Love or Money (18 page)

They had to return to the beach for the rest of the packages. Riel’s feet were now caked with mud and blood from walking barefoot, her pajama bottoms flopping wetly around her ankles. Still no one appeared to arrest them. Her heart began to flutter in her chest, and the packages under her arms slipped against her sweaty skin. In the depths of her mind, the certainty grew that there was no way the feds would have been able to keep up with all the changes in plans. That’s why they’d given her the phone and earrings in the first place, and she’d been stupid enough to leave them behind. If she’d had the earrings, then she might have at least been able to give them clues about their location. She cursed herself for taking them off the night before, but they were so bulky and had poked her jaw and kept her awake.

After they loaded the final package, the men shook hands, and Rolo clasped her hand again. “I hope we see each other again soon,” he said.

She smiled. “Me too.”
In a perp lineup, with me identifying you from behind a one-way mirror.

Rolo and his friend retreated, their backs disappearing behind a rise in the dunes.

“I’ll drive,” Isaias said.

Marty raised his eyebrows. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Isaias said, and Riel flinched as he clasped her shoulder. “I’m tired of looking after this bitch. It’s your turn.” He pushed her roughly into the backseat and shut the door.

The two men climbed in. Marty gave her an odd glance, but she barely had the energy to wonder about it. Isaias started the car and headed back up the slope into the trees. He had to gun the engine in order to make it up the steep incline; the undercarriage grated against rocks and the tires slipped in several places. “
Chingada madre,
” he muttered, his hands tight on the wheel.

“This car wasn’t made for this type of run,” Marty said, trying to see the tires out his side window.

“The other place, the road wasn’t like this,” Isaias said. “But this place is actually less sketchy, not as many people.”

Finally, the car lurched to the top of the slope, the tires catching on the even ground and jolting them forward. Isaias and Marty heaved a sigh of relief, but Riel dug her fingernails into the leather upholstery even harder. What if she wasn’t able to escape before Isaias took her to wherever he had planned? Would she be willing to play the game, fuck him and pretend to like him in order to stay alive?

She swallowed hard. She wasn’t sure she could.

She stared out the window at the lichen-draped branches, wondering if it wouldn’t be easier to die. Would it hurt, if she provoked him to shoot her? What if he didn’t get her in the head, or somewhere else where it would be quick? What if she ended up shot in the gut and died slowly?

She was jerked out of her morbid thoughts by Isaias’ panicked yell. “Fuck!”

Riel blinked, her spine jerking straight.

“Holy shit!” Marty said.

Isaias slammed on the brakes.

Chapter Nineteen

The Impala’s tires scraped to a stop in the dirt, Riel’s seatbelt locking and jolting her against her seat.

They were at the junction where the dirt road met the pavement, and their way was blocked by half a dozen cars. Riel felt scores of guns and rifles pointed at her before her brain registered the image. Police wearing flack jackets were leaning over the tops of unmarked sedans and SUVs, more creeping out of the trees beside and behind them. She gulped a mouthful of air.

“
Que gran putas?
” Isaias hissed. He slammed the car into park and pulled his gun. Marty pulled his as well, holding it low over the dash.

Marty’s and Isaias’ necks twisted around, taking in the scene. Isaias’ eyes flashed with panic; Marty’s were hard and wary.

Someone nearby spoke into a bullhorn. “You’re completely surrounded. Put down your guns and exit the car slowly with your hands up.”

Isaias’ lips pulled back over his clenched teeth, and he lunged between the seats, grabbing a fistful of Riel’s hair. She screeched as he pulled her into a sloppy headlock. She struggled against him and got tangled in the seatbelt as she felt the cold steel of a gun barrel being pressed to the crown of her head.

“This is your fault,” he said. “You did this. I’ll fucking kill you, you goddamn slut.” Riel screamed again, kicking against the door, and he hit her hard over the head with the pistol.

“No, brother,” Marty said, as fireworks went off inside Riel’s skull. “Leave her be. You’ll just make this worse.”

“Fuck you,” Isaias hissed, tightening his headlock.

Marty grasped Isaias’ shoulder. “No, Isaias. We’ve got bigger worries now. Leave it. Leave her alone.”

Riel stopped struggling. For a moment, Isaias hesitated, his arm tight around her throat, his jaw twitching, the gun barrel biting into her scalp. He cursed. Isaias let Riel go, shoving her back against the seat, where she lay quietly, breathing hard.

“Fuck,” he spat, staring out the windshield at the bristling circle of gunmen closing in around them. Riel could see two approaching her side and lay very still, watching them closely.

Isaias’ mouth drew into a tight line. He put the gun in his lap and slammed the car back into gear. Riel gasped as he stomped on the accelerator, the seatbelt cutting into her chest as he jerked the wheel, driving over the shallow ditch beside the road.

