Jake: The Hottest Guys You'll Love to Love (Best of the Bad Boys Book 1)

by Jessie Cooke

  When the Ford finally came to rest I didn’t wait to see what the redneck had in store for me. I threw back the tarp and only got a glimpse of his leg as he climbed out of the truck before I vaulted over the side and ran off into the brush. It was pitch-fucking-black and I was running into knee-deep brush in the middle of bum-fuck Texas…suddenly the son of the Irish drug lord wasn’t looking so bad…especially because the redneck owner of the Ford was only a few steps behind me now and the mother fucker had a flashlight. Cheating scum. I felt one massive arm go around my waist just as my feet left the ground. I used them to kick back at him as hard as I could, and that was when he dropped the light and wrapped the other arm around me. He was holding me in a vice grip against his chest that felt like a brick wall and I couldn’t fucking breathe. I waited for him to snap my neck and wondered if I would feel it before I died.

  “Calm down, okay? I’ll put you down when you calm down.” So maybe he didn’t plan to kill me…yet. But shit, I was going to pass out if the big ape didn’t put me down so I could get some air into my lungs. “Are you gonna stay put if I set you down?”

  I couldn’t move, literally. He wanted me to answer him but I had no fucking air in my lungs. Did this stupid gringo have any idea how strong he was? His arm was as big around as my waist…maybe bigger. I hung there limply, dangling on the edge of unconsciousness until he finally sat me down. At which point…I tried to run again. That wasn’t my best and brightest idea ever. I was once again scooped up and tucked underneath his armpit. I was at least grateful that he was a fan of deodorant. He carried me back to the truck and tossed me in like a rag doll. I of course went for the passenger door. He grabbed me and said,

  “Knock it off, will you? I’m not going to hurt you. Obviously you needed a ride so why the hell do you want to run away all of a sudden?” The gringo had a point, but I wasn’t ready to concede that to him. I just stared at him and wondered what the hell kind of truck ran over his face until he finally said, “Do you speak English?” I almost smiled. It might be fun. I didn’t respond so he said, “Yo habla Englise?” Damn! It was so hard not to laugh. He really thought he was speaking Spanish. I wasn’t sure it even qualified as Spanglish.

  “No,” I said.

  “Oh…Um…Me Llamo es Conan…Como Te llama?” Shit! I swear I wasn’t going to be able to keep a straight face if he kept it up. Not only was his Spanish fucked up, his mother named him after the homeliest talk show host on the planet. I deserved an academy award for my blank face. “Llama? Name?”

  “Catalina,” I said, throwing him a bone.

  “Catalina? Like the Island. That’s pretty.” I had to wonder if that big gash across his forehead knocked him silly, or if he’d always been a little slow. I continued to stare at him until he said, “Where are you going?” He yelled and enunciated every syllable. Stupid gringo. “Adonde Vas?” Hmm…better.

  “Las Vegas,” I said. He looked surprised.

  “You know you’re in Texas, right?” I almost rolled my eyes. I’d just spent time in a fucking moving coffin being transported across the border. Yes, I fucking know I’m in Texas.

  “Texas? Si!”

  “Okay, well…I’m going as far as Austin. I can take you there. Maybe you can get a bus to Nevada.” Now we were getting some place, and I got to sit in the seat of a nice pickup too. If I could only convince him to give me some of that food I smelt…I put my hand over my belly and cowered against the door. Once again he said, “It’s okay.” When I didn’t act like I understood he said, “Está bien.” Maybe he was not quite as stupid as I originally thought. I gave him a shy smile and widened my brown eyes. I could see the big guy visibly melt. He looked at my hand on my flat belly then and said, “Are you hungry? Tienes hombre?”

  That pushed me over the edge. My straight face turned into hysterical laughter. He stared at me with his dark green eyes that made him look like a big cat, until I stopped laughing. Then I said, “No, I’m not a man,” in perfect English.

  He looked like he was about to shit. I was right, it was fun.

  “You speak English?”

