****
Angie admired the rosy fingers of dawn as they turned the sky red. What was that saying? Red sky at morning, sailors’ delight, red sky at night, sailors take warning? Or was it the other way around? Good thing she wasn’t on a ship.
Butt numb from the hour-long ride across rocky terrain, she needed to get off, take a pee, and stretch her legs. Up ahead, a dry arroyo cut into rock walls offered a temporary hiding place. She found a gentle path down to the riverbed and stopped the machine under an overhang. Angie unclipped the protective netting, climbed out and looked for a private spot. Designed for a man on a hunting trip, the camouflage one-piece suit afforded great protection against the wind, but sucked when it came to bathroom breaks for a woman. Boots off, she hopped on one foot then another and finally got down to her thermal underwear. Mercifully, that was in two pieces, not one. She squatted, used a tissue to blot herself, and debated her next steps.
Tio had told her the MUV had a top speed of forty miles per hour, but the darkness and terrain had slowed her down. The GPS told her she’d traveled only twenty miles, not nearly as far as she wanted to be. Now that it was light, she was ready to put the pedal to the metal. She pulled up her pants and looked at the one-piece suit. Here in the valley, the sun was already warming the air and clouds barely moved across the sky. Did she really need that thing? She crammed the suit under the tarp. If she got cold, she could always stop and put it on again. Boots on, time to roll. She dug a protein bar out of the backpack and slugged down some hot coffee. Beneath the tarp, a waterproof one-piece suit awaited Jake. Without his height or weight, she’d been forced to guess and ordered a size larger just in case. Eyes closed, she imagined holding him in her arms again, her tears of joy falling on his face. His smile and coos would be her reward.
Was he talking? Or had Miriam learned how to communicate with Jake with sign language? His vocabulary had been limited to “Mama,” “Dada,” and “Doggy.” If he was speaking now, was it in English or Spanish? She sighed, tossed the remains of the coffee onto the parched ground, wiped the dust off her visor, and turned the key. She had sixty-six miles to go before she ran into the side of the mountain where her father’s fortress perched. Time to eat some more dirt.
****
Isabel stood in the middle of the kitchen and shrieked at the top of her lungs. “What the hell do you mean, she’s gone?”
Nerves tight as a piano string, Alejandro bounced on the balls of his feet and repeated, “The MUV is missing and so is Angie.”
The boss lady whirled on Tio. “How’d she get past the guards?”
The big man shrugged. “No one heard anything, no one saw anything.”
“So she’s a ghost? Is that what you’re telling me? She can walk through walls, disappear without a trace?” Isabel put her fists on her hips. “I want a complete investigation. Now. What if she’s an undercover federale? I should have never taken that bitch in.”
Alejandro restrained an audible groan. His handler had been driving him nuts, asking about Angie, and her real intentions. Was she working for the cartel? Now Isabel was questioning the poor woman’s loyalty. This was ridiculous—and dangerous. He had to stop this freight train. He cleared his throat. “Professora, could I say something, please?”
She glared at him. “Well?”
“She’s been begging us to rescue her son ever since she arrived. I explained to her that we had to hold off until the weather got better, that it was unpredictable until March.”
Her red nails drummed on the granite counter. “And?”
“Guess she got tired of waiting. The MUV is gone, along with an entire cargo bed full of long trip supplies and equipment. Plus, weapons and ammo. Plus, baby clothes.”
Isabel’s eyes widened. “Madre Dios. She’s going after him alone.”
Tio shook his big bald head. “That is one crazy chica.”
“Not crazy,” Alejandro said. “Desperate.”
Isabel covered her face with her hands and took a deep shuddering breath.
Was the Latina badass actually crying? Alejandro waited.
The boss lady dropped her hands. Her cheeks shone with tears, and her voice was thick. “Organize the men, go after her. She’ll get herself killed.”
Tio turned to leave the kitchen but Alejandro touched his shoulder. “Wait.” The big man stopped. “If we send in the army, she’ll rabbit, or get herself hurt. I know her better than anyone else.” He would probably live to regret his next words. “Let me go after her. Alone.”
Tio guffawed. “Hombre, you better watch out. That redhead is nothin’ but trouble. Trust me.”
Alejandro stared at his big buddy. “What are you saying?”
“I think she’s playing for the other team, man.” He rolled his eyes. “I put my best moves on her. Bitch acted like I had a snake in my pants.”
Isabel snorted. “A woman doesn’t want to screw you, so you assume she’s a lesbian?”
Tio pouted. “Most ladies can’t get enough of me.”
“Madre Dios, you are an idiot.” Isabel turned back to Alejandro. “Do whatever you have to, take whatever you need, just go find her. If she gets hurt or worse, Sarah will never forgive me.”
Once again, Alejandro wondered what Sarah had on Isabel. She said it was a damning DVD, but was there something more? Enough about Isabel. He had to prepare for his tracking expedition across a rugged, unforgiving terrain. He hoped he caught up to Angie before someone or something else did.
