CHAPTER FOUR
It wasn’t until we were done with our meal – Javier taking care of the check, much to Violetta’s delight – and were walking back to her apartment that he finally wore her down.
“Fine,” she said, wiping the sweat from her brow and giving him an exasperated glance. “I’ll go pack a bag. But I’m only going for a few days. I have a job here, a life, I have no intentions of leaving it for good because of you, Javi.”
I was going to ask her where she was planning on going, if she had friends she could stay with, but thought better of it. Though we were steps from going into her building, we were still in a public place and I was starting to feel the slightest bit uneasy. As she fumbled in her purse for her keys, I paused on the curb and did a quick sweep of the area, shielding my eyes with my hand.
Jose was parked across the street, looking like a mangled wreck but two cars down there was another mangled wreck, so at least the car didn’t attract any attention here. The sun was damn strong, the air even thicker and browner than before, like hot soup. There were a few squalid looking apartment buildings across the street, white stucco like Violetta’s place, but stained with green sludge. Beside them were tiny, colorful houses in bright greens and yellows. On the balcony of the yellow house, an older woman sat in the sun, sorting through her basket of laundry. In the yard of another house, a skinny dog lapped up a bucket of water.
“Something wrong?” Camden asked quietly as Javier berated Violetta for being disorganized.
I looked up at him and gave a small shake of my head. “I don’t think so. Just had a weird feeling.”
He pursed his lips and looked around at all the things I was just surveying. Finally he nodded at Violetta who brought out her keys with a whoop of joy. “Worried for her? Or about her?” he whispered.
Though I guess I had a right to be suspicious about Violetta herself, I wasn’t for some reason. She wasn’t like her brother. Maybe that’s why I liked her. Or maybe she was like her brother and that’s why I liked her too.
“I just want to get moving again,” I said and we walked up to the door that Violetta was proudly holding open for us.
The weird feeling didn’t leave, even as we went inside the elevator and up to her apartment, Violetta protesting it was always too hot to take the stairs. Outside her door, I kneeled down and made sure my Ka-Bar knife and gun were still secure in my boots. When I straightened up, Javier was staring at me with an air of approval.
Violetta went to put the key in the lock but Javier quickly grabbed her wrist, his eyes burning into hers with warning. He nodded to the door then pushed her out of the way, grabbing his gun from his waistband and holding it loosely to his side. Camden and I took a step back.
Swiftly, Javier kicked open the door and sprung into the room, his gun drawn. I grabbed my gun from my boot and followed after him, heart racing in my throat as we quickly searched the rooms.
When it was all clear, he waved at Violetta to come inside.
She crossed her arms and huffed her way into the middle of the apartment.
“My landlord is going to kill me,” she scowled and waved her hand at the broken lock on the door.
Javier didn’t smile. “That shouldn’t have been so easy. You need to be more careful.”
“Well, I’m taking off for a few days, isn’t that careful enough?”
He grunted and told her to go pack her bag. She sighed and disappeared into her room, muttering obscenities under her breath.
“Did you think you heard something?” Javier asked me.
“Why, because I was checking my gun and knife?”
He nodded.
“I was just being cautious, Javier,” I told him, slipping my gun back into my boot. “I have learned something from my line of work, you know.”
He raised his brows in disbelief and I knew he was close to bringing up the foolish mistakes I’d made that allowed him catch me in the first place. I didn’t need the reminder that I wasn’t as good of a con artist as I thought I was.
I guess he could see the warning in my eyes because a small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth and he turned around.
Camden cleared his throat and I looked behind me at him. He was leaning his good shoulder against the wall near the door, observing us. I couldn’t read his eyes, though he was swallowing hard and his jaw looked tense. One hand was on his shot shoulder, pressing down lightly. I wondered if he was in pain or had been taking the pills when I wasn’t looking.
I was about to ask him when a god awful sound buzzed through the room, causing me to jump.
Javier whipped around. “What the hell was that?”
It sounded again, coming from the intercom. Violetta came out of her room, wiping her hands. She looked at our expressions and said, “Don’t worry, it’s probably just a friend” and went for the intercom. She pressed the button and asked, “Hola?”
There was no response.
That wicked feeling was sweeping through me again, causing all the hairs on my arms and neck to stand at attention. This was bad.
While Violetta tried the buzzer again, I ran to the window and looked out. The glare from the sun and the dirt on the glass made it hard to see through so I quickly went into Violetta’s room and out to her balcony.
There was a sea of roofs spreading out before us, the one right next to the building one story below. I craned my neck to look up at the building. I didn’t even know what I was looking for, someone who didn’t belong, I guess.
“What is it?” Camden asked, standing in the doorway.
“That feeling I had?” I asked. “I think we have to get out of here. Now.”
Suddenly the apartment erupted in gunfire and I heard Violetta scream. Instinctively, I ducked, pulling down Camden, and brought out my gun again. Violetta burst into the room as another round of gunfire went off and I quickly motioned for her to come onto the balcony.
“What happened?” I asked her frantically.
She was shaking her head and screamed again when more shots went off. The window in the living room exploded into a storm of shattered glass and then seconds later, a tall man went flying out of it. He landed on the roof below, only a ten foot drop, and then staggered to his feet. The minute he looked up at us on the balcony, he yelled something and pulled out his gun.
I was faster. I aimed, said a prayer, and squeezed the trigger. The gun roared in my hands and the bullet hit the man in his chest, causing him to fly backward. My first thought was, thank god I was better shot this time.