But she wasn’t staying.
Before I could say anything stupid, I quickly leaned over and grabbed her face in my hands, kissing her hard, like I was trying to create an impression on my lips, like she could seep into my skin and stay a permanent reminder. She tasted sweet and felt soft and that fire inside me was burning away. No matter what, no matter what, I would protect her.
I pulled away, breathless and surprised to see the moisture in her eyes, tears threatening to overflow. I quickly grabbed the gym bag from the back seat that had the sniper rifle in it and then left the car, shutting the door behind me. The sound echoed through the garage, lonely and cold.
I didn’t look back but I would see her again. I was on my way to protect her.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Alana
I’d never felt so unsafe, so alone, until I watched Derrin walk away from the car and disappear into a stairwell. I don’t even know how he managed to break into a locked door so seamlessly, so naturally, without causing any attention, but he did. Now I was sitting in the Camry wishing I could keep an eye on the time. A watch would have been nice. A new phone would have been nice.
Sometimes I was hit the overwhelming reality that my life would never be the same again. Something as simple as losing my phone, all my pictures, my useless contacts, my apps – something so normal as that and I felt like I’d never be able to have a good life again. Just the idea that Luz and Dominga were probably calling it nonstop, calling the hotel, checking up on me, was a wrench in my heart. Dominga’s maid friend was probably searching the room on her behalf, panicked at our disappearance.
That was providing someone else didn’t get to the room first. I could finally see why Derrin didn’t want me in contact with them at all. I hated that they had to worry but they would be the first people my enemies would go after for information. And if I knew anything it was how much they loved to extract the truth from their victims. When the victims didn’t know anything, it made it even worse.
I didn’t wipe the tear that rolled down my cheek but I told myself it would be the last time I cried. It had to be. Javier was meeting me here, at least I hoped, and he would fix everything. He would get me out of this mess.
When I figured I’d spent about an hour in the car, I took in a few deep breaths and finally got up. I walked over to the stairs that led up to the Wal-Mart, my cast echoing as I walked. I was less and less awkward but the damn cast was a reminder that I was always at a disadvantage and if I really concentrated I would realize my ankle was throbbing painfully. All that running yesterday did a number on it and yet pain was the last thing my brain was processing. It was all fear now.
Once up top, the sun hit my face and cleared a bit of the darkness away. Wal-Mart was busy, full of people living their normal lives, going to their cars with bags full of useless crap. I envied them, the blissful ways they could just continue in their lives, living in ignorance. None of them appreciated it. I sure as hell didn’t appreciate it two weeks ago.
I walked past the front of the store, past the vending machines stocked with tamarind and pineapple sodas, past robotic horses that children could ride, and gumball machines. I headed over to the fountain.
It was large and circular, made up of terracotta tile with water flowing into a blue-hued pool with only a few pesos at the bottom. There was a bench in the shade where an old man was dozing, a newspaper and a sandwich beside him, but other than that the place was empty.
I tried to look up at the windows of the office building next door but knew the sun would be in my eyes if I did – it was late afternoon and close to setting behind it – and if anyone was watching me, they might get suspicious. I just had to believe that Derrin was up there, watching over me.
But what if he wasn’t? What if he skipped town?
It was possible. Anything was possible. But I had to have faith in him. There were few things left that I could believe in.
I took a seat at the edge of the fountain and waited. I wished I had book or something to make myself look less obvious but since I was waiting for someone, I guess it didn’t really matter. I stared at the tiny birds that hopped around my feet, chirping, looking for a handout, then watched the highway beyond the store as it piled up thicker and thicker with traffic heading out of Durango, moving like syrup.
Finally a figure caught my eye. She was short, maybe 5’2” and dressed in a strapless yellow sundress, wearing wedge heels, holding a Chanel bag under her arm. Long dark hair flowed behind her. Even though she was wearing the world’s biggest sunglasses, I could still tell it was Luisa. She had this way about her that made her stand-out among the masses and it wasn’t just her beauty, nor the fact that she now dressed impeccably well, like a patron’s wife.
