by Karina Halle
“Violetta,” I said to her, putting one hand on her good arm and trying to get her to look at me. Her cheeks were wet and dirty, a mess of mascara and tears. She was shaking and sobbing softly. “Violetta, listen to me. Do you know who those men were?”
She shook her head. “No,” she cried. “I didn’t recognize them. Javier told me to go to my room but I wanted to see what was going on. It looked like he heard something out in the hallway. He hid near the door and suddenly a group of men came in the room and started shooting.”
“And you didn’t recognize them?”
She let out a loud sob, shaking her head even more, her forehead scrunched in pain. “No, I don’t know. They looked like cartel men. Bad men.”
Obviously.
“My arm, I think it’s broken,” she whimpered.
I nodded. “I know. We’ll get it fixed, but we have to get Camden and your brother.”
“Screw Javier!” she yelped. “He’s what got us into this in the first place.”
I smiled grimly. “I know. But you don’t mean that. You can’t leave him behind.”
“He left me behind! He forgot I existed.”
“And we’re better than that.” I gave her a steady look, my eyes imploring hers. “Okay? We’re going to go back to your place–”
“No!” she cried out.
“We’re going back to your place,” I said, my voice harder, “and we’re getting my car. Then we’re going to find them. And then we’re gone. You can do this.”
I stared at her for a few moments until she relented with a nod. Then we moved down the alley that ran parallel to the main road until we were back on her street. Jose was still sitting on the side of the road.
Only now I realized that Javier had the car keys.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
“What?”
“I have to hotwire it.”
“So do it.”
I gave her a wry look.
Suddenly the air was filled with a flurry of shouts and Spanish. I looked over at her apartment building and saw a few men on the balcony of one of the apartments, pointing at us and flipping out.
“Do it I shall,” I said. I opened the door (no point in locking it since half the windows were shot out) and ushered Violetta into the backseat, where she could lie down, and then jumped into the front. Even though I’d been driving Jose for most of the last six years, my car-stealing skills were still pretty sharp. After crossing wires for a few seconds, Jose roared to life, his engine loud and proud, and I gunned him out of the parking spot just as a group of men came running out of the apartment for us.
“Persistent,” I grumbled and spun the car around the corner. Despite the circumstances, it felt fucking great to be driving my car again.
I took Jose zooming down the one-way street, swerving in and out of traffic while trying to keep an eye on the roofs that whipped past us. Dust flew up in our wake, coating us through the windows and I narrowly missed smashing into a motorcycle. I was glad Violetta was in the back and whimpering softly, it made it easier to concentrate when the only screams you heard were in your head.
My stomach began to twist on itself when I realized I had no idea where Javier and Camden were, if they were still alive, still running. The houses in this barrio kept going on and on, family after family after family packed into these ramshackle dwellings like sweltering sardines.
I’d almost clipped a bus in front of me when I suddenly saw a dark figure running on the roof, his head disappearing behind the occasional awning and the back of the bus. It was one of the cartel men and he was chasing someone, which had to mean that Camden and Javier were up ahead.
I exhaled briefly with hope, before pushing the pedal to the floor and going up the shoulder, trying to get ahead of the bus. There was a stack of bicycles up ahead and I was either going to hit them, the bus, or the people on the dirt sidewalk.
I chose the bicycles. I gunned the car harder, the rear wheels spinning furiously and braced for impact.
“Hold on!” I yelled to Violetta and then screamed as Jose plowed into them. The bicycles flew up onto the hood, cracking the windshield in the corner, before clattering across the roof. “Sorry!”
Then I whipped the car in front of the bus to a round of angry honks from the driver and finally saw Camden and Javier on the roofs, still running for their lives. I grinned to myself, despite the severity of the situation, and let out a relieved laugh. Somewhere in the back of my masochistic head, I had been so certain that Camden would be done for. I hadn’t wanted to think about it but I was sure that Javier would have ditched him along the way. Or killed him.
“I see them,” I told Violetta.
“Camden’s still alive?” she asked weakly.
I wasn’t the only with that idea.
“So far,” I told her.
“I can tell my brother wants to kill him,” she said.
I rubbed my lips together, my hands gripping the wheel harder. “He hasn’t yet.” I shot her a look over my shoulder. “Just hang tight okay? I’m going to try and get their attention and pull up ahead.”
I drove a bit faster, trying to keep up in the traffic that was growing increasingly heavier, and was about to start honking my horn like crazy when I saw the unthinkable happen.
Javier and Camden both jumped from one roof to another, the gap not too wide, but when Camden landed, it looked like his weight broke through part of the roofing and he went down, sinking in until I could only see him from the shoulders up.
I gasped, slowing the car so I could watch, the bus behind me honking again.
The man in pursuit started firing at them, closer now.
Camden was fucked.
A sitting duck.
And Javier … Javier stopped.
He stopped and raised his gun and tried to fire off a few rounds at the man but I could see from the frustration in his face that he was out of ammo. He hastily tucked his gun back into his pants and then crouched down to help Camden up.
