Chapter 2

ELLA

Before long, it was getting late. The sky grew darker, and streaks of fiery red stretched out over the landscape with the fading sunset. I was exhausted just from sitting in a vegetative state, and Luca had been driving since 2 a.m.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to drive?” I asked with a yawn after waking up from my tenth nap of the journey.

“No, don’t worry. I’m fine.”

“We should stop somewhere. You need a break.”

“We’ll arrive in less than three hours.”

“Even for a coffee, Luca? You look exhausted, and if you fall asleep behind the wheel, we might both die,” I said. “And personally, I don’t find the concept of that particularly attractive.”

“Fine. You can drive, but if I fall asleep, follow signs to the border and wake me up like half an hour before we get there,” he said, driving into a rest stop. “Promise me?”

“Sure, whatever.”

He was wearing a serious expression, which, considering Luca was the subject in question, unnerved me.

“No, not ‘sure, whatever.’ You have to wake me up,” he said, looking into my eyes. “It’s important.”

I nodded and looked away from him. There were a few moments of silence before he opened the car door and got out.

I did the same and was surprised when I was hit by an entourage of hot air. It clung uncomfortably to my skin and dried my throat.

“Where the fuck are we?” I asked. “It’s so warm.”

“You don’t get out of Washington enough, Els.”

“Remember how I recently got kidnapped and taken to Canada?” I asked, looking up at the clear starry sky.

There wasn’t a light for miles around. Well, there wasn’t anything at all for miles around. We looked to be in the middle of a barren desert with nothing but gritty sand and cacti for company.

“Isn’t the sky pretty?” I said, letting out a deep sigh.

“I guess it is.”

We stood for a few moments leaning against the car in total silence before Luca stood up straight.

“I need a piss,” he announced.

“Can’t appreciate the beauty of nature for long with you around, can you?” I grumbled as he walked to the edge of the road.

“Ella?” Luca said as I tried my hardest not to listen to his urine hit the sand.

“Yes, my darling.”

“How do girls pee if there’s no toilet to sit on?”

I placed my fingers on my lips, hiding my smile.

“With great difficulty,” I said. “What made you ask such an odd question? Except for the fact that you are Luca of course…”

“I saw these things on the internet… I think it’s called a femme-pee or something, and it’s basically a funnel that girls can pee down like a dick.”

“The internet is a dark place.”

“I’m glad I have a built-in straw to piss through,” he said.

“Thank you, Luca, for that slightly uncomfortable description of your penis,” I said with a grimace. “And are you done? How much liquid can you possibly store in your bladder?”

“I had a lot to drink.”

“I can see, uh, hear that.”

“Okay, done.”

For the next two and a half hours, I drove. Luca fell asleep the second he shut his eyes and didn’t wake up until I shook him after seeing signs for the border saying only five miles away.

“We’re five miles away,” I said as he groaned.

He shot up straight.

“Five miles?! You were meant to wake me up way earlier than this. I told you, didn’t I? I made it very clear?”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “What’s the huge problem?”

“Stop the car. We need to swap back. Now. Now. Now.”

“Okay!”

The road was completely clear, so I ground the car to a halt and unbuckled my seat belt. I was about to open the car door and walk around, but Luca had other ideas.

“Just climb across,” he said, pulling me back and climbing over to the driver’s seat with his large body.

“Just?” I asked as he struggled with as much elegance as a dying swan.

“Come on. We don’t have time to fuck about!”

“There is not enough space for this,” I said, trying to squeeze around him to the passenger’s seat. “Walking around would have been far easier. And your ass is in my face.”

“Your ass is in my face,” he said, trying to get his incredibly long legs over.

“Not my fault that daddy longlegs over here is taking up all the room,” I said as I decided the best route would be to slither over the dashboard to the passenger seat.

When I was finally sat down, an abrupt laugh sounded from the driver’s seat.

“What?” I asked.

“It’s just…,” he said with another giggle. “You looked like a snakish seal as you slid over the dashboard.”

