Chapter 19 #2
“I want that money by Monday, and I want him gone that same day. You tell him that. If not, I’ll have to get in touch with the detective, and your friend will end up behind bars.
And you’ll be kicked out of your aunt’s house as soon as she learns the extent of your relationship with her husband. Monday, you hear me?”
Quickly she tried to think of a satisfactory answer, something to assuage him while she bought time.
“Monday would be impossible. He’d have to make arrangements with his bank, and that’ll take a few days,” she said, knowing Ulises wouldn’t be able to cough up that kind of cash but not willing to specify it.
If Cándido believed Ulises had money, he was sure to want to get his hands on it. It might be their lone bargaining chip.
“Then he has until Tuesday.”
“I’m sure that’s not enough time. How about a week?”
“I’m no fool. If I give that rat a week he’ll be gone, probably with Perla’s silverware in his suitcase. I never trusted him from the start. I can smell a cheat a mile away.”
“If he does run off, that’s for the best, isn’t it?”
“It’s not for the best when I can make him pay a little of what he owes me. Otherwise, I would’ve shot him between the eyes already, and don’t you think I won’t if he tries anything funny.”
“I can’t say it’ll take less than a week.”
“Then you’ll have to come up with collateral. To keep me nice and quiet.”
“I don’t have a diamond hidden under my mattress.”
“I’m aware.”
This time he gripped her in an entirely different manner, his hand settling low upon her back, making clear the kind of collateral he expected. She repressed the instinct to slap him and instead moved mechanically, stepping left and right to the rhythm of the marimba.
“You’re an insolent girl, thinking you and your friend could cheat me blind! You’re going to pay for that.”
The lewd pig’s advances made her want to vomit, but she swallowed her bile and her protests. She glanced down, concealing the ferocity of her gaze and affecting shyness.
“That might be hard to arrange.”
“It didn’t seem too hard to get under your skirts the other night when Linares had you pinned against the wall.”
“You saw us. What if someone should see us like that in the street and run to tell my aunt? I can’t possibly go to your house, where your sister could walk in on us.”
She looked up at him. He frowned, and for a few seconds they moved in silence.
“You could pick me up tomorrow night, in your car,” she suggested, a plan slowly unspooling inside her head.
“In my car?”
“After everyone has gone to bed. They’ll be tired after the celebrations. My aunt will want to sleep at eleven sharp, all the alcohol gets to her head. After midnight the house will be locked and quiet. I could slip out and you could pick me up. Then we could head somewhere else.”
“Where?”
“Outside town. We can take any path up the mountains and park on the side of the road. Someplace we won’t be bothered.”
He looked as if he were trying to object to this, but it was sensible and practical. Still, he seemed skeptical.
“I’ll have you know you can’t possibly outwit me.
Don’t try anything funny. Best be sure I have a letter for your aunt outlining how you’ve wronged her, and the number for that detective is in my office.
And if you should even think of cheating me: Right between the eyes, my girl. Right between the eyes.”
“I understand,” she said, and did not have to pretend to look fearful.
He pinched her ass harder than usual and guided her back toward the café.
—
“For fuck’s sake,” Ulises whispered. It was the second time he’d said the same thing.
They were huddled together in the sitting room while the house slept. In a corner, the old porcelain clock ticked and marked the hour with a groan, making them turn around in surprise, then, seeing it was nothing to be concerned about, they shook their heads and resumed their muttering.
“Fuck, what are we going to do?”
“Kill him, of course.”
“You’re one bloodthirsty creature, aren’t you.”
“I’m not going to sleep with him, if that’s what you’re thinking. I said that to buy us time. We must kill him. Otherwise, he’ll call the cops on you, and he’ll tell my aunt everything. Don’t you see? We have to do it,” she insisted.
“Yes, yes, yes, I know we have to. But I don’t know how.”
“What do you want? To go to jail? And I’ll be homeless. She’ll toss me out. After all of this, we’ll end up with nothing. He might even kill both of us, you know? He has that pistol and he’s always showing it off.”
“I’ll be fucked if I’m going to die in this shit town,” he said, his voice rising in his anger.
He paused, looked around, cautious, yet there was no danger. The house remained dark and quiet.
“I can drug him,” she suggested. “I can give him something to drink from a hip flask, and we can put him to sleep. Then we drive the car off a cliff.”
“The ravines here are awfully deep.”
