Gringa - In the Clutches of a Drug-Lord Book 3 (Comprises of a bonus: book 4)

GRINGA

In the Clutches of a Ruthless Drug Lord

(Book 3)

By

Eve Rabi

Copyright © 2012 Eve Rabi. All rights reserved.

Chapter One

‘Señorita! Señorita!’ Maria shakes me.

I open my eyes and squint at her, then glance at the clock on the wall – 3 AM.

‘Maria? Wha ...?’

I hear shouting outside – Diago’s voice. Suddenly, I’m wide awake.

‘Diablo, he want to kill you,’ Maria says, her voice irritable.

‘Oh.’ He’s always wanting to kill me. Been wanting to shoot me, cut my throat and such stuff since he met me, so it’s no news to me.

‘Why?’ I stumble to the window and there he is - staggering in the middle of the courtyard, whisky bottle in one hand and revolver in the other.

‘She doesn’t love me!’ he laments. ‘She love ... Him. She didn’t tell me the truuuuth!’

‘Omigod!’ I don’t believe what I’m seeing.

Villas around us light up.

‘This is not like Diablo,’ Maria says. He’s so…so loco, Señorita.’

‘Yeah.’ I’ve never seen him drunk before. I’ve seen him drink a drink a lot, but I’ve never seen him legless like this.

‘Imadiablo!’ he yells. ‘Nobody makes fool of Diablo! I kill ’em.’ He repeats himself ad nauseam and threatens to kill both me and Austin and all the men I’ve been with in my entire life.

To add substance to his threats, he fires wildly into the skies as if we’re all lined up there.

‘Bring out the gringa so I can kill her,’ he yells to no one in particular. ‘She hates me, so I ... exe …ex …exe…shoot her. She say ... she say I don’ know how to ... to romance a woman. She say I a lousy shot.’ He fires rapidly into the skies again.

‘See? I good shot. The best. He say she not impress with me. ‘wHeHe say I don’t shave and I don’t ... don’t ...’

Gender confusion - alcohol is known to cause that.

‘I fire Senor Vito tomorrow. I grow hair on my face again and I …I … I put on all my eyebrow rings. She tell me to be good and I be good. I learn English for her. But now, I will be bad. I will be very bad. I will be evil like ... like Christa. I will ...’

Thrilled that Diago has finally come to his senses and is about to blot me out, once and for all, Christa ventures into the courtyard and ambles up to Diago.

‘I don’t want see you,’ Diago yells. ‘You are evil woman. You take advantage of me. You lie and you let him hurt me. I was little girl ... boy. Now you read ... read ... Gringa’s words because you want to hurt me. One day, I kill you Christa! I fargin kiiill you!’

Christa quickly backs away.

Maria tugs my arm. ‘Señorita please, go talk to him and get make him quiet, Diago is very upset. You speak to him, he be okay.’

‘How, Maria? I don’t know …’

‘He is a man. He don’t know how, Señorita. You have to go to him and you have to tell him ... tell him that you are sorry for writing those terrible things about him.’ She does nothing to disguise the accusation in her voice.

‘Maria!’ Diago calls.

We look at each other with wide eyes, then look out the window.

‘Maria, bring out gringa so I can kill her, Maria. I don’t care if she make me laugh. I will kill her with my hands. Imadiablo. Imastrong.’

Maria sighs and looks at me. ‘We really need to sleep. This has been going on for more than an hour, Señorita.’ She’s sounding really cranky now, but amazingly, her English is marvelous right now.

‘Okay, don’t know if it’s gonna help though,’ I mutter, remembering his threats at Christa.

I step out of my room and walk towards Diago. His back is to me as he rambles belligerently at someone in the dark.

I spot Troy in the shadows, smoking a cigarette. Maybe I’ll take Diago a lit cigarette. I walk up to Troy. ‘Can I have one? For Diago.’

He silently hands me one and then lights it for me.

Cigarette in hand, I walk to Diago. ‘Diago!’ I hold out the lit cigarette to him. ‘I brought you a cigarette and I’m sorry about ...’

At the sight of me, he backs away and fires wildly into the skies again. The recoils sends him staggering and he topples backwards.

I scream and duck behind a wall, terrified of stray or ricocheting bullets. Everyone around us takes cover too.

