Chapter Seventy-Two
Bree
I strained my eyes and looked at the narrow cow path the children followed. Danny led the way, almost skipping at his chance to be the leader. After Nathan’s daring rescue, the children were enthusiastic to be heroes.
The path was barely visible, a thin, dusty ribbon across an undulating expanse of pasture.
“Danny, stop. Are you sure this is the way?” I asked. It was hard to determine the direction in the pre-dawn darkness. “Maybe we should wait for the sun to come up. I need to know we are heading north.”
Danny giggled. “We are heading north. See that bright star up there?”
“I taught him that,” Todd said shyly.
I ruffled his hair. “How smart. But don’t you think we should rest? It’s been a crazy night.”
Danny shook his head again. “We don’t stop moving when we’re on a delivery.”
The children all nodded, indoctrinated with the cartel rules. They all had dark circles under their eyes but no one looked sleepy. I faced the wide-open eyes and knew I was outnumbered.
Across the dark pasture, a coyote cackled. The group of children knotted closer to me and the littlest ones whimpered again.
I hugged them. “I guess I’m just scared. I’ve only done this once before.”
They all smiled, having crossed the border significantly more times than me. The fact was horrifying but, at that moment, it was giving them courage.
“This is my eighth trip,” Danny said.
I stood up and brushed off my pants. “And that is why you’re the leader. Keep going, but how about we stay closer together this time?”
They moved off in a closer clump and I followed along, hoping to see dawn soon. I couldn’t help but scan the horizon behind me. I felt sure I would see headlights at any time, and I prayed that Nathan had led the gunmen away.
Then my stomach clenched. What if Nathan had led them away but he’d crashed in the dark desert?
I tried to imagine Nathan escaping the wreckage of the RV and disappearing into the desert on foot. He had become more of a blockbuster action hero in my head, especially after driving the RV straight through the warehouse doors.
I rubbed my neck and hoped the action-packed part of our adventure was over.
If only I could convince myself that Nathan and I would meet again, then maybe I could imagine a Hollywood ending. I scanned the horizon again and didn’t see any headlights. The truth was that Nathan was gone and there was no guarantee that I would ever see him again.
“He’ll get away,” a skinny little boy told me. He slipped his hand into mine. “It was so cool how he drove. Bam! Right through the wall.”
I smiled. “What about all the bumps across the desert?”
“I liked the popcorn game.” The little boy smiled at me and then ran to the front of the group. “We should play it again when he gets back.”
My chest hurt. Nathan had done the right thing, like he always did, but I couldn’t help wishing he hadn’t. It was his hand I wished I was holding as I stumbled along the cow path in the dark.
When pale glimpses of dawn appeared, I was relieved to see we were heading north. Danny waved us over and knelt behind a small berm.
“What is it?” I asked.
“There’s a ranch over there. They aren’t usually out when I walk by,” Danny said.
I glanced over the berm and gave a heavy sigh of relief. Danny had us hidden from a group of cowboys. Real American cowboys.
I stood up and waved to them.
Seconds later and the thundering hooves scared the children, but we were safe back in the US. Then cowboys jumped down from their mounts in mid-stride and looked over our bedraggled group.
“Well, we better call the police, don’t you think?” The tallest cowboy tipped his hat back. “Anybody hurt?”
“No, we’re fine. They’ve had a long night but we’re all fine.” I stood up and shook hands with the rancher. “Except I really need to get back to the border, closer to the crossing. One of our group had to go back and I need to meet him.”
My throat clutched with panic but I didn’t have to say any more. One cowboy called the police while the other called the ranch hands to bring around a truck. I watched the trucks rush toward us and felt a wave of relief, but it couldn’t undo the panic I felt for Nathan. Within minutes, the children were all safely bundled in a truck bed and heading to the ranch house for breakfast.
“Boss says you need a lift to town,” a lanky ranch hand said. He opened the passenger side door of his pick-up truck.
“Yes, thank you. Thank you so much,” I said.
