Bold Tricks

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Her words settled over me like fine, cold dust.

Gus. Wasn’t. Here.

“But Javier said …” I started. I didn’t even bother finishing the sentence.

“Javier lies,” my mom said. “How do you think I ended up here with Travis?”

I narrowed my eyes at her, the rage building up inside, threatening to spill out. “Because you’re weak. And you’re a fool. And so am I.”

“Ellie,” Camden warned me.

“No,” I hissed at him. I was about to lose it. About to lose everything. I squeezed my gun so hard I could feel the ridges cutting into my palm. Javier had lied to me. He told me Gus was here. All along I was chasing after something that wasn’t real. Where was Gus?

“Why?” I cried out. “Why did he lie?”

“Because,” she said, her eyes avoiding mine, “he knew you’d never come for me. But you’d go for your father.”

“My father?” I asked while I heard Camden suck in his breath behind me. “He’s dead. I know he’s dead. Don’t tell me Javier lied about that too?”

“Ellie, I think we should get her out of here first,” Camden said quickly. “I hear something upstairs.”

I ignored him and my mom went on. “The father you know is dead, Ellie. I’m sorry sweetie. He was … Travis killed him. To take possession of me. We never knew what we were getting into when we came here. We only wanted … revenge. For you.”

“The father I know?” I asked, suddenly recalling Javier wording things very similarly.

She gave me a sad smile. “Ellie, I’m sorry. Gus is your real father.”

“What?”

What?

This was too much. My brain started to shut down on itself.

Gus. All this time. Gus. The man I was looking for, the man who was like a father to me more than my real father was in fact my real father. This shit couldn’t even be digested. My mother had an affair with Gus. Who the fuck didn’t she have an affair with?

“Fuck,” Camden swore under his breath. “I had a feeling.”

I whipped my head to look at him. “You had a feeling and you didn’t tell me?”

“I didn’t know for sure and I didn’t know how,” he said quickly. “I knew you wanted to get him back badly enough as it was.”

“And Javier knew that too,” my mother went on, trying to adjust herself. I was both so angry at her and her lies and hurting because she was hurt. “He knew you’d come here for Gus if he told you that Travis had him.”

“But why?”

“To kill Travis.”

I shook my head, trying to get some sense into it. “Still? Again? Why doesn’t he just do it?”

“Because if you do it, he cannot be blamed. It won’t be a coup. And he’ll just take right over. Everyone’s allegiance will be to him. Cartels, my girl, are archaic.”

“Don’t call me that,” I hissed at her. “I am not your girl. I cannot put up with any more of your lies. Everything you’ve ever told me is a lie. You’re just like him.” Whether I meant Travis or Javier by that it didn’t matter.

“We have to go, now,” Camden said louder.

As if on cue, the building rumbled and shook slightly, the light bulb swaying.

“What the hell was that?” I asked, automatically looking to my mom.

She looked bewildered. “I don’t know.”

“Javier,” Camden said.

My mother’s mouth dropped open. “Javier is here?”

“He brought us here,” I told her. “How else would have we found you? How else would he have insured that I would keep going after Gus?” My voice cracked over his name.

“He ditched us in the jungle on the way here,” Camden filled in. “Obviously knowing we would keep coming. I guess he was waiting for us to make the first move. Either he’s gotten impatient or they somehow know we’re down here with you.”

“Well, fuck this,” I said and quickly took my lock-picking tools to the cage she was being kept in. Once I had gotten that open, I crawled in beside her and got her handcuffs off.

She rubbed her raw wrists and looked at me proudly. “I taught you well. You always were the best at picking locks.”

My lip automatically curled. “You shouldn’t be proud at me for being a con artist, for being like you. You should be proud that I’m bothering to get you out of here after everything you’ve done to me.” I grabbed her by her arm and pulled her up and out of the cage, ignoring the look on her face, like I’d slapped her. “Can you walk?”

She swallowed hard but nodded. “Yes. I’ve only been in there for a few days. I … I talked back to him the other night and …”

I raised my hand. “I don’t want to hear it.” I looked at Camden. “You’ll take care of her okay?” Before he could answer, I snatched the other gun from his pocket and ran toward the stairs just as I heard gunfire breaking out upstairs.

“Ellie!” Camden screamed at me, full-on horror.

But I kept running, gun in each hand, taking the stairs two by two to the top.

I was getting Gus back.

And I was going to make everyone pay.

I slammed the door open into the hall and was surprised to already see a guard running toward me. I quickly raised my gun and shot him in the head before he had a chance to aim at me. Then I kicked the door back shut, my gun already pointed straight forward and saw Dom at the opposite end of the hallway. I figured the guard was running toward someone.

Dom froze where he was, his gun also drawn.

“Don’t you fucking move!” I screamed at him. “Don’t you fucking move.”

To his credit, Dom stayed put. I had a feeling it’s because he wasn’t allowed to kill me. I was going to have to make that work in my favor.

I ran down the hall toward him but when I crossed the foyer I was met with glass breaking and bullets riddling the walls. I kept running, noticing there was fire coming up from behind where Dom was, filling the end of the hallway.

I stopped in front of him and immediately pistol whipped him across his nose. He cried out, grabbing his face and dropping his gun. I scooped it up, sticking it in my boots. Now I had three guns. I had a feeling I could never have enough.

More bullets and shots came from the foyer. I quickly grabbed Dom and swung him around the corner into the laundry room, shutting the door behind us. I slammed his head against the door, stuck the end of my gun against his temple, and yelled, “Talk! Tell me every fucking thing you know or I will kill you.”

He looked at me in utter fear, at my eyes which must have shown the rage that was flowing through me. What had Javier said earlier about depravity? Well he must have known I had that in spades, just waiting for the right moment for me to snap.

And I had snapped.

“Talk!” I screamed again, my spit flying into his bloody face.

“You were set up,” he said, panicking. “From the start.”

“You fuck! And you said you liked me.”

He blinked several times. “I do like you. But I love my family.”

I pushed the gun harder into his head. “What was the plan? Where is Gus?”

“You were supposed to be a diversion. You’d kill Travis and we’d swoop in, secure the compound. I don’t