If you have not read In Too Deep you may want to do so before reading this story. This is book two of a two part series.

For a current list of all my work, please visit www.thesandbox101.com

Also to the one person in the world who hasn’t heard me say it enough…thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

"Cheek-lay, Senorita?" The young boy asked, a huge grin planted on his face. She eyed the large cardboard box of Chiclets chewing gum he was carrying in front of him with both hands.

"Sure." She reached in her khaki cargo shorts with her good arm and retrieved a neat stack of bills.

The boy immediately dug in the box and pulled out two packs of the small gum. He held them out for her and wiped the sweat from his brow. The large box was held secure by a thick piece of string slung around his neck. His Scooby Doo t-shirt was torn at the collar and his brown pants were two sizes too big made evident by the rolled up giant cuffs. She looked down at his feet, they were bare.

"Uno quarter." He said with his thick accent.

Elizabeth Adams pushed the gum in his hand away, causing him to look up with his big brown eyes.

She leafed out a fifty dollar bill and handed it to him.

"Gracias Senorita, gracias!" He lifted the string holding the box up over his neck trying to give her the entire cardboard box of gum.

"No, you keep it." She placed her hand on the box, gently resisting. She met his large eyes and smiled at him before walking away.

The boy shouted his thanks after her and she wove her way between people as she continued on her quest through the tiny beachside town.

Tourists walked and talked, stopping to browse at the various vendors selling hand woven blankets, trinkets, and t-shirts. Many dressed similar to her in tank tops, cargo shorts and sandals. She could smell their suntan lotion as she maneuvered past them, brushing against their fanny packs.

Up ahead, she spotted her destination. Pablo’s Fish Tacos stood directly in front of her and she slowed her pace as she approached the window of the small building.

"Hola, help you?" A middle aged man with silver capped front teeth asked from the window. The smell of fish was strong and she pulled off her sunglasses as she ordered, trying to peer into the shady covered building where the man stood.

"Una cerveza por favor." Her Spanish was less than mediocre but it always got her by.

"Corona?" He questioned, holding up a wet icy bottle.

"Tecate por favor." She clarified for him.

He quickly retrieved another bottle, opened it for her and then slid it across the counter.

She leafed out a five dollar bill and handed it to the man not expecting change. She then grabbed her beer and silently wished she had some lime.

"You really should try the shrimp."

Adams turned at the sound of the voice behind her and made her way over to the table where the woman sat with a bucket full of ice and fresh shrimp.

Adams sat down across from her, replacing the sunglasses over her sensitive blue eyes.

"Help yourself." The woman with short brown hair offered, pushing the bucket toward Adams, as she herself continued to shell and peel the shrimp before popping them in her mouth. She was bigger than Adams, bulky with muscle mass. Adams had known her for years using her on many different occasions.

"No thanks, not hungry." Adams eyed her and crossed an ankle over her knee.

"Mmm, your loss." She looked up with her dark green eyes and licked her fingers. "How’s the shoulder?"

Adams took a long tug from her beer, thankful at it’s iciness. Her shoulder was healing nicely and she no longer had to wear the sling. But she winced as she set the beer back down with her injured arm as the dull pain made itself known. She relaxed her face and refused to let it win, using the sore arm every chance she got.

"Fine." She answered in the tone that let everyone who valued peace know that the topic was closed. Just because she wasn’t on her home turf didn’t mean the rules had changed. She was still a very private person when it came to her personal life.

"Yeah well you look like shit, you’ve lost weight, you’re pale…"

"If I had wanted your opinion, I would’ve asked for it." Adams replied quickly, cutting the woman off, her voice deepening in anger.

"Sorry." The woman offered, opening her palms in a peaceful gesture. "It’s just, you know that I care and I always sort of hoped that someday maybe you and I…" She leaned across the table and tried to cup her hand over the dark woman’s.

Adams pulled her hand away quickly almost as if she were afraid of being bitten.

"Yeah well it’s not happening. And unless I’m fucking you, my life is none of your business." She seethed, upset that she had allowed herself to be so easily read.

