Twisted Fate (5 page)

When I reached Eli, he had a smug look on his face.
 

“What is it?” I asked.

He put his phone inside his jacket pocket and just shook his head. “Rico. He’s a damn idiot.”

Anger burned in my gut. “What the hell did he do now?”

“He just texted me saying he’s got five hot chicks surrounding him. I don’t think he remembers he has a job to do.”

I knew better. Rico was obsessed with the girl. He just wanted to appear he wasn’t.
 

“With any luck, one of them will lace his drink and take him back to her place and keep him.”

Eli let out a huge laugh, making me cringe. It wasn’t that funny, and he could draw attention. Just as I was about to tell him to shut the hell up, a lady interrupted us.

“Hey, baby,” she began, looking straight at me. “Wanna blow job?”

I looked her up and down. She was short, not more than five feet, and her skin was completely leathered and worn. Her bleached blonde hair was stringy, and her skirt was so short I had no idea why she even wore it.

“Yeah,” I answered, “but not from you.”

It took her a minute to get what I was saying, and once she did, she gave me the middle finger and called me a few choice names. As she started to stomp off, Eli called out to her.

“Hey, you didn’t even ask me, bitch!”

She turned and gave him the middle finger too, making him laugh again.
 

“Dude, shut up,” I told him, starting to walk around the back of the club. I needed to keep an eye out at all times for everything going on. We didn’t need anyone witnessing her abduction. We’d parked the cars in spots farthest away from the building, making sure they weren’t under one of the many lampposts. The club had a few security cameras set up, but nothing I couldn’t work around.
 

The abduction of Penelope Santoro wasn’t going to be witnessed by anyone, if I had anything to do with it.
 

Chapter 8

I really had had too much to drink tonight. As Trish and I exited the bathroom, I felt a wave of nausea and told her I’d be right back. Going back inside the restroom, I splattered some cold water on my face, trying to get a hold of myself. I needed to cut back on the drinks. I couldn’t even remember the guy’s name from the bar, the one who was now sitting with me, stroking my shoulder and neck. Why couldn’t I remember his name?

Exiting the bathroom again, I didn’t see Trish anywhere and assumed she’d headed back to our table. Taking a few deep breaths, I started to walk forward, doing my best to keep balanced. I’d only taken a few steps when somebody took a hold of my arm and breathed into my ear, making me wince.

“Hey, baby, wanna dance?”

I shook my head, not looking at him.
 

“Hey, beautiful, why not? Come dance with me.”

I whipped my head to see an older man standing next to me. I squinted my eyes, trying to make out his features, but the damn lights were too low. Just by his voice and breath alone, I knew even in my drunken state that he was a creep. Since I wasn’t able to get a clear picture of him, I just shook my head and stepped back. “No thanks, I’m waiting for my boyfriend.”

Total lie, but necessary.

He took a step forward. “Oh sweetheart, at least come up with something better than that. I’ve been watching you. Your ‘boyfriend,’” he said, making air quotes with his fingers, “walked out of the club ten minutes ago.”

Horrified that he’d been watching me, I turned around and walked away, more nervous than I wanted to admit. Looking behind my shoulder to see if he was following me, I was relieved to see he wasn’t. In fact, it alarmed me that I didn’t see him at all.

Deciding to search for Kimberly, I started to head toward the dance floor. As I zigzagged through all of the sweaty bodies, I finally made my way in to the middle of the floor. Not seeing her dancing, though, I continued to walk around, glancing at tables to see if she’d sat down.
 

As I headed toward a corner of the room, I saw her standing by an exit, talking to an even older man than the one that had just hit on me. It looked like they were having an extremely intense conversation, shown by Kimberly’s bunched fists at her sides and the way the man was standing over her.
 

His back was toward me, but when the bright lights started flashing again, I got a glimpse of his stark white hair and black tailored suit jacket. Curious about who he was and why Kimberly seemed so mad, I started walking toward them. Before I could, though, strong arms came from behind and circled my waist.

“Hey there,” a deep voice spoke into my ear. The fright I’d felt just a second earlier disappeared when I recognized it. Turning around, I saw it was the guy from the bar who had hung out with me.
 

What was his name again?

I smiled, the bright lights catching the golden flecks in his dark eyes. “Hey,” was all I said.
 

“Sorry I disappeared there,” he started, suddenly looking everywhere but at me. “I ended up using the restroom too and as I was coming out, I ran into some old high school buddies and we started catching up.”

My gut told me he was lying, but we’d only just met; he didn’t owe me any explanations. I just shrugged my shoulders. “No worries.”
 

Remembering Kimberly and the older man, I turned back around and was upset to see they were gone. Dammit—where did she go, and who the hell was that guy?

“So, am I still welcome at the party?”

