Page 5 of Bit's Bliss
“No problem,” I said, tucking the paper in my clutch.
“Hey, honey. I’m going to take Nancy home. See you at the house?” my dad approached and said.
“I might meet up with a friend.”
“Sounds good. See you later,” he said, waving behind him.
As I walked to my car in the parking lot, I felt as though I was being watched. There were plenty of people leaving like I was, and none seemed to be paying any attention to me. Still, the hair on my neck stood on end.
I gripped the car’s door handle, which unlocked the driver’s side, jumped in, and started the engine. After reversing out of the space, I drove to the closest exit and turned in the direction of Los Cab.
Given I’d just had one man end our engagement at the eleventh hour, part of me worried I’d gone too far, bidding for a date with Trevino, and that was at least one of the reasons he’d left without saying a word to me. Especially with the amount I paid.
Even if I hadn’t gone so far as to bid on a date with him, our family always made a sizable donation to the charity the event supported. This was the first time I’d used my own money, though. Part of the trust fund my mother had set up for me shortly after I was born became mine once I graduated from college, and so far, I hadn’t used much of it—apart from the wedding expenses I wasn’t able to get refunded.
“Argh,” I groaned out loud. Every time I thought about how Tiernan had treated me, I got angry. He was a misogynistic, condescending, controlling asshole who I was lucky to have out of my life.
The day I’d interviewed for the job at Los Caballeros, I felt an immediate, overwhelming attraction to Trevino. What kind of woman gets married when she has such strong feelings for someone else?
I wasn’t stupid enough to think he’d ever feel the same way about me. But that wasn’t the point. The attraction alone should’ve made me sit up and take stock of how I really felt about Tiernan. It wasn’t a mistake I’d make again. In fact,evergetting married held zero appeal.
Maybe what I should do instead was find a man I liked enough, trusted enough, tofinallyhave sex with. Again, I knew that wouldn’t be Trevino, no matter how much money I paid to have the chance to spend time with him outside of work.
As I pulled through the gates of Los Caballeros, I made a decision. I’d let him off the hook by telling him my plan was to donate the money all along, and that I had no interest in actually going on the date.
3
BIT
Iwasn’t home twenty minutes before receiving an alert that my brother Salazar, who everyone called Snapper, had driven through Los Cab’s main gate. Since I monitored the security feeds, I knew when everyone arrived and left.
When he pulled up to the guest cottage I’d made my home, I was already standing near the open front door.
“Hey, man. How was the ball?” he asked.
“Shy a couple of Avila brothers. Don’t think you won’t be hearing from Alex.”
Snapper took the porch steps two at a time. “Anything of interest happen this year?” he asked when I waved him inside.
“Brix called you, didn’t he?”
“He said you thought you saw someone.”
“I didn’t think it. He walked in the side door while I was still on stage.”
“Who did?”
“The guy who tried to kill me.”
“O’Donnell?”
I shook my head. “Grogan.”
Snapper pulled out his cell and swiped the screen. “Couldn’t have been either of them.” He turned the phone around so I could see that both men were still in prison. “No one from FAIM or the Killeens will be eligible for parole for another ten years, at least.”
Each “family” Snapper had mentioned proclaimed ties to the Irish Mafia, not that they acknowledged an affiliation.
Shortly after I was attacked as part of a kidnapping scheme, the two rival factions had been taken down by the organized-crime division of the FBI in what was the culmination of a five-year investigation.
