Free Romance: North: (Hot New Adult Bad Boy Romance, Alpha Male Rock Star Rebel Romance) (Contemporary Mystery and Romantic Suspense Short Stories) by Jade Allen Page A

knew that Mary was going down with me. I hated myself for making her make that choice. I hated the fact that I might be dragging her down into my need instead of letting her pull me out of the hole. Fuck it. Both of us might die by the end of the night anyway. She might as well get a little thrill out of it.
    Mary took the rolled-up twenty that one of the women offered her and got onto her knees in front of Reggie’s lap, where the blow was perfectly lined up. I watched her in fascination and disgust; it seemed to me like she was deliberately making it look as much as possible as if she was about to go down on Reg. I gritted my teeth. This wasn’t part of the plan, but I couldn’t exactly do anything about it now; I had opened myself up for it. I had made it happen.
    I heard the little snort of Mary inhaling the line, the sniff of her drawing it deeper into her sinuses. She shivered and turned to look at me. “Your turn,” Mary said, tilting her head back slightly and breathing in once more. I took the rolled up bill from her and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. If I was going to die tonight—and unless the cops came through, that was the high fucking probability—I was at least going to go out with a buzz.

****
    I was jittering and fidgeting just a little bit by the time the van came to a final stop; I couldn’t tell how long it had been exactly, but I thought it must have been at least thirty minutes, if not an hour, after we’d left Vagabond. Of course, knowing that didn’t give me much of an idea; everything in South Florida is either thirty minutes away or three hours away, and there’s almost no reason for it. Reggie and the others in the car hopped out as soon as the van shut off, and I hoped against hope that the fucking cops that had put Mary and me out on the limb were somewhere close. Come on now, guys, I thought as Reggie and the other dealer dragged me out of the back of the van. Any time now. For her sake if not for mine. Let me fucking twist in the wind if you have to, but get Mary the hell out of here.
    Looking around, I thought we were probably out in the sticks; it was probably one of Big J’s safe houses, assuming that it was Big J that we were actually about to meet. If the cops were in the area, they were really well hidden. I looked over at Mary as the dealers and their women led us towards the little, run-down looking house.
    “You okay, babe?”
    Mary turned to look at me and I could see that the coke was really starting to take effect. I almost groaned as I realized that Big J probably set Reggie up to give us that little bump; it wasn’t out of the goodness of Reggie’s heart—it was to make us chatty, amped up, ready to say too much and convict ourselves.
    “I’m all right,” Mary said quietly. I was surprised at how well she was handling the whole situation—fucking shocked, to be honest. My appreciation for Mary’s ability to hold together in spite of crazy circumstances grew, and I thought that if she and I made it out of the situation alive and more or less in one piece, I would buy her all the flowers I could get my hands on. I would shower that fucking woman with all the treats and treasures she could stand as long as she would stay with me. Dear God, if you exist, get us out of this shit hole alive and I will go clean starting tomorrow morning, I swear. Just let us get out of this. Let Mary get out of this.
    Someone inside the house opened the door and I saw Mary cringe as our escorts pushed us through. If it hadn’t been for the fact that I’d been in a dozen houses exactly like this one so many times, I would probably have puked; it smelled like vomit, decay, mildew, and dirt. In the corner of my eye I was pretty sure I saw an enormous palmetto bug skittering along the wall without a shred of fear of the humans in the room.
    “Welcome, North,” Big J said from a dark corner of the room. My eyes adjusted to the gloom and I looked over in the direction I’d heard