*Editor's note: Next installment will come in 2 weeks on Inez' The Businez on 8/28/09.

Chapter 20

“So how do you propose we find her mother?” asked Jay.

“What about her lame ass cousin? He’s got to know where she lives," thought Garrett.

“Maybe, but we don’t even know where to find him.”

Garrett knew Veronica’s cousin Arturo could be gone by now, probably out of the country. He has to try though; Veronica was in some hospital in Mexico alone. Garrett asked Jay to borrow his cell phone since he had no idea where his was. Garrett punched in the memorized number and waited.

“Name?” said the voice on the other end.

“Arturo Nuñez,” responded Garrett.

Garrett listened for a few seconds and hung up the cell phone. “Okay, let’s go pay this puto a visit.”

“Who were you just talking to?” asked Jay.

“No one, I was getting Arturo’s address.”

“Why didn’t we just call him? I have his cell number,” said Jay.

Garrett stares at Jay for a minute and shakes his head. “Why didn’t you mention that information earlier?”

“You didn’t ask, boss.”

"But you said we don’t know where to find him.”

“True, but I never said we couldn’t contact him.”

Garrett tosses the phone back to Jay, “Get him on the phone.”

*************************************************************************************

The joint smelled like cheap beer and cigarettes, just the way Arturo liked it. He was king here and anything he wanted he could have. He stood at the entry way and waited for his hostess to greet him. A big breasted Latina with big brunette locks and more curves than a race track walked up to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“Long time no see, Mr. Nuñez,” she said.

“Please, Carmen, I’ve told you to call me Arturo.”

Carmen leaned in real close to his ear and whispered, “What if I don’t want to?” She then licked his ear lobe and smiled at him. Yes, Carmen was Arturo’s favorite and even though she never took her clothes off, she drove the men wild.

She led Arturo to his usual table that already had his requested bottle of champagne on ice sitting on it. He sat and enjoyed the scenery of the strip bar.

“Is there anything else I can get for you, Mr. Nuñez?” asked Carmen as she poured him a glass of champagne.

“No, not yet at least,” said Arturo and with a wink and a smack on the ass, he sent Carmen on her way. He sat back and drank his bubbly and just thought what a great life he had. He had enough money to have any woman in the joint. Plus, he felt like he deserved it after all the hard work he did that week. Another beautiful woman dressed in a bikini and six inch heel clear stilettos walked toward Arturo. Her face was too pretty to be working here, Arturo thought.

She sat next to him and put her arm around him. “Hi,” she said.

“Hello”.

“What’s your name, handsome?”

“Arturo and yours?” asked Arturo.

“I’m Nautica” Nautica held out her hand.

Arturo grabbed her hand and kissed it, “Nice to meet you, Nautica.”

“So can I dance for you?”

“Look at you, right to the point.”

Nautica giggled, “I don’t beat around the bush, unless you want me to.”

“You can beat around something else,” said Arturo laughing. He grabbed a glass and poured Nautica some champagne. Nautica took a sip and put the glass back down on the table along with her purse. She then turned towards Arturo and straddled him face to face.

“Come on, daddy, let’s have some fun.”

Arturo could do nothing but nod his head. Nautica began to grind on his lap slowly. Arturo rested his hands on her hips and guided her. She leaned forward and rubbed her torso across his face, breasts first, then navel and stopping just above her bikini line. You couldn’t slap the smile off of Arturo’s face and she wasn’t even naked yet.

T Pain’s “I’m in Luv With a Stripper” played in the background and Arturo could do nothing, but laugh. Nautica smiled at him and stood up in front of Arturo. This is it, Arturo thought, when the clothes come off!

He was right; Nautica turned her back to him and glanced over her shoulder at him. She smiled and winked as she undid her top. She turned around still clutching the top to her chest and then the reveal. She had the most amazing breasts that Arturo had ever laid eyes on.

“How have I not seen you in here before?” asked Arturo.

“I just started a couple of weeks ago.”

Nautica pushed Arturo back against the sofa and began to straddle him again.

BRRRRRRRRRING! BRRRRRRRRRING!

Nautica gives Arturo a look as he reaches for his cell phone. He finally gets it out of his pocket and sees “Jay” on the caller ID. He thinks about sending him to voicemail, but knows better than that. He looks at Nautica who stands topless in front of him with an annoyed expression on her face. “I need to take this, sorry.” Arturo plugs his left ear to hear better and answers the call, “Hello?....yeah, why?.....I can’t do that, man….okay, okay, fine…..you need to pick me up though…..I’m at my usual spot….later.” Arturo ends the call and turns his attention back to Nautica who has now put her top back on.

“Whoa, wait…why’d you put them away?” asked Arturo.

“Well, the phone call was obviously more interesting than me and I have to get back to work.”

“But we weren’t done.”

“I am,” and with that Nautica left Arturo to his champagne.

***********************************************************************************

“Do you even know where you’re going?” asked Garrett, he never trusted Arturo.

“Yes, we’re almost there,” said Arturo.

Garrett was getting nervous about meeting Veronica’s mom and having to tell her that Veronica was in the hospital. One thing he knew was that there was no time for small talk, they would introduce themselves and then get to the point to be able to get back to Veronica quickly.

Jay noticed Garrett was in deep thought and sensed something might be wrong other than the obvious. “You alright, boss?”

“Yeah, just thinking about how to word things to Veronica’s mom. What’s your tia’s name, Arturo?” asked Garrett.

“Adrianna, my Titi Adrianna. I’m not exactly her favorite person, so I’ll stay in the car,” said Arturo.

