by Tess Oliver
Fernando had left his lawyer’s business suit behind for a denim shirt and jeans. He was the first familiar face to appear at the car. Blood dripped down the front of his shirt from a cut on his chin. I reached up and unlocked the door. He slid inside.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine. A beer bottle got me on the way out.” He looked down at his shirt. “I guess this shirt is history.” Then he grew quiet.
“What is it, Fernando? Where’s Dray?”
He shook his head. “Rico’s men dragged him out of there so fast we couldn’t get to him.”
“But we can follow them to the jail, right? We can go get him right now.”
Fernando reached up and rubbed his forehead. “We’ll get him, Cassie. I need to get in there and talk to Rico. Hopefully, he’ll be willing to negotiate. The whole evening played out in a way I wasn’t expecting.”
I sat back and crossed my arms around myself. “That makes two of us.”
Minutes later, Clutch and Nix got into the car. Fernando took the wheel, and Nix and I climbed into the backseat. He put his arm around me. I pressed my face into his shirt and cried. “We’ll find him, Cassie,” he said with shaky confidence.
“What’s next?” Clutch asked.
Fernando turned the car out onto the long stretch of highway that would take us back to Mazatlan.
I sat forward. “We can’t go back to Mazatlan. We have to go to the jail. We have to get to Dray. He’s hurt.” I sobbed. “He needs us.”
“Yeah,” Nix said, “is there some place closer we could stay? I don’t feel comfortable driving so far away from here knowing that Dray is in trouble.”
“There’s a little dive of a motel about fifteen miles up the highway. I know the owner, and I’m sure he’ll give us a couple of rooms. Then we can figure out what we’re going to do next.” Fernando’s tone was not the sharp, confident lawyer tone he’d used when we first went to his office. “I’m not completely sure what went on in that bar tonight, but Rico has always been a greedy schemer. When he thinks he can make money, he goes for it. It all seems to have to do with the fact that his stupid, thick-skulled lackeys decided to let the town know that Dray was great fighter. The tables got turned on Rico. Your friend really took a beating.”
“That wasn’t like Dray,” Nix said. “I didn’t get to see much from where I stood. What did you see, Clutch? Why did the other guy have such an advantage?”
“Not sure. It seemed that once the fight started, Dray couldn’t keep up. The guy hit him hard once, and Dray looked as if he’d been hit by a bag of bricks. The guy must have had a lethal jab.”
A knot hardened in my throat. “It seems that with those big metal rings around their fingers, anyone would be hurt badly by a punch. I had no idea that they wore those under their gloves.”
The car fell silent. Fernando’s eyes popped up into the rearview mirror, and Clutch twisted around and looked back at me.
“What metal rings?” Clutch asked.
“That silver bar that looks like a bunch of rings hooked together. I’ve seen it in movies, brass knuckles is what they call them, I think.”
Nix turned to me. “When did you see that?”
“While you were talking to Fernando. I wandered around, and I saw Rico helping the fighter get his hands wrapped. They slid the brass knuckles on his fingers before they put on the wraps and gloves.” From the looks on their faces, I’d just exposed Rico’s big secret. “So, they don’t usually wear those?”
Clutch smiled. “You’re a good little spy, Cass.”
Nix put his arm around me again. “No, they don’t wear them, and I’m sure Dray wasn’t given a pair to fight with. That’s why he was so outmatched.”
“Rico must have decided to switch his bet after he discovered that everyone else was betting on Dray,” Fernando said.
“But he needed to make sure that Dray lost,” Nix added.
Fernando shook his head. “Man, if the people knew that Rico had rigged the fight and the odds like that, they’d run him out town for good.” Fernando and Clutch exchanged grave looks as if they’d both come to the same thought at once.
“Sonavabitch,” Nix muttered. “We’ve got to get Dray out of there.”
“You’ve lost me and you guys are freaking me out. What’s wrong?” I asked.
Nix’s arm tightened around me. “Dray is proof that Rico cheated. Dray knows he was getting slammed by a pair of brass knuckles. That’s why Rico’s men dragged him out of there so fast. Dray’s the only proof that he cheated.”
