by Claire Adams
“I met her online. We hit it off, so I had her come out here. After I had been pummeled by Escabar’s goons, she had to go to the store and, apparently, met a woman who was nice to her. She called the woman Salina and the man Salvador. I thought it was pretty fishy, but I couldn’t convince her that those two weren’t her friends. She agreed to meet them to go bowling, and they took her to Escabar.”
“All right, Chase. I’m going to play devil’s advocate here for a minute. How well do you know Jordan? Is it possible that she is actually working for Escabar?” Captain Bastrop said.
“No! What? Absolutely not.”
“Chase, I’m just putting the dots together. You meet this girl online, and she convinces you to invite her over to the States. Within a week, she has you marrying her. She conveniently gets kidnapped by the man who has it out for you and from all stories I’ve heard, he doesn’t hurt her at all. In fact, he left her unharmed for you to pick up at his house. It’s a pretty wild story.”
His words sunk into me like a brick as I played the story out in my head. It wasn’t possible. I had picked Jordan from the online profiles. She hadn’t picked me. I was the one who invited her over, and I was the one who wanted to get married so I could get the company from my father. But the way he spun the story, the way he thought about Jordan, did make me questions things for a moment.
Was it possible that she was working for Escabar? She did seem to very willingly go to meet Salina and Salvador. For being so new to the country, it had struck me as odd that she would want to venture out on her own like that, especially after I had just been beaten so badly in my own home. My mind reeled with the thoughts that Captain Bastrop had put in my head.
“No, it’s not possible,” I said firmly as I tried to hide my uncertainty.
“All right, I was just putting it out there.”
“You don’t know her. She took care of me. She’s stood by me. We have a connection!” I screamed at him.
“Chase, it’s my job to question things. I wouldn’t be doing right by you if I didn’t ask the question.”
“She loves me,” I said quietly as I sat back down.
“Okay, let’s move on. How much do you owe Escabar? What were his terms for letting you live?”
“I owe him a quarter of a million dollars now, and his black book. But I doubt he’ll let me live even if I give him those things.”
Captain Bastrop wrote down the number I gave him. He didn’t seem very positive that I was going to get out of this whole thing in one piece. His face was glum as he looked back up at me. He seemed to be weighing a tough question.
“So, your father knows nothing about this?”
“Yeah, I couldn’t disappoint him. I thought I could handle things on my own. But it has gotten too out of control.”
“Your father is a good man, Chase. I bet if you asked him for the money, he would give it to you.”
“It’s not about the money anymore. Escabar is going to kill me for stealing his black book. There is no way around it. It doesn’t matter if I give the book and the money to him. I know him – I know he plans to kill me.”
“Okay, Chase. Let me talk things over with my boss, and we will get back to you,” Captain Bastrop said as he stood up and opened the door. “You’re free to go. We will get in touch with you.”
My mind swirled with what he was saying. He didn’t plan on protecting us – he wasn’t even offering to let us stay at the police station.
“Where are we supposed to go?”
“Well, somewhere out of sight would probably be a good idea.”
“He’ll find us and kill us. You can’t do anything to protect us?” I said as my anger started to rage inside of me.
“Chase, so far, all I have is a black notebook with writing in it. I don’t know if it’s Jose Escabar’s book. All I know is what you have told me. There are always at least three sides to a story.”
Captain Bastrop seemed unusually cruel in his words toward me. I wasn’t sure what exactly I had said that had pissed him off so much, but it certainly didn’t feel like he was on my side.
Maybe I had become paranoid. Perhaps his comments about Jordan had just put me on edge, and I was projecting those things back onto the Captain. I didn’t feel safe leaving the police station, that was for sure. Even if we had not been followed, it was highly likely we wouldn’t last past the end of the week. I couldn’t risk Jordan’s well-being like that.
“What do you need? I’ll help you get it. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep Jordan safe,” I begged him.
“We need him to admit to a few things. You see, Jose Escabar has been involved in a huge cartel operation for years. Drugs and money have passed through international borders and ended up here in Atlanta, all because of him and the people he works for. If you want us to keep you safe, you’ll need to wear a wire and come back to us with some real proof on tape.”
“What are you talking about, George? I can’t get that kind of information out of Escabar. He knows I have the book. He won’t confess anything like that around me. He’s not that stupid.”
“I’m sorry, then. I don’t think we can help you. At least, not right now. Come back if there’s an immediate threat against your life.”
Just like that, Captain Bastrop turned and walked down the hall.
“You can sleep for a bit in the bunk room if you’d like,” he said when he reached the end of the hall.
I was too angry to respond. I had finally gotten up the nerve to go to the police, and they weren’t going to offer us any kind of protection at all. In fact, just knowing that we had come to the police was enough to get us killed. Luckily, we were still driving the vehicle from my friend’s store, so I doubt Escabar’s men would be able to find us too quickly. But still, we had no money and no place to go.
My mind worked through all the possible scenarios. I just couldn’t think of one possible conclusion that ended with Jordan and I being safe. I had really done it. I had finally found some sort of stability in my life, and it was all going to be gone. I was going to be gone.
