AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I can’t take my eyes off his sensuous mouth, the way it moves when he speaks. What I need to do is pay more attention to his language and the dangerously dark tone in his voice, like a snake biding its time before it strikes.
“I don’t know. Honestly, I only knew there was a package that needed to be dropped off someplace else. I didn’t get any details, I swear.”
He stands up straighter, towering over me while I cower in place. It’s no use pretending I’m not scared shitless—for all I know, this is all an act to freak me out. If I don’t play along, it may piss them off even more.
His eyes darken as his pupils dilate while he rakes over my body. He likes what he sees. I’m torn between wanting to cover myself with my arms and hands and wanting to show him everything he’s interested in exploring. What is wrong with me?
“You’re not dressed like somebody picking up a package.”
“This is how they told me to dress. I swear to God, every word is true.”
“And who exactly told you to dress that way? Give me a name.”
“I never got a name,” I lie, considering I just told him her name as my own.
He folds his thick arms, his biceps bulging against his sleeves. “So let me get this straight. You accepted this job sight unseen, with no knowledge of what you were picking up or where you were going, without even learning the name of the person who assigned it to you? Is that what you’re telling me, Elena?”
“Yes. I need the money, that’s all.” My gaze darts back and forth between him and his friend, but neither of them seems particularly moved. “For school. I have to pay my tuition. They told me I could make a lot of money tonight, so I accepted the job. I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“Right.” He takes the bag from his friend, then starts rifling through it.
I know better than to expect him to ask permission, of course, but it still doesn’t exactly make me feel good, having a stranger paw through my stuff. His friend watches me, standing close, sneering when I dare glance his way.
“Here it is.” He pulls out the paper-wrapped package and drops the bag on the floor, bending over the coffee table and unwrapping the bundle after examining the address and label on the front.
I realize I’m holding my breath, curious about what’s inside. I’m not surprised to find a plastic-wrapped package of white powder. It’s almost disappointing.
He withdraws a switchblade from his back pocket—I wasn’t expecting that—and flips it open before cutting a tiny slit in the plastic, then withdrawing a bit of the powder using the tip of the knife. I stare, transfixed, as he places a little pinch of the powder on his tongue, frowning like he’s trying to figure out what he just ingested.
When his attention snaps back to me with no warning, I sit up a little straighter like a kid who got caught daydreaming in class. Though I doubt my teacher would have killed me for something like that.
“What is this?”
I shake my head frantically even though it hurts like hell. “I swear, I have no idea. I told you. They didn’t tell me what I was picking up, only that it was a package, and they told me where I could find it. That is all I know.”
Again, he brings to mind a snake when he lunges at me all at once, pressing me against the back of the couch before wrapping a hand around my throat. The pressure causes my air to cut off and my eyes to bulge.
Leaning into my ear, he says, “I’m going to ask you again, Elena. What is in that package?”
How am I supposed to answer when I can’t even breathe? I feel the pressure building in my head, and my lungs are starting to burn with the need for air. I open my mouth, but all that comes out is a gargling noise—and to my horror, he smiles at the sound.
But he also lets up a little. All the color floods back into the world as I gulp in a grateful breath, then another.
“Now. What’s in the package? Exactly what is that product?”
My heart sinks with dismay, unlike anything I’ve ever felt. I thought things were bad when I couldn’t pay my tuition? What a joke. “I’m so sorry, but I can’t help you. I would if I could,” I quickly add.
But he only shakes his head, his scowl deepening into something closer to a snarl. He squeezes harder, and again there’s nothing to do but hope he’ll let go before it’s too late. I slap weakly at his hand, which only makes him take both of my wrists in the other one and squeeze them until my bones grind together and tears roll down my cheeks.
“You’re trying my patience,” he whispers, and his face is starting to get a little blurry.
I have to breathe. I need to breathe!
But then he eases back some, and I sip air through a thin straw while my head swims. Our eyes meet for the briefest of moments, but it’s long enough for something to throb inside me. It has to be the way my head is all foggy now, that’s all. I’m losing it.
“You expect me to believe that your father sent you to the very warehouse he was supposed to be meeting me, dressed like a two-bit hooker while carrying a brick of cocaine? I don’t know much about Josef Alvarez, but this doesn’t seem like him. What does he expect by sending you in his place?”
I shake my head, narrowing my eyes in confusion. But then, a past conversation resurfaces. I remember Elena telling me that she and one of her cousins shared a name. Something about all the daughters being named after their abuela.
