He’s my only chance. If he doesn’t help me, I’m out of options.

“Call me back in a bit. I’ll ask around,” he says and hangs up.

Not entirely sure what a little bit means, but I have to give it at least a few hours. I head back upstairs.

When I open the door, Mallory jumps out of bed.

“Are you okay?” I ask. She scrambles for the TV remote and before she can turn it off, I see my face on it.

Fuck!

“Hey, listen, I have to get back to work,” she mumbles. “I mean, I have to get back home.”

“Yeah, sure,” I say, pretending that I didn’t just see what I saw.

If she’s trying to act inconspicuous, it’s not working. But I’m not going to do anything to stop her. I don’t want a confrontation and I’m definitely not going to hurt her (even though she seems to think that I will).

“Thanks for last night,” I say.

“Oh, yes, of course,” she says frantically. “It was nothing.”

I wait for her to get fully dressed before I ask her.

“Do you think I can borrow some money?”

“Money?” All blood drains from her face.

I want to tell her to stop worrying and that I’m not going to hurt her, but that will just make things worse.

She looks through her purse and pulls out a few twenties. Dollars not pesos.

“Here, you can have this.” She puts them in my hand a little too forcefully and heads toward the door.

“I’ll get this back to you!” I yell after her.

“No need,” she says quickly.

Once the door closes behind her, I can’t help but feel like I had put her under a bit of duress.

I count the money: eighty dollars. A wave of relief sweeps over me. I’ve had millions but I’ve never felt this rich.

It takes me a few minutes to pack up and leave.

I don’t know how long it will take Mallory to call the hotline, or if she will at all, but I’m not planning on making it extra easy for them to find me by sticking around this place.

I wander the streets of Merida for a few hours, waiting for Big Dipper to call me back.

I have some vegetarian tacos and a few scoops of ice cream at a small cafe run by a Greek immigrant. I try to figure out what to do if Big Dipper doesn’t come through.

One option is to rob someone to get more money, but then what?

I don’t have any contacts here south of the border and there’s a bounty out on my head that’s worth hundreds of thousands.

I doubt that I’ll be able to find one person who won’t turn me over in exchange for all of that cash.