Before I Go: A dark and tense psychological crime thriller. by Marie Reyes (reading strategies book txt) 📕

with phone in hand and went to let the Chevrolet through the gates. Aleksander had no choice but to continue past them and pull around the corner. He parked as close as he could, right on the corner.

“What now, guys?” Alex stopped the engine in front of a small corrugated-iron construction tacked onto one of the main buildings.

Josie got out of the back of the car without saying a word and walked up to the wire fence beyond the property they parked in front of. As Michael followed, Alex got out and locked the car. She stood in front of the fence, watching.

“Can you see anything?” Alex leaned against the fence, curling his fingers around the wire.

“Can they see you?” Michael was tempted to yank them back.

“It’s fine. We’re miles away.” She dismissed his concern with a wave of her hand.

“Slight exaggeration.” He corrected her. Her complete lack of concern was getting to him, unable to relate at all, as he worried about anything and everything. Whether he had left an appliance on would leave him anxious for hours. A job interview would make him feel sick to his stomach for days. Nothing seemed to faze Josie. It’s as if the universe had taken all of her worry and gave it to him.

“Where are a pair of binoculars when you need them?” Her face pressed up against the metal, as close as she could get.

“Here.” Alex jogged back to the car and from his backpack in the backseat, retrieved a compact, black pair of binoculars. He noticed the strange look Josie was giving him. “I like watching birds okay. Thought they might come in handy for this.”

Josie eagerly snatched them from his hand and pointed them into the yard.

“I don’t think we could be anymore obviou—”

“Shh! They’ve put something in the car. Big packs of something. Can’t see.” She adjusted the knob of the binoculars. “There’s two guys. Shit. I can’t be sure, but that guy—yep. That’s Samuel. There’s another guy.”

Michael grabbed the binoculars and put his face up to the lenses, aiming through a gap in the fence—his worse fears confirmed. The image went blurry as the binoculars juddered in his shaking hands. He steadied himself again and saw Julio’s nephew get back in the Chevrolet, and Samuel getting in a red Subaru. “They’re leaving. Back in the car.”

As they pulled back from the gate and turned to the car, they saw a man watching them from the auto-shop entrance. Michael’s throat closed up as he walked towards them.

Chapter Twenty Six

“Can I help you?” This man was short and dumpy with a wide grin, about as nonthreatening as it got.

“Do you sell cars?” Alex swooped in with a charming smile. “It cost so much to rent here, y’know.”

“Not really,” the man said. “I only fix them. Now and then I buy for scrap but sometimes I end up fixing ‘em up.”

“Ah, okay. Thanks anyway.” Alex headed to the car.

“If I have anything in, I let you know.” The man held out a business card.

“That’s great, thanks.” Michael snapped up the card from his hand, eager to hurry this transaction along. “Los siento, we’re in a hurry.” Michael jumped in the back seat and Alex reversed, almost bumping the car behind.

“Not good.” Michael slipped the business card into his pants pocket and tried to calm his trembling hands. “What if they know we’re onto them?”

“It’s okay. I thought Aleksander’s cover story was convincing enough. Quick thinking Alex. I like it.” Josie wound her window down for some air.

***

“Can someone please just tell me what we’re trying to accomplish here?” Michael had no idea where they were now, but they continued to tail Samuel’s car, regardless. On the lonelier stretches of road, they almost lost sight of it. Idiots, was the word that kept popping into Michael’s head as the humidity molded itself around his skin like cling-film, clogging his pores. He could see the newspaper headline now: Three tourists found dead in the jungle.

The thick cover of trees on each side of the road grew sparse, revealing open spaces of thick lush grass, and the road changed from bumpy gravel to smooth light-gray tarmac. The Subaru turned into a driveway. Michael got a glimpse up the long drive as they drove past and found somewhere for them to stop. “Not too close,” he said, looking for somewhere with a bit of cover. They couldn’t park out in the open, so continued to a single-lane road that ran parallel to the drive. Gentle landscaped slopes rose and fell between the two roads.

“Looks like a golf course.” Josie looked out at the man-made hills. “We need to get closer. I wonder if they have security?”

It occurred to him to verbalize how crazy this was, but knew it wouldn’t do any good. When the car came to a stop, it was eerily quiet and Josie reached for the door handle. “Wait.” He put his arm out as if going to stop her. “What’s the plan here?” for once, he felt like the sane one.

“We’re just going to have a look.”

“A look?” He parroted her words back to her, hoping she would realize how ridiculous they sounded.

“Yeah. A look.” The firmness in her voice solidified the fact that there would be no talking her out of this.

“And then what? Get arrested for trespassing? Get shot? What happened to going to the consulate? Now that was a plan I could get behind.”

“It’ll be fine,” she uttered. It was basically the equivalent of, because I said so. There was no arguing, rationalizing, or reasoning.

“Have you got amnesia or something? Have the last few days just slipped your mind?” He couldn’t conceal his frustration much longer. He wanted Josie and Alex safe. He wanted to be back in his hotel room more than anything.

“We’ll be careful. We won’t get too close. Just scope it out.” She went to open the car door, and Michael stopped her.

“Why don’t you two stay in the car. I