Chapter 42

ESMERALDA HAS THE GIRLS UP AND GATHERED around her. She whispers how important it is that they be very quiet. Max climbs out the back window first and I lift the girls one at a time to his waiting arms. I focus all my attention on listening, making sure no one is approaching the church until they are all safely hunkered down outside. Then I signal Max to move out.

Esmeralda grabs my hand and kisses it.

I touch her cheek.

Then they are gone.

I still have Max's duffel and I open it and take inventory. There are two grenades, the guns and plenty of ammunition. Too bad Max didn't pack real explosives... dynamite or C4. It would be an easy way to take care of both the drugs and the men... rig a bomb.

The fact that I don't know how to rig a bomb I view as a minor impediment. And make a note to do some research on that when I get home.

I listen but don't yet hear the approach of a vehicle signaling the arrival of the drugs. Time to alert Culebra and get him ready to act when I say the word.

I open my thoughts to him and he's there.

What's going on? I haven't heard from you for hours. Did Max make it?

Come and gone, I reply.

What do you mean gone?

Just left with the girls.

So, it's just you and me.

How many men with you?

Three now. Two just came back. They think Luis is loco. They said that fucking all that young pussy has softened his brain. They found out what he did to the villagers when he discovered the new girls had gone missing. They plan to go along with him until the truck gets here, then get the hell out the first opportunity they get.

Think they all feel that way?

At least the ones who went out with Ramon looking for Max. They aren't too crazy about Ramon, either. Think he's planning something. Trust is not big among these thugs.

I let a beat go by before changing the subject. How are you holding up?

Fine. I'm done waiting for these putos locos to tell us where Santiago is. I say we get one or two of them somewhere alone and make them talk.

My thoughts exactly. There is one complication. I tell him about Adelita following Max and how she came back to stop Ramon. That it was Ramon who kidnapped her from her village. I also tell him that right now she's tied next to the well and that Luis will probably kill her after he uses her to help process the shipment coming in today.

Brave girl, Culebra says. Stupid, but brave. But you have no intention of letting him kill her.

Not a chance. I'm thinking we let her work for the narcos. Then when the truck gets ready to leave, we lob one of Max's grenades into it. That will take care of one problem. If we're lucky, most of the men will be inside, too. Ramon, you can take care of. Once I've got Adelita safe, we'll take her and Luis and meet Max. Can you get free?

Just tell me when.

Culebra falls quiet and I do, too. More waiting. More nervous energy building up with no way to release the pressure. I wish I could let Adelita know I'm here and that we'll get her out when the time comes. I take out one of the grenades and toss it hand to hand, feeling its round heft, listening to the safety ring jingle against the fuse. This tiny activity brings some relief, some promise of action to come.

While vampire rests quietly inside.

She is not restless or anxious. She is patient.

And hungry.

Chapter 43

LUIS IS THE ONE WHO ALERTS ME THAT THE TRUCK is on its way. He comes out of his shack, a cell phone at his ear and Ramon at his heels, and heads for Adelita. In a minute, he's cut the rope binding her to the post and is dragging her toward the church.

I remembered the first time I watched the village from my hiding place in the brush. How the church bells called the villagers to what I mistakenly thought was worship. I'm in the same place now, the duffel safe beside me, watching the same procession of men, women and children answer the peal of the bells. The difference this time, though, is that half the men are limping, their leg wounds bound by clumsy bandages, their faces drawn and pale from the pain.

I've removed all traces of the girls' presence from the church. The empty water bottles, the wrappers from the protein bars. Even used a rag from the duffel to scrub away Peppi's urine stain before moving back to the other side of the village.

The only bad thing about moving is that I can't see Adelita now that she is inside the church. I can listen though. If I hear anything that sounds like Luis is abusing her, the plan to wait goes up in smoke. So far, it's quiet.

What I do have is a clear view of the torn body of Luis' henchman. The dogs have left, slinking back into the brush, leaving only the bloody, stinking mess of internal organs exposed to sun and heat. If I were capable of it, I would have gagged at the smell. There is blood and then there is blood.

