Chapter 12

Hector knocked on the door slowly while checking his phone.

Felipe was behind him, leaning on the wall, arms crossed his broad chest and a cynical look on his face.

Hector turned his head back, “stop it already, you’re acting like a teenager for Christ’s sake.”

Felipe turned his face away and pushed his weight back to his feet, then walked to Hector with heavy steps.

Hector rolled his eyes and knocked again.

There was no answer.

Felipe took a look at Hector’s phone and lost his cool, “would you just put it down already?” He yelled out at the door.

“What are you talking about?” the girl yelled back.

“We can see you, you idiot.”

“You’re watching me??” girl yelled with disgust.

“Do you blame us?”

“You Fu-”

“Stop it.” Hector said impatiently, “both of you” He said under his breath, looking at Felipe. “Just put the lamp down and sit on the bed, or I won’t open this damn door.”

They both watched as the girl throw down the lamp on the marble floor. Poor lamp didn't stand a chance, it broke to dozens of pieces.

She stomped her way back to the bed, sat on it and crossed her hands.

Hector took out the key from his pocket, while putting his phone back.

He unlocked the door and carefully opened it slightly. He took a look inside to make sure she was still on the bed, after he was reassured he opened the door completely and walked in, he could hear Felipe footsteps behind him.

The girl tilted her head, and raised one of her eyebrows. “What now?”

“As I can see, you’d like to get to the point, as do we, so I’m not gonna beat around the bush. We are all in a very serious and dangerous situation. There is only one possible solution that won’t be the death of us all. We need your help, we all need to work together, trust each other, and under no circumstances share any detail with anyone else, or that would be the end of us.”

Felipe started pacing, his hands rubbing his neck, while shaking his head. He felt cornered. In a million years he wouldn't thought he’d be sharing this information willingly, and to an outsider of all people, what if she was acting? What if this was Carlos’s doing? What if she was working with other cartels? This was a bad idea.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by the girl sudden burst out.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Calm down.” Hector said firmly. “I’m not done talking.”

“Well I’m done listening, how stupid do you think I am?” she kept yelling. “What kind of psychos are you? Of course leave it to my luck to get kidnapped by the world craziest criminal, what on-”she kept ranting on and on.

Felipe who was flipping out at this point rushed to hector and grabbed his elbow, “we need to talk alone, NOW.” He ordered him.

Hector took a look at the girl who was still objecting with a colorfully language, he walked after Felipe who had stormed off.

“Where the hell do you think you going?” the girl yelled and got up to follow after him but he closed the door before she could reach him and locked it up again.

He turned and faced Felipe.

“You asshole open this door right now.” Her voice came through the door.

“Yes?” Hector asked him, paying no attention to the girls constant yelling and banging on the door.

“You can’t tell her.” Felipe said with a determined voice. “Kill her instead. I’ll deal with Carlos later. Get rid of her, TODAY.”

“No.”

“What do you mean no? I’m ordering you as your boss you will do as I say.”

“I won’t do it because I want you to be my boss after this too. Killing her will be a sign of you going directly against Carlos order. Till now you were working as his consultant, you are a boss now, this will be considered as an act of treason and he will kill you for it.”

“I’m his nephew.”

“That’s more reason for him to do so. The soldiers will consider you challenging him, and a change in the power would only benefit them so they'll take your side, you might be related to Carlos but his love for family is nowhere near his love for power. He’ll kill you without batting an eye.”

“You’re the one who wanted to kill her at the first place. ”Felipe yelled.

The banging against the door had stopped a while ago. Hector pointed at the door with his eyes, then shot Felipe a blaming look.

Felipe closed his eyes and shook his head in agreement.

They walked to the library.

“Look, last night you said you’ll kill her and it won’t be a big deal, what I don't understand is why won’t you do it now?” Felipe asked him cynically.

“You don't know the traditions as well as I do. She is a gift to you from the head of the family, killing the gift is like spitting in Carlos’s face. And yeah, I know I’m the one who said we should kill her at the first place, but that was before.”

“What difference does it make?” Felipe said fanatically.

Hector walked to the mini bar in the corner, poured a glass of whiskey, then walked back and handed it to Felipe.

“You need to calm down. Drink.”

Felipe downed the whole glass with one gulp, then walked back and poured himself another.

“Slowly, the last thing we need is you being drunk.” Hector said with a worried look.

“I can handle myself, Keep talking.”

“We could have killed her and claim that we didn't know she was a gift, but now it’s just more trouble than worth. Killing the gift has never been a wise choice. It’ll always cost the receiver’s life.”

Felipe sat down behind the dark wood desk. “Alright we won’t kill her, then we just get rid of her some other way, like… like… whorehouse. Yes.” Felipe said with excitement. “She’s mine right? So I can do whatever I want with her. We’ll send her to one of ours, she looks fine she’ll be working for us, and we won’t get in trouble with Carlos, hell I’ll tell him she was so good that I decided to use her talents for business.”

Hector shook his head in disagreement.

“What the hell is wrong now?”

“Not only the fact that she can tell everyone about what really happened last night, she also wouldn't agree to work there willingly, she’s gonna put up many fights, and most of our customers won’t like that so she’ll disturb the business completely.”

Felipe slammed his fist on the desk rapidly.

“You’re gonna rip your stitches again.” Hector said calmly, his voice was lost in Felipe grunts.

Felipe stopped and laid his forehead on the desk. The cold surface felt good against his burning skin.

He Heard hector moving but didn't move his head. He felt his hand on his shoulder.

“Listen, I know this isn't an easy way, I know how hard it is for you to trust, and you have a right to be like this. But this is what life is, sometimes you don't get to do things the way you want to. I know how difficult it is for you to have trust, but you need to know, I’m always on your side, no matter the consequence. If you truly think you can’t do this then I’ll kill her, hell we even plan and try to take Carlos down. There will be a good chance of us dying, but I can assure you, I’ll be by your side up until the end.” He patted his shoulder again. Then walked back and sat down on the couch. “Well, what will it be?”