Danger, murder, drugs and secrets... Now I truly was a prisoner of this hell with no way out but through.
This is Part 8 of my experience getting caught up in a crime mob in Dominican Republic as a young girl with a lot of emotional issues. Things got pretty intense, especially when murder got involved.
If you've yet to read the series, here is Part 1
Trying to make sense of everything going wrong in Part 2
My confusion and panic in Part 3
My favourite, the reveal of the terrifying secret Part 4.
An intro to Kat Part 4.5
The more you know Part 5
Kat gone wild Part 6
And most recently, Kyle's prisoner, Part 7
The Next Chapter: "Remember the Time I Worked for a Drug Runner in Punta Cana PT 6"
A gypsy life bought to you by @heart-to-heart
From January 2014- June 2017 I have been what you would call a vagabond, a nomad, even a gypsy by definition of the words. I had what they all have in common: no fixed home...and no fixed income but the wildest stories.
I'm not typically the type of person who hangs around with crime.
In fact, I am a crime's worst nightmare- an overly paranoid person with a rulebook full of complicated morals, a tendency towards being physically incapable of holding in lies, and an overactive imagination for the worst case scenario. Although Kat sometimes hangs off the ledge of those right vs wrong moments... I think her and I would both agree that murder is by all accounts out of our territory of comfort.
Lying back, having my hair stroked by someone I once trusted, who now was talking about another person murdering yet another person was enough to make me break. I felt like my insides were shaking... yes, those were my bones... I was shaking in my bones. This was too much. Close your eyes dear, it must just be a dream.
I had put the original exposure of Chris's secret out of my mind, mostly because I refused to accept anything to do with any of it. I didn't want to be an accomplice in this (accomplices get in trouble, right?) but I was feeling locked in a grasp, trapped with these people. I had been doing my best to just keep my nose out of it and continue on believing this was what I had signed up for (not the crazy circus show it was turning out to be.)
"Adam... I don't even want to know, please don't tell me anything else."
Being the anxious me that I am, I always get beyond myself creating worst case scenarios in my imagination and I didn't even want to think about what could happen if the cops caught on to these people. Wait a minute. Would I go down with them too? What if they took my passport? OH NO! What if I couldn't go home? My thoughts were spiraling out of control and before I knew it I was convinced we were all going to jail.
No... I couldn't think about it. It was a never-ending trail of negative thoughts and I didn't want to ride that train.
Unfortunately that mystery bottle we had been drinking only a few hours earlier in the random man's underground lair, had Adam feeling very sentimental and therefore he decided to keep spilling the secrets of his soul all over me. He was projectile vomiting truth and nothing could make him stop. He was clearly sickened with this mess and right now, I was his doctor, his prescribed medicine, taking in his pain so he could feel relief. Getting up quickly, he started pacing around the room nervously.
"Kyle has the boats set up to get Chris out of here. They've planned everything but we just have to make sure he's not seen. Do you know how hard that is going to be? The cops have been coming around looking for him, that's why Kyle's so pissed right now. He wants to make sure we don't all go down on this. If the cops see us, they'll question us too and I don't know about you but I don't want to have to lie in court and I'm sure as &%$^ not admitting to any of this."
No! Please make it stop. I felt like a child... I just wanted to put my fingers in my ears and start screaming LALALALALA! Shut up!
If I didn't know anything, I could never get in trouble for any of their problems... I really wanted to be an innocent bystander trapped in all the mess of this but Adam was needing a confident to confide in. Clearly this secret was weighing on him and strangely, my heart was breaking for him.
" I really don't want to get in trouble Adam, I don't want to know what's going on, I just wanted to make some money so I can go back home."
Adam turned on his heel and snapped at me.
"What are you going to do there? Your boyfriend cheated on you! What an idiot! Don't go back to that loser, he doesn't deserve the time of day! Just stay here, with me, with us! It'll be so much better here once everything calms down!"
How in the world did he think it would be better here than back in some semblance of normalcy? Here was just an island with drugs littering every inch of my world in it and crime wrapped around every corner. Nothing felt safe, nothing felt secure and it all seemed like a drugged out nightmare topped with sunshiney days I never even saw, just to get me through the nights.
"Ya... well Adam, I love him and I know he loves me back..."
I looked down, tears burning behind my eyes.
" It was all my fault, I know he loves me... I know he does... Maybe if I just go home we can work it out."
"You can't just go home, especially to a military base! You're going to get torn a part by customs coming back. You should not fly back into the states under any circumstance! That's the worst idea I have ever heard. You're not thinking straight!"
He started shaking his head frantically and going off about how I was going to be put through hell at customs and how I needed to stay here, hide out until everything had cooled off. He was sitting on the couch, his hands gripping my arms as he shook me, pleading with me to look up at him. For his eyes to catch mine and convince me to listen.
That was the last thing I wanted. At this point in my life, being stuck in this uncompromisable hell, being dragged by my arm home from the lunatic employer I was hired by but not even working for, being locked away like an animal in my apartment wasn't working for me.
"I can't be here anymore. I am so afraid things are going to get worse... I don't even know how they can get worse but I bet you they can and I am not willing to stick around to find out!"
Adam walked over to the window and looked across at Kyle's apartment. Emily was sitting on the balcony with the baby in her arms and a beer in her hand.
