“With a smile like that?” Cletus says. “I think you’ve got a clean thirty percent off ’em. I say take your chances.”
Graciousness radiates from her. “I think I will.”
Arden clears his throat. “You having a good day?”
She nods. “Great one. I had a family in earlier who was vacationing from Argentina. We spoke Spanish the whole time. It was nice.” She gives him a wistful look. Like someone homesick.
He wants her to look like that when she thinks of him.
“Well, I’ve got to check on my tables,” she says, sliding back out of the booth. “I’m sorry. I didn’t expect to be this busy when you came.”
“Don’t apologize,” Arden says hurriedly. “It’s a good thing.”
“Yeah,” Carly agrees.
After they eat, Arden and Cletus wait around for Carly to clean up her tables. Cletus proved right about the bridal shower; they ended up leaving her forty percent of the bill after everything was said and done. Carly practically glowed while she vacuumed her section of the restaurant; she made more today than she ever had.
After rolling her silverware, Carly is ready to go. She walks out with Cletus and Arden.
“I think I’m going to take a cab,” Cletus announces.
“What?” Carly says. “No. We’re going to the pier, remember?”
Cletus gives Arden a knowing look. “It’s been a while since I’ve been out of the house. And I’ve got some errands to run and a lot on my mind. You two go ahead without me.”
It’s as good a blessing as Arden is going to get from his uncle.
And he’ll take it.
Twenty-One
I’m more than a little startled to find Julio sitting on the couch waiting for me when I get home. I’m pretty sure he should be at work tonight. And I’m pretty sure I’m busted. “Where have you been?” he asks, a frown tugging at his mouth. Julio would be handsome, I think, if he wasn’t so serious all the time. He’s got a strong jawline and big brown eyes. He’s clean shaven. He’s everything he should be. Including angry that I’m late getting home.
My stomach drops. Did he hear Arden’s truck when he dropped me off? “I was at work?”
“All day?”
I shake my head. “No. I walked around Destin Commons for a little while to clear my head.” Complete and total lie. I spent the day fishing with Arden off Okaloosa Pier. We caught a baby shark and set it free. Then I buried him in the sand underneath the pier.
Julio purses his lips. “You shouldn’t walk around alone. It’s dangerous.”
Nice. He has no problem letting me ride my bike back and forth from the Breeze Mart in the dead of night, yet, to walk around a populated-by-mostly-rich-people area like Destin Commons is unacceptable. “I know” is all I say. To lighten the mood, I open up my apron and hand him my earnings from the café, rolled up with a rubber band for his jar-stuffing convenience. “It’s three hundred forty dollars,” I explain, not un-proudly.
His eyes light up instantly. “Seriously?”
“Yep. And it’s all yours.” Well, except for twenty dollars. That goes in my secret stash for whatever-the-heck-I-want. “We got killed today. My feet are about to fall off.” Complete and total truth.
He accepts the mass of bills in his hand gingerly, as if it were a baby bird. He looks at it for a long time. I lie next to him on the couch and hoist my feet up onto his knees. He makes room for me.
Julio smiles down at me, ignoring what I know is a pungent smell coming from my work shoes. Then he tosses the bundle of cash onto my belly. Three hundred forty dollars in ones, fives, and tens is heavy. “You can keep your earnings now, bonita.”
I sit up. “What?” A thrill runs through me. “What do you mean?” The thought of keeping the cash in my lap is mind-blowing. If I can start keeping what I earn, then that means I could save up for a car. Whoa. “What is going on?”
Julio scratches at a beard that isn’t there. I honestly don’t know if he can’t grow one or if he keeps it shaved. I’ve never seen him shave. “You have grown up, little sister. I’m very proud of you. You’ve helped me so much these past months. I’m grateful for that.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Because of your help, we’ve saved enough money to bring Mama and Papi back, Carlotta. We have an appointment with El Libertador tonight. Go take a shower and change. I want you to be with me. You earned it.”
