Chapter Seventeen
“You have to go where?” Manuel asked.
“The bathroom.”
The two beers I just had raced through me and I had to go. I started to cross my legs to emphasize my point. If I had been three I would have been cupping my privates and hopping up and down.
“Unless you have a portable potty in your car I have to go now.”
Manuel sighed. “Go. I’ll wait for you here.”
My bladder wanted to jump for joy. I left Manuel in the foyer, after asking where the bathroom was and made my way down the hallway. Apparently the owner didn’t believe in turning on many lights because it was hard to see what was in front of me. I didn’t get rich people. They’d spend thousands on a dress then penny pinch on electricity. I did my business as fast as I could, washed my hands and then flung open the door.
“Hello my tigress,” Ali said. He was blocking my path with one of his bodyguards.
“What are you doing?” I said glancing nervously over their shoulders for help. But the hallway was empty.
Ali licked his lips. “Taking you home with me.”
You’ve got to be kidding me. “Your father won’t like it,” I reminded him.
He smirked. “Maybe. But he will forgive me. Like he always does.”
Obviously his father never understood that children needed boundaries.
I began to scream, but the bodyguard slapped his hand over my mouth and dragged me down the hallway. I tried to kick him, but he was so big it was like hitting wall. The bodyguard got frustrated and threw me over his shoulder while Ali kept telling me not to worry we’d be together soon.
We went out through a side door. Just as I was resigned myself to the fact I was going to live out my days being in a harem someone leapt out of the bushes and tackled the bodyguard. In the scuffle I ended up on the ground. I looked up to see two guys were rolling around on the grass using their best wrestling moves. I squinted my eyes trying to see what was going on when I recognized one of the wrestlers was Hector.
“Get off him!” I shouted taking my shoe off and running towards them. I waited until I could get a good shot then brought my four inch heel up and smacked the bodyguard in the face. He grabbed his head with both hands and screamed. Hector used the opportunity to flip and pin him to the ground.
“Goldie, get him,” Hector shouted motioning behind me. I turned around and saw Ali running away. I flung off my other shoe and chased after him. It wasn’t hard to catch up to him considering he looked like an egg with legs. I tackled him to the ground landing in a patch of wet grass. I struggled to get the upper hand, but his size made it impossible. We were both jostling for position when I heard him moan. And it wasn’t like a ‘you’ve hurt me’ moan it was like ‘I am loving this’ moan. Oh. My. God. I was ready to jump off and go vomit when I remembered I was still holding my shoe.
Let’s see if you like this you sick little man. I lifted it up and saw his eyes register what I was planning to do. I brought the shoe behind my head ready to smack him when he panicked and flung me off face first into the grass. I turned around just in time to grab his ankle making him stumble back onto the ground. I scrambled to get on his back, but he kept bucking up throwing me off. It was like I was riding a wild bull in the rodeo when I felt strong hands grab me around the waist and lift me up.
I snapped around and saw it was Manuel.
“You okay?” He asked.
“Yeah.” Even though my long dress had turned into a miniskirt with grass stains. “What took you so long anyway?”
“You got the bracelet wet when you washed your hands.”
I shut my eyes wishing I could beam myself away. I forgot to take it off before I went to the bathroom. Would the humiliation never end? I didn’t even know the guys in the control van and yet they’ve already heard me having sex and peeing.
All the agents Bryan must have been talking about swarmed around and slapped cuffs on Ali who was shouting out terms of endearments to me saying we’ll still be together.
What a weenie.
I stared down at my dress. “Look at me.”
Manuel surveyed the damage. “You still look good,” he said giving me the once over again.
“Gee thanks,” I said sarcastically. “Grass stains and shredded material is all the fashion this year. I will tell that to the raging drag queen when I give it back to him. You’ll be able to read my obituary in a couple days.”
Manuel half smiled. “I’ll take care of it.”
“What? How?”
“Don’t worry.”
I was in no mood for his cryptic answers. I looked like Wilma Flintstone with a bad hair day. And now my arm was starting to throb with pain from the gash I got taking down Ali. I was ready to get mysterious man to spill his guts when I got distracted by Hector shouting, “You fuckers got it wrong.”
The Feds were slapping cuffs on Hector.
“Come on. Let’s go help our friend,” Manuel said.
I was stressed and felt like crap, but seeing Hector in a blue tuxedo with a ruffled white shirt made everything seem better. I glanced over and saw Manuel vouch for Hector to the Feds.
“Bunch of shit heads. Don’t even know who to arrest and shit,” he mumbled.
“Looking sharp Hector,” I said with a straight face.
“Damn right I do.” Then he caught himself and narrowed his eyes at me, “And?”
Considering my past comments on his and the guys work uniform he had a right to be suspicious.
“And nothing. I just have never seen you all dressed up before. Where’d you get it?” Inside I was dying, but I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. I didn’t dare look at Manuel because I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from laughing.
His expression relaxed. “It’s from my fuckin’ wedding. Yolanda picked it out.”
“Nice. And it still fits too,” I said.
On the last word I had to bite my lip from laughing because his pants looked spray painted on and his shirt seemed like it was going to burst open any moment.
“Hey Goldie your friend is coming,” Manuel said shooting his eyes behind me. The way he said friend should have clued me into who it was. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Bryan approaching us with an expression that I recognized from my previous mishaps. It was a mixture of anger, relief with a dash of worry. The usual.
“I’m okay,” I burst out.
