Chapter10
Kelissa pushed the button to release her seatbelt, dropping down onto the roof of the upside-down car. She didn’t even remember putting the belt on, but the old habit was so engrained in her that she had, and she was grateful. The window had shattered in the accident, the tempered glass held together by the window tint. She army crawled out of the car, looking around and trying to get her bearings.
There was a car on the side of the road not far from where she’d stopped rolling, and it looked like it had rolled, too. But at least one man had been thrown from the vehicle, and it didn’t look like he had made it. Were there more men after her, looking for her in the dim light from the brightly lit streets beyond, or were they all dead?
She didn’t wait around to find out, running as fast as she could toward the bright lights that were so close, but felt like miles away. She had her answer a few seconds later when automatic fire ate up the ground yards behind her, but whoever it was either had horrible aim or couldn’t see her in the dark.
Her body was sore as she ran, but she didn’t stop, pushing herself further than she ever had, thankful that she ran as often as she did.
She was running across a dirt field, dodging tumble weeds and cactus, the path before her getting easier to navigate as she got closer to the street ahead. There were people on the street, and the relief that flooded through her was amazing. She was saved. She just had to get to the semi-crowded street and find someone to help her.
Daring to look over her shoulder, she saw the men in the distance, piling into the only car that was still running and driving down the road they’d been on. The little four-door sedan couldn’t take the terrain she was on, but they knew the city better than she did, and they were no doubt coming around to cut her off at the pass. She wasn’t out of danger yet, but she wasn’t going to just give up. She had the upper hand, and surely, someone would help her.
The sky in the east was starting to turn gray. It was just a sliver of light, but for some reason, the thought of the impending sunrise gave her hope. She had no idea how long she’d been in the trunk of that car, and though she’d lost consciousness in the car wreck, she was sure it was only for a few seconds and from fear rather than injury. Still, if the sun was beginning to rise, that meant that it was at least four in the morning. It would be at least six before the sky turned gold, and almost seven before the autumn sun would make a full appearance. She just had to survive until then. There was no way Chacon’s people would come after her in broad daylight, right?
When she finally reached the street, she called out to the first person that she saw. An older woman with a street cart that smelled of tamales, the woman saw her running and immediately stopped dragging the cart to stare at her.
“Ayuda, por favor,” she said in broken Spanish, searching her mind for the few words she’d picked up in high school.
“Chacon?” the woman asked, motioning the direction Kelissa had appeared from.
“Yes!” she said, stopping just short of where the woman was standing.
“You go!” the woman said gruffly, grabbing her cart and all but running away.
“What? No, I need help,” Kelissa said, but the woman was still retreating, moving much faster than she should have been able while dragging the cart behind her.
“You help you,” the woman said, her English rough, but the message was clear.
The woman wasn’t going to help her if it involved Chacon and his men.
She almost followed the woman, but decided against it. She was wasting precious time trying to convince this woman to help her when she could be running. Someone would help her, but standing here wasn’t doing anything.
She gave the woman one last look, catching the old woman with tears in her eyes as she made the sign of the cross over her breast and muttered in Spanish. Kelissa ran, long legs eating up the distance, adrenaline pumping through her veins and pushing her faster and faster.
Keeping an eye out for the car, she ran as fast as she could, staying close to buildings and calling out to people as she ran past them. Some shook their heads, others pretended not to see her. The fear they felt was palpable, but she didn’t care. In her place, she knew she would help someone in need. At least, she wanted to believe that. But these people were too scared to even look her in the eye, and suddenly the reality of the danger she faced was larger than she ever imagined. Even though she’d escaped, and even though she was surrounded by people waking up early to sell their wares on the street that would be filled with tourists a few short hours later, she was essentially alone.
She heard the engine rev as she was running across a wide road with signs scattered haphazardly, and more than four directions in the intersection. Turning to look in the direction she’d heard the engine rev, she saw the car filled with Chacon’s men at the end of the street already barreling toward her. She ran the rest of the way across the street, frantically searching for a place to get off the sidewalk and out of the car’s reach, but there was nowhere to go that she could see.
