18. Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen
“ I f she told him, it wasn’t to hurt us,” Dina insisted, her heart racing as fast as the car Steve was driving at breakneck speed.
“I know that,” Steve replied. “She probably said something to him because she’s mad and confused. She doesn’t want you to get hurt.”
“She doesn’t want you to get hurt either.” Dina couldn’t— wouldn’t —believe the worst of her daughter.
“I know that, too.”
“Do you?” Dina studied his tense profile. His rigid jaw, the flexing tendons in his neck, the stiff set of his shoulders.
“Of course, I do.” Steve looked away from the road to meet her imploring gaze. “Camila isn’t Diego. She’s all you, Dina. She’s the best parts of you and your family.”
His words soothed her raw nerves, but she wasn’t blameless. “She’s the worst parts of me, too.”
“Dina—.”
“No, Steve, it’s true. I’ve been so closed off, so aloof. I’ve been so afraid to trust and to love. I’ve been so focused on independence and success and proving myself and making up for all the stupid mistakes I made.” Her stomach twisted, and she gripped the seatbelt with both hands. “I spent so much time focusing on the wrong things. I taught my daughter all the wrong things. I wasn’t there for her the way she needed me to be.”
“You’re here for her now, Dina.” Steve reached across the center console and pried her hand from the seatbelt. He interlaced their fingers and squeezed. “You’re a good mother. You love Camila. You’ve dedicated your life to giving her security and happiness. Yeah, sure, you made some mistakes, but you know what? All parents do.”
Prickly heat irritated her eyes, and she tried so hard not to cry. She blinked rapidly, catching tears on her lashes that fell onto her cheeks. Her heart sang as Steve lifted her hand and tenderly kissed the back of it. “Do you have any idea how romantic you are?”
Steve laughed shortly. “Me? Romantic? Hardly, sweetheart.”
“Don’t argue with me, Steve. I’m always right.” She managed a weak smile for him, and he grinned back, that boyish lopsided smile causing her heart to pitter-patter in her chest.
“Yes, ma’am.” He lowered her hand but kept hold of it as they drove the rest of the way to the estate. The wind kicked up, and the dark clouds rolling in from the highlands loomed ominously. “Bad storm coming?”
“Probably.” She noticed the fields on either side of the road had been cleared of workers. Hopefully, they were all safely back inside the barns and other outbuildings, away from the wind and water and lightning that was headed this way.
“You get a lot of bad storms here?”
“Late summer to early fall is when we get the worst weather.” She offered an embarrassed smile as she admitted, “I don’t really keep up with the forecasts. That’s more in Lola and Beto’s wheelhouses.”
“Understandable.” He leaned forward and peered out the windshield, angling his head as if trying to get a better look at something. “What mountain is that anyway?”
“That’s not a mountain. That’s a volcano.”
Steve jerked his attention toward her. “I’m sorry. It’s a what ?”
“A volcano,” she said slowly. “There are volcanoes all through this region.”
“Wait. Plural? More than one?” He actually looked worried which she found rather adorable considering he’d been shot at on this same road only a few days earlier.
“There are four. All of them along a line.”
Steve gawked at her. “How are you this calm with a giant bomb mountain sitting right there?”
“It’s been dormant for, like, a quarter of a million years, Steve.”
“Oh, well, in that case, I’m sure we’re fine.”
“We are. There’s no risk from this one.”
“ This one?”
“Well, there’s another down that way.” She twisted in her seat and gestured in the general direction. “ Volcán de Colima . It blew up a few years ago.”
“Are you serious?”
“It’s not a big deal.”
“Until it is!”
“Scientists have monitors all over the place. They’ll know if the volcanoes start to rumble to life again.” She gave his hand a playful squeeze. “Anyway. Without these volcanoes spewing out their ash and lava for all those millions of years, we wouldn’t have the fertile soil that allows us to grow the best agave in the world.”
“The volcanoes? Really?”
Dina nodded. “Amazing, isn’t it?”
“I suppose.” He eyed the volcano in the distance with distrust. “I don’t think I could ever get used to living next to something that dangerous.”
She knew he was making small talk, but it was an uncomfortable reminder of all the ways it could never work between them. His life was in Texas. Hers was here. He was a single man. She was a single mother. He had family who needed him back home. She had family who needed her right here.
It will never work.
You’ll have to let him go.
But not yet.
“What’s going on here?” Steve eased off the accelerator as they drew closer to the house. There were dozens of vehicles parked out front, most of them staff from the field operations.
Dina’s stomach dropped. Sensing something bad had happened, she ripped off her seatbelt and practically bailed from the still moving car. Steve shouted after her, stomping the brakes and throwing the vehicle into park. He chased after her into the house, nearly colliding with her when she exploded into the front parlor where the voices were the loudest.
“What’s wrong?” Dina demanded, storming toward Lola who had Jasper asleep in a carrier on her chest. “What’s happened?”
“I’m sorry, Dina.” Lola started to cry. “I thought she was sleeping in—.”
“What? Who?” Her heart thundered so quickly in her chest she could barely breathe. “No. Not Camila.”
