Rosalinda shook with
fear. Carlos, her beloved Carlos, was just another Scarface.
He had done a miraculous job keeping her totally out of the loop. In
truth, she never much paid attention to anything, not as long as he kept her
supplied with Louis Vuitton, seaside mansions,
luxury yachts, fast cars, stylish clothing and jewels, oh, so many jewels. But
now she knew from whence this extraordinary lifestyle came, and she couldn’t
bring herself to continue enjoying this life to which she had grown so
accustomed. All gotten with blood money.
It was most definitely
blood money. All derived from dealings with the vilest of the vile. She knew
now, entirely by accident, but she knew about the drugs and guns and Lord knows
what else. Worse, she knew with whom Carlos primarily dealt. There lay the
problem. It had been fine when she knew none of this, but now.... not so fine.
Oh, how true it is!
Ignorance is bliss. But what good was living in deceit? She would regret
talking to Danilo for the rest of her life and yet she was glad it happened.
She had heard a car door and assumed Carlos had finally come home. Excited and
wanting to surprise him, she swiftly dressed in a sexy little thing and ran
down to meet him only to surprise Danilo, the new guy. He had been startled by
her abrupt appearance and pulled a gun
on her. Upon seeing her dressed in so little his eyes popped and his jaw
dropped. To her amazement, he quickly
turned and apologized profusely.
“It’s okay, Danilo,”
she said grabbing a blanket off the couch and wrapping herself in it. “I
thought you were Carlos. Where is he?”
“He had some stuff to
do with the shipment,” he said breathlessly, still with his back to her.
“Danilo, you can turn
around now. I’ve covered up,” she said giggling a little. “A bikini covers
less, you know.”
He slowly turned and
looked utterly relieved. “I’m really sorry, Mrs. Alverez.”
“It’s nothing,” she
said dismissively then she frowned. “Why would Carlos have to do business so
late? What needs to be done now that
can’t wait until morning? And why are you here?”
“He wanted me to keep
watch over you until he got back. He doesn’t trust these middle-east dudes. He
wouldn’t put it past them to kidnap you and...”
“Middle-east.... like
Terrorists?” she shrieked. “You’re not serious.”
“Yeah, well, they
gotta be.... wanting all those guns and stuff.”
“The shipment is
guns?”she said with mounting trepidation
“Guns for cocaine,
that’s the deal,” he replied with a
careless shrug. “Carlos has been arranging it for weeks now, maybe months.
Before I started here, anyway. They only
want to meet at night. It’s not exactly something to be done out in the open,
not with these dudes. They’re hardcore.”
“Cocaine, guns... you
sure they’re terrorists?” she squeaked.
“Well, sure. Who else
has got that kind of money? Not even Trump,” he said smirking. He suddenly
frowned at her. “Didn’t you know any of this?”
She shook her head.
“I... has he always been dealing with...um, guns and drugs?”
“You gotta forget I
said anything. Mrs. Alverez, please, don’t tell Carlos I told you, all right?”he
said apprehensively.
She should’ve
listened. How was she to know Carlos would .... she never would have thought it
possible. Not Carlos, sweet, dear Carlos who worshiped the ground she walked on
and proved it every day with loving devotion. How quickly he changed.
“Carlos, where were
you last night?” she asked apprehensively the next day at breakfast when he
finally walked in looking tired but vibrant as ever.
“Mi Cuerida,” he said
coming to her and kissing her passionately. Her knees went weak as they always
did. She loved him so, from the very moment they met. In a blink she married him. She never thought
she would regret it, marrying him without knowing much about him. Would she
now?
She forced herself to
step back from his enchanting embrace. “Carlos, tell me the truth. Are you
doing something illegal with terrorists?”she asked desperately, hoping against
hope he would deny it and explain it all
away so they could go back to happily-ever-after, the honeymoon that had yet to
end even after a year.
The steely expression
crossing over his face made her quail. “How do you know about this, Rosalinda?”
he whispered menacingly.
