The Cartel Strikes Back: The Ted Higuera Series, Book 5

by Pendelton Wallace

  “It is my pleasure to announce,” Jorge continued, “our celebrity chefs this year are John Roberts and Eva Sorensen.”

  John was one of Seattle’s top chefs. He owned half a dozen well-reviewed restaurants, each with a different theme.

  Eva owned a small restaurant on Capitol Hill and a much more famous eatery in an old farm house in the country where the menu consisted of whatever was in season on the farm.

  “I heard you had a new beau,” Alison said. “I was anxious to meet him tonight.”

  “Harvey used to be Chris’s boss. I don’t know what went south between them, I don’t want to get in the middle of that, but I thought it best not to bring him. After all, this is Hope’s party and she and Chris are inseparable.”

  ****

  The man sat on the masseuse’s table with his feet crossed, dangling below him, his cock and balls hanging freely off the edge of the table.

  “The bra.”

  The girl, tears streaming down her face, reluctantly unhooked her plain white bra and dropped it to the floor.

  “I don’t know why you even bother,” the man said. “It’s not like you have anything to hold up.”

  He grinned and reached for her nipples. She was as flat chested as a twelve-year-old boy. Her smooth skin was interrupted only by slightly raised, but large, dark nipples.

  She covered her chest with her arms. A bruise was starting to show on the right side of her face. That made his heart beat all that much faster.

  “Now the panties.”

  Lin dropped her white cotton panties to the floor and kicked them away, revealing her unshaven black pubic hair.

  Not bad, he smiled. Can’t say that I like all the shaving and grooming women are doing these days, but a little trimming wouldn’t hurt.

  She stood in front of him with head bowed, sobbing, in a position of total supplication.

  “You see how easy it is when you put your mind to it.” The man’s face broke out into a full-fledged grin. “Now come here and suck me off.” He spread his legs wide and grabbed her hair, pushing her head into his crotch.

  She barely touched her lips to his cock.

  “Come on, you slant-eyed slut. Take it.”

  He pushed deep into her throat. She gagged. He held her head hard to his crotch. She mumbled, then tried to scream. He could see the fear in her eyes.

  She thinks she’s going to suffocate. Well, maybe she is.

  His cock felt like it was ready to explode. He pushed her away, grabbed her waist and lifted her to the table. “Now, let’s see how fuckable you are.”

  She screamed. He put his hand over her mouth. She kicked at him and gouged her fingernails into his back. He hit her again, hard.

  She stiffened. He pushed his way into her. She was dry as a witch’s tit.

  She continued to scream and fight.

  God damn it, someone’s going to hear.

  He grabbed her by the neck. The sounds muted to a frantic gurgling sound. Her struggling lessened. He felt himself floating above his body, watching his ass twitch as he thrust into her again and again.

  Her eyes clouded over and her fighting stopped.

  “No!” He wasn’t done with her yet.

  He released his grip and she blew out a breath and sucked in life-giving oxygen.

  “Well, that was fun now, wasn’t it?” He marveled at how little she was, how picture perfect. “Let’s try it again.”

  He clamped his hands down on her throat.

  She grabbed his wrists and tried to pull him away. It was no use; he was much larger and stronger than she.

  His whole body was tingling. He’d never felt anything like it. His toes curled and the soles of his feet vibrated. He felt the power of life and death surge through his hands. He was God. He was all-powerful.

  Her eyes glazed over again. Her struggling lessened.

  He was so close. He was going to come at any moment. Then it exploded in his groin. He felt himself let go. In his mind’s eye, he saw the semen explode from his dick. A charge of electricity flowed throughout his body. He felt a tingling in his brain. He thought his dick and balls were on fire.

  It had never felt like this. Even when he thought he was in love, he’d never had an orgasm like this.

  For a brief moment, he saw the world in a clarity he had never before experienced. His brain operated at warp speed, yet everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.

  This tiny girl, this Lin, must be the key. There must be something special about her.

