Saint’s Passage: Elemental Covenant Book One Page 13

  “Carwyn, we were hired to find Lupe. Taking those children out of the detention center is as mad as taking on the Sokolovs in Russia. We still haven’t figured that situation out, and you want us to make another enemy? You know we have limits.”

  “I don’t. Not for this, Brigid.” He frowned. “There’s something else bothering you.”

  “There’s not.” She reached for a shirt. “Come on. Let’s go get Lupe and get her home. Anything past that is not our job.”

  Carwyn watched her dress and strap on her weapons with incredulity. He’d known she was frustrated, but he wasn’t expecting this.

  No, there was something else going on.

  He rose, reached for his duffel bag, and pulled out the least pungent shirt. Whatever they did next, he really hoped there was a laundry nearby.

  * * *

  They drove to the address Ruben had given them the night before as Brigid read from her email. “Beatrice did a background check on the taco-truck owners. Their names are Ruben and Melanie Ochoa. They’re both from Covina originally but registered their food truck out here about three years ago. Both sets of parents are in Covina.” Brigid skimmed the info. “I see. There’s a grandmother here in Palm Desert. Paulina De Santos. Looks like she’s Melanie’s paternal grandmother. That must be why they moved out here. Her address is like two blocks from Melanie and Ruben’s.”

  Carwyn parked the Bronco on the street of a quiet residential section of Palm Desert. There were no sprawling lawns or crystal-blue pools behind these houses, but there were tidy yards lined by careful fences and lots of work trucks in the driveways.

  A dog barked in the yard next door, running back and forth along the chain-link fence, yapping at them. Lights went on in the house, and Carwyn could smell tortillas cooking.

  “Smells good,” he murmured.

  “Do not start eating.” Brigid scowled. “We’re going to say hello, thank them for looking out for Lupe, and then take that girl back to her mother.”

  As if that was going to happen.

  Carwyn didn’t say anything. Let Brigid have her delusions. He knew enough about grandmothers to know they’d be eating tonight whether Brigid wanted to or not.

  Carwyn knocked on the door and stood back. There was the sound of the bolt turning and then a short, wrinkled grandmother opened the door and waved them in. “You must be Meli’s friends. She asked me to get the door. Come in. We’ve been cooking all day.”

  The scent of tortillas and something spicy followed her like a cloud. Carwyn’s mouth watered. He could almost feel his fangs falling, the smell was so good.

  He looked at Brigid over his shoulder and mouthed, Please.

  She shook her head, but he knew she smelled it too. Her face wasn’t quite as resolute as it had been in the car.

  They walked past a room that had to have been the kitchen based on the smells and the chatter of two women behind the door. The old woman led them down a hallway filled with dozens of framed family pictures on each wall. There were pictures of babies and school photos tucked in the edge of nearly every framed picture.

  “You’re Melanie’s grandmother?” Carwyn asked.

  “I am.”

  “You have a beautiful family.”

  “Thank you.” Her eyes wrinkled in the corner when she smiled. “My name is Paulina, but everyone calls me Grandma Lina.”

  “Grandma Lina, thank you for welcoming us.” Brigid pointed over her shoulder to the room they’d passed. “You said Melanie is in the kitchen?”

  “She is, but she wanted me to take you to the living room to wait with Ruben. Dinner isn’t ready yet.” Grandma Lina raised an eyebrow. “You’re staying for dinner, aren’t you?”

  “Of course we are.” Carwyn looked over his shoulder. “Such a generous invitation, how could we refuse?”

  They could hear a television on in the room to their left. As they walked in, Ruben looked up and offered them a low-key head nod. “Hey, you guys made it.” The man was being purposefully casual, but Carwyn spotted the signs of tension. Lines around the eyes. A tense jaw.

  “We did,” Carwyn said. “Smells amazing.”

  “Melanie invited her grandma over to make enchiladas. They’re the best.”

  “I can’t wait to try them,” Brigid finally said. “Is it just us?”

  Ruben’s eyes flickered to Grandma Lina. “Another friend of Melanie’s came over too. She’s cool.”

