Of course he knew.
He went on, “Javier recruited your parents to work for him right after Travis went and switched sides. I heard from different sources that it was so Javier could have closer ties to you. I heard from Javier it’s because they wanted revenge on Travis. They’d stopped conning at this point and had their hands in a whole bunch of work from the cartels already, so it was not a big career change for them. Then one day they left and Javier tracked them down to Veracruz. To Travis. He was angry. That’s where you came in.”
“His angel of death,” I muttered then groaned as another wave of pain went through me. “Why not kill them all with one stone?”
“To his credit, Javier seemed shocked when he learned you were going to Travis’s house back in Veracruz,” Camden spoke up, surprising me. “I don’t think he meant for you to kill them all.”
“What does it matter?” I snapped. “I was being used, just like I was used here. Javier got his way, he got his wish. Even if he’s dead, he’s still won. My mother is dead. And so is Travis. And I killed them both.” The tears teased me again, moisture swelling in my throat but I refused to give in. I grinded my teeth until my jaw was sore. “I was the fool who did as he asked.”
“Don’t say that,” Camden said. “You didn’t have a choice and you know it. You can grieve for your mother but I will not let you punish yourself for this. You don’t deserve this burden. None of us deserve what went on in there.”
The memory of the man dying by Camden’s hands filled my head and I remembered I wasn’t the only one who lost a piece of themselves back in the jungle.
“Then why would my parents go to work for Travis? What happened then?” I asked, wanting the distraction.
I saw Derek shrug. “I don’t know.”
My mother had told me it was revenge. For me. I wanted to believe that now, though it didn’t make things hurt any less.
“And she never married Travis. Travis took her in because he was obsessed with her. Killed your father, kept her as his own. Kept her is the key word that was thrown around a lot. I can’t say what went on. I don’t know all the facts, I only know what I read and what I’ve been told. I’m guessing it was something like Stockholm syndrome. If they were ever officially married, I never heard about it. I just know it was a fucked-up, messy situation.”
I had my fair share of that. I held Camden’s hand tighter again and hoped that the Watt cycle of being sucked into co-dependent, obsessive and unhealthy relationships was finally over. As long as I had Camden, I had broken free of that. I wouldn’t end up like her.
“Did you know that Gus was my real father?”
“I did,” he answered simply. “Javier was supposed to tell you, it was part of the plan. But he held off at the last minute. Maybe he was afraid that when the time came and you found out that he’d tricked you after finding out the truth about Gus, you’d come after him. I guess he was right about that, wasn’t he?”
Was he fucking ever.
“So what happens next?” Camden asked. “After we get Ellie fixed up and get Gus. What happens to us? And to you? How do we know you won’t kill us or come after us?”
Derek eyed him in the rear view mirror. “Because so far, that’s not my job. And, believe it or not, it wouldn’t become my job. I like you two. I fucking hate dealing with the cartels and yes I do it for a living but some jobs are better than others. I take what interests me and that’s it. I want you to get to Gus and I want you to get home to California. Then I want to take a nice long week of drinking and fucking tourists on a beautiful beach.” He paused and scrunched up his brows. “I will say this to you, man. Camden. When we took off in the jungle that morning, I was certain we were only leaving Ellie behind. Javier wanted to take you with him. I told him not to, that it would slow down our operation. So he left you behind. He didn’t want to.”
“Of course,” Camden scoffed. “He wanted to off me somewhere.”
“No,” Derek told us. “That wasn’t it. We all had specific instructions to keep both you and Ellie safe. But the emphasis was placed on you, Camden. You were the priority.”
I coughed at the tickle in my throat and threw a bewildered look to Camden. “What the hell does that mean?”
“I have no idea, honestly,” Derek said. “But that’s what we were told. There were too many other things to question than that.”