Suddenly, there was a flash of white across my eyes and a pain exploded through my left temple and I crashed down to the floor. I looked up with momentarily bleary eyes and Jesse was standing over me with a self satisfied, smug look on his face. Why did this keep happening to me? The Glock was still in my right hand and I lifted it, aimed at his knee and pulled the trigger. He screamed and collapsed to the floor, writhing around in agony and clutching at his leg.
“You cocky asshole,” I said as I lifted myself to my feet. I rubbed at my head. No blood.
I kicked him in the face and left him to roll around on the floor. I continued my search.
I entered the living room again and heard whimpering that wasn’t Jesse as I continued through the house. I followed the sound to a closet underneath the stairs. I opened the door quickly with my gun ready, in case there was anyone armed inside. There wasn’t. The three women I had seen enter the house with the convoy of Audis and Mercs were crouched down in the back, huddled together in a little ball. I gestured with my head for them to get out, and put my finger to my lips. I pulled the stacks of hundreds that I had found in the office out of my pocket and put them in one of the girls’ hands. I then had them follow me to the front door. I pulled it open for them and hustled them out.
I ducked back inside and proceeded to do a full sweep of the house. I went from room to room, starting downstairs and working my way up before I was satisfied I wasn’t about to encounter any more of Jesse’s men. I was fairly certain I had come across the majority of them, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some had run when they heard the explosion. I returned to the kitchen, where I found Jesse trying to slide himself across the floor on his belly. Just like a snake. He had left a trail of blood for me to follow like some kind of fucked up Hansel and Gretel, but he hadn’t even left the room.
“You’re testing my patience, asshole.”
“Fuck you.” He spat.
“That’s not very polite, considering this is the second time you’ve made me do this.” I replied as I crouched down next to his head.
He let out a roar as he pushed himself up and seemingly levitated off the floor, spinning himself around. I saw the knife in his hand too late and he plunged it into my thigh.
I collapsed onto the cold, hard tile and grabbed at my right leg. My eyes slammed shut. The pain was unbelievable and I couldn’t think. I lay there for about a half a minute as I tried to breathe through it and pull myself together. I opened my eyes and out of the corner, I saw Jesse commando crawling his way across the kitchen. Son of a bitch.
I took a deep breath and sat up. It hurt. I had left the bandages in my bag, so I made a rip at the bottom of my shirt and pulled, tearing a strip around the bottom. I pulled it tight across my thigh and began to wrap it around the wound to make a tourniquet. Once I had finished, I heaved myself slowly off the floor. I stood up straight and winced as I eased my weight onto my right leg. This would be interesting. I took another deep breath and limped out of the kitchen to find Jesse.
I heard a car door slam outside. Shit.
As fast as I could, I hobbled to the front door, just in time to see a red Ferrari speed away down the drive. This bastard’s got a fuckin’ Ferrari, too?
The cars that belonged to Jesse’s visitors were still parked outside, but they were brand new and I knew I wouldn’t be able to hotwire them. I went back inside.
One by one, I made my way around the bodies of the men I had felled, trying to find one of the guys I had seen driving the cars. I found the key to the Audi inside the jacket of the third guy I came across, out on the patio. The guy in the shorts who had arrived with the suit.
I was close, so I darted back as quick as my leg would let me to the tree line. I grabbed my bag and my jacket, which were a few feet away, and then limped back to the front door and down the steps as fast as I could. I finally made it to the Audi just as Jesse cleared the perimeter fence. I saw him almost spin out as he turned the corner and began heading down the dirt track into town.
The Audi RS7 Sportback has a four liter, twin-turbo V8 engine and a top speed of one hundred and ninety mph. Apparently, it can get to sixty in under four seconds. I thought that the particular situation I found myself in in that moment was the perfect one in which to test that out. I pressed the start engine button and put my foot on the floor. An angry, ugly noise ripped out of the car and I gunned it down the track to the gates. It would have made me smile if I hadn’t felt so murderous.
I saw Jesse’s lights turning off the road and kept my foot down as I skidded the car around the corner and onto the track outside the perimeter fence. I floored it and began to catch up, slowly but surely, as the Ferrari continued north through the town. A sign flew past me on the side of the road and I just managed to catch what it said. We were headed for the desert.
Slowly, I began to gain on him. The Audi could keep an impressive pace with the Ferrari, which Jesse seemed to be struggling to control. He was sliding all over the tarmac when he took a corner, like he couldn’t get that car’s tires to grip. The silhouettes of the mountains were closing in around us with every mile we drove. It was like the gods were looming over us. Watching to see who would fall and who would prevail.
After another fifteen, twenty minutes, Jesse’s taillights had become large, red orbs in my windshield. The arid desert landscape continued to whip past my car as I closed in on the Ferrari. The road we were on was flanked by a river on the right hand side that would eventually feed into the Gulf of California. The moon reflected brightly off the shallow water of the river, which allowed me to see the sparsity of the landscape we were traveling through. The road was becoming more winding. Up ahead, I could see the silhouettes of more mountains in the moonlight. It looked like that was where he was taking us. I did not want to get lost up there.
