Chapter 9 - RUBY'S LAST HIDING PLACE
Damon had never felt a twenty-minute drive last so long.
Agent Hale sat in the passenger seat.
Marcus and Gabriel were behind them.
Federal vehicles followed.
Nobody spoke.
Damon drove.
Hale made calls.
“Safe house team isn't responding.”
“Names.”
“Two agents. One marshal.”
“Which one is compromised?”
“I don't know.”
“You should.”
Hale looked at him.
“I don't operate in your world.”
Damon's hands tightened on the wheel.
“Tonight you do.”
The safe house was a suburban property outside Mesa.
Intentionally ordinary.
Beige stucco.
Small yard.
Two neighboring houses owned by federal agencies.
Nothing about it suggested a three-year-old child and her mother were inside hiding from a crime family.
Damon saw the first body on the driveway.
A federal marshal.
Alive.
Barely.
Hale shouted into the radio.
“Medical!”
Damon was already out.
The front door stood open.
Inside, furniture had been overturned.
No gunfire.
No voices.
“Selena!”
Nothing.
“Ruby!”
Silence.
Damon moved room to room.
Kitchen.
Empty.
Bedroom.
Empty.
Bathroom.
Then he saw the pink suitcase.
Sitting in the hallway.
Open.
Clothes scattered.
Stuffed rabbit missing.
Damon stared at it.
Ruby had taken Bunny.
Important things.
He remembered.
Only take important things.
He turned toward the floor.
Tiny footprints.
Bare feet.
Dust from the backyard.
They led toward a laundry room.
The exterior door stood open.
Marcus arrived.
“Tracks.”
Outside, the yard backed against a narrow drainage corridor.
Damon saw disturbed dirt.
Adult shoe prints.
Then smaller bare footprints.
Selena had run with Ruby.
Hale called from the house.
“One of my agents is missing.”
Damon turned.
“Name.”
“Eric Voss.”
Gabriel swore.
“I know that name.”
Everyone looked at him.
“He appeared on one of Mateo's payment lists.”
Hale's face hardened.
“You saw the drive?”
“No. Mateo showed me proof he owned people.”
Damon looked toward the drainage path.
“Then Voss led them here.”
Hale began issuing an alert.
Damon ignored it.
He followed the footprints.
Two hundred yards later, they reached a concrete storm channel.
A piece of yellow fabric hung from a fence.
Ruby's dress.
Damon touched it.
Still warm from the sun.
Marcus crouched.
“Vehicle tracks here.”
Damon's chest went cold.
Selena and Ruby had reached the channel.
Someone took them.
Gabriel looked around.
“Maybe not.”
He pointed toward a narrow culvert.
Small.
Too small for a man to enter comfortably.
Damon saw tiny muddy fingerprints along the concrete.
Ruby.
He crouched.
“Ruby?”
Nothing.
Then a tiny sound.
A sniff.
Damon dropped to his knees.
“Ruby?”
A small face appeared deep inside the culvert.
Damon nearly stopped breathing.
“Damon?”
“Yeah.”
She crawled toward him.
He reached inside and pulled her into his arms.
She clung to his neck so hard it hurt.
He did not care.
“Where's Mommy?”
Ruby cried.
“Mean man took her.”
Damon closed his eyes.
One relief replaced by another nightmare.
“Who?”
“The man from the house.”
“Agent Voss?”
She did not know.
Ruby wiped her face.
“Mommy made me hide.”
Damon looked at her.
“What happened?”
“The man came. Mommy ran. He grabbed Mommy.”
“Did anybody else come?”
Ruby nodded.
“Bad man.”
“Mateo?”
She did not know the name.
“Tall?”
“Yes.”
“Dark hair?”
“Yes.”
Damon's jaw hardened.
Mateo personally took Selena.
“Did Mommy say anything?”
Ruby nodded.
“She said don't come out until I hear you.”
Damon's chest tightened.
Selena had allowed herself to be taken so Ruby could hide.
Marcus looked at the road.
“We need road cameras.”
Hale was already on it.
Ruby pulled at Damon's collar.
“Mommy gave me this.”
She opened her tiny fist.
A silver key.
Mrs. Alvarez's key.
Damon stared.
“Why?”
“She said give Damon.”
Even while being chased, Selena had remembered.
Damon took it.
Then Ruby whispered.
“Mommy said Daddy's box.”
Damon looked at her.
“What box?”
“Daddy Javier.”
Gabriel's face changed.
“The key.”
Damon looked at him.
“What?”
“If Javier left the key for Damon, he expected Damon to know the location without knowing the key existed.”
Damon thought.
Javier had once worked for Rafael.
Later he had hidden evidence.
