CHAPTER EIGHT #3
I could tell she was having the same thoughts about Leo that I was. We had thought he was just a very handsome, very sexy, playboy. Or fuckboy, whatever you wanted to call it. But it was apparent he wasn’t just a pretty face after all.
“Your job will be very similar to what it is here,” he continued.
“You’ll waitress at the rooftop bar, taking drinks from the bartenders to the tables.
If customers want to eat up there, you’ll punch in their orders to your iPad, but that’s all.
Someone will bring it to the tables from the lower floors.
You’ll close out their tabs, accept tips, whatever, the same way you do here.
But,” he paused and looked very serious suddenly, “while you can flirt and interact with the customers, do not let them get handsy with you. That’s not part of the job at Bahia Del Sol.
There are a couple of bouncers on the rooftop, so don’t worry.
You’ll be very safe. They’re mainly there to make sure there are no fights and help the bartenders make sure no one drives home drunk.
But they’re also there to make sure y’all aren’t bothered by grabby customers.
” He clapped his hands together, looked at his watch, and headed to the door.
“I have to go. If y’all have any questions, just ask the ma?tre d’ when you arrive for work.
See you later.” He grinned and started to leave.
And almost ran into a small, brunette woman coming in the door. He grabbed her by the upper arms to keep from knocking her back against the wall. She blinked up at him through the lenses of her large glasses.
“Sorry, darlin’,” he said and winked at her.
Her lips parted and her face flushed. I looked at Jelly and could tell she was thinking the same thing I was. Another woman was falling hard for Leo right in front of our very eyes.
“Oh, good,” Carmen sat up straighter. “I wanted y’all to meet Ardley. She’s my new assistant.
“Ardley, huh?” Leo chucked her under the chin and gave her a wide, devilish grin. “I’m sure we’ll get to know each other very well.” He made the words sound filthy, and her cheeks went from pink to beet red.
“Sorry, Ms. Salazar. I didn’t realize you weren’t alone.”
“Oh my,” Leo exclaimed in fake horror. “Ardley, you’re only a few days on the job and you’re already making mistakes? Doesn’t bode well for you, darlin’.”
Ardley’s mouth dropped open, but she didn’t seem able to string a sentence together in her defense.
With that, he swept out of the room, turning around to check out Ardley’s ass.
Seemingly unimpressed, he lifted his eyes, grinned at us, and said, “See you tonight, ladies. Make sure you’re on time.
I sure as hell don’t want to have to wait the tables myself.
Lord knows the men won’t be happy to see my ugly mug when they could be seeing all of this beauty.
” He gestured to Jelly and me. Even though we knew he was full of shit, we both colored slightly at the compliment, and I ducked my head a little.
Carmen laughed at the looks on our faces after Leo left the room, taking his tremendous presence with him. “He’s more than just a pretty face, huh?”
“Definitely,” Jelly said, an almost confused look on her face.
He wasn’t just the affable, fun guy who was the face of the restaurants, coming out to greet everyone, often sitting to talk with society’s cream of the crop.
I had assumed he was just a PR kind of guy while his twin handled all the business details.
I’d been wrong about him. He’d gotten the same savvy business skills as his brothers and sister.
He just hid it well.
“Yeah, he’s a special guy.” She saw the look on Ardley’s face.
“Sorry, Ardley. I hope he didn’t upset you.
That’s just Leo. He doesn’t have much of a filter.
Leo wasn’t raised in polite society like the rest of the Salazar siblings.
Mom found him roaming the woods one day when he was five.
He was feral; raised by wolves.” Her eyes glittered at the way Ardley narrowed her eyes at her new boss as if wondering if she could possibly be serious.
She turned back to us. “Okay, ladies. As long as you’re okay with it, I’ll see you in a week.” She focused on me. “Daisy, we need to talk about the auction the next time you’re here.” She flipped her calendar open. “In fact, let’s just make an appointment.”
Oh, shit.
