by Claire Adams
We started our bowling game, and Salina and I took the time in between our turns to talk. She was a really nice woman, and I felt like we could actually be good friends. She wasn’t anything like Ana, so it was weird to be sitting and talking with Salina. Most of the time, I just kept thinking about Ana and wondering what she was doing and if she was all right.
“I work as a hair designer. You should let me do your hair for you some time,” Salina said as we watched Salvador bowl.
“Oh, yes. I would love that. I don’t usually do too much with my hair. Back home, I never had enough money to even get it professionally cut.”
“Where is home? You said you lived in Europe, right?”
Salina continued with her turn to bowl, and I sat and watched as she threw the ball perfectly and took down all of the pins. She seemed to be an expert at bowling, much better than I was. I had only been to a bowling alley a couple of times during my nursing training. It wasn’t a really popular activity back home. But I knew enough so I didn’t look totally clueless as I took on my turn throwing the ball down the aisle.
“Yes, I actually come from a very small country called Liechtenstein.”
“Oh, that’s cool,” Salina said as she sat down and sipped on her diet cola.
It was interesting that she didn’t have more of a response to hearing my country name. Typically, even very well-educated people didn’t really know that there was a country called Liechtenstein. I had expected her to at least ask me more about it, but she just continued on as if I had said I had been living in London or something.
I thought maybe she didn’t know what I had said and was just trying to be polite. Sometimes, people who weren’t familiar with my country just pretended as if they knew what I was talking about to avoid looking like they had no idea what countries were in Europe. Either way, we continued on with our game and our small talk.
“So, how did you two end up in Atlanta?” I asked.
“Oh, Salvador had a change in his work, and we needed to move here. You know, anything for your man.”
“I understand. A man’s work is very important to him.”
“What does your husband do?” Salina asked me.
“Oh, I’m not married. My boyfriend works for a manufacturing company in town. Nothing too exciting.”
I didn’t really think of Chase as my boyfriend or anything like that, but it was much easier to call him that than it would be to explain everything. To try and describe that I had met him on a dating site and flown in from overseas all in the last week seemed a little too much for anyone to understand.
“Is he nice? Have you been together long? Does he have money?” Salina asked.
Her questions came one after another without giving me anytime to answer them. I suddenly started to get worried about who Salina and Salvador were. Why did they care so much about my boyfriend and whether he made a lot of money or not?
It was the first time I had a really bad feeling about what was going on. Salina seemed really interested in my personal life, and Salvador had also stopped bowling and turned around to listen to our conversation.
But before I could answer Salina, she started to apologize.
“I’m sorry. I’m being nosy. I didn’t mean to ask so many questions. I was just trying to get to know you more.”
“It’s all right. I’m just not use to having to answer questions about Chase,” I said.
“Oh, your boyfriend’s name is Chase? That’s a cute name.”
I laughed. I never thought of his name as being cute. I guess it wasn’t really a manly name, but it did seem to suit him just fine.
“Yes, he’s a pretty good-looking guy,” I said as we both laughed.
I watched as Salvador pulled Salina toward him and whispered something in her ear. It didn’t seem to be anything good, because her smile turned to a frown rather quickly. Salina continued to listen to Salvador, and I just watched them for a minute to see what was going on.
“Salvador says he heard a guy named Chase Foster was working with a Mexican cartel in town here,” Salina said with a serious look on her face.
“You know Chase?” I asked Salvador.
“No, ma’am. I don’t know him personally. I just heard he was working with those guys. You better be careful. I heard he got on their wrong side and they were after him.”
“Some Mexican cartel is after him?” I asked.
I swallowed hard as I took in all the information that was coming at me. I still didn’t know who Salina and Salvador really were, but it was starting to worry me that they knew of Chase, or anyone from the Mexican cartel.
“I guess. I heard he stole the black book from one of the lead guys. There was a bounty on him for like a million dollars or something.”
I just sat there and looked at Salvador, and then over at Salina. If what they were saying was true, Chase was in a lot more trouble than I could have imagined. But how did these two even know anything about the cartel at all? They said they had just gotten to town.
The whole situation started to make me feel really uncomfortable. Something about the way Salvador and Salina were looking at me made me feel like I needed to get out of there and back to Chase.
“Did you see a black book around him lately?” Salina asked me.
My heart sank when I looked into her eyes. She didn’t want to be my friend at all. Chase was right about them. Salina and Salvador worked for Escabar, and I was stuck sitting there with them.
They could have killed me if they wanted to, but they didn’t. That seemed promising. They needed information from me. I thought back to every crime television show I had watched, while I tried to think of how I could get out of the situation without getting hurt. I certainly didn’t want any broken ribs like those that Chase had.
I shook my head back and forth to indicate that I had not seen the black book. But my mind raced back to the safe room and being stuck in there holding the black book while Chase was beaten up. My heart raced, I didn’t know what to do. I also had no idea where the black book was anymore. I assumed Chase had it, but I really didn’t know. For all I knew, it was still back at his house in the safe room.
“Jordan, you’re in danger with Chase. You should come with us. We can protect you,” Salina said as she stood up and put her arm around my waist.
I felt the cold barrel of a gun on my back, and I knew they weren’t asking me to go with them. They were kidnapping me. My mind raced as I tried to figure out what I should do. We walked up through the eating area and suddenly it hit me. I knew exactly what I should do.
I flung myself onto the floor and started pulling down everything I could from the tables around me. If they were going to kidnap me, they were going to have to do it with me making a huge scene. I knew enough about kidnapping from watching television shows, and I knew that I should not leave the first location if it were at all possible.
My body continued to kick and roll around the ground, and I knocked over as many tables and chairs as I could. There were drinks and food all over the place. I was trying to make as big of a scene as possible. I hoped that Salina and Salvador would just leave me alone. But as I looked up, I saw Salina standing over me. Eventually, the manager came up to us, and he grabbed my hand and pulled me up.
“I’m sorry, sir. She has seizures. I’ll get her out of her. She needs to rest,” Salina said to him. “I’ll kill you right here if you do something like that again,” she whispered in my ear.
Again, I felt the cold gun at my back, and I heard her cock the barrel back as we walked. I decided it probably wasn’t the best idea for me to fight anymore.
“I don’t know anything. I’m not going to be of any help to you,” I said as we moved out of the building and to the car that Salvador had waiting for us.
“Another scene like that and I’ll shoot you,” she said as she pressed my head down and pushed me into the car.
I wasn’t going to make another scene at all. It was too late now; I was in their car
. Every television show and movie I had seen told me that I was going to be killed by the two of them. I wasn’t of any use to them at all – there was no reason for them to keep me alive. I knew what they looked like and who they worked for. It was all over for me.
Chapter Fifteen
Chase
Jordan had been gone almost three hours, and I officially started to worry. She had the car and I was in no shape to try and run after her. I had to call Carlos and tell him what was going on. Jordan was worth me confessing to Carlos.
“Carlos, I know you’re going to be pissed,” I said calmly.
“What’s going on, Chase?”
Carlos had heard that tone in my voice before. He was one of my best friends and he certainly knew the kind of trouble I was capable of.
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 who was talking to you about that website.”
“Okay, yes. Mathew.”
“All right, 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 address.”
“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 who 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 who you could steal from, and there were people who 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 who 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 victims 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 s
at 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.