Hands Up, Baby Hands Up

Now it's getting dark, and the sky looks sticky

Juliana was biting the tip of her nails, sitting in the car and not taking her eyes off from the Carvajal mansion. The house was guarded heavily - but she and one of her crew men managed to find a neat vantage point to keep a look out on the house. The sun glinted off her sunglasses as she scoured the place for any sight of Valentina.

"Are you sure this is not stalking?" her henchman inquired casually - but Juls was in no casual mood.

"Look, if she had told me she wanted space - I have no problem giving her all the space she needs." she explained, coming off extremely defensive.

"She said she wanted to meet me yesterday morning, and I haven't heard a word from her since." she continued, the concern apparent in her tone.

"The woman uploads an Instagram story every three hours, trust me this is suspicious." Her henchman shrugged in reply, his eyes still on the house.

Juls was growing more and more worried; mostly because surveilling the Carvajal house was proving to be futile. She glanced at her watch and knew it was getting late. She clicked her tongue in defeat, turning to catch her reflection in the rear-view mirror. She silently winced remembering the evening she and Valentina spent picking out sunglasses in the park and shook the memory from her head.

If someone's harmed her, I'm gonna kill them.

"I'm going back - you stay here and keep me updated if anything happens." she ordered, and her aide nodded, stepping out of the car.

Juls strutted into her own huge house, her attention divided between worry for Valentina's whereabouts and preparations for the next day. She pulled out her gun from the back of her pants and settled herself on the couch - deciding to do the one thing that normally calmed her down - cleaning her gun. She was quite engrossed when Inspector Montilla sauntered into the house, flanked on both sides by two police officers who were her own men. Juliana was in the least bothered by this, though she wasn't particularly pleased with the way Montilla just traipsed into the place.

"Inspector, to what do I owe this honour." she inquired in a flat tone, still cleaning her gun and not raising her glance to acknowledge Montilla, sunglasses still on her face.

"Ms. Valdes, always a pleasure." he answered, well aware that if he made a mistake, it would be his last. He was doing his best to not reveal his fear. He knew the minute he did - he would be dead.

"There have been some rather disturbing developments, and I was hoping to absolve you of any blame before dealing with them." he explained, eyeing Juliana carefully to see if she betrayed any guilt. Juliana carried on, indifferent to Montilla's prodding.

"What's the gun for?" he asked, trying to be more assertive, in the hopes that Juliana would at least look at him.

"Safety. Accidents happen, you know?" she replied, her voice monotonous and still not looking up. Montilla internally gulped at that, as he knew a showdown between her and the El Alacran cartel was long due.

"I get the feeling there's going to be a lot of accidents soon." he voiced out, fear running through his mind.

Juliana was growing tired of Montilla's questioning, and finally looked at the guy and breathed out in exasperation.

"What do you want Montilla." She turned back to her gun, continuing to clean it with extreme care.

"Valentina Carvajal has been reported missing."

Juls stopped at that, her heart sinking. She had suspected it but hearing it from Montilla made it real.

"What?"