Laughing Eyes: Bittersweet Familia (3)

by Melissa Jane

  Danny

  Lucky for me I wasn’t dealing with any genius’s. The leg of the journey was being made far too easy and a part of me couldn’t help but wonder just what kind of operation Juan and Hector were running. From what I had heard, they were the top dogs of trafficking and rarely dabbled in the drugs anymore. But chasing people down with the dumb fucks they had? I wasn’t impressed.

  With Juan out of sight I knew he would be distancing himself from the situation. That left the two henchmen. One was on his cell talking a slow drawl of Spanish, spitting on the pavement every ten seconds. The other was leaning against the brick wall of the block building, one leg propped up, hands behind his back. The street was busy with tourists and locals going about their late afternoon, totally oblivious to the evil that walked amongst them.

  Crossing the road to where they stood, I positioned myself to the side of a large flow of people making their way down the street. This way I could remain inconspicuous, minimizing the threat of eye witnesses.

  Sidling up to the group, I walked next to a woman in her sixties, whose main aim was to emulate someone is their twenties. She had a stride that could challenge any model on a catwalk yet her leathery skin had been long abused by the sun. A gave the woman a wink and she returned a smile that shone perfectly white teeth framed by ballooned lips.

  “Hello, darling,” she purred. Her husband who had decided to age naturally gave me a wry smile, seemingly used to his flirtatious wife.

  “Ma’am,” I smiled back, giving a slight nod. I threw a look back to my targets who hadn’t moved since I last checked. Perfect.

  One step away as if perfectly choreographed, the woman next to me tripped on my wayward foot, her stiletto heel causing a potentially dangerous imbalance. From the corner of my eye, I saw her fall, her arms flying out to meet my left. Bending down to grab her, not breaking my stride, I stood her safely on her feet again. In the commotion nobody noticed. With her scream, his deep grunt was drowned out. Looking back over my shoulder, I watched as the man who had been on the phone, now held his cell away as he studied he colleague with confusion. The man was on his knees frothing at the mouth, a poison coursing through his veins from a syringe to the thigh. We had collided a little while I helped the woman, the puncture of the needle softened by his frustration at being knocked.

  He would die.

  It wouldn’t be quick. But how were you supposed to kill a man in broad daylight surrounded by people, without drawing unwanted attention to yourself?

  The woman still held tightly to my hand, her face a picture of embarrassment and of admiration. “Thank you honey, you are such a gentleman,”

  “No, thank you.”

  ***

  The foul stench of stale alcohol filtered through the AC, the strobe lights revealing the seedy patrons every split second. The naked women on stage worked their magic with the three poles on offer, spreading their glory to the eager men surrounding them. This place was busy for the time of day, which didn’t surprise me at all for one of Angelo’s clubs. He knew the ropes of the industry and was happy to spend his play money on creating these underground joints, fit for hungry executive types with stale marriages.

  “Now here’s a handsome face I haven’t seen in a very long time,” a smooth and sugary sweet voice sounded to the side, “You come to play?”

  I smiled at her teasing. She knew full well this wasn’t my idea of entertainment, but still insisted every time I saw her. “V! It’s always a pleasure.” I greeted her with a kiss on the cheek before taking in her appearance. She worked at the club managing the girls and ensuring all the patrons left happy.

  “Still haven’t left yet?”

  She threw her gaze around the room before shrugging her small shoulders. V was a beautiful and lively woman with large brown eyes loaded with personality.

  “Still here,” she smiled gently, “You know Angelo is nothing without me,” she quipped. They weren’t together, but she certainly wore the pants in their friendship and mutual respect was evident.

  “Speaking of which.”

  V nodded up the stairs. “He’s up there. I’ll get you a drink.” I watched as she walked away, her smile dazzling those she passed on the way.

  I found Angelo engaged in a tense conversation with a man far younger than he. They were up on the mezzanine floor sitting in a half booth. The obnoxious music drowned out their terse words, but their body language spoke volumes. Angelo looked sideways, sensing my stare. He smiled warmly before turning back to the other man, who stood and left unfazed by the whole interaction.

  “Danny Peters, what the fuck are you doing here?” Angelo bellowed above the music his arms open wide in greeting. This man was notorious for a lot of reasons. I’d always remembered him as favoring the words “fucking” and “cunt” just a little too much. He embraced me the way a father would a son before leading me back to the booth. I noticed there were several men of bodyguard stature on both sides of us, their gazes curious but not threatening.

  “Answer me damn it! What the fuck are you doing in my club?” His toothy smile was always warm but often I had seen his friendly eyes turn dark with a wrath that couldn’t be tamed. I, fortunately had never bore the brunt of it.

  “I need your help with something.” I wasn’t planning on beating around the bush.

  “Good business first, pleasantries later.”

  “I need a tap put on a phone line and then have it extended out to all the sequential lines.”

  “Easy! Who is your target?”

  “Juan Florez.”

  “Hector’s boy?”

  I nodded, carefully watching the look on his face. This so-called “easy” favor suddenly didn’t look so hopeful.

  “Why you fucking around with them?”

