Drug Lord: A Bad Boy Baby Romance (5 page)

I
looked
out the window at the private hangar. My parents were wealthy, but I’d always flown business class, not in a private jet.

Emilio apparently had one that he could easily call at a moment’s notice.

Someone must have taken out my suitcase, because suddenly the handle was in Emilio’s hand.

I frowned.

“Don’t you need a suitcase? Are you just going to buy stuff there?”

“I keep a suitcase here.”

“Of course.”

It was normal for him to travel in his private jet. I was out of my depth here.

I cursed Past Naelle for letting him take her home. If I hadn’t slept with him… if I hadn’t decided to go up to the TeleferiQo… I wouldn’t be stuck in this mess.

Still, I had to admit that I was the tiniest bit excited about going on a private jet for the first time. Yeah, the circumstances weren’t ideal, but I’d take it.

I just wouldn’t say thank you.

I fumed quietly as I walked in front of him. I looked at the steps. They were sort of flimsy.

“Are they safe?” I asked him.

“Safe as houses,” he said cheerfully, as if he weren’t bundling me into a jet and making me go home to America.

I didn’t know why he was so suspicious, but he was obviously overly paranoid. Who would think that an American tourist would be hunting them down at the top of a mountain? He obviously had issues.

“How long does it take?”

“Well, you live in DC, right?”

I nodded.

“We’ll fly into Reagan. I can take you home. Meet your family.”

I blinked at him. “Meet my family? As what, my one-night stand who turned out to be psycho?”

I imagined walking into my home with this guy in tow. My dad would kick his butt so fast that Emilio wouldn’t know what hit him.

I smiled as I pictured it in my mind’s eye.

“Okay, yeah, great idea.”

“You’ll introduce me as your boyfriend, of course.”

“What!”

“I’m your boyfriend, at least for them. It’s the simplest explanation.”

“Nope,” I said, crossing my arms. “Nuh-uh. No way.”

“Don’t be childish. It’s the most efficient way to handle what needs to be done. I need to check out your story. When I’m done, you can just tell them that I was a passing fling or whatever you want. You can even tell them that you dumped me.”

I looked him up and down. He looked immaculate and extremely gorgeous.

“My mom would kill me if I dumped you. She’d be dreaming about grandchildren dressed in custom-made suits the second that she saw you.”

He shrugged.

“I’m willing to break her heart.”

I didn’t know if I was happy to deceive my family, but it was sort of a moot point. The second that I walked into my house with this guy, my dad could fix this. Yes, I had to run home to Daddy, but I had no idea that an impulsive decision made while possibly concussed would end up like this.

And he was so casual about the fact that my mom would be angry.

Whatever. The sooner I got out of this country and back on my own feet, the better.

“Get in the jet.”

He motioned with his chin for me to go inside.

I
went up the steps
. When I got to the top, I stopped in my tracks.

“Are you okay?”

My eyes were wide as I looked around. Everything was either covered in leather or mahogany. It pretty much looked like the jets that you saw in magazines sometimes.

“Wow.”

“Can I come in?”

I heard Emilio’s voice behind me and I realized that I was standing in the doorway.

“Oh, yes, of course,” I said, scrambling to the side.

He had my suitcase in his hand. I felt bad for making him wait for me to stare at everything while he was on the stairs carrying my big suitcase.

I went and sat down on one of the chairs. They were extremely soft and comfortable, almost like an armchair but on a plane.

Once I sank into it, I was already half asleep, and we hadn’t even taken off yet.

I might not be happy about the situation, but I had to admit that I liked the idea of traveling to America in a private jet. I hadn’t had to take off my shoes even once.

Speaking of shoes, I kicked mine off and I curled my legs under me. It would serve him right if my smelly socks stunk up the plane, but he didn’t say a word.

He sat down in the chair next to mine, even though there were plenty of other places on the jet.

“No escape attempts on the jet,” he warned me. “I’m going to keep a close eye on you. Don’t sabotage the engines. Stay away from the pilots.”