In a few minutes, I hear the truck. I signal Culebra. The truck is coming. I have no idea how long it will take to package the drugs so be ready to get out when I tell you.

His response sounds like a hiss of anticipation. It makes me smile.

The truck pulls into the space between the well and the church. Two men jump out and one whistles a shrill greeting. By the time they've opened the back, three other men have joined them. Ramon's men. I can tell because they aren't limping. Yet.

The five men each shoulder a bag marked harina  - flour -  and head into the church. Only one man is sent back outside to stand guard. The door closes.

No sound of casual chatter drifts out from inside the church. Only the occasional sharp bark of an order or harsh hacking cough from a breath drawn too deeply. I didn't see any protective masks among the detritus of plastic bags and duct tape left from one delivery to another. Evidently Luis doesn't worry about his workers getting high on his supply. Maybe that's part of their pay. All the cocaine you can inhale while working. I think of the children. My stomach roils.

I hope Adelita is careful enough to stay alert. She has no idea I'm here or that I'm planning to rescue her. But she needs to be able to move on her own when I tell her.

How long does it take to process five twenty-five pound sacks of cocaine? I have no idea. It strikes me that I know someone who does. I also realize I no longer hold Culebra's past against him. It's with a sense of relief that I reach out to him.

Is it time?

He sounds so eager I find myself smiling. Not yet. I have a question. How long does it take to package a hundred and twenty-five pounds of cocaine?

That's about sixty kilos. Depends on whether they're cutting it or just packaging it pure to be cut later.

I didn't see anything around to cut it with, unless one of those bags wasn't cocaine after all.

Unlikely. With everyone in the village working, I'd say not more than two hours. They can move pretty fast if they're just weighing and packaging it.

Then we have two more hours to wait.

What then?

Once you hear the grenade explode, make your getaway. Meet me behind the church. How many men are with you?

Just one. That same hissing sound comes through that I heard before. I'll bite him enough times to make sure he's down. May not kill him unless he dies from shock. He may. I plan to let him see me shift.

I like your style.

I like yours, too. You may not know it, but cocaine is highly flammable. That truck should go up like a bomb.

That's what I'm hoping.

We lapse into a comfortable silence. Then Culebra asks, How do you expect to get Adelita away from Luis?

I'm hoping when he hears the explosion, he sends his goons out to check what happened. I figure he won't keep more than one or two men with him. I'll take care of them and get Adelita free. We're meeting Max back at the campsite. I plan to bring Luis with us. What happens to Ramon is up to you.

Good, Culebra says. I want to watch Ramon die. A pause. What about Luis?

No hesitation. Max can have first crack at him. Make Luis tell him where his brother is hiding. I figure I owe Max that much. He wants a big fish. I plan to see he gets a big fish. After that, Luis is mine.

Luis won't be easy to crack.

The memory of finding Adelita being raped in the back of that truck, the image of Luis going from villager to villager and shooting them as casually as if swatting mosquitoes, the faces of the four young girls he had delivered like takeout for his pleasure...

These things run through my mind before I answer.

Not easy for Max to crack maybe, I say. But not hard for me. He'll talk for me.

Chapter 44

IT'S MORE DIFFICULT THAN EVER TO WAIT. THE thought that Adelita is being used as slave labor makes me long to get her out of that church. I wish I could have gotten a message to her. She doesn't know I'm here. She doesn't know I'm watching her. She must be feeling such terror, such hopelessness. She came back to do one thing... make Ramon pay. Keep him from taking other innocents the way he took her.

She'll think she failed.

Did Ramon recognize Adelita when he caught her sneaking up on the village? Or has Ramon kidnapped so many girls, the faces blur in his memory?

Did she tell him who she was?

I have to take a step back. I'm working myself into the kind of state that makes vampire want to claw and chew her way free. I have to keep her in check, at least until I've disposed of the truck and gotten Adelita to safety. When Culebra has Ramon and I have Luis is the time to allow vengeance and anger out to play.