  “I won’t tell you the whole story but they are chasing a friend of mine and a girl he is trying to save. Their minion’s just pop up everywhere, stopping us from getting a step ahead. I need to know who he talks to and where they are so I can secure a location.”

  “You are not just playing with fire, son, you are drowning yourself in it. What dumb fuck friend of yours got caught up with the Florez family?”

  “Hector’s other son,” I said, matter of fact.

  “Aiden?” Angelo raised his thick eyebrows in question. “Aiden is fucking his father over? Kid’s got balls made of fucking steel.”

  V appeared to my side and placed two fresh glasses on the table, filling them with bourbon.

  “You took a risk coming here, Danny. The Florez family is the one fucked up family we want off our enemy list. Have you thought about if you get caught?”

  “They don’t even know I exist.”

  “You’re not that stupid that you actually believe that you are invisible to them?”

  “Even if they did know which they don’t, I’ve dealt with worse.”

  Angelo considered me for a while, his decision waging a war with the voice telling him not get involved. He slid his large tongue over his teeth, his eyes starting to turn beady. “I can do that for you,” he said, finally relenting, “Give me twenty-fours hours to have it fully working. But remember one thing.” I knew that tone in his voice. Just because he’d hugged me like a father earlier didn’t mean he would have me around for dinner if anyone found out. “Word spreads fast Danny. Watch your back and speak nothing of this. Those cunts will end you in a heartbeat.”

  “Noted.”

  “I’m only doing this cos I feel bad for you, Danny boy.” There was no hiding the care in his tone.

  I looked at him confused. “Why?”

  “I know what happened down south.”

  I swallowed hard, my palms starting to sweat with the bank of memories flooding in. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “To hell you don’t. I know about Nicolas Blanco.”

  I hated that name. I despised it. If it were a tangible thing I would rip it shreds before setting it alight.

  “I also know about the girl.�
��

  That damn lump expanded in my throat.

  “So I get why you are doing this.”

  “It’s not the only reason. Aiden is a friend. He was fighting alongside me. I owe him. How do you even know about Nicolas Blanco?” It scorched my mouth just saying it.

  “He was my arms supplier.”

  My already sweaty palms were now dripping at this surprise admission. In all honesty I wasn’t sure what to say, the shock of the seemingly close connection throwing me off kilter.

  “Before you say anything, I don’t care that you killed him. The fucking cunt was ripping me off and denying it every which way he could. So really, you did me a favor. What I do care about however, is your incessant ability to get yourself caught up in these shit storm fucked up situations.”

  “Yeah, I guess I do have knack for them.”

  Angelo moved in closer, his eyes now as dark as night.

  “Don’t let that fucking family win, Danny.”

  Danny

  “You fucking did what?”

  Had he completely lost his mind? Was his head so focused on Laila that the rest of the world just didn’t matter?

  “We had no choice!” Aiden said, his tone definite.

  “You shot two policemen. That shit carries consequences, brother.”

  “I know, which is why we are leaving Reno.”

  Once again Aiden, Laila, Ethan and Jorge were on the move. Not convinced that this was a situation out of the law’s control, Laila had taken off and revealed everything to the police. Turns out, they too worked for Hector. Or Aguila as they called him. He was a man who had taken over the whole of the Americas, the influence, power, and fear he instilled in others, widespread.

  “Ok, so where are you now?’

  “Heading further East.”

  “Keep going, I will find you your next safe house. Maybe this time you could stay there longer than twelve hours.”

  Twenty minutes later I messaged through the next location. It wasn’t secure, just a dingy motel along the highway, but it would have to do until a safer location could be organized with more time.

  Angelo had his phone tapping up quicker than expected, so I set myself up in my hotel room waiting for the spider web of cell connections to be made.

  My eyelids began to droop, the glare of the laptop screen and boredom of waiting was starting to kick in. There were a few red dots popping up on the radar, but nowhere near Aiden and Laila’s current location. I resigned myself that this would be a work in progress.

  Anna’s beautiful face appeared before me just as I closed my eyes. She was radiant, her smile one of an angel. She was wearing the long white nightie, the same one she wore when she died, except it was no longer covered in blood. Her long dark hair was flowing like she was caught in a gentle breeze and suddenly I fell in love with her all over again. She extended her hand out to me, but mine didn’t return the favor. I wanted to touch her again so desperately I could feel that familiar heavy weight on my chest. The serene smile she wore dropped and was instantly replaced with a look of fear I remembered all too well. She looked over her shoulder, as if searching for whoever had suddenly changed the mood of our meeting. She turned back to me and called my name. I couldn’t respond. Why couldn’t I talk to her?

  “Danny!” She called again, this time more urgent.

  Again I could say nothing.

  “Danny!” There was no mistaking the genuine fear in her eyes. She needed me and I could do nothing to help her.

  “Danny, please help us!”

  Us?

  Anna’s face blurred as if she were being erased and suddenly I was looking at another beautiful face. Laila’s.

  The genuine fear in her eyes had my heart racing. She was frantic, too scared to look around for fear of what she might see. Both her arms reached out beckoning me to save her.

