Southern Narco Ch. 02

Silas helped her into his truck. It was at least a foot off the ground so he guided her up with a hand along her hip. Her full, bare thighs teased him when she climbed in. The skin looked smooth to the touch and the sun gleamed off the oil she’d put on to keep her moisturized.

The woman from the club the night before had done nothing to curb his hunger. They fucked in the club’s private room twice and he even had her brought to the loft he had in Dallas. The sex they had was just an outlet to imagine being with the woman with all the mysteries he couldn’t stop thinking of. He wanted to see the art that had warranted a space in a museum, he wanted to hear what her silken voice sounded like singing her favorite songs and now, he wanted to know about whoever had her so concerned over the phone before he walked in.

They drove in silence for a while. Only the soft sounds of Colombian Cumbia played in the background. Ebony looked out the window at the open grasses while dry dirt kicked up around the truck below. The homes were low to the ground and almost all appeared worn. Willadeene’s was the only house they’d passed that looked renovated within the last ten years.

Soon the houses turned to businesses.

“I went to school here.” Silas pointed out to a high school ahead. It was on the driver’s side so she sat up to look over him. The building looked somewhat new. She tried to imagine a teenage Silas going to school, laughing in the halls. She wondered if he broke teenage hearts or chased after the most popular girl in school like a puppy. Ebony looked up into his handsome face before she leaned back into her seat. He was definitively breaking hearts.

“I can only imagine what kind of kid you were.” She grumbled to herself with a smile. Silas snorted a bellied laugh. He looked over to her with a thick black brow arched.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean you were probably a handful.” Silas shook his head to himself.

High school were some of the loneliest years of his life. He hardly spoke to anyone. The only person who got him through was his best friend Gael.

“Incorrecto—wrong.” He wouldn’t put too much effort into changing her ideas about him. Silas didn’t want to get into the details so it was best to leave it where it was. “But I know you were nerdy as a kid.” He laughed while he made a turn. Ebony feigned offense but dropped the act just as fast.

“I was a nerdy kid.” She admitted. They both laughed.

“Did you like art then?” Ebony nodded with a smile that transcended their conversation. She returned to the hardest parts of her life and her escape through her art. Art had saved her sanity. She always joked she owed her life to it.

“I was obsessed.” The sentence was more to herself than it was an answer to his question. She had returned to staring out the window. The car fell silent again while they both relived glimpses of their childhoods.

“You’re from here?” She asked, breaking the silence again.

“No, my parents lived a half hour away.” The Ford revved up a small hill. The engine settled when they were level again.

“They passed.” She halfway asked and more so stated. When he didn’t respond, she knew they had. “I’m sorry.” She turned to him when she apologized, knowing the pain of losing a parent or two. He didn’t look her way initially. When she refused to look away from his side profile, he took his attention off the road for just a second to meet her eyes .

“Gracias.”

They slowed in front of a large building on a plot of beautiful, somewhat lush grasslands with patches of desert. The property was massive but the building itself was moderately sized.

“This is Dos Molinos. It’s a resort ranch.” Silas undid his seatbelt and jumped out of the car to open Ebony’s car door. She glanced at the dirt paved driveway wearily; it was a big jump down. Silas tried to hide his smirk and bury his laughter. “Let me help you, Ebony.” He asserted with a stern voice. He knew that she’d rather try it on her own than to let him get too much contact.

He wrapped an arm around her waist and she could feel him shouldering the weight of the jump with his body. It was much easier with his help.

“Thank you.” She said simply, straightening her dress.

“Quetzalcoatl!” Someone exclaimed. They both looked toward the direction of the call and Ebony had to peer from behind Silas’ body. His frame and the open car door limited what she could see. An older man approached with an arm outstretched and a bright smile on his face. It visibly dimmed at the sight of Ebony

She expected the poor welcome from almost everyone she met during her three month stay. Less than 2% of the population in Harper, Texas were black and that always meant people would be surprised to see her. Especially with Silas.

“David,” Silas reached out and grabbed his hand with a curt nod. “This is Ebony.” David clearly had too much respect for Silas to be rude to his guest. He reached out for Ebony’s hand with a smile much phonier than the one he’d initially had. Ebony mimicked him.