His car was about three or four lengths in front of me. I kept my steering wheel steady with my knees and leaned out the window with the HK416. I fired a few rounds into the night air. He swerved slightly at the noise and I took the opportunity to accelerate aggressively. I was right up his ass and fired again at his tires, but he was ready this time and swerved once more. I heard his engine rev and he began to pull away from me. The road began to curve to the left and the Ferrari didn’t slow down. He fishtailed slightly as he lost traction on the corner as the tarmac became buried under sand and his back wheels kicked up dust across my windshield. I drove blind for a second, barely able to make out his tail lights in front of me.
I floored the accelerator and managed to decrease the distance between us. The traction was horrendous and it was becoming clear that very few people came this far into the desert. Or at least, very few came this way when they did. The section of road we were on became more and more bumpy, both our suspensions were becoming severely strained and it was getting harder and harder to control the car. Jesse was obviously also struggling and with another burst of speed, I managed to pull up almost alongside him. There was a small ravine on our right where the road dropped off down to the river. He had more horsepower than me, but if I was smart and drove tactically, I knew I could push him off the road. My front tires were about level with his rear tires and I pulled away slightly, only to yank my wheel down and slam my front bumper into the back of his car. He just managed to regain control, but he had lost a lot of speed. I pulled up again and slammed into the back of his car a second time. It began to spin out. I could see him frantically trying to retain control of the car, but it was no good. He pulled his steering wheel down in the wrong direction and the Ferrari fishtailed across the tarmac. He hit the verge of the ravine hard and the car flipped, tumbling down into the riverbed before finally settling right side up in the middle of the shallow water. A small puff of smoke danced up into the air from under the hood.
I pulled up on the side of the road and got out of the car slowly. Taking care of my leg, I carefully made my way down the slope from the road and into the water. I heard a noise and saw the car door of the Ferrari
open. I pulled my Glock out of my shoulder holster and leveled it at the door as I made my way around to the front of the car. A couple of seconds passed and I watched Jesse, hunched over in the driver’s seat, attempting to built the strength to stand. I took a deep breath and listened to the trickle of the water over the stones. I had him.
“Give it up, Jesse,” I shouted. “It’s over.” I kept making my way closer, slowly.
I heard him snort. “Fuck you,” he said as he spat blood into the water.
“Way I see it, you’ve got two options.”
“Oh yeah? What are they?”
“Option one,” I said as I circled around to stand in front of him, the finger of my left hand raised as my right hand kept the gun pointed at him. “You confess.”
“That sounds likely. What’s option two?” he asked, cradling his arm. He must have messed it up during the crash. I only shot him in the leg.
“Option two,” I continued, holding up a second finger. “I kill you. Put you out of your obvious, pathetic misery.”
He spat more blood into the river, then looked up at me. “Hmm, that’s interesting. But what about your options?”
My turn to laugh. “And what would they be?”
He let go of the arm he was cradling and pulled out a gun. “I’ll give you ten seconds to figure it out.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, so now we’re both pointing guns at each other. Drop yours or I put a bullet through your head.”
“You ain’t gonna shoot me,” he sneered, trying to stare me down.
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?”
“’Cause you want the information I got.” He leered, tapping the muzzle of the gun against his temple like he thought he was being smart.
While the gun wasn’t pointed at me, I slowly reached behind my back and released my knife. I hooked my nail into the indent at the top of the blade and unfolded it one handed behind my back as I kept my gun trained on Jesse. As he brought his gun back to point at me, I threw it, hard. It flew strong at his bad arm and the blade embedded itself in his biceps. He cried out and dropped his gun as he fell out of the car and onto his knees.
I walked up to him slowly, trying to control the pain emitting from my leg. I kept my gun pointed at the moron as I kicked his under his car.
I stood in front of Jesse for a second and observed him. “Do you think Pam was in this much pain when she died?” I asked him. He didn’t reply. I flicked the handle of the knife with the muzzle of my gun and he cried out again. “I asked you a question, Jesse.”
“How should I fuckin’ know!”
I grabbed the blade and twisted. He screamed out.
“I hate liars. Tell me what I want to know. What happened to her? Tell me the truth. Now.”
“Fine, fine, just stop.” He looked up at me, then spat blood in my face. I gritted my teeth and wiped at my eyes, then swung the butt of the gun across his face. He cried out again. I aimed it back at his head.
“Why do you keep doing this to yourself?”
I took a step back. His breathing was labored and I cocked the gun.
“I told one of my boys to do it. I ordered him.”
I took a deep breath. “Why?”
“She...” He shook his head and groaned and blood trickled out of his mouth as his jaw sagged open. I kicked him in the stomach.
“It’ll only get worse, so you’d better spit it the fuck out.”
His face started to crease. He folded forwards and wheezed. Blood spilled out of his mouth onto the dirt. I realized he was laughing.
“You stupid bitch. You haven’t got a goddamn clue, have you?” He unfolded himself and sat up as he looked me dead in the eye.
I suddenly felt uncomfortable. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Your friend. The sweet Pam.” He laughed again. “She was a fuckin’ psycho.”