  “Danny, he is here.”

  With those last four words, she straightened, her arms falling to her side, a look of resignation on her face as her body faded into nothing.

  Jolting from my sleep I looked at the time. I had been out for over an hour. My heart was thumping painfully in my chest, sweat drenching every inch of me.

  “Fucking hell!” I muttered, inhaling deeply.

  My heart leaped yet again at the sound of my cell vibrating noisily on the glass table, the number unknown. I answered the call by not saying anything, knowing I had approximately fifteen seconds before my location was traced.

  There was a crackling sound and two people having a conversation. I had been tapped into their line. Angelo was a fucking genius. It was difficult to make out what they were saying, my Spanish being at such a low level. They conversed mostly in English, the rest I would have to guess.

  “In forty-eight hours,” I heard one voice say, “Consider it your best interests to work within that time frame.”

  The second voice responded in a rapid flow of Spanish and then the line went dead. My eyes flew to my laptop, dread filling my gut as the tiny red dots grew in numbers as each second passed. Red dots equaled connections. Those connections were to be avoided at all costs. What I didn’t count on was just how many there were and how widespread they existed. We were swimming in them. Soon we would be drowning with no possible chance of escape.

  Dialing Jorge’s number, I emailed a screen shot of the evidence we didn’t want to see.

  “Yep,” he answered in his typical short fashion.

  “Check your email.”

  There was a pause while I assumed he doing as I said.

  “Fuck me. Is that what I think it is?”

  “Sure is. Bro, you need to get the fuck out of there and fast and even then I think the safest option is to get you all out of the country.”

  “We can’t. I think you are forgetting Aiden killed two cops. We need to stay out of the system for a while. Are they all Florez’s connections?”

  “The hack was set up for Juan’s phone. Whenever he contacts someone, the hack then hooks up with the new number and so forth, allowing the web to expand. All the red dots are potential targets.”

  There was a silence while Jorge digested the information.

  “All right, I will let Aiden know,” he finally said, his pissed off tone more than obvious.

  “Try to make moves soon. This whole situation is unstable and I seriously think we have underestimated the stretch this family has when it comes to recruiting.”

  There was a scoff on the other end. “Let’s just kill the fuckers already!”

  Danny

  The sheets beneath me were wet with my sweat. My body warm, chest hurting with a racing heart, She was in my dreams again. They both were. The beautiful faces of Anna and Laila begging for help, desperate for me to reach out to pull them from the nightmare.

  The small light on my phone flashed indicating a missed call. Downing the now warm glass of water on the nightstand, I flicked on the lamp. Six missed calls from Aiden, eight from Jorge.

  Up until this point I had only conversed with Jorge, allowing Aiden to focus on Laila, but now my gut was churning with a sense of very real dread I hadn’t felt in a long time.

  Aiden answered on the first ring. “Danny, are you ok?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “You weren’t answering.”

  “I was sleeping. What’s wrong?”

  “Juan has Laila.”

  Suddenly the girl in question appeared in front of me. The same anguished face from the dream was telling me it was all too real.

  “How?”

  “She went downstairs at the motel. The car was trashed and she must have gone to inspect it. I was at the shops and Ethan and Jorge were in the adjoining room. They didn’t see or hear her leave.”

  “How do you know it was him?”

  “Video surveillance around the motel. She walked down the stairs and over to the car. The tires were slashed. Juan snuck up from behind and seconds later he was forcing her into the trunk of his car.”

  “Fuc
k me! Did the asshole lay a finger on her?” Juan had already raped the poor girl back at the mansion. There was simply no doubt that given the chance, he would do it all over again.

  “He kissed her and then pistol whipped her.” There was no denying the mix of hurt and anger in Aiden’s voice. I knew he would feel responsible for her recent abduction. I also knew that he was falling fast for Laila.

  “Do you think they have gone back to the mansion?”

  “No, he’s not. He’s heading out into the Nevada.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Juan made the mistake of taking one of Hector’s fleets. It’s tracked with a GPS that is on my phone. We are a few hours behind him, but he definitely isn’t heading back to Mexico.”

  “Right, I’m on my way. Whatever he has planned, ends today.”

  Danny

  Two hours later, I pulled to a stop next to Aiden’s car, or in actual fact, the one he had stolen. Ethan, Laila’s brother, was pacing back and forth his head down in concerned concentration. Jorge was running his hand over his face in a repetitive motion that told me he was stressed. Aiden looked heartbroken. To others he was keeping it well together. But I knew him, and I could see the toll this was taking on his heart and mind.

  “They’re another six miles from here,” Aiden said keeping his best calm tone, “Waiting for us.”

  “He still wants Ethan?”

  “On a silver platter. Here.” He handed me his phone where I read the message from Juan.

  ‘Game on, brother. No rush, your mamasita is giving me all her full attention.’

  My own heart sank. It seemed like Aiden and I both had the knack for finding the same kind of evil. Nicolas did the same to Anna. The hell he put her through, using her body as if she was his, single handedly destroying her will and shattering her into tiny pieces.