“That and popcorn,” Carlos said. “You like to cook then?”
“Oh yeah.” She thought for a second. “Do you know, that’s the first time I’ve thought about my everyday life since I’ve been here.” She was quiet and then she looked over to Carlos. “What in the world am I going to do, Carlos?”
“Things have a way of working themselves out,” he told her.
“I don’t see how they can. Things are so screwed up,” Stacy said. “My father hired someone to kill me; my friends and family think I’m dead; I’m totally smitten with my kidnapper. What’s going on here, Carlos? Are my stars lined up in the wrong order or something?”
Carlos laughed. “Maybe it’s not as bad as you make it sound.”
“What part might not be as bad as it sounds?” she asked, but she continued before he could answer. “And there’s something else. Niki told me not to think about it, but I can’t help it. I don’t think my mother’s death was an accident. I think my father killed her.”
Carlos stopped what he was doing and looked at her. “That’s a serious accusation, Stacy,” he said. “Do you have anything to base it on?”
“You mean other than the fact that he hired someone to kill me?”
“Yes. Was there anything that happened at the time of the accident that led you to believe your father was involved?”
Stacy thought back. It had been a terrible time for her and a lot of what had happened in the weeks after the accident was a blur.
“No, I can’t say that I ever suspected anything back then,” she admitted. “My father was always kind of reclusive, and he was always jealous of the closeness between me and my mother. But I never would have thought that he could do something like that.”
“Then I agree with Niki,” he said. “I don’t think any good can come from you dwelling on it.” Carlos took Stacy’s hands in his. “Your father is going to get what’s owed him whether he killed your mother or not. Niki will make sure of that. And I’ll tell you right now Stacy, if you don’t want Niki to kill your father, you better let him know. Because the way he feels about you, I guarantee that’s the plan.”
Stacy was silent as the words sank in. She hated her father, but she could hardly give the okay for someone to kill him. “I’ll talk to Niki,” Stacy said. She hesitated, then asked, “How did he become who he is, Carlos?”
“Do you mean Niki or your father?”
“I was talking about Niki, but I see your point,” Stacy said, sounding depressed.
“You need to talk to Niki about Niki. It’s not my place, Stacy.”
“I know, and I knew you would say that.”
“I will tell you that Niki has many virtuous qualities that are a complete contradiction to his actions,” Carlos said. “Precisely the qualities that attract people to him when they would otherwise be repelled.”
Stacy raised her hand. “That’s me!” she said. “And I think I love him, Carlos. I’ve known the guy for less than a week and I’ve never felt like this about anyone in my life. I know it’s irrational; I know it’s illogical; I know its aberrant and perverse and all wrong, but I can’t help it,” she said. “And there’s not any hope of going back to my life and picking up where I left off. It’s just not possible.” She had worked herself up into a state. “What the fuck am I going to do, Carlos?”
Carlos laughed and put his arms around her. “Well, when you put it like that, why don’t I just shoot you and put you out of your misery?”
Stacy laughed so she wouldn’t cry.
Carlos held her at arms length and made her look at him. “I can think of a lot of things worse than falling in love,” he told her.
Stacy could hardly argue with that one. “You’d make a good shrink,” she told him. She hugged Carlos and kissed him on the cheek and went back to making breakfast.
Carlos poured Stacy a cup of coffee. She had mixed up the eggs and poured them into the pan and she was chopping up tomatoes.
“Here,” she said, handing Carlos a block of cheese and a knife. “Make yourself useful.” She walked over to the intercom. “Does this work in Consuela’s room?” she asked. “Oh, I see it,” she said, pushing the button. “Consuela, are you awake?”
Consuela came on, “Buenos dias.”
“Hola. Come eat with us,” she said. Stacy turned to Carlos, “Will you ask her in Spanish?”
Carlos joined Stacy at the intercom and invited Consuela to breakfast, assuring her in Spanish that it was quite all right to join them.
“She’ll be here in a minute,” Carlos said.
