by Cooke, J. S.
“You look like shit in here. At this rate I’d be better off sending Aaron in to fight for the championship.” I just looked at him. He was right, but I didn’t know what to say. I saw my brother in the other cage, still ducking and dodging away from Lance’s giant paws. “You don’t have anything to say?” Jacob asked me.
I spit out my mouth guard. “No, you’re right.”
“Maybe I should put you in a cage with your brother and let you two finish whatever the hell you started last night.” Everyone stopped what they were doing and listened to what Jacob was saying. “I got a call from Lucas Minelli last night. Do you two boneheads know who that is?” I shook my head. Cruz and Lance stopped sparring and Cruz shrugged. “He owns that God damned strip club you two were brawling out in front of last night. He recognized you,” he said to me. “He called me before the police showed up and you two took off. Do you have any fucking clue how lucky you both are that you didn’t get your stupid asses arrested?” Again, I nodded and Cruz shrugged. “You two are associated with me now. This is my reputation. You are my fighters. You won’t do anything in this city that I won’t know about within ten minutes of it happening. If you had been arrested last night, and the press had shown up, how do you think that reflects on my club?” I took a chance and said,
“Poorly.” In my peripheral vision, Cruz smirked. Judging from the look on Jacob’s face, mine was the better answer.
“That’s right, fucking poorly. I can make or break you as a fighter. If you don’t want to be here and you’re not serious about wanting to win then you are welcome to leave now. But, if you choose to stay, you will also choose to control your fucking rages when you’re out in public.” He turned back to me and said, “You have another press conference in two days. When they ask what happened to your face, what the fuck are you going to tell them?”
“I didn’t think about it Jake, I’m sorry.” He continued to glare at me and then he turned and glared at Cruz too. Cruz still looked smug. Jacob looked around the gym at the rest of the fighters and suddenly everyone was lifting weights, punching a bag, running on a treadmill or disappearing into the locker room. He stormed back out of the cage and Aaron and I squared off again. It turned out to be a long, fucking day.
*******
“What the hell are you whistling about?” Cruz and I had been in the showers and I had been ignoring him for at least ten minutes. He tried talking to me at first, but when I wouldn’t listen to him he started fucking whistling. He was like a big, bloody Mexican canary.
“Alguien está de mal humor,” he said with a smile. God, I’d love to knock every one of those pretty teeth right out of his mouth.
“What the hell is there to be in a good mood about? My brother broke my fucking nose and then I get to spend the day getting the hell beat out of me by a rookie. I earned the bad mood.”
Cruz laughed. He was one crazy motherfucker. “I think you just need some pussy baby brother. That’s the cure-all.”
He wanted me to believe Alicia had fucked him. She wouldn’t have gone near him in the condition he was in, would she? I snapped off the shower and grabbed my towel. I walked away as I heard him turning his off. Seconds later he was standing next to me as I toweled off. I got a good look at his chest. He had fingernail marks down the front of it. Son of a bitch. I turned my back to him and he snapped me with his towel. “Knock it off, Cruz!”
“Come on Pappy, don’t be mad. You already knew I didn’t like the old man. Why are you still mad?”
I tried to ignore him but the stupid bastard popped me with his towel again. I casually wrapped mine around my waist and then I shoved my arm up underneath his jaw and pushed him back into the lockers as hard as I could. The back of his head hit the lockers and snapped forward. When his blue eyes focused on my face, I saw the rage I was looking for. How dare he be fucking happy? I had my arm shoved up against his neck so hard that he could barely speak. His words were being forced out through his teeth and his spit was running down my arm. “This is how you want it, Pappy? This shit ain’t about the old man, is it? This is about my girl.” Hearing him call her that was like throwing kerosene on the fire. I pushed more of my weight into my arm and I could actually see him struggling for breath. I was so pissed that it took me several seconds to realize I was about to choke the life out of him. I finally released what I was doing and took a step back. As soon as I did he shoved me with both hands and I flew back into and over the bench, landing on my ass in the floor, naked.
