*****065:

Roberto Jimenez entered the room from the side door leading onto the patio. He had the gun pointed at me, a real gun. I hadn't seen or used one since Teotihuacan, even though our counselors had recommended handling guns frequently in target practice. There just never seemed to be time.

But this one was real, and looked gigantic staring me straight in my face.

His smile was apologetic. "I figured Felicity was able to tell you something. You were too smug, and not very concerned about the necklace being gone. I knew you had something up your sleeve."

I kept my hands up.

It wasn't like a movie.

Not that I'd seen many.

It wasn't like Teotihuacan, where guns had simply started firing and bullets had whizzed past in furious chaos. In fact, I had nothing to compare this to.

Here was a person I associated with a bratty ADD kid, and grief counseling, a guy who had attended a barbecue at my house, who had guarded my family once. Once.

He was actually holding a cocked gun on me, and he wanted what I had.

Before my heart had raced, sweat had broken out on my neck, and my palms. Now my body reeled with nausea. Chills raced up and down my spine. My eyelids twitched. I felt a trickle of cold drip between my shoulder blades.

"You don't want to do that." I said and to my obvious dismay, I could have wished for a better response—I am a professional singer, right--? My voice sounded husky and rushed. No air support. I was scared in a way I'd not been at Teotihuacan. I never thought I'd die there—not really. But I thought I might die here and now. This was far more personal.

"You're right, amigo. You are my friend, and I do not want to kill you. So give me the list. I see that you have it."

I held it in my hand in the air as a matter of fact. 

And I saw Kell behind Eli.

Before I could think--- I did the next to stupidest thing I could think of. I scrambled to turn, and make myself small, shoved the file back in the safe and turned the lever, locking it. I slammed the painting over the top and scuttled behind the couch just as the report of the gunfire ricocheted through the room like a clap of thunder. I felt the awful ripping of fire in my ankle, as I yanked myself behind the sofa, shoving it as I went.

"You idiot!" I screamed.

"Senor, you should give me the charm necklace. Now, if you want to live."

I could hear the sounds of others running, and Kell's deep indrawn breath. "Rafe." He said very low, in a voice I'd never heard before. "I think you should know I've killed a man. Shot him in cold blood, as I'm about to do to this man if he doesn't lower his gun and step away from the couch."

I couldn't answer and give away my spot in the dark, and anyway, I was sort of afraid I'd whimper like a dog. My fingers clawed at the burning in my ankle, and drew away a bloody mess. Damn. Explain this one to Aubrey. I om... fell down the stairs.... Om... yeah.

How was I thinking of this when I was about to be shot in the head anyway?

Who's the idiot?

As before my senses were heightened. I sensed Eli working his way toward me. It was dark enough behind the couch, but not dark enough to penetrate with the eyes. He didn't know if I'd use my own gun. Neither did I.

He wouldn't dare approach without being able to see my hands. I had the advantage.

I saw Eli's shadow on the wall, lifting his gun to move around the back of the couch. I knew in my heart he didn't want to shoot me, but he would. I pulled myself around the side of the couch next to the book shelves and the window. I saw the guys running from the pool area, and from outside, and I saw the guys in uniform--- seriously, the whole thing happening again.

"Rafe, this list cannot fall into the wrong hands. It will have devastating implications for your country as well as mine. Think about that. Our government is as corrupt as the cartel. My liaison with your government is the only way to go after those who are truly to blame. Let me have the list." Eli was pleading now. I believed he was sincere.

But I believed that Marshall's connections were the better choice. Eli and Maximiliano had been to blame for the tragedy at Teotihuacan equally. This had to stop here.

"I'll give you the charms, and the necklace. I found charms in the hidden arm of the chair." I pushed hard against the blood on my leg and finally pulled it up to look at it. Even in the dark, I could see that the bullet had gone clear through. It was just a flesh wound. It hurt, but it wasn't debilitating. I took off my sock--- soaked in blood and tied it around the wound tightly. It took my breath away. Then I limped to my feet, showing my hands.

In one hand I held a file similar to the one I'd shoved back in the safe, and in the other, I held the necklace. Hadn't he seen the other file had been put back inside the safe? Maybe not. His eyes were not even slightly glancing that way. 

"I still need the key code." Nope, he'd seen. "Quickly, they are all coming!"

"There's only one way to stop you guys. And that's to implicate all of you at once."

"Rafe, please, you don't know the situation. You don't know us."

"I know guys like you. You'll throw each other under the bus and I mean less than nothing to you. Your niece means even less. And the kid? Is that the thing you have that will ensure Maximiliano's compliance once you get the list?"

I could see Eli's eyes, and knew the truth. He was just as guilty as Maximiliano. He'd gone about it differently, but he was just as much to blame. He'd been the leader of the CJNG, just as much as Gomez and Maximiliano had been involved.

"It's Maximiliano's son, isn't it?" I said. "Juan?"

Eli looked stricken.

"What'd you kidnap him? You'd use him for leverage too, to get what you want." I laid the fake necklace on the couch.

His eyes went to it. "I've got to have the key code as well."

I shook my head. "You're no better than any of them." I sneered, tossing the fake paper list on the ground, as I winced at the pain in my ankle.

"Give it to me, Rafe. Please." His eyes were pleading, in a way, the same as Gomez's before he'd given himself up to save his daughter. I turned away, to see all those teams of men at each other's throats once again.

"This has to end now, Eli. Shoot me and get it over with, or take the necklace and go."

"The necklace is only half my problem." His hand shot out and he grabbed the necklace off the couch. His eyes rose to meet mine. "There is a way out, my friend. We can both leave here. There will be another chance. But only if we leave now, together."

I shook my head slowly as I saw Kell's head jerk for me to take that one step back.

"If you lay down your weapon and the necklace and show that you are unarmed, things may go easier for you," I said. "Those men out there are not all Maximiliano's men, they are government and CIA officials."

"CIA." He repeated and closed his eyes. "Rafe, what have you done?"

"What I have to to protect my family, Eli. I don't betray my family."

I saw his sudden rage, I felt it shoot across the room at me as he raised the gun again, losing the battle to remain lucid in the face of that last jibe. And I heard the two separate shots as Kell's firearm discharged at the same time as someone from outside. I jerked around, smashing against the book shelves, crouching low, covering my head with my hands.

Chaos ensued as uniformed and non-uniformed men ran wildly into the room. I rose again, avoiding Eli's prone dead body, as I turned my hands once more to the air, and my eyes to match Kell's. His stoic manner informed me that he had not killed Eli himself. The slight shake of his head, and the long drawn out breath as his eyes held mine.

I released the file as Marshall ran to my side, he took it, looked through it and then handed it to an official looking Mexican that I figured he trusted. Kell pulled out his phone, and I assumed he was calling Matthew. I lowered my hands.

There was no yelling this time, no accusations or firing squad. There was nothing. Senora Nemesio stood with her arms folded across her chest as Kell and I were questioned, the necklace confiscated and my wound rebandaged.

And then---

Just like that---

It was over.

*****