I bit my lip, refusing to cry again. I was here to help, not fade into a sobbing mess at every piece of horrifying news. I swallowed and felt in my pocket to make sure my camera was still there. “Fernando, keep driving on to Mazatlan.”
He looked up at me in the rearview. Clutch turned around again.
I looked at all of them. “I need to get to a computer and printer. Dray is not the only proof that Rico cheated.”
Chapter 28
Dray
I floated in and out of consciousness but I was still able to make out my surroundings. I was back in Rico’s shithole of a jail. Chills and aches wracked my body. I turned on my side to try and get warm. They’d dragged me away from the fight, and my shirt and shoes had been left behind. Even in my half-dazed stupor, I knew Rico’d had me taken away fast before his secret had gotten out. I’d been worried about lax rules or a dirty-fight, but never had I expected my opponent to be wearing armor on his knuckles. His first jab had cracked my jaw. After that, I was too stunned to put up a good defense. It had only taken a few good blows before blood started to stream from every possible place. The rest of the fight had been confusion and chaos, and, through the fog clouding my head, I’d actually imagined that Cassie was standing outside of the fight calling to me.
A trickle of sunlight came down through the window. Either I’d grown used to the horrid smell of the cell or my nose and mouth were too swollen and caked with blood to smell anything.
It had been a long time since I’d had a fever, but I was feeling one now and it was a bad. I brought my knees up to my chest for warmth. The chills made my chin shake uncontrollably, which, with a cracked jaw, was nothing short of torture.
I heard some voices in the office, but I didn’t have the strength or will to listen. The bargain I’d made with Rico had been my freedom for a win. I’d lost the fight. Of course the asshole had made sure that that would happen. I had no idea what would happen now, and I felt so fucking rotten I almost didn’t care.
The voices in the office grew louder. I shut my eyes against the pain in my body, but it did little to relieve the agony. Just as I was about to drift back into a blissful state of unconsciousness, the office door flew open. I lifted my head. It throbbed as if someone had bounced it off of a cement wall, and I lowered it again.
A giant figure pressed up against the bars. “Dray, it’s me.” Clutch’s booming voice echoed off the brick walls of my cell.
I lifted my hand to assure him I was still alive.
“Hang in there, Buddy, we’re going to get you out of there.”
Two men spoke angrily to each other in fluent Spanish. I recognized Rico’s deep, hoarse voice but not the second one. With all my strength, I pushed to sitting. The room swayed and I clutched the edge of the bed to keep from falling face first onto the floor.
The tremors in my body came faster and harder. I crossed my arms over my bare chest to keep myself together. I tried to focus on the scene outside my cell. After being in the dark, dank cell all morning, the light coming from the office was harsh, and squinting made my head hurt more.
“Christ, Dray,” Clutch muttered. “I just might rip these fucking bars apart.”
Two more figures rushed into the corridor.
“It’s all taken care of.” I recognized Nix the second he spoke. I had no idea what he’d taken care of, but I wished like hell that I was on the other side of the damn bars. Nix and Clutch were ten
feet away, but they could have been a country away for all it mattered.
A very small figure came out of the shadows of the corridor. I grabbed the edge of the bed to steady myself. My heart had already been racing and now it felt as if it would explode from my chest. I blinked at her, and she stared back at me with tear-glossed eyes. She looked pale and tiny and sad and like a goddamned angel.
“Cassie?”
Chapter 29
Cassie
In the few years that I’d known him, the man had caused me a tsunami of grief and pain, but it had been nothing compared to the emotion I felt when I saw him sitting in that dingy, squalid cell. His face was flushed with fever, and his jaw and lip were swollen. His neck, shoulders and bare chest were smeared with dry blood. His agonized gaze landed on my face and, instantly, tears streamed down my cheeks.
“Oh, Dray.” His name stuck in my throat along with the sobs I’d swallowed back. Now wasn’t the time to lose myself. We needed to get Dray out and fast. I handed Clutch the picture. He pressed it in the man’s face, the man who’d kept Dray captive and who’d nearly killed him out of greed.
