Tijuana Nights (The Nights Series Book 1)

by Leigh K. Hunt

  I exhaled the breath I was holding.

  "In the meantime ... let me love you."

  My resolve crumbled, and I reached for him.

  14

  I woke up tangled in my sheets, smiling. I never woke up smiling … but today I did. I had put the stern word on Chase in the car, and told him that if we were going to head towards a relationship, then we needed to take it slowly. He’d been out of the relationship game a long time, and I hadn’t been out long enough.

  I knew it was my head talking, not my heart ... but after a speech like the one he gave me, I just couldn't help it. I don't know many people who could have resisted that.

  I untangled myself from the sheet, and shot through the shower.

  Dressed in my training clothes, I felt energised. It was because of him. I, for one, couldn't help but smile. I was even smiling at my reflection as I brushed my teeth. I took extra care applying minimal make up before I even left my room, which was something I never would have done in the past. And I smelled great, perfumed in my favourite Ralph Lauren scent. Another thing I wouldn't ever have done unless I was attending some sort of party. I actually felt more alive and ready to take on the world than ever before.

  I bounced out to the kitchen and poured myself coffee from the freshly brewed pot. I could hear the others in the training room working out and doing whatever it was that they were so inclined to do at this early hour of the morning.

  I took my coffee outside in the morning air, lit a cigarette, and sat down on the lounger. The sun wasn't quite up yet, but it was lovely and warm. It was going to be another stunning Mexican day.

  Nothing could dampen my mood. Even the thought of Carmen hunting me down wasn't worrying me. It was amazing.

  I opened emails on my phone, and started deleting the junk. Then I saw another email from Luke's lawyers.

  "Bugger," I muttered as I opened it.

  Dear Miss Carmichael,

  On the 25 October, we wrote to you in regard to our concerns surrounding the debt you owe our client, Luke Sommers. In that correspondence, we asked that you get in touch with us by close of business, October 30th.

  It has since been one working day from that date, and we have yet to hear from you.

  As previously advised, this matter will be going to the courts. We will give you till the 1st November to respond to this notification, or this matter will go before a judge.

  I look forward to hearing from you.

  Yours sincerely,

  Theodore Olsen

  Solicitor

  "Shit," I swore darkly. "Shit, shit, shit." I exited out of my email, and looked at the date on my phone. 1st November. I put my hands in my hair, and closed my eyes. This was a nightmare. I had meant to email him back, but suddenly everything had snowballed out of control. I should have just done it then and there, but I needed time to try and gather my thoughts. “Idiot,” I muttered, slapping my head. How could I have been so stupid as to not respond? Just when life seemed on top of the world with Chase, that asshole Luke and his legal team had to bring it crashing back down.

  I threw my cigarette into the ashtray beside the door, and stomped inside. I didn't have a choice now. I had to ask Chase, River, and Gabe for help.

  What a way to put a damper on my new relationship with Chase. "God," I whispered. The sooner Luke was out of my fucking life, the better. He was an asshole, and I so didn't need his shit right now.

  It was so bloody ballsy of him to involve lawyers, especially when it came down to the fact that my aunt had signed her house over to me - not both of us. He knew I was going to fold. Luke was using what I held most precious to me - a stable home - against me. All for the sake of fucking money. Luke still had power over me. And that made me angry. I made myself angry with the fact that I was reacting this way. I should have just dealt with it straight away. How could I forget?

  If he was here right now, I would shoot him myself.

  But he wasn't ... and when I thought about it, I doubted I could shoot him, either. As much as I hated Luke at the moment, I didn't actually want him to die. Maybe I just wanted to hit him.

  Chase walked into the kitchen, soaked in perspiration, as I was rinsing and scrubbing the shit out of my cup while I thought about Luke and what the hell I was going to do. This was my fault as well.

  He sidled up to me, and kissed me on my neck. I felt myself go weak at the knees, and I turned to him, a smile creeping back onto my features. "Good morning," I said as my lips met his.

  He eyed up the cup curiously as he kissed me back. "What did it do to you?"

