by E. C. Towers
“I don't love him anymore, Linda,” Dalila confessed. “Did you love him? Before everything got...you know...?”
“That's a tough question because, on one hand, I wouldn't have put up with all his shit had I not loved him. But I was young and fell in love with the Derek he showed me in the beginning, not with the Derek he ended up being. I still don't know which Derek is real, so it's hard to say if I was ever really in love with him or the mere idea of him.”
Dalila nodded with the understanding of a woman who had felt the same way at some point.
“I have to tell him. I just don't think I can continue living this way. I never go out, and when I do, I have to go out with his associates’ wives because they're all suspicious of strangers. I have nothing in common with those women. They enjoy being kept. They enjoy the notoriety of being a cartel wife. I hate it. I'm more than this. I wasn't even supposed to fall in lo...” she stopped herself suddenly, unable to go on.
Dalila's once strong facade fell away, and Linda saw the vulnerable and lost woman within. She suddenly felt very protective of her, wanting to make this all better for her somehow. Linda embraced her, their warm bodies pressed against each other. She felt Dalila bury herself into the crook of her neck and the light touch of her tears on her shoulder.
They both jumped up quickly when they heard the squeak of the gate opening. Dalila got dressed quickly.
“What are you going to tell him?” Linda asked.
“I don't know. Nothing? Everything? I'll just wing it.”
She quickly put on her panties, slipping her robe over her shoulders. Before Linda could say anything more, Dalila gave her a quick kiss and headed out the door.
Derek had been plagued all day with what was going on between him and Dalila. He wanted to know but didn’t' want to know, and now that he was home, he was slightly relieved that Dalila didn't seem to be there. She's probably with Linda. Good, he thought. He needed a drink to unwind before he had to hear whatever it was she had to tell him.
But shortly after getting behind the bar, the door opened and there she was. So much for that drink, he smiled.
“Over at Linda's, again? Are you talking about what you need to tell me?”
She clutched at her robe, trying to find the strap but couldn't and just held it closed. Dalila didn't bother answering his question. She was entirely too busy trying to form the right words to say to him in her head, and all seemed as if they would completely light his fuse. But she had a dreadful feeling that no matter how pretty she made this sound, he was going to hate it.
14
The Color Of Truth
Linda hadn't moved from the couch, partly because she was still relishing in Dalila's scent; a hint of coconut intermixed with her sweat. Although, it was evening, the humidity remained thick, and it her fragrance suspended in the air, taunting Linda and clouded her logic.
She should just leave. Right now, like she had planned in her head before Dalila walked in and suddenly complicated things. Linda eyeballed the passkey Derek had given her to his shipyard. If Linda just left right now, she was almost positive someone at the dock would inform Derek, and he would come running to demand an explanation. That's just how he was. He did not like being kept out of the loop or not having a say in her decisions, even though they had broken up over a decade ago.
But if she left now while he was talking with Dalila, there was a chance he would ignore his cell phone in the distraction. She would have time to find the boat, have the crew set off, and be gone by the time he received the message.
It was the perfect plan but what about Dalila? She did not want to leave her here with Derek. Although she claimed to know Derek inside and out, Dalila's belief that discussing her betrayal was a good idea hinted rather loudly that she might not know him that well after all. Linda was positive she would lose any conversation with him, and she didn't want to leave Dalila stranded. If she was honest with herself, she didn't want to leave Dalila.
* * *
Derek clenched his jaw, making his face appear bigger, more menacing. Dalila stood her ground. It was too late to go back now, she told him.
“So, that's it? Are you leaving now? You're done.”
“Yes.”
“And what? I have no say?”
“No, you have no say.”
“You know, D, I'm not blind. I know you've been… well, not yourself for the past few months, but whatever it is, we can work it out.”
“You've noticed I've been 'not myself' for the last few months, but then why didn't you ask me how I was? Why don't you ever ask me anything? If you care so much about me and our marriage, then why didn't you say anything when you saw that I was having problems.”
She shook her head in disbelief when Derek met her question with silence instead of a response.
“This house, this life I lead… I'm just a co-star in your movie, aren't I? And let's face it, no one gives a shit about the co-star's plot line. It's all about the star of the movie. Well, guess what? I'm done being in your movie. Good luck finding another co-star.”
“What the hell are you even talking about, D? Lead? Co-star? This is real life, honey, and you're an adult. If you had these feelings, why not just come up and talk to me about them?”
His tone was steadily rising.
“You're my wife! I get to have a say on whether you leave or not.”
“I think you've confused the word 'wife' with 'slave,' my dear. I'm not your slave, and I'm done with all of this. I'm leaving."
“Done? This isn't a job, it's our marriage.”
“You could have fooled me.”
"Has it been that bad for you? A giant house where you sit by the pool all day and have whatever you want, whenever you want? Does the poor spoiled rich girl need to 'find herself?' I'll get you doing jobs again if you want to get out of the house. You know all you have to do is to let me know.”
