by Linda Warren
Nothing much was said about Levi. Stu only commented that Levi wouldn’t let them down. Telling him Levi already had seemed cruel, so she didn’t.
On the way home, she stopped at a sporting goods store and got appropriate apparel, plus hiking boots. Then she went home to figure out her next move.
After eating yogurt and an apple, she called Jessie and told her the situation and quickly added, “I just wanted you to know in case you don’t hear from me for a while.”
“My, are you sure about this? Let the authorities handle it.”
“It’s a delicate situation, but I’ll try to stay in touch so don’t worry.”
“Oh, please. This sounds a little insane even for you.”
“Thank you very much.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes. I’ll admit I’m a little scared, and if I feel the situation is too dangerous once I get to Matamoras, I’ll call everything off. I haven’t lost my mind completely.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“I was going to call Mama and Papa, but they wouldn’t understand and we’d just get into an argument. If they mention they can’t get in touch with me, make an excuse or something.”
“I’m not lying to them, My.”
Myra sighed. She knew Jessie wouldn’t lie. That was one of the things she loved most about her. She was very honest and up-front.
“Okay. I should be back in a few days. Say a prayer for me, and I love you, kiddo.”
“Myra, please ask Levi to go with you.”
“He made it very clear he won’t go into Mexico, but I’ll hire someone, so don’t worry. I’ll call as soon as I get there.”
“Take care of yourself.”
Myra sat for a long time with the phone in her hand. She should call her parents, but it would turn into a big argument she wasn’t in the mood to deal with. Since her parents had moved so far away, she didn’t talk to them as much. If she was lucky, she’d be home before they realized she’d been gone, and by then she’d be prepared for the lecture.
Even she couldn’t make that argument sound convincing. She touched the number to call home. Her mother answered.
“Hi, Mama. I’m sorry I was short today. I just have a lot on my mind.”
“I know you’re worried about your friend.”
Myra didn’t expect so much understanding and she was speechless for a brief second. “Yes, it’s been very stressful.”
“Well, then, come home for a few days and relax.”
Myra chewed on her lip. “I can’t right now. I’ll probably be leaving for Matamoras tomorrow. We have a lead on the baby.”
“Matamoras?” She could almost see the worry gathering in her mother’s eyes like clouds before a thunderstorm.
“I’ll be careful.”
“Why do you have to go? Aren’t the police supposed to do that?”
Myra didn’t feel she needed to go into a long explanation. “I just wanted you to know in case you were trying to reach me. I’ll call as soon as I get back.”
Her mother wasn’t having any of it. She called to Myra’s father, “Felipe, talk to your daughter. She’s doing something crazy.”
She explained the situation all over again to her father. “Papa, I have to go. I just wanted to touch base before I left.
“Take care of yourself, bebé. We love you.”
That’s all she wanted to hear, just in case she didn’t make it back.
For the next thirty minutes, she contacted retired police officers who might want to make some extra money, but none of them wanted money that badly. The realization of just how serious the situation was finally began to sink in. She hung up from the last one feeling frustrated. She took a long breath and paced in her living room. What did she do now?
She didn’t have an answer, so went to take a shower. Slipping into shorty pj bottoms and a tank top, new energy surged through her. She emailed Steve, requesting all the info he had on the Mortez family. He replied within minutes and she sat in the living room reviewing the Mortez compound in Matamoras. An outsider had no way in. That left no options, except one. She had Marco’s cell number. She’d tried it a couple of times and he hadn’t answered and she didn’t leave a message. But if she left a message saying she was in Matamoras, he might meet with her. And how stupid would that be, meeting him alone on his turf where justice was a foreign word? What did she do?
Her doorbell chimed and she jerked her head up in surprise. Who could that be? Due to her work and prosecuting hardened criminals, she lived in a gated community. She had to buzz people in and no one had rung the buzzer. It might be a neighbor, but then, they usually called.
She went to the door and stood on tiptoe to look through the peephole. She blinked and looked again. Could it be...? No. She took another glance to make sure.
Levi.
CHAPTER FIVE
“MYRA, LET ME in.”
She released the dead bolt and unlocked the door. Levi strolled in wearing worn jeans, a black T-shirt and a backpack. Mystified, she could only stare at him.
“What?” he asked, as if it was natural for him to drop by her home unannounced.
“What are you doing here?”
He shrugged out of the backpack and dropped it to the floor. “Hell, I don’t know. I have a perfectly good life in Willow Creek, and yet I can’t get the picture of you lying dead on the banks of the Rio Grande out of my head.”
A shiver ran through her at the image. “Are you trying to scare me?”
“Is it working? You ready to change your mind?”
She heaved a sigh. “No.”
“God, you’re stubborn.”
“What are you doing here, Levi?”
He dragged the backpack into the living room and plopped onto the sofa. Unzipping the pack, he pulled out his iPad. “I found I couldn’t live with your death on my conscience, so I’m taking you to Mexico to search for the boy, but you will follow my orders and be as docile as possible.”
