Adversary (20 page)

A deep laugh. “She’s very pretty. Nice tits and ass. If I were not a gentleman I would be tempted to give her the privilege of sucking my dick.”

This was a punk. The vilest kind. Alfonzo’s cobalt colored eyes were sparkling pools of contempt. “Eh, but you are a gentleman as you said. I’m sure you have many women who’d gladly volunteer, or maybe you prefer eager males.”

The insult struck hard. In most African cultures homosexuality is an offense. Judging by the reaction he received the caller didn’t like the comment. Most homophobes don’t. He was probably a poo pusher in secret and didn’t like being called out. “I should slice her neck for that.”

“You do, we have no business to discuss until I find you and return the favor.”

“You are in no position to threaten.”

“Neither are you.”

“Five million in twelve hours is how we will officially begin this negotiation for your whore and then we will talk again. I would have given you twenty-four but since you have insulted me I have cut it in half.”

“Not a problem, except I don’t hand over money without sampling the goods. A voice of a familiar woman isn’t a difficult request to fulfill as a sign of good faith.”

“You are right.” He shouted, “Bring the bitch to me!”

Several seconds of breathing and he heard her. His eyes closed tight with relief. Every muscle in his body relaxed. “Put her on,” he ordered the voice.

“Speak bitch to your master!”

In Spanish Selange rapidly spoke. “His name is Gamba. Allie’s at the orphanage. I’m fine…I love you.”

“Shut-up!” her captor shouted.

Alfonzo sat forward angrily. This sonovabitch was testing his nerves.

She yelled in Spanish. “I love you. I’m good honey don’t worry!”

Alfonzo prayed then, for strength and the mother of his children. His voice boomed. “Touch her motherfucker and I’ll cut off your hand and then your cock!”

Laughter. “Ah, I see she is very important. Fine. Ten million within twelve hours and then we will talk again. This is the account I want the money deposited. Be a good dog and go fetch my money.”

The phone went dead.

The car had rolled onto the edge of the tarmac where men were already boarding with duffle bags. He activated the locator on Selange’s cell before making an urgent call to the President of the International Monetary Bank of Bangkok and requested the transfer. Done. Five minutes, but he told the President to wait for his call before officially sending. Eleven hours and fifty-nine minutes is when the money will appear in the scumbag’s hands. The flight from Puerto Rico to Harare was nearly fifteen hours. As he boarded the plane he got a run-down from the pilot. The Non-scheduled Over-flight Permit and Landing Permit were expedited and approved.

Alfonzo nodded. He wasn’t listening really. Giuseppe had a head start by several hours. He was closer. This is when a young brother released his breath and for the first time put all his faith…every damn belief he had in his blood. Rank wasn’t important. Neither status nor any of that bull-shit they fought over mattered right now. He gave it up, every piece of it. With his heart he believed in Giuseppe.

‘Get my daughter, save my wife grande fratello and Ari. Save me brother by saving my loves. I am too far. I cannot move mountains, No army that I possess can reach those shores. My reach is not that long. I am only a man and politics will prevent aiding my cause.’

Keep me alive.

I trust in you.

You are my hope.

Mi familia.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

After seven hours and twenty minutes Giuseppe’s plane was on the ground. Jeeps paid by cash in large bags with guides barreled over dirt roads on the outskirts of the city of Zimbabwe. Dusty night and darkness with biting insects clipping off tiny pieces of his flesh drew a hand to smack them away with annoyance. He’d spoken to Allie again. She calmed knowing he was almost there and her father was as well.

An Uncle brought along his finest. They would find Selange and Ari, but first he must secure his frightened niece. By escort to his plane she’d go…safe…fed and taken home. After that his fate and that of his family was anybody’s guess. This land was not theirs. There were too many political factions and militia to effectively tame. He’d brought along several soldati but against a corrupt military man named Moyo, he learned from Nico they would be outnumbered. But, he could not wait. Allie had summoned his aid. Let death be his final deed in the effort to save women and a child.