  He looked down at her and realized his hands were wrapped around her neck. Her tongue slipped out of one side of her mouth. Her eyes were glazed over, unseeing.

  He jerked his hands away and jumped off of her.

  Good God! What have I done?

  She lay lifeless on the table.

  No, this is a mistake. I never meant to hurt her. What do I do now?

  But his newly clear mind found the solution. He pushed the table off of the rug, picked up her nearly weightless body and dumped it on the rug. He rolled up the rug and got dressed.

  Throwing the rug over his shoulder, he unlocked the door and looked around. No one was in the hallway. At the end of the hall, he saw an “exit” sign.

  He carried Lin though the door into a back alley. The alley met the street almost where his rental car was parked. He pushed the button on the key-fob and the trunk opened. The man shoved the carpet into the trunk, closed the lid, climbed into the car and drove off.

  ****

  Excited electricity ran through the crowd. Hushed whispers, then silence. Word was passed back from the deck.

  “They’re here.”

  Catrina pushed her way to the rail. A blue Subaru Outback pulled into the parking lot and stopped in a handicapped space. They couldn’t have driven Ted or Chris’s cars, they were both two-seaters.

  The front doors opened and Ted and Chris piled out. Ted opened the back door for his sister while Chris went to the back of the car and removed a wheel chair.

  I’m glad she can get out. She was shot up pretty badly.

  Only the fact that Hope was shot in front of the police station with an aid car standing by saved her life. It had not been enough for La Paz’s police chief. Catrina got off untouched and carried the guilt around with her like a lead weight in her soul.

  The lights in the restaurant dimmed. People held their breath. An expectant silence hovered over the room.

  Chris opened the door. Behind him, Ted pushed Hope’s wheel chair. As Hope entered the room, everyone jumped to their feet, started clapping and cheering loudly.

  Chris stood at her side and held her hand. Catrina could not have picked a more unlikely couple. Hope was miniscule. At five foot one and a quarter (the quarter was very important to her), she came up to Chris’s chest.

  He was tall, blonde haired, blue eyed and looked like some kind of Nordic god.

  I wonder why they didn’t recruit him to play Thor in the movie Catrina mused.

  He had massively broad shoulders, but a trim waist and hips. At six-foot two, she had to look up at him even when she wore her favorite boots with three inch heels.

  Hope looked like the poster-girl for Travel Mexico. With shiny black hair cascading to her waist, light-brown skin and deep brown almond shaped eyes, she could be Mexican Girl 1 from Central Casting. Her body wasn’t bad either, Catrina had to admit. Despite being so short, everything was just where it was supposed to be.

  Hope wore a white pants suit with turquoise and silver ear rings and necklace. She had a stylish gaucho hat on her head that she ripped off and tossed into the crowd.

  “Ole,” shouted the crowd, like she was a matador that had just killed the bull.

  “Speech, speech,” one of the football players shouted.

  Soon the whole crowd was yelling “Speech.”

  Hope steadied herself on Chris’s hand and rose to her feet. Everyone went silent.

  “Thank you all. Thank you so much for being here. I c
an’t tell you how much this means to me.” She wiped a tear from her eye. “I’m so proud that you call came to see me, but tonight we have something bigger to celebrate.”

  She took a few hesitant steps towards the bar, Chris beside her ready to catch her if she fell.

  “Tonight we celebrate a birthday. Yes, it’s July Fourth, the birthday of our great country, but it’s also a very special birthday for one of our family.”

  She reached the bar and grabbed a rope leading up to a folded banner over the bar. She pulled on the rope and the banner fell into place.

  Catrina heard Ted gasp.

  The banner read HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY, TED.”

  “My big brother, Eduardo, hits the big three-oh today. Let’s all join in on a big happy birthday.”

  Cries of happy birthday and felice cumpleaños filled the bar.

  Ted raised his head, waved to everyone. “Thank you, thank you all.” He sniffed. “I guess there comes a time when a man has to grow up. I’m just damn glad that for me, it isn’t today.”

  Cheering and laughter broke out again.