The woman sighed and sat back in her chair. She eyed the object of her desire carefully while mentally chiding herself for blowing her only chance. She had miscalculated with Adams, assuming by her pale and thinner appearance that the usually stoic woman was somehow now more fragile and maybe even…vulnerable. But it had just been made very clear to her that she had been wrong. Adams may look weaker than she had ever seen her look, but she was still strong and very elusive.

"Why don’t you tell me what you came here to say, what I’m paying you to say." Adams demanded growing irritable and weary of the idle chit chat.

The woman rested her elbows on the table, her muscles lined up on her arms and popping out on her shoulders like perfectly shaped pieces of meat resting under the skin.

"I found Jay." The woman replied while she fingered her dark beer bottle, peeling at its yellow Pacifico Claro label.

"Where?" Adams sat back in her chair and pulled her sunglasses off, her blue eyes never leaving the woman’s across from her. The wind blew in off the nearby sea, rattling the umbrella over their table.

"Where you said she would be."

"Is she…ok?" Her tone had softened as she thought of her troubled sister.

"Seems to be."

Adams let out a long, shaky breath and stared out past the woman to focus on the teal sea. Relief wanted to wash through her but she wouldn’t let it, not yet.

"Anything else?" she asked as she let her gaze fall back upon the dark green eyes.

"Yeah," The woman lifted up her beer bottle and drained the last of the dark liquid. "No one’s looking for her."

Adams sat in silence for a moment, not sure she had heard correctly. She shook her head in disbelief.

"The police…" She started before the muscled woman interrupted.

"No one’s looking for her. No one but you."

This time relief burst through her gates and she sat back and let a grateful grin etch her face.

The woman with the dark green eyes sat back and crossed her arms over her ample chest, pleased at the reaction of the beautiful woman seated across from her.

"So, how about dinner then? To celebrate?" She questioned not yet willing to give up but instead giving Adams her best smile.

Adams tugged another sip of her beer and rose from the table. She reached in her pocket and tossed the stack of bills at her companion.

"I’ve got a plane to catch." She walked quickly away from the table and back into the crowd of tourists. She pulled out her satellite phone and dialed.

"Yeah, it’s Adams." She spoke into the phone. "Book me on the first flight to Alabama." She ended the call and continued walking back towards her Jeep Wrangler. She had been traveling throughout Mexico for a few weeks now and she was somewhat relieved at the thought of finally leaving. Even if it meant returning to her childhood home in the deep south.

She picked up her pace as the muscled private detective’s words replayed in her mind. "No one’s looking for her." No one was looking for Jay. Not even the police. No one.

She climbed into the Jeep and steered her way back out onto the main road. As the she drove toward the rented sea side house, the salty ocean breeze ran its fingers through her hair massaging and relaxing, allowing her thoughts to drift to Erin McEnzie. It seemed that the young detective had heeded her request, she hadn’t told about Jay.

Adams thought back to the last time she had seen Erin a few weeks before. The raw feeling of betrayal pitted her stomach once again as she remembered Jay telling her the truth about Erin, the truth about the woman who had somehow reached in her chest and squeezed the life back into her heart. The truth being that she wasn’t really who she had said she was. She was a cop and not only a cop but an undercover cop pretending to be attracted to her in order to gain information.

It had all been lies. All of it. The feelings, the emotions, the sex. She cringed at the thought and hated herself for allowing anyone in.

She made a turn off the main road and onto the dirt road that led to the private beach house. As the Jeep kicked up the dirt and fought the road, she wondered if her sister was indeed ok and she wondered the same about Erin.

Regardless of the lies and betrayal, she couldn’t bring herself to stop thinking of the woman. Her green eyes sparkling with life, the smile she had worked so hard to see, the way her body had responded to her touch. Could it really have been all lies?

And what about now and the fact that she hadn’t told the police about Jay? What did that mean? Was it a set up? Maybe blackmail? Or was it something else altogether?

She skidded the Jeep to a stop in front of the beach house and climbed out to go pack her travel bag. She didn’t have any answers to the plaguing questions in her mind. From Jay and her killing spree to Erin and her mysterious behavior, there were many questions to be answered, so many doors left wide open and unexplored. There was but only one thing she was sure of.

The time had come to find out.

part 1

Return to the Academy