My one on one time with Crystal didn’t last very long. We were caught by surprise by Yelina storming into the bathroom to hurl. Great start to the morning.

“Well come on girl. Let’s go get some breakfast!” Yelina was rather chipper, even though she looked like hell. I guess she should drink more often. “Are you sure you don’t want to come Alex?”

There was no way.

I needed to at least close my eyes for an hour on that comfortable bed. Plus get a shower and a change of clothes. “No…I’m good. I need to clean up anyway. Why don’t you two go. Just be careful.”

The twosome nodded in unison and we all walked out to the hall. I watched the two woman, until they disappeared around the corner. Letting out a sigh of relief I entered the room and headed to the bathroom. My shower was nice and relaxing. Now I was all clean and changed…sleep was next on my list. One hour was all I needed.

Slowly I crawled onto the bed, and instantly closed my eyes as my head hit the pillow.

I’m not sure how long after, loud banging at my door woke me up. I cursed a storm groggily making way to open. “What?” I groaned, flinging the door open.

“She’s gone! I can’t find her…I looked everywhere and asked everyone and no one saw her. I’m sorry Alex.” she was almost in tears as she pushed her way into the room and began to pace. She was even talking faster than she usually did. “Oh god! What if they got her Alex?”

I slammed the door shut and stormed over to the window. This was all I needed. Where the hell had she gone? Did she just run away? Did those bastards really have her?

The ringing of my cell phone answered my question. Before answering, I cleared my throat. “What?” I answered angrily.

“Well good morning to you too.” the familiar voice spoke.

“Oh, Jenkins. Sorry…I just keep getting wrong number calls. Are you back?”

“Yes I am. I was wondering if you could bring by the girl this evening. I’ll take her out of your hands.”

Shit. I didn’t have the girl. What girl was I supposed to turn in? “Um…yeah sure. I’ll be there around eight.” I hung up quickly, not giving him a chance to ask me any questions.

Just as I hung up my phone, someone knocked on the door and a soft voice spoke “Room service”.

“Listen go get your things. We have to get out of here, they are bound---”

My words were cut off by a loud BOOM and the door flying at us. We both ducked and watched the door soar through the window. Yelina yelped holding on to me tight. There was a blonde woman in a housekeeper uniform and she had a shot gun in her hands. She cocked it and shot a round. It made a huge hole on the bed headrest. I took Yelina’s hand, dodging the shots that were blasting holes in the walls. We made it to the bathroom and into their room. Just as another shot destroyed the bathroom door.

Without stopping I dragged her out their room door and down the hall and into a janitorial room. We stood there wide eyed, trying to catch our breaths.

“What the fuck was that?” Yelina questioned out loud.

“I have no idea.” I answered. “I have to get back to the room. I forgot my gun.”

“This one?” She asked, her hands shaking as she showed me the gun. “I’m surprised I didn’t accidentally squeeze the trigger.”

She handed over the gun and we both quieted down, as we heard footsteps outside. There was someone standing at the door, I could see the shadow through the bottom of the door.

Yelina was doing the sign of the cross and praying to whomever Cubans pray to. The door knob turned slowly and a peak of light came through a crack in the door. I aimed my gun, and put my finger on the trigger.

The door flew open, Yelina gripped the sides of my shirt and hid her face on my shoulder. And I shot three rounds. Someone fell with a thump on the ground and we emerged from the room.

“It’s not the same woman.” Yelina spoke in a daze.

I bent down to check the young woman’s pulse. But she didn’t have one. “Shit!” I dug my arms under the dead woman’s armpits and hauled her into the janitor room. There was commotion not to far away, probably around the corner and they were headed right towards us. Kicking the door closed, I took hold of Yelina and dragged her towards the elevator. She kept muttering something about me killing someone.

Hell, if only she knew I was just as shocked as she was.

When we were in the elevator, I took her face in my hands and looked her straight in the eyes. “Would you shut up already. I had no choice. So get a fucking grip.”

“Ok,” she nodded, but I knew the words would take a bit to sink in. .

I couldn’t leave the hotel, because I didn’t know where the hell Crystal was or the crazy bitch that had shot at us. The phone buzzed in my pocket again.

“What?” I answered.

