But Esteban had one last card up his sleeve, one last place to go.
A place he’d discussed at length before with Juanito, poor na?ve Juanito, just in case something were to have happened.
At least he was smart enough to have had a back-up plan.
They would journey up the thick, unyielding jungle to the compound in the trees. He at least knew from the last time it was used that there were more guns, ammo and even a helicopter there, if they were lucky. In that fortress where so much blood had once been spilled, so much drama had taken place, Esteban would recoup. He would re-plan. Then he would do whatever it took to rule again.
There were hostages he could take – Javier still had a sister in New York, did he not? Luisa had her parents in San Diego – and there were enemies of Javier’s he could convince to join his side. Hell, the federales might even want to strike another deal. If Javier was put away again, there was no way he’d be walking out of there alive.
Esteban smiled at all the possibilities. He just needed to get to his new castle and wait.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Javier
I stared at Luisa for a moment, trying to see her features in the dark. She squeezed my hand, a simple gesture that shot fire up my arm.
“You know where Esteban is?” I asked, trying to not to get my hopes up even though my pulse had already kicked up a few notches.
She nodded. “Yes. I had a dream just now. But it wasn’t a dream, I was remembering something I’d heard. Him and Juanito discussing the fincas and safe houses that they knew of. Esteban said there was one in the Honduras, inside a national park. He said you’d never go back because of what happened there. I think that’s where he is, where he thinks you’ll never go.”
All at once I knew she was right. The place she was talking about could only be the former compound of the former Travis Raines. It was a place where a lot of shit went down a few years ago, even though it felt like another lifetime. It had been another lifetime, back when Raines was still alive and I was caught up with enemies and ex-lovers. I left that place the leader of Raines’ cartel, even though I’d lost something, someone else, in the process.
I never did well with humiliation. Esteban knew that.
“It’s not easy to get to,” I told her, even though I knew I’d go through hell and high water to take that man’s life.
“I don’t care,” she said. “And I’m going with you.”
I knew she’d say that. “Am I bad a husband if I don’t object?”
She shook her head vigorously. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.”
Honestly, I didn’t like the idea of her coming along. I wasn’t kidding when I said it wouldn’t be easy to get to. To attack Este undetected meant we could only drive to a certain point and then hike the rest of the way. We couldn’t bring helicopters, they’d give him too much warning. The journey would take at least a day and a half and I wasn’t sure if she could handle it in her condition, even if she was healing up nicely. And I sure as hell didn’t know if she could handle the actual ambush. It was risky to have her there.
But I also knew it was riskier to leave her behind. I needed Diego for this one. Besides, I owed it to her. I promised her she could get her hands dirty. I wanted to see what she’d do to Esteban if she had half the chance. So even though I was purposely putting my wife in harm’s way by letting her come along, it was still the right thing to do.
Only in our fucked up little world would that be the right thing to do.
I couldn’t sleep after that. Neither could she. We decided to wait until morning to wake up Diego and Evaristo and fill them in, so the two of us went into the kitchen, brewed a giant pot of coffee, good coffee, and sat at the kitchen table, going over maps and Google Earth images. It was all we could do now that we didn’t have access to the federales information, but it helped.
I had to admit, it was kind of romantic. Her and I drinking coffee, the waves crashing outside, the world dark and sleeping, while we planned the murder and torture of Esteban Mendoza. I might have been falling in love with her all over again. Something about that relentless fire in her eyes.
Of course the more we talked, the more I stared at her and fell for her, the more I needed to be inside her again to claim her as mine once more. I understood why she couldn’t stand for me to touch her in such a way and it crippled me to the bones. Because she was mine. Just mine. Always mine.
I hadn’t been denied much in my life but Esteban was still denying her from fully belonging to me. But I had no choice but to suck up that rage, let it fester bitterly inside, and unleash it on him later. Our plans got more and more in-depth as the night slinked off into morning.