by Rose, J. L
“Natalie, relax!” Dante told her. “First, I need you to tell me where Gomez at.”
“He’s driving.”
“Put ‘em on the phone, Natalie.”
Dante waited a few moments, hearing the engine to whatever car they were in, before he heard Gomez’s Spanish accent say, “Yeah!”
“Gomez, this Dante! Where are you? I need to know where you are if I’m going to help.”
* * *
Gomez hung up after telling Dante where he would meet him. He had given him directions to an empty shopping mall parking lot, after Dante requested he go to an open area. Gomez tossed the phone back to Natalie as she asked, “What’s going on, Gomez? What did Dante say? Is my father sending help?”
“That’s what Dante told me,” Gomez answered, ignoring the questions she kept shooting at him.
Glancing into the rear-view mirror and seeing both SUVs right behind him, Gomez pressed down harder on the gas, feeling the BMW pick up speed as they pulled away a bit from the SUV pursuing them.
He arrived in the shopping center’s parking lot where there were still a number of parked cars. Gomez kept driving and went past the lot, as he yelled back to Natalie to call Dante back.
“He’s not answering!” she yelled. She then screamed upon hearing the loud blowout sound and seeing Gomez trying to handle the car that was now out of control.
“Hang on!” Gomez yelled, as he pulled the BMW into a hard right, swinging it down a side street beside a gas station, only to slam into a light pole causing the air bags to deploy.
Fighting to get out of the BMW, Natalie fell out of the car just as both SUVs swung down the street behind them. Natalie screamed as Gomez staggered around the front of the car up to her.
“Come on, Natalie!” Gomez said, grabbing her arm.
“Jonathan!” Natalie said, pulling away from Gomez and rushing back to the BMW.
“Natalie, we need to . . . “
Gomez ducked at hearing the canon-like sounds. He looked up for a second and stared in confusion before he realized he was watching Dante calmly and carelessly walking away from a pearl-white Porsche with both his guns in his hands. He was firing at the seven gunmen. He continued to watch as two guns and then another one dropped to the ground.
Gomez reloaded, jumped up, and yelled at Natalie to stay with the car. Gomez opened fire at the gunmen and saw the last four of them rushing to climb back into their SUV. One of them grabbed his side and fell down.
Watching the SUV speed off, Gomez rushed up to Dante as he stood over the one gunman holding his side and moaning in pain. He asked, “Where the fuck you come from, man?”
“I saw you when the BMW swung out of control down the street,” Dante answered, as he stood staring down at the bleeding gunman. “Go get Natalie and get inside the SUV they left.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’ma be right behind you,” Dante told him, as he was squatting down beside the bleeding gunman.
Chapter 9
“Dominic, I’m worried!” Carmen told her husband, as she walked back and forth in front of her husband’s desk, while he sat behind it quietly drinking a glass of brandy. “We’ve been waiting for almost three hours since we got back here. Where are they?”
In Spanish, Dominic told his wife that she needed to calm down and expressed that he was waiting to hear from them just as much as she was.
“But it’s been . . .” Carmen stopped short hearing the knocking on her husband’s office door.
“Come in!” Dominic yelled out.
“Mr. Saldana, sir!” Carlos said, as he stuck his head inside the office. “Dante’s out front, sir, and he has both Natalie and Jonathan with him. Gomez is also with them, sir.”
“Thank God!” Dominic said, just as his wife took off from the office.
Dominic left his office and followed his wife. Upon reaching the front door to their home, he saw his wife and daughter embrace. Dominic shifted his eyes out to where both Dante and Gomez were talking with Carlos, while standing next to a pearl-white Porsche with an SUV parked behind it.
“Daddy, you should have seen Dante,” Natalie told her father, raising her head to look up at him. “He was really amazing when he showed up to help us.”
“Was he now?” Dominic asked, as he held his daughter. He saw Carmen walk up the walkway with her arms wrapped around Dante’s waist.
“I hear you were really amazing, Dante,” Dominic told him, holding his bodyguard’s eyes.
