Chapter 11-Brawn #2
She blinked a few times. He saw tears come to her eyes as she spoke.
“The men my father has picked for me to marry are not kind men,” she said.
“There are a few who wish to marry me now before I complete my schooling this year, offering me no other future.
Being betrothed to you, I would get to attend Uni and have room to breathe before becoming an incubator for a houseful of children I may or may not want.
I am wearing a low-cut dress, yet you have not sexualized me.
I could do a lot worse than a man who is on the spectrum.
Some of the sons of Czars are really bad people as if you didn't know that yourself.”
“So, you consider me to be the lesser of two evils,” Micah said.
“I consider you to be, so far, a man of integrity, values, and a dark sense of humor,” she said. “The signal you gave to your guard, was it to rescue you from me?”
“No, to kill you,” he said, smiling.
“Not funny.”
“It is to me.”
Lolita squinted at him. “Six years...give or take. What will you be doing during that time frame if I am to prepare myself to live as your other half?”
“I shall complete Uni, build my territory, prepare to take my seat at the table,” he said.
“Your seat at the table?”
“I am an inked member of the cartel, Senorita,” he said.
“I am the grandson of a Czar, the son of Czar, and an heir to this great land which my ancestors have cared for these past centuries. The weight on my shoulders is heavy. In six years, my growth into the man who will be husband and father has no wiggle room for failure since my wife will require a home and a place to raise our family.”
He looked up at Alita. A surge of energy coursed through him when he looked at his guard. The clarity of thought which slapped him on the forehead nearly buckled his knees. Micah Delgado wanted to build those things with Alita.
“Senorita, would you care for an afternoon ride?”
“Sure, what kind of car do you have?” she asked, the large brown eyes searching his face.
In the dress she wore, she couldn’t ride, but there were clothes to change into for a horseback ride, but the devil on his shoulder said to take her in the jeep.
The low-cut dress would be the perfect conduit to hold dust and dirt that would slather her exposed breast to the Colombian sun. Suddenly, he felt better.
“Alita, Senorita, we ride!” he announced loudly, removing his afternoon jacket and tie.
The smile on his face was entirely too wide, and Ryanne went to stop him from doing whatever hellscape he planned for the young woman.
Eduardo's hand on her arm prevented Ryanne from moving forward as Guillermo boasted, grinning from ear to ear, how fast they were getting along.
Andres only shook his head and was hesitant to be around when they came back.
He knew the poor young lady would return looking like Marv from Home Alone after he was shocked in the basement.
****
IT WAS AFTER 11 WHEN Alita heard the door to Micah's bedroom open in the back hallway. She heard him ease down the back entrance and out the rear door. She too slipped on a light robe, and boots, grabbed a few knives, and followed him outside where she found Micah smoking a cigarette.
“Boss, you’re taking up smoking now?” she asked, walking up on him.
In his mouth, she spotted something green that he moved back and forth across his tongue. She knew it to be a coca leaf. He inhaled partially, exhaling a plume of smoke.
“My head aches, and my spirit is restless,” he said. “I also can't sleep.”
“Smoking...that's new,” she said.
“I was going to get a drink, but I hate the taste of rum,” he said. “The bourbon we brought back leaves me with the hangover, so here I stand.”
“You also have a coca leaf in your mouth,” she replied. “Would you like to talk about it?”
“No,” he said. “I was thinking, however, that perhaps, we should consider packing the fine powders of the land in party package sizes. You know, instead of kilos, maybe 250-gram packages?”
“Did you want to partake in some party powder this evening, Boss?”
“After three hours with that young woman, I was thinking of going to one of the barns and rolling myself in the shit,” he said, smiling. “Alita, understandably, I have a role to fill, but Lord forgive me, I can't do it with her.”
“Boss, she is 16. She has to grow into the woman she will be to live at your side as your woman and mother of your children. You can't expect her at 16 to possess the wherewithal to hold meaningful conversations with you the first time you meet,” Alita said.
“You did,” he said looking at her with a bit of discernment in his gaze.
“We were 14, and you were pissed about your grandmother letting someone ride your horse for the fox hunt,” Alita said. “Two totally different scenarios.”
“No, correction,” he said. “That was the beginning of the conversation. Then you went and found paints, and we sat in the kitchen painting while the cooks and staff prepared the afternoon meal.”
“Boss, we didn't talk; we simply painted,” she corrected.
“Yet, at 14, you understood my brain worked differently. You realized I was worked up over something I had no control over and found the fastest means to bring me down,” he said.
“At 14, Alita. At 15, you taught me to recognize my triggers and how not to be goaded by the kids into acting out of my character. We were 16 when you developed methods to ease my nervous system in crowds, like I did yesterday, simply standing with my hands behind my back. But she kept touching me. Touching me like I was a pet.”
“You handled it well, Boss,” Alita said. “The ride in the Jeep was a bit much. She wasn't dressed for it, and we brought her back to the house looking as if she went into the to fight off guerrillas. The young woman was in tears at how you ruined her dress.”
“I'll buy her another one,” he said ruefully.
“Will she be the one?”
“Did you see her feet?”
“You would turn her down because of her feet?”
“I will turn her down because she's an idiot,” Micah said. “She had the audacity to want to call me Mike. Then when I told her I was on the spectrum, she asked if I had vision problems.”
Alita burst into laughter.
“It's not funny, Alita,” he said, putting out the cigarette he didn't want. “I have at least three more of these women to interview. I hate it here.”
“Oh, poor you,” Alita said, pretending to cry.
“My father went out and hand-selected four women from rich families that would further our lineage and secure the borders of my country. I get my choice of vestal virgins who will be educated to serve me and learn my hobbies and interests and bear me dark-haired smart children who like music and math. How, doooo you live with yourself?”
He paused, moving closer to Alita. He stood toe to toe with her, looking down on at the lovely face in light of the moon. He toyed with the coca leaf in his mouth, allowing the tip of the leaf to poke between his lips. His hands were relaxed as he stared at her.
“I live with you,” he said, lowering the octaves of his voice. “You live with me and make me better.”
“That means nothing to me, Boss,” she said.
“Micah. I love to hear you call me Micah,” he said, still standing entirely too close, the smell of the tobacco clinging to his skin.
He wore no shirt, simply a pair of brown pants that hung entirely too low on his narrow hips.
A rosary-styled necklace in brown hung about his neck fading into the colors of the tattooed viper on his chest.
“Micah, you seem to be forgetting yourself and the lines we have drawn in the sand,” she told him.
“I'm starting to hate those lines too,” he said. “What I want, I'm not sure I can have. I want to carve my own path, my own course. I want to love who I want to love, not a breeder chosen for me based on who is ripe for the plucking.”
“Then see your Czar and state your case,” Alita said.
“What if, what I want most, Alita, is not for me, and I make my move and am rejected,” he said, moving an inch closer. “If I am rejected by her, I may never recover.”
“Have you made your feelings known to her?”
“No, but I am creating this world for us to grow in, thrive inside, and learn the meaning of what it is to be in love,” he said, craving to touch her.
“Then there are conversations to be had, Micah, starting with your Czar, then your grandfather, and lastly her,” she offered. “We need to get inside before we are eaten alive.”
He said nothing as he followed her into the home. They didn't take the back stairs but the ones in the center of the house. In the dark, Eduardo watched them climb the steps to thier quarters. He'd eavesdropped on the entire conversation and knew what was coming.
More and more, he gained respect for the young woman.