At last, the door to the church opens and a man steps out, beckoning the guard inside. In a moment, there is a flurry of activity as the villagers begin moving pallets of small, wrapped parcels to the truck.

Culebra?

I'm here.

They're loading the truck. When you hear the explosion, make your move.

His eagerness to attack comes through in a fiery wave of anticipation that sizzles in my head.

Meet you at the camp.

I wish I could watch Culebra shape-shift into a rattlesnake and see the guard's expression when the snake attacks. But a bigger part of me is anxious to get into position to exact some retribution of my own.

I take both grenades from the duffel and secure them by hooking the handles over my belt. The irony that I'm wearing Gabriella's clothes while plotting revenge against her father is not lost on me. I wonder what Gabriella would think if she knew what her father had done... the girls, some younger than she is, that he's procured for his boss.

Shit. Maybe she already does.

I watch as the men load the truck. When there are fewer trips being made back and forth, I figure they're close to being finished. I leave my hiding place and start out for the road. I'd been going over in my head the best place to attack. I tear across the desert floor.

Not far from where I found Adelita that first day, there's a bend in the road. Two tall, bushy mesquite trees grow, one on each side, to form a canopy over the spot. I stash the duffel beside one of the trees and scramble like a monkey up the trunk to test the strength of branches intertwined in the middle, looking for one capable of supporting my weight. When I find the right spot, I stretch my body flat, like a cat hunting a bird, and peer down through the leaves to check it out.

Perfect. I won't even have to lob the grenade. Just pull the pin and let it drop.

I'm ready. The sound of the truck engine cranking to life in the village sends my heart into overdrive. The only drawback to my plan is that I left before the last of the cocaine was loaded. I don't know how many of Ramon's men chose to leave with the truck.

Or how many Luis would allow to leave.

The sputter of the truck engine idling makes me feel the same thrill that I felt from Culebra when I told him it was almost time. Every nerve in my body tingles. I push my face down into the leaves to make sure I have a clear shot when the truck passes underneath. I grab one of the grenades off my belt and hold it ready.

I don't know how fast the truck will be going and it occurs to me that the concussion from the explosion might dislodge me. No problem. I'm high enough not to be blown apart, and that's the most important thing. A fall to the ground won't kill me.

I focus on the sounds from the village. The truck engine idling, rough at first, then smoothing out. The clutch engages. I feel the vibration as the truck rolls onto the dirt road.

The truck picks up speed and my heart races with excitement. I allow a smile. I see a plume of dust draw closer, hear the wheels hum. It takes about five minutes before the truck rolls into view. Another two to approach the bend.

I gauge the trajectory, squeeze the handle, pull the grenade pin, wait for the canvas top of the truck bed to move into place directly underneath me.

I open my hand, let the grenade fall.

Chapter 45

NOTHING HAPPENS THE WAY I EXPECT. I IMAGINED the truck would go up in a fiery explosion, the way the one I found Adelita in did. It's what happens on television. It's what I counted on.

Not so much.

The grenade hits the top of the canvas, bounces. My breath catches. Is it going to bounce off? No. It settles between the cab and the canvas. When it explodes, the cab takes the brunt of the blast, glass from the rear window explodes out and through the front, taking the bodies of the driver and his passenger with it. They hit the ground twenty feet away, bloody, not moving.

But the panel bed of the truck remains intact. Licks of flame tickle the edges of the canvas. Nobody runs out the back so I assume Luis kept all of the men at the village.

I drop down from my perch. Maybe I need to add an accelerant. Adelita's tormentor had a gas can in his truck.

I make my way around to the back. It would be too much to hope there's a full gas can here, too. When I pull back the tarp, all I see are the hundreds of small plastic and duct-taped packages.

No sound yet from the village but I have no doubt the men are heading here at a run. Quick. Think.

What did Culebra say? Processed cocaine is highly flammable. I jump inside, start ripping a dozen packages apart and shake the powder loose.

