Hot & Enchanting (De La Cruz Saga) (31 page)

“I’m so feliz prima that you also want soft pastel pink,” says Erica nodding with alegria.

“Si, I’m muy feliz that we agree on all the same things. It certainly makes it easier to plan. We did get all of the details, right?” asks Jacki looking at su suegra and Tia Lupe.

“Si mi hija, don’t worry about a thing. We’ll take care of todo,” says Mama Lupe. She’s so feliz that su Ricky is married and now is getting
married
by the church with this awesome chica. 

“Okay. I know I can count on you,” says Jacki smiling at her baby’s mama.

“I need to get going. Ricky will be picking me up for dinner,” says Jacki standing. She gives Mama Lupe, Mama Maria, and Erica a hug and besos.

“Adiós mi hija,” say las mamás.

Erica stands and walks Jacki to the door.  “It was so much fun prima,” says Erica flushed, smiling. “I can’t wait for our boda.”

“Will you be seeing Gabriel tonight?” asks Jacki with a little sadness for her prima.

“I will, I just don’t know what time he’ll get out of his training. It’ll depend on what the instructor wants. He’ll be here as soon as he can. I just have to be patient,” says Erica with resignation.

“Hope you get to see him soon. Adios,” says Jacki.  She walks out to her carro.
Okay, now I need to go to get home. I know that he will be ready to have dinner. I need to start a list of the meals I want to make my Baby. Oh yeah, it’s going to be amazing
, thinks Jacki pulling into the driveway.
I need to hurry and get ready. It’s later than I thought.

A
fter lunch, Jose Enrique is
in his office, thinking of his bella amor.
I’m the luckiest man on this planet. Mi amor is just incredible.

The phone rings, Jose Enrique picks it up. “Good afternoon. Thank you for calling De La Cruz Inc. Jose Enrique speaking, how I can help you?” says Jose Enrique. He looks at his caller ID and senses it is odd. It’s an out-of-the-country call. Not real sure which country; it appears to be from Mexico.
This is odd. Who can it be?

“Señor De La Cruz, this is Señor Lopez’s associate. I need you to work for us,” says the caller.
The unknown caller’s voz sounds funny, like it is modified with some type of electronic device
.
This is bizarre
, thinks Jose Enrique.
What does he want? 

“Who am I speaking to?” asks Jose Enrique. “Would you like De La Cruz Inc. to build you a building?”

“No Señor De La Cruz, I am offering you a job in assisting us in some money laundering. I promise you that it will be very lucrative for you and tu familia,” says the caller with amusement.

“Who am I speaking to? Are you serious? My familia does not deal in this type of work. We are definitely not interested. Have a nice day,” says Jose Enrique ending the call. He remains immobile, petrified, thinking about the call.
This is so surreal.

“Hola, primo, what’s up?” says Ricky entering his office. “I want to talk to you about the cuarto next to my office.”

The phone rings again and Jose Enrique looks at the phone’s caller ID. It’s the same caller. He picks it up. “Good afternoon, thank—” He is rudely interrupted by the caller.

“It’s me and I am giving you until Monday to reconsider my offer. We are very anxious to have tu compania work with us. We will do everything in our power to encourage your association. Senor Lopez highly recommends you. I will call you on Monday at this same time. Don’t try to inform the police. We will know and that will not be beneficial to you and tu familia,” states the caller. The caller terminates the call.

Ricky is looking at his primo.
He looks sick and pale. Is Jose Enrique shaking with anger or fear? Both, he’s having trouble breathing,
deems Ricky
.

“What is wrong primo? Who called you?” asks Ricky, real concerned for Jose Enrique.

He strides around the desk to get to Jose Enrique to check his pulse and his breathing. “Primo, you’re scaring me. Do you want me to call the paramedics?” He starts to undo his tie and the top button of his shirt.
I think that I will call the paramedics. My primo is not looking well. He might be having a heart attack,
thinks
Ricky reaching for the phone. He’s halted by Jose Enrique.

“No primo, I’m okay. I’m just a little shocked,” says Jose Enrique standing. He walks around taking deep breaths.
This is so surreal. What am I going to do,
thinks
Jose Enrique.

“Primo, that call was from an unknown caller from out of the country. It appears to be from Mexico. He said that Senor Lopez highly recommends us. He wants our compania to do some money laundering. I told him that we’re not interested and ended the call. He calls back, that’s when you entered the cuarto. He gives me until Monday to reconsider or he’ll encourage us to associate with them,” croaks Jose Enrique.

He’s shaking with fear and anger. “How are we going to avoid from becoming involved? I fear for our familia, our loved ones,” says Jose Enrique. He turns to look at Ricky with frustration.

Yeah, just what I thought. He’s in shock like I was. It’s a very hard pill to swallow, ponders Jose Enrique.

He walks over to Ricky, undoing his tie and top button on his shirt. He rubs Ricky’s back, hoping to get him to start breathing. “Primo, take deep breaths, breathe. Come on, think of Jacki. Yeah, nice and easy,” says Jose Enrique.
I cannot believe this
.

“Are you serious? Maybe it’s a prank call,” rasps Ricky as he starts to breathe normally again. He takes a few steps to try to relax his tensed body.

“We really need to contact somebody that can assist us. Maybe Christian or Claudia, they’ll have a better idea of how to handle this,” says Ricky stopping to stand in front of Jose Enrique.

“Maybe we should just wait until Monday and see if this is for real. Maybe they’ll leave us alone,” states Ricky.

