Chapter Fifty
Bree
The bus ended up being a quiet haven. The inside was completely empty, not even a seat was left, but Nathan leaned against the wall and made a comfortable headrest for me. I tried shutting my eyes but the gunmen always flashed into focus, so I kept my eyes trained on the faded rules sign above the bus door.
“Do you know Spanish?” Nathan asked, following my gaze.
“As much as I remember from high school,” I admitted.
I wondered what Nathan was like in high school, before the Navy Seals, before whatever had happened.
A leaden ball formed in my stomach again. We still didn’t know what deal Nathan had made with the cartel. The only thing we knew for sure was that the cartel was still after him and they weren’t giving up.
“Think they caught those guys?” I asked Nathan.
He shook his head. “We’re really close to the border. I have a feeling they managed to get away.”
“As long as they don’t get away in our direction,” I said.
Nathan dropped a kiss on the top of my head. “Always optimistic. What would I do without you?”
I sat up. “If I wasn’t with you, you wouldn’t be hiding right now.”
Nathan rubbed his neck and gave a small nod. “But that’s a good thing. You’re keeping me cautious, making me think things through. Without you, I wouldn’t have anything to lose and I would probably just march straight into the cartel’s stronghold and demand to know what happened.”
“I make you cautious?” I laughed. It kept the leaden ball of panic from expanding. “We’re in the middle of some kind of wasteland hiding out in an abandoned bus. This is your idea of caution?”
“You’re right. Let’s head for civilization before the sun sets.” Nathan stood up and offered me his hand. “I know you’re sick of motels but a nice, hot shower sounds pretty good to me right now.”
We climbed out of the bus and headed in a parallel direction from where we came. I hoped we were slowly circling back to the car, but I had the feeling all our things were lost again. The cartel would definitely be watching for us now and we couldn’t go back.
Nathan’s pace picked up as the industrial spaces slowly condensed into city streets. “None of this looks familiar,” he said.
“I doubt you’re going to remember anything in this part of town,” I pointed out. “There’s nothing here.”
We came to a corner and turned in the direction of a small, well-lit bodega. It illuminated the end of a row of small, stall-like shops with rolled-up fronts. Most of the signs were painted in bright, eye-catching English, the kind meant to attract tourists.
Further ahead, bright lights blazed over a wide swath of road. I swallowed hard and took Nathan’s hand.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“We must be right at the border. Those lights have to be the border crossing.” Nathan frowned.
I let go of his hand and turned around. “I’m no expert at geography, but I know the sun sets in the west.”
Nathan strode toward the bright road, the frown on his face deepening to a scowl. “And north is over there.”
I caught up with him and tried to rub the frightened chill off my bare arms. “There’s no way. I mean, I wasn’t paying attention when we were running from the gunmen and the police and that helicopter, but we didn’t cross the border. I would have noticed that,” I said.
We stopped at a corner and watched the flow of traffic move past. The line of cars heading north were funneled into a tight lane at the border crossing. The weight of panic in my stomach grew so heavy my knees almost gave way.
I clutched at Nathan’s hand but he brushed me off. He raised his hands to rake them through his hair, and I saw a slight tremor in his fingers.
“We’re in Ciudad Juarez,” Nathan said.
“We can’t be.” My voice squeaked out as fear constricted my throat. “We don’t have any ID. We don’t have anything. We can’t be in Mexico.”
I turned and scurried down the street back in the direction we had come. Nathan caught up with me and held my arm in an iron grip.
“We won’t be able to trace our steps back. It’s getting too dark,” Nathan said.
“We have to! We have to get back. They’re going to find us here without ID and throw us in jail,” I cried.
Nathan shook his head but he threw a worried glance back at the border crossing. “We’re Americans. They’ll assume we’re tourists. I have most of our cash on me. That’s all they’ll care about.”
“We don’t even have a phone,” I whimpered. “No ID, no changes of clothes, no phone. Nothing. What are we supposed to do?”
“Act normal,” Nathan said as a car drove by.
“Normal? This is as far from normal as I’ve ever been! And this is all your fault!”
Nathan caught my shoulders and pushed me into the shadows of a closed shop doorway. “My fault?”
“This was your plan all along, wasn’t it?” I asked. “You’re the one who wanted to march right into the cartel’s hands. You knew where we were heading when we ditched the car.”
“Bree, pull yourself together. I didn’t do any of this on purpose. It was a mistake,” Nathan said.
“A mistake? How about a complete disaster? How about a colossal catastrophe?” I shoved past Nathan and tried to run back the way we had come.
He caught up with me in a few steps and linked his arm through mine. I tried to wriggle free but he held on tight. My struggle dragged us into the middle of an intersection. The sun had dipped below the horizon, and I realized with horror that I had no idea which way we had come from.
“We’ll be okay, Bree. I promise,” Nathan said.
He drew me into his arms but I fought back. “This was your plan all along,” I accused him.
Nathan threw his hands up in disgust. “Why would this be my plan?”
“I don’t know! The cartel was probably watching the border crossing, and you wanted to sneak up on them. So, you decided to get us over the border when all the attention was on that car full of gunmen.” I gasped for air as panic overtook me.
Nathan caught my shoulders again. “We’re in this together, Bree.”
“Are we?” I screeched. “You should have told me this is what you planned to do. You’re still keeping things from me.”
Nathan’s muscles banded like iron and this time, he did not let me pull out of his embrace. He rubbed a hand up and down my back as he tried to sooth me.
“I’m not keeping anything from you. I need you with me. I need you, Bree. This was all just a mistake. I had to keep you safe. So, I ran. I didn’t mean for us to cross the border,” he said.
I took a deep breath and relaxed against his strong chest. I had no other choice. “Now what?” I whispered.
“Now we figure this out. Together,” Nathan said.