Life has been a whirlwind of happy surprises. I have the love of my very long life. I told her about the garden today. At first, she looked at me kind of strangely, but then she just said that it was about time I let her in on my little secret. She wants to see the garden as soon as possible. I told her she can see it after we’re committed to each other. She seemed to understand, but is a little bit gun-shy about the “M” word.
Although she works full time at the clinic, we spend every spare minute together. A few nights, she didn’t get any sleep because we spent long hours talking. Her laughter fills the halls of the mansion and the empty spaces of my heart. She is unlike any other girl I’ve met. I love her. I hope she feels the same way about me. Only time will tell, I suppose.
The last entry was written two weeks after they were married.
My Chrissie was taken from me. I was only gone for ten minutes! The room had been ransacked, and she lay strewn across the bed. I felt if I picked her up too fast, she would shatter in my arms into a million pieces. I held her limp body and cried like a baby. I didn’t bother calling for an ambulance, for it was quicker if I took her myself. The hospital asked me all sorts of questions that I couldn’t answer. I felt so helpless. Arturo and María came straightway to be with me. I didn’t leave her side the whole week. Her mother and father came for her and took her back to the States for better treatment. I had to leave before they came because they didn’t know about me yet. We hadn’t decided what to tell them. I watched them leave. The necklace I gave her this morning was gone. I’m sure someone took it. I haven’t left the mansion since she has been gone. Everything seems so dull, and my life feels over. I want to die.
Chrissie began crying. “He really cared about me.” The reading had made her eyes heavy, and she was emotionally drained. She closed the journal and returned it to the drawer. She thought she would just lie down for a little while to rest her eyes.
She must have slept through lunch and part of the afternoon. It was so hard to open her eyes.
She heard the bedroom door open. “I found her, guys. She’s in here.” It was Brant. Her Brant.
She stretched and yawned wide.
Brant came over to her side. “We’ve been looking all over for you. María was worried when she couldn’t find you for lunch. My bedroom was the last place I expected to find you.”
Chrissie propped herself up on her elbow. “I guess I was out longer than I expected.” How was she supposed to explain how she ended up in his room? “I found an empty bed and fell asleep.”
“Well, Goldilocks, let’s get you some lunch.” He looked down at his watch. “Or an early dinner.”
Chrissie’s stomach growled. “Good idea.”
Chapter 21
Arturo, María, Brant, and Chrissie all sat around the kitchen table, eating dinner. María had prepared a gourmet meal, as usual.
“Every street corner has one of Franco’s men on it,” Arturo commented. Brant shot Arturo a look, like he didn’t want Arturo to bring that up in front of Chrissie. “I noticed. I had to ditch my truck at Xavier’s house and hike up the mountain home so they couldn’t follow me.”
“He’s not giving up,” Brant commented. “Chrissie and I won’t be able to leave the mountain. They know who we are.”
Chrissie kept quiet. She wanted them to continue talking, but they didn’t. She longed to go down to the village again. Now that the cartel were making their presence known in the tiny community, it nixed any chances of her getting down there until they were gone.
* * *
Chrissie hit her twenty-eight-week mark. She felt large and cumbersome, as she had acquired a slight waddle. She didn’t know how she would make it another twelve weeks. Every morning, she trekked to the fountain to swim and relieve her aching body. The water seemed to fizz around her skin, and it reduced some of the swelling on her ankles and fingers. Her hair seemed to grow at a rapid rate, and now it reached her waist. Twelve more weeks seemed like such a long time to wait when her body was uncomfortable. The baby pushed and stretched against her insides impatiently.
She watched Brant tend to the garden from her swimming spot. He worked so hard pruning and weeding, taking great care over each plant. His green T-shirt fit him in all the right spots. His biceps stretched the sleeves tightly. He turned around and smiled at her with his broad white grin. He was so gorgeous that the butterflies in her stomach flipped in havoc every time she stole a glance at him.
