Chapter Fifty-Seven
Nathan
Bree returned from the store to find me pacing the room with my arms crossed.
She dropped both bags on the motel room floor. “Is Maggie gone? Did she run?”
I swallowed the urge to tell Bree that would have been easier. “No. She’s freaking out and won’t come out of the bathroom,” I said.
Bree rushed over to the bathroom door and pressed her ear to it. “About what? Maggie, honey? Are you okay?”
“She’s fine,” I said. “But I’ve had to go to the bathroom for almost an hour.”
Bree turned on me with an impatient frown. “Her clothes are probably still wet, which is why I went to the store in the first place. She doesn’t have anything else to wear.”
“She was fine, all wrapped up in two blankets,” I muttered. My first impasse with a pre-teen girl had convinced me never to willingly get into a confrontation with a woman.
Thankfully, Bree ignored me and continued to talk through the bathroom door with honeyed words. “I got a few new outfits for you. Nothing special but they’ll work long enough to get you home. Remember? You’re going home this morning.”
Something about the way Bree said that at the same time as her eyes flickered in my direction made me uneasy. “You’re both heading home this morning,” I reminded her.
So much for never provoking a female.
Bree rounded on me. “You’re not the only one who gets to make decisions around here,” she snapped.
I held up both hands. “As long as she decides to come out of the bathroom before my bladder bursts.”
“I got snacks, too,” Bree told Maggie through the door. “As soon as you get dressed, we’ll pack up a new bag for you.”
“Not some dumb kid’s backpack?” Maggie asked.
Bree grinned at the closed door. “No. I got you a purse. You’re too old for princess backpacks.”
The door eased open, and Maggie’s suspicious face peeked through. “What kind of clothes?”
Bree held up a bright tank top and a pair of floral shorts. “I also grabbed a plain pair of shorts and a hooded sweatshirt. All the other shirts were for tourists.”
Maggie nodded and snatched the plastic bags from Bree’s hands. She emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later in the plain shorts and tank top with the hooded sweatshirt zipped all the way to the top.
“And a purse?” she asked.
Bree handed her a woven backpack purse, and Maggie happily began stuffing snacks inside.
In the meantime, I squeezed into the bathroom and contemplated myself in the mirror. I had to change my identity again but it had to be subtle. If I was going to evade border security as well as Adrian Juarez and the cartel men who recognized me, I had to go undercover.
Bree had argued that I had no idea how many of the New Mexico City Cartel might recognize me. She had a point but I insisted on taking a chance.
Maggie had squeezed her eyes shut and tried to count how many children she remembered were kept with her. Her memory put my estimate at somewhere between eight and twelve children. All those mourning families, all those scared kids just hoping to get home.
I had to make that happen.
“Wearing a wig will only make it worse,” Bree said through the open bathroom door. “It has to be simple. Otherwise, you’ll end up sticking out instead of blending in.”
“What about a pillow in my shirt to make me look fat?” I asked.
Bree shook her head. “Your face doesn’t look fat; it won’t match up. Besides, what would you say when someone punches you in the stomach?”
I laughed. “Why do you sound so sure that’s going to happen?”
“Wishful thinking?” Bree couldn’t keep a straight face.
She went to help Maggie with her long hair that had somehow become a rat’s nest again overnight. I thanked my lucky stars that I hadn’t been expected to take a brush to that snarled mess. Maggie would have been bald, and we both would have been in tears by the time I got us untangled.
I shook my head and turned back to the mirror. There wasn’t much I could do with my own hair either. The best choice was to leave the shaggy length and just dye it another color.
“Did you pick up hair dye?” I asked Bree.
She tossed a box into the bathroom with a stern look. “Are you sure red is the right color?”
I figured red would be blend in with my already dark hair, but give it enough of a change. “I’m just not a good blond,” I told her.
She returned to Maggie and they turned on a loud gameshow while I contemplated a longer mustache. I hooked my thumbs in my belt loop and started practicing a Southern drawl.
“Please tell me you’re not going to do an accent.” Bree appeared in the doorway again, shaking her head.
“I served with a man from Georgia. He talked enough that I’m sure I can still hear his voice in my head,” I told her.
“Georgia? You really think people are going to buy that you are a Southern gentleman?” Bree asked.
I hooked her around the waist and dragged her into the bathroom. “Well, ma’am, I believe they just might.”
“Nice try but I’m not quite a ‘ma’am’ yet,” Bree said.
She tried to pull away but I couldn’t let go. Her lips were strawberry red and still curved in a smile at me. I had to taste them.
I leaned forward and brushed my mouth over her slight smile. Bree didn’t give into my pull but she leaned forward just enough to prolong the kiss. I rewarded her with a deeper, more insistent return.
Bree put one hand on my chest to push me away while another fluttered around my waist and seemed to want to keep me close.
“No, I can’t. We can’t.” Bree gestured out into the motel room where Maggie was watching the loud game show.
I let Bree go. Every muscle in my body hummed with the desire to catch her close again, feel her body pressed against mine, but I crossed my arms and held firm. Bree was leaving; someone had to take Maggie home.
It was for the best. Bree had come to her senses a few times now but never managed to get away from me. Now she had Maggie to care for. The girl was proving she’d adjusted to her dangerous independence but Bree was already acting the protective mother.
I didn’t want her to go. I could admit that much, to myself at least. It was just that Bree deserved more. And I needed to know that she was safe before I put my hare-brained scheme into action.
There was no safe way to find an in with the cartel and what I had to do was too dangerous for Bree. I needed to be on my own; it would be better that way.
Bree gave me a sad look and disappeared into the other room. I couldn’t bear to lose sight of her yet, so I abandoned my undercover planning and followed her out of the bathroom. It was all I could do not to take her hand and hold it tight.
Luckily, Maggie was the perfect distraction.
“Wow, you clean up good,” I said.
Maggie looked up at me shyly but smiled. “Thanks. Bree did the braid.”
The intricate weave of the braid had completely transformed Maggie’s wild unkempt look. She was now a prim young girl. The clean clothes and tidy hair made her look like someone who had never seen a minute of trouble. It was almost enough to make me forget Maggie had been in the cartel’s control for almost a month.
“You look wonderful,” I said. “I might have done everything else wrong, but at least I was lucky enough to see you heading home.”
“We never would have found her if you hadn’t insisted on coming here,” Bree said. “I think it was more than luck.”
I blinked, surprised that Bree had forgiven me for the border crossing so soon. Then I remembered we would probably never see each other again.
“I’m glad it all worked out in the end,” I said.
Bree’s forehead knit. “But it’s not the end yet, Nathan. This doesn’t feel right. I mean, it’s great that Maggie is heading home, but what about you? You shouldn’t be staying here alone.”
Maggie nodded. “The bad men are really bad. Everyone should stay away from them.”
“I know, but someone has to help all those other kids,” I told Maggie. “Besides, I made a mistake a while back and I need to fix it. No one else can do it for me.”
Bree dropped her voice to a whisper so Maggie couldn’t hear. “You don’t even remember what that mistake was, Nathan. How can you expect to fix it?”
“I don’t know the how, I only know that I have to,” I said. “I couldn’t face myself, Bree, if I didn’t try.”
The truth of it was that I couldn’t face Bree again if I didn’t try to make things right. Whatever I had done had affected her, too. If I ever hoped to track her down, I wanted nothing to stand between us, especially not whatever deal I had struck with the cartel.
The last thing I wanted to do was go another day without Bree, but it was for the best. I took her hand and kissed it quickly, not sure when I would ever be able to touch her again.
“Come with us, Nathan, please,” Bree said.
I shook my head. “I can’t. I have to do the right thing.”