06
“She was fuming.” Romina bursts out laughing, copying me, until I choke on my caramel frappe and start coughing. “Are you okay?” She leans over the table and pats me on the back twice. I nod.
“Have you heard anything from your boyfriend?” I ask, my lips wrapped around the plastic straw. She shakes her head.
“Not even a single message, but this time I will not let it go.”
“Well. I believe you deserve more.”
“Yeah.”
Seeing the blonde girl from the beach again, I searched for him in vain, but I was certain he was present. He’s like a damn ghost, always in the same places I am without really being there.
I try to distract myself by talking to Romina about anything, but my mind is still wondering if he came with her, or maybe not.
I fix my gaze on that girl again as she walks past us.
She’s holding two drinks in her hands as she walks outside, where there’s a black SUV with tinted windows.
The spot is close to where we’re sitting, so when she opens the door to get in, I can see him.
He’s wearing sunglasses, but I know for sure that our eyes meet for a few moments before the car starts and disappears from view.
A long sigh escapes my lips as a bitter uneasiness settles in my stomach, and I grip the coffee cup tighter than necessary. Why are they leaving together? And who is she?
“What? Are you lovesick too?” she asks with palpable amusement in her eyes.
“No. No,” I say. I wouldn’t dream of admitting my strange attraction to him. It’s embarrassing enough that Grace knows about it. “It’s just boiling hot here. We have a pool at home. Want to come over?”
“To your house?” she asks, and I nod slowly.
“You’ve been there before. What difference does it make?”
I have to inform the butler about my visitors. It’s one of those unwritten rules. Before going to the pool, we have to go through the kitchen to get to the back garden. But something distracts her in the middle of the living room.
“What are you doing?” I ask from behind her. She keeps a safe distance from the door, dragging me along with her.
“I did not know your father got along with the Novikov family.” She’s not supposed to know that. No one is.
“And I suppose that’s a good thing?” I ask.
In the eyes of the world, they are just a wealthy family who make their fortune through their businesses in various industries.
Perfumes, electronics, shoes, clothing. There is almost nothing they have not attempted and achieved.
Despite all that, they always stay on the sidelines and attract little attention, keeping their appearances almost hidden in the shadows.
Very few people know their true faces, and strangely enough Romina is one of them, but I doubt she knows what they really do.
“You could talk to him, couldn’t you? That way we could at least get some clues about Matt. And I could also move on more quickly if it’s true that nothing happened to him and he just left me.”
“No, I do not think that’s a good idea. They’re very… reluctant,” I say, remembering how he spoke to me in the bathroom.
If I ask him or one of his people for help on this matter, they’ll probably kick me in the arse and raise the suspicions that I’ve been trying to keep at bay all these days. If he really saw me, he’ll eventually come looking for answers.
“Please, Lena. Or we can talk to your father. You don’t have to talk to them personally.”
My father will want to look into the matter further. I really do not want to imagine his face when I tell him, and that will be much worse. He has his own terrible reputation for a reason.
“I don’t think they’ll refuse to help him.
Please, I need answers.” I don’t like either of his ideas, but guilt makes me accept with a faint smile as I see his eyes light up with a glimmer of hope.
“Thank you. Thank you so much!” She says, hugging me and kissing me on the cheek.
“I’ll wait for you at the pool. You just go in and talk to him. ”
Him!? Shit, shit, and more shit! When she asked me to talk to them, I never imagined she meant that one of them would be here right now. It’s probably him. And what is he doing in my house? Again.
These days, we have both returned to our old routine.
He visited my home, talking with my father about who knows what things.
I observed him discreetly, wishing he’d smile or speak to me again like in the locker room bench when we were kids.
It never happened, and as the weeks went by, the wound caused by his sudden apathy only got worse until I could clean it and it began to heal.
I thought it would never open again, that it was just a crush because, after all, he had been my first kiss.
Until I saw him again on that hotel terrace, and the wound reopened.
He clearly doesn’t care about me at all.
I, however, can’t stop looking for him wherever I go, hoping it will ease the heaviness I’ve felt since that night.
Perhaps I’m just being paranoid. I need an afternoon at the mall with Grace.
Romina’s footsteps as she disappears through the door leading to the kitchen make me blink back to harsh reality. Before closing the door, she gives me a thumbs up with a huge smile, to which I smile back, this time with tense lips. When I turn around, I find him heading for the exit.
The thought of approaching him to start a conversation makes me tremble with nerves, but risking spending a torturous summer being punished by my parents is not a better option.
My legs move faster than normal until I block his path.
We stand face to face. I try to hide my nerves by putting my hands in the back pockets of my denim skirt and wipe away some sweat while I’m at it.
It’s futile, and his unfriendly gaze is giving me unpleasant butterflies in my stomach.
“Can you let me pass? You’re standing in my way,” he asks in a tone that is somewhere between brusque and dismissive, tilting his head. “Again.” My lips curl into a pout as I hear his rude tone. I still cannot comprehend what I’ve done or said to make him dislike me so much.
“I want to talk to you,” I reply, taking a confident stance.
“I don’t have time,” he says, then resumes walking.
I barely hold him back by grabbing his arm on impulse. He quickly pulls his arm away as if an electric shock had jolted him. His eyes now gaze at me, his frown emphasizing his dislike for me.
Biting the tip of my tongue, I push aside his rejection and focus on Romina. What matters now is that I can help her, and what he thinks of me should not matter. It doesn’t matter.
“It is important.”
“So is my time,” he says.
“Please,” I plead in a low tone, which seems to be enough to convince him to listen to me.