In the process, I burn my hand with the lit cigarette. When the shooting stops, I peep over the wall. Diago’s lying flat on his back.

Ohmigod! Did he shoot himself? Horrified, Troy and I look at each other, then dash over to Diago.

‘Diago!’ I scream and kneel next to him, my heart racing. ‘Diago! Ohmigod Diago!’

Troy searches frantically for a bullet wound. Nothing. No blood either.

I check his pulse - fine.

‘Just the fall,’ Troy says.

We exchange smiles of relief.

Gently, I stroke Diago’s face and plant kisses on his lips. ‘Let’s get him to bed, Troy.’

Slowly, I remove the gun from his hand and pass it to Troy.

When I try to remove the whisky bottle, he won’t let go, so I leave it with him. We dare not wake him for fear he will start all over again.

Slowly, with the help of a seven sleepy dwarves – men! Seven sleepy men haul his ass to bed.

When they leave, under the watchful gaze of Troy, I cover Diago with a sheet and tuck him in.

‘Goodnight honey,’ I whisper, stroking his face and resisting the urge to curl up beside him. ‘I’m sorry I hurt you. I really didn’t mean to.’ After more kisses, I reluctantly leave the room.

****

It’s easy to forget that someone is listening to everything you say and I do just that - until I’m accosted by the FBI at the rock pool again.

‘Hello Payton,’ Depp says, a think-you-can-escape-us? look in his eyes. ‘Haven’t heard from you for a while. We were kinda wondering how you doing – you know, if everything’s okay.’

‘Oh yeah …yeah… like, everything’s okay,’ I say, trying hard to sound casual. ‘Been like, busy with eh, stuff.’

Of course, I have trouble meeting their eyes - I deliberately stayed away from the rock pool to avoid them. Today I really wanted to swim and here they are. Damn!

‘Can we meet tomorrow?’ Grey asks.

‘Eh … yeah …sure. Tomorrow is good.’

Depp nods. ‘Same place?’

‘Yeah, sure, of course.’ I even mange a fake smile.

Nervous and anxious, I toss and turn in bed. I look up at the wall clock – 2 AM.

When I finally drift off to sleep, it’s time for me to wake up and face my FBI music.

As usual, an FBI agent slathers on some face cream and takes my place on the table, while I slip downstairs to talk to Depp and Grey.

Dreading this meeting. So much has happened since our last meeting and so much has changed, that I really don’t know how to handle things.

I walk into the meeting room and balk. My father, Elaine, Paris and Austin are present.

‘Oh! H …hi ...’ I shoot Agent Depp an irritated look. He could have at least warned me that they were here.

‘Everything okay?’ I ask. I really don’t want to see them again after they treated me so shabbily the last time I saw them.

‘Hi Payton,’ Depp says and pulls a chair for me. ‘Your family hasn’t heard from you in a while and they were worried. They asked for our help. Hope you don’t mind.’

I do mind. I mind very much.

My father gets up and gives me a hug. Standard one-arm hug, which I reluctantly accept. No use making a scene in front of the FBI.

‘I’m fine,’ I say and withdraw from my father’s token hug.

‘Payton honey,’ Elaine says in a voice dripping with saccharine, ‘what happened?’ She touches my hair. ‘You look different, nice ...’

The bitch has never complimented me in my life, so I’m assuming she wants something.

‘The last time we met – well, it was just terrible – things were said and, well, we want to apologize, make it right, Payton.’

I’m not six. Hello! Just spit it out, Mommie Dearest.

Austin moves forwards to give me a hug. ‘Hey Payton. Sorry about all the drama – the Christening ...’

‘The christening? Oh yeah.’ As if I could forget that day.

‘You’ll be happy to know we didn’t have the naming ceremony after all,’ Paris says, her voice tinged with bitterness.

I look at her in surprise. ‘Why?’

She jerks her blonde mane towards Austin.

I look at Austin. ‘Wha...?’

He shrugs and gives me a weak smile. ‘It wasn’t right that we have it. You were so upset and I ... we’ll do it soon, okay?’

I’m touched but feeling guilty. ‘Thank you,’ I say, ‘but really, you shouldn’t have ... ’

‘Yes, we should have!’ he says, his voice defiant.

