Dirty Deeds(43)

“Of course I’ll be safe there. I’d have to be. He’s safe there.”

“Yes,” he said with a nod. “It would seem.”

“He has people everywhere protecting him, the whole state is behind him. Most of the other states too. He practically owns half of the country. I’ll be safe with him.”

Derrin didn’t look convinced but he sighed. “You’re a free woman. I’ll do whatever you want me to do as long as you’re certain it needs to be done. But the question is, do you want to go with him?”

I pursed my lips and reached back for the coffee. Maybe I did need a hit of that stuff.

Twenty minutes later we were on the road and looking for the perfect meeting place. I felt somewhat safe. No one was following us – in reality, how could they? We had been so careful. Plus not only did Derrin have the gun strapped to his waist, he also had a knife in boot and another gun strapped around his leg in a holster.

Yet for all his guns, he didn’t seem to be enjoying himself. This wasn’t a cops and robbers game to him. It wasn’t a game at all. He took this all very, very seriously. As I guess one should when you were being trailed by Mexican assassins. Again I had that feeling that was far more to Derrin’s story than I knew and I wondered if the truth would ever come out. I wondered if I wanted it to.

While we searched for big, public spaces through the dry countryside and graveyards of empty roadside stores, I thought about what I would do. If Javier offered me protection, I would have to go. But that didn’t mean I wanted to. To be honest, I didn’t at all. Being at his compound wouldn’t make me feel safe, even if I was safe. All those bad, bad men walking around, owning the place. I’m sure they would treat me with false respect but I’d be the first one thrown under a bus. I could never sleep knowing who those men were, what they orchestrated. Though I’d never been to Javier’s place, I had heard the rumors, of the twisted doctor and the torture shed in the back. Prostitutes that were killed in the house after sex or shot for fun.

Now Javier was married – a quick ceremony somewhere that I hadn’t been invited to – but I wasn’t too sure that having a woman around was changing him for the better. If anything, I think he was making her worse.

I guess I’d find out soon, if Javier wanted anything to do with me at all.

And, of course, at the heart of it, I didn’t want to leave Derrin behind. Who knows how long I’d have to hide out, the direction that my life would take. I wanted my life to take whatever direction Derrin was heading in.

I was falling in love with this man. Fast and hard, just the way he lived and fucked. I wondered if he would love the same way too.

I wanted to be the woman that healed him.

“Bingo,” Derrin said, smacking the dashboard.

I looked to the left and saw a giant, brand new Wal-Mart on the side of the road. The parking lot was packed and there were a few half-finished office buildings and shops flanking it.

“Wal-Mart?” I said incredulously. “You think Javier is going to come meet me in a Wal-Mart?”

Derrin grinned beautifully. “He’ll have no choice.”

Soon I was at a payphone located just outside the washrooms inside. Wal-Mart was a living hell full of bad lighting, sad faces and screaming children. We had only started getting them everywhere in Mexico a few years ago, but it’s like all the American stereotypes followed them down here. This was one of the supercenters that had a McDonald’s in it and a produce section that pissed off all our farmers. It reeked like everything I hated.

I dialed Javier’s number, not knowing if he would pick up. He wouldn’t recognize the number and my own phone had been in my bag when we drove into the ocean. It was now somewhere, lost at sea.

“Hello?” someone answered. It wasn’t Javier. Could I have gotten the wrong number? He always answers his cell. Unless he had his number changed recently, which was possible.

“Uh, hello. Is Javier there?”

“Who is this?” asked the voice, amused. It didn’t seem familiar to me.

I didn’t want to tell him anything yet. “Is he there? Is this his phone?”

“I’ll tell you what you want to know once you tell me who you are.”

“If Javier is there just tell him it’s his sister.”

Silence. Was it possible this person didn’t know he had sisters?

“Hello?” I repeated.

“What’s your name?” he asked slowly.

“Alana Bernal.”

“I see. And you say you’re his sister, hey?”

“Last I checked,” I said, getting annoyed now.

“Interesting. Can you hold on a moment?”