Chills & Thrills: Three Novel Box Set (46 page)

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

ALEX HAD BEEN ABLE TO CONVINCE THE SERVANTS AND 
others at Javier's hacienda that he was taking Bella to see her father. He knew that if he were caught in this lie, he could possibly be banished from the business and the family. But when he saw the adoration in Bella's eyes when she spoke of her brother, he knew that bringing her to Mexico City was the right thing to do.

She smiled sweetly at him as she turned from the hotel's reception desk, a message in her hand. She rolled her chair over to him and handed him the note. “My brother received my message this morning and he'd be delighted to see us today.”

“I'm so happy for you,” Alex said and bent down, giving her a kiss on the cheek, after reading over the message. “We better get going, though. The note says he'll be expecting us at one o'clock and that's only a half an hour away.”

“Good, good.” She clapped her hands. “Can we walk? I want to enjoy the city. Do we have time?”

“Perhaps. I don't think it's too far. It's a residence only a few blocks from here. I think that's a great idea.” He smiled at her.

As he rolled her out into the bright, crisp day, Bella turned her head to the side. “I noticed that you brought the knife that I gave you for Christmas.”

Alex laughed. “You notice everything. I love it. I know it's for whittling, but for the time that we're here in Mexico City it's also for protection. I brought it because we're here alone and I have to make sure that nothing happens to you.”

“Nothing will happen to me.”

“I know, especially since I have this knife.” He felt for it in his back pocket.

As they crossed the street, a group of children around ten or so, clamored around them, some behind them, some in front, laughing and gawking at Bella's chair. Alex told them to go away.

They arrived at the home where Father Miguel was staying. A guard stood at the entrance and after they identified themselves, let them through. Following another guard, a bald, angry looking large man dressed in black, Alex rolled Bella through the entry and down the hall leading to Miguel's' room. The guard's dark eyes never met either one of theirs, and Alex found it odd that he was the one protecting Miguel. However, what Miguel was doing was dangerous, and Alex knew it was almost as dangerous for him to be here. He was, in fact, a part of the group the priest was trying to destroy. He was also Isabella's brother and Alex could not deny her this visit.

The bodyguard said to Bella, “Father Miguel has asked that you wait here for a moment. He has something to say to your guest first.”

She looked puzzled and turned her face up to Alex. “I don't understand.”

“It's all right. I'll go in and see him. I'm certain it will only be a moment.”

“I suppose if that's what my brother has requested, then I'll wait.”

“I'll wait with you, 
Señorita
,” the bodyguard said.

Something about the way the man said it didn't sit well with Alex, but he went inside the door that the bodyguard opened for him and closed it behind him.

The priest had his chair turned so that the high back of it was facing Alex. The room was a study, and Alex assumed that Miguel was looking through the books on the shelves he faced.

Alex cleared his throat. “Father. Hello. I was told that you wanted to see me. I'm Alejandro Peña. You obviously know that I've escorted your sister here to see you. She's very excited about the visit.” He paused waiting to see if he'd receive a response from Miguel. “That said, if you want to tell me what you need of me, it would probably be nice to get the anticipation over for Isabella.”

Miguel still did not turn around or say anything. Alex brought his palms up to his face as in prayer and breathed deeply, letting out a long sigh, figuring that the priest wanted to take up the fact that Alex worked for the very enemy he wanted to destroy. He was sure that Miguel had asked around about who he was and discovered that he wasn't simply Isabella's friend.

“Listen, Father Diaz, I'm only here as a friend of Isabella's. I have no ulterior motives. She desperately wants to see you. She's missed you a great deal, and my goal is to make her happy. The time with you means so much to her.”

Alex thought he heard a type of gurgling sound as if maybe Miguel was clearing his throat, but it wasn't exactly like that. Alex approached the desk and the chair. “Please, Father, what do you need from me?” Alex asked.

When Miguel didn't respond again, Alex hesitantly came closer to the desk. He blinked and then stared at the object on the desk, half hidden under a stack of papers. It took him almost a minute to register what he was seeing. He felt his back pocket.
 His
 knife was missing. The kids on the street. He picked up the knife on the desk. The one Bella had given him. It 
was 
his. 
His
 initials were there on the knife and it was covered in blood. He went around to the other side of the desk to the chair the priest was in. The man looked at him, his eyes filled with horror as his body shuddered and all of the life left him. Blood streaked down the front of his white cassock, looking like a sacrificial lamb that had been slaughtered. Alex shook his head and backed away from the scene, his stomach dropping filled with nausea. “No, no, no,” he moaned.

