“Ready?” I asked her.
She nodded, her eyes welling with fear.
We both started running, as fast as we could, my hand holding hers until we both launched off of the roof and into the air.
I landed on the roof below, my ankles shuddering in pain from the impact. Thanks to my scarring, they didn’t always hold up after a lot of wear and tear, and I immediately fell to my knees, my legs getting scratched up by the tar shingles.
Violetta’s scream came through a second later.
She had hit the roof, scrambled to hold on then disappeared, falling down the gap to the ground below.
I looked over the edge and saw her lying in a heap on the dirt alley, holding her arm in pain and crying out.
Another shot came dangerously close. The men were coming closer. There was no time to think.
I ran along the roof for a few steps, then jumped down onto a rickety iron balcony that swung with my weight, then launched off of that to the ground below.
I ignored my throbbing ankles and hurried over to her just as one of the men appeared at the rooftop. I aimed and fired, all instinct, and got him right in the head. When he pitched off the roof and fell with a thud to the ground beside us, I dragged Violetta up to her feet. There was no time to be gentle. Her arm was probably broken and it was going to hurt like a bitch, but it was better to be hurt than dead.
“We have to run, okay?” I told her and she cried in response. I had no idea if Camden or Javier even noticed we weren’t behind them but that couldn’t be my concern. We had to get us safe then we’d get to them.
And then, then maybe I’d have a moment to think about the people I’d killed.
Together we scampered down the narrow alley, dirt flying from our feet, just as a bullet ricocheted from the wall. We yelped but kept going, zig-zagging our way toward the street, knowing the last asshole standing was firing at us from the roof.
As soon as we hit the street that ran along the block of buildings, we were a tiny bit safer. At least I figured since there was light traffic on the roads and people going to and fro. However, despite the fact that I was running across the street and darting between the cars with Violetta in tow, both of us bruised, scratched and bleeding, my gun visible in one of my hands, no one really seemed to bat an eye. I wondered how bad Mexico City was for crime then decided it didn’t matter.
We ran up the sidewalk until I saw another alley then brought Violetta down that one and around the corner. I stopped us beside a dumpster that sat behind a café, a couple of stray cats sleeping in the shade.
“Violetta,” I said to her, putting one hand on her good arm and trying to get her to look at me. Her cheeks were wet and dirty, a mess of mascara and tears. She was shaking and sobbing softly. “Violetta, listen to me. Do you know who those men were?”
She shook her head. “No,” she cried. “I didn’t recognize them. Javier told me to go to my room but I wanted to see what was going on. It looked like he heard something out in the hallway. He hid near the door and suddenly a group of men came in the room and started shooting.”
“And you didn’t recognize them?”
She let out a loud sob, shaking her head even more, her forehead scrunched in pain. “No, I don’t know. They looked like cartel men. Bad men.”
Obviously.
“My arm, I think it’s broken,” she whimpered.
I nodded. “I know. We’ll get it fixed, but we have to get Camden and your brother.”
“Screw Javier!” she yelped. “He’s what got us into this in the first place.”
I smiled grimly. “I know. But you don’t mean that. You can’t leave him behind.”
“He left me behind! He forgot I existed.”
“And we’re better than that.” I gave her a steady look, my eyes imploring hers. “Okay? We’re going to go back to your place–”
“No!” she cried out.
“We’re going back to your place,” I said, my voice harder, “and we’re getting my car. Then we’re going to find them. And then we’re gone. You can do this.”
I stared at her for a few moments until she relented with a nod. Then we moved down the alley that ran parallel to the main road until we were back on her street. Jose was still sitting on the side of the road.
Only now I realized that Javier had the car keys.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
“What?”
“I have to hotwire it.”
“So do it.”
I gave her a wry look.
Suddenly the air was filled with a flurry of shouts and Spanish. I looked over at her apartment building and saw a few men on the balcony of one of the apartments, pointing at us and flipping out.
“Do it I shall,” I said. I opened the door (no point in locking it since half the windows were shot out) and ushered Violetta into the backseat, where she could lie down, and then jumped into the front. Even though I’d been driving Jose for most of the last six years, my car-stealing skills were still pretty sharp. After crossing wires for a few seconds, Jose roared to life, his engine loud and proud, and I gunned him out of the parking spot just as a group of men came running out of the apartment for us.
“Persistent,” I grumbled and spun the car around the corner. Despite the circumstances, it felt fucking great to be driving my car again.
I took Jose zooming down the one-way street, swerving in and out of traffic while trying to keep an eye on the roofs that whipped past us. Dust flew up in our wake, coating us through the windows and I narrowly missed smashing into a motorcycle. I was glad Violetta was in the back and whimpering softly, it made it easier to concentrate when the only screams you heard were in your head.
