CHAPTER THREE - SUSPICIONS

Mateo groaned, spreading his palm in front of his face to protect his eyes from the sudden onslaught of light. He peered out from between his fingers to find his friend since childhood and partner in business grinning at him. Rafael still had his hands on the curtain he just pulled back, making sure to let Mateo know that he was the perpetrator. Mateo would strangle anyone else that dared wake him so rudely from his slumber. "Guilty as charged," Rafael said in reply to the glare on Mateo's face. He looked around the room, his nose turning up at the scene. " What did you do last night?" Mateo's eyes followed the trail of Rafael's gaze, his forehead furrowing at the sight of the disheveled room. " Did you hold a boxing match or what?" Rafael chuckled. " With the spitting image of your uncle that you conjured?" The death glare that Mateo sent his way had Rafael shutting up and raising his hands up in surrender. Rafael walked to the foot of the bed and bent to pick up a pair of briefs by the tip of his thumb and index finger. He raised an eyebrow at Mateo, who lifted the duvet covering him to find out that he was completely naked underneath. " Or maybe not a box match. Maybe a..." Rafael snorts. " Bravo Mateo! First day in Navarre and you are already getting some action. I have no idea why these girls flock to you when you treat them li..." "Shut up, damn it!" Mateo ran a frustrated hand through his hair, pinning Rafael with his gaze that told him he would drop dead if he so much as said a single word again. Rafael made a zipping gesture with his fingers across his mouth. Mateo buried his hands in his hair, trying to recollect the events of last night. He was drawing a blank and his mind still felt foggy. Rafael moved to the couch in the room and slumped into it. As quickly as he had sat on it, Rafael sprang up from the couch a look of disgust on his face. " Wait, did you guys do it here too?" He looked from the couch to Mateo, who still had his head bowed. Mateo slowly raised his head, leveling a blank stare on him. Rafael repeated his zipping gesture and lowered himself back on the couch. Mateo cursed under his breath, flung the duvet and sauntered to the bathroom. Rafael's jaw hit the floor as he watched him leave. "Jeez, now I see why these girls are obsessed," he muttered to himself. " I need to sanctify my eyes." " Did you see anyone when you came this morning?" Mateo asked, sauntering back out from the bathroom with a towel around his waist. Rafael glanced up at him and back to his phone, murmuring about how some people are hypocrites. Mateo reached for one of the pillows on the bed and flunked it at him. Rafael dodged, raising his hands in the air. " What?!" " I asked you a damn question." " You told me to shut up, remember?" Rafael shot back. "What are you? Twelve?" Mateo walked to the table where Rafael had dropped the clothe he had brought for him. " I'm surprised I have not had a whiplash with how fast your disposition changes." Rafael sighed, bringing his legs down from the arm of the couch. "Was I supposed to see someone?" Mateo hummed as he put on the tuxedo shirt. " There was a woman last nig..." Rafael whistled, cutting Mateo off. " You have got nice butts," he grinned as Mateo pulled the slacks up to his waist. " For fuck's sake, man, stop being such a pervert," Mateo reprimanded, zipping up. " I think someone might have sent her." Rafael groaned. " How did we go from talking about your nice butts to talking about someone sending who?" " Stop. Calling. My. Butts. Nice," Mateo spelt out through clenched teeth. Rafael raised his hands in surrender. " There was a woman last night and I think someone might have sent her, my uncle maybe." " You mean you slept with a woman last night, right?" Mateo stares blankly at Rafael. " Okay, why do you think someone might have sent her?" Rafael had a smirk on his face. " For all we know, she might have just found you attractive and wanted to have a taste. Nothing wrong with that, I'm sure you had fun last night too, no?" " I was drugged." Mateo said simply, moving to the mirror in the room to knot his tie. Rafael stared at him as he calmly looped a tie around his neck. " What?!" Rafael went to stand beside him. " What do you mean you were drugged? By her?" Mateo shrugged. " I remember going down to the bar to drink and her approaching me, drunk," Mateo paused. " Now that I think about it, she might have just been pretending to be drunk. She offered to buy me a drink, and well, I needed to blow off some steam so I indulged her. After that, well..." " You don't remember?" " Everything else is a blur. And seeing how she left quickly this morning, it doesn't exactly strike me as some admirer who wanted a way in" Mateo tucked his shirt into the slacks. " How are you so calm? This could be a set-up, some sort of leverage against you. I mean, he's already feeling threatened by you, which is why he sent you here in the first place. This might be his plan B, just Incase you managed to turn the situation around" Mateo shrugged. " The only way to find out is to find the girl." " That's supposed to be easy, no? We just need to track her scent." Mateo gave Rafael a look. " Why do you think they would drug me in the first place?" Rafael brows furrowed and then his face contorted as realization hit. " Shit! The drug would have dulled your senses." " It's faint, but I would be able to recognize it if I come across it again. There are other ways to find her, I remember the face at the bar" Mateo stated matter of fact. Rafael nodded. " I will get to that. What about the meeting?" Mateo frowned. " The meeting can come later, put a call through to the office and make some excuses. We need to find her before they cover up her tracks." Rafael nodded already pulling up his contact list to make the necessary calls. Mateo stared at his refection in the mirror, faintly paying attention to Rafael's phone calls. Who are you? He replayed the events of last night in his head, like a loop, trying to see if he had missed anything. The night had been hot and wild, blurs of passionate inklings but the face in the room with him kept blurring. Diego. She had mentioned that name in the heat of their passion.