Page 55 of Fast Vengeance

He’d visited her in the shed out back half a dozen times. Each time he’d finished with her he’d yanked his pants back up and delivered a verbal barb as he stood towering over her, smug in his power over her.

We own you, filthy whore. You’re gonna die a slut, just like you deserve for what you did to Ruiz. You are nothing.

He’d laughed. Then cleared his throat exactly like on the recording as he walked out. Leaving her trembling in pain and humiliation, crying silent, scalding tears in the darkness.

“You know him?” Taggart finally asked, his voice taut.

She opened her eyes and nodded. “Not his name. But his voice and his face.” She rubbed her hands over her upper arms, trying to warm herself. Taggart draped a jacket over her. “He was one of Ruiz’s sicarios. Likely one of the men rumored to be working for Montoya the past few months.”

Taggart’s eyes searched hers. “Can you look through the rest of the pictures, see if you can find him in there? If not, we’ll try an online database.”

“Yes.” If it helped them find Brock, she would do anything. Even confront the ghosts that haunted her.

Back at the table in the main room, she searched through the pictures with renewed urgency. She was halfway through the stack when the Mexican official returned.

“Our analysts traced the origin of the call from the outskirts of Cancún.”

She blinked. “Cancún?” That was over eight hundred miles away from here. How did the caller know about Brock? Unless Brock wasn’t in Veracruz at all, as they’d assumed?

She tuned the men out, letting them worry about that as they discussed the latest development. A minute later, her heart stuttered in her chest when she came across a photo of a man she recognized.

“This is him,” she said, tapping the man on the far right of the picture. It wasn’t a clear shot of him but the image still made her stomach roil.

“You’re sure?” Taggart asked.

“Yes. He’s got hazel eyes and a slight gap between his upper front teeth. And a snake tattoo on his left forearm that winds up his wrist. The head is on the back of his hand.” She had become all too familiar with it in the glowing light from his cigars as he took his time burning her with them. She shook the memory away, focused on the men standing beside her.

The Mexican official leaned over, his expression darkening as he looked at the image. “Javier Sanchez. One of Ruiz’s most wanted sicarios.”

Javier Sanchez. She’d heard both those names during her captivity but had never been able to put them to a face until now.

“How would he know about Hamilton?” Taggart asked. “Was he in on this? Was he the one who attacked him and took him hostage?”

“It’s possible.”

“Call your contacts in Cancún,” Taggart commanded, turning away and pulling out his cell phone.

“Taggart.”

Taggart and Victoria both looked over their shoulders as Agent Rodriguez strode toward them, his face set. “What is it?” Taggart asked.

“We got it.”

Taggart tensed. “The video?”

“Yeah.”

Fear spread up Victoria’s spine like the caress of icy fingers. Whatever the video showed, the look on Rodriguez’s face told her it wasn’t good.

“Is he alive?” she blurted out, unable to stand it.

“Yes. At least when it was taken.”

“I wanna see it,” Taggart said.

“Over there.” Rodriguez motioned to the far end of the room where a group of agents were gathered around a large monitor. The rest of FAST Bravo were there as well, riveted to what was on the screen, their expressions ranging from horrified to lethal.

Victoria headed for them, barely aware of her feet moving as she crossed the room with Taggart. Agent Freeman glanced up, saw her coming and stepped away from the group to block her path, holding up a hand as he shook his head. “No. You don’t want to see this, trust me,” he said.

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