“And you looked like an obese giraffe,” I remarked.

There was then an awkward pause for a few moments as Luca restarted the car.

“That was uncalled for,” he said.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. You aren’t obese, you’re just strong,” I answered, slapping his chest.

Ow, that hurt my hand.

“Luca, what the fuck!” I screamed as he veered off the road and downhill across the sand.

“Relax...we’re going the back way,” Luca replied.

“The fucking back way!?” I exclaimed. “We’re entering a country, not a party! This is totally illegal.”

“Do I need to remind you that I’m going to collect a shipment of weed to bring into the United States of America?” he asked. “There’s nothing legal about this operation.”

A few minutes later, the ground had flattened off, and Luca brought the car to a stop. He then flashed the headlights in a strange way, and a group of figures emerged out of the darkness.

“Eleonora De’Meritchi remember,” he reminded me.

I nodded, my heart beating faster at the sight of the men.

“Do I get out?” I asked.

“Yes. They’ll see you and want to know who you are,” he said, before opening the car door.

“Hola,” Luca said in a surprisingly good Spanish accent once we were back out in the heat of the desert.

“Who’s the bitch?” the man at the front of a group of five or six asked before even saying hello back.

I wasn’t a fan of the derogatory term, but I also wasn’t about to call him out on it.

Here’s why: he was a few years older than us, wore baggy trousers, a loose grubby T-shirt, and a bandanna. The other men were all similar looking and all had their eyes on me with intense glares.

After considering the trade they were in, and the menacing expressions they held, I didn’t doubt for a second that they were all armed and willing to shoot at any moment.

“My cousin Eleonora. I’m teaching her the ways of this business,” Luca said, placing a hand on my shoulder.

“Hola, Eleonora,” the man said, stepping closer to me.

He reached out his hand, placing a finger under my chin.

“And why would a pretty girl like you want to be in this business? You know it’s not safe...particularly for such a—”

“Guillermo, leave her alone. She has a mate,” Luca said, slapping his hand away from me.

“Watch out, guys,” he jeered. “She got a mate.”

They all laughed and sniggered as he turned back to me.

“And what does he think about this?” he asked, pushing my hair off my shoulder. “A nice mark you have there. You mated to an alpha or what?”

“Just give me the shipment,” Luca said.

“Watch who you’re telling what to do, kid,” Guillermo said to Luca. “And relax. We’re just having a little fun with your lil cuzzie here. Got any children, baby?”

“No,” I lied.

“I didn’t think so. That ass doesn’t look like it’s borne a child. It’s far too sweet,” he replied, running a finger along my hip.

“I have customers waiting,” Luca said.

“And I have a proposal. You want her to learn about the drug business, but you ain’t even a dealer. Give her to me. I’ll teach her,” Guillermo said.

“No,” Luca replied. “She stays with me.”

“Come on, Romano,” he said. “Do you not trust me to take good care of her?”

“She has a mate, and he’ll want her back.”

“I know. I know,” he replied, putting his hands up. “It’s a shame, but I respect that.”

“Eleanora, get in the car,” Luca said, nodding at me.

I stepped toward the car, glad to get away from the scary man. He watched me for a few moments before reaching into the back of his trousers and withdrawing something even scarier: a gun.

Fuck, that escalated quickly.

He pointed it at Luca, who put his hands up before gesturing to two of his men. They approached me and grabbed my wrists as the gun continued to be pointed at Luca.

Ordinarily, I would have put up a fight, but considering that could be the difference between Luca living another minute or not, I thought better of it.

“Move and I’ll shoot.”

For a few agonizing moments, there was total, still silence. Guillermo stepped over to me, not taking his eyes or the gun off Luca. He placed his hand around my waist and pulled me closer to him.

I could do nothing but stand and tolerate him. Nowhere to move to, nothing to hit him across the head with.

“Juan, Fabio. Get the shipment,” he barked at a different two men after withdrawing himself.

They reached into the bush and pulled out three big duffel bags.

“Miami this time, señor,” he said. “Do you got last month’s money?”

