Immortal

74

The New Mexico sun blazed brightly in a flawless blue sky as Ethan stepped out of the hospital foyer, shielding his eyes. Across the street stood Nicola Lopez, leaning against the trunk of a Ford Taurus and jangling the keys in her hand. Ethan stepped across to her, the hot wind rippling his shirt and lifting one corner to reveal the thick dressings. He touched them self-consciously as he walked.

‘You’re not going to start showing that thing off to people, are you?’ Lopez asked.

‘Looks good, doesn’t it?’ he said. ‘Another war wound to add to the collection.’

Lopez smiled and shook her head.

‘People will just assume you’ve had your appendix out or something. Jesus, you were in hospital for two whole days. Anyone would think you got your head blown off.’

Ethan, affronted, covered the wound back up.

‘C’mon, I suffered for this one. Doctor said a half-inch higher or lower and I’d have been in real trouble.’

‘Yeah,’ Lopez agreed. ‘My point exactly.’

Ethan shook his head in dismay.

‘Just because you can walk out of a gunfight looking like you’ve been modeling swimwear doesn’t mean everyone can,’ he mumbled.

Lopez looked at him as a smile blossomed on her face.

‘You really think that?’

Ethan sought to backtrack.

‘Sometimes,’ he admitted. ‘But don’t get used to compliments, I’m not paid to blow sunshine at you.’

Lopez smiled again, but the moment passed. Ethan watched her for an instant, and then gestured to the car.

‘We need to talk.’

Lopez climbed into the car with Ethan and drove out of the hospital grounds, heading toward the I-85. Ethan let the cool breeze funnel in through the open window onto his face as they drove.

‘What’s the news on Saffron?’ Lopez asked.

‘She’s recovering well,’ Ethan replied, ‘but she’ll be going to trial in Santa Fe as soon as she’s well enough to stand.’

‘Doug’s working on it,’ Lopez said. ‘They’ve been going insane trying to figure out who the eighth person is, but I don’t think it’s getting them anywhere. I’m surprised they haven’t tried blackmailing us yet.’

‘With what?’ Ethan smiled smugly, settling back into his seat. ‘They can hardly fire us as we don’t work for them directly. Either they work it out for themselves or they uphold their end of the deal.’

‘Do you know who it is?’ Lopez asked.

‘I’m working on it.’

‘Are you tryin’ to tease me?’

‘Are you enjoying it?’

‘You’re an asshole, Warner.’

‘I’m not the one who sold out,’ Ethan replied.

Lopez kept her eyes on the road ahead for a long moment before she replied. ‘I took an educated gamble,’ she said finally. ‘It made sense at the time, okay? Everybody came out the other side of it.’

‘By the skin of our goddamned teeth, Nicola!’ Ethan shot back, dragging a hand across his face. ‘Jesus, we’re going up against some pretty unsavory people here and I don’t know if I can trust you from one day to the next.’

‘You can trust me,’ Lopez said instantly, locking her dark eyes onto his.

‘How can I when I don’t know what you’re doing behind my back?’ Ethan replied. ‘That little scheme of yours could have cost us all our lives, and for what? A quarter million bucks? Is that what I’m worth to you?’

‘That’s not how it went down!’ Lopez protested. ‘I didn’t do anything behind your back. Jesus, we’re not married, you know.’

‘Yes we are,’ Ethan insisted, ‘ever since we went into business together.’

‘Hey, I’m not just the dutiful wife in this arrangement, cowboy,’ she shot back, the wind rippling her hair in a dark halo. ‘I’m not just a passenger here, your damsel in distress, okay? I can make my own calls, and I’ll goddamned follow my own leads with or without you.’

Ethan chuckled bitterly and shook his head.

‘You didn’t do this for your equality,’ he muttered. ‘You did it to make hard cash, and you risked my life along with everybody else’s to pull it off. Where will it stop, Nicola? Breaking into jeeps is one thing: this is something else entirely. What will you do next?’

‘There is no next,’ Lopez said, more reasonably. ‘I did what I set out to do, and now it’s over.’

‘Is it?’ Ethan asked. ‘I thought it was over when Doug Jarvis pulled us over two days ago. You said it was.’

Lopez stared ahead as she drove, and sighed heavily.

‘It’s over,’ she repeated, and then looked at him. ‘I won’t let you down, okay? Let’s just drop it for now.’

Ethan turned away from her to look out across the blistering deserts passing by.