Blurring the Line

by Kierney Scott

  He watched for a few minutes as she typed, quickly hammering at the keys, but left the room when she pulled out her cell phone. He was a third wheel. Beth had this under control. There was nothing he could add at this point. He would come back when it was time for action.

  Torres kicked off his flip-flops and unbuttoned his shirt. He was going to take a page out of Beth’s book and ignore things. A swim was what he needed. For the next thirty minutes, there was nothing except the soft cushion of white beach under his feet and the warm surf.

  He sighed as the water lapped against his ankles. He needed to do this more often, just pretend that the world was OK. It would be good practice for the future. He needed to learn to turn off survival mode; it was no way to live in the long run. It was a skill he was going to need when this was all over, and if he couldn’t fake it in paradise, he didn’t stand a chance back home.

  Torres swam until his arms ached and his lungs burned. He wasn’t sure how long he had been in the water, but the sun had set and his fingers had wrinkled to the point where if someone found his dead body, he would have made it impossible to fingerprint.

  When Torres returned to the house, Beth was sitting in the middle of a pile of papers. It looked like a mess but it was clearly her system. It was a good thing she liked to work alone because he didn’t know anyone else who could have put up with the cluster-fuck of highlighters and bits of folded paper.

  She was orally running through a checklist, the same way she had before they left Texas.

  “Hey,” he said to alert her to his presence. Her mind was racing miles away.

  She looked up, were eyes widening in surprise. “Hey. I didn’t hear you come in.”

  “You were pretty engrossed.”

  Beth nodded. “Yeah but I think I have everything in place. I mean I do. I just hope I have planned for all eventualities.” Beth picked up a piece of paper. “What if they enter from the south entrance? We need a man on the back door just in case.” Beth scribbled down something before returning the paper to the pile directly beside her. “I need to call Patterson again.” Beth reached for the phone.

  Torres put his hand over hers preventing her from dialling out. “Talk me through it first.” There was no doubt she would be on the phone on and off all night and he didn’t want to have to piece together her plan through one-sided conversations.

  “Yeah, OK. Good idea, I need to talk it through anyway.”

  He smiled. From what he had seen she needed to talk her way through everything. Normally he would find the practice annoying but it suited her, it was sweet and high strung just like her. Actually she had lots of characteristics that he would normally find annoying but he was able to tolerate them in her. No that wasn’t right, he more than tolerated them, he had begun to enjoy them, like the way her system for packing was balling up clothes and the way she wrote things on scraps of paper and stuffed them in her purse never to be seen again. Her annoying habits were just that, annoying. It made a change from Flores whose annoying habit was shooting people in the face. She was normal. Maybe that’s what he liked. She was nothing special, he reminded himself.

  Beth pulled at the band that held her ponytail in place and let her hair fall briefly before she gathered it higher on her head and secured it in place again. “We can’t just arrest Martinez. I realised that on the flight down. We need to bring in Sanchez too or Martinez will figure out Sanchez is my informant. Tomorrow both men are going to be served arrest warrants on minor charges, nothing big enough that would entice them to run. I really wish I got to choose the charges but the Mexico City office has that.” Beth held up her hands in exasperation. It killed her to not be in charge of even the smallest element.

  “Keep going,” Torres encouraged before she could go off on a tangent.

  “They won’t be arrested at their homes, both have families and staff, the risk of causalities is too high.”

  Torres nodded. He realised one of the stacks of paper on the floor was floor plans to the courthouse. He had no doubt she also had the plans to their houses and a list of every possible person that could be there at any given time. She was thorough; he would give her that.

  “They will be arraigned on Tuesday. That is where we will get them, at the courthouse in Culiacan. There should be no suspicion about them being picked up then. This is the safest way, get them to come to us. We will have them under surveillance until then just in case Martinez doesn’t plan on showing up.”

  “Good.”

