My mouth dropped open, eyes wide as hell, as the helicopter erupted into a giant fireball that lit up the street, nearly engulfing the passing cars around it. Though we were still speeding away, I could feel the blast of heat on my face.
I looked back to Camden incredulously. Where the hell had this man learned to shoot?
He gave me a weary smile. “I have steady hands.” Then he disappeared inside the car.
I slipped back in as well, my heart racing a mile a minute as I found the security of the back seat. That was a rush greater than a thousand cons. I’m not sure why I expected Javier to say something encouraging, but he just glared at me in the mirror and said, “Took you long enough.”
“You should thank your ass that she’s a good shot,” Camden said quickly. I guess from his perspective, Javier couldn’t really tell whose gun took down the helicopter and Camden was making it look like it was all my doing. I felt simultaneously touched and ashamed. He was trying to make me look better than I really was.
Javier grunted and kept Jose swerving in and out of the cars on the road.
“Now what?” I asked.
“There will be more helicopters where that came from,” Javier answered. “We’re going to have to avoid the highways now.”
“Can we switch cars?” Camden asked.
“No time,” Javier said, not looking at him. I watched his grip on the steering wheel, the pronounced ridge of his knuckles. He was gripping it hard – he was rattled to the bone over what had just happened. I wasn’t sure if that should make me feel better or not. “We’re not stopping until we have to.”
It was about three in the morning when we finally had to stop. Jose ran out of gas right outside the city limits of Apizaco, not too far from Mexico City. Luckily we were able to pull up to a small albeit rundown motel to shelter us until the nearest gas station opened in the morning.
“Are you sure it’s even open?” I asked Javier as we climbed out of the car, legs stiff and tired from the voyage. Taking the back roads and staying off the major highways meant it took us much longer than it should have, though I was appreciating the fact that we arrived close to our destination and still in one piece.
He jerked his head at the motel. “They’ll take our money.”
It was a row of rooms all facing a dirt parking lot. It reminded me a lot of Shady Acres, the motel where Camden and I had met Uncle Jim, just before he set me up and Javier shot him in the head. I tried to control the wave of anger and sorrow that was rollicking through me. I couldn’t keep dwelling on the past, things that would drown me if I let it. I couldn’t succumb to it now, not in this situation, not with the murderer right beside me.
Crickets filled the night air as Javier went toward the small house behind the motel, probably to go wake up whoever was in charge of the place. There were no other cars in the parking lot and from the look of the dilapidated grounds, they probably didn’t have much business. I suppose the fact that it was the middle of the night and Camden and I were dressed as if we were attending the Oscars wouldn’t faze them either.
I looked at Camden as Javier disappeared around the corner. “How’s your shoulder? Ready for those pills?”
He grimaced. “We’ll see.”
I took a step toward him, feeling entranced by his presence so close to me. This was the first instance we’d been alone all night, and after the escape from Travis’s and the consequent car chase, he was looking larger than life. His tuxedo tie had come undone, his white shirt unbuttoned a bit, just enough to show off his tats, which looked dark in the dim light.
“Can I see?” I asked, reaching for his jacket. I wasn’t a nurse by any means, but I still wanted to help. He’d gotten fucking shot trying to reach me.
He shrank back slightly, something I pretended didn’t hurt like hell, but in the end relented and let me help him get his jacket off. His shoulder was completely soaked through with blood.
“Jesus, Camden,” I couldn’t help but exclaim. “We need to get your bandages changed.”
I carefully pulled the rest of the jacket through his arms.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said.
“What do you mean, ‘don’t worry about it?’”
He gave me a leveling gaze. “It’s not your problem. It’s mine. I can take care of myself.”
“I know you can but—”
“Ellie, I think you need to stay with Javier tonight.”
My lungs felt like they were suddenly dumped full of glass.
“What?” I managed to get out.
He rubbed his lips with the back of his hand and brought his gaze over to the motel. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t trust that fucking bastard for a second.”
“And I do?” I asked incredulously.
He smirked, only for a second. “Well, it’s hard to say.”
“Camden, the minute he discovered the tracking device on my necklace—”
“Oh, so that’s what happened?”
I inhaled quickly though my nose, trying to keep from panicking. “I didn’t set you up. He found out! You have to believe me.”
He sighed and looked back at me but all I could see were the lights of the motel in the reflection of his glasses. “I believe you, Ellie. I believe you.”
“But you think I should stay with him?”
“If you don’t trust him either, then you know we can’t leave him alone. We’ll wake up and the car will be gone with all your stuff. He’ll abandon us. I don’t care what he says. There is no way that he needs us to do what he wants. He’s got connections … we’re just being allowed to tag along and I don’t know why.”