“I was just doing my job,” Dante replied.
Gomez then walked up and said, “Mr. Saldana, sir. I don’t know where you’ve found this guy but what I saw him do tonight was unbelievable. It’s like he just appeared out of nowhere and was…I don’t know how to explain it, sir.”
Nodding his head, Dominic looked back at Dante as Carmen laid her head on his chest and hugged him.
Dominic said to his bodyguard, “I won’t forget this, Dante. I am grateful to you for bringing my daughter back to us.”
“Just doing my job,” Dante answered again, but then added, “And just so you’re aware. We don’t just have Victor Fayman to deal with. We also have to deal with the same guy we’ve talked about before. Stevens!”
“How do you know it was Stevens?” Dominic asked, balling up his face as he stared hard at Dante.
“Come on, Natalie,” Carmen spoke up. “Let’s go and make sure Jonathan is doing alright.”
“Natalie looked back to Dante as she followed alongside her mother. She watched Dante speaking with her father, as both Carlos and Gomez stood by. Natalie then caught Dante’s eyes and smiled after receiving a quick wink of the eye he shot her before focusing back on her father.
After listening to Dante tell him about the dying gunman’s confession, Dominic spoke up once Dante had finished: “I want Stevens taken care of. I have $200,000 for you once he is dead.”
Nodding his head, Dante replied, “Just give me the information on him and I’ll take care of ‘em.”
* * *
“Natalie! Mrs. Saldana!” Jonathan said as soon as both mother and daughter walked into the sitting room. He stood up from the sofa he was relaxing on. “Is everything . . .?”
“Everything is fine, Jonathan!” Carmen told him, holding up her hand for Jonathan to relax. “Dante has taken care of everything.”
“Dante?” Jonathan repeated, staring at Carmen and then Natalie with a confused look on his face.
“I will let my daughter explain who Dante is, Jonathan,” Carmen told him, before turning to Natalie and saying, “I’ll make the call to Jonathan’s parents. I’ll leave you to talk with Jonathan.”
Nodding her head in understanding, Natalie stood watching her mother walk away before she slowly turned and faced Jonathan, as he asked, “Natalie, what the hell happened back there? Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, Jonathan,” Natalie replied, looking down as Jonathan took her hands into his. She looked up to meet his eyes again, saying after a moment, “Jonathan, look! There is something I need to tell you.”
“Wait!” Jonathan spoke up. “Let me go first. There’s something I need to tell you before you say anything. First, I need you to know that I love you, Natalie. After what happened tonight, I’m sure that I can’t see myself living without you and I want to ask you to marry me.”
“What?” Natalie cried in disbelief, just as Jonathan kissed her directly on the lips.
“I’ll give you two sometime alone,” Dante’s voice said, as Natalie pulled away from Jonathan and swung around to see Dante turning and walking away.
“Dante, wait!” Natalie cried, jumping up from beside Jonathan who then grabbed her hand and pulled her back down beside him.
“Natalie, did you just hear what I said? “ Jonathan asked her smiling. “I want you to marry me.”
Shaking her head, Natalie pulled her hands away from Jonathan and said, “Jonathan, I’m sorry. I can’t marry you. I’m interested in someone else. And to be
truthful with you, I think it’s best if we stop seeing each other. I’m sorry!”
Jumping up from beside Jonathan, Natalie ran off to look for Dante, leaving Jonathan staring after her with a hurt and confused expression on his face.
* * *
At his new place standing out back next to the pool, Dante stood listening to the line ringing as he returned Vanessa’s call.
“Hello!”
“Nessa! This Dante.”
“Hey, big bruh! What’s up?”
“Nothing really. You hit me up earlier. What’s up?”
“I was calling from Angela’s house. She been waiting for you to call. She keep saying she wants to talk to you about something.”
“What she say it’s about?”
“Something about what you and her talked about before you left. What’s going on with you, though? How you like it there?”
Hearing his name from back inside the house, Dante started walking into the guesthouse. He told Vanessa to hold on as he stepped inside the patio’s back entrance door, just as Natalie came rushing at him.
