Chapter Thirty-Nine
Leanna ran toward Soledad’s screams. She couldn’t see because of the crowd, but when the bullets started flying, someone pushed her and her friends to the ground and covered her with his body.
Nikki and Sherelle got up and scrambled after her. Marisa grabbed the first aid kit to treat Carol for a gash on her forehead she received when her wheelchair toppled over.
“Carmelita! Soledad!” Leanna darted this way and that, not caring that the coins had mostly fallen off her string bikini. She spotted Axe hugging Soledad and speaking to Sam, an off-duty cop.
“Where’s Carmelita?” Leanna plowed into Axe and Soledad.
“She left with Blue Skull. I mean, Ivan,” Axe said. “Sam’s taking a description.”
“What’s Ivan doing in the United States?” Leanna collapsed into Axe’s arms. “He’s the meanest one of the three. What if he kidnapped Carmelita?”
“Carmelita told me he’s her boyfriend,” Soledad said, wiping tears from her eyes.
“Do we have pictures of him?” Sam asked.
“I must have texted pictures with my old phone,” Leanna said. “It has to be on the cloud.”
“Carmelita texted me,” Soledad said, holding up her phone.
“Great. Text that to me,” Sam said. He gave Soledad his phone number, and then made a call. “The suspect is Ivan Moreno, a known gang member. Distinctive tattoos of blue skulls on his arms and blue crosses on his face. Armed and dangerous. He’s in the company of a minor, a thirteen-year-old female, Carmelita Bandera, brown hair, brown eyes, wearing Daisy Duke cutoff shorts, and a white camisole with the words litaloca in gold sparkly glitter.”
“Axe, what are we going to do?” Leanna wailed once the police finished with them. “Take me home. I need to change and get my gun. I’m going to get that bastard. He tried to shoot me. He was working with your father to get me. What if he’s taking Carmelita hostage to gain power over my father?”
“We can’t panic right now,” Axe said, walking them to his car. “The police said to stay back. We can’t be running around without knowing where they went. Soledad claims they like each other, so hopefully he won’t hurt her.”
“But he’s way too old for her. This can’t be happening.” Leanna turned to Soledad. “Show me all the text messages and pictures. We need clues. When did Ivan start coming around?”
“I should have said something.” Soledad’s lips quivered as tears ran down her face. “She told me not to tell. She says he’s not dangerous. He only looks it.”
“He’s too old for her.” Leanna swallowed, blinking back fear. “Do you know if they’ve been… you know… messing around?”
“She’ll hate me for telling.”
Leanna crawled into the back seat with her and grabbed a beach towel to wrap around herself. “She won’t hate you, because she’s in danger. We need to know why he took her.”
“They planned this,” Soledad said. “Carmelia said Veronica would cause a distraction, and they’d get away.”
“Do you know where?” Leanna asked, shaking the girl’s shoulders. “Please, for the love of God, tell me.”
“I’m sorry.” Soledad sniffed, shaking her head “She wouldn’t say. She was looking forward to it. She said you weren’t paying attention because you were busy with your costume.”
Each word of Soledad’s drilled a hole in Leanna’s heart.
She was right. Leanna had been obsessed over winning the contest. She’d wanted Ana and Eduardo’s scholarship to win so they’d get the matching grant. She’d coveted Axe’s attention and was sure he wouldn’t be able to resist her.
Instead, he was driving the car, and she was in the back seat without her precious Carmelita. She stared at her phone as Soledad forwarded message after message from Carmelita talking about how much fun she was going to have traveling with Ivan.
Being a mother was a lot harder than she thought.
* * *
Axe took Soledad and Leanna to her parents’ house. Her mother was in Mexico with her father, so Leanna called her parents to get her dad involved.
Tomas was furious, and he put the word out that if Ivan didn’t surrender to the police with Carmelita in perfect health and unharmed, he would put a contract out on him.
Leanna’s friends stopped by, but Leanna wasn’t in the mood to talk. She was understandably close-lipped about her father’s activities, so Axe bade them farewell, hugging all of them and telling them he’d let them know as soon as he heard any news.
