Page 13 of Rage & Paradise
I lick my lips, thinking about the way her ass would look in my hands.
She might be my stepsister by marriage, pero esa no familia. There’s no blood linking us together.
“Are we going to start this or what?” AZ says with a sigh from where he’s sitting. We’ve all been going at this for a long time.
Where they’re all starting to wind down, having Estrella here at my whims gives me a burst of energy. Sinful energy.
“Go get me a beer.” I order her.
Her smile slips as she focuses her attention on me. “I don’t know where they are or what that has to do with the interview.” She talks back.
“It’s part of the interview because I say it’s part of the fucking interview. It’s not all parties and clients in here. When you’re not servicing the clients, you’ll be serving us. Now serve me, Starlight.” I say again, and I swear I can almost see the steam shooting out of her ears like one of the cartoon characters.
Her eyes dart in the direction of the door. When I turn to see who she’s looking at, I realize Coca has come in to watch what’s going on. I’m not sure if Lobo texted her or something, but this interview is the first one she’s sat in on.
Coca points to the small fridge that is settled near the lounge chair we had set up for the interview candidates. When she looks back at me, I can see the disappointment starting to brew there. She probably doesn’t understand why I’m being such an assholeto Estrella. No one in here does, but I’m just grateful no one is questioning it. They’re letting me run the show.
Lobo handed Seda off to me, and right now, I’m glad for it.
Estrella pulls her shoulders back and lifts her chin slightly as she turns and grabs the beer out of the small fridge. She comes to me, arm outstretched, waiting for me to take the beer from her.
“It’s wet. Dry it off and open it for me.”
She doesn’t miss a beat. Servitude looks good on her. She uses her shirt to dry the outside of the bottle and then twists off the cap before handing it to me again. This time I take it, and after a very small swig, put it down on the floor next to my already full other bottle of beer. When she sees that I didn’t need another, her fingers flex into a fist before she quickly releases it.
“Like I said, we run shit here. I don’t care what you’re not used to or what you don’t want to do. Either you find a way to make things easy for us, or you can find yourself out on the street looking for a different job.”
She simply nods before taking a few steps away from me.
I jump right into the hard questions. “What does loyalty mean to you?”
She blinks once before she answers. “It means looking out for those that look out for you. Protecting family. Trusting even when I don’t understand the reasons or motives. It means having each other’s back.”
Protecting family?
I can’t believe she just said that shit.
My blood is nearly boiling with rage.
Where the fuck was all this loyalty when she was supposed to be my sister? When the hell did she ever have my back?
I want to call her out on her lies, but then I’d have to explain to Vado and the rest of the guys what the real problem was with her. They don’t need to know about that shit. If I could, I wouldforget about it myself. I would dig a six-foot-deep grave and throw every moment of my past into it if I could.
It’s going to be real damn hard to do that now that I’m about to have a constant reminder of it working across the street.
“Fine.” I grumble before moving on to the next question. “Do you have any personal ties to law enforcement, politicians, or any gang members?”
“No.”
“Do you scare easily?” I lean forward in my chair. I want her to break. So far, it’s not as simple as I thought it would be.
“No, I don’t.” She answers with all the confidence in the world, as if it’s not really a lie.
“Segura? You realize this isn’t some nine-to-five business department, right? Scary, intense shit happens here. Things can get bloody. You going to be good with that?”
She swallows hard. “Are you saying I’m going to have to get bloody?”
“No, that’s not what he’s saying.” Lobo speaks, pulling me from my focus. “What he’s saying is that sometimes we’re not the most liked group of people. We have enemies. People that want what we have. If you work here, we’ll protect you, but you might see some things you wouldn’t normally see in other places.”
