Out of Control ✔

SECOND CHAPTER

Juanita rushed to her tent and grabbed her belongings. Not all of it, just enough to make it through the next few days. She considered writing Adelita a letter to tell her she needed some time to work things out, but decided against it. There was no time. She didn't know whether she could still trust the woman.

Juanita had lied to her. She had told her that her family was dead, murdered by the cartel, and now that her brother was here, alive and well, he would destroy everything that had become a part of her new life. She blinked away the tears clouding her eyes. Not now. She needed to get to safety first. Adelita was a great woman who embraced the lost and lonely with loving arms, but she was allergic to lies and Juanita knew firsthand how she treated traitors.

Or the ones she considered to be traitors.

She slung her bag over her shoulder and left her tent. Darkness slowly took over the campsite, cloaking Juanita, aiding her escape. From the supply tent she took a bottle of water and couple of food packets, ignoring the guilt that nibbled at her heart. If I stayed, they would been given to me anyway, she reasoned with herself.

Without looking over her shoulder Juanita left the camp, the only place that had felt like a home to her for so many years, having no idea if this place could still be in her future.

. . .

Coco never felt safe in this remote place. This whole camp was filled with pain and fear and a crazy level of devotion and ruthlessness. He had never seen so many children, all of them younger than his own kids had to be – all with those empty looks and starved bodies; it sent shivers down his spine.

He felt a moral obligation to help these people, these children. The remnants of broken families which he was partially responsible for. His club supported the cartel. Sure, they hadn't much of a choice, but it still felt wrong and seeing firsthand the misery Galindo caused brought the painful truth closer.

They could no longer close their eyes and wallow in their ignorance.

Coco looked at the attractive woman who was sharing numbers with them. The amount of the people she was taking care of, the money she needed to feed the mouths of all those little ones. Even though Angel was doing the talking, not a single word went by unnoticed. Coco took everything in, intending to reconsider the situation once he was home. Whatever they were going to do to help this people, their plans had to be thought out - foolproof. If his brothers discovered their secret arrangement with Los Olvidados, Angel, Gilly and he would all hang.

They talked for over an hour, all while Coco lit up cigarette after cigarette. Now and then he would ask a question, but he was mostly listening, trying to see the bigger picture. This new cooperation – if it really came that far – had to benefit all of them.

Once the conversation came to a close Coco decided to go for a ride. He wanted to think about everything he had heard before he would discuss it with his brothers, so he could form his own opinion. He told Angel and Gilly that he would see them later that night, after he'd had a chance to get his thoughts together.

A few minutes later he rode out, across one of the outback roads that took him through the Yuha desert. The moon was the only light that guided him and the cooling air helped him gather his thoughts. A small fire to his right attracted his attention and he decided to take a look. With the camp still close by, why would somebody choose to camp right beside it? What if it was an enemy that was setting up to be close to Los Olvidados, or maybe he could discover something that disproved what the woman had just told him. He got off his bike, moving away from the road and crushed the dry shrubs beneath his heavy boots while heading towards the campfire.

. . .

Juanita looked up at the stars. She had draped a blanket around her shoulders, even though the warmth of the flames was enough to keep her warm. The crackling and popping of the wood as it burned comforted her. Images of her past invaded her mind; she could hear herself laughing as Ezekiel and Angel were holding marshmallows in the fire on a summer night, their parents quietly talking behind them on the porch. She sighed deeply, missing those times, now more than ever. Those times in which everything was normal, when they were all unaware of the secret their father was keeping from them, before those secrets were able to ultimately tear them all apart.

A crunching sound to her left pulled her out of her memories. She turned her head to the side, and her whole body tensed as she saw the silhouette of a man coming towards her. Immediately she grabbed her gun and turned to face him.

"One step closer and I blow off your head," she snarled.

"Ey girl, calm down," the intruder answered, his voice steady, not at all worried by the gun pointed at him.

"What do you want?"

"Just wonderin' why a girl like you is sittin' here all alone."

Juanita took a deep breath and fought off the sensation of ice flowing through her veins. There was a reason that they were always warned to travel in pairs though the desert, it wasn't safe for a woman to be on her own out here. She knew this, but in her panic she had forgotten and now, with this man standing in front of her she was reminded as to who liked to lurk in the dark.

"That's none of your fucking business. Get the hell outta here."

The man raised both his hands in a gesture of surrender, but he still came closer. Juanita clenched her jaws, internally screaming about his stubbornness. It was too dark to see his face, to assess the danger that was in front of her and she wasn't taking any chances.

She lowered the gun from his chest to his leg and fired.