“What the hell!” Marty yelled.

Two gunmen had to dive out of the way as the car barreled toward them, Isaias jerking the wheel hard to navigate between the trunks of the stunted pines. Riel ducked instinctively, and her eyes met Marty’s, who was crouched behind the glove box. They exchanged a look of terror for a split second before there was a confusion of gunshots and breaking glass and yells and cursing in the car. Riel threw her hands over her head. The windshield shattered and fell in chunks onto the dashboard. Something hit her head and she yelped before she realized it was tempered glass from the back window, which had also shattered.

“Fuck, I can’t see,” Isaias said, punching at one of the holes in the windshield and widening it. He jerked the wheel hard to avoid hitting a tree. There were more gunshots from the cops, and Riel cowered with her head between her knees, wondering what it would feel like to be hit by a bullet. Would she even feel it at all? Or would she just be…gone?

There was a heavy lurch, and for a moment Riel thought the car had been hit, or had run into something. But then their ride smoothed out, the tires hissed on the pavement; they’d come over the embankment and onto the road.

“What are you doing?” Marty yelled. “You can’t outrun them!”

“I can sure as fuck try.” Isaias floored it, slamming it into second and then third, the engine bellowing. The wind hissed through the broken windshield and caused more chunks of tempered glass to cascade onto the dashboard. The hole in the back window made an eerie howl.

“You’re fucking
chiflado
,
wey
,” Marty said.

“I’m not just laying down for these assholes.”

Marty wiped his forehead. “We’re gonna get killed.” He said it with a sort of surprised certainty, as if announcing they’d get
carnitas
for dinner, and Riel’s chest tightened; he was probably right. The FBI wouldn’t worry about keeping her or anyone in the car alive in this sort of situation.

The sound of sirens started up behind them. Isaias took a curve at full speed, the tires screeching. Another chunk of the windshield fell, the pieces skittering over the dash and sliding onto the floor. Riel put her head back between her knees, biting her tongue.
After all that shit, I’m going to die anyway
.

“Watch out!” Marty yelled, and Riel was thrown sideways into the door as Isaias swerved hard. Her neck snapped up just in time to see a car barreling toward them off of the shoulder, missing the passenger door by inches.

“Fucking fuckers,” Isaias said.

“They’re gonna have people all along this road, brother,” Marty said, his voice shaking. “Just pull over. Just give up or we’re gonna be killed. There’s always a way out of prison, but no way out if you’re dead.”

“Better to die like a warrior than live like a
panocha,”
Isaias said. “Stop sitting there like an old turd and shoot out their tires. I know a back way if we can dump them.”

The sirens were closer now. Riel risked a glance back and saw two sheriffs’ cars and an unmarked SUV swinging around the last corner.

“Shit,” Marty said quietly. He passed his hand over his grey face. Then he rolled down the window.

He turned in his seat, squinting back at their pursuers. Then he fired three shots before quickly pulling his arm back inside.

There was a burst of return fire. Riel clutched herself, but none of the shots hit the car.

“I fucking missed them,” Marty muttered. “It’s a hard shot.”

“Try again!”

Marty’s nostrils flared as he looked back at their pursuers. Riel could see beads of sweat on his pallid forehead. He heaved a sigh and raised his arm again, aiming out the window.

Just as he fired, there was a loud noise under the car and it began to swerve wildly. Riel screamed; Isaias cursed and grappled with the wheel.

“Those goddamn nail strips!” Isaias said. “Shit!”

There was another bang, and they skidded off the road, crashing over a small embankment and coming to rest on the shoulder. The engine shuddered to a stop.

“I missed their tires, but they got ours,” Marty said weakly.

Cop cars pulled up on either side of them, and the SUV behind. The sirens quit. Men poured out, aiming their weapons. Riel’s cheeks felt cold; she realized they were wet.

“Put your guns down and step out of the car!” a voice bellowed through a bullhorn. “Now!”

Riel was shaking hard. She unbuckled her seatbelt, so eager to climb out of the car and surrender that she didn’t notice Isaias’ arm come back until it was already around her throat.

She screamed hoarsely and struggled, and he dove between the seats, catching her in a headlock again. She felt a sharp blow to the back of her head, and then the pistol barrel being pressed to her temple. Isaias’ fingernails dug hard into her shoulder. “Fuck off and stop kicking, Riel!”

She tried to go still, but she was trembling so badly that her body still twitched away from him of its own accord. Isaias’ fingernails dug deeper into her skin. He jerked her roughly through the gap between the seats. Her hip banged hard against the center console, and she fell with her left shoulder in Isaias’ lap, the gun still jabbed into her skull.

