The Black Dahlia

18. Kidnap

Gabriella

My alarm started ringing at 6 in the morning and I woke up with a jolt. I brushed my teeth and took a shower like clockwork, arranged my stuff and dressed up for work.

I picked up my phone to check something when I saw the display showing “Saturday 7am” only then did I realize my folly. It was a Saturday! I had Saturdays and Sundays off, but the recent double work and the harassment a few days back had me in shock, so I just functioned like clockwork every day.

Each day just morphing into the next one monotonously, it did not feel like a week anymore, rather one giant day.  I just crashed on my bed with a loud groan, cursing myself for my stupidity.

I should have turned the alarm off and got some extra sleep instead of getting ready for office. I was halfway through my self-loathing session when I heard a knock on the door, I rushed to open. It was Sandra. I asked her to come in. On seeing me all dressed up she asked “where are you going so early in the morning?”

I proceeded to tell her my funny ordeal. She couldn’t help but laugh out loud, she felt a little bad for me and apologised soon enough, honestly speaking seeing her baby face and bubbly energy was already lighting my day up.

“My brother can be an asshole sometimes. He did not choose this life, it was thrust upon him, being the eldest son he was forced to take up responsibility of the cartel and being a ideal son he always wanted to make his family proud and give us younger ones an opportunity to live a loved and carefree life. This quest has made him into a workaholic, an automated robot who can overlook the feelings and emotions of other people, but deep inside he is a softie, bur he rarely shows his sensitive side. Sometimes I wonder if the Cartel world has consumed all of it, I am still hopeful it’s buried somewhere deep inside, he just needs someone to awaken that part of him” Sandra said.

“I have experienced that side of him sometimes and I totally agree with you about him, still its frustrating”, I said making a grumpy face.
“aww, poor baby ”, Sandra hugged me and cooed me like I was a little baby.
“I have a plan to make you feel amazing!, let’s go shopping!”, Sandra exclaimed.
“Sounds like a good idea!” I said.

“Okay! Be ready by 11am, wear something comfy, appropriate for winter”, she winked at me and went to her room.

I contacted my special agents to be ready for the surprise ambush.
I wore a pleated checked skirt with a green sweater and tied my hair in a ponytail. I paired my outfit with white shoes and a bottle green sling bag.

Sandra was in my room by 11 am to pick me up. She looked like a fairy from heaven! she wore a white knitted sweater and skirt with black boots along with a burgundy lipstick just looked so cool.

I hugged her and told her how pretty she was looking, she blushed. We    drove to the mall in Sandra’s Tesla. Although, Ricardo insisted on taking a security personnel with them, she waved him off by saying “ Bro, I don’t want to feel like a VIP, I want to chill with my friend and have fun like normal girls out for shopping. Please no security for me, by the way if anything happened Gabriella will protect me”, she said it with a smile and winked at Ricardo.

Perfect! Now my plan can execute without a hitch.
We reached the mall in 35 minutes and after parking the car in the parking area, we took the lift to the ground floor of the mall to start our adventures, because the parking was located underground.

We visited different types of shops not only clothing and jewellery ones. First of all we went to a handicraft shop, which specialised in selling traditional art and craft of Mexico. We spent a long time observing the beautiful artefacts and Sandra decided to buy me a traditional Tribal bracelet as a token of love to mark our new friendship. I decided to buy her a lucky charm amulet. 

She declined and insisted it was not necessary, but I was determined to not take no for an answer.

Afterwards we attacked the fashion section. Gucci, Prada, Zara, Calvin Klein, Dolce and Gabbana, Vera Wang every top brand store available in the mall. After all it was the best mall in all of Mexico.

Although I was wearing the pretense of enjoying my day, I was worried about and focused on my plan.
After spending a few hours and multiple shopping bags later, we decided to head home content and relaxed. I thanked her profusely for this awesome day, suddenly a pang of guilt hit me all of sudden and a solitary tear rolled down my eye.  Sandra noticed,”hey what happened?”, she hugged me and asked me,
I told her “it’s nothing, I just got a little emotional, you know never had a family.”
“Don’t worry about that, now I am in your life I can be your sister”, she whispered in my ears as she hugged me tighter.

We descended into the parking lot literally walking hand in hand. No sooner had we reached the parking lot, which was deserted at this time, group of five men with automatic assault rifles, ran out from a van parked nearby.

Those were my men, stationed there to execute my plan, before Sandra could scream one man held her tight and shut her mouth with a cloth, making any attempts of escape futile. I tried to fight some of them, but they were armed and four of them, before I knew it someone hit me below my head and I passed out.

They were trained fighters of our Cartel and knew a lot about pressure points and delicate connections of our body, which area to strike to make the person faint without fatally wounding them, also the fight simulation before Sandra’s eyes to make it look believable that I tried and it was an ambush.

When I regained consciousness, I was not lying on the floor anymore. I was greeted by the handsome face of Ricardo. He was carrying me to my room. He placed me on the bed and said “Rest up, we will talk later. You have been through a lot, I am going to look for Sandra”.
“Look for Sandra? Where is she?” I said with a look of shock and terror on my face.
“That’s what I am going to find out, you don’t worry too much please get some rest. You are in no shape to do anything right now”.

No sooner had he disappeared, I set in motions the next stage of the plan. I sneaked inside Alejandro’s study to find blueprints of Cartel functionality and other details of trusted members and deals. This would help me derail the cartel from within and push the Martinez family on the back foot.

With their back against the wall, it would be easier to eliminate them without a fuss.

I quietly opened the giant door of the study area and turned on the lights.  I had to make use of the opportunity optimally, with everyone gone. I won’t get an opportunity like this ever again!

I quickly started rummaging through the shelves without disturbing them and making it look obvious that the place had been trespassed. This made the process even more time taking, but covering my tracks was really important.
I had gone through almost the entire study, but did not find anything of significance.

Then my eyes fell on a silver locker shining in the light, I tried to unlock it but it was a futile effort, because it needed both retina scan and fingerprint scan of the owner, obviously Alejandro’s.
I was just thinking of possible ways to find a way in when the door opened suddenly and someone walked in.