The M.I.L.F. Man

Midnight Rider

According to Victor, ICE had pulled up behind the van Cici and some of her pals had driven to El Paso. They were taking supplies to a couple of overwhelmed and overcrowded migrant shelters in the thick of the current border crisis.

One agent approached her companions while another ran into the little convenience store where Cielo had gone to get something to drink. But she had apparently already ducked out of a back door and perhaps gotten a ride with one of the Native families in a little picnic area behind the store, leaving her purse, overnight bag and cell behind.

"If she calls you, if they've taken her, tell her not to say anything to anyone," Victor said.

"I'm sure she knows that."

"Well, they've gone rogue, son," he said. With a weariness and resignation in his voice that frightened me. "They've got something on her. Something that matters more than whatever they thought they had on me. And I've been warned not to leave town so...here's lookin' at you, kid."

I would've gone anyway, of course. Rae was already making arrangements for me to fly to El Paso, having seen me go chalk white as I read those early messages. In fact, as a true, die-hard liberal, she'd even called her lawyers while hissing a stream of obscenity-laced diatribes at that "flaming orange asshole," Trump, for his "build that wall bullshit."

For her, it was a welcome distraction from her husband Scottie and his little "hottie." She gave me "all the numbers," too. Personal ones I was to call "not just to update me on this, just...whenever." So maternal, that woman...

I checked my messages the minute I got on the little boat that would take me to shore. One from Patti said:

Working the connects. Any news?

Richard's said:

I can pull a few strings in Eastern Europe. To get you out of the escort business. We'll have to make our OWN arrangements, after, of course...

Gave me a chuckle, so I shot back:

I knew I loved you for a reason...

And he sent me a graphic anime GIF of one of those big-eyed characters stroking a massive, meticulously detailed dick with maniacal intensity. Typical. And it made me laugh, as he'd no doubt hoped.

And then I was gut shot by one from Lupita that said:

What the fuck? With a link to a jaw dropping shot of me and Rae leaning on the gunwale of her yacht looking pretty chummy I must say. She'd butted foreheads with me playfully a few times and some very hungry photog had apparently hired his own boat and caught that. Looked like love from a distance...

So I sent:

We'll talk. Has Chucho rung back yet?

After Lupita's consternation, I was relieved that Bea had already called every "good ol' boy" she knew and discovered that Cielo's case had been deemed "high priority." No details beyond that, though.

Totally ignored Kat crowing about the good publicity especially since I was developing something almost like a migraine. Brought on by mental images of that "Le Bestia" death train Cici had survived once—the thought of her deciding to risk that again made me nauseous.