by Ellie Danes
“Think they caught those guys?” I asked Nathan.
He shook his head. “We’re really close to the border. I have a feeling they managed to get away.”
“As long as they don’t get away in our direction,” I said.
Nathan dropped a kiss on the top of my head. “Always optimistic. What would I do without you?”
I sat up. “If I wasn’t with you, you wouldn’t be hiding right now.”
Nathan rubbed his neck and gave a small nod. “But that’s a good thing. You’re keeping me cautious, making me think things through. Without you, I wouldn’t have anything to lose and I would probably just march straight into the cartel’s stronghold and demand to know what happened.”
“I make you cautious?” I laughed. It kept the leaden ball of panic from expanding. “We’re in the middle of some kind of wasteland hiding out in an abandoned bus. This is your idea of caution?”
“You’re right. Let’s head for civilization before the sun sets.” Nathan stood up and offered me his hand. “I know you’re sick of motels but a nice, hot shower sounds pretty good to me right now.”
We climbed out of the bus and headed in a parallel direction from where we came. I hoped we were slowly circling back to the car, but I had the feeling all our things were lost again. The cartel would definitely be watching for us now and we couldn’t go back.
Nathan’s pace picked up as the industrial spaces slowly condensed into city streets. “None of this looks familiar,” he said.
“I doubt you’re going to remember anything in this part of town,” I pointed out. “There’s nothing here.”
We came to a corner and turned in the direction of a small, well-lit bodega. It illuminated the end of a row of small, stall-like shops with rolled-up fronts. Most of the signs were painted in bright, eye-catching English, the kind meant to attract tourists.
Further ahead, bright lights blazed over a wide swath of road. I swallowed hard and took Nathan’s hand.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“We must be right at the border. Those lights have to be the border crossing.” Nathan frowned.
I let go of his hand and turned around. “I’m no expert at geography, but I know the sun sets in the west.”
Nathan strode toward the bright road, the frown on his face deepening to a scowl. “And north is over there.”
I caught up with him and tried to rub the frightened chill off my bare arms. “There’s no way. I mean, I wasn’t paying attention when we were running from the gunmen and the police and that helicopter, but we didn’t cross the border. I would have noticed that,” I said.
We stopped at a corner and watched the flow of traffic move past. The line of cars heading north were funneled into a tight lane at the border crossing. The weight of panic in my stomach grew so heavy my knees almost gave way.
I clutched at Nathan’s hand but he brushed me off. He raised his hands to rake them through his hair, and I saw a slight tremor in his fingers.
“We’re in Ciudad Juarez,” Nathan said.
“We can’t be.” My voice squeaked out as fear constricted my throat. “We don’t have any ID. We don’t have anything. We can’t be in Mexico.”
I turned and scurried down the street back in the direction we had come. Nathan caught up with me and held my arm in an iron grip.
“We won’t be able to trace our steps back. It’s getting too dark,” Nathan said.
“We have to! We have to get back. They’re going to find us here without ID and throw us in jail,” I cried.
Nathan shook his head but he threw a worried glance back at the border crossing. “We’re Americans. They’ll assume we’re tourists. I have most of our cash on me. That’s all they’ll care about.”
“We don’t even have a phone,” I whimpered. “No ID, no changes of clothes, no phone. Nothing. What are we supposed to do?”
“Act normal,” Nathan said as a car drove by.
“Normal? This is as far from normal as I’ve ever been! And this is all your fault!”
Nathan caught my shoulders and pushed me into the shadows of a closed shop doorway. “My fault?”
“This was your plan all along, wasn’t it?” I asked. “You’re the one who wanted to march right into the cartel’s hands. You knew where we were heading when we ditched the car.”
“Bree, pull yourself together. I didn’t do any of this on purpose. It was a mistake,” Nathan said.
“A mistake? How about a complete disaster? How about a colossal catastrophe?” I shoved past Nathan and tried to run back the way we had come.
He caught up with me in a few steps and linked his arm through mine. I tried to wriggle free but he held on tight. My struggle dragged us into the middle of an intersection. The sun had dipped below the horizon, and I realized with horror that I had no idea which way we had come from.
“We’ll be okay, Bree. I promise,” Nathan said.
He drew me into his arms but I fought back. “This was your plan all along,” I accused him.
Nathan threw his hands up in disgust. “Why would this be my plan?”
“I don’t know! The cartel was probably watching the border crossing, and you wanted to sneak up on them. So, you decided to get us over the border when all the attention was on that car full of gunmen.” I gasped for air as panic overtook me.
Nathan caught my shoulders again. “We’re in this together, Bree.”
“Are we?” I screeched. “You should have told me this is what you planned to do. You’re still keeping things from me.”
Nathan’s muscles banded like iron and this time, he did not let me pull out of his embrace. He rubbed a hand up and down my back as he tried to sooth me.
“I’m not keeping anything from you. I need you with me. I need you, Bree. This was all just a mistake. I had to keep you safe. So, I ran. I didn’t mean for us to cross the border,” he said.
