Page 82 of Dealing Dirty
I hum the song mymámáused to sing to me as a little girl while I take my small plate to the trash across the room. Jackie is engaged in a heated debate with a big-bellied man with a handlebar mustache, giving me the opportunity to slip away unnoticed.
My eyes shift around the grand space. No one is paying me any attention. Maybe I’ll just sneak back toward the restroom, and if anyone bothers to question me, I can blame it on my tiny bladder.
Worrying my lip between my teeth, I swipe a champagne flute from a server and chug it for good measure. It won’t be long before Jackie realizes I’m missing, and despite trying to be discrete, I find myself frantically searching for Derrick.
Even, calculated steps bring me toward the back of the room.
Don’t trip, don’t trip, don’t—
“Jules.” The deep voice comes from my left, where my hair shields my view.
I know that voice.
“Don’t stop walking,” Ben says.
“What do you want?” I’ve been dragged around, drugged, and pulled in so many directions that, at this point, I don’t trust any of thesependejos.
We casually stroll the perimeter of the room, smiling politely at any snooping eyes. It’s odd seeing him look so refined in an all-black suit with a matching black mask.
“I know where Hazel is being held.”
“Do you now? Funny, since Bruce informed me that you’re the reason she’s here to begin with.” My fist curls into a tight knot, ready to bust his balls.
“Easy,señorita. It’s not what you think.”
“Yeah, I just bet.”
He stops to lean against the back wall, and I mimic him, pressing my spine to the filigree wallpaper.
“The night before Alfonzo showed up at The Pound, I was driving by. You can’t know the absolute hell I’ve been through being away from Jack and Derrick. And after learning about Cassidy’s pregnancy, it was too tempting to try to see them again.”
In the depths of his deep blue eyes lies a beaten and bruised soul.
“It was a mistake. One that got Hazel—and you—taken.”
I smile politely at a couple who brush past us even though my heart pounds.
“What happened? How did they know where she would be?”
“Alfonzo and Ethan were there when I pulled up. It raised suspicions and they started drilling me about what I was doing there and I panicked. All I could think about was protecting my family, so I said the first thing that came to mind. That I was there because I knew Kenneth’s daughter was hanging around, and she could be the key to keeping the Wolves off our back.”
“Chingao, Benjamín.” I struggle to keep my voice even.
“These guys would have blown my cover wide open if they knew I’d gone soft and was paying Jack visits. Next thing I know, Bruce is congratulating me for my brilliant idea, and then he purposely put those morons in charge of retrieving her. I fought him on it, demanding he let me go through with it, but he put his foot down. Fucking bastard.”
I cluck my tongue. “He probably got suspicious. He’s making sure you don’t toe outside the line, but you coming up with that plan gives him false security that you’re still with him.”
He’s silent a moment. “I had no idea you were part of the deal.”
My voice loses its edge. “I wasn’t supposed to be, but Ethan had bigger plans.”
Ben goes rigid at the suggestion. “He got what was coming to him, then.” Kicking off the wall, he gestures for me to follow him. “I’m going to get Hazel, but I need you to bring her down to Jack at the creek.”
I stutter a step. “Me?”
“I can get her out, but I can’t leave with both of you without exposing myself. If we make it look like you snuck off and broke her out, we have the perfect cover.”
“I’m not leaving here without Derrick.”