Looking back at him, I absently nodded. For some reason, the need to find Kimberly was escalating. “Sure.”

He smiled and grabbed my hand, linking our fingers together. “Thanks. So you’re not mad at me?”

“No.”
 

Where was she?

Suddenly I felt him tug on my hand. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Letting out a breath, I used my free hand to move some hair out of my eyes. “I can’t find Kimberly.”

“Hey, I’m sure she’s fine. She seemed to really be into your server. Come back to the table with me and I’ll make you forget about her.”

Not resisting when he started to pull me in the direction of our table, I kept moving my head from side to side, trying to see if I could catch sight of her or the man I saw her talking with. There was still no sign of either of them by the time we got back to the table.
 

It hit me then that I didn’t need to find her, that I was being silly. She was a grown woman. I sat back on my chair and placed my feet up on the chair next to mine. He sat down on the other side and scooted up close, taking my hand back in his. He signaled our new server and ordered us some more drinks.

“I probably shouldn’t—“

He pressed his pointer finger over my lips. “No shouldn’ts babe, only shoulds.”

Uh, okay.

The DJ decided to start blasting the music even louder. I could barely hear him talking. His eyes were animated and his hands were all over the place, helping him describe whatever he was telling me. There was something about him I couldn’t quite figure out, but he was so amazingly attractive, I pushed it aside.

Usher started singing about the DJ getting him to fall in love again, and I couldn’t resist moving my body to the song. His eyes suddenly turned hooded, when just the minute before, they’d been so alive with whatever he’d been talking about.

His lips moved, indicating he was talking again, but the music was too loud. I took a sip of the drink the server just set down, instantly feeling my buzz intensify. Setting the glass down, I leaned in closer to him, almost nose to nose. “What did you say?” I asked loudly, to try to get him to hear me over the beat of the music.

His face lit up with a smile, and he leaned in so our noses were touching. “I said, ‘Damn you’re hot.’”

Feeling the effects of his words and the alcohol, I gave him a slow smile. “Thank you.”

The night was suddenly about to get better.

Chapter 9

Derek and Jose met me outside at our meeting spot. Eli was watching the front of the club. “Where the hell is Rico?” I asked them.

Jose’s eyes widened. “Shit, I forgot to tell him to meet us out here, dude.”

I cursed, raising my hand to rub the back of my neck. “It’s just as well. The guy’s useless. Just make sure you find him when you get back inside and text me where he is.”

Jose nodded. I glanced over to Derek and saw he kept looking back at the club entrance. “What are you so worried about?” I asked him.

His head shot to mine, and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “I just wanna get back in there, man. She’ll be coming back from the restroom any minute. If she sees I’m gone, she’ll think I ditched her. I can’t have it on my head if this job gets fouled up.”

I held back a chuckle. He hadn’t been working for Roman for very long, but he definitely knew how he operated. “Relax,” I told him. “I just have a few things to say. First of all, not cool that it took you over an hour to text me with an update. I need to know what’s going on every ten minutes from one of you, do you understand?”

They looked at each other, then at me, and nodded.
 

“Good,” I continued. “Second, how close are you to gaining some trust out of her, Derek?”

He swallowed again, then ran his hand through his hair. “Well, since we’ve just been making small talk at her table and drinking, I’d say not very. I need more time.”

I nodded. “That’s fine. We can’t rush this. Do you think she suspects anything, anything at all?”

He shook his head. “Not at all. I’m just a hot guy at a bar as far as she knows. I’ll wear her down and get her out here soon enough.”

“Again, don’t rush it,” I told him. “She suspects anything, and we mess this up. None of us wants to face Roman if that happens.”

“No shit,” Jose muttered.

“I got this, Tag,” Derek told me. “Just be patient out here. You have the syringe ready?”

That was something I did change without Roman’s consent, but they didn’t need to know that. “It’s actually going to be chloroform over her face, and yes, it’s all ready.”

Neither seemed fazed by the change, and left it at that. We finished up with me reminding them to text me every ten minutes. “Oh, and Jose,” I called out to him, making him turn back around. “Find that idiot Rico and let me know where he is. We can’t have him ruin this job.”

He nodded and headed back into the club through a side door. I leaned against the building, doing my best to stay patient. Once we had her, then I could work on my plan. Roman would be pissed as hell, but better that than her being taken away to God knows where.

As long as he believed it was all a mistake, I would be fine.

My phone buzzed a few minutes later. It was Jose telling me that Rico was nowhere to be found and asking what he should do. Swearing and pounding my fist against the brick wall, I told him to meet me at the bar in a few minutes.

I was going in.

I found Eli and updated him, telling him to stay put on the side of the building so he could have a better view if Rico came out.
 

Cursing Rico out under my breath, I headed inside the club. The bouncer knew I was connected with Roman and just waved me in. Being in a cartel did have its perks.