“There’s nothing to rescue me from. I want to stay here.”
He grabbed my shoulder as he leaned in and hurriedly whispered, “Kid, in about five minutes the
DEA is going to come storming through here and shoot anyone who gets in their way. They won’t
ask any questions first. If you’re lucky, they’ll just arrest you, but I won’t be able to
help you then.”
Frances looked like someone had just sucker-punched the air out of her lungs. “They’ll take
Daniel away from me if I get arrested,” she distractedly whispered. Her face was pale and
terrified as she turned to me. “Em, I can’t get arrested. I’ll lose my boy.”
Victor looked at both of us and impatiently sighed.
“I’ll take her too,” he conceded, “but we have to leave now.”
“Take Frances with you,” I ordered. “I’m not leaving. They can arrest me if they want. I don
’t care.”
“I promised your mother I would get you out of here unscathed. If I come back without you, she
’ll have my head and my badge. Either you both come, or we all get arrested or killed.”
Frances’s eyes were pleading with me. My thoughts were a mess—express decision making was not
my forte. I looked toward the door that Cameron had exited, hoping that if I stared at it hard
enough, he would walk back in. He didn’t … but I knew how to make him come back. Without
glancing down, I pressed on the red button of the shortwave radio and guilelessly turned to
Victor.
“Uncle Victor, let me talk to them,” I said with my voice just loud enough for Cameron to,
hopefully, hear me but not enough to arouse Victor’s suspicion.
“Who?” Victor looked confused.
“The FBI … or the DEA,” I almost yelled, but recomposed myself. “I’ll tell them the truth.
That I’m fine. There’s no need for them to come here.”
I was a horrible actress. But, thankfully, from behind the bench, he couldn’t see my hands or
the fact that I was trying to send a message to Cameron. This I was sure of. What I hadn’t
planned on was a na?ve Frances curiously looking down at my hands—and Victor following her
gaze. I thought the pulsating vein on Victor’s forehead was going to explode when he caught me.
“What the hell are you doing? I could go to jail for coming here, and you’re warning them?”
he shouted as he knocked the radio out of my hands. It went crashing to the floor, and this time
everyone in the church was looking back at us. Cameron’s mother noticed our presence for the
first time.
I was thinking, readjusting my strategy when a loud pop was heard from outside.
The stained-glass window at the front of the church exploded, and the deacon fell to his knees
and covered his face to shield himself from the shards of glass that had come flying down around
him like a cutthroat blizzard.
Gunfire then erupted outside, and everyone at the front of the church was screaming.
“Everybody get down!” Victor yelled with experience and authority. He adeptly jumped over the
bench. “Emily, keep your head down and don’t stop running.” He grabbed me by the shoulder of
my shirt and forced me to run with him. Frances had grabbed my other hand and followed us out to
an emergency exit at the side of the church.
Outside, an empty white sedan was waiting. Victor forced me into the front seat, ordered Frances
to get in the back, and climbed into the driver’s seat. As he sped away through the cemetery
road, I was frantically glancing back, trying to locate Cameron. I couldn’t see anyone, but
could still hear the gunfire that was bursting on the other side of the church. My heart was
thumping so hard that my vision was thumping with it, causing the passing graves to pulsate like
neon signs in video-store windows. I was trying to talk, yell, but couldn’t catch my breath.
We turned onto a dirt road, and Victor slid the car into high gear.
“Turn back,” I finally shouted, using up the miniscule amount of air that I had managed to
accumulate.
“There’s nothing you can do for them now,” he said coldly.
My cheeks were wet. I could hear Frances whimpering in the back.
Victor looked over at me, and his face faintly softened. “If it’ll make you feel better, I
promise to bring you to the DEA as soon as your parents see that you’re okay. You can tell the
police whatever you want them to hear. I won’t interfere.”