Gringa - in the Clutches of a Ruthless Drug Lord - 2 (11 page)

‘It’s the Gringa,’ Maria says. ‘She make us sit and …’

‘
Si
,’ Rosa says standing behind Maria. ‘The Gringa – is all her fault.’

Both women scurry away. Sellouts!

Christa turns her head slowly to look at me, her eyes cold and hard. ‘So ... you are taming beastia eh?’ Her voice is low and dangerous. ‘Very clever Gringa. Very clever. You and Senor Vito, very clever peopoool. ’

I get up, grab an apple and walk out of the kitchen. Damned if I’m discussing my date with her. I just hope she doesn’t attack Senor Vito. He’s doing such a good job on Diago.

As I walk I find myself craning my neck to look around. It’s not like I’m looking for Diablo or something – I’m just looking. But where the hell is he today?

Then I see him, standing at a window of a villa high on the ranch, looking down at me. I smile and raise my apple at him. He smiles back. Then I pretend to throw the apple at him. His smile waivers for a moment and I laugh. He shakes his head at me. Senor Vito appears behind him and I quickly lower the apple. Diablo nods and reluctantly moves away from the window.

So the lessons continue, then.

Later in the day, Maria and Rosa tell me about the conversation they overheard last night. ‘Christa and Santana they not happy, Senorita,’ Maria says. ‘Christa say, Diablo, he is becoming too soft. She say he dress like a Gringo and he forget who he is.’

‘Si,’ Rosa says. ‘Christa say the other gangs, they see Diablo dress like a Gringo and they think Diablo is not strong anymore and they come take our land away. The men, they get frightened and they say maybe they talk to Diablo – tell him to stop.’

‘Really!’

Well, Christa sure knows how to incite uproar among Diablo’s men – I mean
Diago’s
men.

His name is really Diago. Diago. I like the name Diago. So much better than …

‘You be careful of Christa,’ Rosa warns.

‘Huh? Okay.’

I see Diablo at dinner looking casual and handsome. Okay, very handsome.

We smile and sneak glances at each other throughout dinner. I’m barely eating and I notice he’s barely touching his food.

But, he stays away from me at night. Confusing.

The next evening, I see the men moving the large dining table out of our villa.

‘Hey Maria. Wassup? Our furniture being repossessed or something?’

‘We don’t serve dinner here no more,’ she replies.

‘You don’t serve - why?’

She shrugs. ‘That’s what Diablo wants.’

‘Oh.’ A tiny thrill shoots through me. I didn’t like them drinking and doing drugs where I sleep. It was one of my gripes at the rock pool.

‘Is all about you, Senorita,’ Rosa says, winking at me. ‘Diablo, he want to make you veeery happy.’

I beam inwardly at her words.

****

As soon as Senor Vito leaves the ranch I seek out Diablo. I knock on his door and wait. Santana opens the door and bristles with hostility. With her hands on his hips, she snarls, ‘Aaaan? What do you want now,
puta
?’

‘Hey Santana,’ I say, ignoring her foul mood. After I learned how hard her life is under Christa, she too has my sympathy.

A shirtless Diablo appears behind her.

‘Oh … hi…’ I murmur, taken aback by his lack of clothes and wondering if I interrupted something. ‘Um ... I’ll maybe come back later, cos it’s not import ... ’

His arm shoots out to grab mine. ‘Stay!’ He looks pointedly at Santana.

‘Biiitch!’ Santana mutters as she storms out.

I look at Diablo in the natural light and see the scars on his forehead, the red eyes, and since he’s shirtless – the tattoos on his chest and an urge to hug him overcomes me. Right there, I vow never to call him Diablo again - never to refer to him as a devil, a beast, a monster. He’s Diago, brother to Troy.

I study the tattoos as if I’m admiring them, but I actually want to see the scars from the cigarette burns. Despite my distress, I manage a small smile. ‘How are you Diago?’ I ask, emphasizing his name, a tacit reminder of our lovely date.

He shrugs, never one for words. But his lit up face tells me he’s happy to see me.

I point at one shoulder. ‘I’ll take that shrug as a, “Very well, thank you and how are you?”’

He grins and scratches the back of his neck.

‘Look Diago,’ I say, getting serious, ‘it’s my nephews Christening - eh, Naming Ceremony and I wanna attend. Please? I adore Liam and since he’s my only nephew, I’m excited about the Christening. ’Sides, it gives me something to do, cos I get really bored here.’

His smile suddenly vanishes.

