Haunted (23 page)

Esmeralda grabs my hand and kisses it.

I touch her cheek.

Then they are gone.

I still have Max’s duffel and I open it and take inventory. There are two grenades, the guns and plenty of ammunition. Too bad Max didn’t pack real explosives—dynamite or C4. It would be an easy way to take care of both the drugs and the men—rig a bomb.

The fact that I don’t know how to rig a bomb I view as a minor impediment. And make a note to do some research on that when I get home.

I listen but don’t yet hear the approach of a vehicle signaling the arrival of the drugs. Time to alert Culebra and get him ready to act when I say the word.

I open my thoughts to him and he’s there.

What’s going on? I haven’t heard from you for hours. Did Max make it?

Come and gone,
I reply.

What do you mean gone?

Just left with the girls.

So, it’s just you and me.

How many men with you?

Three now. Two just came back. They think Luis is loco. They said that fucking all that young pussy has softened his brain. They found out what he did to the villagers when he discovered the new girls had gone missing. They plan to go along with him until the truck gets here, then get the hell out the first opportunity they get.

Think they all feel that way?

At least the ones who went out with Ramon looking for Max. They aren’t too crazy about Ramon, either. Think he’s planning something. Trust is not big among these thugs.

I let a beat go by before changing the subject.
How are you holding up?

Fine. I’m done waiting for these
cogidas locas
to tell us where Santiago is. I say we get one or two of them somewhere alone and make them talk.

My thoughts exactly. There is one complication.
I tell him about Adelita following Max and how she came back to stop Ramon. That it was Ramon who kidnapped her from her village. I also tell him that right now she’s tied next to the well and that Luis will probably kill her after he uses her to help process the shipment coming in today.

Brave girl,
Culebra says.
Stupid, but brave. But you have no intention of letting him kill her.

Not a chance. I’m thinking we let her work for the narcos. Then when the truck gets ready to leave, we lob one of Max’s grenades into it. That will take care of one problem. If we’re lucky, most of the men will be inside, too. Ramon, you can take care of. Once I’ve got Adelita safe, we’ll take her and Luis and meet Max. Can you get free?

Just tell me when.

Culebra falls quiet and I do, too. More waiting. More nervous energy building up with no way to release the pressure. I wish I could let Adelita know I’m here and that we’ll get her out when the time comes. I take out one of the grenades and toss it hand to hand, feeling its round heft, listening to the safety ring jingle against the fuse. This tiny activity brings some relief, some promise of action to come.

While vampire rests quietly inside.

She is not restless or anxious. She is patient.

And hungry.

CHAPTER 43

L
UIS IS THE ONE WHO ALERTS ME THAT THE TRUCK is on its way. He comes out of his shack, a cell phone at his ear and Ramon at his heels, and heads for Adelita. In a minute, he’s cut the rope binding her to the post and is dragging her toward the church.

I remembered the first time I watched the village from my hiding place in the brush. How the church bells called the villagers to what I mistakenly thought was worship. I’m in the same place now, the duffel safe beside me, watching the same procession of men, women and children answer the peal of the bells. The difference this time, though, is that half the men are limping, their leg wounds bound by clumsy bandages, their faces drawn and pale from the pain.

I’ve removed all traces of the girls’ presence from the church. The empty water bottles, the wrappers from the protein bars. Even used a rag from the duffel to scrub away Peppi’s urine stain before moving back to the other side of the village.

The only bad thing about moving is that I can’t see Adelita now that she is inside the church. I can listen though. If I hear anything that sounds like Luis is abusing her, the plan to wait goes up in smoke. So far, it’s quiet.

What I do have is a clear view of the torn body of Luis’ henchman. The dogs have left, slinking back into the brush, leaving only the bloody, stinking mess of internal organs exposed to sun and heat. If I were capable of it, I would have gagged at the smell. There is blood and then there is blood.

