My hands were tied behind my back in a chair in Marco’s bedroom. So what if Marco knew I was named Eva? Maybe the audio just picked that up. I was hopeful.

Although this situation was looking more dire by the minute.

"I heard Corbin calling you Eva,” Marco said, speaking slowly. “So I did a little research. Turns out you work for the DEA. Imagine that."

Well, there went that idea. I’m screwed. And not in the way Corbin screws.

Marco’s phone buzzed, and he answered it. “Yes?...No!...Unacceptable!...Well FIND THEM. How hard is it to find the only tall white guy on MY OWN FUCKING PROPERTY?!”

He hung up his cell phone and dropped it with a thud on his desk. “Bunch of fucking clowns I have working for me,” he mumbled.

I sat up, arched my back and stuck out my chest. “So this is it, huh. Why don’t you just kill me and get it over with. If you’re going to kill me, might as well.”

Marco picked up the gun off his desk and stuffed it in his waistband.  “I’m still deciding what to do with you, mi amor. I might just lock you up and throw you in a dungeon for a few years. DEA agent with a pretty face like yours? You’d make the ultimate bargaining piece. It’d be all over the news. You’d make a great insurance policy if they ever caught Luis.”

I stifled a shudder. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Marco had a chink in his armor, and damned if I didn’t at least try to exploit it: his Kanye West-sized ego.

“You know Marco, I always did find you…the most attractive out of everyone here. I mean between you and Corbin…it’s really no contest. You’re powerful.”

He took a few steps toward me and squatted down so we were at eye level, careful to make sure I could see his gun.  “Do not bullshit a bullshitter, mi amor.”

“You think I’m bullshitting? Try me. I want you, Marco,” I said.

I saw it in his eyes. He was faltering. He stole a glance at the scoop neck I was wearing and gave the international guy ‘I’m dazed and staring at your cleavage’ look.

"I always have,” I continued. "I don’t care about the DEA. You think I would take on this mission if I thought I would come out alive? I wanted to get close to you. Corbin though—he wouldn't let me out of his sight. He’s too worried about ruining his chance to get that time off his sentence."

He pulled out his gun and ran the cold metal of the nozzle down my face. 

“You couldn't handle me,” Marco said with a sadistic smile.

“Please, honey,” I said, my lips parting. I squinted. “I’m a freak, just like you.”

Marco’s jaw dropped, and for a few moments I actually had him speechless.

“Oh, I get it now. It makes sense. You’re not the boss. You’re not the one who gets to decide my fate. You're waiting for Luis, since he’s finally coming in this afternoon.”

He put his hands on his stomach and let out a big belly laugh.  “Oh, you’re good. You’re really good. I can see why Corbin would fall in love with you.”

“…Fall in love with me?”

“Like I said, stop playing coy, Eva. The jig is up.  I’ve been listening and watching you and Corbin since you got here. It’s been quite entertaining for me—like reality TV with some hot sex.”

“You mean, you’re not just going to pass me off to Luis Reyes?”

“Bitch,” he said in a low tone, his voice suddenly more menacing.  “I am Luis Reyes.”

A chill ran from my head to the tip of my toes.

“I…I don’t believe you," I said.

He picked up the rubik’s cube from the desk and turned it a few more times. 

"Do you know what a figurehead is?"

"Of course, it's like the president of the United States. Everyone thinks he's a big deal but he really has no control over everything."

"Exactly. Why would the most powerful man of the most powerful cartel want to be a figurehead? That's not a fun life."

"So...Luis Reyes is a figurehead? I don’t get it."

“Luis Reyes is a figment of the imagination. A brilliant fucking idea I had years ago.  I wanted to keep the feds off my track, because who comes after a low level cocaine dealer when you can go after his boss, one of the biggest drug dealers on the face of the earth? So I invented Luis Reyes as the head of this organization.” He made quotes around "Luis Reyes" as he said the words. 

"So the DEA has been chasing a ghost for years? Wow."

"Impressed?" he smiled brutally.

"I mean, that’s sort of brilliant. And it also really pisses me off that I didn’t figure this out.  “You’re…Luis Reyes. Sort of. Shit. Why didn’t I see that!”

Marco half scowled, half smiled. “Now you're getting it.  Ah! Look at that!” he spun the rubik’s cube once more and solved it.  “Too bad you and Corbin couldn’t solve this puzzle as fast as I did.”

I tried to hold a seductive smile, but it was getting harder with every passing second. A feeling of regret and of courage, and of pure emotion welled up in me. "Like I said. If you're going to kill me, just get it over with. Do it. Like a man."

"Nah, I have a better idea.”

“What’s that?”

“Do you like it rough?” Marco said with a scowl.

Before I had a chance to hit him back, Marco hit me with the butt of the gun and everything went black.