Shooting Scars: The Artists Trilogy 2 (22 page)

He led us upstairs which was a lot more substantial than it looked on the outside. There was a small living area/dining room and a large balcony overlooking the beach and harbor, complete with another table, chairs and a grill. The kitchen was tiny but functional. There was one small bathroom and two bedrooms.

“I guess I’ll take the couch,” I said, eyeing the tiny loveseat adorned with a white fringe shawl.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Javier said, gesturing to the bigger bedroom. “You’re staying with me.”

My eyes widened and a flash of heat went up my legs. “I don’t think so.”

He gave me a wry look. “Would you rather sleep with Raul or Peter?”

“I’ll take Peter,” I said automatically. Peter blushed and quickly went into the other room.

Javier grabbed my hand. “I won’t touch you unless you want me to.”

I glared at him. “There’s nothing wrong with the couch. Perhaps you should sleep there.”

“Perhaps I’m not that much of a gentleman,” he said with a cock of his head.

Understatement of the century
, I thought. Then I realized he was still holding my hand. He noticed my eyes and let go.

“We’ll have to get your things later tonight. It looks a bit too strange if someone were to see us moving our shit in here. When it gets dark, we’ll get the bags. Until then,” he gestured to the rest of the house. “Get a beer and relax.”

“I think I might,” I said, wanting to get away from Javier and any talk about a bedroom. I went to the kitchen and got a beer, settling on the balcony. The sea breeze was wonderful, even if it was bringing up the occasional waft of fish. I sat back and waited for something to happen. Something more than just me sitting on the balcony of a cartel’s hideout, sipping a beer and watching the pelicans fly.

I went back inside the house when I was done with my drink and noticed Raul sitting silently on the loveseat, staring into space. I grabbed another beer from the tiny fridge and when I turned around, he was right behind me.

I let out a small gasp of surprise and nearly dropped the bottle. How the hell did he move so fast?

“Ellie,” he said, as if my name felt good to say. “Have you given anymore thought to your predicament?”

I frowned. “Where’s Javier?”

“Your lover has left.”

“He’s not my lover,” I said nastily. “You should know this.” Then a thread of fear ran through me. I swallowed it down. “Where did he go?”

“He went into town with Peter. They had business to conduct.”

“Well, okay then,” I said and tried to walk around him. He blocked me. I gripped the bottle tighter, more than prepared to waste a beer on his head.

He leaned in close. “You say he’s not your lover. I believe you. He doesn’t speak very favorably about you, you know.”

I refused to look away, his beady little eyes spearing me. “I don’t speak very favorably about him. So it’s fair.”

“None of this is fair,” he sneered. “Think about it, Ellie. He’s getting you do to his dirty work. Don’t you think there are other people who can better handle this for him?”

“Maybe they aren’t as invested.”

He took another step closer, his pelvis almost pressed against mine. I raised my drink in the air. “Don’t come any closer.”

“I’m only trying to help you,” he said with false humility. “I don’t want you getting hurt. There’s far more to this than he will let you know. It’s sad how fucking blind you are.”

My face fell. I couldn’t help it. Raul obviously had an agenda, perhaps to overthrow Javier, I couldn’t be sure. At the same time, I felt like I had to agree with Raul, that I was probably blind and kept in the dark. I also didn’t trust him. In fact, if Pedro wasn’t downstairs working and it wasn’t bright daylight outside, I would have thought I was in big, big trouble. I made a mental note to never be left with Raul alone again.

“Piss off,” I said, pushing him out of the way with my shoulder. “And if you ever come that close to me again, I’m telling him everything you said.”

“He wouldn’t believe you.” But he looked worried when he said it.

“I’d like to find that out for myself.” I went over to the balcony and closed the sliding door behind me. I wished I could have locked the door from the outside, so I could keep him out.

I drank my beer and every so often I’d turn my attention away from the sea and look at the sliding glass door. I could see my reflection, looking positively languid in the sun, and beyond that, inside, Raul on the couch. Constantly watching me.

