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But I didn’t scare so easy. The higher up you were, the harder you fell. Every fighter knew that real leverage was found at ground level. I’d sit on the floor crisscross applesauce if it meant giving this fucker a false sense of security.
“I wasn’t aware we had business, Junior.” I lifted one leg over a knee and placed my hands on my lap like a proper lady while his eyes followed my movements, leering on my chest much longer than was appropriate.
“We’ve always had business, Dani. You just never stick around long enough for us to discuss it.”
“Hard to do when you have a bounty on my head and my face plastered all over your club like wanted posters. None of that is all that inviting.”
“That’s not me. That’s my uncle. Old Ben has never had an eye for the future. Growth. He insists we do things the way we’ve always done them.”
“And you don’t?” I lifted a questioning brow.
“I’m a forward thinker, Dani. Have a real gift for seeing potential before it’s fully…matured.”
“A real renaissance man, huh?”
Junior slapped a hand on his desk. “Yes, exactly. See? You get it, babe. You understand me.”
I didn’t understand shit. I was merely feeding his ego, telling him what he wanted to hear so he’d drop his guard and hopefully let something slip. Though the way he was eyeing my chest again told me he was getting a little too comfortable. Enough to call mebabeat least.
“I think I do. But just to make sure, why don’t you tell me what you’re getting at, Junior?” I leaned forward, feigning interest while giving him a direct view down my shirt.
“You and me are a lot alike is all I’m sayin’.”
“And how’s that?” Now I was truly curious.
“Always goin’ against the grain. Willing to do whatever it takes to break through the roles given to us at birth. To take what we want instead of what the world is lookin’ to hand us. It’s not easy, you know. ‘Least your folks are dead. Mine are still hangin’ around, constantly on my ass, wanting me to be more like León.”
“Right. My parents are dead… lucky me.” It was hard to keep from rolling my eyes. This fucker wasn’t just fucked in the head; he was full-on delusional. Which made him dangerous too. Because he honestly believed everything he was saying.
“Exactly.” He grinned. “But you’re lucky in more ways than one.” He pushed up from his chair, maneuvering around the desk to stand in front of me while leaning his ass on the ledge. Then he reached out and used a dainty hand to lift my chin and force me to look at him. “You’re lucky that brother of mine is outta the picture, and I’m lucky that bullet I put in your skull didn’t actually kill you.”
42
SIX YEARS PRIOR
If you were to ask me what it was about her that first caught my attention, I would have had to say it was her fucking smile.
Yeah, I know. Corny as fuck.
But there was just something about the way Dani looked at you, that mischievous glint in her eyes drawing you in, while those lips of hers were what finally set the trap. Ensnared your ass. Made it so that you didn’t know what was up and what was down. Blurred the lines of right and wrong until all you saw was this girl and that smile. And somehow you knew it was meant only for you.
I was sure most of the guys in the pool hall that night felt the same. But I knew. I fucking knew it was directed at me.
Don’t bother asking me to explain. I didn’t have a reason that made sense. I hadn’t even spoken two words to the girl. A girl I knew shouldn’t be here, on my family’s territory. Not with eyes like those, and skin like that. But like I said, what I knew flew out the fucking window as soon as she smiled at me.
I didn’t know I was moving until my feet stopped in front of her and my palm landed on the wall, pressed just above her head so there was nowhere for her to go, nowhere for her to look except at me. Her palm was wrapped around the pool cue, stroking it up and down in a way that I was certain was intentional as she peered at me with lashes too long to be legal.
“Wanna get outta here?” My lips curled into a smirk that I was more than aware would highlight the dimple in my left cheek. I watched her face, waiting for a reaction. For some sense of whether she was intrigued or appalled by the suggestion.
And the girl didn’t flinch, didn’t appear the least bit offended or shocked. “Depends,” she hummed, as if she could taste the word with those supple lips of hers. Just a few inches more and I could lower my head and try 'em for myself.
“On?” I could feel my heart beating in my chest as I asked the question. Like nothing mattered except what she had to say.
“Whether you can keep it up long enough for me to slap a condom on ya.”
That was Dani. Forward as fuck. Told ya exactly what was on her mind. And not afraid of anything. Least of all me and my last name. Whether she recognized it that first night, I could only guess. Either way, I doubted it would have stopped her from taking me up on my offer. Ormefrom making her one to begin with.
For a nineteen-year-old girl, Dani could fuck. And being a nineteen-year-old guy, I couldn’t get enough of it. Or her.
