and tossed it back into my lap.
“What did she say?” I said.
“She said that she’s very proud of you for avoiding distractions while you study,” Mimi said, a mock serious look on her face.
“You lied to her,” I said, staring down at the phone.
“Well, duh.”
“You… you lied to her.” I had to admit that I had never before considered lying to my mom.
“What did you want me to do, tell her we were going to Tijuana to slam down as many margaritas as we could?”
“I… no… but what if something happens? She’ll go crazy if she doesn’t know where I am!”
In the back, April was hooting laughter.
“Where you are?” Mimi said. “You’re in the library. You’re studying for your tests. Just like you wanted to be. Or did you want me to call her back and tell her you’re busy reading Tied up by the Rogue Duke?” She had an evil glint in her eye, and I didn’t doubt for a second she would do it.
“No! But—”
“Come on, Jess,” April said. “We’ll be back in a couple of days. You can call her tomorrow if you really want to.”
“Okay,” I said, sighing and staring down at my phone. It felt like I was doing something very, very wrong. But then again, that was supposed to be half the fun.
Right?
Chapter Three
Vale
I walked into the Los Angeles airport behind a young guy in a suit. He looked more nervous than Dan always looked when we talked about killing people. I wondered if Ten had told him about me.
The suit led me through the airport and past one of the security doors into a small office. There were two chairs and a dingy desk.
This is where Ten would meet me? Figures.
“Wait here,” the nervous guy said. He left me in the office and locked the door behind me.
“I hate waiting,” I said to nobody in particular. I took a few paces back and forth before the walls of the office grew boring. God, Ten was something else. Making me come here in the middle of brunch to wait for his sorry ass? This had better be a good mission.
I sat down in the chair and fished into my pocket. Half a joint left. I lit up just as I heard the door opening behind me. Ten walked in, grimacing at the cloud of smoke I blew toward the ceiling.
“Is that pot?” Ten asked.
“Might be.”
Ten sat behind the desk. He’d gotten stronger since the last time I’d seen him, and he’d cut his unruly mop of hair. Maybe he’d met a girl.
“Thanks for bringing that in here,” he said.
“No problem.”
“You know, some of us get randomly drug tested at our jobs.”
“Yeah, well, sorry you have a shitty job,” I said, taking another drag. The buzz was light. “You shouldn’t have made me wait.”
Ten frowned, as if deciding whether or not to go after me on this, and then decided it wasn’t worth it. He shoved a manila folder across the desk. I picked it up.
“This your new boyfriend?” I asked. The mug shot staring out at me from the file was decidedly one of the ugliest faces I’d ever seen. A bald Mexican dude, maybe forty years old, with a nasty scar running down the left side of his face and a thick black mustache like a bushy caterpillar across his upper lip.
“He’s your new boyfriend,” Ten said.
“Federal witness?” I scanned down the rest of the file.
“He got off scot-free a year ago. Got sent down to Rosarito to sit pretty. But he’s starting to stir up trouble again with the other Mexican druglords.”
“Mmm,” I said noncommittally.
“We were on the fence with this one. We weren’t sure if we’d need him later or not.”
“But now?” I looked up at Ten. His face was creased.
“Now, though, there’s a body.”
“American?”
“American woman, a civilian. Looks like she overdosed on something, washed up on the beach. Someone saw her get into his car at a club.”
“Should have sent him to me before you let him escape to Rosarito,” I said, closing the file on top of the guy’s ugly mug. “I know a plastic surgeon who does wonders with those kinds of assholes.”
“Hindsight’s twenty-twenty,” Ten said, sighing. “He gave us a lot of information on the drug cartels.”
“Then you definitely made a mistake.”
“How do you know?”
“He’s rolling over on the cartels?” I asked, tossing the file back down onto the desk. “Must mean he’s involved in something even shadier.”
“Maybe.”
“So who is this guy? What do I need to know?”
“Alfonze Ensueto, thirty-eight years old. El Alfa, is what he calls himself.”
“The Alpha? Seriously? Guy sounds like a real tool.” I leaned back, rocking the chair on two legs.
“They say he’s invincible. That no one can kill him.”
“Yeah? So what are you sending me in for?”
“To kill him.”
I raised my eyebrows.
“Sounds like an impossible job.”
