TOO LATE : CHAPTER 1 – 10
Chapter 6
Asa’s eyes grow dark and he talkes a step toward me. He gently places his hands on my arms and rubs them up and down. He leans his mouth in toward my ear and increases his grip on my arms, squeezing with all his force until I wince from the pain.
“Don’t embarrass me,” he whispers quietly enough that only I can hear him. He eases his grip and runs his hands down to my elbows, then ksses me lovingly on the cheek for show. “Go put that sxy red dress on. We’re having a party tonight to celebrate.”
He steps back and releases me from his grip completely. I glance at Carter, who’s still standing in the doorway, eyeing Asa like he could r!p his h.ead off at any second. He cuts his eyes to mine and for a second they grow softer, but I don’t hang around long enough to be positive. I turn and run up the stairs to the bedroom. I slam the door and fall to my knees, hugging myself. The muscles in my arms are throbbing from the pain, so I try to rub it away. It’s the first time he’s ever physically hurt me, but the injury to my pride hurts so much worse. I never should have questioned him in front of someone. I know better.
But I also know that I don’t deserve what he just did to me. No one does. I want to grab my bags and pack everything I own. I want to leave and never come back. I want out. I want out, I want out, I want out.
But I can’t leave. It’s not just me who would be affected.
“Sorry about her,” Asa says, turning back to me.
I unclench my fists and attempt to hide my disdain. I’ve known him all of three hours, and I’ve never despised someone more in my entire life.
“It’s all good,” I reply. I walk over to the bar and casually ease myself into one of the seats at the table, despite the fact that I want to run upstairs and make sure Sloan’s okay. My mind is still reeling from the fact that Sloan is involved in this. She was the last person I expected to run into coming here. Watching Asa kss her like he did, and watching her respond like she did, made me officially regret taking on this assignment. This just became a h’ll of a lot more complicated.
“She lives with you?” I ask. Asa hands me a beer out of the fridge and I untwist the top, then bring it to my mouth.
“Yep,” he says. “And I’ll cut your thing off if you so much as look at her the wrong way.”
I eye him, but he doesn’t skip a beat. He shuts the door to the refrigerator and saunters to his seat on the other side of the bar as though the sentence never even left his mouth. How he can physically hurt her like he just did, then act like he gives a sht about her, has me floored. I want to bur$t the beer bottle against his head, but instead I grip it harder, keeping my temper in check.
He opens his beer and raises the bottle. “To money,” he says, clinking the bottle against mine.
“To money.” And watching id!ot get what they deserve.
Dalton walks in with a beer in one hand and his cell phone in the other, interrupting with perfect timing. He looks at me and nods, then turns his attention to Asa. “Hey, man. Jon wants to know what to do about the alcohol situation. Is it BYOB tonight or are we providing, because we don’t have sht.”
Asa slams his beer down on the bar and shoves his chair back, standing up. “I told that id!ot to stock up yesterday,” Asa says, storming out of the kitchen.
Dalton nudges his head toward the front door and I get up and follow him outside. Once we’re alone in the middle of the front yard, he turns toward me and takes a swig of his beer, mostly for appearances sake. Dalton hates beer. He’s more of a crown and coke kind of guy.
“How’d it go? You think you’re in?” he asks.
I shrug. “I guess. He’s desperate for someone who can speak Spanish. I told him I was good, but not fluent.”
Dalton gapes at me. “Just like that? No questions asked?” He shakes his head in disbelief. “God, he’s such a dvmba$s. Why do the new ones think they’re so untouchable? Fking pretentious pri¢k.”
“Yep,” I say, in whole-hearted agreement.
“I warned you about this job, Luke. Told you it would be a tough one. It’ll fk with your head having to live like this. You sure you want in?”
I nod, knowing there’s no way I can back out now, knowing how close Dalton and the others are to nailing him. “You just called me Luke.”
Dalton sIaps himself in the forehead. “Sht!” he groans. He kicks at the ground with his shoe and looks back up at me. “Sorry, man. We still on to meet tomorrow? Dixon wants a full report now that you’re in.”
“Some of us have class tomorrow,” I say, rubbing it in yet again that I got the shtty end of the assignment. “I’ll be out by noon, though.”
