Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN WHO CHANGED SIDES
Damon had survived ambushes because he understood one rule better than most men.
Never assume the obvious betrayal is the real one.
Lucia Delgato standing beside federal agents looked obvious.
Too obvious.
Mateo appeared to think the same thing.
“What did you do?”
Lucia ignored him.
The federal agent beside her raised his voice.
“Everyone put your weapons down!”
Nobody obeyed immediately.
Then more agents entered.
Damon recognized tactical insignia.
Not local police.
Federal.
Marcus appeared behind them with Selena and Ruby farther back under protection.
Damon's eyes narrowed.
Marcus had called them?
Marcus shook his head once.
No.
Lucia stepped farther inside.
“Mateo.”
Her brother's face was white with fury.
“You betrayed me.”
She smiled sadly.
“No.”
Then she looked toward Ruby.
“I stopped helping you.”
There was a difference.
Damon understood it.
Mateo did too.
“You stupid—”
“Careful.”
The lead federal agent moved closer.
“Mateo Delgato, hands where we can see them.”
Mateo laughed.
“Do you know who I am?”
“Yes.”
The agent's expression did not change.
“That's why I'm here.”
Gabriel reached Noah.
He cut his son's restraints with a small blade.
Noah collapsed into him.
Gabriel held the boy like he was trying to make up for seventeen missing years in one embrace.
Damon looked away.
There were some moments even enemies should not watch.
Mateo's men began dropping weapons.
One at a time.
Mateo stared at Lucia.
“How?”
Lucia's face tightened.
“Javier.”
Damon looked at her.
She continued.
“He didn't only copy financial records.”
A federal agent stepped toward Damon.
“Mr. Reyes, I'm Special Agent Thomas Hale.”
Damon said nothing.
Hale looked toward the rabbit.
“We've been trying to locate that drive for four years.”
Damon almost laughed.
“Everyone has.”
“Javier Castillo contacted the Justice Department six days before his death.”
Selena had entered the warehouse now.
She heard.
Her face changed.
Hale continued.
“He intended to become a cooperating witness.”
Selena whispered, “He never told me.”
“He couldn't.”
Hale looked sympathetic.
“He believed your lives depended on you knowing nothing.”
Selena's eyes filled.
Ruby clung to her.
Damon glanced at the child.
Three fathers now existed around her in some way.
Rafael by blood.
Javier by love.
And Damon—
He stopped that thought before it finished.
Mateo began laughing.
“You people think one drive ends this?”
Agent Hale looked at him.
“No.”
He nodded toward Lucia.
“She does.”
Mateo went still.
Lucia met his eyes.
“I've been collecting evidence for eleven months.”
Everyone stared.
Even Damon.
“You were working with them?” he asked.
Lucia shook her head.
“Not at first.”
She looked toward Ruby.
“I entered your house because I believed Mateo. I thought you killed Rafael over territory and stole information from us.”
Damon's voice stayed flat.
“And then?”
“Then I found Javier's old messages.”
“What messages?”
“Rafael sent them.”
Lucia swallowed.
“Rafael knew Mateo caused the warehouse fire. He knew Mateo intended to blame him. He was trying to get Selena and Ruby out before everything collapsed.”
Selena held Ruby tighter.
“He knew about her?”
“Yes.”
Tears appeared in Lucia's eyes.
“He wanted to meet her.”
Selena looked away.
Damon felt something unexpectedly close to grief.
Not for Rafael.
Not exactly.
For all the lives manipulated by one man's ambition.
Mateo snapped.
“You pathetic sentimental fool.”
Lucia looked at him.
“You killed our cousin.”
“He was weak.”
“You killed Javier.”
“He stole from us.”
“You threatened a seventeen-year-old.”
“He was leverage.”
“You sent men after a three-year-old.”
Mateo's face twisted.
“She is a legal complication.”
Ruby looked up at Selena.
“What does comp-cation mean?”
Selena kissed her forehead.
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
Lucia stared at her brother.
“You hear yourself?”
Mateo looked almost bored.
“You think morality makes you clean? You lived in Reyes's house under a false name. You searched a child's room.”
“Yes.”
“You lied to everyone.”
“Yes.”
“You helped me breach security.”
“Yes.”
Lucia breathed deeply.
“And every night Ruby asked me to read the same ridiculous book about a purple dinosaur.”
Ruby frowned.
“Dragon.”
Lucia looked at her.
For the first time, she smiled genuinely.
“Dragon.”
Ruby nodded.
Lucia's smile broke.
“I started remembering that people were people.”
Mateo scoffed.
“Spare me.”
Lucia looked back at him.
“That is exactly what I'm asking this world to do.”
Agent Hale moved closer.
“Mateo, turn around.”
Mateo slowly lifted his hands.
Damon watched him.
It seemed too easy.
Men like Mateo did not allow themselves to be trapped without leaving another blade somewhere.
Damon looked toward Gabriel.
Gabriel seemed to sense it too.
He pushed Noah behind him.
Marcus moved closer to Selena.
Damon looked at the exits.
Two.
Both covered.
Windows.