A tap at the door sounded. It opened and in came Isabella, who saw that her brother's throat had been slit and his tongue pulled through the back of his mouth in what was known in the drug world as a Colombian necktie. She froze and as it registered what she was seeing, and as she looked at Alex holding the knife, she howled.

The bodyguard plowed through the door, knocking a stunned Alex to the ground and taking the knife from his hand. Soon after, the bodyguard from outside and another man were in the room. One of them hit Alex hard across the head. The room whirled and Bella's screams resounded in his ears as his world went black.

*****

ALEJANDRO GAGGED FROM THE ROTTEN FECAL STENCH
 inside the dismal cell. He retched, holding his stomach, which contained nothing but bile. No one had brought food to him in more than forty-eight hours. After he'd lost consciousness, he found himself being slapped awake, a group of policemen standing over him. Bella was nowhere in sight and he kept asking for her, but they ignored his pleas.

They dragged him to his feet, handcuffing him. His mind shouted, “This is all a mistake.” However, he knew that his protests would be useless.

His body ached from the beating he'd endured. But Alex knew that the worst punishment was yet to come — the knowledge that Bella thought him a murderer and not only a killer, but the one who savagely destroyed her brother. He hadn't cried since the death of his mother, but now it was all he could do to keep from collapsing in despair.

The worst of it was that Alex knew they would never achieve the dreams and plans they'd made together. He hugged himself tightly, closing his eyes, hungry for Bella's warmth — warmth he knew he'd never feel again.

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

THE FIRST MEETING BEHIND THE BACKS OF ANTONIO AND JAVIER
 had been called. Emilio knew which buttons to push, and how to get away with pushing them. Seated in the large conference room inside the warehouse where the drugs were stored was a group of about twenty men, most of them uneducated, who'd come to America to make their dreams come true. They'd discovered the hard way that it wasn't as easy as they had once thought.

These men were the drug pushers, the foot soldiers of the organization, the ones on the street. They risked their lives, and the threat of being sent back to Mexico if they were caught hung over their heads. Emilio and Hector had plans for all of them in their new regime.

The men all sat around a long, wooden table, fidgeting and looking at each other nervously. No one had ever called them for a meeting before. Hector usually met with them on the street and brought them the drugs they needed to sell.

"Hello, gentlemen. Thank you for coming," Emilio began. "I'm sure you're all wondering why you are here."

The young men stared at him, full of fear and curiosity.

"You're here because you have a new job to do. You now work for me and Hector. Your orders will not come from my brother, Señor Espinoza, or from Javier Rodriguez. They will come directly from me from now on. But all this is to be kept quiet. When we tell you to do something, you will do it. Things are going to change around here. You will report directly to Hector every day. You will pick up your product on a daily basis. In the evening, you'll bring us what you do not sell, including the day's take. Then the shift will change. Whoever works evenings will take their cut, and come back in the morning. You will account for everything spent, and every ounce sold. There will be no stealing within this organization. Do you understand? Up 'til now, things have been way too flexible. We've gotten wind that some of you have been stealing drugs and money from us."

"We don't like that," Hector chimed in.

The men looked at each other, not quite understanding the implications of what was being said in this cold, dim room. One of the young men, Juan, who was considered more courageous than the others, interrupted the proceedings. "This don't sound right to me. I think I don't want to be a part of this."

"Really now? Well, Juan, I don't think you have to worry about that,” Hector sneered. “Remember when I said we heard some of you men have been stealing from us? We heard it was you, man."

Juan looked surprised. "Me? No way. I never stole from you. I always gave you your money and did everything right."

"We'd like to believe you, but we don't," Hector answered him curtly. Then, as if time had slowed to a standstill, Hector pulled out a . 22 from his long, dark coat and shot the man in the head. Blood spurted everywhere. Juan's head rolled forward as he slumped in his chair, life completely drained from him. The other men gasped, and then quickly fell silent, looking away from the ghastly scene.

"Does anyone else have a problem with us?" Emilio quietly asked them, but the men were too dumbfounded to mutter a response.

"Good,” Emilio said, a slow smile creeping across his face. “Clean this mess up, and get rid of him. Business will begin tomorrow. You can have today off. If anyone speaks of what went on here today, they'll wind up the way Juan did."

