They threaded their way through street vendors and pedestrians, Lina cursing the heat with every step. Not even Florida felt this hot. The very air bore a damp, aromatic funk she hoped she never smelled again.
They finally found a restaurant nearby that didn’t look too condemnable. When the waitress walked up, Zack took over.
“Dos Coke, por favor.”
“Sí.” The waitress laid menus on the table before she turned and headed to the counter.
“I wanted water,” Lina griped.
Zack shook his head. “Not unless it comes from a bottle.”
“Oh.” She glanced at the menu then dropped the sticky, grungy thing onto the table. “You order for me. You know what I like.”
He smiled. “No problem.”
When the waitress returned with their cold, unopened cans of sodas, Zack chatted with her in Spanish, got her smiling. Then she wrote on her notepad and walked away.
Lina recognized only a few words of the conversation, like sandwich and pork. “What are we getting?”
“Oh, don’t you want to be surprised?”
“Not really.”
“Relax.”
Ten minutes later, the waitress returned with two delicious-smelling plates laden with pork sandwiches, rice, beans, and fried plantains.
Lina tore into hers. “Zack, this is delicious!”
Zack laughed. “Oh, ye of little faith and mucho incendiary powers. Not Cuban food, but still pretty good.”
They finished eating a little while later. With Lina’s tummy happily full, Zack herded her out of the restaurant and toward a hotel two blocks down.
“This looks ritzy,” she griped. Although compared to America, it was maybe as nice as a one-star hotel that hadn’t suffered a vice raid in the last forty-eight hours.
“It is. And if you think I’ll stay anywhere else, you’re crazy. They grow bedbugs as large as monkeys down here. This is the closest we’ll get to not needing a delousing before we clear Customs in Tampa when we leave here.”
After check-in, Zack spoke to the desk clerk before they headed to their room. “What was that about?” she asked.
“He’s going to get us a car.” He smiled. “And he gave me some info.”
An hour later, Lina had bathed, changed into jeans and sneakers, and felt reasonably more human. When their room phone rang, Zack answered.
“Sí? …Bueno. Gracias.” He hung up. “Let’s go. Our chariot awaits.”
Downstairs, she stared at the car. “You’ve got to be shitting me.” The rusted black Land Rover looked like it had seen far better days.
“Hey, we don’t want flashy,” he said after thanking and tipping the clerk. “Flashy will get us the wrong kind of attention.”
She climbed into the passenger seat. “Well, I hope you don’t consider AAA the wrong kind of attention because this thing looks horrible.”
He slung an arm across the back of her seat and turned to look at her. “Do you trust me, Lina?” he softly asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Of course I do,” she mumbled.
Zack was in full-on protective Watcher mode. “Then you need to let me do my job, Goddess.”
She bit back her protest over the title. “All right, fine.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Good girl.”
She growled, but the sound of his laugh drowned it out as he put the car into gear and they drove off.
Just outside of town, he pulled off to the side of the rough dirt road and studied the map. “Give me a clue, babe.”
She looked at it, then let her instinct guide her. “There.” She pointed, touching her finger to a spot on the map.
He took the map back and studied it, frowning a little. “Oookay. This might involve some overland hiking. You up for it?”
Lina settled back into her seat. “I guess I have to be. I hate this stupid gig,” she grumbled. “Why didn’t Bertholde pick someone else?”
“Because you’re the Goddess, like it or not,” he countered. “We might not always agree with the prophesies, but if you try to run from them, I promise you, things will not turn out to your liking.” He glanced at her. “The Universe has a way of keeping people in line to keep the natural balance of things. And the Universe’s way is usually a lot worse than doing it ourselves.”
Lina knew he was right. She turned to the window. There wasn’t much in the way of landscape to look at. Mostly what she would consider muddy hovels just beyond the ditches. When there were ditches.
They drove on for several hours, winding up roads Lina didn’t think could possibly get worse and yet continued to prove her wrong. The further they traveled, the clearer it became to her why Zack rented the Land Rover. Locals barely paid them any attention when they passed, and while cosmetically a wreck, it was obvious the owner kept it in mechanically good condition. They needed to use four-wheel mode for most of the trip.
Finally, they pulled into the yard of an old mission church. The white stucco walls had obviously seen better days.
Lina didn’t want to contemplate if the missing chips in the façade were really pockmarks from bullets or not.
“Stay here and keep the doors locked,” Zack said before she could protest. He was out and striding across the yard, dodging a couple of chickens and a curious pig on the way to a small shack on the far side.
He knocked and waited. A moment later, an old, stooped man opened the door.
They stood there, chatting, for several minutes. The old man pointed up the hill behind the church, where a barely visible path disappeared into a dense stand of trees.
Zack nodded and handed a couple of bills to the man, who looked pleasantly surprised to receive them. He genuflected over Zack before motioning him to wait. Then he disappeared back into the shack, leaving the door open. Zack turned to Lina, smiled, and gave her a thumbs-up.
The man, who was apparently the padre, returned with a large canvas duffel bag. He could barely carry it, but Zack shouldered it with ease and nodded, then shook hands with the man. The padre watched as Zack returned to the Land Rover.
Lina unlocked the door for him. “Well?”
He smiled. “From here, we hike.”
“What’s that?” She pointed at the duffel.
“He asked if we’d deliver this since we were heading that way anyway. It’s apparently his supplies. He comes down every couple of weeks.”
“Great. Now we’re UPS.”
“Come on, Goddess Girl. We’re wasting daylight. Remember, it was your freaky vision that brought us here.”
She sighed. “I know, I know.”
It was apparently okay to leave the Rover parked there. They locked the doors and Zack pocketed the keys.
She didn’t miss that Zack had somehow acquired a gun. In the cooler weather at the higher altitude, he donned a jacket and clipped the holster to the back of his belt.
He noticed her watching. “Just in case,” he said. “Unfortunately, I don’t have the ability to randomly or purposely blow shit up without a little extra firepower.”
“Did I mention I hate hiking?” It brought back bad memories of Lenny and Yellowstone.
“Move your cute tush, honey.” He shouldered the bag’s strap messenger-style across his body and headed for the trail behind the church.
She followed him. “How far away are we?”
“The padre said if we hustle and don’t spend too long there, we can make it back here before dark.”
A bird chose that moment to sound off in the trees right above them, scaring the crap out of Lina with its haunting, screeching call. “Then let’s move it,” she grumbled.