She waved the cigarette at the gate. “I’ll just slip outside to enjoy it, and if Jimmy happens to smell it on me... I didn’t get it from you.”
“Of course not, thanks.” He lunged for the gate, probably happy to get her out of his sight before she could get anything else on him to report to his boss.
Holding the cigarette in one hand and the skirt of her dress in the other, she stepped outside the gates of Jimmy’s compound. She traipsed down the drive to the street, her breath coming in short spurts. Her gaze shifted from side to side. She’d better not bump into any guests arriving early for the nuptials—Jimmy’s guests.
Once she turned a corner and got clear of Oscar’s sight, she dropped the cigarette and crushed it under the toe of her shoe. Then she pulled out her phone again and texted Adam. The wedding is off. Don’t come near the estate. Don’t go near Jimmy.
The phone buzzed in her hand, and she answered the call from the app car on its way. “Hello?”
“I’m about a block away in a blue Honda. Big houses here. Can I get in the gate?”
“I’m outside the gate. I’ll be waiting on the sidewalk. Hurry.”
“Uh, okay.”
Two minutes later, a Honda pulled up to the curb. April checked the license plate, compared the driver to the picture on her phone and jumped in the back seat. “Go!”
The driver’s bugged-out eyes met hers in the rearview mirror. “Where am I going?”
“The nearest bus stop. Wait.” Her fingers creased her satin skirt into folds. How could she buy a bus ticket? She had no money. No wallet. No credit cards. She’d be a sitting duck at any bus stop for Jimmy and his so-called business associates. Now she understood why he always had an entourage. Idiot.
“Keep driving.” She pounded the back of the driver’s headrest. “I’m thinking.”
“Are you running away from your own wedding or something?” The driver adjusted his glasses and punched the accelerator.
“Yes.” She reached into the front seat and grabbed his arm, turning his laugh into a snort. “What’s your name?”
“Jesse.”
“Jesse, I have a deal for you.” April tugged at the diamond ring on her left hand. “I’ll trade you this ring for your car.”
Turning his head, he squinted at the ring cupped in her palm. “Nice rock, but I can’t do it. I need my ride to make money. This is the only job I have.”
She slumped back in her seat. She could pawn the ring for cash, but that meant she’d be wandering around Albuquerque in this damned dress.
“My friend Ryan might be down, though.”
“Really?” She shot forward again. “Where’s Ryan?”
“He lives about ten miles from here. He’s trying to sell his car, and he might take that piece for it instead of cash.”
“Perfect.”
She waited until Jesse hit the highway. Then she buzzed down the window and chucked her phone outside. She wouldn’t be able to contact Adam anymore, but Jimmy couldn’t trace her whereabouts.
Thirty minutes later, the trade with Ryan went smoother than she expected, and he even threw in a hundred bucks, cash, to seal the deal.
She rolled up the money and wedged it into her new car’s cup holder. She scooped the wooden token pressed against her breast from the bodice of the dress and dropped it in the other cup holder. Running her hand across the dashboard, she yelled out the window. “No GPS?”
“Does that car look like it has a GPS?” Ryan shoved his hands in his pockets. “No refunds.”
“I’m not looking for a refund.” She cranked on the engine of her new vehicle. “Just point me in the right direction for the 25 south.”
Jesse strolled to the car. “You going to Mexico?”
“Maybe.” She leveled a finger at him. “You remember the rest of our deal, right?”
“Yeah.” Jesse’s Adam’s apple bobbed in his skinny, razor-burned neck. “If anyone asks, I picked you up and dropped you off at a bus depot in the city.”
“That’s right. The 25?”
Jesse gave her directions and she sped off, leaving the two young men gaping in her rearview. After her first burst of speed, she eased off the gas pedal. She didn’t have her driver’s license with her, and Ryan’s name was on the car registration. She didn’t need any trouble. Her impulsiveness had gotten her into enough trouble.
The car had enough gas to get her out of Albuquerque and almost down to Hatch Valley, just over the halfway point to Juarez. She could lose herself in Mexico, do a little investigating, too, even though it sure seemed as if Jimmy had contacts south of the border.
She wouldn’t be the first of her family to disappear in Mexico.
After about three hours on the road, April pulled into a gas station just out of Hatch and dashed into the convenience store. She grabbed a diet soda and smacked thirty bucks on the counter.
“As much gas as this will get me on pump number five, less the cost of the drink.”
The female clerk nodded, eyeing her from the top of her poofy hairstyle to the tips of her satin shoes, peeking out from the hem of her wedding dress. “Are you going to the wedding or coming from it?”
“On my way. It’s a beautiful day to get married, isn’t it?”
“Uh-huh.” The clerk popped her gum and rang up the purchase with her long, violet fingernails.
April pumped the gas, waved to a little girl giggling in the car next to hers and plopped onto the driver’s seat, gathering yards of billowing material inside after her.
She continued south, heading for Las Cruces. Just another ninety minutes or so, and she’d be across the border. She didn’t have any ID with her, but that never stopped people in the know from slipping into Mexico undetected. Her gaze shifted to the side, taking in the signs for the 10 west and Tucson. One hour to Mexico. Four hours to Tucson.
“Ah, hell.” She veered toward the ramp that would take her to Arizona.
She
