Chapter 47

ELLA

When the guests began to arrive, the house soon got noisy with chatter and Hispanic music. They seemed to be liking the food, and I even got a few compliments…not from Andrea, though.

But he was enjoying himself dancing on the table, having had multiple shots of tequila.

At some point, I found myself sitting at the base of the chairs, sipping a glass of water, watching the party. There must have been about a hundred people there because the house and garden were packed.

“Hey,” a woman said with a strong Hispanic accent, as she sat beside me. “You must be Andrea’s wife?”

I nodded before looking over to Andrea. He was dancing salsa on the table with a few of the other important men in his cartel. They were all so drunk, and it was sort of funny, but it was still Andrea.

“I’m Julia,” she said. “I only know him through my mate.”

“I’m Ella,” I said, shaking her outstretched hand. She had a warm tone and just radiated friendliness as she smiled.

“Who is your mate?” I asked.

“You probably know him,” she began. “Chico. One of Andrea’s guards.”

“Oh yes,” I said. “He’s kind to me.”

“He’s a good man, but he’s on duty right now, as always, so I guess I’m just here alone,” she replied.

“Two loners unite.” I sighed.

She nodded, and there was a silent pause.

“So…how did you meet him?” she asked.

Maybe she was just trying to make friendly conversation, and it was the natural first question, but it felt like she was trying to probe and pry something out. As if she was already suspicious.

“Andrea?” I asked, and she nodded.

I hesitated for a moment.

“In a club in Caracas,” I lied.

She raised an eyebrow.

“Is that what he told you to say?” she asked.

I smiled nervously.

“I can’t tell you,” I whispered, looking around.

“I thought that might be the case,” she replied. “Listen. I want you to know that you can talk to me about anything, okay? From what Chico tells me, it sounds like you need a friend around here.”

I looked around and spotted Andrea watching us.

“I’m okay, but thank you for caring,” I said to her, before forcing a smile in Andrea’s direction. He looked me up and down and began marching over.

With a deep inhalation, I smiled again as he approached, and Julia looked between us suspiciously.

“Are you enjoying the party, babe?” he asked, sitting beside me and tightly wrapping his arm around my waist.

I nodded.

“And you?” he asked Julia.

She nodded too.

Andrea looked her up and down before narrowing his eyes.

“Julia, si?” he said. “Chico’s mate?”

“Si,” she responded.

He then put his hand on her leg before turning to me.

“You made a friend, huh?” he said.

She looked down at the position of his hand and then up to me with wide eyes.

“We were just talking about how I met you,” I said.

“I see…,” he said. “Not giving too much away, I presume?”

“No,” I replied.

“Good,” he said, before turning back to Julia. “I was just about to take Ella upstairs, you’re welcome to join us.”

His hand then slipped farther up her leg, and she gasped.

“I should go and find my mate,” she said.

“Okay,” Andrea said with a nod. “Maybe another time, huh?” he added with a wink.

She forced a smile before standing. “I’ll maybe see you later, Ella,” she said in a sympathetic tone.

Andrea watched as she disappeared into the party.

“What has Chico told her?” he asked. “What does she know?”

“Nothing,” I replied. “I told her we met in a club in Caracas. She had no reason to suspect otherwise.”

“Right…,” Andrea said. “Don’t talk to her again.”

“Why not?” I asked. “She was nice to me.”

He turned to me and rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I’ve had way too much tequila to care, and she’s a woman. What can she do?”

He then leaned forward, placing his hands on my hips, and began to kiss my neck.

“Do we have to do this now?” I asked.

He was nowhere near drunk enough for my plan to have any success.

“Yes,” he snapped, pulling my hands down to my sides so that I couldn’t push him away.

“How about we do some shots first?” I suggested. “I haven’t had a drink yet and—”

“Just shut up,” he hissed. “For once.”

He then lifted me to my feet and rested my back against the wall. He didn’t say much after that, just fumbled with my dress and kissed me in the most drunken manner.

I was beginning to feel unexplainably nauseous, and the thudding of music and bright flashing lights weren’t helping.

“I think I’m going to throw up,” I said. He took no notice. “Andrea.”

He still took no notice.

“Andrea, listen!” I protested, trying to pry his head off my neck.

“What?” he murmured.

“I’m going to be sick,” I said firmly.

He rolled his eyes and picked me up before walking up the stairs.

The way he squeezed my waist didn’t exactly help, and I only just made it to the toilet before vomiting.

“You better not be pregnant,” he warned, watching from the doorway.

“It wouldn’t be my fault if I was,” I snapped, before vomiting again.

“Have you been taking the pills?” he asked.

“Yes!” I replied. “You watch me swallow them every single day.”

The thought of the pills failing had never really crossed my mind before. I guess it was possible? But I couldn’t be bearing another man’s child…could I?

And besides, I didn’t feel pregnant, and I of all people knew what that felt like.

“But I’m not pregnant,” I reassured him when I was finished. “The party was just overwhelming me.”

I flushed the toilet and sat on it, feeling drained and exhausted. This was frustrating. If illness prevented my grand escape, I might just have to die.

“Good because I do not want a fucking kid,” he said, approaching me again. “And I do not want a pregnant wife either…I like you the way you are…”

Correction: He liked me the way I looked.

His fingers ran up my thigh, but I slammed my hand to stop them.

“I’ve just been sick. You don’t want to do that,” I said.

“I don’t care,” he said, grabbing the mouthwash from the sink and forcing my mouth open. “See. It’s like it never happened,” he added, after messily sloshing some in.

