“You’re not going in those, are you?” Lola pointed to my cut-off sweats and I gripped the steering wheel harder. The pants might have looked funny and crooked, because all I had at the time was a butter knife to cut off the bottoms with, but I didn’t care.

“It’s almost a hundred degrees in the shade. I sure can and I will,” I replied, focusing on the road ahead. We’d already stopped at a local store in Tucson to pick up supplies, including knives. In hindsight I should have bought a pair of cargo pants as well, but we couldn’t waste time. Since we’d left the store almost two and a half hours ago, Lola wouldn’t stop talking. She was sitting in the front seat, popping her annoying bubble gum while I glanced at my brother’s smirk in the rear view mirror. Since the moment Lola called shotgun, she wouldn’t stop yapping. It was as if she was trying to find out everything about us, in a weird kind of way. I could see why my brother was so intrigued by this woman, which solidified that hopeful feeling I had for the two of them.

“So listen to this. I get a message from this girl named Barbie, and she’s babbling something about me stealing her man.”

I saw Brook sit upright in the back. He leaned in with a keen ear.

“And what did you do?” I asked.

“I deleted the message.”

“She didn’t mention who the guy was?” I asked.

“Didn’t you hear me? I deleted the message. If a girl calls herself a Barbie, that’s an instant red flag for drama, and the last thing I need in my life is drama. I just say it like it is. I don’t put sparkles and rainbows on shit. It’s still gonna stink, right? So why bother making shit look all pretty? I just don’t like wasting time.”

I found it interesting that my brother was smitten with someone real for a change, yet I could also see the source of his frustration. Lola was funny, but too much funny could be annoying after a while, especially when you didn’t realize you were the annoying party.

“Okay, so what’s the plan?” she asked.

Or maybe I haven’t given her a fair chance.

“You’re going to stay outside the chapel,” I said to her. “If anything goes wrong, one of us needs to escape.”

“Cameron, I’m not going into this thinking I won’t get out. We’ve got this.”

My brother grinned. Yeah, she was definitely right for him.

“There’s one problem,” she continued. “Brook is afraid of scorpions.”

“I’m not, Lola.” He rolled his eyes, and I chuckled.

“Tarantulas? Snakes?” she asked.

“Nope. Sorry, hun. Not afraid of those either.”

“Well, neither am I. In fact, there’s not much that scares me.”

Everyone had an Achilles’s heel, though, and from what my brother had said, I had a feeling that Lola’s came in the form of small children. As they chatted some more, I parked behind a hedge of dried shrubbery about a mile away from the chapel. We grabbed the gear from the trunk and, wearing our night-vision goggles, we walked the rest of the way there. I zoomed in toward town, where a group of people were heading our way.

“It’s them,” I said. “Kate, Anna, and Father John. They must be hurt – Mike is carrying Kate.”

I recognized him from a google search. Whatever the reason for him touching her at all, I didn’t like it. She looked frail even from the distance.

“Aaron and Mateo Cortez are with them. We don’t have a lot of time. If Anna doesn’t spill the beans about the money, we need to find a way to lure them inside the crypt.”

“Leave that to me,” Lola said.

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll think of something. Just be ready.”

My brother grabbed Lola by her waist, dipped her back, and kissed her hard. Her arms fell limp to her sides as she relaxed her guard. I felt a sudden need to hold Kate in my arms.

When he pulled away with a loud smooch and she found her footing again, she pointed to her night-vision goggles. “You could have warned me. These aren’t too comfortable to kiss in.”

“Be careful,” he said to her.

“You too.” Her voice was filled with concern, and now I worried for her as well. I worried for Kate and my brother. It had been a while since I’d prayed, but I said a quick plea, asking God to keep them safe. I’d never worked with Lola before, but if she worked for Cross Enterprises, then I knew she had skills. Still, these were Cortez men we were talking about.

“We got this.” She gave us one last thumbs up before we disappeared inside the dark chapel. If it hadn’t been for the moonlit night, we wouldn’t have seen anything.

