On Every Street (7 page)

When I was done
working and had collected my first tips from the tip jar and said goodbye to Deanne and Julie, Javier walked with me out of the bar. After the way we had been chatting like old friends, you’d think I would have felt comfortable with him walking beside me as we stepped into the thick and heated night air. But I was anything but comfortable. I was hyper-aware of my body, of every gesture of his, of the second when his wrist lightly brushed against mine. I felt like I was on one never-ending panic attack that looped and looped as we walked toward my truck.

“
Well, this is my ride,” I said, banging the hood. It groaned in response, all chipped paint and rust. He gave it a glance and raised his brows at me.

“Beautiful girl, ugly truck.
You’re a high contrast woman,” he said. “I like it.”

A stupid grin broke across my face which I quickly recovered from. I thought I was a good con artist, but apparently you put a hot man in front of me and all my instincts go to shit.
I could barely remember to breathe a sigh of relief at the fact he hadn’t noticed my truck lurking outside Travis’s. Instead, all I could think about was how he had just taken a step toward me, very little space remaining between us.

I instinctively held my breath as he reached up and brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. His fingers were precise and warm, soothing and invigorating all at once. I closed my eyes
, enjoying the foreign sensation. How little I had been touched in my life.

I felt him lean in, catching a whiff of his cologne that smelled like musk and tea
and made my insides glow. He placed his soft lips on my cheek, letting them linger there for one hot, wet moment, before trailing his mouth over to my ear.

“Good night,”
he whispered slowly, deliberately, in my ear, his breath making the hairs on my neck stand up.

Then he pulled his lips away, gave me a polite nod and said, “Get home safe. I’ll call you tomorrow morning.”

I watched, stunned and surprisingly turned on as he walked confidently away to his GTO that was parked at the other end of the lot. He got in, beeped his horn, then roared out of the parking lot.

This little angel was definitely going to get her wings dirty.

CHAPTER FIVE

My sleep was restless. I tossed and turned all night, my brain thinking those non-thoughts” that existed between dreaming and consciousness. I kept seeing images of Javier, the feeling of his lips on my fingers, his mouth at my ear. I saw Tom and his ugly face. I remembered fear. I recalled conflict. When I drifted off, my dreams were all the same. I was falling and falling with no one to hear my screams.

It was eleven in the morning when Javier called me and I felt like I’d just gotten to sleep only a few hours before. In my half-awake state, I almost balked when he called me Eden over the phone. But everything came back to me with a hit of clarity.
The lie. The con. The fact that it didn’t matter how Javier had made me feel so far, the point of all of this was to use him. I couldn’t forget that.

Our conversation was brief and I wondered if he picked up on my aloofness over the phone. I had to tread a very fine line between protecting myself and leading him on. I needed to do both and I wasn’t too sure how. But if I was acting different, he wasn’t. He was as sharp a
nd suave as before and told me he’d be picking me up at three. It was kind of early for a date, but I hadn’t been on too many, so I wasn’t one to question it.

Still, the whole situation was making me feel off-balance which in turn made me feel uncomfortable.
I need advice and guidance. I quickly rang Gus.

“Everything okay?”
were his first words.

I breathed a sigh of relief at his familiar voice. It grounded me in this apartment that still felt so strange and cold.

“Yes, everything is fine. I just wanted to check in.”

Pause. “Oh, well I’m glad you did. That makes me feel good. So everything is fine?”

“Well yeah. So far anyway. I got a job!”

“A legitimate one?
I never got the reference check.”

I walked over to the window and opened up the blinds. It was a gorgeous, sunny day
; it’s too bad the surroundings were so urban and boring. I was starting to miss the open desert.

“It’s legit but I guess they didn’t need to make the call. I looked hot enough, that’s all you need.
Though you also need balls of steel.”

“Rough night?”

“Yeah, my first shift.” I went on to explain what happened, conveniently leaving out Javier till the end.

“Um,” I started, peering down absently at my scarred leg, the pink and red welts looking extra ugly in the harsh daylight.
“And so the guy at the end who beat up the other guy, well…that was my mark.”

Silence filled the air. I could hear a cow mooing somewhere on his property.

“Gus?”

“Your mark?
I don’t understand.”

“I met my mark.
The man closest to Travis. Or at least I think he is. He at least works for him. We’re going out on a date tonight.”

“Who is he?”

“His name is Javier Bernal,” I told him, his name sounding thick on my tongue.

“Mexican?”

“Yeah, so?” I was feeling slightly defensive over his disapproving tone of voice.

“Ellie…I don’t know what to say, this is not sitting well with me.”

“Well you knew what I was coming here to do.”

“Yeah, but those Mexicans
—”

“Well aren’t you being a little racist!”

“Ellie,” he barked, and I clamped my mouth shut. “This isn’t being racist. My ex-wife was Mexican. I don’t really care. But if he’s Mexican, he’s probably directly linked to the cartel.”

“Again, so?
We know that Travis is the head of one of them.”

“He’s the head of an off-shoot cartel. They control the south. This Javier might have ties to another, the ones in Mexico, where they get their supplies. The
Loz Zetas, Sinaloa. This is much more dangerous. You’ve heard of the beheadings on the news. These people mean serious business.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m aware of that. Hello, you don’t think what Travis did to me wasn’t serious business? And just because he happens to be Mexican…”

“You better watch yourself.”

“I am.
And I will. And you know what, yeah maybe he has some ties to a cartel somewhere, or maybe it’s just Travis’s. But he’s only twenty-three. How much damage can a twenty-three year old do?”