He shrugged. Then death it would be. To die honorably has always been the way of the Giacanti’s. For a coward dies a million times, they are corpses pretending to be living. He’d leave a son and hopefully a daughter. What more could he request out of an uncertain future?

They were here and he was out of the jeep, men circled the structure and he called the child’s phone, hoping she charged the device, because he often forgot. When she answered he said, “Come mio nipote. I am here, come outside.”

Before the phone went into his pocket she burst through the door. Her hair a bouncy ponytail and her face aglow, she clutched her star bag and ran like her mother. Am emotionally weary Uncle sank to his knees in joy as she ran into his arms and said, “I knew you’d come Uncle…and you did.”

Giuseppe kissed her hair and her cheeks. “Sí, there is never a day I will not answer your call.”

His eyes then noticed the woman in the doorway. Sadly she watched their reunion and like a blade of grass, Giuseppe rose from the ground clutching his niece’s hand. So tight he held it, she wiggled her fingers and he loosened the grasp. Giuseppe ordered a soldati to frisk her, when he found no weapons. Giuseppe motioned her forward with his finger and she obeyed. “What is your name?”

“Kefilwe.”

“Where is this man who has taken the child’s mother?”

“You lie; it is in your eyes.”

She looked down at Allie. “I am sorry girl. Forgive me.”

Giuseppe barked at his soldier. “Take the little one safely to the plane. Feed her and make certain she is delivered to the hands of mi famiglia, mi madre.”

Allie’s hand was released. An Uncle uncertain of his destiny smiled fondly down. A guardian calmed an innocent child’s fears. “Tomasino is very handy with a gun. He will get you to Sicily until your father returns for you. Aunt Shanda is baking rainbow cookies for you…only for you she has told me as a gift. Do not be afraid.”

She gave a radiant smile. “I’m not now go get mommy. Hurry!”

Tomasino lifted the child and placed her in the jeep. The driver sped away and Giuseppe watched the misty plumes until the vehicle was a dot in the distance. On Kefilwe his anger presented itself. “I will put a bullet in your head if you do not tell me where this person is!”

She kneeled at his feet with her head down talking to his comfortable shoes. “In the Shona culture women are expected to be obedient. Kneel in respect to our elders and for the abused without voices, husbands. My dreams were to be a doctor but when my parents died I had to provide for my younger siblings. In the diamond fields we worked. Toil for long hours for meager wages and grateful for food. Of the three in my care, only one is alive. Gamba killed them, my brothers he cut to have me bleed. He has threatened to kill my surviving brother if I did not lure the woman here. To him I have given myself for my only brother to live. Subservient and soiled like filth I beg for death at your hands. Release me from this world to roam free like the great elephants of my homeland. Warume wedu is an expression of my convictions and I sing praise.”

Giuseppe frowned. “Stand up woman. I am unaccustomed to women kneeling. Show me where this Gamba has taken mi famiglia. Your praises have fallen on deaf ears too long.”

***

“Allie?”

“Hi dad.”

“Oh hija…oh niña papa is so happy to hear you are safe. Te amo.”

“I know. I’m tired.”

“Go to sleep. You can sleep now.”

“Okay, good night.”

“Buenos noche niña,” Alfonzo said with relief as the plane continued to soar high above the sky. Three more hours, just three. Giuseppe found the location and waited. Wait, he asked his brother for him to bring more men. His head throbbed. He tried to rest during the flight but his body would not give in. His eyes were on the sky and everything he ever loved drifted in the wind.

He looked at Tony who was wide awake as the other men slept. “How’s your lady?” Alfonzo asked as a distraction.

“She’s good.”

“Set a date yet?”

“One day at a time, no rush as long as we have each other.”

Alfonzo nodded. “True that. My wife likes her; she says Allie might learn discipline through dance.”

Tony’s eyes remained level. His boss was hurting. He heard the sadness in the words. This was a man worried about his wife, wondering if he’d get a tomorrow with her. The shit sucked! “That she would. My lady is serious about her work.”

