by Bethany-Kris
Or as far as was safely possible.
Valeria turned the corner at the back of the stables where all the helmets sat on a shelf, and came to a full stop at the sight of Jorge leaning in the rear doorway. “Oh.”
He smiled. “Going on a ride?”
“She asked after breakfast. You weren’t there to—”
“I’ll take her later,” he said.
Valeria blinked. “What?”
Jorge shrugged. “If she wants to go on a ride, then I will take her later.”
Not that Valeria wanted to point it out, but Jorge hated the horses. He didn’t like riding, and he only kept the stables at the ranch full of horses because it kept up the appearance, and Abril would throw an unholy fit if someone took away her horses. He didn’t keep the beautiful beasts because he ever took care of them or liked to ride the way the rest of them did.
“Do you want to explain to her that she can’t go out when I told her she could?” Valeria asked.
“I can and will, yes. You wanted a ride, too?”
“I like riding in the mornings.”
That wasn’t news to him.
Riding was the one thing Jorge allowed Valeria even though it had been the way she escaped all those years ago. None of them had ever figured that out. They assumed someone smuggled her out of the ranch, likely in a vehicle. They killed a handful of guards for their troubles in an effort to figure it out.
Because her husband didn’t know the truth, he never questioned allowing her to get on a horse, and go. Sometimes, she had to take someone with her, if she planned to go to the cliffs, or further out into the desolate land surrounding the ranch.
She didn’t mind that.
They stayed far behind.
“You can go out,” Jorge said, “but find someone to take with you. As for Maria, she can stay with me.”
Anger flooded Valeria.
“Why?”
“Pardon?”
“Why can’t she come with me for a ride like she does every other day?”
Jorge lifted his brow and smirked in that arrogant way again. “Because I said so. You forget occasionally, Val, that you have no control or say here. I do. And so, if I don’t want my daughter going off with you on the horses, then she won’t. Not to mention, if I want to make sure you come back, what better way to do that then to make sure you have a good damn reason to return, hmm?”
Fuck him.
She hated this man.
God knew she had a whole list of reasons to despise him. From his treatment of her, the abuse, how he enjoyed taking from her body when she didn’t willingly give it to him, and more ... so much fucking more.
And yet, she hated him the most for this reason right here. Because he used their child as a way to manipulate Valeria and keep her in line.
“I won’t go on a ride, then,” Valeria said, “I wanted to go with her.”
It might have been childish, but if she could find one way to tell Jorge to go fuck himself, then she would do that.
Her husband clicked his tongue. “No, you will go out on your ride. And you will go alone while she watches you go.”
Ah.
Valeria got it, then.
It wasn’t just about controlling her, but Maria, too. This way, he could make sure his daughter saw her mother leave her behind, make a promise, and not keep it ... because that’s what he did.
That’s what monsters did.
“Fine,” Valeria murmured, “I’ll take a ride.”
“Have fun.”
• • •
The first thing Valeria noticed when she arrived back at the stables after a quick ride to the cliffs—Jorge didn’t say how long she had to stay out, after all—was the line of her husband’s men walking the road as though they were meeting someone.
Maybe they were.
No one entered the gate before going through the guards.
The second thing Valeria noticed was that despite Jorge saying he would keep Maria with him, her daughter wasn’t anywhere to be seen as she steered the horse toward the stables. She tried to keep the panic at a manageable level, but it was hard.
Jorge’s threats lingered ...
She didn’t doubt that, if needed, he would take her daughter away, and there would be nothing she could do about it. It’s why she shut her mouth, behaved, and did as Jorge told her to do.
Who would protect Maria?
It had to be her.
Even if she sacrificed to do it.
The panic didn’t last for too long, however. She had just steered the horse to the stable’s entrance when across the ranch, the front door of their home flew open, and little Maria came flying down the steps, running in her mother’s direction.
It made Val smile.
Fuck Jorge.
He thought he could control the amount of love her daughter had for her by pitting the two against each other, but there was a lot he didn’t know about Maria. And even her, in a way. He thought he was aware of everything about Valeria, but she kept a lot to herself.
Like her daughter.
Next to her friend, Haven, the only person Maria had for the last few years was her mother. It was Valeria who taught her to speak, to read, and to sing; her who spent long nights holding her child when she was sick.
She loved her unconditionally.
And no matter what Jorge tried to do, he couldn’t erase those memories for Maria. Instead, every single time he raised his hand to strike the girl’s mother, he was simply adding to the reasons she distrusted and disliked him.
He would have to figure that out on his own time, though. Valeria didn’t plan to help him out in that regard.
“Mamá!” Maria shouted, still coming her way.
Valeria’s smile dropped when a woman stepped out of the house. Maria was already halfway across the property. The nanny—Carla Nunez. Or, a nanny was what Jorge liked to call the woman he kept around to make sure his bed was warm with a variety when he felt the need to change scenery from raping Valeria.
