On Every Street (2 page)

He smirked. “I can see that. It’s just
that I’ve never seen you here before. I come here every day and I think I’d remember someone as beautiful as you.”

Oh, this
Javier—he was
good
. It didn’t surprise me, considering the way I’d seen him acting at his “job.” Or, to put it better, the way his colleagues acted around him. I should have known he’d be a smooth operator with the ladies.

I quickly recalled my story. “I just moved to Ocean Springs and thought I’d check this place out.
Seems to be one of the more popular coffee shops.”

The corner of his mouth twitched and his eyes narrowed deviously
as he appraised what I said. I swear, my heart could have replaced the drummer for Slayer at that moment.

“Interesting,”
he commented.

Interesting, I think I’ve seen you in your truck, sitting outside my boss’s house all day? Interesting, I think you’ve used a fake name? Interesting, I think you’re lying through your teeth? I was prepared for him to elaborate by saying any of those.

But he tilted his head, a small gold chain necklace nestled in his shirt collar catching my eye, and said with a lowered voice, “Do you believe in fate, Eden?”

Well that caught me off guard. Maybe that was his intention. I frowned and straightened up, unsure how
to placate this strange animal.

“Sometimes I do,”
I managed to say, trying to keep the breeziness in my voice.

“I think it was fate that brought you to me today,” he said. The hairs at the back of my neck stood straight up and I knew I couldn’t blame the air conditioning on that.

“You do?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

He nodded, cool and confident.
He sat back in his chair and drummed his fingers on his leg, watching me so closely, too closely.

“I think you’ll look back at this in a few years and you’ll know what I know.”

“And what’s that?” I asked, forgetting everything I’d been planning to do, just so completely and utterly enthralled.

“You
’ll have to find out for yourself. Better yet, I can get you started. This Friday.”

My face must have looked blank because he went on with a wry smile, “I’m going to take you
out on a date.”

Shit.
That was fast.  That was easy. And extremely cocky of him.

“How do you know I don’t have a boyfriend?” I asked him, wondering if my
singledom and virginhood was stamped all over me.

“Because I don’t believe in accidents,” he said, licking his lips. “But I do believe you’ll say yes.”

I had half a nerve to make my lie worse, to tell him I had a boyfriend and that I didn’t want to go out with him, a total stranger. But that would defeat the whole purpose of the long con, the reason I had sought him out. Besides, those lips and those eyes, that swagger in his lilting voice, was igniting a fire in me where I’d never been burning before.

I was doomed.

“Okay,” I said shyly. He gave me that prize-winning grin again and pulled out a business card from his full wallet, handing it to me.

I turned it over in my hands, feeling the grooved paper.

“Javier Bernal,” I read out loud. “Consultant.”

And that was it.
Just his phone number.

“
Who do you consult?” I asked, looking up at him.

I could have sworn his face went rigid for a second, but maybe because I was looking for it. Maybe because I knew he wasn’t a consultant. Maybe because I knew who he really was, part of a drug cartel, working as a henchman for one of the most powerful drug lords on the Gulf Coast.
Maybe because I knew he had more secrets to hide than I did.

But he just shrugged and said, “People who need it.”

He got out of his chair with all the ease of a panther and tapped the card with a well-manicured finger. “Call me. Soon.”

Then he left the store, tossing his tea in the wastebasket without looking.

It took a good few minutes for me to calm down and get my heartbeat back to an acceptable level. Ever since I left California and came here, I knew what I had set out to do. I had prepared for it as much as I could. I was going to find Travis, the man who scarred me as a child when my parent’s scam went wrong. I was going to get to him by seducing someone close to him, someone who could get me in close. Then I was going to have my revenge, the only thing that had kept me going over the years.

It’s just when I
chose Javier as my mark, I never thought my mark would choose me. Because that’s what Javier had just done. I wanted to win over his heart so I could get what I wanted. But I had a feeling he was about to get to my heart first.

CHAPTER TWO

Four Months Earlier

“So where do you think you’ll go next?” Uncle Jim asked me as I shoved my suitcases into the back of my truck. I wished the cab had more space—it was going to be hard adjusting to living out of it again instead of Uncle Jim’s house. His place wasn’t spacious, but for the last eight months it had been mine.

I shrugged, even though I knew exactly where I was going, and gave him a breezy smile. Uncle Jim was standing at the end of the tiled driveway, still in his house robe, looking at some of the browned lavender that was slowly dying in his rock garden. He’d suffered a heart attack last year
—the reason I came all the way back to Palm Valley—and he still wasn’t one hundred percent. He certainly didn’t look like he could run his date farm all on his own, but he was adamant that he could. And, well, a girl can tell when she’s not wanted.

To be honest with you, a large part of me wanted to leave this town behind. Right after high school I took off and headed east, determined to leave my old life in the dust. But then he told me about his heart
, and since my parents were still on the run somewhere and good for nothing, it was up to me to take care of him. Uncle Jim had been insistent that he didn’t want my help, but I could tell that’s why he called me in the first place. He’s a proud man and would never directly ask for it.

But everyone overstays their welcome. If he thought he could handle
the farm by himself, he was probably right. Or, I was right to let him try. Still, I’d grown comfortable here. No, I didn’t like living back in the town I went to high school in, the town that held all of my terrible memories, but Uncle Jim felt like home.

