Disclaimer: Still don't own this! I'm not making money, so don't sue.
Author's Note: No Beta so I apologize for any errors. Reviews please my soul. *Nudge Nudge Wink Wink*
Author's Note Two (2): I'm sorry, it has been so long since an update. I've been to Chicago twice in as many weeks. Plus, my muse has been weirdly quiet. Hopefully, the wait is worth it.
Author's Note Three (3): I'm trying a new method in this chapter. Instead of only using what we see at the moment, I am taking some freedom with what happens off camera and also alluding to the future. Please, let me know if you like it or if I should go back to my old style.
Chapter Seven: Billete De Magia
Teresa is laying on her left side, sleeping peacefully. I hate to wake her up, but Camila insisted. I gently touch her right shoulder and she jerks awake, rolling to face me. "Get up." I whisper so we don't wake the other girls.
She recovers from her shock and grabs her phone. "It's 4:00 in the morning." She informs me just as quietly having gathered that we don't want to wake everyone up.
No fucking shit! I don't have time for twenty questions this morning. "Move, come on." I head to the gate in order to exit and she throws off the covers.
"Where are we going? I said where are we going?" She says.
"You'll see." I tell her cryptically. Camila wants to be the one to educate her.
She accepts that answer for now and throws on her boots.
Once her shoes are on, we head toward our vehicle of the day, a big black SUV. I head to the passenger's side and open her door, encouraging her with a nod to get in. She hops in silently and I shut the door before heading to the driver's side. Camila appears from nowhere for Teresa's first lesson of the day.
"Teresa, I need you to do something. It's important." She starts as soon as she approaches Teresa's open window. "Today is a different kind of business. Turning two and a half million dollars into five⦠it's not an easy trick. You're gonna be taking the same risks as everyone. So, I supposed you have the right to know what goes down and how it goes down." Camila turns her attention to me.
I nod in acceptance to her statement. My turn to address Teresa. "Some guys are coming in from Florida this morning. We're gonna meet them, and we're gonna rip 'em off." A very generic description of how today is supposed to go.
Teresa remains silent during the lesson and her only reaction to the news of our plan, that I know is driving her crazy with questions is to turn back to Camila.
"You have proven you can be relied upon to do what I need. I don't know everything about you." Camila takes over.
Boy isn't that the truth. Camila is used to being in charge and being knowledgeable. She doesn't like being in the dark and neither do I.
"You only reveal what you want. You're smart." Camila continues.
So true. It's rather annoying that we tell her as much as we do without expecting information in turn.
"Smart enough to understand why I protected you and kept you alive and kept you a secret from Epifanio, right?" Camila pauses.
I see Teresa nod slightly in response.
"Why is that?" Camila asks. Test time.
"I make him vulnerable." Teresa is confident in her reply.
"Because of what you saw his men do to Chino." Camila elaborates on Teresa's answer. "You understand you're only leverage for me, right?"
Camila gives me whiplash with how many times her emotions about Teresa change in a single conversation.
"But today, we have to take a risk. If something happens to you, I lose my leverage. I understand that. But if we don't succeed today, I don't have anything left, and leverage means nothing. And with nothing, I cannot protect you. So, we all lose if we fail. I know you're scared. Use that fear to stay alive. After all, you're a survivor." Camila finishes her lesson/ motivation speech. Whatever the fuck she wants to call it.
I work with the woman and it confused me.
Camila turns her gaze to me. "Be in touch." She says before turning away from me.
I turn on the car and pull away as Camila enters her Maserati.
~ TJ~ TJ~ ~ TJ~ TJ~ ~ TJ~ TJ~ ~ TJ~ TJ~
We pull up to a small little single-family home and I park the SUV. I exit the car silently. I don't want to deal with questions. This is the part of the job I hate the most. I can give and take orders, I'm a military man. I can carry out a hit, I was a goddamn sniper, but I hate torturing for information. If we are lucky, our men have done most the dirty work and I won't have to do anything.
Entering the house, I can see luck is not on my side. One guy has the husband hanging upside down, arms duct taped behind him, dunking him in the literal ice-cold fish tank. I pause to gaze at the scene. The man begs us in Spanish to spare him and let him go. I turn away before I become sick and see Teresa standing by the door looking as awkward as I feel. The other three men are guarding a woman and boy who sit in fear on the floor, so I grab and metal folding chair and set it down in front of them. The woman is crying, and the boy is scared, but trying to be brave.
