Illya
“Well, that could’ve gone a lot worse. At least those guys tipped super nice.” Smiling as I stuffed a rubberband-held wad of cash into my fanny pack, I only nodded at Marcella’s musings. My fingers still tingled wildly where I’d touched Theo’s arm, and my own was damn near numb from his grip on my bicep. The strange sensation of being grabbed by a man with no middle or fourth finger rose the hairs on the back of my neck even now, hours after they’d left.
The club was quiet, the DJ working quietly on the floor, and I didn’t have anything more to distract me from the fact that Theo stared at me for almost two hours straight. A shiver of uncertainty slithered up my spine, and fire blazed just under my skin at the memories that played so fresh in my mind. Tightening the strap of my pack absently, I gnawed on my bottom lip as my thoughts wandered.
Theo was downright creepy with that stare, but I couldn’t help but think he just didn’t have much experience with women. Screwing a woman and finding her attractive were two different things, and the vision of him fixing himself flashed behind my lids when I blinked.Yeah, definitely not the kind of guy that dated.
Doing that was so damn gross, and a shiver rattled down my spine before I forced myself to focus for a second. Checking to make sure I had everything I needed, I glanced over as Marcella waited by the door, and a guilty smile stretched my lips.
“Sorry, tonight was really weird. I’m still trying to process it.” She nodded in understanding, and I took a stabilizing breath as we headed out of the back and onto the main floor. “That guy, Mateo, he just . . . he flew off the handle so fast. I wasn’t expecting that at all. He seemed pretty alright for the most part, but . . . ”
“I totally get it. I didn’t walk into that room thinking I’d get knocked over the sofa, for sure.” Marcella flipped her hair over her shoulder as she spoke, and I hummed softly in acknowledgment. “I bet that’s why I got such a huge tip. That guy seems like he has a lot of unresolved issues though to get angry like that and then get so . . . almost bashful?”
“Yeah.” Pushing open one of the doors, I took a huge breath of the crisp night air and sighed a gust. “I have to go wash this stuff out of my hair. I kinda just wanna go to bed, but then I’d get dye all over the place.”
“You probably spend more money on temporary dye than food, don’t you, Illya?” She smirked slipperily, and I nodded with a little giggle as we approached my bike. “Anyway, do you want me to give you a ride? We can stick your bike in my back seat.”
“No, I like the ride home. It’s super late, and no one’s out. Even the tweakers don’t come out at this time of night. They’re super paranoid when it gets so dark.” My wry reply earned me a chuff, and Marcella wandered off to her car wordlessly as I unlocked my bike. Hoisting my only mode of transportation off the rack, I wound the chain around the handlebars and swung my leg expertly. Within seconds, I was off, and I pumped the pedals a few times before starting to cruise.
Tonight was like every other night— the blinking traffic lights, the quiet streets, the darkness broke up only by tiny streetlamps. Sailing into a left turn, I glanced behind me absently, and a car pulled out of the tiny gas station across the street from the club. In the darkness, the lights from that one car were almost blinding my peripheral, and I blinked hard as I twisted forward.
Mateo might’ve been a wild ride, but Theo was really the one that disturbed me. His eyes only left me when they had to, and he fit into the category of ‘creeps that don’t seem like they’d hang out after closing but definitely would.’ I had no doubt that, at some point, he’d show up at my apartment, too. It wasn’t a stretch to realize they were talking about Sylvie.
If he didn’t find her, what would Theo do to me because I was her roommate? I couldn’t imagine that Mateo was pissed because of just a one-night stand. More than likely, Sylvie must’ve stolen something from him, and he wanted to get it back or punish her, or both.
I was the person closest to her, and that’s always who the bad guys go for.
“He’s probably a drug lord or something.” My expression soured at my own grumble, and I shook my head as I weaved between street lights. If there was one thing I’d learned in this town, it was to have a really good Mexican dialect, and Mateo’s sucked. What little Spanish he’d spoken during those two hours gave me the impression that he probably learned it in high school or something, and might not have ever been to Mexico at all.
In this town, Spanish was a more popular language than English. Just sixty miles away was the border and Mexi-Cali, and when entering a store, most salespeople greeted me in Spanish, not English.
Luckily, I knew six languages, courtesy of libraries, of course.
My shadow cast long in front of me, and I glanced over my shoulder to find those same, intensely bright headlights glaring at me. The car puttered along slower than I was riding, and I nibbled on my bottom lip in uncertainty. In the four years I’d worked at the club, I’d never once seen a car so late at night on this road, and it wasn’t trying to pass me. Worry gnawed at my gut, and my heartbeat a little harder as I pumped the pedals to speed up.
Of course, it has to be the night that I have almost three thousand dollars on my person.Mateo gave Marcella, Clary, and I three grand each, and I’d made good tips after they’d left. Roge’s cut dipped me under, but who was I to complain? He only took twenty-five percent a night— that was a deal of a lifetime.
“Crap . . . crap . . . ” I took one more turn that would lead me in the wrong direction, and the car followed me. Squeezing the break on my bike, I pulled to the side and hopped off my bike. My adrenaline spiked when the vehicle parked as well, and I unzipped my fanny pack to pull out my knife and flick it open. “You better start driving, buddy!”
The driver’s side door swung open, and I squinted to try to make out anything beyond the headlights. Tension zinged through me, and my muscles gorged on anxiety as I struggled to take deep, calming breaths. I’d been in my fair share of fights over the years, and I clenched my jaw hard.
“Stop acting all big and bad.” Deep and dark, the baritone wrapped around me in a vice, and my breath hitched as a body shuffled to block one of the lights. Theo’s silhouette sharpened from the glare, and I tightened my grip on my knife. “Put that away before you hurt yourself.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“I’m not expecting you to.” Cutting me off, Theo must’ve had a remote for the car auxiliaries because the lights suddenly turned off, and I winced. Before I could blink back the colorful spots, he was in front of me, and the hairs on my neck stood up as goosebumps pocked my arms and across my chest. So softly, he dragged his fingertip down my jaw, and my heart hammered furiously at how fast he was. “You won’t be needing this.”
A huge hole opened up in my chest when Theo pulled his hand back, and my knife hung from around his pinky. His eyes seemed so bright, and I automatically took a step back as weakness assaulted my knees.
“Don’t be scared . . . unless you have something to hide, Illya. Answer my questions, and you’ll get your dinky knife back and be on your way.” Crossing my arms tightly over my chest, the fine hairs on my face bristled when Theo reached to cup the back of my head. He was very gentle, but his eyes were violent and hard, and a quake assaulted my spine. “Where is she? I know you know her, that bitch Sylvie.”
“I don’t know.” Five fingers curled into a fist in my hair threateningly, and I gasped sharply as Theo jostled my head a little bit, just enough to know he meant business. My eyes met his, and my mouth dried at how fiery and lively his orbs were even now. “I said, I don’t know. I . . . I caught her buying drugs at the store earlier, and I kicked her out. I don’t know where she went. I made a video just in case.”
“Show me.” Nodding hastily, I unzipped my fanny pack, and Theo eased his grip on my hair as an amused chuff rumbled from his throat. “Why are you wearing that thing?”
“It’s harder to steal.” Answering the question, I just wanted Theo to leave me alone, and I pulled out my phone to unlock the screen. My hand shook, and I held out the bright screen before tapping the ‘play’ button with a stiff finger. “I kicked her out about two hours after this happened, maybe an hour and a half. I don’t know where she went, I swear.”
“Uh-huh.” The absentminded response came just before Theo glanced at my phone, and I tensed when he frowned at the screen. “Did you really think I’d follow you just to attack you?”
