“If you insist upon being useless, then I may as well just kill you. I enjoyed torturing you at first, but now it’s boring. I’d rather just get this over with.”
I watched him meet with some American businessman, but it was no one who surprised us. I had surveillance running in his room and the area surrounding the Waldorf Astoria. The guy is an insurance CEO who has some shady dealings with a biotech company Ernesto invested in years ago. The conversation was as boring as watching Ernesto swing from a meat hook.
“I know you must be starving and thirsty and in pain. End it for yourself, if not for Florencia. Just tell me what I want to know. Who paid Humberto? It wasn’t just Néstor. Who did you get money from besides Humberto?”
“No one. There’s nothing left for me to tell.”
“Really? Because we intercepted a courier with a briefcase of cash. How cliché, by the way. We followed him back to the dispatch office.”
The courier was Asian with no accent besides one from Brooklyn. He was no use and a waste of time.
“How would I know who that was from if I never even received the package? I can’t answer questions I know nothing about. Maybe if you’d allowed that delivery to go through, I would have something I could tell you.”
“You really think I would let you get more money in your grubby little hands? Money that could pay for you to head back to Colombia? Money that could pay you off to stay quiet when somebody else goes after Florencia?”
“I had no idea about those fucking hitmen! That wasn’t anything I agreed to. Humberto did that on his own. Why do you think I came here searching for her?”
I try not to laugh in his face. His righteous indignation is a fucking joke.
“I think you came because she’s inconvenient. I think you would’ve told those mercenaries exactly where she was.”
“Youchuchamadre! I’d never do that to my granddaughter.” The cunt of your mother.
I let the insult aboutMamáslide. Not the hill to die on right now. But another one…
“Really? Because you’re the one who put her in front of Humberto. You knew exactly what kind of man he was. And you knew the risk that went along with it. That at any time she could’ve stepped wrong, and he would’ve put the hit on her. You were fine with that risk.”
“Until she met you, she was such an easygoing girl. She always obeyed instructions. She never talked back, and she never caused a fuss. If it hadn’t been for you, then she wouldn’t have ever stepped out of line.”
This fucker doesn’t know Flora for shit.
“That’s where you’re wrong. Flora has a backbone of steel. She decided before I went to see her that she wanted to end things with Humberto. It was hearing her conversation with thatpedazo de mierdathat made me realize how much danger she was in. I rescued her before Humberto could get his hands on her.”
“Rescued? Tell yourself that. You did nothing more than kidnap her. You won’t convince me she’s any less your hostage than I am if I don’t get to speak to her.”
“Ernesto, she’s made it painfully clear she has no wish to see you ever again. I definitely won’t force her to speak to you if she doesn’t want to.”
“Such convenient lies you tell me to justify keeping me away from her. You probably have her holed up in some equally dingy and disgusting warehouse.”
“That’s where you couldn’t be more wrong. Flora chose me. She could’ve insisted upon going to you. She could’ve refused my help. I could’ve helped her start a new life anywhere, but she chose here with me.”
“I don’t believe you, you lyingputa de madre.”
We have so many ways to swear in Spanish. People say the Colombian Spanish accent is pretty neutral. They also say we’re pretty profane.
I pull my phone out and open my photo gallery. I take very few pictures and store even less in my phone. But I have one of Flora from last night when we went out to the movies. It’s a selfie of us together with our hands in our shared popcorn. I’m giving her a kiss on the cheek as she laughs. I hold my phone out to Ernesto.
“Does this look like a woman being held captive?”
“You’ve fucking brainwashed her. She’s some Stockholm Syndrome victim.”
“Don’t confuse you for me. I don’t need to indoctrinate her with anything. I’ve never lied about who and what my family is. All I’ve done is tell Flora the truth from our side. She decided about the things your family told her. She also spoke to Magdalena before we came to New York. Her mother confirmed what I told Flora is the truth. We also learned a few other interesting facts about who you spend your spare time with. How long did it take for you to forget about Domingo when you climbed into Magdalena’s bed?”
“You think I ever bothered to fuck that whore in a bed? Bent over my desk or up against a wall is as good as she ever got.”
“I wonder what Estrella would think about that. Your desk means it was in your house. Does your wife know you broughtyour mistress home with you? And not for a minute do I believe you and Magdalena didn’t fuck in a bed. You’re getting too old to stand up for that long.”
“Leave my wife out of this. She has nothing to do with any of it.”