“Jordan,” I whispered as I opened the bunkroom door.
“Yeah, over here.”
I climbed into her bunk with her and just lay with her in my arms. I couldn’t find the strength to tell her what was going on yet. I didn’t want to ruin her night of sleep. Instead, I held her close to me and stroked her hair with my hand as she drifted back to sleep. It was the only thing that made sense for the moment. We were both so tired. We both needed sleep desperately and at least there, at the police station, we were safe.
The only thing left for me to do was get some sleep as well and hope that in the light of morning, I would have some sort of clear answer. Because, at that moment, I couldn’t think of a single thing that would save us from our situation. I couldn’t imagine how we would get through the next few days. Perhaps, we would have to take off and leave the country. Maybe if Escabar knew I had turned the black book over to the police, he would leave my family alone. Or maybe he would still hunt them down? I didn’t know.
Nothing about my future was known. Anything could happen.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jordan
As I woke up with Chase next to me, I felt like everything was going to be just fine. We had arrived at the police station and made the decision to let them help us. I finally had a sense of relief. Plus, sleeping in the employee bunkroom was probably the safest place in the city. Both Chase and I had slept well past nine o’clock in the morning, and it felt pretty fabulous.
When I started to wake up, so did Chase. But neither of us were in a hurry to get out of the tiny bed we shared. It was safe. We hadn’t had a safe night’s sleep in a very long time.
“I just want to stay here wrapped in your arms forever,” I whispered as he tightened his arms around me in a tight squeeze.
“Pretty amazing how good I slept last night. I really needed that.”
“Me too.”
I felt his
lips as they kissed the back of my neck. Not in a seductive way, but in a sweet, loving way. It was just what I needed. I really couldn’t wait to spend the rest of my life with Chase. Sure, we had rushed into the marriage, but we could spend the rest of our time getting to know each other better. We could grow old together.
“I have to ask you something and please don’t get mad,” he said.
“Sure, anything.”
“You’re not working for Escabar, are you?”
“What?” I said as I jerked myself away from him and stood up beside the bed. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m sorry. The Captain started questioning me yesterday and put doubts in my head. Like why you went with Salina and Salvador and why Escabar left you untouched when he had you kidnapped. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“You seriously think I am working with Escabar?” I said as I tried to control the anger that I felt building inside of me. “What do you think happened? Do you think Escabar hired me from Liechtenstein to seduce you? Do you think I somehow just waited for you to message me so I could trap you for him?”
I could hear my voice getting louder and louder as I talked, but I couldn’t stop myself. The anger and betrayal that I felt had overwhelmed me to the point that I couldn’t even stand to look at Chase.
“I’m sorry, Jordan. They got in my head. I knew it wasn’t true. I told them it wasn’t. But I just had to ask. I said I was sorry. We need to move on.”
I felt the tone in his voice change, similar to how it had when we first argued. He certainly wasn’t going to continue the conversation any further. Chase had decided he was done talking about it, so I was supposed to give up on the argument and just be done.
“Well, I don’t need this. I’m going to ask the Captain if he wants to talk to me directly. If he has concerns about me, he should ask me himself instead of going through you.”
I grabbed the door and swung it open, but Chase had flung himself out of bed and stood beside me. He held onto the doorknob and wouldn’t let me leave the room. I pushed hard against him, but he still refused to let me leave.
“You can’t go, I have something I need to tell you,” he said solemnly.
“Like what? You think I’m working for the mafia, too, or how about maybe I’m a Russian spy? What else is there?”
“They aren’t going to help us. Captain Bastrop said we don’t have enough information for them to go on. His only solution was for me to go meet with Jose and get him to confess while I was wired.”
“Are they stupid? Jose isn’t going to meet with you without searching you for a wire. Then, he’ll kill you right there if he finds one. Even I know that.”
“Exactly. So, basically, they aren’t going to help us.”
“What the hell? What kind of police department doesn’t help people when they need it? So, they just are all right with us getting murdered?”
“No, I’m sure they don’t want that for us. Captain Bastrop did suggest that we lay low for awhile and that I pay Escabar the money I owe him.”
“Laying low isn’t going to make Escabar forget about you stealing his black book. Wait – did they keep the black book?”
“Yes, they still have it.”
“You need to go get it back. You need to make them give it to you.”
“What do you want to do? I can’t just give it back to Escabar.”
I had to sit down. It was all too much. There we were, sitting in the police department, but unable to get any help from them. In fact, they had done absolutely nothing to keep us safe and planned to do nothing at all. My breathing started to become labored. I felt like I was going to pass out.
“Chase, we have to go to your father. Maybe if we give Escabar the money and continue to tell him we don’t have his book, he will let us go. Or at least pay him the money, and we can take off out of town or something.”
“Do you think if we pay him the money he won’t come after us? He knows it was me who took the black book, Jordan. He’ll come after me.”