“That’s why we’re sending you.”
“A
nice vacation to Baja. You’re the best, Ten. What did I ever do to deserve this?”
Ten ignored my sarcasm.
“Don’t blow your cover. No matter what. It’s your job to get close to this guy, close enough to kill him. Do it right before we raid the estate.”
“Which is when?”
“Midnight. The Sunday after next. Try to keep from raising an alarm. Otherwise, we won’t be able to get anything from the raid.”
“How do you know?”
“We’ve tried. Twice. The guy’s never there; it’s just an empty palace full of armed guards. And nobody knows where he is.”
“Maybe he’s at church. Have you tried raiding on a weekday instead?”
Ten ignored my joke.
“We’ll be able to pull you out during the raid, but you have to kill him first.”
“I can do that.”
“Alone.”
“I heard you the first time,” I said.
“Time it as close as you can to the raid itself, or you risk raising the alarm. Vale, we tried this twice.”
“You said that already.”
“Both times, our man on the inside was killed.”
I didn’t say anything. Ten didn’t like losing men, and I didn’t like the idea that I might be dead in two weeks. I clasped my hands together in a pose that was as close to deferential as I could get. Ten continued his speech.
“He’s got people around him at all times. His estate in Baja is surrounded by guards. You’ll have to be careful.”
“Got it. Break in past the guards, get to this guy—”
“You don’t need to do that. We’ve got an in who can get you up close and personal with El Alfa.”
I tilted my head. If there was already someone we had working on our side, this should be a piece of cake. I wondered if that’s what the other two guys had thought.
“Who is he?” I asked.
“She is an escort. Valentina Orizo. El Alfa flies her in from Los Angeles nearly every other week. One of his favorites.”
“What’s the plan?”
“She’ll introduce you to El Alfa as her friend who needs a job doing anything.”
I paused and looked up at Ten. His eyes were dark.
“Anything?” I repeated.
“You’ll be doing his dirty work, no question about it,” Ten said. He didn’t meet my eyes.
“And that’s okay with you?”
Ten swallowed. I could see his Adam’s apple move down his throat, then back up. It was oddly mesmerizing. There must be something he wasn’t telling me. This must be bad.
“Your mission is to do whatever needs to be done to get close to him.”
I nodded slowly.
“Right.”
“You understand me, Vale? Anything.”
“This guy’s important.”
“We think he’s behind a few more disappearances than just the one woman. That’s what Valentina leads us to believe, anyway. I’m not sure how much she says is true, and how much she says just to get a paycheck from us.”
Ten ran a hand through his hair. He looked shaken up. I wondered what other disappearances he was investigating. I wondered if I would be up for the task, if this guy was as unkillable as he thought he was.
“Alright,” I said. I stood up and tapped the folder with my fingertips. “When do I get to go after this motherfucker?”
“Right now.”
“Right now? I need a haircut.”
“He’s asked for the escort tonight,” Ten said. “You fly out in an hour from terminal eighteen. It’s a private jet.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I finished the last drag of my joint and stabbed it out on the top of the desk. Ten winced. “Right fucking now?”
“This is a big deal, Vale.”
“How big?”
“A half a million big.”
I blew the last of the smoke out between my teeth.
“A half a million? For one guy?”
“Emphasis on the one. We don’t want to pick up any more bodies than we have to, and you’re more likely to get caught if there’s a body trail. Don’t let anyone see you kill him if you can help it, or you probably won’t get out of there at all. Wait until right before the raid, and we’ll be there for backup. Can you handle that?”
“Got it. Don’t kill anyone. Unless I need to, in which case, do anything.”
“Right.”
“Thanks for the clear instructions.”
“Hey, you’re the one who wanted this job. Can you do this?”
“Yeah. Sure, sure. I can do this.”
I shook my arms out. Cool. Controlled. I could take down one guy no problem. It was the other stuff—the anything—that had me a little concerned.
“Take your time and memorize the file,” Ten said.
“Already done.” I flipped open the folder once more just to satisfy Ten. El Alfa grimaced out at me.
“You got this under control, Vale?”
“Of course,” I said, closing the file and looking up at the man who was sending me across the border to do his dirty work. “I always have things under control.”
Chapter Four
Jessica
“Mexican Border, 12 Miles.” I read the highway sign out loud and sighed. “Tell me this is all a joke.”
