“Well?Am I hot enough to work alongsideher?”Lourdes nodded at the stripper.
“Maybe,” Juana answered for him.She straightened from her lean and cocked her head.“In the right clothes, you could make decent money.But can you dance, sweet thing?”
“Enough, Juana.”Enrique stood and coughed behind his balled-up hand.“Lourdes, what are you doing here?”
Tulio’s eyes widened.“Lourdes?That’s your new wife’s name, sí?”
“Correct.”Enrique crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at the manager.“Leave.”
Tulio hustled out along with Juana and the bouncer who shut the door behind them.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Lourdes?How did you get here?What the fuck?”The questions poured out of him.His mind blown, he half-feared he was hallucinating.“Why do they think you’re here for a job?”
“Because I said I was.It was the only way I could get that bouncer to let me come into the back.”Lourdes fidgeted with the strap of her purse.“We need to talk.It’s not something to discuss over the phone.”She swung her glare to the door and back at him.“Juana is pretty.Does she thrust her breasts on you often?”
“What?”
Lourdes pulled her phone from her purse, tapped a few buttons, and handed it over.
He stared at a picture of Juana pressing her tits against him.As she’d done on the main floor before he shut her down faster than he could snap his fingers.He flipped through the other photos, and his gut twisted into a pretzel.
“I don’t know who sent it.The number is restricted,” she said, glancing away.
“Somebody took photos of me and texted them to you, and you came here to confront me.”No question, just fact.“Do you not trust me at all?”
“I want to, but those photos...”she trailed off and licked her lips.The corners of her eyes pinched.“No, I’m sorry.I don’t.Not after what Jacobo did to me.Not after he came to this very club and screwed women in the backrooms, just as he did at the brothel.Not after the flimsy explanation you gave me this morning.I need more than words, Enrique.”
“I’m nothing like that bastard.”
“Of course, you’re not, but how do you explain that?”She waved her hand at her phone.“You’re grinning like you’re soaking up the attention.”
He tossed the cell onto the desk with a hard clatter and snatched his own from an inner pocket of his suit jacket to text Domingo.
—Get to Chicas Asesinas.Now.Bring your laptop.—
A beep resounded.Domingo’s response.
—On my way.—
“Lourdes, this is insane.”He set his phone aside and breathed through his rage.“Juana propositioned me.As did the other girl.Their gall amused me—that was it.But for you to question my integrity, I thought our relationship was stronger than that.I didn’t touch them.Sure as hell didn’t fuck them.”
“Maybe not today.”
“Fine.Not for a long while.Hell, you want the truth?I haven’t slept with anyone since we saw each other at Rubén’s fundraiser.That was five-plus months ago.I couldn’t stop thinking about you, wanting you.Every woman I looked at or thought about screwing, I couldn’t do it.They weren’t you.I’m done with flings.”The surprise in her wide eyes would’ve amused him if she hadn’t shoved a crowbar into his heart.“We just got married.I haven’t had time to cheat on you if I was going to.”
Lourdes dropped into the seat that Tulio had vacated and set her purse on the floor.Her shoulders slumped.“I had to hear it from your lips.See the truth in your eyes.I’m sorry.You being here surrounded by all these women is driving me crazy.I need to know what you do for a living and the people you’re associated with.I need action, a grand gesture of sorts.”
She was asking for too damn much.“It comes down to trust.”
“That’s more than I can give right now.”
“Obviously.”He circled the desk and sat back down with all the calm he could muster.Then he brought up the real-time surveillance feed on the computer and clicked a few buttons to rewind the day’s recording.
“Is that it?You’re going to ignore me and get back to work?”
Enrique bit his tongue to keep back a snappy retort and gripped the mouse so hard his knuckles ached.“I’m checking the camera feeds to see who took the photos.”
She slouched in the chair.“All right, then.”