  I looked down at it, and put it on the bench. "Um." I bit my lip. "Actually … I have a bit of a favour to ask. Not a bit of one, I guess it's a big one."

  "Anything." He grinned as he leaned in to kiss me again. "Anything you like."

  I rolled my eyes. "Well..." I gently pushed him away, and stepped back slightly. I ran my hands through my hair again. "It's just that I have been receiving some correspondence from Luke. Actually, not him, per se... His lawyer." I swallowed. I didn't want to ask Chase for help, but I was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

  Chase's mouth was set in a hard line. "What do you need, Mack?"

  I couldn't look at him. I blew out a breath I didn't even know I was holding. "I need to pay him, or else this is going to court. And if it goes to court..." I leaned down on the counter with my head in my hands. "If it goes to court, they are probably going to question why I'm 'holidaying' in Mexico while I owe him a shitload of money."

  "How much?"

  "Almost six hundred thousand," I muttered. "Half my house, and living expenses incurred from the care of my Aunt and me, apparently."

  Chase crossed his arms, and looked at me thoughtfully. "How much have you already got?"

  I shrugged. "I don't know. You guys paid me four hundred thousand for the initial job out here. So there is that, minus the debt I have already paid on my credit cards and the care costs for Elsie. So there is probably—" I paused and counted it up in my head. "I don’t know... maybe three hundred and fifty odd left?"

  Chase nodded, and stayed quiet for a few moments. He crossed the kitchen to me, putting his hands reassuringly on my arms. "Listen. I understand what a bind this has you in ... I'll tell you what. You pay Luke what you have, and I will top up the remaining amount out of my personal account."

  "But—"

  "No, Mack. I'm serious. But you’ll have to do a few things in return for me. I'm not doing this for nothing."

  I nodded, but stayed quiet. I didn't want to be indebted to him, but I didn't want him to change his mind either.

  "You'll accompany and assist me on at least three more jobs. But on the third, I want you to do the job yourself."

  'Me?" I squeaked. I got the shakes just thinking about killing someone. I didn't know if I could willingly take someone's life without really knowing why.

  But these people were bad people. I knew that. If I took a life on this job, I would probably be saving thousands of countless other innocent lives in the process. That was really the only justification I could come up with. I looked at him and saw the intensity in his eyes as he watched me process it. I nodded. "Okay. It's a deal." I held out my hand for him to shake, but instead, he moved closer and kissed me. Intensely. Passionately.

  "Deal," he murmured.

  15

  Gabe uploaded a bunch of photos of the kills to his database while I watched over his shoulder. He was such a demon on the computer, and he was so fast! I didn't know how he could operate that quickly, but he did.

  When he had finished, he logged into my accounts, and did the transfer to Luke's accounts. True to his word, Chase had wired the money into mine, and it was all sitting there, ready to go.

  "God," I groaned when it was done. There was only a few thousand left in my account. I was going to be doubly screwed by the time we got back to England if I couldn’t make the kill Chase wanted me to. A few thousand was definitely not going to cover the nex
t quarterly instalment for my aunt's care.

  I emailed both the lawyer and Luke at the same time, and said that the money had been wired through in full, and that there was to be no further communication to me from either of them. I never ever wanted to see or hear from Luke again. He had right royally fucked me in every way possible, and I was cutting him off. As far as I was concerned, this was done and dusted. Luke was damn lucky I had Chase to back me up.

  I rested my head on the table. I had no job to go back to, and no money. I was right back to square one. But at least I was free of that arsehole.

  When I looked up, I saw images of the bodies on screen from the kills on the screen. Weirdly, looking at those images now, I felt quite detached from the whole operation. Each of those bodies was a pay cheque. One of the future bodies would be my pay cheque according to Chase. I had to make that kill.

  "Impressive, isn't it?" Gabe commented. "We've got seven more to go, and then we're out of here."

  River came into the dining room at that moment, and sat down. "How are we going?" he asked Gabe.

  Gabe nodded. "Good. I was just saying we have seven more to go. I’ve uploaded the images through to the client, and I guess we're going to start seeing some money shortly."