  I wondered what his first clue was. “Yes, and let me be the first one to tell you that you really should keep that Spanglish of yours to yourself.”

  He sat up straight and suddenly I wondered if I’d taken it too far. It wouldn’t be the first time…or the thousandth that my mouth had gotten me into trouble. But the gringo…big ass as he was, didn’t seem to be into hitting women no matter how foul their mouths might be. He actually smiled…or I guess that’s what it was. His face was a fucking disaster.

  “You should have heard it before I lost the teeth,” he said. That was when I realized he was in fact missing three…right in front. I wanted to ask him what happened, but I’d grown up in a place where the more you knew, the bigger chance there was of getting your head cut off, so I didn’t. He sucked in a deep breath and handed me the greasy paper sack. “Bon appetite,” he said in his Texas drawl. I muttered a “Thank you,” and I kept the fact that his French was as bad as his Spanish to myself.

  3

  Conan

  I had to wonder if picking up strays from across the border when you’re on the run from a Mexican Cartel leader was the brightest idea. I glanced over at the pretty little Mexican girl next to me as she inhaled my Ultimate Cheeseburger and fries and knew I didn’t have the heart to do otherwise. I’d been where she came from and I couldn’t say I blamed her at all for wanting out. We drove in silence and every so often I stole a glance over at her. I couldn’t tell exactly how old she was, but I was hoping for at least eighteen. The yellow and red flannel shirt she was wearing was at least three sizes too big for her. When I picked her up I realized her waist was so small I could probably cover it with both hands. When she struggled, I realized that she didn’t have that problem in the bust area. They were nice and round…and the butt that pressed into my thighs when she tried to kick me felt pretty damned round too.

  I know they might not be the most appropriate thoughts in the current situation, but in my defense, I hadn’t had sex in nearly a month. My balls were so blue they were almost black. I’d been in Mexico for three weeks…and it wasn’t like I hadn’t considered it. But the climate in the city while I was there had been such that I just wanted to finish what I’d promised to do and get back to Texas. I knew that once I was back in Austin, finding a willing warm body would be as easy as stopping in at the corner bar. I glanced over at my passenger again. She was drinking my Coke and staring out the side window. Half of her pretty face was hidden by her long, black hair. I could see one huge brown eye, framed by the longest and darkest eyelashes I’d ever seen, and the tip of her tiny little nose. Her lips were full and looked like they were made for kissing and when she laughed at me earlier I could see that she had a mouthful of straight, white teeth. She didn’t look like your typical illegal. She looked like she came from money. If that was the case, why would she risk crossing the border in the middle of the night? I couldn’t help but be curious about what her story was…and why she seemed desperate to get to Nevada.

  I put my eyes back on the road and reminded myself I had my own shit to worry about. I was supposed to have the biggest fight of my career in a few days and my face hurt so bad that when I’d smiled at her I felt like crying. My teeth were either missing or broken. I had just pissed off one of the most dangerous and powerful men in Mexico…and I was harboring an illegal. I thought I’d do well to put her problems, and her round ass out of my head.

  It was about two and a half hours after I found her in the bed of my truck before we pulled into my driveway. She’d been asleep for the last hour and as soon as I killed the engine she sat straight up and looked around like someone was holding a gun to her head. “It’s okay. This is my house. We’re in Austin.” She looked out the window and took in my house and neighborhood. Then she turned to me and said,

  “You took me to your house?”

  I shrugged. “You were asleep. I didn’t kn
ow where you wanted me to drop you off.”

  She furrowed her brow and said, “You’re a funny one, Gringo. But thanks for the ride…and the food.” She let herself out of the truck and by the time I got out my side she was already taking off down the street.

  “Hey! Do you know where you’re going?”

  “I’m going to find a ride to Nevada!” she yelled back.

  It was four o’clock in the morning and the bus station was at least twelve miles from my house.

  “Hey wait!” she didn’t stop walking. I jogged after her and when I caught up to her I said, “Do you have any idea how to get to the bus station?”