Under his glare she
trembled, but she steeled herself and continued rapidly, ignoring his question.
“They are the ones responsible for thousands of deaths on 9/11. They knocked
down the twin towers and blasted a hole in the Pentagon. They wanted to take
down the White House, for God’s sake! You aren’t really....really getting money
from them, are you, Carlos?”
“Who told you?”he
asked in a dangerously soft voice.
“Carlos, you mustn’t
do business with terrorists. They’re evil. They want to kill us all, all
Christians, all non-Muslims. You have to turn them in to the police or the FBI,” she said vehemently.
He said nothing for a
minute, his face growing stonier with every second. Then he grabbed her roughly
and shook her violently. “You don’t tell me what to do. No woman does,” he
angrily hissed in her face.
He threw her into a
chair and slowly paced around the room breathing hard. She sat in horrified
silence watching him and wondering. She had ignored everybody. They said she
didn’t really know him enough to marry him. They said to wait. They said she
couldn’t be in love after only a week. Had they been right? Probably, but she
did still love him. At least she loved the Carlos she thought he was.
Slowly, perhaps an
eternity later he calmed down enough to smile serenely as if nothing untoward
had just happened, as if he hadn’t just done a complete character turn-around.
He knelt beside her chair and gently
stroked her cheek. She flinched at his touch, but he kissed her so tenderly she
almost forgot all. Surely, she had dreamt it.
“Think no more of this, Cuerida.
It is nothing for you to worry about.”
He then abruptly left
her. Minutes later she heard a gunshot, followed by three more and Carlos
growled, “You know what to do.”
“What was that,
Manny?” she asked one of the men most trusted by Carlos.
“Nothing. Rosalinda.
You should stay out of the way for a few days. We’re very busy,” he replied
grimly.
“Where is Danilo?” she
persisted already knowing, but still hoping for another more agreeable answer.
“He... doesn’t work
here anymore. Don’t mention him, okay?” Manny said stiffly.
Her heart contracted
painfully. Had Carlos killed Danilo? Most likely. How many other Danilos were
there? She would never know. She never wanted to. Rosalinda’s faith in her cherished husband
was gone, shattered and replaced by deceit. She had been in love with a Carlos
of her imagination, one that didn’t exist. She never truly knew him.
She had to get out of
this house, out of this life, but now knowing the real Carlos, she suspected he
would kill her before he allowed her to leave. She needed to plan an escape, but
more importantly and if at all possible,
she would try to put a stop to this middle-east connection. No way would she
allow another 9/11 if there was anyway to stop it.
How she managed to
stay calm during the next few days she would never know. Perhaps blind shock
helped. Maybe it was just fear or it could have been sheer determination.
Funny, she never thought she had any, but things change, don’t they? In terrible
ways, but things do change.
She drummed up the
courage and told Carlos she wanted to do
some shopping. Thankfully, he merely waved a dismissive hand as she left. He
had been decidedly cold towards her since the day of their confrontation. She
would’ve been thankful if she weren’t
frightened of being killed at any moment. Not that she feared dying. She
just preferred to go after she did some good in the world, like having horrible
terrorists put in jail.
Her insides were all
of a quiver as she got into her car. Carlos usually had her go with one of his
men supposedly to save her the trouble of driving. Now she knew of other
reasons. Danilo had said Carlos feared her being kidnaped. She fleetingly wondered how much ransom
Carlos would pay for his most prized possession. A mere possession she
certainly felt like now. She had been bought by shiny things and placed in a
golden cage. She was hardly better than Carlos.
Guilt suffused her
being. Danilo’s death was on her head.
How she wished now she had listened to him and said nothing. She jumped a mile
into the air when Carlos showed up at her elbow. Her heart pounding erratically
she lowered the window wondering if he suspected her of treachery. Did he know
what she planned?
“I’m sorry, Rosie. I
didn’t mean to startle you,” he said staring at her intently.
“I...I just didn’t
hear you,” she replied shakily, attempting a smile.
