Guardian of the Fountain (16 page)

 
     
The
last entry was written two weeks after they were married.

      
My Chrissie was taken from me. I was only
gone for ten minutes! The room had been ransacked, and she lay strewn across
the bed. I felt if I picked her up too fast, she would shatter in my arms into
a million pieces. I held her limp body and cried like a baby. I didn’t bother
calling for an ambulance, for it was quicker if I took her myself. The hospital
asked me all sorts of questions that I couldn’t answer. I felt so helpless. Arturo
and María came straightway to be with me. I didn’t leave her side the whole
week. Her mother and father came for her and took her back to the States for
better treatment. I had to leave before they came because they didn’t know
about me yet. We hadn’t decided what to tell them. I watched them leave. The necklace
I gave her this morning was gone. I’m sure someone took it. I haven’t left the
mansion since she has been gone. Everything seems so dull, and my life feels
over. I want to die.

      
Chrissie
began crying. “He really cared about me.” The reading had made her eyes heavy,
and she was emotionally drained. She closed the journal and returned it to the
drawer. She thought she would just lie down for a little while to rest her
eyes.

      
She must
have slept through lunch and part of the afternoon. It was so hard to open her
eyes.

      
She heard
the bedroom door open. “I found her, guys. She’s in here.” It was Brant. Her
Brant.

      
She
stretched and yawned wide.

      
Brant came
over to her side. “We’ve been looking all over for you. María was worried when
she couldn’t find you for lunch. My bedroom was the last place I expected to
find you.”

      
Chrissie
propped herself up on her elbow. “I guess I was out longer than I expected.” How
was she supposed to explain how she ended up in his room? “I found an empty bed
and fell asleep.”

      
“Well,
Goldilocks, let’s get you some lunch.” He looked down at his watch. “Or an
early dinner.”

      
Chrissie’s
stomach growled. “Good idea.”

Chapter
21

      
Arturo, María,
Brant, and Chrissie all sat around the kitchen table, eating dinner. María had
prepared a gourmet meal, as usual.

      
“Every
street corner has one of Franco’s men on it,” Arturo commented. Brant shot Arturo
a look, like he didn’t want Arturo to bring that up in front of Chrissie. “I noticed.
I had to ditch my truck at Xavier’s house and hike up the mountain home so they
couldn’t follow me.”

      
“He’s not
giving up,” Brant commented. “Chrissie and I won’t be able to leave the
mountain. They know who we are.”

      
Chrissie
kept quiet. She wanted them to continue talking, but they didn’t. She longed to
go down to the village again. Now that the cartel were making their presence
known in the tiny community, it nixed any chances of her getting down there
until they were gone.

* * *

Chrissie
hit her twenty-eight-week mark. She felt large and cumbersome, as she had
acquired a slight waddle. She didn’t know how she would make it another twelve
weeks. Every morning, she trekked to the fountain to swim and relieve her aching
body. The water seemed to fizz around her skin, and it reduced some of the
swelling on her ankles and fingers. Her hair seemed to grow at a rapid rate,
and now it reached her waist. Twelve more weeks seemed like such a long time to
wait when her body was uncomfortable. The baby pushed and stretched against her
insides impatiently.

      
She watched
Brant tend to the garden from her swimming spot. He worked so hard pruning and
weeding, taking great care over each plant. His green T-shirt fit him in all
the right spots. His biceps stretched the sleeves tightly. He turned around and
smiled at her with his broad white grin. He was so gorgeous that the
butterflies in her stomach flipped in havoc every time she stole a glance at
him.

      
“I’m going
inside. Will you be okay?” Brant wiped his sweaty brow with the back of his
arm.

      
“Yeah, I’ll
be there in a little while.” Chrissie smiled.

      
Brant
crouched down by the fountain. “You know, I was thinking . . .” He seemed a
little flustered.

What
was he going to ask her that would make him so nervous?

“I
was thinking that you should move into my room.” He cleared the frog from his
throat. “So I can watch out for you. That’s all.”

“That’s
all?” Chrissie asked hesitantly.

