Chapter Four
I know I was a huge pain in the ass to my great aunt, especially in the first few months I was with her. Maybe deep inside, I could sense that something very, very bad was happening. I hate that I was lied to - hated it then, despise it now - but I know the real truth would've thrown me so far out of sanity and normalcy's limits that I'd have probably never found my way back. The approach of puberty, a new-found interest in boys, junior high school cliques; that's enough to cope with at that age. A mother who'd joined a murderous posse of terrorists who were planning to kill her? Forget about it!
Steve was unable, in the few hours remaining, to discover where Jaime was staying. He knew she was about to be completely blind-sided; she had no idea what was about to happen. He did, however, discover the identity of the purchasers.
At the appointed hour, Jaime and her would-be killers approached the black van that idled at the agreed rendezvous site: a small oasis on the edge of the desert. Steve's heart was in his throat. If his plan failed, he was about to watch his wife die a horrible, bloody death in the sand.
"Jaime," he whispered, hoping to God that she could hear him, "It's me." If she did hear, she gave no sign. "This isn't what you think. When I open the door, I want you to hit the ground - fast. Get ready." Steve pulled the door handle and stepped out of the van. Jaime, although extremely confused, did as she was told, and Steve came around the side of the van with a gun in each hand, both of them firing wildly. Two of her captors went down instantly; permanently. The third fell to the sand and grabbed for Jaime, his gun aimed directly at her head. He fired off one shot while, the same instant, Steve swooped down, picked her up in his right arm and tossed her through the air and into the open door of the van. He kicked the gunman in the head and sent him reeling backwards into the sand. On his way back to the driver's seat, he threw open the rear doors of the van and pulled out the two men who were supposed to have received Jaime's dead body. They were tied up but basically unharmed. The wheels filled the air with sand and debris as Steve pulled away doing 60, spiriting his wife to safety.
When Jaime had regained her senses, she raised her head and looked questioningly at Steve. "What the hell was that?" she asked weakly. the world was spinning around her and she knew something was terribly wrong, but, curiously, she felt no pain. Steve didn't see the blood that was surging out of her until she collapsed, falling to the floor of the van, unconcious.