“Don’t be too long,
Rosie, all right?” He stared at her as
if debating what next to say. “I’m sorry I spoke harshly the other day. Forgive
me?”
“Yes, of course. You
were under stress, no doubt. You told me to forget about it so I did,” she said
meekly.
He grabbed her hand
which had gripped the steering wheel as if it were a lifeline. “Love me?”he
asked softly.
Tears filled her eyes.
The truth was she did. She loved him, the Carlos she wished he was, the one he
should have been. “I’ll always love you, Carlos,”she said truthfully.
He smiled, leaned into
the car and kissed her tenderly. “Be back soon.” He stepped back and waved as she went through
the wrought iron gates which clanged loudly as they shut behind her.
She drove on automatic
and only came out of her fog when entering the parking garage of the shopping
mall. She had to assume she would be followed. Carlos obviously was an
accomplished actor and she could not trust him to have let her go without
someone shadowing her. She therefore, went into the mall and straight to the
Naughty Time shop. She looked about and found something Carlos would like
prodigiously, a slutty little nothing made for man’s pleasure and woman’s
discomfort, at least until it was ripped off her. Normally she would try it on
before purchasing but today she grabbed it up along with some other under things
and paid for it, all the while glancing nervously around.
It must be her own
guilt working overtime, but she could feel eyes on her, none too friendly eyes
at that. She slipped into another shop, a shoe store this time and swiftly went
through it to the back where she knew the back door led conveniently out just
across from the police station. She moved as quickly as she could holding her
breath and hoping no one noticed her.
Out of breath and
quaking all over she glanced behind her. No one followed her. She stood in the
police station petrified. She had not a clue how to proceed from here. Who
should she speak with? What should she say? Luckily for her this task was
swiftly taken out of her hands when a man appeared before her wearing a scowl
on his otherwise handsome face.
“May I help you, Mrs.
Alverez? I’m Detective John Mullen,” he said indifferently.
She tilted her head
back to look up at him. He was so tall. “How do you know my name?”she mumbled
ominously.
“You’d be surprised
how much we know about you and your
loving husband. How may I help you?”he said calmly though his eyes glared at
her as if she were a nasty scourge on the earth.
“I have information of
the sensitive sort, something, I think of national security type importance,”
she whispered earnestly.
His eyes widened ever
so slightly and he grabbed her arm none too gently taking her to an
interrogation room. He practically threw her into a chair and grabbed its arms
preventing her escape. He leaned into her face before gruffly saying, “Spill
it, Lady.”
He stood so close she
could count every lash on his eyelids. “I, uh...” she took a deep breath and
told him everything. An hour and three quarters later she drove back home as
per instructions. They would “see into it”. She knew not what that meant. All
they expected her to do is act normally.
Could she manage it?
Did she dare? She truly wasn’t certain, but it was now out of her hands. She
grabbed her shopping bags and she marched into the house as if facing the
guillotine.
“That was quick,” Carlos
said casually, coming out to greet her with a drink in hand. “Nothing to tempt
you?”
“I got something I
think you’ll like. I can show you tonight,” she said breathlessly.
“I have somewhere to
be tonight. Why not now?” he said silkily. He gave her a sexy grin which always
made her melt. He pushed a stray strand of hair out or her eyes before kissing
her breathless. “I’ll be up in a minute.”
She rushed up and
changed. This was part of the instructions after all, acting normal and normal
for them was a sexy romp lasting hours right smack in the middle of the day.
She should have been nervous, but oddly
enough she wasn’t. It felt right somehow. She had done right.
Although, had
she? Betraying her husband, wasn’t that a sin? Perhaps, but so was killing or
helping others kill hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent people. Besides,
Carlos had started the deceit. She was following his lead. She had done her
part to stop terrorism. There was nothing more important. She wouldn’t give it
another thought.
They lay in the
afterglow with nothing between them but love. That she knew was real, true and
honest. She also knew it would be one of the last times between them like this.
