“Why is it not safe?”
“Jesus fuckin’ Christ, Belle, can you just listen to me for once in your life?”
She raised a brow and tilted her head to the side. “You know I don’t respond well to being told what to do, right?” She paused, and I opened my mouth, but she didn’t give me the chance to speak. “I know you know that.”
“Fuck.” I slapped my hand against the wall, then leaned closer to her and whispered, “It’s the cartel,” in her ear. I felt her body tense, and a second later, her hand gripped the side of my T-shirt. Good, she was starting to understand why the hell she needed to leave. “You need to go—now.”
She turned her head to the side and then slowly brought it back to face me. Her eyes swirled as she whispered, “Someone is watching us.” I kept my body in the exact position and slowly moved my gaze to the right. I couldn’t see Garza’s face, but I recognized his shoes and the gold caps he had on every pair he owned.
“Fuck,” I murmured. My nostrils flared, and my stomach dipped. I had to make this look like every other couple in this hallway, which would mean I’d have to cross a line. I’d have to overstep my bounds, something I didn’t want to do but had no choice. “I’m gonna have to kiss you.”
“What?” Her brows flew high on her forehead, and I could have sworn her cheeks pinked. “No—”
“I don’t have a choice,” I gritted out. “He’s watching us, I need to make sure we look like every other couple in this hallway.” Her throat bobbed as she swallowed, and her hand gripped my shirt harder. “I’ll kiss you, then walk you out and put you in a cab. You get out of here and never come back. Got it?”
Her chest heaved on a breath, and her whispered, “Got it,” was all I needed. I slammed my lips down onto hers and screwed my eyes closed, knowing this was what I had to do to make sure she was safe. But when her body pressed against mine, and her palm grazed over my chest and landed over my beating heart, I let myself relax into it.
This wasn’t me overstepping my bounds. This was me trying to make it look believable, so I swiped my tongue over the seam of her lips, and she opened up without any hesitation. My body pressed closer to hers, and one of my hands gripped her waist while the other held on to the side of her neck.
Our tongues met slowly, and a shiver rolled down my back. I’d never felt anything like it before, but it was her moan that made me realize what we were doing. It was meant to be for show, but I’d forgotten that somewhere between our lips touching and our tongues tangling.
I pulled back, breaking the kiss, and shook my head. “Let’s get out of here,” I said, my voice deeper than usual. She didn’t say anything as I grabbed her hand and walked her back out of the hallway. I wasn’t sure if Garza was still watching, but part of me didn’t care. There was no way he would have seen that and thought it was anything but me picking up a girl at his club.
My hand gripped Belle’s harder as we pushed through the doors and out into the darkened night. The doormen greeted me, but I ignored them. I was on a singular mission: to get Belle out of here.
“What about my friends?” she asked.
“Call them. Message them. Tell them you’ve left.” I held my hand in the air on the edge of the sidewalk to hail a cab. “Do whatever you have to, but you
’re not going back in there.” I couldn’t look at her as the cab pulled up.
“You’re so bossy,” she murmured, and my lips quirked on one side. She was right. I was bossy, but only when it came to her safety.
“Get in,” I told her, opening up the back door. I finally glanced at her and clenched my hands when my gaze immediately landed on her swollen lips. Fuck. I couldn’t go there. I’d kissed her because it was the only option, but now all I could feel were her lips against mine.
“Don’t tell your dad you came here.”
Chapter Two
BELLE
I could hear the collection of barks ricocheting out of the building before I even opened the door. If I hadn’t already known it was feeding time, I did now. Giving all the animals in the shelter their food was a two-person job, which meant I’d made it for my shift this morning just in time.
I’d had hardly any sleep because my mind was going around and around in circles, trying to piece everything together. All I could think about was every touch, every word, every single thing. I couldn’t get the image of Ford out of my head.
He was undercover on a job, so the club we were at wasn’t a safe space, and yet, I’d gone there without a second thought. My dad always told me it wasn’t the weird, shifty people you had to watch out for, but the ones who looked normal. The ones who fit into a crowd and smiled at you to make you feel welcome. Those were the people you had to be wary of, but the longer I was away from home, the more I started to relax.
But last night…
Last night Ford had made me realize I’d become so lax in everything around me. I wasn’t always aware of my surroundings, and I trusted people without fault. I’d grown up being taught to be cautious of everyone, while inside, I wanted to trust everyone until they’d proven otherwise.
“Belle!”
I jumped at the sound of Betty’s voice and slapped my hand over my racing heart. I’d been so inside my own head, I didn’t even notice the back door to the animal shelter opening and Betty appearing. “Sorry.” She blinked and pushed her white-blond hair behind her ears. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
I waved my hand in the air. “My fault. I was off somewhere in my head.” I laughed and shook my head, trying to force my brain to concentrate on the here and now. Betty stepped back, and I followed her inside of the shelter and then made my way into the break room. It consisted of a sink, a couple of lockers, and a feeding station. We also stored things in here too. As a charity-run shelter, we had to make use of the little space we had, so each room was multifunctional.
I pulled my jacket off and stowed it away with my bag, then spun around. Betty had already gathered all the feeding bowls ready to be filled, so I put on my apron and gloves, and got to work. The dogs were first, their bowls being the biggest, and Betty flitted in and out of the room as she took the full bowls to their owners. The few cats we had were fed second, and then the birds and other random animals.