“I tell you what’s good for a hangover, ese,” Julio says, turning his attention to Zeth. “Getting your dick sucked.”

Zeth lets his head roll forward. He doesn’t look impressed. Thankfully Julio’s too busy gauging Zeth’s reaction to catch mine, which is flat out horror. He wants me to do it. Now. In front of him. This is definitely a test. Zeth smiles, and the smile is almost a threat. “I just fucked the girl two seconds ago. Didn’t you hear?” He points the toothpick over his shoulder, gesturing not only into the corridor but into the recent past, when he had me bent double over his lap while he slapped my ass raw.

Julio shrugs his shoulders. “Sounded like you were killing the woman, sure. But this pretty piece of ass is still sitting here, twirling her pretty hair around her pretty fingers, so I know that wasn’t the case.” He gives Zeth a grin, leaning forward across his desk. “What’s the matter, man, huh? You can’t get it up again so quick? I know it ain’t cause you’re shy. I seen you fuck plenty of girls under this roof.”

My hands curl involuntarily at that. Stupid that I choose to get upset over that right now and not the fact that an overweight Mexican Jabba the Hut wants me to get on my knees in front of him and blow a guy I’m more than moderately afraid of.

Zeth nods slowly, seeming to consider this. “Guess so. But that was a while back now. I’m a little more…restrained?”

“Bullshit!” Julio laughs, but his cheeks are growing redder and redder by the moment. This highlights the spider webbed fine filaments of burst blood capillaries in his cheeks, purple looking and angry—here is a man who drinks too much. Gets mad too much. He probably gets his own way too much, too. But not today.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Perez, but I’m not gonna give you a private show this morning. You’ve already established that I’m not like your other girls. If you want a cheap whore to entertain you while Zeth gets blowjob, then by all means go ahead. But you’re gonna have to find someone who values themselves a little less, I’m afraid. Perhaps one of your girls would oblige you. I think I’m going to read by the pool.”

I stand up. I don’t recall doing it, but I’m on my feet, straightening up my top, trying to fix what I hope to be a cool look on both of the startled men who are staring back at me. Zeth looks like I’ve just thrown a bucket of cold water over him. Julio’s mouth is hanging open, eyes narrowed at me in confusion, as though the words I just spoke were actually in a foreign language that he clearly doesn’t speak.

To say I start panicking would be an understatement. Not even Zeth, a great hulk of a man, afraid of no one, refused Julio’s wishes to bluntly. I realize a little too late that no one has probably refused him so bluntly. I think if Zeth could cover his eyes, he would. Julio clears his throat, looking back down at his desk for a moment while I try to prevent myself from succumbing to the titanic sense of alarm that’s suddenly building in my chest.

“So you wouldn’t care if I got another woman to come in here, Miss Hawthorne?” Julio asks the question slowly, showing sizeable restraint. My palms break out into an uncontrollable sweat.

“Of course not. Why would I?” Despite my clammy hands and the color still rising in my cheeks, I know I’ve nailed it this time. I’ve managed to affect an air of complete indifference toward Zeth that makes me fist pump on the inside, while all that shows on the outside is one gently raised eyebrow. “I’m afraid you seem to be confusing the dynamic of the relationship I share with Zeth, Mr Perez. I’m not the one on my knees begging for snippets of his affection. It’s entirely the other way around.”

Zeth coughs violently. Just once. I think I’ve startled him with my comment as much as I’ve startled myself. I try not to react as I calmly exit the room. The door is barely closed before I slump against the wall, my heart exploding in my chest, ricocheting off my ribcage like like rapid gunfire. Shit, shit, shit! What the hell have I done? The meeting was not supposed to go like that, but something about that disgusting man makes my blood boil. He clearly holds women in low regard, and to be told so casually to degrade myself in front of him…on no day of the week was that going to happen. Thanks to my quick temper I’ve just created a pretty considerable problem, though. I was supposed to make Julio believe I was a whore…and it seems as though I’ve just implied Zeth is one instead.

******

There are few things in this life that have put me on the back foot. I’ve kinda come to expect shitty things from shitty people, so it’s not surprising when one of Charlie’s boys, or even some of my own boys does something seriously fucked up. But Sloane. Shit, Sloane keeps on surprising me. Sometimes in really good, entertaining, or really fucking hot ways. And sometimes in desperately stupid, idiotic ways. I haven’t decided which category her little act this morning falls under yet, but when I have I’m gonna make sure she pays for it one way or another. She needs to know she can’t pull that shit here. Not if she wants to survive. And I may not be much, and I may not have much, but I’m kind of attached to my life, too. I’d like to keep a hold of it for as long as I can as well.

I’m not gonna tell her about Julio’s reaction after she left his study. She’ll think it’s okay to speak to him that way, and it’s so not okay. It’s not okay for me. Not for Alaska. Not for Charlie. Not for anybody. I was a little surprised when he laughed, though. I straight up thought he was gonna pull out his gun and go shoot her in the back of the head, but instead he’d laughed like a fucking drain. Told me he totally understood why I’d brought her here, and then some.