Malo - Page 15

She trails off, and I can see her mind turning over the possibility. She begins to chew on her lip.

“I guess I could be,” she admits, finally, as though coming to terms with it herself for the first time.

“When was the last time you had your period?” I ask her.

She frowns. “I don’t know,” she replies. “I don’t really keep track of that kind of stuff.”

“What about your mom?” I ask. “Did she have an irregular cycle, or…?”

Bella shakes her head. “I don’t know,” she replies, voice dropping slightly. “She’s been sick for a very long time.”

My heart twists, and I lean away from Bella again to make our conversation look more casual as Harley returns from the bar. It’s clear these women haven’t had a mother figure around when they were growing up. Were they raised in the club? Maybe. That might explain why Bella seems so oblivious to the fact that she’s showing a whole host of signs of being pregnant, but she doesn’t even seem to know why.

“You okay?” Harley asks, glancing between the two of us, clearly able to sense the shift in the atmosphere.

“I’m fine,” Bella replies, quickly sitting up straight, as though covering her ass and making sure Harley doesn’t catch on to what’s happening. The two girls might be close, but I guess Bella doesn’t want anyone to know about this one way or another until she’s sure. I offer her a quick smile, hoping she can tell that I’m not judging her for any of this.

I pick up my drink and take a sip, as Bella begins to chatter away to Harley again, clearly wanting to fill the silence before the other woman clocks on to what’s happening here. I glance between them, and feel a little pang in my chest. I kind of wish I didn’t have to leave. It’s clear Bella, at least, needs some female guidance in her life, and if Harley’s anything like her, she’s probably no different in that respect.

I know what it’s like to grow up without a mom around for most of your life. But I don’t know how it must feel to live under the rule of a place like this, of a club like the Ruthless Kings. They’re clearly cared for here, but how much of the normal experience have they actually had? They have street smarts, obviously, but what about the basic stuff that having another woman around could teach them?

I down the rest of my drink, and slip my hands into my pockets again. I don’t know how long I’m going to last in this place, but I promise myself, at least, that I will do everything I can to help these two along the way.

CHAPTER 13

MALO

“So, you take her back to the real place she’s been staying at, and make it look as though she’s been camping out there, waiting for her next orders,” Sin tells me, leaning up against the door as I grab my helmet.

“Got it,” I reply. We’re in the process of working out the next steps to take with Maria, and right now, we figure the most important thing is keeping up the front that nothing has changed—that she’s still loyal to them. I don’t know if anyone’s going to buy that, given that she’s been living here for the last few days, but hopefully, Las Rosas will have had enough to deal with outside of her. If she can slip back in under the radar, then it will be just like nothing at all has changed.

It will be the first time I’ve spent any real time with her since I brought her to the compound, and to be honest, I’m feeling some kind of way about it. It’s a headfuck, going from hooking up with this woman to having her be the center of our plan to take down the cartel. I don’t know where that leaves the two of us, or how she’s going to handle me, given that I had her at gunpoint just a matter of days ago.

I push that all aside. I have to keep my focus here. Any slip-up, and we could give away to Las Rosas just what we’re up to, and she’ll be the one to pay for it, I’m sure, not to mention her father. As much as I want to move this mission along fast, and bring an end to the trafficking they’ve been doing across the border, a level head is the name of the game here.

I am about to head out the door, when Sin catches my arm.

“Hey,” he mutters, and I stop dead in my tracks. I know that tone from him. It’s something serious. I bristle slightly, already on the defensive.

“What is it?” I ask.

“Something’s been up with you lately,” he remarks. “You doing all right?”

The way he’s looking at me, I know it’s not so much a question, as it is a chance for me to come clean. Maybe I haven’t been as incognito as I thought.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I reply quickly. Last thing I need is to get exposed for all of this, right when I’m on the brink of making a real difference. This is my first and last warning, I’m sure of it. If I fuck up again, get caught using when I’m supposed to have my head in the game, I’m going to be off this mission before it even gets started.

“Good,” he replies. “Don’t get sloppy, you hear me?”

“I get it. Entendo,” I promise him, and I head to meet Maria outside. I don’t want to let my issues with drugs get in the way of bringing down the cartel, and I need to use that as my motivation to stay clean. A clear head is harder to live with sometimes, but it’s going to serve me better in the long run.

I meet Maria outside, where she’s waiting in the same outfit I saw her at that house in the suburbs. She doesn’t look comfortable, shifting from foot to foot as though the clothes are itching, but she must know as well as I do that if she turns up in something they’ve never seen before, it’s going to blow up our plan.

“You ready?” I ask her.

She gave us the address of the real place she had been staying. She’s still got the keys, thankfully, and the phone that Rayo, her captor, gave to her and he’s coming by later today. Much as I wish I could just take the guy out the moment I lay eyes on him, I know I have to keep my head, at least for now.

“I’m ready.” She sighs, and I climb on the bike and gesture for her to get on behind me. She grabs hold of me, her fingers digging into my sides, as though she doesn’t want to let go.