Cartel Love (James Valdez)

Knocked Out

I slowly opened my eyes. I spent the whole night lying on the ground trying to fall asleep but I couldn't. I've always had my sleep problems but this night I couldn't even close an eye. My back ached and one single sunray hit me right in the face. I tried to process everything that happened yesterday. Mila, mynear-death experience, Camila, this cage, James, James. I knew that I had to find his spot, that I had to seduce him to get me out of here. And I knew that I could do this.

My thoughts got interrupted by James himself who came into my "cage". By now I've noticed that there were around ten more cages but I was the only one alone in it. Without saying a single word James roughly grabbed my arm and pulled me out. He cuffed my hands again and led me out of the door, we walked past the other cages where other women were lying on plank beds. He brought me to a door, knocked at it and pulled me inside of the room. I saw Camila sitting at her desk. She looked at me leaning back: "Good morning, Penelope. Have you changed your opinion?" I shook my head confidently: " I'd rather die than betray my own family." Camila got up and slowly walked towards me. "Penelope, Penelope... You know that your dad was my drug supplier. Now I haven't heard of him in months and he doesn't call me back. He owes me a lot of coke, you know. But for now I have to find a use for you... You could work as a prostitute for me. I am sure you would make a lot of money for me..." My heart began to race again. " Yeah, I really do like this idea but it's too risky. It could catch your dad's attention and then he could rescue you." She walked around me slowly. "You're gonna go with James today. I'm gonna make a drug dealer out of you just like the cabrón you call your dad." From the corner of my eye I could see James rolling his eyes in annoyance but I didn't care. This was the jackpot. So I nodded knowing that it didn't matter for Camila whether I liked her plan or not.

While walking to the car James explains everything to me: " We're gonna act like we're gonna supply a normal supermarket with normal coffee but inside of the boxes is coke. The owner of the supermarket is a famous dealer. I'm gonna give you a gun just in case something goes wrong. If you think you have to shoot me or you have to flee on the way or during the deal, I'm gonna have to blow your brains out. Got it?" "Got it." I sat myself on the passenger seat: " Could I have a cigarette?" He looked at me for a moment in skepticism but handed me one. I put it in between my plump lips and turned into his direction, so that he could lit it for me. His eyes wandered from my lips to my eyes where they stayed for some seconds. I could feel his breath on my face before he quickly turned his face and looked straight out of the front shield. During the whole ride he didn't say a single word but I knew that I was on a good way.

When we got out of the car James handed me the gun: " Do you know how to use it?" I let out a little smirk: "That was the very first thing my dad teached me as soon as I turned 10." He gave me a little smile. " Good. You might need it." He also handed me a cap with the company logo of the supermarket on it and a box where the coffee aka coke was in. He gave me a sign to stay behind him, so we walked into the storage room. Inside of there were two men dressed in normal clothes not in a uniform. They were very young and kind of nervous which made them look very suspicious. I pretended to put the box on the ground and whispered to James: "They're not working here, I am a hundred percent sure." " I know. Just act normally." He said through his teeth. We put the boxes on tables right in front of the guys.

"1,2,3", he whispered to me and I knew exactly what to do. I pulled the gun out of the back of my jeans and held it against one of the thief's right temple before he could react. James was as relaxed as this was his every-day-routine. "Hands up or I'll shoot!", he threatened them and they obeyed immediately. "Who sent you? Who the fuck sent you? You have three seconds before I...", that was the last thing I heard before I felt something hitting my head and everything went black.

"Penelope! Penelope! You have to wake up!", a voice in my head that sounded like my momma screamed. I tried to open my eyes but they seemed to be so heavy. I saw the shadow of a person above me. Everything was so blurry. I heard a voice screaming something but it was too far away. I tried to gather my senses while the voice told me to wake up over and over again. But it was too hard. This was the second time in two days that I was sure to breathe my last breaths.

"Penelope. Hey, Penelope. Come on, wake up! Wake up!", I opened my eyes but i couldn't see anything, I opened my mouth but I wasn't able to speak. I tried to stretch my hurting body but my muscles didn't listen to me. It felt like I was a stranger in my own body. I had no clue who I was, where I was and what happened to me. After a while my vision cleared and I could recognize the shadow above me. Then it hit me all of sudden.

"Hey.", James smiled at me, "one of these cowards hit your head with his gun, I shot him in the leg but they were only two teenagers who wanted to make some easy cash." I nodded carefully. So all of this wasn't just a dream, it was my reality now. "You have a pretty big wound on your head and you injured you wrist while falling on the ground but I bandaged it." I realized that I was lying on a mattress in this cage again and I let out a little sigh. "You should eat that.", he nodded to some bread lying next to me. " And then you should try to sleep, I will come back in two hours to change the bandages and give you more medicine." So I did what he said, the bread tasted like pure caviar and I never fell asleep that easily eventhough I wanted to rip my head off because of this pain.

When I woke up again I've had lost every track of time. I felt like a bear crawling out of his cave after winter. I sat there for a while thinking about the dream I had. I saw myself running around our garden, fresh air in my face, wind blowing through my hair. I was so free, I believed I could do and be everything I wanted. We were so happy. My momma and my dad sat in their chairs on our terrace smiling at each other and caressing my mom's big womb. Everything was perfect. And then the cartel of my dad's enemy killed her, they killed my momma and my baby sister in her belly. I never had the chance to meet my sister or say goodbye to my mom. A single tear came out of my left eye and left a wet stain on my cheek. I closed my eyes and tried to breathe long and slow breathes. "Uhm, hi, are you okay?", James interrupted my breath exercises I learned shortly after her death. I slowly nodded biting on my bottom lip, trying to hold back more tears: "I'm fine." James looked at me in skepticism for some seconds but then kneeled down in front of me. He carefully took my right wrist and slowly unwrapped the bandage. The look of my crushed, bruised and swollen wrist made me want to vomit. I looked in the other direction while James softly cleaned the wound and bandaged it again. After that he sat himself in front of me and looked at the injury right above my forehead. When I tried to swipe away my tears I softly touched his hand, he looked right into my eyes and I immediately pulled my hand away. My whole body shivered. Touching him felt so good, so safe and free. There was definitely a connection between the two of us.