“Romeo and Juliet was a tragedy, not a romance,” I answered.
He held onto my hand the whole way, keeping me close to him, occasionally pointing to one of the flamingos on the lagoon and I pretended to take interest, putting on a show for the folks who probably weren’t watching us. People were spread about the park, workers on their lunch break, college students having make-out sessions and picnics at the water’s edge.
When we approached the café, he whispered, “There she is,” with all the skill of a ventriloquist. A woman was sitting at a small table at the very corner of the café, where the patio petered out into the grass. There was no one by her except an old couple reading the newspaper together.
“Amandine?” Javier asked as we stopped at the end of the table.
The woman looked up, surprised. She was pretty hot, right off the bat. About our age, maybe early thirties, long wavy hair done up in honey browns, sunkissed skin and blue eyes that matched her top.
“Hi,” she exclaimed brightly with incredibly white teeth. “You must be Enrico’s friends.”
We nodded. Javier gestured to the empty seats across from her. “May we sit down?”
“Yes, yes of course, please do.”
Once seated, I offered my hand. “I’m Ellie.”
She shook it, nice and firm. “Nice to meet you. And you too, Javier.”
He smiled and folded his hands in front of him for a second before I guess he realized it was a bit too formal for his new persona and instead leaned back in his chair, legs splayed.
I almost rolled my eyes at his quasi-gangster pose.
“So,” he said, getting down to business. “I’m sure Enrico told you what this was all about. So how can you help us, Amandine?”
Her face grew a little serious. “I’m sure Enrico also told you about my student loan …”
“Money is not going to be a problem,” he said with a quick wave of his hand.
“Okay, well,” she went on, “I was with Travis for a bit.”
Javier and exchanged a look. He straightened up in his seat and looked around at the café.
“Don’t worry,” Amandine said, taking a sip of her latte. “This place is pretty safe. Mainly tourists come here. No one knows to listen. Do they?”
He shook his head, his jaw tense. “No. They don’t. I didn’t expect to hear this. What do you mean you were with him? As his lover?”
She laughed and covered up her mouth. “No, not like that. I took a job cleaning his house. I needed the extra money for tuition. It was only for the summer. I didn’t know of course who he was but I figured it out pretty fast. At first I thought he liked to hire really attractive women to be his help, if I can be so modest, and I thought maybe he was a financial banker or something like that. I don’t know, I was na?ve. I’m a good girl and I study hard and I didn’t grow up with that. I knew there were drugs all over the city and that the cartels were closing in, but at the time it wasn’t all that bad.”
“How long ago was this?” he asked.
“Two years ago, two and a bit,” she said, thinking it over. “It was nothing like it is now. This is my city, my home. My family’s home. Now we have Los Zetas and The Los Zetas Killers and who else knows who, all wanting a piece of this pie and it’s rotten through and through. Bodies are left in the streets. People, good people, journalists, teachers, are murdered and no one is doing a thing about it. Not the police. Not the military. Not the government. Organized crime has taken over this city. As soon as I am done school, I am gone. And when I make money one day, I will take my family with me.”
“Well, Amandine,” Javier said calmly. “If you are of great help to us, I will make sure you have the money before you even start your next class. And it will be enough to get your family out of here in the meantime.”
She looked flabbergasted. I couldn’t blame her. How much money was Javier giving this young woman and why? Just to be nice? That didn’t sound like him. Not when he was no better than The Los Zetas Killers.
“I couldn’t accept that,” she said.
“Yes, you can and you will. Because your information will be worth it. The lives of my own sisters depend on it.”
Her face fell. “Oh. I see. Travis … Los Zetas. Did they do something to them?”
Javier didn’t say anything. I couldn’t see his eyes save for the amber reflection of his aviators and he was probably glad for that. You couldn’t read his face at all.
“If you help me, it will stop Travis from hurting them and hurting everyone else in this city.”
I ignored what Javier had told me on the boat that day, that the drug Lords were all like zombies and another one would pop up to take their place. Did Javier really want the drug cartels, the violence, to stop? Or did he just want to protect his sisters and come out on top?