Bold Tricks

CHAPTER FOUR

It wasn’t until we were done with our meal – Javier taking care of the check, much to Violetta’s delight – and were walking back to her apartment that he finally wore her down.

“Fine,” she said, wiping the sweat from her brow and giving him an exasperated glance. “I’ll go pack a bag. But I’m only going for a few days. I have a job here, a life, I have no intentions of leaving it for good because of you, Javi.”

I was going to ask her where she was planning on going, if she had friends she could stay with, but thought better of it. Though we were steps from going into her building, we were still in a public place and I was starting to feel the slightest bit uneasy. As she fumbled in her purse for her keys, I paused on the curb and did a quick sweep of the area, shielding my eyes with my hand.

Jose was parked across the street, looking like a mangled wreck but two cars down there was another mangled wreck, so at least the car didn’t attract any attention here. The sun was damn strong, the air even thicker and browner than before, like hot soup. There were a few squalid looking apartment buildings across the street, white stucco like Violetta’s place, but stained with green sludge. Beside them were tiny, colorful houses in bright greens and yellows. On the balcony of the yellow house, an older woman sat in the sun, sorting through her basket of laundry. In the yard of another house, a skinny dog lapped up a bucket of water.

“Something wrong?” Camden asked quietly as Javier berated Violetta for being disorganized.

I looked up at him and gave a small shake of my head. “I don’t think so. Just had a weird feeling.”

He pursed his lips and looked around at all the things I was just surveying. Finally he nodded at Violetta who brought out her keys with a whoop of joy. “Worried for her? Or about her?” he whispered.

Though I guess I had a right to be suspicious about Violetta herself, I wasn’t for some reason. She wasn’t like her brother. Maybe that’s why I liked her. Or maybe she was like her brother and that’s why I liked her too.

“I just want to get moving again,” I said and we walked up to the door that Violetta was proudly holding open for us.

The weird feeling didn’t leave, even as we went inside the elevator and up to her apartment, Violetta protesting it was always too hot to take the stairs. Outside her door, I kneeled down and made sure my Ka-Bar knife and gun were still secure in my boots. When I straightened up, Javier was staring at me with an air of approval.

Violetta went to put the key in the lock but Javier quickly grabbed her wrist, his eyes burning into hers with warning. He nodded to the door then pushed her out of the way, grabbing his gun from his waistband and holding it loosely to his side. Camden and I took a step back.

Swiftly, Javier kicked open the door and sprung into the room, his gun drawn. I grabbed my gun from my boot and followed after him, heart racing in my throat as we quickly searched the rooms.

When it was all clear, he waved at Violetta to come inside.

She crossed her arms and huffed her way into the middle of the apartment.

“My landlord is going to kill me,” she scowled and waved her hand at the broken lock on the door.

Javier didn’t smile. “That shouldn’t have been so easy. You need to be more careful.”

“Well, I’m taking off for a few days, isn’t that careful enough?”

He grunted and told her to go pack her bag. She sighed and disappeared into her room, muttering obscenities under her breath.

“Did you think you heard something?” Javier asked me.

“Why, because I was checking my gun and knife?”

He nodded.

“I was just being cautious, Javier,” I told him, slipping my gun back into my boot. “I have learned something from my line of work, you know.”

He raised his brows in disbelief and I knew he was close to bringing up the foolish mistakes I’d made that allowed him catch me in the first place. I didn’t need the reminder that I wasn’t as good of a con artist as I thought I was.

I guess he could see the warning in my eyes because a small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth and he turned around.

Camden cleared his throat and I looked behind me at him. He was leaning his good shoulder against the wall near the door, observing us. I couldn’t read his eyes, though he was swallowing hard and his jaw looked tense. One hand was on his shot shoulder, pressing down lightly. I wondered if he was in pain or had been taking the pills when I wasn’t looking.

I was about to ask him when a god awful sound buzzed through the room, causing me to jump.

Javier whipped around. “What the hell was that?”

It sounded again, coming from the intercom. Violetta came out of her room, wiping her hands. She looked at our expressions and said, “Don’t worry, it’s probably just a friend” and went for the intercom. She pressed the button and asked, “Hola?”

There was no response.

That wicked feeling was sweeping through me again, causing all the hairs on my arms and neck to stand at attention. This was bad.

