Libby nodded but pressed her lips together. He’d hurt his wife but not his daughter? How long would that last? “Why did he hurt you?”
“He said I didn’t do enough to make you think Luisa was yours.”
“I’m sorry, Teresa. If I thought he was going to harm you, I would’ve done a better job of playing along.”
“No, no. He would’ve hurt you.”
Rob perched on the arm of the chair across from them and asked, “Is she Libby James?”
“Yes.” Teresa touched Libby’s hand. “You don’t remember? You’re Libby James, the artist.”
“I own a gallery in Rocky Point?”
“Yes.”
“Why is Pablo, or whatever his name is, trying to kill me? Why did those other men try to kill me? Are they doing this for El Gringo Viejo?”
“No!” Teresa clutched the baby to her chest so hard, Luisa squeaked. “I don’t know anything about El Gringo Viejo.”
“But he’s in Rocky Point.” Rob hunched forward, his hands on his knees.
“I don’t know. I don’t know anything.” Teresa whipped her head back and forth, and the baby whined.
“Your lip is bleeding.” Libby touched her own lip. “Rob, can you please bring Teresa a towel and some ice? Water and ibuprofen would be good, too.”
Rob stood up and cranked his head as he walked to the kitchen. “Ask her what she’s doing here if she’s not going to give up Pablo or El Gringo Viejo and can’t tell you anything you don’t already know.”
Libby shook her head and drew a finger across her throat. Seeing the gesture, Teresa started up from her seat on the couch.
“Don’t worry. Nothing’s going to happen to you here. Rob will protect you.”
Teresa dropped back to the cushion and repositioned the baby in her arms. “I’m sorry. I can’t tell you anything more about yourself. I know your name is Libby James and you’re an artist who lives in Rocky Point. You crossed the cartels in some way, but I don’t know how. You left Punto Peñasco in a big hurry, and they went after you. They tried to kill you but failed, so they sent...my husband after you. He brought me and the baby to make you think she was yours.”
Rob came back with a wet paper towel, a glass of water and two ibuprofens cupped in his palm. “Why are you here? Why didn’t you stay on the bus back to Mexico?”
Teresa’s dark eyes glistened with tears. “I’m afraid he’ll kill me one day. I—I have relatives in Texas. I want to go there, leave...him. You helped Libby. Maybe you’ll help me, too.”
“Here, let me have the baby. Take the pills and press that paper towel against your lip.” Libby held out her arms for the sleepy baby and cuddled her on her lap.
Rob gave Teresa the makeshift first-aid supplies and jabbed his thumb into his chest. “What am I now, the savior of displaced women?”
Libby cocked her head at him and winked. “Maybe we just know a safe harbor when we see one.”
“She does know I’m Border Patrol, doesn’t she?”
“I don’t think so, Rob, and you’re not telling her. Let her go to her relatives. She’s trying to help me, and we should help her.”
“Is she trying to help you?”
“What does that mean?” Libby glanced at Teresa, but she and Rob were speaking too fast for her to follow the conversation.
“Ask Teresa how she knew my house. How do we know Pablo isn’t out there right now waiting for us?”
Libby asked Teresa and she admitted that Pablo already knew that Libby was staying with Rob and knew Rob’s house. They’d driven past the house earlier. Pablo had asked her to write down the address and that was how she knew how to get back here.
“She’s gonna have to give us more, Libby. If we’re going to help her, keep quiet about her presence in the country and send her on her way, she has to give us more than your name and the fact that bad guys are after you. We know all that. We figured it out on our own.”
Libby took a deep breath. How did you strong-arm a terrorized woman with a baby? “We want to help you, Teresa. We will help you and Luisa get to your relatives, but I have no memory and that puts me in grave danger. If there’s anything else you can tell me—what the other men look like who are after me, why they’re after me or even if there’s someone I can call in Rocky Point for help, someone who knows me.”
Libby slid a quick glance at Rob. Had he understood that last part? It’s not that she thought she had a husband who could come to the rescue, but maybe she had someone who could fill her in on the details of her life.
Teresa stopped dabbing her lip, her gaze darting from Libby to Rob. She understood the implications of the questions. “I don’t live in Punto Peñasco. I don’t know you. I overheard my husband’s conversations, and they want to stop you before you remember everything that happened. I don’t know what that is. He never spoke of it in front of me. I do know when you left Punto Peñasco, you were coming here to Paradiso.”
“Rob?” Libby crossed her hands over her chest. “Did you get that?”
Rob looked up from his phone. “Don’t rub it in. You two are speaking too fast for me. What did she say?”
“She said she overheard a few of her husband’s conversations, and from what she can gather, Paradiso was my destination when I left Mexico.”
Rob shoved his phone in his back pocket. “That’s weird. Why would you be headed here? It must be because of our Border Patrol office. We’re the closest one to the border.”
“How would I know that? Average, everyday people minding their own business do not generally know where their nearest Border Patrol office is—especially people living in Mexico.”
“Ask her if she heard anything else, and let
