Dancing with Mr. Blakemore Read online

  Kevin, confused, intrigued and a bit scared, stood as well and jumped when Saxton turned to face him. Toe to toe, eye to eye, hands on Kevin’s shoulders, he said, “When I move, you move. When I say quiet, you button it, and if I yell run, you haul ass, head down, and you’d better be outrunning me. Understand?”

  Kevin nodded and accepted the street map of San Juan that Odessa placed in his hands.

  Saxton counted off with his fingers: one, two, three and said, “Move,” and in unison they stepped outside the bistro, Odessa’s arms looped into Saxton’s, making lovey-dovey eyes at her husband. Kevin, with a local map in hand acting as the guide as he followed along behind them, pretending to give directions. It was understood that he was to act as if he was reading the map and guiding them, intentionally getting them lost. The blue-shirted man took a narrow side street, coming into Calle Limpio and ending up on a narrow side road.

  “Where did he go?” Kevin asked as Mr. Blue Shirt seemed to vanish into thin air. Out of another side building stepped a lightly-shaven Hispanic man with a machete, who was humming a familiar song. Saxton and Odessa continued walking, following along behind the man as if it was no big deal.

  It was a big deal to Kevin. “Excuse me guys, is that a machete in his hand?”

  “Yep,” Saxton said as he watched the man walk into a mid-sized unmarked building.

  “Why in the hell are we following a strange man with a machete? What if he plans to use it on us?”

  “Then I will have to shoot him again,” Odessa said with a smile.

  “What...you know him and you shot him before?”

  “Yes, he is our liaison. His name is Mateo.”

  Chapter Seven- Snake Spit & Snake Shit

  The moment the door opened to the darkened building, Odessa immediately knew the smell. She had experienced the distinctive scent at Rentería’s Villa in Mexico. If memory served her right, it took a couple of hours for the smell to leave her nostrils. This was a ploy by Mateo to throw them off, and if not, he was about to have some fun at their expense. She wanted to signal her husband and brother, but the room was pitch black. Saxton shone his penlight on the floor to make sure they were not stepping on anything, but they all could hear the movement.

  Kevin asked, “What is that smell?”

  Mateo yelled into the darkness and suddenly the lights came up. Odessa had already braced herself for what she knew was in the room, but there was no way to even start to imagine her husband and brother’s reaction. The first thing she heard when the lights came up was Saxton’s voice yelling loudly, “Fuck me!” This was so much better than her brother’s immediate reaction. Kevin screamed like a six-year-old girl in a tutu at the sight of the room full of caged snakes.

  Even though Odessa had been into the Viper House where Rentería had his snake wranglers milking the serpents and dipping the bullet tips in the venom, this was a smaller operation and many of these snakes were collector’s items. She was proud that she had held it together, but her brother and husband, they were just pitiful.

  The look on Mateo’s face and the two wranglers made her turn around and look back. Saxton was frozen in place with his left leg posed like the Heisman. It took everything in her not to laugh at the sight of Kevin on his back wrapped around Saxton’s body like a baby chimpanzee. The pleasure of the sight two of them made Mateo’s day as Kevin started making gorilla sounds, “Ooh, Ooh, Ooh, is that one snake or two in that cage?”

  Mateo fondled the machete, “Es tu hermano?” He asked Odessa.

  She tried to sound like she was proud to call him hers, but it didn’t come out that way, disappointment dripping from her words, “Yes, that is my brother.”

  “He must take after tu Mama, no?”

  The machete wielding henchman was loving every minute of this scene. He told Kevin, his accent heavy, “That little brother, is just one snake.”

  “Jesus!” Kevin said as Saxton tried to upright himself, but Kevin wasn’t climbing down and it appeared as if Saxton was intentionally holding on to him, whether for comfort of support, it was unclear. The two of them were a sight.