Unfortunately, Javier was nowhere to be found. And though when I had first met Luisa, I was witness to the warmth and soul she had as she was reunited with her parents in my apartment, every other time it was a little less and less. I didn’t think she was a bad woman by any means but there had been a hardness creeping into her heart. I suppose that would naturally happen if you were married to someone like Javier.
She stopped right in front of me and I caught a whiff of honeysuckle perfume. She didn’t take off her glasses and she didn’t smile. Instead she looked around in her in all directions, checking out everything, including the empty office building, until it seemed she was satisfied.
“Alana,” she finally said and only then did she push her sunglasses on top of her head. She looked beautiful but tired. Her eyes, thankfully were kind, especially as they focused on my bandaged wrist and cast. “Is that from the car accident?” she asked softly.
I nodded. “Yeah. But I’m almost fully healed. Doesn’t hurt at all,” I lied.
She smiled stiffly and looked around her again.
“Where is Javier?” I asked.
“Are you alone?”
“Of course.”
“Where is your boyfriend?”
“Not here,” I told her, then quickly added, “in the car.”
“We’re not going to get to meet him?”
“Then Javier is here,” I said.
She nodded. “He is.”
I frowned. “But you were sent to make sure the coast was clear?”
“I wasn’t sent.” She smiled at me. “He didn’t have much say. I wasn’t about to let him just waltz out here and he wasn’t going to let me either. But marriage takes compromise.” Her smile twisted slightly.
“You don’t trust me?”
She cocked her head. “I want to trust you Alana. But this whole thing is so bizarre. It doesn’t sound right. You must understand that.”
“You think I’m trying to set Javier up?” I asked, feeling hot and indignant. “He’s my brother.”
“I know that. And you are part of the few family he has left. But if what you are saying is true, then you could be followed yourself. The only reason anyone is after you, I’m assuming of course, is because they are after him in some way. Or it could be someone right in front of your eyes. We would be stupid not to take due diligence on this and we are not stupid.”
Wow. She was sounding less like a wife and more like a member of his team.
“So where is he?” I asked, scanning the parking lot.
She slipped her sunglasses back on. “He wants you to come meet him. On his terms.”
I stared at her blankly. I couldn’t leave this spot, not with Derrin watching.
She held out her hand for me and the diamonds on her rings blazed in the sunshine. “Come along, I’ll take you there.”
“Where?” I didn’t want to take her hand.
“Not here,” she said. “You’re not afraid of your own brother, are you?”
“Is he afraid of his own sister?”
She raised her brow for a second and then jerked her chin in the direction of Wal-Mart. “Come.”
I sighed, feeling horrible about this. I wasn’t afraid of Javier but being out of Derrin’s watch felt wrong and I knew he was probably freaking out – well, as much as Derrin can freak out – up in the office building. I just hoped he didn’t try and take Luisa out.
I grabbed her hand and she helped me to my feet. Once I was up, her grip was surprisingly firm which didn’t really sit well with me. It was almost as if I were being escorted somewhere, not led.
Somehow I resisted the urge to look over my shoulder in Derrin’s direction and I kept walking. Even though Luisa had shorter legs, I still had to hustle to keep pace with the cast on.
“That can’t be much fun,” she noted as she eyed me again. Her voice was softer now, like she was finally being herself and not the wife of Javier.
“None of this is fun,” I told her.
She made an agreeable sound and then took me toward the Wal-Mart doors.
“He’s in here?”
She nodded as the automatic doors opened for us and we entered the world of mayhem again. I was getting really sick of this store. “This is as safe a place as any,” she said, her voice lowered now.
“How is that possible?”
“Who would ever suspect Javier Bernal would be
in
a Wal-Mart? No one would even recognize him in here because they wouldn’t expect to see him. Hiding in a big SUV? Yes. In here, no.”
“So he’s unprotected.”
