Just a Kiss (18 page)

Wasting no time, he placed his arm around her waist and brought her in close to him startling her. “Don't be scared.” His voice was soft and sweet. He brought his other arm around her.

“Why shouldn't I be scared? Aren't you a murderer?” God, he had made her mad. She stared back at him heavily. He infuriated her.

He could see the mad rising in her eyes. “Why do you say those things, if you don't even know me?” he chuckled and grinned at the accusation, enjoying his arms around her.

“I'm not stupid. How could you have such a position in this cartel?” She tried to pull away from him as he held her steady with his strong hold. “This is all I read in the newspaper every day on the front page.” There was leashed anger in her voice.

“The tone in your voice is exciting me.” His chest began to heave. “I think you're beautiful, and I'm jealous of Pancho. But let me tell you this… I can give you more than he can. You can live here with me, like a queen. I would never let anyone harm you.” His tone was soft and sweet.

“Ah, yeah right, for how long? Until, someone comes and kills you. I don't think so. I'm fine just the way I am back home.” She stared into his eyes. “Can you
please
,
turn me loose?” She wanted to run. She wanted to escape.

“I know that you are a woman that could be any man’s weakness. A man in my position cannot afford to have a weakness. But I just can’t escape your seductive beauty. From the first time I saw you back at the club, cupid had shot not only an arrow at Pancho but right through me, too.”  His brows almost arched at the statement. He kept his strong hold on he
r.
“
I need to know how you feel about me. Well, do you find me attractive
at least
?
”
He tilted his head to one side and his lips quirked up in a smile.

“That doesn't matter.” She felt a chill down her spine and avoided the question. “I just don't believe in your way of life. The way you treat people… with torture and killings. How could I live with myself? Enjoying all of this, and at the expense of the torture of other people?” Her lips pressed together afterwards.

A smile curled at the end of his lips. “Oh… so you are attracted to me, but not my line of work.” He winked his eye at her as she tried to pull away from him.

She gave her head a hard jerk and her throat tightened.

“I want you, but not in a naughty way. Not like the crazed sex I’m used to having with the other girls. That is just pure sex. I want to make love to a woman that I can love and for her to love me back as well. A woman to call my own, a wife.” He watched her eyes widen, and then he let out a deep breath. He looked at the side of her face and removed a silken strand of hair from her cheek. His eyes then met hers. “Thank you for my hair cut and for trimming my beard. I must say that I enjoyed the scalp massage, because it helped ease my headache.” He gently released his hold on her, and she stepped away from him.

His cell phone rang; he looked at the number and took the call.

She watched his expressions as he spoke on the phone, and it looked like something was wrong.

He hung up, and said. “I'm sorry, I wanted to eat here with you at my house, but I must go back to the office; something has come up. Stay here, and Lourdes will be up with the food shortly
and you can eat out on the balcony
.” He got off the chair and looked at her. “Make
yourself at home, Celina. If you'd like to shower I have some clothes for you on my bed.” He smiled and stared into her hazel green eyes--
eyes
that drew him in, and promised him joy, promised him life, promised him a family, if she would have him. He kissed her forehead, and
began to
walk away. Then he turned back and said, “I'll have someone come for you later this evening, unless you'd like to stay with me tonight...in my bed.” He waited politely for an answer, his eyes searching her.

She shook her head and whispered, “No, thank you.”

“As you wish. I can live with that, for now.” He leaned forward and kissed her on her cheek. “Maybe some other night.” He raised his eyebrows, ran his hand over her hair, winked his eye and left the room.

Chapter
27

Puzzle pieces
 

Xavier
walked into the salon, looking for his sister. Bracing his arms over the counter, he leaned over. “Excuse me, where is Valeria?” he asked in a demanding voice.

Marivel, who had just hung up the phone, smiled tightly. “She's in the back, washing hair,” replied Marivel.

Xavier was professional enough that his animosity didn’t show, but Marivel could feel it.

He walked with long strides and called Valeria’s name when he saw her. “Valeria.”

“Hey.” She turned around when she recognized his voice.

“Can I talk to you in your office?” He was anxious, shifting his body side to side.

“Sure, give me just a minute to rinse my client's hair. If you'd like to wait in the office?”  She stared back at him suspiciously.

Moments later, Valeria walked into the back office, closed the door and saw that her brother had laid pictures on her desk. “What's this?” She walked over to get a better look.

He handed her a picture. “Is this the guy from the restaurant?” He shrugged.

She took the eight-by-ten picture in her hand, and stared back at him in mute shock, then
nodded her head. “Where did you get this picture from?” She wrinkled her forehead.

“I went to Danny's Restaurant and asked if I could see their surveillance tapes. I also went over the tapes at all of the bridges, and Celina wasn't taken into Nuevo Laredo.”

Her face was numb with grief and shock. “Now, what do you think? I mean, now what are you going to do?” She stood waiting for a reply, with a wet white towel over her shoulder.

“Well, I ran this picture through our database, and this guy is associated with the Gulf Cartel out of the Valley. They call him Flaco.” He stared back suspiciously at his sister. “Do you all know anyone in the Valley?”  He leaned forward, waiting for a reply, narrowing his eyes at her.

She nodded slowly, staring back at him as she tried to think, to figure out where, how, and why. “You mean like friends or customers?” She took a deep breath and looked around the office in thought.

“I don't know. Is there anything that you can tell me? Oh, like you and Celina were in the Valley
some time
last week.” He shook a finger in midair. “Did anything happen while you were there?” He crossed his arms over his chest and rubbed at his jaw.

