Chapter 14 #2
“He had one more week to stay out of trouble. Shit,” he huffed. “Yeah, give me twenty-four hours and I’ll send a car. Just don’t tell Emily about this. She’ll worry, and with my luck try to smuggle the kid over the border herself.” Raúl was like a son to Emily.
“She has my phone. I’ll use a burner and text you the number. Thanks, Jack.” I hung up, tossed the phone onto the bed of a hay truck going by, and ducked down the next street to the hotel where I was staying.
I stared at the cell phone well into the night. My mind spun and begged me to check in with Mari, but I couldn’t risk it.
There was a knock at the door, and I raced to open it. I was greeted by Armondo, who held up a box.
“Ms. Winter, you’ve been requested to join Mr. Perez at the Sanchez manor tonight.” I felt my stomach drop. “I’ve been sent to get you.”
“I told Bruno I wasn’t able to attend.” I started to close the door when his foot blocked it.
“I must insist.” He pushed the box toward me. “I’ll wait outside.”
Internally, I let out a string of curse words. I should have known Bruno wouldn’t take no for an answer.
An hour later, dressed in the gown Bruno, sent I sat unhappily at a table set with crystal and silver. I saw Sully speak to the bartender, then he approached me with a glass of champagne in his hand. He must have seen me arrive.
He sat down and silently handed me the glass. I immediately tipped it to my lips and took a long draw of the cool bubbly. I knew I’d need another, but before I could ask, the lights dimmed, and the music faded away.
“Welcome, welcome.” Bruno stepped onto the stage and played the role of host even though it was Sully’s party.
“Any idea what’s going on?” Sully eyed me. “Because this wasn’t part of my night.”
“No idea.” I shrugged, and suddenly a floodlight nailed me. Like the proverbial deer in the headlights, I sat there blind and frozen. “There she is, everyone, my date for the evening. Come on, sweetheart, come up and join me.”
“Over my dead body,” I whispered.
“Don’t make a scene, Nicole. You better get up there,” Sully’s voice held a warning.
I put the champagne glass down and stood.
A hundred pairs of eyes followed my every move as I made my way slowly to the stage.
I could hear whispers as I went. People knew I was an American reporter; they wondered what I doing there.
I kept a low profile no matter where I was.
I didn’t want to be noticed; you got a lot more information that way. That especially applied to parties.
“What are you doing?” I snapped at Bruno, who gave me a warning glare to shut up.
“Isn’t she stunning, everyone?” I got a round of fake applause as Bruno signaled to someone. “I’m sure you’re wondering why I have this beauty up here with me tonight. It’s so I can remind her of who I am and what I’m capable of.”
My insides clenched, fear twisting through me like a blade as Raúl and Raphael were hauled up on stage chained together like in some horror movie.
“No,” I whispered, and Bruno tilted his head at my reaction.
Armondo stepped forward and handed him a scythe. Blood drained to my feet and my head went light. The crowd went silent, locked in fear. We all knew there was nothing to be done but be witnesses to Bruno’s cruelty.
“This is a reminder of who I am and not to mistake my love for weakness.”
Love? He was mad. I felt a pair of arms wrap around me and hold me in place.
“You watch and learn. You forget you are a guest in his world,” Armondo hissed in my ear.
Bruno stood over Raúl than turned to look at me. “You didn’t listen, Nicole, and this is what happens when you don’t obey.” He swung the scythe.
“No!”
I jerked awake when I heard footsteps. I quickly dried the tears, and then Raúl’s sweet face faded from my memory. He was just fifteen when he and his father were slaughtered in front of me by that monster.
“You’re awake.” An American man stood next to the bed.
“You missed dinner, but Bruno would like you to eat something.” He waved for a maid to come in with a tray of food.
Her hands shook as she lifted the lid from the plate, and I saw she had the tattoo on her arm.
When I looked into her face, however, there was no nervousness there, only a cunning expression.
She wasn’t nervous at all; she faked it for him.
