by Ellie Danes
“Then where are the drugs? Why would I cross the border without drugs if I was, as you say, a drug runner?” I tipped my head and waited for the agent to respond.
He scowled and slapped the table before he paced around the small room. Then he mopped his forehead with his damp sleeve and tried again.
“If he talked you into this, if he coerced you in any way, then now is the time to say something,” the border agent told me.
I looked at Nathan, and he gave me a wide grin.
We had been packed into the small room together for hours, but it was the border agent who was sweating. After all, we had gone through, his interrogation felt like a trip to the spa.
“I don’t think you can hold me. You have no evidence that I was running drugs,” I said.
The border agent grabbed a manila envelope and dumped our driver’s licenses and passports on the table. “Here’s the evidence. Fake IDs. The cartel has been known to furnish their drug runners with entirely new identities.”
“Would I purposely pick the name Mildred?” I asked the border agent.
Nathan chuckled. “You almost have her, man. She sounds like she’s about to crack.”
The border agent scowled at Nathan. “Wait your turn. We’ll get to you soon enough.”
He turned back to me but had lost his train of thought. The border agent scratched his head and had to pace another lap before he pulled himself back together. Just as he raised one hand and opened his mouth to try another line of questioning, the door popped open.
“A word, Agent?” The FBI agent was tall and stiff, his lips a thin, disapproving line.
The border agent grumbled about all the interruptions but went over to the door. He paled at the first thing the FBI agent whispered in his ear and then his face flushed red all the way to his ears.
“We’ll see about that,” the border agent snapped. They both left the room and shut the door hard behind them.
“What was that about?” I asked.
Nathan shrugged. “I just hope they don’t take too long. I’m having fun watching this guy try to question you.”
A few minutes later, the door opened and an impossibly young-looking FBI agent came in. He cleared his throat, sat down at the table, and organized three folders in front of him. When he was satisfied that everything was in place, he folded his hands and looked up at us.
“Geez, how old are you?” Nathan asked.
“Don’t be mean,” I told Nathan.
The FBI agent frowned and straightened the last folder again. “When was the last time you folks were in El Paso, Texas?”
Nathan shook his head. “Who knows? The desert sun can do funny things to your head, you know. That’s why we got so turned around and drove the wrong way.”
The FBI agent unfolded and refolded his hands. “There’s a ranch not far down the border. You ever meet any of those cowboys while you were ‘turned around?’”
My skin prickled. I knew exactly the men he was talking about, and I hoped I hadn’t gotten any of them in trouble.
“Nah, I gotta keep her away from cowboys. You know women and their fantasies,” Nathan said.
The young FBI agent’s eyes flickered over me. “Miss? You need to answer the question. Have you ever met any of the ranchers along the border?”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “Wasn’t I just being accused of acting as a drug mule for some cartel?”
The FBI agent unfolded his hands and opened the first folder. Nathan stiffened when he saw the recent photograph of Maggie. The agent made sure not to look at Nathan but when he met my eyes, he was pleased. That one involuntary reaction had turned the tides of his interrogation.
“Aww, she looks like your niece,” I told Nathan. “Who is she?”
My lie was brushed aside as the FBI agent opened his second folder. There was a list of names, and I recognized a few as the children I had helped across the border.
“See, I’m confused,” the FBI agent said. “I have a list here of children who all agree one hundred percent with their description of the couple who saved their lives. You two just so happen to match those descriptions perfectly.”
“Did we have a bunch of kids in the back of the pick-up truck and I didn’t notice?” I asked Nathan.
He chuckled. “What’s with the kids?”
The FBI agent sighed. His fingers played along the edge of the third and final folder but he left it closed. “These children have one thing in common. They were each kidnapped within the last six months. Taken from cities in the southern US and smuggled across the border into Mexico.”
I shifted, not wanting to have to hear the horrors those poor children had had to face again.
The FBI agent noticed and pressed on. “They were kept like animals, locked up in a windowless room, until they looked forward to their drug-running missions. For all our efforts, we couldn’t get close enough without endangering their lives further.”
He opened the third folder and turned the document around so Nathan and I could read it.
“A plea agreement?” Nathan asked.
The legal jargon swam in front of my eyes. “I don’t understand.”
