Page 3 of Plunge into Obsession

“Cool, right?” she said, waving at the waitress for a drink.

I nodded, looking around as Lucinda put in the order for our drinks. I wasn’t a big drinker, so I didn’t know which drinks I would want, but Lucinda was, so I let her order.

It was obvious that Luis had paid for this luxury for her.

“What does Luis do?” I yelled over the noise.

“Goods distribution business,” she said.

“What kind of goods?”

She shrugged at me. “I never asked, but it is obviously doing really well.”

Right.

I tried not to let my paranoia get to me, but…

There was a heavy feeling in my chest that I couldn’t ignore.

And usually, Lucinda couldn’t help but gush over the men she was seeing. After her third date with someone, I would have known about the man’s mother’s name.

But this relationship with Luis had been going on for a few months now, and Lucinda had been so closed-off about him that I always felt strange prying.

The waitress returned with our drinks, a couple of shots of golden-brown liquid, and two martinis.

I watched as Lucinda took the shot, grimaced a little, and took a sip of her martini.

“Slow down. You don’t want to be drunk when Luis gets here,” I said.

She shrugged again and passed the glass to me. I grabbed it but didn’t take the drink. I watched my surroundings, and not for the first time, I wished I was back home with Kaia, doing a scary-movie marathon.

I set the glass down and stood. “I’m going to use the bathroom.”

Lucinda nodded and swayed in her seat to the upbeat music.

I pushed my way through the crowd, finding the bathroom at the back of the club.

I went inside the big bathroom, made smaller by the three women standing in front of the mirror and applying their makeup.

I walked into one of the stalls and did my business while the women talked. It was much quieter here than it was out there, though I could still hear the thumping sound of the music, and somehow that only made my headache worse.

I closed my eyes as I lingered in the stall, trying to get my bearings, when one of the women’s words penetrated.

“Did you hear this club is frequented by Luis Mendez?”

“Who’s that?” another woman asked.

I didn’t know why, but I could feel my muscles freezing at the name.

Lucinda had never said what Luis’ last name was, and I wasn’t even sure if she knew it herself.

Were they talking about Lucinda’s Luis?

“Didn’t you hear about it on the news? He was a person of interest in the case of the missing twenty-year-old woman last year. They charged him for it.”

“Wasn’t the case dismissed because of insufficient evidence?” a third woman asked.

I vaguely recalled what they were talking about. The story had been big when it first came out to the public about six months ago, but like most things, it seemed to just fade into the background as time passed.

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