“I understand that I have you to thank for Ryanne coming for a visit to my home, Señora,” he said. He presented her the box. “For this, you have my eternal gratitude. Ryanne has become the love of my life.”
He handed her the jewelry box. Inside was a pair of teardrop emerald earrings. Patsy’s eyes twinkled as she accepted the gift.
“These are lovely,” she told him with a lopsided smile. “Thank you, for this....” Her eyes twinkled as she moved closer, her wrinkled hand touching his arm, “Señor you have to try a bowl of my chili.” she slurred her speech a bit more.
“I couldn’t, I really must leave,” Eduardo said.
Patsy’s bottom lip quivered. She intentionally sucked up saliva as she forced an exaggeration of her twisted mouth. “Did you know, I had a mild heart attack yesterday? I have come to realize how fragile life is... please, do me the honor of at least one bowl. I cooked a batch special today. It may be the last batch I ever make...”
“If that is the case, how could I refuse,” Eduardo said. It was a trap, he knew it, but the sad face and slurping thing had gotten to him. Besides, how bad could her chili be?
Patsy loaded the bowl high. She handed it to him with a charming smile that he wanted to trust, but he knew, he would more than likely fold over like a child in tears when he ate the food. The first spoonful warned him to stop, but the old lady encouraged him to continue which he did without a glass of water to go with it. Odessa slowly walked over to him allowing him to see her hands as she approached him.
“I never thought I would stand this close to you again...alive,” she said to Eduardo.
“I was thinking the same thing, Señora,” he said with a straight face. A face which was turning red from the hot bowl of chili.
“Is she happy?” Odessa asked,
“We both are,” he said. “I will love and honor her. She will want for nothing.”
“What about love? Will she want that from you?”
“I loved her from the moment I saw her,” he said to Odessa. “My love for her is why I am standing in this home, eating a bowl of death. What is in this...it feels like my insides are boiling?”
“Stop eating it,” she said.
“I cannot,” he told her. “La Señora has challenged my machismo. I must finish the bowl!” he said it with a wickedly charming grin as he waggled his eyebrows at Odessa. His eyes remained focused on Ms. Patsy, all the while observing every detail in the room as if he were committing it to memory.
Interesting.
Over the next few minutes, Odessa saw the Eddie that her sister had fallen in love with. He was funny mixed with moments of sweetness and kind at heart. Grandma Patsy was modeling the earrings as if they had been given to her by a new beau. Upon finishing the chili, he wanted to see the twins, holding each and singing to them a Spanish lullaby. The stay was short, many bridges were built, but the last one to cross was with Bobby Ray, who walked them out to the vehicles.
“I have a container of my bar-b-que, some ribs and a jug of my special sauce for you Señor,” he said.
Eduardo only raised an eyebrow at the gift. He would probably not eat it. The bowl of chili was outside of the norm of operation, but he needed to stand on the newly built bridge of trust. “I left a crate of my special coffee for you and your family. The beans were hand-picked and roasted fresh yesterday. There are no finer coffee beans in the world.” He accepted the container from Bobby Ray, “This meat is very well prepared. The sauce is very good.”
“I know how much you like my ribs. I know you took a plateful of them when you were in my house that night,” Bobby Ray said.
“Lo siento Señor Blakemore, I do not understand what you are saying...mis inglés ...” Eduardo started.
“Your inglés was just fine inside the house... Hell, I don’t blame you, my ribs are pretty darned good,” Bobby Ray said.
“You too are a good man,” Eduardo told him. “Mi Papa, he was hard, unforgiving, quick with his fist, and faster with his disapprovals...we were not allowed to fail. You have raised good children.”
“I understand you have four of your own and another on the way with Ryanne,” Bobby Ray said to him.
“Sí, she is a good woman. A loving woman - my children love her,” he said.
“And you?”
“That is not a question Señor Blakemore,” he said irritated. “Why does everyone keep asking me that?”