High.
Loading door.
Half-open.
Then Damon saw Mateo's right hand.
Not raised evenly.
His fingers curled around something tiny.
A switch.
“Down!” Damon shouted.
Mateo pressed it.
The warehouse lights died.
A deafening alarm erupted.
Smoke began pouring from vents near the ceiling.
Agents shouted.
“Move!”
Mateo disappeared in the confusion.
Damon grabbed Selena.
“Outside!”
“What about—”
“Now!”
Marcus took Ruby.
Gabriel dragged Noah toward the entrance.
Lucia turned in the opposite direction.
“Mateo!”
Damon caught her.
“Leave him.”
“He'll escape.”
“Then we find him again.”
“No.”
Lucia ripped free.
“He has a tunnel beneath the loading bay.”
Damon swore.
He followed.
Behind the warehouse, a steel hatch stood open.
Mateo was already descending.
Lucia reached it first.
Damon grabbed her arm.
“You go down there, you're dead.”
“He'll go for Ruby.”
“He can't reach her.”
“You don't understand.”
Lucia looked terrified.
“He has another person inside your organization.”
Damon went still.
“Who?”
Lucia shook her head.
“I never knew the name.”
“What do you know?”
“Only the code Mateo used.”
“Which was?”
“Bloodline.”
Damon stared.
Bloodline.
Not employee.
Not guard.
Family.
His eyes immediately found Marcus.
Marcus understood.
“Marco.”
Damon's cousin.
The man who had been sitting at the conference table when Ruby first entered.
The man who had grown up beside Damon.
The man who knew every family weakness.
Damon pulled out his phone.
No signal.
The jammer.
He turned toward the warehouse.
“Where is Marco?”
Marcus's face hardened.
“I thought he was with the evacuation team.”
Selena appeared.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
She looked frightened.
“He came to me before Ruby went to the meeting.”
Damon felt his pulse slow.
“What did he say?”
“He asked why I was packing.”
“And?”
“I lied. I said Ruby wanted to sleep at my sister's.”
Damon's voice became very quiet.
“What did Marco do?”
Selena swallowed.
“He told me the roads weren't safe.”
Marcus cursed.
Damon looked toward the freight yard.
The evacuation vehicles.
Staff.
Mrs. Alvarez.
Several guards.
And Marco.
“Where did they take the household staff?”
Marcus checked his phone as the signal returned.
Then his face changed.
“What?”
“The bus is gone.”
Damon stared.
“Gone where?”
“Tracking disabled.”
Lucia whispered, “Bloodline.”
Damon started running.
They reached the main yard.
One of the agents shouted after him.
Damon ignored him.
Marcus caught up.
“Damon!”
“My cousin has twenty employees.”
“And where are you going?”
Damon stopped.
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Marco's voice filled the line.
“Cousin.”
Damon's hand tightened.
“Where are my people?”
“Safe.”
“Marco.”
“I never wanted this.”
Damon almost laughed.
“Everybody says that after betrayal.”
A pause.
Then Ruby's pink suitcase caught Damon's eye.
Still in his hand.
He had carried it through the warehouse without realizing.
Marco spoke.
“Mateo promised me one thing.”
“What?”
“The Reyes family would finally belong to the right branch.”
Damon closed his eyes.
Money.
Power.
Jealousy.
The oldest motive in history.
“Where are you?”
Marco breathed out.
“At the place Isabel died.”
Damon's eyes opened.
The burned warehouse.
The one they had never rebuilt.
Marco continued.
“Bring the drive.”
“Or?”
“You have forty minutes.”
“Marco.”
“Yes?”
Damon's voice became ice.
“If you hurt one person on that bus—”
“You'll kill me?”
Marco laughed.
“I've spent my whole life hearing what Damon Reyes does to traitors.”
His voice softened.
“Come show me.”
The call ended.
Damon looked at Selena.
Then at Gabriel.
At Lucia.
At Marcus.
At Noah.
At Ruby.
Every betrayal of the night had brought them back to one place.
The warehouse where Isabel Reyes died.
Damon handed the pink suitcase to Selena.
“I promised Ruby I'd bring this back.”
Selena took it slowly.
“Where are you going?”
“To finish something that should've ended years ago.”
Ruby suddenly reached for him.
Damon stopped.
She wrapped both tiny arms around his neck.
“Don't go.”
Everyone became silent.
Damon closed his eyes.
Then he hugged her back.
“I have to.”
“Mean man?”
“Yes.”
Ruby whispered into his shoulder.
“Then come back when you're done.”
Damon looked at Selena over the child's head.
He made the second promise of the night.
“I will.”
But twenty miles away, inside the ruins of the warehouse where Isabel had burned to death, Marco Reyes stood beside Mateo Delgato.
And between them sat twenty terrified members of Damon's household staff.
Mateo looked at his watch.
Then at Marco.
“When Damon arrives, you know what to do.”
Marco nodded.
But when Mateo turned away, Marco quietly slipped a second phone from his pocket and typed three words to an unknown number.
May you like
I'M SORRY, DAMON.
Then he deleted the message.
