Page 16 of Miguel
She sucked in a breath. “It goes against school policy. You’ll have to find someone else.”
At that moment, Loco chose to shout at Chema. “Hijo deputa!” He flipped a chair, smashing it against the wall of his office. Fuck me. I drifted away from them for a moment to a quieter space so she wouldn’t think I was murdering anybody. Once it was quiet, I pleaded, “Nena, level with me here.”
“Señor Lopez…”
I could still hear the reluctance in her voice. She was going to say no. Her and that fucking school policy and their fucking rule of only adding a certain number of people… My brain lit up with an idea. A way she couldn’t fucking refuse.
“Let me talk to Señora Laura.” It was a growled command. I almost expected her to argue, but I could hear her huffed breath before she passed the phone off to the secretary and her voice came on the line. “Señora Laura,” I greeted cordially. This was one of the moments where my level head came in handy, as did my powers of persuasion. They didn’t work on Lorena Flores, but I knew they’d work on the secretary. Yeah, I’d caught her crotch-checking me. “Hermosa, I had an emergency here at work.” That was one way of putting it. “Nobody else is available right now to go and pick up Zeke from school. I know it’s against school policy, but could you please put Maestra Flores down on the list giving her permission to take my son off school grounds and bring him home? I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important, hermosa.”
She mumbled her mhmm’s and aha’s. “That’s most unusual, Señor Lopez…”
“Don’t I know it, Señora Laura. But like I said, this is an emergency and there’s no other teacher I trust more than Lorena to do this.”
“Uh-huh…” There was a pause on the other side, and I could almost imagine the smirk on her lips. As if she could hear something in my voice in the way I said Lorena’s name. I bit back my own smirk in the face of the situation. After a brief pause she said, “Alright, Señor Lopez.” There was a shuffling and then Lorena’s voice came on the other end.
“So what time are you coming?” She didn’t bother to hide her irritation.
I chuckled. She’d learn soon enough. “Señora Laura added you to the file, giving you permission to drop him off.”
“I–what–I didn’t–”
“Nena, can you bring him?” Hell, I was going to compensate her for her time that I was stealing. Pay for her gas, fix her tires, give her ten consecutive orgasms. Whatever the fuck she needed.
“Fine,” she said. “Text me the address.”
I smiled. “On it.” I hung up, texted her the compound’s address, and made my way out to the bar for a small break. I needed a shot of our strongest tequila while I sat and waited for the lovely Lorena Flores to come and drop off my son.
And I couldn’t fucking wait for her to get here.
Chapter Eight
Lorena
Iworriedabouttakinga child that wasn’t my own on public transport. I held tightly to his hand as I hailed down a combi and we climbed onto the small, public bus. We bumped our way across the city until we arrived at our stop. I paid and hopped off the bus with Zeke in tow to face a building that looked more like a prison than a house.
“Do you guys live here?” I stared up at what looked like a compound. A wall encircled the entire property, barbed wire jutting out on top. The front gate was being manned by two angry-looking men wearing leather vests, and I didn’t need to look close to know they had guns hidden beneath their tight clothes.
Was thisseriouslythe right place?
I stopped in front of the gate and reached my trembling fingers for my phone, ready to call Señor Lopez and tell him he must have made some mistake when one of the guards slowly made their way towards us.
“Lorena Flores?” he asked.
“Y-yeah?”
“Miguel said to let you through.”
“Oh, okay.”
So this was the right place, then.
They slowly opened the gate to let me through. I walked inside. Behind us, the gate closed and it felt like the slamming lid of a coffin.
Taking a deep breath, I tugged on Zeke’s hand, looking down at him. “Ready?”
He stared at me.
Right.