Once darkness fell, Peter brought up everyone’s bags and I got settled in our room. Javier had returned just before dinner, fresh fish from Pedro, but wouldn’t tell me where they went, other than it was some stuff he had to work out. It was naturally vague but now I couldn’t help but think about what Raul said. How many things was I kept in the dark about?

When I put a few long dresses, light jackets and a nice tunic on the spindly hangers and shoved my duffel bag under the bed, I caught Javier walking past the room, heading downstairs to the shop.

“Javier,” I called out.

He poked his head back around the door, brows raised. For a very quick moment he looked like the boy I used to know. Or the boy that I never really knew.

“Can I have a moment?”

I don’t know why I was being so polite but I was.

He came in, nodding, eyes curious and concerned. “Of course you can. What’s wrong?”

I guess he was being polite too.

I eyed the door, jerking my chin for him to close it, to give us privacy. He tilted his head, then shook it, his attention going to the wall. Raul and Peter were in their room and perhaps the walls were far too thin for whatever he thought I was going to talk to him about.

“I was actually going to go up the street to get more beer,” he said somewhat loudly. “Someone’s drank most of the supply. Want to come with me?”

I nodded, grabbing a jean jacket from the closet and followed him down the stairs and through the triple locks of the shop door. We hopped in the Range Rover and sped off down the road. The
Let Love In
album started playing again. I reached over and turned down the volume.

After we’d passed a couple of convenience stores and supermarkets, I said, “I thought you needed beer.”

“We’ll get it on the way back. We’re going to Veracruz.”

I felt jarred. “Right now? It’s night.” I wasn’t ready for this.

“Best time to go. I won’t be easily spotted. It’s a large city you know. Half a million people and a lot of them look like me.”

“I doubt that,” I said despite myself.

He let out a low laugh. “You still think me handsome, Ellie?”

I shouldn’t have looked over at him, like I was actually considering the question, but I did. And then I started considering the question. He was handsome, maybe even more so than he once was. He was almost thirty now and the age gave him power, his features more defined, his confidence off the charts. It was a dangerous combination and a dangerous question.

“I can see how a lot of women would find you very attractive,” I said as detachedly as possible.

“Oh,
very
attractive. I like that, I like that.” He smiled at me, eyes puppy dog. “You know if you’re not careful with me, we could fall back into old tricks.”

“Isn’t that what you want?”

He pressed his lips together. “I told you before, this is an evolution. For both of us.”

I wiped my hand on the length of my dress. “I don’t think you know much about evolving.”

“You’ll see. Now, I’m sure you didn’t want to discuss my looks with me, so what is it that you wanted to talk about?” His voice was clipped now, all business.

“Raul told me some things …”

“Of course he did,” he said easily but I could see his knuckles becoming more defined as he gripped the wheel. “What did he tell you?”

“That I was blind and kept in the dark and that I was going to get hurt.”

“I see.”

“I don’t trust him. Do you?”

“I don’t trust anyone,” he answered. “It’s what has kept me alive. I’d say you follow the same creed as me.”

“I trusted Camden,” I said, bracing for the impact.

It came slowly, the frustration seething off of him like smoke. His teeth clanked together as he bit down, jaw grinding. He waited one long agonizing minute before speaking, more to gather his anger than keep me in anticipation.

“Camden is your past,” he said, trying to keep his voice steady. “I am your future.”

“You are my past. Camden is my future.”

“Camden,” he said, voice rising, “is gone. He is
gone
, Ellie. He has his family, the family I gave back to him. He has moved on. You need to move on too. Weak people hang on to the ‘what could have beens.’ Strong people build a new future. Whatever …
thing
… you two shared, it’s over. He may have his tattoo on you but so do I.”

“How do you know he’s moved on?” I asked in a hush. “How do you know he’s not out there looking for me?”

“I told you I know where he is and what he’s doing,” he said. “He isn’t coming looking for you. Don’t you think he would have found you by now?”

He took a pickaxe to my heart.

“Maybe he’ll take six years,” I whispered, feeling the hope drain out of the wound. Javier was right and I hated it. Camden wasn’t coming. He wouldn’t get his family back and then leave them for me. He wouldn’t give up on them. I wouldn’t even want him to do that. I knew then that I had to let him go, it just hurt too much to even consider it.