“Dante, I need to talk to you,” Natalie told him in a rush, stopping in front of him and staring at him.
“Natalie, what’s up? What’s happened?”
“It’s not that, Dante. I need to talk to you about something personal between me and you.”
“What?” Dante said confused. “What you talking about, Natalie?”
“Dante, I know we only just met but I want us to get to know each other. I’m attracted to you and really want us to give things a chance between us.”
“Whoa!” Dante said surprised. “Natalie, I work for your father and . . .”
“Dante, listen!” Natalie cut him off. “I don’t care who you work for, whether it be my father or the governor. I want what I want, and it’s you I want. Are you going to give me what I want?”
Dante watched Natalie walk away without waiting for a response. She didn’t even look back at him as she walked out the front door. Dante shook his head as he walked back outside onto the patio.
“Shit just keeps getting crazy,” Dante said to himself. Then he remembered he was still on the phone with Vanessa. “Nessa! You still there?”
“Mhm!” Vanessa answered, “I’m still here. And I see you still got the girl’s going crazy even in Arizona.”
“It ain’t even like that.”
“Who was that?”
“That was the daughter of the dude I work for.”
“She sounded like she was serious just now, Dante. What’s wrong with her?”
“Didn’t I just tell ya she’s the daughter of the nigga I work for, Vanessa?” Dante asked. “How that looks, me kicking it with this dude’s daughter?’
“What’s wrong with it?” Vanessa asked. “From what I just heard that girl tell you, you’re her man whether you know it or not.”
“Whatever!” Dante said. “Go head and give Angela my number.”
“Alright,” Vanessa answered. “You should see D.J., Dante. You know his ass walking a little now and stay his ass in something. Mya just as bad, but she talking a lot better than D.J. is.”
Smiling at the mention of his kids, Dante heard himself asking about Alinna.
“Alinna is doing Alinna, Dante,” Vanessa told him
Understanding fully what Vanessa was telling him, Dante changed the conversation by announcing, “Dre and Tony T should be there soon.”
“They should be here sometime tomorrow.”
“Make sure Dre hit me up when he touch down and make sure you get Angela my number to call me, alright?”
“I got it, big bruh!” Vanessa answered. “I love you, Dante! Be safe out there, alright?”
“You too, Vanessa. I love you, too, lil sis!”
Chapter 10
Dante heard his cell phone go off as he stood outside the front of the mansion beside his Benz, waiting for both Carmen and Natalie to come out so they could leave for the fundraising event Natalie had mentioned three days before. He pulled out the phone and was surprised to see Angela was on the other end.
“You finally got around to calling me, huh?” Dante asked, answering the call from Angela.
“It almost sounds like you miss me, Dante.”
“You would like that, wouldn’t you?”
“I would love to see you, Papi,” she told him. “I miss you, Dante!”
“Yeah, I miss you too, Angela. But what’s up? You said you needed to talk to me about something,” Dante questioned, as he looked back at the front door. Hearing it open, he saw Carmen and then Natalie walk out the door of the mansion.
Unable to help but notice how different Carmen looked in jeans and dressed more laid back, Dante shifted his eyes over at Natalie.
“Damn!” Dante said without thinking. Natalie’s body was 5’3”, slim but curvy, and 34C-24-34. She was wearing fitted jeans that hugged her curves perfectly and a Dolce and Gabbana shirt that showed the full print and outline of her perky 34C breasts.
Dante!”
Hearing his name and remembering Angela was on the phone, Dante opened the back door to the Benz as Carmen walked up smiling at him. “Yeah, Angela, I’m here!”
“Are you busy?”
“Naw! I’m listening to you,” Dante answered, looking back to Natalie as she moved up behind him to the passenger front door.
Shaking his head as he closed the back door behind Carmen, Dante turned to see Natalie was already inside the car. He walked around to the driver side.
“I hear you, Angela,” Dante said again. As he was closing the driver’s door, he heard Angela calling out to him again.
