“He still does,” Javier interjected.
Esteban gave him a look. “Yes. But I haven’t heard from him in a while and I am sure you haven’t either. Anyway, I joined in after Travis. I’m part of the new and improved cartel. The younger one. The stronger one.” He grinned. “Of course, things don’t always go as planned. I got into a, well, a scuffle down here with another cartel. I should say, the police that the cartel was paying off. Not the Zetas, the Gulf. But what does it matter what cartel it is, right? Alliances mean nothing these days. So in this scuffle, I had a load of shrapnel to my face and was presumed dead. I wasn’t, hey. But let them think that.”
“You let me think that,” Javier said. “You let Alex think that.”
“It was for the best,” Esteban said.
“Alex is your brother?” I asked him, remembering all too well the other henchman of Javier’s.
He nodded. “I saw all the fine ladies he was pulling in with his new cars and suits and wanted in.” He winked at me then waved over the waitress.
We all shut up while she came by and took our orders (more beer, naturally), then as soon as she was gone, I launched into more questions.
“So why are you here now?” I asked him.
He gave Javier a look, as if saying ain’t she the eager beaver. Then Esteban gazed me directly in the eye, unblinking, piercing. Suddenly, terribly serious. “Because Javier and Dom cannot do this on their own. You cannot do this on your own. Travis’s compound is in the east of the Honduras. Right in the heart of the jungle. Not even accessible by road. They chopper in and out. We can’t do that. We have to hike it and it takes several days. Then when you get whoever you’ve come to get, it won’t be so easy to leave.” He took a swig of his beer. My limbs felt leaden at the news. I had imagined him being in a house similar to the one in Veracruz, not a fortress in the middle of a jungle, not some place we’d have to hike to. “Speaking of, this man that you say Travis has, Gus? There’s a woman too.”
“My mother.”
“Yes, so I hear.”
“Will they be expecting Ellie?” Javier asked.
He nodded. “I think so. But maybe not you.”
“How could they not be expecting Javier?” Camden asked suddenly. “They’ve been chasing us all over.”
Esteban gave a half-shrug. “It’s just a hunch. Anyway, it doesn’t matter who they expect because we will go there all the same and when we do we’ll all be dead to them, equally.”
I sighed and put my head into my hands. This was getting more and more impossible by the moment. I felt Camden’s hand on my knee, giving it a squeeze, but even that didn’t help.
“No one said this would be easy,” Dom said gently.
Such concern from the cartel. How nice.
“When do we go?” I said, straightening up and running my hands down my face. “What do we need to do?”
Esteban eyed Javier, as if he was unsure of his place to speak now.
Javier took it and ran with it. He pushed his chair back and leaned into it, his legs splayed, his beer dangling from his fingers.
“This is what we’re going to do,” he said smoothly. “The five of us will head to Honduras. I’m sending Violetta away in the morning. Dom, we’ll need someone to take her to Puerto Vallarta. She can stay with her sisters or not but I want her out of the picture. Este, you gather what information you can. You’re the tech expert here. The logistics of the operation have to be sound. I mean asshole tight, you understand? If we need more than us five, then you bring a few more in. Just remember, I want this as small as possible. The more people who know, the more we’re at risk.”
“Can the five of us really get into Travis’s place and get my mother and Gus out?” I asked.
Javier smiled patronizingly. “My dear, I think you’re underestimating me. You don’t need to match his team to win. Besides, I don’t plan on killing everyone there. I only plan on killing him and whoever else gets in my way. The others, they will surrender to me once he is gone. We need a small team, maybe six of us if we have to. With the best weapons. The best tech. The best … depravity.” He slammed back the rest of his beer and slammed it on the table. “Have a little faith.”
His words rumbled through me like a heavy bass chord.
Faith.
Another thing I’d lost along the way.
CHAPTER SEVEN
We didn’t stay at the bar too much longer. After we said goodbye to Dom and Esteban (who started insisting I call him Este), we went back to our rooms. I desperately wanted to follow Camden into his, but I said goodbye to both men at once and Camden went in his room first. Javier was further down, lingering at his door, watching me in silence. His face was in shadow but I could still feel his eyes, his hesitation, as if he wanted to say something to me.
There was no hesitation on my end. I gave him a hard look and went to my room. Violetta was in the washroom, the tap running.