Go Austin!

‘Moving on!’ Depp interrupts. I get the feeling Depp doesn’t like Austin.

This is the part I hate. ‘What’s on today?’ I murmur, chewing on my lower lip.

They talk about Diago and attempt to keep the conversation casual. Oh, they’ve heard a lot since our last meeting and they probably know all there is to know, but they obviously don’t want to alienate me by accusing me of sleeping with one of their most wanted.

‘Has he talked yet? ’Bout the policemen …?’

‘Eh, no.’ My ears grow hot and my face starts to flame.

‘Nothing at all?’ Agent Grey’s piercing stare has me squirming in my seat.

I mumble away. ‘Um ... no … too soon ... don’t think he trusts me that much ... need more time.’ Even to my ears they sound like a bunch of lame excuses. ‘I mean - I’ll do it,’ I hastily add.

‘Wait a minute,’ Austin pipes, turning his whole body to look at me. ‘Payton?’

I do my utmost to avoid his eyes. Everyone’s eyes for that matter.

Austin’s voice suddenly drops to a hush. ‘Something’s not right. What ... what’s going on here?’

I force myself to look at him. ‘Mmm?’

‘Payton!’ he hisses, a knowing look in his eyes. ‘You can’t be serious.’

Fuck! Does he have to blow what little cover I have?

‘What are you talking ’bout, Aus?’ My voice sounds shrill, strained and I feel transparent and exposed.

Austin’s stare unnerves me. He wags his index finger at me, ‘You’re falling ...’ he catches himself just in time.

I glance around the room and see the look of horror on my family’s face.

I’m so busted.

‘Aw come on you guys!’ I cry a little too lightly.

Depp, who has been taking notes all the time, freezes with his note taking and stares hard at his notepad, while Agent Grey’s eyes bore into me.

Oh, I get their strategy now - My family serves a purpose here – they are here to confront me about my intimate relationship with Diago and remind me what a bastard he is while the Feds say nothing.

I suppose just now the Feds will start the good-cop-bad-cop routine with me. (Or in their case, good-cock-bad cock routine with me.)

‘That’s disgusting!’ Paris cries. ‘He’s revolting.’

Before I can stop myself, I find myself glaring at her. Shaddup bitch!

Austin turns to Grey. ‘Can I have a word with her? Alone?’

‘Austin please,’ I protest, ‘there’s no need for us to ta …’

Grey motions us into an adjoining room. ‘‘Over here.’

‘Why can’t you talk here?’ Paris demands.

Austin ignores her, grabs my arm and steers me roughly into it.

‘Why can’t you talk HERE?’ Paris repeats.

‘You’re hurting me!’ I cry, as his fingers dig into my flesh.

Paris runs up to us. "Austin!’

He shuts the door on her face and glares at me. ‘He’s a fucking criminal, Payton. He shot you and threw you over a fucking cliff for Christ’s sakes! How can you forget that?’

I slap my forehead. ‘I’m not forgetting any...’

‘This is the FBI you’re fucking with. They’ll throw your ass in jail if you cross them. You wanna do time for the prick? Huh Payton? Ever been to a Mexican jail? Huh?’

The thought of prison makes me want to throw up. ‘Austin look, you’ve like, got it all wro ...’

‘Save it. I know you, okay? Stop shitting me.’

I purse my lips.

He places his hands on my burdened shoulders, looks at me and shakes his head. ‘Payton, I care about you, okay? I’m scared and I’m worried because I give a fuck, okay?’

‘Okay, okay, okay.’ I step away from him. ‘You have to leave me alone and I’ll like, sort this out myself, okay? I need space to get my head around this ... this crazy shit, Austin. It’s hard and ...’ I look at him and sigh loudly. ‘He’s not that bad, Austin.’

‘He’s not - what the fuck does that mean, Payton? He’s a fucking cop killer! He’s going down soon. Where the fucks your head? How could you let him screw with your brains like this?’

‘I don’t know! I don’t know! It just happened, okay?’

‘So what - you in love with him now? You’re in love with the prick? The scum of the earth? The hairy monster of Mexico? The ... ’

‘Shaddup Austin! You don’t know him, okay? So shaddup up! And I’m not in love with him.’

