Instead, I had to get myself under control. Things were getting difficult, and I couldn’t let myself get too distracted.
I didn’t want to destroy the Spiders. Rafa clearly didn’t care either way. He seemed mostly motivated by keeping me alive and getting in my panties, which I definitely wasn’t complaining about.
I trusted him the most of anyone. I couldn’t explain it, but I was drawn to him. Even though the Spiders were doing good work in the city and he worked for violent thugs, I knew Rafa cared about me. Underneath all that bravado and swagger, he definitely cared.
Why else risk so much for someone? He had to care. I had to believe that.
I went back into the other room, my laptop tucked under my arm.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go somewhere else.”
“Where?”
“Another room. Make it harder for them to figure out that it’s us.”
“Okay. Lead the way.”
We headed out the door and back into the maze of hallways. I stuck close to Rafa as we went down a floor and followed a few long halls, ignoring the stares of the staff. I felt like we were being watched by a thousand eyes, and we probably were. There were cameras everywhere, although I couldn’t spot any. There was no way the mafia wasn’t surveilling their own mansion.
We finally stopped in front of a bland door. Rafa took his key card from his pocket and swiped. The door clicked open and we walked inside.
The room was completely barren. It looked like it had been an apartment at one point, but they were probably doing construction on it, or possibly getting new furniture.
“This will work,” he said. “Can you get Wi-Fi?”
“Let me see.” I sat down on the floor and crossed my legs. I opened my laptop lid and booted it up. Rafa leaned up against the window, his arms crossed, and watched me.
The computer booted up and connected to the internet with no problem. “Got it,” I said.
“Okay then. Do your thing.”
I paused and then laughed. “What do you mean?”
“Get the Spiders to contact you.”
“I didn’t do anything last time. They just took over my computer.”
“What were you doing when they took it over?”
“I was searching for them,” I admitted.
“There you go. Search for them.”
“Aren’t we being watched right now?”
“Not in here. They’re remodeling this room, and the surveillance stuff is turned off.”
I nodded. That explained why he had decided to come here instead of staying back at our room.
“Does that mean they’re watching and listening to us?”
“No,” he said. “It means if we do this in our room, they’ll know where to find us right away. But here we’ll have some time before they come looking.”
“I see,” I said, feeling nervous. “Are you sure this is safe?”
“Nothing we’re doing is safe,” he said, grinning at me. “But don’t worry. I’m here to protect you.”
“That’s very soothing.”
“You’re welcome. Now get searching.”
I sighed and started typing. If I was going to do this, I might as well get it over with. I could sit around and argue and worry all day long, but that wouldn’t help.
We needed to do something. I couldn’t sit around in the room and wait for Rafa to somehow save me. I needed a task, a job to complete. I hated being passive in all of this; that simply wasn’t my personality. I was a journalist, and as a journalist I was constantly checking out the world, searching and learning. That was just how I existed.
But so far, I’d been too afraid to do anything. I’d been following along, doing what needed to be done, but not taking any big actions on my own. It was time to change that. I had made the decision to go with Rafa, and to follow through with the pregnancy, but now I needed to take a little responsibility.
I began to search for the Spiders just like I had that night. I wasn’t really interested in what I was finding, more in the act of doing the search. I hoped that the Spiders were monitoring searches for their name and would spot me trying to contact them.
Ten minutes slipped by. Rafa disappeared at one point and came back a couple minutes later with a bottle of whisky and a glass. He drank while he watched me type.
Frustration mounted. The first time I did this, they contacted me within a few minutes of searching. As the minutes slipped by, I began to wonder if they would even notice me.
Maybe they didn’t want to talk. I was sure they knew where I was. Maybe they saw me as a traitor and wouldn’t want to communicate.
After twenty minutes, Rafa began to pace. “Maybe this isn’t going to work,” he said.