Chapter Six
Carlos
I waited for her to finish her thought but when she said nothing more, I asked, “I’m so what?” I laughed. “Sentimental? A fool that believes in legends?”
Selena shrugged. “I like the legends. But what I mean is…So human. So deep? Like you inking your chest in a vow for those kids. All while Gabriela believes you never cared about them. While you worked for the cartel. Killed people and took captives.”
I slowly shook my head. “After this, I shall be a new person. In fact, I already am. Or maybe I never existed. Carlos Castillo is a fake. I am not cold blooded. I do not crave violence. I was never a real killer, never a willing participant. I was an act. I acted like Santiago expected, demanded. I was the whole package he made. One he created from lies and threats. Just to scare them all. Just like El Chappo or any of those thugs. And my family even believed it.” I stared at her as sadness washed over me at all the useless life that I had lived so far.
Wasted time. Days, months and years spent while being someone I hated.
“Gabby never fully believed it though. I knew that by the way she looked at me. She loved me. Or at least she used to.”
Selena stared at me and told me in a soft voice, “I believe she still does. I will always love my brother.”
“Si, but he was as close to a human angel as anyone could get. Me?” I smirked. “I am a bad guy,” I used a heavy Cuban Al Pacino voice.
Selena burst out with laughter.
I scoffed and stayed in character, mimicking what he had said in Scarface, “You need people like me, so you can point your fuckin' finger and say, That's the bad guy!”
Selena laughed even louder.
“Chingar,” I muttered under my breath. Her smile and that laugh just turned me on to no end. I was sure of that now. How was I gonna proceed with this journey? To find the kids with her and not want to have her? Taste her, and feel what I knew would be the softest skin I’d ever touched?
Her laughter stopped abruptly and she stared at me.
As I stared back, I wondered if she felt the same way. Attracted as all hell. I doubted it. She seemed to be self-controlled and unaffected. Our eyes remained locked though and I began to believe—
A loud knock came on the hotel room door.
I snapped my head to the side and stared at the door. If someone was here as a threat, I was helpless to do anything in defense. Well, mostly helpless. “Aguas, I don’t have a weapon,” I told her. “If—”
She raised her hand at me and took a cell out from her shirt pocket.
It had to be her personal phone. She tapped the screen and studied the cell screen.
“It’s room service with our lunch,” she reported to me then she tapped the phone again and shoved it back into her pocket.
Before turning away, she paused to lower her shirt enough to show me something odd in her black lace bra.
Not her breast like I would have preferred but a sheath with a slim blade in it.
Then she gave me a wink and turned to show me her sweet, shapely ass.
I sucked in a deep breath as those jean covered cheeks made me hard all over again. But I soon realized she wasn’t showing me her sweet ass. She had a small gun sticking out of the waistband of her jeans.
I watched those hips sway as she headed to the door. This woman was a female from my dreams. Tough, sexy, Latino and fucking beautiful.
“Room service!” a loud voice called out from the other side of the door.
She placed her hand on the gun at her back and undid the chain then popped the lock on the doorknob.
A man in a uniform came into the room while rolling a trolley in. He parked it in the middle of the room, then turned to look at me.
I took note of his dark eyes and the look in them. I looked across the room at Selena.
She already had her weapon out and held it at her side.
The bell boy turned to the cart then looked over at her.
Selena had swiftly hidden her gun behind her back.
“If you need anything else, please call the desk.” He smiled at her and bowed.
“I will add a good gratuity for you.” Selena smiled at him.
He gave her a respectful nod and left the room.
Selena hurried over to the door to shut it and engaged the locks again.
I let out a sigh of relief. Looking up at her, she wasn’t at the door anymore. I swung my gaze over to the trolley.
Selena had taken the lids from the dishes and was leaning over to look at them closely.
“I’m glad to see the food. I’m starving. If I say I haven’t eaten in days that would be an understatement. The soups of the last couple of days were…” My voice faded away as I looked from the dishes up to her face.
