Rodriguez paused, moving the Pliers away from his mouth a little.
"Martini." he mumbled to himself, scoffing angrily.
"Your name?" He turned to the spy whose trembling has reduced after Rodriguez adjusted the pliers.
"Trevor," he answered within breaths.
"Okay, Trevor, Why did Martini send you to spy on my territory, And why do you have explosives with you?" He asked.
"He..he didn't send us to spy on your territory," he stammered. "He sent us to plant explosives in your winery and set it on fire" he said.
"My winery?" Rodriguez frowned, his anger aggravating. "Why?" He asked but the spy only whimpered in fear. "Answer me!" He roared, making Trevor shudder. Seeing he didn't budge, Rodriguez grabbed his hair and pushed his head backward, the force almost pulled Trevor's hair from its scalp. He forcefully tore his mouth open and dip the pliers back into his mouth, grabbing a tooth with it, about to break it.
Out of pain, Trevor spoke, but his words only got messed up because of the pliers on his tooth, Rodriguez released the pliers clamp from his tooth but didn't take it out of his mouth.
"He wanted you and your men to be distracted so he can attack and take your.. goods," Trevor breathed out, his breathing very hard.
"What goods?" Rodriguez asked, rage in his eyes.
"I-I don't know..
"Don't you dare!" Rodriguez barked, increasing the pull on his hair, pulling out some of it.
"I swear! I swear with my life and everything I hold dear! I don't know what goods he was talking about! I swear!" Trevor cried, trying to release Rodriguez's grip on his hair.
"What time does he plan to attack?" Rodriguez asked.
"By dawn. We are to send him a signal when we succeed with the plan" he answered.
"What signal?" Rodriguez asked.
"A text," he replied.
"What text?" Rodriguez asked.
"Hecho!" Trevor replied.
"You better not be lying to me." Rodriguez gave his head a rough shake, aggravating the pain he was feeling in his scalp.
"I swear!" He said, shutting his eyes in pain. "The word is to tell him we had succeeded" he added. "I swear, I'm telling the truth!" He cried.
Rodriguez gave his bloody face a long rage-filled look. He let him go forcefully, realising he was saying the truth.
"Where is the phone?" Rodriguez asked and Trevor quickly pointed to the other spy, feeling a little relief.
Charles went to search him on Rodriguez command and he brought out a button phone from his trouser pocket, handing it to Rodriguez who in turn passed it to his consigliere.
How dare him, Rodriguez mumbled.
"How dare you, Martini!" He gritted, his breathing audible and hard. He turned to his men,
"Bound them with chains and lock them up in the cellar" he instructed and immediately, they took the spies away.
He stretched his hand and the crew gathered around him. Gerald, his consigliere stood directly beside him.
"We set off to the Martini's at dawn. Gerald, you know what to do with the phone," he said and Gerald nodded. "We block them in his camp and attack," he instructed.
"Yes boss," they responded in unison. Rodriguez left them, Gerald following him from behind.
Getting to the van, he paused at the back and opened the door, seeing the bags all kept neatly and stacked with his goods, a smile tightened itself to his lips amidst the frown.
*This must be the goods Martini is planning to steal.. that idiot!*
Rodriguez wondered how he got to know about it; could there be a snitch in his territory? And how the hell does Santiago think he can ever slip into his territory without getting caught.
He doesn't know what's coming for him, he would get rid of him for good for making such a brave yet cowardly move on his winery. Rodriguez climbed into the van to check his goods properly. The sight of it alone brought him an undefined wave of fulfilment and power.
Drawing further into the back, he paused when he found something or someone lying close to the bags. His brows furrowed as he walked closer to whatever it is, frowning.
From its silhouette, Rodriguez saw its helplessness, so he knew it couldn't possibly harm him.
He crouch to have a closer look and his expression went blank when he made out the full figure of what laid in front of him.
"What the.." He frowned, taking off his hat.
With his palm, he took the hair off to reveal a small oval face, her eyes closed and her lips chapped. Dried blood stayed on an open wound at the left side of her forehead and more blood streak down from the it, passing through the other side of her head and dropping on the floor. He looked closely and found a pool of blood beside her.
"Rodriguez?" Gerald called when he noticed him staring intently at something, he couldn't see.
"There's a girl" Rodriguez said, not sparing Gerald a glance.
"A girl?" Gerald grimaced. "In there? How?"
"Call me Michael right away!" Rodriguez ordered and Gerald left immediately to get Michael. Rodriguez crouch to her level, he stare into her face for recognition. Finding none, he lifted her up in his arms and brought her out of the van, placing her on the grassy floor.
He gave Michael a look when he arrived with Gerald and their gaze were both on the strange girl who was unconscious on the floor.
"Who is she?" He asked Michael, whose gaze sprang up to him at his words.
"I-I don't know, boss" he answered.
"You don't know?" Rodriguez asked, grimacing. "I found her in the van, how can you not know who she is?" He questioned.
"I...I really don't know how she got in there, boss"
"What do you mean you don't know how a girl got into the van you drove?! She's fucking bleeding and unconscious" Rodriguez thundered.
"Boss I-
"You fucking piece of shit!" Rodriguez charged toward him but Gerald stopped him.
"Calm down Rodriguez," Gerald held him, trying to calm him
"We both know Michael isn't a careless person. He has never been careless with any of your goods and he won't start now. If he says he doesn't know how the lady got in the van then he doesn't. I know you're angry because of what happened back there but you have to calm down right now so we can figure this out" Gerald said calmly to Rodriguez.
Gerald bent over to look at the girl in front of him, lying on the grass.
"She looks harmless," he noted.
He turned to Rodriguez, "Until we find out why and how she got into the van, we have got to make her live." Gerald told him.
"Just get her away from my goods!" Rodriguez said with an air of finality and walked away.
Gerald stood up, turning to Michael.
"Thank you" Michael said, his breathing audible.
Gerald nodded.
"Take her to Roberto, tell him to attend urgently to her" he said.
"Yes consigliere!" He said, walking to Aurora and picking her up from the ground.
Gerald walked to the van, picked Rodriguez's hat from it and shut the doors, locking it.
..
"Roberto!" Michael called, entering the infirmary. Roberto stood up, on sighting the unconscious girl, he arranged the bed quickly and Michael placed her on it.
"Consigliere demands for immediate treatment on her" he said.
Roberto grabbed his tools, bent over beside her, he first checked her breathing, finding it a little abnormal; he quickly placed an oxygen on her nose. He began examining her injuries. After a while, he glanced at Michael.
"What happened to her?" Roberto asked him.
"I don't know. Boss found her unconscious in the van," he replied.
"Her head and some of her bones are bruised, it seems as though she was heavily compressed by something," he pointed out.
"Oh..," Michael mumbled thoughtfully, "one of the bags probably fell on her while she was hiding in the van," he said.
"Bags?" Roberto questioned, looking at Michael.
"Yes, she got into the van when we went to pick up boss's goods." Michael said.
"And what goods are these, if I may ask?" Roberto inquired.
"Gold."