Stacy walked out onto the veranda and looked down at the beach. The shoreline was a mess, completely covered with seaweed and muck left from the storm. It would be a good project to keep her busy until Niki returned. She decided she would go crazy if she just sat around waiting.
“What a beautiful morning,” she said, walking back inside. “Let’s eat outside.”
Stacy heated the tortillas and made four tacos for Carlos and two for herself and Consuela.
“You’re just in time,” Stacy said, smiling and handing her a plate. “We’re eating outside,” she said, pointing to the veranda. Stacy refilled her coffee and the three went out on the veranda and enjoyed their breakfast.
Carlos finished his fourth taco and sat back in his chair. “That was delicious. Is there any left?”
“A lot,” said Stacy.
“I’m going to have one more. Can I make either of you one?” Carlos asked, walking towards the kitchen.
“Not me,” Stacy said
Consuela shook her head no.
When he had gone, Consuela leaned over to Stacy. “How you and Niki?” she asked, with a conspiratorial smile.
“Oh, I don’t know.”
Consuela smiled like she knew a secret. “You have Niki’s baby.”
Stacy was horrified. “Don’t even say that Consuela! No es bueno,” Stacy said, adamantly. “It’s not good.”
Carlos came back out and could tell that Stacy was flustered. “What’s the matter?” he asked.
Consuela excused herself, and Stacy turned to Carlos. “Is Consuela psychic?”
Carlos laughed. “Not that I know of. Why?”
“Thank God,” Stacy said, under her breath. “She made another stupid comment about me having Niki’s kid,” she said irritated. “I was horrified that she knew something that I didn’t.”
Carlos laughed again. “Consuela reads too many romance novels.”
Stacy was relieved. “She must get lonesome here.”
“I’m sure she probably does. I think she has a boyfriend on the mainland. She goes in Wednesday mornings and comes back on Thursday afternoons.”
“She flies?” Stacy asked.
“No, one of our boats takes her back and forth. They drop off our supplies when they bring her back,” Carlos said. “They’ll be here tomorrow if you need anything.”
“I’ll let you know,” she said, getting up. “I’m going upstairs to put on a swimsuit that Consuela loaned me. Can I go to the beach by myself?”
Carlos thought about it. “Niki told me he gave you a pistol. Take it with you and you can go by yourself.”
Stacy ran into Consuela in the kitchen. “Want to go to the beach?” she asked Consuela.
“I work now, then come see you.”
“Okay, I’ll see you on the beach,” she said. Stacy pointed down towards the beach, “La playa.”
“Si,” Consuela nodded her understanding.
Stacy changed into her swimsuit then stopped back in Niki’s room for the pistol. The room had his smell to it. Stacy sat on the bed and held his pillow to her chest and buried her face in it. Her heart hurt and she had an overwhelming, almost urgent need to be with him. If she didn’t get busy she was going to go crazy.
She left Niki’s room and went across and knocked on Carlos’ door and he called her in.
“Are there a pair of gloves and a rake I can take down to the beach,” she asked. “I guess I ne
ed some garbage bags too. I’m going to start cleaning up.”
Carlos couldn’t help but stare. Stacy was wearing a bikini top and she had the pistol tucked into the waistband of her cutoffs.
“What?”
“You look like Calamity Jane,” he laughed.
“Shut up or I’ll shoot you.”
“Come on,” he said, leading her out into the hall. “Let’s look in the tool shed.” They went through the house and out the kitchen door to a closet off the back of the house. “Let’s see what’s in here,” Carlos said, looking around. “Here’s a rake you can use. There should be some gloves in here somewhere, but they’ll be big on you.” He moved some things around. “Oh, here they are.” He slapped them against the closet door to get the dried dirt off and handed them to her. “Check the inside for spiders before you put them on.” He found a box of trash bags and handed them to her.
“Thanks, Carlos. Why don’t you come with me?”
“I’ll come down later,” he said unenthusiastically. “You need to watch for snakes. I’ve seen them in debris like that on the beach before.”
