Chapter 72 – thiago
Seventy-Two
thiago
Pain erupts across the right side of my face, ripping me out of unconsciousness.
I suck in a breath and force my eyes open, but everything swims. My head pounds, my jaw throbs, and the taste of blood coats my tongue. When I try to straighten, pain rages through my abdomen, forcing me back against the chair.
Fuck.
Breathing through it, I wait for the room to stop spinning. The wound Remi gave me throbs beneath my shirt, and the wetness spreading across the bandage tells me I’ve torn the stitches to all hell.
I groan from the ache in my thighs and ribs every time I breathe. There isn’t a goddamn part of me that escaped whatever happened after the crash.
The crash.
Pieces begin coming back. The SUV in my mirror. Matteo’s voice through the speakers. Headlights coming from my left. Then metal slammed into the driver’s side, and everything went black. I don’t know how long I’ve been unconscious or where the fuck they brought me.
I blink until my vision clears enough to make out the space around me. A single lamp illuminates the far corner, leaving most of the room buried in shadow. Damp concrete walls trap the heat, and the air reeks of mildew, rust, and stagnant water.
Something warm slides down my forehead and drips from the tip of my nose. I try to wipe it away, but my hands won’t move. Steel cuffs rattle against the metal bars behind me instead.
“Fuck,” I groan as I pull against them. “Goddamn bastards.”
The last thing I remember is calling Matteo. I told him to get everyone out before Helios could reach them, but I have no idea if I got through to him before they found me.
I have to believe I did.
If Matteo listened, Remi and the rest of her family are already gone, somewhere Helios can’t reach them. Somewhere safe.
Please let her be safe.
The last time I saw her, she stood on that terrace, telling me she hated me as tears slid down her face.
If I die in this place, that could be the last memory of us she’s left with.
She’ll never know that I meant every word when I told her I loved her, or that I tried to protect her after I destroyed any reason she had to believe me.
The thought hurts more than anything they’ve done to my body.
A soft shuffle comes from somewhere to my right, and I turn toward the sound. The shadows are too thick to make out anything beyond the outline of a person, yet I’m no longer alone. Maybe I never was.
“Fucking do it already!”
Silence answers me.
I throw my weight against the chair, sending the metal legs scraping across the concrete as I yank at the cuffs biting into my wrists. “Do what you came here to do.”
“Now, Operative, where is your training?”
I know that voice.
I blink into the darkness, straining to make out Elena’s figure and wondering what the hell she’s doing here.
“One would think a decorated officer like you would have a little more self-control. And a lot more self-preservation.”
“What is this? What are you doing here?”
But then I remember what they told me at Helios.
No official directive ever targeted Remi or her family.
The Cain file was created without authorization, meaning everything I was ordered to do came from Elena.
I barely made it out of Helios alive after learning the truth, leaving me no chance to figure out why she’d built an entire operation around Remi.
“Why?” I bite out.
She steps into the edge of the light. “Why am I here?”
“No. Why did you do it? Why Remi?”
“Ah,” she says as her smile widens. “I see you’ve been busy playing detective. We all know how that ends, don’t we?”
Bitch.
“Tell me!” I wrench against the restraints. “What the fuck were you doing? You assigned me to a file that never should’ve existed. You fabricated classified intelligence about a civilian and her family, then gave me orders that could’ve gotten every one of them killed.”
Elena gives a dismissive wave as she begins pacing.
“Oh, save it. Fabricated or not, you’re delusional if you think that woman’s hands are clean.
Her family is even worse. The number of bodies the Cains and their associates have buried is beyond your comprehension.
They’ve been spilling blood for decades.
” She glances over her shoulder at me, completely unfazed.
“But you already knew that, didn’t you, Operative?
” She tilts her head. “Or I suppose it’s just Braga now. ”
I watch her pace, finally understanding what never made sense about any of this. “This was never about Helios.”
She stops.
“It was never about whatever intelligence you thought the Cains had either.” I glare at her. “You chose Remi yourself. You wanted me in her life.”
Elena slowly turns toward me. “What?” she asks. “Starting to sound personal?”
“Why her?”
“I’m glad you’re finally catching on.”
Before I can demand an answer, an explosion rocks the building, shaking the chair beneath me. Dust and fragments of concrete rain from the ceiling as the walls tremble around us.
