Page 10 of Riding Dirty

I grip the steering wheel so tightly that my knuckles turn white. I’m not sure what the actual fuck Alex is doing, but I don’t want this big, burly badass to kill me. I open my mouth in an attempt to tell him that I’m sorry and to ignore Alex when the guy starts to laugh.

“It’s a stupid fuckin’ question, I know, but you can never be sure.”

He’s right… I guess, and maybe he didn’t see the magnet on my car. Who the hell knows? He leans down slightly. His smile is sexy as shit—straight white teeth, a dimple, the whole nine yards.

Sexy as hell.

I don’t know what they do. Do they purposely recruit sexy men? Because I haven’t seen one around here who isn’t downright hot as fuck.

“Go ahead. Drive straight down the road, and you’ll be at the clubhouse. Don’t go anywhere else.”

That is ominous as fuck, but also, I don’t ask any questions. I thank him, he dips his chin, then turns and heads back toward the little guard shack before he opens the gate for me to drive through. Giving him a small wave, I press my foot against the gas pedal, and the car gently lurches forward.

“That was intense, but he’s hot,” Alex announces.

“They’re all hot.”

CHAPTER

SEVEN

ELODIE

Maybe I underestimated my rates. I’m on my hands and knees scrubbing some hard, sticky substance from the corner of a bedroom floor and wondering if anyone has ever cleaned this building in their lives.

I definitely don’t think that these guys are as sexy as I did when I walked in here. What they are is disgusting. Complete animals. There’s a noise behind me, and I turn my head, looking over my shoulder to see Alex standing in the doorway, a bucket in one hand and a caddy full of cleaning supplies in the other.

“We are not getting paid enough for this shit,” he snaps.

Considering he was in charge of the bathrooms, I’m going to assume he’s correct. We did not charge enough. I glide my arm over my forehead, wiping some of the sweat away, before I spin around and plop my ass down on a clean spot on the floor.

“Agreed,” I state before letting out a heavy exhale. “I really should have taken a good look around. I mean, he gave me a tour, but I didn’t really look too closely. I was freaked out and excited. I didn’t really see anything.”

Alex snorts. “And it doesn’t help that it’s as dark as a fucking medieval dungeon in here. We’re going to bring lights next time. Big ones. Because I think there’s some scary-as-fuck shit lurking around this place.”

I would laugh at his words, but they’re far too accurate to even find funny at this point. I hold my breath for a moment, letting my lungs burn a bit before I release it in a whoosh.

“Luckily, this is probably the worst of it. The rest of the cleanings will be upkeep and to avoid this shit happening again,” I state.

Alex rolls his eyes to the ceiling, then levels me with them after he brings them down. “It’s going to be like this all the time. These guys are straight-up pigs,” he snaps. Then he lets out a shaky sigh before he continues. “But that being said, we need the money, and this is cash, so I’m going to allow it.”

“Thanks for that,” I say with a laugh.

“But I’m going to bitch about it,” he snaps before he spins around and walks out of the room. I can’t help but laugh, because I’m going to do the same damn thing—bitch constantly.

Turning back around, I get back on my hands and knees to continue my work. I do that, cleaning each of the bedrooms I was instructed to clean. By the time I finish those, Alex has also finished the bathrooms, and we tackle the kitchen together.

He bitches the entire time, only stopping when the swinging door opens and a couple of people traipse through to get something out of the fridge. None of them say a single word. In fact, they don’t even look in our direction. They get their snacks and walk back out as if we don’t even exist.

“Is that weird?” Alex asks.

I shrug, not sure what their deal is. I signed the NDA, as did Alex. We can’t talk about anything that happens here, but maybe it’s like those cults I watch documentaries on, and they aren’t really allowed to talk to outsiders.

“It is, but maybe they don’t want to disturb us while we’re working?” I ask.

He makes a noise in the back of his throat and goes back to cleaning the oven. Meanwhile, I get to work on the front of the cabinet doors, which are grimy as hell. Yeah, definitely didn’t charge enough for this job.

Once I have the cabinets cleaned and Alex has the appliances shined up, it’s time for the floors. Filling up my bucket, I look around and realize I’m going to have to get on my hands and knees for these ones, too. With each step I take, I can feel a layer of something on the floor.