I took a deep breath and relaxed against his strong chest. I had no other choice. “Now what?” I whispered.
“Now we figure this out. Together,” Nathan said.
Chapter Fifty-One
Nathan
Bree had no reason to trust me. Not anymore. I had dragged her into a nightmare and made mistake after mistake. As I held her, I fumed at myself. How could I have been so stupid?
We had crossed the border into Mexico with only the few things we carried. Now we were trapped in the cartel’s backyard with nothing.
During the car chase, my instincts had screamed for me to get Bree to safety. She was the only thing that mattered. Not that I was blaming her for our disastrous detour, but my concern for her had propelled us across the no-man’s-land and into Ciudad Juarez without a plan.
I took a few long, deep breaths, inhaling the warm scent of Bree’s soft hair. She was still my top priority, and the only thing I could think to do was get her back across the border.
I glanced around the intersection where we stood. There weren’t any tourists around; everyone was off having dinner or checking into hotels. Still, it wasn’t safe for us to try to go back the way we came. If the gunmen weren’t tracking us then the police were definitely keeping an eye on the area.
“Let’s go to the border crossing,” I said.
Bree slipped out of my arms and gave me a wide-eyed look. “What? We don’t have any identification. Not even drivers’ licenses. They’ll turn us away for sure.”
“We still have to try,” I said.
She narrowed her eyes. “Why? Isn’t this where you were planning on heading? Isn’t this the direction you’ve been thinking about the whole time?”
I nodded, admitting that much. “But I never intended for it to go like this. We have to get you back across the border where you’ll be safe.”
Bree ground her teeth. “You mean, get me out of your way. You just want to shove me back into the United States so you don’t have to worry about me anymore.”
“Now you don’t want to go back?” I asked.
&nb
sp; She dug her feet into the ground and refused to let me pull her toward the border crossing. “Not without you. We’re in this together, remember?”
I shook my head. “We don’t need to be in jail together.”
Bree crossed her arms. “Why don’t we just find a place to wait out tonight? Tomorrow, when there are more tourists crossing, maybe we can get back. Together.”
I dragged her out of the intersection and back toward the border crossing with me. “I’m not taking you there in a big crowd. The cartel will be looking for us, but not here. Not tonight. It’s the best chance we have.”
“How? We don’t have any identification!” Bree said.
“They’ll be able to tell we’re Americans. Maybe we can make up some story about being car-jacked and walking the wrong way,” I said. “At least part of that is true.”
Bree looked nervous. “Maybe we can just walk across again.”
I nodded, not wanting to tell her what a freak occurrence that had been. Why had no one noticed us walking over the border into Mexico? The police had been focused on the car chase and gunmen. Maybe the police helicopter had distracted the border security long enough for us to hide out in the abandoned bus.
We were just some couple wandering around on foot. Not a real threat to be investigated. I held that hopeful belief and marched us up the street to the border crossing.
It would take insane luck, but maybe I could distract border security long enough for Bree to make it across.
“If you get the chance to go, just go,” I told her.
“What?” She wrenched her arm free from me. “No.”
“Yes. You’re the only one who can get back to our car. Get our old burner phone and wait for me to call. I’ll need your help that way.”
Bree shook her head but it was too late to argue. Two border security guards had already spotted us walking up the sidewalk and waved us over.
“We’ve made a huge mistake,” I called out.
One man took off his hat and scrubbed his forehead. “What kind of mistake?”
The other guard couldn’t take his eyes off Bree. “You look like you’re doing all right to me,” he said.
She smiled at him. “You’re never going to believe me,” she said.
The guard gave her a lecherous smile. “Try me.”
“We were walking my friend’s dog and it got loose. You know, there was some big shoot-out across the border, right? The dog went nuts and ran away,” Bree said.
I picked up the thread of her lie. “We followed it but got all turned around. And now we’re here.”
The first guard crossed his arms. “You chased a runaway dog over the border?”
Bree fluffed her hair. “A total accident. Are we in a lot of trouble?”
The second guard laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. “You’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”
I cleared my throat and tamped down the desire to punch the lascivious guard in the mouth. “We don’t have our wallets or any ID.”
“What?” The first guard narrowed his eyes, not believing any of our story.
Bree batted her eyelashes. “Like I said, we were just walking my friend’s dog. It’s a big yellow lab. Have you seen it?”
“No, but you and I can drive around and look for it,” the second guard told Bree.
I stepped in between them. “Thanks, but we just want to get back.”
“With no identification? That’s not how this works,” the first guard said.
“Would this help it work?” I tugged a few bills from my pocket.
“Thought you didn’t have your wallets or anything,” the guard said.
The border security guards exchanged a quick look. They were open to bribes, but I had to make it worth their while.
“All I have is a few hundred bucks. Bonus for a job I worked with her friend,” I said.
“Not enough,” the first guard said.
“But we could maybe work something out,” the second guard said. He rubbed Bree’s shoulder.