I hurried toward the four boards over the staircase. “Help me with these. Hurry.”

“Got it.”

We set the boards aside, walked down a few steps, and replaced them from underneath, sealing off the entrance

“You said you’ve been here before?” Brook asked.

“Yeah. The small burial vault belongs to Mike. Kate’s grandparents are resting in the larger ones behind his.” I pointed to the wall.

“With fifty million dollars?”

“I think so. To be honest with you, I’m not sure if there’s anything left of it.”

“Because the bodies would have decomposed.”

“Exactly. Now, there are six people altogether. If Father John, Kate, and Anna are with them, that leaves three of them to take out. I’m sure one will stay outside so be ready for two more. Brook, I don’t want Kate hurt. I don’t want any of them hurt”

“Neither do I.”

“Good.”

We set up our trap and hid behind the large stone compartments. We could hear their footsteps drawing nearer. It took another ten minutes before I heard Kate’s voice.

“The money’s downstairs in the crypt.”

“Hope, don’t! How do you know? I’ve never told anyone,” came the voice of an older woman that must have been Kate’s mother. Whatever magic Lola had done outside, it worked. They were heading downstairs.

“Out of the way,” a deeper voice bellowed. I heard a loud cry of pain, and my heart felt like it had been stabbed a thousand times at once. Kate was hurt. Wanting to charge upstairs, I grasped the edge of the stone and clenched my jaw tight.

Patience.

“You said you’d let Kate and John go,” Anna pleaded.

“I haven’t seen a dime yet. Until I do, nobody leaves.”

The boards came off, and little bit more moonlight filtered in.

“Go!” Cortez ordered. I wasn’t sure which one, but I would have bet on either Mateo or Mike who’d come downstairs.

From behind the corner, I saw a pair of feet take the first few steps down, and then with support, someone hopped down on one leg. That’s when I realized it was Kate.

“Stay still.” I heard my brother’s voice in the earpiece. I needed to hear his caution more than the next breath. “We need them all here to make sure they’re safe.”

I watched as along with Father John, they descended. Mateo Cortez followed with a machine gun resting at the side of his leg, and I knew that if we didn’t neutralize him first, we were dead.

Kate could barely support her weight.

Jesus Christ!

How was she even alive? She looked physically broken. It was dark here, but I could still see that a lot of damage had been done to her body.

Mike had better pray for a bullet to his head, because if I got to him and he wasn’t already dead, he’d want to be.

I’m going to kill that bastard!

“Where is it?” he asked as soon as he descended, looking around.

“In the burial vaults,” Anna said.

“How did you move the stone?” Mateo asked.

“I was angry. I… I don’t know where the energy came from, but I moved the lid with my hands.”

Mateo lowered the machine gun against the wall and came to the vault near where I was lying on the ground. Concealed in the darkness, I remained flat on the cold soil, watching him from below, waiting for Mike to make the same move towards the other vault so that we could take them out at the same time. Mike remained at Kate’s side with the gun at her ribs. I didn’t know how much longer patience would keep me on this floor, but I was down to the last seconds of its strength.

Just as the vault’s lid gave to Mateo’s push, Father John unexpectedly launched himself at Mike. They both fell to the ground, and we no longer had a choice. Mateo turned in the blink of an eye and reached straight for the machine gun at the wall just as my brother pushed the concrete further open. I struck Mateo in the knee and then his chest, and he fell backward into the vault. My brother pushed the lid closed again, sealing off his screams. Mateo’s desperate cries for help were muffled, but I had no time to pay attention to him.

The crypt echoed with yelling, chaos, and the sound of a gun going off.

No, no, no!

I assessed the situation. Without night vision, Mike was blind – until he lit a flare and threw it in between the vaults. Father John was sitting against one of the walls, holding on to his stomach.

“Whoever the fuck is there, if you don’t stop, I will kill her.” Mike was holding a gun to Kate’s head. She was down on the ground and appeared barely conscious.