  Beth smiled faintly. “Yeah I hope so. Once Martinez tells us what he knows, we cut him loose. And then we’re done. Well your part in it. The next chapter is for you to decide.”

  That was Beth’s subtle way of telling him to rethink his plans for Martinez, but he’d had two years to crystallise his plans for the man, no pep talk from her would change that.

  “Do you think Martinez can lead you to El Escorpion?”

  Beth nodded. “I do. Someone has to be able to find him. He runs the largest narco-terrorist group operating in the Americas. There will be a trail back to him. We just need to keep chasing leads. If it’s not this one, then maybe it’s the next.”

  “OK.” He wished she were right but he knew the odds were against them. They might never locate El Escorpion, but in two days they would have Martinez and that was all that mattered to him.

  Chapter Seven

  Beth was awake before the alarm on her phone went off. Today was the day. The sun wasn’t even up yet but she was too nervous to sleep any longer. And maybe a bit sad, which was insane. She was definitely insane because she would kind of miss Torres. He may look frightening as hell but there was something about him that let her be free with him. She let her crazy out when he was around and he didn’t seem to mind. Maybe it wasn’t Torres, maybe it was just the fact she was far enough away from her family to stop worrying. Maybe she was sad because she just wasn’t great with transitions. She had a whole lot of crazy to pick from; best not to overthink it or she would remember all the other ways she was odd.

  Beth tiptoed into the kitchen. She needed coffee. The strong stuff Torres had. The switch from de-caffeinated had been a revelation. All these years she could have been getting a daily legal buzz. She was going to have to thank Torres for that before he left.

  “Morning.” Torres’ voice was made even deeper by the early hour.

  Beth turned on the lights when she realised she didn’t need to worry about waking him. “You’re awake. You couldn’t sleep either?”

  Torres shook his head. “Never can. Four hours is a good night for me.” In an instant he was up, pouring her a cup of coffee.

  “That would explain why you’re so productive. Imagine what I could get done if I could manage on only four hours.”

  Torres smiled. “World domination springs to mind.”

  Beth added milk to her coffee and a tablespoon of maple syrup. “I’m not that bad.”

  “You are, but you would be a benevolent leader I’m sure.”

  Beth sighed as she took the first sip of her morning coffee. Chances were this would be her first of many. She picked up her trusty purple binder. Everything she needed was tucked safely away between its covers. She resisted the urge to open it again and go over the plan. She wouldn’t inflict that level of crazy on Torres again. He had listened to her go over it in minutiae for hours yesterday. He was a surprisingly patient man. Beth had never let anyone see how obsessive she was, but Torres already knew so she may as well let all her crazy out. He might be the only man who ever got to see it. Lucky for her, he was so starved for human contact that he mistook her brand of crazy for normal.

  “You have it all covered,” he assured her, seeming to read her mind.

  She took another long sip of coffee. “Not everything. We haven’t talked about what happens after you are through with Martinez.” She couldn’t bring herself to say what she knew was going to happen to Martinez. “Are you going back to Texas?” He didn’t have to tell her and she had n
o right to know. She was asking as a friend which was completely bizarre, she would never have imagined she would consider Torres a friend. But he was…kind of…there was no other way to describe it. She enjoyed his company and worried about his future, that was a friend by every definition she knew.

  “Not permanently. I need a fresh start, away from everything that reminds me of the Zetas and the DEA. I’ll go home and see my mom but after that, I don’t know.”

  “You know there is always a spot for you on my team, if you want it,” Beth offered but she knew it would never work. Torres would never be tied down to one job, one city, one woman. She felt sorry for any woman that thought she would change that. She understood now why women would fall for Torres. He had a magnetism she couldn’t even explain, and the muscles were nice too. But any woman who fell for Torres was bound to end up with a broken heart.

  Torres turned and opened the cupboards. “Are you hungry? I got peanut butter, I could do pancakes.”

