His eyebrows lifted. “It actually has a lot of bearing, for most people.”
“Oh.” I laughed. “You’re talking to the girl who has never had a boyfriend here, so I don’t know the etiquette. My bad.”
He chuckled over that, and then stared at me long enough to make me shift a little in my seat.
“What?” I asked, wondering why the hell he was looking at me.
“You’re funny,” he answered, shaking his head. “I expected a lot of things from you, but funny was never one of them.”
“Because you don’t know me. You might think you do, but…”
“I’d argue that I probably know more than most, at this point.”
“And that means exactly nothing.” I fixed him with a stare that normally made people back down and leave me alone, but he appeared completely unfazed by it.
“See, I think that’s bullshit though. I think it probably means a lot.”
“And I think it’s good you’re not paid to—oh, damn. City of Las Vegas really screwed that up, didn’t they?”
Cree plopped back on the couch, legs wide open, and laughed. “Wow. All this animosity just to avoid admitting you give a damn about somebody. Ms. Miller, it’s not a crime.”
“And if it was, I wouldn’t be guilty.”
“The evidence says otherwise.”
“What evidence?!” I snapped. “What, me bringing you a damn hamburger? I’m just trying to keep your ass alive so you can help me find my sister – nothing more than that.”
“You don’t have to bribe me with drive-thru to help with that. I’m doing it because I give a fuck – see how easy it is?”
I shook my head as I put his laptop, which I’d used to pull up information on Reo, down on the coffee table and stood. “Okay, I don’t know what we’re doing here now, so I’m gonna take my ass home.”
“It’s late.”
“What’s your point?” I asked, glancing around for the time. My eyes went wide when I realized the numbers on his cable box read 2:42am, meaning I had been there for… a long ass time. For hours.
“With all this shit going on, it’s probably best if you just stay over here. There’s a guest room, that Camille uses when she—”
“I don’t need a guest room, because I’m going home.”
“For what?” he inquired, standing up, getting between me and where I’d tossed my keys onto his kitchen counter. “If you’re so cold and heartless, what’s the big deal with just staying over here?”
“It’s not a big deal—”
“Then you’re staying.”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not, and if you don’t give me my keys, I’m—”
“Gonna what, kick my ass? Come on, let’s do it. Go ahead and try. If that’s what it takes to keep your ass in here, instead of alone in the dark with a goddamn bullet in your forehead, then… shit, let’s go.”
I took a step back, lips parted. I didn’t know what I’d been expecting, but it certainly wasn’t that… but it made sense. In the course of our conversation, the fact that he’d buried his partner today had gotten lost.
My gaze dropped to my feet for a second before I looked up at him again, really taking in his appearance – scruffier than I was used to seeing him. His eyes were rimmed in red, like he’d probably had trouble sleeping, which, now that I thought about it, explained the alcohol. Especially if he was having nightmares.
And why wouldn’t he be having nightmares, with all that had happened.
For a moment, I thought about offering to call him when I got home, if that would ease his mind. But one more look in his concerned eyes killed that idea, prompting me to say, “Fine. Fine. I… guess I’m sleeping in your guest room tonight.”
When his shoulders visibly sank in relief, I knew I’d done the right thing. I expected him to say something smart, making me regret the choice, but to my surprise, he took a different route.
“Thank you… for the peace of mind. And for the burger. And… for sitting with me, all this time. Keeping me occupied. I know socializing isn’t really your thing, so… I appreciate it.”
I didn’t bother telling him that I hadn’t intended to be here nearly this long, had planned to be in and out. But talking to him – even about a subject as difficult as what had brought our paths together – had been incredibly easy. Almost… enjoyable.
Almost.
“You’re welcome,” I replied, in more of a whisper than I intended, suddenly very aware of how close we’d gotten during our back and forth. His back was to the counter, and we were damn near touching – so close that I could feel the slight disturbance in the air as his chest moved in and out.
I knew he was about to kiss me, but I didn’t step back. When his hands came to my face, I grabbed his wrists, but didn’t pull him away.
I let it happen.
And as it happened, I could barely believe it – barely recognized myself. Who the hell was this woman who’d let a man – a goddamn detective, at that – kiss her like he owned her, dipping his tongue into her mouth, nibbling on her lips, dropping his hands to her ass to cup and squeeze, and enjoy every single moment?
Where had she come from?
Where had she been?
And why the hell was she so supremely unconcerned about where the hell this man was taking her when he hooked his arms under her thighs, easily lifting her against him?
“You’ve got a choice,” Cree said, stopping to press me against the wall beside what I assumed was his bedroom door. “I can take you down the hall to the guest room. Drop you off. Leave you there. See you in the morning.”
I raised an eyebrow. “And what’s the other option?”
“My room. My bed. And you wake up with me inside you in the morning.”
My whole lower half seemed to contract when he punctuated his words with a slight rock against me, putting his hard, heavy dick right against a part of my body that was begging me to pick the choice that led to orgasm.
This was… dangerous.
Danger of a type I’d never experienced before, because as much as my body craved him, something else, something foreign, something I couldn’t seem to ignore, was speaking even louder, making my answer obvious.