“It took a pair of vigilante Americans to infiltrate the cartel, posing as greedy people out to make an easy buck. Once they’d been accepted as drug-runners, they were able to find and free the children. They brought the children across the border on foot and left them with the ranchers I mentioned before.”
“Are they all home safe?” The question popped out before I could stop myself.
“The children?” The FBI agent met my eyes again, and I saw a look of begrudging respect. “The children have all been reunited with their families.”
“And what about the so-called vigilantes?” Nathan asked.
The FBI agent sighed. “If you were to sign this plea agreement, two things would happen: one, you’d be recognized as heroes for risking your personal safety to save the lives of a dozen children; and two, you would be extradited north to answer for the crimes committed during your vigilante mission.”
Nathan looked at me, giving me the choice, but I didn’t know what to say.
“Take the deal, Bree. Sign it and get your life back,” the FBI agent said.
They knew our names. Not the fake names on the IDs the cartel had given us, but the names we had ditched long ago.
I took one more long look at Nathan, and he nodded. Then, with one quick swipe of a pen, we were resurrected.
Chapter Ninety-One
Nathan
I woke up in the cheap El Paso motel room but it felt like a penthouse suite. Bree was stretched out next to me in a deep sleep, and, for once, I knew she could rest undisturbed. The thought filled me with contentment.
Bree was safe. Maggie was back with her mother, and all the other children were safe at home with their loving families. It was the first morning in a long time that I hadn’t woken up dogged by worry and incomplete missions.
When Bree woke up and rolled into my arms, I would have thought I was dreaming. Except her bare skin was like silk against me, and her sleepy warmth was very real. I felt every inch of her just to be certain.
“Good morning,” she said, opening her smiling eyes. “How are you?”
“Hungry,” I growled.
Bree giggled as we flung the covers over our heads and feasted on each other until we fell back deliciously exhausted but wide awake.
“How about now?” Bree asked.
“Relaxed,” I mumbled.
The memory slid into place. Maggie had bumped into me in the long hallway near the storage rooms. The guards were quick to pull us apart, but she had been too fast for them. The postcard was in my pocket when I was shoved into my room and told to wait.
“What is it?” Bree propped herself up on one elbow and worried over me.
“I remember meeting Maggie. She gave me the postcard. The next day, when I was getting my ID made, I saw a bulletin board full of snapshots. Maggie and all the kids were there.
I stole her photograph so I could remember what she looked like,” I said.
“So, you really did take drugs across the border for the cartel?” Bree asked.
I nodded. “I took it straight to that bank. Then I went to find Maggie’s mother.”
Bree snuggled up and laid her head on my chest. “So how did the cartel find you?”
I cringed, wishing that portion of my memory had stayed blank. “I owed Adrian Juarez so much money that he thought it’d be funny to make me do a cash delivery as well. I put most of it in the safety deposit box, but I kept a little for myself.”
Bree lifted her head up again to study my face. “And what did you do with it?”
“I found a poker game. High stakes. The kind that Adrian liked to know about. He heard I was at the table and his men were on me within an hour,” I said.
“All the way up in Kansas?” Bree asked.
I screwed my eyes shut, still angry that I had been so stupid. “I had no idea how far of a reach the cartel had. I barely got away. I hot-wired a car and drove into Kansas, thinking they would give up. That’s when my car broke down.”
“And they found you on the side of the highway.” Bree shuddered and wrapped her arms tightly around me.
The memory barreled down on me as fast as their headlights had that night. Adrian’s men had rammed their car straight into me, knocking me across two lanes of the highway. They then dragged me to the shoulder and questioned me, but I didn’t give anything up. Instead, I succumbed to my injuries, passed out, and they left me for dead.
Once the memory faded back into the past, my heartbeat returned to a normal rhythm.
“If I hadn’t joined that poker game—”
Bree cut me off, her fingers tight against my lips. “No. You can’t play that game. It’s all in the past now.”
I kissed her fingers then pulled them back so I could talk. “So, if I can’t ask ‘what if,’ can I at least ask ‘what now?’”
Bree smiled but it was sad. “Now we wait for our trials to start.”
I sat up. “You forgot about my dishonorable discharge. First, I’ll get kicked out the Navy SEALs, my service record will be wiped, and then I’ll face jail time for everything that I did.”