“If you shoot, the girl gets hit too!” Isaias yelled, his voice painfully loud in the confined cabin. “She’s your little bitch who set this shit up, right?” His fist came up, and he brought it down hard on her waist, pounding her once, twice, three times. Riel squirmed, trying to avoid the blows, but couldn’t.

“Fucking stop it, Isaias!” Marty said, grasping his arm. “What are you doing? Just leave her alone.”

“Fucking cunt,” Isaias muttered. “I should have fucking unloaded a clip into your pussy the moment I saw you.”

“Relax, Mr. Mendez,” the voice speaking through the bullhorn said. “There’s no need to make this situation more complicated than it already is.”

“I’ll tie your goddamn dicks in knots,” Isaias said. “How’s that for complicated?” Riel yelled in pain as he pulled her completely over the console and into his lap, wrenching her hip and arm, jabbing her elbow and belly into the stick shift. The steering wheel dug into her back. Marty cursed as she accidentally kicked him. She went still, cramped and shaking, the cold steel of the gun barrel stinging the skin below her ear. Sweat ran into her eyes, and her mouth was full of her own hair.

“We’re coming out,” Isaias yelled. “You try anything, Riel dies.”

“Okay, this shit needs to stop,” Marty said quietly.

Riel felt Isaias go very still. “What the fuck,
hermano
?” he muttered. There was a tinge of panic in his voice.

Riel looked through her tangle of hair and saw Marty had his pistol to Isaias’ head. “Put your gun down, Isaias.”

Isaias’ grip on Riel’s arm tightened enough to make her flinch. “What, you’re in on this too?”

“They made me an offer,” Marty said. “I had to look after my own interests. Sorry, brother.”

“But you were fucking shooting at them!”

“If I’d meant to hit them, I would have.”

“
Fuck,
” Isaias said. “
Que vayas mucho a la puta chingada.
”

There was a brief struggle, then a deafening gunshot. Riel cowered. As the pressure slowly cleared from her ears, she realized she was still alive. There was something wet on her face. She saw blood splattered all over the windshield.

She twisted her neck around. Isaias’ face was grey and splattered in blood, and he was looking over at the passenger seat with tight lips, his chest heaving. Riel made herself look where Isaias was looking.

Marty was slumped against the car door, and where his face had been was a mass of blood and flesh, the white gleam of broken teeth.

She screamed. She closed her eyes, but the image was burned into her brain. She screamed again, and only stopped because she couldn’t get enough air.

“Shut up!” Isaias said. He punched her arm over and over, then she flinched as the hot gun barrel burned her temple. “Fuck off, Riel, and stop with that fucking wailing.”

She lay there in silence, breathing hard, not feeling the cramped and contorted position of her body.

“We’re getting out of this fucking car, and just do what I tell you, or you’ll end up like that fucking
chimosa
.”

Her guts flooded with sickness. The image of the thing sitting in the next seat flashed in her mind, over and over. She nodded, whimpering.

“Back off the car!” Isaias yelled. “We’re coming out, and if anyone makes a move, I kill this cunt immediately.”

Riel’s heart beat against her ribcage.

“Open the door,” Isaias ordered her, his voice unsteady. “You go first. You try to run, I shoot you. You’d better hope your friends out there care about your worthless life, or you’ll end up shot, anyway.”

“Okay, okay,” Riel said, slightly surprised she could still speak, “but I have to twist around, Isaias. I don’t have room. I can’t reach the door.”

“Twist around then.”

She jabbed him with her knees trying to turn her body, and she cringed as she felt her ankle brush against Marty’s warm, inert flesh. She got her hand on the door handle and pulled, sliding sideways as the door opened. Isaias caught her by the shoulder so she didn’t fall out. “Crawl out and put your feet on the ground, that’s it,” he murmured.

She dragged herself out onto the damp forest floor, which smelled good, like earth and pine needles. Sickness rose up inside her and she vomited into the cool loam.

“Get up, Riel!” Isaias yelled.

She heaved again and again and took a deep breath, then eased herself into a standing position, her legs shaking. Facing her, not five feet away, next to one of the sheriff’s cars, was a man in a bullet-proof vest, a handgun pointed directly at her. His eyes glittered alertly, meeting hers. On either side, two more officers pointed two more guns.

“Don’t move,” Isaias said. She heard him get out behind her. She was still staring at the man with the gun, who didn’t give her any sign or signal. Would they even care if she died? She’d played her part already, they didn’t need her anymore. A dull wave of hopelessness flooded her guts. She felt like no one had ever been able to protect her her whole life, and now that short life was about to end. Either Isaias would shoot her, or the cops would, trying to shoot Isaias.

She felt the barrel of Isaias’ pistol nestle itself between her shoulder blades.

“Back off!” he yelled. “I want all of you away from the car. Do it now or she dies! You don’t want your fucking precious cunt snitch to die, do you?”