But Luisa, she hurt and bled over it. She had a soul and a heart that were so woefully out of place, but at least they made her gullible and easier to mold. She believed everything that Esteban told her about her own husband. She ate up every lie that came out of his mouth.
It was genius of him to mention the whores that had been driven in. The women weren’t for Javier, though, not this time. They were for Borrero, Artur, and whomever else. Maybe even Esteban, if he felt like it. But Javier had Evaristo now, and he was in his zone and wouldn’t be distracted by women at this point. He was terribly single-minded at times.
Esteban had wanted Luisa to believe the opposite and so she did. And that led her right to him, aching and vulnerable.
The sound of hoof beats came from behind him, and Esteban turned around to see the dapple grey stallion that had enraptured Luisa so much. For no real reason other than an extremely misplaced sense of jealousy, Esteban hated that damn horse even though it had, in some ways, helped with the plan.
The horse stared at him cautiously, and Esteban fancied he could almost see the wheels turning in its head, trying to decide if he was friend or foe.
“If I had a knife on me, I’d slit your throat right now,” Esteban said to the horse. He wasn’t joking either. Killing animals meant nothing to him. It had probably all started when he was ten years old and tied his neighbor’s beloved dog to their truck and watched as the owner, unaware, dragged the animal to its death. Esteban laughed at the horror of it all and felt thrilled that he, just a little boy, had the power to end a life so easily.
He would do it again and again.
Later, the puppies and cats and rabbits, they would become people. And it felt even better.
The horse seemed to decide Esteban was a foe after all. He snorted once and then took off at a trot, leaving Esteban behind. He had the brief fantasy of finding it later, slicing its head off, and delivering it to Luisa, blaming it on Javier. It was a little too Godfather-esque for Esteban’s tastes but he thought it might be fitting.
He watched the horse go and then slowly headed back up the hill, toward the ranch. He knew he had to keep it casual between Luisa and himself for the next day or two, to give her space and time to realize that what she wanted was him. But he couldn’t let it go too long. He had a schedule to keep, and it all depended on the man in the tunnel. The longer he could hold out, the better. He could only hope the agent was stubborn as all hell, and that Javier took his time. That was one thing he could count on. Javier didn’t like to rush. He enjoyed the art of it all.
What a sick fuck.
***
Though it was hard to practice patience, a virtue Esteban never had in spades, he did what he could to keep Luisa at bay. It wasn’t that hard. She was staying away from him. She wouldn’t even look at him. He didn’t know if it was out of guilt or the fear that Javier would see something in her eyes.
But of course Javier never saw anything because Javier was rarely seen above ground. He spent most of the day in the tunnel with Evaristo. Esteban only went down once or twice, to deliver news about a shipment to Javier or something else of importance — far from Evaristo’s ears of course — and sometimes he caught Javier at breakfast before he went on his morning run across the desert.
Other than that though, Javier was caught up in his obsession. He didn’t suspect a thing, and to Esteban’s relief, he was taking things with Evaristo slowly. He was still using the battery pack, and Evaristo wasn’t talking, but Javier was in no hurry to brutalize him beyond mercy. This was a day by day event that consumed the patron.
One evening after a dinner of Evelyn’s heavenly nopales and chicken stew, Luisa got up and headed out into the desert on her evening walk. Esteban knew now was the time to strike.
He waited and then followed her out there as she climbed into the horse pasture. All the animals were out of sight so she kept going. He was glad he had brought his knife this time.
She went down into the wash but then headed up out of it and to a ridge, disappearing behind clumps of yucca and agave.
When he found her, she was sitting on a bunch of smooth boulders and staring off into the distance. If you squinted beyond the mirage of sun shimmer, you could see the faint line of the highway. Other than that, it was desolation.
She knew he had been following her. She didn’t turn around or even flinch when she heard him call her name.
She knew and she had been waiting. This was what Esteban had wanted.
They didn’t talk much. She held a world of sadness in her big eyes, but anger too, and it was the anger that fueled her. Esteban didn’t even need to add anything to that fire.
He sat down on the rock and unzipped his shorts. He pulled her on top of him, and she was ready to go.
They fucked like that in the desert, the sun searing their shoulders and the wide open spaces around them swallowing their cries.