  Beth smiled. There hadn’t been any food in the house when they got there. Torres must have gotten it yesterday when he went into town. That was nice of him. She added considerate to the growing list of his attributes that confused her. “I’m too nervous to eat. Once they both are in custody I will probably eat an entire jar of peanut butter, but for right now I better stick to coffee.”

  Torres opened another cupboard and tossed a family-size M&M’s at her. “In case you need to relax,” he said.

  Beth caught them. “Thanks, Torres.” Her stomach did a little flip at the small gesture. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had done something so thoughtful. Yep, she was going to miss him. Beth shrugged off the sudden sentimentality. It was just a bag of candy.

  “We should get going soon,” she said.

  “It will only take two and half hours to get there and the courthouse doesn’t open until nine.”

  Beth tapped her foot on the terracotta tiles of the kitchen floor. “I know but with traffic and everything. I think we should get to Culiacan sooner rather than later.” She actually would have preferred to drive there last night.

  Torres smiled. “Have an M&M and relax.”

  “Am I micro-managing again?” Beth asked. She needed to work on hiding it better. She didn’t kid herself to think she could change her controlling nature, but maybe she could keep people from seeing it. It really wasn’t her best feature. The shame was it was her most prominent.

  “Always. But it’s cute the way you try to control everything.” His lips curled at the corner.

  Her heart stopped for a second and then began beating again, harder and faster than it should. He hadn’t moved but he was suddenly too close, close enough to see the small flecks of gold in his eyes, close enough for her eyes to trace the path of his worn white shirt over the ridge that divided his strong chest from the flat expanse of his belly. She could smell the clean scent of soap. He had already showered, she could tell from his clean smell and his freshly shaved head. She wished he hadn’t shaved. She liked the dark fuzz of his hair. He looked less menacing with hair.

  Her gaze fell to his full lips. Her eyes were too often drawn there. Sometimes when he spoke she wouldn’t hear him because she was so engrossed with the way his mouth caressed every syllable.

  “Suddenly not in a hurry to leave, Gatita?” Torres asked. His mouth was curved into a wicked smile.

  Beth dropped the bag of candy but Torres caught it before it fell to the ground.

  Beth cleared her throat. “Maybe I do need an M&M,” she said lamely.

  Torres’ smile broadened. “I always knew giving you something to suck on was the way forward.”

  Beth’s cheeks burned. She swallowed hard past the lump in her throat, but it refused to move, not with Torres so close.

  He was flirting with her again. This was a side of him she hadn’t seen since their first night together. She almost thought she had imagined it, but he was doing it again. The transition had been so smooth, one minute he was chatting away and the next he was flirting and that is what scared her. He changed too quickly from anger to passion, from friends to flirting. She didn’t understand him, couldn’t put him in a box.

  Beth cleared her throat again. “I need a shower and another cup of coffee. Then we’re going to leave. I’d rather be there hours early then not be there on time. We only have one chance at this.” The reality was there was no need for them to be physically present; the operation would go ahead if they were in Culiacan or Calcutta, but she wouldn’t miss it for the world. She considered waiting in Mazatlan until they received word that Martinez was in custody but she rejected the idea immediately. Even though she had no part in the operation itself, detaining Sanchez and Martinez was ultimately down to the Federales, she would feel better being there. And she wanted to speak to Martinez immediately, before he had a chance to get his bearings.

  ***

  Three hours later Beth was sat across from Torres at an open-air café across the street from the courthouse. She pulled out her cell phone for the second time to make sure it was on. It was on but no word from Patterson or anyone else. She expected at least a text, but nothing. She tapped her fingers on the red and white checks of the vinyl tablecloth.

  “I think I’m going to have to cut you off from the coffee.”

  “Don’t you dare. Caffeine is fuelling me at this point.” She took another sip just in case he made good on his word.

  “It shows. Relax, Gatita. You show every emotion on your face.”

  He had told her that before. No one else seemed to notice that about her. “That’s OK. No one is looking at me anyway.”

