Malo: An Age Gap Romance

Once I have the bike parked, she climbs off shakily, her hair a mess, her eyes wide as she looks around.

“Where are we?” she asks. She sounds terrified. She should. This is the last place a girl like her should want to end up.

“Ruthless Kings’ compound,” I snap back at her. “You wanted to get involved with the Kings’ business, well, this is your chance.”

She shakes her head rapidly. “No, no, I didn’t want to…I don’t want to?—”

She looks terrified, as though she’s about to burst into tears. Whoever she is, she’s not used to this kind of life. I can see it written all over her face. She might have played at being one of the club sluts back at the bar, but now she’s standing here in the middle of the compound, it’s a whole different story.

I cock my head at her, looking her up and down. She looks different than she did the night before, dressed in more modest clothes. It only makes her outfit last night stand out, as though she put it on with every intent to distract me. Like she planned it.

Or someone’s planned it, at least.

“What the hell is going on with you?” I demand, taking a step toward her, giving her a chance to tell me the truth. I doubt she’s going to come clean anytime soon, but she bites her lip and stares at me, clearly calculating how good an idea this might have been. Finally, her shoulders slump, and something seems to shift inside her.

“Do you know who Las Rosas Negras are?” she whispers. That name sends a shiver down my spine. I nod, carefully, not wanting to give away any more than I need to.

“Yeah,” I reply. “I know who they are.”

She lifts her gaze to meet mine, clearly scanning my face to figure out just what I think of that name.

“What do you know about them?” I ask her, doing my best to keep my voice steady. I can hear people inside the compound, and no doubt they’re already wondering what I’m doing out here with a woman they’ve never seen before. It won’t be long until they come looking, and I need something useful for them by the time that happens.

“They… they sent me to try and get close to you,” she admits, the words spilling out of her mouth faster than she seems able to control them. “That’s why I was hitting on you last night, that’s why I took your money, because… because I knew I needed to come back to them with something, or I was going to be in serious trouble.”

“That place,” I demand, jerking my head in the general direction of her house. “Is that really yours?”

She pauses, then shakes her head, clearly figuring there’s nothing to gain from keeping the truth from me any longer.

“No,” she confesses. “It’s… they gave me that address. Told me to get you there somehow. This was the only way I could think of to do it.”

I grimace. Mierda. So, my instincts were right—there is something going on with the Rosas, even though it looked as though we had managed to scrape them out from this place once and for all. But what are they doing, using this woman as some kind of bait? My heart clenches in my chest when I think of what she’s had to do for them – that she had to sleep with me. Did she have a choice? What are their intentions here? None of it makes sense to me, and I’m doing everything I can to piece it together.

I’m actively trying not to think about how much danger I might have been in when I stepped off my bike in the suburbs. This should be a lesson to me not to let my pride or fear of what others might think get in the way of my safety. One wrong move, and I could have been bundled into the back of a car and dragged off to fuck knows where, to answer questions for the Rosas. Or worse.

“Why are you working for them?” I ask her, grabbing her arm, trying to bring her back down to Earth. She’s clearly not loyal, not if she’s spilling all of this to me right off the bat. So what exactly is the point of playing their game in the first place? It doesn’t make sense to me.

“I… they have my father,” she blurts out, the words falling from her lips as though it hurts her to say them out loud.

And with that, she spills the rest. Tells me about her father, this brilliant chemist, and how they swiped him from his home in Monterey—how they’re using him to create new product, forcing his hand to give them what they need, and using her by extension as a honeytrap to ensure his safety. She promises me she would never have done any of this if it hadn’t been for her father. Her eyes are glossy with tears, her whole body trembling as she wraps her arms around herself.

“I know how it sounds,” she confesses. “I know… I know it sounds like bullshit. But you have to believe me. I don’t want any of this. I never have.”

The words hang in the air between us, as though she’s daring me to believe them. I don’t know if I do. She could just be a damn good liar, an experienced con-woman. But I noticed from the moment I saw her that there was something different about her, even though I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was at first. But now, now, it’s starting to make sense.

I nod toward the compound.

“Come inside,” I tell her. “I need to talk to my boss.”

She follows me in, hesitant, but clearly seeing no other way to navigate this situation. It’s not as though she can just make a break for it, she’s got nowhere to go, and if she’s telling the truth about where she came from, it’s not like she knows this area well enough to run anyway.

“Wait there,” I order her, pointing to a bench outside Beast’s office. It’s not like I’ve got much to say to her. I need to figure out how we’re going to handle her. She’s an open track to Las Rosas Negras, and, after spending so long trying to take them down, I’m not sure it’s one that we can pass up.

I knock on Beast’s door, knowing better than to just barge in, and he calls out for me to enter. Inside, Sin and Thor are already with him, and all three of them turn around to greet me. Sin looks me up and down again.

“You feeling better?” Sin asks, and I nod.

“I think so,” I reply, and I push the door shut. I don’t want her overhearing this.