Chapter 13-Cogency
Wednesday morning came quickly with Micah dragging his heels.
He didn't want to go to Argentina, but he missed his big brother and wanted to see his niece and nephew as well as spend time with Diadra, his brother's wife.
It had been months since Alita had seen her family, and this was the right thing to do although in his soul, he would rather muck the stalls.
He was waiting with the luggage at the side door when Alita approached, along with Andres, and they waited for Angel.
The youngest Delgado arrived wearing boots and jeans, along with his favorite cowboy hat.
He was not dressed to arrive in Argentina at Perona de la Mar and neither was Alita, two facts which Eduardo Delgado noticed.
Alita spoke up, shifting the backpack. “The backpack is going with me to my parents' home, and the luggage to Perona de la Mar where I will join The Boss on Friday.”
“And you, Angel, what are you doing?” Eduardo inquired. “Where is your luggage?”
“I'm not going,” Angel said. “I don't wanna spend my weekend dressed up like an asshole, talking to assholes, and explaining Down’s Syndrome. I don't wanna eat fancy food I can't say or spell like frog gras and shit.”
“Foie gras,” Andres corrected.
“Yeah, bullshit on a tiny cracker,” Angel said. “Have fun and say hi to Yunior and the kids. Tell them Uncle Angel loves them, but Manny keeps breaking my crayons. Yunior owes me some new ones. Also, bring me back some steaks, the thick ones for Papa to put on the grill.”
Andres only smiled as the vehicle arrived and they departed after Ryanne passed out hugs to all three.
Eduardo remained quiet. She noticed this about her husband, moving closer and slipping her hand into his as Angel exited the back door in the kitchen heading to the stalls.
Lady Bird, his favorite mare, was foaling, plus there were new chicks and ducks born that he wanted to see to over the weekend.
Ryanne said softly, “Micah seemed different.”
“He's reaching a decision in his head,” Eduardo said.
“When he returns, we will discuss it and create a plan to move him forward.
However, what is in his eyes is also on his mind.
I don't think Eleon is ready for the conversation his grandson is about to have with him.
Hell, a few of the conversations we've had in the past couple of months, I have not been prepared for and left me questioning a great number of things.
“Interesting,” Ryanne said. “Alita seemed different as well. Her mind was elsewhere.”
“She is in the same place. They want to be together, but she has no rights in the cartel or in his life other than what she is paid to do. If they want it, he will have to fight for them.”
“As his Czar, are you open to it?”
“No,” he said, “however, as his father, I will do what is best for my son. Ah shit...here comes Catarina with her tea invitations. Maybe I can say my plane broke down so Micah can stay.”
“Oh hush! You love having tea with your daughter,” she said, laughing.
“No. No, I don't, but she is so damned adorable,” Eduardo said, watching Catarina skirt around them to place the invitation for tea on his desk.
His shoulders slumped as he stood in the doorway, watching his plane take off from the airfield.
The flight was nearly seven hours, and honestly, he was happy at not having to pay for fuel to take the kids back and forth to Argentina.
In his gut, he knew and sincerely believed this would be Micah's last trip to his grandparent’s home. He had only to wait and see.
****
ALITA MOVED TO THE rear of the plane, sitting alone, leaving Andres and Micah to talk.
She took special care to avoid Andres since she didn't trust his eyes.
He never sexualized her, but she made a point to avoid conversation and contact with him as much as possible.
Yunior, she felt comfortable to speak with if he addressed her, but only if he addressed her.
She never sought him out or attempted to engage in small talk.
Her eyes would drift to her boss during the flight as she looked up from the book she was failing miserably to read.
At the four-hour mark, she put it down and took out her journal to make a few notes and decorate some pages.
She noticed Micah did not have his work laptop, but he leaned back in the seat with his eyes closed.
Alita took him a bottle of water and a stress ball, for which he thanked her, and she handed Andres a bottle as well.
The flight attendant, Juliana, would serve them lunch in about an hour, but her Boss seemed stressed. Andres noticed it as well.
“Talk to me, Hermano,” Andres said.
