her own goals now.
The Airbnb apartment was small but serviceable. It had a double bed in one room and a pullout sofa beside the kitchen. The walls were white with small pink flowers, and the floors were well-worn hardwood. The windows looked down on the street, with metal shutters that could be lowered over them. The room was light and airy, and the flat-screen TV on the wall was so shiny it could be used as a mirror.
Fabricio looked nervously between the couch bed and the main bedroom. “There’s two beds.”
“And?” Nita threw her bag in a corner and pulled out her phone to connect to the Wi-Fi.
“And there’s three of us.”
“So we’ll share.”
Fabricio tried to play it cool, but Nita could see how tense and tight his body was. “Am I sharing with Kovit?”
Kovit raised an eyebrow. “You don’t like me?”
Fabricio held his bandaged hand tight to his side. “No offense, Kovit, but you’re not my type.”
Kovit blinked at him, clearly not expecting the conversation to go there, and then burst into laughter. He ran his hand through his hair, and his eyes lowered to Fabricio’s injured hand. His smile fell a little.
Nita interrupted, not liking the pensive, slightly unhappy look on Kovit’s face. “It’s fine. I’ll share with Kovit.”
Fabricio looked between them, slight smile forming on his face. “I didn’t realize you two were . . .”
“Were what?” Nita’s voice was soft and dangerous.
He gave her an innocent look. “So close.”
Kovit laughed softly. “Good save.”
Nita rolled her eyes.
“Enough play time.” Nita turned to Fabricio. “It’s time to make yourself useful. We’re going to break into Tácunan Law. What do we need?”
Fabricio sighed. “You need someone with security clearance and door codes.”
“Which you have.”
“Yes.” Fabricio plopped himself on the sofa.
“Let’s talk security cameras.” Nita crossed her arms. “What do you know?”
“They have them? I don’t know much more.”
“Guards?”
“There’s always some.” He shrugged. “If we go in the side entrance, you shouldn’t encounter any, but they’ll come if they hear noise.”
Nita nodded to herself, already making a mental list of things she’d need to do. “How far can your codes get us?”
“I can get you into the building, I can get you right to the computers that can access all the information you need. But that’s as far as I can go. I don’t have the passwords to get into the mainframe.”
Nita crossed her arms and stared at him. “Really?”
“Really.” He ran his uninjured hand through his hair. “Look, if I could get into my father’s information, don’t you think I would have done so before now? I would have left Buenos Aires years ago. I’d have sold some random information, taken the money, and run.”
“Why?” Nita met his eyes. “Why would you have run?”
His mouth snapped closed. “I have my reasons.”
“If you really wanted to run, you’d have tried, money or not.”
“I did try. Once.”
Nita blinked. “Pardon?”
“I tried. When I was . . . thirteen? Fourteen? I can’t recall. I didn’t make it far before I was recaptured.” He shuddered softly. “Let’s just say your mother wasn’t the first person to remove some body parts.”
Nita stared, remembering the first time she’d seen Fabricio, with his bare feet, missing toes. Her mother had told her they’d been sold online by the collector who owned him. But there had never been any collector, just his father.
Nita didn’t want to think too hard about what that said about Fabricio’s father, or how she felt about that, so she barreled ahead. “Fine. So you don’t have the passwords to get us in. Who does?”
He looked away. “My father.”
Nita shook her head. She didn’t want to go directly against Alberto Tácunan unless she absolutely had to. “Who else?”
“That’s it.”
“That can’t be it. He can’t run the entire company by himself. Other people need to have access.”
“People have access to individual things they’re working on.” Fabricio shrugged. “But you want everything? Only one man has the password to get all the information.”
Nita pressed her lips together. It wasn’t ideal, but she was prepared for this.
She smiled at Fabricio. “Then I guess we’re going to have to get the password from your father.”
“You’ll die.”
“Perhaps.” Nita tilted her head and met Fabricio’s eyes. “Or maybe he will.”
Fabricio just stared at her before a bitter smile crossed his face. “If only.”
Nita knelt so she was face-to-face with Fabricio and grabbed his chin in her hands. “You wanted a carrot? Something to motivate you to work with me?”
“Yessss.” He dragged the sound out, but his voice was nervous.
She forced