They pulled up to this small house with a couple of cars parked out front. “It looks so quiet,” said Jay.

“Yeah and here we are to mess it up. Let’s go,” Garrett motioned for Jay to get out of the truck.

The walk up to the front door seemed to take a lifetime and Garrett could hear his heart beat with every step he took. He wiped the sweat off his palms on his jeans and cracked his knuckles. He popped two mints and ran his hand through his hair.

Jay and Garrett finally arrived at the front door. Garrett just stood there going over what he was going to say in his head. What if she’s not home, he thought. Well the cars out front tell a different story, so she has to be home. Garrett rang the doorbell.

BRRRRRRRRRRRING!

Garrett and Jay waited and they could hear footsteps coming towards the door.

The door opened and there stood Vazquez.

“Gentlemen, we’ve been expecting you.”

Chapter 18

Garret rushes over to Veronica’s side to confirm what Jay has just told him. He was right, there was a small drop of blood seeping out of Veronica’s ear. Garret knew there wasn’t much time left and they needed to do something now. He looked at the CB radio to call for help, but that was risky because he knew Vazquez and his men would be listening.

“Here,” says Jay as he hands Garret his cell phone. Garret didn’t know whether to hit him for not suggesting this earlier or hug him for being able to hold on and keep track of his cell phone for this long.

No time for that, Garret dialed the International Operator, it rang once, twice. Come on, pick up! The operator finally picked up and Garret cut her off mid speech. “We need help, fast! I have an unconscious woman and she’s bleeding from her ear.”

“I’ll patch you through to Emergency Dispatch.”

“What is your emergency?” the operator took what felt like forever to get on the line.

“We need help, she’s unconscious and bleeding!”

“Sir, slow down, where are you located?”

“Shouldn’t you know that?!? All I see is miles of sand! Please send help!” the Operator was testing Garret’s patience.

“Okay, I’m sending your coordinates to our air unit. ETA 10 minutes,” responded the Operator.

“What do I do? Is there anything I can do to help her?” asked Garret.

The Operator goes into a series of questions: Is she breathing? Have you moved her? Does she have a head injury?, etc.

Garret answered them all, but he just wanted to help Veronica.

“Okay, put her in recovery position until the paramedics arrive and cover her with a blanket or jacket.”

As the Operator walked Garret through how to put Veronica into Recovery Position, Jay felt helpless. He sat there looking at his best friend and boss do everything in his power to save this woman. It wasn’t supposed to go down like this; they were supposed to be at The Hideout having half off drinks and free tacos right now. Jay should be signing himself up to sing “Baby Got Back” karaoke.

It wasn’t supposed to go down like this.

Just as Jay started to drift more and more into his daydream, a helicopter headed towards them interrupted his thoughts.

The helicopter ride went by in a flash and it seemed like they were at the hospital in no time. Garret and Jay waited in the lobby for any kind of news. Jay sat on a chair and watched the small television with some Spanish novella he didn’t recognize. Garret paced back and forth, not knowing what else to do.

“Boss, you have to relax. They’ll come give us an update when there’s something to update on. Sit down.”

“I know, but I can’t just sit still knowing that she’s unconscious. Who knows what she’s going through right now,” Garret wasn’t the most patient man in the world and this hospital was not working with him.

Finally the doctor came out to the lobby and Jay and Garret stood up. Garret tried to read the doctor’s face to see what kind of news he was about to get. The doctor had one of the best poker faces Garret had ever seen.

“¿Quien es el esposo?” asked the doctor.

“English is better for us, doctor,” responded Jay.

The doctor looked slightly annoyed and spoke in broken English, “Who is husband?”

“Um, neither one of us is,” answered Garret.

“I sorry, but I can only give information to family.”

“Wait, you can’t tell us anything because we’re not family?” asked Garret.

“I’m so sorry, it’s policy,” responded the doctor.

Garret couldn’t believe his ears, the woman he had just become so close to was lying in the hospital and he couldn’t get a simple update on her. “Please, doctor, you have to tell me something.”

“Bring family and then I can tell them,” the doctor turned and left Jay and Garret in the lobby with no answers.

“That’s such bullshit!” said Garret.

“Relax, boss, let’s stay positive and see where we go from here. We at least know she was breathing when she was admitted, right?” Jay was trying to keep Garret calm and rational.
Garret sat down and tried to relax himself, “You’re right, we need to think.”

Jay knew that was an understatement. They were in a foreign hospital and had no way of getting back to the States. There was a woman they barely knew in a hospital hanging on to her life by a thread and they had no money.

“Boss, I think it’s better if we just split,” Jay was expecting Garret to go off on him, but nothing happened. Garret just sat there and said nothing at all. “Boss, you okay?”

“I think you might be right, Jay. The best thing for us to do is leave her here. They won’t release her into our care anyway.”

Garret knew that they had to leave and get themselves situated. Veronica, as much as it hurt him, was on her own at this point. He did everything he could, right? He got her to a hospital and she could get help here. He’ll catch up with her when she gets back. The longer they stay in Mexico the more danger they’re putting themselves in.

Garret walks up to the receptionist and asks for a pen and paper. He jots down a note to Veronica and asks the receptionist to deliver it for him.

“Gracias,” then Garret turns to Jay and says, “Let’s go.”

Jay and Garret walk out the hospital doors and disappear.

The hospital was quiet and the only thing to be heard was the clickity clack of the computer keyboards.

The doors to the hospital opened and the receptionist looked up. As soon as she saw who had just came in to the hospital, terror washed over her face.