by Lacey Silks
As John held me around my waist, I felt a sense of peace wash over me. I never figured out what it was about him that drew us together so much, but his good heart could never be replaced. He was the reason I hadn’t run away from town yet. If it weren’t for his faith in Pace, I’d ditch this place and never look back. I’d take Xavier’s offer to leave without a second thought. But I couldn’t. John’s family was the only one I had. I’d been eating dinners at the Hernandez household for the past four years, ever since my parents died in that house fire.
“That sounds perfect,” he replied.
“Listen, have you seen this new guy in town? He’s passing through, and we ran into Ben last night at the Bistro.”
“You went to the Bistro? Anna, please tell me you’re joking.”
“You know how it is with Ben. You don’t have much choice when he corners you.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No, I’m fine.” I waved my hand as if my heart weren’t beating like crazy, ready to pop out of my chest.
“You shouldn’t have put yourself in that situation in the first place. Why did you cross the boundary?”
“I went to see my parents.” I lowered my head, and John brought me closer to his body.
“I’m so sorry, Anna. I know you want to visit. I just wish it weren’t on that side of town.”
The wave of cheering, stomping hooves, screaming, and clapping finally reached us, and the podium shook and swayed a little. My gaze darted to the ledge, where I’d left the basket of tomatoes. I pushed away from John and leapt for the container as it was sliding toward the edge of the step.
“Anna, don’t!” I heard behind me.
One of the passing bulls kicked its hind legs so high that it lifted him over a dozen feet in the air, until it was looking me right in the eye. I grabbed the basket and rolled to the left, but the strength of the stampede had forced a few spectators off balance, who bumped into each other and ultimately pushed me to the side and off the unstable podium. I rolled to the ledge, trying to grasp at the edges, but the momentum took me over.
No, no, no….
I quickly tucked the basket underneath my body and curled into a ball by the wall. I shut my eyes and breathed through my shirt as the dust spun, the earth shook, and my ears buzzed with the constant hum of the cheering crowd above me and stomping hooves merely a foot away.
A strong force grabbed me and pulled me aside, into a nook between two buildings.
“Didn’t I say you were too close to the rail?” John’s breaths were deep and heavy, as if he’d been running from the bulls since the gates opened. His forehead was smeared with dirt and sweat, and I could only imagine how awfully dirty I must have looked. Dirty, sweaty, and sexy, perhaps, because that’s how John appeared.
I felt blood rush through my veins. Excitement and desire blossomed in my chest, and I found it more difficult to remember that half-ton bulls were passing us a few feet to the right. And it was all because John was holding me in his arms, securely pinned against the wall. The near commotion was beginning to settle. A few of the slower cattle passed, and our mouths connected again as if we’d been starved for years. There was nothing innocent or tender about this kiss. It was hard and desperate, demanding and giving. It was the only way we could catch up from the week we spent apart. We kissed until the hum lowered to the sound of falling dust and the bulls had made it to their destination at the other end of the city. Feeling John’s hard erection against my thigh and the ample weight of my swelling breasts, I knew exactly where this was leading, and I couldn’t wait until I could once again feel John’s weight over my body. We hadn’t made love yet, as we’d promised to wait until we were married, but we fooled around enough to make the temptation utterly irresistible. I wasn’t sure that I could wait for him much longer.
“We’ll continue this tonight?” he asked. “I’ll come by after midnight.”
“I’ll leave the back door open.”
“Don’t. I’ll knock quietly. I don’t want your door open in this town, ever.”
“I know. I’m just kidding. I promise to lock up and be safe.”
The days of unlocked doors and no robberies were long gone. Now that I lived alone at the parish house, I had to be extra careful. After my parents died, the parish hired me as a secretary, and I then volunteered for the children’s ministry, which John had set up. It wasn’t an easy job, because dealing with crooks and thieves while teaching about faith and honesty took a skill of its own. The kids were good until they fell prey to the cartel — usually by the age of sixteen. After that, it was over. We were losing a few more good souls each year, and we didn’t know how to stop it.
My job included this rent-free accommodation, and since I didn’t want to be a burden on John’s family, this was where I now lived. My mother’s wish had always been to see her child stand on her own two feet, and so that’s what I had done.
It wasn’t until later that I realized my mother had truly feared for our lives. As soon as I found out that Alejandro Cortez left it up to his son to “buy” my land for nothing, I knew that donating it to the state and creating a national preserve was the right choice. The little chapel my parents rested in was the only structure that could stand on the land. Surrounded by fields of tiny wild sunflowers, it was the perfect resting place for my parents. No one could ever touch them again.
“Anna…” he warned. I loved the sound of his lowered voice. I found it extremely sexy.
“I promise to keep it locked, John.”
“Come on, let’s get cleaned up before dinner. Do we shower at your place or mine?”
“Mine is closer. And your mom will flip if she sees us covered in dirt at the fiesta. But I need to sneak you in. Father Francis gets anxious when you come around.”
“That’s because he knows what I want from you.”
“What is that?”
“Everything.” He sealed his request with his lips, and I wanted so much more than his giving mouth. The more time we spent together, the more difficult it became to resist his charms.
