He frowns in confusion. “Señor?”
I close the small gap between us and sneer, close to snapping, “The small brunette with green eyes working on this boat. Find her and bring her to me.”
He nods and heads for the stairs quickly. Stepping back into my office, I begin pacing the floor. She was in my office, I know it. I can literally smell it. Question is, how the fuck did she get in here? And why the fuck was she in here? I cannot wait to get my hands around her pretty little neck and squeeze the truth right out of her.
Fuck this.
Storming out of my office and slamming the door shut behind me, I stalk toward the stairs. I am seething. No one so much as dares to look at me wrong, let alone defy me and stick their nose somewhere it doesn’t belong.
Once I get to the main lobby, the entire crew has already been rounded up by all three guards. Berto went alone with one of the deckhands to take Anna to shore, which was senseless on our part. He needs to be here for this. He’s the only one who can reign me in and get through to me when I am like this.
Looking at all the crew members, some who were obviously asleep, based on their disheveled state, my anger grows more and more like a conflagration. “Where is the small brunette?” I roar, making them jump, the females of the crew and a couple of the males trembling in fear. Stepping up to the stewardess who is supposedly in charge of the others, I crouch down so I am directly in her face. “You seem to be missing one of your crew members,” I say through gritted teeth.
“She… sh-sh-she’s gone, sir,” she stutters in a shaky voice, and I grab her shoulders harshly.
She yelps as I shake her once. “What did you just say?” I spit in her face, hardly able to control my rage right now.
Tears begin rolling down the poor woman’s cheeks, and she’s probably pissing herself, but I don’t give a fuck. I can’t. “She’s missing,señor!” she cries out, and squeezes her eyes shut as if waiting for me to strike her.
Releasing the woman in one jerky movement, I spin and face my men. “Search the entire boat!Now!” My men disperse quickly. “And all of you! Stay put! If any of you tries to leave this spot, you’ll have a bullet in your head, no questions asked!” Putting some distance between me and them before I become heedless, I pull out my phone and dial Berto. I need him here.
He answers after the first ring. “You owe me big, Alejo.”
“Where are you?” I snap.
“About five minutes out. What happened?” His tone switches to business immediately when he hears mine.
“Someone was in my office, and one of the crew members is missing.”
“Pinche—” he spits. “I’ll be there in two minutes.” He hangs up, and I hurl my phone across the room, shattering it into a million pieces against the wall.
Wait till I get my hands on that little girl.
Irma
Damn, I really ran into some good luck tonight. I overheard some of the crew talking and found out that they were going to take the lovely Ms. Lopez by tinder to shore in an hour. So, while Alejandro and his main guy Alberto were still eating dinner and only one guard was making his rounds downstairs, I was able to break into his office, plug in the program that Matches gave me onto his laptop—since as he predicted, there is no way to plug in a USB, I wait just a few minutes for it to download everything and send it straight to an untraceable address—then slip out undetected. So fucking easy. I seriously don’t get why Matches acted like this would be at all difficult.
From there, it was even easier. I snuck onto the tinder, and because of my size and the fact that I’m so limber, I was able to fold myself comfortably underneath the seats where the life jackets were kept. The hardest part of all was sneaking off of it, but thanks to Ms. Lopez, I was able to.
The woman who became my little lifesaver put up quite a fight when we docked. Alberto and the deckhand had to literally drag her ass off the boat and up the dock. So, it made it possible for me to slip out from my hiding place and quietly into the water, under the dock to wait.
I’ve never had such good luck before where everything fell into place on its own.
With smugness in my grin, I watch the tinder drive away into the night. If I didn’t get the opportunity to slip out while docked, I would’ve had to go back with them and wait until all was dark and quiet to steal the boat, cutting the line and drifting away for a bit before turning the engine on and disappearing into the night. Which is a lot riskier. Especially when the men on board are all armed.
Climbing out of the water and onto the dock, I open my waterproof bag and slip on a short, flowy dress and some flip-flops. I use the hand towel to towel dry my hair some. Taking the small across-the-body handbag out, I walk up the dock toward civilization, disposing the backpack into a nearby trash can on the way. Goodbye, fake nose and ugly-ass wig. Hello, freedom and wealth. I pulled that shit off like a boss!
Not wanting to stay out on the streets for long, I hail down a cab and have them take me past my apartment a few blocks to drop me off just in case. I round the building and head back the few blocks, constantly looking over my shoulder. As long as I make it to my place, I’m good. I no longer have my disguise, so even if his men do come looking for me, they’ll never recognize me. And when they try to search for me or do a more thorough background check on me, they’ll eventually find out that Amy O’Leary does not exist and hit a dead-end.
I enter the building next to mine and climb the stairs all the way to the top and open the door that takes me onto the roof. From there, I simply walk over to the roof of my own building that is butted up against this one and head over to the door that I broke the lock to, so that I would never be locked out. Once inside, I descend the stairs to my own floor with pep in my step.
Making it safely into my apartment, I’m so high off of adrenaline I just want to bounce around and scream. Or have sex. Sex with Alejandro Martinez would have been epic. Too bad I’ll never know what it’d be like to have that massive body with bronzed skin over mine. If only we could’ve met under different circumstances, he would’ve made one hell of a one-night stand. Something I probably would never forget.
After a long, hot shower and a glass of wine, I pass out hard. It’s what happens when you finally come down from an adrenaline rush. You crash. But before completely crashing, I touched myself until I came with thoughts and images of that gorgeous Cuban man.
I wake up early the next morning, startled from some commotion. Shooting up to my feet with my pocketknife in hand, I quickly realize it’s just the couple that lives down the hall. They yell and scream at each other from morning until evening, and then they’re fucking from sundown until the sun comes up the next day just to do it all over again. Which happens to be just as loud as their fighting.
Letting out the breath I was holding, I decide it’s time to get out of here. I’m not going to feel safe until I am far away from Miami. I think it’s time for some good clean fun. Already giddy about where I’m planning to go to, I head over to the little magnetic whiteboard I have on the fridge and write Matches a message.