I felt the rage in my stomach begin to boil up as I ground my teeth together, working the muscle in my jaw.
“Guess it was just one of those things, huh? Ya think ya know someone.”
I spun the gun in my hand and brought the butt down hard in the space between his neck and his shoulder, slightly above where the blade had landed in his arm. People forget that guns are a multi-use tool. He creased forwards and began hacking into the dirt.
“Last chance, Jesse. Tell me what happened or I empty both my guns into your pretty little car and leave you to die out here alone.”
“She was goin’ ’round killing my boys, you stupid fucking bitch.”
I scoffed. “I’m sorry, what?”
“She was poisoning mobsters all over the state. Some kinda revenge plan. Her dad pays me protection, so I gave him the chance to stop her before I did, but I knew he didn’t have the balls or the backbone. So I sent one of my boys.”
My body grew hot. My face flushed and my head was reeling like Jesse had hit me with the butt of the gun instead of the other way around. I tried to open my mouth to talk, but my voice got caught. I cleared my throat. “Jimmy? You told Jimmy?”
“That’s it, yeah. Jimmy.”
“Who did it?” I asked quietly. “Who killed her?”
“One of my guys back at the house. I called him that Saturday night when I realized Jimmy was too much of a little bitch to control his own daughter. You killed the guy that did it tonight. Happy?”
I lifted my gun and shot him clean through his skull. I watched his smug, self-satisfied face fall as he crumpled to the ground. “No.”
I turned and began to walk back to the Audi.
I felt sick. I knew that a part of that was from the wound in my leg. But the other part was because I didn’t think Jesse was lying.
That’s way too random a lie. The whole story was way too crazy to not be at least somewhat based in truth.
My leg was throbbing. I would probably need to get someone to take a look at it. Should get someone to take a look at it. The scars on my body deserved a memorial for all the things I should’ve done and didn’t.
I reached the car, pulled open the door and climbed inside. It was when the car door slammed shut and I was finally alone that the tears came.
I leaned across the center console, bleary eyed, and pulled open the glove compartment. There had to be a bottle of something in this goddamn car.
I found some tequila with a couple sips left in it. I poured a little onto the t-shirt bandage I had wrapped around my thigh and let it soak in. My leg twitched and stung like all hell and I gritted my teeth. I downed the rest. The burn numbed my throat all the way down to my stomach. I guessed it helped a little.
I opened the window for some air and threw the bottle in the back of the car, then pulled a cigarette out of the pack in my pants and lit it. I pushed the start engine button and the car roared back to life. I pulled down on the wheel and turned the car back around in the direction we had come. The headlights showed me there was nothing for miles, just brush and sand and somewhere underneath it, some tarmac that would lead me back to San Felipe.
The tears did not stop and it became a little hard to breathe as I sat in the stationary car. My chest constricted and I let out a sob at the thought of my friend’s cold, dead body in that apartment. The thought that before I had found her like that, she had been plotting and executing the murders of Jesse’s counterparts. The thought that she had experienced a miscarriage from a drug overdose. So many thoughts.
The scene with Jesse was still playing in front of my eyes and I couldn’t help the feeling that something wasn’t tracking. There was something he had said that, no matter how I turned it around and looked at it, just didn’t make sense.
I breathed deeply and held it. My diaphragm convulsed and I released the breath and coughed. I needed to pull myself together. I took another deep breath, released it slowly and closed my eyes. All right.
I opened my eyes and pushed gently on the accelerator as I guided the car back down the track. After ten minutes or so, I had cleared the bumpy land that Jesse had struggl
ed to keep his car on, and had made it back onto a slightly better stretch of road.
I pushed a little harder on the accelerator, hoping that the speed and the fresh night air whipping across my face would blast the emotion out of me. A little longer and I could lay my head down and sleep. A little longer and it would all be over.
Chapter Fifteen
I woke up the next morning with the sun. It was streaming in through the cracks in the blinds across the windows in big beams that flickered across the pillows and my eyes. I had not slept well. My dreams had consisted of memories of the night before, processing before my eyes like cars on a freeway, headed towards a fiery crash that only I knew about. That was, amongst other things.
I forced myself to roll out of bed and take a shower. Once I was clean, I went about the motel room, collecting the couple of bits and pieces I had brought down to Mexico with me. Besides my guns and a couple pairs of jeans, there wasn’t much to gather. I locked up the room and went over to reception to pay up. I grabbed an apple from the bowl on the front desk, which I figured would keep me going till the first gas station.
Even though I was functioning on far too little sleep, I was feeling more pulled together than I had the night before. Once I’d arrived back at the motel, I had stripped off, showered and then lain in the bed watching some old-school fishing show on cable until I had fallen asleep. The flickering lights of a TV had always done that for me.
I crossed the road from reception and slipped into the yard on the other side of the street where I had parked my truck. I put the guns back under the bed and threw my day bag on the passenger seat in the cab and turned the key. Man, I preferred a turnkey ignition. The engine roared to life and I smiled for the first time in a while. I loved this old truck.
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