Alfonzo chuckled and then the sound died flat. “My woman goes hard too. She’s always been like that.”

Then Alfonzo went silent.

Tony recognized this is a part of his boss he rarely saw, wistful and tortured. Tony excused himself to use the restroom in order to give Alfonzo his space. He needed it.

Alfonzo closed his eyes, thinking, why when he was at peace shit popped off out of nowhere? He shook his head. Man, he’d stopped expecting peace. Alfonzo surmised peace is what comes when you die. You get an eternal rest. He put his feet up, slumped down waiting for the call and turned on music. It’s true that music soothes. It’s like a good woman.

His lips curled. Ironic. A few more weeks and it’d be his birthday. He’d caught wind of his wife’s plan to throw this huge bash in Costa Rica. What the hell, right now he’d just settle for a piece of ass at home. Planning didn’t feel right anymore…it’s like wishing or dreaming. I wish to live to my birthday. I’m dreaming of having a birthday. Coño, maybe it’s best to just pretend that every day is a birthday. Fuck it all. He took a sip of rum from the cute little bottle. He hadn’t drunk in days. He wanted to cut back; too bad he wasn’t as successful curtailing bad language. You can’t win ‘em all, he thought, but for Allie he’d keep trying. Yeah, for his niña he’d do anything.

Another sip and then he closed his eyes as the music took him to another place. Dancing with his babe, kissing upon her face, touching her skin and worshipping the shit out of her pussy with his mouth is a birthday celebration.

A weak smile, turned downward. The lyrics beat up his soul.

‘I can't really explain what it is she does,

But um, whatever it is,

It's um, simply, simply amazing,

Her head is on my chest, sun comes rolling in,

We're lost in these covers, and all I feel is skin,

I slowly kiss your face, beautiful in every way, you are -you are,

See I'm a man that don't believe in much,

But I'll be damned, if I don't believe in us,

And how we play a fight up in the bathroom,

Next thing you know I'm making love to you,

Girl, promise me you'll never change,

She aint perfect, but she's worth it,

Every breath I breathe, for the life of me,

And I know I might not deserve it…

She knows me better, than I know myself…

See I'm a man, that don't believe in much,

But I'll be damned if I don't believe in us,

Like when I said I loved you for the first time…’

He saw his love smiling, he saw Selange’s eyes. He tried to not see death or imagine her not in his life. Back in time the song took a fulfilled man who once had a desolate heart. Their first intimate encounter was poetry not only to his body but to his mind. He stared out as the night sucked the light.

Amazing…simply amazing is what he experienced when he thought of her.

His eyes burned.

Stay strong muchacho, it’s like you’ve prepared your whole life for this fight. You have to look at the blessings. There are people who aren’t entrenched in your world and they’re dying every day, gunshots, natural disasters, accidents, sudden heart attacks and the list goes on. You and Selange are blessed. See the love that keeps you strong. What an amazing life when you have love in it, he thought.

He put a fist to his chest. Beat it hard he did. Beat it like a drum.

That’s real, his heart and Selange is proof the damn thing worked.

Simply amazing!

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Giuseppe waited. He wasn’t stupid these guys had military type weapons and more than twenty soldiers or wannabes. He couldn’t tell because everybody nowadays wore army fatigues in leisure. Punks who never fired a gun before in their lives liked the image. He’d been tempted to just pop several of the guys but then why do a foolish thing when his fratellino was a few minutes out, eh?

His leg went to sleep, cramped from sitting in a vehicle with not enough room for bulky guys. He slid up as the woman stared him down. “Cosa?” he asked, “You like me?”

She did not smile.

Ah, he was losing his touch with women. “What is Gamba’s reason to steal a bracelet,” he asked moments later to draw her out.

“He believes Semira shamed his family by choosing to marry an outsider. The bracelet is priceless. Greed is his true motivation. There are many who will pay for such an item. A recompense for family humiliation and dishonor is an excuse.”

Giuseppe snickered. “Semira must have known they have a crazy gene. I can understand her reluctance to marry into such a family.”

The woman did not smile.