Page 56 of Echoes and Oaths
“Absolutely. We’ll make sure,” Raven said as she grabbed the small bundle Eira had made with their things. Both dogs were already in the Land Cruiser, and Raven was getting everything else settled.
Mateo looked down at her. “Your mom belongs with us. With Teo.”
“Yeah, that’s what I said. Give me the baby. I’ll get him settled in the truck.” Raven took Teo easily, proving she was more capable with children than she’d alluded to.
Eira turned back to Mateo. “I love you,” she whispered. The words were for his ears only.
He bent down. “Remember what I said last night. Believe in me, mi amore.”
Her heart felt like a fist was squeezing the life out of her, but she whispered the truth, “I do.”
Mateo kissed her. Soft, reverent, and promising. She slipped out of his arms and walked to the truck hand in hand with him. He opened the door for her and shut it afterward. “Take care of my family, Raven.”
“With my life, dude, you know I will,” she said before she put the vehicle into gear and drove away.
Raven drove with one hand light on the wheel, the other resting casually on the gearshift, but Eira could feel the readiness and tension in her every movement and look. Each move of the woman’s body was deliberate. Each glance in the rearview mirror was sharp and assessing. Eira felt the situation's intensity, and it was more than she’d believed it would be. Would Tomás send someone to take her and Teo? Would he bring the wrath of Mateo down on himself? Well, Tomás had accomplished more than Eira had thought the man could do. He was the head of the cartel in the area, and that … well, she just couldn’t understand it. Tomás was many things, but he wasn’t a leader.
The road twisted through patches of tired farmland and dense jungle scrub. Trees grew in close, casting shadows across the cracked asphalt. Alongthe edges, makeshift homes made of crumbling cinderblock with rusted roofs clung to the landscape. They lined the drive like battered survivors in a country on the brink of imploding.
They passed a few others on the road. Battered motorcycles overloaded with cargo, farmers herding skinny cattle, and the occasional truck coughing up dust in their wake. Most people kept their heads down and eyes low. Everyone knew how dangerous it was to be noticed these days.
As they neared the highway, the environment changed. Traffic thickened with military transports and beat-up government trucks, not with families or traders. Soldiers manned temporary roadblocks, standing beneath sun-bleached flags with rifles slung low and suspicious glares cutting through the windshields.
Raven relaxed. She was a study in careless caution. Her shoulders loose, and her fingers drumming lightly on the steering wheel. She wore a field worker's rough, practical clothing: sun-faded jeans, a dusty button-down, hair pulled back in a no-nonsense braid. Just another local woman ferrying supplies, nothing more. The dogs must have sensed the stress in the cab. They lay on the floorboards and didn’t move. It was eerie how they tried to disappearas much as the humans going through the checkpoints did.
Eira could tell that underneath that easy, almost careless mask, Raven calculated every threat and angle. At each checkpoint, they rolled to a stop. Young soldiers, barely out of boyhood, scanned the truck with wary eyes. Some looked at Raven longer than necessary. Their stares lingered. Women traveling alone with a child always drew attention.
Raven played it perfectly. A slow smile. A bored, almost impatient look. A few sharp, clipped words in regional Spanish, which Raven mimicked perfectly. Eira listened as Raven talked about government permits, food deliveries, delays, and heat exhaustion. She made herself seem harmless, even weary. This wasn’t the woman who drove her away from Mateo that morning. She’d morphed into someone else, a person who could’ve grown up next door to Eira. But she wasn’t. She was an American, although you couldn’t tell it now.
Most of the soldiers waved them through. Some took longer, asking questions, lingering, as if debating whether to pull them out and search the truck. Each time, Raven remained unbothered, tilting her chin slightly, giving just the right amountof eye contact. She was confident but not challenging. The guards relented and let them pass.
Eira kept Teo low in the back seat, mostly hidden beneath a battered blanket, murmuring soft, steady nonsense in his ear. Her heart hammered against her ribs, but outwardly, she stayed still and tried to become invisible.
The farther they drove, the more the world seemed to fall apart around them. Potholes cracked the road to pieces. The jungle crept closer to the crumbling shoulder. Shacks gave way to open fields and abandoned stretches of land where even the scavengers seemed too afraid to settle.
When Raven finally turned off onto a narrower dirt track, Eira let herself exhale a brittle breath. The path ahead was nothing more than a jagged scar through the field. Tall grass skirted the edges, and the brush pressed tight on either side, making walls of tangled green vines.
"We’re close," Raven said, her voice low, steady.
Eira nodded, tightening her hold around Teo. Mateo had told her that morning that the landing strip would be little more than a hacked-out strip of dirt, hidden from casual eyes. No radios. No runways. Just a small twin-engine plane waiting to take them away from everything.
The truck bounced over ruts and stones, dust kicking up in thick clouds behind them.
At one checkpoint, a soldier stepped forward. He was older, sharper-eyed. He didn’t wave them through like the others.
He motioned for Raven to roll down the window.
She did, slow and steady, flashing a practiced, annoyed smile.
"Perdón, oficial," she said, voice light, almost bored. "Running late. Supplies for the base at Puerto Santo."
The soldier didn’t move to wave them through. He leaned down, peering inside the truck. His gaze lingered too long on Eira, on the barely concealed bundle of Teo beneath the blanket.
Raven arched an eyebrow, tapping the fake permit clipped to the dash with two fingers.
The soldier grunted, unimpressed. His hand shifted casually toward the rifle slung across his chest.
Eira’s breath froze. Raven’s smile sharpened just a little. She shifted her weight, subtly angling her sidearm just out of sight near the doorframe.
