Chapter 26
CHAPTER 26
STEFANO
Tears and snot streamed down the security guard’s pale white face, mixing on his chin.
“Oh shit, oh shit,” he cried. “Please don't kill me, man. Take whatever you want. Anything. I won't say a word.”
The weak motherfucking pig.
Enzo watched the man with just as much disdain.
“Dude, get it together,” my son said. “We won’t kill you unless you make us do it.”
I blinked down at him. I couldn’t have agreed more, but what nine-year-old talked that way?
Enzo flicked his gaze up to me. “Right?”
“Right,” I said, then turned to the guard. “Answer the questions, tell us what we want to know, and you’ll be fine.”
He wiped his nose on the back of his sleeve, then threaded his fingers together in front of himself.
“S-Sure, man. Whatever you need.”
“Good. At what time was the girl shot upstairs on the third floor?” I asked.
His brows raised in surprise.
“What? No, no one was shot here. This is a private school. People don’t get shot here. It doesn't happen here.”
I rolled my eyes.
“It happens everywhere, you stupid fuck. How long have you been on duty?”
“Since the end of school hours. So like half past three?”
Enzo scoffed at the man, then met my gaze.
“How does he not know she got shot right above him? These halls echo. You can hear things even with our classroom doors shut.”
“Never underestimate incompetence,” I muttered. “If the rent-a-cop here didn’t hear anything, we need another way to get the information.”
“How?” Enzo asked.
I pointed at the guard's workstation and the line of monitors flashing between views from the different security cameras around the school. Then I leveled my weapon at the guard's head again.
“There’s a security camera on the third floor pointed at the mosaic tiles by the main staircase. Find the camera footage from earlier tonight and start rewinding.”
The guard burst into tears again as he sat at the computer.
“H-how far back should I go?”
Enzo reached for my free hand and pulled me back a step, his gaze aimed down at the puddle growing on the floor beneath the guard’s pant leg.
For Christ’s sake.
I moved around the chair and stood by the guy’s dry leg.
“Apparently around three-thirty this afternoon,” I said.
As he bobbed his head up and down, he moved the mouse around to wake the computer from a screensaver on a fucking loop. He hadn’t even watched the feeds at his own workstation.
“How many guards are here?” I asked.
“Just me. Budget cuts, so we work one at a time.”
Finally, the man got the right camera up and went back to the time school closed. Seemed like a quiet building. An occasional straggler in the halls, a lone child running from one classroom to another.
Most figures caught on camera were on their way out.
He sped up the video, making the people on screen look like cartoon characters running around. According to the timestamp, a tall man entered the frame at 5:30 p.m., hauling another stumbling figure behind him near the large marble staircase.
Val.
“That’s him,” Enzo shouted. “That’s Mr. Luka!”
Then the son of a bitch hit Val hard enough to send her flying across the floor. Even before he’d backhanded her, she looked banged up and bruised.
I hissed out a slow breath, my bones quaking with rage, waiting for Val to roll over, so I could see her face. When she faced the camera again, I didn’t recognize her expression.
Nostrils flared, teeth bared, fire raging in her eyes.
My sweet little barista had transformed into a fierce warrior ready to take on the world. It showed me a side of her I’d never seen, not even the night we fought so many years ago.
That night, yes, she’d been furious with me, but she still appeared to be the same woman.
In this video, she looked dangerous, like a determined survivor, a strong woman who could stand by my side and hold her own. Not a trophy wife or stay-at-home mom.
This woman could give orders, strategize, and help me run my empire. Fuck. It had to be the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, despite the circumstances.
The footage didn’t have sound, so I didn’t know what she said to him, but her eyes told me everything as she stood and squared off against her kidnapper, her stance wide and steady as she spoke.
Whatever Val had said enraged this Luka piece of shit. He said something to her, his shoulders back and chest pushed out to make himself look bigger. He must have been defending himself.
His efforts hadn’t worked because Val laughed. Not with a cute giggle or coquettish simper. No, she tossed her head back, her beautiful dark locks cascading over her shoulders as her mouth opened wide and she belted out wild laughter.
She’d baited him. That much became clear through his body language and hers. Val wanted Luka to yell, scream, make a ruckus to get this worthless security guard's attention, so he would get off his ass and go investigate. Anything to give us a better trail to follow her…
Brilliant idea.
But I’d already seen the photo. I knew what came next on the video playback. The tight grip on my heart squeezed hard when Luka drew his weapon and aimed it at her.
I pulled Enzo over to me, pressing the side of his face against my chest, holding him there, so he couldn’t see what then played out on the monitor.
“Holy fuck,” the guard whispered. “He's one of the teachers here. I know him…”
The man stumbled over his words as he stood, knocking his chair back, and slipping on his own piss without taking his eyes off the screen. He slowly backed away, as if he thought Luka could turn the gun on him and fire through the video footage.
“Explain to me again,” I snarled, “how you sat one story directly below that, surrounded by empty hallways and security monitors, and you didn't hear or see a goddamn thing.”
The guard looked away from the screen but kept his gaze away from me, lifting a hand to scratch the back of his neck.
“I-I… maybe I was out doing rounds? Or maybe he had a silencer on the gun?”
“There was no suppressor on that gun,” I said. “What the fuck were you really doing?”
His shoulders rose almost to his ears, his elbows tucking in against his sides.
“I-I must’ve been doing my rounds and just didn’t hear it. I swear I didn’t hear her.”
When he stepped back to get away from me, I saw what he’d been hiding. A headset and gaming system laid on the desk behind him.
I looked at Enzo with a raised brow.
“We’re putting you in a better school after this.”
Enzo shrugged, then narrowed his eyes.
“You just get my mom back first.”