“Well,
you do end up in my bed every other night from nightmares or because your bed
is not to your liking,” Brant defended.

“True,”
Chrissie admitted. She liked seeing Brant squirm a bit in uncomfortable
silence.

“You
don’t have to worry. I’ll be a good boy. I won’t try to put the moves on you.”
He winked.

“What?
You don’t like ‘the stick girl who swallowed a melon’ look?”

“Oh,
that’s my favorite type of girl these days. Besides, I like you better next to
me. I think I sleep better too.” Brant blushed.

“All right,
but no funny business!” Chrissie pointed her finger directly at Brant. “I know
we’re married and about to have a baby, but I’m still getting use to the idea
of being married.”

“Fair
enough.” Brant smiled like he won a prize.

“I’m
keeping my stuff in my room, though.” Chrissie was still holding on to the last
bit of her independence.

“But
that closet isn’t even big enough to turn around in,” Brant interjected.

“I
know. It’s the principle of the matter.” Chrissie already knew she won the
debate.

“Okay.
I’m going to get cleaned up before dinner.” Brant went back up to the mansion.

Chrissie
soaked for another thirty minutes before she awkwardly climbed out of the
water. She was beginning to forget what it felt like to be normal, like her
body belonged to someone else. She dried the water dripping off her body and
wrapped the towel around her bulging torso. Her flip-flops were the only things
that actually fit these days. The tunnel was dimly lit all the way to the
bottom of the spiral staircase. Voices came from an air vent that were
connected to the library. She stopped at the bottom of the staircase to listen
in.

“I
gave you plenty of chances to team up with me. Now I’m going to do things my
way.” It was the witch Valencia.

Why is she back? How did she get back?

“Are
you trying to bully me? Because it won’t work.” Brant sounded furious in a calm-before-the-storm
kind of way.

“Well,
don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Valencia said coyly.

Chrissie
heard a purse open up and the static of a hand held radio.

“Okay,
send them in.” Valencia’s voice echoed in the silent room.

The
mansion’s front door slammed open, and several heavy footsteps thundered into
the house.

“Hey!
Get out of my house!” The sound of a heavy scuffle panicked Chrissie’s heart.
“You can’t do this.” Brant’s voice sounded upset.

“Yes,
yes, I can. You see, I can do whatever I want. It’s easy when you are Franco
Santiago’s girlfriend.”

Chrissie’s
heart froze.

“He’s
just using you to get to me.” Brant’s voice sounded grim.

“You
think so? Well, I don’t care. What if I’m using
him
?”

“Sounds
about right. Oomph!” It sounded like Brant was punched in the stomach by one of
the thugs.

“Take
him out to the plaza. Tie and gag him,” Valencia ordered. “Next, tie up Arturo
and María. I’ll take care of Chrissie myself. Franco will be here in five
minutes.”

The
clicking of Valencia’s heels against the Spanish tile as she walked out of the
library was followed by two other distinct sets of footsteps, and someone being
dragged.

      
There was
only one way out of the tunnel that she knew of, and it was through the
library. She noiselessly crept up the steps to the door on the chances that no
one would be on the other side when she opened it up. It slid silently. She
knew that in the corner of the library was a faux wood panel that was really a
door to a staircase up to Brant’s room. Tiptoeing to the corner, she opened the
door and softly closed it behind her. She wondered if there were any other
secret doors in the mansion like that.

In
the library, with Miss Scarlett, and a candlestick, Chrissie mused to herself
as she climbed the stairs.

      
The door
exited in Brant’s walk-in closet. Chrissie quickly changed into some dry
clothes. Granted, they were Brant’s flannel pajama bottoms and his white T-shirt
that seemed to swallow her up, but they were dry. Chrissie’s eye caught the
medical equipment stacked on one of the set of shelves in the corner.
Medications, syringes, plastic tubing, and other assorted supplies were neatly
organized on the shelves. Brant was being a worrywart over a tiny baby that
wasn’t even due for another twelve weeks.

