"You don't seem as upset about it as I would expect."
"I've finally let go. I've surrendered."
He smiled. "Surrender has always looked good on you."
She laughed again. "That is the worst line you have ever said to me, and you've said some really cheesy lines, Jake."
He shrugged. "It wasn't a line; it was the truth."
"Right."
"I'll give you some more truth. You look a lot like the old Kat right now, and I'm happy to see her back."
She shook her head. "I don't want to be the old Kat or even the old Katherine. I want to be someone new—someone who doesn't worry all the time, who doesn't have tunnel vision, who lives more in the moment and less in the future or the past. I just don't know how to change."
"You'll figure it out," he said, meeting her gaze. "And I like the sound of that woman."
"Me, too."
The truck jerked, and he put his arm around her to protect her from slamming into the side. "You okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine. Where do you think we're going to end up, Jake?"
"You mean today or forever?"
She stared back at him. "I'm trying to live in the moment, remember, so let's stick with today."
"We'll know when the truck stops, and he tells us to get out, but I'm hoping that won't be for a while since we're going in the right direction."
The truck jerked again and the chickens started a squawking roar. "Damn," he muttered.
Katherine grinned. "Like I said, best ride ever."
Twelve
Forty-five minutes later, the old truck turned off the highway, kicking up a cloud of dust that sent Katherine into a coughing fit. She wiped her teary eyes as the dust cleared enough for her to read a sign.
"Looks like we're in Valle Verde," she said.
"It doesn't look like a green valley," Jake commented as the truck came to an abrupt stop.
He was right. It looked more like a desert pit stop. While she was happy to see a town of any sort, Valle Verde did not appear all that impressive. There was a bank, a market, a liquor store, and a couple of cafés all within reach of a courthouse and medical clinic.
Jake helped her off the truck. He was always such a gentleman, she thought. Even when he hated her, he was still very conscious of making sure she was all right. She hadn't really appreciated that until this trip.
"Thanks," she said.
Jake let go of her hand to reach into his pocket and pull out what little money they had left to offer to the driver of the truck. The man waved the money away and pointed to a building across the town square that was obviously an auto repair shop.
"
Gracias
," Jake said.
She added her thanks as the man got back into his truck and drove away.
"Are we really going to the auto shop to see if someone can fix the tire on the rental car we left miles back on the side of the highway?" Katherine asked. "That will take way too long."
"I agree. Let's see if we can find a bus station."
She tipped her head toward an old bus making its way down the street. "Let's see where that's going."
They found a small bus depot a couple of blocks away. The clerk spoke enough English to tell them the next bus to cities in Chiapas would leave at three o'clock, in approximately ninety minutes. They could exit the bus at Guadalupe and take another bus into Nic Té Há as there was no direct connection to the village.
With that information, they bought tickets and then wandered down the street to a café. "Do we have enough money for food?" she asked hopefully.
"Just enough."
They ordered tamales and rice and sat down at a small table in the front patio to wait for their meal. Looking around the square, Katherine was reminded that there was a normal world going on and that they were finally back in it. The last few days had been surreal, but they were getting back on track to what they'd come here to do.
The waitress brought them their food and for the next ten minutes they concentrated on eating. "That was the best tamale I've ever had," she told Jake.
He grinned. "Let's see—you've had the best chocolate, the best homemade bread, the best soup and now the best tamale. You're on a roll."
She wadded up her paper napkin and tossed it at him. "I'm just more appreciative of food because it doesn't appear very often. But even if I wasn't starving, that would have been good." She sat back in her chair. "I feel better now. By tonight we should be at your great-grandmother's house, and hopefully she'll be happy to see us, or at least you."
"No one is ever unwelcome at her home. I'm glad you're going to finally meet her."
"Finally?" she queried.
"I told her a lot about you when I was here last. You were fresh on my mind."
She frowned at that piece of information. "So she's going to hate me on sight. Great."
"No, my great-grandmother sees past everyone's outer wall. She sees their heart. She's going to know instantly that you're a good person. She'll probably wonder why the hell I was ragging on you all those years ago."
It was nice to know that he thought she was a good person now, even though he hadn't always thought that.
"We should get back to the station," Jake said. "I don't want to miss the one and only bus to the end of the world."
She would have said he was being dramatic calling Nic Té Há the end of the world, but at this point it certainly felt that way.
They paid the bill, used the café restroom and then headed to the bus. They waited in a line with a large family; a mom, dad, grandmother, and six children under the age of ten. The kids were obviously excited at the prospect of a trip. Katherine couldn't make out much of what they were saying, but it was clear by their expressions that they were very happy.
She couldn't help thinking how different life was in this part of the world, how the simplest of pleasures meant so much—even when that simple pleasure was getting on a dirty, stinking bus. She wrinkled her nose as the bus lumbered into the station.
Jake laughed at her expression. "Hey, it's better than riding with the chickens."
"We'll see," she said darkly.
"As long as it has wheels and goes where we want it to go, I'm good."
"I think it's good you've set your expectations low."
"I've surrendered…just like you," he reminded her.
She reluctantly smiled. "Right. I gave up control. Whatever will be will be."
"Right now, it's going to be this bus."
They found a seat toward the rear of the bus as many of the passengers did not get off at the stop. It was clear most people were making a long journey as they had suitcases and pillows, and some were sleeping on the uncomfortable seats.
As the bus rambled down the road, Jake put his arm around her shoulders, and she couldn't resist leaning her head against his chest and closing her eyes. Maybe when she woke up, a miracle would have occurred, or the nightmare she was living in would have ended. She'd be safe, back in her room in Houston, her brother TJ working at his job like a normal person and Jake…
Frowning, she realized there was one thing wrong with waking up from the nightmare—she wouldn't be with Jake anymore. They'd be strangers again.