“I’m sorry, Dina,” Lola repeated, her voice breaking. “We thought maybe she went out to the gardens or the stables. I didn’t realize she was gone until—.”
“Gone? GONE?” Panic saturated her voice.
“Dina.” Steve placed his hands on her shoulders, grounding her in the moment. “Lola, tell us everything from the beginning.”
“You two left. I fed Jasper, went through my usual morning routine of emails and phone calls. We went back upstairs. I got him dressed. I changed into my coveralls. I went by Camila’s room to see if she wanted to come with us, but she wasn’t in there. I remembered she was sleeping in Dina’s room so I went there. She was gone.”
“Lola came back down to see if Camila was having breakfast with me,” Jovita interjected, taking over the story. “I hadn’t seen her either. We realized something was wrong and had security start looking for her.”
“It took a little bit,” Antonio said, stepping forward. “Camila knows the camera angles better than we thought.”
Dina scoffed. “Of course, she does.”
Steve gently squeezed her shoulder, silently urging her to keep it together. “Where did she go?”
“She took a truck from the maintenance shed. The key ring has all the RFID tags for opening the gates. We tracked it. She went out through the back roads, all the way to edges of the property. Once she left the perimeter, we lost her.”
Dina shrugged off Steve’s hands and strode out of the room. She’d never experienced a panic attack, but she felt certain one was building in her body right now. A tightening of her chest. Her rib cage unable to expand. Heart burning. Face tingling. Ears pounding.
Camila, where are you? Where did you go?
She ran upstairs, taking two at a time, and raced to her bedroom where she had left Camila sleeping only hours ago. She found Camila’s pajamas piled on the floor and picked them up, bringing them to her chest and hugging them. As she did, something heavy fell to the floor.
A cellphone.
She crouched down and snatched it up off the rug. She stumbled backward and sat on the edge of the bed, clutching the phone in her hands. The black phone had a keypad and was still powered on. It had been years since she’d handled a phone without a touchscreen, and it felt strange to click the buttons.
“Is that a burner phone?” Steve asked, crossing the room with powerful strides.
“Yes.” Dina navigated the small screen and discovered the inbox. “There are dozens of texts between Diego and Camila.”
Her gaze lingered on one in particular.
My mom has a real man now. He’s a Texas Ranger, and he’s going to catch you and throw you back in prison where you belong.
“Any recent?”
“Uh...yes.” She scrolled through messages. “This morning.” She read the last message in a long string with Diego. “She wanted him to go away. He said he would if he had money.”
“She’s going to bring him cash?” Steve asked, reaching for the phone. “How much money can she get her hands on, Dina?”
“Not that much,” she said, sickened with fear. “She always has cash on her, and a credit card. She can get a few thousand but—.”
“From an ATM in the tourist areas?”
“That’s where I would go if I was a teenager who needed cash.” She twisted her hands together. “Should I cancel the card?”
“No. It could be used to track her. We might need that, especially if he—.”
“If he takes her?” She grasped Steve’s arm. “That’s what you’re worried about, isn’t it?”
“He needs to disappear. He isn’t sure if he can get money from his mother, but he knows for damn sure you’ll give him whatever he wants if he has your daughter.” Steve grimaced as he laid bare her greatest fear. “If he gets her out of the country, Dina...”
“We can’t let him.”
“Where is this?” Steve pointed to the photo Diego had sent Camila.
“They’re old ruins from an ancient war. The Chichimecas against the Spanish. Diego and I used to meet out there when I was still a teenager,” Camila explained, her face flushed with embarrassment. She didn’t have to finish that awful story. Steve was smart enough to fill in the blanks.
“Does she know where it is?”
Dina nodded. “I’ve taken her there a few times.” At Steve’s frowning face, she explained, “Not out of nostalgia or because I want to be close to him again. It’s actually a very beautiful place, and at night, the stars are perfectly clear. Camila likes astronomy, especially comets and shooting stars. It’s the best place I know to watch them.”
“How far is it from here?”
“Two hours?”
“I need a map.” He pulled out his phone and typed in the name of the ruins. He navigated along the map with his finger. “There’s nothing along the way. No place for her to stop to get cash.”
Dina gasped. “Oh, no.”
“What? Dina? What?”
She ignored him as she sprinted to her adjacent home office. Her stomach lurched at the sight of the safe behind her desk wide open. She flung aside her rolling chair and began to frantically search the contents.
“You have a safe in your office? That Camila could open?” Steve asked in disbelief.
“I didn’t think she’d try to open it!” Dina silently cursed her stupidity. “I know, Steve! Okay! I should have used a different keypad code than her birthday. I just never thought—.”
“It’s okay.” Steve embraced her from behind, quieting her panicked breaths. He pressed his cheek to hers and stroked her hair. “Just breathe, okay? Deep breaths. Calm down.”
“I should have been more careful,” she sobbed, her voice tearing with panic. “I shouldn’t have left it in here.”
“It? Money?”
“No, Steve.” Dina’s eyes closed briefly as she imagined all the terrible ways this day might end.
“What was in there, Dina?”
“A gun.”