We started down the long track to the ranch gates and I wiped tears off my dirty cheeks. The sweet young man handed me a clean bandana and I did the best I could to wipe my dirt-streaked face clean. It would feel so good to get back to the motel and take a long, hot shower.
I closed the mirror and put the visor back up. A long cloud of dust raced down the road and we were headed to meet it under the ranch gate. I looked closer and felt my throat constrict.
“Police?” I said.
“Sheriff. You want me to flag him down? He’s heading to the ranch house but I bet you want to talk to him,” the ranch hand said.
I shook my head. “No. I can’t. Not yet. I have to find my partner, the one who helped me get the children free.”
The young man looked doubtful but he only tipped his hat as the sheriff passed. We continued into town without another word.
I directed him to the lonely portion of town where I had first crossed into Mexico with Nathan. He nodded and pulled the pick-up truck over in the same parking lot I had strolled while pretending to be Maggie’s mother. Then the young ranch hand jumped out and opened the truck door for me.
“I can’t thank you enough,” I said.
He tipped his hat and closed the truck door. “No problem, ma’am. You take care of yourself.”
I said a quick, grateful prayer for cowboys. The young man was ready to help but there was no judgment or argument. He lived on the border and had long ago learned how to live and let live.
I memorized his license plate, determined to send him a thank you someday, and waved until he was out of sight. When I turned around to face south again, my heart felt just a little lighter.
Then the man in the taco truck tipped his hat to me. He was the same man who had seen me come through with Maggie.
My blood began to sing with panic. What if he was a spy for the cartel?
I moved across the parking lot and into the shade of a neighboring building. Crossing the border in broad daylight was a foolish idea and here I was about to do it for the third time. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and thought again about a long, heavenly shower.
The motel.
I quickly changed direction and headed into town. All our things were still at the motel. We’d locked it up and left it before getting in too deep with the cartel. I could go back and gather everything up before trying to find Nathan.
My exhausted body didn’t feel the pavement as I rushed back to the motel. Never had I been so glad to see a run-down motel in my life.
The clerk said nothing when he saw my tangled hair and dusty clothes. He didn’t even blink at my request for another key. Though on the way through the lobby door, I heard him call out, “Late check-out’s in an hour!”
A giggle escaped, and I knew I was on the edge of exhaustion and hysteria. My overwrought brain even spun a fantasy of finding Nathan in the motel room. I dragged myself to our room door and paused there, wishing it was a reality.
I would open the door and find Nathan just stepping out of the shower.
No. I shook my head. I was more likely to find gunmen from the cartel waiting for me inside. I had to think like Nathan and approach the room with caution. The only problem was I was too tired to see the last step, stumbled on my own feet, and fell into the hallway.
Nathan would have laughed.
No one saw me pick myself up and struggle to fit the key in the motel room lock. When it finally opened and I saw our room had been untouched, I erupted in hot tears. I shut the door behind me and sank to the floor, crying harder.
Nathan was not there.
Instead of a shower, I dragged myself to the motel bed, grabbed the remote, and turned on the television. I scanned all the news programs for any story involving an RV. There was nothing. It was such a slow news day, there was a ten-minute report on how to make potato salad.
Then it hit me. What if Nathan was waiting where he had dropped us off?
He could have driven the RV off into the night, ditched it somewhere in the opposite direction, and then hiked back to the border crossing. I imagined him pacing back and forth, hoping that I would come back the same way I’d gone.
“No. Slow down, Bree, you’re not thinking right,” I told myself.
My head was fuzzy from lack of sleep and too much adrenaline. I just needed some quiet time to think.
The knock on the door sent me flying two feet in the air. “Check-out time,” the motel clerk called.
“Just a second,” I said. I swore and scrambled around the room until I found a small wad of cash that Nathan had hidden there.
The motel clerk took the money, glanced at the room to make sure it wasn’t trashed, and then disappeared back to the lobby.
It might have been stupid to waste my limited cash on another night at the motel, but I had to hope I would see Nathan again. I had to stay and wait in case he came.
If he didn’t, I had no idea what to do next.