Elena’s attention shifts toward the door. “Speak of the devil. The cavalry’s here. The question is, who reaches you first?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I was a little naughty while you were asleep.” Elena slips her phone from her pocket and taps the screen. “I sent out a distress call. I even made sure to use your best angle.”
It takes me a moment to understand what she means.
“You took a fucking picture of me?”
“And I sent it to the one person I knew would come running.”
My blood runs cold.
“Remi.”
“Bingo. Is this the part where I tell you my villain origin story?” She laughs under her breath. “I would, Braga, but I’m afraid you wouldn’t understand.”
Gunfire breaks out somewhere inside the building, shots echoing through the concrete corridors until I can’t tell how close they are.
A sick feeling takes hold of me as I stare at the door.
But Remi still hates me. She wanted me dead and made that perfectly clear the last time I saw her. She wouldn't come for me.
“You’re wasting your time. She isn’t coming.”
Elena doesn’t answer as she slides her phone into her back pocket and shrugs off her jacket. Then I see what she’s wearing underneath. Black webbing wraps around her torso, securing bricks of C-4 across her chest.
My attention locks onto the detonator strapped beside them as the vest’s purpose becomes horrifyingly clear.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
“Don’t look so shocked.” Elena turns to face me. “I have no intention of dying here today, but a girl has to have a little insurance, don’t you think?”
I stare at the explosives, then back at her.
“Commander, this isn’t you. You joined Helios for the same reason I did, to save lives. Whatever this is, you can stop it right here before anyone else gets hurt.”
Her laughter fills the room. “Still trying to save everyone. That’s adorable. Unfortunately, I’d rather not take moral advice from the man who’s been fucking the enemy.”
She takes another step and smiles. “Although, I am sorry about ruining your dinner plans.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Dinner with the family.” She taps the phone in her pocket. “You two really should’ve been more careful about what you sent through this thing.”
“You were reading my messages?”
“Tracking them, reading them. I had access to everything.” She shrugs. “When I saw you were finally meeting the family, I decided it was the perfect night for Remi to learn who she was bringing home.” Her eyes drop to my abdomen. “I take it that didn’t go over too well, huh?”
“You fucking bitch.” My hands ball into fists behind the chair. “You planned every goddamn part of this.”
Elena grins. “You have no idea.”
I open my mouth to demand what else she’s done, but another burst of gunfire rips through the building, closer than the last.
“Any moment now.” Elena draws her sidearm and circles behind me. “Isn’t this exciting?” she singsongs as the barrel presses against my temple. “We’re about to find out who’s behind door number one.”
I barely recognize her anymore. Commander Elena has always been calculated and disciplined, and every decision she made had a purpose. The woman standing behind me is neither of those things. Whatever she's after goes far beyond Helios.
The door explodes inward.
My heart climbs to my throat as I stare through the haze, praying I was right and that Remi stayed away.
“Go on,” Elena murmurs near my ear. “Call out.”
“Fuck you.”
She fires into my thigh.
The impact jerks my body against the restraints as white-hot pain tears through my leg. I clamp my jaw against the shout threatening to escape and look down at the wound.
Blood pours out, but it isn’t pulsing.
She missed the artery.
“Show yourself now, or the next one will paint the ground with his brain.”
I draw in a breath and lift my head toward the doorway as a figure moves through the dust.
My heart drops when Remi steps into view, her Glock raised, moving cautiously as she searches the room. Her eyes find Elena first, then the weapon at my head, the explosives strapped across her chest, and finally me.
The second she sees me, she stops, taking in the blood covering my face, the restraints, my shirt soaked through at the abdomen, and the fresh bullet wound in my thigh.
“Remi.” Her name scrapes out of me as disbelief gives way to fear. “Fuck. What are you doing here? You weren’t supposed to come.”
Her eyes meet mine for only a second, then return to Elena.
“We should’ve placed bets,” Elena says. “I bet you didn’t expect her, did you?”
I don’t answer. My attention is on Remi as hers shifts to Elena with the same focus I’ve seen at the range, assessing the gun, her position, and every inch of the vest.
“Careful.” Elena steps beside me far enough to give her a better view of the explosives. “I know exactly what you’re thinking. You’re looking for the shot. One clean pull of the trigger before I can put a round through his skull.”
The barrel digs harder into my temple.
“But there’s one problem.”
Elena raises her wrist, revealing a biometric monitor attached to the vest.