Dirty Money (3 page)

Once I was finished, Ryan immediately fell asleep and Reese looked like she wasn’t too far behind. Great team. Unlike them, I was wired, drenched in sweat, and ready to hurl. Stitching up your best friend when you have no idea what you’re doing will really set you on edge.

I stood, swaying from the rush of blood, and made my way to the small kitchen where I washed up to my elbows like before. Reese was in the same spot when I returned.

“Babe.” She raised her wavering gaze to mine. “Do you think we should put him in bed?”

After a second of deliberation, she shook her head. “No. Leave him here.”

I took her outstretched hands and yanked her to her feet.

“Are you okay?” She threaded her arms around my neck and pushed close.

Any response I might have had was lost in the feel of her thighs, belly, breasts suddenly pressed against mine. The fear and trepidation immediately became the need for her. Just her.

“You’re shaking.” Reese kissed me lightly.

I didn’t say anything. I simply closed my eyes and let the desire to feel her wash over me. There wasn’t anything I could do about it. She was drunk. I was sober. That was just taking advantage. Besides, I was fine as long as I was holding her.

“Let’s go to bed, all right?” Reese took me by the hand into our room. Carefully, she started to undress me. Her hands skimmed up my side to strip off my shirt leaving behind the smooth tingling I felt whenever she touched me. A shiver went up my spine. I kicked off my shoes and Reese dropped my pants and underwear to the floor.

“Reese?” I asked.

“Sit down, sweetheart.” She guided me to the bed and knelt between my legs.

“We should sleep.”

“We will,” Reese promised me.

Really, I wasn’t going to let her do anything. We were just going to go to bed. But when she kissed me, so lightly and right where I needed her, I lost all conviction.

“Fuck.” I moaned and dropped my head back.

“It’s okay.” Reese smoothed her palms up my thighs, opening me wider.

“But,” I protested. “I should…” I couldn’t remember what I should do. “We have to…” I wasn’t sure what we had to do.

“Babe, just relax.” And then her lips were on me. Not hard at first, just a light pressure, kisses, and small, light bites. Her fingertips twitched on my flesh as she held me open. She took her time, carefully sucking me off so I wouldn’t go too high too fast. Like she was taking mercy on me instead of her usual teasing, fucking with me until I wanted to cry. The smooth strokes of her tongue took me higher and higher. She took both my hands. Placed one on her breast. Held the other tightly. Her nipple got hard in my palm.

She was moaning now. The slight vibrations echoed into my flesh. When I came in her mouth, she just sucked me harder, willing another climax from me. It didn’t take long. All I could feel was Reese. I’d do anything that girl wanted.

I sobbed as I came again. She climbed up me and straddled my thigh. I let go of her hand to grasp her hip. My fingertips dug into her ass. She rocked hard against me. I pressed my leg into her. She leaned down to kiss me. Her tongue tasted like tequila and me, but with some Reese mixed in. I moved my other hand from her tits, down the plane of her stomach, and slid a finger on either side of her clit. Her breathing came in short, staccato gasps. Then she came and collapsed on me.

I fell asleep covered by a blanket of Reese, the warm wetness on my thigh turning cool, the taste of us still lingering in my mouth.

“Do you want to go out with me?” Reese asked as she sat across from me with a cup of coffee.

“You mean, like going steady?” I injected as much breathless sarcasm as I could into my question.

“Shut up.” Reese rolled her eyes and glared.

“Fine. Where are we going?”

“There’s an internet café in town so we can check…” She hesitated, gauging my reaction. “The situation in Vegas.” I nodded to let her know I wasn’t freaking out so she continued. “And there’s a pharmacy. I want to get some antibiotics and painkillers for Ryan.” We both looked to where he was still sleeping on the couch.

“Umm, don’t you need a prescription for that?”

She looked at me like I wasn’t so bright. “We’re in Mexico.”

“So?” I didn’t get it.

“You buy the prescription at the pharmacy. It’s like ten bucks.” She shrugged. “Why do you think people drive to Mexico for their prescriptions?”

“’Cause it’s cheaper?” I was still lost. “But don’t you still need a prescription?”

“No, you buy the prescription,” she said all exasperated. Hairpin trigger, that girl. “Like the little piece of paper that a doctor gives you. It’s ten bucks. Then they fill the prescription.”

