The Loverboy

by Miel Vermeulen

was directed to unchain Marcella. He removed the chain that had

  her chained to the seat but with a trembling voice he claimed he

  didn"t have the key to unchain the prisoners from each other.

  Only the prison and the courthouse had those keys as a security

  measure. Clearly annoyed by this the man lifted the gun again

  and pointed at the driver as if to give him a second chance to

  revise his answer. The man fell to his knees and begged for his

  life claiming he really didn"t have the key; another loud noise

  and more blood.

  The man named Sandro looked at the chains that connected

  Kim to Marcella and then looked at Kim. He raised his gun and

  pointed it at Kim. She cowered and saw nothing but coldness in

  his eyes. Marcella pushed the gun away and told him that she

  wasn"t going to run around tied to a corpse. He seemed to

  understand and dropped the gun. Then he headed outside and Marcella followed him dragging Kim along. Kim almost tripped

  over the corpses of the guard and the driver when she got out of

  the bus but managed to keep her balance. Everything was going so

  fast that she hadn"t been able to register what was going on but

  two men had just been shot right in front of her and she felt

  like she was going to be sick.

  One thing she did know was that Marcella knew these guys

  and they had come for her. She also quickly figured out that the

  slightest resistance was enough reason for them to shoot her. So

  as long as she was cooperative she might live. If she would

  resist and become easier to handle dead then they would shoot

  her without hesitation. Puking right now was not going to be a

  good idea and she focused as hard as she could on keeping the

  content of her stomach down with success.

  The van pulled out from behind the bus and the rear doors

  opened wide. Marcella got in the back and Kim followed right

  behind her. Some of the men that had been working on the truck

  also got in. Through the open door she saw the man named Sandro

  get back into the bus. Then more gunfire and some women

  screaming, then a few more rounds and everything was quiet.

  Sandro came out of the bus and got into the passenger seat in

  the van. The doors of the van slammed shut and the van sped off. Kim just sat there horrified at what had just happened. Ten

  lives had just been extinguished and the mood in the van was

  great. These weren"t people. They were monsters. Marcella was

  the happiest of all. Kim could only think of the guards and the

  women in the bus and their families. She just wanted to scream

  about the madness of it all but thought better of it. She fought

  to hold down the tears to avoid drawing any attention to

  herself. Sandro opened the window in the divider of the van and

  asked Marcella if she was ok.

  “Never better” she had responded.

  Then he looked Kim over. When she noticed his stare she

  tried to shrink even smaller and he looked away leaving the

  window in the divider open. In the back of the van she was to

  her relief unnoticed. The men were too busy greeting Marcella

  like she had been a long lost friend.

  Finally she couldn"t hold it anymore and when she noticed

  Sandro staring at her again she asked “Why did you have to kill

  them all?” in a sharp tone.

  The van got really quiet and everyone just stared at her

  like she had just insulted their mothers. It was quiet for a few

  seconds before Sandro responded. “I don"t care for witnesses” he said as if it was the most

  obvious thing in the world.

  The rest agreed and went back to chatting with Marcella.

  They drove for two hours and then stopped. They stayed at a

  house in a remote location and there they had a blacksmith come

  and release Marcella and Kim from their bonds. At first Sandro

  had wanted to shoot through the chains but much to Kim"s relief

  Marcella had heavily protested against it. Three men stayed with

  them until the blacksmith arrived while Sandro and two others

  left. Kim was happy that he left. She did not like him one bit.

  He was cold and ruthless and she did not trust him. On second

  thought she did not trust anyone in the group she was travelling

  with. The blacksmith came and it took him a good thirty minutes

  to release them from their bonds. After he was done he was paid

  and he left with a word of warning about his family or something

  if he talked. Kim shuddered.

  One of the men looked at Kim and then asked Marcella

  “should I shoot her now?”

  Kim looked back in shock and then at Marcella with begging

  eyes.

  Marcella glanced at her as she was eating and said “Nah,

  she"s not going anywhere and she certainly won"t go back to the police. They just put her back in prison to finish her sentence

  and she escaped. They would never let her out. And she has

  helped me in the past. Thanks to her I was able to be on that

  bus. Now we are even.”

  Kim felt relieved but only for a second. Marcella was right

  she was a convict and an escaped one at that. Why would they

  believe she had been forced to run? She certainly had not

  resisted. Really she had nowhere to go. She had no money or

  papers and if she went back to the United States she wouldn"t

  get past the border and if she did she would just be extradited

  back to Mexico. Again in a sick twist of fate her life had taken

  a turn for the worse. This time people had even died and she

  wasn"t sure when it would be her turn.