I need a rag. Nothing I can see. I rip the sleeves off my blouse. I tie the ends together to form a long rope. Stick one end in the gas tank, bury the other under the cocaine.

One grenade left. This has to work.

Stepping back, I squeeze the handle, pull the pin, toss the grenade into the back.

This time, the resulting explosion is all I'd hoped for. The cocaine goes up with a loud whoosh. Flames zoom along the rope into the gas tank. The blast lifts the back of the truck off the ground and then erupts in a giant fireball.

Very satisfying. Except for one thing. I'm standing too close. The skin on my face and arms grows hot and tight. I jump back, fingers flying to explore the damage. Blisters are already forming. Followed seconds later by the pain.

Fuck. Not the first time I've been burned. Not the worst burn, either. But it hurts like a son of a bitch.

No time to worry about me. I hear the sound of a vehicle approach from the village. I hadn't seen another vehicle in all the time I was hiding there. Must have been hidden in the dense brush behind the village or in one of the shacks. Hardly matters where it came from; it's almost here.

I grab the duffel from under the tree. Consider climbing back up to ambush the men coming from the village. But I need to get back to Adelita. Hopefully Luis sent most of his men to check out the explosions. Leaves fewer men between Adelita and me.

But I don't wait to see. I start back at a run, not parallel to the road, but in an arc away from it so I'll come out behind the church. I make it back to the village in minutes, far quicker than the time it will take the vehicle to get from the village to the site of the explosion. When I'm right behind the church, still hidden by brush, I stop and listen.

There's a lot of noise coming from the direction of the well. I recognize Luis' voice and Ramon's. Shouting with an edge of hysteria and mounting anger. Recriminations fly back and forth. They don't even know what happened and they're snapping at each other like a couple of mongrels.

When I make my way to the back door of the church and peek up to look through the window, the place is empty. I knew it would be too much to ask to find Adelita alone inside.

I scoot back into the brush. If she's not in the church, she must be in Luis' shack.

Before I plan my attack, it's time to see how Culebra is doing.

He picks up on the first mental ring.

Where are you?

It might be my imagination, but his voice sounds more sibilant than usual.

Near the church, I reply. I'm going to get Adelita now. I think she's in Luis' shack. Ramon and Luis are by the well. Can you keep them busy for a few minutes?

I think I can manage it.

Will you tell me when to go?

He laughs. Coldly. I won't have to. You'll know.

The ice in his tone makes my blood quicken.

He's right. In moments, there's a cry from outside. Ramon. I glance out the window. Ramon is hopping on one foot, clutching his right ankle. Luis looks on, horrified, as the biggest rattlesnake I've ever seen slithers toward him. The snake is horror-movie size, its tongue dancing on the air, a death rattle trailing behind.

Luis doesn't have a weapon and Ramon's revolver lies in the dirt a dozen yards away where he dropped it when he was bitten. All Luis can do is stare. And back away.

If it weren't so important to get to Adelita, I'd watch to see where Culebra bites him. I hope it's in the balls. I drag myself away from the window and steal out the back door. The fact that no one came running at Ramon's cry tells me they've either been sent by Luis to investigate the explosion or are cowering in their shacks, afraid of what Luis is doing to Ramon.

I move silently to the rear of Luis' shack and peek in. The small window opens to that back room where I found Esmeralda and the little ones bound and drugged. There's no sign of Adelita.

No sign of a guard, either. I debate whether to take a weapon but one-on-one, vampire can move faster and quieter and do more damage than any weapon. I leave the duffel on the ground and slip inside.

Luis is still yelling for help so I assume Culebra hasn't attacked him yet. Ramon, on the other hand, is screaming in pain and fear. When I sidle up to the open doorway that separates the two rooms, I finally see Adelita.

She's at the doorway that opens to the courtyard, watching what's happening near the well. A guard is holding her by the arm with one hand; he has a gun in the other. He tracks the slithering path of the huge snake advancing relentlessly toward Luis, his eyes registering horror. Luis is yelling at him to shoot it, but the guard is too afraid to leave the shack. The revolver hangs uselessly at this side.