It mostly went down my front, but what did reach my lips burned my mouth with a stale, sharp mintiness.

“You’re drunk,” I protested as his hand traveled farther up.

“Stop making excuses, Blanca,” he replied. “I still know what I want.”

A few moments later, I found myself with him over me on the bed. The scent of alcohol on his breath was strong and putrid, and his hands were clumsy but still strong and rough.

This wasn’t meant to happen for another few hours when he was borderline paralytically intoxicated. In the state he was in now, I didn’t stand a chance of slipping away unnoticed, let alone killing him.

His hand began to tug at my panties, and I couldn’t stop him. It made me feel like I could vomit all over again as tears welled up in my eyes.

At some point, I vaguely remembered the bedroom door open. Andrea began turning around, but shortly after there was a loud clanking noise, and his grip on me loosened.

My mouth dropped wide open as I saw Julia standing over the bed with a frying pan in her hand, looking just as shocked as me.

We watched as he wavered and then collapsed onto the bed before I scrambled out from under him, and she suddenly pulled herself together.

“Come on,” she said firmly as she took my hand. “He won’t be out for long.”

She dropped the pan and dragged me toward the door.

“Wait, wait,” I said, turning back around.

I quickly rushed over to his unconscious body, looking for something. But it wasn’t on him. It wasn’t on the dresser either or in the bathroom.

“He could wake up any second. We’ve gotta go,” Julia urged.

“Where’s his gun?” I asked. “We need to make sure he never wakes up.”

“It’s not here,” she said. “And we don’t have time to look for it.”

I nodded and followed her down the hall, pulling my dress back down as we went downstairs. The voice inside my head was telling me to go back and find a knife, a belt, a plastic bag. Literally anything.

She wanted him dead and so did I, but Julia was right, he could wake up any second, and we couldn’t risk it.

I could feel fear and adrenaline build up inside me, but she kept a brave face as we marched into the crowd of the party.

“Wipe your tears, act normal,” she ordered.

She was leading me toward the front door where Chico stood. He saw Julia and smiled. But then he noticed me and the worrisome expressions on our faces, and he instantly stood up straight and furrowed his eyebrows.

“I knocked your boss out,” Julia stated, getting straight to the point.

His eyebrows rose. “You did what?”

“I hit him over the head with a frying pan,” she clarified.

Chico paused for a moment as the words sunk in before he suddenly pulled himself together. “Then we need to go” was all he said before he headed straight for the front door, pulling a set of keys out of his pocket.

“All three of us,” he added, looking at me.

My heart suddenly jumped.

“Come on,” he said, putting a hand on my back. “My car is just out here.”

He ushered both me and Julia out of the house and into the back of his car before driving at full speed away.

I always knew Chico felt for me, and deep down, he seemed to be a good man. But to risk his life to help me without any hesitation was something I could never expect from anyone.

And Julia? She was simply just unimaginably brave and selfless.

We drove for a good ten minutes before Julia finally spoke again.

“Where are we going, Chico?”

“Caracas. I don’t know. Anywhere far away from here,” he replied, putting his foot down. “How hard did you hit him?”

“Pretty damn hard,” she replied.

“He was out cold,” I added.

“And he didn’t see my face, and he’s hardly sober enough to remember anyway,” Julia said. “We will be fine, Chico.”

I spotted a terrified glint in her eyes. Things were unlikely to be fine, and she knew it.

“I can’t thank you both enough,” I replied.

“Don’t speak too soon,” Chico replied. “We might still all die tonight.”

“You tried,” I said. “That’s more than anyone else was willing to do.”

Julia took my hand and smiled.

“Andrea may have provided us with a house and enough money to live comfortably and give our pups a happy childhood, but he’s evil, and his mistreatment of you is inhumane. I couldn’t let you stay with him.”

“You have pups?” I asked.

“Four,” she said. “Which is why I can sympathize with you. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be separated from them for so long.”

“Bad news,” Chico said. “We’re running out of gas.”

“What?” I whispered.

“I wasn’t expecting you to knock out one of the most dangerous men on earth with a frying pan and have to make a quick getaway this evening,” he replied.

We were in the middle of nowhere, there’d be no gas stations for miles.

“Do you have enough to get back to the house?” I asked.

“We’re not going back,” he replied.

“I’m not, but you two are,” I said firmly. “Leave me here. Go back to the party. Act like you never saw me.”

“No, Ella—” Julia began.

“If he finds us on the side of the road with no gas, we are all screwed,” I said. “You have helped me, now let me help you.”

“We can’t just leave you,” Chico said.

Just then the low gas alert sounded.

“You don’t have a choice,” I said.

I then grabbed a pen and a piece of paper from the glove box and scribbled down Leo’s number.

“Call my mate and tell him where I am,” I said.

Julia exchanged unsure looks with Chico before finally nodding. “Okay.”

Chico brought the car to a stop. “Thank you so much,” I said as Julia hugged me tightly.

“Just run,” she said, looking into the jungle. “As far away from here as possible. Don’t come back and don’t worry about us.”

I nodded. Of course, I was going to worry about them. Andrea wasn’t just going to let me slide out of his grasp this easily, and he’ll know it wasn’t me that knocked him out, but I couldn’t let that stop me. I had to leave.

I put my hand on Chico’s shoulder and thanked him, too, before getting out of the car.

“Go,” she urged as I hesitated for a moment.

I smiled once more, not knowing what else to say to express my gratitude before bolting straight into the darkness of the jungle.