My stomach began to twist on itself when I realized I had no idea where Javier and Camden were, if they were still alive, still running. The houses in this barrio kept going on and on, family after family after family packed into these ramshackle dwellings like sweltering sardines.
I’d almost clipped a bus in front of me when I suddenly saw a dark figure running on the roof, his head disappearing behind the occasional awning and the back of the bus. It was one of the cartel men and he was chasing someone, which had to mean that Camden and Javier were up ahead.
I exhaled briefly with hope, before pushing the pedal to the floor and going up the shoulder, trying to get ahead of the bus. There was a stack of bicycles up ahead and I was either going to hit them, the bus, or the people on the dirt sidewalk.
I chose the bicycles. I gunned the car harder, the rear wheels spinning furiously and braced for impact.
“Hold on!” I yelled to Violetta and then screamed as Jose plowed into them. The bicycles flew up onto the hood, cracking the windshield in the corner, before clattering across the roof. “Sorry!”
Then I whipped the car in front of the bus to a round of angry honks from the driver and finally saw Camden and Javier on the roofs, still running for their lives. I grinned to myself, despite the severity of the situation, and let out a relieved laugh. Somewhere in the back of my masochistic head, I had been so certain that Camden would be done for. I hadn’t wanted to think about it but I was sure that Javier would have ditched him along the way. Or killed him.
“I see them,” I told Violetta.
“Camden’s still alive?” she asked weakly.
I wasn’t the only with that idea.
“So far,” I told her.
“I can tell my brother wants to kill him,” she said.
I rubbed my lips together, my hands gripping the wheel harder. “He hasn’t yet.” I shot her a look over my shoulder. “Just hang tight okay? I’m going to try and get their attention and pull up ahead.”
I drove a bit faster, trying to keep up in the traffic that was growing increasingly heavier, and was about to start honking my horn like crazy when I saw the unthinkable happen.
Javier and Camden both jumped from one roof to another, the gap not too wide, but when Camden landed, it looked like his weight broke through part of the roofing and he went down, sinking in until I could only see him from the shoulders up.
I gasped, slowing the car so I could watch, the bus behind me honking again.
The man in pursuit started firing at them, closer now.
Camden was fucked.
A sitting duck.
And Javier … Javier stopped.
He stopped and raised his gun and tried to fire off a few rounds at the man but I could see from the frustration in his face that he was out of ammo. He hastily tucked his gun back into his pants and then crouched down to help Camden up.
“What’s going on?” Violetta asked, trying to sit up. “Why are we slowing?”
“Javier is helping Camden,” I said absently. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, other than the fact that I was grateful. Cautiously grateful.
“How noble of him,” she said, her voice acidic.
It didn’t matter, soon Camden was on his feet again and they were back to sprinting. I took the car around a rickshaw and started honking the horn wildly. I didn’t care if everyone in the barrio looked over at me. I just wanted them to see me.
But they didn’t. And I could we were coming up to an intersection where the roofs would end and they’d have to come down. The intersection that had the street on a red light and cars were started to slow in front of me.
I had to act fast. I brought the GTO onto the dirt sidewalk to get past the traffic and kept laying on the horn, now to get Camden and Javier’s attention as much as the attention of the people I was about to run over. Fortunately, everyone got out of the way and there wasn’t another group of bikes to smash through. Unfortunately, because we were right up against the buildings, Camden and Javier wouldn’t be able to see the car.
I stuck my head out of the window and started yelling for Camden, shouting his name over and over again. I hoped he could hear me above the noise of the city. There wasn’t much time left. I was almost at the intersection and if they got off the block of roofs and started running, there was a chance I could never find them again in this city.
The light was still red when we came to it and I wasted no time.
I spun the car out, turning left onto oncoming traffic and kept another scream inside my burning lungs. Cars were honking as they came toward me. People were yelling and swearing, fists waving outside of windows.
And I slammed Jose into park and climbed out of the window onto the roof of the car. I stood up unsteadily, mindful that I was precariously perched in the middle of a rush of cars in all directions, some of them slamming their brakes dangerously close to me, and looked to the roof.
In seconds, Javier and Camden appeared, looking over the edge, trying to figure out a way down, before the commotion I had created caught their eye. I waved my arms over my head until they both spotted me.
“Get the fuck down here!” I yelled.
Camden squinted then nodded and I noticed he wasn’t wearing his glasses anymore, while Javier pointed at an awning that sat above a convenience store. They ran over until they were above it, Javier glancing nervously over his shoulder, then with one fluid leap they jumped down onto the awning.
It crashed and collapsed under their weight and brought them down over crates of fruit, but they were up quickly and running across the road to the car, all while the store owner was emerging from the wreckage and swearing his head off.