Chapter Twenty-One

Tony navigated his SUV through the heavy traffic on the way to the airport, glancing now and then in the mirror at his two clients/passengers in the back. Javier was examining both of their returned passports, Letty just looking out the window.

"They don't seem to have marked them as counterfeit," Javi commented. "Why not?"

Tony shrugged. "I think they felt it was Donald Trump's problem," he replied, referring to the current US President – universally disliked in Latin America. "Nobody down here is inclined to help him out in any way."

"So they didn't flag them in any computer system, either?"

"I don't think so."

"So we can keep using them, as long as the next customs agent doesn't investigate them too closely?"

Tony shrugged. He wasn't going to come out and recommend illegal activity to anyone.

Javier put the documents in his breast pocket. "What did they have on me, anyway?" he wanted to know.

"Mostly, your fingerprints were on the two syringes they found at the scene." He watched as Javier turned to stare out the window with a sour, disgusted expression. "And you were the last known individual with Pereira." Then Tony grinned. "But I'll tell you what was in your favor – that I don't think anyone else has told you."

"What?"

"Jorge waited until the police arrived before shooting himself with the drugs. They watched him do it, and watched him die. You were nowhere around. Plus, each of the bullets in each man had definitively been fired by the other man's gun. It was a shootout, plain and simple. That's why you were charged as an accessory, not for the murders themselves."

Javi grunted, still disgusted with himself for the shoddy slipup.

"They're still looking for Perez's associate. He's gone underground." Tony was watching Javi in the mirror while they were stopped at a red light. He was definitely fishing.

Javi looked straight into his cousin's reflected eyes. "Who?" Then he said, deliberately, "I didn't kill anyone, Tony."

Tony was still unsettled. "The FBI – "

"Stop." Javi cut him off hard and flat. "Don't ask." He was still looking straight in the mirror.

Tony looked at him a moment longer, then took off from the traffic light with a shrug. "Sounds like that's Donald Trump's problem, too," was his only, mild comment. A moment later, he glanced at Letty. "As for you, Letty – "

As her husband had a moment before, she cut him off with a raised hand. "I know what they had on me." She sighed. "It was my word against his as to whose idea it all was." She glanced swiftly at Javier beside her, then back out the window. At least I don't have to lie in court now, she thought. Does that mean it doesn't really count as a lie? No reply from Christian.

"Hey," Javier said softly. "Everything's all right now." He raised his arm to put it around his wife and gather her close, then gently placed a kiss on her temple before whispering in her ear. "We need to do better at coordinating, though. This keeping our business separate nearly got both of us locked up."

As he pulled back, she gave him a level, steady look before replying in the softest whisper, far too quiet to carry to the front seat. "Yeah. But frankly, I'd rather not go through any of this, ever again. I'm tired of this life, Javi. I'm tired of constantly moving around, constantly worrying. I want to stop. I want that home you promised." She never thought she'd hear herself saying she was willing to give up her only thrills, but there it was. She laid her other hand on his chest, above his heart. "I don't care if we don't have a lot of money. Aside from your job – and I understand that – but aside from that, we were doing all right in Acapulco. I like fine things, but I want you more. As long as we're together, we're all right."

Javi stared at her a moment, then nodded. "Okay," he replied, as softly as she had. "We'll make it a top priority. I promise." And sealed it with a kiss.

Letty leaned into him then, tucking her forehead into his neck and sighing, as he picked up her hand from his heart and held it in his. They rode that way all the way to the airport.