Silently I climbed, staying hidden and stealthy until I was at the top level. Turns out one of the women was up here. I could hear from her moans and I peered over a seat, I could see her beside the fat man at the wheel, his dick in her mouth.
Sorry sweetheart, I thought. Party’s over.
I crept up slowly until I was right behind him. They were both so into it that they couldn’t even notice me if I tried. Without standing up, I slipped my hands over the head rest of the chair, hovering for a second on either side of his head. Then I clamped my hands together and twisted quickly until I heard a crack.
The man’s head slumped. I heard a gasp and stood above the woman. She opened her mouth to scream. I drove the edge of my hand into her neck. She was knocked out cold. She would die anyway when the ship blew up but I didn’t want to kill her with my hands if I didn’t have to.
If I had to though, that was a different story.
I was about to leave when I had a second thought and searched the dead man’s pockets. There were no guns on him but there was a giant pocketknife that could come in handy. I gripped it firmly in my hand and then made my way down the side of the boat, slithering down out of sight until I was just outside of the kitchen.
The thin man was doing a line of coke with the other woman. He looked like he was going to be a bit more of a problem. Some men fought like unpredictable animals while high and he looked like the type you didn’t want to underestimate. If the fat man had been the muscle, this was the guy who did Este’s dirty work. This was how it was passed down in the business. When Este thought he’d take over Javier’s position, this guy would take over Esteban’s. Then one day he would betray him in an order to rise to the top and the circle of the cartel life would continue.
Unfortunately for them, the circle was stopping here.
I watched the two of them for a moment while scoping out the shadows. Este had to be downstairs with Alana, which made things a lot trickier in the long run but at least here these two would be easier to deal with that way.
I decided to go for the woman first. I didn’t want to kill if I didn’t have to but she looked like she liked to scream, in bed and another wise. I’d take her out first and then deal with him.
I moved to the back of the kitchen and then slinked inside at a low crouch, hiding behind the kitchen island. They were on the white sofas, doing their lines off the coffee table. His back was to me, her face was facing my direction.
I popped my head up, waiting until she saw me, the recognition popping in her eyes, then I threw the switchblade. It sailed straight and true through the air and hit here right in the eye socket, lodging itself deep into her brain.
She gurgled and then keeled over just as the man was springing to his feet, ready to fight.
I was ready to fight too.
I leaped up onto the kitchen island, picked up a bottle of wine and broke the end of it off while he tried to tackle my legs. I jumped up again, out of his grasp and brought the jagged end of the bottle down on the top of his head. It dug into his skin and he yelled but he was a tough cookie.
I landed on the ground and rolled away to the couched, yanking the knife out of the woman’s eye and then throwing at the man but he was already ducking behind the couch back. The knife landed hard into a wood post instead.
I jumped at the man and made a few punches which he blocked, then he tried to swipe me out from my feet. I twisted backward and ducked as he came at me, then I plowed forward at an angle until he was rammed back over the couch.
While he was falling over, I spun around and plucked the knife from the wall. This time I wasn’t going to throw it, this time I was going to stab it in him with my bare hands.
The guy quickly balanced himself and picked up the couch cushion right as I came at him and sliced the cushion all the way through, the air exploding into a show of feathers. I kept coming at him until my shoulder was shoving him down and he landed on his back on the coffee table, the glass shattering.
He managed to pick up one of the shards and with bleeding fingers, cut open the side of my arm. I brought my knee down into his groin which bought me a moment of stability before I was able to chop into the side of his elbow on one of the arms that was trying to hold me back.
He cried out, arm buckling, then I put my weight on it until it twisted with a crack underneath.
While he struggled for purchase, I headbutted him until his head cracked against the table again, then I quickly dragged the blade across his throat, leaving it an open, gushing wound. His eyes rolled back, his body jerking, trying to fight, to live, but not today.
“I should have known.”
Esteban’s voice from behind made me leap up and pivot, knife held out.
He, naturally, was holding a gun.
But that didn’t mean I would lose.
