She looked at him. “So you keep saying. And me. I’m assuming Javi was too afraid to come and get me on his own.”
Javier sighed and leaned back in the booth. Though her cigarette was out, there was a still a layer of smoke that hung above our heads in the muggy air, the overhead fans doing nothing to disperse it. “I knew you’d be angry with me, Violetta. I thought maybe if you heard the danger from someone else, why you need to leave, you’d listen. You can leave with us, even. We’ll take you where you need to go.”
Okay, that was a new one. As much as I wanted to help her, once again we didn’t have time to drive her around the country, not with Gus’s life on the line.
She looked down at her slender hands. “Do you really think that I’m in danger?”
“Tell us about your friends in the Zetas,” Javier said by way of answering. “Do they know about me?”
She shot him a wry smile. “Javi. You’re not exactly big news down here. I’m sorry. You’ve got the Zetas, the Sinoloa, the Baja, the Gulf. The big boys. The big balls. Then you have a bunch of little ones that no one cares about. You’re one of the little ones that no one cares about.”
“Except for Travis,” I said.
She nodded. “Si. Except for him. Who is now with the Zetas. But even Travis isn’t at the top of the food chain. Maybe in Veracruz he is. But it’s Morales and his family in Nuevo Laredo who really run it. Not many people can take a gringo seriously, no matter how many men he tortured and killed to get to the top.” She cocked her head at Javier. “I’m a bit surprised that you’re not in Travis’s position. I’m sure the cartel would rather have you there than a white man.”
“I have loyalty,” Javier said simply. “To our family. As should you, you who is hanging out with these men like it’s no big deal.”
She shook her head. “Oh, relax. I’m just friends with two guys who do the deliveries, the transporting of the money.” She shrugged. “It’s a good job for them. And no, of course they don’t know who you are or that I even have a brother. You make it easy to pretend you don’t exist.”
He looked grim. “And that may have helped you before, but you can’t afford to take that chance now. I have no doubt that there’s been word about me traveling down the Zeta chain. My cartel might be small, but when it comes to Travis, I’m as big as it gets.”
She raised her hand in the air and snapped her fingers for the waiter, who until now had been ignoring our table. “I can’t talk about this anymore without food.”
The waiter came by and we promptly ordered coffee, beer and food. Though my stomach was growling, I had zero appetite, so just munched the tortilla chips and fresh salsa that came with our drinks. Javier spent the rest of the time trying to figure out a plan for Violetta. Though she was too busy stuffing her face to talk back, I could still see she was going to try and evade this idea for as long as she could. Like her brother, she was stubborn, even in the face of imminent danger.
CHAPTER FOUR
It wasn’t until we were done with our meal – Javier taking care of the check, much to Violetta’s delight – and were walking back to her apartment that he finally wore her down.
“Fine,” she said, wiping the sweat from her brow and giving him an exasperated glance. “I’ll go pack a bag. But I’m only going for a few days. I have a job here, a life, I have no intentions of leaving it for good because of you, Javi.”
I was going to ask her where she was planning on going, if she had friends she could stay with, but thought better of it. Though we were steps from going into her building, we were still in a public place and I was starting to feel the slightest bit uneasy. As she fumbled in her purse for her keys, I paused on the curb and did a quick sweep of the area, shielding my eyes with my hand.
Jose was parked across the street, looking like a mangled wreck but two cars down there was another mangled wreck, so at least the car didn’t attract any attention here. The sun was damn strong, the air even thicker and browner than before, like hot soup. There were a few squalid looking apartment buildings across the street, white stucco like Violetta’s place, but stained with green sludge. Beside them were tiny, colorful houses in bright greens and yellows. On the balcony of the yellow house, an older woman sat in the sun, sorting through her basket of laundry. In the yard of another house, a skinny dog lapped up a bucket of water.
“Something wrong?” Camden asked quietly as Javier berated Violetta for being disorganized.
I looked up at him and gave a small shake of my head. “I don’t think so. Just had a weird feeling.”