Chapter 31
THOMAS
Thomas didn’t like being alone with his thoughts, not while he was in what he believed were his final hours. If those killers ever got around to sending new coordinates.
He looked out the window of the diner he’d been sitting in since that morning to stare at the hotel where he’d stayed the previous night.
Tucson couldn’t be the end of the line. This was too visible for an exchange, too populated for a fugitive that had launched a nationwide manhunt and closed the border.
He stirred his fourth cup of coffee with precise circles. They were giving him too much time to think. Too much time to reevaluate the decisions that had led him here.
The waitress approached, coffee pot in hand. “Top-off?”
He covered his cup with his palm. “No thanks.” The caffeine was already wreaking havoc on his nerves, his thoughts paced the confines of his mind like a caged animal, restless and aimless.
She set the check on the table face down. “Take your time.”
He’d been taking his time for a day now, wasting away in this sun-bleached corner of Arizona.
Mid-day light slanted through the window, reflecting off the laminate tabletop.
Every minute sitting here and doing nothing was another minute his mother spent in Hidalgo hell.
Another minute he couldn’t negotiate his brother’s safety.
Another minute Nadia would hate him for leaving her behind.
“Nadia.”
Just the whisper of her name made it hard to breathe. It was too easy to remember how she had felt in his arms the other night, as if she was still there with him. Warm and solid and real. The only real thing in his world of manipulation and lies aside from the regrets.
Would this final sacrifice be worth the cost of his life?
Yes.
James’s sons would grow up knowing their father.
His mother would see another sunrise.
And Nadia. His eyes drifted closed to the image of her.
He heard the bell above the door jingle, and for a moment he was seventeen again, sitting in this same type of vinyl booth at Joe’s Diner.
Nadia sat across from him, all knobby knees and fierce pride, counting coins from her pocket while he tried to focus on his physics homework.
“Your stomach’s growling loud enough to scare the other customers,” he’d said.
She glared at him. “I’m not that hungry.”
“Right.” He flagged down Angela. “Two burgers and shakes.”
“I don’t need your charity.”
“It’s not charity. Think of it as an investment.” He leaned back, studying her with eyes that had seen too much at her age. “Someday you’ll be somebody important, and when you are, you can buy me dinner.”
She rolled her eyes, but when the food arrived, she ate with a desperation that had twisted something inside him. That day he’d understood that caring about someone meant knowing when to step in and when to step away. A lesson he’d failed at repeatedly.
Until now.
Nadia would build a life free from the shadows he’d cast over her.
The burner phone he’d activated after leaving the ranch remained silent and dark on the table. He loathed everything about that phone. Why he needed it. Who had access to him through it. He resisted the urge to hurl the phone across the diner.
Instead, he stared out at the shimmering heat rising from the asphalt.
He thought of the moment Nadia had told him her mom wouldn’t lose the house, that his dad had given Lisa a job.
Her smile, her relief. He thought of Julian surfing and Marcus playing on the beach.
Their innocence of youth, being raised by parents who loved them beyond what Claire and Edgar had ever bestowed on him.
Tiny moments of happiness existed because of the choices he’d made. Perhaps that was enough.
His phone vibrated. He looked down, bracing himself, and read the text.
Coordinates. A time. Another photo. And a message:
Come alone or she dies.
Thomas tapped the coordinates, which brought up a map. He studied the location and the route and calculated the timing. This had to be the final destination.
A frantic drumming filled his throat. He willed it would be the end of everything.
He dropped cash on the table and left the diner.