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“Just because I’m not a tough guy like you doesn’t mean I can’t think on my feet.”
“Yeah, you were thinking just fine when you dumped me in high school.”
Heat seared her cheeks as she yanked her hand away. “Maybe this isn’t the greatest time to go into our past relationship failures.”
“Your failure, not mine. I wasn’t the one who walked away. You broke up with me, remember?”
She ground her teeth together to keep from firing off an angry retort. The light traced the exit door just ahead of them. They burst through the sultry air into the sunlight. Darting a look back, she saw drifts of smoke coming from the clinic. In the distance came the shouts of the men inside and a clamor of Spanish as the townspeople came running with buckets to put out the fire.
He grabbed her hand again and tugged her into action.
Keeping their heads down, they ran along the road, kicking up pockets of dust, heading for the cluster of palm trees where Juanita must be waiting.
“Just how big a diversion did you create?” Sarah panted, turning to look back again at the smoking clinic.
“It’s still standing, isn’t it?” Jett said. “There she is.” They ran to the idling truck and leaped in the back next to the patient. Juanita sat ramrod straight behind the wheel, worrying her lower lip between her teeth.
“Drive to the dock,” Jett commanded.
“They’ll find you there,” Juanita said. “Come with me until it’s dark. I have a place we can hide that Beretta’s men don’t know about. My father will treat Mr. Young there. You can sneak out after sunset.”
“But the police...” Sarah said.
Juanita put the truck in gear. “They are of no help.”
“She’s right,” Jett said. “The cops aren’t going to keep this guy safe from Beretta—Rodriguez told you as much. We have to get out of here, head for US waters. The coast guard will intercept us, and we can tell them the whole story.”
Sarah shook her head. “We can’t just run away. We have to tell the doctor, arrange to have another nurse assigned, talk to the chief of police...”
“I will do all that,” Juanita said quietly.
“No,” Sarah said. “Not alone. You won’t be safe.”
“This village is my home,” Juanita said. “I’m not leaving. My father and I will keep the clinic open and talk to the police, even though it will do no good.”
“I can’t...”
“Yes,” she said, catching Sarah’s eye in the rearview mirror. “You must.”
Sarah had worked with Juanita for the three months she’d been at the clinic, and the woman had always been quiet, even tempered. The iron in her voice was new, or perhaps Sarah had not taken the time to recognize it before.
“Okay,” she finally said. “We’ll escape after dark.” As they sped out of town toward Juanita’s house, Sarah prayed darkness would come quickly.
THREE (#uf30e1309-c5cd-5bdf-a0ae-6c050322df36)
It was nearly four when they arrived with their ailing patient at a small brick building with a crooked front door and a corrugated metal roof. Jett figured it had been a little café at one time, but now the windows were shuttered and the front step sagged. Like the town itself, it seemed to be sinking under the crushing weight of the poverty all around it.
He climbed from the truck and tried to stretch out some of the stiffness in his back, but the pain from his bruised body put an end to that. You’re not an eighteen-year-old kid anymore, he thought. There’s a price to be paid now for putting your body on the line. Didn’t matter. He’d pay it anyway, regardless of the consequences. He’d never hesitated to take the savage blows intended for his mother.
Why don’t you hit me? he’d taunted his father countless times when dear old Dad had come home stinking of whiskey. Leave her alone, he’d shouted, like a lion tamer luring a beast with an offering of fresh meat. He shook the thought away, wondering if he’d ever be able to rid himself of those memories.
A one-eared dog trotted up, sniffing the group as they unloaded Young from the truck, offering a tentative yip. Another hungry soul, scrounging anywhere for anything. Jett stooped to give the bony head a pat. “Sorry I don’t have any food for you, boy.”
The dog wagged its tail anyway as Juanita hurried to open the door. “Inside, quickly,” she said.
The interior was molten, warmer even than the air outside. Immediately they were bathed in sweat. Jett and Sarah carried Young inside and laid his stretcher on a long wooden table. Sarah loosened his straps, and he moaned. His eyes flickered open, but he was clearly out of it, forehead lined with pain and eyes sunken, skin waxy.
“He needs IV fluids,” Sarah said, rummaging in her bag.
Juanita nodded. “While you administer them, I will go get us some food and water.”
“Want me to go with you?” Jett said. “What if Beretta’s men followed us?”
