The Espionage Effect(82)
“Tell me more about Devin,” Escobar’s monitor voice urged. “Why is she here if she’s not part of EtherSphere One?”
“Devin craved to be a part of something greater. She hated the idea of being cooped up, relegated to the indoor trivial life of being a scientist. Her parents pushed her toward everything she hated, suspecting it would rile her into fighting against it. Sooner or later, they expected she would break free. When she started showing signs of rebelling, and” —Anna glanced up at him, a crooked smile twisting her lips— “you started showing signs of movement toward whatever endgame you’d been heading toward, they saw the perfect opportunity to bring the two together.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. My mission was only to get her down here.” Anna let out a heavy sigh, then scrunched her face, like the effort of disclosing exhausted her.
“That can’t be all. Coincidence wouldn’t be enough,” he prodded Anna.
Coincidence. I agree. Alec played the other part in this grand scheme. He couldn’t be innocent of it all. Yet Anna seemed unaware of his role in the mission. Why? Was Escobar not asking the right questions?
“It isn’t all. I was told to get close to your son.” Her face softened, then her smile widened. “And I got close to Miguel. Intimately close.”
Deep laughter rumbled and Escobar edged into view for the first time on the monitor. “That, my dear Anna, was your downfall. Women always let their guard down when a man shows them attention. Emotions and business don’t mix. Your fairer sex struggles with the concept. My son does not.”
The monitor went dark at the click of a button. Then to my left, from the ranks of his men, one stepped forward. Escobar’s son, Miguel.
I knew it. Well, highly suspected it, anyway. Had no idea what I would’ve done to warn Anna—who was supposed to be my roommate and friend—about my concerns though. How would that have gone, exactly? You’re boyfriend’s a villain and mine’s a spy?
Miguel edged into view, hovering as close to me on one side as his father stood on the other. He leaned closer, hot breath fanning over my cheek as his words whispered into my ear. “Anna played the part of patient well. A little too well. When she asked me one too many personal questions, something no mere resort piece-of-ass would be interested in, I gave her one too many pain killers to knock her out long enough to dig deep.”
I held his gaze, refusing to cave under the pressure, even though standing between the vileness of the two Escobars gave me a skin-crawling chill.
Miguel cocked his head. “I’m not just a doctor, as you’ve guessed. I’m not only a scientist either. I’m highly trained in computer forensics and coding.”
His father rubbed a hand over my other cheek. I couldn’t stop the shudder running though my body at the repulsive touch. Only a forced breath into my lungs kept me focused. My tensed legs were the only thing holding me upright.
Miguel caressed a hand up the column of my neck. “Anna’s computer had a hidden coding behind the operating system. I didn’t break all of it, but enough to know she didn’t bring it down here to shop online.”
The back of Escobar’s hand trailed below my collarbone, then brushed against the curve of my breast. “You aren’t innocent in this, are you?”
A lesser woman would have cowered. My former self might have shut down.
Yet I fought a reaction to their intimidation tactics with every fiber of my being. Tapping into anger I’d kept buried deep inside—that now boiled to the surface with the depths of the betrayals against me—I funneled rage instead of revulsion, harnessed the wrath I’d kept at bay for so long. Too long.
Barely restrained, I held my temper in check. Rather than act in rash haste, I channeled the blood thundering through my veins to give me clarity.
Escobar continued. “Anna swears under the influence of sodium pentothal that you knew nothing. Yet I think you did. You stumbled across something that led you to explore my house, didn’t you?”
Uncertain whether his dungeon cameras had picked up anything when I’d lunged forward at the unexpected sight of his captives, I clamped my mouth shut. Apparently whatever my traitorous “best friend” revealed had satisfied Escobar enough not to truth-serum drug me too. And whatever role Alec played in all of this, good or bad, I wouldn’t reveal what I’d been told by him—didn’t know how much of it bore the truth, anyway.
But whatever unrevealed secrets I still held, I intended to preserve, for now. Clearly those who maintained them and used them strategically gained the advantage. And to my knowledge, what Alec and I had done, and my suspicions about what the Escobars had planned were the only secret-cards I had left to play.
Course determined, my mind instantly dealt a reply. “You did say I was a brain child. An invaluable weapon. One would imagine an unfired weapon itches to be detonated.”
Escobar twitched his head back at my rapid retort. Then a deep belly laugh followed as Miguel grinned wide.
“Oh, Devin.” Escobar lifted his hand from where it hovered near my breast and rested it on my shoulder. “I think you and I will get along brilliantly. The weapon EtherSphere thought they had has turned against them—because of them. Little did they know, you would have the last laugh.”
To reinforce the sudden turn of the conversation, Escobar gave Miguel a nod, and his son instantly backed away from me. Escobar also gave me more room, stepping away from the desk as he circled around toward his men.