Page 54 of El Malo

Rosa

One week later…

“Jefe wanted me to ask if you wanted something to drink.”

I jump at his sudden appearance and regard Angel with a forced smile. “I’m fine. Thank you.”

The kid somehow narrowly escaped death at the shed. Whatever Javier did to him has him loyal as can be. He’s fierce and dedicated to his new boss. When he’s not at the estate, he’s exhausting every minute “hunting down a pig.” I can only take it to mean they’re still searching for Michael.

Michael Brown.

Not Stiner.

I lied to Javier. I had to. I couldn’t tell him he needed to be looking for special agent Michael Stiner with the United States Central Intelligence Agency. There’s no telling what he’d do to me. I sure as hell will do whatever it takes to make sure I don’t find out.

“Where did you meet him?”

“At a restaurant in Acapulco.”

“What is he doing here in Guerrero?”

“He’s a journalist studying the exponential increase of police corruption since the ’50s.”

“How long were you two seeing each other?

“Five and a half years.”

“Long before you came to work for me?”

“Yes.”

“Kind of random two Americans meet in my city, no?”

“It’s a small world.”

“El Paso, Texas, huh?”

“Born and raised.”

Somehow, I gave him morsels of the truth without giving him much to go on. Michael and I met at Langley in Virginia. Five and a half years ago. We started sleeping together right away. Some truth mixed into lies.

“Jefe insists.” The kid, I learned, is almost twenty. He’s tall and lanky. His cheeks are still hollowed out and his skin pale from his stint in the shed.

I rise from the couch in the living room and start for the kitchen. It’s pouring down rain today. The house feels emptier than usual. Yoet and his family left for home a couple of days ago and the maids are out enjoying their day off. It’s just me and Angel and Marco Antonio. Javier and the others are out.

For a solid week now, Javier has been positively obsessed with locating Michael.

What happens when he finds him?

Will Michael rat me out?

He won’t. I know Michael. He’s lost himself over the years, but his heart was always with the agency. That’s one reason why he couldn’t ever buckle down and commit to me. It was always about the job. Our mark. We were trained in the event we were ever tortured for information. You don’t give up information to save yourself.

But I’m not sure the CIA even had the brainpower to dream up all the ways Javier can torture a man.

I shudder as I hunt down a bottle of tequila in the kitchen. I’m tired of feeling on edge worrying if tonight will be the night Javier finds out about who I am. I’ve pushed him away. We fucked the night Michael raped me, but we haven’t touched since. Each night, I curl up in his bed with my back to him. He doesn’t come home until late and he gets up before dawn. A few times, I’ve found his strong arm wrapped around me in the middle of the night, but it’s a reminder of how he can crush me.

He will crush me.

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