My cocky attitude turned to fear the farther away from Jose’s house that I drove. I wasn’t smart, at all. What the hell was I going to do with his little black book? I couldn’t sell it. Most of the bad guys in Atlanta were in his pocket, anyways. The only other option was to go to the police with it, and I wasn’t about to do that; my father was friends with the police chief and captain in Atlanta.
Going to the police would ensure that I had to admit to everything I had done. My father and my whole family would know how much I had fucked up over the last few years.
My heart started to race. I felt sweat as it formed on my brow. I had made a huge mistake. I stole the contact book of one of the Mexican cartel’s biggest associates; there was nothing that could save me now. My bright idea could turn into the one reason I ended up getting murdered. No way was he going to let me off once he figured out I had stolen his precious black book.
I needed to turn around and give it back to him.
No!
I couldn’t just go back in there and tell him I stole something from him. Crap! I had Jose Escabar’s little black book and I owed him $200,000. My body started to shake as the gravity of what was going on set in. There was no way for me to avoid this. I was in way over my head, and I needed to reach out for help.
I pulled my car over and sat on the side of the road, shaking. My whole life was crumbling around me. The lifestyle I wanted wasn’t anywhere to be seen in my future. I had nothing left. There was nothing to get me through all of it.
As much as I thought I had friends and family who would support me, none of them would be there if I was face to face with Escabar. None of them would hand over $200,000 without tons of questions and, likely, they wouldn’t be all right with the answers I gave them. Yes, my brothers would give me the money to make sure I was safe. But man, would I pay for it the rest of my life. Maybe my family was right about me making bad decisions all the time, it certainly didn’t feel like I had made any right ones.
Slowly, I tried to take some deep breaths. I desperately needed someone I could confide in and could work with to get through all of it. Mathew and Carlos were the closest things I had to someone I could confide in. But did I really want to bring them into this mess? The second either of them knew what was going on, I was positive they would stop being my friends. Even years of friendship couldn’t withstand this horrible mistake.
I picked up my phone to call one of my brothers. Surely, one of them could be there for me without telling my father. I’d call George; he’s the oldest and most levelheaded. Maybe he could help me.
“George,” I said as I tried to control my voice.
“Hey, Chase. I can’t talk right now. Cindy and the kids are waiting for me – we are heading into a movie. Can we talk later?”
“Oh, sure,” I said as calm as I could.
“Thanks. Brandon is graduating in a month. You should come out and say hi. You know you’re his favorite uncle.”
“Sure. Yeah, of course, I’ll be there. I’ll talk to you later. Have fun.”
“Will do. Talk to you later.”
As I hung up, I knew I shouldn’t bother any of my other brothers. They all had their own lives and their own things to worry about. I didn’t need to be adding more to them by telling them what was going on with me. I certainly didn’t need to put them in danger by bringing them into the world of Jose Escabar.
Just like my father, any one of them would pay off Jose for me. I might have to reach out to them if the deadline came near, but I hopefully could avoid it. All four of my brothers were financially successful, and I felt like the loser of the family, for sure. But in the end, I would much rather go to one of my brothers for the money than to my father, at least they wouldn’t cut me off from the entire family.
My mind spun with all the options, and then I saw a text on my phone from Jordan. A smile flashed across my face almost instantly. As I thought about our conversation earlier in the day, I couldn’t help but think that I wanted to be the kind of man she was impressed by. Not impressed by my money, but truly impressed by the type of person I was. Certainly, I couldn’t say I would impress her at all if she knew who I was at that moment.
Just seeing her name on my phone calmed me down right away. I couldn’t wait to meet her in person. I didn’t know her at all, but there was something about that girl that I really wanted to have around. Her smile, her eyes, her lips – I couldn’t wait to have them all right there with me.
“Got the information from your assistant about my flight. Can’t wait to meet you,” her text read.
“I’m excited to meet you, too. Have a safe flight,” I responded.
I took a couple deep breaths and drove the rest of the way home. It was going to be a long couple of days waiting for Jordan and trying to figure out how I could get the money I needed. I also had to get my house ready for her to visit. I didn’t want to force her to sleep in my room, so I needed to pull some things out of the garage and set up the second bedroom for her.
Hopefully, things would go really well with us and she wouldn’t want to sleep in there. But at least for the first night, she would probably want her own space. I couldn’t help smiling as I thought about having Jordan actually in my home. But the weirdest thing of all was that I thought about what it would be like to make her breakfast in the morning and sit around the table. I didn’t think about what it would be like to have her in my bed. It was odd for me to think about any woman in more than a sexual way.
As I walked into the house and looked around, I decided I definitely needed to pick up before Jordan arrived. The house looked like a bunch of frat boys had taken over. That certainly wouldn’t impress her when she arrived. I wasn’t in a position to hire someone to clean up for me, so I took to cleaning it up on my own.
Chapter Eight
Jordan
Selling everything I owned in less than two days was surprisingly freeing for me. Most of the people in my apartment complex were happy to buy my furniture items, because I had them at ridiculously low prices. But I needed to get things sold so I had some cash of my own. When people would come over for a couch or chair they had purchased, I would sell them other things like my dishes and rugs.
I didn’t want to get to America and not have any way of caring for myself. I didn’t want to rely on Chase to take care of me if he turned out to be some horrible person. Plus, I would need money to buy food at the airport, and if Chase happened to not show up or something.
I was too responsible of a person to just fly off to America without a plan. I made sure I had enough money for a bus ticket to Florida, so I could be with Ana just in case the thing with Chase didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to.