She slowly shook her head. “I’m sorry Carlos, but you can’t have any of it.”
I pouted as I could now smell the burgers and the fries on that trolley. Well, maybe not a pout but it was close. Looking up, I saw that she was no longer at the cart. Mierda…wow, the woman could move like a shadow.
She had already rushed across the room and had grabbed her pack. Then her small suitcase. Turning, she stared at me. “Can you walk?”
I shrugged. “He wasn’t the bell hop,” I stated as it now wasn’t a question.
“No, I do not believe that he was.”
“I did get that twinge at the cold look in his eyes, but I saw no other sign.”
“Si, I also saw his eyes.” Selena went over and grabbed a few things from the side of my bed.
“In addition, he wore a bellhop uniform but the pants were at least an inch too short. The shirt didn’t fit well either.
Then his shoes were…well, the same kind that most of my men wear.
Mexican made. He also…” she paused and shook her head.
“Had that look.” She tossed me a pair of sweats.
I caught them and stared at her. “I never noticed all of that but yes. I get the part about the look.” I swung my legs over the side of the bed as I’d worn boxers under the covers all day.
I put one foot through the sweats and then the other.
I’d had a few days of walking therapy from the nurse after I awoke but I was still kind of weak.
“It’s a dead look,” I added as I stood on my feet and pulled the sweats up the rest of the way.
“…in their eyes. One that shows a person has killed people.” Looking up at her, I saw she had halted to stare at me.
“One could say you and I have that look, but I disagree. I only killed men who forced me to. They wanted to take my life. You are the same.”
Selena made no comment as she came over and moved a wheelchair out from the corner. “I don’t know how fast this getaway will be while using a chair. He will wait long enough for the sedatives in that food to work, then he will be here.” Wheeling the chair over, she motioned for me to sit in it.
I shook my head. “We won’t be using that.”
“You can’t…” She sighed.
“I can.” I nodded at her. “Hand me that cane. Fuck the chair.”
She shook her head. “I don’t have time to argue, Carlos. If you collapse, we will be dead.”
“Who do you think he works for?” I asked as I took the cane from her.
“Not mine.”
“Then mine?” I concluded.
“I don’t think so.” She turned, grabbed my prescription bag and took the phone she had given to me, tucking it into my sweat pants pocket.
I winced as her hand was helluva close to a spot that would make me a bit too happy… I shook my head. “Then who?”
“An assassin,” she said as she stepped in next to me and tucked herself under my arm.
“Looking for me?”
“No, he is looking for me.” She headed us over to the door. She had to be strong or she’d been endowed with great arm strength as she had the pack, the small suitcase and me under her arms now.
“órale, now you have a story to tell me, woman.”
She shushed me and raised her phone to look at it.
I leaned in close and saw she had camera feed to the hallway outside of the door we were at. She had tapped into the hotel feed? “How in the fuck?”
Shrugging, she said, “I have some skills.”
“Huevo…Hell yeah, you have.”
Opening the door, she paused to look back and forth. Then she moved me out and we headed down the hallway. I moved as fast as I could and I wasn’t as weak as I thought I’d be.
She got us to an elevator when suddenly, she pushed me to the carpet and raised her gun. She let off a shot.
I looked up from the floor and saw a man drop. The fake bell hop. Looking up, I noted she had a small silencer on her gun. She had been well prepared for a public battle for sure. I struggled to rise and used the corner of the wall to pull myself up.
She again got under my shoulder as the elevator doors opened.
A man stepped out.
Selena swung her other arm out clipping him under the chin with the butt of the gun. Then she pushed him out to the floor. Jumping into the elevator with me, she tapped the button.
The doors shut with a smooth click.
I looked over at her. “I think I love you,” I whispered in awe.
She tucked a long lock of her hair back up into her ponytail then looked over at me. With a smirk, she shook her head.
“I mean damn, where in the hell did you learn all of that?”
“Best training in the world from La Avispa.”
