Chapter 17
seventeen
Natalia
“So…you’re just sitting on a fortune and still going to work?” Alma wrinkles her nose, holding her wineglass high in the air.
“It’s not a fortune.” I tell her, grateful she’s seen enough of the LA underworld not to blink at the pile of cash she stumbled into.
“What are you saving for? A car? A house? A Hidden Hills mansion?” I snort, plopping down onto my couch with a sigh.
“This is L.A. I can’t even buy a condo with this.” I tell her, motioning at the bag of money between us.
“Hm. You’re lucky I like you. If I didn’t, I’d strongly consider robbing you.”
“Thank you?” We watch the Desperate Housewives reruns in comfortable silence, until the commercials start and she peppers me with questions again.
“Where did you get it?”
“A…friend.”
Alma leans forward, her curly hair sliding over her shoulder. “Was it that scary one, that came to work looking for you?”
“…Yes.” I admit slowly.
“And he just…gave you all this money?”
If I was smart, I’d say nothing. Nothing about Matias’ shady dealings. Nothing with my work with the FBI. But…I’m so tired of lying to everyone all the time.
“Matias is my ex.”
Alma’s face lights up. “I knew it!” She claps her hands together. “You got to ride that? Good for you, girl,” she says, smirking. “Are you guys back together?”
“No.” I say quickly. “He just…needs someone to help him. Someone he trusts.”
She narrows her eyes. “He’s a drug dealer, isn’t he?”
My eyes widen, a lie poised on the tip of my tongue. Alma holds up a hand.
“It’s okay girl. I’m from East L.A. I know game when I see it.” She says, motioning at the fifty thousand dollars sitting between us. “Is this the guy you said broke your heart?”
For once, I hate the fact that she listens to everything I tell her.
“Yeah.” I admit quietly.
“And you’re sure you’re not getting back together with him?” She confirms.
“Nope.”
“Mhm.” Alma says under her breath, like she can see right through me. My phone starts vibrating in my back pocket, and I silence it, too busy dealing with the inevitable to pay it any mind.
I’m not going to get back together with Matias. I’m not.
But that night at the club keeps replaying on a loop.
How easy it was. How natural it felt, when his hand wrapped around my waist and pulled me close.
How good it felt, to walk beside him without hiding—from anyone.
In the dark recesses of my mind, in a place I won’t admit, there’s something thrilling about the way crowds part before him.
About the way no one dares to look at me when I stand beside him.
I felt untouchable that night. And I loved it.
I loved the way he watched me, his eyes tracing every inch of Alma’s borrowed dress. The way he sat across from me in Westfall’s office and admitted he was single with a stilted breath.
But now that I’m on the inside, and I realize things weren’t how they look and that Toledo is nothing more than an associate…
Guilt swirls in my stomach, and I tamp it down as the show on the screen starts again.
I can’t second guess myself. Because the facts are still the facts. He left me when I needed him the most. And he never looked back. And like him—there’s no going back for me, either. That is the mantra I hold on to when Alma leaves a little while later.
It’s what I chant in my head when he pulls up late at night.
My stomach swirls with nerves as I walk up to his new car, the matte gunmetal supercar growling quietly in the night.
Music plays quietly when I lower myself into the seat, the scent of new car and smoke mingling together.
The late-night air tinges cool, seeping into my bones and threatening to make me shiver as we take off into the city.
“Hey.” Matias nods at me before giving his full attention to the road, his free hand lingering on the gearshift between us out of habit. I stare at it, watching the tattooed skin flex and move.
It takes me a while to realize he’s watching me.
“So…” I clear my throat, trying to figure out how to phrase my question without making it sound like a cliche. “What did you do…today?”
He almost smiles. “Oh, you know. Just scheming and dealing.”
“Hm.” I sit in silence for a little while longer, staring at him from the corner of my eye until we come to a stop light. “Aren’t you going to ask what I was doing?”
“I don’t have to ask.” His voice is low and rumbly. “You worked, and then you had your friend come over and watched TV. Your lady friend—not to be confused with your…man friend.”
I whirl in my seat. “You’re stalking me?”
“I’m not stalking you. I have my men watching you.”
“It’s the same thing.” I argue, rolling my eyes, ignoring the edge of thrill racing in my stomach at his confession. “Aren’t you even a little bit embarrassed?”
“Embarrassment is for people with morals.” He snorts. “You know how I feel about those, Florecita.” I jerk at the name, emotion flooding my chest, cold and unsteady.
He hasn’t called me that since…
“Anyway,” Matias says unsteadily, his face betraying how I feel. “Half of the city knows about us by now. You’re a sitting duck in that rickety apartment on your own.”
“My apartment isn’t—” He arches a brow. “It’s not rickety. It’s…modest.”
“I’ve been poor before. I know what it looks like.
” Matias speeds past a yellow light, his car clinging to the road for dear life as we peel around a corner, hurtling towards the shadier part of town, skyscrapers in the distance.