“Fine. Speak.” I frown at his demanding tone. I’ll need a great deal of patience to avoid losing my temper and swearing at him.
“It’s about Matt. You must know him. He used to hang out at The Viper Room a lot. I have no idea where he is and…” I cannot finish my sentence because he cuts me and fixes his gaze on me. The blue of his eyes now seems to want to drill into my forehead when he speaks in an irritated tone.
“Is that the important thing you had to talk to me about?”
“Yes. He’s very special to me.” He presses his lips into a thin line. When he takes two steps forward, I recoil almost unconsciously. By the way the corners of his lips turn up seems it amused him.
“I have no idea who you’re talking about, Lena.” The fact that he still remembers my name takes me by surprise, but that doesn’t dispel my nerves. My heart is pounding so hard that I can’t breathe properly or concentrate. But we both know he’s lying. That’s a fact.
“Well, if you ever see him, it would be nice if you let me know,” I say awkwardly. His face of having a stick up his arse isn’t helping me to stay calm. I bite the inside of my cheek again, begging all the saints, virgins, gods, and even the devil to keep my cheeks from blushing now.
“And why the hell would I do that?”
“It’s called helping. You should try it sometime.” The room fills with his coarse laughter, and I clench my fists to keep myself from going over and slapping him.
“Of all the things I have to do, helping you find that scumbag is not and will not be part of my plans.” The threat in his voice makes the hairs on my arms stand on end. What’s his problem?
“Why not?” I ask, all my kindness seeping away.
“If he’s so special to you, why can’t you go and look for him yourself?
” His eyes now give me an intense stare that I can’t register.
“If I had lost someone special, I would look for them even in hell itself. I wouldn’t ask others to do what is my duty.
” I blink, analyzing his words. Is he messing with me?
We both know that he knows where he is, and that he is most likely the one holding him against his will.
“If this Matt guy was so special to you, you wouldn’t be asking me for help and then sitting around waiting for him to show up. ”
Before I even open my mouth, he easily dodges me and walks out the door, slamming it shut with a loud bang that makes the vase next to the front door shake, leaving me speechless. What the hell was that?
“Good afternoon.” I turn my desk chair around at the voice of Norman, our new partner in Mexico.
I can tell from his forced smile that he’s intimidated by the number of armed men around me. That smile fades when he sees the man I keep as another of my pets lying at my feet with a chain around his neck that ties him to my desk.
It took me a long time to turn him into what he is today, and I enjoyed breaking him like a fucking bastard, until in some twisted way he understood that I was his owner and he was my pet.
It wouldn’t be so uncomfortable for me if his dependence didn’t lead him to be so affectionate with me.
I ripped off some of his scars, which were tattoos, one by one when I skinned him alive.
You can’t see them too much because of the dirt covering his skin.
I have to send someone to wash him again.
Norman turns pale when he recognizes him. He was the head of the Los Zetas cartel in Mexico. I can’t even remember his name anymore, but I hope that’s enough for him to know who he’s dealing with and not try anything stupid.
“Sit down, he won’t bite. Much,” I say, staring at him with a grin.
The man lying on the floor growls as he sits up.
I thought he was going to go for Norman’s leg, but instead he lunges at his porcelain bowl on the floor with such force that the bowl shatters.
He devours the meat, unbothered by whose liver it is or the porcelain shards piercing his mouth.
Blood drips from his lip. Since he is having his lunch now, at least he won’t be able to interrupt my meeting.
“Well?” I hiss, getting impatient. “I have better things to do than look at your scared fucking face.”
Everyone knows, or at least suspects, how fucked up we are in the head, so none of this should come as a surprise to the idiot in front of me.
“Yes. Here’s what I promised you and a little gift. So you can see that I’m trustworthy.” He places a travel bag on the table with a tense smile that fades when he sees my face.
“You think two kilos of crap is going to win my trust? I don’t like being taken for a fool, Norman. Do you think I’m a fool?” I ask, settling into the armchair with feigned curiosity.
“No. No. Please don’t take offense. It’s just a little gift to get us off on the right foot.” I lean over the table, the corners of my lips turning up more. The fear of others is entertaining to savor, but right now I’d prefer something with a vanilla sweet flavor.
“I want you to bring me triple that amount by Friday. I also have something pending in Colombia, so I need at least two kilos of heroin.” My eyes now sparkle with amusement.
“That’s too much. I don’t have that much right now.”
“But I’m not asking if you have it or not. I’m telling you to bring it. Unless you don’t want to see your family alive.” He presses his lips together and looks away, knowing full well that I won’t hesitate to make them disappear. Maybe he’s regretting coming here, but it’s too damn late now.
“Está bien. I’ll bring everything.”
“For now, your wife and kids will remain hostages in my house,” I say.
“Don’t worry. If you do everything right, they’ll be fine.
If not, I’ll send you their bodies myself so you can bury them in your pretty garden.
” I lick my lip and flash the diamond piercing on my tongue to suppress the laughter I want to let out when his face turns even paler.
As he stands up, he offers me his hand, which I reject, signaling to my men to take him away with a nod of my head. Then I go down to the basement.
I walk through one of the metal doors separating me from the room.
Three men are waiting for me around a table.
One of them is Denis, who looks curiously at the now clean organs inside sterile bags lying on top of it.
With those two lungs, I might earn a hundred thousand dollars.
After giving my approval and letting them take them to the refrigerator with the rest, I step over the woman’s lifeless body, almost tripping over her.
This afternoon I will return to her house and I am eager to see her again.