      
Chrissie
paced the closet, thinking over her current dilemma. What could a single clumsy
pregnant girl do to thwart a very large drug cartel and a bitter ex-girlfriend?
Chrissie’s lower back began to ache. Her body shouldn’t ache because she just
got out of the water, but she didn’t have time to think about that. She rubbed her
sore back muscles as she paced. Her eyes kept on being drawn to the medical
supplies. Morphine, Valium, anti-nausea, and other basic injectable medications
stared back at her. She didn’t have the weight of each of the thugs, but she
guessed they were large, if they were thugs. The math for the meds could be a
rough estimate on the larger side just in case. What if she got close enough to
dose them right in the jugular? She didn’t want to kill them—just to knock
them out long enough to tie them up with the plastic tubing. Hopefully, she
could get the few thugs already here at the mansion before Franco and more
thugs arrived.

      
Chrissie
grabbed the boxes and began drawing up syringes of Valium. She capped five
syringes and put them into her pocket. There were only four oxygen hoses, so
she grabbed the rubber bands for blood draws and jammed those in her pockets
too. Then she remembered the gun in Brant’s nightstand. There was an ankle
holster for it up on the shelf.

      
The plan
was definitely by the seat of her pants, but it was all she had. She sat on the
edge of the bed and retrieved the gun from the drawer. She slipped the gun in
its holster. It felt heavy on her ankle as she slid the flannel over the top of
it to conceal it.

Chrissie
heard footsteps walking down the hall. The bathroom door was the closest to her,
and she ran for it. The marble bathroom didn’t have many places for her to
hide. The toilet closet looked like the only place large enough to conceal her.
She slid against the wall into the small room to hide. She bumped into
something squishy. Another person had beaten her to the spot.

      
A hand
clamped over her mouth.

Chapter
22

Chrissie
froze and slowly turned around to face María face-to-face.

      
“Shhhh!” María
whispered.

      
“How did
you get in here?”

      
“I was
cleaning the second floor when I saw them tie up Brant downstairs. I hid in
here.”

      
“I think
they got Arturo too.” Chrissie’s voice dropped even more when she heard the
bedroom knob turn.

      
They heard
someone walking through the room and into the closet. María and Chrissie knew
the bathroom was next as they both held their breath in fear. The footsteps
fell heavy as they pounded across the marble. Chrissie slid her hand down to
the gun and pulled it out of the ankle holster. She was a Texan—she knew
how to handle a gun. She could do this. How many times had her dad taken her
out to shoot beer bottles?

      
The large
Hispanic man entered the water closet halfway and didn’t notice María and Chrissie
until he was staring down the barrel of the Glock.

      
“Don’t
move,” Chrissie ordered. “Back out slowly with your hands up where I can see
them. I would suggest not making a sound. I’m a little bit moody, and I might
blow your head off.” She next spoke to María. “María, grab the oxygen tubing
out of my pocket and tie him up.”

      
“I don’t
believe you’d shoot me.” The man sneered.

      
Chrissie
answered him by cocking the gun. “I will.”

      
María did
as she was told. Soon, they had him lying tied up in the large soaker tub.

      
“Time to go
night-night. I’m totally going to get my nursing license taken away,” she said
as she pushed the needle into the very large man’s jugular. Pushing medicine
this fast wasn’t safe but it would drop him and put him out of commission for at
least 3 hours.

      
María stood
behind Chrissie, her eyes wide with shock. “Mija,
es
to es
loco. We took down one of Franco’s guys. Do you think we will be able to get
the rest?”

      
“I can do
this! My gun at home is just like this, only pink. My plan is to take them all
down. Are there any other secret doors around the mansion?”

      
“Yes, many.
We need to get to the kitchen next. I think entering in the library would be
risky—it’s too close to the plaza. Some of the doors haven’t been used in
years, but I think most of them are still working.” María motioned for Chrissie
to follow her out of the room.

They
walked quietly down the hall. Voices of many people downstairs echoed through the
halls of the mansion. They made it undetected down to an empty bedroom that was
directly above the kitchen. María walked over to a small closet just slightly
larger than Chrissie’s own closet. María pulled a small rug off the closet
floor, revealing a trap door. She opened it and began climbing down the ladder.
Chrissie followed her.
 

