Allison slept through the entire Sunday morning not getting up until well into the afternoon. She pulled her phone off the charger. It had almost a hundred missed calls from the friends she had gone out with last night. She quickly FaceTimed Megan and told her she was at her house, fine and asked them to swing by her house on their way back to campus so she could pick up her car. They made plans to be there in a few hours.

She groaned and rolled out of bed, immediately getting in the shower and washing the previous night off of her. Noticing that the house was completely silent as she got out of the shower, she figured her mom was off with the kids somewhere. After towel drying her body and hair. She wrapped the fluffy white towel around her and tucked it in to itself, before making her way downstairs to get a much needed cup of coffee.

She leaned against the counter and waited for her cup of coffee to brew as she answered texts and looked through pictures sent to her from last night. She gasped as she came across a picture that Alysha sent her of her pressed up against the wall of the club by Rio, he was sucking on her neck and her head was rolled to the side. A look of sure contentment and a small smile on her face. She saw it on the school's anonymous blog, followed by a string of comments.

Not sure how long she was staring at the picture remembering all of last night, she looked up as she heard the back door slam open. Her hand immediately slammed the phone face down on the counter. She gasped as two of Rio's guys she recognized as Carlos and Billy carried an unconscious bleeding teenager in to her house. Rio trailed behind them, a shit eating grin on his face which only grew when he was what was covering her body. "Get him upstairs." Rio directed his voice in a commanding manner.

Allison shook her head, getting over the shock of them coming through that back door with someone who needed to be in the hospital. "No, no, no. Don't bring him upstairs." She tried to call after them, but they either didn't hear her or simply dismissed her instruction. She then turned to Rio, making sure her towel wouldn't move. "What are you doing here? What's with..?"

He took long strides towards her, backing her in to the fridge. "Ya mama wanted a job."

"You just gave her one." She argued. Did he not remember the bags of fake cash he handed over?

He shook his head and looked at her intently, any trace of humor gone. "Wasn't ya mama I distributed to." Her brows creased, surely he didn't think that she was going to wash all this money. She was a full time student, with little time as it was. "Was you darlin'." He gave her a very blatant once over. "It's you I'm letting take half ma money." The words should have made her feel special, but the way he bit them out in a harsh and angry tone made it seem like he was blaming her for agreeing to a deal. In a sense he was, he found himself not wanting to deny her greatest wishes, couldn't get her happiness out his mind.

"Technically it wasn't your money." She couldn't resist correcting him, no matter how angry he may have already been.

To her surprise, his lips twitched upwards at her sassing him. He shrugged and look another set closer to her, she was now pinned between his hard muscular body and the unmoving stainless steel fridge door. "Semantics." He then brought his hand up to brush her cheek and ran his fingertips down to where several light purple marks littered her neck and collar bone, smirking at how they looked on her skin, a reminder of what put them there flashing through his mind before he brought his eyes back to look at her. "Don't change the fact ya on the hook for a quarter mil, real cash."

Her mouth opened in surprise. She figured she was just the messenger. "I'm a full time student. I don't have time to do that." His eyes flashed at her dangerously, making her regret her words. "Please." He couldn't ignore how his cock twitched slightly at her begging.

He put a relaxed look on his face. "You're a smart girl, you'll figure it out." He believed his words more than she did. Still, she nodded and moved to pull away from him. He grabbed her hips immediately, stopping her and placing her back in her original position. She gasped as her towel slid a couple inches lower showing a substantial amount of cleavage. He looked down at her hungrily. "Remember' ya asked for this, sirenita."

She was breathless, her heart felt like it was about to explode from her chest, and the way his fingers tightened and moved along her skin made her center tingle. Dammit Allie, focus. "I asked you to work with my mom." His hands trailed down her sides to the bottom of her towel and let his fingertips grazed her upper thighs just under her towel. He cocked his head to the side, noticing her breathing become harder and practically able to smell her arousal in the air surrounding them over her freshly washed body. His face told her that he was over her arguing, but his eyes showed the deep lust and passion that brewed under the surface.

She looked up at him with clouded eyes. "What are you going to do if I can't?" Her mind flashed to the way he effortlessly shot the man that pervious night, but she immediately repressed it.