  River nodded. "Good." He turned his focus to me. "You all right, Mack?"

  "Yeah, I guess so."

  River gave me a knowing smile. "You know - we can help you out when we get back if you want. He'll never be a problem again. Free of charge," he added.

  I shook my head. "No. No way. It doesn't matter how pissed I am at him right now, he's not really that bad."

  He shrugged. "Your decision."

  I smiled. "Thanks anyway. It's nice to know you have my back if I need it."

  "You're part of the family now, Mack. You’d do the same for us."

  "Damn right I would." I grinned.

  River slapped the table. "Ah...yes... I forgot the reason why I came in here in the first place. Chase asked if you could go and see him. He's in his room."

  Just at the mention of his name, my heart skipped a beat. "Thanks," I mumbled, as I stood from the table.

  As I left the room I overheard Gabe say. "Are they...um...?"

  I grinned, not stopping to hear the answer.

  I found Chase a few moments later. He was lying on his bed, reading a book, glasses slightly askew as if he'd been lying on them.

  "Hi," I said shyly.

  "Hi, yourself," he responded with a grin. I took in his dark hair, chiselled cheek bones, and bright aqua-coloured eyes. I guess I just couldn't believe that a man of his calibre could possibly see something in me.

  I bit my lip as I stood there, unsure of what to say or do. "Um, thank you for your help," I said quietly. "Gabe helped me transfer the funds through to Luke."

  Chase nodded with a lazy smile, and patted the bed next to him. "Any time ... Come sit."

  I crossed the room to sit down beside him. He stretched out, and looked at me. "I think," he said slowly, "that this guy, Luke, probably won't stop just there. He could come back again..."

  I inhaled. "God, I hope not." I shook my head. "I really hope not."

  Chase tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "I'm just warning you. From what I know of him ... which is a lot because Gabe did a background check on him ... it seems he has done this sort of thing before."

  I looked at Chase sharply. "What? What do you mean?"

  Chase shrugged. "You should get Gabe to give you the files so you can read through them yourself. But Luke did have a biggish settlement about seven odd years ago ... and it looked like a relationship settlement. Did he ever say anything?"

  I tried to think back to when Luke and I were first dating, but I couldn't remember a time when he mentioned any settlement. He had come out of a relationship with a woman named Eliza, but apparently she'd left him. I shook my head. "I don't remember anything like that."

  "Hmmm," Chase said, his eyes fixed on mine. "Well, whatever happens... we can sort it out later." He smiled, and pulled me on top of him. "Plenty of time for that," he murmured, his eyes fixed on my lips.

  I felt a shiver ripple through me, and my stomach exploded with butterflies. "Hopefully." I let him pull me down for a kiss. He suddenly flipped me onto my back, and was on top of me in an instant. I felt a thrill go through me, and I laughed. "Is that all you asked me in for?"

  He shook his head with a cheeky smile on his face. "No ..." He slowly kissed me, his breathing becoming ragged. I could tell he was holding back. And I loved it. It was like savouring dessert. "I had other plans, too."

  I laughed, and gently pushed him away from me. "I can tell!"

  He rolled off to the side, and got comfy, holding his head up with one hand, leaving the other one to rove across my body. "Oh, don't you worry," he whispered. "I have plenty of plans for you and me." He cleared his throat. "Starting with..." He leaned down and kissed me, his hand brushing over the curve of my breast. "That." His hand trailed down and caressed my side, and he gently pushed me under him again, leaning down to kiss my breasts. "And then there's this," he murmured. Before I knew it, he had unbuttoned my shirt, exposing my bra.

  "Quite clever, aren't you," I teased.

  “I am.” He laughed as he started to sit up. “But now, we should probably go out and do some work for the day.”

  "What? You're not going to finish what you started?" I gestured at myself.

  "Plenty of time for that later." He winked as he pulled me up. "Come on. Get yourself sorted. We have to go and meet a woman named Paulina."

  I gave him a sidelong look, and slid off the bed. "Paulina?"

