Dirty Money Read online

  Table of Contents

  Synopsis

  By the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  About the Author

  Books Available from Bold Strokes Books

  Synopsis

  Vivian Cooper and Reese DiGiovanni just found out that falling in love is hard. It’s even harder when you’re running for your life.

  Cooper, Reese, and Ryan have escaped to Mexico. But they aren’t safe. The DiGiovannis want their money and their progeny back. And Cooper doesn’t feel like letting the money or the twins go. That is until she realizes exactly what she’s up against.

  In a moment of anger, desperation, and fear, Cooper makes a mistake that will cost her. First, the gold disappears. Then the twins abandon her. Cooper is left broke and heartbroken. And the only person she can turn to is the man she has been running from.

  Second in the Dirty Trilogy.

  Dirty Money

  Brought to you by

  eBooks from Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

  http://www.boldstrokesbooks.com

  eBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

  Please respect the rights of the author and do not file share.

  Dirty Money

  © 2013 By Ashley Bartlett. All Rights Reserved.

  ISBN 13: 978-1-60282-833-9

  This Electronic Book is published by

  Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

  P.O. Box 249

  Valley Falls, New York 12185

  First Edition: February 2013

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

  Credits

  Editor: Cindy Cresap

  Production Design: Susan Ramundo

  Cover Design By Sheri ([email protected])

  By the Author

  Sex and Skateboards

  Dirty Sex

  Dirty Money

  Acknowledgments

  Dirty Money was the most difficult of the Dirties to write. It is a very lonely novel, and I hope you’ll forgive me for that.

  A number of people helped make writing this a less solitary experience. I sent out a massive amount of texts and e-mails asking very obscure questions, and these people responded like champs.

  Metal Dave, when I gave you bizarre and improbable scenarios, you always managed to decipher them and give me the information I was looking for. You helped me with things I didn’t even know to ask about.

  Massive hugs to everyone at BSB. You guys make me look good and I know that is a serious challenge. Carsen, I think I might owe you my first-born at this point. But you’ll have to settle for my childish antics instead. Cindy, I’m not sure how you make editing into a really entertaining bitch slap, but you do. That’s a good thing, by the way.

  As always, thanks to my family. I offer this, a book without the word Sex in the title. Hopefully, that will make it a little easier to brag. Also easier to explain to the kids.

  Finally, to you darling reader. Thank you. Not just for buying this book. But for buying the multitude that came before it. For building and sustaining this community that the seventeen-year-old me wanted very much to be a part of.

  All of you, thank you.

  Dedication

  For Meg.

  Because she loves me. Dirty or not.

  Chapter One

  It was fucking hot. Like dripping sweat, eyes watering, dry mouth, burning hot. We didn’t have any more water, just a couple Mountain Dews, one of which I was drinking. The warm carbonation was a surprising reprieve from the syrupy sweetness working its way down my throat.

  We had the windows down, of course, and the stereo bumpin’ Mexican rap at a deafening volume. I couldn’t understand most of it, except I caught the words dirty and rich, and I was pretty sure we qualified. In the backseat, my best friend Ryan was sprawled on the sticky leather wearing only his boxers with his feet out the window. His sunglasses had slid far enough down his face to show that he was totally crashed. Evidently, his sister Reese took that as an invitation.

  She leaned close enough to be heard over the stereo. “Does he still sleep like when he was little?” Her fingertip traced along the edge of my sweat-soaked boxer briefs.

  “Huh?” I brushed her hand away and studied the shimmering road. “Don’t touch me. I’m gross.”

  “When he was a kid, it was impossible to wake him up.” Her fingers moved over my thigh again.

  “So?” I picked up her wrist and set her hand in her own lap. It was already too hot and I didn’t have any more clothes to take off. Her skin felt like it was burning mine. Not good.

  “Just wondering.” She pushed my ribbed tank top up and licked the sweat from around my belly button.

  “Stop it.”

  The tank top was lifted high enough to expose my nipples to the hot wind swirling through the car. Reese sucked one into her mouth, not hard, just playing with it, just fucking with me.

  “Babe,” I said.

  “I’m trying to help you cool off.” She captured my other nipple between her fingertips.

  Automatically, my hips jerked. “Really, really not working.” I forced myself to concentrate on driving.

  “Oh, sorry.” She twisted my nipple. My spine started to tingle. “I mean, I’m trying to relax you.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding.” My eyes flicked to the rearview mirror. Ryan hadn’t moved. “What if he wakes up?”

  “That would suck.” Reese stopped playing with my nipples. I started breathing again, not sure if I was happy that she was giving me a reprieve. She jacked up the stereo. I didn’t know it could go any higher. Turned out that was good though because as soon as I looked back at the road, she reached over, grabbed my cunt, and squeezed enough to make me groan.

  Reese laughed and said something I couldn’t hear. She started massaging me through the damp cotton, finding that spot at the base of my clit that felt so fucking good.

