Chapter 38

Bella, having showered first, was fully clothed and ready to go when Steele came out of the bathroom. He was carrying the clothes that he had scooped up from the floor and took to the bathroom. He was nude and his damp hair had been combed back with his fingers. Bella stood at the foot of the bed shuffling her weight on her feet. The large pocketbook was slung over her shoulder. The knife back inside it.

Steele laid his pile of clothes on the bed and stepped into his underwear. When he dug the ankle holster out from under the pile and sat on the bed to strap it on, Bella gasped.

“You have a gun!” Bella said.

“It’s needed in my line of work.”

Bella took a step back. “I thought you weren’t like Marco.”

“I’m not.”

“But you carry a gun.”

“I’m a private investigator. It’s a tool of my trade.”

“Do you kill people?”

“Not the way you mean it. I’m not like Perez. I’m the one in the white hat.”

Bella glanced at Steele’s head, his hair damp from the shower. Her eyes filled with confusion.

Steele chuckled. “It’s an American thing. From the old cowboy Westerns. The good guy wears a white hat.”

“But you have a gun.”

“Don’t you think I’m going to need a gun when I face Perez?”

Only one of Bella’s eyebrows lifted this time. “You’re going to need more than that,” she said, her criticizing finger pointing at his ankle.

The way she said it made Steele cringe. At least she didn’t say that about my dick. But she’s right. I’m going to need more than what I brought.

“Tell me about that fortress Perez lives in,” Steele said.

“I haven’t seen much of it.”

“Tell me about what you did see.”

“He has guards with machine guns everywhere. I’ve seen them on the balconies in the front and back. And a guard at the front gate and guards at the front door.”

“With machine guns?”

“Yes.”

“What’s the house like?”

“I’ve only been in the basement and in the pool house.”

“He let you use his pool?”

Bella blushed and lowered her eyes. “I didn’t go in the pool.”

Steele walked up to Bella and hugged her to him with one arm while cupping the back of her head with his other hand, pressing the side of her face against his chest. “Never mind that.”

Bella started sobbing. Soft whimpers.

Steele patted the back of her head. “We all do things that we don’t want to do. The trick is to put them behind you and move on. Is your husband okay with it?”

Bella nodded against Steele’s chest.

“It’s time to go,” Steele said, “but I need to make a stop before we pick up your family. And I need to get something first. Where can I buy binoculars?”

Bella told him and they took Steele’s car to a store she knew that sold camping equipment. Bella waited in the car, hugging the large pocketbook to her chest. When Steele returned to the car, he reached across her to open the glove compartment. Bella pushed back against the seat as he put the binoculars inside.

Steele drove to the border and they entered Mexico without a hitch. They drove in silence with Bella staring out the side window. When they turned onto the dirt road leading away from Diablo del Norte, Bella’s head whirled around.

“You’re going the wrong way,” she said.

“I told you, I have a stop.”

“No! You promised!”

Bella tore at her seatbelt. When it clicked open, she grabbed the door handle and the passenger door swung open. Steele snatched her arm as she was jumping out of the moving car. He slammed on the brakes. One hand was on the steering wheel of the skidding car and one held Bella inside the car.

“What are you doing?” Steele said when the car stopped.

Bella’s body trembled. Her bottom lip quivered. She tried to yank her arm free.

“Are you crazy?” Steele said. “You could have been killed.”

Bella’s body gave up and slumped. “You’re going to kill me anyway.”

“What! I told you I’ll help you.”

“I know this road. You’re taking me to Marco.”

“If he wants me dead, why would I go there?”

“This is the road to his house.” Bella jerked her arm, but Steele held on tight. She did it again.

“Close the door and I’ll let go of your arm.”

Defeated, Bella pulled the car door closed. Steele released her arm and watched for any sudden movement. She sat quietly with her shoulders slumped and head bowed.

“I’m not taking you to Perez. I need to do a little reconnaissance. That’s why I bought the binoculars.”

Bella’s head turned toward Steele. Tear trails streaked her cheeks.

“Like you said,” Steele tapped his shin, “I don’t have enough firepower. I want to see what I’m up against. Maybe I should have brought your family to safety before I did this, but I didn’t want to make two trips. I don’t want to give Perez too much time to wonder why he hadn’t heard from the sheriff that I was dead. And I didn’t want to be seen crossing the border too often. It’s a small border crossing.”

Bella’s chin dropped to her chest.

“Perez wants me dead,” Steele said. “I don’t know why, but I’m not going to wait around for him to try again. I was lucky that he sent you to do it.”

Bella’s head shot up and she turned toward Steele. Eyes wide with wonder.

“He misjudged you,” Steele said. “He tried to make a killer out of a good person. I owe you my life and will help you. You have to trust me.”

Bella nodded and rubbed the tears off her cheeks.

Steele waited another moment before driving on. He reached the bend in the road where the rock outcropping was and parked the car behind it, out of sight from Marco’s men.

Steele placed a hand on Bella’s shoulder. “Stay here. I won’t be long.”

He removed the binoculars from the glove compartment and got out of the car. After checking on Bella through the windshield, he scurried over to the boulder he had been at before. Crouched behind it, with the binoculars held in both hands and pressed to his eyes, the compound jumped out at him as if he could reach out and touch it.

As Bella had said, there were two guards on the second-floor balcony. From his elevated position, he was able to see over the wall at the two guards at the front door. Whereas the two on the balcony were alert and scanning the area, the two at the front door were leaning against the house smoking cigarettes. Steele didn’t see anyone at the gate. He studied the masonry wall and the terrain between him and the wall. There wasn’t much cover to avoid being seen by the men on the balcony with binoculars. Helicopter blades were visible off to the side away from the house behind the wall.

Steele had intended to walk the perimeter, but after Bella’s panic outburst he didn’t want to leave her alone. He wouldn’t have had cover anyway. He returned to the car and drove back toward town. When they were close, Bella gave him directions to her house.