The Beasts of Juarez, R.B. Schow [books to read for self improvement .txt] 📗

them, let alone disappoint them, because they are about to unleash hell on your behalf.”

“It’s my family, Damien.”

“Do you have a pen and paper handy?”

“Yes,” he said, exhausted already. Standing up, he spotted a woman with a pen in her hand and a sheath of papers next to her. She looked up when he approached her. “Can I borrow the pen and paper? It’s an emergency.”

“Yes, Congressman Fox,” she said, blushing, “of course.”

He took the pen and paper and returned his focus to the task at hand. “Okay, Damien,” he said, “Who am I calling now?”

“A man named Leopold Wentworth.”

“Is that his real name?”

“I don’t think so, but that’s who he decided he wanted to be a very long time ago.”

“That’s fine,” Camden said. “I’m ready for the number.”

Damien gave it to him, then said, “Good luck and keep me posted.”

“Will do,” he said. “And thank you.”

Chapter Nine

LEOPOLD WENTWORTH

Leopold Wentworth stirred at the sound of his cellphone ringing somewhere in the bedroom. With the blackout drapes closed, it could be night even though he suspected it wasn’t. The phone rang again. Rolling over, he checked the clock on the nightstand, but the numbers were blurry so he rubbed his eyes hard and blinked a few times.

“Shut it off,” the girl next to him complained. He fell still for a second as bits and pieces of last night’s activities worked their way back into his brain.

“I’m trying,” he said to the mystery girl.

Half sitting up, he patted the comforter and the bed sheets, but he couldn’t see a thing. The phone just kept ringing. He finally reached over and turned on the bedside lamp, flinching at the sudden burn of light. That’s when he saw the back of a girl’s head and her bare shoulders. The phone was ringing closer to her but she wasn’t doing a thing to help him find it.

He pulled back the blankets and sheets, found the phone next to her naked body. In a brief moment of panic, he failed to remember who she was. He was with a girl last night, but it wasn’t this one. Who in the hell did he take home?

He grabbed the phone where it lay near her bare ass. That was about the same time she reached up and cupped a hand over her ear. “Leopold, please, I have a screamer of a headache.”

That’s when he realized he was naked, too.

Oh, no…

The king-sized bed was huge, larger than normal with a memory foam topper, more than enough pillows, and three layers of blankets. Sitting up fully, pulling the blankets around him, he answered the phone.

“Yes,” Leopold said.

“I got your number from a friend,” the man on the other end of the line said. For a moment, Leopold wasn’t sure how to take the man’s voice. Was he broken up? Falling apart? Barely keeping it together? Usually, he could tell these things right away, but not with this man.

“Let’s start with the name of the friend who referred you to me and then you can tell me your name,” Leopold said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“Damien Stone referred me to you and my name is Camden Fox.”

“Camden Fox from Louisiana?” he asked.

“That’s me.”

The girl tried to pull the blankets back over herself but Leopold pulled them back off of her, prompting her to roll over. When she rolled over, he saw tired eyes, small breasts, and a flat stomach. Yeah, he definitely didn’t know this girl. But there she was, asleep in his bed, right next to him!

“What has prompted this call?” Leopold asked. “And please, before you speak, I want you to understand something—I’m not a political problem solver. If that’s the nature of your call, it’s best we end things before we begin.”

In the bathroom, he heard a toilet flush, causing his eyes to flash a little wider. He knew he should take the call in the other room, but he wasn’t dressed and there was now a stranger in his bathroom doing God knows what. Hopefully not checking his cabinets for Vicodin, Percocet, Oxy, things like that.

Camden cleared his throat and then said, “My wife and daughters were kidnapped in El Paso. We believe they may have been taken over the border into Juárez.”

“There are a lot of kidnappings that take place in and around Juárez, Mr. Fox. Have you spoken with the authorities?”

“I was directed by Damien to call you first.”

“That’s curious,” he said.

“My daughters are sixteen, twelve, and eight years old. Do you have any idea what happens to girls their age in Juárez, Mr. Wentworth?”

“I am acutely aware of what happens to girls that age all around the world, especially in Juárez. They auction them off to sadists in other countries, whore them out, or use them in snuff films they later sell, making millions in the process if the kill is gruesome enough.”

The sleeping girl was suddenly awake, pulling the blankets tighter than ever. She looked over at him like she didn’t know if he was a businessman, a playboy, or a monster.

Two of the three are right, he thought, looking back at her.

The bathroom door finally opened and another girl appeared, nearly naked. He recognized her right away as the girl he had taken home.

“Will you excuse me for one moment, Mr. Fox, I’m afraid you caught me in the middle of a delicate situation I must quickly remedy so that I can give you my full attention.”

“If you’re busy,” Camden said, sounding impatient.

“I was busy when you called me, Mr. Fox. I’m about to clear my slate.”

“Every minute is a matter of life and—”

“If you haven’t the patience to navigate a phone call, Mr. Fox, then you might not have the patience to see this through—”

“My patience is already