There was a mocking laughter on the line, “It’s nice to see you still have your animal instincts. Poor girl…you cut her life short, Jack.”

“Where is Crystal? What did you do with her? You better not hurt her…”

“That’s all up to you…and your cooperation with me. I asked you in good terms to help me out and you refused!”

I felt my jaw clench, “Fine. Just let me know that she’s ok.” It really annoyed me, how pleading my voice sounded.

“Alright Jack…the blonde is in room 312...be careful with her. She’s in a really delicate state now.” There was laughter and the line went dead.

Panic raced through me. What the hell did he mean in a delicate state? Without saying a word to Yelina, I grabbed her again and shot through the lobby and into the stairwell. She was sucking in air, mumbling choice words in Spanish when we finally hit the third floor.

She yanked her hand out of my grip, “What the hell do you think I am! I can’t run anymore…..look at you…you haven’t even broken a sweat.”

I was too busy concentrating on getting to room 312, so her bitching didn’t affect me. We walked ahead, turned a corner and finally found the room at the end of the hall. Then, I realized I didn’t have a key card. Instinctively I checked my pant pockets, even though I knew there was no way I could have one. Mine had been left behind on the bathroom counter.

“What the hell?” I whispered, taking out the key card.

Yelina snatched it and swiped it once and then again. The door clicked and we both looked at each other for reassurance. I put my hand on the door handle and pushed. My eyes shot open at the sight of Crystal.

She was laying on the bed, trying to wiggle herself free. But her hands and feet were bound by duct tape, along with her mouth. I ran over to her and hesitated to take the tape around her mouth off first. So I busied myself with the one on her hands and feet.

“She’s trying to say something.” Yelina said, taking an end of the tape on her mouth and yanking it off.

“Shiiiiiit!” Crystal yelped. “Get it off of me…Jack…you have to take that thing off.”

Her wiggling was now out of control, and making it impossible for me to unwrap the tape around her ankles. “Would you stop moving.”

There were tears in her eyes and she was tugging at a thick black band around her wrist. “Get it off…please. Those bastards drugged me and they put this thing on me. Do you know what it is…? It’s…”

“What’s your fucking problem?”

“This!” she stated, once again trying to pry the black strip from her arm. “They said it’s a fucking bomb…a bomb. I have a goddamn bomb strapped to my wrist.” she let out a screech and rolled around like a crazy person.

My thoughts were that she was still under the influence of whatever they had injected her with. But she looked pretty distressed about it. The phone buzzed in my pocket once again and this time I was too confused and angry to even say anything.

“I see you found her already. Sorry we had to drug the lunatic…she was kicking and screaming in the bathroom. It was just a little bit of tranquilizer. Nothing major.”

My grip on the phone tightened, “What the hell do you want? What’s that thing on her wrist? I’m tired of playing your stupid games.”

There was laughter. Then silence. “Jack, we’ve just gotten started. Like I said you didn’t want to cooperate…and threatening you doesn’t seem to work. So I thought, what other way to get you to do what I want, than to put someone you love in danger.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Her newly acquired piece of jewelry is my guarantee that you will cooperate with me. There is no more fucking with me, Jack. So listen carefully, because she’s literally a ticking time bomb.”

I was tempted to throw the phone across the room, impossibly scoop up both women and get the hell out of there. “You son of a bitch. I don’t have anything to do with this.”

“Well now you do. That black band around your little girlfriends wrist is a exactly what she said. It’s a bomb. Which will go off in…eh…I thought I would be nice and give you 72 hours to get me my money and kill off Jenkins. You can’t cut it off, if you do she will blow up ahead of time. Oh and she can’t be further than ten feet away from you or she‘ll go…BOOM! So make sure to take very good care of her. I’d get to work if I were you.”

The line went dead.

Crystal and Yelina were both staring at me expectantly and I wasn’t sure what the hell to say. I cleared my throat and looked around the room, trying to avoid eye contact with Crystal.

“What are you waiting for Alex aren’t you going to help me get this thing off.” Her fingers were still working at the black strip, but her eyes were fixed on me. She had that familiar frightened look on her face.

“Crys…there’s a problem.” I swallowed hard and took a seat next to her. Our eyes met and they held for a moment. “I can’t take that thing off…because it REALLY is a bomb.” Her eyes widened in horror.

I felt like shit.