****
Gray, anvil shaped clouds swept across the sky, and the wind, formerly non-existent, whipped the sand into a frenzy. Clouds of red dust surrounded Angie’s MUV, forcing her to reduce her speed to a crawl. The GPS, coated in a layer of grime, told her she’d travelled only ten miles. Unbelievable. She had waited three long months for the weather to be perfect. February was much warmer than January, and the forecast was for sunny skies for the entire week. Where was the sun? And was that thunder?
A crack of lightning ripped across the sky, making the hair on the back of her neck stand up. That was close—too close. Aside from the occasional pine tree, the vehicle was the tallest thing on the surface of the canyon. Open to the elements, she’d be soaked in minutes when the sky opened up. She had to find shelter. Now.
The dust ebbed. A structure appeared, then disappeared. She shook her head and wiped her visor. The windscreen was covered with crap. She stopped the MUV, got out and peered ahead. A small cottage nestled in the distance in a field far below her. After wiping the windshield, Angie hopped back into the driver’s seat and headed toward the house. If she could reach it before the rain started, she’d be fine.
Lightning crackled around her and struck a nearby pine. Flames shot up from the tree.
She swore and pressed the vehicle onward. The wind howled and rain began pelting her, soaking through her thermal underwear.
Angie shivered and prayed the person who owned the home would let her in. Would it be too much to ask for a fire to warm her up?
Rain pelted the sun-hardened ground. Where once had been parched terrain, water now rippled across it, carrying along gravel, mud and debris. She struggled to keep control of the vehicle, but the cargo behind her slipped and slid, fighting her every twist and turn. She might as well have been driving on black ice in Baltimore. The rain became a wall, obscuring her vision and bombarding her with cold hard pellets. Was that hail? In Mexico? The weather gods mocked her. If she could keep control of the MUV a little longer, she was positive she’d make it to the cabin. Just then the sky lit up again and her world went black.
****
Alejandro grabbed the list of supplies and equipment he’d been stockpiling for the rescue expedition and conducted a quick inventory. A shit load of stuff was missing.
Damn it.
Angie must have been planning this stunt for weeks, maybe even months. He should have seen it coming, should have known she’d try something like this. She’d been too friendly. Every morning she’d
shown up in his office, coffee cup in hand and asked what the game plan was for the day. Not only had he given her every detail of his preparations, he’d also shown her maps, GPS coordinates, and all the potential problems with each approach. He had looked forward to each morning of working alongside her just so he could hear her husky voice, smell her scent, and feel her feathery “accidental” touches on his hands, shoulders, and neck.
He’d been conned.
He should have known she was planning something. The day she’d asked about destroying her father’s compound should have been a red flag to him. Lulled by her beauty, mesmerized by her quick mind and rare laughter, he’d given her every answer. Were there clues he missed in her questions?
He closed his eyes and tried to recall each detail of that morning. She’d leaned over his shoulder, the strands of her long red hair brushing the back of his neck. The scent of her shampoo mixed with an undercurrent of her own essence had given him an instant hard on. He slid his chair further under the desk to hide his growing erection and struggled to maintain control of his voice when her warm breath caressed his ear.
“Give me something bigger.”
Had she known he was about to burst out of his pants? Had she seen his hands shake when he moved the mouse to zoom the satellite map? Attempting to take deep slow breaths, he’d pointed to the monitor and shown her the outlines of the wind mills and solar panels that powered Edmondsville.
With her cheek close to his face, he felt her heat pulsing against his brow. She whispered, “Why can’t we blow these up, throw them into panic and confusion?”
“That’s part of the plan.” He cleared his throat, his voice thick. “We’ll do that after we have Jake.”
“What will we use?”
“C4.”
Alejandro covered his face with his hands. Two bricks of C4 and a bunch of detonators were missing. She could blow herself up before she even had the chance to use it against her father.
Dogging his every step, asking a million questions, Angie had been all over him for the last three months. She never wrote anything down.
Now he realized she didn’t need paper and pen. As an attorney, she’d probably memorized an entire library for law school. This whole expedition was locked into her brain. And she’d taken enough supplies to last a month in the wilderness. If the C4 or her father’s goons didn’t kill her, he’d kill Angie himself—if he found her.
Anxious to get going, he grabbed meals ready to eat, MREs and bottles of liquid protein off the metal shelves and ran scenarios through his mind. It wasn’t as if he could have her tracked by her cell phone. Coverage in many areas of Mexico was spotty on a good day. In the remote Copper Canyon areas, she was completely off the grid.
He spotted the untouched satellite phone charging on the workbench and decided to add that to the bag, but his hands were full of bottles of concentrated protein drinks. He jammed them into his pockets any which way he could for the time being. Alejandro packed the mobile phone into its carry case and prayed the thirty-six hour standby and four-hour talk times were true. He had no idea where or when he’d find her. Again, if he found her.
The thought stopped him cold. Don’t go there. Don’t even think about the possibility that she might be captured by her father. Or blown up. Or kidnapped and sold into a Mexican brothel. The thought of the beautiful, proud redhead enslaved like poor Natasha and forced to parade around naked in front of filthy pigs—
Someone grabbed his shoulder.
Alejandro whirled and punched the intruder on the jaw.
The giant staggered back and shouted, “Stop. It’s me, your buddy, Tio.”