  The mariachi band struck up Las Mañanitas, the Mexican birthday song, as Ted moved to the bar amid a gauntlet of shoulder pats and shaken hands.

  The dark-eyed bar tender gave Ted the once over. “The usual?” she asked.

  Ted nodded.

  Catrina watched with interest as the busty bartender leaned over the bar just a little too long, to give Ted a good look at her goods.

  I don’t think I’ve seen him smile since we got back from Mexico. Maybe a good lay is just what he needs.

  The bartender placed the glass, shaped like an upside down sombrero on a stem, in front of Ted. She kept her hand on the stem a little too long so that when he reached for it they made contact.

  “I hear that you’re single again,” the brown haired beauty said.

  Catrina’s interested turned back to the front door. A tall, black haired woman with stunning emerald colored eyes entered the bar with a twelve-year-old girl at her side.

  “Candace,” Catrina yelled, and waved her hand. “Over here.”

  The woman and girl made their way through the throng towards Catrina.

  She opened her arms and hugged the dark-haired woman as if she were afraid that she’d lose her if she let go.

  “Auntie Cat,” the girl said and threw her arms around Catrina’s waist.

  Candace Hardwick was Chris’s step mother. Chris and his sister, Sarah, hated her in the beginning, but had finally accepted her as family. Candace and Chris’s dad, Harry, adopted Kayla shortly before Harry’s fatal heart attack.

  “Candace, I haven’t seen you in ages.” Catrina held her friend off at arm’s length. Candace was one of the few women who Catrina had to look up to.

  “I’m sorry. We’ve been so busy, setting up the new firm and all.”

  Candace and Chris were pressured out of Harry’s firm after his death and opened their own boutique firm in Pioneer Square.

  “Ted tells me that Chris is working night and day on Carlito’s case.”

  Ted’s little brother had been arrested for a gangland murder while they were in Mexico rescuing Ted’s fiancée, Maria.

  “How’s that going?”

  The corners of Candace’s lips curled. “You’ll have to ask Chris. He’s playing his cards a little close to the vest on this one.”

  “When are you getting your new car, Aunt Cat?” Kayla asked.

  “It should be here soon.”

  Catrina’s batmobile, a Ford Explorer specially built for her by the same company that builds presidential limousines was blown up in the fight with the drug cartels.

  “I want the first ride in it.”

  Catrina hugged the girl to her chest. “My, you’ve grown every time I see you.”

  Cartrina stepped back and looked at her young friend. Her hips were widening and developing that feminine curve. She could see tiny breast starting to poke into her silk blouse.

  “You’re becoming a woman now. I can’t believe it.”

  The band struck up Guadalajara and Catrina turned to see Ted sitting by himself at the bar. Why so glum? This was his party.

  “You’ll have to excuse me a moment. I think I need to go cheer up Mr. Grumpy Pants.”

  “We’ll go with you,” Candace said.

  “No.” Catrina held up her hand, palm out. “I think this is one I need to handle by myself.”

  She worked her way towards Ted. He was always a good looking man. Twenty years her junior, she had always still been attracted to him.

  His wavy black hair, the one lock that always fell over his left eye, the twinkle of his dark eyes, what’s not to like? He was built like Atlas, even though he was an inch shorter than her.

  But the age difference. Catrina had once placed her best Sunday-punch kiss on him. She knew it blew his mind, but it was a goodbye kiss. Ted was leaving her employ and moving back to East L.A. to help his father run his restaurant. On that night she would have like to ripped his clothes off and had her way with him, but the timing just wasn’t right.

  It was never right. First Ted was madly in love with a woman named Gina, then Catrina had her years-long off and on again affair with Sergeant Tom Bremen of the Seattle PD’s homicide squad.

  When Tom gave her the ultimatum, marry him or leave, Ted had proposed to Maria. Now that Maria had dumped Ted in Mexico, Catrina was involved with Harvey.

  “Hey, cowboy, buy a girl a drink?” Catrina sat at the stool next to Ted.

