“How long ago was this?” he asked.
“Two years ago, two and a bit,” she said, thinking it over. “It was nothing like it is now. This is my city, my home. My family’s home. Now we have Los Zetas and The Los Zetas Killers and who else knows who, all wanting a piece of this pie and it’s rotten through and through. Bodies are left in the streets. People, good people, journalists, teachers, are murdered and no one is doing a thing about it. Not the police. Not the military. Not the government. Organized crime has taken over this city. As soon as I am done school, I am gone. And when I make money one day, I will take my family with me.”
“Well, Amandine,” Javier said calmly. “If you are of great help to us, I will make sure you have the money before you even start your next class. And it will be enough to get your family out of here in the meantime.”
She looked flabbergasted. I couldn’t blame her. How much money was Javier giving this young woman and why? Just to be nice? That didn’t sound like him. Not when he was no better than The Los Zetas Killers.
“I couldn’t accept that,” she said.
“Yes, you can and you will. Because your information will be worth it. The lives of my own sisters depend on it.”
Her face fell. “Oh. I see. Travis … Los Zetas. Did they do something to them?”
Javier didn’t say anything. I couldn’t see his eyes save for the amber reflection of his aviators and he was probably glad for that. You couldn’t read his face at all.
“If you help me, it will stop Travis from hurting them and hurting everyone else in this city.”
I ignored what Javier had told me on the boat that day, that the drug Lords were all like zombies and another one would pop up to take their place. Did Javier really want the drug cartels, the violence, to stop? Or did he just want to protect his sisters and come out on top?
She swallowed hard and took another sip of her latte. Her hands were shaking now. I placed my own on the table as a show of solidarity.
“It’s okay,” I told her. “We’ll protect you. We just need to know what you can tell us about Travis, that’s all. Places he goes, who lives in the house with him, how well-protected you think he is – how many bodyguards. That sort of thing. It won’t take up much of your time, we promise, and then you can have your money.”
She slowly lowered her drink and nodded. “Okay.”
Javier shot me an impressed look, lips teasing upward.
Amandine told us everything she knew about Travis over the last two years. He liked to go to the Mercado Hidalgo Market on Saturdays where the local police force would practically salute him. Friday nights he’d frequent a night club or a bar, mainly The Zoo, a touristy joint with high security where he’d drink in his private room. He usually brought women home from these places and his driver would take them home right after their session in the sack. I wanted to ask Amandine if I was Travis’s type, if he’d find me attractive but I knew how degrading and embarrassing that question was, to admit to what I was going to do.
And, honestly, as she explained his mansion in the hills, all five of his bodyguards, some I could tell Javier recognized, past brothers, I started to worry. I started to freak out a bit, my pulse quickening, waves of nausea sweeping through me. I was sure I couldn’t do it, that I’d fail, he’d catch me, kill me and everything would be for nothing. I didn’t want to have my body dumped behind a garbage can or my head on the steps of a hotel. I didn’t want to die by that man’s hands.
“Ellie?” It was Javier, his hand over mine. “Are you okay?”
I nodded quickly, trying to come back to reality. “Yes. Sorry. What … what were we talking about?”
Amandine was looking at me with a quizzical expression. “I asked if there was anything else you wanted to know.”
“No, I’m good. Sorry. I think I’ve had too much sun,” I said, shielding it with my hand.
“I think you’re right,” Javier said, getting out of his chair and pulling me up to my feet. “Thank you, Amandine, you have been a great help. I will be in touch with you if I need anymore help. Oh.” He reached into his back jean pocket and pulled out a Bank of America check book and started scribbling on it with one of Amandine’s pens.
“It’s in US funds and from an American bank so it might take a while for your bank to clear it, but I can guarantee it will clear.” He ripped the check out of the book and handed it to her.
Her eyes bugged. “I can’t take this.”
“You’ll take it, you earned it. Just make sure you share it with your family,” he said. “Come on, Ellie.”
He pulled me over to him and led me away from Amandine, still staring at the check in shock. We were halfway across the park when I asked, “How much did you give her?”
“About thirty thousand dollars, US,” he stated matter-of-factly.
“Shit,” I said. “You made her life.”
“If she has a life for much longer,” he said quietly. “After we do what we have to do, I have no doubt it will all get back to her. That’s the way things work here. Those who talk, die. My only hope is that she gets her family out of here first, to at least give them a chance somewhere else.”
I bit my lip, wishing that pretty Amandine would somehow get out of this alive. Wishing I would get out of this alive. “Is this place really that bad?”
“It’s the wild wild east, my dear, and the sheriff is nowhere to be seen.”
“And who are you? The lone ranger?”
“Don Diego de la Vega,” he answered. “Zorro.”
We got back in the car and drove out of the city and onto the highway that would take us to Alvarado.
We were about halfway there when I started to have a nervous breakdown.