“You’re an American.” I pulled his attention. “Who are you?”
“I’m the man who takes great pleasure in drugging you,” he snarled. He reached for the maid and pulled her out of the room. “Eat, or don’t. I don’t give a shit.”
The smell of the food on the plate made me want to vomit, and I put the lid back on.
I remembered the maid’s confident expression and gave myself a mental kick. “All right, Nicole, you’re here, and you can do this. This is for you, Raúl.”
* * *
“Breakfast.” The maid with the tattoo found me in the sunroom the next morning.
The white-toothed American sat nearby and sipped a coffee as he stared at his phone.
He glanced at the maid then went back to scrolling.
After a couple of minutes, he got up and left the room.
Wait, what? For a split second, I was excited, but then immediately realized I hadn’t seen Bruno since the day before, and I was sure he watched me on the cameras in his office.
It was unlike him to show patience, and he had a nasty temper.
He was up to something. I wondered if he wanted to make me sweat and stew over what my punishment would be for betraying him.
My stomach turned at the thought, but I’d agreed to this and knew how important it was.
We didn’t have much more time to take these monsters out.
“Gracias.” I reached for the pastry and looked up at her. Her gaze conveyed she wanted me to be careful. I took a bite of the pastry as she walked toward the door then stopped and made a show of shaking out a lap blanket. As I ate, I casually looked around and kept an eye on her.
I moved my foot and reached down to rub the spot where the metal irritated my ankle.
I looked down at its blinking red light and wondered what kind of range the thing had.
To say I was surprised he’d used an ankle bracelet and not shackles on me would be an understatement.
I’d take this hunk of technology over them any day.
As I watched the maid, I had an idea. If Bruno wanted to track my every move, then maybe I’d give him something to track.
“I heard it might rain today.” I popped a piece of gooey crabmeat in my mouth. “If I wanted to go for a walk, where might I find an umbrella?”
“Sí, we are in storm season, senorita.” She shot me a quick look which told me she knew where I hid the bugs.
“The umbrellas are by the front door on the ground floor. Please be careful where you walk, as the rain can flood areas quite quickly here.” I nodded, and she fluffed a pillow then reached for the lap blanket and arranged it over the back of the chair and left.
After breakfast, I decided to act on my idea and see what would happen if I went from room to room. Would I be allowed to roam at will, or was I allowed only in certain areas? It was time to figure out what Bruno’s game was.
The last time I stayed here was after Raúl and Raphael were killed. That was the night I knew I played too close to the fire, and I blamed myself for their deaths. If I had taken Jack’s advice and kept Bruno at a distance, he wouldn’t have used people I cared about to control me.
Back then, Bruno wouldn’t let me out of his sight and treated me like I was his own personal plaything. He knew I could report what I was going through to the media, so he made sure to let me know just what he could do to the people I held close.
I never breathed a word of that night to anyone, and neither did anyone else who was there.
My saving grace was Sully Sanchez. He was no angel, far from it, but he did care for me enough to try to figure out a way to get Bruno to let me go.
He knew if I didn’t get back to work soon, that people would start wondering.
It took Sully a while to convince Bruno that Blackstone might get involved if I wasn’t released.
At the time, Blackstone wasn’t as well-known, but Bruno certainly knew who they were.
“Do you think that was the signal?” I heard Armondo’s voice and froze.
I’d just come down a long hallway after walking through one of the back rooms. Is he talking about me?
I was thankful I didn’t have shoes on. “If so—” Armondo stopped talking, and as I peeked around the corner, I saw he was on the phone. “Get me any and all information.”
“Like what you’re hearing?” Bruno whispered from over my shoulder, and a cold chill raced up my spine. I spun around, and he grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked me backward. “Always the reporter,” he chuckled darkly, “sneaking around.”
“And you’re just a pathetic man who needs to keep a woman hostage in order for her to stay with you.” I breathed fire at him. “How’s the foot?”