  She looked at me like I was crazy. “I’m not looking for a bus. I’m looking for another gringo with a pickup truck.”

  “You can’t hitch-hike to Nevada.”

  “Why not?”

  “Are you kidding? It’s not safe.”

  She laughed. “I just paid a coyote to cart me across the border. Before he dropped me off, he took all the rest of the cash and jewelry I had on me. Then I got in the truck with a moose whose face looks like hamburger meat and rode another three hundred miles. I’m still in one piece. I think I can handle it.”

  “Please…stay here until the sun comes up at least. I’ll give you a ride to the bus station in the morning and buy you a ticket. I just need a couple hours sleep…”

  “I’m not fucking you.”

  I nearly choked. I couldn’t believe she just said that. “Look, I honestly don’t expect you to.” I couldn’t promise I’d turn it down if she offered it though. “I just don’t want you wondering around in the dark. I wouldn’t be able to rest worrying about you. You can hang out on my couch…eat…watch TV, whatever. I just need two hours sleep and a shower and then I’ll be ready to go again.”

  She looked at me suspiciously and said, “If you don’t expect me to fuck you, why do you care what happens to me?”

  I shrugged. The truth was, I was thinking about Camille. My little sister took off three years ago, right after she turned eighteen. It took me a year to find her and when I did, she was obviously traumatized. She’d been staying in New York…sometimes with a friend and sometimes on the street. She never told us what happened to her there, but she’s never been the same. This girl was about the same size as my sister and close to the same age. Too much bad shit could happen to a young woman out there on her own. I didn’t want to be even partially responsible for that. All I said to her was,

  “Because I’m a hell of a nice guy. Come on, if I wanted to hurt you I’ve had ample opportunity over the past three hours.”

  She looked like the truth of that was sinking in as she said, “Okay, I’ll stay for a few hours and I’ll take a ride to the station. I’m not taking your money though.”

  I raised an eyebrow, wondering what she thought she was going to do about buying a ticket, but I didn’t ask. I just nodded and said, “Come on.” She followed me to the house. I should have told her about Charlie.

  4

  Catalina

  First, I couldn’t believe that I’d agreed to go into a dark house in a strange city…no, a strange country, with a big son of a bitch. Second, I couldn’t believe that when he opened the door and the biggest, shaggiest dog I’d ever seen in my life jumped up on him and he fell back into me, that my nipples got hard. Jeez, when the trip to Vegas is over, I needed to get laid.

  “Down Charlie! I’m happy to see you to boy, but get down!” He turned around and sheepishly offered me an, “I’m sorry, he’s harmless. He’s just a puppy.”

  The dog had to weigh at least a hundred and fifty pounds. If it was a puppy, I was glad I wouldn’t be around when he was a full-grown dog. “What the hell is he?”

  Conan laughed. “He’s part Great Dane and part Sheepdog. He’s just a big old baby. Aren’t you boy?” Watching him talk to his dog in baby talk was like watching the Incredible Hulk sweet-talking a Clydesdale. It was surreal. When he finished greeting the dog, he flipped on a light. The house was nice. The floors were hardwood and shiny and the furniture and pictures on the wall were that Southwestern cowboy style. He had a saddle hanging on one wall and a lasso on another. I wondered if he was a cowboy, but I didn’t ask. I didn’t want him to think I was that interested. “Do you want something to drink?” he asked me.

  “A beer?” He smiled again. Poor guy was probably hot when his face didn’t look like hamburger meat, but that toothless grin was almost too much.

  “Beer I have plenty of,” he said. “Have a seat.” He disappeared into what I assumed was the kitchen and I sat down on the couch. There was a sixty-inch television on the wall in front of me and a huge speaker on either side of that. He wasn’t hurting for money. Once again, I had to wonder what he was doing getting the hell beat out of him in Mexico. He came back in and handed me a bottle of beer. “I’m going to get in the shower, do you need anything else?”

  “No, I’m fine, thanks.”