While Violetta tried the buzzer again, I ran to the window and looked out. The glare from the sun and the dirt on the glass made it hard to see through so I quickly went into Violetta’s room and out to her balcony.

There was a sea of roofs spreading out before us, the one right next to the building one story below. I craned my neck to look up at the building. I didn’t even know what I was looking for, someone who didn’t belong, I guess.

“What is it?” Camden asked, standing in the doorway.

“That feeling I had?” I asked. “I think we have to get out of here. Now.”

Suddenly the apartment erupted in gunfire and I heard Violetta scream. Instinctively, I ducked, pulling down Camden, and brought out my gun again. Violetta burst into the room as another round of gunfire went off and I quickly motioned for her to come onto the balcony.

“What happened?” I asked her frantically.

She was shaking her head and screamed again when more shots went off. The window in the living room exploded into a storm of shattered glass and then seconds later, a tall man went flying out of it. He landed on the roof below, only a ten foot drop, and then staggered to his feet. The minute he looked up at us on the balcony, he yelled something and pulled out his gun.

I was faster. I aimed, said a prayer, and squeezed the trigger. The gun roared in my hands and the bullet hit the man in his chest, causing him to fly backward. My first thought was, thank god I was better shot this time.

Then Violetta let out a small sob and it hit me.

It was a good shot.

And I’d actually killed a man.

Me.

Suddenly I heard Javier’s voice ring out from the apartment amid the gunshots.

“Run!” Javier yelled.

Right. I quickly shook my head, trying to focus. There’s was only one place for us to go.

Camden was already climbing over the railing and helping Violetta over.

It was only a twelve foot drop or so. It wouldn’t kill us but it wouldn’t feel good either.

“Ellie,” Camden yelled, “come on!”

I nodded absently, still dazed, and brought my legs over the side of the railing just as Camden and Violetta dropped to the roof. Camden’s large frame landed with ease, sending the terracotta tiles of the roof flying, while Violetta quickly crumpled to her knees, her flip flops providing no traction. Within seconds Camden was helping her up.

The roof was almost totally flat, just peaking a bit at the spine, but I still had to be careful how I landed.

“Jump!” Camden yelled up at me as a bullet whizzed past my shoulder.

I turned to look in time to see Javier bursting through Violetta’s bedroom, simultaneously running toward me and shooting at someone who was in pursuit, the assailant’s gun aimed at me. Javier shot them in the shoulder and in seconds he was beside me, yelling “What the fuck are you waiting for, the circus?”

I stared at him for a moment, wondering why I felt relief coursing through me at the sight of him.

Then he put his hand on my back and pushed me off the balcony.

I screamed in surprise but managed to land in the right spot, my shins taking a beating but I still remained on my feet. Gunshots followed and Javier landed beside me seconds later.

“You ass!” I yelled at him.

“Keep running!” he yelled back and started sprinting past me.

Another bullet went screaming past my ear. Too many close calls and too soon. Too dangerous to even think about it.

I started running, the tiles sliding under my boots, following behind him. Camden and Violetta were a few paces ahead, slowing down as they came to the edge of the roof. Luckily the next building was the same height and there was no gap in between them. In fact, the sea of roofs on the block all seemed to be together, like one giant, distorted house.

Another gun shot rang out and beyond the thudding of my heart in my ears, I could hear the assailants landing on the tiles behind us. Motherfucking shit, they were persistent whoever they were.

We kept running and I willed my legs to move faster as we went from tile, to shingles, to gravel, to stucco, roof to roof to roof. Somewhere in our retreat, Camden and Javier got ahead of us and Violetta started to stagger, her flip flops causing her to stumble so often. I grabbed her by the arm and kept her upright and ran alongside her.

But I knew the men were gaining on us. And I knew we would run out of luck.

I squeezed her arm and told her to keep going and then I stopped and spun around.

A few yards behind us was a lean, dark-complexioned man with an eye patch, ready to take a shot at us. I pulled my trigger before he could, getting him in the stomach by accident.

The man went down with a scream, his gun shooting at nothing. Fucking Mexican pirate.

Unfortunately there were three more men behind him, albeit further back. I didn’t have much time to try my luck. I tried to take in a deep breath, my lungs burning from the air pollution and the exertion, and aimed at them. I fired off three rounds and hit only one of them. The remaining too kept coming.

