A chill laced my blood. Empire?
Gus went on. “I’d heard it through my grapevine that Travis and Javier were butting heads. He started getting friendlier with their rivals, Los Zetas in particular. That was unheard of, not to mention stupid for someone like him, but Travis Raines cared more about power than loyalties. He believed that their cartel could go grow stronger if they became allies instead of enemies and thought going back to Mexico would help. Never mind the explosion of violence in the country, the fighting, the tourists who were getting caught in the middle, the fact that it turned into one big shit show and it was getting international attention. Javier did not agree. Javier thought it was too dangerous, too chaotic, and that Travis would slowly lose control. He would rather die than make peace with his rivals. It came down to Javier staying behind and Travis booting him out. Javier siphoned a few key players of his, people who still had loyalty to a cause, instead of to Travis. I still don’t know who’d win in a fight, but Javier at least has charm to mask his brutality, something Travis doesn’t have.”
I winced at the word charm. I remembered meeting Javier for the first time, in that café in Palm Valley. I wouldn’t say he had charm but he definitely had something. Mystery, if I wanted to sound quixotic about it.
“There was an incident, of course,” he continued. “Before Travis left, he’d managed to get two of Javier’s men killed. And once he made it to Mexico, he went one step further and hunted down one of Javier’s sisters. Raped her, killed her, all that big stuff. This was about three years ago, mind you, though nothing really came of it. Javier still stayed in the US and began leaching from another cartel, trying to build his own power. That was his revenge, I suppose. Who knows, maybe Javier didn’t give two shits about his sister. Nothing would surprise me with that guy.”
I cleared my throat, watching the green hills whiz by. “You knew all this stuff, all this time and you never told Ellie.”
He looked chagrined or maybe that was wishful thinking. “It didn’t concern her. And by the time it did concern her …”
“Well you obviously knew he was coming after her.”
“Actually, I didn’t. I’d stopped paying attention about a year ago. I got dragged down into some money and health problems, I just didn’t have the time. Javier seemed to be holding steady and at that point I figured he’d never come looking for her.”
“Which begs the question, why now?”
“Good question. That’s what we’re going to find out. I doubt it was something as simple as hearing a love song on the radio.”
“Perhaps it is as simple in that he’s still in love with her.”
He glanced at me, his eyes hazy behind the aviators. “Men like Javier don’t know what love is. I wouldn’t worry too much about that.”
But Ellie did know. And that’s what concerned me.
“I’ll tell you one thing that I thought was odd,” Gus added. “About a few months before I stopped keeping tabs on him, I’d heard there was a couple that jumped ship – they’d been working for Javier and then went to the other side. To Travis. Javier sent some men after them but who knows what happened.”
“A couple?” It didn’t seem like the line of work that a husband and wife would get roped into, like opening up a bed and breakfast.
He nodded. “Yeah. A couple. An older couple at that. White folks. Amanda and Bob Williams.”
There was something loaded in what he was saying but I wasn’t getting it.
“You know, I used to be friends, good friends, with Amelie and Brian Watt.”
The light went off in my head. AW. BW. Same initials.
“Ellie’s parents?” I asked in disbelief. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“Do you know for sure?”
“I don’t. Just a gut feeling. I hadn’t talked to them since they up and left poor Ellie with her uncle. I wouldn’t put it past them, I don’t see the point of it all. Why go through all of that with their daughter only to go back to the man that did it.”
“Maybe they got into some trouble.” It would have to be some major fucking trouble to go back to Travis or work for Javier. Was that a matter of Javier recruiting her parents, hoping he would get close to them or was it the other way around? No matter the reason, my damaged, beautiful girl was still getting screwed over, even without her knowing it.
The anger must have been showing on my face because Gus tapped the steering wheel.
“Hey aggro, don’t you go losing it on me. You said you were prepared to do whatever you could to get her back. Things are only going to get harder and more complicated from here on out.”