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Spinning around, I saw a flash of metal pointed at my chest and pulled the trigger. I had no idea who I just shot, but as long as it brought me one step closer to Adriana, I didn’t care.
“Bet they didn’t teach you that in law school.” Mateo grinned, blood soaking his right arm.
“You okay?”
His face pinched as if he were offended that I asked. “Fucker had shitty aim. Too bad for him, I didn’t.”
We turned as a darkened hallway to our left lit up with gunshots, and Val’s very detailed instructions for the dead men to fuck their own mothers in hell.
Mateo’s brow knotted. “I’m going to help him. Go find Vergara.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. Staying behind to clear the field while Cristiano played the hero ate at me until my skin felt like it had turned inside out. Now I knew exactly how Val felt when we rescued Eden from Manuel Muñoz. I got why it bothered him that I was the one to find her. I understand why he left us outside and risked everything to walk into a trap.
Facing death was easier than facing a life without the woman you love.
So, I ran. Hallway after hallway. Shot after shot. Body after body. I felt like a machine running on rocket fuel. Her name sat on my lips, ready to shout when I collided with another sicario.
I raised my gun, my finger on the trigger.
“Harcourt!”
Seconds away from pulling it, I paused. “Vergara?” I lowered the gun and stepped closer. “What the hell happened to you? You look like shit.”
I was being nice. Shit would’ve been a step up. The side of his head looked like roadkill, and somebody busted his pretty boy nose until it pointed west.
He closed his eyes, blood dripping off his chin. “I’m sorry. I tried.”
My blood froze in my veins. “Where is she?”
“I said what you told me to, and it seemed to get through to her. She agreed to come with me.”
“What happened?” I bit down on the words.
Frowning, he stepped backward which was smart because I was five seconds from putting him through the wall. “She remembered Val’s kid. She refused to leave without him, and we argued. Next thing I knew she was swinging my shotgun and the lights went out. When I woke up, she was gone.”
My breath came in short spurts, and a buzzing noise filled my head. One minute I stood there, and then next I had him pinned against the wall by his throat. “Where did they take her?”
He wrapped both hands around my wrist, but he didn’t fight back. Didn’t kick. Didn’t try any low blows. He just stared at me, a strange sympathy in his eye as if he were preparing me. “I don’t know, but she’s a fighter, Harcourt. If anyone can make it, then—”
Fire burned me from the inside out. Releasing him, I stumbled back, shaking my head.
Then I noticed the trail of blood.
Adriana was meticulous. Most everything she did had a reason. Cause and effect. Dominate and ruin. Sleight of hand.
“Things at first glance are rarely what they seem. Dig deeper, and you’ll find the truth lies more in what you don’t see than what you do. Arrogance is the eye’s worst enemy, Brody. Men always make the mistake of looking at what’s in front of them instead of watching out for what’s behind them.”
“Things are rarely what they seem.” I repeated the words, the beginnings of a smile forming.
“Agreed, but what does that have to do with Adriana?”
“Is that the room she was in?” He nodded, stepping out of the way as I bulldozed past him. The tiny room was barely lit with nothing but an overhead light.
One overhead light.
The other had been busted, the remnants of the bulb lay scattered all over the concrete floor. There was more blood in the room, and I followed the trail back out the door and down a long hallway to the right.
So, I turned left, my smile now wide, splitting across my face. “Instead of looking at what’s in front of you, watch out for what’s behind you.”