***
“Let’s go get the uniforms before we leave. I don’t want to wait until five, and I don’t want to have to get ready any earlier than I absolutely have to.” I had an issue with being on time. Don’t get me wrong; I was never late. Just always on the verge of it.
“Hey,” I said, remembering Carmen’s comment about the auction, “you didn’t tell me you were signing up for the auction soon.”
Jelly got a resigned look on her face. “Yeah, well, I’m not excited about it.
” She shrugged. “But I talked to Carmen about it recently. She’s planning to feature me in one of the upcoming auctions.
I’m just not exactly sure when. I don’t want to have to pay all my school loans back, and I don’t ever want to have to go back to my grandparents. ”
Jelly, who was studying to be a physician’s assistant, had been raised by her grandparents.
I wasn’t sure what all had gone wrong between them, but I knew it hadn’t been good.
I also knew better than to ask too many questions.
Nadine, who’d grown up best friends with Jelly, didn’t even know much about Jelly’s personal life.
She’d told me she’d learned early on that Jelly didn’t share those kinds of things about herself.
“I know you,” Jelly snapped her gum and changed the subject. “Are you thinking of doing the auction because of the stalker or because you need money?”
I whipped my head around, hoping no one had heard her.
“You’ve got to keep quiet about that, Jelly,” I hissed.
“And both. I figured if I moved locations it would throw him off.” All the girls who participated in the Cinnamon Auction were moved into one of the luxurious condos at Salazar Heights.
I knew from talking with Nadine about it that it had a top-of-the-line security system in place.
I didn’t think the stalker could get to me while I was living there.
And I planned to move from the condo at Salazar Heights directly back to Crosston after graduation in December.
And moving out of Cinnamon House would keep my roommates safe.
A couple of strange things had happened around the house, making me think my stalker knew exactly where I lived.
I didn’t want him to hurt any of my friends.
I’d grown close to all the women living there.
I knew there was a high turnover rate at Cinnamon House and that soon there would be a whole new group of women living there.
Once you were in the auction, you no longer needed to work at Salazar’s or live in Cinnamon House.
Usually. There was a rumor that Madeline might have done the auction before, but she kept details about her personal life to herself.
And Nadine worked for the Salazars, but it was in their real estate division.
But the point was to get him away from Cinnamon House. Then he wouldn’t hurt any of the beautiful women living there now, or those who would come in the future.
Jelly cocked an eyebrow. “Pretty sure he knows where all your classes are.”
A shiver went up my spine. I was sure of that, too. “Yeah, well, I’m doing what I can.”
“I know you are.” We rounded the corner and both stopped, surprised to see uniforms already hanging on our lockers. Jelly looked at hers. “Huh. Do you think he already knew what size we are, or do you think Carmen told him?”
“I don’t think Carmen keeps track of our sizes. She probably has a list somewhere, though. Maybe she gave it to Ardley?”
Jelly shrugged. “Maybe. Did you see the way that poor girl looked at Leo?”
I cringed. “Yeah. That’s not going to end well for her.”
“Nope,” Jelly blew an enormous bubble and let it pop loudly. “Another victim of Leo’s hotness. Although,” she gave me a look, “I don’t think he’s going to be sleeping with her. He might break her heart, but if he does it will be from indifference, not fucking and ditching her.”
I nodded in agreement as I checked out my uniform.
It looked to be the right size, too, which was a minor miracle.
A lot of my uniforms had to be altered. I was one size in the bust and hips, and three sizes smaller in the waist. As I picked it up by the hanger to inspect it, something fell to the floor.
“What’s that?” Jelly asked, bending to pick it up before I could do it. She stared at it for a minute, before showing it to me. I sighed and had to stop myself from beating my head against the locker. It was another note.
“Do you care if I open it?”
“Go ahead,” I said, miserably.
She opened it, scanned it, and frowned. “This guy’s a real sick son of a bitch, you know that?”