Maybe she didn't want to wake up just yet…
* * *
"Wake up," Jake said. He straightened his arm, wincing a little at the cramp in his bicep, but holding Katherine had been worth a little pain.
She gave him a sleepy blink of her blue eyes. "Where are we?"
"Our stop. Come on, we have to get off."
She straightened. "Oh, we're still on the bus."
"Yeah, where did you think we were?"
"For a moment, I thought this was all a dream."
"Or a nightmare, but it's not."
"I feel like we just got on."
"You fell asleep fast. I, on the other hand, watched a man cut his toenails for at least a half hour."
She smiled. "Sounds like fun. Sorry I missed it."
He got up and led the way out of the bus. There was no bus depot—just a bench and a sign—but fifty yards away there was a gas station and a convenience store, a motel with adjoining restaurant and bar and a dozen or so houses.
He walked over to the sign. It listed the bus schedule. The next bus to Nic Té Há would be at seven o'clock, two hours from now. Damn. He really didn't want to wait that long.
"What do you think?" Katherine asked.
"The clerk at the depot said this stop was only four miles or so from the village. We could walk that in the two hours it will take the next bus to get here."
"But we don't know where we're going."
"We've got the map."
"It's not on the map."
"True. But there must be some road signs. How difficult could it be?"
She frowned. "Don't ask that question. You're just begging the universe to show us exactly how hard it could be. Why don't we go over to that convenience store and ask them if the bus is usually on time and/or if there's any other way to get to the village? I have to use the bathroom anyway."
"All right. Are you game to walk if it comes down to it?"
"Sure. Four miles is a piece of cake these days."
"Maybe we can buy a flashlight at the store."
They walked across the street, past the empty gas pumps and into the store. A middle-aged man sat behind the cash register. A very old TV played a Spanish soap opera on the counter next to him.
While Katherine went to use the restroom, Jake used his limited amount of Spanish to ask for directions and get the clerk to draw the route on his map. Then he used what was left of their cash to purchase a flashlight, two bottles of water and a big chocolate bar for Kat.
As he finished the transaction, he saw a Jeep pull up in front of one of the gas pumps. The man who got out of the driver's seat had on a baseball cap. His short-sleeved shirt revealed heavily tattooed arms. Jake's heart jumped against his chest. It was the same man he'd seen by the plane right before it blew up. Had they been followed all this way?
There were two other men in the car, and one of them had a gun in his hand.
Shit! He moved quickly toward the back of the store. Katherine was coming out of the restroom. He grabbed her hand. "We have to get out of here."
"What's wrong?" she asked in alarm.
"I just saw the men from the woods."
"What?"
He ignored her gasping question, thankful there was a way out of the building that allowed them to leave without being seen. Once they were through the back door, he moved quickly around the wall of the motel next door, pausing in the shadows to see if they were being followed.
Katherine was plastered against his side, and he could feel her fear, but he didn't want to talk or move or do anything to draw attention. It seemed to take forever until he heard an engine. He carefully peeked around the wall and saw the Jeep pull out of the gas station and continue down the highway.
"They're gone," he said, blowing out a breath of relief.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. They didn't see us. Thank God I saw them before they came into the store."
"I'm glad we weren't sitting at the bus stop." Her worried gaze met his. "Do you think they're tracking us? Was it just a coincidence that we're on the same road?"
"I don't think it was a coincidence."
"But how could they follow our trail? We've been in a car, a truck, a bus. We haven't talked to anyone since you called Rusty and that was from Eduardo's phone."
"We've been seen, Kat. At the rental car place, the bus station, and the café where we had lunch." He paused. "They might have been following the bus and were far enough behind that they didn't see us get off."
"That would be a break. Did you get directions to Nic Té Há?"
"The clerk drew some lines on the map for me. He didn't speak much English, but I think he understood where I wanted to go. I just hope whoever went into the store to pay for gas didn't ask him if he'd seen us."
"If that had happened, they wouldn't have left. The guy would have told them we were in the store minutes ago, and they would have searched for us."
He cupped her face and kissed her mouth. "Sometimes I love your logical mind."
"I'm going to remind you of that," she said dryly.
"I'm sure you will. Let's start walking. With any luck we'll be sitting down with my great-grandmother in a few hours."
* * *
"Remember when you asked me how bad could the walk be? And I said you were tempting the universe to show us?" Katherine asked, as they took a break from walking three hours later. "Shouldn't we have gotten to the village by now?"
He pulled out one of the water bottles and took a swig, then handed it to her. She was right. They should have reached the village by now. "I followed the directions exactly. See for yourself."
She traded the bottled water for the map and the flashlight. After a moment, she said, "I actually can't make any sense of this, Jake. It's a bunch of lines and squiggles. Obviously, when we picked one of the paths off the main road, we made a mistake."
He frowned. "Yeah, but that was an hour and a half ago. Do you really want to walk all the way back there and pick the other path?"
"What's our other option?"
"Keep going."
She let out a sigh. "There's one good thing about this trip, I'm getting a lot of exercise." She pulled off her jacket. "It's a lot warmer tonight."
He nodded. "We're a lot farther south than we were. We're getting into a more tropical climate."
"Well, I'm happy not to be cold." She handed him back the flashlight and map. "Let's go."
They walked for another ten minutes and then stopped abruptly as a large cement structure came into view. It was at least twenty feet high and fifty yards long.
"What's this?" Katherine murmured.
"It must be one of the Mayan ruins. They're all over the place down here," he said. They walked the length of the wall, then turned the corner and stepped into what had once been some sort of a courtyard with long cement steps overlooking a moonlit pool.
"Wow," Katherine said. "It's beautiful."