I paced back and forth waiting for Roberto to come collect me. It wouldn't be long before he showed. On the outside I appeared calm, biding my time, but on the inside a cold clammy fear coursed through my very being. I had no idea if Antonio was alright or not. It took every ounce of discipline I had to hold myself in place so I wouldn't go racing out of the room to find him. I still needed answers and if we left now this entire plan would be for nothing. No, I had to stay put and wait for Roberto to come for me that was the only way I was going to find out what happened to my sister.
"Antonio it's me Bella." Bella hissed through the door with a sharp knock. I grabbed my gun off of the night stand by the bed not having even an inkling of trust for Bella. For all I knew she could have been the very cause of our exposure. I walked over to the door and cautiously opened it careful not to let Bella see that it was me that opened the door. When she walked in I closed it and before she could turn around my gun was at the back of her head. Her hands went up to let me see she was unarmed.
"What is it that you want with Antonio, Bella?" I asked keeping my words even and to the point.
"Rose, I'm not sure if Antonio told you about me, but I'm with the FBI. I'm not the enemy." Bella calmly spoke.
"Slowly turn around." I ordered ignoring her admission. She did what I said keeping her movements as smooth as possible. When she was facing me I immediately saw that she had been badly beaten, her face was a canvas of bruises, and her left eye was beginning to swell.
"Who did this to you?" I asked lowering my gun and going for my medical bag.
"I'll give you one guess." Bella responded sighing with relief that she was no longer staring down the barrel of my gun.
"So he knows about you too." I stated as I directed her over to the chair that sat in the middle of the room.
"He's known since I came here who I was, he admitted that in between the punches and kicks. Said that if the FEDS were going to continue to fuck him then why not fuck the FEDS for a while, literally." She said wincing from the sting of the alcohol I applied to the cuts on her face.
"The smug son of a bitch." I mumbled to myself as I finished up doing what I could for Bella's face.
"Does it feel like anything's broken?" I questioned, trying to measure how useful she could be to me and my plan.
"Maybe a cracked rib or two but I'll survive. Where's Antonio?" She asked looking around the room and then swinging her eyes back to me.
"Roberto has him. He's holding him in his office and is planning to release him to one of his business associates." I explained.
"That doesn't surprise me; from my sources in the bureau Antonio has stepped on a lot of people's toes in the human trafficking business and has several contracts on his head that ranges all the way up to the seven figure pay grade. Roberto wants to collect."
"That explains why he's keeping him alive," I said to myself.
"Well come on and let's go get him, I'm assuming you do have a way off of this island." Bella said rising from the chair.
"No not yet, Roberto should be on his way here soon and he has some information that's valuable to me. I have to wait for him." I replied hating myself for not heading out the door right then and there to get Antonio. Bella stared at me for a while before she spoke.
"What can I do to help?"
*****
I woke up with a ringing in my ears and a banging headache. I could taste blood in my mouth, but ignored it trying instead to remember what had happened to me.
"Did you sleep well Mr. Machado, or should I say Mr. Rodriguez?" I cringed at the sound of Roberto's voice. Still disoriented I managed to afford him my attention. Even as I noticed that my hands were bound.
"Do I look stupid to you Mr. Rodriguez? Did you not think that I would not figure out that you are one of Miami's finest? Oh excuse me; you use to be one of Miami's finest, now you are a nickel and dime free-lance detective, sticking your nose into all the wrong places."
I brought my head up ignoring the stabbing pain at the base of my skull. The move cost me dearly, but I had to look him in the eyes.
"Where's Rose?" I asked trying to keep myself from panicking.
"No need to worry over my beautiful Rose. She's fine. I have one of my best men guarding her. I guess you can say you have Rose to thank for me allowing you to make it all the way to my island. I've done nothing but obsess about possessing her since the first time I laid eyes on her. What a rare beauty she is. She'll be the crown jewel of my collection."
I watched as he rubbed his hands together and licked his lips.
"You touch her and I swear to god-"
"You'll what? Haunt me from your grave? Your very existence as of right now is only a coincidental technicality that my business associate will be sure to remedy as soon as they have you in their custody. There will be no reprieves for you. The good fortune you had that allowed you to escape death twice has come to an end. Ricardo, why don't you bring in my old friend?" I turned in the direction that Roberto had just spoken just in time to see a guard standing by the door nod his head and silently slip out of the office. Just then the phone on Roberto's desk ranged and he answered it immediately.
"Yeah, great as soon as the chopper lands show him to my office." Roberto placed the phone back on the cradle and gave me a smug smirk.
"You really don't have long now," He said with a cold gleam in his eyes.
I heard the door to the office open and close again, the guard that Roberto had sent out only moments before came back in dragging Victor Hernandez along with him. The guard gave Victor a hard shove which landed him beside me only a few inches away from the chair I sat in. I continued to work furiously trying to unravel the knot in the ropes that bound my hands, thirty seconds to a minute my hands would be free.
