“Do you feel like we are being watched?” I asked as I looked at a hill on the other edge of the park.
“Kind of, but I just chalked it up to feeling really paranoid.”
“Man, I just can’t shake the feeling.”
“It’s possible Ramos has some eyes on use to make sure we aren’t working with the police or anything like that.”
“It was pretty amazing that Captain Bastrop slipped you that black book,” I said.
Chase flipped through the pages of the book nervously as we waited. Although we would have moved forward with our plan no matter what, it did work much better now that we had the actual black book in our hands.
“Yeah, he made a copy of everything and gave it back. But I really think this is a different version of the book. I think some of the names were undercover cops and they rewrote the book to exclude them. I suspect he thinks we will try to give it back to Escabar with the money.”
Chase was a smart guy. I hadn’t fully seen that side of him until we started plotting out how we were going to get out of the mess we were in. It seemed just a little confidence was all he needed to make the change to a fully confident undercover outlaw.
Our plan was to meet with Salina and Salvador and let them know we had information about Escabar that Ramos would want. It was risky because those two could take that information back to Escabar, but we suspected they would want to move up the ladder themselves and get into the good graces of Ramos. Their need to please him would have them working like putty in our hands.
“I’m so nervous. I feel like I might throw up,” I whispered.
My hand shook inside of Chase’s, and I felt like my body just couldn’t take much more of the excitement that was going on. It had been a crazy couple of weeks in America. I just wanted all of it to be over.
I wanted to be on a beach somewhere snuggled up to Chase and not worrying about a single thing. Deep down, I knew our plan would work, it just had to – that was the only option. The other outcome was too horrible to imagine.
“Jordan, look at me,” Chase said as he turned my direction. “We are going to get through this. We will be just fine. You and I together will get this finished, and then we will take a vacation to Miami to look for Ana. Okay?”
I smiled as my heart filled with happiness. He was thinking about me, even in the middle of our most dangerous moment. We could be shot by Escabar, or Ramos, or any number of other people who worked for them, yet there Chase was, trying to make me feel better.
It had been two weeks since I came to the United States and, although I had received an email and phone call from my mother the day before, I still hadn’t heard from Ana. I was positive something bad that had happened to her, but I wouldn’t know for sure until we found the guy who she had gone to meet.
Chase had promised me he
would even get his brother Jackson, a private investigator, involved if he had to.
“Is that them?” Chase said as he pointed to Salina and Salvador as they walked through the park.
“Yes.”
“Okay, remember the plan. Just stay near me and follow my lead. We just need to get them to go back to Ramos with the information. Don’t get mad at them.”
He knew I had almost exploded with anger when he said we should use Salina and Salvador to get in with Ramos. Those two had pretended to be my friends and then served me up to Escabar without a second thought. They hadn’t known what Escabar was going to do with me, and they didn’t care. To them, it was a job that they got paid for and that was all that mattered. It made me want to punch them both in the head when I thought about how easily I trusted them.
“I will behave myself,” I said as we got out of the car and walked toward them.
I stayed a step behind Chase and continued to look around as we got closer to them. I still felt like we were being watched. Surely, sending Salina a text message and telling her we wanted to meet and talk about Ramos had set off some serious red flags in their world.
“It’s good to see you, Jordan,” Salina said as she looked around Chase at me.
“It’s not good to see you, bitch.”
Chase grabbed my hand and pulled me back as I started to step toward Salina. I thought I was going to be able to behave myself, but being there next to her had my emotions going wild.
“Now, now, girls, we are here for business,” Salvador said as he turned to face Chase. “Damn women. So, let’s talk. You got something that Ramos wants?”
“Yes, we do. We have some information that will be really valuable to Ramos, and I’m pretty sure it would get you two in good with him if you helped us deliver the news.”
“Or it will get us killed,” Salvador responded.
“I think it will benefit everyone involved if we could just sit down with Ramos. Can you make that happen for us?”