Chapter Sixty-Four
Bree
“Maybe you want to hang back, you know, in case Maggie calls you,” Nathan said.
I blotted my lips with a tissue and frowned at him. “You’re not convincing me to stay back.”
Nathan moved around the motel room with a deepening scowl. “I swear I think the motel staff is coming in here when I’m gone. Don’t they see the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door?”
I shook my head at his sad ploy. “I’m not staying behind to try to catch the cleaning staff stealing. Besides, we don’t have anything they would want to take.”
Nathan blocked the motel room door. “What if I need you here? I can call the room phone if I run into trouble. You’d be the only one who’d be able to go for help.”
I marched over and stood toe to toe with Nathan. “I’m coming with you and that’s final. I know the plan and I can help. You said so yourself before you let your overprotective caveman mind start talking.”
Nathan’s fierce expression cracked. “Caveman mind? Is that what you think I’m like?”
“You’re arguing that you’re not?” I put my hands on my hips.
“Fine.” Nathan threw both hands up into the air. “But at least tell me you understand why I had to try. I couldn’t bear to have anything bad happen to you.”
My heart fluttered with more than just nerves as we headed out the door. Nathan told me the best way to stay calm was to stick to practical thoughts. He said writing a grocery list in my head or thinking through my waitressing routine from the diner would settle my mind. Nathan’s words echoed in my mind, only they weren’t advice for remaining calm.
Did Nathan really care about me?
He couldn’t bear for anything bad to happen to me. Now I understood that every attempt he made to keep me out of harm’s way, to leave me back where it was safe, was actually Nathan’s way of showing how much I meant to him.
The thought made me buoyant and it was hard to focus on the task at hand. We had called a cab to make sure we got to the dive bar on time. Nathan reminded the driver we wanted to be dropped off a few blocks away. We couldn’t have his contact thinking we had money to burn of cabs.
“Tanya? Tanya, are you listening to me?” Nathan repeated.
“What? Sorry.” I was Tanya, at least for our thin cover story. Nathan was trying it out on the cab driver.
“I was telling him about how your cousin did the rodeo circuit down here a few years back.” Nathan’s Southern accent was subtle and believable.
He was forcing me to improvise along with him in case we had to change our story as the night unfolded.
I nodded. “Dangerous work but he made a good deal of money.”
The cabbie nodded and smiled at me in the rearview mirror. “So, your cousin recommended you come to Ciudad Juarez?”
“Beats looking for another waitressing job in Texas,” I said.
Nathan took my hand and gave it a squeeze. I had done good. He’d drilled me on keeping my improvisations close enough to the truth that they sounded realistic.
The rest of the short cab ride was quiet but Nathan’s hand was restless on mine. He was nervous, more nervous than he’d ever been, and I knew it was because of me.
A new fear clutched my chest. What if Nathan was right? What if it was safer for both of us if I stayed in the motel room out of the way?
His fear became obvious when the cab slowed down a few blocks from the dive bar. As I reached for the door handle, Nathan slapped his hand over mine. He turned, shielding me with his body as a car slid by the cab, going strangely slow.
It ended up being a friend of the cab driver’s stopping to share some news, but Nathan’s intensity didn’t lessen. We were about to walk into a bar of potentially dangerous people, and Nathan was solely focused on protecting me.
That meant he might slip up and endanger himself.
“Maybe I should head back to the motel,” I said.
Nathan blinked at me and then smiled. “So I can hear about it later? No thanks. We’ve got to stick to the plan.”
My insides were a raging conflict between the warm melting thought that Nathan wanted me with him to the icy fear that I would unknowingly cause him additional harm.
“I need a drink,” I told him.
Nathan smiled. “Then make your first one a good one because after that I’m switching you to seltzer water.”
I opened my mouth to argue but it was too late. The doors to the dive bar swung open. The exiting guest avoided Nathan and left the door open for us.
There was no turning back.
The regular customers all looked up from their drinks, gave us a glance, and then put their heads back down. Except the bartender. He spotted Nathan and frowned. I watched him shake his head as if Nathan was walking straight to the edge of a dizzying cliff.