“Okay, don’t get mad…” I said calmly, as I reached into my bag and pulled out an exact replica of the black book.
“What the hell is that?” Chase said as he grabbed it.
“It’s just a book that looks like Escabar’s. I got it when we were at the courthouse. Remember when I said I saw a huge spider?”
“Shit, that looks just like it.”
“I know. I had hoped to copy down the information in Escabar’s book onto this one. But I guess if they kept the book, we won’t be able to.”
“No, we can do it. I’ll ask them to see the book. It’s not theirs. I brought it in. We will copy the information over.”
“Chase, they aren’t going to give it to you. We need to think of a different plan.”
He just looked at me with worry in his eyes. Neither of us had a plan that seemed like it was capable of working. There just wasn’t any way we would get out of Escabar’s reach. He wanted us dead, and he wasn’t going to stop until it happened.
“I don’t know if this would work or really how it might work, but what if we turned Escabar’s boss against him?” I suggested.
It was something I had seen in one of the shows I watched. The police couldn’t get the local bad guy legally, but they could get his own people to turn on him and kill him. It was totally a shot in the dark, but at that point, we needed anything we could get in order to try and save our asses.
“So, you think we should go to Ramos, the drug cartel leader, and turn in Escabar? What exactly would we say in order to get him to go after Escabar?”
“I have no idea.”
Chase and I both laughed at the suggestion. Although I could tell he was thinking about it, just as I was. There would be a certain kind of irony in it, if Jose Escabar ended up getting killed by his own boss.
“I’ve got an idea, but I really don’t know if we can pull it off or not,” Chase said tentatively.
“What?”
“Well, what if we brought the fake black book to Ramos and told him that we overheard Escabar saying he was going to the feds and getting out of the business? Maybe we could fake some entries. I remember some of the names. We could just make the rest up. The key would be getting Ramos to believe that Escabar wanted out.”
“Wouldn’t they just let him out of the business?” I asked.
“No, not someone as high up as Jose Escabar. He’s in it for life. But I could say I had been working with him, maybe like Marco does. There is no way Ramos knows all of Escabar’s employees. I’ll just say I was concerned I was going to get turned into the feds. I was concerned that Escabar wanted to retire and would give us all up to the feds to get a cushy deal.”
Chase’s idea didn’t seem totally unreasonable. It was dangerous as hell, though. Neither of us knew this Ramos guy or how much he knew about Escabar and his operation in Atlanta. For all we knew, the two guys could be very close friends. If that were the case, we would both be killed the second we tried our plan.
“If we are going to do this, how the heck are we going to get hold of this Ramos guy? I’m sure his number isn’t listed in the yellow pages.” I laughed.
He stopped to think out his idea.
“Perhaps we could flip Marco? Or maybe we could get that friend of yours, Salina, to turn and give us the information?”
Just the mention of Salina made my skin crawl. I had thought she wanted to be my friend, and she was truly just a goon who worked for Escabar. The last thing in the world that I wanted to do was try to talk to her.
“I think Marco is just too close to Escabar. As much as I hate to admit it, a meeting with Salina would probably be best. If we could offer her some money for the information, I’m sure she would be much more willing.”
Money, it always came back to money. I knew that Chase didn’t have any money, and I certainly didn’t have much of it. But we needed to figure out something to get Salina interested in meeting with us, without Salvador.
“I’ve got ten thousand dollars stashed in my safe back at the house,” Chase said with a disappointed face. “Do you think that will convince her?”
“Yes, oh yes. That will convince her for sure.”
He paced around the room for a few minutes before he said anything else. I could tell he was thinking about all the possible solutions to our problem. Should we try and just pay off the loan? Should we run away? Whatever we did it seemed like there was a downside to every option. Personally, I felt the best solution was to go to Ramos, but I wanted to know what Chase thought was the best solution.
“Let’s do it,” he said as he slapped his hands together. “I think it can work.”
I jumped up and wrapped my arms around him. I knew it was the best solution. Going to Ramos wasn’t the safest solution, but it did offer us the surest way of getting out from under Escabar for good. If we could pull things off as we wanted to, Chase and I would be safe from being murdered, and that was the best possible outcome.
The warmth of Chase pressed up against my body instantly had me aroused. It wasn’t something I had planned. We were in the middle of a bunkroom at the police station. But the moment was filled with excitement. I looked at Chase while we remained wrapped in each other’s arms, and I could tell he felt the same thing I had felt.
“No, we can’t…” I whispered as I saw the devious look in his eyes.
“Why not? No one has come into this room all night long. They obviously aren’t going to come take a nap at ten o’clock in the morning. I think we are pretty much alone in here,” he said as he started to kiss my neck.
I felt his hand as it slipped up my shirt and he let his fingers grab hold of my nipple firmly. My back naturally arched against him and I did my best not to moan too loudly. It was a safe feeling to have his hands on my body. He made me feel safe, which was crazy considering the only reason I was in danger was because of him. But I could tell in his touch that he wanted to be there for me. I felt his passion and determination to be a good husband for me.