“I’m going inside. Will you be okay?” Brant wiped his sweaty brow with the back of his arm.
“Yeah, I’ll be there in a little while.” Chrissie smiled.
Brant crouched down by the fountain. “You know, I was thinking . . .” He seemed a little flustered.
What was he going to ask her that would make him so nervous?
“I was thinking that you should move into my room.” He cleared the frog from his throat. “So I can watch out for you. That’s all.”
“That’s all?” Chrissie asked hesitantly.
“Well, you do end up in my bed every other night from nightmares or because your bed is not to your liking,” Brant defended.
“True,” Chrissie admitted. She liked seeing Brant squirm a bit in uncomfortable silence.
“You don’t have to worry. I’ll be a good boy. I won’t try to put the moves on you.” He winked.
“What? You don’t like ‘the stick girl who swallowed a melon’ look?”
“Oh, that’s my favorite type of girl these days. Besides, I like you better next to me. I think I sleep better too.” Brant blushed.
“All right, but no funny business!” Chrissie pointed her finger directly at Brant. “I know we’re married and about to have a baby, but I’m still getting use to the idea of being married.”
“Fair enough.” Brant smiled like he won a prize.
“I’m keeping my stuff in my room, though.” Chrissie was still holding on to the last bit of her independence.
“But that closet isn’t even big enough to turn around in,” Brant interjected.
“I know. It’s the principle of the matter.” Chrissie already knew she won the debate.
“Okay. I’m going to get cleaned up before dinner.” Brant went back up to the mansion.
Chrissie soaked for another thirty minutes before she awkwardly climbed out of the water. She was beginning to forget what it felt like to be normal, like her body belonged to someone else. She dried the water dripping off her body and wrapped the towel around her bulging torso. Her flip-flops were the only things that actually fit these days. The tunnel was dimly lit all the way to the bottom of the spiral staircase. Voices came from an air vent that were connected to the library. She stopped at the bottom of the staircase to listen in.
“I gave you plenty of chances to team up with me. Now I’m going to do things my way.” It was the witch Valencia.
Why is she back? How did she get back?
“Are you trying to bully me? Because it won’t work.” Brant sounded furious in a calm-before-the-storm kind of way.
“Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Valencia said coyly.
Chrissie heard a purse open up and the static of a hand held radio.
“Okay, send them in.” Valencia’s voice echoed in the silent room.
The mansion’s front door slammed open, and several heavy footsteps thundered into the house.
“Hey! Get out of my house!” The sound of a heavy scuffle panicked Chrissie’s heart. “You can’t do this.” Brant’s voice sounded upset.
“Yes, yes, I can. You see, I can do whatever I want. It’s easy when you are Franco Santiago’s girlfriend.”
Chrissie’s heart froze.
“He’s just using you to get to me.” Brant’s voice sounded grim.
“You think so? Well, I don’t care. What if I’m using him?”
“Sounds about right. Oomph!” It sounded like Brant was punched in the stomach by one of the thugs.
“Take him out to the plaza.
Tie and gag him,” Valencia ordered. “Next, tie up Arturo and María. I’ll take care of Chrissie myself. Franco will be here in five minutes.”
The clicking of Valencia’s heels against the Spanish tile as she walked out of the library was followed by two other distinct sets of footsteps, and someone being dragged.
There was only one way out of the tunnel that she knew of, and it was through the library. She noiselessly crept up the steps to the door on the chances that no one would be on the other side when she opened it up. It slid silently. She knew that in the corner of the library was a faux wood panel that was really a door to a staircase up to Brant’s room. Tiptoeing to the corner, she opened the door and softly closed it behind her. She wondered if there were any other secret doors in the mansion like that.
In the library, with Miss Scarlett, and a candlestick, Chrissie mused to herself as she climbed the stairs.
