Chapter Seventy-Six
Bree
“Wait!” I cried.
I couldn’t let Adrian Juarez get the last word. Nathan was just going to let him walk out the door on the expectation that he would run cocaine across the border for the cartel. I couldn’t let that happen.
“Bree, stop,” Nathan said.
I pushed past him and spoke directly to Juarez. “If you were smart you would renegotiate the deal. Better yet, you would agree to a truce.”
His smile was gone but he turned around and paused. “A truce? Why would I agree to a truce?”
“How much time and resources have you wasted trying to track Nathan? How much money have you already lost on this deal?” I asked. “We’ve already proven to be too much trouble for you and your men. Why not walk away now before you waste more time and money?”
“Bree, you need to stop,” Nathan said.
I turned on him, my cheeks hot with anger and frustration. “How can you say that? How can you just stand there and let these criminals tell you the right thing to do?”
Nathan flexed his jaw, furious that I would call him out in front of Juarez and his men. “I lost the money, I made the deal, and the right thing to do is to hold up my end.”
Juarez gave me a smile that did not reach his dark eyes. Then he gave Nathan a polite nod. “Why don’t I let you two have a minute to discuss everything.”
Nathan grabbed my arm and dragged me into the small motel bathroom. The walls were thinner than our now-shattered door, but it didn’t matter. I had to try to convince him he was still worth saving.
Everything about Nathan had changed the moment Juarez had entered the room. The two knew each other and that was enough for Nathan to believe what the criminal said. He remembered Juarez from their gambling and partying, but did he really make that deal?
“Just think about what they said.” I pleaded with Nathan as he stood in front of me like a stone pillar. “They said you took the deal but you disappeared in the middle of it. What do you think changed your mind?”
“I don’t know, Bree. I was probably drinking, maybe doing drugs,” Nathan said.
I grabbed his shoulders and rose on my tiptoes to look him in the eyes. “Or you saw Maggie and decided you had to do something to help her.”
Nathan brushed me back, shaken by what I had said. “Don’t try to make me into a hero, Bree. I’m not a good person. Why can’t you believe it now?”
I dodged in front of him again. “What if you only joined that poker game in order to get close enough to find out where they were keeping Maggie? What if you lost on purpose so you’d be welcomed in to the drug-running? That would have gotten you close enough to formulate a plan to save her and the other kids.”
“Enough, Bree.” Nathan brushed me aside. “I know you want me to be some kind of knight in shining armor, but it turns out I’m just a degenerate gambler who owes a bad debt.”
“Nathan, please!”
I couldn’t stop him. Nathan strode into the motel room and walked right up to Juarez. “I’ll go with you peacefully on one condition. Bree leaves her and you never interfere with her life again.”
“You’re setting conditions now?” the shorter bodyguard rasped.
Nathan took one step toward the man and he cringed. Juarez laughed but stood shaking his head side to side.
“No deal,” he said.
Nathan moved so fast I was hardly out of the bathroom before he kicked the shorter bodyguard straight out the door. The man hit the opposite wall hard enough to leave cracked dry wall before he collapsed in the hallway.
The larger bodyguard stepped forward but one sharp kick to his outer knee and Nathan had him howling in pain. He groped for Nathan and missed, receiving a hard kidney punch as he recovered his balance on one good leg.
“Enough,” Juarez said but neither man listened to him.
Nathan and the injured bodyguard squared off again. This time it was the giant’s turn to get a hard punch in. Nathan’s head snapped back but it didn’t phase him. He spun around and delivered a wicked upper cut to the man’s chin. I heard the bodyguard’s jaw clack as his head whipped back and his eyes rolled upward.
The large man stumbled but forced himself upright and caught Nathan with a hammer-like blow to his collarbone. Nathan’s shoulder slumped but he raised his fists again and rounded the bodyguard.
I knew the fight could go on until they were both nothing but bloody pulp. Even Juarez wasn’t able to call them off. It was up to me.
As the two men circled each other, I walked straight between them and looped my arm through Juarez’s. “I’m going with whether you like it or not, Nathan,” I said.
Nathan’s face was pale with rage while Juarez stiffened with surprise. The shorter bodyguard stumbled back into the room and stood there swaying in confusion.
“Gentlemen, it seems we’re leaving,” Juarez said. He guided me out of the room and down the hallway.
Nathan followed close on our heels and I could feel his conflicting feelings boring a hole in the back of my head. I had defied him while at the same time sticking by his side. And he had to appreciate my bloodless end to their brawl.
Juarez led me to a black van and patted my arm before letting go. “Please forgive me for this next part but we have certain protocols that must be followed. You understand.”
“Don’t you touch her--” Nathan’s threat was cut off as a black bag was thrown over his head.
I tried not to panic as the darkness engulfed me but then I felt one of the men slip a plastic zip-tie around my wrists. He pulled it tight and my hands were bound tight. We were shoved into the back of the van and left kneeling on the bare floor.
“You’re okay, Bree,” Nathan muttered. “I’m right here. I’ll get you free.”
I shifted until I could feel Nathan’s solid mass against my back. He moved to sit with one knee sticking up and then I felt him raise his arms above his head. One hard blow and the zip-ties around his wrists snapped.
I heard one of the bodyguards swear.
Then Nathan grabbed my hands and yanked hard. The zip-ties snapped and I bit my lip to keep from crying out. Nathan pulled the black hood from my head and I concentrated on taking long, deep breaths of fresh air.
Wind poured through an open window telling me before I even looked that the van was moving too fast for us to escape. The men had driven out of town quickly and there weren’t any stop signs to slow them down. We barreled along what looked to be an unused road and there was no use trying to get out. We were driving into the middle of nowhere.
I turned around to look at the driver, only to see the shorter bodyguard with a sawed-off shotgun pointed at us. He gave us both a negative shake of the head and gestured with the gun for us to sit on separate sides of the van.
We had no choice but to comply.
We were still sitting helplessly as the van bumped onto another rougher road. The windows were smeared with dust, but I could see we were heading toward another industrial campus. Large outbuildings surrounded a small two-story office building. No lights shone through it’s broken windows. Then a large door slid open on one of the buildings and the van drove straight through.
“Put the bags back on now,” the man with the gun said.
My hands shook but I did what they said. It was huge relief when I felt Nathan’s fingers thread through mine. He held on tight even as the van door flew open and a crowd of voices surrounded us. A half dozen men moved us across the warehouse floor. I heard the echoes and wondered if we were back in the building we had escaped from just hours before.
Then I heard a door open and a heavy hand gave me a sharp shove. Nathan caught me as the door slammed. I yanked the black bag off my head and had to fight off a wave of tears before I could look around.
We were trapped again in a windowless room. Except this time there was nothing but a ragged blanket thrown in the corner.
I sank to my knees and cried.