5. Chapter Four
Chapter Four
R eading through case notes, Steve reached for the ice-cold Dr. Pepper he’d grabbed from the refrigerator. He had expected to shift for himself and live off of whatever he could scrounge from nearby shops or room service, but Dina’s people had fully stocked the small apartment after giving him a questionnaire. It sure had him questioning his career in public service if these were the perks that came with working for a tequila tycoon.
A frantic knock startled him. He set aside his soda can and eyed the open safe across the room where he’d stored his sidearm. Better safe than sorry, he grabbed it from the shelf and held it down at his hip while crossing the hotel room. When he reached the door, he cautiously checked the peephole. Lola Farias stood right in front of the door, her hand raised to knock again, while Dina stood behind her, talking angrily on her phone.
He stuffed his pistol in the waist of his jeans and quickly unlocked and opened the door. “What’s wrong?”
“Camila is missing,” Lola said and shoved by him into the hotel suite. Dina followed right behind her sister, shooting him a desperate glance while talking on her phone.
“Missing? When? How long?” He closed the door behind the two sisters and rushed to the desk where he’d been reading. He grabbed the case files and stowed them in the safe. He hesitated about leaving his sidearm. Technically, he was a guest of the Mexican government. He wasn't here under official capacity, and he didn’t have clearance to carry a weapon.
Better to ask forgiveness after I need it , he reasoned.
“She left after her third period class to visit the school counselor and didn’t come back,” Lola explained as he slipped into a shoulder holster and reached for his lightweight jacket. “The school realized she was missing at the end of lunch when she didn’t show up for her next class.”
“Some security that school has,” Steve grumbled.
“Don’t even get me started,” Dina growled. She tightly clenched her phone, and he expected to hear the screen crack at any moment. “They’re going to regret the day they lost my daughter.”
“Or maybe she decided to sneak out,” Lola said. “She’s one of us, Dina. How many times did Beto get expelled or run away or sneak out? It’s in her genes.”
Steve decided to stay quiet and not point out where she got the other half of her genes. Instead, he offered, “Do you share location tracking on your phones? Your devices?”
“I took her phone,” Dina admitted regretfully. “And her tablet and her laptop. She only has access to her school laptop, but it was found in the library.”
“What about a watch? Or a fitness tracker?” Steve asked, thinking of all the ways they could run down a subject.
Lola and Dina exchanged glances. “Beto?”
“Beto what?” he asked.
“Beto gave her a new Apple watch for Christmas,” Dina said as Lola tapped at her phone screen. “She probably blocked all of us, but she wouldn’t block him.”
“Beto!” Lola shouted her brother’s name. “Can you see Camila’s location on your phone? Why? Because she’s missing! Hang on.” Lola put her phone on speaker. “Camila left school, or she was taken. We don’t know. We need to find her, Beto!”
“Give me a second! Yelling at me isn’t going to make this happen any faster, Lola!” Beto snapped.
Dina started to snatch the phone from her sister, probably to lash out at her brother in anger, but Steve gently grasped her wrist, stalling her until they got an answer. She glared at him but didn’t shake off his hand. He might have been imagining it, but it felt as if she leaned into him.
“No, I can’t see her location either. I’m sorry.”
As the siblings argued, Steve tried to think the problem through rationally. If Camila had been taken from the school by force, there would have been a commotion or evidence or a ransom call. He felt certain kidnapping wasn’t the case.
From what little he knew about Camila, she seemed to have been emotionally manipulated by her father and grandmother. If anyone could convince her to leave the school, it would be the old woman. Someone kind and matronly who made her feel safe.
“Where does Diego’s mother live?” Steve interrupted the fracas.
“Mirta?” Dina frowned. “Not far. She’s near Tlaquepaque.”
“Then let’s go there,” Steve suggested. “I’d bet my last dollar she’s hiding out with grandma.”
Dina’s expression turned murderous. “I warned Mirta to stay away from her!”
“Yes, well, Mirta listens about as well as Diego,” Lola muttered. “She’s one of the reasons he’s the arrogant psycho he is.” She lifted her phone closer. “We’re leaving, Beto. I’ll keep you updated.”
“I’ll head to the house. I’m sure Mama is up in arms.”
“Don’t let her call Rafa or Sky!” Lola instructed. “He’ll panic and fly straight back from Greece. Those two need this honeymoon.”
“I’ll make sure Rafa knows what’s going on and that Jasper is safe,” Beto promised.
Realizing he still held Dina’s wrist, Steve let go. She glanced at her hand and then back to his face. She seemed almost bereft at the loss of his touch. Any other time, he would have flirtatiously offered to keep his hands on her. Right now, his sole concern was finding Camila and making sure Diego wasn’t involved with her disappearance.
“We should liaise with the police,” Steve warned. “We don’t know what we’re walking into, and if Diego is there—.”
“You can liaise all you want. I’m going to get my daughter.” Dina marched out of the hotel suite. Lola shrugged and raced after her sister, leaving him with no choice but to do the same.
Out in the hallway, he spotted two harried security guards. Neither looked happy about being left behind while the two sisters entered a hotel room. He’d had concerns about the family’s security before this, but now those concerns were much more pressing. Unfortunately, they’d have to wait until later.
“I’ll drive,” Lola announced as they rode the elevator to the lobby of the hotel.
“ No , senorita ,” the more senior of the two guards disagreed. “We have a vehicle waiting.”
“You drive so slow, Antonio.” Lola pouted. “It will take us forever to get there.”
“We’ll get there in one piece,” Antonio replied before stepping out of the elevator as it arrived on the first floor. He glanced left and right, making sure the path was clear before nodding for the women to follow.