She took off with the rake, gloves and garbage bags and headed to the beach. She started right below the house and worked towards the dock, raking up seaweed, driftwood, pieces from the boat, palm leaves, coconuts, dead fish and countless other forms of trash, both man-made and natural. There was an incredible amount of debris and her progress was slow. She decided to make several giant piles of rubbish that could be burned later when everything dried out. She would fill a half dozen garbage bags at a time, then drag them up the beach past the tidal line and empty them into the big pile. It was hard work, but satisfying.
After several hours, Stacy sat down on a uprooted palm tree and surveyed her progress. The pristine stretch of beach that she had cleaned was such a stark contrast to the unsightly mess that bordered it on both sides, that it made the rest of the beach look that much worse. Stacy took off her gloves and shook out her hands. She had blisters on several fingers and on both thumbs from the oversized gloves. She set the gloves down beside the gun and garbage bags and took off her cutoffs and headed for the water to cool off. Her shoulders and back were already pink.
The water was incredible. The shoreline she had cleaned had a gradual slope and she could still touch bottom a long way out from the shore. There were schools of colorful fish swimming all around her and she wished she had brought a snorkel and fins from the house. Looking at the beach from this perspective, Stacy could really appreciate her hard work. The pile of debris she had built up would make an enormous bonfire. She decided she better start a new pile when she resumed.
The villa from this angle was spectacular. Eli and Carlos were standing on the veranda looking down at her and Stacy waved and motioned with her hand for them to come down. Shortly afterward, Eli met her on the beach.
“You’ve been working your ass off!” he said, handing her a cold drink.
“Thanks.” Stacy had just come out of the water and she was dripping wet. “I can’t believe how much debris washed up. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“This is as bad as I’ve ever seen it,” Eli said. He looked at the stretch she had cleaned and at the giant pile she had made and was impressed.
Stacy chugged the drink and put the cup down beside her other things, then she pulled her shorts back on and picked up the gloves. “I wish I’d brought a towel,” she said, then she looked at Eli. “Can I use your shirt?”
“Sure.”
He took it off and handed it to her and Stacy dried her face and hands on the shirt and offered it back to him.
“You need to wear it. You’re getting burned.”
She put the shirt on and pulled on the gloves and got back to work with the rake. Eli watched her for a minute then grabbed a garbage bag and started stuffing the debris she had raked into the bag.
“Here, you can wear these,” she said. Stacy took off the gloves and tossed them over to Eli. “I’ll rake and you do the yucky stuff.”
Eli put the gloves on. “Gross, they’re all muggy inside.”
“I’ve been working hard,” she said defensively.
They worked together for the next two hours with Stacy raking and Eli scooping, and they had made excellent progress. Stacy was heading back after dumping a load of debris onto the big pile and Eli was watching her as she came towards him. She worked as hard as any guy he had ever known with no moaning or complaining. He knew she had to be exhausted. Eli was, and Stacy had been at it twice as long.
“I have to rest,” Stacy said finally. She leaned against Eli, “I’m dying,” she said dramatically.
He put his arm around her and laughed. “You must be. You work like a Trojan.”
“Let’s swim,” she said.
Eli watched Stacy strip off her shorts and shirt. She had a great body. Nice squared shoulders, a tiny waist, and legs that most women would kill for. He realized he was staring at her and he made himself look away. They walked down to the water and went out to where Stacy was shoulder deep.
“This is great,” she said, going under and getting her hair wet. “Do you have snorkeling equipment or scuba gear?”
“Everything,” Eli said. “Do you dive?”
“Yeah, but I haven’t for ages,” she said. “What a great place to do it.”
“It’s incredible,” Eli said, with excitement in his voice. “There’s a big coral reef on the other side of the island that’s worth checking out. It’s good for snorkeling, but it’s unbelievable for diving. There’s a network of caves you can explore, but you have to go pretty deep. Tell Niki to take you,” Eli suggested.
