His silence is all the answer I need.
“Anna may be trained, but she’s no Una. If she won’t leave Mexico, then she doesn’t leave my protection.”
He sighs. “Fuck. I understand, but Una won’t. You have to talk to Anna. Get her to stay willingly. It’s the only way.”
“Thanks for the heads up.”
“I’d say it’s a pleasure, but I really don’t need this shit. I just got out of a war myself.” The line goes dead, and I slide the phone back into my pocket. I can’t imagine what that poor bastard has to go through with a woman like Una. And he has a child with her. It’s enough to send a man over the edge.
My gaze locks onto Anna once more. She’s now leaning against the counter, a cup of coffee in hand as she talks to Lucas. Their once easy friendship seems strained, their body language guarded and on edge. It might have been an error sending him to retrieve her, but I can’t really regret it when it worked.
Anna’s gaze snaps to me as I approach, and her eyes harden in way I can’t stand. “Rafael.”
“I need to speak with you.” She pushes off the wall, gesturing for me to lead the way. I hate this tension between us. “Come.”
Instead of walking to the windowless office, I grab a set of keys from the safe box and walk towards the back door. I can hear her light footsteps behind me as I open the door and step outside. The early morning sun is creeping into the sky, painting the desert beyond in tones of amber and gold as I cross the sand-covered tarmac.
“Where are you taking me?” she asks, hurrying to catch up.
I walk over to one of the two helicopters that sit at the edge of the airfield and open the passenger door. “Get in.”
“No.”
“Don’t you trust me?”
“No,” she says quietly.
It stings more than it should, but I nod. “Well, I’m not about to put myself on Una’s shit list, so I promise I will bring you back.”
“That ship has sailed,” she mumbles as she gets in. I close the door and rounding the front. When I jump in, she glances at me. “Do you actually know how to fly this?”
“How hard can it be?” Her eyes go wide, and I laugh. “Of course I know how to fly it.”
She releases a breath and fastens the straps across her body. “I’ve never been in a helicopter.”
I can’t fight my smile because I’ve missed this. She makes me want to give her everything just so I can watch her face as she experiences it for the first time. Rotary blades whir to life and when the chopper leaves the ground, Anna throws her hand out, gripping my arm. After a few seconds, she releases me and stares out of the window as the desert passes by beneath us. I fly low, paranoia forcing me not to take any chances. I circle the lake before putting the helicopter down.
“Why here?” she asks when she realizes where we are.
“Call it neutral ground.”
65
Anna
Neutral ground.
Opening the door, I slide out of the helicopter. As soon as my feet hit the familiar desert sand, I feel a sense of rightness that I was always chasing in New York: the heat, the sand, the scent of scorched earth and fresh air. I find myself eagerly striding up the incline that leads to the cliff edge. When I reach it, I stop and catch my breath, staring down into the oasis created in this rocky bowl. The first time he brought me here, it felt magical, and it feels every bit as special now. There’s something about this place because it shouldn’t exist. The trees, the flowers, the crystalline blue water…none of it should exist out here in the middle of the desert. It seems like more of a dream than reality. I could come here a thousand times, and it would always remind me of Rafael—of us. But weren’t we always more dream than reality? It feels like that now, as though I can’t truly recall or grasp hold of what we once had.
Rafael comes to stand beside me, and I walk away, descending the rocky, steep path that cuts into the cliff side. I slip and nearly fall, much like I did the first time I came here, but this time Rafael isn’t ahead of me to block my fall with his enormous body. The irony is not lost on me, and a crippling sense of loss washes over me. He did this, not me. He forced me away from him when I would have stayed. When I reach the water its perfectly still like a mirror reflecting the world back at me.
Rafael’s presence is a weight at my back, but he makes no move to come closer. Closing my eyes, I tilt my face up to the sun, allowing its heat to wash over me. I’ve missed it so much.