Page 1 of Cartel King

Chapter One

Enrique

She’s going to fall off that fucking ladder.

I slow my pace to a jog as I approach a house with a woman far too high on her ladder, leaning far too much to the right as she tries to fish something out of her gutters. She’s got to be about five-five to my six-three.

I could reach whatever she’s fishing around for. She’s more likely to fall off and break something. I should mind my own business and keep going with my run, but there’s no way I’m doing that. I wouldn’t if it were a woman of any age, and I wouldn’t if it were an elderly person, either.

If it were a guy my age, maybe I’d let him deal with it, but for her—there’s something in how she’s reaching. Some frustration I can feel even from here. I approach slowly as I walk up the driveway. I’m only halfway to her when a humongous dog comes bounding toward me.

No wonder there’s a baby gate across the entrance to her open garage. The massive beast doesn’t bark, but he growls. It’s a Mastiff, much like the one Laura Kutsenko has, except this one is a different color and easily weighs about fifty pounds more than her giant companion. I wonder if this one is as much of a love bug as Laura’s. At least, that’s what she’s always claimed.

The woman on the ladder speaks to her dog, giving him a command.

“Hush, Constantine. Lie down.”

The dog immediately obeys, but he inches closer to the baby gate, still growling at me. It’s only then that the woman notices me. She grips the ladder as she jerks away. I hurry over and grab the ladder, tempted to demand she come down from there.

“Who are you?”

If anybody’s going to do the demanding, apparently it’s her. Not that I can blame the woman, since I’m a complete stranger.

“I’m Enrique. I saw you as I was running. You looked a little wobbly up there.”

“Well, I was okay until I was startled—but thank you.”

Dismissive is the only way to describe her now. I don’t blame her for that either. She’s a woman in a precarious position with a strange man looking up at her. Now that I’m certain the ladder won’t fall over, I step away. I don’t need to look like a perv staring up her shorts.

“Would you like some help? I can easily reach whatever you’re going for.”

She glances at the gutter before she looks at me, clearly debating whether she should trust me. Never has there been a more misguided decision than when she backs down the ladder. I’m probably the least trustworthy person she could ever meet. At least to anybody who’s outside my family. Within my family, I’m absolutely trustworthy. I’m more loyal than anybody you could ever meet. Family is everything in my line of work.

She steps aside once she’s back down on the ground. She walks closer to the open garage door, and her dog stands. She pats him between the ears, and his tail waggles so much that his entire body shimmies. I don’t wait around.

I don’t ask her name, even though I’m dying to find out. Instead, I scale the ladder and quickly see the problem.

There’s a branch packed in leaves lodged in the gutter. It’s a miracle the weight of the leaves and this practical log hasn’t pulled the gutter from the roof. I know this house has been on the market for some time, so she’s a recent buyer.

I’m able to reach, just like I said, so I scoop out all the leaves, then wiggle the branch free.

“Here, I’ll take that.”

She reaches up, and it gives me a fine view of the loveliest tits I’ve ever seen. She’s wearing a sports bra and tank top with workout shorts. The tank top’s cut just as low as the sports bra. I tried not to stare at her ass as I walked up the driveway and failed miserably, but at least her back was to me.

If I keep looking at her, she’ll realize what I’m staring at are not the most piercing blue eyes I’ve seen in a long time. She’s going to know I’m looking at what must easily be double, if not triple D tits, and there’s no way they aren’t real.

She’s waiting for me, but I’m tongue-tied like I’m fourteen years old, seeing my first pair of boobies. I shake my head as I lift the branch out and fling it away from her. As I climb down, she frowns and looks over to where the branch landed.

I know she’s thinking she’ll just have to pick that up later, along with all the leaves I pulled out. I’ll take care of it. When I’m on the ground, she steps forward, but instead of backing away, I move the ladder down a few more feet and climb back up.

“You really don’t have to do that.”

“It’s fine. This’ll go faster if I do it. I can reach more than you can. It’ll only take me a moment.”

Well, I take more than a few moments. It’s closer to ten minutes to do the entire front of her house. It wouldn’t surprise me if the other three sides have just as much clogging them as this one does. I want to suggest there are services that do this, but I don’t know her well enough. And if she’s just bought a house, perhaps she can’t hire people to do things for her.

“You really can stop now. I’ve already done the rest of the house. It was just up here that got a little more difficult. The company I hired flaked on me, and with the weather that’s supposed to be coming soon, I wanted to make sure I had the gutters clear.”

---