Arden clears his throat. “Maybe he could just try for your father, then,” he tells Carly. “It would be more believable if he were trying to just get one over here at a time, right?”

“That could work,” she says.

“Do we know if they’ve made it back to Mexico yet?” Cletus says. “If Dwayne had a hand in their deportation, you can bet he’ll be tracing them all the way back home.”

“We haven’t talked to them yet,” Carly says. “All we know is what Mama told Julio when she was still at the bus station.”

Cletus adjusts the nose piece on his oxygen line, tucking the connecting tubing back behind his ears. He looks at Julio. “Who else would you want to bring over? Do you have a girlfriend?”

“No,” says Julio solemnly.

“Well, you do now,” Cletus says. “Something else, though. Moss is a careful son of a gun. Might pat you down. We’ll have to be ready for that.”

“I’ll be ready,” Julio says. Arden feels slightly jealous that Julio actually acknowledges when Cletus speaks to him. Clearly I’ve got to do something to impress Carly’s brother. He makes a mental note to learn some Spanish when this is all over.

If this is ever over.

“You’ll be in danger,” Arden says quietly. “Real danger.” To say the least. He wants to put a stop to this right now, to talk them out of it, but at the same time, this could work. And if it does, it means that he wouldn’t have to worry about getting caught spending time with Carly ever again.

It’s just that he’s not the one risking it all. Julio is.

But Julio is a grown man. He can make the decision for himself. He’s already seen what my dad can do. He already knows the extent of his power.

Carly looks at Julio. He fires back instantly, only in Spanish. She purses her lips. “He says ‘Lay a hand on my sister and find out what danger really means.’”

Cletus snickers into his sweet tea.

Awesome.

Thirty-One

Arden offers to make me a cup of coffee in what I assume is his mother’s fancy coffeemaker (Arden is too manly to have a fancy coffeemaker). I refuse, because I’m too wired as it is, and because something feels weird about sitting back and enjoying a potentially luxurious cup of coffee while watching my brother put his life on the line.

I’ll already be watching from the comfort of Arden’s room on his computer, which leaves an exotic swirl in my stomach. Our first kiss happened in this house. Also, I pulled a knife on his father here.

This house is full of all things unexpected. Which is not a good thing at the moment. I need everything to go down just as we planned. Or I might pass out.

“Are you ready to go up?” he says. He slips his hand in mine, lacing our fingers together. I’ve missed his touch, the assurance behind it.

I follow him up the stairs and into his boring bedroom. He messes with the computer to get Julio’s live stream pulled up on the screen. When it does, it shows that Julio is already in the cab on the way to meet El Libertador. The small camera planted on Julio might go unnoticed by the sheriff, but it stood out like a mangled thumb to me when we placed it on him. Its posing as the single jewel on a gold chain is a gigantic parachute of a red flag to me because Julio is the most frugal person I know, and has never owned anything gold. Not to mention, the jewel/camera is actually the eye of the gold-and-diamond elephant pendant on the chain, which is ridiculous for a man to wear anyway.

But Cletus insists he’s used this necklace with great success in busts, and that it’s the one necklace cam he never showed off to Arden’s father. “It’s a classic,” he explained.

In any case, Julio actually seems to like wearing the hideous thing. I wonder if he would indulge in gold necklaces if he’d been cast a different lot in life.

The room, this whole operation, seems empty without Cletus running it. But he couldn’t steal away from his rent-a-nurse, even for a few hours. Something about him having heart palpitations, which I’m convinced is the direct result from our concocting this kamikaze plan in the first place.

But we went over and over and over it with Julio. He knows what he’s supposed to do. Cletus assured us that the sheriff is predictable, driven by greed and power. I get the power part, but not exactly the greed. What more could he possibly want that he doesn’t already have?

“You think he’s nervous?” Arden says.

I lean back on the headboard of Arden’s bed and cross my legs in front of me. No matter what I do, though, I know I won’t be able to get comfortable until this is over. But in a sense, it is over, isn’t it? I’ve already lost my parents again, right when they were within my grasp. The chance to meet my little brother and sister for the first time. All these things we’ve been working for for so long. In a way, a part of my life is over. And it makes me want to disintegrate into a puddle of tears.

But I can’t. I can’t break down until Julio is safe. Until he does what he feels he needs to do. Please, God, I can’t lose Julio too.

“Yep. He’s about to faint, probably.” Which is pretty much where I’m at right now. Julio knows the situation can escalate in a matter of seconds; Cletus told him over and over how quickly Sheriff Moss can lose his temper. And I know Julio’s worried about it. I saw him praying this morning. I’ve never seen my brother pray.

“You think he can do this?”

“He’s mad enough to.” Which is true. He has a crazed, distant look in his eyes, a look that hasn’t gone away since our family was deported again. Again. I shake my head at the unfairness of it all.