“I’m aware. What does it say?”
She flipped it around so I could read it.
Pretty Girl,
Why are you still working here? I asked you to stop.
You ignored me. You know I’ll have to hurt you because of that.
I’ll enjoy it, but you won’t.
Get ready. I know I am.
I love you.
I wanted to roll my eyes and blow it off, but it scared the crap out of me.
Especially after what happened to Candace Keys.
She’d been a stripper here I hadn’t known very well.
She was murdered last December, but police insisted they didn’t think it was the work of a serial killer.
They hadn’t been able to connect her murder to the death of other young women in the area over the past several years.
Thank goodness. I still wondered if they were right, though.
But still…he would enjoy hurting me? What the hell? Who was this psycho?
And I sure didn’t like that he’d gotten past bouncers, somehow getting back to the employee lockers.
Jelly grabbed my hand. “Hey, don’t let him get to you. Let’s go to our murder board and see if we can figure out who it is.”
I couldn’t help laughing. “God, Jelly. Do you think we could quit calling it a ‘murder board’?”
“No. ‘Cause we both know what we’re talking about and ‘stalker board’ just doesn’t sound right. C’mon.” She grabbed our uniforms, and we headed to Jelly’s little used Honda she’d bought after working here a few months.
I was thankful. I didn’t want to ride my bike home knowing my stalker was probably watching me.
We rode the short distance from Sugar in downtown West Bay to the Estates at South, and before long I was stretched out on my bed, staring at Jelly.
She stood before a cork board that we’d hidden in my closet. I had push pins on it with all the notes I’d received and the names of the guys we’d suspected at some point over the past several months.
She had a look of deep concentration on her face. “Okay, let’s go over them one more time.”
I rolled on my back and stared at the ceiling. “Ugh. Can we just admit we’re clueless and move on? Besides, it’s time to get ready for work.”
“No. I really think we might have the right guy up on this board, Daze.”
I flipped back over and sat up. “Okay.” I looked at the board seriously. There were two creepy guys who kept showing up in my classes. I pointed at them. “They could be explained away because they’re also business majors. I mean, duh. Of course, they’re in my classes.”
“That doesn’t explain the creep factor.”
“True,” I made a face. “Oh, and there’s one more.” I told her about another customer from Dinardo’s Deli and how he’d acted. “I had class with him last year, too, so it made me wonder if he’d followed me? Or I could be paranoid.”
“No, that’s sucktastic,” Jelly said, making a face. “I’m adding him.”
“Yeah,” I nodded slowly. “I didn’t like how he looked at me when I didn’t remember his name. It was… strange.”
“What about Ivan or Old Man Dinardo?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I don’t think either of them seem weird enough to send this kind of shit. And they’re nice to me. Would the stalker be nice to me? Or ignore me completely? I kind of think his name isn’t up there, like it will be some random person we never would’ve guessed.”
Jelly made a face. “Well, that’s not terrifying.” She looked back at the names. My ex-boyfriend and a couple of his friends were on it. Customers from both Dinardo’s Deli and Sugar were also on it. But I just hadn’t gotten true stalker vibes from any of them…
If I even knew what ‘stalker vibes’ were. I glanced at Jelly and decided to put my worst fear out there. “Do you think Candace Keys got notes like these?” I whispered.
Jelly, already pale, looked milky white as any color drained from her face.
“No,” she was obviously lying. “I mean… I don’t know.
I hadn’t thought of that,” she amended. She was quiet for a moment as she stared at the names on the board and all the notes I’d received.
“What if… what if it’s one of the Salazars? ”
My eyes got wide. I hadn’t even considered something so horrible.
The two of us shook our heads at the same time. “Nah,” she said. But once it had been spoken, it was out there. The seed of doubt had been planted, and I knew I was going to have a hard time not thinking about the possibility of the Salazar brothers.
My God. If such a powerful family were hiding a stalker, or even a killer, amongst them, would the police even really look into them?