Secure Location

chapter Twelve

By twenty after seven, Cruz was back at the hotel. Meg and Jana were both dressed and the four-year-old was leaping around the hotel room, as if she was a reindeer on uppers.

“Sorry,” he mouthed to Meg.

She smiled. “Where were you?”

He didn’t want Charlotte to ruin their day. “I’ll tell you later. Let’s have breakfast.”

They ate in the hotel restaurant. Cruz and Jana both had pancakes and bacon, Meg had oatmeal and fruit. Meg could see a few of the younger, female waitstaff huddled together and thought they were probably speculating on who Cruz was and how Meg came to be eating at his table.

When it came time to leave the hotel, Cruz led them out the back door of the hotel, to a car that was parked in the alley. He reached above the front tire on the driver’s side and snagged a key. “Get in,” he said.

“What happened to your other rental car?” Meg asked.

“It’s still there. I just figured it wouldn’t hurt to drive something different.”

She didn’t know why she was surprised. Cruz always had a plan A, B and C. He’d said that he’d make sure they weren’t followed. This was probably just one of many precautions he’d take to keep that promise.

Once he got Jana buckled in, he slid into the driver’s seat. He wore green cargo shorts, a white T-shirt and sandals. He looked very much like the man she’d married six years ago.

“Need directions?” she asked.

“I think I’ve got it,” Cruz said.

It was the last thing either of them said to one another. It was not silent, however, in the car. Jana kept up a running monologue. Meg learned about the little girl’s favorite colors, her favorite animals, things she would not eat no matter what and why girls were better than boys. When she said, “Girls get to sit to go potty,” Cruz smiled. Other than that, he was hard to read.

Or she might have just been perceptively dull. Because her head was whirling. Why had she agreed to this? It was a huge responsibility to bring a four-year-old to an amusement park. There would be big crowds, lots of geography and lots of temptation.

What if she ate something and got sick?

What if she got too much sun?

Oh, God. What if she got lost?

“Maybe we shouldn’t go,” she said. “You hate crowds.”

Cruz turned to look at her. “I’m turning into the parking lot,” he said. “We’re here.”

“But...”

Jana was scrambling out of her car seat. “Let’s go,” she said.

There was no stopping this train. Maybe she should tie herself to the tracks. It might be less painful. “Okay,” she said, opening her door. “Here goes nothing.”

There was a line to get in. Jana danced around them. Meg never took her eyes off her. Once they were through the gate, Cruz pulled Jana aside. “Hang on,” he said. “We’re going to do it all. Every last thing. And eat all kinds of things that have high sugar content. But you need to stay with us and not go running off. And if we get separated, don’t leave the park with anyone but Meg or me. No matter what. Come to this spot right here, at the entrance, by the big pink umbrellas. We will find you.”

He kept his voice calm but she could tell that Jana was listening. “I know the rules, Uncle Cruz,” she said.

It was a sad world that four-year-olds understood so much.

He smiled. “Good. I hope your aunt Meg does. What’s the number one rule, Meg?”

“Have fun?” she asked.

He shook his head. “That’s rule number two. Rule number one is, don’t sit behind me on the roller coaster if you’re going to throw up.”

“Hurl,” Jana corrected. She bent at the waist and made an exaggerated sound of vomiting. She was smiling when she straightened up. “That’s what my mom calls it. Hurling. And when you do it, you have to bend way over.” She demonstrated the move again.

Cruz narrowed his eyes. “Your mother could benefit from charm school.”

Jana shook her head. “She’s way too old for school. You try it, Uncle Cruz.”

Shaking his head, he bent at the waist and made the obligatory gagging sounds. Jana clapped her hands in approval. “Now you,” she said, pointing to Meg.

“Meg doesn’t have to—” Cruz said.

“I’ll do it.” She bent at the waist and gave it her best shot.

“That was pretty good,” Jana said. “But you got to be fast.” She whipped the trunk of her small body forward, almost bending double at the waist. Then she did it again, just in case the adults were too dumb to get it the first time.