“No joke,” Mimi said.
“What about my passport? I can’t go across the border without a passport.”
Mimi tapped the dashboard.
“I stole it out of your desk for you. It’s right in the glove box.”
Ugh. That had been my last hope of convincing them not to take me with them. I let out a deep breath.
“Did you bring a Spanish dictionary?”
“You won’t be needing that one bit,” April called forward from the back seat. “But you will be needing this.”
A clump of red fabric sailed forward and landed in my lap. I picked it up gingerly with my fingertips and held it out in front of me.
“What is this?” I asked.
“It’s a dress.”
I eyed the skimpy thing. It was a red bandage dress with no sleeves.
“This isn’t mine,” I said. “I would never have bought this.”
“No, it’s the one you should have bought when we were out shopping. I picked it up for you, though. So you’re welcome.”
I looked at the tags. Despite its skimpiness, it said that it was my size. And then I looked at the price tag. My heart skipped a beat when I realized where the decimal place was.
“I can’t afford this dress!” I exclaimed. “Did you see how much it costs?”
“So keep the tag on and don’t spill anything on it,” April said, shrugging. “We can take it back next week.”
“I’ll try real hard not to puke margaritas up on you,” Mimi said earnestly. “Try it on.”
“What do you mean, try it on?”
“I mean put it on.”
“Right now? In the car?”
“We’re going straight to the club. You can’t go out dancing wearing a muumuu that looks like wallpaper from the seventies,” Mimi explained, her manicured fingernails tapping the steering wheel impatiently.
“This isn’t a muumuu,” I said, looking down woefully at my maxi dress. She was right. The print did look like terrible op art.
“Try it on! Try it on!”
April and James joined in the chant.
“Try it on! Try it on! Try it on!”
“Ahhh!” I screamed. “Okay, okay, fine!”
“Don’t look,” I said. “April, cover James’ eyes.”
“Already closed,” James said.
“Better hurry up before we get to the border,” April said in a singsong voice.
“Oh, jeez.”
I scrambled to pull my so-called muumuu up over my head. I had it off in only a few seconds, but then I fumbled with the red dress.
“Shit,” I said. “Which end is down and which end is up?”
“Are you girls
sixty-nining without me?” James teased.
“Hurry up!” April said. “There’s a car coming up on our right!”
“What are you doing with your seatbelt still on?” Mimi asked, glancing over at me.
“We’re on the highway!” I yelled. “I can’t unbuckle my seatbelt, that’s dangerous! And do you know how much a ticket like that costs?”
James was giggling like a maniac. I hoped he still had his eyes shut tight. I pulled the red dress over my head to shimmy it on.
“Wooooooooooooooooooo!”
“Shit!” April said.
“What is it?” I asked, panicking. The tight dress was stuck over my head and I couldn’t see anything.
“It’s a car full of guys on the right.”
“Show us your tits!”
I blushed hard underneath the dress. At least I was wearing underwear. I could take some comfort in that.
“Take it all off!”
I heard the window rolling down in the back seat as I tugged the dress down over my shoulders. April leaned over her boyfriend to yell out the window.
“FUCK OFF!” she screamed back at the guys.
“I’m going to run them off the fucking road,” Mimi said. I barely had time to yell no before she yanked the wheel hard.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
We all screamed as the SUV swung over into their lane. They honked and slowed down, laughing hysterically. I pulled the dress down the rest of the way, adjusting it over my hips. God, it was a tight dress.
“Ugh,” Mimi scoffed. “Thirsty.”
“One of them is mooning us,” April said, turned almost completely around in her seat.
“Hey, you don’t get to look at other guys’ butts,” James said, tickling her side. She burst out laughing.
Despite myself, I giggled as the car with the mooning guy swerved off onto an exit ramp. I looked down at the dress. It looked badass.
…I looked badass.
“Thanks, April,” I said. “I’ll try not to get anything on it.”
“What about if a pirate captures you and steals you away into the Pacific?” James teased.
“Then I’ll send you an envelope with gold doubloons to pay it back,” I said, sticking my tongue out at both him and April.
“Here we are!” Mimi shouted. I looked up.
“This is it?” The border loomed up in front of us, a mess of concrete walls and half-finished construction. I’d never been down this far.