Ch 3 - Is That What We're Doing Here?...Competing?

Scenes from S2E5 El Nacimiento de Bolivia and S2E6 El Camino De La Muerte

"Is that what we are doing here?...Competing?" Guero had competed for women's attention many times over his 30 years of life and had enjoyed the chase tremendously as the conquest of a new heart had always felt like a confirmation of his charm and appeal. It had not only made him proud of himself but made him excited about the pleasures life offered. He had had girlfriends and one night stands since he had been a teenager and the competitive buzz to win over a woman had never tasted bitter.

However, competing did feel bothersome now, and he had felt anger rising in this chest over the last day every time Teresa and James looked at each and spoke in short sentences as if they could read each other's minds. The way they quickly and effortlessly moved from discussing a situation to executing a plan, made him nervous because he knew in the back of his mind that they clicked and that was the only reason they worked together so smoothly. For fuck's sake, she had pointed her gun at him when he had caught up with her in the Galveston warehouse. She had been mad, no denying it. But she had also pushed his gun aside to prevent him from aiming at the pinche güey (damn guy) when he had appeared! What did this mean? Only a blind man wouldn't see that these two were a team and if they clicked so well at work, they would click so well somewhere else, his mind floated to the idea of them, and he had to block the image in order to keep his cool.

Guero was afraid that he wasn't coming back from Bolivia if the El Santo solution didn't work out. He wished Teresa would be willing to run away with him if that was the case; even James, who most likely had orders not to let him come back to Dallas, wouldn't find them, if she'd just listen to him. But their life couldn't be on his terms anymore because she had gotten greedy and ambitious in his absence, because she had seen Camila's achievements first hand and because this man by her side was working with her as an equal as if she had been in this biz for a long time! So, he, Guero Davila, had to figure out a way to make her see that his life wasn't safe in the hope that she would put her bet on him! She seemed to be so certain she would be able to protect him from Camila and James that he had to force himself to find comfort in her assurances and to put his trust in her abilities!

The shitty trick Leo had pulled had made him mad because it had almost cost them their lives, not once but twice. How can women be so stupid? How can this crazy bitch Leo call this other crazier bitch La Capitana, who was known for her complete lack of reasoning, just to get even with him for leaving…all this time ago? They had almost died! It was one thing to be pissed off with someone, but quite another to call the army on them when they were trying to traffic coke! And as much it had scared him to see her brains blown out and her limp body tied to a chair fall in the pool, he had cringed with the gruesomeness of it all, which gruesomeness the tonta (fool) had brought onto herself! She had always aspired to be a big chingona (bad ass), always craved drama, and now she had gone too far and had gotten herself a very dramatic end!

Teresa's close overdose had shaken him a lot as he had known her to bum cigarettes before, but he had only seen her and Brenda score a line once. It had been at a boisterous party, and he was sure that Teresa had not been prepared for scoring three fat lines under the pressure of the pinche Capitana! What had given him hope had been Teresa's determination to keep looking for El Santo, despite her near brush with death. She obviously had even begged for his life with that pendejo James, and despite the angry vibes he got at the recollection of how the man had told him what she had tired to do for him, he knew the pendejo had been worried for her life as much as himself. The image of his hands trying to steady her shaking body riled him at the same time as it provided a vague sense of comfort that she had been in safe hands, and it looked like she still was!

Guero felt jabs of responsibility for Teresa's safety, but then the realization that he was late to the party and had been unable to protect her flooded to the front of his confused mind. He tried in vain to swim through the simultaneous muddy feelings of anger with the way things had come down with Epifanio and the obscure gratitude to James for having taken care of her. The last feeling felt wrong, as it opened up the jealous can of worms his heart was! How was he supposed to care about someone else and feel for them, when he himself felt so down and angry inside?

James had been ready to drop the whole El Santo op because she had almost died, and she had run for him like a crazy woman when she had heard his three warning shots! There was more than met the eye there; Guero was certain it was not just one doing Camila's bidding and the other one being grateful for having had her life saved!

"I see the way he looks at you", he had challenged Teresa, not being clear himself what he expected her to say or admit. However, he had not been able to stifle his frustration with the simmering worry the güey's face had projected when the two girls had danced or when she had been convulsing on the floor. It had been stupid to corner her about James when he had been gone out of her life and the man seemed to have protected her when the Vargases had been on her! No, he really shouldn't be blaming her as she had been doing what she needed to survive. If to survive she had needed to gravitate towards him for protection, he should be able to live with it! He himself was forced to cooperate with DEA to survive, and she had understood her lack of choice. So, Guero had decided that he was man enough to understand her choice to ingratiate herself with Camila and to listen to James!

James had engaged in several shouting matches with him about the op, and had bluntly called him 'a fucking child' while vehemently denying wanting to steal his woman. Guero had had decided that he understood Teresa's closeness to James and still had lost his cool when he had challenged the man in the cell in El Santo's compound. He had lost his control again, but the pressure of El Santo wanting a sacrifice had been so high, that he couldn't blame himself! But challenging the man had actually worked as it had shown that the cool pendejo James wasn't prepared to risk his pinche miserable life for Teresa and had let her walk in this mad man's den! Guero had heard himself yell that he would go to die instead of her after she had volunteered herself and as much as he wanted to tell himself that he had been ready to die for her, he knew it had been a knee jerk reaction.

"You are not the same girl anymore, are you?." He had asked her and once again had not been certain what answer he had expected.

Who was responsible for these changes in her? Did James have a contribution? How could this be undone? Would Guero be able to accept her like that? He had never been with such a strong headed woman, he reasoned. He would provide for all his women and he would let them do as they pleased in terms of what narcos' moras did, which was to live lavish lives and entertain themselves; Leo had had her drug running biz on the side, but she had seemed to be very knowledgeable and the op had stayed at the same low level over the time they had seen each other, that he suddenly realized that to be with Teresa meant having to listen to someone else determining how his life, or better yet 'their life' would be and that feeling of change made him uncomfortable!

However, the thought of someone else taking his woman under his nose incited a dark feeling that took over the wonder of how much this same woman had changed and the result was that Guero couldn't help his tongue. He had called the man a coward, when he obviously wasn't one and knew very well what he was doing; he had purposefully brought up the topic of him taking out Teresa under Camila's orders to rile him. How could the damn pendejo be so cool and so composed all the time? Guero needed to push him, to make him slip and admit his loyalties. He needed this to show Teresa that this one was nothing else but Camila's soldier. Only dragging the man into confrontation could achieve that, and Guero needed to ensure that whatever bond these two had developed over the past three months, would break with a display of his true loyalties. Later it occurred to him that maybe Teresa knew where James's true loyalties lay and still was choosing to work with him so closely. She absolutely was not the same girl he had known before!

Guero had been shocked with Teresa's bloody appearance after she had murdered the crazy Capitana. She either didn't need protection or had had a great teacher because she seemed to handle all of them with ease, including the crazy pirate George and his Somali gang.

The horrendous trip had ended with him saving James's life, a decision he had made in a split second, as in the back of his mind he had somehow known that the man wouldn't have shot him despite the sting in his words that he didn't deserve Teresa and despite having called him 'selfish' and 'disloyal'. The man was an enigma; Guero couldn't read him at all. Once he acted like he cared about her too much, then he acted like he didn't, like it was 'just business'. But the fact remained that he had taken the shot at the soldier and had saved James's life. The pendejo was in his debt! Was it because he felt some sense of gratitude for his support of Teresa or was it because he couldn't imagine Camila letting him take James's place, Guero didn't know. Maybe the truth was somewhere in between!