My shower is quick and unappreciated. I dress for comfort instead of style. I don’t know what to expect. My stomach is one big tangle of emotions. Relief, that I don’t have to work as much, unless I want to. Anxiety, about what El Libertador will have to say. Sadness, that this part of my life—the part where Julio and I eke out a living on our own together, united—is over. Happiness, that this part of my life—the part where Julio and I struggle to make ends meet and send money to my parents and suffer—is over. Guilt, because I still haven’t told Arden the truth about my parents, and now I’ll all of a sudden have immigrant parents who happen to be document challenged and his dad is practically the founder of People Against Undocumented Immigrants. If that were an actual thing.
Julio knocks on my bedroom door, bringing me back to the reality: This is happening despite what I feel about it. “Are you ready, Carlotta? We have to go. I’ve called a taxi for us.”
It’s out of character for my brother to waste money on things like taxis, so either we’re traveling a longer distance than we can feasibly walk, he doesn’t want to be hot and sweaty when we arrive, or we’re running that late—or all of the above. “I’m ready,” I breathe.
The taxi is old and smells of body odor and fake cherries and cheap aftershave—all of which I assume belong to the driver in some form or the other. Julio sits quietly beside me, hands folded in his lap, so I do the same, even though I feel like spazzing out.
We leave city limits, and drive and drive and drive. We keep making turns here and there away from Highway 20, until I would no longer be able to find my way back to it. Which makes me feel unsafe—something I never thought I’d feel with Julio.
The cab pulls into an old abandoned office complex, the kind with glass front windows that probably used to house things like nail salons and Chinese buffet restaurants. Grass grows in all the cracks of the parking lot.
We get out of the taxi and Julio pays the driver in cash, and asks him in Spanish to stay and wait for us. The driver complies and lights a cigarette. We make our way to suite D, which I only know is suite D because the grimy outline of the missing lettering is still present on the glass door.
There is an old wooden desk with a dim lamp set upon it and two chairs in front of it. A brawny man sits behind it, and though the lamp creates more shadow in the room than actual light, I can tell he’s wearing a mask. Of course he is. He’s El Libertador.
We sit down in the chairs and Julio folds his hands on the desk in front of him. I don’t know where he’s gotten this new hand-folding habit, but I keep mine to myself in my lap. El Libertador’s mask is creepier upon closer inspection. It’s a clown face, and it looks like it might be made of porcelain. I wonder if he picked it to be that much scarier to his victims. I say victims, because he’s practically bludgeoning us with his fees.
And I say scarier, because really, the man is terrifying. Even the black clothing he wears cannot hide the fact that he dwarfs both me and Julio put together.
“You’re late,” El Libertador says in Spanish. His voice is muffled behind the mask.
“We apologize,” Julio says submissively. “Please forgive us.”
“Who is this you’ve brought with you?”
“This is my younger sister, Carlotta. She knows the importance of the situation. She helped earn the cash for our parents.” There is a tinge of pride in his voice. I imagine it sounds pathetic to El Libertador.
“Has the cash been dropped off?”
Julio nods. “It has.”
This surprises me. Julio has already made arrangemen
ts with this man. He has already taken our savings and dropped it off somewhere. The thought makes me nauseous. And so does the clown face. I concentrate my attention on El Libertador’s massive hands. Even in the dim lighting, I notice an angry scar between his left thumb and index finger. I imagine all sorts of gruesome ways he could have gotten it.
Was he tortured? Did he get it in a fight? Did he get it while he was murdering someone? Something about the scar is evil, I decide.
“We will wait for the phone call after the cash has been verified,” El Libertador announces.
The next ten minutes are the longest in my life. Julio says nothing. El Libertador says nothing. I say nothing. Yet, the air is full of unspoken words. Julio, with reverence for El Libertador. El Libertador, with obvious disdain for the both of us. Me, with fear of El Libertador.