“I’ll go with door number two.”
EIGHT
“Whatever you do – don’t get between us.”
That was one of the painfully few directives Alicia offered me when she explained her plan for getting close enough to Reo Tanaka to question him about any possible affiliation with Sebastian Gray. There were plenty of details involved, some of questionable legality. Which was, undoubtedly, why she seemed to keep me out of the loop for much of it.
When I complained, she reminded me of the nonexistent necessity of my presence at all.
So I stopped complaining, and went with the flow.
Alicia was an incredibly intelligent woman, and I had no reason to doubt her capability when it came to something like this. If she said she knew what she was doing, I trusted that.
Which was how I found myself seated at the bar of a raunchy ass club called Skin, unarmed, waiting for a signal in a plan I didn’t know all the details of – something she claimed was for my own good.
Nothing about this place is for anybody’s good.
Looking around, I could easily count about fifteen blatant crimes taking place. Solicitation, white powder shuffled into lines, pills passed around like candy. I ignored it all though, considering that I – didn’t have my badge, was on suspension anyway, and none of that was really my business right now.
I nursed my soda and avoided eye contact with anyone – thanks to the small stages spread around the room, each equipped with a pole and a half-naked dancer shaking her ass around it, there were plenty of other things to hold my attention.
“Come to the back,” a sultry voice purred into my ear, and I shifted my gaze to find one of the scantily clad servers standing at my shoulder. As soon as I turned around, she leaned into me, her face vaguely fami
liar as she grinned. “Join the card game. You’ll have fun.”
She pulled back, offering a wink before she turned and sauntered away, disappearing into the crowd. Once she was gone, I stole a quick glance at the gun she’d discreetly slipped into my lap, then tucked it at the back of my waist, underneath my shirt, before I got up to head in the direction she’d hinted.
“The back” was another part of the club – darker, and even dingier somehow. A bouncer gave me a half-hearted pat down before I was allowed past the curtain, into a room with a few more poles, some card tables, and a long built-in bench that ran the length of the back wall.
And there sat Reo Tanaka.
The music was thumping, so it was loud – too loud to hear anything of consequence among Reo and his boys as they laughed and partied, showing their appreciation for the dancers in the room in the form of an obscene amount of bills.
Reo had a liquor bottle in one hand, a stack of hundreds in the other, and a cigar hanging from his mouth. I chose a seat at a card table where I could see him, but he couldn’t really see me, and where I’d have a good vantage point if something popped off.
When something popped off.
As far as I could tell, Reo seemed to be celebrating with the group in the middle – he’d won a big fight last night, and was now doing a line of coke off a dancer’s ass, in full view of everybody, but nobody seemed fazed – they were too busy with their own drugs. I shifted my attention to the cards I got dealt, keeping up with the pace of play to avoid raising suspicion. After a few more moments, I subtly checked my watch.
Turned out, I had perfect timing.
The bright red fabric was the first thing to catch my eye, drawing my attention away from the cards.
Fuck the cards.
Alicia stepped into the room looking like a much more expensive sin than this place could handle, in a candy-apple red dress that clung to her like a second skin, hiding nothing. Her hair was down, and impossibly straight, hanging from a perfectly clean middle part down to her waist.
The crowd seemed to part for her as she sauntered in, and I took my sweet time looking her over, from the impossibly tall heels she wore, to the perfectly toned caramel legs on full display all the way to her upper thighs, the soft curve of her hips, dip in her waist, up to her breasts, those defined collarbones, and that pretty ass face.
There was a smile in her eyes, and none of these people knew just how deeply they were in danger.
One of the guys at the table beside me let out a low whistle as he followed my gaze, smacking his lips.
“What I wouldn’t give for a ride on that,” he guffawed, joined by the other men at the table, but I was too busy noticing how quickly the crowd seemed to be clearing out now that Alicia had walked in. In fact, it seemed that the servers – all dressed in the same comically tiny “dress” as the one who’d told me to come back here – were purposely directing people out of the room.
When they came to my table, I was told to stay, while the others were informed that the room was being cleared for “Mr. Tanaka’s private party.”
Next thing I knew, Reo’s group were the only other patrons in the room. They were so absorbed in what they were doing – the dancers – that they hadn’t even noticed what was going on around them.
But Alicia was right in front of him now.
“Reo… baby… I’ve missed you,” Alicia said in an obnoxiously sardonic tone, as she raised a gun she couldn’t possibly have snuck in here underneath that dress. “We need to talk.”
The dancers scampered away, and I half-expected Reo’s homeboys to follow, or confront Alicia, or hell… do anything. Instead, they didn’t move – at all – alerting me and Reo at the same time that something was up.
Based on the way their heads were lolling about on their necks, that “something” was more than likely a sedative.
“What are you doing here, Ace?” Reo asked, standing up. He pushed one of his boys out of the way as he moved toward where Alicia was standing, but she didn’t flinch, even though he was obviously not affected by whatever the others had been drugged with.
Unless he wasn’t drugged at all.
“I told you, baby… here to talk.”
“You want me to talk to you with a gun in my face?”
