Murders on the Edge

by Andie Alexander

“My father told me to hide.” He pointed toward the sink cabinet. “I was in there, but when I heard the shooting, I crawled out.”

  “I didn’t check the cabinet,” I said to Jim in English. “I didn’t think anyone would fit under there with the pipes.”

  “Well, Mrs. AgentLady, you were wrong. Don’t worry about it.” He motioned for the kid to join him. “Come with me.”

  The kid stepped out of the tub and winked at me with a grin. “Nice body.”

  I rolled my eyes and shut the door after Jim took him out of the room. After turning on the hot water, I took a quick shower and wrapped myself in a towel. I’d forgotten my clothes, so I went into the master bedroom to where some of the other DHS members that I’d met previously were standing. They must’ve been watching over us in Arizona. Lucky us.

  “Holy smokes, Harley,” Chris said. “Invite me to your house more often. I like the way you host a party.”

  “Shut up.” I entered the walk-in closet. “I forgot my clothes.”

  Jim walked in, shutting the closet door behind him. “I’m surprised they didn’t take a picture of you.” He grabbed some clothes and moved toward the walk-in closet door. “I’m getting a shower. Don’t let anyone in to take pictures.”

  “I don’t think you’re their type.”

  “You never know with those guys. They’d take it for fun.”

  I threw on some clothes and headed out to where the guys were processing the crime scene. Several police officers were in the group, and I saw a few EMTs join them.

  I returned to our bathroom, opening the door just a bit. “It’s just me,” I said to Jim. “I have to brush my hair.” I walked in the whole way and shut the door behind me.

  Jim opened the curtain, popping his head out with a grin. “Want to join me?”

  “No.”

  “Come in anyway.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me into the shower, fully dressed. “Shootouts turn me on,” he whispered, and attacked my lips.

  I looked down at my drenched clothes. “Do you realize what you did?”

  “Yep.” He pulled my shirt over my head. “I get to undress you now.” He stared at me for a moment. “No bra? Harley, there are men out there. What are you thinking?”

  I grinned. “It’s hot down here. You don’t want me to sweat, do you?”

  He chuckled, pulling me to him. “Yes, I do, but I want you to sweat for the right reasons.” My shorts and underwear were next. I was just glad I wasn’t wearing sneakers yet.

  After he had his fun, I walked out with a towel covering me, yet again.

  Chris just laughed. “Déjà vu?”

  “Yeah. Ask Dr. Studly in there what happened. It wasn’t my fault I was pulled into the shower and undressed.”

  “Kinky,” Chris said with a chuckle. “I wish I would’ve hooked up with you before the boss made his move.”

  I was glad Jim made his move when he did—the first moment he met me, right after I had him on the ground with my foot in his back. Those DHS agents were easy to distract.

  I entered the walk-in closet yet again, and redressed. Jim opened the door, wearing clean clothes. I wanted to kill him because he’d put me in this predicament yet he looked like the good guy.

  “What’s taking you so long?” he asked. “We have a job to do.”

  “We do? I thought we had three days of solitude, like you negotiated with your bosses.”

  “The agenda changed. That kid told me that the guy who died from the cupboard was his father. They crossed the border from Mexico to bring a message to the president. Something weird’s going on in the town of Señora Bonita in New Mexico. I’m not sure what, but it’s not pretty, like the name suggests. It involves terrorist activity, and when I called the boss—”

  “You called the boss? But this is our honeymoon.”

  “No, it’s not our honeymoon, sweetheart.” He moved closer to the dresser in the walk-in closet and opened a drawer. He grabbed a bra and threw it at me. “Put that on. Chris is making comments out there.”

  Just as I took off my shirt, the door to the closet burst open. I spun away from the open door and covered my chest with my hands.

  “Jim, I…”

  I turned my head to see Chris standing behind me.

  “Holy smokes, Harley. You’ve got a great body.”

  At least I was wearing shorts.

  “Out.” Jim pushed Chris out, talking through the barely open door. “I’ll join you in a minute.”

  “Can’t I stay?” Chris asked.

