Sun in the South |• Southern Horror Series

2. Knife Edge

For no reason at all, she looked around the marquee. Okay, maybe she wanted to be sure no one would dare imagine she, Yvonne Perez, had degraded from law courts and Pearls of Eve, to the backseat of a Mayor's Acura, not to mention that she even had eyes on him for whatever reason.

She was still figuring all that out when she miraculously spotted demon Javier coming out of an arch to her far left. It was a fitting moment, his demonic ways of doing things surpassing his nature as a normal human being, because rather than urging her with a smile to follow the Mayor, he kept a straight face she could read as a final warning.

"Fuck you." Javier read her lips tell him, and he smirked cockily, mouthing back to her, "Gladly."

Giggling at their first victory since the meeting, thirteen days ago, Yvonne started walking out of the marquee.

Two weeks ago, she'd struck a deal with the board of directors, begging them to give her five months to pay up her four million dollar debt with the firm, or almost the entirety of her shares would be used as liquidation.

Lawson had the right stuff to get the rest into doing what he wanted. He'd buy the shares, and that would automatically lead Yvonne out of Pearls of Eve and Associates.

Nothing in the world, asides her daughter, was more important than that firm to her, she couldn't lose it.

With advanced determination, she boldened her steps and walked out of the building and into the airy night that made her dress move as if it was alive. Before she began the search for the black Acura, she noticed that the parking lot was thinner. A lot of cars had left. Probably off, performing sugar daddy duties. The sophisticated hussies were fewer now and it made her stand out.

It was very obvious this wasn't her profession; fucking rich men for a new pair of Louis Vuitton, a bottle of Giorgio Armani perfume, a mansion, or worse—to save a firm she inherited from her father. She was only skilled at grabbing men's attention without effort, having sex with them after an intellectual conversation, and concluding if they were keepable or throwable. If the former, then as what?

But you see the whole getting a man to notice you so you could pretend to like the long, boring talks just because you'd need to ask a favor from him after a while? Her incapability was tearing her down as she looked at how the other women effortlessly did it and joined affluent men in their sleek cars. Men that didn't come with their wives to an occasion like this obviously knew exactly what they were doing.

Yvonne sighed heavily one last time and then looked upfront, just as her eyes caught a black car. It wasn't Acura. She looked to her left first, sighting other black luxury cars and then her right, when she still didn't see the Acura.

It was his entourage she saw first. They wore black suits and shirts that they knotted with black ties, and they had earbuds hung in their left ears. The white headlamps swept the few meters between the car and another in front of it. It was in this moment she noticed one his his escorts was fluttering his palm for her to come to them.

She launched forward, cautiously optimistic about this as she summoned her graceful strides.

As she made the long walk down, she only heard one voice—the managing director's, how he called her back after everyone at the meeting had stepped out and told her he didn't know how she wanted to pay off the debt like she'd signed. He'd said if she couldn't, it'd please him more. And he said it with scorn.

Coming from a man that worked along side her father, a man that put her through the pros and cons of the firm, she knew she was in big trouble. He'd not strike another deal with her after four months, and none of the board directors would even listen to her sorry case of a wrong investment that had slowly drained her pocket. No one would care, and Lawson would get the chance to buy her shares and make the company his.

The guy by the door immediately pulled it open and Yvonne was met with the fresh scent of Oud that breezed from the cool, dark car. She didn't hold Vasquez's gaze for more than a second before climbing into the car and installing herself on the seat by his right hand side. Then she could no longer feel her heart beating. She could only hear herself breathing and hoped Vasquez wasn't hearing it too.

Thing is, he was even too busy with the book in his hands to notice and acknowledge her, so she waited and waited, long enough for her to lose track of time.

Seemed like Vasquez wanted to finish the chapter of the book - she didn't know anything about - before he proceeded with whatever, because as soon as he read the last line, he slammed it shut and put it, not aside, but in a place where Yvonne could read the title: 'Manipulation'—How To Master The Art Of Analyzing People And Influence Human Behavior With Dark Psychology And Mind Control Techniques.

Nearly melting to death, Yvonne's eyes went further down to the author. She almost choked on her saliva, striving heavily to stay composed.

"Pardon me, I'm always very engrossed in those. I should have spoken earlier," Vasquez mentioned, eyeing her purposely while she eyed the book on the hand-rest and worked through the immediate curiosity that befell her.

Eventually, after about fifteen seconds, Yvonne peeled her eyes off the book and faced Vasquez with a light smile. "I understand, I'm a reader myself."

"Oh? Interesting. What genre do you read?"

"The Rule of Law by Tom Bingham," she giggled, taking Vasquez unawares.

He didn't get it, so Yvonne went further. "The Constitution?" She watched his reaction closely, biting down her tongue.

Most men extremely liked lawyers or extremely hated them, she couldn't hide her profession from him because she knew what she wanted and knew she couldn't get it by being secretive about something like that, or she'd waste the time she didn't have on him when he'd not hesitate dump her after knowing what she did for a living.

Vasquez's face carved out a sketchy expression that Yvonne couldn't explain. "You're a lawyer?"

She nodded. Then it went awkwardly quiet for the next minute.

"That's interesting." His comment was unexpected but it made Yvonne feel better. Interesting was a good word, wasn't it?

Soon after, the car geared up and started moving. Yvonne looked outside through the tinted window and saw the marquee turn into city buildings as the car zoomed into the expressway. She looked back into the car and caught Vasquez staring at her.

"Where do you want me to take you?" He asked, and she got the chance to notice a few things about his features.

The jaws that accommodated finely shaved stubbles were slightly broad. His turn-up nose sat solemnly between two sexy sterling gray eyes. And, he had a very handsome and warming toothy smile.

"Anywhere comfortable that we can talk," she suggested.

Asides his pathological choice of books, he was everything she wanted in a man, everything she thought Dave Collin was when she saw his profile on Tinder. She liked men whose physique gave her insecurities about her own drop-dead hot body. It was a big turn on. If she was going to use a man for his money, she had better liked showing him off and got turned on by little things he did. Like the way he slanted his left eye after squinting it.

Vasquez poked his head forward to have access to his driver's side view. "We're going to the house."

The news hit Yvonne with equally matched emotions of absolute desire and uncertainty. Him taking her to his house was a good thing because men like him liked to fuck their one night stands in hotels, and not their houses. But the flip side of that was that she didn't know what to expect in a mayor's house on the first day they were encountering each other. A drink? Conversation on politics or law? Food? Or maybe homely sex.

Bloody hell.

Her head was racing, but she concluded one thing within her, she was ready for whatever he needed, he even had a very desirable way of stating those needs. She was aroused by a lot of things about him, so that was good.

Ultimately, he didn't have a wife she needed to be worried about, so what could possibly go wrong?

Nothing, she thought. Absolutely nothing.