The two men swept out of the building, high as kites on the coke they'd been doing all morning, ready to cause more trouble to bring down their empire by transferring its source of power.

"Now, my friend, we fly to Bogotá, and then on to Guatemala." Emilio winked at Hector. He knew from experience that the other man was high at that moment from not only the drugs but also from the killing. Emilio could tell by the look in his henchman's eyes that he'd loved it — loved the feeling, loved the power, and couldn't wait until he could do it again. Emilio would be certain to see that Hector got that chance.

*****

SORROW SO PAIN FILLED IT HELD BELLA'S HEART IN A VISE
 and swept through her entire body, while disillusionment and tears clouded her vision. Pedro sat across from her inside the hotel suite that had only two days before been adjoined by Alex's suite. Now Pedro was staying there. Directly after seeing her brother slain, and after Alex was arrested, she was taken by the bodyguard and another man. They stayed with her until Pedro arrived a couple of hours later. He'd told her that her father was being notified and would be leaving Europe with Antonio soon. They expected them that afternoon.

Her world had changed in those two days and she could hardly speak to Pedro at that moment. She wanted nothing more than to curl up and die. How could the man that she loved, or thought she loved, kill her brother? Her beloved and dear brother. She didn't understand. A thought crossed her mind time and again: she wondered just how corrupt her family was. She was beginning to believe the stories she heard about them, and now she wondered if her own father hadn't asked Alex to kill Miguel. She didn't want to think such a horrible thought, but she couldn't help herself. She could not believe that Alex had done this. 
Why?
 He was not a cold, evil man. At least she'd thought that. He claimed he cared for her. Yet, she saw him there, with the knife in his hand with her brother's blood on it, and until Alex had gone in there alone, her brother had been guarded. None of this made sense.

Placing her face in her palms, Bella cried uncontrollably. “I can't believe this. Why? Why would he do this? Did my father order this? Is that why? I know that everything you say you do with my father, everything Alex has tried to tell me that all of you do for him and Antonio is legitimate, but I have ears and a brain, and I no longer believe you.”

“Bella, that may be so. You will have to speak to your father on these issues. I feel you should be more aware of what goes on in this family and business. If it were my choice you would know everything.” He took her hand. “But I know that your father had nothing to do with this, or Antonio either. Alex was pathologically jealous.”

Emilio interrupted as he entered the room. He'd arrived that morning. He walked over to Bella and placed a hand on her shoulder. He stood above her in an authoritative manner. “I believe there was a side to this young man you were quite unaware of. He hated the thought of your being close to any other man — even one whom you thought of as your brother and friend. Even a 
priest
.”

“If that's the truth, then why do this almost in front of me? If he was so jealous and did this out of love, why so brutal and why while I was there?”

Pedro nodded his head in agreement. “That is a good question. It troubles me, too.”

Emilio shot him a grave look.

“However, it is possible that he's plain crazy, and had it in his mind to rid you of all the men in your life, even including your father and myself. Are you aware that his mother was killed in Los Angeles a couple of years ago? She was shot down. They never found the killer and at the time Alejandro was nowhere to be found. It is possible that this boy has kept his dark side hidden so well from us that we were all fooled by him. I truly believe him insane.”

Bella shook her head. “That is ridiculous,” she exclaimed. “Are you implying he murdered his own mother? I cannot believe or listen to any more of this.”

“It's true,” Pedro said.

“I'm going to see him.”

“No!” Emilio ordered her.

“I'm going, Emilio. I have to talk with Alex.”

Emilio paced the floor, the oak planks creaking beneath his heavy feet. He shot Pedro a glance, then turned and left the room.

“If you insist on going, I'll drive you,” Pedro said. There was no way he was going to allow Bella to see Alex without him there, and by the look in Emilio's eyes, he knew that they would have to make certain that Bella accepted their lies.

*****

THE HORRENDOUS CRIES ESCAPING FROM THE PRISON CELLS
 pricked Bella's nerves. Already distressed over Miguel's murder and Alex's imprisonment, the disturbing sensation she felt as Pedro rolled her along those cold corridors assailed even the marrow of her bone.

A prison guard, who looked as if he'd been stuffed into his uniform, came around behind the chair after he explained to Pedro that only one of them at a time could see Alejandro.

