Both men who had a stake in my heart at some point in the game.
This ever-changing game.
Javier finally stepped back, flourishing the act with his arm. “After you,” he said, his words dripping with venom. He looked to me. “Come on, angel.”
I grabbed my purse and headed to the door. I was halfway out of it when Javier’s hand slipped around my waist and he whispered, “You look beautiful.”
I twisted away from his touch and quickened my steps so I was walking beside Camden. He didn’t look at me but his temples were twitching as he tried to keep his temper under control. I felt like we kept on taking one step forward together, two steps back, and Gus kept slipping away all the same.
The bar was dark but not dingy, small but not cramped. It looked like a good mix of locals and vacationing Mexicans who were staying at the hotel. Camden and I were the only gringos in the whole place but no one seemed to notice. They were all too busy laughing and drinking, having a good time.
In the corner of the bar, closest to an old pool table, was Dom. He was sitting with someone now and I could hear Javier mutter, “Fucking animal,” under his breath. I turned to look at him, to gauge his reaction, but Javier pushed past me and went up the table with open arms.
“Esteban, you bastard!” Javier exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear.
The man, Esteban, got up and the two of them embraced. Once I got to the table, smiling politely at Dom, I got a better look at Esteban.
He was around six feet, medium-build, light olive skin and bright hazel eyes, hair done up like a surfer, all shoulder-length straggles, dark brown with sun-bleached strands. He looked to be about our age, late twenties, and could have been a Matthew McConaughey’s Doppelganger if it wasn’t for the fact that he had a swath of lacerations on the left side of his face. It was weird to see someone so beautiful and ugly at the same time. He was scarred just like me, only his were visible for all the world to see.
And yet here he was, smiling and greeting Javier like old chums, not making any apologies for himself, for what had happened to him, for the scars he had to bear. He embraced it. Like, fuck it, this is me.
After the two embraced, Esteban sat back down and immediately looked to me. He didn’t say anything though, just pressed his pretty lips together into a small smile. His eyes did most of the talking. He knew who I was. He eyed Dom and a similar look was exchanged.
Javier looked to Dom. It was odd to see him so genuinely happy to see someone. “Why didn’t you tell me he was coming?”
Dom smiled. “I wanted to show you that I too have a few surprises up my sleeve.” He nodded at Camden and I. “Please sit down, Ellie. And you must be Camden.”
Introductions were quickly made by me since Javier wasn’t stepping up to the plate.
“Got something on your lip there?” Esteban pointed at Javier.
Javier dabbed his bruised lip, a spot of blood coming away. He smiled quickly. “It’s a tough business.”
Camden quietly snorted beside me but thankfully kept his mouth shut.
I leaned on the table, my hands clasped under my chin and eyed Esteban and Dom. “Before we start getting into the real reason we’re all sitting here, Esteban, why don’t you tell me how you come into all of this.”
Dom let out an amused gasp and sat back in his chair. He watched Javier for his reaction, knowing he was going to be slighted from me taking the reins of this whole thing, of his cartel. But fuck it. This was my mission more than anything. And if I was going to risk our lives to get Gus, I had to know exactly who everyone was and how they were playing into it.
Esteban raised his brows and said, in near-perfect English, “Well, Miss Watt. My brother used to work for Javi–”
“He still does,” Javier interjected.
Esteban gave him a look. “Yes. But I haven’t heard from him in a while and I am sure you haven’t either. Anyway, I joined in after Travis. I’m part of the new and improved cartel. The younger one. The stronger one.” He grinned. “Of course, things don’t always go as planned. I got into a, well, a scuffle down here with another cartel. I should say, the police that the cartel was paying off. Not the Zetas, the Gulf. But what does it matter what cartel it is, right? Alliances mean nothing these days. So in this scuffle, I had a load of shrapnel to my face and was presumed dead. I wasn’t, hey. But let them think that.”
“You let me think that,” Javier said. “You let Alex think that.”
“It was for the best,” Esteban said.
“Alex is your brother?” I asked him, remembering all too well the other henchman of Javier’s.
He nodded. “I saw all the fine ladies he was pulling in with his new cars and suits and wanted in.” He winked at me then waved over the waitress.
We all shut up while she came by and took our orders (more beer, naturally), then as soon as she was gone, I launched into more questions.
“So why are you here now?” I asked him.
He gave Javier a look, as if saying ain’t she the eager beaver. Then Esteban gazed me directly in the eye, unblinking, piercing. Suddenly, terribly serious. “Because Javier and Dom cannot do this on their own. You cannot do this on your own. Travis’s compound is in the east of the Honduras. Right in the heart of the jungle. Not even accessible by road. They chopper in and out. We can’t do that. We have to hike it and it takes several days. Then when you get whoever you’ve come to get, it won’t be so easy to leave.” He took a swig of his beer. My limbs felt leaden at the news. I had imagined him being in a house similar to the one in Veracruz, not a fortress in the middle of a jungle, not some place we’d have to hike to. “Speaking of, this man that you say Travis has, Gus? There’s a woman too.”
