Not good.
“So Rick couldn’t … He didn’t have any advice for you?” she asked anyway.
He seemed to tense, like the outline of a shadow sharpening. Then relaxed. “Actually, he had a couple good things to say. I’ll tell you about it over lunch.”
She took a few minutes to change. Put on shorts and a T-shirt and her Mephisto sandals.
“You have any aloe?” he asked. “I got a little burned out there.”
“Sure,” she said, handing him the tube from her toiletry kit. “Look, why don’t we just have lunch here?”
She didn’t like the idea of going up the river someplace, no matter how safe he claimed it was. She still didn’t know how safe she was with him.
He screwed the top on the aloe and handed the tube back to her. He wasn’t smiling. In a way that comforted her. She’d learned not to trust the smile.
“It’s a better place for us to talk. That’s what you’ve been wanting, right? And I figure I owe you.”
“I should get my purse,” she said as they passed the office.
“Seems like a pain to carry. Anything you need in it?”
“Well, my wallet.”
“Come on, you don’t need that,” he said, rubbing her shoulder. “You can treat me next time.”
• • •
They walked up the trail on the north side of the river, winding past shacks and makeshift corrals where horses grazed and stamped at flies. Cicadas rasped, so loudly that they took on the quality of machinery. The heat in the late afternoon was as oppressive as ever, and with the dirt from the trail powdering her feet and calves she longed for an ocean wave to wash her clean.
“How long do you want to stay here?” she asked.
“Maybe another day.”
“Do you think … Is it safe back in Vallarta?”
“Yeah. I mean, look … Whatever’s going on up there, with … with the guys competing, it doesn’t have anything to do with us.”
That stopped her in her tracks.
“How can you say that? After last night—”
“He wanted to get my attention,” he said quietly. “Well, he’s got it. But it’s their fight. Let them have it.”
“And you don’t care who wins?”
“Can’t afford to.”
Chaos will only benefit the most wicked.
Up ahead was a skinny trail that curled into a thicket of banana trees and out of sight. A hand-painted sign for “Casita Alma” hung crookedly on a fence pole, strung up with wire.
“Here,” he said.
The path led to a clearing by the river: a cracked cement patio and two tiny buildings made of wood and tin. No one was there. Padlocked wooden shutters covered the windows. Daniel stood behind her, at the entrance to the path.
“Looks closed,” she said, turning to him.
Daniel nodded.
He’d known that all along, she realized.
He reached into his pocket. “What are you doing with this?”
She saw what he held in his hand.
Gary’s watch.
[CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX]
She thought about running. Or nearly bolted before she thought again. Where could she run? Daniel blocked the path. Trees and banana plants surrounded the little clearing. The river? Maybe. Over the rail, into the shallows …
But if she tried it and he caught her, then what?
“It’s not—”
“Don’t fucking tell me what it’s not.” He gripped the watch like he’d crush it if he could. “Tell me what it is. Why do you have this?”
It was a gift. From my nephew. So I can take pictures without people seeing me. I promised him I’d …
She thought all that. Maybe she could sell it. Maybe he’d buy the lie. Maybe he wouldn’t.
“Gary,” she said.
He didn’t say anything right away. She couldn’t read his expression clearly, behind the sunglasses. She had the impression that he was looking at her but not seeing her. That he was thinking it through.
“Fucking Gary,” he finally said.
He stood there, staring at the watch. “You really had me going, you know? You’re a real fucking pro.”
“I’m not,” she said. “That’s not it at all. I didn’t want to—”
“But the way you kept turning up, I had to be sure.” He tossed the watch around in his hand. “How much did he pay you? Or are you a regular?”
“There’s hardly anything on it. If you looked, you saw—”
“How long have you been working for him?”
“I—”
His fists clenched, and he took a step toward her, and then he threw the watch to the ground.
“If that asshole thinks a dick move like this is what’s gonna keep me in line, he just fucking screwed the pooch, because I am done with this bullshit job.”
“Please,” she said. “Please let me explain. I didn’t want to do this.”
“You know, I should fucking kill you.”
She stared at him.
If he takes another step, a single step, run.
“Can we talk?”
He stared back, light reflecting off his sunglasses, making them a mask.
“Please,” she said. “After everything we … You said we’d talk. That’s all I’m asking. Just … Don’t you want to know?”
He swallowed. She could see the bulge of his throat move, and then he gestured at one of the tables. “Okay. Let’s talk.”
She told him everything, all of it. She’d heard about people confessing things, to police or interrogators, and she got it now, how releasing the tension of keeping the guilty secret felt something like joy, regardless of the consequences.
When she finished, he sat there, the muscles in his jaw working.
“I’m sorry,” Michelle said.
Something seemed to break in him. His expression cracked. He looked away.
“Yeah, aren’t we all?”
He reached down, scooped up the watch and put it back in his pocket. Stood. “Come on.”
“Where—” Her voice caught. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m not going to hurt you. Jesus. I’m not …” He ground the heel of his hand into his forehead. “Just forget it.”