I lean forward, my arms resting on my thighs, and I grab the attention of the woman without even touching her. I begin my interrogation quietly, trying not to spook her more. Fear is a useful technique to a certain extent. "Tell me. What time did you go to work today?"
"Five thirty in the morning." She responds in Spanish.
So, we have about an hour to get the information we need. Last thing we need is for our information to be late. I brush my right thumb over her left cheek to wipe away the tears that have formed. "If you cooperate with me, this will only take a few minutes. You gonna help me out here?"
She nods quickly, still crying.
"I want you to tell me everything about your work. Everything about that hotel. I want to know about the security cameras, and I want your pass key." I tell her my demands.
"They reset the keys every day. We only get them when we come in."
I lean back in the chair. Shit! That makes this slightly more difficult, but still manageable. It just means we need to find a maid once we arrive and get my contact's room number.
I lean back in for emphasis. "If you tell anyone we were here, we will come back for you. Do you understand?" I whisper my parting threat.
"Okay." She cries.
Leaning back in the chair again, I use that moment to take a cleansing breath. The guys will grab the reminder of information we need. Teresa is still standing by the door as I go to exit. She stays silent, even as I see the anger in her eyes at my role in what happened in that house.
Once back in the car, I tell her the some more details of our plan. We need their room number (her responsibility), the description of the bag our coke is in (my job), and access to their room (her job also). I inform her she'll need a maid outfit and their key card, and to make sure to snap a picture of her badge to use if necessary. No words are spoken for the rest of the ride, but I can tell she isn't happy with the active role she is playing at the hotel.
~ TJ~ TJ~ ~ TJ~ TJ~ ~ TJ~ TJ~ ~ TJ~ TJ~
We pull up in front of the hotel my contacts are staying in and I put the car in park. "This is it. Now we wait." I tell Teresa.
Only a moment or two passes before my phone rings. I take a peek at the caller id and see it's our contact at the airport. "Yeah?"
"They're here." He informs me quietly.
"Okay." I acknowledge his statement before hanging up the phone.
I turn to Teresa and I start instruction. I pull the tracker from my pocket. It's in a small clear plastic case. "All right, this is the tracker. When you're ready, you take it out." I open the case to show it to her." Just holding the edges, don't touch it flat on." I don't touch the tracker, but I point to the places safe and unsafe to touch. "The charge lasts two hours."
"Where do you get this?" She asks me. The first question she asks since the warehouse and that's the one she wants the answer to.
"You can get anything on the black market these days, if you can afford it."
She looks at me like I'm loco, but she doesn't seem surprised. I figured she'd have more questions, but a moment of silence passes. I realize she is going to remain silent.
I peak at my watch and let her know she needs to get inside. "All right, you should go." Before she opens the door, I pull out a handgun grasping the barrel.
Now, she looks surprised, but still doesn't say anything.
I get her a quick nod to encourage her to take it. I'm sure she is going to bitch at me, but she remains silent and grabs the gun from me.
She places it in the waist band of her jeans as I check my phone, then she exits the car to play her part in this scheme.
Once she closes the door, I pull away from the hotel to get a better vantage point of our contacts arrival.
~ TJ~ TJ~ ~ TJ~ TJ~ ~ TJ~ TJ~ ~ TJ~ TJ~
John and his brother arrive in a black limo with another guy in tow. I pull out my camera to get images of the bags so I can let Teresa know.
I place a call to John to make it look like I'm just checking up on my friend who's coming into town. Today is all about making sure we cover our tracks. He answers after only a couple of rings.
"James. What's up, man?"
"John, you in yet?" I ask excited.
"Yeah, man, we made it."
"Welcome to town, bud. How was your flight?" I continue asking friendly questions.
"It was good, good."
"Where are y'all staying?" Risky question, but if I don't ask it looks worse. You always ask where people are staying.
"We're close. In the city." He answers vaguely.
Of course, he doesn't want to tell me. He's nervous. Drugs aren't his business. "Nice." I respond with understanding. I need him to relax.
"Hey, it's all gonna be cool?" He asks me obviously nervous.
"It's gonna be all good, brother." I reassure him.
"Thanks for reaching out, man. We are psyched about getting this deal done." He thanks me with enthusiasm.
