Page 58 of Queens and Monsters

I shrugged. “I don’t remember acting like a fool.”

“You weren’t a fool. You were talking about Rei. In the car you were asking Piero and Giovanni if they’d help you escape to California.”

I lifted my hands to my face. “Oh, I’m embarrassed.”

“Dante said that the drug lowers inhibitions, kind of like a truth serum.”

“Does that mean I wanted to escape Dario and go to California? Or was I just terrified of Zhdan?”

“I guess we’ll find out,” she said, “when we go downstairs.”

“Why?”

“Rei is your visitor.”

My eyes opened wide. “Oh shit. I can’t go downstairs like this.”

“He was waiting in the garage for you when you arrived covered in vomit. If that didn’t scare him away, the clean version won’t.”

I leaned against the vanity and sighed. “Rei saw me like that.”

She nodded. “He also heard when you told him youwanted him and to do whatever…” She furrowed her brow. “Let me remember. You wanted him to do whatever was in his text messages you never received.”

Wrapping my arms around my midsection, I winced. “I think I might be sick again.” My fingers felt cooler than a moment ago. “I can’t remember any of that. The last thing I remember Zhdan left, and you and I went back to our seats.”

“It wasn’t long after that when you started slurring your words. At first, I thought it was a second margarita.”

“Who else heard me in the garage?”

“Giovanni, Piero, me, oh…and Dario.”

My knees gave out as I slid to the floor. “I can’t leave this bedroom, ever.”

“You can. I don’t know what Rei said or did, but Dante said Dario is giving him another chance.”

“Really?” My eyes opened wide. “And he wants it after seeing me so…awful?”

“Let’s go downstairs and find out.”

Chapter

Twenty

Reinaldo

I’d spent the last seven hours worried sick about Jasmine. The things she’d said when she saw me in the garage were completely out of character and at the same time, sexy as hell. I knew enough about La Rocha, or Rohypnol, to know its effects. By the time they got Jasmine to the apartment, she was coming down from the initial high. Some people purposely took the drug for that high. When it was mixed with alcohol, it exacerbated the alcohol’s intoxication.

As Piero helped her from the car, I didn’t see the mess she’d made by getting sick. It was her fucking blue eyes. They spun, unable to truly focus until they landed on me.

“Rei.” She wobbled as she called out to me.

Despite the capo standing at my side, I hurried to help her.

She let go of Piero and fell into me. “Are you really here?” Her words were slurred. She slapped my chest with her hand. “I feel you.” She turned to Camila. “I have a great imagination.”

I wrapped my arm around her waist to keep her from falling. She stumbled with her steps. “I want to know what you said in your text messages.” Her lips curled in an exaggerated smile. “What are you going to do to me? I’ve wondered ever since you told me.”

Fuck.

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