Bobby Ray stood quietly for a second, looking out over the land. The oil wells pumping on the horizon like a backdrop to an old western movie. “I didn’t get it right at first. I failed so many times as a husband, sometimes, think I failed as a father, but I have never failed as a man. That is what I taught my children. That is what I taught my sons, that people will always be quick to say ‘yes, Mr. Blakemore; anything you need Mr. Blakemore’ simply because of the name. However, I was determined to teach them that being Mr. Blakemore is about more than just a title, it has to stand for something.”
Eduardo knew a point was coming, he said nothing else but waited for Bobby Ray to say what was weighing on his chest as Tonda and Carlos sat in the vehicle.
“I don’t approve of your methods. Killing people you don’t like isn’t right, but I respect the man. I respect what you have built. I am in your debt,” he told Eduardo.
“You owe me nothing,” he said. “However, I have been invited back for the Christening of the children next month...”
“I will have Connard’s wing opened and prepped for you and your family’s arrival. It will be nice to have children running about again,” he said with a weathered smile.
“Until next month,” Eduardo said extending his hand.
“See you then,” Bobby Ray said.
Saxton had failed to ask the obvious as he ran out the front door to catch Eduardo before he left, his hands raised high so that the cartel leader could see them as he advanced. “Eduardo...you never mentioned Alberlado...he knew you, who is he?”
Eduardo closed the back door of the vehicle rolling down the window. “He is the step-brother of Victorio Rentería,” he said to him.
Saxton asked, “How did he know...you know...the Asian assasin?” Saxton wanted ot know how Albelardo knew about his one fear.
“He is my cousin,” Eduardo said with a frown.
Saxton’s mouth was wide.
“So, Mateo was your cousin too?”
“Sí, he was,” he said looking over at his brother. “Relatives can be the vilest adversaries. Alberlardo is ten times worse than Mateo; so keep vigilant...you may see him again.” The window rolled up as the vehicle drove towards the landing field.
It was a quiet flight to Los Angeles. The plane landed with nothing more than the wheels scraping the tarmac. Eduardo uncharacteristically showed his younger brother physical affection with an embrace.
“I am proud of you Carlos,” he told him. “It takes a strong man to stand for something he believes in and not give in to the pressure.”
“Eddie,” he said. “Why did you send me to Panama? I mean, I don’t understand.”
“You will,” Eduardo said as he embarked on the plane. He wanted to be in the air and on his way home. His stomach beginning to gurgle from the chili as the onslaught of pain was preparing to ensue. The flight back to his home was even quieter on the way to Las Tierras Verdes. Eduardo’s head was full of thoughts; some he could not separate while others would have to wait as his stomach began bubble during the flight over the Gulf of Mexico. It was the longest 8 hours of his life. Much of it was spent in the bathroom spewing a bowl of lethal chili from his butt.
“Tonda!” he screamed. “Turn the plane around! We are going back to Houston.”
“Why Señor, did we forget something?”
“No, we are going to go and kill the old woman who made that chili!” Eduardo said standing halfway in the bathroom door. His pants hung loosely about his hips as he clutched the fabric.
His stomach warbled as he gripped his belly, his eyes water
ing, as he looked like a sad little puppy. “Oh! My! Gherrrrd!” he yelled as he turned around to run back inside the bathroom.
Tonda and Julianna tried not to laugh at the helplessness of their boss, but the whimpering from the bathroom was more than they could stand. Each time he cried out, they giggled louder. His feet could be heard flopping about as they came up, pressing against the small bathroom door, followed by a loud grunt, whimpers, then the sound of his feet hitting the bathroom floor.
This, he would never live down.
Chapter 13 –Say what now?
Puente Piedra, Colombia
Initially, seeing her husband return home in such a state, she thought he’d been hurt. However, the unfastened pants and the look of being lost with the far off stare was familiar to her. She’d seen that same look on her father’s face. One look at Eduardo and Ryanne knew he’d eaten a bowl of Grandma Patsy’s chili. Tonda carried him in the house over his shoulder as the housekeeper started the tub for him to soak his bum. Red rimmed eyes gazed weakly upon her as he tried to undress.
