Page 170 of Soul So Dark

“Shut up and keep your eyes open,” I chuckle as I pull the tracker out of my pocket.

I get to work confirming it’s ready to go and attach a couple of strips of double-sided tape to the little black box. Holding my phone up with its flashlight on, I’m surveying the landscape, deciding where I want to place the GPS when I hear Aiden’s voice again.

“The snake is heading your way.”

Now?

I reach up, pick an inconspicuous spot, and press the tracker against the metal. Soon enough, two pairs of feet stroll past Aiden’s. They step off the curb, not giving him a thought. After all, who really pays attention to the guy outside the bar on his phone?

When I glance to the side, one pair of boots and one pair of Nikes are less than two feet from my head. There’s a click as Bowen unlocks the door, but he doesn’t get in right away.

“She a salad?” Bowen asks, giving me pause.

“A salad?” the other voice responds.

“Yeah, a Sucks-A-Lot-A-Dick.”

The other guy bursts into laughter as I roll my eyes beneath the truck. Watching their shoes, I start negotiating my exit strategy so that the other guy doesn’t see me, but I don’t get flattened by Bowen in the process.

“Yeah, she’s fucking wild,” he replies, “she’s just—"

“Just what?”

“She likes that dark shit too much. It’s hot behind closed doors, but she needs to tone it down around everyone else. Dallas is fun, but she looks like she’s just waiting for you to fall asleep so she can drink your blood.”

As soon as I hear her name, my muscles tense and I’m on high alert. Who the fuck is this? I open my mouth, but think better of it. There’s no way I can say anything to Aiden without blowing my cover.

“So, she’ll get your dick wet but not stay in her lane?”

“Something like that.”

“Sounds like she has potential,” Bowen turns and leans against his door, his boots scuffling the gravel, “if you’re persuasive enough.”

“Like drugging her and giving her highlights?” the other guy snickers.

I still can’t recognize his voice, and the more he talks, the more I want to grab his ankles and drag him under the truck with me like a demon from hell.

“Fuck, no,” Bowen chuckles. “That’s why she’s your guilty pleasure, right? You like all that dark shit, you just don’t want anyone to know it.”

Aiden’s voice cuts in through my earbud. “Hang tight, you’re still invisible.”

As long as he tells me how much time I have before Bowen peels out of his parking space, we’ll be fine.

“She doesn’t get it,” the other guy complains. “All the pressure to maintain the status quo. That’s why it could never work out. It’s like when she games, she’s out for blood and it’s awesome. That’s how she is in real life, too, but she takes everything too personally.”

Shit, is this someone she games with?

“You just have to teach her,” Bowen says with nonchalance. “It’s not hard, if you have the stomach for it.”

“Like how?”

“If she sees you as everything she’s ever wanted, she’ll be much more amenable to your demands.”

“I should’ve done that a long time ago,” the guy mutters bitterly. “You know how much it fucking blows to get a taste of that only to realize too late that she’s one of these feminist chicks who can’t keep her damn mouth shut?”

Bowen lets out a laugh. “What are you, a fucking simp? That’s a challenge, right there. Once you finally break her, that shit’s on lock.”

“Knowing her, keeping her hog-tied would probably be an incentive,” the second guy laughs.