by Claire Adams
One time, when we were younger, I had accidently wrecked my father’s car. I called Carlos to come get me and he was there within a few minutes. The two of us together figured out a plan to get the vehicle fixed before my father even knew it had been missing. It was that type of friendship that I desperately needed at that moment, and I knew Carlos would be able to give it to me.
“Remember that website you and Mathew were talking to me about?”
“Mathew, it was Mathew that was talking to you about that website.”
“Okay, yes. Mathew.”
“Alright, yes, I remember,” Carlos said.
“Well, I sort of paid for one of the girls to come over here.”
“What the hell, Chase? We were just talking about it, like, four days ago.”
I knew it sounded pretty damn crazy that I had already talked to the girl, paid for her flight, and she was in Atlanta. It had not sounded all that crazy to me, up until that moment when I had to tell Carlos about what was going on.
“There’s a lot more to the story, and I’ll tell you all about it. But could you please come get me from my brother’s cabin? Jordan has my car and I’m worried about her.”
“Chase, is Jordan the girl you flew over here?”
“Yep.”
“Jesus, Chase. What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into? I’ll be right over, if I can even find the place again. It’s been ages since I’ve been out there. Text me the number.”
“Oh, and I’m going to need you to come inside and help me out to the car when you get here. I have a few broken ribs.”
“What the hell, Chase!” he screamed into the phone.
“I’ll explain that, too. Please hurry.”
Carlos was a good friend, and although I knew he was going to give me hell for doing business with Escabar, I also knew he would do his best to help me out. There was a limit to how much he could help me, though. I knew he didn’t have the kind of money I needed.
It was also possible, after I shared everything that was going on, that Carlos would decide to distance himself from me. He had Maria now, and I knew he was trying to build a life with her. Hanging around a guy that was on the wrong side of Jose Escabar was not something he was going to want to do. But for the night, I thought he would at least help me out.
I took my pain medication and tried to clean myself up the best I could. I still felt horrible, and I didn’t know how I was going to make it through the evening. But I knew Jordan should have been back by now. Even if she was mad at me, she didn’t strike me as the type of person who would just disappear like she had.
I tried calling her phone one last time, but it was off and went straight to voicemail. I desperately hoped she was just pissed off at me, and she would be sitting at the bowling alley having drinks with her new friends. But something inside of me knew that wasn’t going to be what was going on.
I heard Carlos pull up out front, and I waited for him to come in.
“Dude, I can’t tie my shoes,” I said as I pointed at my tennis shoes.
“What the fuck happened to you, Chase?”
I probably looked like a total disaster. My eye was still bruised, and I was hunched over from the pain in my ribs. I felt like utter shit. Yet, I was so excited that Carlos had been willing to drop everything and come over to get me. That was a true friend. If he actually stuck around through this crap, and I made it out on the other side, I was going to always remember him and what he did for me the night I needed him most.
“It’s a long story. Tie my shoes and help me into the car, I’ll tell you on the drive into town.”
As Carlos tied my shoes and helped me stand up, I tried my hardest not to wince in pain, but it didn’t work very well. I was in more pain than before. Probably from all the moving around I had done while having sex with Jordan.
We made our way out of the woods and onto the main road, and he looked over at me. I didn’t want to go into all the details. I wanted him to just drive me to the bowling alley with no questions asked. But I knew that wasn’t going to happen.
“Tell me what’s going on.”
He was serious, and I knew I couldn’t bullshit him at all. I needed someone on my side, and it was going to have to be Carlos. I started at the beginning. I really couldn’t remember what I had told him, what I had told Jordan, and what I had told Mathew. I just had to start at the beginning and tell him everything.
“You know how my father cut me off from the joint bank account?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I didn’t cut down my spending. I ended up going to Jose Escabar for money. A lot of it.”
“Yeah, so pay him back. What’s the issue?”
“The other day, I went to make an interest payment and he said he wants the whole amount in two weeks. I panicked while I was there and stole his black book.”
“You fucking stole from Jose Escabar?”
I just sat there and nodded my head in confirmation of the giant jerk that I was. Even saying it aloud, I couldn’t believe what I had done. I couldn’t believe that I had thought it was a good idea, even for a second, to steal from Escabar.
There were people in the world that you could steal from, and there were people that you didn’t dare steal from. My stupid brain had obviously not registered that Jose Escabar was a person you absolutely shouldn’t steal from.
His reputation on the street was not just for hurting people that borrowed money and didn’t pay it back. Jose would go after people who turned against him. He would make them disappear, and only months later would parts of their bodies show up throughout the city.
My father had told me that Escabar kept his victim alive for as long as possible. He would sever things like their fingers, toes, and hands. Then, he would bandage them up so they wouldn’t bleed to death. Eventually, the person would die, and the remains of their body would be thrown into the river and found weeks later.
I didn’t want my body to be thrown into the river, and I certainly didn’t want anything bad to happen to Jordan.
“So, he’s the one who broke your ribs?”