His eyes darkened and he flashed his teeth at her. His hands were now gripping her bare hips under the towel. Though she was scared of the capabilities of the man in front of her, she couldn't help herself from arching in to him. "You'll be finding out in a few weeks if ya don't hold up your end." His thumbs circled simultaneously and grazed the sides of her freshly shaved mound. He watched every micro expression change on her face. "Don't try to cross me, darlin'." His thumbs stroked back and forth teasingly. Lust was clouding her mind, making rational thought go out the window, he was intoxicating.

She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the fridge, suppressing a moan. "Okay, okay." She opened her eyes and found his face much closer than it had been before, they immediately shot to his lips. The corners pulled up at this. "I'll wash your money." His fingers were dancing across her lower abdomen, succeeding in winding her up immensely. She moved her legs together and clenched her thighs to alleviate the throbbing.

He slowly ran his hands down the sides of her body before removing them completely. She immediately felt cold and wanted him to continue. He ran his fingertip from the base of her jaw, up to her chin. "Ya do that, darlin'." He then stepped away from her and looked towards the stairs where his two guys were standing. A deep blush instantly covered her entire body and she pulled her towel closer to herself, wondering how long they had been there, how long Rio knew they were there.

Rio nodded his head towards the door and the two men moved to exit. He moved to do the same but stopped as he glanced at her freshly brewed cup of coffee.

He turned around and looked at her flushed profile. "This stuff'll kill ya, ya know?" She just shrugged and looked at him incredulously. "Just like that shit ya were rollin' on last night." She frowned, she knew. Still, she nodded at his words. He gave her one last once over before following the two out her back door. She watched through the kitchen window as they rounded around the house and disappeared down the driveway.

Allison warned her mother about the man she found the men disposed of in Emma's room and changed for the day. About an hour later, her friends picked her up and she made her way to campus to pick up her car. She was also glad to have her stuff she had left at Chase's brother's back. She had to dodge some pretty grilling questions about last night, but felt like she effectively talking it down.

She got back home well after dark and was starving for some leftovers. She walked in on her stressed looking mother and aunt and Ruby. "Great, what's going on now guys?" She gave Annie a weird look as she was sitting at the bottom of the stairs with a water-gun.

The both turned to look at her as she entered. "Waiting for gunshot gang kid to wake up."

"Do we even want him to wake up?" Ruby questioned.

Beth turned to her friend. "I don't want him to die in my house."

"Ditto." Allison moved to sit next to her mom on the couch.

Beth let out a sigh. "I called Rio, that's the gang guy's name." Yeah totally didn't already know that. She shifted her hair making sure the marks he had left on her were covered by the hair and university long-sleeve t shirt she wore. "He's on his way, I am going to tell him to take this kid back… and his money." Beth shot a glance towards her daughter. "It's too much, we can't wash it that fast around here without drawing suspicion."

"And how do he even know if this cash is legit." Ruby chimed in.

Annie moved from the stair towards them. "Oh it's legit. I used a pen on one of the twenties at work. This shit is good."

"It's half a million dollars. We'd have to wash almost two hundred thousand a week." Beth thought about it from a logistical perspective. "Stores would notice that huge of a spike in sales and returns."

Allison thought about it. "Not if we go out of town, smaller cities have less security measures."

"But they notice more." Ruby argued.

"Maybe, but if no one goes to the same store twice, we each buy high ticket items, return them the next day using any basic excuse." She suggested.

Annie was smiling widely at her while Beth let out a sigh. "Allison, you don't need to get involved in this."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm already pretty involved." Moving to the kitchen, she pulled out leftovers to eat.

She was heating up pasta and cutting up an apple when her aunt came to stand next to her breaking her out of her thoughts. "Nice hickeys." Annie whispered in her ear. Allison turned to face her, and shrugged it off. "Heard Rio threw you the money to wash last night. Those from him?" She narrowed her eyes, wondering what her aunt was getting at.

Allison rolled her eyes. "For your information, they're from someone else. Rio found me outside the club." She knew her story was shaky because Annie didn't look like she believed her one bit.

"We are talking later." She whispered before returning to her post at the bottom of the stairs.