  I tilted my hips forward without meaning to. I just wanted to come so bad, didn’t want her to stop. The girl was evil. She was just watching the road and smiling.

  Through gritted teeth, I murmured, “Harder. Please, babe. Do it harder.” She couldn’t hear me so I placed my hand over hers and pressed her fingers into my pulsing flesh. The rough material of my underwear scraped against my clit bringing me that much closer to release. My head started to swim, and I didn’t think it was from the heat. Fuck, I wanted to come.

  Reese slid her thumb into the opening of my boxer briefs and started squeezing, releasing, jerking me off until finally, fucking finally, I came.

  “You bitch,” I murmured. Reese started laughing. The stereo drowned out both of us.

  *

  “Let me out.” Ryan tried the door handle and, finding it locked, climbed out the window one-handed. He stood in the dirt parking lot and stared up at the adobe arch
way marked San Felipe Storage Co.

  “How is he not burning his feet?” Reese asked as if I would know why Ryan was such a freak. Ryan still wasn’t wearing anything except his boxers and sunglasses. The strip of duct tape was still on his arm, peeling slightly at the edges, but holding up okay. We probably needed to clean that.

  “I don’t know.” I grabbed my flips-flops and got out of the car. It wasn’t any cooler outside. My sweaty clothes clung to my skin all hot and wet. Reese tossed me a pair of board shorts so I pulled those on too.

  “Are we sure this is a good idea?” Ryan asked as I joined him.

  “Nope.”

  “Who is going inside?” Reese came around the front of the car.

  Ryan and I looked at ourselves then back at her. We were tore up. Three hours of driving through a desert will do that to you, and since the border, that’s all we’d seen. Dry, hot dirt. Not to mention the fact that my face was still every single color of the rainbow from my beating and Ryan could barely move his left arm from being shot. Reese, on the other hand, looked like sunshine and fucking daisies in a flowy white skirt and sexy little tank top. Not even sweating. Girl was impervious to heat.

  “You,” we told her simultaneously.

  “Fine.” She rolled her eyes and flounced into the office. Five minutes later, she came back out and got in the car. We stared at her. “What?”

  “Did you get a unit?” I thought that was a normal question.

  She glared. “Yeah.”

  “You want to show me where it is?” I got back in the driver’s seat. Ryan got in back with a loud sigh.

  “No. I’m going to make you guess.” Sarcastic bitch.

  She directed me through the gate and pointed out the correct door. After I stopped the car, I watched her climb out. I could almost see her pale underwear through the skirt. Okay, maybe it was my imagination.

  “So this is just temporary, right?” I asked as I followed Reese into the building. Air-conditioning hit me so hard my breath caught in my chest and my eyes started to water.

  “Yeah.” She graced me with a backward glance and the hint of a smile. “Just until we figure out where we’re going and find a plane to take us there.”

  “You sure it’s okay to leave it here?”

  “Better than leaving it in a motel room.” That was reassuring. Reese stopped at a door and typed a number into the keypad set on the handle. “The code is your mom’s name. It was the best I could come up with.”

  “It doesn’t need a padlock? Shit. That’s fancy.” Where the hell were we?

  “Why do you think I chose this place?” The door popped open.

  “You’re smart.”

  “I know.”

  We started back as Ryan rounded the corner with the first bag of gold. Reese told him the number of the storage locker. He nodded. We passed him again on the way back in.

  “Door’s still open,” he let us know.

  Reese went ahead of me into the storage unit, shouldering the door open wider. With the weight she was carrying, the muscles in her arms stood out. She looked fucking good.

  “Babe,” I said before she could set the bags down.

  “What?” She turned to look at me. A single line of sweat trailed down her chest and disappeared into her cleavage. So she was human.

  “You’re kind of ripped.”

  “Right.” Reese stared at my arms. “I’m toned. You’re ripped.”

  “For real?” Slowly, I raised the bags I was carrying so my muscles would tense more. She rolled her eyes. “You into that?”

  “Shut up.” Reese set her bags on the floor and crossed to where I was standing. A ripple went down my spine as she drew a fingertip across my bicep. “You know I’m into it.”

  I dropped the bags and slammed her back into the wall. Reese tilted her hips forward into mine.

  “Tease.” My whispered word echoed faintly through the cement chamber.

  In response, she bit me. The scrape of teeth on my neck went straight to my cunt, burning everything in its path. Then she kissed me sweetly. All lips and nothing else. Girl really was a tease. Her hands were already under my shirt playing over my shoulder blades and down my spine. Just as she shoved her tongue into my mouth, Ryan sauntered in with his load.

  “Oh, come the fuck on.” His bag crashed to the floor. A wrapped gold bar fell out and slid a couple inches.

  Reese and I broke apart looking guilty. She smoothed her skirt. I fixed my shirt.

