Liv
I WAS GOING to kill him. I watched as the swirling water tinged with red and pink spun down the drain. Spitting out more blood, I peeked into the mirror and assessed my teeth. They were thankfully intact; my only injury being a very swollen lip with a nice gash on it and a cut inside my mouth where my teeth had slit it open. I frowned. The blackening eye wasn’t a good look for me either.
Who was I going to kill? Jonas Esperanza, one of Ruben’s henchmen. I’d been stupid enough to fall for one of his old tricks of paying off some good looking tramp man in a cowboy get up to pretend to like me, dance with me, and then proceed to get me as intoxicated as possible before slipping me a fucking roofie in the last shot so I would be less likely to notice. Well, I’d taken a sip of it when I saw the fizz at the bottom of the cup, but it was a tad bit too late. I’d drunk enough to fog up my mental capacity, slur up my words, and leave me at Jonas’ mercy. He’d stepped in after Mr. Cowboy had waltzed me out of the club and handed me right into the jaws of the tiger.
What a gentlemen.
I’d fought with all I’d had, but Jonas had managed to stuff me into his car beside him while his thousand pound driver Javier drove us around town.
“I’m a generous man.”
The world outside was swimming, and I pressed my eyelids together, attempting to focus as I let the world speed by. Not only that, but I had to concentrate to keep his words from blurring in my ears.
“But Ruben, now he’s not so willing to part with his money as I’d be, even for a beautiful woman such as yourself.” His voice was electric, like standing too close to a buzzing fly trap. “Of course, if it’d been me you’d taken money from like that, you’d never have slipped through my fingers so easily.”
I scratched at the door, the handle missing and only his side of the car had a working one. I pondered how I’d get myself out of this predicament. I was sure Audrey had assumed I’d still be dancing til dawn or at least had spent the night with some small town cowboy in desperate need of a lay. Hell, I was game for that, but this…this was definitely a precarious predicament I had walked right into. Great.
“Liv, Liv, Liv. Do you know I paid him off for you? Did you know how many times I graced his shitty bar just to get a glance at your pretty face? He didn’t deserve to have such beauty working for him. He was a fool.” I caught the flick of a cigarette lighter and wrinkled my nose at the pungent scent of cigarettes. I hated smoke, even when I spent a lot of nights dancing away in smoke filled bars lacking ventilation. It smelled horrible, and I immediately started to cough.
“Now now, Bonita. Sorry about the smoke. I’ll open the window for you. I only smoke when I have a lot of thinking to do.” The squeak of the window lowering made me want to push him aside and dive out of it, but he only opened it a couple of inches. “The question is…” His thick Latino accent caused his voice to purr as he continued to suck on the cancer stick. “What do I do with you now? I’m not one to like lacking money either, and I was hoping you’d have some sort of payment plan I could consider. What do you say, Liv?”
I spat on his shiny, expensive Louis Vuitton shoes and dark beige slacks. By the looks of his well-bred threads, he wasn’t too happy about me messing up his sleek outfit. I couldn’t care less if it was Armani or Versace; I wanted the hell out of this metal coffin on wheels.
“Fuck you, Jonas.”
“I wouldn’t mind. I’ve had many whores.”
“You wish.”
Sparks flew across my vision, and I landed partly on the floor of his Lincoln Town Car. I paused as my vision slowly returned and glared up at him before hoisting myself back up onto the leather seat. Iron tinged taste and warmth spilled onto my tongue, and I licked the blood off my lips. It stung and dripped down onto my blouse. Instead of wiping it off, I continued to drill my stare into him, narrowing my eyes, even if my left one was now throbbing with an awful pain.
“Now, I have a proposition. I’ve been watching how you and your sister do your thing on the stage. I want you to record a demo for me, and I can get it to my cousin, who partly owns a recording studio. If he likes it, I get forty percent of the proceeds you and your sister make off your album. If he hates it, well, you can just run around the state doing dive bar shows, and I take fifty percent of the pennies you make. What do you say? Deal?
The car hit a massive bump in the road and shook us about, making my head jolt with a worse, stabbing ache, and my hands flew up, pressing my skull between them. I needed to get out of here—one way or the other.
“Until the debt’s paid?”
Jonas’ cocky smirk made me want to wipe it off his face with a cheese grater, while I crushed his skull in with a mallet. “With some interest, of course. I like investments.”
I swallowed the dry, cottony lump in my throat and reached up to touch the warmth oozing from my mouth and drying on my chin.
“Here. I apologize for that, but I must have you understand how serious I am.” He handed me a pure white handkerchief, embroidered with two initials: J.E. I did a fine job of staining that sucker down to the cross threads.
“Fine.”
His face brightened, and he snapped his fingers twice, signaling to his massive driver of the change of plans. “Now, where can I drop you off at?”
“The Motel 6 on Railways Ave.”
“You heard the lady, Marco. Turn the car around.” He turned back toward me, eyeing me as I slowly wiped the mess of blood from my face. “And don’t think you can change your mind. I’ll be watching you, even when you think I’m not.”
“Sending your little rats to chase me?”
He laughed, a haughty dry kind of chuckle, while his face screwed up into a cruel smile. “Something like that, Preciosa. Don’t forget what I said. I’ll be collecting in a couple weeks.”
The car pulled up in front of the motel, and I spotted Audrey leaving with Saul. Might as well let them go; it would give me some time to fix my face. It was already early morning, and my fatigue was hitting me hard. I paused as Jonas got out of his side and waited for me to slip out, offering his hand out to me. I dodged it, and he curled his fingers into his palm, an angry look gracing his features before he managed to compose himself once more.
Turning toward the motel, his words dug into me. “I will be back, so don’t forget me.”
I kept walking away and ended up running around the corner until I watched the black car leave. My heart was racing, and I felt the prickle of tears behind my eyes begging to be let out. I’d stood there for what felt like hours before I dared to peek around the corner and hit the ice machine. Grabbing one of the plastic bags from the dispenser next to it, I filled it with ice and pressed it to my left eye. The cooling sensation felt good against the throb and heat of his blow. I was pretty sure his fingers were imprinted onto my skin.
Now my blood boiled in my veins as I stared at my face in the mirror, purpled and reddened from his one hit. I vowed I’d make him pay. I slammed the water off and slid to the floor of the bathroom, leaning my head against my knees and hugging my legs tight to my chest.
I’d never thought Ruben would’ve given up on finding us so easily and offer the bounty to someone like Jonas. Ruben was so much easier to dodge. But, Jonas? He was the devil himself. Every time he had entered Ruben’s bar to chat it up with him, I had felt the air go cold by a dozen degrees. One icy stare from him could send my hair standing on end. He was a demon disguised as flesh and blood, a Latino stud at that—a dangerous man, but I had known better then. It was a damn shame he was on my tail now.
Wiping the spill of tears away, I let the minutes tick by as I leaned on the edge of the tub, still feeling the after effects of the roofie. Closing my eyes, I hoped I could imagine a way out of this infernal mess.
Chapter Eight