“Mikey, you don’t have to do this,” Anna begged. “You’re a good man, I know you are.”

But he didn’t move.

“Don’t hurt her. I’m coming out,” I said. “Just don’t hurt her.”

I raised my hands first and slowly stood up.

“Cameron?” I heard Kate’s voice.

“Mikey, please let her go,” Anna asked again.

“I’ve been working my ass off for this payout.” He tightened his grip around Kate.

“Life is not about money. It’s about care, compassion, and love,” she replied. “I’m sorry that we failed you. I’m so sorry that we didn’t realize you were alive when you were stolen from us.”

“Get me out of here!” We heard Mateo, but no one paid attention.

“It’s a little bit late for a lecture about life, Mother.”

“It’s never too late, Mikey. I know you have it in you. I know you’re a good man,” she repeated.

“Stop calling me Mikey!” he screamed.

“Look, you can take your money – just let them go.” I stepped between the two vaults and over a smaller one that was supposed to belong to Kate’s brother.

“I don’t know who the fuck you are, Mr. Knight in Shining Armor, but this is family business.”

“I am family,” I replied.

He turned his gun on me and took a shot. I moved to the side at the last second, avoiding the bullet in my chest, but it struck me in the shoulder.

“Mikey, please!” Anna cried. “Haven’t they hurt us enough?”

“Aaron?” he called out, but didn’t get a reply. “Who else is here?”

“It’s just me, okay? You let them go. I’ll stay if you need help and everyone will be happy.”

“I’ve been in the business too long to not recognize bullshit when I hear it, and you’re shitting me like an asshole. Open the vault!”

“Fine, fine. Just take it easy with the gun.”

Brook remained hidden, and if I wanted to get Mike away from Kate, I had to get the detective closer to the vault. I braced against the stone, pushing with all my might, wondering how in the world Anna had done this almost thirty years ago. The lid finally gave way.

“It’s open.”

“Take out the money.”

“I can’t see anything.”

He shuffled his feet closer, and just as he lit another flare, my brother tackled him from the side and struck his leg in the same fashion I’d had done to Mateo. Mike’s legs buckled. His hand flew up, and he fired his gun into the chapel floor above us. The distraction gave me enough time to push Kate aside and take him down. Brook helped me stabilize him, and we tied his hands behind his back.

Brook pointed his gun to Mike’s head. “Don’t move!” Then he proceeded to secure him further.

I rushed toward Kate. She was barely alive. Her breaths were short and frequent. I lifted her into my arms and felt something wet on the inner thighs of her leggings: blood. Brook tended to Father John. Anna seemed torn over whom to comfort, and her attention darted from Father John, who was still bleeding from the gunshot, to Kate and then to Mike. I couldn’t even begin to imagine her mental torture. I couldn’t imagine how she’d held on for so many years, on the run from the Cortez cartel. Kate felt so frail in my arms that I was worried we didn’t have enough time to get her the medical attention she needed.

“Anna, help Father John. I’ve got Kate.”

“What about the money?” she asked.

I shone a light inside the tomb. “There is no money anymore. It’s all rotted.”

“All fifty million?”

“The critters don’t count when they eat.”

“Good. All that money’s done is brought trouble in my life. What about Mateo?”

“We’ll send the authorities to get him. It’ll do him some good to spend time with the dead.”

I carried Kate upstairs, Brook dragged Mike, and the rest followed. Outside, Lola was sitting on a nearby rock. At her feet was Aaron Cortez, tied up in rope. From the fancy knots all around his body, I’d say that she’d had too much fun with her job.

Lola rushed toward me as soon as I came out of the chapel. She pulled out a bottle of water from a side pocket in her utility pants and put it to Kate’s lips.

“It’s beautiful.” Kate said, barely able to keep her eyes open.

“What is?”

“The Milky Way.” I followed her gaze up, then looked down at her face. Her eyes closed, and she lost consciousness.

“Hurry!” I yelled, and began the long journey back home, praying that time was on our side.