‘What? It’s just for the baby, not Austin, really.’

After taking a deep breath, he shrugs and then nods slowly.

I exhale. ‘Thank you. And Marcus ...?’

He nods. ‘Marcus, he take you, he stay with you, he brung you back.’

‘
Bring
,’ I correct, barely able to contain my excitement. ‘Um …you’re not going to change your mind like the last time, are you?’ My voice is pleading.

He shakes his head slowly.

‘Great! It’ll save you heaps of abuse from me.’

He chuckles.

‘Now ... I need pesos. Lots of it.’ I was kidding about the “lots of it” part.

He reaches into his closet, draws out a shoe box and hands it to me.

‘T…hanks,’ I say, opening the box. ‘I suppose I can sell these shoes on Ebay and use the mo ... Ohmigod!’ The shoe box is filled with banknotes. My eyes fly to his. ‘This much?’

More shrugging as he shuts the closet, a smug look on his face.

‘Wow! I wasn’t ... I ... wow! Thank you, Diago.’

I think he’s showing of, but hey, I don’t mind. ‘This will like, come in handy,’ I say, clutching the box to my chest.

He scratches the back of his head, his chin and finally jerks his neck from side-to-side, his signature response to shyness.

We grin at each other for a few moments, memories of our dinner date flooding our mind.

‘Well, I’ll eh, say goodnight then and like, leave you to ...’ I jerk my head in Santana’s direction.

He grunts again and I exit clutching my box of money.

Paris and I are not the best of friends, but I really adore Liam and since I have tons of money, my plans for the christening now include a tiered Christening cake, a tiny white satin suit for baby, a new dress for Paris and of course, a new dress for me. I plan to take them shopping today and splurge on them. And me - all courtesy of Diago.

Almost skipping up to Paris’s door, I breeze in and kiss my nephew.

‘Wow Payton,’ my dad says, giving me a one arm hug, ‘you look great!’

‘Yes …you look different,’ Elaine remarks, her voice accusing. ‘What’s got into you?’

‘A little chunky,’ Paris says, her eyes sweeping over me. ‘Why you all glammed up? Spit it out.’

She
has put on a lot of weight, but I’m not in the mood to hurt her.

‘Yesh,’ I say, pinching Liam’s cheeks affectionately. My boootiful nephew is being christened and I’m stoked, big time.’

There is an unusual silence in the room today. I look around and for the first time notice the anxious faces. ‘Hey, what’s wrong?’

‘Payton,’ Elaine says, ‘we eh, we think it’s not a good idea for you to ... to attend the christening.’

My eyes grow huge. ‘Wha …?’

I look at Paris. She shrugs.

I look at my father - he looks away.

‘But … why?’

No answer.

I turn to Paris again.

Paris wrinkles her nose. ‘It’s like, complicated. The Devil’s men - they follow you around and like, shadow you and stare at everyone ... not something I want on Liam’s big day.’

‘Men? It’s only Marcus, Paris.’ I look at Marcus who is frowning. He quickly looks away, his face turning red.

‘Yeah, but we can do without that,’ she says.

For a moment, I can’t think of anything to say. Then I look at my dad.

‘Payton, I’m sorry,’ he says and moves towards me.

I take a step back. How can he let them do this to me? I’m his daughter – he’s supposed to protect me. How can he allow people to hurt his child and do nothing about it?

‘Payton, I tried to talk them out of it, but they ... ’

Paris shakes her head. ‘Diablo ... ’

‘It’s Diago Paris! Diago. Diago!’

She shrinks back at my angry tone.

I shake my head. ‘I don’t understand. I’ve like, sacrificed so much, suffered so much - so, everyone can be safe. Yet you guys can like, so causally cut me out because of a “shadow” I have no control over?’

My father nods in agreement. ‘I told them that Payton. Trust me, I did. But the villagers also agree so I stood no chance.’

‘The villagers ...’ I turn and glower at some village women cleaning the place. They can obviously hear the entire conversation.

‘The injustice of this - really pisses me off. I was plucked from my family, taken prisoner and repeatedly ra …forced to do things I didn’t want to. Now everyone forgets what I did for them? How could they? How
dare
they?’

‘My God Payton!’ my father cries, reaching out to me.

I step back again. ‘Dad, you – grow a spine. You’ve never protected me from them,’ I say, jerking my head towards Paris and Elaine.

‘Now don’t you say that,’ Elaine snaps. ‘There was
nothing
to protect you from.’