“Nice to meet ya.” He said. His wrinkled face was folded around the mouth and caused the skin over his eyes to droop dramatically. Ebony gave a tight lipped smile. When he turned his attention back to Silas, her face fell instantly and she rolled her eyes to land on the rest of the property while they spoke.

“How are things goin’? How’s business?” David had an unnerving level of excitement. He stood close, smiled hard and spoke feverishly. He was kissing Silas’ ass.

“Bueno—good.” He was short and rudely concise. His gaze drifted around the land. “I want to show Ebony the horses.”

“Sure!” David gestured toward the ATV parked alongside the building. “We’ll ride over.”

David sat on the back bench and Ebony was left to sit in the passenger seat. Silas waited on the passenger’s side for her to sit down and then he did the duty of strapping her seatbelt. She wanted to question the attention but decided to just take the gesture as it was. Silas sat in the driver’s seat and she suddenly realized why he was so particular about securing her in; he drove like a madman. The small hills matched with his speed would’ve thrown her out. She had half a mind to tell him to slow down but decided against it; the wind was welcomed compared to the stiff, humid summer air.

The property was massive. She could see by the small guest homes on the edges of the land that even as far as the eye could travel, the property was still theirs. She could see different trails for walking, riding and biking leading back into the tall, dense trees. There were stables of different sizes that she assumed were home to different animals. A beautiful blue lagoon had a few horses drinking from it.

“Mr. Moreno,” David started on a nervous breath. The whizzing of the wind made him hard to hear. Silas made no gesture to suggest he was listening but David continued on. “I wanted to talk about some of the finances for the last few months that—” Silas raised his free hand to silence David.

“I am here on leisure.” His tone was stern. “If you have issues with my business it would be in your best interest to reach out to Gerardo. Quickly.” Silas looked into the rearview mirror to catch David’s eye. His orbs were full of warning that turned David chalk white.

Silas found it offensive David would wait until his unexpected visit to bring up discussions of money. It made it seem as though David had something to hide but was only mentioning it now to save himself in the case that Silas asked about it first. It was even more offensive considering he had brought a guest with him. He wanted to shield Ebony from that side of his life and David’s questions compromise that.

It was all around disrespectful.

“Of course.”

Silas had many businesses in town and across the Americas that he owned. More of them served the purpose of having the respect of the people who lived around the dealings of his cartel than making profits. He loaned substantial amounts of money to mostly failing businesses and indefinitely collected repayments every two months. Almost similar to taxes. The appreciation of the loan and the fear of repayments garnered the type of connection Silas needed.

Some used the Moreno family as protection from emerging drug cartels who didn’t prioritize loyalty with locals the way he did. La Mafia often found it easier to get rid of locals altogether. Silas would be used as strong force and in return, he’d have eyes and ears who kept tabs on his rivals’ movements in North America, Mexico and Colombia. It was a mutually beneficial relationship. Once he owned the business, he used them for meetings, some he brought women to and others he used to launder money out of when flow was heavy. Dos Molinos was just one of the more beautiful locations.

“He’s beautiful.” Ebony outstretched her hand slowly to the horse’s snout. Her finger tips landed against the black fur first and then she laid her palm below his eye. He looked at her and she met his gaze directly.

Ebony had never been this close to a horse before but her fear couldn’t match her intrigue. The horse was massive and she had to crane her neck a little to see its ears. The first touch had cast all her apprehension away. Ebony rubbed his smooth coat repeatedly and the horse let out a deep neigh that she took as an expression on approval.

“This here is ‘Z’.” David introduced the horse.

“Are horses normally this big?” Ebony turned behind her to ask the men watching.

“No, he’s a Shire Stallion. One of the largest breeds in the world.”

“You want to ride him?” Silas approached beside her. He patted the horses’ side with more force than Ebony agreed with. She compensated with more gentle strokes across his face and up toward his ear.

“Absolutely not.” She said it with a straight, even tone.

“David, get us a saddle.”

“I’m not riding—”

“Try it once with me.” Silas looked at her with those eyes. Under the midday Texas sun they were bright and burned like a hot metal ore. Ebony averted her gaze quickly “Once, Ebony.”

David threw a saddle over the horse’s back. Ebony took a step back to size up the horse once more. Silas climbed up expertly; his biceps flexed when he used his momentum to thrust himself over the horse’s back. David threw down a stool for her to step up on. Silas reached a hand down for Ebony.