  “Excellent.” Carwyn noticed what Ruben was watching on the television. “Is it a playoff game?”

  “American football,” Ruben said. “You guys watch that over… wherever you’re from?”

  “My wife is Irish,” Carwyn said. “I’m Welsh. And no, we watch the proper kind in Dublin, but a good match is a good match, isn’t it?”

  “Okay.” Ruben shrugged. “Whatever. You know the rules?”

  “Mostly. I’ve traveled quite a bit in the US.”

  They chatted about the game, and Carwyn watched Brigid from the corner of his eye. She had her attention fixed on the door, watching like a leopard lying in wait. A black-coated cat just waiting for prey to fall into her lap.

  Was it wrong to be turned on by your wife when she was in full predator mode?

  Whatever. Carwyn wasn’t going to think about it too closely.

  Grandma Lina left to get drinks, and Carwyn spoke quietly to Ruben.

  “Is she here?”

  “Yeah. Melanie just said you were some friends. She didn’t tell Lupe her mom hired you.” He shook his head. “I don’t know about this. Meli’s not happy. That girl could bolt, and then she’s gonna be worried sick.”

  “Well, tell your wife that my wife doesn’t lose people when she’s tasked to find them.”

  “No offense, but your wife looks fucking scary right now,” Ruben said quietly.

  He spoke quietly enough that he thought Brigid wouldn’t be able to hear, but she did. Carwyn caught the corner of her mouth turning up.

  “Hey, Ruben?” An unfamiliar voice sounded a second before a girl walked into the room holding a plate. “Grandma Lina told me to bring you guys some wings before dinner.”

  Brigid stood, tucked her hands carefully in her jeans pockets, and subtly moved to block the doorway.

  “Oh thanks.” Ruben looked between Carwyn and Brigid, clearly confused. “Uh…”

  “Thank you, Lupe.” Carwyn took the plate from the girl and smiled. “It’s very nice to meet you. I’m Carwyn; this is my wife Brigid.” Should he wait? The girl was already growing suspicious. “Forgive us for interrupting dinner with your friends, but your mother sent us, Lupe. She’s very, very worried.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Lupe’s eyes went wide. “Oh shit.”

  Brigid moved closer to the door before Lupe could bolt. She looked like a runner.

  Carwyn put both his hands up. “Please don’t panic. I promise we really are from your mother. Here.” He pulled a crumbled envelope from his pocket. “She wrote you this note. I’m sure you recognize her writing.”

  “Lupe.” Ruben was on his feet too. “You know you need help. You can’t do this by yourself.”

  The girl looked confused. She read the letter, looked at Ruben, back at the letter. “So… what? My mom sent you guys to help me?”

  “Help you get home,” Brigid said. “And that’s all. You’re seventeen. You’ve done amazingly well on your own, and you’re obviously a great judge of character because Melanie and Ruben are good people, but—”

  “I’m not going home without getting them out.” Cold resolve entered her eyes. “Do you know how far I’ve come? I haven’t seen Daniel in days. I did everything on my own. I went all the way down to Liberty Springs and they couldn’t be bothered, so I came back here and Melanie, Grandma Lina, and I are figuring out a plan, okay?”

  Ruben crossed his arms. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  The look Lupe shot Ruben was pure teenager. It was a combination of “I’m not telling you” and “you
wouldn’t get it anyway” with a definite flavor of “ugh, you’re so old.”

  Brigid remembered giving that exact same look to her foster parents. She now understood why it drove them so crazy.

  “Lupe, I don’t know what you think yer goin’ to plan, but breaking into a federal immigrant detention center is not something that is in your future. Do Ruben and Melanie even know your status?”

  Ruben’s eyes went wide. “Holy shit, Lupe, do you not have papers? What are you thinking? You’ve been out here on your own with— Do you fucking know how many immigration raids there are around here? What were you thinking?”

  Tears had started to leak down Lupe’s cheeks, but the set of her jaw didn’t waver for a second. Brigid heard Melanie and Grandma Lina come running when Ruben raised his voice.