“Oh” was all she could say. Her heavy heart suddenly felt lighter and she sat cross-legged in a chair facing him. “Thank you.” She felt she needed to say that.
“Yeah” was his short reply. He was already engrossed in the iPad.
“Do you have a plan?”
He glanced up briefly. “Plans are usually shot to hell in these types of situations. We’ll play it by ear. In the morning, we’ll head out for Brownsville and cross the border and see how it goes.”
“I thought it would be easier to fly.”
That drew a dark scowl. “Tourists are easy targets and that’s what you’ll be getting off the plane in Matamoras.”
“Okay. I’m flexible.”
“Yeah. Since when?”
She took a deep breath. “If we’re going to do this, we’ll have to call a truce with the snide comments. To work together, we at least have to be civil to each other.”
His brown eyes held hers and she resisted the urge to squirm. “You’re right. For us to have any success, we have to work closely together. I’ll have to be able to trust you.”
“Is that a problem?”
He didn’t answer for second. “Yesterday, yes. Today, I have to go on faith. I’m here, so that’s about all I can say.”
She swallowed. “I’ll take it.” She pointed to her laptop on the coffee table. “Steve sent over everything he has on the Mortez family. Or at least what he could share.”
“I already have it.”
That surprised her. An agent didn’t share information with outsiders, or maybe Steve didn’t consider Levi an outsider. But she was still curious. “How?”
“I snatched it from his computer when we were at the station.”
Now she was more curious. “How?�
�
“I have a thingamajig on my phone....”
“Thingamajig?”
“That’s all you need to know.”
“But how did you do it? Steve was in the room with you the whole time.”
“While Steve and Tom were talking to the lieutenant, I laid my phone against his laptop and, in a few seconds, I had everything on the Mortez family.”
“Sometimes you’re scary, Levi.”
“Remember that and this trip will go smoothly.”
“You know what you did was illegal.” Why she was pointing that out, she wasn’t sure. Maybe just to annoy him, like he was trying so hard to annoy her.
He lifted a dark eyebrow. “In the next few days, we’ll be doing a lot of illegal stuff. Are you prepared for that, counselor?”
“Whatever it takes.”
“Mmm.”
Nothing was said for a few minutes as he worked on the iPad. She watched as he was totally focused on the computer. In the old days, he’d grasped things quickly and his memory was phenomenal. She was sure that hadn’t changed. He paid great attention to detail. It drove her crazy sometimes when he could tell her exactly what she wore on a certain day and with what earrings or high heels. And yet the same man had trouble matching up his socks. She would bet that the socks he had on now were mismatched. It was a Levi trademark.
She remembered so many things about him. His gentle touch when she was down about something. His kind heart and concern for everyone. When he loved, there was no holding back. He gave all of himself and there was never any doubt that he loved her. She had failed their relationship.
Her eyes were drawn to the black T-shirt molded to the muscles in his arms and across his chest. As he worked the keypad, his forearms rippled, reminding her of everything she’d lost. And of everything she could never get back—mainly his trust.
“We’ll leave early in the morning.” His words broke through her thoughts. “And try to make it to Brownsville by noon. Do you have a passport?”
“Yes.”
“I have Daniel’s so we’re set to go.”
She frowned. “How did you get Daniel’s?”
“On my way back, I called Stu and he sent someone to Natalie’s apartment for the boy’s birth certificate and a photo. When I arrived at the home, I faxed the items to a name Stu gave me and I picked up the passport on the way here.”
“You’ve thought of everything.”
“For us to succeed, I have to.”
He reached into the backpack and pulled out a laptop and a phone. “This is a cheap phone you can use while we’re in Mexico. Put all the numbers on it you’ll need. Leave your expensive one here.”
“Okay.” She took the phone, very impressed with his thoroughness.
“I have to take mine, but I have all my information stored in case I lose it. I’ll leave my laptop under your sofa.”
“Sure.”
“Do you have some old clothes?”
She jumped up. “I just bought some clothes to wear.” She ran upstairs to her bedroom and came back with what she’d purchased.
He stared at the clothes in her hands. “Camouflage? This is not a military mission. We want to appear incognito and that means we have to blend in. We’ll stop at a thrift store and get you something.”
“Thrift store?”
“Yeah, Myra. Preferably something old and grungy.”
She wasn’t going to argue because he knew what he was doing. She held up the boots. “How about these?”
“They’ll do, but we’ll have to make them look worn and old.”
“If you say so,” she replied, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice.
“Try to get some rest. I’ll wake you about four-thirty.”
“You say that as if you’re staying here tonight.”
“I am,” he replied without even looking up.
“I just have one bedroom. The other bedroom I converted into an office.”
He looked up at that. “Believe me, Myra, I can restrain myself. I lost those feelings for you a long time ago.” He patted the sofa he was on. “I’ll sleep here. Good God, is this white?”
