Love or Money (19 page)

For a moment, no one moved. Then, to Riel’s surprise, the gunmen began to back off.

“Put your guns down,” Isaias said.

“Mr. Mendez, let’s try to find a way to resolve this without anyone else getting hurt,” the same voice said through the bullhorn. Riel could see its owner now, a tall thin guy standing half-hidden behind the SUV. “If you put your gun down now, we can figure this out, okay?”

The pistol barrel jabbed her hard. “Stop standing around fiddling with your limp dicks and figure it out yourself.” He wrapped his hand in her tangled hair and jerked so that Riel found herself looking up at the blue sky and the silvery popcorn puffs of a cumulous cloud. She blinked, an irrational feeling of peace spreading through her.

“Put your guns down, or I’ll shoot this bitch now!” Isaias said.

Riel couldn’t see what was going on, but she heard a shuffling amongst the crowd of police. Were they really putting their guns down? Her brow furrowed.

“Okay, now clear off,” Isaias said. She heard more shuffling, and he poked her again with the gun. “Walk, Riel.”

She stumbled forward, her head still pulled back so she was staring up. She placed her feet unsteadily on the uneven ground, but Isaias pushed her onward with the relentless pressure of the gun. Tree branches covered the sky as they entered the forest. She couldn’t believe the cops were really just going to let them walk off into the woods.

“Isaias, where are we going?” She tripped over something and almost fell. He yanked her back up by her hair, making her yelp.

“Let me worry about that, Rielita.” His voice sounded odd, his breathing rasping heavily.

She stumbled again, and he yanked her hair harder, bringing tears to her eyes. “Goddammit, Isaias, let my fucking hair go. I can’t see where I’m going.”

“I don’t want you to fucking see where you’re going.”

She tripped over what felt like a rock and almost fell again. They were walking slowly; she could still hear the cops’ radios behind them. Weren’t they even going to follow? “I’m not going to run off, Isaias! Where would I go? You’d shoot me, or the cops would.”

“The cops aren’t going to shoot their precious little snitch bitch.”

Riel swallowed the bile that rose back up in her throat. “You already shot the snitch, Isaias. Weren’t you paying attention?”

“You two were in it together, conspiring like little rats in a cage.”

“No, Isaias! I’d never met him before today. Please…”

“Fucking lying twat!” he yelled.

He yanked her hair so hard she felt some of it tear from her scalp. Then he punched her on the side of the head, the blow thudding dully in her ears.

She stumbled forward. Her knees buckled, and she went down hard, her forehead cracking sharply against a rock.

There were gunshots. Riel, her head swimming and her vision blurred with pain, cowered in the dirt.

The gunshots stopped. For a moment, all she could hear was a ringing in her ears, the beating of her heart. The noise of it seemed distant, her mind floating away in a haze.

She raised her head and looked back toward Isaias. He still held the gun, but he held it limply, not aiming it. He had a vaguely surprised, almost peaceful look.

A scream rose up in Riel’s throat, but all that came out was a pitiful moan. Blood welled up, soaking Isaias’ shirt. The gun dropped from his slack fingers. His eyes went blank and he fell to the ground, like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

Riel threw up again, vomit spewing from her mouth and splattering her hands and chest. Then she fell too, collapsing back onto the earth. She stared, bemused, at a pink mushroom poking through the dirt in front of her face. It was the last thing she saw before darkness swallowed her.

Chapter Twenty

The pain in her head was what brought her back, pulling her cruelly through the leagues of empty forgetfulness.

Her skull pounded with white hot light. Her mouth was dry and her stomach seemed to be struggling to escape her body.

She lay very still. There were voices around her, and a confusion of noise. Her head and stomach hurt worse when she tried to make sense of it. Fear zinged through her; she was still with Isaias, she needed to escape.

Then she remembered: he was shot. He fell. Or had that been a dream?

She opened her eyes, squinting at the bright light. She quickly closed them again, dizziness catching her up in its riptide.

“Riel!” a voice said. She felt a cold hand take hers.

She cracked her eyes open again, and Lizette’s face swam in front of them, her eyes tear-streaked and full of anguish, one of them purple and swollen shut.

Relief flooded her, mixing with the pain, and Riel tried to smile. “You’re alive,” she said.

Lizette laughed, more tears escaping her good eye. “Of course I’m alive.
You’re
the one in the hospital. Oh my God, Riel.”

Lizette pressed her cheek to Riel’s chest, clasping her in an awkward hug, shaking with sobs.

“You’re alive,” Riel repeated weakly. Then her headache and nausea surged back, pulling her again into the depths of unconsciousness.

***

Riel had confused dreams.

She was following Isaias down a dirt trail edged by trees and shacks of rough-hewn wood. Her feet crunched on empty potato chip bags, which lay on the ground, ankle-deep.

“Hurry up, Riel, Evan’s waiting.”

He turned off the trail towards one of the shacks and opened the door, standing aside for her to go in.

