21. Alex
Chapter twenty-one
Alex
This Monday has been the longest Monday in what seems like forever. I am sitting at my desk, staring at my computer, with nothing to do, but they won’t let us leave. It was stupid, and to add on top of that, my mind also won’t shut the fuck up; It keeps going back to Olivia and Rachel. How did I end up where I am with both of these women? Olivia and I went on a date and then had amazing sex. The chemistry was electrifying; now we talk on a regular basis, and I am planning another date with her soon.
Rachel is still living at my house. She is starting to open up to me after only three days of being here. I wasn’t expecting her to open up so fast, even if we also had mind-blowing sex. She told me how Andrew used to expect her to go to school and have the house in pristine condition. He would smack or punch her if she didn’t have good grades or the house was not tidy. She told me she always had to wear makeup to cover the bruises when going to class or an internship.
She told me at the hospital that she was about to graduate from college with her law degree and was planning to get set up with a firm here in San Diego. I am not sure if she got a job or not; I should probably ask because if she does have a job, she needs to take a leave of absence for all the bullshit Andrew just put her through. What I am sitting here currently pondering in my head is why she hasn’t mentioned what made her call me. What did Andrew do to cause her to be so scared to talk? Every time I bring it up, she shuts down, her blue eyes go almost grey, and her skin goes pale like she will get sick. After the second time that happened, I stopped asking. There is nothing that important that I have to keep pushing her.
My phone vibrated on the table. It was a text from an unknown number with the two words I had been waiting for. I knew they were the start of something I wanted nothing to do with, but I had to do it.
UNKNOWN: CALL ME!
I headed up to Sir’s office to ask to leave. This is not a conversation I can have at work.
I knocked on the door.
“Yeah?” His voice booms from behind the door.
I open the door and stick my head in.
“Hey, Sir, I just got a call from my mom. She needs me to pick her up and take her to a doctor's. Is it okay for me to dip out for the day? I have done everything assigned to me, and if anything else pops up today, I can do it first thing in the morning.” I word vomit. I hate lying to Sir. The man, I swear, is pure gold.
“Yeah, that is fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He says with a nod.
As soon as I was out of the building, I grabbed my helmet and put it on my head as fast as possible. I drove the speed limit on base because the last thing I needed was to be pulled over by those rent-a-cops. After going through the gate, I sped towards the nearest warehouse, my family owned. My grandfather had a transmitter to ensure no one could hear my conversations in every location we owned.
I pulled up to a bunch of abandoned warehouses and found the one in the far left corner that was ours. I rolled my bike into the warehouse with me and pulled up the number I had called more in the past week than in the last five years.
My grandfather.
On the second ring, the phone is answered.
“Lopez García!”
“Hey, it’s me.”
“Alejandro! So I have looked into the little problem you mentioned.”
“Abuelo, I am at the warehouse. We can talk.”
“Perfect, Mi Nieto. I had some friends find this Andrew guy you asked about, and what they found was quite interesting.”
“Abuelo, can you please just tell me what’s going on? I don't have enough energy for riddles today. Can you just get straight to the point? ”
“This Andrew you were talking about was found dead in his apartment. Stab wound to the carotid artery. It's not a clean cut across the throat. It’s a stab directly to the artery.”
“A stab wound? Who stabbed him? You were supposed to just get the fucker for me! What do you mean, someone did the job already? I wanted to kill the fucker for hurting Rachel!!”
“My men didn’t kill him. They had strict instructions not to kill him. It seems as if he has been dead for a couple of days. I am not sure who killed him, but we did take a clean-up crew to the house.”
“Thank you for the clean-up crew. I will do some research to see who could have stabbed him.”
“I already looked into it for you. I knew you would be curious. No one has gone in or out of the apartment besides Andrew and Rachel, and no one has been there since Rachel left on Friday.”
Hmm, that’s odd. That would mean that Rachel killed him or Andrew killed himself, which I highly doubt.
“Alejandro, it seems like you have a murderer in your house right now that you are warming your bed with.”
I laughed a full belly laugh.
“Abuelo, first off, who warms my bed is not your concern. Second, you act like I haven’t been raised around murderers my whole life. It’s like you forget that Mom and I lived with you most of my childhood.”
“Just be careful, is all I ask. And you are alive because you lived with me. Your deadbeat father wasn’t going to protect you or your mother.”
“I always am. Bye.” I hung up, and now my mind is going even faster! Every time he goes on a tangent about my biological father, it always makes my stomach turn. I don’t know who my biological father is, and truthfully I don’t give a shit. My mom raised me just fine on her own, and I owe that woman my whole life.
The one thing I did know was that I had to get to my house and see Rachel. I put on my helmet, walk my bike out of the warehouse, and head home. I need to go into this conversation with a level head if I want to get answers.