I snorted. “I have no idea how to sabotage an engine.”

“Mm,” he said, as if he didn’t believe me.

“What do you think I am? A Bond girl or something?”

He put his hand on my chin and gently pulled me to face him.

“Or something.”

I giggled from the absurdity of being a dangerous woman.

“I’m about as dangerous as a fruit fly, honestly.”

“If you were a trained assassin, it’s not like you would tell me.”

“Are you serious? Trained assassin? Just who do you think I am?”

“I guess we’ll find out, Naelle Montero.”

I pulled my chin away from his hand, but he continued to watch me, his eyes dark.

Turning my head so I could look out the window, I could feel the motor running as the plane got ready to fly. All of a sudden, I could hear the screeching of wheels as a car zoomed past our jet and parked in front of it.

“What’s going on?” I asked, but Emilio was already on his feet and walking towards the cockpit.

“What’s going on?” He said it almost as if it were a command and not a question.

“No idea,” they told him in Spanish.

I heard the radio crackle, but I couldn’t make out the words. I was too far away.

Emilio gritted out, “I’ll go down there.”

The door opened, and Emilio went down the steps to talk to them.

I
shielded
my eyes from the fierce sunlight when I got to the bottom.

When I looked at the asshole coming out of the government car, I swore softly under my breath.

Son of a bitch.

“Hello, Señor,” he said mockingly. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“What’s the problem?” I asked. I had no patience for this.

“Just a standard check of your aircraft. You filed your flight plan at the last minute. We’re just making sure that there aren’t any drugs on board. We wouldn’t want any cocaine going to the United States, now, would we?”

I gritted my teeth.

“Be my guest.” I gestured with my arm at my jet.

“You’re welcome to check it out.”

“Thank you,” he said, as if he weren’t a government official getting off on all this.

He went up the steps, and I followed him into my jet.

Naelle looked at him drowsily.

“Who’s he?” she said in a voice which meant that she was half-asleep.

“Just someone who wants do a quick check of the plane.”

“Mmm, okay?” Naelle said, her eyes shutting quickly.

The government asshole was crawling around the floor of my jet. I wasn’t sure what he was looking for. It wasn’t as if I would bring a shipment of our main product on my personal jet. It wasn’t worth the risk. I paid a lot of mules and super-mules to bring things to market.

He crawled under a seat.

“What’s this?”

What did he find, a bottle? I stopped myself from rolling my eyes. This “check” was a waste of time.

When he got to his feet, he had a very small baggie of white powder in his hand. There was a simple symbol on the bag, a big Greek omega.

I thought that he expected me to be more surprised, but I wasn’t.

“This is a setup.”

“I’m sorry, Señor, we’ll have to take you and this lady into custody.”

Naelle was awake now.

“What?”

“You were obviously snorting cocaine on this jet…one or both of you.”

“That’s preposterous,” Naelle sputtered. “I’ve been mostly asleep the whole time. I haven’t snorted anything in my entire life.”

“Neither have I.” But I shook my head at Naelle, and behind the official’s back, I put a finger to my lips.

“But we’re willing to come with you as we get this sorted out.”

“Excellent.”

He whipped out two pairs of handcuffs and put them on too tight.

Naelle yelped when he put the handcuffs on her.

“No! What the hell? You can’t do this to me! I’m an American citizen.”

“Just chill,” I told her.

“What the hell is going on?”

“We’re being taken in for questioning about the cocaine that they found in the jet.”

“Cocaine? Are you joking? I’ve never even seen any! My dad would murder me with his bare hands if I ever used drugs.”

He pulled her off of the plane. She didn’t shut up.

I quietly went into the car after her. She never stopped protesting even as this man drove us into Quito, making the long journey from UIO into the heart of the city.

I didn’t say much, just waited for my moment.

M
y wrists hurt
from the handcuffs. I’d never been handcuffed before, and I really didn’t like it.

They were too tight for one thing, and the man ignored me.

I wished that I was home. Dad would’ve taken care of this.

