Camden looked at me, lips pursed and I could tell he had no clue either.
The next couple of hours were a blur. Instead of some farmhouse like the one that Javier had taken Violetta to, Derek drove me to an honest-to-god medical clinic. It was after hours of course since gunshot wounds attracted at least some attention but the woman who ran the clinic was quick, silent and efficient. And by efficient, I mean she pumped me full of drugs until I couldn’t tell what was up and what was down. Not quite morphine but something that made me stop wanting to chop off my leg.
She had no problems pulling out the bullet, least it didn’t seem that way in my drugged up head and said I was lucky it didn’t strike an artery. She gave Camden the medication, painkillers and antibiotics to fight infection, wrapped me up and I was somewhat good to go. Derek handed her a handsome wad of American bills for her effort.
“So,” Camden said as they put me back in the Escalade. “Now we’ve all been shot. You, me, Gus. Quite the team, right?”
I jerked my head. “We’ll be a team once we see him again. Derek, that’s our next stop.”
“Yes, m’am,” he said, seeming to lighten up a bit. “Back to Mexico you go.”
We drove through the night, passing through the Guatemalan and Mexican borders with ease. Now that my leg was fixed, we weren’t attracting any suspicion. Just three gringos with Mexican plates. And even if they did search the car and found the guns and ammo we still had in here, Derek was ready to bribe them. Or take them out. Whichever came first.
Derek had told us that Javier kept Gus in the city of Oaxaca, a place we had already driven through on our way to Guatemala and Honduras. That fact made me rage inside, pushing away the euphoria that the drugs had laced my brain with. All this time I was wrong. All this time I was being led like a puppet on a barbed wire by Javier and Gus was alone somewhere, hurt, wondering if we’d ever come for him. We had been so close, so damn close and I believed Javier. I fell for his lies time and time again.
At least I wouldn’t fall for them anymore. My chest choked up with feelings of sorrow and fear. I didn’t know if I could ever find peace knowing he was alive. I didn’t know if I could ever be relieved knowing he was dead. There I was, still caught on the drifting cobwebs of the past.
It was the middle of the night when Derek pulled the Escalade into the suburbs of the city. Despite taking another dose of painkillers, I was wide awake, anxious to see Gus.
“I don’t understand why they even have Gus, though,” I mused. “Like, not that I wanted this to happen, obviously, but why didn’t Javier just kill him? He must have told you why?”
“I don’t know,” Derek said. “Though I wouldn’t be surprised if he had some affection for him. Maybe if you thought Gus was dead, you wouldn’t go with Javier.”
“Oh, please,” I said in disgust. “Like I would have anyway.”
“Javier is used to getting what he wants,” he explained. “I think in the end, he still wanted you.”
Camden stiffened and I put my hand on his knee to comfort him. We road in silence for a few moments and I did my best not to dwell on Javier, how he could both still want me and be someone who would leave me behind to die.
How the hell did his love for me get so fucked-up?
“Are you sure they’ll let Gus go willingly,” I asked Derek, shaking memories out of my head. “I mean, you’re not the one running this show.”
He eyed me over his shoulder and gave me a handsome smirk. “Who said anything about willingly? We’re taking him whether they let us or not.”
Oh great. Another one of these.
“Obviously you’re staying in the car,” Camden filled in beside me, stifling a yawn. “You’re not going anywhere on that leg.”
I cocked my head at him. “Oh really?”
His eyes were serious in the darkness of the car. “Really. Ellie. You need to stay safe. I’ll get your father back.”
Father.
My heart warmed.
And filled me with determination. I wasn’t letting the men do this without me. Gus had come for me now I was going for him. After everything I’d been through, I wasn’t leaving without him, the only family I truly had left.
We stopped on a quiet, wide road in the suburbs and Derek turned off the lights and the engine. He nodded at a house in the distance that had a few garbage cans knocked over in the front yard and a real estate sign. “That’s the one. It’s usually a stash house. Guess they’re stashing people there now too.”
He turned around in his seat and looked at Camden. “What guns do you have?”
“None. I had to drop mine back at the compound.”
Derek jerked his head to the back of the car. “Come around back.”