Then the bartender saw me and his face darkened. He came straight over as we picked out two stools at the bar.
“I’ll have a whiskey and the lady’ll have a vodka tonic,” Nathan said.
The bartender looked at me so I nodded. “Vodka tonic, please. And could I have a cherry in it?”
He opened his mouth as if he wanted to tell me something, but then the bartender glanced over my shoulder. He looked around the bar and snapped his mouth shut. “I’ll get your drinks,” he muttered.
“Do you think this place is under surveillance?” I whispered to Nathan.
“If the cartel uses it as a place to scope out potential employees, then I would say yes. This place probably has cameras all over,” Nathan said.
“I wonder what he wanted to tell me.” I nodded down the bar to where the bartender was so far ignoring our drink order.
Nathan frowned. “He probably wanted to warn you. I wonder how many times he’s seen people set up like I was yesterday. He clearly thinks I’m insane keeping this business meeting. And bringing a guest has clearly lowered his opinion of me further.”
The bartender deliberately dragged his feet and found other orders to fill first. He poured a huge round of beers for the pool players, and then decided the remaining pint glasses needed another polishing. Then there was a phone call though neither Nathan and I heard the ringer.
Nathan flagged the man down again but all we got was a polite nod and the signal to be patient.
“He’s hoping we’ll leave,” I pointed out. “If he’s rude enough, he’s hoping we’ll storm out before you have a chance to run into your connection.”
“Well, isn’t that nice of him,” Nathan said.
He stood up and made to reach across the bar and grab the first whiskey bottle he could reach. The bartender beat him to it and finally poured our drinks.
I sipped my gin and tonic, with two cherries, and gave the bartender a sincere, “Thank you.”
While the bartender was in front of us, Nathan decided to try out our cover story again. “My name is Hank, by the way. I was in here yesterday. And this here is my lady, Tanya.”
The bartender gave a polite nod and again looked as if he wanted to say something. He settled for polite small talk. “You two on vacation?”
Nathan chuckled. “I wish. We’re both a little hard up for work lately, so we’re just passing through. Tanya’s cousin might have a hook-up for us at one of the resorts farther south.”
I nodded and sipped my drink. The vodka was strong and I was grateful for the heavy blanket it put over my jumping nerves. “My cousin used to work the rodeo circuit but he also worked maintenance at the fancy hotels,” I told the bartender.
Nathan squeezed my thigh. I was still doing good. Then his hand tightened and I knew that dress rehearsal was over.
A man sauntered over. He wore a coat too big and too heavy for the weather but seemed completely adjusted to the extra heat. I wondered if he might be cold-blooded and then he smiled. The reptilian grin made my skin crawl but I smiled back and tapped Nathan’s arm.
“Is that your friend, honey?” I asked.
Nathan turned around and the man’s icy smile tightened into a dour line. “Nice to see you again. I wasn’t expecting that you’d bring a guest.”
The man’s glance reduced me to a prop. Slightly nicer to look at but less serviceable than a barstool. I felt his gaze move past me and lock onto Nathan.
“Sorry, man, I thought she might be helpful. Though you still haven’t told me what the job entails,” Nathan said.
I flipped my hair. “Whatever it is, I bet I’ll be great at it. Hank is always telling me I have natural talent.”
The drug dealer slid his narrow eyes back to me. I swallowed an acidic wave of nausea as he looked me up and down. “He’s right about that. I can see your natural talent. All right, you convinced me. Two is better than one, right?”
He clapped his hands together and gestured to the bartender to put our drinks on his tab. The bartender nodded, his face ashen with silent guilt.
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get this meeting starting. Please, step into my office,” the drug dealer said.
“Office? That’s the door to the back alley,” Nathan said.
“Oh, Hank, he’s just being funny. Like quoting some movie or something,” I said.
Nathan gave me a sharp glance but before he could suggest that I stay and order another round, I slipped off my stool and headed the way the drug dealer had indicated. Nathan had no choice but to follow me out the narrow door and into the back alley behind the bar.