Malo - Page 9

He barges past me and into the house, looks around, and turns back to me. “Nice place you have here,” he says, voice taut.

“Thanks,” I reply, a little awkward. If only he knew that this wasn’t my real home. If only I could tell him what was really going on here. Maybe he would help me? I know it’s a risk way too great for me to take, spilling the truth to him, but all at once, it feels as though it’s bubbling to the surface, trying to break out of me.

“Tell me… Why the fuck would you need to steal my money if you’ve got a home like this?” he demands, crowding me, pushing his face close to mine I can feel his breath on my face. I can see the fury in his eyes, and my knees start to tremble. I swallow hard, doing my best not to let him see how freaked out I am.

“I wanted to see you again,” I reply, batting my lashes at him. If I can keep up this flirty act maybe he’s not going to take it too badly.

“And that’s the best way you could think to do it?” he demands.

I shrug. “Well, it got you here, didn’t it?” I point out. He lets out a growl of irritation. He’s nothing like the man I saw last night, the man who fucked me and made me come—the man who couldn’t seem to get enough of me, who seemed to want to gorge himself on my body. I can still smell the booze on him, and I wonder if he spent the whole night partying after he left me. It’s a miracle he’s upright at this moment. If I were him, I would be flat-out with a hangover. More proof to feed into my conclusion that he’s a regular user.

“I don’t think you have any idea what kind of trouble you’re walking yourself into,” he warns me through gritted teeth. My toes curl in my shoes. I want to pull away from him, but I can’t, he’s got me backed against the wall, making sure there’s nowhere I can go.

“Maybe I like a little trouble,” I shoot back. I reach up to brush my finger over his jaw. His stubble is rough beneath my fingertips, and for a split second, as he glowers at me, I can feel something brewing between us again. Something… strong, needy. Almost overpowering. Something that’s almost enough for him to forget exactly why he came here in the first place, the trouble I might have caused him.

But then, he twists his face away from my hand, and slams his fist into the wall beside me, making me jump.

“You don’t want the kind of trouble I’m going to bring into your life, trust me,” he snarls, his voice low. I try to grab him, but he’s so angry, it’s almost impossible. I’m not used to dealing with men like this, but I’m going to have to hurry my ass up and grow accustomed to it.

“You sure about that?” I ask, lowering my gaze pointedly to his lips. I’m not sure why, but that seems to push him over the edge. He reaches down to his hip, and all at once, I feel the cold press of a gun against my head.

Everything falls away, the sheer panic getting the better of me. What the fuck? Is that… is that thing real? Of course it is. He’s glaring at me like he’s daring me to fight him on this.

“You’re going to tell me where that fucking money is,” he growls, voice slow and deliberate, as though he’s making sure I get the point he’s trying to make. As though I could miss it.

I swallow hard, and shake my head. “I don’t have it here,” I mutter back. It’s the truth, at least. I don’t have the money in hand. I didn’t think I would need to bring it out here, figuring he would lose interest in it once I switched on the charm. Doesn’t look like I’m going to get so lucky.

“Fuck,” he mutters, and he pushes the barrel against my temple. I close my eyes. This can’t be happening. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to handle this. I feel as though I am going to freak out at any second, my whole body tensing as the adrenalin begins to kick in. Is this what my father must feel when they have him at gunpoint? This terror, this fear, this… this nightmarish sensation, like everything is going to fall apart at any moment? With just one pull of that trigger, this man could end me, and the way he’s looking at me, I think he might.

I have never felt this before in my life, this sensation that’s spiraling through me in this instant. Like everything is about to be torn away from me—like I don’t have a single inch of control over this situation, and this man could take everything from me without a second thought. I can tell by the way he’s looking at me that it wouldn’t be the first time for him, and that scares me, scares me in ways I don’t know if I can put into words.

“Please,” I whisper to him. “I didn’t know how important this was to you. I’m sorry, I really am…”

He shakes his head. “Sorry isn’t going to fix this,” he warns me. “You’re coming with me.”

“What?” I gasp. “No, I-I can’t, I can’t just?—”

“Either you tell me where you stashed that money, or you’re coming with me, right now,” he tells me. His voice is almost eerily calm. A shiver runs down my spine. But there is something at the back of my mind, something that tells me to take him up on this—at least it would get me out of the grasp of the Rosas, right? Away from El Serpiente. These are his enemies, maybe the enemy of my enemy could be my friend?

I hesitate, but then, slowly, I nod. “I’ll go with you,” I breathe.

He eyes me for a moment and then drops the gun, grabbing me roughly by the arm and yanking me toward the door. Is anyone watching the house? I hope not. I just need to put as much distance between myself and this place as possible. As much distance between my captors and myself as I can.

Outside, his bike is waiting. He pushes his gun back into his pants and gestures for me to climb on. I do as I’m told. I don’t want to piss him off, not more than I already have, anyway.

“Hold on to me,” he orders, as he climbs onto the bike. “And don’t even think about trying anything. That clear?”

I nod. “That’s clear,” I reply, too terrified to argue with him. And, with that, we pull away from the house and I throw myself into the midst of whatever is about to hit me next.

CHAPTER 9

MALO

Ipull the bike to a halt outside the compound, my mind racing as I try to figure out exactly how I’m going to spin this.

I know there’s no way they’re going to take this well, that much, I’m sure of. I’m going to have to admit that I was stupid enough to hook up with this random woman, and let her close enough to steal from me. And when they find that out, it’s not going to take much for them to piece together everything else. That I’ve been using, and that my stupidity was what landed me in trouble, but I can’t worry about them finding out my secret now.

I need to keep my focus. She’s been hanging on to me for dear life ever since we drove away from the house, her fingers digging into my torso like she’s terrified she might fly off at any moment. I can’t say I blame her. I’ve been driving like a maniac, trying to put as much space between that house of hers and me as possible. I don’t do well with being out in the suburbs, it makes me break out in hives. That kind of normalcy has never sat well with me, even before I joined the Kings.