She stepped through the doorway into a dim, dirt-floored room. On the ground, crumpled on a heap of trash, was a man. His arms and legs were sprawled awkwardly, his face hidden in shadow.

Riel felt a pang of sickness. She recognized those shoes, the shape of those legs. She stepped forward.

“No,” she said. The ground seemed to drop out from under her feet. Where Evan’s face had been, there was now only a mass of splattered flesh, broken teeth.

***

She awoke with a gasp, reality seeping into her mind as the dream drained out.

She was dizzy. Her head still ached, but not badly. The light was too bright, and there was too much furniture in the room, tubes and wires and electronic boxes…

“Auntie Riel!”

She remembered. She was in a hospital bed. Olivia rushed to her side, burying her face in her chest, which was covered by a flannel gown.

“Olivia,” Riel said, her voice croaky. She lifted her arm to put it around the little girl, but stopped when she felt a sharp tug; an IV was inserted into her vein, the tube tangled in the blankets. She let her arm fall back to her side. “Olivia, I missed you so much,” she said.

Others stood at the foot of the bed: Lizette, Laina, and Robert. Robert had his arm around Laina, who was bouncing Riel’s baby niece Corinne on her hip, and holding three-year-old Jessica’s hand.

Riel fought back a rush of fear. Evan wasn’t there.
Maybe he hasn’t had time to get here yet.

Laina smiled and came over to kiss Riel on the forehead. Corinne grinned toothlessly and reached out a chubby hand toward Riel’s face. Jessica hung back, her brown eyes wide, her fingers in her mouth.

“You’re awake,” Laina said.

Riel smiled. Her face felt stiff and sore, and smiling felt strange. “Laina, you’re here,” she said.

“Of course I am.” Her ice-blue eyes examined Riel; they weren’t cold any longer, but full of pity and pride. “You’re so brave,” she murmured.

“What happened to me?” Riel asked. “Why am I here?”

“You have a concussion,” Laina said. “They don’t think it’s that bad, but they think you’re suffering from shock and exhaustion too, which is understandable, given what happened…”

Laina trailed off, her eyes searching Riel’s face.

“How long have I been out?” Riel murmured.

“Just a few hours,” Lizette said.

Riel let out a breath. Evan couldn’t have gotten here that quickly, could he?

Olivia still had her face pressed into Riel’s armpit. She was sniffling, her small shoulders trembling, and Riel winced. She was being selfish, thinking about Evan right now. Her eyes found her sister’s; the left one looked even worse now than she’d seen the first time she woke up—black and green, just a slit of eye shining under the swollen lid. Lizette’s right eye was dull and bloodshot. “I’m so sorry,” Riel said. “I didn’t mean for it to end like that, Lizette.”

Her sister put her hands to her face. Laina and Robert exchanged a look, then Laina smiled and put a hand on Olivia’s shoulder.

“Come on, sweet thang, let’s go get some ice cream in the cafeteria.”

Olivia glanced between Laina and Riel.

“I’ll still be awake when you come back,” Riel said. “Go get some ice cream, and help Laina pick out a treat for me too.”

Olivia brightened a bit. “I’ll get you some tamarind candy. That’s your favorite.”

Riel smiled. “If they have it. Otherwise, chocolate is okay.”

They all filed out of the room, leaving Riel to gaze at her trembling sister. Lizette took her hands from her face, her good eye even redder now. “I know you didn’t mean for him to die, Riel. And you did the right thing. You really did. It’s just…”

“I know,” Riel said, her dried-out eyeballs stinging with tears.

“He wasn’t a good husband to me,” Lizette said huskily. “I know that. But there were good things about him too, deep down. He just got so caught up in this business.”

“I know,” Riel said again, tears spilling over.

Lizette pushed a chair over to the bedside and sat, clasping Riel’s hand, pressing it to her wet cheek. “I love you, sister,” she said. “I know you did what you did partially to save me and the kids. I know it was you who had him give me the money. He never would have done that on his own.”

Riel’s heart jumped. She’d forgotten all about the money. Would there still be an investigation now? “Did you get it transferred? Or did he stop you first?”

Lizette sat up, sniffing. “I got it transferred. He was so angry…it was scary…I was sure he was going to kill you.”

Riel let out a breath. “I thought he was going to kill
you.
”

Lizette’s hand crept up to gingerly touch her black eye. “He wouldn’t have killed me. But you…you should have heard the things he said…”

“He would have killed me eventually, I think,” Riel murmured. Another wave of nausea took her, and she sat very still until it passed. “He didn’t have any problem killing people. He killed Marty when he found out he was working with the police, and they seemed to be good friends.” Riel swallowed hard. She hadn’t even known Marty, but he’d probably saved her life. Why hadn’t the police even told her he was one of theirs?

Lizette blinked, carefully wiping her swollen eye with a wadded tissue. “You mean the guy in the car with you guys, right?”

Riel nodded.

“He didn’t die. He’ll be all scarred up, but they saved him.”