An hour later, she was freshly fed and standing in the chilly fall night. "That is not what I meant when I said we'd do another job." Beth directed her statement at Rio who was sitting casually on the porch steps leading to the back door. "Who is that guy?"

Allison was leaning against the armrest of the patio chair Annie occupied, Ruby sitting in the one across. "He works for me." Rio answered simply.

"There's clearly been a miscommunication." Beth expressed passionately.

Rio scoffed and shook his head. "Ah now, so ya'll think you can pick and choose what you wanna do and when you wanna do it?"

"She thought it would be like driving for Uber." Annie chimed in. I chuckled slightly making her mother glare are her. She just shrugged.

"We are not qualified to take care of a gunshot victim. That kid needs professional medical attention." Her mother continued to argue. Rio started shaking his head as she rambled. "You're shaking your head, why are you shaking your head."

He met Beth's gaze. "Cuz that kid ain't goin' to no hospital."

"Why?" Allison asked. His eyes shot over to and ran over her. It made her feel like she was only wearing the towel that she had been that morning.

"Cuz there's people lookin' for him." He responded more so to Beth.

"What if those people show up here?" Valid point mom.

He shook his head once again. "Ain't nobody shooting up no cookie cutter family house." He then reached in to his pocked and pulled out a stack of hundred dollar bills. Allison rolled her eyes, everything was always about money. She crossed her arms and looked away from the exchange. He noted her disinterest but kept a confident smile on his face.

"No I'm sorry that is not going to work." She heard her mom argue.

He pursed his lips and shrugged. "Nah?" He then pulled out another one, and one more.

"I have children." Rio's eyes glanced over to Allison and he smirked. "He is up there in my daughter's bed, I'm never going to get that blood out." Beth expressed.

"Pretty sure it'd cover a new mattress." Ruby persuaded.

Allison turned back to watch them as Annie leaned forwards in her chair. "So would we get that money now? Or…"

His eyes moved towards the pair. "When I pick him up." Rio spoke in a deep clipped voice.

"When's that? Ruby questioned

Rio narrowed his eyes and turned towards the dark skinned woman. "When I pick him up." He spoke more forcefully.

"Sounds fair." Annie responded.

"And that five hundred thousand?" Ruby questioned. He shot an amused look at Allison.

He addressed Beth as he spoke. "Ya'll was the ones comin' to me with ya business proposition? We tried it, ya pulled through."

"That was nothing compared to half a million dollars." Ruby argued.

Rio smirked. "Ya'll asked for a piece of this."

"Very true." Annie agreed excitedly at the prospect of a bigger pay day. "She just does this, it's all part of the process."

They all soon agreed while Allison stayed silent. Rio nodded and slapped his knees as he got to his feet, before clapping his hands. "Good." He gave the older women one last look before moving towards the driveway. He brushed past Allison, giving her a blatant once over flashing her his teeth before disappearing into the night.

Beth and Ruby were already in a heated discussion about the money or the gang kid. Annie's gaze was trained intensely on her. She stood up from the seat and grabbed her arm, dragging her all the way upstairs in to her bedroom. "Annie, what are you doing?" She protested.

Her aunt didn't say anything until they were behind the closed door. "Don't bullshit me kid. You're blushing like a tomato, he's looking at you like water in a desert, and there's hickeys all over your neck." Allison rolled her eyes and looked away. "I can do the math Allie." She sighed in resignation, her aunt had been too good at reading her.

Allison ran her hands down her face in frustration. "Ugh Annie it was stupid, nothing really happened?" She raised a brow. "Seriously, first base only. He just keeps popping up and I was really fucked up drunk and…" She had to bite her tongue from accidentally releasing more information than she should.

"And what?"

She let of a long breath. "And nothing, it was stupid. C'mon Ann, ya seriously telling me that you wouldn't hit that, forgetting all the thugs and guns."

Annie let out a loud laugh. "Touché."

"Please don't tell my mom." Allison begged. "Seriously Annie, it's nothing, if anything maybe he'll hesitate killing us."

She scoffed. "He'll hesitate killing you, if we can't clean all that money. Rest of us, we're goners."

"Then we'll just have to make sure we wash it all."