I waited as we went to a building that was obviously a jail.

I started shaking.

“Don’t worry,” Emilio’s deep voice said. “Nothing bad is going to happen to you.”

If I could have crossed my arms, I would have.

“I cannot believe you got me into this situation.” I knew he hadn’t meant to, but I was also about to go to jail.

“Don’t worry,” he repeated. “All of this is a horrible misunderstanding. Once we are booked, we’ll get out.”

I turned to him, my eyebrows drawn together.

“What?” How did that make any sense?

“Just trust me.”

I turned to look out the window. The guy who had found the baggie of cocaine in our jet was opening the door and roughly pulling me out of the car.

His hand on my arm hurt, but I got the feeling that if I tried to call Internal Audit on him, I’d only worsen my situation.

My hands were shaking a lot now, and my eyes were filling with tears. I considered myself a pretty brave person, but I wasn’t equipped to handle going to jail in a foreign country. If I’d thought that there was even a possibility of getting arrested in Ecuador, I would’ve gone somewhere else. Hawaii sounded like a much better destination at the moment. At least I would’ve been on US soil.

Emilio got out of the car under his own power, and the official walked us both into the police station.

The second that we walked inside, there was a man waiting by the door.

“I’ll take it from here, Aguilera,” he said, taking my arm and pulling me away from the first governmental official, whose hand tightened painfully on my arm.

“I made the discovery. I get to book them!” Aguilera’s face was red.

“That’s enough,” the other guy said in a tone that meant that it was the end of the conversation.

Aguilera finally let go of my arm and stomped off, muttering to himself.

“I’m so sorry, sir. He’s new.”

To my surprise, the new policeman unlocked our handcuffs.

I rubbed my wrists, which were red where the cuffs had chafed them.

“Not a problem,” Emilio said smoothly. “Thank you for taking control of the situation.”

“I apologize sincerely for the…oversight.”

They shared a glance.

“I wonder how a baggie of Omega cocaine made its way onto my jet?”

The new policeman’s eyebrows shot upwards.

“Omega cocaine?”

“Yes.”

The policeman rubbed his chin. “Do you have it?”

“Aguilera does.”

I looked at Emilio. There was something going on that I didn’t understand.

“Why is that significant?”

Both of them looked at me like I was really slow. I just shook my head. Stuff was going on that I didn’t understand at all.

“We should go. Is there any paperwork that you have to handle?”

The policeman shook his head. “Aguilera should know better than to stop you, Señor. I’m so sorry that he wasted your time. You’re free to go.”

My jaw dropped.

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.” The policeman motioned towards the door. “Please go.”

Before I could say anything else, Emilio’s hand was on my arm and he was dragging me out the door.

Finally, we were outside of the police station.

“What the hell just happened?” I hissed, looking over my shoulder to see if there was anybody there.

“We’re free,” he said calmly, as if we hadn’t just been arrested and handcuffed on his plane for cocaine possession.

“I don’t understand anything that’s happening.”

“Look, we’ll go to my home. All of your stuff is still in the plane. I don’t think that it’s a good idea to leave the country at the moment. Why don’t you stay with me for a while?”

“I’d rather stay at the hostel. I paid for the rest of the week.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Listen…you’d be a lot safer in my house than you would be in a hostel now that you’ve been arrested with me.”

“Safer? I don’t feel safer after I was just ARRESTED!” I couldn’t stop myself from shouting the last word.

“Shh,” he said, putting a finger to his lips. There was a woman and a little boy who had turned around to stare at us.

I thanked my lucky stars that they looked like Ecuadorians, and I hoped that they weren’t fluent in English. The woman said something in Spanish to the little boy, taking his hand and towing him away. Maybe it looked like a domestic dispute.

Emilio’s hand tightened on my arm.

“Come to my house, please,” he said again, but I got the feeling that it wasn’t really a request.

He had all of my stuff, including my passport. Even if I tried to break away now, what would happen?

So I decided to stick with him and figure out how it would play out.

“I’ll go home with you.”