“I didn’t come for you until I was ready,” Javier spoke up after a thick pause. “That’s evolution.” He sighed. “You’re right not to trust me or not to trust anyone. But I am not keeping you in the dark. We’re just trying to figure out the best way to get you in Travis’s path.”

That idea made me shudder. “Easiest way possible, please.”

I felt Javier’s eyes on me. “A dress like that will be a start. Travis doesn’t go out all that often from what our friends say but he’s not a total, how you say, hermit. He goes to the market every Saturday, so three days from now. I would like to see if we could find him before that, though.”

“So what, you’re going to keep driving me into town and dropping me off and hoping I’ll bump into him?”

“Well, no. We’ll get you a hotel room in the city. You’ll be a female traveler there alone. I have a man who works there. He’ll be our day-to-day contact. You won’t see me much.”

That worried me for some reason.

He went on, “It’s better that way. We can’t take chances. Once you are in Travis’s sights, I’ll have to disappear. He would probably have you followed for a bit, so you must keep up the mask of American traveler for some time. If he caught you and I talking, things would be over for you pretty fast.”

“Why me? Why not someone else? Why do you think he’ll take any interest in me at all?”

He licked his lips and turned his attention back to the dark highway. “You don’t know what you are, Ellie. You act strong but everyone can see how vulnerable you are. Men, like me, like Travis, we want to protect that. We want to break you, mold you and keep you as ours. He’ll see you and he’ll see that in you.”

I didn’t know how to react to whatever the hell he just said. It was honest and disheartening. I was pretty sure Camden never saw me that way. Pretty sure …

“Besides, you’re very beautiful, from head to toe. Any man would be crazy not to have you as his queen.”

I kept my mouth shut to that. I was sure a woman with scars, tattoos and a nipple ring wasn’t the height of all beauty.

Javier’s original plan that night was to visit the small hotel where I was to be staying. It was just as well that I had decided to come along.

Veracruz was only 40 miles from Pedro’s place so before we knew it we were entering the lights of the city, the plazas and malecón all aglow for the evening. The hotel was right in the city but backed out onto a small preserve that ran along a stream. There was one two-story building that held the office, gift shop, lobby and rooms, then a courtyard and a pool, with two large haciendas at the back with their own private everything. Javier had splurged on the private cabin starting Saturday night, especially liking that it had a hidden entrance at the back that led to a small landscaped patio and the reserve beyond.

The only person on staff that night was Javier’s contact, Enrico. Enrico was no older than twenty, with a smooth face and bright eyes. He was sharp as a tack too and respected Javier without being all fan boy about it. At least I’d feel safe with Enrico there acting as Javier’s eyes. I had to wonder how many of Javier’s men were scattered around town, protecting him from afar.

Before we left, Enrico slipped Javier a piece of paper. I didn’t ask about it until we were back in the Range Rover and heading to the fish shop.

“What was that paper he gave you?” I asked.

“The name of someone who can help us.” Another person that could help? Javier caught the look on my face and smiled sympathetically. “Ellie, for this, we are going to need all the help we can get.”

S
werve, swerve, swerve.

The GTO responded to my touch like I did to lips on my dick. I jetted the car down the road while Gus frantically flipped on the GPS to try and get us a better route away from the cop car that was still on our trail. We didn’t know if it was in relation to what had just happened with Dan or the cop just happened to see us speeding, either way it was bad news. If the cops caught us, we’d be found out pretty fast with my somewhat “Wanted” face and a trunk full of crazy ass weapons that the cartels wouldn’t want anywhere near them.

“There’s a small road up to your left,” Gus said, jabbing at the device. “Take it then take the next road to your right, that hooks around to the highway.”

“Highway with more cops,” I muttered but did as he said and swung the car down a narrow cobblestone road, flying past tiny dwellings and stray dogs that ran out of the way.

“More cops but they’ll be easier to lose at this time of day.”

“Do they have traffic choppers over here?” I asked, imagining the view from up above as broadcasted on television.