It wasn’t quite ironic but it was definitely something.
A moan came from the corner of the room and I realized that though we couldn’t see what or who was down here, they could see us.
I squeezed my gun for assurance and then took a step forward.
“Hello?” I whispered softly. “Mom?”
The moan got louder. I walked toward it and then Camden quickly brought out his phone, shining the weak light straight ahead of us.
My chest was shredded by what I saw.
There was a cage in the corner of the room, a large cage, like one you’d see when transporting animals to a zoo.
My mother was in the cage.
She was sitting half up, leaning against the bars, wearing what looked like the same dress I had seen her wear at Travis’s party. Her hands were gathered behind her back. Duct tape around her mouth. Her eyes were crazed, filled with tears, pleading for us.
“We need light,” Camden’s voice came through, calm and steady. He got up quickly, shining his phone around and found another bare bulb hanging from the ceiling and pulled the string.
Everything lit up. I glanced around me quickly, taking in a very familiar sight. It was like the same basement he scarred me in but worse, much, much worse. It looked like a meth lab crossed with a mad scientist’s lab. And very close to where my mother lay in her dirty cage were glass jar after glass jar of crawling black insects. Ants. Bullet ants. Este’s assumption about Travis using them for torture wasn’t just a silly hunch after all.
I looked back to my mom and immediately crouched down beside her, trying to ignore the welts she had all over her bare arms and legs. Insect bites.
“Mom,” I said, my voice breaking. “It’s me, Ellie. Your daughter. We’re going to get out of here okay?”
She shook her head back and forth, tears spilling down her cheeks, and I reached into the cage and pulled the duct tape off of her mouth in one go.
She winced from the pain and I whispered, “Sorry.”
“Ellie,” she cried softly and her voice reached down into my very soul. If I didn’t hold it together I was going to lose it.
“Mom, it’s okay.”
“You won’t get out of here,” she cried.
“Yes, we will,” I told her, my throat closing up. “Together. This is Camden. He’s going to help us.” I motioned behind me to Camden who was crouched down at my back. “Where is Gus?”
“Gus?” she asked. “What are you talking about?”
My veins had more ice than blood in them.
“Gus,” I said again, fighting to keep my voice steady. “He was taken by Travis. You know Gus, Mom, you know Gus. He came all the way to Mexico with Camden, to get me. We have to get him, I owe him this.”
“I’m sorry sweetie,” my mom said softly, shaking her head. “Gus isn’t here.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Her words settled over me like fine, cold dust.
Gus. Wasn’t. Here.
“But Javier said …” I started. I didn’t even bother finishing the sentence.
“Javier lies,” my mom said. “How do you think I ended up here with Travis?”
I narrowed my eyes at her, the rage building up inside, threatening to spill out. “Because you’re weak. And you’re a fool. And so am I.”
“Ellie,” Camden warned me.
“No,” I hissed at him. I was about to lose it. About to lose everything. I squeezed my gun so hard I could feel the ridges cutting into my palm. Javier had lied to me. He told me Gus was here. All along I was chasing after something that wasn’t real. Where was Gus?
“Why?” I cried out. “Why did he lie?”
“Because,” she said, her eyes avoiding mine, “he knew you’d never come for me. But you’d go for your father.”
“My father?” I asked while I heard Camden suck in his breath behind me. “He’s dead. I know he’s dead. Don’t tell me Javier lied about that too?”
“Ellie, I think we should get her out of here first,” Camden said quickly. “I hear something upstairs.”
I ignored him and my mom went on. “The father you know is dead, Ellie. I’m sorry sweetie. He was … Travis killed him. To take possession of me. We never knew what we were getting into when we came here. We only wanted … revenge. For you.”
“The father I know?” I asked, suddenly recalling Javier wording things very similarly.
She gave me a sad smile. “Ellie, I’m sorry. Gus is your real father.”
“What?”
What?
This was too much. My brain started to shut down on itself.
Gus. All this time. Gus. The man I was looking for, the man who was like a father to me more than my real father was in fact my real father. This shit couldn’t even be digested. My mother had an affair with Gus. Who the fuck didn’t she have an affair with?
“Fuck,” Camden swore under his breath. “I had a feeling.”
I whipped my head to look at him. “You had a feeling and you didn’t tell me?”