The image of Marty’s torn-apart face flashed unwillingly across her mind. It had looked like he’d been destroyed. She swallowed hard. “Really?”

Lizette nodded, wiping her eyes again. “When the cops came to arrest Mama Maria, a guy named Officer Norton came with them. After they asked me a bunch of questions, he told me everything that happened.”

All the air went out of Riel, dread creeping in. “Officer Norton was here? Was Evan with him?”

Lizette’s brow furrowed slightly. “No. Should he have been?” She looked at Riel searchingly, and a slight, teasing smile flitted over her lips. “Are you two together now?”

Riel twisted the scratchy sheet between her fingers. “I guess so.” But then why wasn’t he here? If Norton had time to get here, Evan should have been here too.

A grin briefly overtook the pain on Lizette’s face. “That’s good. I always liked Evan.” Then the smile faded again, her gaze dropping to her lap.

Riel squeezed her sister’s hand. “I’m glad you’re okay, Lizette.”

Lizette scooted closer. Riel put her arm around her shoulders the best she could, trying not to tangle the IV lines.

They were sitting there like that when a man in a white coat strode into the room, introducing himself as Dr. Rogers. He checked Riel’s monitors. Then he shone a penlight into her eyes and asked a bunch of questions, testing her memory and focus.

When he was done, he smiled and removed her IV, pressing a wad of cotton to the puncture and gently taping it up. “You had a bang to the head, and I think you sustained a concussion, but I don’t think I need a CT scan. You’re recovering nicely. I’d like to keep you overnight for observation because of your loss of consciousness, but if all goes well you’ll be discharged tomorrow.”

Riel thanked him. He stepped out, and Laina and the others filed back in.

They sat and talked about nothing for a while, trying to clear the atmosphere, but Riel chewed her lip, worrying about Evan. Every time someone walked past her room, her heart leapt, but it was never him. Had something happened to him? Or had he just had time to change his mind about her?

The sunlight through the windows began to turn ruddy and fade. Eventually, Riel’s visitors stood up to leave. Lizette kissed her forehead, Laina fussed with her covers, and Olivia buried her face in her neck.

“You going to be all right?” Laina asked. “You’re pale. I think you might need more rest.”

“I’ll be fine,” Riel said, trying to smile.

Lizette frowned. “Are you sure?”

Riel examined her sister’s bruised and unhappy face. “It’s you I’m worried about, Lizette.”

Her sister grimaced, then winced, her hand coming up to her bruised eye. “I’ll be okay. Laina and Robert are staying over with me tonight.” She gave Riel one last kiss on the forehead. “I’ll be back tomorrow to pick you up.”

They left, and Riel was alone with her thoughts. She stared out the darkening windows, biting the inside of her cheek. She tried to make excuses for Evan not being there, but none of them were good enough to ease her nagging worry, anger, and hurt.

Despite this, her eyes kept drifting closed. Riel couldn’t remember ever feeling so exhausted. Eventually, her fatigue took over and she fell asleep.

She had vivid, confused dreams of searching for Evan, something always sidetracking her so that she arrived where he’d been moments after he’d left. Then she found out he was sneaking behind her back and having an affair with Mama Maria.

A noise pulled her back into reality and wakefulness. She opened her eyes, blinking. It was a moment before the world wavered into focus and she remembered where she was.

She jumped as someone took her hand. Then she looked over and gasped.

Evan was standing at her bedside, looking pale, dark circles ringing his eyes. But then he smiled, and his face lit up, dispelling the tired look.

“Evan,” she breathed.

“Riel I’m so freakin’ glad you’re okay.” He leaned over and kissed her, a slow kiss, his fingertips brushing the curve of her neck. “Oh, Riel, God, I’m so glad.”

He kissed her again. Riel felt her tension melt away at the touch of his lips, his hand sliding down to her waist, but she tore herself away, pushing him back.

“Where have you been? Norton was here, and everyone else. Did you have other appointments or something? Did your car break down?”

His mouth tightened. “No, Riel. The damn cops wouldn’t let me go.”

Her retort died on her lips. “Huh?”

“They were worried about retaliation by Isaias’ people. They held me for hours, no matter how much I yelled at them that no one was going to defend that fuckhole’s honor. Finally I got an escort here. You have guards too, you know.”

“No, I didn’t know. But nothing’s happened? None of Isaias’ people have tried anything?”

Evan shook his head. “Nothing.”

Riel sighed, her eyes closing. Was it really over? She knew she’d be reliving the previous day for the rest of her life, seeing Marty’s blown-apart face, and the image of Isaias’ last expression as he fell to the ground, for years, probably. But if she really didn’t have to keep looking over her shoulder, waiting for the gunshot that would end her quiet life, proving once and for all that no one could escape the world of drugs and gangs—if she, Evan, and her family were really safe now, then it had all been worth it.

She opened her eyes, seeing Evan’s handsome and worried face, and smiled. “So I guess we can go live down south now, and pretend we’re regular people.”