“You don’t want to keep fucking with me, little brother.”
“You’re right,” I said as I struggled up to my feet. “I don’t. So why don’t you go back to Mexico and get the fuck out of my town.”
Cruz got his attitude back again. “Oh so this is your town? Forgive me Pappy; I must have missed the coronation when they made you King of fucking Las Vegas.”
“Listen…”
“What the hell is going on now?” I could just see the top of Jake’s head. He had it stuck in the door.
“Nothing,” Cruz and I both said at once. I heard the door close and made myself take a deep breath. Fighting was all I had going for me. If Jacob Wright black-balled me in town I was screwed. I turned my back to my brother and finished getting dressed. He did the same. Once we both had our clothes on he said,
“Give me a ride?”
I seriously thought he was insane. “Are you kidding me? Take the fucking bus.” I grabbed my wallet and keys and slammed the locker shut.
“Come on Pappy. You know you’re not going to stay mad at me forever so you may as well just get over it now.”
I stopped, like he knew I would and said, “Where do you want to go? Back to the penthouse?”
“Eventually,” he said. “I have to stop in and see one of my boys on the way.”
“Your boys? You have boys in Vegas?”
“I’m an important guy, Pappy. I have boys all over. And women.”
“Are you trying to piss me off again?”
He laughed. “It was a joke, Pappy. What happened to your sense of humor?”
“I left it in Mexico. Come on, let’s go.” He followed me out and I could feel him smiling all the way to the truck. He used to do that when we were kids. He knew how pissed it made me for him to be happy when we were fighting. It was pure psychology. The bastard got me with it every time. We climbed into the truck and he gave me the address.
“D Street? You are crazy. I’m not taking you down there.”
“Oh my God! Did they cut your dick and balls off when you came to America?”
“Fuck you. Take a bus.”
“I have business to do down there. They see me stepping off of public transportation; do you think they’re going to take me seriously?”
“Do I give a shit? What kind of business could you possibly have there anyways?”
“Do you really want to know the details or would you rather remain blissfully ignorant and believe you’re going to be living in a mansion like Jacob Wright one day?”
“You think I can’t make it as a fighter?”
“I think you live in a fantasy world. Jacob Wright’s daddy is rich. He didn’t make all that money wrestling around in a cage.”
“So what Cruz? You think I should be one of the boys and make my money the way you do? I could set up shop down near the elementary school and sell some drugs to school kids.”
Cruz laughed. “You are so naïve. You can only make money selling drugs if you’re Joaquin Castenon.” Joaquin was the second in command of one of the cartels in Mexico that Cruz used to run with. “Think about it little brother. What is one thing people would pay any price for?”
“The only thing I would pay any price for is my life and the lives of the people I love.”
“Bingo,” Cruz said. He smiled again. He looked so harmless with his blue eyes and his dimples, but I shuddered anyways. I knew better, although I’d spent my life trying to deny it.
“So what are you trying to tell
me, Cruz? You’re dealing in the people business. Are you a coyote?”
Cruz laughed. “I don’t like that label. Coyotes are predators. I’m a businessman. I’m in the people business and I’m not only good at what I do, I’m excellent at it.”
My head was spinning. For years I knew he was involved with the cartels and with drugs, but I had no idea about anything else. “So what is the fighting about? Being in Las Vegas takes you away from the borders. Why did you agree to come here?”
Cruz grinned at me and said, “Because I’m smart. Think about it little brother. If I’m living in Texas or California or Arizona with no visible means of support, and one of my men get caught and for some reason he decides to talk, maybe I’m suspect. If I’m living nowhere near the border and I’m fighting and earning money, maybe I promote a fight or two, or maybe I invest in a gym, I’m a fighter or I’m a business man or both. I have no criminal record. I leave no trace of my ties to any organization that’s not strictly legal. I live a life that on the outside looks modest with a beautiful woman who has no ties to anything illegal.”