He turned and headed to the path that led out of the clearing. She got up and followed him.
They walked back to the hotel in silence. Questions pinballed in her mind, but she wasn’t about to ask them.
“Pack your stuff,” he said when they reached the cabana. He pulled the door open, hard enough that it banged into the wall, and went inside.
The room smelled like heated dust.
“Where are we going?”
“You’re getting on the next water taxi out of here. It’s none of your fucking business where I’m going.”
For a moment she was speechless with rage. This isn’t my fault! she wanted to scream. I’m not the criminal here—you are!
And then she thought, What’s wrong with you? He’s letting you go. Just get out.
She nodded and went into the bathroom and packed up her toiletry kit. Grabbed her bathing suit and sarong.
When she came out, he was sitting on the bed, shoulders slumped, hands resting slack on his lap. He didn’t look up.
“I’ll talk to Gary,” he said. “I’ll tell him to lay off you.”
She almost laughed. “You think he’ll listen?”
“He should. This is between him and me anyway. He didn’t have any business bringing you into it.”
“So who is he, Danny? Is he your boss? Who does he work for?”
“I can’t talk about that.”
“Give me a break.”
She gathered up the rest of her clothes and stuffed them into her tote bag. Daniel still sat on the bed, staring at his hands.
“Look,” he finally said. “You don’t have to go.”
“You know what? Fuck you.”
Just say something, she thought as she walked toward the doo
r. Say one thing, to stop me.
He didn’t.
She walked outside. Clouds had started to pile up over the bay.
It looked to be another beautiful fucking sunset.
[CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN]
Michelle sat in the water taxi, toward the back, against the side of the boat. Felt the ocean spray hit her face, the hull of the panga lap against the waves, a rhythmic series of thumps. And wondered what the fuck she was going to do now.
It was stupid to have hoped that Daniel would be her way out of this; she’d known that all along, but a part of her had still hoped it. Because he’d been nice. Because she’d liked sleeping with him.
Because in spite of everything that had happened, she’d still wanted some guy to rescue her.
Stupid, she told herself, you really are stupid.
By the time she stepped onto the cement pier at Los Muertos, she realized that her options had narrowed down to one.
Get out of town. Just get on the next bus, going anywhere. To Guadalajara or Mexico City. To someplace far away from here. As far from Gary as she could get.
She couldn’t trust that Daniel would intercede with him on her behalf. Didn’t know that it would do any good if he did. Whatever this thing between Gary and Daniel was about, people were getting killed over it, and she was pretty sure that Gary didn’t care if she lived or died.
Maybe Daniel cared, a little, but not enough to do anything about it.
She walked up to the street that ended at the pier and ran up to Olas Altas, paused for a moment by the shop that sold the Frida and Che tote bags and cheap inflatable water toys that smelled of sticky plastic, scanning the street for a cab.
Then she remembered the money.
Gary’s money.
She had about seven hundred dollars with her. The rest of it, more than three thousand dollars, sat in the safe of her room at Hacienda Carmen.
“Shit,” she muttered. Sure, she had her credit cards, some of which were paid off now, thanks to Gary. But if he could pay them off that easily, couldn’t he just max them out again? Even put out a fraud alert or something.
She didn’t want to go back there. Didn’t want to risk it. But the money. She needed the money if she was going to run.
You couldn’t get very far without money.
Just go inside, grab the money, and get out, she told herself, as she unlatched the heavy wrought-iron gate that barred Hacienda Carmen’s driveway.
“Hello, Señora Mason!” Paloma called out from her station at the front desk. “Did you have a nice time?”
“It was great,” she said, mustering a smile. “Really nice, thanks.”
Walk upstairs, she told herself. Just walk upstairs and get the money. Even if Paloma was Gary’s spy, she wasn’t doing anything suspicious. She wasn’t going to look like she was running. She was going to get the money and walk out with her tote bag and her hobo, and that was all.
She was going out for a coffee. Or to drop off some laundry. That made sense, didn’t it?
Her room was closed up and stifling hot, but she wasn’t going to take the time to do anything about that. She grabbed the money from the safe, stuffed half in her wallet. The rest … she thought about it. In the small toiletries kit she’d taken with her to the village. That would be good.
As long as she was here, what else? A couple pairs of clean underwear and a fresh bra. The light sweater she’d worn on the plane. A blouse she particularly liked.
She hesitated, then told herself, Don’t get caught up in this. Leave the rest behind, so it won’t look like you’re running. You can buy what you need on the road. Get out, and get out now.
She’d been there five minutes at most.
She closed and locked the door and walked through the courtyard, tote bag on one shoulder, hobo on the other, nodded at a couple having drinks by the fountain, and waved to Paloma at the front desk as she opened the wrought-iron gate.
She stepped out onto the uneven sidewalk. Looked down the street for a cab.
“Hey, Michelle. You have a nice vacation?”
He’d waited for her by the gate, and now Gary stood close to her, too close, resting a hand on her upper arm, foot practically touching hers.
“It was interesting,” she said.
How could he know? Even if her room was bugged or Paloma was a spy for him, how could he have gotten here so quickly?