  “That is what we call him too, and now, it is time for Jesus to have some dinner,” Mateo said as he clanked a silver pin against the machete and the snake moved. Kevin screamed again. The green anaconda was easily 24 feet long, weighing well over 200 pounds of sheer muscle. The rear section of the building was a glass-encased home for the animal with a good-sized pool of water. The left wall of the room held rows and rows of glass cages and cases with exotic snakes which appeared to be non-venomous while the right side of the wall held the deadliest snakes in the world. The tapping sound must have been a signal because every snake in every cage slithered closer to the corner where the wranglers must have inserted the weekly meals. Mateo obviously had saved the feeding of Jesus for their viewing pleasure.

  A motorized lift rolled into the room with a pig in a breakaway harness. They all stood watching the act unfold as the squealing 100 pounds of pork was raised and lowered into the cage. The poor pig knew it was in danger as it raced from one side of the encasement to the other, which unfortunately only stimulated the hunting need in Jesus. His head poked up out of the water and the huge body put itself within striking distance. Odessa wanted to turn away, but she would not exhibit any signs of weakness in front of Mateo, not on this day, nor ever. The same could not be said for either her husband or brother.

  The anaconda launched its sleek body and latched onto the pig, its six rows of teeth sinking into the delicate pink flesh, gripping, holding on as it wrapped its massive body around the animal. The pig squealed loudly, and so did Kevin. The tighter the snake coiled around the pig the tighter Kevin coiled around Saxton. The pig made one last cry before his heart stopped, and by all accounts from the look on Saxton’s face, it appeared as if his heart had ceased beating as well.

  Odessa tried to regain some form of control of the situation, “How often is Jesus fed, Mateo? He seems rather hungry.”

  “It will take Jesus about two weeks to digest that, and then I will be back. I like to be here when he is fed.” His dark eyes danced as he looked over Odessa’s shoulder.

  Odessa looked back to see if the question had given those two a chance to gain their composure, but they were not there. Saxton had taken off running out the door, still carrying her brother on his back.

  They had left her in here.

  Alone.

  With Mateo.

  Instinct told her to back away and move towards the door. Experience had taught her to never turn your back on a snake. As her head turned frontward, Mateo was standing dead center of the step she occupied, so close she felt his breath on her cheek.

  She only squinted her eyes as she took two quick steps back and was out the door. It did not take long to find the two deserters; she only had to follow the sound. They were in the corner, Kevin bent over retching and Saxton patting him on the back.

  “Saxton man, did you hear the sound of the pig crying, like he was asking me for help.” Kevin said as one hand he held his stomach while the other rubbed his thigh.

  “Fuck that! Did you see the size of that snake?”

  “I wanted to help the pig. Man, it was like he was looking at me desperate, saying ‘help me man,’ but there wasn’t nothing I could do,” Kevin said in between vomiting sounds.

  Saxton was no better. He bent at the waist and put his hands on his knees, “When that big joker wrapped around that pig and started squeezing, that pig’s eye popped out!”

  This must have been the worst of it for Saxton, who opened his mouth and upchucked his lunch. That action spurned Kevin on, who graduated from dry heaving to full throttle hurling. From the corner of her eye, she saw the glint of the machete. They were all vulnerable to him, and Mateo knew it.

  “Saxto is not so big and tough now is he...?” Mateo said as he walked away to jump in the front seat of the black jeep that had barreled down the alley upon them. If he wanted them dead, now would have
been the perfect time to strike. “Mañana, Seňora Blakemore, a la cautro y media, aqui.” He told her as the jeep rolled slowly by the two vomiting men, “You no have to go inside again Saxto....since you no have the guts to handle it.” His laughter rang out as they drove away.

  It was a dangerous dance that Mateo had begun. He had embarrassed Saxton not only in front of his wife, but also in front of his brother-in-law. This was something she knew her husband was not going to let go unpunished.

  The walk back to the hotel was a quiet one. Kevin, humiliated by his urine soaked pants, had found a common bond with Saxton, who had not mocked him for his fear. He also did not curse out his brother-in-law for the pee that had soaked the back of his shirt when Kevin’s bladder let go in fear, a fear that was also very real for Mr. Blakemore, who was dealing with his own disappointment in running off and leaving his wife unprotected. Odessa had also learned that Mateo knew and exposed a weakness in her husband that she had been unaware existed. Moving forward in this mission required a new plan of action because the smell of snake spit and snake shit was a very real form of kryptonite for the team.

