Chapter 72 – thiago #2
“This continuously monitors my heart. If it stops, the vest detonates.”
“Why are you doing this?” Remi asks.
“Because I can. Because some debts are paid in blood.” Elena leans close, her breath against my ear, then slides the barrel of her gun beneath my chin. “And because I’ve been waiting a very long time for this.”
I look at Remi. Her expression tells me she heard it too. Whatever she expected to find when she came here, it wasn’t this.
“What are you talking about?”
“I know you didn’t come alone,” Elena says. “And I’d rather not explain myself twice, so we’ll give them another second.”
More gunfire echoes from the corridor. Footsteps follow, and Kai, Amalia, and Matteo rush through the doorway, weapons drawn.
“Don’t shoot!” Remi warns them. “She’s wearing explosives with a biometric trigger.”
“Well, that didn’t take long.” Elena presses the muzzle harder against my jaw, forcing my head back.
“Remi, get them out of here,” I say. “All of you need to leave while you still can.”
Elena rips the gun away from my chin and drives it across my face. My head snaps sideways, reopening old wounds and spilling fresh blood down my cheek.
“Stop!” Remi moves toward us, but Kai catches her arm.
“Now, Thiago,” Elena says. “You seem to have forgotten something. I’m your superior, so I make the rules.”
“This isn’t going to end well for anyone,” Kai says as he steps in front of his daughter. “So what’s the point?”
Remi pushes around him, refusing to stay behind his back. “Touch him again, and I’ll fucking kill you.”
The words hit somewhere Elena’s gun never could. After everything, some part of my girl still cares what happens to me. I don’t deserve the hope that puts in my chest, but I can’t stop it from taking hold.
Elena grins, her attention turning to Kai.
“Kai Cain. Feisty little girl you’ve got there.” The playful edge disappears from her voice. “I was hoping you’d show up.”
Kai watches her, his eyebrows knitting together as if there’s something familiar about her he can’t quite place.
The gunfire outside grows more distant, leaving Elena’s voice clear amid the commotion in the building.
“You probably don’t recognize me. It’s been a long time.”
Kai keeps his weapon trained on her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Of course. How rude of me.” She smiles. “I’m Elena Duvall, though you might know me better as Hannah.”
Kai says nothing.
“Getting there?” she asks.
“Kai?” Amalia keeps her gun raised. “Who is she?”
“Did you ever tell your little wife about my mother?”
“Kai,” Amalia says again.
He shakes his head. “I don’t know you.”
Elena’s amusement fades. “Maybe you’ll remember Gloria Elena Duvall.”
Kai freezes, the name landing differently.
Amalia notices it too. “What the hell is she talking about?”
“Papá?” Remi asks.
“Tell them!” Elena shouts. “Tell them how you killed her. Tell them how you drowned my mother in that fountain while I stood there and watched.”
Kai remains silent.
“I had just made my birthday wish.” Elena’s voice breaks despite her attempt to control it. “Do you remember me now?”
Amalia turns toward her husband. “Gloria?”
Kai closes his eyes briefly, then looks at Elena again. “I do. I remember.”
“But that was a long time ago…I didn’t know you were there,” he says. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry,” Elena repeats with a bitter laugh. “That’s exactly what you said to me the day you found me.”
Kai’s expression tightens.
“You crouched in front of me afterward like that was supposed to mean something. Like saying you were sorry could erase what I’d just watched you do.
” Her breathing grows uneven, but she keeps the gun firmly under my chin.
“I spent years in therapy because of you. Years waking to her screams. I couldn’t close my eyes without seeing her fighting to keep her head above that water while you held her under. ”
No one interrupts her.
Even Kai has nothing to say.
“I watched my mother die on my birthday, and then I grew up knowing the man who killed her walked away and built himself a beautiful fucking life.” Her attention moves to Amalia and then Remi. “A wife. Children. A family who loves you.”
Kai lowers his weapon slightly. “You were a child, and you never should’ve witnessed what happened that day.”
“But I did. You took everything from me.”
“I’m sorry.”
Elena’s eyes shine with tears, but the hatred in them never wavers.
“So I decided to return the favor.”
“That’s what all of this was?” I ask. “You used Helios, sent me after Remi, and put her entire family in danger because of what Kai did to your mother decades ago?”
Elena looks at me, her grin back in place. “This could’ve gone so many ways. I thought having one of my operatives infiltrate his daughter’s life would be satisfying enough.” Her gaze shifts to Remi. “Then you two fell in love.”
Understanding hits me.
“You knew what would happen when she found out.”
“I hoped.” Elena gives a slight shrug. “Watching Kai Cain’s daughter fall in love with the man sent to betray her was far better than anything I could’ve planned.”
“Jesus,” Matteo mutters. “You wanted to destroy her to punish him.”
“No.” Elena looks directly at Remi. “She did that all by herself.”
Remi’s mouth parts, but no words come.
“How sure are we that vest is real?” Matteo asks, keeping his weapon aimed at Elena.
“Please.” Elena presses the gun beneath my chin. “You’re welcome to test that theory.”
Kai raises his weapon again. “This is between you and me. Let everyone else walk out of here.”
Elena tilts her head, staring at him. “You still don’t understand.”
The gun leaves my chin and swings toward Amalia.