Chapter 8

ELLA

I spent the next afternoon back in the warehouse. He didn’t tie me up this time, but he still sat there watching me.

After I uncovered his novice tequila plan, he made no further advances on me, especially since I was doing a fairly good job of appearing sober.

About an hour later, a man, practically a boy, came rushing through with a phone in his hand.

“Señor, es importante,” he said, holding out the phone to Andrea.

“Watch her,” he ordered, gesturing to me as he took the phone and left the warehouse.

The boy nodded and stood bolt upright and motionless. He looked tense and for whatever reason obviously desperate to please Andrea.

“Who was on the phone?” I asked.

“No hablo inglés,” he replied.

I would guess that meant something along the lines of “I don’t speak English.”

“Quién…teléfono,” I said, trying to repeat my previous question in Spanish. As I’ve said before, my Spanish is broken.

“No puedo decir,” he replied.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, and he brought his finger to his lips and then shook his head as if to say, “I can’t say.”

Jesus Christ. What did Andrea do to deserve loyalty? Or maybe it wasn’t loyalty, maybe it was just fear.

Fifteen minutes later, Andrea returned and strode toward.

“I have something I’d like you to do for me,” he said, tying a blindfold over my eyes before he grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. “Come with me.”

We were soon back in the car with Pedro driving and far enough away from the warehouse for Andrea to remove my blindfold.

After my eyes had adjusted to the light again, he lifted his suit jacket and withdrew a gun from his belt before pushing it across the back seat of the car toward me.

I looked down at it with wide eyes and then up to Andrea.

“You’re giving me a gun?” I asked. “I thought I was your prisoner?”

“Sweetheart, you are,” he said, running the back of his forefinger along my cheek. “Think of this as a test. If you pass, you will earn a little more freedom. If you fail, you will receive punishment.”

“What do you want me to do?” I asked.

“Take this gun, go to this location,” he said, giving me a slip of paper and some coins, “and ask for José. Tell him that I sent you and he’ll give you something.

“Then go to the pay phone and call this number. Bring it back to me before nightfall, and I will not make you spend another night in the warehouse.”

“Where will I spend the night?” I asked, wondering if it was going to be any better.

“I guess you’ll just have to wait and find out,” he said, before roughly pulling me onto his lap.

I let out a tiny gasp with the surprise of his sudden movement, and once again, I felt the pain of being so close to a man that wasn’t Leo.

“But I’m sure you have a pretty good idea,” he said, kissing my chest.

“Oh, and if you fail or try to escape from me, I will have you hunted down before killing you…after getting what I want from you, of course. So, let’s do this the right way, yes?”

“And what if I don’t like the sound of either option?” I asked with my most flagellant smile.

I ran my fingers through his hair as his hands drifted from my waist to my hips.

“You drive me insane, Blanca,” he said, kissing my neck. “But you can’t decline my offer.”

“So, is it really an offer?” I asked, brushing a thick strand of hair from his eyes.

“It was until you said no,” he answered as I felt his hand slip up my shorts.

I slapped it away and pulled my shorts back down.

“Hands off,” I snapped. “You’ll have to wait.”

With an amused expression, he took his hands off me and held them up with a grin plastered across his face.

“Is it even loaded?” I asked, picking up the gun from the seat beside us.

“Why would I give you an unloaded gun?”

“Why would you give me a loaded gun?” I countered. “You don’t trust me.”

“What gives you that impression?” he asked, twiddling my hair as I remained straddling his lap.

“You cover my eyes and drag me around like a dog on a leash,” I replied. “I could do anything with a loaded gun. Shoot you, for example,” I said, holding the gun to his head.

“Well, you see, Blanca, that would only be suicidal,” he said, allowing me to hold the gun there.

“I offer you protection while I’m alive. As soon as I am dead, there is nothing stopping the vultures swooping in, Guillermo being the first.”

“Guess I won’t kill you then…yet,” I said.

I considered pulling the trigger anyway, but I was ninety-nine percent sure that there was no bullet in there, and even if there was, and I could kill Andrea, Pedro was still there, and that would be almost certain death.

“Good girl,” he replied.