Juanita flashed a quick smile. “Then I will be quick, and on the lookout like Detective Sarah.”
Sarah laughed, a sound that was at odds with their dire circumstances, like the peal of cheerful music in a dungeon. “I left my magnifying glass back in Coronado. Right now, I’m Nurse Sarah.”
“Probably a more helpful occupation for the circumstances.” Juanita frowned at the patient and sped out the door, closing it behind her.
Jett watched Sarah fuss over Young. “So how exactly are you going to be both a nurse and a detective?”
Her attention was fixed on her work. “I’ve decided to give up nursing after this mission and help full-time with the detective agency.”
That surprised him. She’d always been passionate about her occupation. “Yeah? Why did you decide on that?”
“Because I guess I’ve had enough of death,” she said.
The expression, that sadness in her voice, made him want to fold her in his arms. The experience of losing her father had changed her, taking some of the brilliance away from her smile. But, hey, he thought uncharitably, she had her God. Wasn’t He supposed to protect people like her? Still, it grieved him that she should be touched by tragedy of that magnitude. Some people deserved the bitter stuff that life dished out to them. Sarah did not.
As he puzzled over what to say, he made himself useful by holding the plastic tubing and handing Sarah the materials as she gloved up, applied the tourniquet, disinfected Young’s arm with a small wipe and started the IV. He held up the bag of fluids as she released the tourniquet. A nail protruding from the wall served as a good place to hang it. Jett envied the liquid being pumped into Young. His own mouth was so dry he could hardly manage a swallow.
As she snapped off her gloves, she talked soothingly to Young, stroking his hand and wiping his brow with a clean cloth. Her patter was meant to be comforting, he supposed, but for Jett, it brought back too many memories, too many consoling platitudes that were intended to encourage him after the vehicle accident that left him with a serious head injury.
“Can I pray for you?” Sarah asked her patient.
Pray? The word made Jett bristle inside. She was living in a fantasy world, praying to a God who didn’t listen or just didn’t care, a fact he’d thought she would have learned after her accident. Either way, it sickened him. Let’s pray for your recovery, the hospital chaplain had said to Jett a year ago. Ask God to take away your pain. He’d done neither, and what was more, He’d taken away Jett’s career, the only light in Jett’s life.
God wasn’t some fairy-tale father who granted wishes. He created humans and left them to drown in their own misery, which wasn’t any better than Jett’s worthless earthly parent, currently serving time in prison. How could a smart girl like Sarah not see that for herself? He felt her gaze on him, and he looked away.
As Young’s eyelids fluttered open again, he moaned, whispering something.
She bent closer to hear, her dark blond hair brushing the table. Young grasped her wrist, his mouth moving sporadically before he got the words out. “You’re a detective?” he croaked.
“I’ve got a detective license,” she said. “But don’t worry. Right now, I’m your nurse. You’re going to get some fluids, which will help you feel more comfortable, and we’ll get you to a proper hospital.”
“You’ve got to go find her,” he murmured.
She shot Jett a look, and he moved closer. “What did you say, Mr. Young?”
He squeezed her wrist as a spasm of pain crossed his face and he struggled to sit up against Sarah’s restraining hands.
“Find who?” Jett said.
Young’s eyes suddenly rolled back in his head, and he collapsed back on the table.
Sarah checked his pulse and breathing. “He’s hanging on by a thread. If we don’t get him to a doctor soon, he’s not going to make it.” She pushed the sweat-soaked hair from his face and fanned him with a notepad from her bag. “What do you think he means by ‘go find her’?”
Jett shrugged. “You’re the detective. Your family’s making quite a name for themselves in the investigation business.”
“Marco’s been filling you in?”
“He told me your sister recently cracked a case in Cobalt Cove.”
She smiled. “How sweet that you stay up-to-date on Gallagher family business.”
“I don’t,” he said, more severely than he’d meant to. “But seeing as how you and your sisters run an investigation firm, do your thing. Solve this guy’s mystery.”
“How am I supposed to do that under the present circumstances?”
“Don’t look at me—I’m just a diver. But it sounds like you just got yourself a case, Detective.”
* * *
Jett was clearly mocking her, so she ignored the remark. “Mr. Young? Can you hear me?” But he was unconscious. Go find whom? Was whoever he was looking for the reason he’d been beaten? The cause of Beretta’s relentless attention?