  Everyone now knew that Saxton Blakemore was afraid of snakes.

  Chapter Eight- Shedding the Skin

  It was a very quiet dinner as the three sat at the table, uncertain of what to say about any of their behaviors. Each was troubled for a different reason, yet it was Odessa who decided to break the silence, “So it seems we finally found something you two have in common.”

  Saxton and Kevin both looked up at her. She mouthed a forkful of rice, “It seems you both are extremely terrified of snakes.” Odessa tried to hide her smile, and soon her dinner companions were laughing as well. The laughter died down as Saxton made eye contact with his wife, then dropped his gaze to his plate. I left you in there with the worst man on the planet. Odessa touched his hand and when his eyes met hers, she smiled at him, assuring him that she was not judging him for the moment when he ran off and left her.

  A few years ago while she sat with her mother at the kitchen table, her father, Big Sarge, was truly getting on her mom’s nerves, and Odessa asked, “How do you deal with Daddy sometimes, Mom?”

  Her mother’s words echoed in her memory, “Sweetheart, the hardest thing about being married is accepting his weaknesses and faults along with his strengths. I never hold anything over his head. In return, he accepts me for me.” Saxton accepted her for who she was, and those were a lot of snakes. She was freaked out as well, seeing what that snake did to that poor pig, but she had not reacted.

  “Guys,” she told them, recalculating the strategy, “we need a new plan if Mateo is our liaison. He knows you both are afraid of snakes. If he gets another opportunity, I guarantee you he is going to use it in his favor.”

  Kevin was shaking his head, oblivious to her words. “I will never eat a piece of pork again. I am traumatized for life.” Saxton reached across the table and slapped him on the back as means of support.

  “We will leave you out of the rest of it, okay?” Odessa tried to reassure her brother.

  Kevin sat at the table, rocking back and forth as if to console himself. Saxton broke the silence, “We can’t. He has been put into play. To pull him out now will make him a pawn. Mateo will come after him to punish us. He still may; we have to be ready.”

  Kevin asked the million dollar question, “You shot him, so why didn’t you kill him? If you had killed him, that poor pig would still be alive!”

  Odessa sipped at her drink, “I shot him to keep him from hurting my husband. If I had killed him, they would have killed Saxton.” She did not want to admit that she had killed his co-conspirator, and she also had not answered the question.

  Kevin pushed the food around on his plate. He did not understand what his sister had gotten herself into with this man. Saxton lowered his voice, looking at the saddened face, “You have to keep something on your stomach. We are going to move pretty fast over the next day or so,” Saxton felt badly for the kid. Seeing that snake eat the pig messed with his head too, so he understood how Kevin was feeling.

  In the early light of morning, Saxton lay in bed by his wife, staring at the ceiling. His eyes remained fixed on a brown spot as he wrestled with the words he needed to tell her. He did not realize she had been awake for some time, lying there in the quietness watching him, until she softly touched his torso. He spoke quietly as he explained the reaction he had yesterday.

  As a boy of only 12, fixed minded and strong-willed, he took off on his horse, riding the back nine of the ranch. Although he had been warned countless times by his parents, young Saxton Blakemore had a will of steel. Connard had begged to ride with him but he shut his little brother down and took off riding at full speed. He had not gotten too far when his horse, Bandit, reared up and dumped him besides a stack of rocks. Luckily, he had not hit his head, but his arm skewed the pile of stones to reveal a snake-breeding ball.

  “I had never been so terrified or seen so many snakes in my life, Odessa,” he told her as his eyes filled with tears. “That was, until yesterday.”

  Saxton spoke of the smell and the sound of the rattles, the slithering sound of the bodies, and the paralyzing fear. “I finally managed to try to get up, but I had broken my leg. I slipped again and knocked over some more rocks and there were more snakes.”