Time to move.

I turned around and started running again, surprised to see that not only were Camden and Javier further away but that Violetta had stopped and was looking down at something. I booked it up to her and saw what made her pause. There was a large gap between this roof and the next, though it fortunately was half a story shorter. We could make it if we had a running start, a running start we’d both just lost.

“Fuck!” I yelled then whipped behind me to see how much time we had before our pursuers were at us. Not much. I grabbed Violetta’s arm and started running with her back a few steps.

“Ready?” I asked her.

She nodded, her eyes welling with fear.

We both started running, as fast as we could, my hand holding hers until we both launched off of the roof and into the air.

I landed on the roof below, my ankles shuddering in pain from the impact. Thanks to my scarring, they didn’t always hold up after a lot of wear and tear, and I immediately fell to my knees, my legs getting scratched up by the tar shingles.

Violetta’s scream came through a second later.

She had hit the roof, scrambled to hold on then disappeared, falling down the gap to the ground below.

I looked over the edge and saw her lying in a heap on the dirt alley, holding her arm in pain and crying out.

Another shot came dangerously close. The men were coming closer. There was no time to think.

I ran along the roof for a few steps, then jumped down onto a rickety iron balcony that swung with my weight, then launched off of that to the ground below.

I ignored my throbbing ankles and hurried over to her just as one of the men appeared at the rooftop. I aimed and fired, all instinct, and got him right in the head. When he pitched off the roof and fell with a thud to the ground beside us, I dragged Violetta up to her feet. There was no time to be gentle. Her arm was probably broken and it was going to hurt like a bitch, but it was better to be hurt than dead.

“We have to run, okay?” I told her and she cried in response. I had no idea if Camden or Javier even noticed we weren’t behind them but that couldn’t be my concern. We had to get us safe then we’d get to them.

And then, then maybe I’d have a moment to think about the people I’d killed.

Together we scampered down the narrow alley, dirt flying from our feet, just as a bullet ricocheted from the wall. We yelped but kept going, zig-zagging our way toward the street, knowing the last asshole standing was firing at us from the roof.

As soon as we hit the street that ran along the block of buildings, we were a tiny bit safer. At least I figured since there was light traffic on the roads and people going to and fro. However, despite the fact that I was running across the street and darting between the cars with Violetta in tow, both of us bruised, scratched and bleeding, my gun visible in one of my hands, no one really seemed to bat an eye. I wondered how bad Mexico City was for crime then decided it didn’t matter.

We ran up the sidewalk until I saw another alley then brought Violetta down that one and around the corner. I stopped us beside a dumpster that sat behind a café, a couple of stray cats sleeping in the shade.

“Violetta,” I said to her, putting one hand on her good arm and trying to get her to look at me. Her cheeks were wet and dirty, a mess of mascara and tears. She was shaking and sobbing softly. “Violetta, listen to me. Do you know who those men were?”

She shook her head. “No,” she cried. “I didn’t recognize them. Javier told me to go to my room but I wanted to see what was going on. It looked like he heard something out in the hallway. He hid near the door and suddenly a group of men came in the room and started shooting.”

“And you didn’t recognize them?”

She let out a loud sob, shaking her head even more, her forehead scrunched in pain. “No, I don’t know. They looked like cartel men. Bad men.”

Obviously.

“My arm, I think it’s broken,” she whimpered.

I nodded. “I know. We’ll get it fixed, but we have to get Camden and your brother.”

“Screw Javier!” she yelped. “He’s what got us into this in the first place.”

I smiled grimly. “I know. But you don’t mean that. You can’t leave him behind.”

“He left me behind! He forgot I existed.”

“And we’re better than that.” I gave her a steady look, my eyes imploring hers. “Okay? We’re going to go back to your place–”

“No!” she cried out.

“We’re going back to your place,” I said, my voice harder, “and we’re getting my car. Then we’re going to find them. And then we’re gone. You can do this.”

I stared at her for a few moments until she relented with a nod. Then we moved down the alley that ran parallel to the main road until we were back on her street. Jose was still sitting on the side of the road.

Only now I realized that Javier had the car keys.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

“What?”

“I have to hotwire it.”

“So do it.”

I gave her a wry look.

