4. Matheus
PRESENT
“Where’s the medical supplies in this place?”
Ending the call with Blanco, I dump the burner phone into an antique-looking dish on the console table and glare at the soldier lingering nearby.
“Try the bathroom.” He nods over my shoulder. “It’s at the end of the hallway.”
I exhale loudly, releasing and clenching my fist to wake my hand up. My head hurts from all the shit I’ve heard in the past few minutes.
Sure, it’s important information, if what Blanco had said is true, but my priority is Dani.
Blanco wants The Covenant to swoop in and rescue my little firecracker. How’s that going to work when they’re in Sicily?
Waiting for the team to arrive would be an unnecessary delay. One I’m not prepared to wait out.
Drawing my gun, I take aim at the asshole in front of me.
“Show me.”
His mouth twitches like he”s chewing on the insults he’d like to spit at me. Despite his visible hatred for a Souza, he understands the power I hold, and a show of disrespect means my face would be the last he’d ever see.
“I’m going after Dani,” I tell him, full of confidence, even though my stomach knots.
Except I have to figure out her location first.
“Which means you and I are on the same side today. Suck it up and get me a first aid kit.”
The guy nods, skirts the entrance hall, and moves to the corridor at the left of the staircase. I follow him, shirking off my backpack, digging out a full magazine from the inside, and reloading my revolver.
I don’t trust any of these fuckers.
Carrying the bag in my hand, I pass a wall of hung art, including a huge portrait of Sofia as a grinning child. I skip over her face, my eyes hunting for pictures of Dani instead.
Only there aren’t any––like she didn’t exist in their past.
At Mama’s house, the walls are littered with childhood photographs of me and my brothers. Every flat surface and shelf houses a moment of our lives together, framed and sitting pretty to remind us of our family connection.
My brow scrunches, deep in thought. I never bonded with Elias. We hadn’t ever gone fishing, spent time talking at the dinner table, or even shared a hug.
But my Mama––she’s my whole world. And she kept a secret from me.
It doesn”t take long to leave the runner rug underfoot and cross over onto checkered tiles.
“What’s your name?” I ask the soldier as he moves inside a modest-sized washroom.
“Dario,” he replies, opening a cabinet door under the sink and taking out a bulky plastic bag.
“Well, Dario, I’m going to need a few men…”
I lean against the doorjamb and watch him empty medical supplies onto the quartz counter.
“A whole fucking army. If you pull a team together, I’ll let Blanco know you helped me save Dani, and I’ll pay you double.”
“You’re a Souza. Why should I trust you?”
He glares at my reflection in the mirror behind the ornate gold faucet.
I drop my bag, prowl behind him, pull my base layer up and over my head, then reach across, and grab a foil wrapped antiseptic wipe from the pile.
“Because she’s all that matters, Dario. Not you. Not even me…” I tear the packet open with my teeth and shake out the sterile cloth. “…just her. Comprende?”
He steps back to give me space, quietly staring as I clean my messy bicep. The wound bled like a bitch, but it”s not deep enough to need stitches.
“We do this for her, for Dani.” I catch his eye. “How quickly can you assemble a team?”
“We have about twenty men here already. Some need to stay, though. El patrón never leaves his homes unoccupied. They’re guarded twenty-four seven, three hundred and sixty-five days a year.”
“Okay.”
I slap a sterile pad over the top of the stinging gash. With my other hand, I grab a roll of surgical tape and hold it towards him.
“Help me with this, will you?”
While he sticks tape over the dressing, my temper simmers. Dani does it way better. But she’s not here and I’m paralyzed inside because of it.
Everything had dulled. My senses. My heartbeat. Even the color of the fucking sunlight.
“I need to see whatever surveillance footage you have from in front of the house. As soon as possible.”
I stare at myself in the mirror, meeting my chestnut eyes and noticing the dark crescents under them.
My skin is still tanned, my muscles chiseled, and my favorite chunky gold chain hangs around my throat, glinting in the daylight pouring in through slatted window blinds.
The exhausted guy looking back at me is Matheus. However, the guy underneath––he’s not locked up, hidden behind the good looks anymore.
And I’m ready to find out who that man could really be.
What he’s capable of. What he needs from this life.
When Dario leaves, I grab my backpack and dig out my satellite phone.
After a few rings, Giovanni answers, “Crow. Did you get the job done?”
“Affirmative, Dragon,” I reply, the buzz in my veins giving me energy.
“Where are you?”
“Colombia.” I keep my location vague. “After the mission, Buffy was kidnapped. I won’t be back until she’s safe.” The line goes silent. “Dragon? Did you hear me?”
“You said you”re in Colombia, sì?” My pulse picks up. “Where exactly in Colombia are you, Crow?”
I look to the ceiling.
“Why ask when you can see my location on your monitor? You’re tracking me right now, aren’t you?”
Giovanni sighs. “I’m ensuring your safety.”
“What about Buffy? Can you track her location too?”
“Give me a second.”
The line goes silent for only a heartbeat, but it feels like an eternity.
“It says she’s with you in the city…in a mansion.”
I growl out my frustration. Dani had two phones—one for The Covenant and the other to keep in touch with Blanco.
