by Ravenna Tate
“Exactly.”
“Which Weathermen knew?”
“Ace, Emmett, Dominic, Barclay, Grayson Jensen, and Oliver Fairchild. Grayson owns Jensen Software and Web Development. Between him and Emmett, they own the entire market share for those services in the US cities. Oliver owns Fairchild BioSystems. His company is the reason we all can breathe and grow food underground.”
“Is this silo still there?”
“Yes. It’s partly underground so we’re confident it’s still there, but the servers are down. They were taken down once the project was compromised so no one else could access anything.”
“Is it accessible? I mean if someone were to go above ground, could they get in and get the servers up and running again?”
“We don’t know. No one has tried. If they did, we would have known.”
“So do you all now believe the hackers worked for one of those six men?”
“Yes, or they still do.”
“What a horrible thought.”
“A very horrible thought.”
“What about Rafael’s computer? Don’t you need that, too?”
“Too risky, considering this lumber pricing scheme he’s involved in. Plus, we aren’t entirely sure of his part in the original hacking. What we need to know will be on Rob’s laptop.”
Sela sat back against the cushions again and thought about everything Damien had just told her. She was stunned, but not really surprised. Between everything Santino had told her over the years, and what she’d learned from Damien himself in the past month, she’d come to realize the Weathermen had their hands in everything, and had contacts that went all the way to the top.
She also now saw that their plan had to be executed. They had to find out what Rob knew, if anything, and whether he truly had the names of the hackers, or was one of them. He had worked for Ace, after all. For that matter, one of the hackers could be an employee that her brother currently supervised. The magnitude of this revelation was staggering. How could any of them trust even one of their employees?
“You do what you have to do. I understand now, and I won’t judge any of you.”
Damien’s look of complete relief was all she needed right now. He pulled her close and held her. “I love you so much.”
Sela’s body tingled every time he said those words. She’d never felt this way about anyone. “I love you, too.”
He kissed her, only to sigh and pull away as his phone rang again. “Considering everything that’s going on, I’d better answer it.” He glanced at it, frowning, then swiped it to answer the call. “Tomás, what’s going on?”
A nasty shiver ran down Sela’s spine, but she couldn’t say why. As she watched Damien’s face, her fear grew until it felt like someone had let fire ants loose in her veins. He answered Tomás in monosyllables, and then told him they’d leave for SouthWest in the morning. When he disconnected the call, he cupped her face gently. “We have trouble at home and have to cut this trip short. I’m sorry.”
“What is it?”
At first she didn’t think he’d tell her, but then resignation filled his eyes. “Tomás fired Ernest and every crew member he brought with him yesterday, and today he received a phone call from a voice he didn’t recognize. The man threatened him, and said he would pay for betraying Ernest.”
“Maybe it’s just an empty threat?” Even as she said it, she knew it wasn’t true.
He pulled her close again. “Don’t you worry about it, all right? I won’t let anything happen to my friend, and this mall project will go on as scheduled.”
Sela wished she could feel as confident as Damien sounded, but she had a strong premonition that they hadn’t heard the last of Ernest or the men he worked with.
Chapter Fifteen
Sela was so busy the week following their trip to CentralWest that she didn’t have time to think about Ernest’s threat to Tomás. She had hired five part-time instructors, and wanted to hire at least three more. The unit would be done in less than two weeks, and she suddenly had more to do than she had time in which to finish it.
She’d asked Damien only once whether Rob Marin’s laptop had been stolen, but he told her Viggo’s associates were watching the house to get an idea of Rob’s and Olivia’s schedules. Damien told her it might be a month or two before it happened.
Sela and Angela emailed back and forth all the time now, and Sela was happy to have her as a friend. It connected her to Damien’s other friends in a way, and she felt like part of an elite group. Angela told her they were all going to Liane’s and Emmett’s wedding in June, and she hoped to see her there.
When Sela asked Damien about attending it with him, he looked at her like she was crazy. “Of course we’re going together, niña. Did you think I’d leave you behind?”
“I don’t want to make assumptions.”
Damien pulled her close. “Make them, please. Make them every single day, mi amor. You’re mine forever, and I intend to share my entire life with you.”
A week before her unit and three others were ready to open for business, Sela had hired all eight instructors. She told Damien she wanted to work in the unit most of the day, and might be there past dinnertime as well. Everything was in place. All her furniture had finally been delivered, and she was putting up the barres along the mirrors herself to save time and money. She also had her office behind one of the walls to set up, and about a million little details to take care of.
****
Damien was knee-deep in a project across town, and told her he’d be busy late into the afternoon as well, but promised to bring take-out to her on his way home so they could sit in her new unit and eat. She loved that idea, and said it was the perfect way to bring good karma to it before her official launch.
By late in the afternoon, he was tired and hungry, and all he wanted to do was pick up some food and meet Sela at her studio. He couldn’t wait to see what she’d done with it today. He’d already arranged to take the day off for her official launch because he wanted to be there with her to celebrate it.
Finally, they were finished, and he made his way across town on the tram, exiting two blocks before the mall to stop at his favorite take-out place to buy their dinner. He was chatting with the owner while his food was being prepared when they both stopped, startled by an explosion. There was no mistaking the sound. A few seconds later, an air horn siren split the air, and Damien didn’t stop to think. He knew where that sound was coming from. Those were the fire alarms at the mall.