"I would introduce you two, but that would be a waste of time considering that you've already met. So why don't we get right down to business shall we." I watched Roberto calmly withdraw a gun from the waistband of his pants, take aim at Victor and fire two shots, one in his chest and the other in his stomach. Victor's body crumpled without a sound. Roberto returned the gun to his pants and dusted his hands off as if he'd just taken out the garbage.
"Do not worry yourself Mr. Rodriguez, you won't die by my hand, the Son's specified they wanted you alive. What they have planned for you..." He released a low whistle. "Will have you wishing I'd have taken your life today." At that moment there was a knock on the door.
"Yes, please do come in, we've been expecting you." Roberto gushed.
The door closed.
"Ms. Bahar, I thought Ethan would be coming in your place today." Roberto said sounding surprised by the arrival of who ever had come in the room.
"You will be dealing with me as you have from the beginning." A woman voice spoke directly from behind me.
"No disrespect Ms. Bahar, but Ethan assured me that he would be here personally to compensate me for my troubles." Roberto explained letting his eyes land on me.
"Who is this, and what the hell is going on here? Are you so careless that you will conduct a business transaction with a dead body bleeding out all over your floor and a bound man hanging on our every word?" The woman asked in a disgusted voice. Damn that voice sounded familiar, where had I heard it before.
"My apologies Ms. Bahar, you caught me in the middle of taking out the trash. This man however is your trash to handle as you see fit." Roberto answered inclining his head.
"This man is of no value to me, you know what I am here for, stop wasting my time." The woman responded sounding pretty pissed off.
"Your husband seems to think this man is worth 1.2 million dollars, alive and I do mean to collect."
"Are you threatening me Mr. Guevara?" The woman asked her voice becoming steel.
"Of course not Ms. Bahar, I'm only stating a fact. I took the liberty of deducting the 1.2 million from the four million that I owe you. The remaining balance is in the brief case on my desk." Roberto replied with a self-satisfied smirk.
No longer able to take it I turned around to see who the voice belonged to just as I was about to lay my eyes on the woman the lights went off in the office, cloaking everyone in shadows.
"No worries. The backup generator should be kicking in at any moment now." Roberto explained picking up the phone. "That's odd the phone is out too. I must excuse myself Ms. Bahar. As I said before your money is in the brief case on the desk. Oh and I would advise that you take Mr. Rodriguez with you when you go because if you leave him behind, I will charge your husband another 1.2 million when he realizes your mistake and comes to retrieve him. Forgive me for my rudeness but I have to attend to whatever this is, I assume you can see your way out," With that said I heard Roberto come around the desk step over Hernandez's body and the office door opened and closed.
I let the rope that bound my hands drop. Sitting in my chair, I waited on the female to make the next move, because it would help me to determine my own. I listened as she walked deeper into the office. Once she stood in front of the desk with her back to me I jumped up and let my arm wrap around her neck. I felt her body go slack which threw me off.
Afraid that I may have broken her neck I loosened my hold. She took advantage of my confusion by delivering an elbow to my ribs. My arms dropped and I doubled over. She then brought her knee into my face which caused my ass to see stars. Getting tired of being this woman's punching bag, I decided to topple her with my body weight. The exact moment I lunged she stepped to the side and I dive face first into thin air. I whirled around and my face met the blunt force of her fist. The blow stunned me for at least two seconds, giving her time to inflict a well-placed kick to my face. I dropped to my knees, dizzy and in pain. I couldn't remain on my feet any longer. Not showing any mercy the woman finished me off with another kick to the face, the only thought in my mind before I gave over to the welcoming blackness was, who in the hell is this woman.
*****
I heard the moment Roberto turned onto the hall my room was located on. His steps was slow and deliberate telling me that he believed he had all the time in the world, not worried about any complications that might pose as a threat to him.
"He's sure of his self." I murmured to myself.
That could be used against him as a weakness. I took my seat in the chair I pushed against the vanity. I placed my hands behind my back to give the appearance of being bound.
"Remain outside, I can handle Rose." I heard Roberto tell someone. He entered the room without knocking giving me a winning smile.
"Rose, my sincerest apologies for the mistreatment, but it seems that the man you came here with was not exactly being honest with you are me. You and I won't have those problems will we?" He asked as he approached me, his eyes betraying his lust.
"No Mr. Guevara." I answered dropping my head in defeat giving the appearance of submission, but still watching him covertly through my lashes.
"There, There Rose, I have always been Roberto to you and I will continue being just that. Only a few things will change, but I promise they will be changes to your liking." I waited until he stood directly in front of me and then let my foot come up right smack in between his legs which had him sinking to the floor in front of me. Bella then came rushing out of the bathroom placing the gun I gave her to the base of Roberto's head.
"Uh, huh, I wouldn't do that if I was you Bertie," Bella said relieving him of the gun he'd reached for. I grabbed the handcuffs out the night stand and made quick work of cuffing his hands behind his back. I grabbed the chair, placed it in the center of the room, and then Bella shoved Roberto into it.
"There's a guard right outside the door," I said to Bella.