She led me down the aisles. “No, he’s never unprotected. He’s never alone. But take a look around and I bet you could never pick any of our men out.”
I briefly glanced around. I saw women pushing strollers, slobby looking men with giant beer bellies and trucker hats, short men wearing cheap dress shirts tucked into high-waisted jeans, a guy who looked like he just got back from surfing, store employees in starchy uniforms. They could be anyone. Or she could be bluffing. I would never know. Neither made me feel safer.
In fact, I didn’t even recognize my own brother until we were halfway down the canned food aisle. His back was to me and it looked like he was examining a can of beans or something. But of course as I got closer, I knew it was him without a doubt.
Even from behind, he dressed impeccably. His hair was a bit shorter now, not so shaggy at the back. I think last time I teased him that he was close to having a mullet like the redneck Americans do. He must have taken it to heart. Aside from his hair, he was wearing a crisp suit jacket, dark blue, and black pants. He wasn’t the tallest man in the world but he had a way of holding his body that could fool you into thinking he was.
We stopped a few feet behind him and even though I wanted to say something, I knew Luisa was the one who should.
“I’ve got her,” she said.
Got her? And with those words, the blood in my veins took on an icy touch, like I was hooked up to one of the IVs again.
Javier slowly turned his head to look at me, staring at me inquisitively for a moment. He didn’t smile, he didn’t say anything, he just studied me like I was some sort of imposter. His eyes were burning with that amber intensity they got when he, well, they were always like that.
Finally he looked down at my cast and up again to my face and tilted his head. “You look like you got hit by a truck.”
“It was a car,” I reminded him.
He raised his brow and then idly checked the gold watch on his wrist. “All right, let’s make this quick.”
I was a bit stunned. I wasn’t sure how I could make any of this quick. I wasn’t even sure what was supposed to take place.
“Do you want me to explain again what happened?” I asked. Luisa took her hand out of mine but now was holding my arm by the bicep. I looked at her slightly aghast but her attention was on her husband.
“Yes,” he said simply. He put the can back on the shelf and slipped his hands into his pockets. “From the start. From when you were hit by the car.”
Jesus, this was going to take forever, especially since he already knew most of this. But then I knew what he was doing. Javier has a way of sucking the truth out of you just by looking at you. He was discerning once and for all whether I was telling the truth or not. It bothered me that he hadn’t fully believed me yet but then again I guess he hadn’t survived this long by just trusting everyone, including family.
I wondered if I would have to start doing the same thing.
But as I told him it all from the beginning, I could see a softening coming into his eyes. He was believing me. He could see the truth.
“So you were walking through the town square when the shots happened?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Obviously we didn’t notice them.”
His eyes narrowed slightly and he exchanged a look with Luisa. “But if these are trained assassins as they seemed to be, how did you not get hit?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Derrin pulled me in for a hug or something. The ground behind me exploded. Near miss. Then we ran.”
“And how well do you know this Derrin? Not at all, right?”
“I know him enough. He saved my life.”
Javier smiled to himself, almost smug. For some reason it reminded me of a snake. “So it would seem he did.”
I chose to ignore that. “So what do I do now? They’re after me because of you.”
His eyes turned cold. “So this is my fault is it?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Oh, I know what you mean,” he said coolly. “I have no doubt these people want to send me a message. But more than that, I think they mean to deliver the message themselves.”
“What does that mean?” I tried to fold my arms but Luisa held tight.
He tapped his long fingers along the cans on the shelf. Somehow his fingers were always so manicured. He must never had to do any dirty work these days.
“It means that it sounds like whatever has happened to you has been part of a more elaborate scheme, to bring someone you don’t know into your life. To make you trust them. To make it seem like your life is in danger.”
“It is in danger!” I yelled at him. A shopper passing by gave me a quick look before hurrying away.
“Keep your voice down,” Luisa warned me.
“Get your hand off of me,” I growled right back, ripping out of her grasp.
She took a step back, hands in the air, looking to Javier for his orders. He shook his head slightly and then turned his eyes back to me.