“Yeah, primo, maybe you’re right. We’ll see what they say on Monday. It doesn’t matter what they want. We are not participating in anything that is illegal. We have worked hard to achieve our financial position,” says Jose Enrique with conviction. “I don’t want our familia hurt.”

He walks around his office like a wild animal in a cage. Ricky is attempting to overcome the intense fear that he has for la familia.

“I still feel that we should call Claudia or Christian, primo. This is real serious and la familia can get hurt,” says Ricky. “It’s better to be prepared.”

“Let’s wait until Monday, primo. I don’t want la familia to know. I don’t want our padres to worry. Let’s keep this between us for now, agree?” asks Jose Enrique, stopping to look into Ricky’s eyes.

Ricky is rubbing his neck and trying to get control of his heartbeat.
This is so damn scary. We just don’t deal with these types of scums.
“Okay, primo, we’ll wait until Monday. Maybe it is a prank call,” says Ricky turning around and leaves the office.                                           

* * *

Jaime returns to El Mextli’s office after making the call to la De La Cruz familia in the southern California area. Jaime is shaking his cabeza, thinking,
Los De La Cruz and López no van a jugar (are not going to play). I know that we want to take control of the entire California market and then take over the Texas market.

“Did you make the call?” asks El Mextli, cutting up an apple with his silver intricately engraved knife, looking out into the ocean from his mansion’s patio in Baja California. “You were muy claro that they have to jugar con nosotros?”

“Si Mextli, but I know that they will fight against us before they ever agree to jugar con nosotros,” says Jaime, looking at his jefe.
I know that he looks all polished, bueno, and educated, but I know better. He wasn’t called Mextli after the Azteca war god for nothing.

“Did you warn them against contacting la policia? You did give them until el Lunes?” asks Mextli, turning to look at his mano derecha (right hand).

“Si, and they stated that they are not interested,” says Jaime, looking at Mextli, knowing that he’s not as calmado or bueno (calm or nice) as he appears. He can strike out at any minute with his knife if he so desires. Mextli has earned his position as a drug lord and name for his cruelty in war.

“El Lunes, you will make the call otra vece (again), and then we’ll start to put some pequeno avisos (small warnings) if they don’t want to jugar,” says Mextli. “We’ll start contacto con Lopez el Sabado of next week. De La Cruz and López are ricos and tienen poder (rich and have power). Todo is into place and I will control California and Baja California.” He throws his knife into the tree with pleasure.
             
                                                                

* * *

Jessy finishes reviewing the new contract. The contract is from a former client’s office that has selected one of the packages for remodeling.
These packages are working out real good.  We have several contracts that will be starting next week. I hope that the new
assistant will start soon,
thinks Jessy, finishing signing her name to the contract. 

Bella walks in, sits in front of her desk in a comfortable burgundy leather chair, grinning. “Jessy I have a start date for our new assistant Ms. Monique Acosta.  She agrees to start on the following Monday June 13.  I feel that we just hired the best interior decorating design assistant,” says Bella thrilled with their new hire.

“Bella that is great news and a relief,” says Jessy nodding with pleasure.

“Are you and Jose Enrique going to the club tonight?  Please go. We did have so much fun last week,” says Bella looking at Jessy. “Paty is going. We’ll have so much fun. Get Jacki and Ricky to go, okay?  We need to relax after a hard week at work amiga.”

“Yes Bella your right. I’ll ask Jose Enrique to take me and I’ll make sure that Ricky and Jacki also go. See ya later,” says Jessy smiling, nods in agreement.

Bella exits her office going to get her purse in her office. Bella runs into Ricky on her way out. “Primo, are you two going to the club tonight. We all need to have fun and to relax after such a stressful week.” says Bella nodding. She didn’t wait for his responds. She gave her primo a hug and strides down the hall. Bella didn’t notice how pale and upset Ricky is.

Good thing that Bella didn’t notice anything is wrong
, ponders Ricky. My
prima is right. It’ll be fun to go to the club with my reina.
  The thought of seeing his reina makes him feel a lot better. 

We now have to wait until Monday and see. It can be a joke. We need to wait until I find out who is doing this prank on us. I will kill him.  He gave us a heart failure
, thinks Ricky walking down the hall to his office.

Ricky starts calling his reina.
I need to have her get ready to go out for dinner and to the club
, thinks Ricky.
Jacki left early today to get some
of the wedding details planned out with Erica
.
I know that mi reina is excited about la boda
, he grins.

Jacki went home real feliz with the wedding plans.
Everything is going to be beautiful.
Gracias a Dios that Erica also wants a small wedding party,
contemplates Jacki
.

My new familia is going to be great. I just love them.  I know that it also helps that I have known las primas since junior high school.

I need to go and tell mi mama not to worry about anything. All she needs to do is look bella
, thinks Jacki.
I need to get real sexy for mi baby.  He’ll be here soon to pick me up. Oh I just can’t wait
. She smiles, walks into her casa. Jacki enters her cuarto after spending the last three hours with Erica planning their double wedding.
This is so exciting. Erica and I both want soft pastel pink for our wedding. It makes everything so much easier
, thinks Jacki smiling. Her cell phone rings.

“Hola Baby,” says Jacki beaming with pleasure.

“Mi reina I want to pick you up at 5:30 to take you out to dinner and then to the club. Los primos will be at the club. Do you like the idea or would you like to go somewhere else?” asks Ricky. “I want whatever you want, always.”