Chapter Eight
Jessica
I spun around, my hair flying back into the air, to see who had tapped me on the shoulder. A tipsy dizziness hit me as my eyes refocused on the face in front of me. He had a thinly clipped beard and dark Mexican eyes that looked me over sensually.
He was young and more than kinda cute, and I looked back over my shoulder to see if Mimi approved. But she had already disappeared with her new dance partner into the crowd. I guessed that meant she had approved, and was going to leave me to make my own happiness. Whatever the hell that meant.
“Can I buy you a drink?” the guy asked, his voice only slightly accented.
“Sure!” I said, with a bright smile. He motioned towards the bar and I followed him through the crowd. My heart thumped. What was I doing? Was I actually letting some random guy buy me a drink? Yes, yes, I was, I told myself. This was the new Jessica.
I watched as he ordered for us, careful to make sure he didn’t put anything in my drink. Years of reading horror stories about date rape had me on edge. But he came back with two bottles of beer, lime wedges tucked into the necks.
“Thank you!” I said.
“What?”
“Thank you!” I yelled.
I sipped at my beer as we danced. I didn’t really like beer, but the margaritas had already taken the edge off, and the lime made it taste almost like Sprite. I thought that after we finished our drinks, we could maybe go outside and talk, get to know each other better. I didn’t know how to pick guys up at a club.
Miguel—that was his name, Miguel—didn’t seem to want to talk, though. He asked me a few questions about myself, and I answered dutifully, but all he wanted to do was dance. He pulled me into his arms and led me in a weird, salsa-style of dancing. I tried to follow as best as I could, but I was tipsy and he wasn’t very good at dancing. Still, it was fun. I was starting to let myself let loose a little bit. When they played a song I knew, I threw my arms up in excitement.
“I love this song!” I cried out. Miguel laughed and danced along with me. I spun around, shaking my ass in time to the music. My dress slipped down, showing a lot more boob than I was normally comfortable with. Oh, well. That was Mimi’s fault. Either way, I didn’t want a repeat of the bouncer incident. If I tried to fix my dress, I would just end up mooning my new potential pickup.
“You look beautiful!” Miguel yelled, leaning close to my ear. In his accent, it sounded like Bee-yoo-tee-fool.
“Thank you!” I yelled back.
His hand was on my waist. How had it gotten there? I didn’t know. I swayed to the beat, the air hot on my face. Maybe Mimi was right. Maybe I should try to hook up with someone. Just make out for a bit outside, maybe. Miguel was pretty darn cute. I grinned stupidly at him and leaned even closer.
“You look handsome too!” I said.
Miguel nodded, but then his eye caught something past my shoulder. The smile faded from his face.
“Very handsome!” I said, but he wasn’t paying attention to me anymore. His hand fell away from my waist.
“What is it?” I asked, frowning. He shook his head. His eyes were still locked upward. I turned around. Was there another girl he was interested in? But there weren’t any girls up on the balcony where he was looking. All I saw was a fat Mexican guy in a suit. Next to him was a taller man with close-cropped dark blond hair, and behind them were a few other men dressed all in black.
“Are those your friends?”
I turned around, but Miguel was already backing away from me. There was fear on his face.
“Goodbye,” he said. “I—I have to go.”
“Wait, what?”
I looked down to see if my boobs had popped out of my dress. Nope, that wasn’t it. I turned back. The men up on the balcony were talking to each other, looking down at the dance floor.
The tall one, the one with dark blond hair, made eye contact with me. His eyes were a light blue, so piercing that his stare sent shivers down my back. The fat Mexican man noticed me looking, and turned away. All of the other men walked off into the shadows with him.
“What the hell was that?” I asked, standing suddenly alone in the middle of the dance floor.
Chapter Nine
Vale
We walked into one of El Alfa’s clubs, and I felt my chest tighten under the new suit. It was hot upstairs, and the floor under our feet vibrated with the heavy beat of the club music. I didn’t know what El Alfa wanted me to do, but I hoped that it didn’t involve anything too terrible. He’d been quiet the whole way over here, and it made me nervous with anticipation.
I mean, I’d killed men before, sure, but they’d been assignments. I knew that they were bad people when I killed them. Now, though, I didn’t know what El Alfa was planning, or who he was planning to do it to. If I had to torture an innocent person to gain his trust, could I do it? I’d told Ten that I could do anything, but even I had my limits.