“Is that what you think this is, me just needing to get out of the house? How basic do you think I am? I'm not in love with you Derek. I can't live here anymore because I'm not in love with you. There is no job or any counselor that can make that fact different.”
“But you used to love me. We used to love each other. That just doesn't go away.”
“What if I told you it was never there to begin with?”
Dalila dropped the unsubtle implication that she had never loved him without hesitation. It was a lie, of course; she wasn't supposed to love him, but following the tradition of all women who have ever met Derek, she did fall in love, hard and fast. But right now, she needed to end this conversation because she knew the longer they talked, the better his chances became at getting her to stay.
“You're lying again,” Derek smiled.
She resented his confidence and the fact that he always seemed to be five steps ahead of her. Dalila walked past him and headed to their bedroom to start packing. She had no idea where she was, going but in the back of her head, she knew, that wherever she went, Linda would be with her.
Before she could reach her bedroom, Derek blocked her.
“You're not going.”
“Yes, I am!”
She tried to shove her way into their bedroom but Derek was taller and larger, and easily kept her out.
“You're not going!”
“Yes, she is, Derek.”
He jumped at the sound of Linda's voice behind him; it had seemingly come out of nowhere. Derek snapped his head around and confirmed that he didn't just hear things. Linda stood directly behind him.
“Linda," he sighed apologetically. "Listen, I'm sorry about all this. Did we wake you up?”
“I don't think you heard me. You're going to let her go,” she ordered.
He smiled, “Sweetie, no offense, but this is none of your fucking business.”
“This has all come to boil because you're man-handling her, Derek. She's free to go if she wants. I'll see to it that it happens.”
He laughed at her threat.
�
��Linda, if you're implying that you're going to call the cops, then by all means, call them.”
The entire department was more or less working for the mafia than they were for the city.
“Derek, if you let me go, I promise I won't leave tonight. I'll just stay over at Linda's, okay? We can talk more about this tomorrow when you've calmed down.”
Linda grabbed Dalila's arm and pulled her close and away from Derek.
“Fine. I don't give a shit. Linda, talk to this woman, will you? Tell her she just can't leave her hus ...”
He chuckled mid-sentence.
“How silly of me. Never mind, Linda. How would you know anything about staying and working things out?”
Derek walked over to the bar and made himself a drink as Linda held on to Dalila's hand and headed for the door.
“Don't think about leaving the property, D. I have surveillance on watch, and everything is on lock-down tonight.”
Dalila nodded and followed Linda out the door, still firmly holding her hand.
They crashed on the couch as soon as they got back to the guesthouse, sitting side by side. Dalila turned her head and looked at Linda, admiring her high cheekbones and supple skin.
“Thank you.”
Linda turned her head towards Dalila and smiled, her lips inches away from her face.
“You're welcome,” she whispered. “I don't know if I can save you or get you out of here because that guy is pretty insistent. But I want to save you. I want to get you out of here.” Linda barely spoke above a whisper, “I want you…basically...is what I'm trying to say.”
Dalila laughed. She had never seen Linda stammer before.
Linda smiled and looked down, embarrassed at herself for being so flustered.
Dalila caressed her face and gently turned it around until they were face to face again. She closed her eyes as they fell into each other's embrace.
15
Whispers In The Dark
“Linda! ...Linda!”
Linda was barely out of the fog of her sleep when she found herself being dragged out of slumber. After realizing it wasn't Dalila, she snapped awake.
“What the...” she murmured, her eyes were trying to focus on the person in front of her, but she couldn't quite make it who it was. It was a man, and probably Derek.
She slapped at the hand that was trying to pull her out of bed.
“Let go of me, Derek!” Linda whispered, not wanting to wake up Dalila. She had been through enough. I’ll handle this, she thought.
“Derek? No. It's me, Jacob,” the figure whispered back.
This time, it was Linda who grabbed his wrist and dragged him out of the bedroom. She closed the door behind her before facing Jacob.
What the hell are you doing back here? Are you fucking crazy? How did you get in? Derek has this place on lockdown!”
“Don't even worry about it, just let me say what I have to say, please. I can't stay that long,” Jacob pleaded.
She crossed her arms and waited.
“My brother went to the cops.”
“What!? Why?”
“Well, let me rephrase that: he went to a cop. He's a family friend of ours, and he's a police officer in Mexico. He was just recently retired, but he was heavily involved in the investigation of the cartels. The one that Derek is part of. Long story short, they're bringing him down soon, they're going to raid this place, and you need to get out of here now."
“Do you know when they're going to do it?” Linda's voice remained calm but serious.
“He doesn't know, but he was talking like they were going to do it in the next coming week. They could come as soon as tomorrow.”
“Okay, listen; stay here, I have to wake up Dalila.”
Linda started to open the door, but Jacob grabbed her hand to stop her.
“Wait. No. Don't.”
"I have to wake her up. I can't leave her here. They'll arrest her, too.”
“No, they won't.”
“What makes you so sure?” Linda asked him.