She wasn’t kidding herself. Carlos would soon find her out and hate her for it.
“Rosie, cuerida,” he
mumbled kissing her cheek, the tip of her nose, her lips. “This will be the
last time.”
She stared at him.
“What...what do you mean?”she asked panicking slightly. Did he know? Had she
let something slip?
“Rosie, it’s okay. No more
after this. No more dealing with... those people. We can forget all the bad
stuff. No more. We’ll go on a world cruise and visit every country worth
seeing. You’ll like that, won’t you? Then we can go to Columbia and start our
family,” he said seductively.
“Columbia? We won’t
come back here, to the states?” she asked, trepidation running along her spine.
“But my family is here.”
“You’ll like Columbia.
I have a beautiful home there,”he replied casually, ignoring the rest.
“Do you? You never
told me,” she said anxiously, her thoughts only on what horrors he suspects
happening here to make him want to live somewhere else. Surely that was the
reason, escaping before... God help us! What were the terrorists planning? And
her family, what would happen to them?
“Rosie? Would you like
that, a little baby, just like we wanted. Many babies,” Carlos said, now
kissing her neck.
She took in a deep
breath, willing herself to stay calm. She smiled wistfully and nodded. “A baby.
That would be nice, Carlos. So nice,” she said softly, tears filling her eyes.
He made love to her again, this time with a sweet purpose.
Close to midnight
Carlos was preparing to leave with most of his men but Rosalinda clung to him.
“Please, Carlos. Don’t go. Don’t do this. We can go now. We can leave and
they’ll never find us. Just don’t do this. I got such a bad feeling about
tonight. Please, Carlos, please,”she desperately whispered to him.
“Rosie, stop this. We
can’t stop now. It’s too late. Go to bed. We’ll be back within a few hours.
Pack your favorite things and we can leave as soon as I get back. Okay?” He didn’t wait for a reply. He kissed her and
left.
Hector, as promised,
had stayed behind. She couldn’t settle to anything and wandered aimlessly about
the mansion which now seemed too big, obnoxiously so, yet confining, too. She
picked up a book, but couldn’t get passed the first sentence. She turned on the
TV but to no avail. Nothing was worth two minutes of her time. She tried to
sleep, but simply couldn’t rest.
Rosalinda forced herself, at last, to sit
still staring unseeingly at the cascading waterfall splashing into the Koi pond
on the back patio. She didn’t know what was coming, but it loomed in the air.
She could feel it. At half past three a soft knock came at the front door
making her jump.
“I’ll get it. You stay
here,” Hector said ominously, his hand on his hidden gun.
Wringing her hands she
sat with ears straining to listen, but all that was distinguishable were the
murmurings of deep male voices. Not willing to sit still further she got up in
time to see a grim faced Detective Mullen coming towards her with Hector.
“What is this? What
are you doing here?”she asked anxiously.
“John came with some
bad news. You might want to sit,” Hector said stiffly.
Her heart froze.
“Hector? You...you know Detective Mullen?”
“I’m not who you think
I am. I’ve been undercover for years,”he said. “Please, sit.”
Numb with shock she
did as told staring from one to the other. “You... you work together? Where’s
Carlos?”she mumbled.
They both sat across
from her, Hector taking her hand. “Your husband’s dead, Mrs. Alverez. He and all
his men. I’m sorry,” said John Mullen
She shook her head. “No, no.... you said he
wouldn’t be hurt. You said...” she said furiously.
“It was a double
cross. They had no intention of handing over anything to Carlos,” he said
bracingly. “But we got them all. None of them escaped.”
That was little
consolation to her. She burst out crying. “Oh, God, I got him killed,” she
muttered miserably.
“You had nothing to do
with it. It’s what happens when you deal with ruthless thugs. There won’t be
another 9/11 at least not with these men behind it. You did well for your
country, Mrs. Alverez. You should be very proud of yourself,” John said
bracingly.
Proud? Maybe one day,
but for now Rosalinda would only be miserable and retched without her dear Carlos.
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