Bree sat up and knelt, facing me. “Nathan, you can’t forget all the good things you did, too. Just think of all those children, all those families, that get to be whole again. Don’t you think that was worth it?”
I tangled my hands in her hair and kissed her sweet mouth. “It was. It was all worth it. I’m just sad that I’m going to lose you, too.”
Her beautiful eyes narrowed. “Who says I’m going anywhere?”
“You’re not going to sit around and wait for me to serve my sentence,” I said. “No way.”
Bree went still, then a wide smile spread across her face. “What if neither of us waits?”
I frowned even as my stomach did happy little flips. “What do you mean?”
“Come on, don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it,” Bree said. “We could leave tonight and make a run for it.”
“We?” I asked.
Bree punched me in the shoulder. “Yes. We know how to sneak out of a motel and disappear into the night. We know how to live on the run.”
“We could head for the coast?” I asked.
She answered with a bouncy kiss. “Please, Nathan. After all of this, you have to believe me when I say that I know you are a good man. What you did, helping those children, is all I care about.”
I took her hand and kissed it. “And you are all I care about. Is this what you really want?”
“Let’s run away together,” Bree said.
I laced my fingers through hers and kissed her hand again. “Ready when you are.”
Chapter Ninety-Two
Bree
I was just getting used to Costa Rica when Nathan got that look in his eye again. We’d been living right on the coast for over a week, and I liked having the vendors at the open-air market recognize us. It felt good to belong somewhere, even if it was only for a little bit.
Then Nathan woke up with that edgy look, and I knew we’d be moving on soon.
Even as we strolled down the beach to our favorite sandy cove, I knew his mind was skipping miles ahead.
We had new passports, new IDs, and there hadn’t been a hint of anyone on our trail for almost a month. Still, I sensed something was worrying Nathan. And worrying meant we’d be back on the road soon.
Nathan spread out our blanket on the white sand, his attention elsewhere. Then I peeled off my sundress. The sight of my little black bikini revived him, and I was glad to see a hungry smile curve his lips.
“Good. I thought you were already miles away, but I want to be here with you one more time,” I said.
I stretched out on the blanket, and Nathan joined me with a searing kiss. He was back in the present with stunning force, and his passion pressed me into the soft white sand.
It was a private curve of beach where we hadn’t seen another soul all week. So, when his fingers untied the laces of my bikini, I was happy to let him pull them open. I pulled his shirt up and over his head, while he wriggled out of his swimsuit. Nathan moved to cover me with his body, but I rolled him back and straddled him instead.
Nathan groaned in delight and reached his hands up, but I swatted them back. “First, you have to tell me what’s on your mind.”
“Oh, don’t tease me like this, Bree.” Nathan bucked underneath me and gave us both a shock of pleasure.
“No. You can’t keep anything from me. That’s the deal, remember?” I grabbed his wrists and pressed them to the sand above his head. “Tell me what’s going on in that stubborn head of yours.”
Nathan could have fought off my hold without any strain, but he laid back captive on the white sand beach and grinned up at me. “You really want to know?”
I leaned forward and grazed my bare breasts along his chest. Nathan arched up, growling with pleasure. I shivered and felt my own control slipping.
“Yes, I want to know,” I said.
“What if it’s a surprise?” Nathan asked.
I shook my head. “No surprises. No planning things without me.”
Nathan chuckled and easily freed his wrists from my grasp. He groped along the edge of the blanket, found his shorts, and handed me a small black box.
“Guess I should have asked you about this first then. I suppose we could always return it,” Nathan said.
I opened the box and gaped at the diamond ring. It winked at me in every color of the rainbow before I dropped the box back onto the blanket.
Nathan sat up, settling me astride him. Then he reached for the ring and held it up.
“I know we should decide together, but I was thinking that if you said ‘yes,’ we could get married in Argentina.”
“Yes.”
“Yes to Argentina?” Nathan asked.
I laughed. “Yes to everything. Yes, yes, yes.”
He slipped the ring onto my finger and then rolled me over onto the blanket. We made love in the soft white sand with a brilliant blue sky above us.
And at our feet, the ocean stretched out before us with miles and miles of possibilities.
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