Dalton nods and turns back toward the house. “You invite that hot piece of a$s from your Spanish class to the party?”
“Nope,” I say. “This isn’t her style.” Not to mention the fact that she doesn’t need an invite. She’s smack dab in the middle of this sht.
He nods, knowing inviting someone into this lifestyle is something I would never do. Dalton can take on and absorb his role like nothing I’ve ever seen. He’s had long-term relationships while undercover, even went so far as to propose once, for appearances sake. Of course once the job’s over, he has no problem disappearing. There’s still a huge part of me that knows every person I meet while I’m Carter, is still just that…a person. I don’t want to mislead anyone unnecessarily, so I make it a point to be on guard and never let these things go too deep.
He closes the door behind him and I stand alone in the front yard, staring at the house that has just become my assignment for at least the next two months. Undercover work wasn’t really what I went into the force for, but it’s what I’m good at. Unfortunately, I’ve got a really bad feeling about this one…and I’ve only been here a day.
I spend the next couple of hours escorted in and out of rooms by Asa, shaking hands with more people than I can count. At first I try to keep mental notes of everyone I meet and the way they interact with Asa, but by the fourth beer that is shoved into my hands, I stop trying. There’ll be plenty of time to get to know everyone, I don’t need to be too focused right now. I’m still so new to this crowd, I don’t want to give anyone reason for suspicion.
I finally break away long enough to go look for a bathroom. When I find one, the guy I now know as Jon, and two girls that can’t be older than nineteen occupies it. I close the door faster than I opened it, then head upstairs hoping to find one that isn’t being used as a br©thel.
I remain in the bathroom for a good ten minutes longer than I need to. I pour my beer into the sink and fill the bottle with tap water, having gone well past my personal quota for the night. I need to spend the next few weeks completely sober.
I stare at myself in the mirror, hoping I can pull this off. I’m not from this area, so I’m not worried about being recognized. What I’m worried about is the fact that I’m not like Dalton. I can’t just turn it on and off like he does. The things I see here, are the things I see when I close my eyes at night. And based on what I saw between Sloan and Asa today, I won’t be getting much sleep.
TOO LATE : CHAPTER 1 – 10
I run a washcloth under the water and wet my face, willing myself to sober up before I exit the bathroom. I toss the washcloth into the hamper of clothes. I stare at the hamper, full to the brim of dirty laundry, and wonder if Sloan is the only girl that lives here. I’m assuming she’s probably the one that gets stuck with all the laundry. Not to mention the rest of the house.
When Asa and I walked in on her cleaning the kitchen this afternoon, he stopped in the doorway and watched her clean for several minutes. I stood over his shoulder, taken aback by the fact that it was her…but more so by just how beautiful she was, swaying to the music. The lyrics to the iconic Rick Springfield song, Jessie’s girl, were running through my mind as I stood behind Asa, watching him watch her. I wanted to be the one watching her like that.
Like she was mine.
I inhale a deep breath and open the bathroom door. My eyes are pulled to the vision standing in the doorway across the hall. She spins around when she hears the bathroom door open and her slinky dress spins with her. When she comes to a standstill, I can’t pull my eyes away from the dress. It hugs her in all the right places, the spaghetti straps holding up a barely there top that squeezes her bbs together, leaving no room for any type of b.ra. It pisses me off that I’m mentally thanking Asa for telling her to put this dress on.
Breathe, Luke. Breathe.
I finally bring my eyes to meet hers, and the look on her face doesn’t match the sxy, confidant attire she’s sporting at all. She’s been crying.
“You okay?” I ask, taking a step toward her. She glances at the stairwell with a look of fear in her eyes, then back up at me. She nods. She starts to head toward the stairs and I reach out and grab her hand, pulling her back. “Sloan, wait.”
She turns back around and faces me. The girl I’m looking at right now is not the girl I met in class today. This girl is fragile. Scared. Broken.
She takes a step toward me, folding her arms across her chest. She stares down at the floor between us, tugging on her lip with her teeth. “Why are you here?” she asks quietly.
I don’t know how to answer her. I don’t want to lie, but I also can’t tell her the truth. I’m pretty sure it would be frowned upon if I told the girlfriend of the guy I’m trying to bust the real reason why I’m here.
TOO LATE : CHAPTER 1 – 10
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