  “I’m looking at you. And you’re making me nervous.”

  Beth made a pfft sound. “You don’t look very nervous. I’ll take your brand of nervous any day.” Torres was sat back in his chair, a coffee in one hand a folded-up newspaper in the other. He would need a cigarette and a Scotch to look any more relaxed.

  “I know this isn’t the time to mention it, but I think if you got a proper seeing to, you wouldn’t be so uptight.”

  Beth shook her head. “You’re right, this isn’t a good time to mention it.”

  Torres raised a dark brow. “When would be a good time? Tell me so I can write it on a piece of wadded up paper in your purse that you then transfer to the correct colour-coded location in your big purple binder. That’s the system, right?” He was teasing her again but it lightened the mood, which was no doubt what he was going for. In a way it was a shame Torres wasn’t her partner full-time because he was able to talk her down in a way Patterson never could. Patterson was good at pissing her off with his sexist comments. That was his thing.

  “I don’t have a section for the bullshit that comes out of your mouth. If I did, it would probably be a brown section. That seems appropriate, right?”

  Torres smiled. “I think I would need my own binder. Bullshit is too broad a topic for one section; you should probably break it down. Maybe a red section for the bullshit I say about your sex life, because that is the colour of your cheeks every time I mention it.”

  Beth took another drink of her coffee. She was nearing the bottom; she was going to need to catch the waitress’ eye so she could get another. “That section would be black as in don’t mention it.” Beth shook her head. “It is a good thing I never have to see you again after this or I would be truly mortified.”

  “I told you already, it’s your man who should be mortified. He’s the one not getting the job done.”

  Beth smiled as their waitress refilled her coffee. “You’ll never meet Neil so it really doesn’t matter, but in all fairness, I should probably tell you we haven’t slept together yet.” She had embarrassed herself with Torres; she may as well lay all her cards on the table. Having a shelf life was surprisingly liberating.

  Torres raised a dark brow but didn’t say anything.

  “Don’t start that again. I thought we were past you staring at me in silence so I would spill my guts.”

/>   Torres put his cup down. “This time I’m just surprised. You’re not a virgin are you?”

  The way he said virgin in hushed tones made her laugh, like merely implying it was offensive.

  “No, Torres, I am not a virgin. Not since I was eighteen. I just haven’t slept with Neil yet. We just started dating.”

  “Why haven’t you slept with him?”

  “I told you. We just started dating.”

  Torres shook his head. “That’s not an answer. I’ve slept with women whose names I didn’t know.”

  “Are you bragging?” Beth wrinkled her nose.

  “God no, I’m not proud of that. I find it interesting that you consider him your boyfriend even though you’ve never had sex.”

  True: boyfriend was an overstretch, she only said that so she didn’t seem pathetically lovelorn, but hell would freeze over before she admitted that now. “Really? Sex is what makes the relationship? Not the dates or the shared confidences?”

  “So what does Neil know about you that I don’t?”

  Beth choked on her coffee. She wasn’t expecting a follow-up question. “Plenty.”

  But Torres was not about to be fobbed off. “Tell me three things he knows about you that I don’t.”

  Her glance went to the side as she racked her brain for examples. She tapped her fingers on her saucer while she thought. Finally she remembered something. “He knows my favourite flowers.” Neil had given her a bouquet on their last date. She wasn’t sure if it was a lucky guess but they had been her favourite.

  “Bluebonnets.”

  Beth’s eyes widened with surprise.

  “You had them beside your bed. And when I was driving you home, you said you were glad they were finally in bloom.”

  “Did I?” She couldn’t remember. A warm sensation washed over her as she realised he knew that about her. “He knows my favourite food.” It was a lie but it was something she was also certain Torres wouldn’t know either.

  “Currently you love coffee. But other than that…” He paused to think. “I’m going to go with macaroni and cheese made from enormous blocks of government cheese.”