      
“This way
leads to many other tunnels between the walls of the mansion. We will go to the
kitchen first and see if anyone is in there.”

      
The damp
tunnel smelled musty and stale. Dim floor lights spaced far apart gave the only
light in the tunnel. María pulled back a wood panel, and Chrissie saw shelves
lined with cans—they were in the pantry. María peeked out the pantry door,
then ran to her gourmet kitchen knives and pulled out her biggest chopping
knife. Chrissie gave María a thumbs-up.

One loud
voice came toward them. “I’ll check in the kitchen one more time.” The deep
voice was unfamiliar. Chrissie hid behind the kitchen door and reached down
into her pocket to uncap a syringe. María froze behind the kitchen counter.
Chrissie motioned for her to duck under the counter. María did, still clutching
her knife.

      
The man
walked into the kitchen and glanced around.

      
María
popped up from behind the counter. “Peek-a-boo!”

      
Just as he
yelled, “Hey!” Chrissie jumped out from behind the door and stabbed him in the
neck with the syringe. The thug stumbled around and dropped hard to the large
Spanish tile. Chrissie and María worked quickly to tie him up and drag him
behind the counter, where they could conceal his body.

      
“Next,”
Chrissie said with her best nurse voice as she kicked the thug.

      
María and
Chrissie climbed back into the pantry cabinet to navigate down the secret
tunnels. They walked down the longest stretch of tunnel yet. María slid back a
small piece of board that looked out into the plaza. Chrissie counted one more
thug, Valencia, and Franco. She froze at the sight of Franco. She felt her
world going dizzy as she stumbled back. María caught her and slid her down to
the floor. The memory of what happened in the hotel room came rushing back.

      
Franco had
entered in the hotel room quietly while she slept. It wasn’t until his thugs
began throwing things around the room that she woke up.

      
“Tell me where
your precious secret is.” The silver streaks in his jet-black hair made him
look evil. The scar across his face didn’t move normally with the rest of his skin.

      
Chrissie
clutched the white sheet up to her chest, hiding her necklace. “No. I will
never tell.”

      
“You will
if I persuade you … maybe a little forcefully.” He twisted his large gold ring
around his finger. He took one step forward, with two of his thugs behind him.

      
Chrissie
pulled out both vials and uncorked them. She tilted her head back and took both
of them at the same time like a shot glass. “You’ll never have the secret now.
I’ll die first.” Her head began to feel fuzzy. Franco grabbed the necklace from
around her neck and jerked it off.

The
sudden flashback made her head spin, and she almost lost her lunch all over the
floor.

      
María tried
fanning Chrissie with her hands. Worry lines etched across María’s face. “This
is too much for you. I do the rest.”

      
“No, María.
I’m fine,” Chrissie said as she felt a contraction seize her belly. She tried to
show no indication of it. “I think there are only three more to go. We’ve got
this.” She gasped.

      
“The end of
this tunnel exits out front of the mansion. We can come in the front door.” María
pointed to her right and helped Chrissie up.

      
They walked
to the end of the tunnel, slid a cement door aside, and walked out into the
bright sunlight. Chrissie climbed up the steps to the mansion with María close
behind. She pulled out her gun again and held it down at her side as she opened
the large wooden door.

      
“Honey, I’m
home!” Chrissie yelled as she walked in the foyer. She looked over where
Valencia and Franco stood. She pointed her gun directly at them. “Untie Brant
now!” she ordered.

      
Franco
didn’t flinch. “Men, we have a guest.” He seemed so suave and polite in his
black Armani suit, but Chrissie knew better.

      
Only one
single thug appeared at the top of the stairs.

      
Chrissie
smiled. “That’s all you’ve got, Franco?”

      
Franco
looked back at the lone man standing at the top of the stairs. “Take care of
her.” He motioned to Chrissie.

      
The man
began running down the stairs. Chrissie saw him reach into his coat pocket for
his gun. She didn’t have time to think, just to react. She pulled the trigger
and shot the man in the chest. He fell the rest of the way down the stairs.