I did a shocked doubletake of her face and laughed. “Santa mierda. The Wasp. Of course, you were trained by the best female assassin in the business!”
The elevator opened and she peered out at the parking garage. Then she stepped out and dragged me with her. I’d lost my cane back on the hotel floor but I found I didn’t really need it. We made our way across the pavement.
Looking back and forth cautiously she kept her head on a swivel as they called it. This could be a dangerous area because there were too many places to hide.
I also kept looking around.
Finally, we came to a small sedan. She opened the doors with the key fob and I got in while waving her help away.
Going around, she hopped into the driver’s side. She drove out and we left.
She watched the mirrors as did I.
Finally, she seemed to relax as she pulled into a McDonalds and drove around to the drive thru.
I chuckled. “Thank fuck. I’m hungry.”
She smiled as she still watched the mirrors. “I’m sorry about your first real meal being ruined.”
“That’s okay. I love double quarter pounders. And no fry beats Mickey D’s fries.” I looked around and felt energy just from the sunlight. The cars going back and forth, people grocery shopping, life just being normal. “I cannot believe that I am alive.”
She glanced over at me. “I’m sorry about what happened back there.”
“I don’t mean that, Selena. You saved my ass.
No, I meant from the tree hit. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, doing the wrong thing.
I would like to say it was a bad decision but it wasn’t mine to make.
I’d been told to do any damage I could to the Mancinis and I followed that order.
I followed all of them.” I looked over at her. “Now, I’m free.”
“Don’t speak of freedom too soon,” she advised. “We haven’t gotten through this journey yet.” She gave me a nod and pulled up to the speaker where she placed our order, “Four double quarter pounders, 3 large fries and 2 cokes. Lots of napkins and catchup.”
I smiled as she’d ordered perfectly, then I teased her, “So what are you having?”
She glanced at me then chuckled.
Again, her laugh made me feel too warm all over.
What the hell was the matter with me? I always prided myself on not hitting on women.
Not succumbing to their charms. Like all my men would do whenever they were around females.
Then all I wanted to do was to be all over this one.
Just grab her up and dive into all that sexiness that was Selena.
Of course, this wasn’t your average woman.
This was a warrior princess, an extraordinary female.
Gorgeous, smart and deadly… all rolled up into one kickass woman.
Digging into her jean pocket she took out a fifty-dollar bill and paid in cash for the food.
I knew why. No card trail. I also wanted to ask her badly about this hit she had out on her. I knew I had to wait for answers though.
After a few minutes, they handed her the bags and she gave them to me.
We took off again.
“So where are we gonna go?” I asked her.
“The Best Western,” she told me. “Not as fancy as The Executor but I already reserved it for tonight.”
“When did you do that?” I asked since I hadn’t seen her make that call.
“Yesterday,” she replied as she pulled over into a parking lot of that same motel. She drove up to the outside suites and parked. Then she got out, went around and opened my door.
I looked up at her and said, “Lucy, you have a lot of splaining to do.” This time, I used Ricky Ricardo’s Cuban accent from the old TV comedy.
Shaking her head, Selena quipped, “Bien, someone loves old movies and series.”
I slowly stood from the car. “Hell yeah…one time I was laid up for six months and I got addicted.”
“You mean when someone sent that bullet to your spleen?”
I paused at this, wondering how she knew about that. “Bien, I’m not the only researcher here, am I?”
Shaking her head, she reached into the seat, got the food bags, and closed the door. “I’ll tell you when we get inside the room. And I apologize ahead of time for this too.”
“For what?” I admit I was entirely confused by now. Yes, there were women that made you sweat and made you crazy. This one could do that and make you sit like an obedient pet too. I almost laughed at this idea.
She waved her arm upward two floors up. “We’ve got stairs to climb, our room is up there. That way, I can see them coming.”
I wouldn’t even ask who them was. “Aww, that’s ok. This is all your game and thank fuck for that. You are not large but God damnit, are you in charge.”