Chapter 19
True
I wake up extra groggy but Atlas is adamant I wake up.
“What the hell are you talking about?” I grumble.
“Get up baby, we have something to do,” he urges me.
“Atlas it is oh dark thirty, why are we getting up?”
“It is four pm, not oh dark thirty, you have slept all day,” he laughs.
“And you kept me up all last night, so we’re even,” I tell him.
“So you don’t want to get up and go with me?” He sounds like a three-year-old.
I turn over and look at him and he looks so damn cute, I know I lost the battle. I just get up and go to get dressed. Thirty minutes later he is literally dragging me outside to the back yard and I can only blink at the sight before me.
“Are you serious right now?” I ask him.
He finally stops dragging me and turns to look at me crestfallen. “You don’t want to go with me?” he asks in a small voice.
Jesus be a fence. When did he start sounding and looking like a little boy? There is no way I can tell him no. “It’s not that I do not want to go Atlas, how the hell did you get that here? Did you buy it?” I ask one brow lifted as I squint at him.
“No I didn’t buy it, I rented it for us.”
“Well let’s go”
We walk over to an honest to god hot air balloon in all its rainbow-colored beauty. Atlas gets in first and helps me in and the operator gets to work getting us in the air. The basket is bigger than I expected and there are chairs and a small table set up with a picnic basket. Of course, my stomach growls right on cue. We take a seat and take the food out of the picnic basket, as soon as I bite into the food I know Jaasiel cooked it. We dig in while flying over the Gulf of Mexico eating, talking, and enjoying each other's company.
Victor
The incompetence that surrounds me is astonishing. I have lost damn near everything that I own in the United States, EVERYTHING! My partners are coming up missing, arrested, or refusing to work with me any longer. And despite the reward I put up for information concerning True’s whereabouts there has been nothing but false leads filtering in. I had my second in command fly in today so that I can get answers directly from him. I pace on my balcony as I await his arrival. Little does he know if he doesn’t give me satisfactory answers I will kill him and his whole family. I had them picked up and flown in right after he left to come here. While he’s been dragging his feet trying to avoid facing me, his family has been brought here and is locked in one of the bedrooms. Finally, I see him pulling up. He notices me as soon as he steps out of the car with a gun in my hand.
“Well, what do you have to tell me?” I bark at him without preamble.
“True has not been seen anywhere, I sent men to the surrounding states and no one has seen her. Although there is one guy who went to Mississippi and never returned. When I ask questions about the arrests and the seizures it all leads back to the DEA. The smaller businesses have been donated to DV shelters around the southern states. “
He stands there looking at me like he’s told me some valuable information. “So a man went to Mississippi and decided not to come back to tell you he didn’t find anything. Is all you have to report? And where have you personally looked?”
“Me?” he squeaks out. “I was keeping your other businesses running,” he tells me as he begins to fidget.
“What business?” I thunder out. “I don’t have any more businesses, save the real estate company, and how long do you think that’s going to last?! I scream in his face.
“I will go home and make sure nothing happens to the real estate company” he rushes out as he begins to back out of the room.
I let him go, to think he’s going to get away. As soon as he clears the door he damn near runs down the stairs. As he is making his escape I go next door to where his family is bound and gagged. I untie his son and walk him out on the balcony. His father is just getting to the car when I call his name, he spins around and looks up to where we are and freezes. His son is crying and on cue, he begins begging for his son's life.
“I gave you months to find True and whoever is dismantling my organization and you come to me with nothing! I cannot let this level of incompetence slide, especially from my second in command.”
“Please Victor, he has nothing to do with it. Kill me but let my son live.”
I take the tape off of his son’s mouth. Tell me, Alejandro, if I kill your father here today will you one day avenge him by killing me?” I ask his son. And like I knew he would, he says he would.
“You know how I operate, I never leave anyone behind to come after me. I do not have to look over my shoulder.”
“Well, you obviously didn’t kill everyone. Someone is coming after you and from the looks of it he’s going to find you after he finishes taking everything you hold dear. You would have killed your own daughter, you fuck little girls, you’re a sick fuck and I hope he kills you!” he screams up at me.