The ropes Esmeralda had hastily tightened around her wrists to look more convincing fell to the floor. She ran for Ignacio just as the first of the sparklers Gabriel had rigged up on the bale ring high above caught the fuse. There was a loud hiss, followed by a crackle, then aBOOM!The entire Big Top swayed.
“What was that?” Ignacio asked as she tried to undo his bindings.
“Gabriel fitted the tent with explosives. We’ve got to get out of here before the whole place crashes down on us.”
Her fingers tunneled through the knots holding Ignacio at bay. Her nails dug into the rough twine, but it wouldn’t give. Another fuse hissed to life.BOOM!The catwalk swayed as if it were drunk.
She growled in frustration. “I can’t get you untied!”
The ringmaster and Comandante Olivera crashed into the spinning board used for the knife-throwing act. They punched and cursed and tore into each other with more vengeance and vitriol than she’d ever known was possible.
The ringmaster threw a wide punch but missed. Comandante Olivera took his chance. He barreled his fist right into Ángel’s face. Ángel’s head snapped to the left, and he fell nose-first into the sawdust.
BOOM! BOOM!
The explosives were detonating in full. The bale ring would fall in seconds, taking with it all the hanging mirrors. Then the entire tent would cave in, taking with it the mirrored entrance. As well as the last of the ringmaster’s links to Tezcán. And their lives too if they didn’t get out right now.
Esmeralda cursed. She wrapped her arms around Ignacio and tried to drag him outside.
“Why are you so heavy?” she grunted.
“Why didn’t you bring a knife!”
“If I’d known you were tied up, maybe I would have.”
“You came into a hostage situation unprepared!”
“No, we didn’t! A pistol is a weapon…We just didn’t know it was loaded.”
“Do I need to remind you how absolutely reckless that sounds?!”
“So is getting tied up! Maybe you shouldn’t have gotten yourself into this—”
Comandante Olivera stomped toward them like a charging bull. He gripped one of the knife-thrower’s sharp daggers. But Esmeralda was not afraid of this man. She no longer cared what he thought or said or did. She’d kept herself alive and fed after she ran away from him, after he tried to send her to the front lines of a pointless war. She would survive him again.
BOOM!
She covered Ignacio with her arms as dust and debris fell upon them.
“Out of the way, Esmeralda!” the comandante barked.
She looked up at the man she’d once idolized. “All of this is your fault. You selfish, no-good coward of a man. Ifanythinghappens to Ignacio, so help me, I will tear you apart with my bare hands.”
As the comandante’s eyes bore into her, she thought she saw them soften the tiniest of bits, but he didn’t respond. He knelt beside his son and silently sliced into his bindings as more fuses screamed to life.
Chapter 54
Ignacio
The ropes fell and Ignacio shot to his feet. He enveloped Esmeralda and squeezed her against his chest. “I love you.”
She peeled away from him. “I know, but we’ve got to get out of here.”
He nodded but noticed his father had yet to stand. His head was bowed low and his hand rested over his stomach. When he pulled back his arm, inky blood stained his palm.
“Father?”
“That damn bullet may have snapped my bindings, but now it’s lodged inside my gut.” The comandante met Ignacio’s gaze. “Get out of here, son. Go before it’s too late.”