  “I’m really, really trying to be cool here.” He rocked forward until he was standing on his bare toes, then back onto his heels. “But it’s just not working.” He tossed his hands into the air in surrender. “Just keep it where I can’t see it, all right?”

  Yep, we should have told him sooner. Sleeping with your best friend’s sister is a terrible idea. Not telling your best friend about it is an even worse idea. Ryan was taking it well though. He’d known for almost twenty-four hours, and he hadn’t shot either of us. Okay, my interpretation of taking it well might have been a little warped.

  “Sorry, bro.” I studied the ground, unconsciously reaching for Reese’s hand. Smooth, warm fingers slid into my palm. “We’re not trying to screw with you.”

  “I know, I know. Fuck. It’s just icky for me.” Seemingly at a loss for what to do, he slapped his arms down to his sides and started worrying the material of his boxers. He still wasn’t wearing pants.

  “Icky?” Reese asked.

  “Shut up,” he said. “I’ll get used to it. I swear. Just go easy on me.” Reese opened her mouth to respond. “If you don’t,” Ryan cut her off, “I’ll shoot Coop.” Like that, the mood changed from bickering children to the mocking boy I loved. A grin broke out across Ryan’s face.

  “I can’t help that your sister’s hot, dude.”

  “Don’t push it.” He lost the grin. “I’ll drop you like a bad habit.”

  “Darlin’.” I let go of Reese’s hand so I could shove past him. “That’s my line.”

  “Yeah, whatever.”

  Hey, at least he was coping.

  *

  San Felipe was a town full of retired Americans, windsurfers, and caravans of dune buggies. Not really my scene. We all had one thing in common though. Booze. It was the same as El Dorado Hills where we were willing to put aside our differences over inconsequential things like abortion and gay rights and taxes for the shared joy of mainlining tequila and shotgunning beers. Sadly, Reese didn’t appreciate my alcohol guzzling ability. She did, however, let me look up her skirt. Then she went back to dancing with a super pretty boy with better moves than me. I went to find Ryan.

  “This place is full of bros,” Ryan told me.

  “Don’t worry. I won’t let them beat you up.” He was right though. The cantina was filled with dudes who were half frat boy and half surfer and not successful at either. A lovely breed of stupid guy whose vocabulary consisted of “Cha-way” and not much else.

  “Tequila?” Ryan pushed one of two shots toward me.

  “Thanks.” I reached for the shot and brushed up against him in the process. He hissed and moved away. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “My arm.” He kind of looked like he was going to hurl. “It hurts like a fucking bitch.”

  I’d thought he was drunk. Well, he probably was, but I realized his murky eyes and the slightly nauseated look were from pain.

  “Shit. I knew we needed to clean that.” I grabbed his uninjured arm and helped him off the barstool.

  “Where are we going?” Ryan leaned into me so I was supporting most of his weight.

  “Bathroom.” I led him carefully through the crowded cantina trying to make sure no one hit his arm. We pushed inside what functioned as a bathroom and locked the door. “Don’t touch anything,” I warned him. It smelled like booze and piss. There were stains on the floor and walls that could have been any one of many bodily fluids.

  “’Kay.” Ryan immediately leaned back against the wall. Great listener.
>
  I rolled the sleeve of his T-shirt up and picked at the edge of the tape. “You want me to go fast or slow?”

  “Don’t care.” He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his head back into the wall. “Just do it.”

  “All right.” In my head, I counted to three then ripped the tape off.

  Ryan screamed and dry heaved a little, but he didn’t throw up. Slowly, he started to sink to the ground.

  “Shit.” I caught him before he fell to the questionable floor and hauled him back up to face me. “Ryan.” No response. “Ryan, look at me.”

  “That really hurt.” He raised wet eyes to mine.

  “Shit, I know. I’m sorry.”

  “’S okay. Thought I was going to hurl.” He still looked like he might. Beads of sweat were gathering on his face, and I’d never seen him look so pale.

  “Are you all right now? Can I look at your arm?”

  “Yeah. Go for it.” Again, he closed his eyes and leaned his head back.

  There was a good amount of pinkish custard color pus seeping from the wound. Both fresh and dried blood streaked the edge of the gash. His arm wasn’t swollen, at least not much. It didn’t look great.

  The last week had been filled with quite enough horror for my appetite. I really didn’t feel like looking at the physical, oozing remnants of that horror.

  “Superglue was a shitty idea,” I told Ryan.

  “Isn’t that what they use for stitches now?” He still had his eyes closed.

  “Sort of. Sometimes. I guess for smaller cuts.” We should have taken him to a hospital. “We need to get out of here.”

  “Where’s Reese?”

  “Dancing.” I considered taking him out there with me, but I decided it would be easier with Reese helping. “How drunk are you?”

  “As much as you.” Ryan opened his eyes. “I’ve had maybe four shots.” He was one up on me. “And a beer.” Make that two up.