Stacy got a queasy feeling at the mention of his brother. She had not thought of Niki all morning while she was preoccupied with the clean up. That had been the whole point of the project and it had worked. Now she had butterflies all over again. She went under again and decided she was not coming back up until she got her shit together. She held her breath as long as she could and when she came back up Eli was gone. Stacy looked around but didn’t see him anywhere. She was turning in circles looking for him and was on the verge of panic, when he surfaced 30 feet away with a huge conch shell in his hands.
“Dammit Eli! You scared the shit out of me!” Stacy yelled at him. “I thought you had drowned.” Her heart was pounding.
“Sorry,” he said, remorseless. He swam back over to her. “Check it out,” he said, showing her the shell.
Her heart was still beating fast and she was too mad to appreciate the beauty of the shell. “I see it,” she said grumpily.
“You’re mad, aren’t you?” he laughed.
“Yes,” she said, embarrassed. “You really scared me.”
“I said I was sorry.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t mean it.” She mocked his tone, “Sorry.”
“Hey, that was good! You sounded just like me,” he said. “And it sounded very sincere to me,” he added, trying not to laugh.
“You’re such a jerk” They started walking back to shore. “I don’t think I can do any more manual labor today,” Stacy said. “The muscles in my shoulders and back are killing me.”
“Here hold this,” Eli said, handing her the conch. He put his hands on Stacy’s shoulders and dug his thumbs into the muscles of her back.
“Oh my God! That feels so good,” Stacy said. “ It hurts, but it’s a good hurt, you know?”
Eli rubbed her for a minute then tried to send her on her way, but she begged him not to stop, so he massaged her shoulders and neck until they got to shore.
“That’s it!” he said, throwing his hands in the air.
“That was wonderful,” Stacy said, making circles with her shoulders. “I just need that for about 30 minutes is all.”
“Tell Carlos you’re sore and he’ll give you a massage with some herbal stuff he makes,” Eli suggested.
“Really?” Stacy asked.
“Seriously.”
“Kick ass!” Stacy said, e
nthusiastically. Eli laughed at her. “I’m ready for lunch. Are you?” Stacy asked.
“I just ate a couple of hours ago. Your tacos were good, by the way,” he said. “I could probably eat again.”
Stacy gathered up her things and they went back up to the house.
Chapter 17
Niki and Jason had landed on a private airstrip in Honduras, just north of Puerto Lempira. A man named Sandoval had met them at the plane and was ushering them into the interior of the country, where they would pass the time until dark, then cross over into Nicaragua.
Nicaragua was a dangerous country, but Niki and Jason were not strangers to the land. They had many contacts from previous weapons dealings who knew the terrain and how to get in and out of the country by alternative routes; Sandoval was one of them. He was reminding Niki and Jason of the dangers presented by the proposed trip into Nicaragua.
“You realize that traveling after dark in Nicaragua is strongly discouraged because of the criminal element,” Sandoval said. “Robberies and kidnappings perpetrated by armed criminal factions are extremely common, especially in the remote north central region where we’re headed.”
“We’re aware of the dangers,” Niki said. The jeep they were riding in had doors but no windows and the air felt good on Niki’s face.
“Land mines are something else we need to consider if you want to travel off the main roads between Honduras and Nicaragua,” Sandoval said.
“I’ll let you decide which route to take. You know the land a lot better than we do,” Niki said.
Sandoval continued, “Many of the roads that were destroyed by the last hurricane have still not been rebuilt, so there are a lot of detours off the main road. That’s often when you run into trouble.”
Niki wasn’t worried about the road bandits that frequented Nicaragua’s streets at night. He and Jason had come heavily armed. What worried Niki was that he might not be able to locate his client if his client didn’t want to be located.
“What have you learned since I talked to you yesterday?” Niki asked.
“The man you are looking for lives in a big house up in the mountains. His real name is Marcos Ortega, no relation to Daniel Ortega, by the way, and I have to tell you Niki, he has a good reputation in the business,” Sandoval told him. “From what I hear, he’s a trustworthy criminal,” Sandoval said, then added, “not unlike yourself for that matter. I guess what I’m trying to say is, he’s never been known to double cross someone he works with.”
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