“Gotcha.” I didn’t.

“You’re dumb.” Reese leaned over the table, cupped the back of my neck, and kissed me deep and hard.

I didn’t care if she thought I was dumb. As long as she kept sticking her tongue in my mouth like that, I was happy.

“Let’s go.” She broke away from me.

“Uh-uh. No.” I reached for her again. “Let’s get naked and rub up against each other.”

Reese glared. “Do you always have to sound like my brother?”

“Your brother said that to you?” I grimaced like I meant it. “That’s just not okay.”

“Move it, Cooper,” Reese demanded, annoyed enough by my teasing. I decided to do what she wanted.

*

Warped. That’s what that shit was. Fucking warped. I scrolled through the Web pages, the ads flashing at me, beautiful people, perfect skin, white teeth, date your soul mate, just click here, God is online now, eat this and live forever. I didn’t see, though. I didn’t notice any of it. I could only see the articles as they blazed out from the computer screen, changing my life while I sat there doing nothing.

All Reese did was suggest I hang out in the café while she got Ryan’s prescription, but no. I had to know. I had to sit at that well-used computer and type in a few choice keywords followed by the date of that damn night. I just had to keep clicking links open. Did I want to know that I’d killed two of them, not one? Did I really have to know that those men I left to bleed out on a stretch of desert highway were suspected mob enforcers? Really, did I need to go from there and type DiGiovanni into the search engine?

Then I saw the articles, the stories, that blurb in the obituaries, headlines like estranged daughter disappears from crime family. The phrase “mafia princess” was on every page, lashing out like so many blows to the head.

My heart sped. I told it not to. My hands were shaking on the keyboard. I couldn’t swallow. Why couldn’t I swallow? My vision blurred. Was it from the sweat in my eyes?

All I could think of was Reese. Any second, she would come through the door into the stagnant heat of the café. She would want to know what I was doing. What would I tell her? How could she not tell me? Why did I have to be curious?

That was it. I was done. I pushed myself out of the chair, sweating palms sliding away from me on the counter. When I turned to seek the air outside, I stopped as if I’d been struck. Reese was inches away, her smile losing altitude as she caught my eyes.

“Babe, what’s—” But her question was already lost because I was running out the door.

On the street, I turned and just started walking. That was when I should have gone home, cried to my mommy, and lived my half-scarred life alone. Alone wasn’t so bad. Problem with alone was there were no DiGiovanni twins. I could handle alone, but I couldn’t handle life without them. Without Reese.

Right there on the crowded street, I stopped and waited. She didn’t take long.

“Cooper?” she whispered, though I heard her anyway.

I spun to face her, searching for words. Only one came to mind.

“DiGiovanni.” The loss hit me and I nearly gasped. No longer did DiGiovanni mean warm memories of summer vacation and notes in class and bickering with a sexy girl. Instead, moments rushed at me, rising bitter and acidic, moments when they could have, should have told me and chose to lie.

“But you knew.” Her eyes were pleading.

That hit a nerve.

“I knew?” The sneer came out a scream. I brought the volume back down. “The biggest crime family east of the Mississippi,” I quoted the newspapers. “And you think I knew?”

Her eyes became granite. Hell, her whole face did. “Keep your voice down.” She glanced frantically around us. People were staring.

“No.” I didn’t care about appearances. “You’re one of them. You knew,” I accused her.

“Stop talking,” Reese commanded. “I won’t discuss this on a street corner.”

“I don’t give a fuck. You’re part of the biggest crime family on the East Coast.” I used my hands to punctuate the words.

“I’m not doing this here.”

Just like that, she spun and walked away.

“Well, I am.” I went after her, still talking. “How long have you known? When were you going to tell me?” No answer. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”

“Away from you.”

That hurt.

“Right.” I pulled the keys from my pocket. “Get your ass in the car, buttercup.”

“What?” Reese finally stopped walking.

“I said get your ass in the goddamn car. I’m leaving and you’re coming with me.” Roughly, I grabbed her arm and dragged her in the direction of the SUV. Reese yanked her arm away and looked for a moment like she might slap me. I’d been there and didn’t care to repeat the experience.

“Don’t fucking touch me.” She kept her voice very, very low. “And don’t tell me what to do.”

We stared at each other waiting for the other to back down.