Suddenly the air was filled with a flurry of shouts and Spanish. I looked over at her apartment building and saw a few men on the balcony of one of the apartments, pointing at us and flipping out.

“Do it I shall,” I said. I opened the door (no point in locking it since half the windows were shot out) and ushered Violetta into the backseat, where she could lie down, and then jumped into the front. Even though I’d been driving Jose for most of the last six years, my car-stealing skills were still pretty sharp. After crossing wires for a few seconds, Jose roared to life, his engine loud and proud, and I gunned him out of the parking spot just as a group of men came running out of the apartment for us.

“Persistent,” I grumbled and spun the car around the corner. Despite the circumstances, it felt fucking great to be driving my car again.

I took Jose zooming down the one-way street, swerving in and out of traffic while trying to keep an eye on the roofs that whipped past us. Dust flew up in our wake, coating us through the windows and I narrowly missed smashing into a motorcycle. I was glad Violetta was in the back and whimpering softly, it made it easier to concentrate when the only screams you heard were in your head.

My stomach began to twist on itself when I realized I had no idea where Javier and Camden were, if they were still alive, still running. The houses in this barrio kept going on and on, family after family after family packed into these ramshackle dwellings like sweltering sardines.

I’d almost clipped a bus in front of me when I suddenly saw a dark figure running on the roof, his head disappearing behind the occasional awning and the back of the bus. It was one of the cartel men and he was chasing someone, which had to mean that Camden and Javier were up ahead.

I exhaled briefly with hope, before pushing the pedal to the floor and going up the shoulder, trying to get ahead of the bus. There was a stack of bicycles up ahead and I was either going to hit them, the bus, or the people on the dirt sidewalk.

I chose the bicycles. I gunned the car harder, the rear wheels spinning furiously and braced for impact.

“Hold on!” I yelled to Violetta and then screamed as Jose plowed into them. The bicycles flew up onto the hood, cracking the windshield in the corner, before clattering across the roof. “Sorry!”

Then I whipped the car in front of the bus to a round of angry honks from the driver and finally saw Camden and Javier on the roofs, still running for their lives. I grinned to myself, despite the severity of the situation, and let out a relieved laugh. Somewhere in the back of my masochistic head, I had been so certain that Camden would be done for. I hadn’t wanted to think about it but I was sure that Javier would have ditched him along the way. Or killed him.

“I see them,” I told Violetta.

“Camden’s still alive?” she asked weakly.

I wasn’t the only with that idea.

“So far,” I told her.

“I can tell my brother wants to kill him,” she said.

I rubbed my lips together, my hands gripping the wheel harder. “He hasn’t yet.” I shot her a look over my shoulder. “Just hang tight okay? I’m going to try and get their attention and pull up ahead.”

I drove a bit faster, trying to keep up in the traffic that was growing increasingly heavier, and was about to start honking my horn like crazy when I saw the unthinkable happen.

Javier and Camden both jumped from one roof to another, the gap not too wide, but when Camden landed, it looked like his weight broke through part of the roofing and he went down, sinking in until I could only see him from the shoulders up.

I gasped, slowing the car so I could watch, the bus behind me honking again.

The man in pursuit started firing at them, closer now.

Camden was fucked.

A sitting duck.

And Javier … Javier stopped.

He stopped and raised his gun and tried to fire off a few rounds at the man but I could see from the frustration in his face that he was out of ammo. He hastily tucked his gun back into his pants and then crouched down to help Camden up.

“What’s going on?” Violetta asked, trying to sit up. “Why are we slowing?”

“Javier is helping Camden,” I said absently. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, other than the fact that I was grateful. Cautiously grateful.

“How noble of him,” she said, her voice acidic.

It didn’t matter, soon Camden was on his feet again and they were back to sprinting. I took the car around a rickshaw and started honking the horn wildly. I didn’t care if everyone in the barrio looked over at me. I just wanted them to see me.

But they didn’t. And I could we were coming up to an intersection where the roofs would end and they’d have to come down. The intersection that had the street on a red light and cars were started to slow in front of me.

I had to act fast. I brought the GTO onto the dirt sidewalk to get past the traffic and kept laying on the horn, now to get Camden and Javier’s attention as much as the attention of the people I was about to run over. Fortunately, everyone got out of the way and there wasn’t another group of bikes to smash through. Unfortunately, because we were right up against the buildings, Camden and Javier wouldn’t be able to see the car.

