The past has been in my head because she reminds me of the girl I once loved, and she shouldn’t. Priscilla reminded me of her, too, but it was different with her. She was as reckless as I was, which should have been a dead giveaway she wasn’t what she appeared to be.
Vanessa was innocent.
That was her name and I still feel the sting of our end. It helps that no one mentions her. I guess they don’t because they’ve assumed I must be well past over her. It’s been thirty years, so I guess I have. But you never forget your first love. Especially one you almost married.
Lucia looks nothing like her, but her inner beauty shares undeniable similarities.
I look away, burying the past in my mind once more. I make my way to my room, but before I get there, my phone rings in my back pocket. I know that call has to be important to be coming in at this early hour.
When I reach for it and see Eric’s number flashing across the screen, I answer straightaway.
“Hi,” I say.
“Alejandro, we have a problem.”
My stomach sinks. “What’s happening?”
“My tracking system has been tampered with.”
My blood heats. “What the fuck do you mean?”
“I mean they have someone like me working with them. I’m on my way to you.”
“It’s called the Chameleon virus,”Eric says. Fury creases his brows as he lowers himself to sit in the chair opposite me. “It’s attached to my system.”
I’m so sick of this technological shit.
Sighing with frustration, I plant myself on the edge of my desk. We’re in my office on the other side of the house.
“It’s some high-tech shit that blends in with your programs so the usual antivirus software can’t detect it,” he explains. “It continuously changes its coding to keep blending so you don’t know when something’s wrong until it’s too late. Whoever made it knew exactly how to get around everything I set up.”
“Fucking hell. I don’t know what the fuck to make of this now,” I rasp. “This could mean anything.”
“Yes, it could. I managed to nuke it, but that doesn’t stop them from doing something else.”
“Will they know what you’ve done?”
He nods. “We’ll have to take precautions, Alejandro. Fuck knows who they have working for them and what they’re doing if they can manage to screw with my system. I have no idea when the fuck they put it there. My guess is it could be anywhere near the time Micah Santa Maria died. So, all the information I’ve gathered on the whereabouts of the men over the last few months could be skewed.”
“Damn it.”
“When I got rid of the virus, I did a scan of everyone we’re keeping an eye on and found this.” He pulls out a sheet of paper and hands it to me.
It’s an email printout from Bernardo Perez, the environmental minister. That motherfucker was part of the group of dirty politicians I bargained with to get Petróleo. Last time we spoke, I nearly killed him. He swore blindly that unlike his peer we found dead who’d rubbed shoulders with Micah, he had nothing to do with them.
I knew he was lying, and now I see I was right to think so. There are flight details in this email to Campania in Italy. That’s where the Camorra is based. The fucking group Micah belonged to.
He left for Italy yesterday and should be back later today.
I return my gaze to Eric, seeing he’s already deduced what I have.
“I’m not sure what the Brazilian environmental minister would be doing somewhere directly linked to the Camorra, but I think we found a lead.”
“I think so, too. Let’s plan to go to his house at around seven. His wife is normally home by then, making dinner.” I smile, knowing I probably look like a psychopath. I feel like one. “We’ll keep her company until he gets home.”
It’s time to take things to the next level doing what I do best.
Being ruthless.
I reach for my guns in my desk drawer.