  Melanie burst into the room and ran to Lupe. “What is going on? Why are you yelling?”

  Ruben pointed at Lupe. “Did you know she was undocumented?”

  Melanie turned to Lupe with wide eyes. “Lupe, why didn’t you tell me?”

  “’Cause I knew you wouldn’t help me!” Lupe yelled. “And it’s not about me, okay? I’m safe and even if I get… deported, I have cousins in Mexico and grandparents there and I’ll be fine! But these kids, they don’t have anyone. No one, okay? They’re little and they don’t know where their parents are and no one is looking out for them. No one!”

  Brigid would have had to be made of stone not to feel the ache of Lupe’s words. It didn’t change her mind. She wasn’t made of stone, she’d just spent a long time in the world, knowing that horrible things happened and you couldn’t fix all of them.

  Grandma Lina walked to Lupe and put her hand on the girl’s cheek. “Lupe, you didn’t tell me. If you had—”

  “Don’t you guys get it?” The girl’s tears ran freely. “How can I go home and eat my mom’s food and sleep in my bed, knowing that these kids are out there? They have nothing, and bad things are gonna happen to them, okay? Bad things have already happened. Who is going to help them if I just go home?” She made a fist and rubbed her eyes. “I’m not a child. I thought Daniel cared. I thought he really cared about other people, but he just took off, so I don’t know what to think now, but I know that I care. I care about them. If no one else cares, I care.”

  “I care too.” Carwyn spoke softly. “Lupe, we all care, but you getting arrested for breaking into a federal detention center isn’t going to help anyone.”

  “Why are you all so convinced I’m going to get caught?” Her cheeks were red. “Maybe I’m smarter than you think.”

  “We know you’re smart,” Ruben said. “But how the hell—”

  “I have a plan.” Her chin went up. “And I have the money.”

  She had a plan? Brigid racked her brain, trying to figure out what Lupe was thinking. What plan could get her into an old military base with that many reinforcements? Not that it mattered, of course. She was going home that night. But what could she have been…

  That little girl was askin’ to bring in the wolves.

  I figure, you want to get people out of a situation like that, you gotta know how people get into it first.

  I thought maybe Oso—

  …not even Oso could sneak people—

  Everyone was talking at once. Grandma Lina and Ruben were arguing while Carwyn and Melanie were talking near the door. All the women had tears and all the men had tempers.

  And Lupe was standing in the middle of all the yelling adults, her chin lifted, completely set on whatever scheme she’d cooked up.

  Completely confident that it would work.

  “Where’d you find a coyote willing to take you to Miller’s Range?” Brigid asked.

  The question snapped Lupe’s attention to Brigid. Her chin lifted. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  The room had fallen silent.

  “Was it Daniel’s friend Oso?” Brigid asked. “Or someone else?”

  Lupe said nothing, and Grandma Lina and Melanie were suddenly silent.

  “Yer smart, Lupe. Very smart. But trust me, the pool you just waded into is far deeper than you can possibly imagine. I know smugglers. In fact, I work for one of the best.”

  There was trafficking, then there was smuggling. Trafficking was wholly illegal and immoral. But smuggling…

  Well… in the vampire world, that was a bit more of a grey area. After all, Brigid had been smuggled into the US herself. She had a fake passport, and she never went through customs. If Brigid had to smuggle someone or something from Europe to the US, who would she call? The very man she worked for.

  Illegal cigarettes. People trying to get from one place to the other as quietly as possible. To a smuggler, they were both cargo. And Brigid knew that the worst thing that could happen to a smuggler was losing a load of cargo.

  “Did someone give you a name? A number?” Brigid walked closer. “How much did you give him? Or was it a her?”

  The kind of coyote that Lupe needed wasn’t a human trafficker. It wasn’t the criminal people pictured when they watched the evening news. No, the smuggler Lupe needed thrived on reputation and connections. They might be a government official or even a border agent. They forged documents, hid people behind false walls, and bought temporary visas that looked perfectly legal even to the educated eye.