He pulled me close and wrapped his arms around me. “Are you sure?” He asked while kissing me on the side of my cheek.
“Yeah.”
“What happened?”
Before I could tell him Hector cut in and gave him all the details including the part where I hit the guy with my shoe. This bit of information got a grin out of Bryan. I saw Manuel had drifted off and was huddled in the corner talking to some guys that definitely didn’t look like any Feds I had ever seen. They made Hector look like he belonged in the boy scouts.
Kevin had walked over at the tail end of Hector’s explanation. “You always have to find trouble Stevie,” he said giving me a wink.
“Ain’t that the fuckin’ truth,” Hector added.
I made the cut it out sign with my hand. Why did they have to pile it on?
“I’ve got to talk to you,” Kevin said to Bryan while looking over to me.
“I’ll be back. Don’t move,” Bryan said then gave me a quick kiss on the lips.
He and Kevin were huddled together a few yards away while I internally cringed. Finding out the scoop about Ali was bad enough, but finding out about our meeting with Abdoul later would be worse.
“Goldie you are going to be in deep shit,” Hector said out of the side of his mouth. “Your cop lawyer ain’t going to like what you are up to.”
“I know,” I said. “How’d you find us anyway?”
“I have my own fucking tricks you know.”
“You followed us didn’t you?”
“Yeah, smart ass,” he grumbl
ed.
“Man those people,” he said pointing to the mansion, “Are fucked up. They wouldn’t let me in. That’s why I was on the side of the house. It’s not like I’m wearing my fuckin’ chinos or anything. They must not be used to brown people.”
I was not going there.
“I bet Manuel had trouble too,” he said.
Was he kidding? Manuel not only looked like he belonged, but that he owned the place. I didn’t have the heart to tell him the truth.
“Yep. It must be the brown thing,” I agreed.
“You know Goldie partners should stick together and shit,” he said sounding like a ten year old.
“You’re right,” I said feeling a little guilty. “I really appreciated your help.”
“Okay. But now you owe me some fucking donuts,” he said.
I had a feeling I was going to go into debt with this one.
I glanced around getting nervous with Bryan getting the low down from Kevin and Manuel looking like he was ready to stage a coup with his rough riders in the corner. Knowing I had to meet up with Abdoul later only added to my stress levels. But in the meantime I knew I had to get rid of Hector. Even though I was grateful for his help he had the potential to really mess up the meeting with Abdoul. After a smaller effort than I had imagined I convinced Hector to go home to Yolanda. As if on cue she called and gave him an earful.
Hector tried to give me the tricky hand shake thing to say goodbye, but I still couldn’t get it.
“Damn girl. I must have showed you this shit a hundred times,” Hector said.
“Sorry. I was never good at those hand slapping things girls did at school either.”
Hector made a face. “What the fuck? It ain’t the same thing.”
“Oh. I know. I was just saying…”
Hector made a face again. “Damn girl. You sure know how to get me freaked out and shit,” he said walking away while giving some of the Feds who tried to hand cuff him the finger.
“We gotta go Goldie,” Manuel said making me jump. I hadn’t even heard him approach me.
I glanced over to Bryan who had been joined by two Feds. I decided meeting with Abdoul would be less scary than when Bryan found out everything I had kept from him.
“Can we walk around the back?” I whispered.
“No.”
I waited for the rest of the sentence forgetting Manuel was the king of monosyllable words.
“Okay here’s the thing,” I said. “My boyfriend tends to get a little overprotective and I’m afraid if he sees me go there is going to be a problem.” Did I just call Bryan my boyfriend?
No answer from Manuel. To me that meant he agreed so when I didn’t go the way he wanted there wouldn’t be a problem. I pretended to follow him then snuck my way into the bushes and ran as fast as I could through the garden. I was trying to beat Manuel to the front before he noticed I was gone. I had just reached the back veranda when I felt someone trip me. I stumbled trying to control myself, but ended up falling flat on my face just missing the bottom step. I flipped around and saw it was Ortiz facing me and I froze. I wasn’t sure I believed in evil forces in the world, but if they existed they should get in touch with this guy’s public relations rep. Hello pure evil.
He grabbed my arm and yanked me to my feet. His shark eyes scanned the crowd for witnesses. He was wearing a black tuxedo to blend in and his gun was nowhere in sight. Did that mean he was going to kill me with his bare hands?
I shot my eyes around and saw there was a group of plastic looking women in their forties chatting animatedly in the corner.
“Your job isn’t needed anymore,” I blurted out. “I’m dating your boss’s son.” I had to push out that last sentence.
“I don’t have a boss,” he growled. “Only a payday when I kill you.”
He was obviously passionate about his job.
I opened my mouth to scream, but he reached out and put one hand around my neck choking my airway. I started coughing fighting to get a breath while he squeezed my life away. I brought my knee up and hit him as hard as I could in the weak spot. He let out a groan and his hands instantly went into protective mode, cupping his privates. His eyes burned into mine letting me know as soon as the pain subsided I was done for. I raced up the stairs and made a beeline to the women in conversation. When I approached they all became silent staring at my ripped dress.
“Whew,” I said. “See that guy there?”
I pointed to Ortiz who was still bent over in pain.
“He just gave me the best sex of my life,” I said.
Their faces lit up or rather they tried through all the Botox and fillers.
“He is like a machine and can do it all night long, but he’s just too much man for me.”
I could have sworn I heard purring.
“He’s all yours ladies,” I said bracing myself for the stampede.