Page 29 of Dirty Like Jude
I took a breath and tried not to dance around. Becauseshit, yes. I’d convinced her. More orless.
I wassopulling thisoff.
When her hand landed on the door handle, she glanced back at me. “Are youcoming?”
I blinked at her. It took a mere half-second to dawn on me that DJ Summer, party queen, was inviting me to party withher.
And there was only one response to an invitation likethat.
“Absolutely.”
Chapter Six
Jude
12:04 am.
The Artemis Club was packed, and I didn’t exactly have a ticket or a pair of tits, but I did know one of the bouncers, so getting in wasn’t aproblem.
Blending in was a little more of an issue. Which was why surveillance was never gonna be a realistic career fallback for me. I wasn’t exactly a dude who could blend into a crowd. Anycrowd.
Not like Lexcould.
So I just stood back in the darkest corner I could find, and watched. I watched Roni watch theshow.
I’d let Lex go for the night when I arrived, taking over for him. When he’d texted me that Roni was here, I’d removed my Kings cut, tucked it away in a saddlebag on my bike, hopped on and drove for an hour, all the way into downtown Vancouver, and walked straight into thisclub.
Why? Fuck if I’d totally figured that outyet.
All I knew was Roni was here and now, so wasI.
And Tazewasn’t.
Lex had made that clear; Roni had gone out, on a Saturday night, to a club—alone.
Without her degenerate boyfriend intow.
Which meant—yeah, maybe I was optimistic as fuck, but just fuckingmaybeit meant that even though she’d kept him around for the last ten months she was finally getting tired ofhim.
Just fucking maybe this was myopening.
My chance to drive a wedge between the two of them—somehow.
I’d already tried to warn her off Taze, twice. And failed. She’d seemed to take my words of warning about Taze as seriously as shit-all nothing. I could’ve coughed up evidence; something to show her rather than tell her what a piece of garbage her Sinner boyfriend was. Undoubtedly, that would’ve gotten my pointacross.
But going that route would’ve endangered Roni, so it was neverhappening.
Which meant I really only had one other card to play. The only real leverage I’d ever had withRoni.
That fucking combustible spark betweenus.
I knew for a fact—an uncomfortable, painful fact—that, despite what a “Wild Card” so many of my friends insisted on labeling her, Roni Webber was not the type of woman who would cheat on her boyfriend. No matter what a piece of shit hewas.
But maybe she’d seriously consider ridding herself of him if a better option camealong.
Obviously, I was that betteroption.
It wasn’t like I was gonna offer to be her boyfriend. I’d made it pretty clear to her the last time we fucked that that was never gonnahappen.