      
“Nicely done.”
Franco smirked. “Maybe I should’ve hired you instead of these idiots I brought
with me today.” He walked over to Brant and held a gun to his head. “I suggest
that if you would like to see your love’s brains stay inside his head, you put
down your gun.”

      
Chrissie
gently dropped the Glock to the floor and stood with her hands up. She would do
anything for him. She had lost this battle.

      
“Valencia,
why didn’t you tell me this pretty girl is Brant’s wife resurrected from the
dead? My men said he was with a woman.” He turned to Chrissie. “I didn’t think
it would be you … alive. I could have sworn you were dead when I left.”

      
Valencia
glared at Chrissie with imaginary death rays shooting from her eyes. “His wife?
I didn’t know she’s his wife.”

      
“Yes, I
paid her a visit on their honeymoon. A very interesting visit, my dear. To keep
Brant’s secret, she took both vials at once, like it was something she did
every day. She just tipped her head back and didn’t even blink an eye about it.”

      
Brant’s
eyes grew wide over the top of the duct tape covering his mouth.

      
“Room
service will never be the same, will it?” Franco said as he walked over to
Chrissie. The scar over his face looked angry against his calm demeanor. “She
wasn’t even intimidated by my guys trashing the room. She held her chin up in
defiance right to the very end.” Franco slid his finger under Chrissie’s chin.

      
A sharp
pain radiated through Chrissie’s stomach. She gasped, holding her midsection
tight. Brant stood and tried to yell through the duct tape, struggling against
the ropes that bound him.

      
Arturo,
sitting next to Brant, dropped his head in what seemed like silent prayer. The
sad sight of the kind old man tied up and gagged made Chrissie angry as she
breathed through the contraction.

      
“The slut
is pregnant,” Valencia seethed.

      
Time to test if the legend is real.

“I
will take Valencia to the garden.” Chrissie said firmly. “You’re more than
welcome to come with us.” Now more than ever, she wanted the legend of the
garden to be true.

      
Franco
stared at her through small slits. “What do you have up your sleeve? I think I
will send Valencia alone with you.”

      
“Nothing,”
she lied. “Valencia can even take me at gunpoint. She can get a sample of the
water and come back to prove it by taking it herself or giving it to you. That
way, she can show you where it is once you get rid of us.”

      
“Deal.” Franco
smiled smugly. “Valencia, dear, get the gun off Lopez. He won’t be needing it
anymore. Bring me back some water too, if you’re still alive.”

      
“My
pleasure.” Valencia grumbled, but walked over to the dead man on the floor and
took the gun that was halfway out of his pocket. “Come on. Let’s go.” She waved
with her gun. “I need a drink of water.”

      
“Chrissie,
will you please leave the door open to the garden?” María asked politely. “It
will make it easier for Mr. Santiago to find later.”

      
“Okay,”
Chrissie said curiously as she stepped around Franco and headed to the library
with Valencia close at her heels. She tipped the appropriate books, and the
cases slid away from the cave entrance.

      
“No funny
business.” Valencia jabbed the nozzle of the gun into Chrissie’s back.

      
“I wouldn’t
dream of it,” Chrissie said. She took the lantern off the peg and began to
descend into the cave.

      
“You know,
I’m going to enjoy shooting you after you show me to the water.” Valencia
smiled as she pushed Chrissie forward with the tip of the gun.

      
“Hmm, you
don’t say. Well, today is your lucky day,” Chrissie said coolly.

      
They came
to the end of the tunnel, and Chrissie opened the heavy door.

      
“Finally,”
Valencia breathed. She pushed Chrissie aside and entered the garden first. As
soon as her red stiletto touched the green grass, Chrissie could feel the
garden magic begin to pulse hard, like a war drum. “Which path do I take?”

      
“The middle
one.” Chrissie pointed.

      
“Get over
here,” Valencia demanded. “You lead the way.”

      
Chrissie
followed her orders and began the trek. The magic pulsed even harder with every
step she took. She looked around at the trees to see them quiver with the
pulse. Valencia seemed oblivious.

      
“I can hear
running water. We’re close enough. I don’t need you anymore. I can shoot you
now,” Valencia said as she took off the safety and aimed at Chrissie.