“Because...,” Jacob hesitated before dropping the bomb on Linda.
“She's a mole. For the cops. She's an undercover cop.”
Linda practically laughed at the thought.
“Dalila is not a cop.”
“She is a cop, believe me. He worked with her and…"
Linda stared at him, not quite knowing what to believe, but it had her thinking back on their past conversations. Dalila hadn't told her how she had met Derek, and come to think of it, she remembered her saying she wasn't supposed to fall in love with him. Which didn't make sense to her, until now. Maybe Jacob was right.
“You have to come with me right now, Linda. I have a car waiting outside,” Jacob pleaded.
“How are we going to get out of here? I told you Derek has the place on lock down tonight.”
Jacob didn't answer but instead motioned for her to follow him into a small hall closet where the she had seen the vacuum cleaner and boxes of Christmas decorations kept. The boxes and the vacuum were now gone, and Jacob knelt down to began patting at the carpet, appearing to look for something he knew was there. It looked like he was taking a piece of the carpeting and ripping it out. On closer inspection, Linda saw him lift a perfect circle of carpeting and turn it counter clockwise. After the second turn, a trap door popped up from the floor that opened into blackness. The opening was just big enough for one person to go through.
“Come on, let's go!”
Jacob started to climb down the hole where she saw the dimmest light shine from underneath him. Linda peeked further into the hole and discovered a concrete tunnel with motion sensor lights that struck on as his feet hit the ground beneath.
“Let's go. We have to leave! If they get raided, you're going to get arrested just for being here.”
Linda thought of the other reasons why she might be arrested. She looked back at the bedroom door longingly, wanting to get up and take Dalila with her.
This stranger didn't care for her. And she shouldn't, either; she was a stranger. Linda had been tricked.
“Wait right there! Hold on, I have to grab a few things.”
“Okay, but hurry!”
Linda grabbed her purse off the counter, making sure she had the key to the boat storage and her cell phone. She grabbed a pen and paper but hesitated. Linda wanted an explanation from her, wanted to hear Dalila say that it was all a ruse, that she hadn't felt anything for her. But she didn't have time to put everything she was feeling into words. Linda simply scrawled 'Call Me' with her phone number digits and left it the note the middle of the coffee table.
She ran back to the hall closet, briefly glancing back at the bedroom door one last time before heading down with Jacob. She closed the trap door behind her, twisting the circle on the other side that gave off a muffled clanging sound that assured her they were being sealed in.
Once inside the tunnel, she was amazed at what lay before her. She and Jacob walked swiftly down a large, fully lit hallway. So large, in fact, that Jacob and she could walk next to each other and probably still have enough room for a third person to join them.
“This is incredible,” she whispered, her voice sounding muffled.
Their footsteps barely made any noise. None of the echoes she had expected in this long, empty walkway could be heard. This place was soundproofed, she thought. She reached out to touch the walls in the dim light and felt that they were not concrete, but a porous foam coating, absorbing their sounds almost completely.
“Dalila discovered this,” his whisper broke her study, “it's probably used to smuggle things into or away from the house, a perfect escape if something were to happen. But the cops know about this tunnel and will probably have a few cops in here waiting for Derek when they finally raid him.”
“Where does this tunnel lead to?”
“This one leads into a car dealership, a front for them. That's where our car is waiting.”
They walked in silence the rest of the wa
y. Jacob would sneak peeks at Linda from the side of his eye. Even in this serious situation, he had to stop himself from staring at her. He was glad it had been dark when he had to explain what was going on. Otherwise, Jacob knew he would’ve been distracted by her piercing eyes. As it was, he felt himself fumbling for words.
She was deep in thought; he could see a slight furrow in her brow as she walked with determined steps. They finally came to the end of the hallway where there were steps to lead them up to another sealed door.
Jacob led the way up the steps, twisting a similar looking circle to pop open the door. Linda followed, and they emerged into another broom closet, slightly bigger than the hall closet at the guest house.
He took out a small flashlight and pushed on the closet door. It opened into a car showroom filled with expensive, customized classic Airstream RVs that looked like the big steel pills that were popular in the 50s. They seemed downright eerie in the dark, as if Linda were walking amongst spaceships. Jacob led her to the biggest Airstream, opened the door and invited her inside.
“What are we doing? Aren't we going?” Linda asked, hesitating at the doorway.
“We can't go anywhere right now. You won't be able to get into the storage dock at this hour for your yacht. We’ll have to wait until morning.”
“Sleep here, in one of the campers? This is stupid. What if Derek finds out we're here, or worse, figures out we took the tunnel. It'll take him directly to us!”
“Yeah, that's the point.” Jacob yawned impatiently.
“What? What's the point?”
“He's not going to look in all these campers for us. When he finds out, the last place he'll look is the most obvious place. If he's going to wait for you, it will be at the storage dock.
“What do we do then?”
“We'll figure it out tomorrow. Come on… come in. I'm so tired.”
He stifled another yawn, which completely irritated Linda.
“We'll figure it out?!”