According to Abril, Carla—a year younger than Valeria in age—had come around after Valeria took off years ago and had stuck around. Now, Jorge used the woman to keep an eye on Maria, and her, too. She took great satisfaction in refusing to allow Valeria choices regarding her daughter, and more.
On the ranch, Carla was always nearby.
It drove her crazy.
The woman was a rat, reporting back on her behavior, and the things she did with her daughter. Little was private when someone was always waiting to listen in, and that left her unsettled.
Valeria jumped down from the horse, grabbing the reins to steer the animal into the stables while Maria was still running to catch up with her mom. Abril came out of the stable entrance with leather gloves in one hand, and her riding boots already on.
“I would have waited for you,” Valeria told her, “had I known you were going out.”
Abril shrugged. “I wasn’t going to, but then I heard we’ll have a visitor, and I don’t feel like being nice with Jorge while he plays with his friends.”
“What?”
“The Canadians are back,” Abril explained. “Or the one is—the younger one.”
Chris.
It had been a week since that first meeting, and a few days since the dinner, and Valeria almost forgot about him. Well, that was a lie. She couldn’t forget the devastatingly handsome man who seemed far too interested in her, but she knew it would be better for her if she did. So, she put him out of her mind.
“He’ll be staying a while,” Abril added, “because according to Samuel, they want to know how everything will go down for this deal.”
“Huh.”
“Mamá,” Maria huffed, out of breath as she came to a stop next to the horse Valeria had taken out, “was the water pretty today?”
Instantly, Valeria dropped to her knees. “It was. I’m sorry Papá said you couldn’t come. Later, okay?”
“What?” Abril asked.
“It’s
nothing,” Valeria was quick to say, seeing that Carla was fast approaching, and not wanting her to hear, “but I wanted to take her out on a ride, and Jorge wouldn’t let me. You know how he is.”
Abril made a disgusted grunt, her gaze following Carla as the woman came closer. “Then, I will take her out with me.”
“You don’t have—”
“What’s he going to say, Val? Nothing.”
“Maria,” Carla called, “we have to finish your studies.”
Right, Valeria thought, because you know anything about tutoring my daughter.
“Actually,” Abril told the woman, taking Maria’s hand in her own to make her position clear, “she will go out on a ride with me, but thank you.”
Carla scowled as she reached their spot. “Jorge said—”
“You’re not Jorge.”
Abril smiled.
Carla stiffened.
“And I am sure you can find better things to do for two hours,” Abril added. “God knows you find enough to do at night when Valeria is the one putting her child to sleep, yes?”
Carla’s face reddened. “Excuse me?”
“You heard what I said.”
Valeria kept her mouth shut, knowing if she opened it, Carla would take that back to Jorge as this was her doing. She would pay for that later, so she knew better.
“Lunch is at one,” Carla snapped.
“I will have her back before then.”
That was that.
Valeria didn’t know whether to be grateful for her sister-in-law, or terrified that in a lot of ways, Abril was the same as her brother. She was just as volatile, and twice as dangerous when she wanted to be.
Manipulative.
Cunning, and sly.
What would she do with it?
That was the real question.
8.
“Arms out, like a T,” Jorge called, a smirk playing at the edges of his lips.
Chris gave the man on the other side of the gate cocked brow, but did as Jorge ordered. The gate opened, and two of the armed guards that had walked out the exit road from the Lòpez ranch came through to check him, patting him down and looking for any sign of a wire. It had to be that because they didn’t seem to give a shit about the knife in his pocket.
He wouldn’t get so irritated over being checked. It wasn’t the first time he needed to do that, and God knew being who he was, he had enough run-ins with the cops over the years to be familiar with a pat down. It was more the fact that Jorge seemed to be enjoying Chris’s annoyance.
The one man with the bandana covering his face grabbed the duffle bag Chris had brought along with his clothes, and other items, from the ground. He wasn’t respectful about checking the bag.
“He’s clean,” one of the men said to Jorge.
“Perfecto,” Jorge praised. “As I thought he would be, ah, amigo?”
Chris jerked his arm out of the hold of the one man who still hadn’t let him go, and fixed the front of his blazer, brushing off any invisible dust. He hated being handled like he was nothing more than a dog. “Offensive, is all.”
Jorge waved a hand, dismissing that statement. “Can’t be too safe, for one. And for two, I enjoy the show. Now, are you ready to see the ranch?”
“Which do you prefer to call it, the compound or the ranch?”
“Whichever one seems less illegal at the time.”
Good point.
“I look forward to seeing it,” Chris said.
“Come on, then.”
Once the guards stepped back to give Chris room, he moved to follow Jorge who already had his back turned to the others as he walked down the road. Just how long was the road before they arrived at the ranch?
Chris stepped beyond the iron gate with the cursive L welded at the center, and a thought whispered through his mind at the same time. No going back now. The job had only kind of been in play before, but now it was go time. Well, his mind wasn’t wrong, but he pushed it out of his head, so he could focus on the now.
