Page 75 of Survival

Darren gave me a serious look that stronglysuggested he didn’t like my jokes, especially when he startedstriding toward me with an angrypace.

“Kidding!” I said quickly with an uneasysmile and that stopped him as he regarded me closely. “I'm justtrying to make sure I have enough time to be ready for when youcome back.”

Duh.

He seemed to like my second answer as hecrossed the room in two long strides and bent down to kiss myforehead. “Now, that’s a better answer,” he said. “Just go haveyour breakfast, enjoy your workout, and go get ready. I’ll comefind you when I'm done.”

“Okay,” I said.

He took my face in his hands and gave me agood deep kiss, possessing everything I had, and I held on to hiswrists to help support myself against his force. He then let go andbumpedmy nose with hisfingertip. “Behave yourself.” Hesmirked and headed for the door.

“Uh, Darren?” I asked inquisitively.

He turned back around, raising an eyebrow atme. I held up my still bound wrists so he could see, hoping he’dfinally release me.

“Oh, yeah.” He laughed and pulled out hisphone. Seconds later, my wrists were free. He then winked at me andwalked out the door, leaving me alone in his room.

~*~

I left Jaden alone in my room, knowing fullwell there was nothing in there for her to fuck with, extended herperimeter on my phone, and headed over to the security room. Scottwas sitting at his desk, staring at the monitors as I walked in andsat down next to him. Daniel was on the flip phone again, waitingfor meonspeaker.

“He’s here,” Scott said.

“They fucking backed out,” Dan saidangrily.

“Motherfucker,” I seethed.

“I know. Said they didn’t trust us andwanted out. I tried to convince them otherwise, but the gunfire wasgetting ready to go off and I didn’t need the heat.”

“Do thosecocksuckersthink I do this for shits and giggles?” Isaid, leaning back and pinching the bridge of my nose. I didn’tneed this shit right now. “You don’t back out of a dealwithme when I’ve already completed my end ofthe bargain—not without consequence.”

“What do you want to do?” Dan asked.

“Let me make a phone call and I’ll get backto you,” I said turning off the screen.

I took out my phone and dialed Carlos. Heran drugs in and out of Panama, and he and I had a decent workingrelationship since he would supply me with the drugs and I’d supplyhim with weapons. It was perfect. But since he was the motherfuckerresponsible for this deal, he was gonna fix it. After two rings heanswered.

“Hey, amigo! What’s going on?” His fat-assLatino voice sounded too chipper on the other end.

“Well, Carlos, I’ve run into a littleproblem with your friends down in Panama,” I said seriously.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, you want to explain to me why thefuck I send my younger brother down there with a large shipment andthey back out the day of delivery?”

“They did what? Oh, man, amigo, I am sosorry. Why did they back out?”

“Some shit about not being able to trust mybusiness? You know something about that?”

“No, my friend, I don’t. I didn’t expectthis to happen.”

“No shit. I made this deal as a favortoyou, but I don’t run mybusiness like this. You know that.”

“Of course. Let me call them and fix this.There must be some kind of misunderstanding,” he spoke quickly.

“Yeah, you do that,” I said and hung up. Iturned to address Scott. “What’s that Panama fucker’s name? Juan?”I asked him harshly.

“Yeah,” he replied with a nod.