Her feet hit the sidewalk and she pushed herself faster, breath coming in ragged gasps, the car gaining on her with each passing second. People on the sidewalk scattered, screaming in fear. A door opened to her left, and a large hand reached out into the pandemonium and grabbed her by the arm, yanking her off her feet and into the building, slamming the door shut behind her.
The car whizzed by, then rubber screeched on the street as the driver slammed on the brakes, but the man who’d grabbed her was already leading her out the back door.
She was trying to pull out of his grasp, but he held tight. He was tall and dark, Mexican but of obvious Indian descent, his body huge in the small room that appeared to be a trinket shop.
“I won’t let you take me to Chacon,” she hissed, digging her heels in and trying to wrest her arm away from him.
“I’m not taking you to Chacon,” he said. “But I will carry you if you won’t run.”
A familiar engine revving in the distance caught her attention, and she knew that Chacon’s men were coming back to get her. With everyone scattering on the sidewalk, they might not have seen the hulking man pull her into the ramshackle building, but she had no doubt that some frightened citizen would give her away, and they would drive through the front of the shop to kill her if they had to. It was either go with the stranger or take her chances with the enemy she knew.
She decided to run, ducking when the man crashed through the back door without stopping to open it, his body easily taking it down. The sound of cracking wood followed them, the sedan ramming the front of the building with no clear idea which part they were in.
The door led into a very narrow alley that was barely wide enough to fit the black Jeep that idled there, let alone open the back door wide enough to accommodate the man she followed. But he managed, stopping to toss her into the back seat and climbing in behind her. He took a gun that was handed to him and turned to face the back of the vehicle, the tip of the gun out the window, his body braced for stability.
But it wasn’t the man with the gun or the familiar face in the driver’s seat that had her attention. It was David, smiling weakly at her, propped against the door and wincing every time his head hit the side of the vehicle.
“David?” she said, kneeling on the floor in the middle and taking his face in her hands. “Are you alright?”
“We found you,” he said, the relief evident.
Gunfire erupted, but the glass in the back window held.
“It’s bulletproof,” Aaron said from the front seat just before Cade opened fire on the sedan chasing them down the alley.
The engine exploded, flipping the car spectacularly and sending it flipping front over rear before it came to a stop upside down.
“How many were following you?” Aaron asked.
“You mean now or when after I escaped from the compound?”
“Now.”
“Just that one. I think the other cars wrecked when I did.”
“Wrecked?” David croaked, but she put a finger to his lip to quiet him.
It was obvious that he was badly injured and barely hanging on.
“I think there were three or four and only that one managed to make it through the wrecks. There’s a very angry guy somewhere at the compound if I didn’t kill him with the wrench, but the three assholes that killed Julia and kidnapped me are somewhere else in the city.” She looked at David apologetically. “They blew up your Porsche.”
“I can buy a new one.”
“That’s good, cause I’m not giving the Jaguar back.”
Aaron guided the Jeep out of the alley, skidding across the sandy pavement and racing down the main street until he encountered traffic. Kelissa looked out the back window, but she didn’t see anyone following them anymore. Aaron must have decided the same, because he slowed down a little and his driving became less erratic.
“David needs to go to a hospital,” she said, patting his hand to keep him awake.
“I have someone ready to meet us and take care of him,” Aaron said.
“No hospitals,” David said, smiling. “I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
“Thanks. You look amazing.”
“Pfft, please. I look like hell.”
“You look like a woman who didn’t need a man to rescue her.”
“What was it you said before?” she teased. “You can take a girl outta the hood, but you can’t take the hood outta the girl.”
“I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks. How did you even find me? I left my cell phone in the bathroom and the Porsche is nowhere near here.”
He pointed to her throat and she put her hand to her neck. Only then did she feel the necklace that she’d tucked beneath her shirt.
“Are you serious?”