From here on out, Chris would have to be careful. It was just him here—his father, as of a week ago, was back in Canada, and he didn’t have a back up. Sure, he had a phone to call out if he needed help, but what good was that going to do? It would take people time to get here to him, and by then, it would be already too late.
“You’ll see the barns first,” Jorge said, “a couple of miles in. We use them for a lot of things, being we have actual animals on the ranch, but we also use them for storage before a drop, or if we have an oversupply at any given time. Depending on the circumstances before a smuggle run for your father, we’ll be storing his on the property.”
Gravel crunched under Chris’s feet, and the hot sun overhead beat down on his back, reminding him why it had been a bad idea to wear his usual slacks and blazer. At least, he had been smart enough not to wear a fucking tie.
Still, as he shrugged off his jacket, he asked, “How far in is the main ranch?”
“Five miles.”
“And we walk the whole way?”
Jorge chuckled. “We do.”
Great.
“Has the ranch ever been stormed by officials, or—”
“No,” Jorge interjected fast, “because I pay a lot of money to make sure that doesn’t happen. Or, we divert their attention to somewhere else, give them something they want, and that’s all.”
“I don’t understand.”
The man glanced over his shoulder at Chris, grinning sardonically. “Here, it is all about who you know, and who you can blackmail or bribe. They need an arrest, or a bust, and so we give it to them, so they have something to flash on the news, and make it look like they’re doing something important. The public thinks they’re getting a hold on the cartels, the government looks good, and la policía appear like they’re doing their job. Our main operation remains untouched, and we continue to operate as normal. Clear enough?”
More than, but Chris didn’t bother to say it.
“I heard your wife was the daughter of a politician,” Chris said, still keeping a few paces between him and Jorge just in case. He still didn’t trust the man. “Does that play into your bribery and blackmail at all?”
“It did,” Jorge muttered, “and then I had the man killed when he was no longer useful, so it didn’t matter.”
Yes, after Valeria had run off. Chris had enough information to know that. He wondered if that was because Jorge thought her father helped her to get away. He didn’t ask because that wouldn’t be smart, but he still wondered.
Sure enough, two large barns took form on the horizon. With the lack of animals around the fenced in sections around the barns, he had to wonder if the structures were being used to house something with a heartbeat, bricks of cocaine, or both.
Likely the latter.
“The barns are a good distraction, or ... ruse,” Chris noted, trying to keep up the con of why he was here in the first damn place. For business. “Any aerial shots would only show the barns, and any animals or whatever else. Thermal imaging would show the heat of the animals and confuse the systems. It fits well with the ranch, and nothing looks out of place.”
“Exactly.”
At around three miles, the duffle bag hanging from Chris’s grasp became heavier. He wasn’t out of shape—at home, he went into a gym three times a week, and jogged every morning on a treadmill just to wake up before jumping in the shower. He maintained his image and body because he preferred to be healthy, but no fucking human should walk in the dead heat for this long.
“And the barns are only the beginning of the ranch,” Jorge said, glancing back at him once more. “There is a great deal more to see, and my men will show you around for the tour tomorrow after you’ve settled in for the evening. I have something else I need to handle, but I will come around to check in throughout the day. You’ll have lodging here—one of the smaller houses on the property—and full run of the place to look around and see what you think. Sound good?”
Chris nod
ded. “Sounds fine.”
Time to get this job started.
• • •
“Are you lost?”
Feminine laughter, two distinct tenors, rang out in the darkness. The amusement at his expense didn’t offend Chris, but he took a moment to figure out where the sound was coming from.
Apparently, following the fence line would not take him back to the main pathways of the Lòpez ranch that would lead to the houses, but rather, behind them. Or in this case, one house. Chris wasn’t told to explore on his own after he settled into the residence he would use during his stay, but he also hadn’t been told not to explore, either.
He figured, what was the harm?
This late at night, it seemed like the only people around were the guards. He wasn’t going inside any of the houses, or other buildings. This wasn’t snooping, and he enjoyed a good walk in the evenings and mornings.
He found the source of the laughter sitting on the back wraparound porch of a one-level bungalow. Sitting on a hanging swing, each with a wine glass in hand, two familiar women looked his way. Only one was smiling though.
“Abril,” he greeted, stepping away from the fence to approach the house, “and Valeria. I wouldn’t say I’m lost, no ... more like looking around.”
“Careful,” Abril said, tipping her wine glass up to her lips as though she might take a drink, “my brother doesn’t like it when people snoop.”
“Does he also take a problem with people who like to walk?”
Abril made a noise under her breath. “Depends on what you’re walking toward.”
Consciously, Chris’s gaze drifted to the quieter woman sitting beside Abril on the bench. Valeria, that was. She didn’t avoid his gaze, but he could see she wasn’t going to engage him in a conversation like this, either.
That bothered him.
Valeria was, after all, the entire reason for him being here. He kind of needed her to talk to him, amongst other things. Like trust him, but that was a task for another day ... or evening. It wasn’t something he could do tonight, anyway.
“Care for a drink?” Abril asked after emptying her wine glass. “Liquor, water, or coffee, I mean.”