Page 9 of Savage Ruin
“I want to see it,” I whisper.
He pauses to scrutinize my expression. With a fierce nod, he eases up from the bed and stalks out of the room, returning minutes later with his tablet.
Settling his large body beside me on the bed, he carefully repositions me until I’m sitting halfway up and using his firm chest to lean back on. Wrapping an arm around my shoulders, he props the tablet up on his knees in front of us and pushes play on the video.
The camera jumps wildly up and down while the person wearing the body cam runs toward the grey concrete building in front of them. Running feet, heavy breathing, and low murmurs are the only sounds. Upon reaching the corner, the camera swings a hundred and eighty degrees.
“In position.”
“Two seconds.”
“On the roof. No line of sight.”
“Hold. Lone man running from the building. Not Diego. Detain him?”
“No, let him go, but follow.” Thiago’s voice is low and purposeful when he responds, but it’s the only one I recognize.
“Thermal picks up two people. One on the ground. One standing. No traces of explosives found. Are we a go?”
“Go,” Thiago commands.
The camera swivels to the left and stops. A few seconds go by while a man squats in front of something. He reaches out and opens the door, then silently motions forward with two fingers. When the camera gets close, I’m startled to find the man directing everyone is Zane, but instead of the calm, almost sweet man I’ve become accustomed to, this is a battle-hardened soldier. The camera briefly picks up a flash of cold eyes set in a fierce countenance before it moves forward into the building.
Everyone shuffles quietly through the door into an entryway. An open doorway is directly ahead, and the camera moves steadily toward it. Everything is quiet until the camera gets about two feet away. Then it picks up Diego’s shouting and cursing, some in English, some in Spanish, and a low keening sound. The video speeds up, the person bursts through the door, and captures Diego standing above a bloody mess on the ground.
I reach out and pause the frame. It’s me. You can tell by the flash of pink hair and the clothes I’m wearing, even if you can’t see much else beyond the blood. Diego’s gripping my shirt with one hand, his other is raised to punch me again.
His eyes swivel in the direction of the camera, and it’s in that moment, I can see he knows he’s about to die. Pure defiance and satisfaction blazes on his face, but no fear. No despair like I felt.
Angry, I push play. A gun appears in the camera’s line of sight and fires. Diego falls immediately, but something doesn’t add up in the timing. I frown and rewind to watch it again before pausing to peer sideways at Thiago.
“Cruz’ shot hit him before mine,” he bites out, eyes glued to the scene on the tablet, pure rage pouring from every inch of him.
I slide my hand over his clenched fist and look back down at the scene. “I know he got off easy, but I’m glad he’s dead. I’ve been terrified of him ever since he killed Marcos. For weeks, his beady eyes and the gun in his hand haunted me. I could see him shooting Marcos over and over. Whenever he was near, fear would rise in my throat, choking me. Picturing him at the gun range helped ease the fear, but I couldn’t shake it. Time was against me. Between murdering Marcos and the Dallas incident, he was my most dangerous threat. With him gone, it gives us time to clean house and figure out our next steps.”
I push play again. Boots echo off the concrete floor and the camera races toward the two people on the ground. A man goes by and kneels to confirm Diego’s dead, although the bullet hole in the center of his brain and vacant eyes is a good indication. The camera swoops downward, and hovers over my body.
The mic picks up a few words sworn softly in Portuguese, but I don’t know their meaning. “Henley, can you hear me? It’s Thiago. We’re going to get you some help. Stay with me. Can you open your eyes?” The camera swivels around to find Grayson and Mateo standing nearby, staring past Thiago’s shoulder, probably at me. “Mateo, get the computer. See if you can pull anything from it. Grayson, tell Zane to get a clean-up crew in here to dispose of the body. In pieces. No traces.” With one last look back, the two take off, then Thiago turns the camera and his body back toward me.
“All clear.”
The camera jostles when Thiago rips off his helmet and vest. The video goes dark.
“One enemy down. Two to go,” I state softly. “Did you find the other guy?”
Thiago shuts off the tablet. “No, he slipped through our net. Another former member of our security team. We’re looking for him.” He tosses the tablet on the nightstand. “Raider, one of Zane’s crew, is using his resources to hire an entirely new team for SEI. We can’t take a chance the current team hasn’t been corrupted by whatever bullshit Diego fed them.”
“What about everyone else at SEI?”
Thiago heaves a huge sigh. “We know Carlton is in on it. He’s the only other person outside of Mateo who has access to the server where we put our new phone numbers. Right now, we’ve got someone tailing him and we’re monitoring all his work activity. We don’t want to tip off our enemy, but we’ll need to decide how to handle him soon.” He gets up and paces around the room. I’m almost mesmerized by the sight of his powerful body striding back and forth in a pair of dark sweatpants and nothing else. Muscles bunch while he talks with his hands. “The worst part is we have no way of knowing who else might have been recruited by our enemy.”
His last words bring me out of my musings. “Money. Give me access to their names and personal information, including their bank accounts, and I’ll use a program I created to identify any anomalies or patterns associated with creative accounting methods. If they’ve received a payout, I’ll know. Most people are not smart enough to use a third-party alias, nor do they understand how the banking system works. I do.” I bite my lip, then warn him. “It’s not legal, and while I can hide my tracks, you need to understand there is a risk.”
Hard eyes turn in my direction, showing me the man who made SEI into the powerhouse it is today. “You’ll have whatever you need. We’re cleaning house. Work with Mateo.” He strides over and sits on the side of the bed. “I know you’re tired. We’ll talk more about this tomorrow. Do you think you can sleep now?” Worry makes his brow furrow deeply.
I’m tired, but I doubt I’ll be getting any sleep tonight. I smile and nod.
He chuckles and shakes his head back at me. “You’re still a terrible liar.” Moving around to the other side of the bed, he pulls back the covers, slides in beside me, and grabs the tablet. “How about a movie? The new James Bond?”