In a few minutes, I hear the truck. I signal Culebra.
The truck is coming. I have no idea how long it will take to package the drugs so be ready to get out when I tell you.

His response sounds like a hiss of anticipation. It makes me smile.

The truck pulls into the space between the well and the church. Two men jump out and one whistles a shrill greeting. By the time they’ve opened the back, three other men have joined them. Ramon’s men. I can tell because they aren’t limping. Yet.

The five men each shoulder a bag marked
harina
—flour—and head into the church. Only one man is sent back outside to stand guard. The door closes.

No sound of casual chatter drifts out from inside the church. Only the occasional sharp bark of an order or harsh hacking cough from a breath drawn too deeply. I didn’t see any protective masks among the detritus of plastic bags and duct tape left from one delivery to another. Evidently Luis doesn’t worry about his workers getting high on his supply. Maybe that’s part of their pay. All the cocaine you can inhale while working. I think of the children. My stomach roils.

I hope Adelita is careful enough to stay alert. She has no idea I’m here or that I’m planning to rescue her. But she needs to be able to move on her own when I tell her.

How long does it take to process five twenty-five pound sacks of cocaine? I have no idea. It strikes me that I know someone who does. I also realize I no longer hold Culebra’s past against him. It’s with a sense of relief that I reach out to him.

Is it time?

He sounds so eager I find myself smiling.
Not yet. I have a question. How long does it take to package a hundred and twenty-five pounds of cocaine?

That’s about sixty kilos. Depends on whether they’re cutting it or just packaging it pure to be cut later.

I didn’t see anything around to cut it with, unless one of those bags wasn’t cocaine after all.

Unlikely. With everyone in the village working, I’d say not more than two hours. They can move pretty fast if they’re just weighing and packaging it.

Then we have two more hours to wait.

What then?

Once you hear the grenade explode, make your getaway. Meet me behind the church. How many men are with you?

Just one.
That same hissing sound comes through that I heard before.
I’ll bite him enough times to make sure he’s down. May not kill him unless he dies from shock. He may. I plan to let him see me shift.

I like your style.

I like yours, too. You may not know it, but cocaine is highly flammable. That truck should go up like a bomb.

That’s what I’m hoping.

We lapse into a comfortable silence. Then Culebra asks,
How do you expect to get Adelita away from Luis?

I’m hoping when he hears the explosion, he sends his goons out to check what happened. I figure he won’t keep more than one or two men with him. I’ll take care of them and get Adelita free. We’re meeting Max back at the campsite. I plan to bring Luis with us. What happens to Ramon is up to you.

Good,
Culebra says.
I want to watch Ramon die.
A pause.
What about Luis?

No hesitation.
Max can have first crack at him. Make Luis tell him where his brother is hiding. I figure I owe Max that much. He wants a big fish. I plan to see he gets a big fish. After that, Luis is mine.

Luis won’t be easy to crack.

The memory of finding Adelita being raped in the back of that truck, the image of Luis going from villager to villager and shooting them as casually as if swatting mosquitoes, the faces of the four young girls he had delivered like takeout for his pleasure . . . these things run through my mind before I answer.

Not easy for Max to crack maybe,
I say.
But not hard for me. He’ll talk for me.

CHAPTER 44

I
T’S MORE DIFFICULT THAN EVER TO WAIT. THE thought that Adelita is being used as slave labor makes me long to get her out of that church. I wish I could have gotten a message to her. She doesn’t know I’m here. She doesn’t know I’m watching her. She must be feeling such terror, such hopelessness. She came back to do one thing—make Ramon pay. Keep him from taking other innocents the way he took her. She’ll think she failed.

Did Ramon recognize Adelita when he caught her sneaking up on the village? Or has Ramon kidnapped so many girls, the faces blur in his memory? Did she tell him who she was?