I showered first, changed into fresh clothes, and waited for John in the kitchen. Ever since I moved out of his house, he’d kept a few spare shirts at my place. The first few nights by myself were rough, but John had dutifully stayed at my side until I felt comfortable on my own. His house wasn’t far – a few minutes jog at the most, if I took the back fields. By the time John finished his shower and we left my home, the sun was getting low. A coyote’s howl echoed in the distant desert, and I felt shivers run over my arms.
“Should we have taken the fields?” I asked. Walking through the back roads, our chances of running into Ben were minimal. Out here, where I could see the motel and the Bistro to the left across the street, we knew we could run into trouble. Part of me wanted to see Ben. I wanted to know what had happened to Xavier.
“Maybe,” he said, looking over at the Bistro, where Ben was leaning against the railing.
“Hola, chiquita! Where are you going, my beautiful?”
John stilled.
“Ignore him, John.”
We continued our walk, this time with a little more hurry. I could feel John’s muscles bunch up as I held onto his hand.
“You come back to Pace and don’t say hello to an old friend, John? Or is it Father John already? You screwing around with a priest, chiquita? I have to say, Xavier was much better looking. He wanted you too, beautiful. He wanted you bad.”
John stopped for the second time.
“That’s not true, John. Xavier was a gentleman. Ben’s taunting you. Ignore him.”
“Where’s this Xavier guy?”
“I don’t know. I’m worried, John. I haven’t seen him since he pushed me out the back door of the Bistro yesterday and told me to go home.”
“Do you think he could be in trouble?” John asked, concern shadowing his face.
I nodded.
John stopped and turned around. “Where’s Xavier?” he called out.
“Come in for a beer and I’ll tell you.”
“John, don’t. I have a bad feeling.” I tugged at John’s arm.
“Come on, amigo.” Ben gestured to the front door. He was nothing close to a friend and never would be. I didn’t want John to be caught up in whatever scheme Ben was planning, but part of me was worried about Xavier as well. I wanted to know that he was all right.
“Just tell us where Xavier is and we’ll be on our way,” I called out.
“Oh, come on, beautiful. Let’s share a beer, like we did last night, and I’ll tell you.” He once again gestured with his hand to the bar.
“You had a beer with him?”
“It wasn’t like that, John.” Didn’t he know me? Didn’t he believe me? John gripped my hand with reassurance, and I knew that he did. There was a resolve inside him. He didn’t want to give up. He never did, and it was one of the wonderful qualities I’d fallen in love with when I met him.
“Learn from yesterday,” John said under his breath, and guided us toward Ben.
“John, please,” I begged, desperately pulling on his arm, which was now moving me closer to the Bistro.
“God will protect us,” he added.
My stomach tightened, but John had a plan. I could see it in his eyes. Holding onto his arm, I followed John as he turned to face Benjamin Cortez. “What do you want?”
“How about a little game of chess, for old time’s sake?”
“John’s parents are expecting us,” I said. “Everyone at the fiesta is expecting us.”
“Then we better stop wasting time, chiquita. Now, what are we playing for?” He rubbed his hands together, looking straight at me, his gaze placing me somewhere near the top of his prize list. The way Ben looked at me reminded me of the time a tarantula had crawled on my arm in the middle of the night. It wasn’t pleasant. It didn’t tickle.
“Do you have a death wish, Ben?” John growled, stepping slightly in front of me.
“More than one. You in or out?”
John waited patiently, and I wondered what was passing through his mind. I wanted to know what he was thinking so deeply about. John was a planner as well, just like Ben, but he was a different planner than Ben. John believed that God had a plan for him. That’s why he was fearless. His faith was stronger than that of anyone else I’d known.
“I want to know where Xavier is.” He paused for a moment. “What do you want? The only thing of worth I have are these tomatoes.” He pointed to the basket on my left arm.
Ben scanned me from my head all the way down to my toes, saying, “Then you don’t know what you have. Tomatoes it is, then.” A sly grin stretched across his face as he pushed open the wooden door to the Bistro. For the second time in two days, I walked through the entrance I’d once vowed to never walk through again.
Today, when I passed the Bistro’s threshold, the place was unrecognizable. The bar counter was littered with half-empty jugs of beer and countless shot glasses. Beer pitchers and mugs were scattered everywhere, and the smell of homemade cigars overpowered the place. A cloud of smoke drifted in circular patterns near the ceiling.
What the heck had happened here? I looked around the room, scanning the place for a bullet hole from the gunshot I thought I might have heard last night after Xavier forced me out of the building. When I didn’t find one, I let go of the stress in my shoulders. It was just the backfiring car after all. I couldn’t help searching for a puddle of blood on the floor, though, just to make sure. Although I didn’t find that either, my gaze caught the skeletal remains hanging on the wall and the gold Rolex I remembered Ben and Xavier playing for last night. It was hanging around the wrist bone and shone from across the room, reflecting the light of a nearby candleholder.
So Xavier lost?
I gasped on the inside, and my heart raced. While I knew that the skeleton couldn’t be Xavier’s, because it had been hanging there yesterday, I was more afraid for him now than ever.