  The next morning they left early but this time the vehicle

  was no longer the old run down van but a sleek black Cadillac

  Escalade. Kim had not been able to sleep as she had spent the

  whole night thinking about the poor people in the bus and ended

  up crawling into the third row of seats as far away as possible

  from everybody. There the motion of the car finally put her to

  sleep. It was late afternoon when she finally awoke and they had

  stopped at another old shack of a house. The camp they were

  going to was at least ten more hours and they stopped for the night. Just to be safe they chained Kim to the bed with a pair

  of handcuffs.

  They ate microwave meals and Kim got homesick thinking of

  being back with her mom and sister. Being chained to the bed

  made for an uncomfortable night and when morning came around she had slept for two hours at the most.

  Chapter 28:

  They traveled further north and into the mountains and the

  road got rougher and more desolate. By night fall they reached a

  valley over a road that nobody would really recognize as a road.

  There in the valley was a small settlement. Kim figured it there

  were about ten little huts and one bigger much nicer house. The

  valley was surrounded by mountains and the road appeared the

  only access way. Next to the house a few very nice cars were

  parked and on the other side of the house the valley stretched

  out. The valley looked odd though. Unlike the rest of the

  mountains it looked flat and a lot darker than it should have as

  night had not fully set in yet but the valley looked comp
letely

  black except for where the huts and house were. When they got

  closer she noticed that the valley wasn"t black but there was

  black netting that covered crops and the crops covered the whole

  valley.

  The car passed a checkpoint and two armed men let them

  through. When they got to the house the car stopped and a man

  came out of the house. The man was a short, heavy set Mexican with a balding head. He was smoking a big cigar and had a

  friendly look on his face. Marcella jumped out of the car and

  ran toward him and yelled “Papi!!!” The man wrapped his arms

  around her and hugged her tight. Kim got out of the car and

  looked around not knowing how to act. The man stepped aside and

  motioned for Marcella to enter the house. Then he looked Kim

  over. The friendly expression gone but he nodded in approval and

  barked a command to one of his men to house her in one of the

  huts. The man led her to a hut and opened the door.

  The hut had one room and a bathroom with a shower and

  toilet. There were six beds in the main room, a table with six

  chairs and there was a small stove and sink in a corner that

  appeared to function as a kitchen. Four women were sitting at

  the table having dinner. The women looked strong and had stern

  expressions on their faces. They reminded Kim of women who

  worked the land and didn"t look like they had ever been to a big

  city. The man introduced Kim to the women, told them she was

  their new roommate and left.

  Kim just stood in the middle of the room not sure how to

  act. As soon as the man closed the door behind him, the women"s

  faces turned from stern to warm. They welcomed her with warmth

  that took her completely by surprise. They grabbed another plate

  and filled it with food and motioned for her to sit down. It was actually a nice situation and she felt herself relax. One of the

  women asked her where she came from and Kim explained how she

  had been chained to Marcella when they busted Marcella out of

  prison. This made them feel a little unnerved and they inquired

  what she had been in prison for. She told the story of how Jake

  had set her up and the fact that she claimed to be innocent

  seemed to relax the women a little.

  Then another asked if she and Marcella were friends. Kim

  looked at them not sure how to respond. The four women just

  stared at her in great anticipation of the answer. She finally

  told them that she had met Marcella in prison but they had not

  been friends. She had helped Marcella with something in prison

  and they had been chained together in the bus when Marcella had

  escaped but that was the extent of her relationship with

  Marcella. They weren"t friends. This was received with a big

  sigh of relief from all four women at the same time and the

  tension dropped as she was motioned to eat.

  She ate a few bites and then asked where she was. The women

  just looked from one to another almost seeming like nobody knew

  how to answer that.

  Finally one woman spoke and said “This is a plantation of

  the Nunez cartel. The man you saw at the house was Fernando

  Nunez and he is in charge. Marcella is his daughter. He is a ruthless business man but he treats people fair. If you cross

  him though, you will be dealt with swiftly. Marcella is not so

  nice. She is a spoiled brat that always gets her way and then

  there is Sandro. He is Fernando"s right-hand man and takes care

  of most things here. He is a cold blooded killer and a sadist.

  He will use any reason to shoot someone and you can see he

  enjoys it”.

  Kim nodded, “I noticed” she said thinking of the incident

  in the bus.

  “What do you do here?” Kim asked.

  “We work the plantation” the woman responded, “This is the

  main production facility for Marijuana for the cartel. They make

  a lot of money from this place. That is why Fernando hangs out

  here. He wants to make sure nothing goes wrong with his cash

  cow.”

