I tore my eyes away and glanced over at Gus. I swallowed hard, praying this wasn’t the last time I’d see him.
“I’ll see you in a bit, Gus,” I told him. Then I turned on my heel and started running for the GTO. Running for Ellie.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
ELLIE
Once I went back to the hotel and saw that Enrico wasn’t at the desk, I went upstairs and started going down the hallway, calling out for Gus and Camden, hoping they were in one of the hotel rooms. I needed to warn them, to get to them before Javier did. But they weren’t anywhere and when I went back downstairs and asked the front desk lady if she could call them for me, there was no answer on their end.
They would have seen the device going off with Javier and thought it was me, deviating from the plan. Now there was a whole new plan, one that Gus and Camden were walking straight into. I hoped to god that Javier would keep his word and only kill Camden if I didn’t go through with the assassination. I should have made him promise it.
That was the only thing that kept me going, kept me putting one foot in front of the other, the fact that if I did everything I was told, they could be saved. And Gus, dear sweet old Gus, he wasn’t an idiot – he was a trained cop and a hell of a lot of other things. He was the wildcard, someone that Javier wouldn’t be expecting when Camden turned up.
I got out of the shower, trying to calm my breath and keep my limbs from shaking, trying to go ahead and do the things I needed to do to survive and get out of this. I picked out a dress from the closet, the place where Camden had hidden, watching out for me, never obvious but always there. The dress was long, green and glittery like mermaid scales which would have made me feel absolutely beautiful if I was wearing it at any other time but now it was just a cloak for my murder, a means to an end.
I pinned my hair up and made my makeup look sweet and sexy. I’d definitely act the part tonight. I was no longer afraid. I was determined to carry this out. I would get rid of him and then figure out a way to get myself out of there and back to Camden and Gus somehow. Through hell and high water, they found me. I could find them. I’d been through worse.
I eyed the necklace hoping it would hold together and keep my secrets hidden. Those dirty angel wings. So Javier thought I was rotten too. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, he’d been telling me how bad I was all this time.
At five thirty I went out to the lobby where Enrico was still nowhere to be found. Funny how he disappeared all of a sudden. I wondered if that was because Travis was coming here or perhaps Javier had called all of his troops to deal with Camden and Gus.
I swallowed hard and started sliding the pendant up and down the chain. No fear. I could do this. This would be done.
A white limousine pulled up outside and the driver came into the lobby, elegantly dressed with a jaunty cap and dark glasses. He called out, “Eleanor Willis.”
I paused, waiting a moment, letting the fake name sink on me, before I stood up and gathered my black shawl around me. “That’s me.”
The driver showed the way to the limo. It had been raining on and off all day and it was just starting to sputter again, the wind driving it into my face. I had put on waterproof mascara, insurance against the weather and against any tears I knew I’d be shedding for whatever reason. I wouldn’t get out of this day without tears or blood.
The driver pointed to the heavy, dark sky and said, “It will be sunny tomorrow.”
I gave him a sad smile. I doubted tomorrow would be anything but sunny. I got in the back of the spacious limo, somewhat surprised that Travis wasn’t in the back.
“Are we meeting Mr. Raines at the restaurant?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Mr. Raines is having dinner at his house. He is there already tending to his guests. He is having a dinner party.”
I sat back, stunned. A dinner party? How the fuck was I going to escape from a dinner party? How was Javier going to get me, let alone anyone else?
And just like that, I’d let the fear back in. Maybe this really was a suicide mission. Maybe it was always planned this way. Ellie Watt, the sacrifice that everyone loved to make.
My heart cried out for Camden, the only one who never saw me that way. I held my head back, staring at the lights on the roof of the limo, trying to keep the tears back. I stayed like that the entire drive until the limo pulled off the main streets of Veracruz and started to head inland toward a group of low hills, lush with greenery and the heavily gated mansions sprinkled throughout like hard candy.