Ben pulled out a chair at the same table we’d sat at last night, gesturing for me to sit beside him. I ignored his offer and chose the one next to John as they set up the chess set.
My head was spinning. What if Xavier was locked up in one of the rooms in the back? What if I was just sitting here, doing nothing, when I could have been looking for him? A stupid game of chess at the request of a soulless maniac was pointless.
I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t sit here and watch as John gambled over information without knowing if Ben would be truthful in the first place.
“I’m going to the washroom.” I stood up and walked away from the table. The sound of the screeching wooden legs over the floor sent goosebumps to my arms.
“Just don’t disappear like you did last night or your boyfriend will stay here forever,” Ben warned.
“I would never leave John.” My words didn’t feel as convincing as I wanted them to be.
Ben smirked, and choosing not to meet his gaze, I turned toward the back. I didn’t breathe until I disappeared around the corner and then proceeded down the dark hallway.
A few of the doors had their light on. Was Xavier behind one of them? And if so, was he there of his own free will? I started peeking through each keyhole. All the rooms where the lights were on were empty, except for the last one, where Ben’s brother, Mateo, was talking to their cousin, Pablo.
“You send this payment today and we’ll have double that in six months,” said Mateo.
“How do you propose we transfer twenty-five million without alerting the authorities? We’re already on their radar,” Pablo replied.
Twenty-five million?
My heart was beating so hard against my chest I was afraid it would rip from underneath my ribcage. I took a deep breath in, slowly released it, and lowered my eye back to the keyhole.
“I’ll think of something. You just make sure you’re ready to load when I say so. I wish Father would decide to leave this joint. It’s too small, and there are too many eyes.”
“You can’t get more remote than Pace.”
“Not unless we get our own place. Somewhere secluded up in the mountains.”
“That’s crazy. Father would never agree. Do you seriously want to be stuck up in the mountains? Don’t you want to live?”
“You have a family to think about now, Mateo.” Mateo’s youngest boy was one. I knew his mom; she’d gone to my high school and fell to Mateo’s charms as soon as the family moved to town. His other one was four already. “We’ll have our fun in due time, but we need to keep a low profile. It’s more crucial now with the new technology the police have. It seems that everyone has a television set now. When we were kids, there was one box for the whole town. Now, imagine our faces up on all those screens.”
“Who the fuck cares? Everyone knows who we are, and we shouldn’t have to hide,” Pablo replied.
“You’ll sing a different song when you’re facing life without parole and your only form of entertainment will be watching someone drop a bar of soap in the shower.”
“Whatever.” Pablo shrugged. “All I know is that I’m tired of the old man running the show. What’s the point of living if you’re confined to a shitty little town? It’s time they gave us a chance. Do you know what we could do with this money?”
“We’ll get our chance, Pablo. But for now, the money stays here. Keep your head low. My brother stirs up enough trouble for the three of us as it is.”
As soon as I saw them shift in the room, I gently stepped away from the door, and then ran on my toes to the disgusting bathroom. I didn’t even bother peeing. I was pretty sure all my bodily functions were afraid to let go, just as I feared that the information I just heard could one day get me in trouble. I couldn’t tell anyone about the illegal money. Besides, no one, with the exception of perhaps John and Xavier, would ever have enough courage to stand up to the Cortez family.
Xavier. I wondered whether he was all right. Had he lost his watch in that game, or had it been removed from his wrist
by force?
I left the bathroom and went back to the table, where only a few chess pieces remained on the board. John and Ben were each concentrating on the game and seemed to be moving much more quickly than Xavier had last night. Fresh sweat stains appeared on Ben’s shirt as he wiped his forehead. I didn’t know much about chess, but I’d seen John play enough with the youth at church to know that he had the winning position. Two more moves and he could call out a checkmate. He had Ben’s king cornered by two bishops. All John had to do was get help from his own king, but he didn’t. Instead, he opened his secure position on the other side of the board, and Ben called out a check. Another move that John shouldn’t have made, and the game was over.
“I won!” Ben threw his hands up high in the air. Pablo, who came out from the back room, let out an apathetic cheer of support.
“Fuck you, Pablo! I won!”
Pablo stopped and crossed his arms over his chest. “Tell me, cousin. What did you win? A thousand bucks? A new watch or a car? It must be a big prize that made you so happy.”
Ben’s joy disappeared as he looked down at the basket of tomatoes John had picked up from the floor.
“A fair deal is a fair deal. Here are your tomatoes, Ben. Enjoy them.”
Ben frowned and took the basket. When he gazed at the fruit, his look of satisfaction faded, but not for long. He smirked, strolled over to the large garbage bin by the bar, and dumped the entire contents.
“Those were good tomatoes,” I said, through gritted teeth, and John gently squeezed my arm to keep me from rushing toward the container.
“Want to come and pick them out, chiquita?”
My urge stopped as fast as it began.
“I hope you choke on them.”
“Pick some more tomorrow and come to my house. We’ll make sauce, or whatever you want. Or maybe you’d prefer to have me come over?”
“The only time I’ll come over to see you willingly is when you’re in a casket.”