Her heartbeat thumped in her neck. Z shifted on his feet and his tail went swinging but Silas’ offering never wavered.

Ebony took off her flip flops and gathered the slack in her already short dress just enough to give her mobility. She walked through the powder brown dirt up to the horse. She grabbed his hand with the random strand of courage she found within herself and he practically pulled her up into his lap. She yelped at the force but laughed once she had taken in her new height.

She felt Silas laughing behind her and she joined in with him. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so far off the ground.

Ebony was forced to acknowledge how close they were. His groin was pressed flush against her backside. His legs sat in the stirrups but her thighs were supported by his and dangled freely. The dress she wore cut off right at the cusp of her cheeks and left all of her thigh exposed to the blazing sun.

Silas had continued laughing well after her last chuckle dwindled. She looked behind her curiously and saw him shaking his face and fighting his way through her coils from above. Her hair was blinding him despite his head being a few inches above her crown.

“Oh, sorry.” Ebony leaned forward instinctively but the horse started to move under her and she felt herself falling.

“Ay,” Silas warned. He grabbed her waist and pulled her back to him. His hand pressed firmly against her belly and his big palm covered a lot of surface. “It’s alright, don’t worry about it.” He said gently. His free hand balled up the reigns.

Silas clenched the stirrups and got the horse to start trotting down the dirt path toward the cover of the trees. After twenty seconds of silence, Ebony leaned into Silas’ chest a bit more and allowed him to support her from behind. Her hand idly ran through the horses’ long, coarse mane. She was completely relaxed.

“You enjoyin’ yourself o qué—or what?” He smiled. Silas had her in his arms, his hand resting over the soft curve of her stomach and her hair blowing in the wind below his chin. He looked down on her and saw her thighs spread wide, her brown legs leading down to her dangling pretty feet and anklet. He could see down her bra from his angle and that was when he decided to look back to the trail. For his own sake.

“I love this.” He was surprised by her honest admission. A piece of him assumed she’d play into some faux annoyance as if he dragged her up onto the horse against her will. “Thank you.” Silas smirked to himself.

“Of course.” He said.

They rode in silence for another few minutes.

“What do you do?” The dreaded question. It was inevitable now since David had put the question in the air.

“I’m an investor.” Ebony noted his shortness and his tone.

“And you own this?” Not quite.

“Yes.” He thought of how to change the subject. “Why didn’t you stay here instead of the bed and breakfast?”

“I called and they said they were booked.” She laughed to herself after finally realizing that it was a lie. There was no one here. Now, she had showed up with the man who signed all the checks. She laughed a little harder.

“What’s funny?” Silas asked, looking down on her.

“They didn’t want me to stay here.” Silas could feel a twinge of anger bubbling up in him. Why would they say it was booked if it wasn’t? Then, David had the audacity to want to bring up money concerns after he’d been turning money away. None of it made sense to him.

“How do you know that?” Silas asked honestly.

“Oh please,” Ebony drawled out in a singsong voice. She looked up into his eyes and saw he was serious. She settled back into his hold. Ebony had to remember that despite where his mother and father were from, Silas passed as white in many settings. His only giveaway might have been his accent and even still, it took a hard ear to pick up on it. It shouldn’t have been a surprise he didn’t fully understand; he didn’t have the experiences. “What would be their only reason for not wanting me here?” She started. He didn’t answer so she pressed on. “I call and I say my name is Ebony Brown and I’m from Brooklyn, —”

“Because you’re black?” He had pieced it together.

“What else could it be?” Ebony let her anger come and go fleetingly. She couldn’t hold onto that kind of energy for too long. The older she got, the more her resentment had turned her hard. After learning how to let things go, she hated to let situations consumer her. Forgiveness had been her closest friend the last few years and it had always done her more good than harm. This was no exception. “He wasn’t too happy to see me today, either.”

“I’ll talk to him when we get back.” Ebony offered a sound of objection.

“Don’t do that.” She chastised. “Just let it go, please?” He didn’t respond. She looked over and saw his jaw flexing and tightening from below. His unbreakable eyes were set on the trail ahead. It was written all over his face that nothing she said right then would change his mind.