I almost stamped my foot. “But I can’t stay with him!”
“Obviously if I do, one of us will end up dead. At least for you it’s as natural as wiping your ass.”
I glared at him. “Why are you doing this?”
He shook his head, as if to himself, and kicked a stone that went skidding across the dry soil of the lot. “I’m doing what needs to be done. It doesn’t mean you have to sleep with him, Ellie. Just keep an eye on him. I’ll be stationed outside the door anyway.”
I walked over to him and placed my hands on his firm chest. “I want to stay with you.” I bit the bullet. I didn’t care.
He peered at me, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed hard. He opened his beautiful mouth, about to say something then abruptly closed it for a few moments. “He’s coming.”
I stepped back and took my hands off him.
Javier appeared around the corner and came marching to us with a smile on his face. “Well I got us our rooms. Uno, dos and tres.” He gestured to the first three to our left.
Ugh. Sharing a room with Javier would be a nightmare but Camden did have a point. I didn’t trust Javier and knew he was capable of screwing us over at the best opportunity. Staying in separate bedrooms this early in the game would be the perfect opportunity for him to up and leave us. Javier’s alliance only went to his sister, not to Gus, and the fact that he was even agreeing to help us at all said a lot. Unfortunately, I didn’t know exactly what it said.
“I’m staying with you,” I quickly said to Javier. I didn’t bother putting on an act, smiling or acting coy. He’d see straight through me anyway.
He raised his brow. “Is that right, angel? And to what do I owe your angelic company?”
“Because you’re both the same,” Camden filled in. He stepped forward and quickly swiped the key out of Javier’s hand. “You’re meant for each other.” He took off for his room, his back straight and proud. My heart both lurched and ached at his words, how badly he was brushing me off, how ill he thought of me.
Javier was surprised and loving it. He turned to me, mouth slightly agape. “Wow. Something tells me he was trying to be insulting.”
I couldn’t even fake a smile. “Which one is our room?” I asked, feeling sick as the words came out.
He grinned at me, all snake, no conscience. “Whichever one I choose, angel. Have you got all your belongings?”
Normally I would have brought out everything from the trunk but there were an awful lot of lives in there, an awful lot of stuff. With me keeping an eye on Javier all night, it was probably safe.
I shook my head. “It’s fine.”
He smiled again, especially as Camden shut his door to room number one.
“Let’s take numero tres, si?” Javier asked. “More privacy.” He grabbed my hand and led me toward it though there was nothing gentle or warm in his touch. Those days were over. I was back to dealing with the spurned Javier, the hunter and the sadist.
He opened the door and flicked on the lights. A few cockroaches skittered underneath the bed, and moths darted to the threadbare light fixture hanging from the ceiling. The room was as run-down as I’d ever seen and for one twisted second I was glad I wasn’t sleeping there alone. In the next second, though, I was reminded that the company of insects was preferable to his.
He closed the door behind us and put his hand at my neck, holding me there, and leaned into my ear. “Do you want top or bottom?”
I stiffened for a moment then rammed my elbow back into his gut. “Fuck you.”
He let go of me and coughed loudly, still trying to smile. “You should be glad I’m giving you the option, angel.”
“You’re a sick pig.”
He straightened up and shrugged. “It’s what you liked until about, oh, twelve hours ago. Tell me, angel, what is it about that boy that makes you forget who you really are? Is it the tattoos, because you know I have those.” He quickly shed his linen shirt and stood bare-chested before me, the tattoo of his mother’s name on his inner arm. He turned around slowly, making sure I saw the large cross going down his spine. “Or is it those horrible glasses of his. You know, I can look like a fucking idiot if I really wanted to.”
I narrowed my eyes, keeping far away from him like wary prey. “He sees the good in me.”
He laughed. “The good. Of course. The good. So, is that why you’re spending the night with me? Because I looked into that boy’s eyes tonight and there was no good in there left for you.”
My gaze locked with his, a war without further words. His eyes shone yellow-green in the light, looking more inhuman by the moment. Deep in his insanity, he was making some sense. That’s what I hated most about Javier, that there was always a kernel of truth to his words, a truth that made you fall for the lies.
I sucked back my breath and nodded at the sagging bed. “You better get a good night’s sleep.” Then I grabbed one of the pillows and the top sheet and brought it over to the thin Mexican rug that ran along the end of the foot of it.
“You’re serious?” he asked as I started making my bed on the floor.
“Good night,” I told him, lying down on top of the sheet. I didn’t trust the cleanliness of the floor and it was too hot to have a sheet on top of me anyway. I rolled over so I was facing away from him who was still standing near the bed.