Page 14 of The Monster and the Last Blood Match

“Gary, it’s me, Reyna. Let me go.”

“Reyna?” His eyes bulged, but he didn’t let go of her arm. “Nah. Reyna left yesterday. Her brothers are looking all over for her.”

“Well, I came back,” she snapped. “Will you tell them I’m going to the warehouses if they come looking for me here?”

She yanked her arm free and scurried away as fast as she could. When she sank down mercifully into the back seat again, her stomach was in knots. And she realized with a sigh that she had a grimy handprint on her otherwise clean skin. No wonder she had never felt clean before.

She directed the driver to the warehouse where her brothers worked and made him park around the corner so the cab wasn’t visible. He offered to come in with her, but she worried more about someone stealing his car than anything happening to her.

Reyna rounded the corner to the front of the warehouse as a shift was getting out. Her heart stopped as at least a dozen hungry men stared at her. Never in her life had she been afraid of men in this neighborhood, but she didn’t look like a woman from the warehouses. She looked like a high-class city girl. Even she wouldn’t recognize herself here.

Then one of them stepped forward. Steven. She ground her teeth in frustration. This was not a good time for her to see her ex. She hadn’t spoken with him since he had left her to be with another woman, and she didn’t really want to talk to him right now. But she had to if she was going to find her brothers in a reasonable amount of time. The clock was ticking.

“Hey, Steven,” she said, beelining toward him. The other guys dispersed when they saw that she was taken, but a few glanced over at her curiously as they passed.

“Hey, baby. What can I do for you?” His eyes crawled down her body.

“I’m looking for my brothers,” she said impatiently.

“Do I know them?”

She gave him a disbelieving look.Holy shit!They had dated for over a year, and he couldn’t even recognize her in a change of clothes after a good long shower.

She snapped her fingers in his face, drawing his eyes up from her tits. “Steven, it’s me, Reyna.”

His eyes nearly popped out of his face. “Reyna Carpenter? Shit, woman!”

“Yeah. It’s different,” she said tonelessly. “Have you seen Brian or Drew?”

“Different? You look fucking amazing.”

“Thanks, but have you seen my brothers?” she asked. She couldn’t keep the impatience from her voice.

“They were out looking for you yesterday.” Steven whistled and ran his hand down her side boldly. “Little Reyna Carpenter all grown up and a woman underneath those jeans and T-shirt.”

“Cut it out, Steven.” She slapped his hand away. “You already know what I look like. I’m not here for you. I need to see my brothers.”

“Don’t worry about them,” he said persuasively. He walked her backward with this hungry look in his eye that she had seen before. It meant trouble.

“Steven,” she warned.

“Come on, baby. Don’t you want another round?”

“You’re the one who left me, remember? You wanted to get it elsewhere.”

“That’s not how I remember it,” he said dismissively.

Her back hit the wall of the warehouse, and she gasped. His eyes lit up. It was clear that he had the upper hand, and he liked it. In this neighborhood, no one would stop him from coming on to her. She should have listened to her driver and thought about her safety. She hadn’t thought she needed it from anyone here, least of all Steven.

“Where did you get these new threads?” he asked, plucking the fabric.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Reyna, you can tell me.” His hand ran down her waist, and she pushed him away. Any advantage she’d had, she lost when her back hit the wall.

“I’m not interested.”

“Explain to me how a girl with nothing can go from that to this overnight. Huh?” He eyed her up and down suggestively. “Either she’s a whore or she’s a blood whore. You been to Visage, Reyna?”

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