I closed my eyes, breathing in deeply through my nose, trying to dispel the anger that was punching me in the gut, in my lungs, in my chest. That rage would come in handy right about now, but rage acted without thought and I needed to play this next part so damn well or Ellie would be lost to me forever.
I almost controlled it but when Javier’s hands got to my family jewels and he groped around them and said, “I can see why Ellie chose me. My balls are bigger,” I let that rage out for just one second.
I spat right in his face. Well, since I was a lot taller, it kind of went on his forehead and trickled down into his eyes. I grinned at him, enjoying the look of revulsion and fury that flashed through him.
“Fucking pansy,” he sniped and then took his gun and jabbed the butt of it right into the bullet hole on my shoulder.
Everything went fuzzy and black and I could barely keep my lunch down. I collapsed to my knees and spat out bile, the pain overtaking me, ruling me.
Then Javier kicked me in the shoulder, same spot, and I rolled over onto my back, the waves of pain being comforted by swells of unconsciousness. Then I remembered Gus standing beside me, and Ellie and I knew I had to do what I could to stay awake and stay alive, pain or no pain.
I remained on my back breathing hard until he reached down and ripped me back up until I was on my feet, swaying unsteadily.
“Hey now,” he said, lightly slapping my face until my eyes were open. “Hey Camden, hey Camden, you better stay awake. I am just getting started here with you both.”
Javier glared at Gus while Raul started scooping up the guns they found on us. They hadn’t found the one in my sling. I wanted to look at Gus to see if he had noticed but I wasn’t about to give anything away.
“I didn’t think I’d see you ever again,” Javier said to him, frowning and seeming a bit uneasy. “You’re one of the few good ones left in her life.”
I raised my brows and swallowed away the residue of pain. “You two know each other?” I tried to hide the surprise in my voice but I couldn’t hide much of anything, except my gun.
Gus was watching Javier, not me. The old man never looked so angry.
“No,” Javier said slowly, carefully. “I’d only heard about him. You’re a famous man in the Watt circle.”
“And so are you,” Gus grunted.
Javier tapped his gun against his leg, seeming to think. “I suppose it’s better they think something of me than nothing at all. They are here, you know. Her parents.”
That was news to me but it wasn’t the news I wanted. “Where is Ellie?”
Just then another man came around the corner, someone I didn’t recognize, holding a gun to his side.
Javier glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. “What is it, Peter?” he asked testily.
Peter glanced at Gus and I, then said to Javier, “Travis Raines is having a dinner party tonight.”
Javier’s brow scrunched up. “What?”
“At his house,” Peter added for effect. “Ellie isn’t going out for dinner, she’s going there. To his house. To the compound.”
Whatever this meant to Javier, this was bad news. And if it was bad news for Javier, it was probably bad news for Ellie too. I looked at Gus who had an enlightened yet miserable expression on his face.
“Oh shit,” Gus grumbled.
Javier’s eyes were wild, thoughts spinning, and he nodded ever so slightly at Gus, as if he understood what Gus was realizing.
“What the fuck is going?” I said, wanting an explanation.
Javier shot me a look and swallowed hard, worry furrowing his face. A look I’d never seen on him. The look was gone quickly.
“Ellie,” he said slowly, looking back to Gus, “will be at Travis’s tonight. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to get in there without a fight. The place will have heightened security who, I’m sure, could possibly find the cyanide capsule on her necklace.”
Her necklace. Of course. Javier had given her one and taken the razor blade with the tracking device. Cyanide. He was getting her to kill him tonight.
“Her parents are there. They work for Travis now.” Javier looked up at the sky and rubbed the side of his face. “They’ll see Ellie. And her cover will be blown.” He brought his head back down to face me. “She’s as good as dead.”
And you put her in her grave, was all I could think. You set her up to fail from the beginning.
“So what the fuck are you going to do now?” I asked, spitting out the words. “You’re just going to leave her there?”
Javier narrowed his eyes into reptilian slits. “I don’t know what choice I have. We can hope for the best.”
“And to think, you thought you were good enough for her,” Gus said, shaking his head at Javier with disappointment.