“Rox!” I exclaimed, and let out a bubble of scandalized laughter.
“Oh yeah, we’re at work,” she said, as if she didn’t really care where we were.
I led us to the couch and sipped the coffee. She sat beside me and produced a single piece of paper with a flourish.
“This, my dear, is our ticket to the underworld,” she dramatized in a deep, foreboding voice.
I pinched the note between my fingers and read the details, then cut my eyes to her.
“Next week? I thought it would be sooner?”
She shrugged. “You now know as much as I do. At least you can’t get into troublebeforethe initial press release, huh?”
It was a joke, but one with undertones of caution.
“Thatisa bonus. So, you’ll come with me?”
Roxiee dazzled me with her wide grin. “As if you even have to ask. But can we stay until the end this time?” She accompanied her request with puppy eyes and a pouted lip.
“We’ll see.”
“Oh, come oooon,” she pleaded.
“Get the hell out of my office, we’ve both got work to do,” I demanded, despite laughing.
“Such a slave driver!” she sassed, walking out on her mile-high pumps as if she’d been told a drop-dead-gorgeous single man had just entered the building.
Snickering and feeling re-energized, I settled at my desk, took another sip of coffee, then opened my laptop. It was time to take on Rafael Ortiz once more.
Chapter 11
-Raf-
It never got old, no matter how many nights I found myself here, or how many times I raced. The smell, the music, the women… all tied into one big-ass package I’d never tire of.
Tonight, however, was a little different. Not only was I here to race and further cement my title as King of the Street, but I was also scouting talent… among other things involving pussy.
“He’s here again, brah.”
Shady Sam’s voice pulled my attention away from the sea of faces I kept scanning.
“And who you lookin’ for, man?” He craned his head in the direction I visually searched.
“No one,” I snapped, pissed with myself that I was hoping by some miracle Greer would show tonight.
So fucking stupid.
Grabbing a handful of Stevie’s ass and giving it a hard squeeze, helped bring me back into the present.
“Who’s here?” I asked Shades.
He barked a deranged laugh through his high-as-hell state; I could practically see kaleidoscopes cascading through his eyes.
“That Linetti kid.”
“What!He’s back?” My snigger rose over the music thumping around us. “He must have a taste for losing, eh?”
Shades grinned with a squint. “Either that or he just plaaaain-ass stupid.”