“Here let me help you, Eddie,” she said softly, removing his boots. His body flopped back on the bed as she lifted each foot to remove his shoes. He rolled to his side as she undid his belt, sliding the pants down his thighs, over his knees, then pulling them over his ankles.
Eduardo feebly removed his underpants, flopping down on his belly. “Carina, por favor, my bum...I think my culo was flushed down the toilet. Check is it still there...are parts hanging out of my bumhole?”
Ryanne didn’t want to laugh at him, she understood the pain. His butt stuck up in the air as he spread his cheeks for her to check to see if he’d developed hemorrhoids. The flesh was red, angry and double puckered.
“That woman...she looked at me so sweetly...knowing, the whole time, that this would happen...her chili is the turd burglar!” he said and he sprawled on his belly across the bed.
“So my brother is fine?” she asked, recognizing the Kevin Jr. terminology.
“Yes, but I am going back to Houston to kill the Grandma Patsy,” he mumbled into the duvet cover.
“Eddie,” she asked softly, “did you have to kill other people?”
One eye peered up at her from the bed. His mind trying to deal with the pain and discomfort from the bowl of nuclear waste Grandma Patsy had fed him. The last thing he wanted to admit was what he’d done in Panama. He’d only killed the one man, the others he wounded. Some may walk again...others, maybe not, but they would live painful lives- but they would live.
“You didn’t answer me,” she said, reaching for his shirt, spotting the blood. Her breath caught. “There is blood on this shirt.”
“Tonda got a busted lip” he mumbled. “Saxton got shot in the arm, Roget nearly lost an eye, Carlos’ face was slashed...your idiot brother was unharmed.”
“And your brother?” she asked her husband.
“He is not as big of an idiot as I had feared. There is hope for him...he will carry on the Delgado name...,” he said through grunts and moans.
She helped him sit up on the side of the bed. He was so weak, she had to nearly carry him to the bath room. By the looks of him, maybe the tub wasn’t a good idea. Eduardo had the same thought.
“My bum hole is so hot, it may make the water boil,” he said as she held his hands while he lowered his body into the tub. There were nicks and cuts all over him. It must have been one hell of a fight.
“Eddie is there something you want to tell me,” she said as she disrobed to join him in the tub. He watched her rounded belly, which held his daughter, lower into the water.
“Yes. We have been invited to the Christening of the twins next month. That Austin is an adorable little girl. The boy looks like Blakemore...only darker. Your brother is thinking of getting engaged to the bug lady, Bobby Ray sent some of his bar-b-que, and the Grandma Patsy had a mild heart attack,” he said.
“Say what now?”
“She felt well enough to make that pot of death; that mean old goat is just fine,” he said with a frown. “And...I now have some friends,” he said as he leaned back in the tub closing his eyes. “I have never really had any before, and now I have some.”
Ryanne smiled at him, moving closer to her husband in the tub.
He opened one eye, “Oh yeah, Bobby Ray said we could bring all mis niños when we come...he would open a wing of the house for us to stay in.”
“Anything else you want to tell me,” she said as she took a sponge and wiped at his chest.
“Saxton did hire the doggies to sniff at the box I sent for his bambinos,” he said with a chuckle. “...dog and pony show...”
He closed his eyes and was asleep.
Hmmm. My Eddie.
Houston, Texas
Clad in a white nightgown, Odessa made her way to the bedroom. Intimacy with her husband was going to have to wait until her body healed after giving birth to two babies, but there was more than one way to love a man. Being strong wasn’t working as well for her anymore. It had taken everything in her to not react to her husband being shot again. Truthfully, she was just glad he was home and in one piece. The same couldn’t be said for Roget.
He’d stayed at the ranch in a guest room, but twice he woke, screaming and fighting. The doctors had informed the agent that he would not have full vision in his eye which he handled well. It was the other parts that kept him up. Belva moved him to her suite in the middle of the night, holding him as he fought through the terror of his experience in Panama. After twenty years, he was going to call it quits with the CIA. His time in the big chair was over.