“Shit.” Alejandro shook his hand. “I think I broke my hand on your face.”
“You’re jumpy as a crack head.” The big man gazed at him with a puzzled expression. “What’s the matter, bro?”
“I’m worried about Angie. She took C4 and detonators with her.” Alejandro shook his head. “Pissed I missed all the signs. I should have known, should have prevented this.”
“No Manches! Don’t say that, man. You a mind reader?”
“No, but—”
“But, nothing.” The big bald guy lowered his voice. “I know you’ve got a thing for her. It’s cool. I can live with it. Maybe you can get in her pants. I sure couldn’t.”
“It’s not like that.” Even as the words fell out of his mouth, Alejandro knew he was lying, and worse yet, sounded like an idiot.
Tio’s eyes widened. “Holy shit. You’re really sweet on her.”
“Maybe.” His lowered his eyes, and his voice choked up. “Yeah. A little.”
“Compadre, that’s screwed up. You can’t go getting involved like that. It’s no good in our business.”
Alejandro shrugged. “I know.” It’s bad for the undercover ATFE business, too.
“What will you do if that cabrón, her asshole father, has her?”
Alejandro raised an eyebrow. “What would you do?”
“I’d bury him up to his neck in the desert and let the buzzards eat his head for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Right now, I’ve got to finish packing. Since you’re here, you can help. Whatever guns you’d take on this trip, that’s what I want.”
Tio’s eyes lit up. “How much room you got?”
“Not enough for a rocket launcher. I need to travel light.” He pointed at his ride. “I’m taking an ATV and whatever I can strap down behind me.”
“Then you need the same as Angie—a Remington and a Glock.”
“Bueno.” Alejandro turned toward the duffle bag and stopped. “And, I’m really sorry I punched you in the face.”
“You surprised me, that’s all.” Tio rubbed his jaw and gave Alejandro an odd look. “Funny. You don’t hit like an accountant.”
“It was a reflex. I was all wound up, worrying about Angie.”
“Yeah, sure. One thing.”
“What?”
“You ever hit me like that again, friend or not, I’ll kill you.”
Time froze and Alejandro locked gazes with the big man. Tio wasn’t joking. Fuck. He was supposed to be a computer nerd, a dishonorably discharged Green Beret and technogeek, with minimal military or martial arts training. All his training with guns, he had told Tio and Pepe, had come from working alongside drug dealers in the US. The big men had laughed and tousled his hair like a kid and treated him like a mascot.
Dammit to hell. Had he just blown his cover with that stupid knee jerk reaction? The Glock tucked into his waistband burned the flesh of his back like a red-hot poker, and sweat trickled between his balls. Could he get to the gun before the big man reached his shoulder holster? He held his breath. Don’t flinch, don’t give him any reason to shoot you.
Tio pointed at Alejandro and burst out laughing. “I really had you going, bro.”
Alejandro blew out a huge breath and gave a shaky laugh. “Ha. Yeah, you sure did.”
Still laughing, the giant ambled toward the house. “Wait till I tell the guys I made you piss your pants.”
Alejandro looked down at his crotch. It was soaked. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an empty plastic bottle. Somehow, the top of a protein drink had come off—and saved his life.
Chapter Fourteen
A thick quilt of silence enveloped Angie. Alert and pain free, she opened her eyes and watched the earth fall away beneath her. A charred pine tree smoked near the overturned MUV. Rose quartz gray clouds whipped themselves into a frenzy and pelted the vehicle and a white clad figure with rain drops the size of golf balls.
Her body. Her corpse. Oh shit. Dead again.
Not only had she failed to reach the cabin, she’d managed to kill herself in the process.
What would become of Jake? Would Alejandro still try to rescue him? Or would Isabel call off the mission? Dammit. She’d really screwed up this time.
Or had she? Maybe she was just having a terrible dream. Or hallucinating. After all, hadn’
t she been raised on a steady diet of hellfire and brimstone, laced with a side order of toxic threats?
Get it together, woman. Every time she had a physical injury, it seemed her mind flipped out to the dark side of crazy. Hadn’t the same thing happened when Jake was born?
She’d done the research. Pregnancy hormones mixed with hypoxia from loss of blood had caused massive delusions, not an out of body experience. Neurons firing randomly, creating images so vivid, she thought they were real. Just like her father with his freaking temporal lobe seizures and “visions” of God.
That’s all it was. In a bit, she’d come to, be a bit battered, but ready for action. She pinched herself.
Felt nothing.
Pinched again and watched her fingers pass through her wrist and reappear on the other side.
Deep breaths. Don’t get all freaked out. You’ll wake up, you always wake up.
She might as well relax and play along with the hallucination.
Okay, let’s see where this one went. Demons or angels? Which would her addled neurochemistry conjure up this time?
She strained her eyes, searching for the long, dark corridor in the vast sea of white clouds. Come on. She couldn’t hang out here all day. She had to get back to work, back to her mission, back to saving her son’s life. She spotted a dark swirl up ahead and began walking toward it. The spinning hole in the white clouds grew into a tunnel. Now they were getting somewhere.
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