Shooting Scars (The Artists Trilogy 2)

“I doubt it,” he said. “Mexico is a big country and we could be anywhere. People disappear easily in a few days. We’ll still be careful.”

We followed the blue dot as it went north along the Fidel Velázquez Highway, getting further away from the city. I started to get a bad feeling about all of this, as the buildings became more and more industrial.

My shoulder started to ache, I was all tensed up. “I don’t know, Gus.”

He nodded. “I know. This isn’t right. Something’s wrong.”

“I think she’s in danger.”

He gave me a grim look. “That kid is always in danger.”

The blue dot finally came to a stop at the end of a long road that ended into what looked like nothing. Ten minutes later, we were approaching the blue light. Gus took the GTO down a street with a few empty warehouses flanking the sides. At the end of the road was an office building with broken windows and a handful of cars parked outside. That was where she had to be. Unfortunately the software didn’t allow us to get more details and triangulate her position any closer.

“Either Javier has her,” I said, watching the area carefully as Gus pulled to the side of the road, a few yards away. “Or shit has hit the fan with Travis. How many guns do we need?”

Gus exhaled. “Whatever it is, I hope it’s enough.” He turned in his seat and started pulling them out of the bag in the backseat.

“This might hurt for a second,” he said and suddenly jammed my gun into the sling. Pain shot up my arm like rocket ships. “But it’s a good place for it.”

I winced, tears in my eyes, and looked down. He had placed it underneath my arm. No one could see it. “Fine. Give me two more as decoys.”

He handed me too small revolvers, I stuck one in my waistband and held the other one in my hand. That morning I’d put a knife in my sock.

Thunder rumbled in the distance as I eyed the Coffee Mate. “Think it’ll work a second time?”

“Don’t even think about,” he told me. He shoved a gun in his waistband and took another one to his lips kissing it. “Maybe this baby will get to see some action.” He smiled and then the smile went out of his eyes. I knew how he felt. There would be blood. I couldn’t let myself hesitate even once when it came to pulling the trigger, when it came to saving Ellie.

“Alright,” I said, giving him a heavy nod. “Let’s go see what trouble we’ll get ourselves into.”

We got out of the car and started hurrying down the sidewalk, guns to our sides, trying to be fast and inconspicuous all at once. It wasn’t easy, though there was no one on this dead end street. Heavy drops of rain began to fall from the sky. I was grateful for something to distract me from my nerves that were buzzing through me.

We were almost at the building, heading toward the side to see if we could see in the windows when I heard a gun being cocked. I knew that sound wasn’t necessary – it was there to make a point. To let us know we’d been caught.

Gus and I froze at the sound, making split second decisions in our heads. We had no choice but to turn around and see.

We did.

Javier was a few feet behind us, on the road, gun pointed at my head. Beside him was Raul, his gun aimed at Gus.

“Buenos dias, gringos,” Javier said with a smile. “Kindly drop your fucking guns and put your hands up or I’ll blow your heads right the fuck off.”

Gus and I exchanged a look. Defeat.

We did as we were told.

Javier waved his gun at us. “And kick it over, you know how this goes.”

I kicked mine angrily, as did Gus, guns clattering across the cracked pavement.

“Now,” Javier said, walking toward me, moving like a snake. I half expected his tongue to come shooting out, forked at the end. “I am going to frisk you for the rest of your weapons.” He stopped right in front of me, lips pressed together in a tight smile. “Try not to enjoy it too much.”

I closed my eyes, breathing in deeply through my nose, trying to dispel the anger that was punching me in the gut, in my lungs, in my chest. That rage would come in handy right about now, but rage acted without thought and I needed to play this next part so damn well or Ellie would be lost to me forever.

I almost controlled it but when Javier’s hands got to my family jewels and he groped around them and said, “I can see why Ellie chose me. My balls are bigger,” I let that rage out for just one second.

I spat right in his face. Well, since I was a lot taller, it kind of went on his forehead and trickled down into his eyes. I grinned at him, enjoying the look of revulsion and fury that flashed through him.

“Fucking pansy,” he sniped and then took his gun and jabbed the butt of it right into the bullet hole on my shoulder.

Everything went fuzzy and black and I could barely keep my lunch down. I collapsed to my knees and spat out bile, the pain overtaking me, ruling me.

Then Javier kicked me in the shoulder, same spot, and I rolled over onto my back, the waves of pain being comforted by swells of unconsciousness. Then I remembered Gus standing beside me, and Ellie and I knew I had to do what I could to stay awake and stay alive, pain or no pain.

I remained on my back breathing hard until he reached down and ripped me back up until I was on my feet, swaying unsteadily.

“Hey now,” he said, lightly slapping my face until my eyes were open. “Hey Camden, hey Camden, you better stay awake. I am just getting started here with you both.”

Javier glared at Gus while Raul started scooping up the guns they found on us. They hadn’t found the one in my sling. I wanted to look at Gus to see if he had noticed but I wasn’t about to give anything away.