Bree pulled me back before I could get in the guard’s face. “What if we showed you how we got across? Wouldn’t that help? Then you could just let us go from there.”
The first guard glanced away from us to an approaching car. It was crowded with college-aged kids. He frowned.
“Why not just call your friend?” the second guard asked. “You can wait here with us while they drive your IDs over.”
“The best we can do is throw you in jail. One call to your lawyer should be enough to get your IDs sent over by morning.” The first guard had no more patience.
Bree turned and gave me a terrified look. The guards had made helpful suggestions, except we no longer had IDs. According to the United States, we were both dead. There were no documents for the newly created Cramers.
“I have a phone in my office you can use,” the second guard told Bree. He gave her another sickening smile.
I curled my fingers into a fist. Bree noticed and pushed me back. “No, thanks. We’ll figure it out. Sorry to bother you.”
“No. I think you should wait here,” the first guard said. His lips had formed a thin, serious line. “We can’t let you go disappearing into Mexico without any ID.”
I fisted my other hand. If anything, my attacking the border security would cause a big enough distraction for Bree to get across. And it would be extremely satisfying to punch that grin off the second guard’s face.
Bree sensed my suicidal plan and held up both hands to stop me. Over her shoulder, I saw four college kids spill out of their loaded car.
“What now?” the second guard muttered. He turned to eye the young men.
They held up their hands in mock surrender. “We just wanted to declare the tequila we bought. It’s unopened, we swear!” one kid called out.
“Get back in your car.” The first guard marched toward them.
“Great. Now we have to search their whole goddamn car,” the second guard said.
The college kids called out more promises of innocence and generally caused a big disturbance at the quiet border crossing.
As soon as border security was distracted, I grabbed Bree’s hand and dragged her back the way we had come.
“Shouldn’t we try to cross?” she asked.
“They’re expecting that. We’ll be caught. See? They have walkie-talkies.” I pulled her away from the brightly lit crossing. “Let’s just get out of here before they detain us for real.”
We turned down a side street and started to run. Bree let me hold her hand too tightly until we stopped. She didn’t pull free until we found a crowded parking lot outside a gaudy tourist cantina. In-between a massive pick-up truck and an old station wagon, Bree flashed me a furious look.
“What are you thinking? I can’t even tell anymore,” she said. “Just admit it. Now that we’re in Mexico, you have no intention of going back until you’ve faced the cartel.”
I scrubbed the back of my neck. Bree was right. It would be foolish of me to waste time returning to the United States when all the clues had led me to Mexico. I was willing to do anything to find out the truth.
“I’m sorry,” was all I could say.
Bree sucked in a long breath. “You better tell me your whole plan. Right now.”
My mind raced. We’d skipped a lot of the steps that I had carefully thought out, and it was too late to turn back.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Bree
He had to have known. Nathan didn’t have an oblivious bone in his body; there was no way he had stumbled across the border without knowing where he was going.
Though his furious face made me think it could have been a mistake. Even he was starting to realize that his recklessness was ruining our chances of finding out what happened to that little girl.
“Let’s just find somewhere and settle in for the night. We can think it through there,” Nathan said.
I refused to take his hand. “And what motel is going to accept us with no identificati
on? Even the scummiest places ask to see a driver’s license,” I said.
Nathan scowled at me. “And how do you think we’ve been renting rooms since our little ‘accident’ in the mountains? They don’t always need to see valid ID.”
I narrowed my eyes and followed Nathan closely as he ducked into the nearest motel. It was a three-story stucco building in the middle of the street complete with a red tile roof and faux balconies. The attempt at authenticity did not cover up the fact that the motel was run down and obviously vacant.
The night clerk looked up and blinked. I watched as Nathan put both hands on the motel desk and showed the clerk a folded-up bill in the palm of his hand.
“We’ll take one room for the night,” Nathan said. “A private room.”
The night clerk didn’t even nod, just took the bribe and handed Nathan a key. No exchange of names, no signing the desk book, no checking ID. He didn’t even tell us our room number.
“Is that how you’ve been doing it all along?” I asked. It boggled my mind to think that the whole time I had been innocently perusing the brochure racks, Nathan was no more than ten feet away from me bribing motel clerks to leave us off the books.
Nathan waited until we found the motel room door that matched our key. I followed him inside only to be slammed back up against the door. He held me there with one thick forearm and locked the door with his other hand.
“I’ve told you this, Bree. I’m not a good man. I’m not some knight in shining armor on a quest. I’m just trying to clean up whatever mess it was that I made,” Nathan said.
I struggled against his arm but didn’t break away from his gaze. “I never said you were. I just didn’t know you were bribing people this whole time.”
Nathan dropped me and turned to the shabby motel room. He kicked off his shoes and rolled onto the saggy bed.
“I don’t know why I keep forgetting how naive you are,” Nathan said. “It’s just common sense. We don’t have ID so I offer the motel clerks a little extra incentive to keep our stay private. They don’t care when they see the cash.”