“So, while Conan thinks he’s helping you get away from the drug cartels, you’re building a human trafficking business?”
“I’m building a business. I don’t like the labels that people put on it, people who know nothing about it. I like Conan. It makes him feel good to help me. If he ever needs anything, I’ll have his back.”
“Fine, so if your business is making so much money you need a front for it, why live in Conan’s house, and why have me driving you around? Surely you can afford a flashy car of your own.”
“I can afford to buy the dealership if I want to Pappy, but there is a lot to be said for living a modest life, at least on the surface. The fact that I don’t look like a Mexican has bode well for my business for years. Running around advertising how rich I am would defeat that purpose.” I had a million fucking questions, but at the moment I couldn’t decide which ones to ask. Besides, Cruz was right. For the most part I would rather live with my blissful innocence. There was just one question that I had to ask,
“Does Alicia know where the money comes from?”
“This life is worlds apart from the one she had on that mountain. If she stayed back home she would be pregnant with her second or third little opium field worker by now. She knows we have more money than we should. She’s not stupid. As a matter of fact, she’s smarter than you, little brother. She doesn’t ask questions.”
__ Chapter 9 __
ALICIA
“It’s six thirty amante. Will you be ready soon? The car will be here any minute.”
Cruz was talking to me through the bathroom door. I’d locked him out. Something I rarely did. I told him I wanted to surprise him with my new dress for the party, but the truth was slightly less romantic. I was already dressed and ready to go, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the stick on the counter that I’d peed on just a little while earlier. There was an unmistakable plus sign in the middle of it. I was royally fucked.
“Okay,” I called back out to him, “Just one more minute.” I heard his heavy sigh and then at last I heard his footsteps as he left the door. I looked at myself in the full length mirror again, turning to the side. My belly was still flat, but that would change soon. I couldn’t help but worry about how Cruz would react to that. He’d never talked about our future. We lived day to day and it was like being on a roller-coaster most days. The highs were crazy high, and the lows were scraping the pavement. When I closed my eyes and tried to imagine us as a family, I saw me and a kid with no Cruz in sight.
I turned away from the mirror, scooped the stick up in a thick pile of tissue and made sure it was wrapped tightly and hidden before stepping on the tab to make the garbage can open and dropping it down inside. I washed my hands and worked on getting my breathing in order before finally reaching for the door. When I opened it, Cruz was standing in front of the mirror in the bedroom. He was wearing a black tuxedo that stretched across the muscles in his back and arms. He saw me in the mirror and turned around. His mouth was wide open and he actually let out a little audible gasp.
“Jesús Madre María!” He had his hand over his heart. I had to smile. I was wearing a black and silver floor-length dress with a slit that went all the way up one side, so when I walked my entire right leg and thigh were exposed. It had a plunging neckline so my boobs swelled up over the top. It was entirely backless, but he hadn’t even seen that part yet. I wore it with a pair of black leather sandals with a six inch heel. I was probably still six inches shorter than Cruz. Normally, it was about a foot. “You look…fuck…” I giggled.
“I’m glad you like it. It cost you a lot of money.”
He closed the space between us and slipped one of his beefy arms around my waist. Pulling me into his chest he put his mouth to my ear and shoved his tongue inside. While he tongued my ear he reached around behind me and grabbed a handful of my ass and squeezed. When he finished his tongue exercises he said, “Well worth every dollar. Let’s take it off.”
I pushed him back. “No way. It just took me an hour and a half to look this good. If you’re nice you can get into it after the party.”
He grinned. God his dimples were so hot. “You know you don’t like me when I’m nice. The only reason we’re together is because of your fetish for bad boys.”