Valeria then stepped back, not knowing if she should mention about Celina kissing that stranger. She wasn’t looking forward to telling him about that.

Silence reigned.

“I can tell… that you know something. Please tell me.” He slammed his hand on the desk.

Valeria jumped back and shut her eyes briefly. “Well, that night when we called you. We had just left a bar and when I say we left,” she paused looking down at her fingers. “We left like out of an action movie, with Celina peeling out of the parking lot
in her car from a night club
.”

“What the hell did you two do?” His voice was rising and his hands tightened on her shoulders. “This must have been a drug lord's nightclub.” He then shook her. “Shit Val, you don't mess around with these people. What did y'all do?” He was so furious that he snarled.

“Well, nothing really.” She rubbed her arms after he let her go. Working with people, she had learned how to read them, and right now she knew her brother was furious.

“Ah, you must have done something to bring this on,” he told her, his voice throbbing with anger. He pushed his cowboy hat back above his forehead.

“Well, you know our doomsday list. Celina had on her list that she wanted to kiss a handsome stranger, so she did, and then we had to get the hell out of there, because they came running out after us.”

He looked at the picture of Flaco and said, “Shit, she kissed this guy? She thought this guy was handsome? Oh my God, Valeria, what the hell is going on with you two!” He frowned and his jaw clenched.

“No. No, she didn’t kiss him. It was some other guy. We didn’t even see this guy that night.” She pointed. A shudder raked through her body upon seeing the unattractive guy in the picture. “We saw this guy at Danny’s.” She pointed her finger to the picture.

He shook his head, after releasing a big sigh. “What is the name of the club?”

Running her fingers through her hair, she tried to narrow down the choices in her head. “Wait, I'm trying to think. Uh… uh… the Classic, the Classic Rock Club.”

He grabbed the pictures and began to walk out, when Valeria shouted, “Wait, no it's the Blue Rock Night Club.”

“Okay, that helps, and more than likely they crossed her into Mexico through Reynosa. Let me get going to the Valley, and I'll keep you posted.”

Chapter
28

The mysterious visit

One of the bodyguards had escorted Celina from Rafael’s house back to the room where she was staying. She was feeling relaxed after a hot tub soak and shower she had taken at Rafael's mansion. Even though she didn't approve of the drug lord's lifestyle, she did take him up on the summer sundress that he had laid on the bed for her. Not only was it pretty, but it was clean clothes to wear on her freshly showered body.  She sat on the bed feeling full from the delicious lobster meal she had eaten. She had never experienced such luxuries and was feeling guilty that she had enjoyed every minute of it.

She fell asleep and awoke hours later, to a noise in the room again. “Who's there?” she demanded
. 
Her heart thumped so hard, it echoed in her ears.

She heard a rustling sound. She sat up on the bed and could see the Victoria's Secret bag moving, and then an apparition appeared. Was it a prank? She looked around at the walls, looking for a projecting light.
Are these assholes trying to scare me using this tac
tic
?
Her head rotated and her eyes scanned the room. She could not see a light making the image. Panic took over her.

Oh my, am
I hallucinating?
Those sons of bitches better not have drugged me again while I was sleeping.
She looked at her arms, scanning them carefully for bruising and soreness from a needle poke.

The apparition smiled at her and said, “Don't be scared.”

If her bladder had been full, she would have
peed
her panties. Celina grabbed a pillow, placed it on her chest, and scooted to the top of the bed when she heard her speak. She wanted to scream from the top of her mouth but held her screams, as if paralyzed. She opened her mouth to release her fear, but not a sound escaped from her mouth.

“You moved the lingerie in the bag. I had fixed them for you earlier,” said the silhouette, in a very soft voice.

She squinted, blinked, and squinted again. Was her imagination being fueled by her adrenaline?
Celina swallowed hard and asked in a faint voice,
“
Who are you? Are you real?
” she squeezed the pillow tighter.

“I'm sorry, if I scared you,” said a soft and sweet voice. “I just couldn't help seeing the bag.”

“You mean the Victoria's Secret one?”

“Yes. It brought me so many happy memories.” She walked over, grabbed the handles to the Victoria's Secret bag with her fingers, and twirled it. She was like hypnotizing herself as she saw the pink striped bag move around in circles. “You know, I used to work there, and I took pride when I made a sale. I enjoyed wrapping the lingerie in the pink tissue paper and I loved to overspray the tote bags with perfume.”

“I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound stupid, but are you a ghost? Or is this a dream?”

She set the bag down. “I guess… yes, I am a ghost. I've been here for a long time… I think.” She extended her hands in the air, moving freely around the room.

“What happened?”
Celina
asked, still holding on to the pillow for security.

“Well, I went out on a date and never went back home,” the ghost walked back towards the window and peeked out. “I remember that day… I was so excited to be going out on a date… he was handsome and seemed nice.”

“Oh, my gosh, did your date kill you?” She sucked in air.

She turned back around to look at Celina. “Oh no, but I didn't know that he had problems, or that his brother did. He had been in the store a few days before, buying his mom some creams and perfumes and we hit it off. He then came to the store the next day and bought some more, I think to talk to me this time, because that's when he asked me out that Wednesday for a date on Friday.” She walked toward the Victoria's Secret bag and looked inside with a big smile. “I loved my job! I had just completed my probationary period with the company.” Her eyes lit up.

“What store did you work at?”

“At Mall
del
Norte, in Laredo.”