Page 30 of Intent to Kill
“That’s... actually a really good idea,” Adam smiled, sitting up with his elbows resting on his knees.
“It’s called having a plan,” Carlos teased.
* * *
DECEMBER 1985
It was a December tradition in Ridge City to celebrate the holiday season with a string of festivals on its rich sandy beaches. The biggest attraction was the boardwalk, a wooden deck set up over the sand, with a tiki bar, tables, chairs and a row of seats along the back to look out over the water.
With high spirits, Adam and his crew came to the beach to celebrate the success of a small job they completed that day. When they arrived, the place was already packed tighter than a toy store on Christmas Eve. And had a similar amount of gusto.
Young partiers pushed past Adam, all wearing bikinis and shorts to display their beach bodies, as he worked through the crowd.
He found Mercedes nestled along the boardwalk, hands resting on the wooden bar, sipping on a cocktail as she gazed out over the ocean. It was as if the sky opened only to let the sun shine onto her golden hair, and the crowd parted like the sea to clear his path to her.
“Hello, you.” He sounded breathless. Like he’d run a marathon sprint to get to her side, and while he felt like that could be true, his breath was lost to her because his heart was, too.
He placed his hand on the small of her back, and Mercedes pushed back her mirrored sunglasses to kiss him with passion, pulling away with a smile that made him feel like the world rested directly in his palm.
“What’re we drinking?” Paul popped his head in between them, killing the moment. Perhaps intentionally, Adam thought, judging by the smug look on his face.
“Any kind of whiskey,” Adam replied.
“Another, please.” Mercedes waved her cocktail glass, handing it to Paul, who moved off to take more orders from Dan and Carlos who were sitting at a table nearby.
“I’m already feeling a little buzzed, you know,” Mercedes said. “I don’t think it’s the booze.”
Adam smiled at her gentle tone. “And why might that be, baby?”
“You seem to think you have all the answers. Can’t you guess?”
For a moment he lost himself in her eyes, twinkling in the sunset. Not dreamy, but mesmerizing and hypnotic, like a thunderstorm. Then her lips, peachy and pink, but thin and taut like a predator’s. God knows, Adam knew she liked to bite.
“Come help me carry the drinks,” Paul ordered, clasping Adam on the shoulder, and, for the second time that day, ruining the moment. Once again, that bastard was smirking.
Only having been at the bar for a few moments, leaning against it with his elbows, Adam chanced a look over his shoulder at the girl to whom he had a serious confession to make.
But what he saw dropped all those floaty, airy feelings right out of him. Back at the boardwalk, Dorian Blake was approaching Mercedes, leaning over her and smirking like she was the most delicious meal he’d ever eyed. And he was simply waiting to devour her.
Adam’s smile turned into a wary frown, and the way Blake stroked Mercedes’s upper arm was enough to make him forget all about the drinks being piled up in front of him and strut right over to where they stood.
Adam sidled up next to Mercedes on the deck and kept his eyes trained forward. Listening, but poised to back her up. Blake didn’t know who Adam was,yet, and wouldn’t sense the threat until it had him in a choke hold.
“You are a vision today, darling,” Blake said, his finger stroking her tanned skin.
“You’re a shameless flirt,” Mercedes replied with a smile, but still she subtly removed Blake’s hand.
“You enjoy my parties?”
“You throw a good party, you know that,” she agreed, and Adam cringed at the sound of her flirtatious voice.
Even at the beach, Blake still dressed in his business suit with the sleeves pushed up to reveal the expensive watch on his wrist and the diamond rings on his fingers. His clean white skin was a far cry from Adam’s rough, olive-toned and heavily tattooed sleeve. Watching Mercedes with him, he realized that he and Blake were polar opposites, two ends of a completely unrelated spectrum.
“Maybe you come by my place a bit later. After you’re done messing around here.”
Adam stiffened.
“Was that a question?”
