Get Diego now!
“We want Diego, and we want him now,” the sweaty Mexican man said in broken English. His face was five inches from mine. His knife began to pierce into the skin under my chin. My body pressed against the wall. Carla sat on the sofa sobbing. Another one of the three thugs threatened to slap her if she didn’t quiet down.
“Where is he?” I felt saliva spewing into my face.
“He’s around here somewhere. I’m not sure. He’s probably scared too,” I said.
“Señor Guzman wants him back. Now tell me, how did you get him and where can I find him?”
I saw my own blood running down the knife handle on to his hand.
“Señor Guzman?” I said. “Jose Luis Guzman? JLG? The drug lord?”
“You heard of JLG?” my attacker smiled. He was pleased that his boss’s reputation reached small town South Carolina.
“Yeah, he’s been in the news a lot.” I said. “JLG, I mean. You, you…you mean Señor Guzman wants Diego?”
The smile vanished. “Si, and if you don’t hurry to get him this knife will meet the roof of your mouth.”
“We sort of adopted him. Five years ago,” I explained. “We knew he was from Mexico but…but we had no idea.”
“Get him!”
He grabbed the hair on the back of my head and slung me to the ground. He kicked me in the groin. The other two men joined him. I was kicked I don’t know how many times. My head was throbbing. I swallowed blood. It was hard to focus. When the beating was over, I was jerked up by both arms and ordered to search the house for Diego.
I went into the bedroom where he normally sleeps but he was not there. I looked in the other bedrooms, the kitchen, the laundry room. I looked in every possible place while the Mexican gangster screamed and threatened me with my life. Finally, I looked under the bed in our master bedroom. He was under the bed. Scared. Whimpering. Unsure what to do.
I coaxed him out. I attached his leash to his collar and handed him over to my attacker.
“Gracias, Señor. JLG will be excited to finally have Diego back.”
A note from Gene: Our dog is a rescue dog from Mexico. I hope this never happens to us!