Julio was a hero. Until it was discovered that Julio’s “mole” was an undercover agent. The deal was a sting to track the guns to Santiago and the other cartel heads. We started getting hit with raids on our homes, on our businesses. The ATF came looking for the guns.

They underestimated how quickly we were able to distribute and hide those guns. They found nothing. But the ATF interference caused a serious setback to the drug operation. For months, we were stopped from using our normal supply routes for fear of being raided. The Federales increased patrols, closed down the money houses, followed us night and day. Even our families were harassed.

Santiago blamed Julio. A whisper campaign started. Rumors that Julio knew the guns would be traced. That he’d made a deal with the ATF—safe passage to the U.S. for him and his family if he ratted on Santiago. And collect a huge bounty.

There is so much sadness, so much regret in Culebra’s tone that it hurts my heart. His mind closes for an instant. I ask, What happened to Julio?

Another long moment of silence. Santiago had him killed. I was spared because Julio never gave up my part in the operation. He was tortured, but he never gave me up. In spite of it, Santiago had his suspicions. Julio and I were so close. But he decided he couldn’t lose two of his best executioners, so he chose to let me live. That time.

He pauses another long moment. I wait for him to continue, wondering how I could have condemned him on Christmas Eve without hearing the whole story.

Sorry that I did.

How does Ramon figure into all this? I ask finally.

Ramon was from my village. My only friend. Remember my sister? The one I said was murdered? It happened right before I decided to leave my village. It was a gang of local thugs. They picked her up on her way home from school. Took her to an abandoned building. Tortured her, raped her. We found her body a week later in a pile of garbage.

The words stop abruptly. Culebra goes still and silent. Then, I vowed revenge. Ramon said he would help me. We set out to find the gang. It wasn’t hard. We simply hung around the schoolyard waiting for another innocent girl to be targeted. We didn’t have long to wait.

Less than a week after my sister was murdered, they went after another girl. Ramon and I followed them to an old barn on a piece of property long deserted. There were three of them.

It wasn’t hard to kill them. Ramon and I called them out of the barn, said we were Federales. They were kids, not more than sixteen. The idiot cabrónes came out with their hands up! Ramon and I shot them where they stood. We let the girl go. She had no problem promising to keep our secret. Ramon and I waited until she had run away, then we dragged the bodies inside the barn. I found my sister’s locket and trophies the boys had taken from other girls. There were six trophies. For six girls. I realized then the villagers had to have known what was going on. And yet they did nothing to protect their children. They kept the secret because of shame or guilt or pride.

It made me sick to live among such cowards. My parents had already made it clear I was a freak, un bestia. I now held them in contempt, too. I left soon after that.

His voice leaves an echo in my mind as the words stop. So helping you avenge your sister is why you felt you owed Ramon a debt?

Yes. And because I brought him into Santiago’s operation when he, too, fled the village. I took him under my wing the way Julio did me.

Do you know why he’s turned on you now?

Another empty silence. I wait.

I believe he is trying to save his own skin, Culebra says. He made a mistake killing that minister’s son. Money is more important to Santiago than blood. There is a bounty on Ramon’s head now, and on the heads of his wife and daughter. It couldn’t have been a hard decision for him to make—trading my life for theirs. I would have done the same thing.

I don’t believe it. But I make no comment. Instead, I’m not sure I understand. What could Ramon offer Santiago?

Knowledge that I’m alive. That I was involved in the gun operation. Ramon was the only other person who knew of my involvement with Julio and the ATF sting. One of the first things I did when I recovered from being shot was to give Max the locations of the hidden guns. They were able to recover some of them and round up a few of Santiago’s lieutenants.

But not Santiago or the big boss?

A sharp laugh. They were too smart. They’ve always been too smart.

So you did a good thing, right? You saved a lot of innocent lives by getting those guns back.

A sound like a small sob makes the hair stir on my arms.

Not good enough. They didn’t find all the guns. I am haunted by the ghosts of those who have been raped, robbed and killed with the weapons they didn’t find.

You did what you could.

I didn’t do enough.

The link between us closes abruptly. Through my lacy curtain of leaves, I see why. Men are moving toward his shack, talking softly among themselves. I see two guards I recognize from before and in the lead, someone I don’t. A short, fat man I can only guess is Luis Santiago.

CHAPTER 35

LUIS DISAPPEARS INTO THE SHACK, FOLLOWED BY his toadies. I want to rush in, kill the guards, make Luis talk. But I’ll wait for Culebra to try it his way. Maybe he’s right and the guards will let something slip. They don’t expect Culebra to live long enough to pass anything he hears on to anyone else. And they sure as hell don’t know he has telepathic abilities. They may speak freely among themselves.

In the meantime, this may be my chance to get to the girls.

I leave my hiding place and make my way to the shack where Ramon went to see Luis. There is no guard outside. It surprises me and makes me wary. I look toward the shacks surrounding Luis’. But no heads appear in the windows, no observers in the doorways, no rifles peeking over the tops of the thatched roofs. The shack appears to be completely unprotected.

There’s only one way to approach the shack and that’s from the front. It doesn’t make sense that they would leave the four girls by themselves. There must be a guard inside.

I pick up a rock and send it skittering through the doorway. Then a second. I’m still shielded by a wall of dense brush so I hunker down to see if the rocks will draw someone out.

Nothing happens.

No one comes to investigate. No shouts from within. Nothing.

Glancing around once more to be sure I’m not being observed, I sprint with vampire speed to the doorway and disappear inside. I flatten myself against the wall and wait to listen for the sounds that would signify life inside the shack.

It’s dark and close and smells of unwashed male and sex. The door opens to one room with another just off the back. I detect only the dull thudding of four heartbeats from that room. They left the girls alone.

Should make this easy.

I call out softly as I make my way into the room where the girls are. There’s no answer. Once I push back the blanket hung over the door, I see why.

The four girls are lying diagonally across the bed. Their hands and feet are tied, their mouths gagged. When I approach, I smell the harsh pungency of chloroform.

No wonder they weren’t worried about leaving the girls unguarded.

They’re unconscious.

CHAPTER 36

SHIT.

I go to the first girl, slap her cheeks to see if I can bring her around. She moans, but doesn’t come to. Neither do any of the others. I could drag them out of the shack but in this condition, I don’t know what I’d do with them. And I don’t know when Luis will be back. I may be able to carry two at a time, but if they wake up while in my arms and start making noise, we’ll be discovered.