  “Absolutely not.” Jim closed the door and moved beside me.

  I put on my bra and my shirt. “Is that better, master?”

  “Much. Now, this isn’t our honeymoon. I took off a week at the end of November and will be flying us to a romantic destination where there is no crime. I couldn’t take off until then, so just put that honeymoon idea on hold.”

  “So what did the boss say?”

  “He said to go undercover in Señora Bonita and figure out what the guy and the boy were saying. They’ve heard nothing about the place. It’s a sleepy town near Hachita, New Mexico, about 30 miles north of the Mexican border.”

  “Spanish again,” I said.

  “Or Arabic. You really need to learn that language, you know.”

  “Yep. Some day.”

  “No, as soon as possible. If I hadn’t been there today, you’d never know how many more men were inside the house.”

  “But the count was wrong.”

  “So? At least we knew he wasn’t saying he had a bomb or something.”

  He had a point.

  I grabbed my sneakers and a pair of socks, and went into the bathroom to finish getting ready. I looked in the mirror. Did I look pregnant? Was it too soon to tell if I was pregnant? Dr. Bond would know and I’d bug him until he figured it out. When I looked up at my long black hair and light blue eyes, I imagined what our children would look like. Combined with Jim’s dark blond hair and his big blue eyes, I decided our children would be gorgeous. I could only imagine what they’d look like, considering I had a slight build, and Jim was built more like a football player with muscle upon muscle. He was a few inches taller than I was, so our children could either be tiny boys or Amazon girls. I almost chuckled at the thought.

  I left the bathroom and joined Jim in the bedroom. Jim was alone, packing things into one of the two suitcases on the bed.

  “Are we leaving?” I asked as he headed into the closet.

  “Yep.” After a moment, he walked out of the closet with things in his hands. “We’re headed out as soon as we can. This is a crime scene and the boss wants us out. Now.”

  “But I didn’t get to make you breakfast in bed.”

  He pulled me to him with a nice kiss. “You’re my breakfast and we can find a bed along the way.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  As soon as Chris stepped into the room, Jim returned to the closet.

  I ignored Chris, since he seemed to be looking at the bodies on the hallway floor. “How long will we be gone?” I asked Jim.

  Chris took a few pictures of the dead bodies and left the room.

  “As long as it takes,” Jim said, throwing things into the suitcase. “Welcome to the agent world, Harley, where our assigned area is considered home for the time being.”

  Lucky me.

  Chapter 3

  I entered the closet and threw about four boxes of tampons and pads over Jim’s head and into the bedroom.

  “You can buy those later,” Jim said.

  “You’re right.” I ran over and grabbed all the boxes. “Besides, I may not need any at all, after last night.” I took them back into the closet and stored them.

  Jim approached me. “But you’re on the pill.”

  I kept grabbing clothes and taking them to the bed to pack. “No, silly. You made me stop taking them four months ago. Remember?”

  “I did?” I could’ve sworn his tanned face turned pale.

  I put my hands on my
hips. “Yes, you did. You insisted on being my personal doctor, just so you could make out with me in the exam room. Remember that?”

  “I remember making out. Did I really stop your pills? Are you sure?”

  He was pathetic. “You even scheduled an extra exam for me because you wanted to check to find out more.”

  “But we weren’t married yet. So why would I do that?”

  “The exam had nothing to do with it. You just wanted to see me. Don’t you remember that?”

  “Not really. But I’ve been busy.”

  I rolled my eyes and grabbed some clothes, throwing them into the suitcase. “I thought you remembered. You even mentioned it last night.”

  “I was kidding.”

  “Well, your ‘kidding’ might become a ‘kid’ without the ‘ding’.”

  He grinned. “How cool is that?”

  “Doctors,” I muttered. “They’re all insane.”

  He surrounded my waist and pulled me in for a kiss. When he backed away slightly, he kissed my cheek. “I thought you loved doctors.”

  “Yeah.” I grinned and licked his lips with my tongue. “They’re hot, and if they’re cops, they’re double-hot.”