“It’s in the trunk,” he replied, his hands still in surrender.

“Then what are you waiting for?” he asked impatiently. “Fucking get it.”

Luca strode to the trunk of his car and retrieved a duffel bag, all with the gun still pointed at him.

He brought it back to where Guillermo waited.

He reached out his hand to take it, and for a split second, his eyes flicked down. Luca seized the opportunity and managed to render Guillermo motionless in his arms with his own gun to his head.

Every single man in the circle withdrew their own gun and pointed it at Luca.

“You shoot me, I shoot him,” Luca said. “Give me my cousin.”

“How about you shoot me, we shoot her?” Guillermo replied from Luca’s grip as one of the men put their gun to my head.

“Well, we really have a situation on our hands here, don’t we, boys?” Luca said. “Or you do at least. I’m not the one on the fast track to losing my best trafficker.”

“We have other traffickers just as willing,” Guillermo spat.

“But are they white? Do they have American accents? American citizenship?” Luca asked, looking around the circle.

“No...they’re Mexican. And Mexicans don’t glide through a border like a ‘respectable’-looking white man does. What can I say? The world is racist.”

“We have your white little bitch,” Guillermo replied. “Nothing says innocent more than a white man other than a white woman. The world’s sexist too.”

I opened my mouth, but Luca shot me a look. He’s right. Me and my mouth are infamous for making bad situations worse.

“She won’t work for you if you kill her favorite cousin,” Luca said.

“She don’t have a choice in the matter,” Guillermo answered.

“Says the man in a headlock,” I mumbled under my breath.

The man holding me squeezed my arm tighter and pushed the gun harder against my skin.

“She got attitude,” Guillermo said with a smirk. “I like a woman who’s a bit...achorada.”

With that, I grabbed the gun at my head, twisted it around, and pushed it against the head of the man holding me. I’m not sure what exactly gave me the ability to do that. A spur of both adrenaline and anger probably.

“How do you like that, Guillermo?” I asked.

“You gonna let a chica beat you like that?” he asked the man practically shaking with the gun at his head. “Don’t be such a pucha.”

“Ella podría matarme, Guillermo,” he replied in a high-pitched voice.

I haven’t done Spanish since high school, so I honestly had no idea what he said, but Guillermo rolled his eyes.

“Hey, bitch,” he said, looking at me. “Show us your tits and we’ll let you go, no trouble.”

“You aren’t in a position to ask for anything, Guillermo,” I said, looking from the gun at his head to the gun at his friend’s head.

“You couldn’t hurt a fly,” he replied with a smirk. “Neither could Romano. You’re both white as fuck.”

With that, Luca moved the gun from Guillermo’s head and pointed it at the foot of the man who had been holding me.

The bang sounded, and the man squealed.

“Will you take us seriously now, or do we need to show you again?” I asked, pushing the gun into the man’s mouth as he whimpered. “Wouldn’t be the first man I’ve killed. Might not be the last.”

Guillermo remained quiet.

“Unload your guns,” I ordered the rest of them.

They complied and dropped the contents of their weapons onto the ground.

“Now chuck them as far as you can.”

“You just gonna let a girl boss you around?” Guillermo said.

I held the man tighter.

“Do as I say or I will shoot him,” I hissed.

They all threw their guns. I gave Guillermo a sardonic smile before releasing the man.

“This could have been so much easier,” I said as Luca released Guillermo too. “Don’t fuck with me.”

“See you next month, Guillermo,” Luca said as we both got into the car and sped away.

“You fucking showed them!” Luca exclaimed. “Badass motherfucker!”

“Yeah, and you almost got us killed,” I scolded. “What the fuck was that? I thought you were ‘friendly’ with them?”

“I was. But they’re like little kids. As soon as you say no to them, they hate you,” he replied. “And what the hell do I do with this?” he asked, waving the gun as he drove as fast as the car would go.

“Keep it,” I replied, taking it out of his hand and shoving it into the glove box. “It might be useful.”