  He told her that all he could remember was the sound of the thundering hooves as his dad and Uncle Dusty came riding in, guns blazing and shooting at everything that moved. “Because of the pain in my broken leg, I didn’t realize that I had been bitten twice, and I was deathly sick for a long time, Odessa.” The tears rolled down the side of his face, soaking the pillow.

  “Seeing those snakes yesterday brought back a memory that I had long since tucked away and that fear . . . that fear made me fail you,” he choked on the words as the tears threaten to devour him.

  “Saxton, you left me twenty feet behind you. The rule is when you move I move. I wasn’t in any real danger,” she told him as her hand stroked his chest.

  “That is where you are wrong, Odessa. What if he had snatched you and set the snakes loose in the building....would I have come in after you? His body shuddered with tears because he could not easily answer the question.

  She could. “Yes, my husband, you would have.”

  “I hate this,” he told her as he cried into her bosom, “I don’t want to do this anymore. I want to take you home and live a normal life. I don’t want you in danger. These are bad people and that fucker is one of the worst humans on the planet. He knows, Odessa! He knows my weaknesses...and he is going to use them.”

  She held her husband as he shed tears of fear and frustration that he had been holding for some time.

  “He knows how much I love you, Odessa, and he is going to try to take you away from me.” The tears came full throttle, and she said nothing as she held him in the dim light of the room. She flicked away the tears that started to roll down her own cheeks while formulating the right phrase to fortify her man to get his head back in the mission. It was doubly imperative for her man to understand that she had not lost respect for him, and she still entrusted him with her life.

  “Will you allow him to take me away from you Saxton?”

  As suddenly as they had started, the tears stopped. Red-rimmed eyes looked at her in the dimness seeing, but not seeing, her face. Eyes full of determination and something else that startled her in its intensity. What she saw in his eyes was hatred.

  “Never! I will kill that rat bastard before I ever allow him to touch a hair on your lovely arm,” he told her as he kissed her hard on the mouth. “I will protect you with my life, Odessa Blakemore. I will never let anyone hurt you.”

  Her hands raked through his disheveled hair, brushing away the locks that had fallen into his face, “Good, Saxton, because you know I will bust a cap in any son of a bitch that comes close to hurting you as well.”

  She kissed him back with a passion so pure, it threatened to overtake
her.

  “Odessa, I will make it up to you. I will give everything I have to make it right....” He told her through the kisses he planted on her neck, face, and lips.

  As she unbuttoned her pajama top, his hands fumbled trying to remove the coordinating bottoms. “There is only one thing I need for you to give me husband,” her words were buried into the side of his neck as she reached inside his underwear, taking him in to her hands.

  “What can I give you my beautiful wife? Tell me what can I do to make this right for you,” his hands dipped low, feeling, touching, caressing, preparing her body to receive him. He whispered into her ear, “Tell me, Odessa.”

  As she rolled to her back and wrapped her legs about his waist, Saxton shifted the bulk of his weight to his arms as he pressed the tip of his love towards his wife. Her fingers were tangled into his hair while she lifted her hips to take him in.

  The soft-spoken words filled his ear, his heart and his world, shedding new light on a dark moment, “Give me your son, Saxton.”

  The slow dance of two lovers began to a melody only the two of them could hear. They moved as one on the bed in an effort to renew a bond between man and wife that had not really been broken. If anything, Mateo had infused Saxton to shed a skin that had been holding him back.

  Heaven help the man that would attempt to come between Saxton Blakemore and his wife.

  Chapter Nine - Strike a Pose

  At four fifteen, Team Blakemore arrived in the alley behind what Saxton fondly called Snakes R Us. The black jeep rolled up at four twenty with Mateo riding shotgun. The vehicle only slowed long enough for a nod of the head from the machete wielding snake lover and Saxton pulled in behind him, trailing him toward the port of San Juan.

  Saxton knew Puerto Rico well and did not understand why Mateo was taking the long way around, down past San Gerónimo de Boquerón into the backside of Balneario El Escambrón. This reminded both him and Odessa of the encampment in Panama underneath one of the busiest tourist sites in the area.