Ch 4, Nothing Is What It Seems

Camila was overjoyed to hear Rosita's voice on the line. Her spy girl had located King George's boat, Teresa's safe house and apartment. What a resourceful girl, especially when paid well!

"Unfortunately, I couldn't get more information on her operation on such short notice…I followed the Somalis to her warehouse and then to her apartment…but if she had met with her distribution contacts in the meantime…maybe next week I will be more successful!" Rosita said.

"Why next week?" Camila was feeling her palm sweat.

"Because I got a family thing this weekend…and I have already asked my boss to have Monday off…I was planning to follow her Monday and maybe Tuesday…" The young woman's voice faltered as Camila jumped in:

"I don't care what you have on the weekend or what you have told your boss! I paid for your time, and I need it now. If the weekend is not enough to give me all the locations she frequents, you take the whole week and tell your boss whatever you can come up with. Got it?" Camila's voice did not tolerate contradictions.

"Yes, I got it!" Rosita was not happy, and she let is sound, but then decided to change tunes: "I did get some results though…I found out she's not alone!"

"I told you so…I know she has guards around her!" Camila said.

"Yes, but this guy is not a guard…She is with him…They are a couple…At least they behaved like one when I followed them in the outskirts of town." Rosita had been excessively tired following two people on bikes, and needed her effort appreciated.

"Who is she with?' Camila's interest was piqued.

"A guy…I don't know him!" Rosita said.

"Pote, el Gordo?" Camila knew the chef sicario to be Teresa's shadow.

"No, it's not him …This guy is younger and way more fit!" came the answer.

"Describe him to me!" Camila knew Guero was securely held by Cortez in a cell, so unless Teresa had new allies, she had no idea who it could be.

"Late 20s, tall, dark…catches the eye, I'd say…but I only saw him from afar". Rosita's words gave Camila an unpleasant jolt.

"Is he wearing a black leather jacket?" The words came out on autopilot as her mind conjured up her former secondhand man.

"Ahh…No one is wearing jackets now, Gobernadora, is too hot here!" the woman almost laughed which annoyed Camila even more. "What else?"

"Well…He took her out in the fields bike riding today…Last night she went late to his apartment after a walk on the shore by herself…I followed her from the place where the Somalis went…and she never left his place. I stayed the whole night in my car, Senora, to make sure!" The girl seemed to be asking for an award for doing what she'd been hired to do! Why did Camila feel so antsy? She knew it was because the premonition that a formidable sicario had sided with her enemy had taken over her.

"Did you take any pictures?" Camila said.

'Yes, just a few ….and they aren't really good as I kept my distance the whole time and my cell's camera isn't very new…", Rosita started explaining but Camila told her to send all she'd got.

"I got a recording on my phone as I put a bug on his balcony...but then the overnight rain damaged it…Sorry, Senora, it was one of these meant for indoors…I couldn't get anything better on such short notice!", the girl kept making excuses.

"Just send me all you got, carajo! Whatever you recorded!" Camila was seething.

The next few minutes felt like an eternity until her phone pinged. She had received a voice file, but no pictures yet. She pressed the button and jacked up the volume with trembling fingers.

She heard silence and then a noise that sounded like typing, followed by a short buzz. Then her heart sank in her stomach as she heard Teresa's voice: "Who was that?"

A male voice said: "Pote" and Camila swallowed hard. The recording was bad, and the voice sounded like James, but she couldn't be sure.

Teresa's voice came on again: "Hmm...Did he ask you where I was?"

"Kind of...He complained you didn't tell him where you went, just told him to take the day off!" The anger swelled inside Camila pressing against her skull as she was sure it had been James's voice.

"Oh...that man...He constantly worries!" Teresa said.

James chuckled, Camila was sure: "That's a good thing!"

Teresa sounded slightly annoyed: "What did you respond to him?"

"Ahh...that you were here…with me!" and this time he did chuckle. Camila's heart plummeted down a dark shaft because no matter that James didn't work for her anymore, she still felt like he was hers, on her side, her reliable soldier! And that puta Teresa not only had him in her operation but in her bed!

Teresa said a hasty: "Why?"

"He is worried...Now he can enjoy his day off!" James sounded like he wasn't taking the conversation seriously.

There was a pause and Teresa came on again: "So, we too have the day off too?"

"I don't know...You're the boss...Do we?" Camila felt the punch as she realized she had hoped he at least was not working for her.

She heard sounds and knew they were not only talking. He must have been spot kissing her as she giggled: "It tickles…I guess we do have the day off too!"

Some more sounds and then Teresa's voice again: "Tell me, James!"

Camila couldn't really hear a response but clearly heard Teresa again: "Did you think you and I were meant to get here?"

This time James took some time and then said: "I'm pretty sure we were on a collision course since that...job at the Dallas Airport!" What the fuck had happened at the airport that she had missed? She had been too busy with Teo, her new hot lawyer and with Epifanio and his games, that she had missed these two getting closer than she had wanted them to!

Teresa came on again: "But it took us quite some time…when you refused partnering with me at the train depot!"

James was heard sighing deep and saying: "Really? Remember, you were with someone else back then!"

"So, were you…What? Stop looking at me so…so…suspiciously!" Teresa sounded hesitant.

"True, I was…", James said: "But I ended it earlier than you and it…never involved the business!"

Teresa responded right away: "Also true...But everyone made assumptions about me back in Dallas!"

Camila could visualize James wrinkling his forehead when he said: "Meaning?"

Teresa again: "Meaning what I said ..Just because someone was back from the dead… didn't mean...ahh…"

James interrupted her: "Do we gave to talk about this now?" His voice didn't sound annoyed but playful and Camila felt anger rising in her again.

Teresa giggled again as he was most likely tickling her again: "I guess not!"

James's voice came on serious: "I don't wanna talk about it, Teresa! ...Ever!"

She giggled again: "What do you wanna talk about then?" She even sounded breathless.

"I don't wanna talk at all!" James must have silenced her somehow as Camila heard them no more. In the next several seconds she heard thunder and then water splatter. The damn rain that had destroyed the indoor bug!

She flexed her hands and lit a cigarette: Si, Cabron…I trusted you like my own son…You wanna fuck, not talk...like all men….Carajo! Following your dick straight to the trap! I should have seen it coming...You must have helped her evade Cortez's sicarios which makes you responsible for their deaths!

And she, pinche puta, has no idea where I have her former green-eyed pilot stashed. I doubt she'd feel 'not with him', if she knew what I'm having them do to him!

She poured herself a stiff tequila as she fought the invasive thought that she shouldn't have accepted Teresa's offer to deliver the drugs to Han way back in her Dallas warehouse! She should have had her drugged and prostituted as she had intended to! See if you would have still wanted her, James!

Her phone pinged again, and she angrily typed her password to see that the picture files had finally arrived. She had her information, so she contemplated not looking at them, but that lasted a second as curiosity and anger took the better of her. And with trembling hands and ash falling from her cigarette on the carpet, she opened the first message.

It made her stand motionless a full minute staring at the unclear image if a man who looked very much like James fastening the helmet strings on a woman with wild hair. The second image wouldn't open and she cursed and butted out her cigarette.

The third image made her mad: the woman whose hair had been pulled in a bun, the exact same way Teresa used to, was feeding James something in front of a booth advertising 'churros' at a festival of some sort. His face was clearly visible and sported a delightful expression.

Camila's heart took a nosedive when the second picture finally downloaded and she saw them making out under a tree, Teresa's hands comfortably in his back pockets, both oblivious to their surroundings.