“Enough,” Cruz said. “Let’s go.”

* * *

MEG DIDN’T HURL. Got a little motion-sick once or twice but managed to hold it together. Nothing seemed to bother Jana, except there was one tense moment when it appeared that she might not be tall enough for a ride.

“How tall are you?” Cruz asked, staring at the notice.

She edged up to Cruz, ran a hand across the top of her head and hit him at the waist. “This tall,” Jana said.

Cruz looked at Meg. “There you have it,” he said.

Fortunately, this tall was exactly a half inch more than what she needed. Their next stop was the Ferris wheel and Meg didn’t complain when Jana wanted to ride it three times in a row. She loved it just as much. Then it was time for lunch. Meg led the way and they found hot dogs, chips and icy cold slushes. Perfection.

“I want to do the water rides,” Jana proclaimed.

Cruz shrugged. “It’s a hundred in the shade. Best idea I’ve heard all day.”

Ten minutes later, they were in a small rubber boat, enjoying a perfectly nice gentle water ride, when, out of nowhere, they dropped what had to be fifty feet into a pool of water. Jana squealed and laughed and Meg hoped that her stomach would catch up soon.

She lifted the hem of her soaked blouse.

“Hey,” Cruz said, looking around at the crowd.

“It’s okay,” she said. She pulled off the shirt.

Cruz smiled. “You wore your suit?”

“I knew there were a lot of water rides. And everybody has a cell phone these days,” she added.

“And you didn’t want to win the wet T-shirt contest,” he teased.

She wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

“Always the Girl Scout,” he said.

Yeah, well Girl Scouts were supposed to be always prepared and she was totally unprepared three minutes later for the feeling of Cruz’s arms around her and Jana as the three of them crowded into another small boat.

It felt so darn good.

And she felt some of the tension in her body ease up.

“Rapids ahead,” he warned, his mouth close to her ear. “Hold on.”

Maybe he realized her heart was about to flutter right out of her chest.

By late afternoon, Jana was so tired she was starting to trip over her own feet. But she pointed to a sign, advertising that last year’s winner of American Idol was appearing that night. “I want to go,” she said. “I saw her on television.”

Cruz shook his head and Jana, who likely wasn’t told no very often, started to cry.

“It’s okay, sweetie,” Meg assured her. “Maybe you can come back again sometime and see her sing. Or maybe see someone else you like. They have all kinds of famous people here. You might get a chance to see someone you like even more.”

It wasn’t a great explanation but it seemed to calm the child down. “Maybe the Jonas Brothers?” she asked.

“Maybe,” Meg said.

Cruz hoisted Jana up onto his shoulders. “Let’s go home,” he said. He started walking toward the gate.

Once buckled in the car, she was asleep before they got out of the parking lot. “Her legs never stopped moving,” Meg said, settling back in her own seat.

“It’s amazing,” Cruz agreed, checking his mirrors. “How are you doing?”

She was a little sunburned, her swimsuit was still damp from the last water ride, and her fingers were sticky from cotton candy. All in all, she hadn’t been better in years. “Good, but I think I need a shower.”

“Yeah, me, too. What do you say we eat in tonight?”

“I imagine we can convince Jana to eat some more macaroni and cheese,” Meg said.

“If we twist her arm,” Cruz agreed. “Seems fair since she’s got me pretty much twisted around her little finger.”

“Really?” Meg rolled her eyes. “Was it the five rides on that thing that whirled backward that convinced you?”

Cruz shook his head. “I know, I know. Big, tough, Chicago cop is putty in four-year-old’s hands. Makes for a great headline.”

He’d been a little bit of putty but he’d also held the line when it was important. When the little girl had tried to skip ahead of them, Cruz had pulled her back and gently reminded her that she needed to stay with them. When she’d wanted her second sugar-filled drink of the day, Cruz had gotten her a bottle of water.