Fernando and Rico exchanged some angry words that ended with Rico tearing up the picture and throwing it at us like confetti.
“Does he know there are more?” Clutch asked.
Fernando nodded. “Si— uh yes, I told him.”
The man’s lips pulled tight in his leathery face as he walked to the cell door and unlocked it. He yanked it open and then left without another word. Dray stared wide-eyed at the open door as if he was trying to decide whether it was real or just a mirage.
His body trembled almost uncontrollably as he pushed off the bed and stood. He wavered as if the ground was made of gelatin. Clutch and Nix pushed into the cell and caught him before he collapsed.
“We’ve got you,” Nix said. “Now, let’s get the hell out of Dodge.”
They half-carried Dray through the small office. Rico made no move to stop us, but he yelled something sharply at Fernando as we exited out into the warm air.
Dray fell headlong into the backseat. Then with considerable effort, he squeezed his body into a corner of the seat and hugged himself against the chills.
I looked back at the guys. “He’s freezing.”
Clutch pulled off his shirt and handed it to me. I climbed inside and gave it to Dray. He never lifted his gaze as he took hold of the shirt. He looked so sad and distant, and his agony was palpable. He struggled into the shirt and then rested his head against the ledge of the window. We’d found him, but he’d been really lost this time.
His handsome face was twisted in pain. I reached up and touched his forehead. He didn’t pull away from my hand. His skin was burning with fever. Fernando climbed into the driver’s seat. Clutch sat shotgun. Nix climbed into the backseat with Dray and me.
Nix looked as worried as I felt. He took my hand and squeezed it.
Fernando glanced back over the seat at Dray. “I know a good medical clinic in Mazatlan. We’ll take him there.”
Nix leaned forward. “Hey, thanks for all your help, Fernando. Let’s hurry.”
Dray opened his eyes as if his lids weighed a hundred pounds each. His long lashes drifted down again. “Who’s Fernando?” he asked weakly.
Fernando turned around again. “I’m Fernando.”
“Cassie’s friend put us in contact with him once we got down here. He’s a lawyer and a damn fine one too,” Nix said.
“So, he got me out?” Dray asked trying hard to keep his eyes open.
Fernando glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “No, I think you can thank Cassie for that. She took a picture of Rico wrapping your opponent’s hands.” He looked back over the seat at Dray. “I guess you already figured out that the guy was wearing brass knuckles.”
Dray smiled weakly. “On the first jab.”
“We just blackmailed Rico into letting you out. Cassie had a hundred pictures printed. We told Rico that a friend of mine was going to hand them out if we didn’t return to town with you in an hour. That would be the end of his control out here,” Fernando continued.
“Are we going to let your friend know that we got Dray out?” Clutch asked.
Fernando shrugged. “I thought we’d just let him hand out the pictures. Rico needs to finish his reign of greed and brutality.”
Clutch laughed.
Dray looked over at me for the first time since we’d climbed into the car. It seemed to take every ounce of his energy, and it took every ounce of my self-control not to throw my arms around him. Then his eyes drifted shut again. He scooted toward the window and then, without another word, he lowered his head onto my lap. I pressed my hand against the warm skin of his face and then I let the tears flow.
Chapter 30
Cassie
Dash leaned closer. “I swear to God if that bone thin woman in the over-starched, floral print dress photo bombs one more of my pictures, I’m going to throw a blue whale sized fit.”
I smiled up at him. “Blue whale sized?”
He shrugged. “It’s the only really big thing I could think of in my moment of rage. Seriously, these high society women either take over-posed pictures that are more rigid than the sticks they have up their perky, surgically lifted asses, or they are diving into every photo no matter what the circumstance or subject.”