“Where’s Alana?” I asked loudly, hoping she could hear me.
He smirked and with one hand brushed his long hair behind his ears. “She’s going to be out for a while. I don’t think she’s as strong as you’d believe. In fact, she broke much like a flower between my hands.”
I swallowed down the rage that threatened to consume me. This is why I was good at what I did. I had to compartmentalize. I had to focus on the task at hand before I could focus on her.
I had to kill Esteban.
Even though he was going to kill me first.
“This works out in my favor though,” he said, coming toward me, the gun still trained on me and just out of reach. He reached for the wall and pressed a button and the back of the boat shuddered and clanked. He was lowering one of the zodiacs to the water. “I’ll get to go back to the compound and tell Javier the sad truth. You were hired to assassinate his sister. It worked. But you both perished. Perhaps I even tried to save her life by killing you.”
I kept my eyes on him, trying to figure out what to do. If he came just a step closer, there was the off chance I could fly at him and knock it out of his hands before he fired. He wasn’t a very good shot to begin with.
But he didn’t come closer. In fact, he was moving a step backward and from the way his eyes were focused on my chest, I knew that if he missed he would fire until he didn’t.
There was too much pride in him to lose again.
“I hope you’ve atoned for your sins,” he said to me with a small smile. “Sadly, you’ll find no redemption here.”
He fired the first shot. I was already twisting sideways as he did so, anticipating his move. But the next shot would be too fast for me.
Everything went in slow motion. He grinned. Finger tightened on the trigger.
Then Alana appeared behind him. She looked broken, battered and beaten, close to death. But she was holding the base of a lamp, holding it above his head.
She brought it down with one brave burst of strength, her bruised features straining from the effort. My heart strained in response.
It shattered on Esteban’s head just as he pulled the trigger. The second shot grazed me, hitting the side of my chest and knocking me back to the ground. I lay there for a moment, my ears ringing, trying to go through the checklist of my body to find out how close I was to dying.
Suddenly Alana was above me screaming and I stared up at her. Her hands were feeling around my side and I managed to sit up and look. There was no blood. I quickly lifted my shirt. The bullet had nicked the edge of the C4 putty. Contrary to popular believe, the shit did not blow up when hit by a bullet. Thank god.
“You bitch!” Esteban screamed, grabbing his head and trying to get to his feet but failing. His gun was knocked out of reach.
I got to my feet first and grabbed Alana’s arm. “You need to head to the boat, he’s lowered one to the water and I have one out there, attached by a rope. Get in it and go, now!”
“What about you?”
“I’ve got something I want to do,” I told her. I grabbed her face, conscious of Este in the background. “Grab a life preserver too, a jacket, a ring, anything that will keep you a float and wrap it around you, okay?”
“Derek …”
“Go!” I screamed and at that she quickly limped away to the back of the boat.
I was going to deal with him once and for all. I picked up the gun but saw there were no bullets left. For what I was about to do anyway, I wanted him alive until the very last minute, until it was too late and heat tore apart his bones. I went over to him and pistol whipped him hard at the side of the head until he fell over to the side, unconscious. Then I quickly took off my shirt, pulled out the C4 and the waterproof box and stuck a piece of it at the base of the propane stove. I stuck in the detonator and then stuck two more pieces on opposite sides of the bridge. I could hear chains clanging and water sluicing and hoped that Alana was finding her way onto the boat. I was planning to leave with her now but we wouldn’t have much time.
I ran down the stairs to the bottom level where all the bedrooms and the engine room was. I wasn’t sure if I had carried enough C4 with me – I had never anticipated on using it on a ship, let alone one of this size – but if there was one place that would take to a boom, it was the engine. I stuck the last pieces all around the block, planted the dentonators and then ran up the stairs back to the second level. I was about to head toward the back, toward where I assumed Alana was when I looked back at the kitchen.
Esteban had moved. He was nowhere to be seen.