  "Yes,” he said, “We have a job to do.” I groaned. I wanted nothing more than to stay put and snuggle up with Chase. This day had been taxing already with having to sort Luke's stuff out. "Can't we just stay here?"

  He smiled, leaned over and kissed me just below my ear. "Another time, perhaps." He stood and turned to me, giving me an assessing look. "Red haired wig, I think. And dress in something smart but casual."

  I rolled my eyes. "Bloody hell," I grumbled.

  He tapped my backside playfully as I swept past him and out of the room and up the hall to my own. I closed the door with a silly grin on my face, crossed to my wardrobe, and looked at it thoughtfully. I settled on keeping my white shirt on, but upgraded my pants to skinny jeans. I slipped high-heels on, and walked into my bathroom.

  I brushed my hair, and fixed the red wig to my scalp. Once it was on nice and tightly, I leaned on the hand-basin, and stared at myself in the mirror, blowing out a deep breath that fogged my reflection in the glass.

  I couldn't believe that I had become so accustomed to being out on kill jobs; I no longer batted an eyelid when I was instructed to get ready. I didn't know how I had finally come to this reality, but the life I was currently living... well it had its thrills that went along with the kills.

  The targets weren't good people though. I didn't know if that meant they deserved to die, but it was better than letting them carry on with doing what they were doing and destroying innocent lives.

  I put on a little bit of make-up, and then deemed myself ready to go out in public.

  I grabbed my leather jacket, even though I didn't really need it, and a handbag that held my precious gold phone, my cigarettes, and Ciara's identification.

  I met Chase in the dining room, sitting down with River and Gabe.

  River was about to head out on a job too... some woman named Paz. I had no idea what sort of name 'Paz' was, but it sounded butch to me.

  "There are a lot of women involved in this organisation, aren't there?"

  Gabe smiled. "Yes. There are. The cartel backs beauty queens, and primes them for employment. Once they win their titles, they’re recruited properly into the cartel. Some of them climb to high places fast ... others don’t." He shrugged and turned the screen in front of him to face me. "This is Paz," he stated. "She was Miss Venezuela five years ago."

  The woman o
n the screen was definitely beautiful. But then as I looked closer, I saw something very different. She had a large scar that ran from near her ear, down over her cheek bone, almost to the corner of her mouth. Her eyes were cold and hard, and she looked like as much of a hard-ass as I’d predicted. "That's a hell of a scar."

  River nodded. "Sure is. According to her medical records and police statement, her face was cut open by her father not long after she won her title and moved up here."

  I pursed my lips thoughtfully. "Maybe he didn't like her new line of work."

  "Dead right," Gabe said, turning the screen back towards him. "Her father is actually the cocaine exporter for the El Diablo Cartel. It looked as though Paz's twin brother was the one being primed to step into the El Diablo Cartel to be the main contact for the export. Paz was recruited instead."

  I shook my head. It was all so political, yet so brutal.

  Ten minutes later, Chase and I were in the car driving towards Tijuana. "So, what's the plan with this Paulina woman then?"

  Chase smiled at me, linking his fingers between mine. "Paulina? I predict that she's probably going to commit suicide."

  "Suicide? Really?"

  He nodded. "Yeah. Paulina is quite depressed at the moment. We’re going to go and pay our condolences, and hopefully slip her something to help make her more comfortable. River was tracking her last night. Apparently she drank herself into a very public and sorry state. River took her home, and ended up putting her to bed."

  I had to laugh. "While you were stuck up a tree and I was asleep on the job?"

  He grinned. "Precisely. Anyway," he continued, "her partner was recently found dead, and she announced last night to everyone in the bar that she couldn't live without him. That's why suicide is going to be the ruling kill today."

  My heart went out to her. "He died? How?"

  Chase turned to me. "You know how, Mack. It was Nicandro."

  My stomach plummeted. "Oh my God." I thought of Nicandro under the sheets with me, and I grimaced. "But he was so willing to cheat on her with me," I muttered. She obviously loved him; I had to wonder if it was unrequited.