"All business. I like that." Now to set the location. "Listen, I thought we'd meet at this place I know." I want him to pick the spot. That way they can't say we had them followed. Because I can't just tell them to pick a spot. They aren't from here, and that would make them more worried.
"Hey, you know, I think I'd like to be the one to pick the place out when that time comes, if that's all right?"
"No problem." I shrug off my offer, like it's no big deal. Time to give him an excuse for why I offered. "It's just, I thought, I know Texas."
"Us Broward County boys, we did our homework, too. We know all about Texas. I'll pick a spot and give you a call."
"Sounds good." All's going well so far. "I want you to be as comfortable as possible here."
"Yeah, we'll be in touch." He tells me then hangs up.
Now to wait for Teresa's phone call. A few minutes passes before my phone rings.
"Yeah?"
"They're in room 1208."
"Okay, you're looking for a black suitcase." I tell her before hanging up the phone, and send her the picture I took.
~ TJ~ TJ~ ~ TJ~ TJ~ ~ TJ~ TJ~ ~ TJ~ TJ~
My phone rings. It's John. Time to move to the next step. "What's up, John?" He's panicking. "Slow down, slow down."
"He was Mexican, and he said we better go back to Florida." He yells through the phone.
"Slow down, slow down." I say again trying to get him to calm so I can ask for more information.
"He knew our names. Well, at least he knew my brother's name." He's less angry, but still sounds terrified.
"What'd he look like?" I ask, even though I already know the answer.
"He had two prison tats - under his eyes, tear drops." John tells me.
"How'd this guy know, man? They must've been following us from the get-go, from the airport." I hear Reggie say on the other end.
Marco has hopped into the car with me. "Wait wait a sec." I act like an idea of who it could be popped into my head. "Did the guy have, like, these beady little eyes that look like two piss holes in the snow?" I turn to Marco with a small smile on my face.
He flips me off in quiet response to my dig.
"Beady eyes?" I hear John ask.
"Beady eyes." Reggie agrees sounding haunted.
"What, you know him?" John's brain caught up with him finally.
"Yeah, it's the Jimenez cartel." I sound annoyed. Got to sell the false trail.
"The Jimenez cartel? What the shit do they have anything to do with this?" John is angry again.
"Relax. He's just trying to scare you. They're trying to make problems for us, not you. You're in our territory and they know it. I don't know how they know you're here. Maybe one of your guys in Florida opened his mouth. Who knows? It's gonna be okay. Just call me when you're ready to leave and let's get this shit done." I offer in order to relax them again.
John is silent and then my line goes dead. He hung up.
I hope my speech calmed them enough to continue with the deal.
Apparently, I worked some magic because John calls me back and give me a time and place.
~ TJ~ TJ~ ~ TJ~ TJ~ ~ TJ~ TJ~ ~ TJ~ TJ~
We arrive early to set up. It's a small storage building that's been abandoned away from other businesses. We only had to wait about ten minutes before John and two others show up in a god damn taxi. I laugh as I head towards them to greet them. "Oh, you're alive."
"Oh, not funny Jesus." He chuckles slightly, before reaching out to shake my hand.
"Good to see you, John."
"You too."
"It's Reggie, right?" I turn toward the guy in a grey linen suit.
"That's right. James, thanks for hooking this up." Reggie thanks me.
"Yeah." I shake it off. They are helping me more than I'm helping them. They just don't know it.
"This is Wendle." Reggie introduces me to the guy in black, carrying the suitcase.
"Good to meet you." I turn to my left to introduce my guys. "Flaco." Turn and point to my right. "This is my chemist. He's gonna be testing what you got."
"Sounds good. Let's do it." They agree to my plan.
We walk over to a table, and they open their case. They pull out a brick and hand it to the Charger. He looks disgusted before reaching to grab one of his choosing. He cuts a hole in the black wrapping and begins his tests.
John hands me a brick to check out. "It's got no markings. Where'd you get it from?"
"Some Cuban bought a stolen boat off us. Double what we were asking, but we had to take payment in coke. To be honest, I think he might have been a dirty Fed." They laugh at their deduction.
"Good shit." The Charger tells me when he finishes.
John slaps the table in excitement. Both him and Reggie look pleased. "That's right, I told you. He said it was the best." John tells me.
"Those dirty Feds, they always got the best dope." I chuckle.
"Do you, uh, mind if we check out the money?"
