“I’m not doing it,”Drew declared. It had taken her the best part of a year to pick up the pieces after Cross walked out on her. She was not going back there. Not now. Not ever.
“You don’t understand,” Dunlop whined. “My life kind of depends on it.”
Drew gritted her teeth. “How does your life depend on it? And how did you find out this anyway? I can’t see Octavio—Octavio Rodríguez—casually telling you this, even if you are his cousin.”
“Nah, he didn’t say it out loud, like to tell me,” Dunlop said, “but he was talking with other guys. He keeps me around, and I do stuff for him.”
Drew cocked an eyebrow. “Not that kind of stuff.”
“I clean for him and stuff like that. And I listen. Octavio doesn’t know I understand,” he finally blurted out.
“Ah, I see. He speaks in Spanish, right?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“And he thinks you don’t understand?”
Dunlop nodded.
“But you do?”
“Yeah, mostly. I get most of it. It’s just because I can’tspeakSpanish, that everyone assumes I can’t understand it.”
“So how is this going to save your life?”
“Because if Octavio finds out that I’ve been busted by the cops, he’s gonna kill me.”
Drew shook her head. “Highly doubtful. I mean, are you guys really that close? Why is he going to care?”
“No, no, you don’t get it. That’s it—we’re not close. He feels he has to do something because he’s my cousin, but we are not close. Since I got busted by the cops, what’s gonna happen is he’s gonna think I ratted him out. I’m around there all the time. I see stuff. I don’t say anything, but I see stuff.”
“The cops know you’re Octavio Rodriguez’s cousin?”
“No! No way I’d tell them something like that. I ain’t that stupid.”
It took everything she had, but Drew bit back a comment about his stupidity thus far. “But you’re afraid if Octavio finds out, he’s gonna think you ratted on him,” she clarified.
Dunlop nodded. “I know he will.”
Drew stared at Dunlop. He wasn’t wrong. If Octavio Rodriguez found out that Dunlop had been busted, chances were good he’d put Dunlop six feet under—just as a precaution.
“Wait, how did you make bail in the first place if you’re broke and your cousin didn’t bail you out?”
“I called my ex. She owed me for helping her kid get a job at one of the bars Rodriguez owns. The bail wasn’t too high, and I had to promise her I would never ever speak to her again”
Drew blew out a breath. Not surprising that his ex didn’t ever want to see him again. This man was a walking disaster.
“You’re not afraid that the kid might say something to Rodriguez?”
Dunlop shook his head. “No, the kid doesn’t work at the bar anymore. He stayed about six months to get some experienceand now he works over at one of the nightclubs on South Beach. He’s making a lot of money, so I guess my ex is grateful.
Drew frowned. “So, if I take you in, you’re afraid that eventually Rodriguez will find out and he’ll kill you on principle, but if I go after”…she didn’t want to say his name…“the other guy, then you go free, I’d save your life, and still get money.”
Dunlop’s nod was more enthusiastic this time. “Yes, exactly.”
“You really fell into a pile of shit,” Drew commented as she studied the man before her.
He hung his head. “Don’t I know it.”