“You have a point,” I told him, another valid argument for not bringing a child into the mess. He tried to come back at me and I stepped to the side. “But, you still have to wait. The car will be here in a minute. Remember?” The party was being held at one of the really fancy casinos in a restaurant where I was sure I wouldn’t know what to order or what fork to use. But at least from the look on Cruz’s face, I looked the part. I turned around to show him the back and he wrapped both of his big arms around me and pulled me back into him. He let his hands run up the front of my dress from my waist up to my breasts. My nipples puckered and hardened at his touch and I felt an instant wetness between my legs. I’d never met anyone with such raw sex appeal as him.
“We’re staying home,” he said with his lips pressed into my neck.
“We can’t. Didn’t Jacob tell you that the whole team had to be there?”
“Fuck it, I’ll quit.” His big hands were massaging my breasts and tweaking my nipples through the fabric. My breathing was becoming uneasy. Before I could protest that, he spun me around and covered my mouth with his, effectively ruining my lipstick. He sucked at my lips and I forgot my protests as I reached up and wrapped my hands in his hair. His hands were back on my ass and he was tugging at the dress, trying to pull it up. “I need you naked.” The door was buzzing. “Now.”
I leaned my head back as much as he would let me and breathlessly I said, “We don’t have time. The limousine is here.”
“Fuck that,” he said, picking me up off my feet and carrying me back over to the bed. As soon as he dropped me down on it I rolled away and stood up. “Aye dos mios baby! I need you.” He ran a big hand across the huge bulge in the front of his slacks. “I can’t walk around like this all night.”
The sight of him running his hand up and down his erection and stopping to squeeze it every few seconds was almost too much for me. I went back to him and put my arms up around his shoulders. He bent his knees slightly and pulled me in so we were hip to hip before grinding himself into me. My heart was racing and my inner thighs were soaked. The door buzzed again and simultaneously Cruz’s phone started ringing. He kept sucking on my tongue and grinding into me hard. I had to press my hands against his chest and push back with all my might to get him to loosen up. “We have to go,” I said, breathlessly.
“Fuck!” he snarled. He turned towards the nightstand and snatched up his phone. “Yeah!” While he was yelling at whoever that was, I went to answer the door.
The chauffeur was at the door with his hat in his hand. Cruz came out of the bedroom with a look on his face I recognized as pissed off. Whoever was on the phone didn’t say
anything that made him happy. He walked up behind me and grabbed my ass before looking at the chauffeur and saying, “Are we ready James?”
The chauffer gave him a tight smile and said, “My name is John, sir.”
“Whatever,” Cruz said, “Let’s go.”
I was barely able to grab for my bag as we went out the door. On the way down in the elevator we stood behind John and he worked his way down into the back of my dress. When his hand made contact with my naked ass his eyes got huge. He leaned into my ear and said, “There aren’t any panties there.”
I smiled. “I didn’t want lines.” He growled like a bear against my ear and I had to exert pressure on him to get him to move off the elevator when it stopped. It was going to be a long night. The chauffeur held the door open for us to slide into the black stretch limo. I let myself wonder for a second how much it cost, but then I remembered I was wearing a two-thousand dollar dress that I’d paid for with the cash Cruz had given me and I’d had a thousand left over for the shoes. There was a brass decanter of champagne chilling in the center of the seats and a twenty-four inch flat screen television in front of us and a fifty inch one behind us.
“Wow, this is like a small apartment.”
“Hold that thought,” he said. He slid open the little square between us and the driver, and said, “We’re going to Caesar’s James but take us the long way. I need at least half an hour.” I felt my face go hot. The limousine driver had to know what he had in mind. He slid the partition shut and without further ado, he pulled me up on his lap. He had my ass in his hands and although I was ready to protest, I had to admit that it felt damned good.
“We can’t do this in here.”
“Hell yes we can. You said yourself it’s as big as an apartment. Besides, I don’t need much room.” He was inching my dress up to my waist as he talked.
“We’ll smell like sex at the party.”