The door exited in Brant’s walk-in closet. Chrissie quickly changed into some dry clothes. Granted, they were Brant’s flannel pajama bottoms and his white T-shirt that seemed to swallow her up, but they were dry. Chrissie’s eye caught the medical equipment stacked on one of the set of shelves in the corner. Medications, syringes, plastic tubing, and other assorted supplies were neatly organized on the shelves. Brant was being a worrywart over a tiny baby that wasn’t even due for another twelve weeks.
Chrissie paced the closet, thinking over her current dilemma. What could a single clumsy pregnant girl do to thwart a very large drug cartel and a bitter ex-girlfriend? Chrissie’s lower back began to ache. Her body shouldn’t ache because she just got out of the water, but she didn’t have time to think about that. She rubbed her sore back muscles as she paced. Her eyes kept on being drawn to the medical supplies. Morphine, Valium, anti-nausea, and other basic injectable medications stared back at her. She didn’t have the weight of each of the thugs, but she guessed they were large, if they were thugs. The math for the meds could be a rough estimate on the larger side just in case. What if she got close enough to dose them right in the jugular? She didn’t want to kill them—just to knock them out long enough to tie them up with the plastic tubing. Hopefully, she could get the few thugs already here at the mansion before Franco and more thugs arrived.
Chrissie grabbed the boxes and began drawing up syringes of Valium. She capped five syringes and put them into her pocket. There were only four oxygen hoses, so she grabbed the rubber bands for blood draws and jammed those in her pockets too. Then she remembered the gun in Brant’s nightstand. There was an ankle holster for it up on the shelf.
The plan was definitely by the seat of her pants, but it was all she had. She sat on the edge of the bed and retrieved the gun from the drawer. She slipped the gun in its holster. It felt heavy on her ankle as she slid the flannel over the top of it to conceal it.
Chrissie heard footsteps walking down the hall. The bathroom door was the closest to her, and she ran for it. The marble bathroom didn’t have many places for her to hide. The toilet closet looked like the only place large enough to conceal her. She slid against the wall into the small room to hide. She bumped into something squishy. Another person had beaten her to the spot.
A hand clamped over her mouth.
Chapter 22
Chrissie froze and slowly turned around to face María face-to-face.
“Shhhh!” María whispered.
“How did you get in here?”
“I was cleaning the second floor when I saw them tie up Brant downstairs. I hid in here.”
“I think they got Arturo too.” Chrissie’s voice dropped even more when she heard the bedroom knob turn.
They heard someone walking through the room and into the closet. María and Chrissie knew the bathroom was next as they both held their breath in fear. The footsteps fell heavy as they pounded across the marble. Chrissie slid her hand down to the gun and pulled it out of the ankle holster. She was a Texan—she knew how to handle a gun. She could do this. How many times had her dad taken her out to shoot beer bottles?
The large Hispanic man entered the water closet halfway and didn’t notice María and Chrissie until he was staring down the barrel of the Glock.
“Don’t move,” Chrissie ordered. “Back out slowly with your hands up where I can see them. I would suggest not making a sound. I’m a little bit moody, and I might blow your head off.” She next spoke to María. “María, grab the oxygen tubing out of my pocket and tie him up.”
“I don’t believe you’d shoot me.” The man sneered.
Chrissie answered him by cocking the gun. “I will.”
María did as she was told. Soon, they had him lying tied up in the large soaker tub.
“Time to go night-night. I’m totally going to get my nursing license taken away,” she said as she pushed the needle into the very large man’s jugular. Pushing medicine this fast wasn’t safe but it would drop him and put him out of commission for at least 3 hours.
María stood behind Chrissie, her eyes wide with shock. “Mija, esto es loco. We took down one of Franco’s guys. Do you think we will be able to get the rest?”
“I can do this! My gun at home is just like this, only pink. My plan is to take them all down. Are there any other secret doors around the mansion?”
“Yes, many. We need to get to the kitchen next. I think entering in the library would be risky—it’s too close to the plaza. Some of the doors haven’t been used in years, but I think most of them are still working.” María motioned for Chrissie to follow her out of the room.
