I pulled her bra straps off her shoulders. Then pulled the bra cups down. My hand came up and gently took hold of her breast, fondling her nipple. She broke the kiss and took in a huge breath. She again shoved me away and went for my pants button. I helped her and shucked them as she pulled down hers. I picked her up and juggled her against the wall. As I penetrated her, we both gasped as we became one.
Afterward, both of us sweaty and spent, I set her on the sink and held her tenderly, my legs shaky from the exertion. My thoughts, like hers, couldn’t stay in the moment any longer, and had to move on to planning, to getting on with it, to get it over and done with. We needed to-had to have this thing over. She whispered, “How will I get across the border?”
“The US doesn’t care who goes south, and the Mexicans don’t monitor that direction.” She knew this; we’d crossed together nine months ago. She was scared having to do it again by herself and wanted reassurance. I didn’t want her to go alone. But what other options did I have?
“So, I drive Eddie across and go down to Ensenada,” she said.
“That’s right, and you meet up with Larry Rupp, like before, and he’ll make you the papers you need for Eddie.”
“Then I wait for you there.”
My head buried in her neck. I sniffed long and slow. Trying to memorize forevermore her beautiful scent, unique only to her. I shook my head “no.” “You have to go on down to Costa Rica.”
She shook her head. “I’m waiting for you in Ensenada, Bruno.”
“Dad has cancer. He needs you.”
“He can wait one more day. This is only going to take you one more day.”
“No, Dad can’t wait.”
She read my tone, and pushed me back. “What happened?”
“Jake Donaldson came to the house with a gun and tried to shoot Dad because Jake’s mad at me. Misplaced anger. He’s not right in the head.”
Her eyes went wild and she socked my shoulder. “And you didn’t tell me?”
“I’m telling you now. You didn’t need something else to worry about.”
“The kids? Are the kids okay? Is your dad okay?”
“Yes, everything is fine. I had Ansel hire some folks, and they’re watching the house. They’re taking care of everything, but one of us needs to get back there.”
“Is that asshole Donaldson in jail?”
I didn’t want to tell her the details of the shooting; she’d find that out soon enough. “No, he got away.”
She slipped off the sink and grabbed up her clothes, putting them on. “You’re right. I need to get down there now, for the kids.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Marie took the van to a used car lot on Valley Boulevard, where she planned to park close by and walk up. She couldn’t trade the van in; the beast had no value, or title, having been stolen.
I sat on the bed, dressed in the new clothes Marie had picked up while I slept, and returned Eddie’s stare. “Can you talk?” I asked. “You going to say something soon?” He stared, his eyes big, gut-wrenching big, and filled with innocence. My own inadequacy hung thick in the air. I wanted in the worst way to do something for him now, not later. “You want to go on a trip?” He shook his head “no.” “You wanna go on a trip with Marie?” Caution crept into his expression. He nodded “yes.”
“Good man, so do I.”
The knock at the door interrupted us. I opened the door a crack. A slice of sunlight cut across the room. I had one second to recognize Drago before he shoved his way into the room. “Wait, what are you doing?” I whispered. I didn’t want him scaring Eddie. Drago scared me, and I’m not a traumatized little kid. “Hey, hey, I said you’re gonna scare the kid.” Eddie didn’t cringe as I’d expected him to or crawl away. He sat unmoving, watching us.
“What? Scare this little guy?” Drago took two giant steps over and held up his fist. “Wus, up little bro?” Eddie didn’t smile, but he held up his fist, and Drago knuckle bumped it with his. Drago said, “We’re old pals. Aren’t we, bro?” Drago held up his fist again, and Eddie tapped it again, his head tilted away in shyness.
I guess I had slept through a lot last night. Drago wore relaxed denim pants with an obvious lump around his thigh from the bandage. A huge white and blue football jersey with the numbers “00” draped over his big belly. What else would have fit? The jersey, an improvement over all that pale white flesh with the disgusting tattoos, went a long way to mask his lack of sociability.
Drago stuck his nose in the air and sniffed. “I smell something sweet.”
Marie was right; Drago hadn’t quite evolved from caveman knuckle-dragger to intellectual human. I picked up the bag on the floor and handed him some chocolate cakes and two chocolate milks.
He took them and sat on the bed, almost capsizing it. “Cool, man. Little Debbie cupcakes. Haven’t had these in…in goin’ on twelve years.” He tore open the first one and shoved the whole thing in his mouth.
“You know, if you chew them a little, you might even be able to taste them,” I said.
Drago stopped eating, and tearing open the next package, looked as if I’d slapped him. Eddie smiled, slid off the bed, and came over to me. He put his hand up and pulled down the goodie bag. He took out a Little Debbie cupcake, went back to his nest, and burrowed back in. Drago looked at Eddie then at me and smiled. He continued to munch as he opened the chocolate milk. He spoke around the now black load of mush in his cavernous mouth. “Hey, our job just got easier.”
“What are you talking about now?”
“Talked to a bro of mine. He said the FBI has a pole camera pointed right at the front of the clubhouse. They’re watchin’ the SS, it’s some kinda RICO investigation.”
“Are you kidding me? How does that help us? It means the job’s off. We can’t go in with the FBI watching. And what are you doing calling friends and asking about the clubhouse? You tipped our hand.”
Why had I not thought that the FBI would be watching the clubhouse? Of course they were. It’s what I would’ve done had I wanted to use Drago as a staked goat.
“Man, you need to take a chill pill. Everything’s cool, trust me.”
I should never have lain down to sleep. In that short time the plan had gotten away from me. “Take a chill pill? Explain to me how you think this is going to go down with the Feds watching?”
Drago looked at Eddie. I stood there stunned that Drago had the sense to be concerned about the child in the room. More stunned that I hadn’t seen the error before Drago had.
I nodded toward the bathroom. Drago struggled to his feet. The mattress righted itself but still had a huge dent where he’d been sitting. He took the goodie bag from me and led us the short distance into the bathroom. He filled the bathroom with his bulk, leaving little room for me. I had to shove in to get the door past me to close it. He took out a bag of Doritos Cool Ranch chips, tore them open, and dumped half in his mouth, spilling little shards down his front. I waited for the grinding machine to process the food before he could talk.
“I don’t see how you think this is a bad thing,” Drago said. “If the Feebies are watching the clubhouse, then the boys aren’t going to pull any shit when we drive up.” He stopped eating and sniffed the air, leaned over and sniffed me. He flashed a broad smile. “You two just don’t give up, do you? Any chance you get, you just get after it, don’t you? Man, I’m jealous.”
I ignored that last part. “We? You’re not going. You never were going.” Originally, Marie and I were going to try and bluff our way in wearing the FBI insignia and yelling that we had a search warrant.