I have to take a step back. I’m working myself into the kind of state that makes vampire want to claw and chew her way free. I have to keep her in check, at least until I’ve disposed of the truck and gotten Adelita to safety. When Culebra has Ramon and I have Luis is the time to allow vengeance and anger out to play.

At last, the door to the church opens and a man steps out, beckoning the guard inside. In a moment, there is a flurry of activity as the villagers begin moving pallets of small, wrapped parcels to the truck.

Culebra?

I’m here.

They’re loading the truck. When you hear the explosion, make your move.

His eagerness to attack comes through in a fiery wave of anticipation that sizzles in my head.

Meet you at the camp.

I wish I could watch Culebra shape-shift into a rattlesnake and see the guard’s expression when the snake attacks. But a bigger part of me is anxious to get into position to exact some retribution of my own.

I take both grenades from the duffel and secure them by hooking the handles over my belt. The irony that I’m wearing Gabriella’s clothes while plotting revenge against her father is not lost on me. I wonder what Gabriella would think if she knew what her father had done—the girls, some younger than she is, that he’s procured for his boss.

Shit. Maybe she already does.

I watch as the men load the truck. When there are fewer trips being made back and forth, I figure they’re close to being finished. I leave my hiding place and start out for the road. I’d been going over in my head the best place to attack. I tear across the desert floor.

Not far from where I found Adelita that first day, there’s a bend in the road. Two tall, bushy mesquite trees grow, one on each side, to form a canopy over the spot. I stash the duffel beside one of the trees and scramble like a monkey up the trunk to test the strength of branches intertwined in the middle, looking for one capable of supporting my weight. When I find the right spot, I stretch my body flat, like a cat hunting a bird, and peer down through the leaves to check it out.

Perfect. I won’t even have to lob the grenade. Just pull the pin and let it drop.

I’m ready. The sound of the truck engine cranking to life in the village sends my heart into overdrive. The only drawback to my plan is that I left before the last of the cocaine was loaded. I don’t know how many of Ramon’s men chose to leave with the truck.

Or how many Luis would allow to leave.

The sputter of the truck engine idling makes me feel the same thrill that I felt from Culebra when I told him it was almost time. Every nerve in my body tingles. I push my face down into the leaves to make sure I have a clear shot when the truck passes underneath. I grab one of the grenades off my belt and hold it ready.

I don’t know how fast the truck will be going and it occurs to me that the concussion from the explosion might dislodge me. No problem. I’m high enough not to be blown apart, and that’s the most important thing. A fall to the ground won’t kill me.

I focus on the sounds from the village. The truck engine idling, rough at first, then smoothing out. The clutch engages. I feel the vibration as the truck rolls onto the dirt road.

The truck picks up speed and my heart races with excitement. I allow a smile. I see a plume of dust draw closer, hear the wheels hum. It takes about five minutes before the truck rolls into view. Another two to approach the bend.

I gauge the trajectory, squeeze the handle, pull the grenade pin, wait for the canvas top of the truck bed to move into place directly underneath me.

I open my hand, let the grenade fall.

CHAPTER 45

N
OTHING HAPPENS THE WAY I EXPECT. I IMAGINED the truck would go up in a fiery explosion, the way the one I found Adelita in did. It’s what happens on television. It’s what I counted on.

Not so much.

The grenade hits the top of the canvas, bounces. My breath catches. Is it going to bounce off? No. It settles between the cab and the canvas. When it explodes, the cab takes the brunt of the blast, glass from the rear window explodes out and through the front, taking the bodies of the driver and his passenger with it. They hit the ground twenty feet away, bloody, not moving.

But the panel bed of the truck remains intact. Licks of flame tickle the edges of the canvas. Nobody runs out the back so I assume Luis kept all of the men at the village.

I drop down from my perch. Maybe I need to add an accelerant. Adelita’s tormentor had a gas can in his truck.

I make my way around to the back. It would be too much to hope there’s a full gas can here, too. When I pull back the tarp, all I see are the hundreds of small plastic and duct-taped packages.