“Dante, what are you doing?” Angela asked him sounding somewhat upset.
“Angela! Just talk, all right! I’m listening to you.”
Sucking her teeth, Angela said, “Anyways, do you remember when we last spoke about Captain Whitehead’s son that was with the D.E.A.?”
“I’m listening.”
“Well, I just found out from the Chief of Police that the D.E.A. has been on the case for a little more than almost a month from the week you left.”
“What all you have on this guy?”
“I have enough.”
“Hold on, Angela,” Dante told her. He then looked from the road to the rear view mirror asking, “Carmen, do you or Dominic have a fax machine?”
“Of course, Dante,” Carmen answered. “Would you like the fax number?”
“If it’s okay?” Dante replied.
Dante listened as Carmen gave him the number, which he then relayed to Angela, explaining that he wanted her to fax the information to him about who the undercover D.E.A. guy was.
“It’ll take me a little while to get everything and fax it to you, but once I get it, I’ll send it all to you,” Angela told Dante.
Thanking Angela, Dante asked her to call him back later explaining that he was in the middle of something.
“Who was that?” Natalie asked as soon as he hung up.
“A friend of mine from back home in Miami,” Dante told Natalie. “She’s a captain for the Miami-Dade Police Department.”
“Is that the same captain you’ve told me about, Dante?” Carmen spoke up from the back seat.
Meeting Carmen’s eyes for a moment, Dante refocused on the road again before saying, “Yeah! She’s the same captain.”
“Well, anyways,” Natalie said, as she reached over taking Dante’s right hand from the steering wheel in her left hand and intertwining their fingers. She then placed their hands in her lap and continued, “My best friend is going to be at the event today and she wants to meet my new boyfriend.”
Cutting his eyes first to Natalie who was smiling at him, Dante shifted his eyes to the rearview mirror to find Carmen staring out the back seat window while showing a small smile on her lip.
* * *
Once they arrived at the banquet hall, they left the Benz with a valet. Dante allowed Natalie to hold his hand as he kept his eyes on Carmen w
hile she smiled and spoke to other guests who were arriving.
Dante followed the women into the building where an even larger group stood. He was surprised to see them all playing fair and various competitive games. Dante followed Carmen as she fell in with a group of women, only for Natalie to pull him back over beside her and say, “Momma is fine, Dante. If she needs you, you will know.”
Dante looked back at where Carmen was and saw that she was laughing and enjoying time with her group of women. Dante then allowed Natalie to lead him off further into the huge room while still making sure he could keep an eye on Carmen.
Two minutes later, Natalie released Dante’s hand. He watched as she rushed over to hug a dark-skinned, Spanish female. Dante turned his attention back across the floor, spotting Carmen talking with a middle-aged white man.
“Dante!”
Looking back around after hearing his name, he met both Natalie and the female as they walked up to him smiling.
“Dante, this is my best friend, Mari Elysse.”
“It’s good to meet you, Mari,” Dante said, as he shook her hand.
“Natalie, he is too gorgeous. I’m going to scream at how sexy he is. I’m jealous,” Mari spit at Natalie in Spanish. But then in perfect English she said to Dante, “It’s good meeting you, too, Dante. Natalie has not stopped telling me about you since the two of you met.”
Smiling a smirk-like smile, Dante spoke in near perfect Spanish, “I’ve heard some about you as well, but I hope to get to know more about you…and thanks for the complement. You’re really cute yourself.”
With her mouth wide open in shock and embarrassment, Mari turned to a laughing Natalie and said, “Why didn’t you tell me he could understand and speak Spanish, Natalie?”
“I didn’t realize that you would try to talk about him in Spanish!” Natalie said. She continued laughing as she stepped beside Dante and wrapped her arms around his waist.
Rolling her eyes at Natalie, Mari looked back to Dante and said, “Dante, I’m asking you this now. Would you mind signing up for the all-male bidding that the women are having here? There are going to be at least 25 men that the women will have to choose from. They will be bidding on which man they want to dance with and have one kiss with.”