“Anyone with half a mind is wondering why I haven’t moved you into my house right now?—”
“That’s not—we can’t live together.” I say firmly, hating the edge of panic in my voice.
“I know.” Matias answers gently. “It’s why I didn’t bring it up. But it’s the guards, or me.” I don’t argue. It’s naive of me to think that he wouldn’t have me watched.
Because he cares.
Or because he doesn’t trust me—either could be true. Matias has lied to me before. He could be lying right now.
I’ll have to be more careful when sending information back through Dom.
The warehouse is dimly lit when we turn into the parking lot, the building devoid of its usual activity as we park by the door.
Matias helps me out of the car, nodding at a man posted by the doorway. The metal doors groan as they swing open, the humid air of the warehouse smacking me in the face as we cross the threshold?—
I stop in my tracks.
The place is empty.
Crates and crates stacked along the cavernous building, a man-made maze of drugs, guns, and contraband. Dim light washes over the goods, not one soul among them.
Warehouses don’t look like this. They never look like this.
“What—where is everyone?” Matias closes the door behind me, and I resist the urge to gulp.
There’s no way he knows. I was so careful.
And still, when he walks past me and says:
“I have some questions.” All of the blood leaves my brain, and pinpricks run through my body.
“Questions?” I follow him, even though it feels like I’m walking through quicksand.
He walks right up to a case of guns, running his fingers along the gleaming metal before turning to face me. The air gets thin when he looks down the barrel.
“How much do you think these would be worth, out there?”
I pause. “I…I’m not sure.”
“That’s the thing about price,” he says quietly, voice like honey. “It can be whatever you want it to be.” He closes the case and moves on to the next.
“When Westfall told me he paid a small fortune for everything here…I have to wonder if he’s telling the truth. Or if he’s stealing from me.” Matias turns to face me, the line of his strong shoulders and big frame shifting under the shadows.
“It’s just the two of us here tonight, because we’re going to find out what the accountant has been up to.”
I sway into a crate, the tension leaving my body. The air in the warehouse feels stale as I take a cleansing breath, but Matias doesn’t notice. He’s fiddling with a laptop and setting it before me a moment later.
“Let’s get to work, shall we?”
Two hours later, we’re finishing up with the last of the crates. My back and legs are sore from all the work, but Matias has taken the brunt of it, and the electricity from just being around him numbs me to the pain. I’m going to feel it tomorrow.
“How’s it looking?”
I glance at the computer, where I’ve cross-checked everything Matias purchased with what his accountant listed on the spreadsheet.
“Not…great.” I glance at the screen, the soft blue light washing between us. “There’s definitely a discrepancy between what you paid for and what is here.”
Matias cocks his head. I’ve only seen that look on his face a couple of times before. Usually right before he goes and kills someone.
“B—but—” I pipe in, dread swirling at the thought of sentencing a potentially innocent man to death. “It doesn’t mean he was the one that shorted you.”
“That’s true.” He concedes, leaning on one of the crates and taking his gun out of his waistband. “It could have been anyone who works here, I suppose.”
“Do you have a list of people that worked on this shipment?”
He nods once. “I’ll start the list and weed out some suspects.”
I gulp. “Good.” One step closer to finding his leak. And then all of this will be over. And if I don’t find that shipment Agent Bryce was talking about, all of this will have been for nothing.
“I can help go over it, if you want. You have some of my dad’s men on payroll, right? I can tell you who he trusted.” I shrug. “And who he didn’t.”
Matias hesitates. He lingers in his seat, opening his mouth and staring at me like he doesn’t know what to make of my offer.
I scramble for something to bring this home. The final bid for his trust.
“You asked me why you should trust me…back at my apartment.” I kick a pebble between us with my dirty sneaker. “I…I know about New York.”
He stills. “What about it?”
“I know it was you, you know. Reynaldo kidnapped me. And you saved me.”
His eyes track around the room, and I cut him off before he tries feeding me some ridiculous lie.
“I know what I saw. I saw your face. Heard your voice.”
He presses his lips into a thin line. Nods once.
“You didn’t say anything to the cops.”
It’s not a question, but I answer anyway. “I had a feeling you were nearby. That whatever was happening with Sylvia, something was happening with you, too. So when the FBI came calling, I lied.”
“Why would you lie for me, after everything we’ve been through?” His voice is barely above a whisper, and I step forward instinctively, until my shoes almost brush his boots.
“Probably for the same reason you saved me…after everything we’ve been through.” I answer just as quietly, savoring the heavy silence between us. With Matias leaning on the crates like this, we stand face to face.
Just a few inches away from the strong planes of his body, his full lips, and those fathomless, expressionless eyes. Eyes that give nothing away, until they flick down to my mouth.
Until they flicker with a hunger that’s been haunting me for months. For years.
“I think we’re done here.” I say, a little louder than I mean to. “Think about my offer, hm?”
And then I close the laptop and place it beside him before I do something really stupid.
Like kiss him.