“But why send me and not one of your loyal workers?” I asked.

“As I said, it is a test.”

“Why are you testing me?” I asked.

“To see how you will handle it.”

“Why?”

“Because I think, despite what Pedro thinks, you would make a good little worker,” he replied.

“The men in this business are dangerous, but even they wouldn’t kill a pretty girl like you…not immediately anyway. So you may pose a use over my more dispensable male employees.”

“You want me to work for you?” I asked.

“You don’t have a choice. You will do as I say,” he stated.

“Or what?” I asked, and he raised an eyebrow.

“If you become just a dead weight, I will have to get rid of you…after having my fun of course,” he said, bringing the gun to my head. “Have I made myself clear?”

“Crystal,” I replied, before he let me climb off him, and we sat in quiet for the rest of the journey.

Something was telling me there was more to this than he was letting on. Something to do with that important phone call.

We eventually stopped on the edge of a different town. A strange-looking town.

“This is as far as we can go,” he said, reaching over me and opening the car door as he thrust the gun and the address into my hand.

“Adiós,” I said in my best Spanish as I shuffled along toward the open door.

“And, Blanca,” he said, taking my hand and pulling me back into his lips before kissing me for a few moments. “Just in case you don’t make it out alive.”

He then ushered me out, closed the door, and drove off.

I looked around at the desert around me and the gun in my hand.

What the fuck had I gotten myself into?

I began to make my way to the town.

A few minutes of walking later, I reached the phone booth Andrea had mentioned on the edge of the road. I took a 360-degree turn and couldn’t see a soul for miles. Everything was perfectly still and quiet.

After considering for a grand total of about three seconds, I hastily pushed open the cracked, scratched door of the booth and picked up the phone, which was coated in peeling red paint.

There was a rusty slit just below it where I shoved the money before I pressed each number of Leo’s mobile number into the stiff keypad.

He picked up after only a few seconds.

“It’s me,” I said. “I’ve really fucked up.”

“Luca said the exact same thing when he called me,” he replied. “I’m in Mexico, and he filled me in. Where are you?”

“Is Luca okay?” I asked.

“Except for the fact that I’ve almost murdered him many times, yes, he’s fine,” he said. “But tell me where you are?”

“I’m with a man called Andrea Martinez,” I told him.

“I know, I know, but where?!” he replied. “I need a location.”

“I don’t know, Leo!” I replied. “The middle of fucking nowhere! All I can see is desert and cacti and this weird empty town with no signs!”

“Do you have anything that could help me find you?” he asked. “What does Martinez look like?”

“He’s nineteen, looks kind of young but not weak, wears a suit, dark hair, dark eyes,” I listed. “And he took me to eat in a town. I didn’t get the name of it, but it was full of other restaurants and people.

“There was a man that worked named Eduardo who worked in a barlike café with ceiling fans and a big Mexican flag outside. He might be able to tell you something. Or find Guillermo.

“Or a man called Ricardo Garcia with a gunshot wound in his shoulder or another man called Esteban Roderique.”

“Are you with him now?” he asked.

“No, he’s sent me on some errand,” I replied. “I don’t know what or why, but I’m alone right now.”

“Does that mean you can get away from him?” he asked.

“Again, I’m in the middle of the fucking desert, Leo! Believe it or not, I’m better off staying with Andrea.”

“You don’t know that, Ella. He’s dangerous,” Leo warned.

“I can handle him,” I said, before pausing. “Trust me on this. He’s young, and I’ve got him under control.”

“What does that mean?” he asked, his voice deepening.

“It doesn’t matter. Just know that I’m fine for now,” I said. “Come and find me soon, though, okay?”

“Yes, of course. And I will kill that son of a bitch,” he growled.

There was a pause before I spoke again. “Leo?”

“Yes?”

“I love you,” I whispered.

“I love you too,” he replied in a much softer tone. “Do whatever you have to do, I understand, and I just want you to stay alive. Understood?”

I wiped a loose tear, but before I could reply, the money ran out on the phone, and it hung up.

I gave myself a minute or two to pull myself together, straighten up, and remember that I was a tough bitch before heading up the road into the eerie town.