I woke up to James caressing my face. At some point in the night, I ended up in my room. I sat right up in the bed, relieved to see a friendly face. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and saw James’s lip and eye, swollen and bruised. “What happened?!” I cried as I grabbed his beautiful face.
“It’s nothing, baby. They just didn’t like seeing me with my hands on you and decided to punish me, or at least that’s what they said. I think Maximo ordered them to harm anyone who lays a hand on you.”
“If that’s the case then he should have his father murdered.” I blurted out before I could stop myself. The look of horror crossed James’s face.
“What?” he asked, pleading for an answer different than what I was going to say.
“Maximo’s father had me taken from the club to a hotel. He had me chained to the wall and he tried to, he tried to have sex with me.” James shot up out of the bed. He was livid.
“What the fuck do you mean?! He tried to rape you?”
“Yes. He said he was doing it to see if I was good enough to marry his son.” I said shamefully.
“Marry his son? Are you kidding, you will not marry any of these crazy motherfuckers! I saw a lot of shit when I was deployed, Fallon, these people are worse than the Taliban ever was.”
“I know, James, I know. But the only way out of this is to be killed, they have both told me that now. They will kill me if I don’t comply with their plan. I don’t know what to do.” I said through tears. I couldn’t stop them now. I felt like my life was being uprooted, my freedom taken from me. I didn’t want to marry Maximo. I didn’t want to be here anymore. I decided to go talk with Maximo to see if I could get out of this arrangement.
I walked down the hall to the living room, which to my upset was empty. I opened the door to Jesus’s office, again empty. I looked in the kitchen, dining room, patio, and no soul to be found. Not even any maids were seen. I decided to walk down to the beach. There was a locked gate that led to the beach. The guard patrolling the patio let me out, he didn’t say anything to me, just let me out. I felt like running, but I had nowhere to go, I knew nobody here except Justice, James, Maximo, and Jesus, and half of those people I couldn’t stand.
The air tasted salty, the wind slapped my cheeks using my hair as a whip. For the first time since I arrived here, I felt free. The sand was warm between my toes and the water was tepid. I guess there must have been a storm out in the ocean last night because the shoreline was scattered with seaweed and other debris. Feeling peaceful for the first time, I sat down. I let the water come up to my toes and retract to its depths. I ran my hand over the sand, embracing the warmth it had for me. I smiled truly for the first time, feeling happy.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” A deep voiced growled behind me.
“It was until you ruined it for me, Maximo,” I stated dryly. “Please just let me have this time alone before you do whatever horrible thing you are going to do to me.”
“What is it you think I am going to do to you, mi amore?”
“Well, if it was up to your father, I would be tied to a wall waiting in bed for you like a sex slave.” I replied with anger.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Maximo said grittily. “Are you saying that rhetorically or literally, Fallon?” His voice had a longing in it. Like he needed to know if what I was saying was true.
“I’m saying that literally, Maximo.” I stood up and turned to face him. “Didn’t you wonder where I was taken to last night? The penthouse at the Cortez Hotel has a chain screwed into the wall with a cuff on the end, did you know? Did you know your father tried to have his way with me? Submit me to his will? He told me he would kill me if I wasn’t good enough for you, but I feel like maybe you and your family just aren’t good enough for me!” I realized I was talking with my hands, flailing them around like a crazy person. Maximo just stood there, taking it all in.
“I do know about the penthouse room at the Cortez. We use it as one of the places to break in whores.” Those words pierced me like a knife. My stomach turned and I felt like I might be sick.
“You monsters,
” I replied dryly.
“We are monsters? We run a business, similar to you, Fallon. You do your business your way, and we supply our users with what they need. Drugs, money, whores, gambling, alcohol, whatever they want. It is all just business.” It was like he was trying to convince himself of this, and not me. “You have to realize,” he took a step closer to me, “Just because it is our business does not mean we like it. We simply fill the need.” His eyes were almost sad, the most emotion I had seen from him in these past few days.
“I can’t live like this; I cannot fear the people around me.” I looked down at my hands. Maximo grabbed my chin and brought my eyes to meet his.
**Maximo**
“I understand, but you will have to learn to live with me, mi amore. It is not only you who is being forced into this arrangement. We will just have to learn to live with each other.” Her eyes looked sad. She looked as if she may hit me, but she didn’t. She just stared into my eyes, sad. Her blue eyes sparked in the sun and when she moved just right you could see the natural blonde and brown streaks in her hair. Her hair swayed in the wind, embracing her body. I wish she would understand that I do not want to hurt her, I want to make her happy. We are in this together but telling her all of this would ruin the visage of me being a ruthless cartel leader. I pulled away from her, she seemed unphased. “Tonight, we will get dinner, try to get to know each other a little better.” She looked away from me and turned around. I waited for a moment to see if she would turn around and look at me again, but she didn’t. She turned back to the ocean and sat back down. Her shoulders slumped and she looked at her feet, hugging her knees. Fuck. This woman is going to be the death of me, three days in and I can already tell she is going to be the Bonnie to my Clyde. We were going to rule this cartel together.