"Yeah, of course." I unzip our bag so they can do their inspection.
"Wow." John whispers in awe of the money before Reggie pulls out a couple of stacks to check.
He does a quick feel and listen to the bills as Reggie flips them by his ear. They can't tell shit from those little checks but whatever floats their boat. Teresa barely touched the money on that one deal and picked out fakes.
"Yes." Then, they run it through a bank counter. "Gentlemen." John says once it clears as a way of wrapping this up.
"All right. It's a good deal." I answer. I shake hands with everybody.
"Thank you, thank you."
"Yeah."
Reggie and Wendle head out to the taxi.
John lingers to make small talk, hoping to keep the good feeling going.
"So, I'll see you at Lorenzo's next bash." John says.
"Only if you bring that redhead. Remember her? The one with that ass." I can't help but join in.
"I do remember it. I married her."
Well that was a bit of a bomb shell. We need to talk more often obviously. "No shit? I'll see you, John. Oh, hey, you find any more shit that good." I throw that last bit in to continue covering our involvement in the next step.
"You'll be my first call. Thank you again." John finishes my thought.
I hop back in my car, once they get in the taxi and head back to the hotel. I check the tracker and it's fully operational. One quick phone call to keep Camila in the loop.
"Hello?"
"Part one's done." I tell her before hanging up.
I catch up to John's taxi somewhat before I make the call.
"Yeah." Flaco answers.
"They're getting on the on-ramp now."
"I see them ahead."
We all pull on our masks and we flank the taxi. Tanto gets their attention with a smoke bomb in the front seat. Then a rocket launcher to the trunk flips the car. We skid to a stop and exit our cars. Guns aimed on the car, Tanto grabs the suitcase with the money. Wendle gets a few shots off into Tanto before Flaco puts him down. I go to help Tonto, as we approach the SUV I hear Flaco fire a shot. No idea who he hit, but I need to get Tonto into the SUV. As we try to get his arm over my shoulder, he pulls my mask off. I look back to make sure we aren't going to be gunned down and I see John looking over the overturned car. He sees my face. Recognition dawns and I see him raise a gun to shoot and I fire three shots. They hit, but he it doesn't kill him. John stays down and I move only when I hear sirens. I grab the suitcase and put in the back seat of the SUV that Flaco is getting in.
"James, we have to get outta here." Flaco tells me.
No fucking shit!
I hope back into my car. We rush away from the scene.
My phone rings. It's Teresa. Good. I can give her instructions.
"I'm leaving. I'm gonna let her go."
Or not good! I fill her in on the change of circumstances.
"We have trouble. One of them's alive. He got away. Go back to his hotel room. If he shows up, keep him there."
"Keep him here? What do you mean keep him here?" Really! All morning she has been quiet with her questions. Now she wants to break the silence! And with stupid ones to boot.
"He saw my face. He knows. You do not let him leave. He can't leave." I tell her before hanging up.
My phone rings again. Flaco this time.
"He's bleeding out. I'm trying to stop it, but it just keeps coming. Cops are coming from all sides. I don't know which way to turn. Get me out of here." Flaco is panicking!
"Fourth and Rivers. Take McGregor." He doesn't answer, but I know he is following my orders.
My GPS beeping. Yellow triangles with red exclamation points are popping up everywhere. "They're setting roadblocks on Summet. Hit the expressway. You see it?"
"Yeah. Shit, yeah. We're out, we're out. We're out, we're out."
I hang up.
Before long I'm at the hotel and I see Teresa power walking away. My tires screech as I stop and she sees me.
"Where is he?" I ask before I tell her to "Get in." I move my bag to the back seat as she hops in.
She pulls the gun from her waistband and sits it on the center console.
We pull away and she is silent.
"Are you hurt?" I ask.
No response as she stares out the window. Why is she so quiet?
"Answer me, are you hurt?" I repeat the question telling her I demand an answer,
"No." She continues to stare.
"What happened?"
"I shot him." She tells me simply.
"Is he dead?" I have to know.
She nods. "Yeah."
Silence again and then my phone rings. Camila.
"Yeah?" I sigh my greeting.
"Do you have her?" She asks me quietly.
"I just got her. She's all messed up. We're coming back now." I inform her before ending the call.
I look over my silent companion and I don't know what to say so I give her an order. Comfort is not my strong suit. Giving orders is. "Wipe your face."
