Page 56 of Savage Ruin
The entire club is silent now except for the occasional sniffle from someone crying. People stare at the blood on my arms, but nobody says a word. The hostess quietly hands me a towel.
We all wait, unwilling to step outside until it’s safe. Finally, the sirens get closer, and we hear several cars screech to a halt outside the club. Officers stream inside and the eerie stillness breaks with a collective sigh of relief.
The police quickly separate the witnesses from the rest of the club. An hour later, I’m still here by myself. I’ve given my statement to the police. Thiago hasn’t returned or called, and I don’t have Thomas’ number. I can order a rideshare, but the thought of getting into a stranger’s car right now is tough to swallow.
Shivering, I wrap my arms around my body, trying to hold myself together, but the same thoughts keep going round and round. Thiago should have been back by now. What if he’s lying somewhere in a ditch? God, what if he’s dead? The worry builds and builds.
A large man in a black coat walks in, and I sigh in relief only to discover it’s not Thiago. The man informs me he’s part of my security team, and Thomas sent him to get me.
“Do you know where Thiago is? Is he okay?” I question him, but he doesn’t answer.
He holds out a hand to help me up. I stare at it, then down at my blood encrusted hands and shake my head. “I’m only leaving with Thomas.”
He clicks the radio on his belt and speaks into for it for a second. When he gets confirmation, he informs me of the change. “He’s on his way, and he’s proud of you for thinking on your feet and refusing to go with me. Most women would be hysterical right now.”
I half laugh, half cry. “Plenty of practice.” Where the hell is Thiago?
CHAPTER27
THIAGO
Seconds. One, maybe two seconds. Henley living. Henley dying. The prompt action of Henley’s bodyguard is the only reasons she’s alive. The blood and horror on her face won’t be so easily forgotten, but it’s better than her death.
Another mark on the tally sheet against our enemy, and… another debt owed. Every time I fail to save the people around me, the deck gets higher.
God, I miss Marcos. He always knew the way forward. Focus on the solution, not the problem, he would tell me. The only solution I see: eliminate our enemies before they eliminate us.
This was a bold move tonight. Striking against us in a public place. Involving the police. What did it accomplish? What was the purpose? To take out Henley? Why? It doesn’t add up. Until now, they’ve been primarily focused on us and SEI.
In frustration, I pound the seat with my fist. At least the bastard who killed our two guards tonight is dead. When I saw the blood on Henley, I lost it. The rage I’d been holding back for weeks exploded, and the need to hunt him took over. When I found him, I gave him one chance to surrender, but the minute he fired on me, he was dead. No ID. The only item he had on him was the burner phone in my hand. I slip it in my pocket.
My phone buzzes with a text from Sterling. My gut was spot on. David Perry is the son of a wealthy single mother, father unknown. She inherited family money from a legacy thoroughbred horse racing stable and breeding farm located about twenty miles outside… Lexington, Kentucky at the same place Henley’s stalker kept her. Is David her stalker? My hands clench.
Sterling admits it took him a while to dig up the information. The property and house were repossessed by the bank ten years ago, then divided up and sold to several different owners.
Upon David’s graduation from MIT, he went to work for a tech company in Silicon Valley but was fired a year later when he got caught committing corporate espionage. Disappeared off the radar for a few years. Pops up infrequently on the dark web as a contract for hire—black hat jobs. Company on the card doesn’t exist. Phone untraceable.
At the very least, he’s either Henley’s stalker or they know each other. But why show his face to Henley? He essentially outed himself as a player in this deadly game. I send the picture Sterling took from the hotel’s security cameras to my head of security, Jameson Bennett, to cascade down to his team.
My phone buzzes. It’s Thomas. “Where is she?”
“She’s with me at the hotel. I’m the only one she would leave with,” he states with satisfaction. “Still thinking on her feet, even with everything that happened tonight. Are you on your way back? The police need to get a statement from you, and they’re not leaving until they do.”
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Have them meet me in the lobby,” I order him. I hang up with Thomas and call Grayson to fill him in on what’s happened. “She’s okay. Shook up. It was close. Too fucking close.” My voice is hoarse with emotion I can’t control. Grayson’s cussing up a storm. “Tell Mateo to give her a call. I’ve got to handle the police and won’t get to her for at least another hour.”
We pull up and I stride into the brightly lit lobby. Two policemen in uniform and two in suits greet me. “Detectives? Why don’t we go into the business center where it’s quiet?” And private.
Thankfully, they’d done their due diligence and pulled the footage from the supper club. Unfortunately, their main interest is where I’ve been for the last couple of hours. “I left Ms. Night safely in the restaurant and went to check on our other guard. He was dead by our SUV. Shot. A car peeled out of the parking lot. I shot at it but missed. I ran after it, calling the police and my security team, but it turned out to be a witness to the murder of my man in the parking lot, not the murderer. Which I believe you know, since it’s your men who stopped them.”
They nod.
“I was headed back over the bridge toward the club when a car jumped the curb and headed straight toward me. I fired but missed. I dove out of the way, and it crashed against the end of the bridge. Someone got out and took off. I followed them for a while, but it’s dark and eventually I gave up.”
The senior detective frowns. “Why didn’t you call us?”
“No phone. When I dove out of the way, it must have slipped out of my pocket. I retraced my steps, found it on the bridge, and called my team to pick me up.” I don’t tell them I purposely left it there where it couldn’t be used to trace my whereabouts.
They nod. “We’ll take the gun from you now,” the detective offers.
