his eyes to meet hers. “Here it is, Fabricio. If you do everything in your power to make sure Kovit and I get this information, I’ll do everything in mine to make sure your father is never a problem for you again. And when the dust has settled and all the blood’s been spilt, we’ll call it even once and for all. No more blackmail. No more pain. No more threats. We just walk away. Deal?”
Fabricio looked down at his bandaged, bloodied hand before he nodded. “Deal.”
Sixteen
FABRICIO ASKED IF he could have a shower, and Nita didn’t see any reason for him not to, so he retreated into the bathroom. She suspected it was less that he wanted a shower and more that he wanted an excuse to be alone for a while. She didn’t blame him.
She also didn’t trust him. He’d seemed genuine in taking her deal, but she knew firsthand how superb an actor he was. But there was nothing she could do about it for now—she needed him, and he knew it.
Kovit leaned against the counter. “What now? How are we going to get the password out of Alberto Tácunan, of all people?”
Nita rested her chin on her hand. “If this were a movie, I’d leave you in a room with him for an hour and we’d have all the answers we wanted.”
“You know torture doesn’t actually work like that.”
“I know. He’d probably give us gibberish, make up things to get it to stop.” She sighed. “But it’s a nice fantasy. That things are so easily solved, answers so easily obtained.”
Kovit smiled dreamily. “It would be fun. Answers or no.”
Nita shivered at his expression, full of innocent delight at what she knew would be something truly terrible. “I’m sure. But we need a better plan.”
His eyes came back to this world, and he raised his eyebrows. “Do you have one?”
“Sort of.” She chewed her lip. “We lure him somewhere, we make him talk.”
“We make him talk how?”
“That’s the part I haven’t figured out yet,” she admitted.
He nodded slowly. “I see.”
She rubbed her temples. “I mean, there’s a lot of pieces I haven’t figured out yet.”
“Like?”
“Where to start?” She counted them off on her fingers. “How I’m going to get that password. How I’m going to use this information to get rid of INHUP. Backup plans. You know. Stuff.”
He considered. “Speaking of getting rid of INHUP, what’s happening with that vampire?”
Nita looked up at him. “Zebra-stripes? What about him?”
“INHUP didn’t put a wanted poster up for him.”
“No, they didn’t.” Nita frowned, seeing where Kovit was going with this. “Zebra-stripes must have something on INHUP. Something so powerful that it’s kept him off the list.”
Their eyes met, and a slight smile curled on Kovit’s face. “Blackmail powerful enough to keep him off the list would be good to have.”
“It would,” Nita agreed, reaching for her phone. “It would be an excellent thing to have, in fact.”
It might even be enough to keep Kovit off the list.
And Nita really did want answers. And vengeance.
She went online, onto the big black market websites, and checked her inbox. Kovit leaned forward and peered over her shoulder.
There, sure enough, was a response to the message she’d sent the ad asking for information on her mother. The account that was likely from Zebra-stripes.
She’d pinged it with an offer when she’d last been online, just to see if it responded—she knew her mother’s location, but wanted half upfront to guarantee she’d get paid. It was a common practice, and Zebra-stripes had accepted. Nita downloaded the money.
She exchanged a glance with Kovit and took a deep breath, her fingers hesitating over her screen. Then she told Zebra-stripes that her mother was in Buenos Aires.
“Done.”
Kovit nodded. “Good. Now we just need to make sure he goes where we want him. We don’t want him running all over Buenos Aires not knowing where he’ll go.”
Nita grinned, an idea sparking in her mind, tangling up with her other plans. “Then we’ll give him a direction.”
Kovit raised his eyebrows, but Nita just smiled at him.
Nita scrolled through the internet, searching for anything interesting happening in Buenos Aires she could use. Her fingers paused a few hits down from the top. Apparently, there was a multigovernment meeting about laws regarding unnaturals starting tomorrow and going on all weekend. It seemed like the sort of thing people in the black market might take an interest in.
The kind of place she might be able to set a trap for those people.
As she clicked