Lightning fast, I grab the gun away from the guard and bring the butt down hard on the back of his head. There's a sickening crunch of gun metal on skull and he hits the ground. He didn't see it coming, his expression reflects no surprise, no pain. His eyes simply go blank. I stuff the revolver in the waistband of my jeans, grab his ankles and yank him back out of Luis' line of sight.

Not that Luis is looking. His gaze remains fastened on the snake.

But Adelita releases a sharp breath. Her hand flies to her mouth, smothering first the startled cry as the guard goes down and then the relieved cry when she recognizes who knocked him out.

She shouldn't be too relieved. I plan to let her know at the first opportunity how stupid it was to sneak into Max's car and to end up, once again, Luis' prisoner.

But first things first. I place a finger over my lips and motion abruptly for her to follow me. We move slowly away from the door. At the doorway to the back room, I lean close and bark, "We'll go out through the window."

She nods, avoiding my eyes. She must hear the anger in my voice.

Good.

I drop down first, holding a hand up for Adelita to grab as she lowers herself to the ground. I keep hold of that hand and, snatching up the duffel, lead her into the brush and away from the shack. She comes along quietly. As relieved as I am that she's unhurt, that's how furious I am that she put herself in the position to be hurt in the first place.

When I think we're safely far enough away, I draw her to a stop beside me. "I have to go back," I tell her. "You stay here. Right here. Do you understand?"

"Go back? Why?"

"To help another friend."

"Is it Max? If it is, I want to help."

"No."

She flinches, the word hitting her like a slap.

"You cannot help. You shouldn't even be here. Now this time, listen to me. Stay right here. I won't be long."

Her jaw sets. "Do you know what my name means?"

The question comes out of the blue. I stare at her, then throw up my hands. "Fuck, Adelita. What kind of question is that?"

"Do you?" she insists, digging in mental heels. She doesn't drop her gaze or look away.

I give in. "No. What does it mean?"

"Warrior." She says it with pride. "I am not a child. I want Ramon to pay for what he did to me and to the two girls who died in that truck. You can't stop me from going back."

Her tenacity is admirable. Completely and ridiculously absurd, but admirable.

"How do you propose to get Ramon?" I ask. "You have no weapon. You are one against his army."

She points to the guard's gun, tucked into my belt. "I'll take that."

I'd forgotten the revolver. It was a reflex action to take it when the guard fell. "Do you know how to shoot?"

"Yes."

But her eyes betray her.

I shake my head. "No. You don't. I can't stand here and argue with you, Adelita. If you want to help, please just be here when I get back. We may have to move fast. I promise, we will punish Ramon for what he did to you. He is being punished now."

Her eyes widen. "You mean the snake? Do you think god sent the snake? Is it possible?"

That god sent the snake? Hardly. But if it will get her to concede to my wishes, I'll play along. "Maybe. But I think it's also a message that you need to protect yourself. You've escaped Luis twice now. You might not be so lucky the third time."

I imagine the thoughts spinning behind those dark eyes. "You may be right. Perhaps god wants me to save other girls from men like Luis. Maybe if I tell my story..."

"That's it." My skin is crawling with the need to get back to Culebra. To get Luis and Ramon away from the village before the men return with tales of the lost drug shipment. "We'll get you interviews in all the newspapers. But right now, I have to get back to the village. You'll be safe if you stay right here. I won't be long. I promise."

Finally, a solemn smile touches her lips. "I promise, too. I will wait here for you to return."

I'm so relieved, I want to kiss her.

But then she follows up with, "Maybe you should leave the gun? In case someone comes looking for me?"

My eyes narrow. "Don't fuck with me, Adelita. Stay right here." I let vampire surface, just enough to make my eyes turn... slit like a cat's and yellow. Threatening.

She gulps. And backs down. "I will wait here."

This time I believe her.

I snatch the duffel, run back through the brush, blood hot with anticipation, eager to take my turn with Ramon and Luis.