  They did not want any of their cargo lost. They wanted people to arrive safe and sound because that was how they obtained repeat customers.

  They were also very, very expensive.

  “How much did you give him?” Brigid asked again.

  “Enough,” Lupe said. “He’ll get the rest when the kids are out of detention. That’s the way it works.”

  “You didn’t have more than three thousand dollars.” Brigid shook her head. “It wasn’t enough. The coyote conned you.”

  The first crack in Lupe’s confidence appeared. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m telling you that we found Daniel, so we know exactly how much money you had. Unless you came up with a sudden influx of cash, the money you gave… whoever it was you three ladies called, it wasn’t enough. Even the full three thousand wouldn’t be enough. How many kids?”

  “Essi said there were eight kids and four teenagers there. Minus the one kid who disappeared.”

  “That much cargo out of a guarded installation?” Brigid shook her head. “I wouldn’t touch it for less than thirty thousand.”

  “Holy shit,” Melanie said. “That much?”

  Lupe’s knees gave out, and she sat on the recliner in front of the television. She put a hand over her mouth. “Oh my God.”

  Brigid could tell Lupe believed her even if the news was unpleasant.

  “I’m sorry,” Brigid said. “But this ends here. Yer not getting Melanie and Ruben involved in this. Yer not recruiting Grandma Lina. Yer going to get your things, Lupe. You are going home.”

  * * *

  “She’s a good kid.” Carwyn walked out of the house and into the backyard where Brigid was craving a cigarette and something stronger.

  “I know she is.” Brigid crossed her arms over her chest. “But she’s in over her head.”

  They were waiting in the backyard while Lupe talked with the Ochoas and Grandma Lina.

  “She is in over her head, but she’s not wrong,” Carwyn said. “Those kids in the detention center need help.”

  “So now you want to take on the US government?” Brigid asked. “We talked about this, Carwyn. We both decided—”

  “Actually, you decided.” He put his hands on his hips, and she saw his jaw settle into his stubborn look. “You decided that we needed to get Lupe home and that was the end of it. But you didn’t ask me.”

  “So you want to help these children?”

  He cocked his head. “You don’t?”

  “Carwyn, we have no kind of immortal jurisdiction over this, and unless—”

  “Is this because you blew up the bar here in town? Because you slipped up? You didn’t ev
en slip up; I prodded you until you exploded. That was not a failing—”

  “No.” Brigid felt her fangs drop. “It’s not because of the bar.”

  “Because this is your kind of job. This is exactly the kind of thing you normally love doing. So I’m not sure—”

  “And what if we fuck it up?” She brought her head up and gripped her hands behind her back. “We don’t have any backup here. We don’t have a VIC or a patron. We don’t have any authority. If things go badly, we have no one to bail us out.”

  “We have the church, and don’t underestimate their influence,” Carwyn said. “Why on earth are you doubting yourself now, Brigid? When have we ever needed to call in the cavalry as they say around here?”

  She frowned and began ticking cities off on her fingers. “Manchester. Uruguay. Munich. Ham—”

  “Okay, yes, we often call in friends to help us… finesse certain situations. But we’re not helpless out here either.”

  “We’re not calling Giovanni and Beatrice.”

  “Why not?”

  “For one thing, they’re probably on their way to New York right now.”

  Carwyn’s eyebrows went up. “Oh, that’s right.”

  “And honestly? We can’t keep telling humans about vampires, Carwyn. There’s too many who know already.”

  “So we’ll figure out a way to help these children without telling Lupe about vampires.”

  Brigid crossed her arms. “And how will you be doing that?”

  Carwyn opened his mouth. Then closed it. “I will be… digging.”

  “Digging?”

  “Didn’t someone mention getting into Miller’s Range with a tunnel-boring machine?”

  Ah shit. That had been her, hadn’t it? “One of Daniel’s friends mentioned using a ‘tunnel machine’ to break in, yes.”

  He spread his arms. “And here I am. I can tunnel under the range before the operation, find a few scrappy compatriots to help us break into the facility, and get the kids out through the tunnel. No one will be wiser about where they went.”