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“God no.” My breath came out in a slow exhale, and she leaned over the bar to pat my hand. “You don’t have to worry about Cherry. Ryder and the boys run a respectable joint and would never let that happen. The black eye was courtesy of my ex.”
She nodded her head, acknowledging the girl who stood further down the bar, teetering on her red stiletto heels. “Hunter paid him a visit, and he finally quit coming around. The least I can do is look after his old lady while he’s gone.”
While Shay was distracted mixing drinks, I slid my phone out of my pocket to google what the hell an old lady was and snorted when I saw a text from my boss.
PICKLEBUSTER: Paint me a cucumber and call me green.
He’d probably fire me if he knew about my nickname for him, but seriously, he was a ballbuster of epic proportions. If it made me feel better to call him that behind his back, well, that was between me and my phone.
Since he’d opted to text in some sort of weird code, I tapped out a similar reply. Who knew me turning into a field agent would make him go allJames Bond?
ME: I’ll have a latte fun with my sister in the morning.
Another way that Cherry and I differed—she’d drink any sludge you pushed in front of her while I was a connoisseur. She wouldn’t think me looking for a coffee shop close by was the least bit odd, but if she wanted to come with me, I’d have to resort to calling my boss from the bathroom. It wasn’t ideal to whisper while hovering over a toilet, but I’d make it work.
After I deleted the texts, I went back to my research. These bikers and their weird lingo were killing me. Honestly, I could have done without knowing what a sweet butt was, and now this. Shaking my head, I stared down at the screen. Leave it to bikers to come up with a shittier term than ball and chain. Didn’t they know women didn’t want to be referred to as old? Like ever.
Not that it mattered, because I would be nothing more than Hunter’s biggest mistake. He was born to lead the Mafia, and I was doomed to betray him in order to save my sister.
“Hello,” a male voice with a heavy Spanish accent purred, making me jump.
Holy Balls! What was up with dudes sneaking up on me lately? At this rate, I was going to get a complex, maybe even develop a heart condition.
Sliding my phone back into my pocket, I looked over at the man beside me, leaning against the bar. My brain automatically flipped through the club members’ profiles like a Rolodex, but I was coming up blank. None of the guys had dark shoulder length hair.
His smile was dazzling, his teeth a brilliant white against his tan skin. “Our sisters are best friends, no?”
Now I was thoroughly confused. I think I’d remember if my sister had a friend whose brother looked like him. A woman would have to be dead to miss this guy. Not that his looks had the same effect on me as they did the rest of the female population. If he were to touch me, my reaction would be the same as with any other man.
“I’m sorry. What?”
“You are Cherry’s sister, no?” he asked, a frown replacing his smile.
The way he rolled the r’s in my sister’s name reminded me of the year a bunch of the girls from my dorm went to Cancun for spring break. At the time, I didn’t get what all the fuss was about. Now I understood why they found a Spanish accent appealing, but it still didn’t help me piece together who he was.
“Yes, and you are?”
“Sorry, señora. I’m Marco. Valentina’s brother.”
When my boss said the president’s new bride had a brother with the Mexican government in his back pocket, I was curious. There were only two cartels with enough clout and money to pull that off, the Ortiz cartel out of Colombia and the Castillo cartel in Zacatecas. The Ortiz cartel was easily ruled out when the file showed Pedro Ortiz only had sons. Miguel Castillo, however, had a son and a daughter.
It seemed a little far-fetched that the man standing next to me, in the United States, wearing the same vest as the rest of the guys minus a name patch, had the power of the Mexican government behind him. Either my boss was lying, or Valentina had another brother the DEA knew nothing about. If that were the case, I needed to find out all I could about him.
Shay returned, her startling blue eyes narrowing on Marco even though she spoke to me. “You good over here?”
While I would normally appreciate her scaring men away, thus saving me from a potentially awkward or embarrassing situation, I couldn’t let her do that with Marco. Not if I was going to find out anything useful, anyway.
“Yeah, Marco’s fine,” I said, giving her what I hoped was a reassuring smile.
Shay looked uncertain, her eyes flicking back and forth between the two of us, but thankfully Beast walked up to the bar just then. She glanced over at me one last time before moving down the bar to see what he wanted.
“Shay has become your champion, I see.”
He and his sister were both gorgeous, there was no doubt about it, but curiously enough the only thing they had in common was their tan skin.
“Seems that way, though she’s not nearly as colorful as Valentina.”
Before I’d gone downstairs with Stella earlier, Cherry had introduced Valentina as Ryder’s wife. Her sticking up for me, a virtual stranger, made a lot more sense now that I knew they’d become close. Not that it made what she’d done any less badass in my book. Nobody had ever tried to rescue me from a bully before.