He shakes his head in disgust.

‘You know what – I’m outta here,’ I say and brush past him towards the door. ‘I don’t appreciate you calling him all those names, Austin and frankly, your hostility is really pissing me …’

He grabs my arm, swings me back and I slam into him.

‘Austin!’ I shove him in the chest, but he grabs both my arms.

‘You’re obsessed with me. You love me, not him.’

My laugh is small, nervous. ‘What?’

‘I know you’re nuts about me.’

‘Was, Austin. I’m over you now.’

‘Impossible!’

‘Austin,’ I say, lowering my voice, ‘look, the past – it belongs there. I’m in such a bind right now and my heart – gosh Austin, I could really use a friend now. How ’bout just being one, eh? For old time’s sake, huh?’ I smile at him.

‘You’re right,’ he says, his voice sheepish. ‘I’m sorry.’ He gives me a big hug.

‘That’s better,’ I say, hugging him back. His body feels familiar but strangely, it doesn’t feel like it did in my dreams. In my dreams, he was perfect – handsome, sweeping and romantic and I was looking at him with intense love.

Now he feels more like a brother. Come to think of it – I haven’t thought or dreamt of Austin in a while. Could Diago have changed my feelings – replaced Austin in my life?

Gosh! For a moment I fall silent and just stare at the ground. Hooray!

‘What? What you smiling at?’

‘Eh, nothing. We should be get back to Sculley and Mulder,’ I say, eager to get out of this embrace. ‘Though I’m not sure which one is Scully and which one is ... ’

Austin stays put. ‘When you give me that smile …’ He shakes his head. ‘Know why I didn’t want to leave Mexico?’

I shrug. ‘The villagers, your contract... ’

He shakes his head. ‘You. Didn’t want to leave without you.’

‘Really? Me?’

‘The contract means Jack to me.’

‘You serious?

He nods slowly, then suddenly swoops down and kisses me hard, sliding his tongue into my mouth.

Eeeewww!

I get over my surprise and jerk away. ‘What the fuck Austin?’ I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. Yuck. He’s just shattered another one of my dreams by doing that.

‘Payton, I love you,’ he says. ‘I’ve always did.’

Before I can digest what he’s saying or responds, the door bursts open and Paris enters, her eyes flashing with anger, her face flaming - out of control, bush fire flaming. ‘What the fuuuuck Payton?’

‘How …?’ I ask.

‘The fucking vents!’ she snarls. ‘Everyone in the next room heard everything you said.’

‘Fuck!’ I slam my palm to my forehead.

I’m not sure if this is a deliberate ploy on the part of the FBI, or if it is a genuine mistake. Either way, it’s damaging to everyone. Armageddon is here.

I sneak a look at Austin. He’s frighteningly unfazed.

Paris steps towards Austin and slaps him across the face. ‘You bastard!’ she cries. ‘How could you say those things to her when she treated you like crap? Where the fuck is your sense of pride, huh?’

Treated him like crap? Me? When? I did not treat him like crap.

Austin touches his cheek gingerly and steps back. No sorry, no apology.

‘You stay in this Godforsaken place because of her? And ... and you lie to me about the contract, the men, their jobs - when all along you’re staying because of her? What about our child? Did you care about him? Me? Anybody else, besides her? You rotten son-of-a-bitch!’

Austin does not respond. He just stares at me.

Idiot! I run out of the room. Both of them follow me.

‘And you ... you bitch, you!’ Paris screams.

I swing into damage control. ‘Paris, look, I’m sorry about this. Didn’t mean for this to like, happen. I had no idea about ... about anything he’s saying. Please, you have to believe me!’

She snorts. ‘You just can’t get over the fact that he’s with me now, so you have to resort to ... to underhanded things like this, you mean, spiteful, little tart!’

‘Hey, you got it wrong! I don’t want your husband. I didn’t ...’

It’s no use - she’s hurt and upset so nothing I say is going to make a difference to her right now.

I fling angry glances at Austin. The mother fucker put me in this position.

My father enters the room and is followed by everyone else.

‘Paris, it’s not Payton’s fault,’ my father says. ‘She was really ... ’

‘Don’t you take her side, you fucking moron!’ she snarls at my father.