I sighed in agreement. “Truthfully Dash, on my return flight I spent a lot of time wondering if this gig was for me at all. If I have to spend another day taking pictures of boring, self-important people I may just toss my camera into the Hudson.” The day after we’d freed Dray from jail, I’d received a sharply worded message from Mr. Evans that I was to return immediately or risk losing my position. Dray had been admitted to the hospital in Mazatlan, and the doctor had assured us that with fluids and antibiotics he’d recover quickly. There had been a great deal of internal bruising and a cracked jaw but he was out of danger. And so, with a heavy heart, I boarded a plane back to New York.
Dray had been too drugged to pay attention to visitors, so I’d had to drag myself away without saying good bye. But all that mattered was that Dray was free. Nix had texted me on Sunday night that they were at the airport and ready to head home. Just the thought of all of them flying back to California without me left me feeling beyond homesick, I felt depressed and alone, and New York felt colder and more desolate than ever.
“Well, I think we’re done here for the day,” Dash said. “The van is out front.” He raised his arm for me to take. “Let’s head back, my sweet.”
“Dash,” I said as we crossed the finely manicured lawn of the estate, “thank you for always being so cool about everything. Thanks for being a friend right from the start.”
He leaned over and kissed the top of my head. “You’re welcome, Cassie. And I’m sorry that you’re not happy here. I can’t imagine what it would be like to leave all your friends behind. And now, over lunch, you must tell me all about your trip down to Mexico. It sounds like just the gritty, adventurous story that would go perfectly with a pastrami sandwich . . . my treat.”
***
I nibbled on the dill pickle. Dash had been kind enough to pay for lunch, but the pastrami lacked appeal. “It was so sweet of you to pay for lunch, Dash, but I’m afraid this sandwich is too much. Do you want the other half? Or should we take it to Jolene?”
Dash laughed. “That half of a sandwich would last her for three months. As you probably noticed, Jolene doesn’t actually eat. She just nibbles.” He leaned forward as if Jolene was within hearing distance somewhere in the crowded deli. “She obsesses about her weight.”
“That’s too bad.”
He waved his hand. “Enough about that. What happened down in Mexico?”
I picked at the top of the roll. “It’s kind of hard to talk about. My friend, Dray, had gotten arrested and thrown into a really shady jail.”
“Dray? He’s your ex, right?”
I looked down at my plate. “Yeah, he is.”
>
“Uh oh, I hit a major sore spot.” Dash reached over and grabbed a potato chip from my plate.
I sat back with a sigh. “He was in bad shape from a fight when I left him. It hurt horribly to see him like that. I realized how much I still wanted to be with him, to take care of him. He grew up in this awful house, with an abusive dad, and he’s always been kind of a mess because of it. But when we were together—” My throat tightened around the words. “—we needed each other. But we let it slip out of our hands. He’s shut me out now. I blew it and now I’ve lost him for good.” My phone rang and I dug into my purse for it.
“Hey, Nix, everything all right?”
“Yeah, just wanted to let you know we are all back home.”
“That’s good. How is he doing?”
Nix hesitated for a second. “He’s better, but I don’t know Cass. I’m really worried about him. He’s had a lot of crap to deal with these past few months. I’ve never seen him this down.” He paused again. “He was really bummed when he found out you’d already gone back to New York.”
“Was he really, Nix? He didn’t seem that thrilled to see me.”
“I think he was in shock when he saw you. Besides, he was completely out of it when we got to the jail. You were the first person he asked for when we went in to visit him. He didn’t say a word to any of us the whole flight home.”
My chest tightened as he spoke. “It’s hard, Nix. It’s hard being all the way over here with him so far, with all of you so far,” my words broke.
“Hey, Cassie,”
“Yeah?”
Dash handed me his napkin, and I wiped my nose.
“We’re here whenever New York gets too lonely.”
“Yeah, I know,” I sobbed into the phone. “I’ve got to go, Nix. Thanks for calling.”
Dash leaned back and stared like a photographer sizing up his subject.
I wiped my nose again and wadded up the napkin. “What are you looking at?”
“I’m looking at a gorgeous girl who jumped on a plane to start a cool new photography career in an exciting new town. But there was a big problem with her fairytale story. She left something very important back home.”