Alicia’s red painted lips turned up in a smirk as she lowered the gun. I watched, with an uneasy feeling in my stomach, as she sank down, putting the gun on the floor before she raised herself up again, and gracefully kicked it away.
“There,” she said. “Is that better?”
What are you doing, Alicia?
I hoped like hell she knew, because Reo took a few steps, putting less space between them, and now I could see that he, like me, had a gun tucked at the back of his waist. Ol’ boy was taller than her, at least a hundred pounds heavier, and went through intense conditioning every day. Not to mention, from the way he was rubbing at his nose, hopped up on coke.
I lifted myself from my seat, ready to intervene, but suddenly the server from earlier was in my face, aiming a gun directly between my eyes.
“She said she told you,” she hissed, keeping her voice low to avoid getting Reo’s attention.
I frowned. “Told me what?”
“Not to get in the way. She’s a big girl. She can handle herself.”
The woman lowered the gun, and as she did, I realized why she looked familiar. In fact – all the servers who were still in the room looked familiar, because I’d seen them dressed in their security garb around the city, guarding one rich person or another. These were Alicia’s people – I should’ve realized she’d ensure her own protection in this plan.
Only, I wasn’t sure how this “Don’t get in the way” thing factored into that.
There was nothing standing between her and Reo – the only person in this room who might be more dangerous than she was.
“What is it you want to talk about?” Reo asked, folding his arms as they carried on a conversation at the center of the room, oblivious to my strong desire to step in. “You come in here killing my vibe, pulling a gun on me – as a matter of fact, get on your knees, bitch.”
Alicia’s laugh caught me off guard – it was light, completely delicate, not at all forced. She really was amused by that shit.
“Oh, Reo – Mr. Tokyo I mean… the half-Japanese, one-quarter Black, one-quarter Middle-Eastern Adonis,” she purred, making him grin.
He nodded. “That’s right. Royal ass, motherfucking warrior blood pumping through my veins in this bitch,” he preened, unfolding his arms to flex his biceps. “Recognize that shit.”
“Oh I do.” Alicia stepped up to him, caressing his flexed muscle, biting down on her bottom lip as she eyed him like she really did want to drop to her knees. “You know I do.”
My nostrils flared, fists immediately clenched as his meaty hands went to her ass, roughly grabbing and pulling her into him. “Pussy good as I remember?”
She pushed her hands up his chest and giggled. “So much better.”
“Show me,” he demanded, squeezing her ass harder, making her laugh harder as she looked right up into his face, and shook her head.
“Not today.”
Out of nowhere, she hit him with a quick jab – the heel of her hand directly into his throat, making him stagger backward as he released her from his grasp. He recovered quickly though – fast enough to block her fist as it came for his face, making me notice for the first time that a pair of brass knuckles designed to look like innocent jewelry adorned her hand.
My concern for her safety shot through the roof as he came after her – bigger, stronger than her – but she held her own. More of her punches were landing than his – Alicia was light on her feet, quick and agile, even in those heels – which was a clear advantage for her.
Until his hands tangled in her hair, snatching her toward him and then tossing her to the ground with a sickening thud.
“Don’t!” Alicia’s associate warned me, turning that gun on
me again as I started to shoot past her to go to Alicia’s aid.
I let out a frustrated growl, not caring if Reo noticed me – not when Alicia hadn’t pulled herself up yet from her place on the ground. That big motherfucker reared his leg back, aiming to kick her, which was some shit I just couldn’t abide. If I had to take a bullet, fuck it, but I wasn’t about to just sit back and watch this happen.
But then suddenly, she moved, launching herself at the leg he still had on the ground with such speed that I flinched. She did some kind of maneuver where she locked her thighs on either side of his leg and then twisted, felling him like a tree. He hit the ground with as hard of a smack as she had, and before he could recover from it, she was on top of him, hands around his neck, squeezing so hard that I could see the muscles flexing in her arms.
I cringed, hard, when he got her off of him with a solid jab to the face that sent her reeling backward. He moved to bear down on her, but one, two, three shots to his ribs with her shin effectively held him off. She tried to go for a fourth one, but he grabbed her foot, forcing her to switch to the other side, using her free foot to kick the side of his head.
That dazed him.
I watched that shit like a primetime match as she grounded herself on her knees and hit him with punch after punch until he fell on his back, his face a bloody mess. Instead of gloating, she got up on wobbly legs, stumbling to retrieve the gun she’d previously kicked away.
A strange sense of pride rushed through me as she stood over him, her bad-ass dress wrinkled and torn, face bloody, and bruises already starting to form in various places on her exposed skin.
“Now… like I said,” she growled, pointing the gun between his eyes. “We need to talk.”
From the ground, Reo shook his head. “I got nothing to say.”
“We have a code!”
“Fuck your code, and fuck you, bit -- ahhhhhh!”
I flinched as the sound of a silenced gunshot cut through the music, followed closely by Reo’s scream as Alicia put a bullet through his thigh.
Standing over him, Alicia rolled her eyes. “Really? You scream like a bitch over flesh wounds now? Times really have changed, huh?”
Deuces Wild Page 11