  “So I’m double-hot?”

  “Triple. Devoted men are hot, too, and I know you’re devoted to me, or I’d hunt you down and make you pay.”

  He chuckled and stroked my hair. “You got that right. You definitely keep me in line.” With a glance to the suitcases, he seemed to assess what he’d been doing. “I think I’m packed.”

  “Good. Help me then.”

  He and I worked for a few more minutes, until I had two suitcases ready to go. We loaded up the sports car, dodged emergency workers, police, and DHS agents, and left for New Mexico. It was going to be a fun trip, I hoped, but wished we could’ve been going on our honeymoon instead.

  We started down the country road with the top down, going north toward I-19. I flipped on the radio to some rock-and-roll station, and since it was Saturday, it was the good stuff. I was bee-bopping along, when Jim slammed on the brakes, practically throwing me out of the top of the car, even while wearing my seatbelt.

  I grabbed onto the dash. “What are you doing?”

  He pointed, as calm as could be. “Rattlesnake. Want to get out and see if it’s alive?”

  “You’re kidding me, right?” I stared at the thing, coiled up in the middle of the road.

  “No, I’m not. It has to move or someone will kill it.” He pulled off the road, and I stared at the thing, sitting there so calmly.

  “Call animal control,” I said.

  “They aren’t going to come out for this. Snakes are necessary to the environment, but I don’t think animal control would care. They’re not endangered and it’s not hurting anyone.” He got out of the car, searched around, and lifted a dead piece of tumbleweed in his hand.

  “Let it go,” I said. “This isn’t your problem.” I got out of the car and walked toward a small tumbleweed, lifted it up and threw it to at the snake. I could hear the rattles from where I was standing, and stared at Jim.

  “You scared it,” he said. “I’m not going there now.”

  “Neither am I.” I walked toward another tumbleweed, and as soon as I picked it up, something bit me. I looked down to see the biggest, hairiest spider I’d ever seen on my hand.

  I screamed so loudly, I was sure the thing would be scared off. But its fangs stayed buried in my skin. “Help!”

  Jim walked toward me, in no hurry. “What’s the matter?”

  “I’m being eaten.” The spider’s fangs were still stuck in the base of my thumb.

  Jim ran closer. Just as he moved beside me, the spider pried itself out of my hand, fell to the ground, and ran away. I stared at my hand, where two fang marks bled.

  “Leave it to you,” he said, holding onto my hand. “We go out for a nice stroll and you happen to find one of the only tarantulas in the area.”

  “I’m afraid of spiders,” I whispered. “Now I’m doubly afraid.”

  He held onto my hand, and as soon as we got to the car, he sat me down and looked at the wound.

  “Are you allergic to bee stings?”

  “A little bit, why?”

  He stared at me in confusion. “What does that mean?”

  “Okay, a lot, but this isn’t a bee sting.”

  “I need to know what a lot means.”

  “Bee stings aren’t nice. I swell up, have problems breathing, and pass out, I think. But I don’t die, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “I’ll take you to the local hospital because I know the doctors there.” He opened the trunk, removed his doctor bag, and wrapped my hand in gauze. Hairs from the tarantula were sticking into my skin and were painful, but he kept wrapping.

  “You know that hurts, right?” I asked him.

  “Yes, but this will clot the blood a little bit until we get there.” He moved my legs into the car and shut my door. He then ran to the other side and threw his doctor bag into the back. Before I could assess what was going on, he turned on the car, flipped off the radio, and sped down the highway.

  “Where did the snake go?” I asked.

  “It left when you screamed. I should’ve had you scream right away and you’d be fine.” He pulled out his cell phone and pressed a few buttons. “I’m a doctor and I’m bringing in a victim of a tarantula bite. She has a potential allergy and I’m close by. I shouldn’t be more than a few minutes, tops.” He looked over at me with those invasive doctor eyes, making me sigh. “Yes,” he said over the phone. “Sounds good.”

  “I’m really tired,” I said. “That’s not right, is it?”

  “You’re okay.” He sped down another road. “Does your hand hurt?”