“No, Marco and a couple of Escabar’s goons showed up at my house looking for it. I hid the book and Jordan in my safe room, and then wouldn’t open it for them.”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot you also decided to order a bride from overseas during all of this. It seems like a bad time to suddenly want a committed relationship.”
I knew he was right. My entire life was a total disaster, and I was a horrible person for dragging Jordan into the middle of it. But I couldn’t change things – she was here and things with Escabar were already out of control. All I could do at that point was make sure to keep her safe.
“I met her right away on the site. I invited her over before I stole the book from Escabar. Now, everything is going to shit. She met some random girl at the store and agreed to go hang out with her at Kings Bowling Alley. She should have been back a while ago, and she’s not answering the cell I gave her.”
Carlos sat quietly and just continued to drive us into town. I knew it was a lot for him to take in, so I didn’t want to keep talking until he had a chance to fully understand everything that I had said.
We sat in silence. The drive took us about twenty minutes and, for most of that, Carlos was totally silent. I couldn’t tell if he was angry or just thinking about everything. As Carlos pulled into the parking lot of Kings Bowling, we saw that there were police cars out front, and right away, I got worried. My adrenaline kicked in, and I got out of the car and walked into the building.
There were tables turned over and food everywhere. I saw a worker talking with the police and went over to listen and see if I could figure out what had happened. I tried to be as inconspicuous as possible, as I stood next to a couple other people near the counter.
“The foreign woman threw herself on the ground and started knocking things over. I helped her up, and then I noticed that the other woman had a gun. The woman with the gun took the foreign woman with
her and they got into a car out front. I tried to get the license plate, but they were gone before I got out there.”
“What did the victim look like?” the officer asked.
“She was very pretty. Like a model. Tall with brown hair. At first, the three of them seemed friendly. But then, everything turned bad. I wish I could have saved her,” the employee said to the police officer.
I walked over to Carlos who was standing by the front door. He didn’t look like he wanted to be there. His face was pale, and he looked angry as hell. But I needed to get Jordan back. I had to make sure she was safe.
“They have her. Someone took her. We need to find her. Take me to Escabar’s house,” I said rapidly as I walked past Carlos and toward his car.
“Oh, no, buddy. There is no way in hell I’m taking you over to Jose Escabar’s.”
“Carlos, I need to get over there. I have to make things right.”
“I’ll take you to the police station. You can work things out with them to go over to Escabar’s house. But there is no way on earth that you and I are showing up there looking for your girl from overseas.”
I knew it wasn’t worth arguing over the details. He obviously wasn’t going to take me over there, and I didn’t really want to put him in the middle of everything. I would just need to deal with things on my own.
Carlos needed to protect himself and his family, and I knew it. I couldn’t put his safety at risk, as well as mine and Jordan’s. He was probably right, though, I should have gone to the police at that very moment. I should have turned to one of the officers in the bowling alley and told them everything. But I couldn’t. I wasn’t ready to give up hope that I could fix everything.
“Alright, drop me off downtown. I’ll go talk to the police,” I said as I closed my eyes in the passenger seat of his car.
I wasn’t about to talk with anyone from the police department, but there was a friend of mine downtown who I knew I could borrow a car from. He owned the Jeep dealership, and I sent him a text to see if he would meet me over there.
After swallowing one more pain pill, I hopped out of Carlos’ car and walked into the police station, pretending I was going to talk with them. I waited for Carlos to leave, and then walked right back out the door and down the street to the Jeep dealership.
The pain was almost unbearable. It took everything I had inside of me to pretend I wasn’t feeling it. I needed to sleep. I needed to lie in a soft bed and close my eyes with Jordan next to me. But sleep wasn’t about to happen anytime soon.
“Rick, how the heck are you?” I said as I shook his hand.
“Doing good, Chase. What happened to your car? You need a loaner?”
“Yeah man, mine is in the shop and I need to run out to my brother’s cabin for the weekend. Thanks so much for letting me borrow one of your sweet rides.”
“No problem. Anything for you. Maybe you’ll even decide to keep it,” he said with a smile.
I could tell he had no idea I had been cut off from my father’s money and that was perfectly all right with me. I needed a vehicle, and he was giving me one. There was nothing else that I needed to talk to him about.
“Thanks again, Rick. Yeah, I think I’d like to have one of these bad boys around my house,” I said as Rick handed me a set of keys to a black Jeep Wrangler.
It was souped up, with extra-large wheels and tinted windows. The vehicle was sweet and, if I had the money, I certainly would have purchased it from him. But driving it over to Escabar’s to save Jordan was going to have to be the end of my use of the vehicle.
I pulled away without staying around for small talk. I needed to get to Jordan before Escabar tried his torture techniques on her. I knew there would be no forgiving me if she ended up having her fingernails removed by a drug lord on her third night in town.
Jordan had been so afraid that I was some sort of sex trafficker or someone that I said I wasn’t. But she really should have been more afraid of the person I was. I hated that I had put her in danger like I had, and I knew there was nothing I could do to ensure she was one hundred percent safe. But I had to at least go over to Escabar’s. I had to try and make things right with him.