“Yes, white leather.” Levi’s concentration was phenomenal, too. He could totally shut out the world when he was focused on something.
He glanced around and she knew he’d cataloged the entire room in that one glance. His eyes settled on the white area rug covering part of the hardwood floor.
“Everything in here is white.”
“And silver and black,” she quipped.
“I noticed.”
She laid the clothes and boots in a chair. “That reminds me. How did you get in here? This is a secure complex.”
He went back to the iPad. “No building is secure. If someone wants in, they’ll find a way to get in.”
“How did you do it?”
“I waited until someone was allowed in and then zipped my truck right in behind them. Easy as eating pie with both hands.”
“No one noticed?”
“It’s dark and I’m very fast. C’mon, Myra, stop grilling me. I have more important things on my mind.”
“What are you doing on the computer?”
“Don’t ask questions, either.”
She threw up her hands. “If I have to get up at four-thirty, I’m going to bed.”
“Do you have a sheet or a blanket I can put on the couch? I’d hate to drool on this white thing.”
“You don’t drool.” That came out of her mouth without thinking. She didn’t know how he slept these days. But in the old days, he’d slept sound, quiet and beautifully.
“That was seven years ago. I’ve changed.”
She lifted an eyebrow, but decided not to voice her thoughts. She needed his help and she wasn’t going to complicate things. Or at least she was trying not to. She went to a hall closet and pulled out a blanket and a sheet and carried them back to him.
He stared at them. “White? What is it with you and white now?”
“I like white. What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing if you’re superhuman. A child could have a field day messing up this place.”
“I don’t have a child.”
“Yeah.”
Suddenly the room was full of palpable tension. She felt it. He felt it. They both chose to ignore it.
“I’m going to bed.” She stopped at the bottom of the stairs. “Thank you. I’m glad you changed your mind.”
“Do you have anything to eat?” he asked, completely ignoring her thanks.
Another thing about Levi—he had a killer appetite. “Um, I have some yogurt and fruit. There’s ice cream and frozen dinners in the freezer.”
“That’s it?”
“I’m not here that much.”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot about your long hours.” He stood and marched into the kitchen, opening her refrigerator. With yogurt and an apple in his hand, he opened the freezer and pulled out a TV dinner. Looking around, he said, “I’m not sure where to eat in here.”
“There are bar stools on the island,” she said, pointing to the white-and-chrome stools. “And there’s also a table. Are you unfamiliar with these things?”
“I don’t want to get anything dirty.”
“I’m going to bed. You figure it out.” She left him with his dilemma. One would think he’d never been in a nice place before, but she knew that wasn’t true. The apartment they’d shared wasn’t as upscale as this, but it was still pretty nice. Actually, she couldn’t recall him ever commenting on their decor. He was just being cantankerous now because he didn’t want to be here.
As she made her way up the stairs, he hollered, “Where’s the bathroom?”
“You’re an investigator
so it shouldn’t be that hard to find.”
“Funny. Okay. I found it. I just didn’t know if there was one downstairs.”
Memories, like photos from a favorite album, floated around her. Myra, have you seen my shoes? Myra, are my keys in the kitchen? Myra, where are my socks? For a man who could locate murderers, robbers, cheating husbands and missing children, he was hopeless at keeping track of his own stuff. Levi was a conundrum.
She didn’t bother to close her door. There was no need, because she knew he wouldn’t set foot in her bedroom. She crawled beneath her white sheets and relaxed even though she didn’t know what tomorrow was going to bring. That was okay. Levi would be with her and he would protect her and keep her safe. He might not admit it, but it was the reason he was here. She went to sleep with that thought on her mind.
* * *
LEVI ATE TWO TV dinners, two yogurts, an apple and a couple of protein bars he found in a drawer before he finished off the ice cream. Then he went back to the sofa and spread the sheet over it. He laid the blanket at the end in case he needed it. Sitting down, he reached for his phone.
It was almost eleven and he was sure Valerie was asleep. She had to be at the hospital at five, so she always went to bed early. Since she was upset at his sudden decision to take this case, he wanted to talk to her. Not wanting to wake her, he sent a text.
I’m sorry you’re upset. I do take a lot of dangerous cases. I just never realized that bothered you. We’ll talk when I get back. Love, L.
He went back to his iPad and worked until after twelve. By then, he had an idea of what to do. He removed his clothes, flipped off the light and stretched out on the sheet, staring at the ceiling. Thoughts bounced like Ping-Pong balls across his mind. For a man who was never indecisive, he felt more vulnerable than he ever had in his life. He would’ve sworn when Myra left his barn this morning he’d never take this case.
He’d made it all the way to Willow Creek before he’d known he had to go back. He’d talked to Pop, which was like an exercise in practicing patience. As usual, Pop didn’t see a problem. Stu’s grandson had been taken and Levi needed to rescue him. It was so simple in his mind, but Pop tended to believe that Levi was ten feet tall and bulletproof.