  Of course I had to look at it. My very red thumb stuck out from under the gauze. “I think it’s throbbing. I don’t feel that great.” I closed my eyes.

  He pulled onto another road, going much slower. When I opened my eyes, I saw the sign for emergency. He pulled up to the door, where an orderly was waiting.

  “Tarantula bite,” Jim said. “I called it in already.”

  “Yep.” The man brought a wheelchair toward the car. “I’ve been waiting for this one.”

  With Jim’s help, I stepped out of the car and noticed a bunch of men, who looked Middle Eastern, entering the hospital. Something wasn’t right, and I turned toward Jim.

  “Hey,” I said. “One of those guys looks like the man we put in our kitchen.”

  He helped me sit on the waiting wheelchair. “Are you sure?”

  “Check it out and call Chris. Something’s screwy. Fix it.”

  He opened his phone and nodded toward the orderly. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “No problem. She’ll be in exam room number four.”

  Jim pressed a button on his phone and walked away. What was going on? Leave it to Chris to lose a prisoner already.

  Chapter 4

  The doctor, a large man with a slight overbite and a comb over, entered the room, laughing. “A tarantula bite? I doubt it. I haven’t seen one of those in all the years I’ve been in Nogales, which has been a long time.”

  I lay on the bed with my eyes half-open. “I’m really tired and I feel like I’m going to throw up.”

  “It’s your nerves.” He looked down at my hand. “How big was this spider?”

  “Probably a few inches, and really hairy. My husband’s a doctor and he said it was a tarantula. You’re right. It’s probably nothing.”

  He lifted my hand and began to unwrap it. “Uh-oh.”

  I’ve found that if a doctor says uh-oh, that’s never a good sign.

  I could hardly feel my hand, so it didn’t matter. My eyes went shut and I waited.

  He lifted my eyelids and directed a bright light into my eyes. “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Yeah, just tired. My hand hurts, I think, and my muscles are really sore.” I took a few deep breaths, feeling like I wasn’t quite fil
ling my lungs.

  Jim ran into the room. “Uh-oh.” He stopped suddenly, looking at my hand. “That doesn’t look good.”

  “No, it doesn’t,” the doctor said. “Who are you?”

  “Dr. Bond. I’m her husband, but had to make a quick phone call.” He studied my hand then looked up at my face. “How do you feel?”

  I tried to take a deep breath. “Tired and sore. Did someone take the oxygen out of the air?”

  “Are you having problems breathing?” he asked.

  “It’s not that bad yet. What did you find out?”

  “We missed a huge fight.” He glanced toward the doctor and back at me. “Chris is on the way, but he’s tending to the injured.”

  I tried to open my eyes but it was tough. “Injured?”

  “Yeah. We got out of there just in time. Don’t worry about it, because we think we can find these guys.” He stroked my hair, but I knew he was watching the doctor. I closed my eyes and let them have their fun. When I felt the oxygen mask on my face, I knew it was worse than I’d thought.

  “It’s an extreme reaction,” the doctor said. “You’re sure it was a tarantula?”

  “Yep,” Jim said. “I’ve seen many of them in the past. I wrapped it, but there were abdominal hairs embedded in her skin.”

  I forced my eyes open to see what was going on.

  “I see that, but that’s the least of my worries.” The doctor opened a drawer and after a few moments, I felt something go into my skin. They had their little doctor conversations, and I felt myself fall asleep. It wasn’t worth staying awake for, in my opinion.

  ~~~~~

  Someone shook my arm. “Wake up.”

  “What for?”

  “We’re leaving.”

  I opened my eyes and looked down at my bandaged hand. “But I feel yucky.”

  Jim leaned closer. “We have to leave. They’re raiding the hospital in about five minutes. They don’t want us here, so we’re not recognized.”

  “Oh,” I whispered. “Undercover.”

  He nodded and helped me to my feet. We slipped out the door and to his sports car, taking off down the road going north on I-19.

  “How do you feel?” he asked.

  “Better.” I yawned. “I got a great nap, after being up all night.”