“What happened?” I asked. “My mother … why was my mother there?”
I looked at Camden who was looking at Javier. I turned to look at Javier.
“Why was she there? You wanted me to kill my parents? I don’t understand.”
He stared right back at me and I realized how many secrets the man had been keeping from me. “Your parents were never any good.”
I felt the sting even though I knew the truth. “I still don’t understand.”
“Your parents used to work for Javier. And then they switched and went to Travis,” Camden filled in over my head.
“Fuck you, you pansy,” Javier sneered. “What the fuck do you know about anything?”
“I know this pansy beat your fucking ass, American style,” he shot back.
Shit, there was going to be more bloodshed if I didn’t stop this.
“You guys!” I yelled. “Where is Gus?”
“I left him with Javier,” Camden said, his face falling. “He was shot. He was alive when I left him.”
“You did what?” I screeched, looking at Camden wildly. “Why the fuck did you leave him, he was shot!?”
“I had to come get you,” Camden said angrily. “We didn’t know that you were going to be having dinner at his house. If we’d known that, I would have never let you leave today.”
“So where the fuck is Gus, Javier?” I asked, my eyes slicing into him.
He rubbed nervously at the dried blood that was smeared all over his forehead. “He’s gone.”
“Dead?!”
He smoothed his hair behind his ears. “No. They have him.”
“Who the fuck is they?”
He looked at me like I was an idiot. “Who do you think? Los Zetas.”
“How the hell did they get him?” I looked between the both of them and slammed my hands down on the dashboard. “The fuck!” I screamed.
Javier sighed and looked away. I was so close to clocking him upside the head and reopening a few wounds, I didn’t give a shit if he came and got me and Camden out of there. I knew him rescuing us couldn’t have been because he had a change of heart. He licked his lips and gave me an apologetic glance. “After Camden left, I waited until I could hear the ambulance. I left Gus there and went into the building. I knew the cops would show up soon after, Zetas cops, once the medics discovered Peter and Raul’s bodies and that I’d be as good as dead. I went upstairs to hide. I watched the ambulance come. He was alive. They put an oxygen mask on him. They took him away. They got to the end of the street. Then a black car came out of nowhere, stopped the ambulance. Shot the driver. Opened up the back. Took Gus out, shot everyone else. They put Gus in the car. And then they drove off.”
My mouth was open. It took effort to close it. “And that was Travis? He was at the party …”
“I guess Raul orchestrated this. We won’t know because I shot him. And he, by the way, is the one who shot Gus, not me.” Javier cast a furtive glance over at Camden and continued, “I’m guessing they mean to take you, Ellie.”
Camden cleared his throat. “They would have taken Ellie at the party. I was watching Travis’s face, he was truly shocked when he found out about Ellie and her mother.”
“He was probably planning on taking Ellie later, for vengeance, without knowing who Ellie really was. Now, he probably has Gus. And this whole fucking thing is far from over. Now, Travis knows everything.” He scratched at his chin thoughtfully, “Your parents won’t be around for much longer either.”
That was enough. I took my elbow and smashed Javier right in his already broken nose. Then I crawled over Camden and jumped from the Jeep, running down the road until I tripped over a pothole and went flying to the ground.
Camden was soon at my side, helping me back up. I waved him away, just wanted to lie there, let the rain wash me away.
“Ellie, come on,” he said softly, bringing me up to me feet. My dress was all dirty from the mud, as dirty as I felt.
I blinked back the tears and stared up at him, the side of his face illuminated by the headlights. “What do we do now?”
He cocked his head at me and smiled, just a bit. “We do what we’ve always done. The right thing. We go get him back.”
I shook my head. I was so damn afraid. “I can’t do this again. Javier’s right, Travis knows me now. Everything has been blown wide open … my parents … it’s what that asshole wanted.” I glared at the Jeep but was only blinded.
“That asshole isn’t going to get what he wants much longer, Ellie. We don’t need him. You and I, we will get Gus back.”
“You wouldn’t last a day.” Javier was suddenly behind us. My God he could be sneaky.
“Oh fuck off,” Camden said, “you should be grateful your brains aren’t spilled all over the wall.”
“You didn’t have the guts,” he answered, stepping right up to him. As much as this spelled disaster, as sticky as this all was, Javier kind of had a point. We wouldn’t get that far. Camden got to me with the help of Gus and his contacts. Together, we had nothing.