“Why didn’t you call me?”
Maybe there was someone else, someone following her. One of Oscar’s men. Someone on the boat.
“I just got back.”
“Oh?” His hand gripped her arm now, hard enough to bruise. His other hand reached into her tote bag, pulled it open. “Where are you going with all this?”
“To the laundry. Let go of me.”
His grip tightened. “You weren’t thinking about running, were you, Michelle? I’d hate to think you’d try something stupid like that.”
Maybe Daniel had called him.
“Let go of me, Gary.”
He held on a moment longer, then released her.
“Why don’t we go sit down and have a drink?” he said. “You can tell me all about your trip.”
Olas Altas was eerily quiet. A few customers sat outside at the tables that lined the edge of the sidewalk, drinking beers and margaritas, but the music from the bars was muted. Signs on some restaurants announced that they were closed until the fall, until after the summer rains, when the tourists would return.
“Kind of nice this time of year, isn’t it?” Gary said. “If you can take the heat and the rain.”
Michelle nodded and sipped her Perrier and thought about what she should say. What was safe to tell him.
“You never told me that Danny was in the air force,” she said.
Gary gave a little half shrug, like this was nothing very important. “Yeah, he was. He tell you about that?”
“So he just went from the air force to being, to being some kind of criminal?”
Now Gary eyed her with more than usual attention. “Just what are you getting at, Michelle?”
“I don’t know, Gary. Why don’t you tell me? Who does Danny really work for? And you?”
Gary took a moment to swirl the ice around in his tumbler. “Well now, it’s complicated. But I can tell you this much, okay? Danny’s gone off the reservation. That’s what’s motivated a lot of this. That’s why it’s so important for us to know what he’s up to.”
Of course he wasn’t going to tell her. Why had she even bothered to ask?
Just to let him know that she wasn’t stupid enough to believe all his lies.
“You’re going to have to find someone else to do it,” she said. “I’m done.”
“Now, we’ve been over this before, Michelle. You’re done when I say you’re done.” He smiled, the smile that pushed up his cheeks but didn’t reach his eyes. “And haven’t I been making it worth your time?”
She might as well tell him the truth. A lie wasn’t going to help.
“You don’t understand. He found the watch, Gary.”
For a long moment, Gary sat there staring, a puffy-eyed predator making his evaluation of her from across the bar table.
“Well, shoot,” he said. He took a long sip of his whiskey. “So how’d he react?”
“How do you think he reacted? He was furious! I thought he was going to kill me. Jesus.”
“Now, now.” He reached across the table and patted her hand. “I don’t blame you for being upset. I warned you, Danny’s a dangerous guy. Just tell me what happened.”
She jerked her hand away. “Why don’t you ask him yourself?”
“Because I’m asking you.”
He didn’t have to say anything else. She knew that it was a threat.
You have to calm down, she told herself. You have to play this right.
“Start from the beginning,” he said. “Where you went, who you saw, and what you did.”
She told him. How Danny wanted to meet
a friend of his for fishing and for advice. How he’d invited her to go along. She didn’t mention Oscar. It was too late for that, she thought. Too hard to explain without admitting that she’d kept it from him before.
Then the watch.
“I don’t know what set him off,” she said. “Just that I kept turning up everywhere, that’s all he said. I don’t know, maybe that’s why he wanted to go out with me in the first place. So he’d have a better chance to check me out.”
“You tell him about me?”
“I had to, Gary. I had to tell him something. What else was I supposed to do?”
He let out a huge sigh. “Fair enough, I guess. What’d he say when you told him?”
“That it was a dick move. That he’d had it with you and your bullshit and the job. That you never should have involved me in the first place.”
Daniel’s words, but they could have been her own.
Fucking Gary.
“He said all that, did he?”
Gary leaned back in his chair and appeared to consider.
“Well, I guess that’s that,” he said. “Give me a couple of days to sort things out, get you your passport. In the meantime you just hang tight, okay? Don’t go running off anywhere. You’re safer if you just stay put.”
He clinked the ice against the side of the tumbler and chuckled. “Guess you were right about that watch. Not such a good idea.”
She couldn’t believe that he would just let her go. It couldn’t be so easy. Could it? What to do now?
Maybe exactly what she’d planned to do. Okay, she could believe that Gary had people spying on her, who’d maybe even followed her down the coast. Paid some local kid who needed the money to keep an eye on her. Easy enough to do.
But there was simply no way Gary could find her wherever she went. Was there? If she just started walking north along the Malecón, caught a taxi somewhere on the way, and went to the bus station, how could Gary possibly find out?
Unless he’d put something—one of his stupid spy toys, some kind of bug or tracker—in her things. Maybe she hadn’t looked carefully enough.
She stood there on the corner of Olas Altas and Basilio Badillo, sweat running down her forehead, dripping down her back. The sun was setting, but it wasn’t taking the heat with it.
I won’t try to run again, not tonight, she thought. Gary was already on the alert. She’d have to wait awhile, a day at least, pretend she was going along with him.
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