Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
MALO
I pull the bike to a halt outside the compound, my mind racing as I try to figure out exactly how I’m going to spin this.
I know there’s no way they’re going to take this well, that much, I’m sure of. I’m going to have to admit that I was stupid enough to hook up with this random woman, and let her close enough to steal from me. And when they find that out, it’s not going to take much for them to piece together everything else. That I’ve been using, and that my stupidity was what landed me in trouble, but I can’t worry about them finding out my secret now.
I need to keep my focus. She’s been hanging on to me for dear life ever since we drove away from the house, her fingers digging into my torso like she’s terrified she might fly off at any moment. I can’t say I blame her. I’ve been driving like a maniac, trying to put as much space between that house of hers and me as possible. I don’t do well with being out in the suburbs, it makes me break out in hives. That kind of normalcy has never sat well with me, even before I joined the Kings.
Once I have the bike parked, she climbs off shakily, her hair a mess, her eyes wide as she looks around.
“Where are we?” she asks. She sounds terrified. She should. This is the last place a girl like her should want to end up.
“Ruthless Kings’ compound,” I snap back at her. “You wanted to get involved with the Kings’ business, well, this is your chance.”
She shakes her head rapidly. “No, no, I didn’t want to…I don’t want to?—”
She looks terrified, as though she’s about to burst into tears. Whoever she is, she’s not used to this kind of life. I can see it written all over her face. She might have played at being one of the club sluts back at the bar, but now she’s standing here in the middle of the compound, it’s a whole different story.
I cock my head at her, looking her up and down. She looks different than she did the night before, dressed in more modest clothes. It only makes her outfit last night stand out, as though she put it on with every intent to distract me. Like she planned it.
Or someone’s planned it, at least.
“What the hell is going on with you?” I demand, taking a step toward her, giving her a chance to tell me the truth. I doubt she’s going to come clean anytime soon, but she bites her lip and stares at me, clearly calculating how good an idea this might have been. Finally, her shoulders slump, and something seems to shift inside her.
“Do you know who Las Rosas Negras are?” she whispers. That name sends a shiver down my spine. I nod, carefully, not wanting to give away any more than I need to.
“Yeah,” I reply. “I know who they are.”
She lifts her gaze to meet mine, clearly scanning my face to figure out just what I think of that name.
“What do you know about them?” I ask her, doing my best to keep my voice steady. I can hear people inside the compound, and no doubt they’re already wondering what I’m doing out here with a woman they’ve never seen before. It won’t be long until they come looking, and I need something useful for them by the time that happens.
“They… they sent me to try and get close to you,” she admits, the words spilling out of her mouth faster than she seems able to control them. “That’s why I was hitting on you last night, that’s why I took your money, because… because I knew I needed to come back to them with something, or I was going to be in serious trouble.”
“That place,” I demand, jerking my head in the general direction of her house . “Is that really yours?”
She pauses, then shakes her head, clearly figuring there’s nothing to gain from keeping the truth from me any longer.
“No,” she confesses. “It’s… they gave me that address. Told me to get you there somehow. This was the only way I could think of to do it.”
I grimace. Mierda. So, my instincts were right—there is something going on with the Rosas, even though it looked as though we had managed to scrape them out from this place once and for all. But what are they doing, using this woman as some kind of bait? My heart clenches in my chest when I think of what she’s had to do for them – that she had to sleep with me. Did she have a choice? What are their intentions here? None of it makes sense to me, and I’m doing everything I can to piece it together.
I’m actively trying not to think about how much danger I might have been in when I stepped off my bike in the suburbs. This should be a lesson to me not to let my pride or fear of what others might think get in the way of my safety. One wrong move, and I could have been bundled into the back of a car and dragged off to fuck knows where, to answer questions for the Rosas. Or worse.
“Why are you working for them?” I ask her, grabbing her arm, trying to bring her back down to Earth. She’s clearly not loyal, not if she’s spilling all of this to me right off the bat. So what exactly is the point of playing their game in the first place? It doesn’t make sense to me.
“I… they have my father,” she blurts out, the words falling from her lips as though it hurts her to say them out loud.