He slammed me against the wall and pressed his nasty body into mine to pin me in place. “I’ve had just about enough of that mouth of yours.”
“And yet here I am.” I knew I flirted with his temper, but I never backed down from Bruno.
I thought it was why I was still alive. He liked that I pushed him.
It seemed to excite him. However, history had proven he’d take his anger out on others rather than me, and that was scarier. I never knew who he’d prey on next.
“And here you’ll stay.” His lips twisted into a sinister smile, and he licked his lips.
“For now.” I swallowed back the fear that had crept up on me and gave a shrug. “Like always, it’s only a matter of time.”
“Bruno,” Armondo broke our moment and glared at me when he made the connection I had been listening, “something’s happened. We need to talk.”
“To be continued, my love.” He ran the back of his fingers down my face, and it made my skin inch away from his touch.
He pushed off me and followed Armondo into the other room and shut the door.
I sagged into the wall. Bruno ran hot and cold in the blink of an eye, and it was screwing with my head that he wasn’t showing his true nature.
I’d shot him in the foot, and I escaped with the child.
What am I missing? Why these mind games?
Did he know it would screw with me more?
Shoes squeaked on the tile floor, and I swiveled to see the American with his insanely white teeth standing in the hall. He screamed military from the way he stood right down to his crew cut and I wondered what his story was. He was nasty enough, but I wondered why he was here working with Bruno.
“Try anything and I’ll know,” he growled.
“Don’t worry. Your glowing teeth will alert me you’re in a six-mile radius,” I snarled back with as much sarcasm as I could then turned and stomped off in the opposite direction.
When I entered another room, the tattooed maid came in behind me. “Oh, hello, senorita.” She turned to the other maid. “Don’t forget to water the succulents.” She’d said in Spanish but turned and raised her brows at me.
“We did that yesterday,” the girl reminded her, and I immediately knew she’d emphasized that word for me.
Without drawing too much attention to myself, I scanned the room looking for anything to do with succulents.
I checked the bookshelf first, but Bruno apparently had more of a taste for classic cars than gardening.
Then I looked through the coffee-table books and entertainment center but found nothing.
I moved into another room and came up empty there as well.
That was when I noticed teeth was watching me, so I strolled into the kitchen, snagged a bright red apple from the top of a bowl, and headed to the sink to wash it.
It was there I spotted three succulents sitting on a shelf near the sink.
I washed my apple slowly and studied the little pots.
I had to try to find the connection as to why she steered me to them.
I wasn’t getting it until I saw the way the plants were sitting.
There was space for one more. In fact, there was a small water ring that proved there’d been four pots, not three.
I leaned back against the counter and tried to look casual as my mind started to spin.
I spotted some loose soil that had fallen near the faucet.
More soil could be seen on the counter. I bit into the apple and made a face when an awful taste hit my tongue.
“Gross.” I flipped open the trash lid to toss it in and saw a battered succulent inside.
On top of it was a receipt. I bent over the trash, and as I pretended to gag, I reached out and pulled a tissue from a box on the counter.
I took the moment to glance at the American standing there with a grin on his face.
“Next time, choose a better one.” He slapped his leg and laughed like a hyena.
“Jerk,” I spat back and wiped my mouth.
I leaned toward the can again and studied the receipt. It was placed face up, and I could read yesterday’s date and saw a time stamp with a mountain time zone. I used the tip of my finger to move it and could make out the word Smith’s.
Huh.
I looked at the apple where it lay beside the succulent and noticed a sticker on it.
A half a lemon sitting in a grocery cart stared back at me, and I immediately connected the dots.
Smith’s Food and Drug store was a chain of stores in New Mexico.
Had Bruno been there? I remembered the red stain on the bottom part of his cane and on his shoes.
New Mexico had reddish brown dirt. Though so did a few other places in the US.
My gaze moved back to the receipt; it must be something significant, or the maid wouldn’t have drawn my attention to it.
Had I just found my starting point?