Eva sat next to me in the cab on the way to the meetup site with Marco. Her hair blew in the wind like she was a puppy looking out the window. For our border crossing, she had donned denim short shorts and a black spaghetti strap tank top. I could hardly believe I was looking at the same woman that I saw in the office earlier today in slacks and a blazer. I couldn’t get over her ability to vacillate between being the kind of woman you’d be scared to confront in the boardroom to the woman that you would want to grind on late at night at the club to some cumbia beats while you felt her flesh up against you.

I held the rubik’s cube in my hand, very aware that all of our conversations from here on out would be recorded under the watchful ears of Ned and his team. Not that I cared if Ned or anyone else heard us fucking like rabbits, which I was pretty sure we might have to do.

Anything other than that would make Marco suspicious. And I knew he’d be watching us somehow since we were going to be on his turf at the mansion.

“So is this pretty much your fantasy weekend?” she whispered so the cab driver couldn’t hear. We never knew who might be an informant for Marco. “You get to bring me across the border to Mexico and dominate me, eh?”

I smiled. “Are you saying you’re not going to love being my mistress for a few days? Secretly, of course. You don’t have to admit it to any of your friends,” I teased.

“Oh yes! That’s what I’ve always wanted to be. How about we start things off on the right foot. Make sure we’re in character.”

“What do you mean?”

Eva took off her seatbelt and straddled my lap. She ran her hand along my tattooed bicep down to my forearm. “I mean we should arrive to this airfield showing Marco what a great little mami I am for my papi.”

“Eva—”

She slapped my cheek and grabs my jaw. “There is no more Eva. Only Alexa.” She whispered in my ear and bit slightly on my lobe. My cock simmered beneath her.

“Fuck yes. I like Alexa,” I said as she ran her hand up and down my chest. She let her mouth hang half open, her luscious red lips tempting me. She kissed me on the cheek.

“Awwww. Is my papi getting duro?”

Eva pressed her cheek against mine and put a hand on my abs, poking a delicate finger under my pants and belt.

“You’re so sexy, papi,” she whispered again in my ear. “Mmm, I love it when you get all worked up.”

“No one gets me as worked up as you do,” I growled.

The cab driver slammed on the brakes, jerking Eva from her position on top of me.

“We’re here,” he said.

There was a rap on the window and I lowered it. It was Marco, staring at us with a gun in his hands.

“Nice to see your girl is taking care of you,” he said, glancing at Eva with a dark smile.

Eva swallowed. I shot her a look that said relax, we’re fine as Marco opened the door and we were met by the cool night air. We were at the outskirts of town now, and could see a few more stars than we could in the city of San Diego. A couple of thuggish looking men in tattoos stood behind Marco with their arms crossed.

“These are Hugo and Pablo,” Marco said, nodding toward them.

“You expecting a fight sometime soon?” I asked.

“When visiting a man like Luis Reyes, you can never be too sure who you’ll meet en route,” Marco answered with a wry smile. “Now, I hope you two don’t mind. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but…” he snapped his finger and nodded at the two men, who proceeded to give us each a personal pat-down from head to toe. They also unzipped our bags and Eva’s purse and rifled through them.

“Is this how you treat all of your respected guests?” I said and stretched my arms over my head. “I thought the purpose of this trip was to talk about a partnership.”

“Of course it is,” Marco says. “And trust, me, there is no one I should trust more. But you know how it is in this business. Luis Reyes is a man of extreme precaution, even with his friends.”

“With enemies like that…” Eva chimed in.

“Does your woman always talk this much?” Marco cut her off.

“She has a bad habit of speaking,” I smirked. Eva didn’t flinch.

Marco’s man finished patting me down. “He’s clean, boss.”

The man who had patted down Eva nodded as well. Not like she had a whole lot of places to check in those tight-ass jeans.

“Bueno,” Marco said. “Let’s board the plane.” He gestured to a large black Hummer parked in the lot.

“Perfect. Where does the plane take off from?” I asked.

“From here,” Marco said. “We’ve nicknamed our Hummer The Plane. I hope it’s not too confusing for you. But it helps to confuse the authorities. They’ll intercept real texts and conversations about a ‘plane’ and spend the next 48 hours monitoring the border air traffic. Meanwhile, we’re gone, on the ground. It’s quite genius, actually.” He gestured to his bodyguards, and they pick up Eva’s and my bags. “Shall we?”

I nodded and walked toward the vehicle.

“After you, mi amor,” Marco said, waiting for Eva to pass. “I’ll bring up the rear if you don’t mind.”

Marco stared at Eva as she walked toward the van. He surveyed her body up and down and smiled ever so slightly at her. I’d been acquainted with Marco long enough to know that he was like a little kid when it came to women: he coveted the ones he couldn’t have, and that’s exactly what he was doing at this precise moment: coveting Eva.

I locked eyes with Eva for a moment when I helped her into the Hummer. If she was nervous, she hid it well. I was about to follow her into the vehicle when Marco stopped me by grabbing my arm.

“Alexa is incredible. I even love the way she walks,” he said. “You simply must let me try her during your visit.” Marco scratched his head with the nozzle of his old fashioned gun, a colt forty-five.

“I’ll think about it. I’ve been keeping her pretty busy.”

“I see. Well, for now, I’ll settle for just sitting in the back with her. Why don’t you have a seat with the girl I’ve brought for the night, Louisa.”

Fuck if I was letting Marco chat with Eva for the whole ride.

“I think the men should sit in back. Talk business. Leave the whores up front.”

Marco thought about it for a second. “Yes, that’s good. Alexa, sit in the front with Louisa.”

She hopped in, flashing a devilishly sexy smile at Marco and I.

This was going to be tougher than I thought. Finding Luis Reyes—that would be the easy part. The difficult part was going to be making sure Marco left her the fuck alone.

I had to make sure he knew she was mine and only mine.