And with that, she spills the rest. Tells me about her father, this brilliant chemist, and how they swiped him from his home in Monterey—how they’re using him to create new product, forcing his hand to give them what they need, and using her by extension as a honeytrap to ensure his safety. She promises me she would never have done any of this if it hadn’t been for her father. Her eyes are glossy with tears, her whole body trembling as she wraps her arms around herself.
“I know how it sounds,” she confesses. “I know… I know it sounds like bullshit. But you have to believe me. I don’t want any of this. I never have.”
The words hang in the air between us, as though she’s daring me to believe them. I don’t know if I do. She could just be a damn good liar, an experienced con-woman. But I noticed from the moment I saw her that there was something different about her, even though I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was at first. But now, now, it’s starting to make sense.
I nod toward the compound.
“Come inside,” I tell her. “I need to talk to my boss.”
She follows me in, hesitant, but clearly seeing no other way to navigate this situation. It’s not as though she can just make a break for it, she’s got nowhere to go, and if she’s telling the truth about where she came from, it’s not like she knows this area well enough to run anyway.
“Wait there,” I order her, pointing to a bench outside Beast’s office. It’s not like I’ve got much to say to her. I need to figure out how we’re going to handle her. She’s an open track to Las Rosas Negras, and, after spending so long trying to take them down, I’m not sure it’s one that we can pass up.
I knock on Beast’s door, knowing better than to just barge in, and he calls out for me to enter. Inside, Sin and Thor are already with him, and all three of them turn around to greet me. Sin looks me up and down again.
“You feeling better?” Sin asks, and I nod.
“I think so,” I reply, and I push the door shut. I don’t want her overhearing this.
“What’s up?” Beast asks, clocking at once that there’s something wrong. I glance back toward the door, wondering if I should come clean. Last chance to back out…
“There’s something I need to tell you about,” I reply, figuring honesty is the best policy. “Someone, actually.”
“Sit down,” Beast orders, as he juts his chin at the seat opposite him. I slide down into the seat, and recount what’s happened in the last day or so. I leave out the part about snatching up the baggie from the crackhouse we were in the day before, and focus on the hook up with the girl. I know it’s not something they can exactly hold against me, given that most of us have been caught hooking up with someone we likely shouldn’t have before.
I catch them up on what she said to me, about working for Las Rosas and El Serpiente, that they have her father, and she’s clearly terrified, with no idea how to navigate this situation. Beast takes it in, his face carefully neutral, not giving anything away. He’s the boss here, and he knows he needs to consider the gravity of every situation before he makes any calls.
“What do you think?” I ask, leaning forward with interest. “What should we do with her?”
“She could be a mole,” Beast mutters, clearly doubtful about this. He’s got good reason to be. He knows just how far El Serpiente will go to get what he wants, and using a girl like this to lure us into thinking she’s in some real trouble wouldn’t be beyond him.
“Could be,” Thor agrees, leaning against the door. “Or she could be in real trouble. And willing to work with us.”
“What do you think?” Beast asks me, narrowing his eyes. I pause for a moment, considering our interactions earlier—how scared she looked, the tears in her eyes, the way she stumbled over her words as she told me about what they did to her father. If she’s an actor, she’s a damn good one.
“I think she’s being straight with us,” I reply. “And I think we could make good use of her. Use her as a double-agent, get under the skin of what’s going on with Las Rosas.”
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to keep her around for a while, get an idea of just how much we can trust her,” he agrees, nodding. “Is she here with you now?”
“Right outside,” I reply, nodding to the door.
“What kind of state is she in?”
“Pretty shaken,” I remark, shaking my head. “I don’t know how long they’ve been keeping her, or what they’ve been using her for exactly, if she was sent out to hook up with me as part of her work. Who knows what else they’ve been making her do?”
All three men grimace. The Ruthless Kings might not have the best reputation, but we draw the line at exploiting women for their bodies like that. The mere thought of it sets my teeth on edge.
“Get her cleaned up and find a room for her for the night,” Beast shoots back, rising to his feet, the decision made. Nobody dares argue with him, even though I can see Sin has some doubts about this.
“We’ll figure out what we can use her for tomorrow,” Beast adds, and opens the door once more, gesturing for me to get out there and look after her. I step outside, and she glances up at me from her spot on the bench, eyes wide.
And, despite how pissed I am about what she did, I can’t help but feel a pang of sympathy for her.