Unfortunately, a man like Aranza didn’t play by the rules, and if they wanted to bring the criminal to justice, they’d have no choice but to break a rule or ten.
Silence chilled the air between them. Hector stared at Wade for the longest time, looking torn, angry. Resigned. He dragged a hand through his hair. When they’d left the States, it was short and spiky, but now it had grown out enough that the strands no longer stood on end.
“All right, fine. You win. But if we use her, it’s strictly in the capacity of a guide. As soon as she leads us to the compound, we’re taking her straight to the consulate. We don’t do a damn thing—no surveillance, no intelligence gathering, and we sure as hell don’t try to take Aranza down—until she’s out of the line of fire.”
“Fair enough.” Those were easy conditions to agree to. Wade didn’t want Hope anywhere near that compound once the killing started. If given the choice, he wouldn’t have Hector there either, but he needed somebody he trusted to watch his six. As it was, he already had more blood on his hands than he’d ever be able to scrub clean. He didn’t need any more.
Hector popped another antacid into his mouth. “All right, how do you want to do this?”
Personally, he’d rather leave right away, but they only had a few more hours of daylight and it made sense to start fresh first thing in the morning. It would give them time to stock up on provisions, and make sure they had everything they needed for an extended hike in the great outdoors. Plus, it would be easier to sneak Hope out of town without being spotted by the police.
Wade cast a glance at the closed bathroom door. He’d caught that flash of fear on her face at the mention of staying in town overnight. Honestly, he didn’t blame her. There was no way for her to know for sure that they wouldn’t abuse her—or worse.
“She can crash on my bunk—” The rest of Wade’s sentence was cut off by a knock at the door.
“Police. Open up,” a man’s voice commanded in heavily accented Spanish.
Hector looked to the door, then to Wade. “Any idea what they want?”
Wade gestured with his head toward the bathroom. “If it’s the pair from the bar, they’ll probably respond more favorably to you.”
The pair of lines between Hector’s eyebrows returned. At the rate he was going, they’d become a permanent fixture. “Do I want to know why?”
Wade lifted and lowered one shoulder. “Nothing illegal. They were after the woman. I ran interference as the Drunk American to give her time to slip out the back.”
The knock turned into a pound that shook the door. “Police! Open!”
Hector pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered under his breath. “All right, go into the bathroom while I deal with the cops. If they ask about you, I’ll tell them you got sick from drinking too much.”
Hope stood in the bathroom, one ear pressed to the door, while she kept a wary eye on the spider on the wall. She normally wasn’t such a wuss about critters, but the sucker was almost big enough to double for one of those face-hugger creatures in the Alien movies. Luckily, it was crawling away from her and toward the shower stall.
The men had lowered their voices, making it difficult for her to eavesdrop. From what she could tell by the tone of their conversation, Hector wasn’t thrilled with the idea of using her as a guide. Hell, she wasn’t thrilled with it either, but what would happen to her if Hector torpedoed her arrangement with Wade?
Her thoughts were disrupted by a loud knocking sound. Moments later, she heard approaching footsteps, and she jumped back from the door as it swung open toward her.
Guilt must have been written all over her face, because Wade pegged her with a hard look. “What were you doing?”
For an instant, she considered acting innocent, but what was the frigging point? She was a lousy liar, and he’d probably see right through it anyway. Besides, she hadn’t done anything wrong. “I was trying to hear your conversation.”
The answer didn’t seem to faze him one bit. “Any luck?”
“Not really. That door’s a lot thicker than it looks.” Her pulse jumped when he stepped through the doorway. “What the hell are you doing?”
Wade raised one finger to his lips to signal for her to be quiet. He stepped farther