They walked quietly down the hall. Voices of many people downstairs echoed through the halls of the mansion. They made it undetected down to an empty bedroom that was directly above the kitchen. María walked over to a small closet just slightly larger than Chrissie’s own closet. María pulled a small rug off the closet floor, revealing a trap door. She opened it and began climbing down the ladder. Chrissie followed her.
“This way leads to many other tunnels between the walls of the mansion. We will go to the kitchen first and see if anyone is in there.”
The damp tunnel smelled musty and stale. Dim floor lights spaced far apart gave the only light in the tunnel. María pulled back a wood panel, and Chrissie saw shelves lined with cans—they were in the pantry. María peeked out the pantry door, then ran to her gourmet kitchen knives and pulled out her biggest chopping knife. Chrissie gave María a thumbs-up.
One loud voice came toward them. “I’ll check in the kitchen one more time.” The deep voice was unfamiliar. Chrissie hid behind the kitchen door and reached down into her pocket to uncap a syringe. María froze behind the kitchen counter. Chrissie motioned for her to duck under the counter. María did, still clutching her knife.
The man walked into the kitchen and glanced around.
María popped up from behind the counter. “Peek-a-boo!”
Just as he yelled, “Hey!” Chrissie jumped out from behind the door and stabbed him in the neck with the syringe. The thug stumbled around and dropped hard to the large Spanish tile. Chrissie and María worked quickly to tie him up and drag him behind the counter, where they could conceal his body.
“Next,” Chrissie said with her best nurse voice as she kicked the thug.
María and Chrissie climbed back into the pantry cabinet to navigate down the secret tunnels. They walked down the longest stretch of tunnel yet. María slid back a small piece of board that looked out into the plaza. Chrissie counted one more thug, Valencia, and Franco. She froze at the sight of Franco. She felt her world going dizzy as she stumbled back. María caught her and slid her down to the floor. The memory of what happened in the hotel room came rushing back.
Franco had entered in the hotel room quietly while she slept. It wasn’t until his thugs began throwing things around the room that she woke up.
“Tell me where your precious secret is.” The silver streaks in his jet-black hair made him look evil. The scar across his face didn’t move normally with the rest of his skin.
C
hrissie clutched the white sheet up to her chest, hiding her necklace. “No. I will never tell.”
“You will if I persuade you … maybe a little forcefully.” He twisted his large gold ring around his finger. He took one step forward, with two of his thugs behind him.
Chrissie pulled out both vials and uncorked them. She tilted her head back and took both of them at the same time like a shot glass. “You’ll never have the secret now. I’ll die first.” Her head began to feel fuzzy. Franco grabbed the necklace from around her neck and jerked it off.
The sudden flashback made her head spin, and she almost lost her lunch all over the floor.
María tried fanning Chrissie with her hands. Worry lines etched across María’s face. “This is too much for you. I do the rest.”
“No, María. I’m fine,” Chrissie said as she felt a contraction seize her belly. She tried to show no indication of it. “I think there are only three more to go. We’ve got this.” She gasped.
“The end of this tunnel exits out front of the mansion. We can come in the front door.” María pointed to her right and helped Chrissie up.
They walked to the end of the tunnel, slid a cement door aside, and walked out into the bright sunlight. Chrissie climbed up the steps to the mansion with María close behind. She pulled out her gun again and held it down at her side as she opened the large wooden door.
“Honey, I’m home!” Chrissie yelled as she walked in the foyer. She looked over where Valencia and Franco stood. She pointed her gun directly at them. “Untie Brant now!” she ordered.
Franco didn’t flinch. “Men, we have a guest.” He seemed so suave and polite in his black Armani suit, but Chrissie knew better.
Only one single thug appeared at the top of the stairs.
Chrissie smiled. “That’s all you’ve got, Franco?”
Franco looked back at the lone man standing at the top of the stairs. “Take care of her.” He motioned to Chrissie.
Guardian of the Fountain Page 15
