I pulled Jenny to her feet, and we set off behind Nick. We paused at the last group of trees, hesitant to plunge out into no-man’s land and to take one more look at what we were up against. One guard lounged near the main gate and another sat on the front seat of a Jeep, his head leaning forward on his chest as he caught a tequila-fueled nap. They were clearly not expecting visitors. We half-crouched, half-ran as far to the right as we could, hugging the base of the mountain to make us less visible should someone glance our way. To my ears, our steps were loud and clumsy, but the guard had his back to us and never turned around. We paused for a moment before we made the last move toward the fence. We had made it around the corner and were behind the little shed we assumed Angie was in. There was no sign of the guard outside her building, but the shadows were deep around it, and he could easily be out of our sight. Now that we were closer to the buildings, the smells were overwhelming. I loved Mexican food, but the pungent smell of stale oil and onions hung heavy in the air. Add in the horse, chicken and other assorted animal manure along with a sharp smell that I recognized as blood, and my stomach rolled. God, don’t let me lose my M&Ms in front of Jenny and Nick.