“The SAT phone must be in her backpack where she parked her motorcycle.”
“Whose house are you at? I don’t recognize the coordinates as one of our safe houses.”
“You’re losing sight of the issue here, Dragon,” I snap. “One of your agents was taken.”
“I asked you whose house you’re at?” Giovanni repeats, low and dismissive.
“Carlos Blancos.”
“Jesus fuck, Crow,” he bites out. “Are you for real? Did Buffy make you go there? You’re a sitting duck at his place.”
“Don’t worry. He’s not here,” I say, purposely not telling him about the conversation I had with Blanco or that Dani is his daughter.
I need time to process everything and hear the whole story.
“My focus is on Buffy, right now. So, either help me, or I’ll do this on my own.”
“On your own?” he says sharply. “You’re one of my agents, remember? You don’t do anything on your own unless it goes through me first. That was the decision you made, Crow.”
My hackles rise. “You know Buffy saved my life in Blackwater. I’m repaying a debt and saving one of your agents.”
“Crow,” he warns. “I need time to find out what we’re up against. We never go into a mission blind. For all we know, it could be the Italians.”
“They wouldn”t risk it. Not when we still have their daughter.”
“Even more reason to figure out who took Buffy and why.”
“Dragon…” I growl, growing impatient. “She doesn’t have time to wait for us to gather intel. The other agents are too far away. I’m already here…” I thump my chest. “I don’t need your permission to go after her. This isn’t about The Covenant. It’s about me and her.”
My heart pounds in his silence.
“You seem very invested in the woman. Is there something you need to offload?”
“We have a mutual respect for each other,” I admit, matter-of-factly.
“Respect…Christ,” he mutters. “It’s my fault for putting you in the same bedroom together. Does anyone else know you’re fucking her?”
My chest tightens. “I’m not just fucking her. There’s more to it than that. But now isn’t the time to stick your nose into my private life. I”m going after Buffy, whether you agree with it or not.”
Giovanni sighs audibly. “You get more and more like him every day.”
“Who…Papá?”
His grunt comes fast. “Hell no, definitely not that fucker. I’m talking about my reckless twin.”
André.
My heart swells at the comparison, and all I feel is the warmth of love surrounding me. I smile from the feeling.
“I’ll have soldiers with you in less than thirty minutes,” Giovanni continues. “They’ll bring weapons and follow your orders. Once you’ve got Buffy, return her to base immediately for a debrief. Disobey me on that and I’ll drag you both back here myself…my way.”
The no-nonsense threat in his tone tells me he’d make an example of us for deviating from his order.
If I disobeyed him, I’d force his hand and have to accept the punishment he’d dish out to maintain order in the ranks.
Knowing my brother—and the violent methods he uses—I’d suffer.
Whereas Dani—I know for a fact she’d fight back. I couldn’t stand in the wings and watch them go head-to-head.
Giovanni is out of everyone’s league. And if she drew Souza blood, he’d order me to kill her. I know he would.
“How do you know this isn’t a setup? She could be leading you into a trap by the dick, Crow.”
My scalp prickles, paranoia rich in my blood. This must be how Papá had felt for years—a constant whisper of doubt and the heavy weight of possible betrayals.
I don’t like that pull of darkness, because it makes me just like him. Elias Souza. A man I foolishly looked up to as a father and a leader. When he was neither.
But it’s not my little firecracker I’m doubting this time. Tomás knows I’m into her. Maybe he’s always known I’m not a true Souza and that one day I might step on his toes if the truth came out—if I got close to Blanco.
Then again, each of my big brothers made sure I could fire a gun and cut cocaine. They gave me whatever I wanted. Especially Tomás.
He’s the guy I really look up to more than anyone. While André and Giovanni treat me like a kid brother, Tomás had always taken the role of a father figure.
Our brotherly bond is watertight.
However, if he went behind our backs and executed Elias without discussing it with his siblings first or giving us a chance to help—that”s devious. And I’d end up questioning everything.
Then again, the guy was brainwashed. Groomed to keep the Souza legacy alive, whatever the cost.
But does that mean he’d secretly kill off members of our family to secure his position as the big boss of the Souza cartel?
“Did you plan it?” I ask. “Was she kidnapped on the boss’ order?”
Prowling back down the corridor, I wander into Blanco’s office and make a beeline for the liquor cabinet.
“Why would he want to take her? No one knows a Blanco soldier carried out the mission that you asked for,” my brother states coolly.
I blow out my cheeks. Dani and I had broken protocol. I told her to take off her balaclava before she stabbed Eduardo. It was a matter of revenge and closure.
Giovanni doesn”t need to know that part, because it was just three of us inside that room. No one else saw her face.
“You have power too, Crow. I didn’t dig any deeper into why that particular mission had to happen since you cleared it with the boss. You had your reasons. Whoever took Buffy must be after Blanco. They took her from his place. I’m sure the asshole has plenty of enemies.”
“Can you run a plate check for me?” I ask.
“Of course. If you need anything else, call me. Stay safe, Crow. And wear your mask.”
When Giovanni ends the call, I pour a neat whiskey and knock it back seconds before Dario enters the room.
“You need to see this, Souza.”