Cat and Mouse game

Chapter Nine

They parked in front of a 12-story apartment building that had beautiful, well-groomed plants in its courtyard. There were many other luxury cars in the parking lot. For sure, it was a premium-class residential complex and the apartments there must have cost a considerable amount of money whether to rent or to buy.

Two agents picked up their bags and walked towards the entrance of the house. Eric opened the door with his keys and let Elias in first.

"Please, ladies first," he joked, holding the door open.

"Seriously, stop teasing me already!" Elias blurted out angrily, but still walked through the door.

Eric chuckled softly at his reaction.

With a quick step, Elias approached the elevator, hoping that Eric would just stay behind so he could ride the elevator alone. But, of course, this did not happen. Eric caught up with him in a matter of seconds.

In a deathly silence, interrupted only by Elias' obvious irritation, they got up to the top floor.

They soon found themselves in a spacious studio apartment, decorated in muted gray and black colors. Elias immediately made his way into the apartment to take a better look around. And he was surprised to find that there was only one bed in the room. He was just relieved to see that there was also a couch.

There wasn't much of decorations in the apartment, but all the furniture was stylish. Basically, it had everything they needed for a comfortable living and it looked quite cozy.

"Ha-a-a," Elias sighed sadly, a look of weariness on his face, "I'm sleeping on the couch."

The last thing he wanted to do was to argue with Raven over who was going to sleep in the bed.

"Why? The bed is big enough for both of us to sleep in together..." Raven said, coming up behind Morales.

"I'm. Sleeping. On. The couch," he said in a firm tone. "And I really hope you won't disturb my sleep!"

"Okey-dokey, that's better for me," Eric just shrugged his shoulders and did not object.

Elias placed his suitcase next to the couch and crouched down. He took out some black plastic bag, a small bag that looked like a first aid kit, as well as a change of clothes and a towel. Inside the black bag, there were dozens of disposable phones; personal hygiene items in the small kit-like bag. He quickly pulled out one of the phones so Eric wouldn't notice.

"I'm going to shower first," Elias said.

"Mm-hmm, okay!"

Eric threw his bag on the bed and jumped on it himself. He stretched out on the wide mattress with pleasure.

As Elias went into the bathroom, he locked the door and dialed the number he knew by heart on the push-button phone. For a few seconds, there was a series of long beeps.

"Aló?" came a gentle woman's voice.

"Hola, mamá! Soy yo, Elias," he said into the phone.

"Oh, Elias! Hola, my dear! I'm so glad to hear from you!" the woman said, recognizing her son's voice.

Even though his mother, Isabel, was born and lived half her life in the United States and spoke both English and Spanish, they were used to speaking to each other in Spanish. Late husband and father, Fernando Olvera, never spoke English.

"Cómo estás?" she asked.

"Estoy bien, mamá. And you?"

"I'm doing well too. How is work going?"