“I didn’t think I’d see you ever again,” Javier said to him, frowning and seeming a bit uneasy. “You’re one of the few good ones left in her life.”

I raised my brows and swallowed away the residue of pain. “You two know each other?” I tried to hide the surprise in my voice but I couldn’t hide much of anything, except my gun.

Gus was watching Javier, not me. The old man never looked so angry.

“No,” Javier said slowly, carefully. “I’d only heard about him. You’re a famous man in the Watt circle.”

“And so are you,” Gus grunted.

Javier tapped his gun against his leg, seeming to think. “I suppose it’s better they think something of me than nothing at all. They are here, you know. Her parents.”

That was news to me but it wasn’t the news I wanted. “Where is Ellie?”

Just then another man came around the corner, someone I didn’t recognize, holding a gun to his side.

Javier glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. “What is it, Peter?” he asked testily.

Peter glanced at Gus and I, then said to Javier, “Travis Raines is having a dinner party tonight.”

Javier’s brow scrunched up. “What?”

“At his house,” Peter added for effect. “Ellie isn’t going out for dinner, she’s going there. To his house. To the compound.”

Whatever this meant to Javier, this was bad news. And if it was bad news for Javier, it was probably bad news for Ellie too. I looked at Gus who had an enlightened yet miserable expression on his face.

“Oh shit,” Gus grumbled.

Javier’s eyes were wild, thoughts spinning, and he nodded ever so slightly at Gus, as if he understood what Gus was realizing.

“What the fuck is going?” I said, wanting an explanation.

Javier shot me a look and swallowed hard, worry furrowing his face. A look I’d never seen on him. The look was gone quickly.

“Ellie,” he said slowly, looking back to Gus, “will be at Travis’s tonight. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to get in there without a fight. The place will have heightened security who, I’m sure, could possibly find the cyanide capsule on her necklace.”

Her necklace. Of course. Javier had given her one and taken the razor blade with the tracking device. Cyanide. He was getting her to kill him tonight.

“Her parents are there. They work for Travis now.” Javier looked up at the sky and rubbed the side of his face. “They’ll see Ellie. And her cover will be blown.” He brought his head back down to face me. “She’s as good as dead.”

And you put her in her grave, was all I could think. You set her up to fail from the beginning.

“So what the fuck are you going to do now?” I asked, spitting out the words. “You’re just going to leave her there?”

Javier narrowed his eyes into reptilian slits. “I don’t know what choice I have. We can hope for the best.”

“And to think, you thought you were good enough for her,” Gus said, shaking his head at Javier with disappointment.

Javier whipped his head around and shoved his gun in Gus’s face, right up under his chin. “You don’t know anything, old man,” he sneered. “You don’t get a chance to interfere in her life, you gave that up. I don’t want to kill you because I know what you are and how much you mean to her, so don’t you fucking piss me off!”

My eyes were drawn to Javier and Gus, wondering what the fuck Javier was talking about, so I barely had time to realize what was going on. Raul now had his gun raised at Javier’s head and Peter was reaching for his own gun, perhaps to protect him. But the movement from Peter was enough to bring Raul’s gun to him. Raul pulled the trigger, blasting Peter in the head. The sound brought out the well-honed reflexes in Javier. He spun around, his arm suddenly around Gus, using him as a shield, his gun drawn.

Raul fired and ended up shooting Gus right in the gut.

I was screaming. Running for them. Javier pulled the trigger and shot Raul before he could fire again, and a bloody Gus slipped through Javier’s arms.

Javier pulled the gun around to me but I was too fast. I was already there. I was already the black beast.

I tackled Javier, my bad shoulder down, not caring about the pain. I dove right into his chest, throwing him back into the concrete wall of the building, his head smashing against it, leaving a bloody smear that was diluted by the rain.

Even with one arm in a sling, I was able to beat the fuck out of him. I punched him over and over again, relishing the feeling of my bleeding knuckles, the blood from his face, the feeling of breaking cartilage.

He tried, several times, to get up, to fight back. He put up a good, dirty fight, my shoulder being his number one target. But I was beyond the pain now. I was something else. I was rage and I was wrath and I was twenty-six years of hell.

I brought out my gun from the sling and held it right against Javier’s temple, spitting in his face one more time, watching the spit mix with blood and rain. “You can’t give me a single fucking reason why I shouldn’t pull the trigger.”

He looked up at me, eyes golden against the mask of blood on his face. He licked his broken and bleeding lips, slowly, sickly, and said, “No. I can’t. So kill me. And let this all be over with.”

I pressed the gun further into his head, the anger shaking me from my bones. “No. This won’t be over because Ellie is still out there. She’s going to Travis’s and there’s a chance she’s not coming back. You better fucking hope that she poisons him and does it well because that’s the only way she’ll get out of there.”