Relief from everyone when the phone rings. El Libertador says nothing when he picks it up, just listens. He hangs up without a word. Then he focuses his attention back on Julio. “Your parents will be given safe passage across the border. Customs won’t bother them. My men will meet them in the desert and bring them as far as Austin. It’s up to you to transport them the rest of the way.”
“And the passports?”
The clown face nods. “The passports will be provided to them as soon as they cross the border.”
“What if they get caught?”
The question isn’t from Julio. It’s from me. And Julio is just as horrified as I am. Still, I press on. “Well,” I say defensively, “we’re paying this man a lot of money. What if he fails? Then what?”
“Carlotta!” Julio whispers.
“Your sister is foolish,” El Libertador says, “to question me.”
“Yes, she is,” Julio seethes.
“I think it’s foolish to hand over all that money and not have any collateral,” I say. I feel Julio tense up beside me. He shifts his feet beneath the desk.
El Libertador stands and leans over the desk. The clown face is inches from mine. I think I might be sick. “Shut. Up.” He looks at Julio. “Get her out of here.”
I don’t ask any more questions. I don’t wait for Julio to tell me to leave. I just get up and walk out.
As I wait in the cab for Julio, I decide two things:
One. I’m going to have to tell Arden the truth about my parents. Soon.
Two. If El Libertador turns out to be a fraud, and he can’t get my parents back to the United States, I’m not trusting Julio with my money again.
Twenty-Two
Arden laces the string through the tab of the first empty soda can and Carly sucks in a breath. “I don’t know about this,” she says. He knew he would need to really put up a good argument for this one. But it will be so worth it. She’ll just have to trust him on it.
“It’s Deputy Pardue. He won’t do anything about it.” Mostly because he’s lazy, but partly because Arden is the son of the esteemed Sheriff Moss.
“I seriously doubt that.”
“I’ve done it before. I swear, he just gets all mad and blustery. He won’t talk to me for about a month. That’s pretty much the extent of it.”
“Won’t he get in trouble?”
“The beauty of it is, he doesn’t tell because he doesn’t want to get in trouble. I don’t tell because I don’t want to get in trouble. See how that works?”
She massages her temples with her fingertips and inhales again.
“What’s with you?” She’s been acting weird the past couple of days. Quiet. Distracted. Woefully inattentive, if Arden does say so himself.
“It’s just … I’ve had a lot on my mind.”
“Such as?” He pulls the string through the second soda can tab and ties a knot. Then he ties the two cans together and picks up the third one. “Talk it out with me.”
“It’s about Julio. I’m not sure I agree with the way he’s spending our money.”
“You think?”
“It’s more complicated than that, Arden. There are things you don’t know about.”
“Such as?”
She shakes her head. “Forget I said anything.”
“You need some serious practice with communicating.” He smiles to himself, because he knows he’s pounded on a sensitive button of hers. But what she says next surprises him—and makes him feel guilty for goading her.
“I’ll tell you one of these days. I promise. When I’m ready.”
Arden wavers in his crafting. “Sounds heavy. Should I be worried? Because if you think Julio’s spending your money on me—”
She punches him in the arm, but the mirth in her smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes, which almost alarms him. And true to Carly Vega form, she drops the subject altogether, in favor of the one at hand. “This plan of yours is insane. Tell me how Pardue deserves this.”
Arden decides to take the bait. Carly can be an ornery bit of goods, and if she’s done talking about it, she’s done. “I happen to know that he lets the bad guys go.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, Glass told me that he thinks Pardue is a dirty cop. That he takes money in exchange for not arresting drug dealers.”
She bites her lip. Staunch disapproval is all over her face. “But you can’t prove that. Besides, why doesn’t Glass turn him in?”
“Because of the cop code. You don’t turn in other cops. You’ll catch hell if you do.”
Carly considers. But she doesn’t seem entirely convinced. “Cops are beginning to sound like some weird cult. And I don’t want to get on their bad side. Your dad already hates me.”