"A while back, we met Chris."
He began recounting this very long story about Chris. I'm going to summarize it for you because most of it is just terrifying and useless at the same time. No need to put you through what I went through!
"He was drunk out of his mind at the bar muttering about escaping from the feds and worried there was someone watching him. Always watching him. He was one paranoid dude but we all thought he was just a nutter...
Eventually, we found out that Chris hit someone in his car one night back in the states when he was drunk. He ended up killing the man on impact. Instead of reporting it or helping the guy out, he bailed, leaving the man in the dirt. I don't know the whole story because he only talked about it that one time but it sounded serious enough to have him worried about it this long. He flew out of the country right away after it happened and he's been on 'America's Most Wanted' for years. He's been living down here without them knowing since but just recently, they found out that he's here and have been sending in the big leagues trying to find him. Kyle's been hiding him and they have a boat ready to take him out of here soon, once the coast is clear to do it safely. It's been intense trying to organize it all without getting caught. There are tons of underground cops on this mission so we don't know who we can trust. Kyle doesn't even trust me right now. He's seeing everything as an enemy and for obvious reasons- he's scared and doesn't want to go back to prison."
I don't know why he felt the need to share this with me, I was better off not knowing any of that at the time. I mean, I'm telling you now because it's not compromising your safety but come'on Adam... the more you know, the worse it is when someone is interrogating you...
Bewildered and at this point lost for words really, I stared into space for a long time. There weren't even thoughts in my head, my brain was too overloaded to process anything else so I just waited. I was waiting for it all to end, to be over, to wake up for someone to come in with a camera and tell me it was all just a joke but nothing happened. Nothing changed and Adam's voice creeped into my mind reminding me I was truly living this experience.
"You're not saying anything. Don't you have anything to say? Sh*t woman."
My eyes were tired. My heart was heavy. I just felt like giving up, pulling the plug, pressing escape.
" I just don't want to be here anymore Adam."
"You don't understand, Chris gave Kyle all of his money when he first got here to keep it safe for him and Kyle put that money into the boats and the bar. Now Chris is leaving and wants his money back but obviously Kyle doesn't have it anymore."
Greaaat. More drama for me to know about. More fear, more nightmares, more stories to tell the cops for more jailtime coming up.
"Why would Kyle spend someone else's money?"
"He thought he would make it all back by now but obviously we didn't expect the feds to pick up on Chris being here. It really f*&^ed things up for us. We thought between the club, the boat and the pickups we'd have the money made back in no time. One season max, with enough to pay everyone and cover all the costs. We were sure we were going to be rich this summer."
Funny, I thought I was going to be rich too but now I was just a cog in their machine of messed up decisions gone wrong.
"So, that's why the cave hasn't opened yet then? 'Cuz I came here to work and so far I have only done that once and didn't even make $5 before I blacked out from whatever they gave me!"
Adam looked me in the eyes. I could tell he was being truthful., probably because of all the alcohol and whatever else he was on at the time. His eyes were the size of the moon.
"The cave can't open. We can't afford it right now. Kyle's trying to get money from some of our buyers but things are tight right now. We owe Chris a lot of money and he's not going to let that slide."
OK, well then WHAT was I doing here? A little puppet to string along? For what?
"WHY AM I HERE THEN?"
I was not happy. I couldn't believe any of this. I was spending the last dollars in my account trying to feed myself while I was here and now I am finding out that there's no money to be made! I needed to get out of there and fast.
"Well when we asked you to come none of this was happening, now everything is changing and you can't leave because you know too much and are a huge liability."
"No I AM NOT Adam! Well I WASN'T until you just told me all this *&%$!"
He looked at me as though a light bulb just went off in his head. Did he even know what he just did?
" I think I just wanted you to stay with me..."
...
"Oh my %^&*ing %$^& Adam!"
I was losing it. Every other word out of my mouth would need to be 'bleeped.' I couldn't believe that he had purposely incriminated me. I worked in a law firm in high school and I was immediately aware that now, I would have to disclose anything I knew if I was ever asked. I needed to make sure no one ever asked me.
"Please calm down, it's all going to be just fine. They're working out the cash, Kyle's going to borrow some for now to pay off Chris before he leaves. We just need to do a few pick ups. It's been messy with the other guys on the island, everyone wants their cut but it's going to be fine! We'll just stay here and watch movies until it gets a bit safer, when the heat cools down. We'll have each other and it'll be fun!"
The worst part to me was that I think he actually believed the sh*t he was saying. I, on the other hand was working out ways in my mind to get out of this. I had a bad feeling about Kyle and I wasn't wanting to test it anymore. I decided I would play along, sit pretty and let them think I was on their side to keep them off my scent.
Adam continued babbling on and on about the boats and the drugs and the crimes committed and I was convincing myself it was all just a dream so I could close my eyes without fear. We finished watching Gatsby and fell asleep on the couch, seemingly prisoners in my apartment until further notice.
I'm not American but America's Most Wanted sounds a bit more troublesome than is being lead on... it also sounds like there is a fat chance of getting paid. I think it's time to get out of here and quick. Is it possible to escape this people? Find out in the next part, coming soon ;)
XO,
XO,