Before going to get Jordan, I swung by my house and grabbed the black book out of my safe. I hadn’t brought it to my brother’s house because I was afraid of having it with me. The book had been the worst decision I had made in a very long time. It was worse than deciding to take money from Escabar. I needed to give it back to him. Whatever happened to me, I would just have to deal with. But I needed to keep Jordan safe.
I put the book in the glove compartment of the Jeep and made my way to Carlos’ house. I knew he had said no because he was trying to protect himself and people he loved, but I also knew there was no way I could go to Escabar’s house alone. I had to get Carlos to come with me. He was level-headed and strong. He would be able to help me get Jordan out alive. My whole body felt like it could collapse at any moment, and I could hardly see straight as I drove there, but I wasn’t going to stop until I had Jordan. And that meant I needed Carlos’ help.
“I’m not getting involved in this mess,” he said as I knocked on his door.
“I’m sorry, Carlos, but I need your help. I’m hurt really bad and I won’t be able to get Jordan if someone doesn’t help me.”
He looked at me with disdain in his eyes as he tried to decide if he was going to help me. It was a tough decision for him, I knew that for sure. His life was calm and he had a girl of his own. He didn’t want to get mixed up into something that could possibly get him killed.
“I’ll come. But at the first sign of trouble, I’m calling the police.”
“Fine, it’s a deal.”
I had made way too many mistakes over the last few weeks, but I wasn’t going to make a mistake when it came to Jordan. I knew Escabar would be waiting for me and I knew he was going to want his book back. That was fine. I would give Jordan the keys to the Jeep and let her leave with Carlos. I would offer myself up to Escabar and beg for his forgiveness.
Perhaps I could convince him to spare me so I could get him the money he needed. I would even go to my father and get the money right away, if it meant that Jordan and I would be safe. I was willing to give up my claim to the company. I was willing to give up any chance I had of ever taking over Foster Industries, if only Escabar would spare Jordan and me our lives.
I knew Escabar all too well, though. And it scared the shit out of me that Jordan was there with him. Having a pretty woman like her in his house meant that he was either going to try and seduce her, or he was going to force her to be with him. It was also entirely possible that he was so angry with me that he would actually hurt her in order to find out where his black book was.
I took a couple deep breaths as Carlos pulled into the driveway and up to the front of Escabar’s house. It was strangely quiet outside, and that made me nervous. Normally, there were a few of his goons there to greet anyone who showed up. But on that night, there was no one. I got out of the Jeep and made my way up to the front door. I was just about to knock when I noticed the door was open a little bit.
No matter what, I couldn’t let anything happen to Jordan.
Chapter 16
Jordan
The second Salina shoved me into her car, I knew I was in trouble. I didn’t have any way of getting out of the vehicle unless I was willing to jump, and I thought it was entirely possible that Salina would just shoot me if I tried it.
My years of watching American television had not prepared me as much as I thought they had. I sat in the back of the car shaking for several minutes before I remembered I should be looking around for some landmarks so I knew where we were going. I watched the interstate signs go by and took mental notes, so I could call for help from wherever we were going.
“I’ll give you some advice, Jordan. If you know where that black book is, you need to tell Jose. Don’t fuck around with him. This is Chase’s fault for getting you into the mess. You s
houldn’t protect a man that would willingly do something like that to you.”
Salina had a point, and she was getting it right into my head. I shouldn’t be around any man who would willingly put me in danger. But had Chase actually done that? I wasn’t really sure of that. He had tried to get me not to leave the cabin. It was me who had not listened to him.
If Chase had his way, I would still be there with him and not in a car with a gun pointed at me. Yes, it was his fault that I was in the mess in the first place because he shouldn’t have stolen from this man. He also shouldn’t have started taking money from a person that had the ability to hurt people if they didn’t pay him back.
I just couldn’t get my brain around why he had started borrowing money from this Escabar guy in the first place. If his father had money and Chase had money, there just didn’t seem like a reason for him to need more. Even if his father cut him off from finances, Chase still had a million dollar home he could have sold for money. I felt like there was something more to the story, but at the point I was at right then, it didn’t really matter.
Salvador pulled around behind a beautiful mansion, and I had to assume we had arrived at Jose Escabar’s home. It was certainly a beautiful house and had to have been worth millions of dollars. I kept my eyes out as we walked inside, and Salina brought me down an ornately decorated hallway.
“Jose, this is the woman that was in Chase’s safe when your men went over there,” she said.
She pushed me toward Jose, and I tripped over the carpet and fell flat on my face. I stayed on the ground as my legs and hands were shaking uncontrollably by that point.
“Are you okay?” Escabar asked.
I could see his feet standing right in front of me. He had on shiny dress shoes, and his hand reached down in front of me. He held his hand there and waited for me to grab on to it and accept his assistance in getting up.
I knew I had to accept his help, so I reached out with my shaking hand and grabbed onto him to stand up. My whole body shook from the combination of fear and the cold air in the room. I really didn’t have anything I could tell Escabar. I didn’t know where the book was, and I couldn’t even tell him why Chase had taken it. From what I could tell, even Chase didn’t know why he had taken the book.