The words hung in the air. I felt like I was tempting fate.

***

The twenty-three year old showed up at my apartment in his GTO, calling my cell and letting me know he was downstairs. I was relieved that he didn’t ask to come up and see the place. I had nothing to show for Eden White at the moment, unless he wanted to browse my internet history which consisted of Mexican drug cartels and more porn.

The porn didn’t help me at all. All it did was turn me on, and when I was turned on it seemed my brain cells went out the window. I’d wanted some pointers in seduction but it was pretty obvious I didn’t have to do anything to seduce Javier; now it was just overkill that made me squirm against the seam of my jeans.

Even so, I came prepared. I had a couple of condoms in my purse and I’ll also admit I watched a You
Tube video of how to put one on. It scared the shit out of me and I decided that though I’d push the condom usage if it came to that point, he could handle the mechanics of it all himself.

The air was muggy despite the clear sunshine and
I was glad I swapped my usual jeans for a pair of A-line linen pants. I wore a coral-colored tube top that showed off my tanned shoulders and matched my new lip gloss. Spending your teen years in jeans and boots meant I had turned into somewhat of a tomboy, so it felt a bit weird to get dolled up for someone. Weird, but surprisingly good, like a taste of a new dish you could see yourself getting addicted to.

I spied his car by the road and he immediately got out
when he saw me. He was just wearing a white t-shirt and black jeans; on his feet were dark boat shoes. It was a casual look that still managed to look elegant on him. Perhaps it was the way he walked, effortlessly, like a stalking tiger. It was the first time I got a good look at his body too and was surprised at how muscular he was. His forearms were pleasantly large, his chest toned, the rest of him very trim and lean. He looked athletic and fast, which shouldn’t have surprised me after what happened last night.

“Hello, angel,” he said with a grin, his arms spread wide for an embrace. This was the drug cartel leader? I didn’t think so.

I laughed nervously and he swept me into his arms, holding me close to him. That familiar smell drifted over me, bringing back the feeling of his lips at my ear. Today though, he didn’t kiss my cheek but still held on to my hand.

“You brought out the sunshine, I’m glad,” he said, looking me up and down. His lilting accent was creating pleasure waves down my back.
“Come on.” He gave my hand a tight squeeze. Even more pleasure waves formed. “We should enjoy the weather while we can.”

We got into his car and I was immediately in love with it.

“It’s beautiful,” I said, running my hands over the smooth dash, marveling at how well-maintained it looked despite its age, the perfect blend of polished chrome and retro fittings.

“It has a name,” he said, buckling himself in. He caught my eyes and explained
. “Jose. I brought him all the way from Mexico.”

I kept smiling back at him, although my brain was already going back over what Gus had said and what I had learned about cartels on the internet. I hoped the wheels in my head had been hidden from him, but the man was so
damned perceptive.

“What, you didn’t know I was from Mexico?” he asked, still smiling, though he slipped on a pair of dark shades that covered up his all-seeing eyes. We
turned onto the road and headed toward the highway. The windows were all rolled down, messing up our hair, which made me suspect the air conditioner wasn’t working.

“No, I figured you were from Mexico,” I said. “I just thought it was cute that you named your car.”

He laughed. “Cute? Maybe. Dorky? Yes. But what can I say, I’m sentimental. This old machine has been with me longer than anyone I know.”

I wanted to know how that could be, considering he would have only been of driving age for about eight years or so, but I didn’t press it. I wanted information from him, but I wanted it slowly.

“Well, it’s one hell of a sexy car. I love vintage models,” I said.

He tilted his head down and eyed me over his glasses. “Were you ever a model?”

I let out a loud and rather awkward guffaw. I immediately covered up my mouth, shooting him a sheepish smile. “Sorry, no.”

“I don’t see how it’
s a funny question,” he said rather seriously.

“Well, for one
, I’m not tall enough,” I rattled off, ticking my fingers. “For two, I’m clumsy as hell. For three, I don’t have the confidence.”

“And for four?”

For four? Well, for four there was no way they’d hire a gimpy, scarred model for anything except the before and after effects of battery acid usage gone wrong, and they’d have to Photoshop the before picture.

“I walk with a slight limp,” I admitted. “It gets worse when I’m not paying attention.”

“I’d say I haven’t noticed,” he said sincerely.

“Well, I’ve been paying attention.”

“Isn’t that tiring? To hide it? To pretend?”

I sucked on my lip and stared at the industrial buildings zipping past. “Yes,
it is.”

“Then how about you don’t pretend with me
? You’re going to need all the energy you can get.”

I raised my brow and looked back at him. “Is that so?”

He grinned, a stunning smile that lifted his whole face. “You will find out very soon.”

Though he just warned me not to hide anything from him, I turned my head and hid the stupid schoolgirl look on my face. Besides, I was hiding so much already.

We drove past dilapidated buildings and ravished oceanfront, and Javier explained the effects of Hurricane Katrina. I’d watched the whole thing on the news two years earlier, but Javier had been here, riding the whole thing out.

“Was your
place damaged?” I asked, almost saying house but then catching myself. To him, I had no reason to suspect he lived in a house.

He shook his head. “I was staying in an apartment at the time
; there was just some water damage on the first floor. Many homes were absolutely wrecked, which in time ended up being a good thing. For me, anyway. I bought a seaside home late last year; it was damaged but it was cheap, and I spent a lot of time fixing it up.”