The guard escorted her into a small room, where she was told Alex would be brought to her. “Usually we don't allow anyone to see the prisoners. But since you're the governor's daughter, well…”

“Thank you for your cooperation.” Bella had telephoned the prison before they left and insisted she be able to speak to Alex. She even offered a bribe if necessary.

Once inside the room, she sat in one of the chairs at opposite ends of a small wooden table. It was dank, and smelled worse than a trash bin. Alex was led in, shackled on his feet, his arms handcuffed in front of him. His head was down, but when he raised it, he looked straight into her eyes. She gasped. She could see that he'd been badly beaten. Dried blood trickled down his chin. His right eye was swollen closed and purple, the other one half closed and bloodshot. His face was bruised almost beyond recognition.

“My God!” Bella exclaimed.

“Shhh,” he said. “I'm all right.” The guard shoved him down into the chair opposite her. She got up to go to him.

“No,” The guard ordered her. “It is against prison rules.” She sat back down, not taking her eyes off Alex. She nodded at the guard, who turned to leave the room.

“I'll be right outside,” he told her.

She couldn't say anything at first, her mouth gaping open.

“I must look pretty bad?” he asked.

“Oh, Alex does it hurt?”

“I'm fine.” He winced.

“The police? Did they do this to you?”

He nodded.

“Look at me, Alejandro. We don't have much time I know what I saw. My brother…” She choked on her words. “Did you do that? Did you kill him?”

He shook his head. “No.” He looked up at her. “I love you, Isabella. You have to believe me.” Although he'd never uttered those words aloud, he'd thought about his feelings for Bella quite a bit the last two days, and what had occurred, brought him to the need to voice it. If she heard him say it, then maybe it would make things right between them. Maybe she would believe him. “I would never do anything to hurt you. I know how much you loved your brother. I couldn't kill him or anyone.”

Bella closed her eyes, tears coming down her face. “Then how? Who?”

“I don't know. You have to believe me. Someone set me up.”

“The knife? Your knife?”

“Those kids, when we were walking to meet your brother, I think one of them took it. The knife was in the room when I went in. On the desk. I swear.”

“Am I to believe a child did that?”

The prison guard opened the door. “Your time is up. Say goodbye.”

Bella unlocked the brakes on her chair. She rotated it toward the door.

“Tell me that you believe me, Bella. Please, you have to help me.”

Not looking at him, she said, “I don't know what to believe.”

Pedro was right there to take the handles of the wheelchair and escort her out of the prison.

She wanted to believe Alex. Needed to, but the proof and now the story of the children. Maybe he was crazy as Pedro suggested. Her mind understood that possibility, but her heart would never accept it.

*****

WHEN ANTONIO HEARD THE NEWS THAT HIS SON WAS 
imprisoned for murdering Miguel, he immediately cut short his trip in Europe, where he and Javier had been meeting with a group of wealthy and powerful Germans who were eager to do business with them instead of with the Italian mafia.

On board the jet, Javier poured himself his third large shot of tequila and offered some to Antonio, who refused. “I cannot understand this. First of all, why would Alex take Bella to Mexico City without speaking with one of us? I want to kill him for that alone. Why would he murder Miguel? You must imagine how this will look to all of those he'd been spreading his rhetoric to. Once the connection is made between Alex and you and then possibly me, it will be bad. Pedro has told me that Bella was witness to the carnage. For God's sake, he didn't just cut his throat; he pulled his tongue through the back of his head! What kind of man did you bring on board our operation?” Javier shot back the booze and slammed his hand against the tray in front of him.

“That man is my son.”

“What if he's not? It may not be so. Have you considered this?”

“Alejandro is my son. Marta was his mother. Look at the boy and you know he's mine. I told you he was mine and that's the end of the discussion.”

“Maybe Alejandro knows you're his father. Maybe this is his revenge. Could he want to destroy this operation, this business, your family and mine out of his hatred for you? What if he knows? It would make sense.”

“He doesn't know.”

“How can you be sure of that?”

Antonio glared at his lifelong friend. “Because I know.” He thumped his chest. “I also know he didn't murder your stepson. The boy is not a killer. He has his mother's heart.”

Javier was not convinced as he poured himself another drink. He'd known Antonio since they were boys and he knew that what existed in the man's heart was not always good. He could kill without thought. He ordered people to be sent to their graves on a regular basis. How could Antonio expect Javier to believe that if it was true that Alex was indeed the man's son, that the boy would not be like his father?