“What’s going on?” Violetta asked, trying to sit up. “Why are we slowing?”
“Javier is helping Camden,” I said absently. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, other than the fact that I was grateful. Cautiously grateful.
“How noble of him,” she said, her voice acidic.
It didn’t matter, soon Camden was on his feet again and they were back to sprinting. I took the car around a rickshaw and started honking the horn wildly. I didn’t care if everyone in the barrio looked over at me. I just wanted them to see me.
But they didn’t. And I could we were coming up to an intersection where the roofs would end and they’d have to come down. The intersection that had the street on a red light and cars were started to slow in front of me.
I had to act fast. I brought the GTO onto the dirt sidewalk to get past the traffic and kept laying on the horn, now to get Camden and Javier’s attention as much as the attention of the people I was about to run over. Fortunately, everyone got out of the way and there wasn’t another group of bikes to smash through. Unfortunately, because we were right up against the buildings, Camden and Javier wouldn’t be able to see the car.
I stuck my head out of the window and started yelling for Camden, shouting his name over and over again. I hoped he could hear me above the noise of the city. There wasn’t much time left. I was almost at the intersection and if they got off the block of roofs and started running, there was a chance I could never find them again in this city.
The light was still red when we came to it and I wasted no time.
I spun the car out, turning left onto oncoming traffic and kept another scream inside my burning lungs. Cars were honking as they came toward me. People were yelling and swearing, fists waving outside of windows.
And I slammed Jose into park and climbed out of the window onto the roof of the car. I stood up unsteadily, mindful that I was precariously perched in the middle of a rush of cars in all directions, some of them slamming their brakes dangero
usly close to me, and looked to the roof.
In seconds, Javier and Camden appeared, looking over the edge, trying to figure out a way down, before the commotion I had created caught their eye. I waved my arms over my head until they both spotted me.
“Get the fuck down here!” I yelled.
Camden squinted then nodded and I noticed he wasn’t wearing his glasses anymore, while Javier pointed at an awning that sat above a convenience store. They ran over until they were above it, Javier glancing nervously over his shoulder, then with one fluid leap they jumped down onto the awning.
It crashed and collapsed under their weight and brought them down over crates of fruit, but they were up quickly and running across the road to the car, all while the store owner was emerging from the wreckage and swearing his head off.
I jumped down from the roof and quickly pushed the seat back to make room for Javier. He could sit with his sister and comfort her.
Camden was going beside me.
“Get in,” I told them.
Javier’s eyes locked with mine briefly and he said, “Thanks” before slipping inside.
I slammed the seat back and got in just as Camden got in the passenger side. Two bullets exploded nearby, one hitting the street, the other hitting the trunk of the car. The man was firing at us from the roof. I had half a mind to fish out my gun again and finish him off, but we had an opportunity to escape and I wasn’t going to lose it.
I put Jose into drive and peeled out, avoiding the cars that were now making their way around me, zigging in and out until we were on the right side of the road and speeding through the city. The traffic was growing thicker by the moment, but still moving fast enough that I was able to keep up my speeds, as long as I paid close attention to the road.
“What happened?” I cried out at the same time that Camden did. He was missing his glasses – his big blue eyes looked startling - and covered in sweat but other than that he looked okay.
“What happened to your arm?” Javier asked Violetta. She whimpered in response.
I eyed him in the rear view mirror. “We were running and came to that first gap. She fell. I think her arm is broken. I jumped down and we ran back to the car.”
“Did you kill the rest of the men?” Javier asked, his eyes meeting mine. They danced, looking alive. If he was a lion, his tail would be twitching.
I swallowed hard and ignored the lump in my chest. “Yes. I had to.”
His lips curled in delight. “I’m impressed.”
I looked away and back at the road before I nearly took out a green and red taxi cab.
“Do you know those men, Javier?” I asked.
“No. But I bet my little sister here does.”
Violetta moaned from the back and at that Camden quickly pulled out a few of his pills from his pocket.
“Violetta doesn’t know them,” I told Javier while Camden twisted around in his seat and dispensed the pills to her.
“So Violetta says,” Javier said.
“We’ve got to get her to a hospital,” Camden said.
“Not yet,” Javier said calmly.
My eyes flew back at him. “Not yet?”
He smiled, lips tight together. “We have to go straight to Aguascalientes. It’s about five hours from here, four if you hurry. My friend Dom will be able to help us.”
“Is Dom a doctor?”
He shook his head. “He’s part of my cartel and he’s really into bullfighting. I have to talk to him first, tell him the situation. Then we can get Violetta sorted out.”
“But she’s in pain,” I said.
He shrugged and sat back in his seat, looking away from me, away from her, out the window at the city’s smog-filled sky. “She got into this mess when she started spreading her legs for the Zetas. She can afford to suffer for a bit.”
Violetta groaned, writhing in discomfort.
“You’re a sick fuck,” Camden seethed at him.
“You’re going to have to start coming up with more original insults. I believe you’ve already called me that before.” Javier looked at him briefly, his face lighting up at the sight of Camden so angry and bothered. “Don’t make me regret not leaving you on that roof to die.”