I stuck my head out of the window and started yelling for Camden, shouting his name over and over again. I hoped he could hear me above the noise of the city. There wasn’t much time left. I was almost at the intersection and if they got off the block of roofs and started running, there was a chance I could never find them again in this city.

The light was still red when we came to it and I wasted no time.

I spun the car out, turning left onto oncoming traffic and kept another scream inside my burning lungs. Cars were honking as they came toward me. People were yelling and swearing, fists waving outside of windows.

And I slammed Jose into park and climbed out of the window onto the roof of the car. I stood up unsteadily, mindful that I was precariously perched in the middle of a rush of cars in all directions, some of them slamming their brakes dangerously close to me, and looked to the roof.

In seconds, Javier and Camden appeared, looking over the edge, trying to figure out a way down, before the commotion I had created caught their eye. I waved my arms over my head until they both spotted me.

“Get the fuck down here!” I yelled.

Camden squinted then nodded and I noticed he wasn’t wearing his glasses anymore, while Javier pointed at an awning that sat above a convenience store. They ran over until they were above it, Javier glancing nervously over his shoulder, then with one fluid leap they jumped down onto the awning.

It crashed and collapsed under their weight and brought them down over crates of fruit, but they were up quickly and running across the road to the car, all while the store owner was emerging from the wreckage and swearing his head off.

I jumped down from the roof and quickly pushed the seat back to make room for Javier. He could sit with his sister and comfort her.

Camden was going beside me.

“Get in,” I told them.

Javier’s eyes locked with mine briefly and he said, “Thanks” before slipping inside.

I slammed the seat back and got in just as Camden got in the passenger side. Two bullets exploded nearby, one hitting the street, the other hitting the trunk of the car. The man was firing at us from the roof. I had half a mind to fish out my gun again and finish him off, but we had an opportunity to escape and I wasn’t going to lose it.

I put Jose into drive and peeled out, avoiding the cars that were now making their way around me, zigging in and out until we were on the right side of the road and speeding through the city. The traffic was growing thicker by the moment, but still moving fast enough that I was able to keep up my speeds, as long as I paid close attention to the road.

“What happened?” I cried out at the same time that Camden did. He was missing his glasses – his big blue eyes looked startling - and covered in sweat but other than that he looked okay.

“What happened to your arm?” Javier asked Violetta. She whimpered in response.

I eyed him in the rear view mirror. “We were running and came to that first gap. She fell. I think her arm is broken. I jumped down and we ran back to the car.”

“Did you kill the rest of the men?” Javier asked, his eyes meeting mine. They danced, looking alive. If he was a lion, his tail would be twitching.

I swallowed hard and ignored the lump in my chest. “Yes. I had to.”

His lips curled in delight. “I’m impressed.”

I looked away and back at the road before I nearly took out a green and red taxi cab.

“Do you know those men, Javier?” I asked.

“No. But I bet my little sister here does.”

Violetta moaned from the back and at that Camden quickly pulled out a few of his pills from his pocket.

“Violetta doesn’t know them,” I told Javier while Camden twisted around in his seat and dispensed the pills to her.

“So Violetta says,” Javier said.

“We’ve got to get her to a hospital,” Camden said.

“Not yet,” Javier said calmly.

My eyes flew back at him. “Not yet?”

He smiled, lips tight together. “We have to go straight to Aguascalientes. It’s about five hours from here, four if you hurry. My friend Dom will be able to help us.”

“Is Dom a doctor?”

He shook his head. “He’s part of my cartel and he’s really into bullfighting. I have to talk to him first, tell him the situation. Then we can get Violetta sorted out.”

“But she’s in pain,” I said.

He shrugged and sat back in his seat, looking away from me, away from her, out the window at the city’s smog-filled sky. “She got into this mess when she started spreading her legs for the Zetas. She can afford to suffer for a bit.”

Violetta groaned, writhing in discomfort.

“You’re a sick fuck,” Camden seethed at him.

“You’re going to have to start coming up with more original insults. I believe you’ve already called me that before.” Javier looked at him briefly, his face lighting up at the sight of Camden so angry and bothered. “Don’t make me regret not leaving you on that roof to die.”

Silence filled the car.

It was going to be a long drive to Aguascalientes.