Before I could comprehend that, someone ran at me from behind and I went sailing over the edge of the railing. I grabbed on to the rail, trying to hold on to that and the remote control trigger at the same time.
Este appeared at the railing, blood running down the side of his face and pried the trigger out of my hand before he tried to stab my fingers with a knife.
I let go of the railing before he could cut my fingers off and fell down, down, straight into the water. From that height it knocked the wind out of me so it took me a moment to act. Then I quickly kicked up toward the surface and looked around. The Double Eagle was almost on top of me, so I grabbed hold of the side and hauled myself up and over as quickly as I could.
I had expected to see Alana on board but there was nothing. In fact, the boat was quickly drifting away from the yacht, the rope having been severed at some point.
Suddenly the air filled with the roar of an engine I saw the zodiac speed away into the night, a dark shadow at the helm.
Please let that be Alana on it, please.
But of course it wasn’t.
Another movement caught my eye and I looked up at the top of the boat. I could see Alana’s head bobbing as she ran along the side. She was still on the fucking boat!
“Alana!” I screamed, panic tearing through me. “Jump!”
She disappeared behind part of the bridge but I didn’t hear a splash. It looked like she had been about to run down the stairs.
“Alana!” I screamed again. “Please!”
Then my scream was swallowed instantaneously.
There was a burst of light, smoke, a ripple in the air. Then a split second later the whole world exploded. I was knocked flat on my back, my head striking the captain’s seat of the fishing boat as I went down. Debris rained down on me but I couldn’t even cover myself. I just let the sparks and bits of flaming boat hit me.
Alana.
Alana.
Alana.
Not again.
No, not again.
Somehow, I don’t know how, I managed to sit up. My head filled like it had been filled with gel, my hearing blocked, my eyes stinging. I crawled to the edge of the boat and looked out.
The Beatriz had been broken up into three pieces. At least, those three pieces were all that was left of it and quickly sinking down toward the ocean floor. Everything else was just a mess of debris and flaming water. Near the edge of the fishing boat I could the fat man’s severed arm floating beside a pillow.
Alana.
Alana.
“Alana!” I yelled, my voice catching in my throat. “Alana!”
I yelled and screamed and cried her name over and over and over again. I don’t know how long I had been doing it for but after some time it had turned to tears. Then more screams. Then a combination of the two.
She didn’t survive it.
No one could have survived that.
Este had escaped.
I had escaped.
And Alana was dead.
The job had finally been fulfilled.
She was finally dead.
And it was my fault.
I had failed Carmen, I had failed Alana. I had failed myself.
Esteban was right.
There was no redemption here.
There never really was.
Not for somebody like me.
The ones who do the dirty deeds can never really be washed clean.
I swallowed down the ugliest sorrow I ever felt in my life. I felt it eat at me as it went through my body, consuming all the love I had, my hopes and fears and dreams. Oh those dreams I had for us. Those wonderful fucking dreams.
I lay back in the boat, stared blankly at the night sky as the fire crackled faintly in the background, and prayed for death.
I prayed for the morning sun to come and bake me, for birds to peck at my flesh and sharks to eat my bones. I prayed to drift off to sea forever, until there was nothing left of me.
I prayed until I fell asleep.
And prayed I would never wake up.
***
In my dreams I saw Alana and Carmen, sitting on a beach and talking to each other. They were so beautiful in the sun, so different and yet so much alike. No wonder I was so taken by each of them so instantly. They were a breath of fresh air, a force of light and nature.
I walked out of the sea and stopped in front of them, salt water dripping down my body.
They both turned their faces toward me and smiled, happy to see me. It was blinding.
“We are finally free,” they said in unison. “You’ll be free too. Free and unafraid.”
I woke up to see a brilliant night sky.
But I was afraid.
And that had been a dream.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Derek
Alana’s funeral was held at one p.m. at a cemetery on the outskirts of the Puerto Vallarta. It was dangerous for me to go, stupid even, but I had to. I had to take the risk. I had to see with my own eyes and know for myself what the truth really was, even if it was damaging.