He’d be a very good dad someday.

Meg felt her throat close up and she could feel the hot burn of tears building. She turned her head to look out the passenger-side window.

“You okay?” he asked, sounding concerned.

“Oh, sure,” she said. “Just want to catch my own nap.”

Cruz woke her up a couple blocks from the hotel. They tried to do the same with Jana but she wasn’t having any of it. Once Cruz turned over the keys to the valet, he gathered Jana into his arms and carried her into the hotel. When they got to their room, he laid the little girl on the big bed. She never opened her eyes.

“Why don’t you shower?” Cruz suggested. “I’ll do the same and order room service. What do you want?”

“There’s a shrimp pasta that I like,” she said, grateful to talk about something mundane like dinner. She walked to her room, undressed and turned the shower on. As she rinsed her body, she reflected upon the day.

She’d done okay.

There’d been a brief moment of panic every time Jana had insisted upon trying something new but she’d managed to control her reactions for the most part. Cruz’s calm presence had made all the difference.

He was a rock. Always had been.

Two years into their marriage, when she’d slid off an icy Chicago roadway and hit a telephone pole, almost totaling her car, he’d said nothing about the vehicle. He’d arrived at the scene, checked her over for injuries and held her. A year later when she’d broken her leg in an employee softball game, he’d carried her off the field and teased her that girls didn’t know how to slide. Both times he’d been scared. But he’d known that she was even more scared. And he’d never faltered.

She was going to love him forever.

And for his own good, she was going to let him go. Again.

Dinner was already on the table by the time Meg got out of the shower and dressed. Her clothing choices were still limited so she opted for a simple black knit sheath dress, leaving her legs and feet bare.

Jana was still sleeping. “Did you tell her that macaroni and cheese awaits?” Meg asked.

Cruz shook his head. “I think she needs sleep more than food. If she wakes up later and she’s hungry, we’ll raid the vending machines. It will give my sister another reason to bust my chops when she picks her up tomorrow. And you know how she loves to do that.”

The Montoya clan was as close as close could be. It was something Meg had envied. She took a sip of the wine that Cruz had ordered and sighed in appreciation. “I had a good time today,” she said.

He put down his fork and studied her. “I guess it’s the kind of thing that I always saw us doing. Before, you know.”

Before she’d left him with some lame excuse about needing to find herself. “It’s complicated, Cruz. But what happened the other night,” she said, deliberately keeping her eyes from straying to the bed, “can’t happen again.”

He pushed back his chair and stood up. “I don’t understand why the hell not? I never stopped loving you, Meg. We can fix whatever is wrong. And...and if things have happened in this last year because we weren’t together anymore, I can get past that. I don’t want the details because quite frankly, I might want to kill someone. But I’ll get past it. I just want you back. Five years from now, I want us to take our son or daughter to the amusement park. I want us to be a family.”

He was breaking her heart. He deserved to know the truth. “Cruz, I have—”

His cell phone rang. He glanced at it and frowned. “It’s Myers. I better take this.”

When she nodded, he punched a button. “Montoya.” Then he listened. And all the color drained out of his face. “Thanks for calling,” he said finally. “I’ll check it out and let you know what I find.”

“What?” she asked. Her stomach was cramping up in fear.

“Did you tell anyone that we were going to Six Flags today?” he asked, his tone flat.

She shook her head.

“No one? You’re sure?”

“I’m positive. You asked me not to and I didn’t. Cruz, you’re scaring me. What happened?”

“Did you write it down somewhere? On a desk calendar? Or in your electronic calendar in your computer?”

“No. I didn’t know we were going until late last night. I called Charlotte and told her I’d be out of the office today. That’s all I said. What is going on?”

“Somebody dropped off a package for Myers at the police station. It was photos. Of the three of us at Six Flags. The bastard was there, taking pictures.”

She swallowed hard. “How do we know it was him?”

He took a deep breath before answering. “There was a note. ‘She can run but she can’t hide.’”