He nodded, hissing in pain, then smiling.
“I didn’t want to scare you, but I had to know that you were safe.”
“Wouldn’t it have worked better if you just didn’t work for the cartels?” she said, her voice angry though she tempered it because she felt bad that he was injured. “It seems like that would have protected me better than giving me a necklace with a tracker. Is it even a real diamond?”
Aaron snorted from the front seat, slowing with traffic as they got closer to the border crossing.
“It’s real,” David said.
“Thank you,” she said.
“For what?”
“For taking care of me even though you’re the one that got me in this mess.”
He smiled, kissing the palm of her hand, then holding her hand against his heart.
“I love you,” he said softly.
She was shocked, but she shook her head and laughed.
“I think it’s too late for that,” she said. “I can’t be with a man who runs drugs, David. I’m not about that life.”
“I’m not a drug runner.”
“You’re something. Why else would the cartel want you?”
“I can explain.”
“You should have told me before.”
“I should have; you’re right. But by the time it became an issue, it was too late. I hadn’t heard from them in years, and I thought I’d paid my father’s debt.”
“Your father’s debt?”
“It’s a long story,” he said. “I’ll explain it all to you, and I’ll answer any questions that you have, but trust me when I tell you that I wasn’t involved with them by choice, and I got out as soon as I could.”
She wanted to yell at him; wanted to tell him that if it looked like a duck, then it must be a duck, but something about what he was saying rang true. He wasn’t denying that he’d worked for the cartel, but he could explain why and how, and she realized that he deserved an opportunity to explain. Yes, he was the reason she’d been kidnapped and had run all over Tijuana in sandals and what amounted to not much more than pajamas, but he had come for her, and he’d ignored serious personal injuries to find her. It wasn’t the circumstances that she’d fantasized about hearing him say “I love you,” for the first time, but he did love her, and that was obvious without him saying it.
“Fine,” she said, holding his hand in hers and squeezing it tight before she turned to Aaron. “What are we going to do about Chacon?”
“I have a plan,” Aaron said as Cade moved to sit beside Kelissa, hiding his gun in a secret compartment in the floor. “I’ve been trying to get that man for years, and I think I finally have the perfect opportunity.”
“That sounds sketchy,” she said.
“If I show you a satellite map of the city, do you think you can show me where you escaped from?”
“I can. And I can show you where they moved me into the second car.”
“Was there a building there?”
“A warehouse looking thing.”
“Perfect. If you can show me both of those, I’ve got this. I’m going to need you to trust me.”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Not really,” Aaron laughed.
She looked at Cade, then back at Aaron.
“Is Tiny going to be there?” she asked, motioning toward Cade.
Aaron threw back his head and laughed, while Cade looked embarrassed.
“I’ve never met anyone brave enough to call him that to his face,” Aaron said. “Yes, Cade will be there.”
“Then, I’ll do it.”
Aaron arched an eyebrow.
“You don’t trust me?”
“Forgive me if I’m skeptical, but aren’t you the guy that put the new security system in?”
“They used Julia to get in,” Aaron said.
“That’s fine, but the bottom line is that they got in, they cracked David’s skull open and kidnapped me. I’ll take my chances with Tiny there. So far, he’s one for one.”
David laughed in the seat beside her, clearly amused at Aaron’s expense.
“Fine,” Aaron said. “But I need you to do exactly as I say. Chacon isn’t going to let this slide, and I have a feeling that he’s going to try to handle this himself. This is our shot, but we’re going to have to take out the entire operation at once, or his men will scatter and set up shop somewhere else.”
“Who is ‘we’?” Kelissa asked.
Aaron smiled at her in the rearview mirror, stepping at the border crossing and pulling out his wallet to hand to the border agent. She waved them through without bothering to look through the heavily tinted glass at the rest of the occupants.
“How did you do that?” she asked.
But then she caught a glimpse of the badge inside his wallet and she knew.
“You’re DEA?”
His smile told her everything she needed to know.