  “Hi Cat. I didn’t see you when I came in.” He turned to his newly acquired best friend. “Toni, can you get Cat a Perrier, please?”

  Catrina looked at the bar tender’s jealous eyes. “She’s got the hots for you, you know, Higuera. I don’t think you’re going home alone tonight.”

  Ted took a sip from his drink. “Not interested. I know I have to be here for the party and all, but I’d just rather be at home.”

  “Alone, drowning your sorrows?”

  “What I do on my own time is my business.”

  Toni arrived with Catrina’s water and slammed it down a little hard.

  Catrina looked for the bartender’s nametag, hidden somewhere under those mountains of jiggling flesh. Or are they silicon? Look store bought to me.

  “Toni, could you bring us an order of carnitas, please?”

  “Sure, carnitas.” Toni turned and went to her terminal to punch in the order.

  “You know she’s not coming back, Ted.” Catrina dipped a tortilla chip in the fresh salsa and popped it in her mouth. “You can carry your torch as long as you want, but it won’t make any difference. You’ll never see her again.”

  “Don’t say that. You don’t know.”

  Catrina put her arm around Ted’s shoulders. “But I do know. She crossed the line. She can never come back. She can never have her old life back. Ted,” she leaned over and kissed his forehead, “You have to move on. Get on with your life, drive our business, spend time with your friends, meet a new girl. She isn’t the only one for you.”

  ****

  Flashing blue lights lit the early morning darkness. Detective Sergeant Tom Bremen saw the alley was already blocked off with police tape.

  He pulled his Ford F-150 pickup to the curb outside the alley in the SODO district and parked in a no parking zone. He left his police issued car at the station last night and hadn’t bothered to stop by the office on his way to the crime scene.

  “Hey, buddy,” a uniformed officer called to him. “You can’t park there.”

  Tom held up his badge. “Bremen, homicide.”

  “Sorry, Sarge, didn’t recognize your car.”

  Tom stopped and took in the scene. The group of police was gathered around a dumpster behind a barbeque joint just off First Avenue. The streets were quiet, a steady drizzle pounded against the pavement. Street lights reflected off of the puddles.

  The officer lifted the crime scene tape and Bremen ducked under it. It always seemed to rai
n right up to the Fourth of July. It should start drying out after today.

  “What we got Marty?” Tom asked his younger partner, as he pulled on a pair of surgical gloves.

  The smaller man with a brown military hair cut was squatting down over the body. “It’s a body dump. Asian female, young, maybe late teens, no more than twenty. Looks like she was strangled and dumped in this rug.”

  Tom looked down at the tiny nude body. “This is definitely not the crime scene.” She looked like a China doll. “Looks very young to me.” He squatted down next to Marty and used an ink pin to move her chin. “We’ll have to wait to hear what the corner says, but I’d say strangulation. Looks like finger marks on her neck.”

  “Obviously no ID on the body,” Marty said. He stood up and shook his head.

  “Probably an illegal immigrant,” Tom said.

  “I’m guessing you’re right,” Marty replied. “We’ll never solve this case. No one in the Asian community will talk with us.”

  That didn’t go well with Tom. Although his squad had a higher closure rate than the Seattle PD’s over-all eighty percent, he was never satisfied with less than one hundred percent.

  Everybody deserves justice.

  “Let’s get her covered up,” Tom said, “until the Doc says we can move her.”

  Tom took a small Mag-light from his pocket and scanned the scene. “The crime scene boys aren’t gonna find much here.” He stooped down again to look at the rug. “Looks expensive, but well used.”

  “What do you have for me, Sarge?” a small, elegantly dressed Asian man asked.

  “Looks like strangulation to me, Doc. Definitely homicide.”

  “You’re getting ahead of yourself, sergeant.” The doctor squatted down by the body and opened his bag. “It’s not homicide until I say it’s homicide.”

  “Sorry, Doc,” Marty said. “But I’m sure you won’t mind if we start poking around like it’s a homicide.”

  The doctor made a cursory examination of the body, then stood up.

  “Can you tell us anything yet?’ Tom asked.