Finding Forgiveness

“Enough with the questions,” he snapped. “You’ll find out when we get there.”

We were soon on a jungle track, rife with potholes. Unsurprisingly, Andrea was an incredibly reckless driver. That combined with the terrible state of the road and limbs of jungle sticking out, obscuring the road, meant that I felt my life was fairly at risk.

At long last, he pulled up on the side of the road and I thanked the Goddesses for preserving my life.

“We’re here,” he said as he finally stopped the car before opening the door and taking his gun off the dashboard and putting it in the back of his pants.

I wasn’t exactly sure where here was but I got out the car and followed him through the dense jungle. After a few metres, I could just about see a warehouse a hundred metres away. We walked down an overgrown path until we reached it and Andrea knocked loudly on the door.

“Andrea!” a jolly looking man said after the door opened. “Patron!”

“Javier, my best exporter. It’s good to see you again,” Andrea said in English.

The man’s eyes flickered down to me and he gave a knowing look.

“I see you have a gringa with you?” he responded also in English.

“Ella Loren,” Andrea said putting a firm hand on my shoulder. “Was once Alpha Loren’s but is now mine.”

Javier smiled, “She’s a pretty thing. How’d you come across Loren’s mate?”

“It’s a long and unpleasant story,” Andrea replied. “But I have some more important things I want to discuss with you.”

“Please,” Javier said. “Please come in.”

He turned and began walking back into the warehouse at which point, Andrea withdrew his gun and without hesitation shot him in the back of the head. He fell forward onto his knees and then straight motionless onto the floor.

My lips quivered and I brought a shaking hand up to my mouth.

“Why- why did you do that?” I asked. “I thought you were friends?”

Andrea stepped forward over him and prodding his body with his foot.

“We were,” he said with a shrug. “But then he screwed me over.”

I stepped back and pressed my back against the wall, closing my eyes and blocking the site of blood oozing from his head.

“What did he do?” I asked looking back to Andrea who was still staring down at the body, unphased by the gore.

“He gave information about my exports to my rival, Gustavo Escobar,” he replied in a deep tone. “And I can’t have a snitch working for me.”

I looked around the warehouse and only then noticed how it was piled high to the roof with packets of what looked like cocaine, weed and heroin.

“I knew there was a mole in my operation because my export trucks kept getting hijacked even though we take unexpected routes at unexpected times that no one could guess without inside information. But when I realised his trucks were never touched, it became clear who that mole was,” Andrea explained crouching down to Javier’s body and letting out a long sigh. “It’s a shame he chose to betray me. He really was my best exporter.”

It was the first hint of remorse I had ever seen from him and it was mildly reassuring but then he shrugged and simply stood up.

“We’re taking over the export today since Javier is… otherwise engaged… and this is where you come in. If you’re driving, the border control will let a cute little blonde girl through easy and the drugs will get into Colombia without having to kill any state soldiers, which the government usually gets a bit pissed off at me for doing which leads to a whole host of complications. We’re on good terms right now, they let me get on with my business and I leave them to their’s so I don’t wanna ruin that.”

“Now you want me to help you smuggle drugs across countries?” I asked.

“I mean or I could just massacre the whole patrol guarding the border station. Your choice,” he replied.

“The first option,” I replied quietly.

“Glad we’re on the same page,” he said with a sarcastic smile. “Now, I will deal with the body. You go around the back and start unloading the boxes labelled Bogota from the truck behind the warehouse,” he ordered.Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

I nodded, glad to get away from the dead body and hurried around the back of the warehouse.

There was, in fact, a pile of boxes in a truck but what Andrea didn’t warn me of was the two teenagers, 16 at most, already doing what Andrea had ordered me to do. They both immediately turned around and stared at me blankly.

“Gringa?” one asked.

I nodded.

“We no speak much English,” the other said. “What you doing here?”

“I’m here with Andrea.”

“Andrea Martinez? The boss?”

I nodded.

The exchanged nervous looks and froze. Guilt and fear were all over their faces. It was clear they had a reason to be concerned about Andrea’s presence but despite being involved in drugs, they were young and seemed innocent.

“Listen. You need to get out of here. I’ll try and hold him back,” I said without a second thought.

They nodded, dropped their boxes and began to move fast towards the jungle. Just then we all heard the warehouse door open and footsteps come towards us.

“Go!” I shouted. “Now!”

They bolted and seconds later, Andrea marched out.

He held up his arm straight and shot mercilessly into the forest after the boys until the gun ran out of bullets. After putting the gun back in his belt, he turned to me and wrapped one hand around my neck.

“You better stay right here,” he growled.

I nodded frantically trying to prise his fingers off my throat to free my airway. He then dropped me onto the floor and sprinted into the jungle in the direction of the boys.

I took a few seconds to catch my breath before fumbling back into the warehouse. Javier’s body was still in a bloody mess on the floor and Andrea had only got as far as rolling him onto his back. I gasped at the site of his pale grey skin and wide open eyes before taking a deep breath and shakily looking in his pocket for a phone.

Blood was still pouring out of his head and it got on my hands but all I could think about was calling Leo before Andrea could get back and find me.

I eventually found his mobile, the screen was cracked, presumably from his fall and it only had one bar of service but I could still dial Leo’s number.

“It’s me,” I said as soon as someone picked up.

“Ella?” Leo’s smooth voice replied.

“Gustavo Escobar,” I said quickly. “He’s Andrea’s rival and you might be able to get more information from him.”

“Do you have anything else?”

“I have to go,” I whispered as I heard Andrea’s footsteps come out the jungle. I quickly hung up, shoved the phone back in Javier’s pocket and wiped my hands as best I could on him.

“Blanca!” Andrea’s voice shouted before the door to the warehouse opened I stood up straight and backed away as his eyes set on me next to Javier. His white shirt was saturated in red along with his hands and there were even splatters on his face. “I thought I told you not to move?” he questioned marching up to me.

He then grabbed one of my hands and lifted it up to take a closer look.