"I'm on it." I watched as Bella silently opened the door and with all her might bring the gun down into the back of the unsuspecting guards head. He dropped like a rock and in no time he was dragged into the room and cuffs was placed on him as well. I then turned all of my attention back to Roberto. I forced the barrel of my gun into his mouth.
"You will tell me everything I wanna know. Or...I will blow your brains out the back of your head and take my time finding the answers I need on my own." I cocked the gun. "Now talk."
"Now sweetie, what do you expect him to say with a mouth full of iron." Bella stated with a laugh. I gave her a nod and placed the barrel of the gun under Roberto's chin.
"The two girls you captured six months ago, one of them was my sister. Who did you sell her to?" I asked.
Roberto only glared up at me with hatred and promise in his eyes. That was fair, because I had promises I planned to keep if he didn't tell me what the hell I wanted to know. He pressed his lips together in emphasis. So he was going to be hard was he, good I could get a little payback in the process of learning Miah's whereabouts. I fired a shot into his left kneecap. Roberto cried. Not bothering to ask again I took aim at his right kneecap.
"Please I'll tell you whatever it is you want to know." He sobbed his eyes wide with fear. God forgive me for misusing the knowledge that I had learned in medical school.
"Talk." I ordered, all emotions to the left.
Bella looked on with an unchanging expression. I think she almost hoped that he wouldn't talk so we could continue to mutilate him.
"I only sold one girl six months ago. She was African American. Had green eyes. Long black curly hair. She fit the description of -"
"The Queen of Sheba, I know all of this Roberto, what I don't know is who was the buyer?" I asked taking aim again at his right knee.
"Amir Al-Esayi. He's sterile and believes the legend." Roberto responded in a rush of words.
"What legend?" I asked lowering the gun. Roberto swallowed, relieved that I had lowered the gun.
"The legend that the reincarnation of the Queen of Sheba will cure him of being sterile and bare him as many sons as he desires. He paid six million dollars for her. Google him if you don't believe me. Your sister and he married five months ago."
"Where is he now?" I asked through clenched teeth, gripping the handle of my gun tighter than necessary.
"My sources say that he and your sister went on a honey moon tour of the world. They're due back at his compound in Paris with in the week. I swear to you Rose." Roberto pleaded.
"Bella?" I questioned not sure if I could believe Roberto.
"There were a lot of incoming calls from Paris, France on Roberto's phone bill, he could be very well telling the truth." Bella answered with a shrug.
"But his name is Saudi Arabian." I replied feigning doubt.
"He was exiled from Saudi Arabia right after Dessert Storm. He's resided in Paris since then." Roberto explained squirming in his chair.
I looked at Roberto for a long time, and then came to the decision that he was telling me the truth. I made quick work of bandaging his knee not that he deserved it but it made me feel better to know that he wouldn't die from bleeding to death from a wound I'd inflicted. I grabbed the syringe I'd filled with the same sedative I used on the first guard. Before Roberto could understand what was happening I injected it into the artery that pulsed at the side of his neck. The look of horror on his face turned into one of serene peacefulness.
I then kneeled down before him so that we were eye level.
"For what you've done to my sister, my family, and the misery I'm sure you have caused countless others, you deserve nothing less than a slow death. However I am not your judge, jury or executioner so I will not take your life and have your blood taint my hands. But I will tell you this, if you decide to seek retribution for what has happened here today by coming after me, my family, the people I care about, or even a dog I'm quite fond of, make no mistake...I will kill you." I watched Roberto's eyes close as he slowly slipped into oblivion.
I turned to Bella. "Come on and let's find Antonio so we can get the hell off of this island," I said heading toward the door.
"You go and find Antonio and I will meet you by Roberto's office, I have to get Lola. If I don't Roberto will kill her." Bella explained following me out of the room.
"Alright, which one is Roberto's office?" I asked pausing in the hallway.
"It's on the ground floor, the first hallway on the left after you enter the foyer and the first door on the right once in the hallway." Bella called over her shoulder as she raced away from me.
Repeating the directions to myself, I raced for the main stairs that would lead me down to the foyer, once in the foyer it didn't take me long to locate the hallway that Bella had told me about. What slowed me down though was the huge man that stood in front of the door. But the element of surprise was still on my side, so when I entered the hall way with my gun drawn he had no time to go for his. I motioned for him to move away from the door and when he was at least two feet away from the door I silently signaled for him to turn around and get down on his knees.
Soon as he did as instructed I brought the handle of the gun down hard on the back of his head and scooped up the guard's gun off the ground and placed it in the vacant holster around my right thigh. It wasn't the most perfect fit but it would do. I braced myself in front of the door to the office, preparing myself for whatever scene I may find there.
I brought my right leg up, and with ninety- five percent of my body weight I let it crash into the door. The door splintered and swung open taken half of the door panel with it. The scene that I took in of the room was of two bodies lying unmoving on the thick carpet and an outline of a tall woman standing over one of the bodies aiming a gun at it with a brief case in the other hand. Without thought I aimed my gun at the hand that held the gun and fired, hitting my target. The woman lost her grip on the fire arm, and the gun hit the carpet without a sound. The body at her feet moved and moaned. My god is that Antonio?