“You’ll be careful, won’t you
, little Hellie?” he asked, using my nickname. He was now poking the edge of a cactus with his toe. Like me, he wasn’t very good at goodbyes. “And you’ll call?”

I slammed the door
shut and I swore I heard something breaking inside. The rusted old Chevy was officially packed to the gills. This was it.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead as the relentless California sun beat down and turned to face him. “Of course I’ll call you.”

Now my uncle was looking at me, squinting in the sunlight. “I’d feel better if I knew where you were going.”

“Texas,” I answered truthfully.

“And what’s in Texas?”

I pursed my lips, wondering if I should tell him the truth. The truth always seemed like a bad idea.

But he knew anyway. “You’re still going to see that Gus fellow, aren’t you?” His features grew stern and shadowy under the harsh desert light. I knew he wouldn’t approve, but it was time to do things for me.

“He’s a family friend,” I explained.

“He’s a con artist.”

“Well, most of
Mom and Dad’s friends are con artists,” I said, wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans. “What, you think con artists hang out with moral people? Besides, he used to be part of the LAPD. He could teach me a thing or two.”

“About giving the middle
finger to the law?” he asked, brow raised.

“About life,” I said, throwing my hands up. “Look, I’m practically an orphan now. You’re busy with the farm and I get that. But
Mom and Dad are nowhere to be found. Don’t you think I should hang out with people who have some ties to the way things were? I mean, I remember Gus from when I was a kid.”

“Ellie,” he said slowly. He eased himself into a crouch and plucked a yellow flower from the garden, twirling it in his
hand. “You don’t need ties to the past. You need to create your own future. Go create your own family. Don’t hold on…”

Oh, but I was doing so much more than holding. I had the past grasped firmly in my hands, ready to squeeze it to death.

Those thoughts must have shown up on my face because he walked toward me holding out the flower. “I know how it is. I really do. I just don’t want to see you get hurt more than you already have.” His eyes trailed down to my leg and back. “I just want you to be a better person than the person you’re trying to become. That’s all.”

“That’s all?” I said with a laugh. Still
, I took the flower from his hand and tucked it into my ponytail holder. “How does it look?”

He smiled sadly. “Beautiful. You look beautiful
, Ellie. You always have. You’re going to break hearts out there.”

I smiled back, happy that his tone was lighter. “
As long as they don’t break mine, I’m good.”

I quickly embraced him before I got all weepy and hopped into
the truck. I revved the engine for fun, then gave Uncle Jim a wave. A few of the workers came out of the rows of date palms and waved as well. I’d been working alongside them on the farm, harvesting dates and helping out, and I was going to miss them all. But I was done with this life here, the safe and simple one. It was time for me to head out on the open road and find myself.

I knew exactly where to
start looking too. Biloxi. That’s where I was going to find the new Ellie Watt and bury the old one.

***

If revenge was a dish best served cold, then I needed to stick mine in the freezer for a while. The fact is, I was totally out of my element for what I needed to do, and with every mile that my truck and I covered, my emotions were burning along with the tires. This was exactly why I needed Gus, why I had to stop in Texas before hitting up Mississippi.

I just hoped Gus would help me and give me what I wanted
—what I
needed
. I’d been in email contact with him over the last few months, slowly trying to put my plan into action. He’d been kind and friendly, at least with the written word, and seemed happy to connect with someone from the Watt clan. The last time I saw him, I must have been six years old or something, back when my parents were smart con artists and I was their little instrument. I never once mentioned becoming one or wanting help with it—that was something he was about to find out.

My plan seemed simple enough at times
, and at others, it was completely over my head. Terrifying. Sometimes I wondered where I got the nerve to even attempt this, but then again, I figured I had nothing to lose. I was twenty-years-old and waiting to live my life. Until I got my revenge, until justice was served for what was done to me, I’d have to keep waiting. I couldn’t get past all the wrongs in my life; I couldn’t accept them. To accept it, to live with it peacefully, that was like saying it was all okay. And what was done to me…that could
never
be okay.

Working for Uncle Jim and staying at his house in Palm Valley free of charge meant that I’d saved up enough money to get me to Mississippi
—after that, I didn’t really care what happened to me. I was also counting on Gus letting me stay with him while he showed me the ropes. For the next few nights while I blasted through Arizona and New Mexico, I stayed in cheap motels and ate out of gas stations. I’d calmed down a bit, getting used to being by myself again, a vagabond, a gypsy. I had time to think, to figure out what I needed to do and how I was going to do it. I tried to remember some of the stuff my parents had taught me when I was growing up, everything
before
the accident.

But even with all that time to let my thoughts fly
and the flat, khaki-colored scenery of Texas zooming past my open window, I was reduced to a thick syrup of nerves when I saw the looming skyline of Dallas approaching. Gus lived just outside the sprawling mess of a city. He was close, which meant revenge was closer. I barely made my way through the crazy drivers and congestion before my heart tried to leap out of my throat. If Gus said no, what would I do? There was no school for grifters. I was inexperienced and raw and I wouldn’t stand a chance in the big bad world.

Just after noon, I pulled
the Chevy down a lonely street in cattle country, the smog-covered buildings of Dallas in the distance. There was only one house down this way, a dark brown one-level with a wrap-around porch. A small fishing boat was parked on the groomed lawn, a red pick-up truck in the driveway. Behind the house I could see a few rustic barns, and beyond that, the rust and white dots of Hereford cattle. A sea of waving grass did a 360 around me.