There was no sense in talking it over with Jett. He’d gone to the back window to wrench loose one of the boards, allowing a breeze to waft in. Delicious, she thought, lifting the hair off her neck and tying it into a ponytail with a piece of gauze. If she’d had a moment more to pack, she’d have been much better prepared, but as it was, she’d only tossed in basic medical supplies, her passport and one granola bar. At the bottom of the bag were two precious bottles of water. Thirst clawed at her. As much as she wanted to rip off the cap and guzzle some of the water, she was uncertain about their upcoming journey and she thought it best to save it. Maybe she should offer a bottle to Jett.
He’d stepped out into the back, which was nothing more than a scruff of weed-covered ground, dry and parched. He knelt to play with the one-eared dog who was so skinny she could see his ribs. Jett stroked his big hands tenderly over the dog’s delicate frame. Those same hands had caressed her face with a featherlight touch.
She was transported back in time to their first date, a trip to the ice cream parlor and a walk on the beach. He’d found a shell for her in the sand, a delicate white scallop tinged with the fiery glow of a sunrise on the inside. Shyly, he’d offered it to her.
It’s perfect, he’d said. Like you.
She remembered his arms embracing her, a bittersweet reminder. So much anger and so much heart wrapped up in one maddening man, she thought.
“Here,” she said, handing him a bottle of water.
“Thanks.” He twisted the cap and poured a small amount into his hand. The dog lapped it up eagerly. Jett lifted the bottle to his lips, eyeing her before he put it to his mouth. “Hang on. Did you get some?”
“I’m okay.”
He shook his head and handed it back to her. “You drink half.”
“I don’t need any.”
“Fine. Then I don’t, either.”
She folded her arms. “You’re a patient. Patients before nurses.”
“You’re a woman,” he snapped. “Women before men.”
He folded his arms to match hers, and she knew he wasn’t going to give in. “You’re infuriating, you know that?” she said, snatching the bottle.
“Funny how many people tell me that.”
She gulped, restraining herself from downing it all. Even though it was warm, the water tasted delectable. Then she handed it to him, and he drained the rest. They stood in the yard, trying to find some relief from the stifling heat, until Juanita called from inside. She’d returned with a bag of savory-smelling food and a clay jug. Sarah’s mouth watered.
“My cousin makes excellent chilaquiles. There is no meat today, but it is still good, I think.”
“It smells divine,” Sarah said.
She handed them plastic forks, metal plates covered with foil and two paper cups, which she filled with water. Jett raised his to his mouth, drinking it in two swallows.
Sarah set the plate aside and folded her hands to pray. Juanita did the same. Jett, she noticed, stepped away, arms crossed over his broad chest, until they were done.
Under the foil were quarters of fried corn tortilla covered with a green salsa and topped with slices of raw onion. A humble dish, generously shared by people who had little to give. There could be no greater blessing than that, Sarah thought.
There was a period of quiet while they devoured the luscious meal and drained the jug to the dregs. Jett offered one of his tortillas to the dog, who happily gobbled it up.
“Did you get word to your father?” Sarah said.
Juanita frowned. “Yes. He will meet us here.”
“How will he avoid Beretta’s men?” Jett said. “They’re probably swarming the town right about now.”
“He will be all right,” she said, turning away to gather up the remnants of the meal. Sarah helped her wipe out the dishes as best they could and pack them up to be returned to Juanita’s cousin.
“You have been very kind, Juanita,” Sarah said. “I know this is going above and beyond. You’ve been so brave.”
Juanita turned to face her. “No,” she said, voice cracking. “I haven’t. Oh, please forgive me, Sarah.”
The stricken look on her face started alarm bells ringing in Sarah’s brain. “Forgive you for what?”
Her lips trembled. “I...”
Jett drew close. “What did you do?”
The door swung open. On the threshold stood the men from the clinic, dark haired, sweating through their T-shirts, two holding bats.
The taller one smiled and turned to his partner as he looked at Young.
“Good thing for you he’s still alive. I told you not to hit him on the head—you might have killed him.” Then he jutted his chin in Juanita’s direction. “Go. Your father is safe. He will be released now that you have done your part.”
Sarah looked at Juanita in horror.
“You sold us out?” Jett said.
“I’m sorry.” Tears sprang up in her eyes, and she wrung her hands. “My father called my cell phone while I was waiting in the truck. They will kill him if I do not do as they ask. I could not sacrifice his life for yours.”
