Free No Way Back: A Novel by Andrew Gross

Lauritzia.
    She steadied her suitcases. Roxanne could see the conflicting emotions in her eyes. Hesitating . . .
    Roxanne stopped about ten feet away. She just stood there. “Lauritzia, please . . . there’ll be another train. Please! ”
    The girl was tough as nails and 100 percent determined, but standing there, unsure what to do, she had the appearance of a frightened child. She took a step back onto the platform.
    The train doors closed.
    “I don’t want you to go,” Roxanne said, the train pulling away beside them. “I don’t know what happened. I don’t know why you feel you have to leave. But whatever it is, Harold and I want you to stay. The kids want you to stay.”
    “I can’t . . .” Lauritzia shook her head. “I have to go.”
    “We can help. You’re like family to us. You’re not alone, Lauritzia. Whatever it is, we’ll be there for you.”
    “You can’t help.” Lauritzia’s eyes flashed defiantly. “You may think you can, but you can’t. And I didn’t save their lives. I didn’t. It was I who put them at risk.”
    “What are you talking about?” Roxanne asked her.
    Lauritzia grabbed her bags. She attempted to move away. But then one fell out of her grasp. She stopped. They were the only ones left on the platform.
    “Tell me what it is. The kids love you. They’ll be heartbroken. We’ll be heartbroken.”
    “And I love you all too. Don’t you understand?” Lauritzia put her bags down. “It is precisely because of that that I have to go.”
    Roxanne went up and grabbed her. She put her arms around her and hugged her, feeling the tremor of the girl’s conflicted emotions. Until Lauritzia’s resistance began to wane, and her cheek fell wearily onto Roxanne’s chest, and she began to weep, her words falling off her lips like tears, tears of hopelessness and futility. “It will only bring bullets and tragedy. Please, Mrs. B, let me go.”
    “Why?” Roxanne looked into her eyes. “Why do you have to run?”
    “Don’t you understand, I didn’t save your children at the mall. I am the one who put them at risk. Those bullets weren’t meant for those other people who were killed.” Her eyes filled with terror. “They were meant for me!”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
    A n hour later they were back at the house. Harold had rushed home at Roxanne’s urging. He and Roxanne went into Lauritzia’s bedroom. Sitting on her bed, clutching one of Taylor’s bears, her eyes red from weeping, Lauritzia told them what had happened.
    “I know I told you I was from the south of Mexico,” Lauritzia began, “but I’m not. I’m from a region called Sinaloa. A town called Navolato. It is a village under the control of the Juarte cartel. Their plaza , it is called. It means the territory they control. Juarte, you may have heard of the name?” she asked, looking at Harold.
    He just looked back at her and shrugged.
    “Where I come from it is famous. Famous for the wrong things. The man who runs it, Vicente Juarte, he is known as ‘El Oso.’ The Bear. El Oso’s cartel is one of the biggest in Mexico, and he took over for his father when he was killed by a rival group. Killing and not knowing who will be killed next are a way of life in my home. The victims, they pile up in the streets. Six, seven a day. It is part of everyone’s life there. Do you know what happened to Ernesto Ayala? Did your cousin not come home from work on time? A part of everyone’s family. My family . . .”
    She put down the bear, and Roxanne saw the wall of resistance and buried emotions Lauritzia was trying to break through. It was clear she did not tell this story to anyone.
    “Three years ago, my father became a material witness against one of Juarte’s enforcers, a very brutal man named Eduardo Cano. ‘El Pirate.’ Cano was part of a group that is known as Los Zetas, the Z’s . . . maybe you’ve heard of them? They were once a part of the Mexican armed forces—I think trained by your own country’s