Silence filled the car.
It was going to be a long drive to Aguascalientes.
CHAPTER FIVE
We made it to Aguascalientes in just under five hours. Traffic on the main highway was thick and we had to stop to use the restroom and fill up on gas. Thankfully, Camden’s pills worked well on Violetta and she was out like a light for most of the drive, her head on Javier’s shoulder – though I was sure it wouldn’t remain that way when she woke up.
I only got to speak to Camden alone, briefly, when I went into the store to pay.
We were waiting in line at the cashier and he grabbed a bag of the ubiquitous pork rinds you find all over Mexico and tossed them to me. I caught them one-handed and found myself smiling shyly.
“What happened to your glasses?” I asked him.
He bit his lip, his eyes darting to the car. “They fell off somewhere. Probably when I fell. I can’t remember. That whole thing was … a blur.”
“Can you still see?”
He smiled all beautiful white teeth, full lips and dimples. “I’m nearsighted. Which means I’ll be a lousy shot until I get a new pair or some contacts. But at least I can see you clearly. The things up close. The things that matter.”
Boom. There went my heart.
In the middle of a Mexican convenience store.
I had a sudden urge to step closer to him, press myself into his chest, find out how clearly he could see me then. But then the clerk was calling us forward and Camden gave me a little nudge. His fingers felt hot and rough on my arm, awakening my skin.
I smiled at the clerk and awkwardly asked in Spanish to pay for a full tank on the pump we were at but the clerk figured some of it out on his own. While I was handing over the pesos I had, Camden whispered in my ear.
“I know Javier helped me back there,” he said deeply, shivers going down my neck, “but don’t you dare start thinking he’s on our side. He’s not. He’s not even on his sister’s side.”
“So who is on my side?” I whispered back while the clerk counted the money. Funny, back in the day I would have been busy trying to scam my way out of paying for the gas, but the idea wasn’t even an option anymore.
His lips brushed against my ear, his presence behind me so large and commanding, I was surprised hadn’t filled the whole store. “I’m on your side. I’ll be on your side. All the way, until we get home.”
Then he turned and walked out of the store and back to the car.
Until we got home.
Home seemed like such a strange concept now.
And what would happen to us then?
When the clerk was satisfied, I went out to the car, Camden already pumping away. I met his eyes, wondering if I was a blur to him at that distance or if he could fill in the details. Giving him a grateful smile, I got in the car.
Javier was sitting stiffly in the back, Violetta now sleeping against the far window. The hot and dusty breeze from the highway swept in through the shattered back window, messing her hair. Javier was watching me observe her, thinking, always thinking.
“You like her, don’t you?” Javier asked.
I raised a shoulder. “Why not? She seems like a good kid.”
He grunted in disgust and started examining his fingernails. “Good kid. Right. You think associating with the Zetas is good now?”
I gave him a sharp look. “You don’t know that those men had anything to do with her. They’re after us in the end, isn’t that what matters?”
“They’re after me, angel,” he corrected.
“Then why take Gus?”
“They think Gus is of importance to you. They think you are of importance to me. That’s how it goes.”
They thought I was of importance to him – but was I? I shook my head, not seeing
why I should care, and looked at Violetta. “Anyway, she didn’t know you were coming, Javier. She didn’t do anything. You’re the one who is after Travis.”
“We are.”
“I’m–”
“After Gus, yes, you’ve said that,” he filled in sharply.
Camden opened his door and climbed in. He eyed me, the tension in my jaw and shoulders and then looked to Javier. “Everything all right in here?”
I had a feeling Camden wouldn’t need much of an excuse to beat the shit out of Javier again. What I would have given to see that.
“Yes,” Javier said. “Just getting our priorities straight.” He tapped the back of my seat. “You better get this damn car moving again. I called Dom and let him know we’d be there soon.”
“Is that safe?” I asked him as I started the car and pulled him back on to the highway heading north. “I mean, calling people and letting them know where we are?”
Javier laughed. “Once again, angel, I am not Jason Bourne and the government isn’t after me. No one is tapping my phones because no one has this phone number. Except for Dom now. And if I can’t trust Dom, I can’t trust anyone.”
I definitely didn’t trust Dom. And Camden would be happy to know, I didn’t trust Javier either.
As soon as we got to the city limits of Aguascalientes, a pleasant looking city at the base of ragged mountains, Javier instructed me to look out for the signs for the Aguascalientes Monumental Bullring.
“Are we seriously going to a bullring?” I asked. Violetta was awake now, not talking but obviously in pain. Camden had courteously spared her the last of his pain medication but apparently it wasn’t enough. She was trying to keep it together but little bursts of agony would occasionally squeak past her lips.
“Just do as I say,” was Javier’s answer. I half-expected him to tell me to trust him.
I grumbled, my hands sweaty on the wheel, my back aching from the drive, but did as he asked. It was all for Gus, all for Gus, all for Gus.
My mother’s face came flashing into my head, the look of horror when she saw who I was, where I was.