He walked from the spot where he’d been standing, by the piano, moving toward a window.
A feeble moonlight trickling in through the curtains illuminated his pensive face and he glanced outside.
There was nothing to see. The fog had begun to curl around the town, dampening its sounds and veiling its sights.
“We can throw him off the Devil’s Chair,” she continued, the idea becoming more vivid and firm in her mind. “They’d never be able to retrieve the vehicle from there. It’s that funny rock formation when you’re headed up toward Consagrado, you know? They’ll think he simply lost control of the car.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad.”
“You’d have to drive, though. I don’t know how.”
“What do you mean you don’t know how to drive?” he replied, sounding suddenly affronted.
“My aunt never let me handle her car.”
“There’s no way to do it, then.”
“You wait in the shadows. I get him to drink from the hip flask. One for the road, you know? And then he’ll slump over, and you can get in the car and drive.”
“Will he fall unconscious that quickly?” Ulises asked, sounding skeptical.
“I think so.”
“You think so.” He tapped his foot impatiently, fidgeting and muttering under his breath.
“Or I can get chloroform from the pharmacist. Maybe I’ll do both things. Give him a drink and shove a soaked handkerchief against his face.”
He quirked an eyebrow at her. “How effective is that?”
“Should be quick.”
He scoffed. “You don’t even know. And then how are you going to explain why you need chloroform?”
“What else do you propose?” she demanded.
She felt like screaming at him, but she couldn’t, so she dug her nails into his arm.
“You have the claws of a tiger.”
Ulises tried to brush her hand away, but she dug her nails in deeper, and there was a tussle as he shifted and shoved her and in a few seconds he had her pinned against the wall, like in the alley.
He kissed her with the quickness of a magician applying fire to flash paper, and she burned so completely and so brightly that she didn’t even consider turning away from him even though she was vexed, even though she’d promised herself she’d refuse him if he pursued her again.
She felt him against her, hot and ready, but instead of lifting her skirts he buried his face against her neck.
The sitting room smelled of damp and a thousand rains that had sluiced down the walls of the house, but as he held her close, she inhaled the aroma of his cologne and, beneath that, stifled, the notes of his sweat.
“It’s a silly idea. You should hit him in the back of the head, like you once proposed. With what was it…ball bearings? A rock?”
“I’m telling you, I can brew something that’ll put him to sleep in the snap of one’s fingers.”
“All right,” he said. “All right, we’ll give your plan a try.”
“You don’t have to say yes because you’re aroused.”
“Now you want me to say no?”
“Don’t be silly. I don’t want you to say I forced you into anything, that’s all. I want to know you’re doing it of your own free will. We’re partners in this matter, entering a contract with our eyes wide open.”
“You’re a strange woman,” he said. His voice was lush and low and soft, like a caress of smoke. It made her shiver.
“Let go of me before you come in your pants.”
“Look who’s talking. Your heart’s thumping fast.”
It was indeed thumping fast; her blood seemed to rush headily in her veins and her body was ready for him. The intensity of this desire bewildered her and yet she shook her head stubbornly, unwilling to admit it.
“Because I’m afraid someone will find us talking here in the dark. Let go of me.”
“As if you’d be afraid of anything. You have a spine of steel. You want me to fuck you against the wall or on the floor?”
“Randy pig,” she whispered.
But she took him in hand. Three strokes and he gasped against her throat. “Stop teasing,” he said, then crushed his lips against hers.
He pulled her toward the sturdy settee that had once belonged to that distant relative, Monsignor Luis Manuel, and she settled upon his lap. He fiddled with her skirt and began to touch her.
“You’re going to say you want me?” he asked.
“Shut up.”
“Say it.”
She ran her fingers across the foliate carvings of the sofa’s back, not intending to touch him at first. She thought that would be capitulating, admitting defeat. Finally, she raked his hair with her hands, seized his head, and planted a kiss on his hungry mouth.
Only after she deigned to kiss him did he ease into her with an assured thrust. Despite the precarious spot in which they were and the danger of discovery, he was slow and steady, as if to make it clear that he could have her quickly and efficiently, as had been the case during their previous coupling, or he might take his time.
The fog had stirred closer to the house, dulling the light of the moon and making the entire room even dimmer and quieter. He was no prince, just a thieving liar, but he was awfully sleek, his mouth firm upon hers; it felt half like a dream even in its sordidness.
“But I do want you,” she whispered.