Nights In Paradise

My eyes widen and I stumble along behind the other man when I see the gun in his shoulder holster.

What the hell is going on?

I’m shoved into Carlos’s office and I fall to my knees.  I stand up slowly, painfully.  The older man stalks towards me, his dark eyes on fire with anger and disgust.  They rake down my body and he spits at the floor where I was.

“This is what he’s been watching every night instead of getting ready for his wedding to my daughter?”

“Who?” I ask, confused.

“Carlos,” he growls.  And I feel my heart sink to my toes.  Carlos is engaged.  He belongs to another woman.  What the hell was he doing playing with me?  Just playing with the hired help?  Testing out the goods?

My stomach sinks and then twists.  I feel bile rising up in my throat.  I swallow roughly and glare at him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Carlos is marrying my daughter day after tomorrow.  That’s where he is tonight.  The rehearsal dinner.  I would be there too but I had some business to take care of.”

I don’t like the sounds of that at all.

“What business?” I whisper.

“I need you to disappear.  Willingly or I’ll make sure that you disappear.  And you’ll stay gone.”

I glance wildly around the room looking for a way out.  But the only way out is the door and the mountain is still there, his arms crossed across his chest.  His dead blue eyes tell me that I’m not getting any help from him.

I backpedal until I’ve got a chair between us.  “I have to keep this job.  I need the money.”

His cold lips curl.  “I can give you money to get away.   But you need to disappear tonight.”

I shake my head and the other man moves from the doorway, crowding in behind me.  Before I can even think of what to do, a cloth drops over my nose and mouth.  I claw desperately at it but I can feel the sickly sweet smell pulling me under.  My hands drop and I slip into darkness.