Chapter 5
Evil Man, Dead Man
Eduardo and Marco returned that friday. Erika and I made it a point to avoid them as much as possible. Luckily they were too wrapped up in contacting people for the meeting that they didn't care much. That was one thing I could always be thankful for. My husband was busy a lot and so was Erika's, it gave us a lot of time together without them. They never much noticed our coming's and goings. I guess that would be their downfall. I sat on my bed, Smeckers business card in one hand and my cell phone in the other. Erika opened the door and listened. The men were downstairs. She shut the door and motioned for me to call. I dialed the number Conner had written down for me. Someone answered on the first ring, "Tomorrow night. 11:00 PM." With that I hung up and Erika and I began planning how to leave.
The next night came too soon. Knots of fear and nervousness twisted uncomfertably in my stomach. Whenever Eduardo addressed me it was all I could do to keep from jumping out of my skin. I feared that he would find out. That he already knew and would be prepared for The Saints and kill them. And then us. But as the day went on I began to relax. Eduardo remained calm all day and there didn't seem to be any paranoia from him or his goonies of a surprise attack. Erika and I left and emptied our bank accounts so we would have cash and packed clothing which we hid down in the bushes by my SUV.
10:00 PM rolled around and I could feel the twisting in my stomach beginning again. Erika and I did our hair and make-up and slipped on some snug jeans and black tank tops. We made it look as though we were planning to go out dancing. We walked down stairs and entered the foyer. Our husbands were sitting in the den across from the foyer talking quietly. "Eduardo?" I called to catch his and Marco's attention. "Erika and I are going to go out dancing while you have your meeting." Eduardo nodded and flitted us away with annoyance. "Goodbye dear husband," I added. He cast me a strange glance but shrugged it off. I had gone too far with that comment. Gotten too close to raising suspicion.
Leaving quickly, Erika and I gathered the duffel bags we had stuffed with clothing and the close to a million combined dollars we had drawn from our savings accounts. Quietly we stuffed the bags into the back of the SUV and climbed in. I dug in the glove compartment for the key I had put into a tiny little manila envelope. As I realized that it wasn't there, I began to panic. "The key! The fucking key is gone! FUCK!" I slammed the glove compartment shut and looked in the visors and console in between the chairs. With each moment my panic intensified, "Shit he knows. He fucking knows. Shit. Shit. Shit!"
"CHRISTA!" Erika yelled to catch my attention. I snapped my head toward her and noticed the small manilla envelope in her hand. Snatching it from her hand, I looked inside to make sure the key was in there and then with a sigh of relief slumped back into the driver's seat. "It fell out of the glove compartment when you opened it and went under the seat," she explained. "Calm down Christa. Everything is going to be ok. Just calm down." She softly stroked my hair and then squeezed my hand for reassurance. I smiled at her and took a deep breath. After my nerves had calmed, we drove around for a while, Erika watching behind us to watch for any suspicious vehicles. When we were satisfied no one was following us we drove to the motel. We parked the car across the street at the truck stop and checked our watches. 10:50. In about ten minutes The Saints would be climbing through my open window and shortly afterwards they would kill the evil men that had imprisoned us for so long.
When 11 O'clock rolled around Erika and I grabbed our bags and locked the car. Tomorrow we would trade it in and get a different vehicle. Smecker had arranged to get us some new identity's so there was no way for any of the mob to find us. Not even my father. We walked into the hotel room and looked around. It was dark so I flicked on a light. There were two double beds and a small kitchen and bathroom. We sat our bags down and each sat on one of the beds. Neither of us said anything just laid back on the pillows. "Christa?" Erika finally said softly. I rolled on my side to look at her. "I'm scared. What're we going to do after all this?"
I sighed, "I don't know Erika. I don't know." And with that I reached out and held her hand. Slowly we drifted into sleep and our hands fell. I vaguely remembered someone crawling into bed with me but quickly fell back to sleep. I had learned long ago to remain asleep when my husband had an urge to crawl into bed with me.