Finally, I broke the silence first. “Do you want to discuss your family here or in private?” That worked. Reese climbed into the passenger seat without saying a word.

The silence continued as I started the car, drove to the bungalow, and followed her inside. She went to the kitchen and got out bread and peanut butter. After assembling a messy sandwich, she grabbed a bottled water and set both in front of Ryan.

“Ryan,” she said. He continued to sleep. “Ryan,” she screamed, all patience gone. “Get up.”

“Huh?” He opened one eye. “What, Reese? Why’re you yellin’?”

“Eat the sandwich. Drink the water.” She handed him two pills. “Take the pills.”

“What’s got your panties in a twist?”

“Yeah, buttercup.” I finally moved from the door, ready for action. “What’s got your panties in a twist?”

“Shut the fuck up.” She pointed at me as she said it. I guess that meant she meant business.

“Seriously, what right do you have to be so pissed?”

“Umm, guys,” Ryan interrupted, his mouth full of peanut butter. “What’s going on?”

“Cooper has decided it’s okay to push me around.” Reese caught his eye so he would get it.

“Dude.” He turned to look at me, confusion clouding his face. “You hit my sister?”

“No.” I wasn’t going to play her bullshit games. “That’s probably normal in your family though, right? I mean in the mafia it’s okay to hit women.” I shrugged.

“What?” Ryan managed to swallow.

“Well, I just found out that the DiGiovannis are the biggest fucking crime family east of the Mississippi,” I shouted.

“If you really want to know,” Reese shouted back. “They’re not the biggest. There are at least three others just as big.”

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” She glared in response. “Your mother was, and I quote, a mafia princess. What does that make you? Are you guys mafia royalty too?”

“Oh, fuck,” Ryan murmured.

“And Cooper decided to scream all of this at me on a street corner. A street corner, Ryan. When I wouldn’t scream back, she tried to throw me in the car,” Reese said.

“Shut the fuck up. Don’t try to make me the bad guy,” I tossed back at her.

“Okay.” Ryan stood, swayed, and caught himself on the back of the couch. “I am not going to mediate your relationship. I don’t know what happened.” We both opened our mouths to tell him, but he continued, “And I don’t want to know. Cooper, if you hurt my sister, I’ll kill you.”

“All right,” I conceded.

“Reese, don’t twist shit around to make it sound different than it was.” He pointed at her.

“Fine.” She scowled.

“When you’re done shouting at each other, I guess we’ll need to talk.” Ryan turned back to me. “I’m sorry. Really, really sorry.” With that, he picked up his sandwich and water and went into his room.

Reese and I watched to see who would make the first move. It was her this time.

“Never, ever, pull a stunt like that again.”

“A stunt like what?”

“Grabbing me and pushing me around. I’m not a child and I don’t enjoy that kind of abuse.”

She was right. I shouldn’t have touched her.

“Neither do I,” I shot back.

“When did I abuse you?”

“Mafia,” I spat the word, letting it explain me.

“You knew,” Reese insisted.

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did.”

This conversation was going so well. “I figured out they were organized crime. I had no idea they were so big. Your family is legit, buttercup.”

“Actually, they’re not,” she said. I think she was trying to be funny.

“I’m not in the mood to fuck around.”

“Okay, you want to be serious? Yes, our
mother
”―she really emphasized mother―“was very involved with the family business. If things had turned out differently, she would be running it right now.”

“You say that like it’s normal,” I said incredulously.

“For them it is.” Reese let that hang for a few moments. “You think I like that I’m a DiGiovanni? That my family runs guns and drugs and girls and sells them like…like I don’t know.” The careful mask began to fall so her mouth trembled and her eyes looked like wet shale. “They sell guns and drugs to children and then they sell children like guns and drugs.”

“Eloquent.” Right then, I didn’t give a shit what they did to make them bad guys, I just cared about how hard they were going to come after me.

“You asshole,” she screamed. I half expected her to stomp her foot. “I don’t have to tell you this, you know?”

“Yeah, it’s just my life.” I shrugged at how insignificant that was becoming. The color started to drain from her face. “You’re right. I probably don’t need to know that the guys chasing me are hardcore mobsters. Sure, I just fucking killed two of them, but that’s no big.” She looked like she might heave. “They probably won’t retaliate. Isn’t that right?”