Roget was not ready to hand the reins to Kevin Jr. He’d failed his field test miserably and it didn’t matter if his mother was one of the best agents that ever came through or that he was the brother-in-law of Saxton Blakemore. Roget’s exact wording in the report listed Kevin Jr. as a “walking clusterfuck.”
“Odessa,” Saxton called, trying not to wake the babies. Although the nursery was next door, his wife kept the children in the room with them. It made it easier for feedings and late night conversations between him and his children. He didn’t have the courage yet to tell her he wanted at least four more.
“Yes, Saxton,” she said as the light from the bathroom backlit her nightgown. Her full breasts, heavy with milk, hung in the shimmery fabric. The bump of her belly was still slightly enlarged after bringing forth life three weeks prior.
“Dear Lord you are beautiful,” he said to her. “If I were to die tonight, I would do so knowing, I lived my life loving a woman like you.”
Something was bothering her, and it wasn’t sitting well. It didn’t add up. “Alberlado Renteria? Whose son is he?”
“He is Victorio’s brother,” Saxton said. “I guess he is a bastard son like Mateo was to Elizondo.”
“Carlos, the brother, you said he asked who killed Hugo...he didn’t know?”
“I think he did; he wanted to hear what I had to say,” Saxton informed her. “Did he talk to you?”
“Briefly. His eyes kind of freak me out. He is plotting something. He knows something,” she said. “He knew where they were keeping Kevin Jr?”
“Yeah, he took Roget there...why?”
“You never said why he was in Panama in the first place,” Odessa said, sitting on the side of the bed.
“Eduardo sent him to teach Kevin Jr. how to blend in,” he said.
“Okay...but Roget didn’t know that...he didn’t know Carlos,” she said. “How would Carlos know how to teach Kevin how to blend in.”
“Because he looks like your average...everything. Kevin has the same look when he is not gawking about acting as if everything surprises the hell out of him,” Saxton said with a grumble.
More questions were forming in that head of Odessa’s and Saxton knew where she was going. His mind went there on the plane. He would not speak the words, he had no reason to...he was retired.
“Odessa, it’s not my circus, and those are not my monkeys,” he t
old her.
“Agreed. But when the shit starts to fly, no one is going to give a rat’s ass which monkey threw the first chunk,” she said.
Saxton kissed Austin, laying her back in the bed next to her brother. A firm hand ran across his son’s soft hair. He was tired. There were too many pieces which constantly shifted, always a new viper, always a new nest. If Carlos was planning a coup over his brother, that was between them, he just didn’t want the fight brought to his door. He was worried that Alberlado was going to do just that.
“I’m tired,” he said to his wife. “Come to bed.”
“But Saxton,” Odessa said.
“Say goodnight Mrs. Blakemore.”
“No...I want to talk about this. We must be prepared for what is coming,” Odessa implored.
“There is no way to prepare because we have no clue which direction the storm is going to blow. The only good news is that I have made friends with Eduardo, I think. He is on our side,” he said.
“Do you think it is going to be enough?”
“Hell no,” he said. “The Renteria’s are ready to wage a war against him trying to go legit. Some men want to watch the world go down in flames...the Renteria’s are like that...Victorio is an anomaly,” he said.
“We have children...we must be ready,” she said to him as she climbed into bed.
“The only thing we can do right now is get some sleep. I won’t be worth anything to you if I don’t,” he said. “I have a list as long as my arm that I have to tackle tomorrow. I need close out my files with the CIA and open a new set as foreman of the Busy B. Uncle Dusty can’t run this place anymore and Daddy doesn’t know how. I know I have to rotate the herd, set up a shodding schedule for the mares and take a look at the breeding schedule. You have to pick out which foals you want to be trained for the kids, because soon as they learn to walk, they have to learn to ride. This house will be Austin’s; you have to train her early in its care.”
Being Mr. Blakemore (The Blakemore Files Book 7) Page 8