Arden shrugs. He doesn’t want to rehash all the things his dad said that night, and he’s sure Carly doesn’t either. He’d love to say that his dad doesn’t hate her, but he’s positive his dad would have despised her no matter how that situation played out. So he skims over the subject. “I’m telling you, this will be harmless. You’ll see.”
“I don’t see this Pardue guy falling for it again though.”
“Same crime, different execution. It’s brilliant, really. I’ve been searching the interwebs. Everyone falls prey to it. Everyone.”
She waves a hand in the air. “You think everything you do is brilliant.”
Arden pauses again. Now all three cans are tied to a string, and tied to each other. He gives it a good shake and marvels at the ruckus it makes. “It’s true, I’m of above-average intelligence. But I can’t take the credit for this one.”
“It’s just that I can’t get caught for this.”
He lifts her chin with the crook of his finger. “We absolutely will not get caught.”
* * *
They ditch their bikes in the woods about a quarter mile down from where Arden knows Deputy Pardue takes his 2:00 a.m. naps. The moon gives them plenty of light as they walk along Highway 20, stepping around the occasional dead possum and away from the road when the sporadic car passes by. The humid late-September air clings to them like invisible netting. Arden feels his hair sticking to the back of his neck and wonders if Carly is getting eaten alive by mosquitos like he is.
It’s hard to imagine that he didn’t even know her six weeks ago, when school started. It’s hard to imagine a life where there was no Carly. He wonders whether she and Amber would have gotten along. Probably would have teamed up against me.
Arden gives the signal to slow their pace as they approach the small gravel inlet where the deputy pretends to be monitoring for speeders, but where he’s actually got the windows of his patrol car fogged up in his deep slumber. Carly gives him a quizzical glance.
“You think he’s got company in there?” she says.
“Nope. He gets those results all by himself.”
“Gross.”
“Yep. Your mind should pay the gutter rent.”
She laughs. “He’s sleeping? Really?”
“Like a baby hedgehog.”
She slides the backpack off his shoulders as they near the car, handing it to him with the stealth of a ninja. “The ca
ns won’t wake him up?” Then she cringes as she snaps a twig beneath her feet. “How about that?”
Arden shakes his head. “Nope. That’s why we brought the air horn.”
They creep along, and Arden slowly unzips the backpack and eases the cans out of it. He crouches down by the trunk and ties the string connecting all the cans to the exhaust pipe. Motioning for Carly to get in position in the woods behind him, he fixates his thumb on the go button of the air horn.
And presses hard.
In the moonlight, he sees the silhouette of Deputy Pardue jump to life in the front seat. Arden takes off for the woods behind him. “Carly?” he whispers.
“Over here,” she returns. She’s just a few feet away. They squat in the light brush, watching their prey. The engine to the patrol car roars to life. Arden can hardly contain himself. A deep laugh swells up inside him.
“Be ready,” he says. “It will be fast.”
And it is. Deputy Pardue puts the car in gear and doesn’t even get onto the highway before the sound of the cans stops him. He opens the car door, putting one leg, then both outside the vehicle. He stands, then, shining his flashlight toward the back of the car, walks toward the trunk at a steady pace.
“Go!” Arden whispers, and they both take off, Arden to the driver’s side, Carly to the passenger’s side. He puts the vehicle in gear before ever shutting the car door.
“Arden, you son of a bi—” he hears Pardue roar.
But they are already gone.
“Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod,” Carly squeals beside him. “I can’t believe we just did that!”
Arden rolls down the window and shouts his adrenaline rush into the night. Feeling unstoppable, he grabs Carly’s hand and gives it a big sloppy kiss. “Darlin’, believe it!” He starts flipping buttons on the dash until the woods around them are illuminated with electric blue.
She snatches her hand away from him and covers her mouth with it. “Ohmigod. Pull over. We have to give it back. Now. Arden, please. I’m freaking out here.”