“What do you want?” she asked.
He dug his fingers into her arm, holding her too tight, making her wince. “I want that lying asshole out of this town, and I want him out forever. I also want twenty thousand pesos, in exchange for the headaches he’s caused me. I was supposed to marry your aunt this year, you know? The money can be his wedding gift to me.”
“They’ll still be married even if he leaves town.”
He relaxed his grip on her and smiled. “I’ll have the marriage annulled once he’s been gone for a few months. No woman would stay married to a scoundrel of that sort, and she’ll want to put the whole shameful episode behind her quickly.”
“She’ll marry you out of shame, then?”
She could already see it. Cándido slipping into their home to take what he regarded as his rightful place at Perla’s side. To be lord and master, ultimate owner of every piece of furniture, every trinket, and every peso sitting in her aunt’s bank account. He would no doubt achieve what Ulises and Inés had failed to achieve; the both of them were but a pair of blunderers, and she cursed herself as much as she cursed Cándido.
He seemed thoroughly pleased, smugly beaming at her.
“I want that money by Monday, and I want him gone that same day. You tell him that. If not, I’ll have to get in touch with the detective, and your friend will end up behind bars. And you’ll be kicked out of your aunt’s house as soon as she learns the extent of your relationship with her husband. Monday, you hear me?”
Quickly she tried to think of a satisfactory answer, something toassuage him while she bought time. “Monday would be impossible. He’d have to make arrangements with his bank, and that’ll take a few days,” she said, knowing Ulises wouldn’t be able to cough up that kind of cash but not willing to specify it. If Cándido believed Ulises had money, he was sure to want to get his hands on it. It might be their lone bargaining chip.
“Then he has until Tuesday.”
“I’m sure that’s not enough time. How about a week?”
“I’m no fool. If I give that rat a week he’ll be gone, probably with Perla’s silverware in his suitcase. I never trusted him from the start. I can smell a cheat a mile away.”
“If he does run off, that’s for the best, isn’t it?”
“It’s not for the best when I can make him pay a little of what he owes me. Otherwise, I would’ve shot him between the eyes already, and don’t you think I won’t if he tries anything funny.”
“I can’t say it’ll take less than a week.”
“Then you’ll have to come up with collateral. To keep me nice and quiet.”
“I don’t have a diamond hidden under my mattress.”
“I’m aware.”
This time he gripped her in an entirely different manner, his hand settling low upon her back, making clear the kind of collateral he expected. She repressed the instinct to slap him and instead moved mechanically, stepping left and right to the rhythm of the marimba.
“You’re an insolent girl, thinking you and your friend could cheat me blind! You’re going to pay for that.”
The lewd pig’s advances made her want to vomit, but she swallowed her bile and her protests. She glanced down, concealing the ferocity of her gaze and affecting shyness.
“That might be hard to arrange.”
“It didn’t seem too hard to get under your skirts the other night when Linares had you pinned against the wall.”
“You saw us. What if someone should see us like that in the street andrun to tell my aunt? I can’t possibly go to your house, where your sister could walk in on us.”
She looked up at him. He frowned, and for a few seconds they moved in silence.
“You could pick me up tomorrow night, in your car,” she suggested, a plan slowly unspooling inside her head.
“In my car?”
“After everyone has gone to bed. They’ll be tired after the celebrations. My aunt will want to sleep at eleven sharp, all the alcohol gets to her head. After midnight the house will be locked and quiet. I could slip out and you could pick me up. Then we could head somewhere else.”
“Where?”
“Outside town. We can take any path up the mountains and park on the side of the road. Someplace we won’t be bothered.”