‘Yes, there was! There always was.’ I was beyond caring what I said.

‘Oh, stop playing
that
card Payton,’ Paris says. ‘Stop looking for sympathy.’

I ignore her and turn to look at the village women. They quickly look away. ‘You guys seem to have forgotten who saved your asses. I saved your children, your grandchildren, your family, your friends, your fucking village and you treat me like
this
? This is my
only
nephew and I love him!’

‘Payton, calm down,’ Elaine says. ‘It’s not a big deal.’

‘You’re right, it’s not a big deal.’

It is a damned big deal to me. What about the box of money I have? What about the pretty white satin suit? What about the lovely dress I was going to buy Paris? Disappointment coils around my heart and I have to steel myself not to cry. An hour ago I was so happy, now I feel rejected, humiliated.

The village women whisper between themselves.

I look at them and narrow my eyes. ‘You have the power to exclude me, to hurt me, huh? Guess what? I got power too. You’ve no idea how easily I can get Diago to burn down this whole fucking village!’

‘Payton!’ Elaine cries. ‘What’s got into you? You sounding like th
e
m,’ she says, jerking her head towards Marcus.

Yeah,’ I sneer. ‘I sound like them cos I’m treated like this. Chain
you
like a dog and you
too
will bite,’ I ramble.

Elaine frowns. ‘What are you talking about? We never chained you like a dog.’

I look at Paris. ‘What does Austin have to say about this?’

‘He ... he wishes ...’

‘Ahhhh! So he
doesn’t
know.’

‘He doesn’t have a choice,’ she snaps.

‘You know what – go fuck yourselves! I’m done with you guys. Have your Christening, have your party, forget about me.’ I reach for the box of money, pick it up and began to leave. Then as an afterthought, I open the box and flash it in front of Paris. ‘This was for the Christening, courtesy of Diago.’

‘Holy cow! That’s American dollars,’ she cries her eyes shining with greed. Money always moved her. She spins around to look at Elaine. ‘Mom?’

Elaine’s eyebrows shoot up. ‘Well, I suppose ...’

‘Go fuck yourselves!’ I say and storm off.

‘Mom!’ Paris screams.

Marcus runs after me. ‘Senorita Payton! Senorita Payton!

I stop, but do not turn around.

He walks up to me and stands in front of me. ‘Senorita, please, they are …’ He digs into his pocket and fishes out a white handkerchief which he hands to me.

I mumble my thanks and dab my eyes.

He shakes his head slowly. ‘I get hot choco …?’

‘N …no …’ I whimper and crawl into the car.

Marcus drives silently, glancing at me in the rear view mirror throughout the journey, his forehead a constant furrow.

I look at him in the mirror, my lip trembling. ‘She …she used to leave to leave me at home while they - my dad, Paris - they went off on holidays, shows … society events. They left me with babysitters. I waited and waited and waited for them to return. I was so lonely.’

Marcus shakes his head again, a sympathetic look in his eye.

I sit forward and hold his eyes in the rear mirror. ‘Paris would come home and brag about how much fun they had. Know what Elaine used to say? The reason she had to leave me behind? I was untidy, too fidgety, too ill-mannered. Said I was easily bored. My father – he bought it. He never …’

‘Senorita … I don’t know …’

‘Once, they went off on a seven day holiday without me. Seven days, Marcus. I cried myself to sleep every night.’

Marcus frowns. ‘Your father, Senorita …’

I slam back into my seat. ‘When I was little, I always wished him dead.’

‘Senorita, that’s your father …’

‘Then I would have been an orphan, Marcus. You see, people hurt orphans all the times. But it’s acceptable to be hurt that way – sort of expected. When your own flesh and blood hurts you, it’s deep. Really deep. You never get over it. That sense of helplessness … abandonment …it stays and lives with you forever.’

‘We’re home Senorita,’ Marcus says. ‘
This
is home now.’

I look out the window and see Diago and Senor Vito standing in the courtyard. Nearby are Maria and Rosa.

‘Damn! I don’t want to see them,’ I say, but Marcus is already opening the door for me.

Diago’s eyes lights up when he sees me. ‘Finish shopping so quickly?’ he asks in perfect English, eliciting a pleased nod from Senor Vito.

I try to smile, but I’m unable to carry it off.

When they notice my tear stained face they turn to Marcus, their eyes demanding, accusing.

‘No!’ Marcus says. ‘I do nothing to her.’

I turn and walk to my room while they corner Marcus for an explanation.