Bow Down(178)
“What’s wrong?”
“We’ll be exposed. This could be a trap.”
“I don’t think it is.”
“Maybe, but it still could be.” He started walking, and I quickly caught up. “We’ll figure it out.”
“I did the best I could,” I said.
He stopped and let me run right into him. He grabbed my hips and kissed me on the lips. “You did good, kid.”
“Shut up.” I pushed him back, smiling. “You jerk.”
“Come on. Let’s go celebrate.”
“Celebrate what?”
“You kicking ass.”
“I do kick ass, don’t I?”
He laughed and took me by the hand, dragging me behind him.
I felt good. I felt like I had done something worthwhile. I wasn’t just sitting around waiting for Rafa to save me; I was making deals and getting involved.
I wasn’t just dead weight. I wasn’t just a burden.
I smiled to myself, excited beyond what I would have guessed.
Mostly because I knew exactly how he wanted to celebrate, and it was what I’d been thinking about since I first met him.
22
Rafa
I pushed my way back into our room and head toward the landline set back against the far wall. I grabbed the receiver and quickly ordered room service as Cassidy followed me in.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Like I said, we’re celebrating.”
“I can’t drink, remember?”
“I know. You’re carrying my baby too, you know.”
She shrugged and sat on the couch. “Good point.”
“Do you understand what this means?”
She shook her head. “Not really.”
“We have a direct line to the Spiders.”
“So?”
I sighed. “We’ve never been able to communicate with them. They’re like fucking ghosts.”
She nodded. “So now you have a way to get them a message.”
“Exactly.”
“I’m not sure how I feel about helping the mob.”
“You’d be helping me. Hell, you’d be helping yourself. Fuck the mob.”
“Still. I don’t want to help them hurt the Spiders.”
“We won’t.”
“We will if we don’t control this.”
“I want to tell Vince.”
She shook her head. “No. We can’t.”
“We can trust him.”
“Rafa, I don’t know him. He doesn’t care about me. We can’t tell him.”
“He dislikes the sex trade almost as much as you do. Believe me, he won’t want to hurt the Spiders.”
“Please, Rafa. We can’t tell your people about this, not yet.”
Just then, there was a knock at the door. I walked over and opened it. A staff member wheeled a cart inside and left it next to the kitchen table. I tipped him and hustled him back out.
On the cart was a bottle of good whisky, a bottle of sparkling cider, and two beautiful lobster tails. Despite her anger, I could tell she was interested in the food.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s toast and eat first. Then we’ll decide what to do.”
She stood, frowning. “I guess we can do that.”
I grinned at her. All it took was a little food and she was calmed down.
But maybe she had a point. Vince wasn’t as invested in this as we were, and I didn’t know how he’d use this information. He needed leverage against Ernesto, and this sort of thing could be exactly that. But it could lead to an attack against the Spiders, and that was exactly what Cassidy wanted to avoid.
I poured her some sparkling cider and poured myself a whisky. We toasted.
“To a job well done,” I said.
“To not getting tortured.”
I laughed and drank my whisky back, pouring another. She sipped her drink and then sat down as I placed her meal in front of her.
She sighed and took a bite. “This doesn’t mean we’re done talking.”
“I know.” I grinned at her and sat down in the other seat. “But we can call a truce.”
“Fine. A short truce.” She brandished her fork at me. “But don’t get comfortable.”
“Or else you’ll stab me?”
She shrugged and started eating. “Maybe,” she said between bites. “I’m pregnant, remember?”
“You might be pregnant,” I corrected. “We haven’t confirmed yet.”
She looked up at me. “That’s true.”
“And we can’t for another couple weeks.”
“That’s also true. But we have to assume I am.”
“No arguments here.”
“I’ll take the test as soon as I can.”
“No rush.”
She eyed me again and then went back to eating. I wasn’t hungry, so I poured myself another drink and leaned back in my chair.