Gus had decided we’d first need to do to a bit of a stakeout – which totally went against what I wanted to do, which was to pretty much barge in there and take out everyone in our path. That method would probably get me killed but every second that we spent staking out the joint was a second that I felt we were losing her. Still, Gus was right. Of course. I’d started wanting to second-guess him out of spite but the fact was he knew what he was doing.
After the stakeout, when we got an impression of how many people were there and how they were armed (that’s, assuming, they were inside – this was just our hunch after all), we’d formulate our plan of attack. One person to act as a diversion, the other to rescue Ellie. Obviously the trick would be the diversion so we didn’t get caught. It also depended on how many men were there and if Ellie was heavily protected or not. Gus seemed to think that she wouldn’t be. Javier probably had his bodyguard or Raul. Javier, like everyone in the world by now, had to know I was on the run from the police and would want to stay low, so coming for Ellie would be the last thing I’d do.
Javier would have totally underestimated me.
Once we followed the GPS’s chirpy voice down a few seaside streets we eased up several blocks away. Javier’s car was still Javier’s car and our cover would be blow in a second if we were to come any closer.
Gus brought the duffel bag into the back seat and began sorting through the weapons. Yeah, that word pretty much encompassed what he’d packed. An assault rifle, a few handguns of various calibers, plus a sniper rifle. Then there were two knives, a small axe, a small plastic bottle, hornet spray, various gas lighters and a container of Coffee Mate.
I picked up the Coffee Mate and shook it. “Now what’s really in here?”
“Coffee Mate,” he said, face serious. “You get a cloud of that in the air, there’s nothing more flammable. Not to mention how easy fireballs are to make.”
“Okaaay,” I said. My nerves were starting to twitch a bit. I wasn’t counting on doing anything that involved igniting a puff of non-dairy creamer. Also made me wonder if people knew what they were putting in their coffee every morning.
I nodded at the unmarked bottle, afraid to touch it. “What’s that, breast milk?”
His eyes twinkled at that though his mouth remained flat. “A bleach bomb.”
“Perhaps we should stick to guns,” I said. I didn’t want this to turn into Gus’s science experiment.
He nodded. “You just use your own, you’re more comfortable with it.”
I was. I also had a secret weapon. I wasn’t planning on using it but if I ever got the chance – if I happened to come across Javier alone – well it paid off to plan ahead. Guns didn’t always have a way of making people talk.
Gus slipped one gun into his boot, a knife went into a sheath under his pant leg, and he tucked another gun into the waistband of his jeans. He seemed to consider the bleach bomb for a bit before he grabbed the can of hornet spray and stuffed that in the front of his pants.
“So I’m going to assume here that I’m the diversion,” I said, grabbing a small backpack I had stowed in the back.
“We’ll have to watch them for a bit, but yes, that’s the plan.”
As childish as it seemed, I’d wanted to be the one who came breaking into the house in a blaze of glory and rescuing my woman. But things didn’t work out the way they did in the movies. Instead I’d have to fake and run and leave the rest up to Gus.
At first I assumed we’d be waiting until nightfall but Gus assured me that daytime was the safest. This was an affluent neighborhood and Javier was the leader of a Mexican drug cartel. They couldn’t get away with a lot during the day, so the risk of a shootout was kept to a minimum. That said, we’d be in a lot of shit if we were spotted though sadly, that was the risk we were going to have to take. I was a wanted man now, what the hell was the difference? Might as well get nabbed for something I actually did.
We left the car and started walking toward the house, taking the street that dipped along by the ocean. It was stunningly beautiful, the glimpses of crashing waves that you could spot between the properties, the way the sun was setting in golden shimmers. Still, the scenery did nothing to abate the anxiety that was starting to eat at me. I’d never experienced panic attacks, not the way that Ellie had anyway, but this was as close to one as I’d ever felt. I thought my lungs were shrinking with each and every step we took. The gun tucked into my jeans felt like a bomb about to go off, my backpack felt weighted and heavy.