“I hate Argentina and I don't want to go,” Micah said. “Abuelo has rounded up three more teenagers to parade in front of me as if we’re at the Cattle Buyers Association to purchase a prize bull. I hate it.”
“Three?” Andres said. “You lucky cuss. Yunior and I had no say in our choices. They were like, ‘Here is your future wife, sign here, you have X number of years to settle down and make families.’”
“You seem to like Roxana a great deal.”
“What's not to like, Micah? The cartel learned its lesson with Yunior and Irena and took the time to allow the new matches to find interests and hobbies along with schooling, thanks to Irena.” he said.
“She is crazy as hell but made a valid point. Roxana makes thousands of pesos for her textile arts and gained a degree in it as well. She is very talented.”
“This seems so unlike you, Andres. The playboy is ready to settle down?”
“I have no choice right now,” he said. “Plus, I like her.
She deserves a chance to have a quality life with a man she respects.
In a year or so, she provides me some very handsome children who shall inherit their father's dashing looks and charm.
In return, I provide her a spacious home to raise them.
I come through with the appropriate gifts to mark special occasions, birthdays, anniversaries, and what not, and she is happy.
To ensure her happiness, I shall come home, hot and randy, reaching for my woman like a starving man, and at least three nights a week, I pounce her, telling how I can't get enough of her, and we are happy.”
“Is that what women want?”
“That is what every person in a relationship wants, to be desired,” Andres said. “I desire Roxana. She has some really awesome titties. I like titties.”
“You are...I don't even know what to say,” Micah said.
“What about you? Breasts, thighs, ass man?”
“I can appreciate a solid ass, nice and firm like a melon,” he said sighing softly.
“I am worried about these women. Andres, are you aware that the young woman from Uruguay was created so she could be my wife? Who does that? Go into a bedroom and create a whole person to marry another person so the families can be joined?”
“It happens all the time,” Andres said. “The moment Roxana was born, she was chosen for me. She was groomed to be my wife. It sucks, but it is how we maintain our way of life. It is the way of the cartel. We continue our lines and commitment to our countries and cultures by doing as we must.”
“What if we want to chart our own paths?”
“Then pull your weapons and draw your lines,” Andres said. “Remember, when you shoot, there is going to be someone shooting back.”
Micah nodded. He was finished talking. At least for now.
****
THE AIRFIELD NEAR THE estancia closest to Perona de la Mar was where Eduardo's plane would remain at the airfield with the pilot and Juliana until Micah was prepared to return on Monday.
He didn't think he would last through the weekend, but he would try.
The first thing he noticed were the two vehicles. His gaze went to Alita.
“Boss, I'm heading home to spend some time with my folks. I should arrive at Perona de la Mar on Friday by lunch,” she reminded him, waiting for his agreement.
“Keep your phone on and close by in case I don't make it to Friday,” he said.
She moved closer to him, Andres watching the interaction. Alita began, “144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597...”
Micah completed the sequence, “2584, 4181.”
“When it gets tight in your chest, pick up where you left off. I will keep my phone close by; any threats, you call and I am there,” Alita said, raising her hand for a fist bump.
Micah nodded as he, and Andres took the one SUV and Alita the town car. In the back seat, Andres asked, “What kind of nerd foreplay was that?”
“Fibonacci sequence.”
“I know what it was, but why? Does it keep you calm or something?”
“The calculations focus the anxiety in my nervous system,” he said.
“Hmm, learn something new every day,” Andres said, looking out the window.
****
ELEON FERNADEZ WAS a cattle baron. His father and father before him were cattle barons.
His membership to the cartel as an inked member came to pass when he approached Enrique Delgado with a proposal to join his third-born son to Elon’s only daughter, connecting the families.
Growing up in the lap of luxury and being wed to a man who grew coffee and coca on a farm in the middle of nowhere was not her style of living.
Micah Delgado thought of this often, wondering what type of woman coming from a big-city life would be okay living at Las Tierras.
It is where he planned to live and raise his family if he or when he decided to create more little people.