He told Mrs. Alvarez to give Damon a key if Ruby was threatened.
Where would he put something Damon could find?
Damon looked toward the distant mountains.
Then remembered.
A storage facility.
Four years earlier, after Javier's supposed highway death, a lawyer had contacted Reyes Holdings about an unpaid warehouse locker.
It had been rented under the name Isabel Reyes.
Damon assumed it was some cruel coincidence.
He had ordered the bill paid and never opened it.
“Scottsdale Storage.”
Marcus frowned.
“What?”
“Unit registered under Isabel's name.”
Gabriel understood.
“Javier used your sister's name so you'd notice.”
Damon looked at the key.
“Let's go.”
Ruby tightened her arms around him.
“No.”
Damon stopped.
“Sweetheart—”
“You promised.”
His throat tightened.
She remembered.
Come back when you're done.
He had.
Now she wanted him to stay.
Damon looked toward Hale.
“She's not leaving my sight.”
Hale started to object.
Damon silenced him with one look.
“We bring protection.”
Marcus nodded.
Twenty minutes later, they reached the storage facility.
Unit 417.
The key worked.
Inside was almost nothing.
A metal table.
A chair.
One locked safe.
Damon used the same key.
Inside were paper files.
Photographs.
A second flash drive.
And a letter.
On the envelope:
DAMON REYES.
Damon opened it.
The handwriting was unfamiliar.
Mr. Reyes,
If you're reading this, they found Ruby.
My name is Javier Castillo. You have no reason to trust me. I worked for Rafael Delgato, and that alone may be enough for you to hate me.
But I loved Selena.
And I loved Ruby from the day I first heard her heartbeat.
Rafael is Ruby's biological father.
He learned the truth shortly before his death.
He wanted to protect her.
Mateo wanted to erase her.
The first drive contains financial records.
The second contains something worse.
A recording.
Damon looked at the drive.
Gabriel leaned closer.
“What recording?”
Damon continued reading.
Rafael recorded Mateo confessing to ordering the warehouse fire that killed Isabel Reyes.
He also confessed to ordering the deaths of three witnesses.
Including me.
If I am dead, it means he found me before I could testify.
There is one more thing.
Mateo will never kill Selena immediately.
He needs her signature to challenge Ruby's inheritance.
That means you have time.
But not much.
The legal transfer can only be signed at one place.
Delgato Foundation headquarters.
Downtown Phoenix.
Damon lowered the letter.
Hale was already moving.
“We hit the foundation.”
Gabriel nodded.
Damon looked at Ruby.
The child was asleep against Marcus's shoulder.
Exhaustion had finally won.
Damon kissed the top of her head.
Then handed her to Hale.
“Keep her here.”
Ruby stirred.
Her eyes opened.
“No.”
Damon touched her cheek.
“I have to get Mommy.”
She stared at him.
“Bring her back.”
Damon nodded.
“I will.”
This time, he intended to keep the promise.
They reached downtown after midnight.
The Delgato Foundation occupied the top six floors of a glass tower.
Federal teams surrounded the building.
Damon, Marcus, Gabriel, Lucia, and Hale entered through the lobby.
No resistance.
Too easy.
They reached the executive floor.
Empty.
Then Damon saw a conference room.
Lights on.
Door open.
Selena sat at the table.
Alive.
Untied.
Mateo stood behind her.
A lawyer sat opposite.
Documents covered the table.
Mateo smiled when Damon entered.
“Perfect timing.”
Selena looked at Damon.
Tears filled her eyes.
“Ruby?”
“Safe.”
She exhaled.
Mateo tapped the document.
“Selena was just about to transfer her daughter's rights.”
“She isn't signing.”
Mateo smiled.
“She already did.”
Damon's stomach dropped.
Selena looked down.
“I had to.”
“No.”
“He said he'd kill Ruby.”
“He doesn't have Ruby.”
“I didn't know that.”
Mateo held up the signed document.
“Done.”
Lucia laughed quietly.
Mateo looked at her.
“What?”
“You always were terrible with paperwork.”
His face changed.
Lucia pointed toward the lawyer.
“Ask him whether Selena's signature matters.”
The lawyer looked terrified.
Mateo stared.
“What is she talking about?”
The lawyer swallowed.
“Mr. Delgato…”
“What?”
“The transfer requires the signature of the minor's appointed estate protector.”
Damon frowned.
“Who is that?”
The lawyer looked toward him.
Mateo's face went white.
Lucia smiled.
“Rafael changed that too.”
The lawyer answered.
“Damon Reyes.”
Everyone stared at Damon.
May you like
Mateo slowly raised his gun.
And pointed it directly at Selena's head.