“My mother.”
“Yes, so I hear.”
“Will they be expecting Ellie?” Javier asked.
He nodded. “I think so. But maybe not you.”
“How could they not be expecting Javier?” Camden asked suddenly. “They’ve been chasing us all over.”
Esteban gave a half-shrug. “It’s just a hunch. Anyway, it doesn’t matter who they expect because we will go there all the same and when we do we’ll all be dead to them, equally.”
I sighed and put my head into my hands. This was getting more and more impossible by the moment. I felt Camden’s hand on my knee, giving it a squeeze, but even that didn’t help.
“No one said this would be easy,” Dom said gently.
Such concern from the cartel. How nice.
“When do we go?” I said, straightening up and running my hands down my face. “What do we need to do?”
Esteban eyed Javier, as if he was unsure of his place to speak now.
Javier took it and ran with it. He pushed his chair back and leaned into it, his legs splayed, his beer dangling from his fingers.
“This is what we’re going to do,” he said smoothly. “The five of us will head to Honduras. I’m sending Violetta away in the morning. Dom, we’ll need someone to take her to Puerto Vallarta. She can stay with her sisters or not but I want her out of the picture. Este, you gather what information you can. You’re the tech expert here. The logistics of the operation have to be sound. I mean asshole tight, you understand? If we need more than us five, then you bring a few more in. Just remember, I want this as small as possible. The more people who know, the more we’re at risk.”
“Can the five of us really get into Travis’s place and get my mother and Gus out?” I asked.
Javier smiled patronizingly. “My dear, I think you’re underestimating me. You don’t need to match his team to win. Besides, I don’t plan on killing everyone there. I only plan on killing him and whoever else gets in my way. The others, they will surrender to me once he is gone. We need a small team, maybe six of us if we have to. With the best weapons. The best tech. The best … depravity.” He slammed back the rest of his beer and slammed it on the table. “Have a little faith.”
His words rumbled through me like a heavy bass chord.
Faith.
Another thing I’d lost along the way.
CHAPTER SEVEN
We didn’t stay at the bar too much longer. After we said goodbye to Dom and Esteban (who started insisting I call him Este), we went back to our rooms. I desperately wanted to follow Camden into his, but I said goodbye to both men at once and Camden went in his room first. Javier was further down, lingering at his door, watching me in silence. His face was in shadow but I could still feel his eyes, his hesitation, as if he wanted to say something to me.
There was no hesitation on my end. I gave him a hard look and went to my room. Violetta was in the washroom, the tap running.
“Ellie?” she called out from behind the closed door.
“I’m here,” I told her and climbed into my bed. A tank dress was no different than a nightgown and I wasn’t chummy enough with her to sleep naked.
The bathroom door opened and she staggered out. From the weak light that lit her up from behind, I could see she looked pretty wrecked. Or wrecked but still pretty, as it seemed to be the case with her.
“How are you feeling?” I asked. “How’s your arm?”
She gave me a sloppy smile and eased herself into bed. “I feel kind of sick and I can’t feel my arm. But I don’t feel any pain.”
“Good.”
“Ellie,” she said softly. “What’s going to happen to me?”
I turned my head on the pillow and looked across at her. “What do you mean?”
She sighed and looked up at the ceiling. I had an idea of what Javier’s nose must have looked like before it was broken a million times. “I have a bad feeling. I’ve had it for a week. That I’m going to die.”
“You’re not going to die, Violetta. Javier wouldn’t let that happen.”
“You know that’s not true. Javi always acted like he cared more than he did. Even when I was younger, he would be nice to me if it got him something, maybe a treat from mom. Or he did it because it was expected. I don’t know if he cares if I’m alive or dead.”
I licked my lips, thinking back to the conversation in the bar. “I know he wants to keep you safe. He may have a funny way of showing things but he does care about you. He wouldn’t have come this way if he didn’t have to. Tomorrow he’s going to send you away from all of this.”
She laughed. “Let me guess, to see my sisters?”
“You don’t need to get mixed up in this.”
“I already am.”
“It’s not too late to get out. And I, I will make sure you’re taken care of.”
She turned her head to look at me, her eyes glinting in the dark. “You’re nothing like him, you know.”
The back of my neck tingled. “I’m not?”
She shook her head slowly. “No. I thought you would be. But you’re not.”
I could barely find my voice. “I wasn’t a good person. I was a con artist.”
“I know. You left that out earlier when you told your little story, but I know. What difference is it what you were? You’re not conning anyone now are you? You’re risking your life to save somebody. You risked your life to save me and you don’t even know me. You could have let me fall and ran on but you stopped and you helped me. I don’t think there’s anything more noble than that. You have more courage than any of those cartels do. They wouldn’t even do that for each other. It’s every man for himself. You’re not like that.” She paused. “And neither is Camden.”