“He’s using her as an assassin,” I said as we were about to round the corner.
Gus pulled back on my good shoulder when we reached the edge of the plaza. “Wait. We have to be careful.”
He poked his head around and then waved me over. I did the same. Ellie was walking down the street but cutting across it to an idling SUV. We walked quickly in the shadows, ducking between cars, trying to get close enough to see who was driving the beat-up looking Range Rover. We couldn’t see inside.
“Veracruz license plate, YBA something,” Gus said from beside me just as Ellie got inside.
I looked down. He had night vision goggles in his hands.
“Where the hell did you get that?” I asked.
“My pants,” he answered.
The car began to drive off with Ellie inside. I leaped out onto the street, contemplating running after the car, waving my arms, doing something.
“We’re not going to lose her,” Gus said. “Don’t worry.”
“Oh yeah, you want to run after the car?”
“I’d rather drive,” he said. He took out a screwdriver-looking thing from his pocket and jabbed it into the lock of the hatchback next to us. He busted open the lock with ease and motioned for me to get in the other side while he unlocked the door and got started on the wires beneath the steering wheel.
“I’m impressed,” I said.
“To know how to catch car thieves, you have to know how to steal a car,” he grunted. The car started with a roar as if to punctuate his sentence and we were bounding down the street, trying to catch up with the Range Rover that was now turning left onto a busy street.
We plowed through the lights as they went amber, under the early Christmas decoration wreaths hung above the intersections. The Range Rover was now two cars in front of us. Perfect stalking distance.
Gus navigated the stolen car through the Friday night traffic with ease. “We’ll return the car tomorrow.”
Energy and twisted excitement was flowing through me. “Gus, I don’t really care. I’ll do anything not to lose her, a car is nothing.”
“I can tell.”
We followed the Range Rover as it headed out of the city and onto the highway leading south to Alvarado.
“Did you hear what I said about Ellie … I think Javier’s using her as an assassin. Or at least some sort of attempt to get Travis, to kill him.”
He nodded. “I figured that.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I pulled my eyes away from the Rover long enough to give him a betrayed look.
“Because you’d lose your nut, Camden. I know how much she means to you. Boy, do I ever.” He shook his head to himself.
“Javier is putting her in Travis’s lap.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less from him.”
“Then why aren’t you upset?”
“Not everyone shows it like you. Just because I’m not setting people’s faces on fire, doesn’t mean I’m not upset.”
I couldn’t tell if that was a dig at what I did to his best friend or not, so I decided to let it go. We had bigger things to do than argue.
“Why is Ellie doing this? She was there. She was in his club, looking like … a goddess.”
“Because this is Travis. And Ellie has never forgotten what he did to her.”
“Her parents had a part in it too.”
His face grew grim. In the flash of headlights from oncoming traffic, his skin was completely white. “They did. And I’m sure that’s why Javier thought he could get Ellie to … well, whatever that cartel kid back in Mississippi told us.”
“I don’t understand.” I sat back in the seat, shaking my head. “I just don’t. Why doesn’t Javier kill these people himself? Why get her to do it?”
“Maybe he has his own agenda. Or maybe he thinks he’s doing her a favor. Maybe that’s why she was out there tonight. She agrees with him.”
“How could she agree to anything that man says?”
“I don’t think you really understand the history those two share.”
I felt like punching my fist through the window with my bad arm. Just to feel the pain.
“I need another pill,” I said, grinding my teeth instead.
“No, you don’t,” he said sharply. “We need you to be thinking straight right now. We need our Ellie back, you got it?”
Our Ellie. I liked the sound of that.
“I got it.”
We ended up following Ellie all the way into Alvarado. The town was quiet and our presence this late at night would be known so we had to take our time, hanging way back and occasionally turning off the headlights.
The Range Rover parked outside of a fish shop on the malecón, right on the edge of the sea. We parked up the street, watching Ellie’s and Javier’s silhouettes leave the car and go into the building. I didn’t need features to recognize the man. Sometimes a featureless black shape was all it took.