Page 64 of Embedded
I jerked awake when I heard footsteps. I quickly dried the tears, and then Raúl’s sweet face faded from my memory. He was just fifteen when he and his father were slaughtered in front of me by that monster.
“You’re awake.” An American man stood next to the bed. “You missed dinner, but Bruno would like you to eat something.” He waved for a maid to come in with a tray of food. Her hands shook as she lifted the lid from the plate, and I saw she had the tattoo on her arm. When I looked into her face, however, there was no nervousness there, only a cunning expression. She wasn’t nervous at all; she faked it for him.
“You’re an American.” I pulled his attention. “Who are you?”
“I’m the man who takes great pleasure in drugging you,” he snarled. He reached for the maid and pulled her out of the room. “Eat, or don’t. I don’t give a shit.”
The smell of the food on the plate made me want to vomit, and I put the lid back on.
I remembered the maid’s confident expression and gave myself a mental kick. “All right, Nicole, you’re here, and you can do this. This is for you, Raúl.”
“Breakfast.” The maid with the tattoo found me in the sunroom the next morning. The white-toothed American sat nearby and sipped a coffee as he stared at his phone. He glanced at the maid then went back to scrolling. After a couple of minutes, he got up and left the room. Wait, what? For a split second, I was excited, but then immediately realized I hadn’t seen Bruno since the day before, and I was sure he watched me on the cameras in his office. It was unlike him to show patience, and he had a nasty temper. He was up to something. I wondered if he wanted to make me sweat and stew over what my punishment would be for betraying him. My stomach turned at the thought, but I’d agreed to this and knew how important it was. We didn’t have much more time to take these monsters out.
“Gracias.” I reached for the pastry and looked up at her. Her gaze conveyed she wanted me to be careful. I took a bite of the pastry as she walked toward the door then stopped and made a show of shaking out a lap blanket. As I ate, I casually looked around and kept an eye on her.
I moved my foot and reached down to rub the spot where the metal irritated my ankle. I looked down at its blinking red light and wondered what kind of range the thing had. To say I was surprised he’d used an ankle bracelet and not shackles on me would be an understatement. I’d take this hunk of technology over them any day.
As I watched the maid, I had an idea. If Bruno wanted to track my every move, then maybe I’d give him something to track.
“I heard it might rain today.” I popped a piece of gooey crabmeat in my mouth. “If I wanted to go for a walk, where might I find an umbrella?”
“Sí, we are in storm season, señorita.” She shot me a quick look which told me she knew where I hid the bugs. “The umbrellas are by the front door on the ground floor. Please be careful where you walk, as the rain can flood areas quite quickly here.” I nodded, and she fluffed a pillow then reached for the lap blanket and arranged it over the back of the chair and left.
After breakfast, I decided to act on my idea and see what would happen if I went from room to room. Would I be allowed to roam at will, or was I allowed only in certain areas? It was time to figure out what Bruno’s game was.
The last time I stayed here was after Raúl and Raphael were killed. That was the night I knew I played too close to the fire, and I blamed myself for their deaths. If I had taken Jack’s advice and kept Bruno at a distance, he wouldn’t have used people I cared about to control me.
Back then, Bruno wouldn’t let me out of his sight and treated me like I was his own personal plaything. He knew I could report what I was going through to the media, so he made sure to let me know just what he could do to the people I held close.
I never breathed a word of that night to anyone, and neither did anyone else who was there.
My saving grace was Sully Sanchez. He was no angel, far from it, but he did care for me enough to try to figure out a way to get Bruno to let me go. He knew if I didn’t get back to work soon, that people would start wondering. It took Sully a while to convince Bruno that Blackstone might get involved if I wasn’t released. At the time, Blackstone wasn’t as well-known, but Bruno certainly knew who they were.
“Do you think that was the signal?” I heard Armondo’s voice and froze. I’d just come down a long hallway after walking through one of the back rooms. Is he talking about me? I was thankful I didn’t have shoes on. “If so—” Armondo stopped talking, and as I peeked around the corner, I saw he was on the phone. “Get me any and all information.”
“Like what you’re hearing?” Bruno whispered from over my shoulder, and a cold chill raced up my spine. I spun around, and he grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked me backward. “Always the reporter,” he chuckled darkly, “sneaking around.”
“And you’re just a pathetic man who needs to keep a woman hostage in order for her to stay with you.” I breathed fire at him. “How’s the foot?”
He slammed me against the wall and pressed his nasty body into mine to pin me in place. “I’ve had just about enough of that mouth of yours.”
“And yet here I am.” I knew I flirted with his temper, but I never backed down from Bruno. I thought it was why I was still alive. He liked that I pushed him. It seemed to excite him. However, history had proven he’d take his anger out on others rather than me, and that was scarier. I never knew who he’d prey on next.
“And here you’ll stay.” His lips twisted into a sinister smile, and he licked his lips.
“For now.” I swallowed back the fear that had crept up on me and gave a shrug. “Like always, it’s only a matter of time.”
“Bruno,” Armondo broke our moment and glared at me when he made the connection I had been listening, “something’s happened. We need to talk.”
“To be continued, my love.” He ran the back of his fingers down my face, and it made my skin inch away from his touch. He pushed off me and followed Armondo into the other room and shut the door. I sagged into the wall. Bruno ran hot and cold in the blink of an eye, and it was screwing with my head that he wasn’t showing his true nature. I’d shot him in the foot, and I escaped with the child. What am I missing? Why these mind games? Did he know it would screw with me more?
Shoes squeaked on the tile floor, and I swiveled to see the American with his insanely white teeth standing in the hall. He screamed military from the way he stood right down to his crew cut and I wondered what his story was. He was nasty enough, but I wondered why he was here working with Bruno.
“Try anything and I’ll know,” he growled.
“Don’t worry. Your glowing teeth will alert me you’re in a six-mile radius,” I snarled back with as much sarcasm as I could then turned and stomped off in the opposite direction.
When I entered another room, the tattooed maid came in behind me. “Oh, hello, señorita.” She turned to the other maid. “Don’t forget to water the succulents.” She’d said in Spanish but turned and raised her brows at me.