  He nodded and left the room again. I sat there sipping my beer, trying to stay awake, and taking inventory of his house while he was in the shower. The giant dog had jumped up next to me and made himself comfortable against my lap. Some watchdog he is. The gringo had a gun safe in one corner and what looked like an antique treasure chest in another. The saddle on the wall was leather and looked like it was hand tooled. A thick stone fireplace ran along another wall and one of those big plastic jugs sat on top of it filled with quarters and fifty cent pieces. There had to be hundreds of dollars inside of it, if not thousands. Above that on the mantle were various framed photos, mostly of a middle-aged woman and another one about my age. I wondered if she was his girlfriend and then I wondered why I cared. While I was looking at them I noticed he’d tossed his wallet and pickup keys up there before he went to get in the shower. He was way too fucking trusting and his dog was snoring in my lap. I could rob him blind. I couldn’t even say it didn’t cross my mind. If I grabbed the keys and the wallet, I would be in Nevada in a day…or two. The dog probably wouldn’t even wake up. I rubbed his head absently while I considered it. His hair was soft and silky. I wondered who looked after him while the Hulk was in Mexico. I turned my thoughts back to robbing him and decided that if I got picked up before I got there my Bio-Dad might not be too impressed with meeting me in an INS holding cell waiting for deportation.

  That was the last conscious thought I had before letting sleep suck me down into that dark place where my subconscious mind reminded me that my uncle was the leader of the biggest Cartel in Mexico and if I didn’t find my father fast…his men would find me and drag me kicking and screaming back to Mexico. He would marry me off to another rich thug and if I managed to live another twenty years, I’d be just like my mother, a shell of a woman with no thoughts of her own. She was someone who’d been beaten into absolute submission. I’d be willing to bet that she didn’t even dream about a better life any longer. She’d just accepted what was and was willing to accept whatever was to come. Her only solace came when she was on her knees in the church, praying to a God that sat idly by while we were treated like pieces of property by the men in our lives. That wasn’t going to be me, no matter what I had to do. I jerked myself awake. The house was completely dark and silent. The big guy had covered me with an afghan and he must have taken the dog with him to bed. I got up as quietly as I could and crossed over to the fireplace. I had his keys in one hand and his wallet in the other when suddenly I felt a large presence in the room. I looked down at the formerly passive dog. His white teeth shone in the dark as he bared them at me and the hair on his neck and back stood on end. I was royally fucked.

  “It’s okay, Charlie. I was just kidding.” I laid the wallet and the keys down and said, “See, haha! Just a silly joke.” Charlie released a low, intimidating growl from somewhere deep in his throat. I took a step away from him and that’s when he started barking his fool head off. “Shh! Stop it! Quiet!” My urgings for him to be quiet did nothing, but the sound of his master’s voice saying, />
  “Charlie, lay down boy. It’s okay,” worked wonders. The big shaggy dog flopped down on his belly and stared at me. I looked from those big, blue canine eyes up into the feline green ones of my host. “You were going to steal my truck?”

  “No.”

  He almost looked amused as he said, “Oh, my mistake. I heard the jangle of my keys and then the sound of Charlie growling. I jumped to conclusions.”

  “You shouldn’t do that. It makes you look stupid.” I was taking him in as he stood there in nothing but his boxers. He looked anything but stupid. His chest and ribs were as bruised as his poor face, but that didn’t hide the fact that every muscle in them was defined to the point of being sculpted. He had a tattoo that came across his shoulder and ran down across his chest and the abs that appeared just below all of that were cut into a perfect six pack. My fingers were tingling, thinking about tracing each one…

  “Come on,” he said.

  “Come on, where?”

  “In my room. You can sleep in there until we’re ready to go. That way I won’t have to worry about Charlie having you for a midnight snack.”

  “I’m not sleeping with you!”

  “Fine, you can sit in the chair and stay awake. I’m sleeping. I want you in there where I know you can’t take off with my truck or my credit cards.”