‘Hey!’ I cry. ‘Don’t you talk to my father like that! This has nothing to do with him. It’s between you and me, okay?’

Paris ignores me. ‘I’m sick of your daughter and all the attention she constantly craves and constantly demands. All this family ever knows is Payton! Payton! Payton! She’s got no respect for my marriage. Look at her behavior. And you – you do nothing, but …but pander to her.’

Pander? To me? That’s it! ‘Paris, I’ve been through crap and I’ve taken crap since I’ve arrived here. I don’t need this right now so I’m leaving.’ I turn and look pointedly at Depp.

‘You disgust me!’ she spits behind me. ‘You and your hoodlums that have now become your family. You’re nothing but a shifty hoe.’

‘Aw fuck off! You’re the hoe here.’

Paris looks like she’s going to explode. ‘Mooom!’

‘Now Payton, that is just not true,’ Elaine says. ‘You shouldn’t be saying ...?’

‘Elaine, just fuck off, okay! I’m not six. You can’t bully me anymore and you can’t play favorites anymore.’

‘Favorites! I have never played favorites ... ’

‘You have Elaine! You’ve always taken her side and allowed her to have her own way. Me, I got nothing and I was nothing to you. You gave everything to her and zilch to me. No coming out balls, no society introductions, no designer ball gowns, nothing!’

Elaine clutches her chest. ‘That is not... ’

‘Oh yeah? Did you intervene when she flirted with all my boyfriends I brought home? Did you say anything when she moved in on my boyfriend when I went to Europe? No, ’cos Princess Paris wanted him and whatever Princess Paris wants, she gets. Thanks to you.’

Elaine bristles and turns to my father. ‘Richard! Control your daughter, Richard.’

My father says nothing and I hope it’s because he’s agreeing with me.

‘You know Paris, I have to admit, I pretended I didn’t care when this asshole here dumped me,’ I say, jerking my head towards Austin. ‘Because – well, to admit I was hurt, was kinda painful. But I hurt. I cried at your big, beautiful, society wedding, ’cos you stole my dream. Fuck, when you exchanged wows – that killed me.’

Paris stiffens. ‘You …’

‘You knew I was hurting, but you didn’t give a crap. Funny thing though - you were never really secure with Austin, were you? If you were, you wouldn’t have tried so hard to keep him away from me.’

‘You’re delusional!’ Paris screeches, ‘Fucking craz …’

‘That’s why you quickly had a baby – to cement things. You knew Austin still dug me and you like, couldn’t risk it. You were petrified he would wake up one day and discover just how you manipulated him and your ass would be history, right? Maybe he’d even want to hook up with me. You were scared of that, right?’

I whirl around to look at Austin. ‘Don’t get any ideas. I’ve moved on in a big way after that and I really don’t have any feelings like that for you. You hurt me too. So you’re just a fucking asshole anyway.’

‘Now Payton,’ my father says, ‘let’s lose the language, shall we?’

‘Yeah Payton,’ Paris mocks, ‘save it for the High Chaparral.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Austin says softly. ‘I didn’t know about you hurting. I’ve made a mistake.’ He shakes his head. ‘A huge one.’

‘What the fuck, AUSTIN?!" Paris screams.

I stare at him, unsure what to make of his words. Actually, I know exactly what he means. All those years when I dreamed of him telling me that he loved me and that he was sorry he made a mistake and that they only reason he married Paris was because she was pregnant (That part was not true. She did not fall pregnant until after they married, as she wouldn’t be seen dead with a huge stomach on her wedding day.) and that he had finally come to his senses.

The only part that was yet to come true about my dreams, was Paris dying in a car crash and me being there to comfort Austin and eventually marrying him and living happily like Snow White and Shrek.

But now, I definitely don’t want that dream to come true because I want to be with my darling Diago.

‘Too late Austin. You’re stuck with her. Alcatraz has re-opened. You got life. With her. If you murdered a priest, you’d probably get twenty years, you know.’

‘It’s not too late,’ he says, his voice urgent.

I shake my head.

‘I hate you Payton!’ Paris cries. She looks at Elaine. ‘To hell with her and her money. I don’t want her around!’

Elaine blushes and mumbles, ‘What ...What are you talking about,