Replica(59)

“Oh…” I said in a dry tone. “A job well done is its own reward.”

But he’d already hung up.

Sure enough, less than a minute later, an email showed up on my phone with an attached file. I hooked up my hotspot to the laptop and downloaded the file, sucking in a breath when I realized it was a close-up view of a schematic.

“What is that?”

I consider hiding it from him, but I was a reporter, not a demolitions expert. He’d probably know how to approach this better than I did. “A way to blow up the facility.”

“No shit.”

“No shit,” I confirmed. It was a ventilation room, but its location was a complete mystery.

Then something hit it me. Hades’s file was titled APX…I’d seen that title on Derrick’s computer. Buried deep in a utilities folder.

I pulled up Derrick’s buried files, and found the schematics for the medical facility. After scrolling and zooming in, I placed the image Hades had sent me over the top.

“Bingo.”

A shiver ran down my spine. Derrick had known about this place for over a year.

“Where did you get the complete plans?”

“My friend.” It pissed me off that my voice cracked. “He gave his life to try to stop these people, and now I’ll probably have to give my life too.” My back stiffened. “He may have failed, but I won’t.”

“What makes you think your quest will have a different outcome from his, mi amor?” Antonio asked, giving me a quick glance. His dark brown eyes bore into mine, but instead of the accusation and belittlement I expected, I saw understanding and approval.

“Because I can hold a grudge. And I’m not dying until I get my revenge.”

He gave a slight nod. “Then we will get it together.”





CHAPTER 27





LEA



The day passed in absolute silence in the back of the truck. Ivan didn’t try to talk to me and I didn’t even look at him. Tension did not begin to describe all the unsaid words hovering in the air between us. I told myself I’d been right to push him away, even if it didn’t feel like it.

Besides, he’d been using me, making me think there was something between us when he really wanted revenge for his wife and his pack. A stab of jealousy I did not like arced through me.

Ivan turned and lifted an eyebrow, but I closed my eyes. I didn’t care what he smelled on me. For all he knew, I could be feeling jealous of the budding relationship between Rachel and Antonio.

Their voices reached me, the conversation lighter and starting to flow more easily. Of course, I wasn’t up there with them. And if I were being honest, I was a huge part of the reason those two didn’t get along. Okay, the whole reason.

“Madre de Dios,” I whispered. What a fucking mess.

It would hurt when I had to walk away from both of them. Ivan was already treating me like the monster I was, and while my friendship with Rachel wasn’t over yet, the end was coming. This was better though, and with all my years of experience, I knew it. But a part of me mourned the loss of my friends. That was the problem with allowing myself to recapture a piece of my humanity. The pain was too hard to bear.

As the sun faded, the truck slowed to a stop and the engine cut out. Ivan was gone in a flash, not even pausing to look at me before he leapt from the back.

I followed, slower, thinking about the challenges that lay before us. Rachel and Antonio slid out of opposite sides of the truck. While I’d put distance between Ivan and me, it looked as though Rachel had eased up on the Cazador.

Good and bad. I approached her while I scanned the area around us. “Nice to see you two getting along.”

“How can you possibly know that?” She frowned at me and I shrugged.

“Tension has a feel to it. It’s eased.” I winked at her. “And I could hear you talking from the back.”

She snorted. “Some friend you are. Me and Antonio have come to...an understanding at best.”

Ivan stared out over the sand dunes. “Rachel, which direction are we headed?”

Rachel grabbed a map from the front seat and unfurled it with a flap. She pointed to a spot on the map. “We’re going here.” Then she opened the laptop, and an image of the facility popped up on the screen. A giant square block with spokes reaching out into the desert. The thing looked like an angular octopus.

“These are the entrance tunnels.” She jabbed a finger at the long spokes. “But they are heavily guarded and it looks like there’s a lot of cameras and additional security Derrick couldn’t quite pin down.”

Ivan nodded. “I’m going to check it out.”

“That’s not a good idea,” I said. “They’re going to be watching for us. Stravinsky is a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them.”