When I figured I’d spent about an hour in the car, I took in a few deep breaths and finally got up. I walked over to the stairs that led up to the Wal-Mart, my cast echoing as I walked. I was less and less awkward but the damn cast was a reminder that I was always at a disadvantage and if I really concentrated I would realize my ankle was throbbing painfully. All that running yesterday did a number on it and yet pain was the last thing my brain was processing. It was all fear now.
Once up top, the sun hit my face and cleared a bit of the darkness away. Wal-Mart was busy, full of people living their normal lives, going to their cars with bags full of useless crap. I envied them, the blissful ways they could just continue in their lives, living in ignorance. None of them appreciated it. I sure as hell didn’t appreciate it two weeks ago.
I walked past the front of the store, past the vending machines stocked with tamarind and pineapple sodas, past robotic horses that children could ride, and gumball machines. I headed over to the fountain.
It was large and circular, made up of terracotta tile with water flowing into a blue-hued pool with only a few pesos at the bottom. There was a bench in the shade where an old man was dozing, a newspaper and a sandwich beside him, but other than that the place was empty.
I tried to look up at the windows of the office building next door but knew the sun would be in my eyes if I did – it was late afternoon and close to setting behind it – and if anyone was watching me, they might get suspicious. I just had to believe that Derrin was up there, watching over me.
But what if he wasn’t? What if he skipped town?
It was possible. Anything was possible. But I had to have faith in him. There were few things left that I could believe in.
I took a seat at the edge of the fountain and waited. I wished I had book or something to make myself look less obvious but since I was waiting for someone, I guess it didn’t really matter. I stared at the tiny birds that hopped around my feet, chirping, looking for a handout, then watched the highway beyond the store as it piled up thicker and thicker with traffic heading out of Durango, moving like syrup.
Finally a figure caught my eye. She was short, maybe 5’2” and dressed in a strapless yellow sundress, wearing wedge heels, holding a Chanel bag under her arm. Long dark hair flowed behind her. Even though she was wearing the world’s biggest sunglasses, I could still tell it was Luisa. She had this way about her that made her stand-out among the masses and it wasn’t just her beauty, nor the fact that she now dressed impeccably well, like a patron’s wife.
Unfortunately, Javier was nowhere to be found. And though when I had first met Luisa, I was witness to the warmth and soul she had as she was reunited with her parents in my apartment, every other time it was a little less and less. I didn’t think she was a bad woman by any means but there had been a hardness creeping into her heart. I suppose that would naturally happen if you were married to someone like Javier.
She stopped right in front of me and I caught a whiff of honeysuckle perfume. She didn’t take off her glasses and she didn’t smile. Instead she looked around in her in all directions, checking out everything, including the empty office building, until it seemed she was satisfied.
“Alana,” she finally said and only then did she push her sunglasses on top of her head. She looked beautiful but tired. Her eyes, thankfully were kind, especially as they focused on my bandaged wrist and cast. “Is that from the car accident?” she asked softly.
I nodded. “Yeah. But I’m almost fully healed. Doesn’t hurt at all,” I lied.
She smiled stiffly and looked around her again.
“Where is Javier?” I asked.
“Are you alone?”
“Of course.”
“Where is your boyfriend?”
“Not here,” I told her, then quickly added, “in the car.”
“We’re not going to get to meet him?”
“Then Javier is here,” I said.
She nodded. “He is.”
I frowned. “But you were sent to make sure the coast was clear?”
“I wasn’t sent.” She smiled at me. “He didn’t have much say. I wasn’t about to let him just waltz out here and he wasn’t going to let me either. But marriage takes compromise.” Her smile twisted slightly.
“You don’t trust me?”
She cocked her head. “I want to trust you Alana. But this whole thing is so bizarre. It doesn’t sound right. You must understand that.”
“You think I’m trying to set Javier up?” I asked, feeling hot and indignant. “He’s my brother.”
“I know that. And you are part of the few family he has left. But if what you are saying is true, then you could be followed yourself. The only reason anyone is after you, I’m assuming of course, is because they are after him in some way. Or it could be someone right in front of your eyes. We would be stupid not to take due diligence on this and we are not stupid.”