  “And how did you get here?” Kim asked.

  The woman shrugged “Where we come from there is no work and

  even less food. We work for the cartel to survive but it is

  dangerous work. If they think you are doing something wrong they

  won"t hesitate to kill you. When they can"t find enough people

  to work for them they just kidnap people” she said. Kim listened intently as they explained how things worked

  around the plantation and paid careful attention when the women

  told her whom to stay clear of. Sandro was the biggest threat

  and should be avoided when you could. Most of the others were ok

  but one word from Sandro, Fernando or Marcella and they would

  kill you in a heartbeat. As it got later the women cleaned up

  and said they should go to bed. They always got up early to work

  the land and they were sure that Kim was expected to do the

  same. Since she had only slept two hours the night before, she

  did not have much trouble falling asleep. The women had been

  very welcoming and a pleasant change from the killers she had

  spent the last two days with.

  The next morning started with roll call. The cartel members

  made sure everyone was accounted for and after that people were

  assigned to a section. She was assigned to one of the women from

  her hut that showed her the ropes. The main task was the

  checking of the plants for bugs and white colored webbing. That

  would indicate a disease in the plants which could ruin the

  crop. In the complete daylight she finally saw the magnitude of

  the plantation. Plants stretched everywhere. She estimated there

  were about two hundred acres of plants and the plants reached

  about four foot high. The woman explained that they would start harvesting in a

  month or so and each harvest was about eighty tons of marijuana.

  She heard rumors that each crop was worth over a billion pesos

  or over one hundred million dollars. Kim marveled at the numbers

  but when she thought about it, it really didn"t matter. It

  wasn"t her money and right now her only thought was survival.

  They worked in the hot sun until lunch. At lunch a woman

  joined them. Her name was Lucia and she was astonished at how

  much Kim looked like her daughter Gabriella. Gabriella had been

  born in the United States when she and her husband had lived

  there illegally. Gabriella had been a US citizen but they were

  deported and even though Gabriella could stay she had nobody

  there so she had come back to Mexico with them when she was

  eight. Now they were all stuck here at the plantation. Gabriella

  had a job in the house.

  She had learned English at school when they lived in the

  United States and that had given her the position to handle all

  of Fernando"s communication with dealers in the United States

  the woman explained with some pride. Fernando had never learned

  to speak English and thus he had looked for someone who could.

  Gabriella was two years younger than Kim but her mom insisted

  that they could be twins. Kim laughed at the idea and waived it

  off. Lucia
told her they had come to work for the cartel to get enough money together so they could send Gabriella back to the

  United States to get a college degree.

  After lunch they went back to work and they worked until

  sunset. On their way back to the hut Lucia stopped them. With

  her was Gabriella and she introduced her to Kim. The girls

  looked at each other in amazement. They were the same heigth and

  build and they looked very much alike. Kim had a larger nose

  than Gabriella and Gabriella"s skin and hair was darker but

  other than that they did look identical. Gabriella and Lucia

  invited Kim over to their hut for dinner and to spend the night

  as it was not allowed to leave your hut after dark and the women

  she had been staying with urged her so she would have someone

  her own age to hang out with.

  The hut Gabriella and Lucia stayed in had two other women

  and they all greeted Kim warmly. Kim helped with cooking and

  cleaning up. After dinner she chatted with Gabriella. Gabriella

  told her all about her work inside. It was a lot better than

  work in the fields which Kim could easily imagine. Gabriella had

  said that Fernando was not a bad guy to work for and as long as

  you kept your head down things were good. She complained about

  Marcella for a bit because Marcella was a spoiled bitch and

  since she arrived the day before she had been bored out of her mind and had spent today coming up with useless things for

  Gabriella to do.

  She couldn"t wait for Marcella to leave again which

  shouldn"t be long as Marcella never lasted more than a week. Kim

  asked about her father and Gabriella explained that he worked in

  the field too but men and women were not allowed to share huts

  so he slept in a men"s hut.

  The next day was much of the same. The sun was hot but the

  netting had prevented Kim from being burned and she made sure

  she was always under it. In the evening Gabriella complained

  more about Marcella and they had a few good laughs at Marcella"s

  expense which Lucia shushed afraid someone might hear. A week

  went by, roll call in the morning then breakfast and off to

  work. Lunch for twenty minutes, back to work and by night she

  was ready to fall over.

  Kim and Gabriella became good friends and Gabriella

  reminded her of Annie. They both had the same sense of humor and

  the same sharp tongue. Gabriella knew when to hold it since the