Steve fell in with the second guard, an older man who looked irritated by the whole mess. As if reading Steve’s mind, the man lowered his voice and said, “They never listen to us. We can’t keep them safe if they don’t cooperate.”
Steve nodded his understanding. “We’ll have to do something about that.”
The other man snorted. “Good luck, gu?ro .”
“It’s Steve, but I’ve answered to gu?ro before just fine.”
“Jose.” The man gave him an appraising look. “Your Spanish is very good.”
“I grew up in the Rio Grande Valley. McAllen. La Feria. Harlingen. I spoke Spanish before I spoke English. Or, at least that’s what my granddad always said,” Steve replied with a wry smile.
“Housekeeper?” Jose guessed.
Steve nodded and scanned their surroundings as they emerged from the hotel. The SUV Antonio had mentioned idled at the curb. Another car pulled in behind it, and a valet hustled out to get the keys.
“I am not riding in the middle.” Lola yanked open the front passenger door. “It makes me carsick.”
Certain Dina would not appreciate having to climb into the third row of the Suburban, Steve volunteered. “I’ll take the back.”
Dina shot him a thankful smile as he maneuvered himself onto the bench seat in the rear. Once everyone was seated and belted in place, Antonio pulled away from the curb while Lola helped him navigate. Jose stared out a window, probably thinking of all the ways this could go sideways, and Dina clenched her phone in her hands, looking like she might snap it in half at any second.
Steve hated to see her hurting like this. He placed his hand on her shoulder and gave it a very gentle squeeze. She stiffened under his unexpected touch, and he worried he had overstepped a boundary. He started to remove his hand, but she reached up and placed her hand over his.
The spark of her skin against his sent a lightning-fast arc right up his arm and into his chest. She wrapped her fingers around his, gripping them as if terrified she might fall. When she glanced back at him, his brain conjured a similar image, one of her against that hotel room door, looking back at him as he did filthy things with his hands between her thighs.
But that image vanished as soon as he registered the absolute panic in her dark eyes.
She was terrified for her daughter. Beneath all the anger and frustration, she was a mother scared to death that her baby girl was in trouble and hurt.
He wanted to take all that pain away. He wanted to gather her close and promise to keep her safe, to keep her daughter safe. He wanted to show her that he could be the man she needed, a partner, a protector.
But he stayed in his seat. He kept his hand on her shoulder, letting her draw comfort from him, and waited for a better time.
“Wait!” Lola suddenly shouted twenty minutes into their drive. They were in a heavy tourist era with pedestrians milling on both sides of the road. “Is that her? There? In the school uniform? At that ice cream cart?”
Dina leaned forward and peered around her sister. “Stop the car, Antonio!”
The vehicle was still rolling when Dina bailed from her seat and onto the street. She managed not to break her neck and raced off in her sky-high heels. Swearing at her reckless behavior, he clambered across her empty seat and practically dove onto the road. His foot got caught in her seat belt, and he must have looked like a drunk flamingo trying to break free.
Finally unencumbered, he ran after Dina, barely keeping her in view across the throngs of tourists and vendors. He shouldn't have worried about losing her. The explosive verbal argument that broke out between mother and daughter could probably be heard from space.
“You are insane!” Camila screamed at her mother. “It’s not a big deal! We just wanted to get some lunch!” She gestured to the young man standing behind her. “Like you never skipped school?”
“This isn’t about me. It’s about you! We are in danger, and you—.”
“We are not in danger! He doesn’t want to hurt me.”
Steve arrived on the scene and held back, waiting to see how Dina would handle that ugly revelation. She seemed to shrug it off and reached for her daughter’s arm, but Camila pulled back. “Don’t!”
“Camila! We are going home!”
“I’m not going back to that prison! I’m going to Wela Mirta’s house!”
Judging by the broken look on Dina’s face, it would have hurt less if Camila had slapped her. She recovered quickly and snatched her daughter’s arm. “You are coming home with me where you belong.”
“LET GO OF ME!” Camila shrieked like a banshee, drawing every eye in the square.
“I am your mother! I am trying to keep you safe!”
“I HATE YOU!”
Deciding he’d had just about enough of listening to Camila disrespect her mother, he strode toward the mouthy kid and snatched her right up off the ground. He tossed her over his shoulder, shocking both Camila and her mother.
“Let go of me! You psycho asshole!” Camila beat on his back and kicked her legs. “I’ll have you arrested for kidnapping.”
“You’re welcome to try, kid.” He noticed the maybe-boyfriend stepping forward as if to defend Camila. He pointed a warning finger in his direction. “Stay out of this. Go home and apologize to your parents for skipping school and getting your girlfriend into trouble.”
“I’m not in school,” the kid mumbled nervously. “I graduated last year.”
“What!” Dina lost it. “She’s fourteen! She’s still in junior high!”
From the terrified look on the young man’s face, he didn’t know that little bit of information. He smartly turned and ran in the opposite direction, probably about to piss his pants in panic.
Up on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, Camila continued caterwauling. He ignored her hysterics and reached for Dina, taking her by the elbow and angling her through the crowd at his side. He used his height and build to move through the crush of nosy bodies.
When they reached the SUV, Lola looked on with amusement. Antonio sat behind the wheel, ready to jet, and Jose stood by the open door, ready to jump in and keep Camila secured. Steve unceremoniously dumped the unruly teenager in a seat, ignored her kicking and screaming to buckle her belt and slammed the door closed in her face.
Dina hesitated before climbing into the SUV. “I appreciate your help—but don’t ever grab my daughter like that again.”
No good deed goes unpunished.