Sela! She was still there, working. He had to get to her.
Damien ran.
****
Sela turned on music while she worked, swaying and singing along to La Concepción. It was late in the afternoon, but she knew Damien would be there eventually. As she gazed out the front windows over the deserted parking lot, a shiver ran down her spine, but she hugged herself and smiled. Everything was fine.
Damien told her nothing had come of Ernest’s threat, and the new crew and foreman had been working now for two weeks without incident. Viggo’s associates were still watching the Marin house, but Damien said none of the Weathermen were worried. They knew when the time was perfect, the job would be completed.
Sela went back into the room behind the studio to work, and after a few minutes she felt the ground shake, as though something heavy had been dropped close to her. Almost instantly an air horn split the air. She froze. What the fuck is that? When the smell of smoke tickled her nose, she realized it was the fire alarm. “Oh my God…”
She tried to fight rising panic as she glanced around for her phone. There it was. Should she call for help? No. The fire alarms were wired straight to the nearest station. They were on their way already. She wanted to hear Damien’s voice, but she knew she needed to get out of there first.
Tears stained her cheeks as she made her way to the back door, but she wasn’t able to approach it because the air was hazy. She began to cough, and her lungs and eyes burned. She had to get into t
he studio and out the front door. She turned around and tried to access the flashlight app on her phone because it was now too dark to see, but her fingers were shaking so badly she couldn’t do it.
Sela felt along the wall for the door, her lungs on fire now and the coughing constant. She could hardly breathe. She hadn’t been this afraid since the flooding above ground, and she fought to keep those memories from overwhelming her. Instead she pictured Damien’s face. It would be all right. She had to get out, then call him. She could do this.
She dropped to her knees, crouching along the floor. She swore she heard Damien’s voice calling her name, but that wasn’t possible. He was clear across town. The smoke was fucking with her brain. She had to stay focused.
This close to the floor, it was possible now to breathe, but when she found the door into the studio and touched the handle, she yelped and pulled her hand back. It had burned her, which meant the fire was behind it, in the studio.
She turned around and crawled along the floor toward the back door again, staying low, below the smoke, but she was so afraid now she could barely breathe. She was trapped in here. There was no way out. She’d never look into Damien’s eyes again, or feel his arms around her. She’d never hear his voice, or snuggle against his warm, hard body. She was going to die behind these walls.
****
Damien couldn’t get near the corner studio. It was part of several units engulfed in smoke. Flames shot out the back of one of them, further down the row. He heard sirens, but there were no fire trucks in the parking lot yet. Several police cars were pulling in, and people were running from the apartment building next door, but Damien ignored all of them.
He sprinted around the back of the corner unit because one look at the front told him he’d never get in that way. There was too much smoke inside the studio. He couldn’t get the back door open. Fighting horrible panic that threatened to overwhelm him, he pounded on the door, calling Sela’s name.
The sirens were closer now. He sprinted around to the front and waved down several firefighters jumping off a truck. “There’s a woman in there!”
They ran around to the back door with him and one of them pushed him aside, but Damien wasn’t going to move until he got Sela out. They pried open the door and he saw her, crouched down near the floor. The smoke poured out, but he dropped to his knees and covered his face as she reached for him.
One of the firefighters scooped her up first, but Damien was right beside him as he ran with her toward an ambulance that had pulled into the lot. Her skin was covered in soot and her eyelids fluttered. She was still alive! He crawled into the back of the bus with her and glared at the paramedic who opened his mouth, ready to tell him he couldn’t ride with her. “I’m not leaving her.”
“Then ride up front.”
“Thank you.”
He kept turning around on the way to the hospital to see if Sela was all right until the driver asked him to let them do their job. Damien was too worried for Sela to argue. The streets of the cities underground had not been made for heavy traffic, so going anywhere in an electric vehicle took longer than it would have in gasoline engines on the surface. The ten minute ride to SouthWest Medical Center felt like it took ten hours to Damien.
He followed the paramedics inside and was stopped by a stern-looking man who actually held up his hand. “You’ll have to wait in the waiting room.”
Damien puffed out his chest. “I don’t think so.”
“Damien?” Her hoarse voice drew their attention. “Is that you?”
He pushed his way to her side as the paramedics rolled her stretcher into a room inside the ER. “I’m here, niña. It’s all right.”
She sighed and then closed her eyes again, but Damien’s heart soared anyway. She was alive. She was going to be all right. She had to be.
The ER physician recognized him. Roger McVoy was Mark McVoy’s cousin, and Mark worked in Damien’s PR department. “Do you know her?” asked Roger.
“Yes. She’s very special. Take good care of her.”
Roger placed a hand on Damien’s shoulder. “We will. I promise. Wait where you’re supposed to as a favor to me, okay? I’ll come and find you as soon as I get her stable. I swear it.”
Damien was suddenly so tired. He nodded, and then he gave her one last look as she was surrounded by nurses and doctors. She was in good hands now. She would be all right, and he had a few dozen people to call, starting with Santino and Tomás.
****
Sela drifted in and out of a haze that at times felt like a dream, and other times sent her into a panic as she realized where she was. Her throat hurt, her eyes hurt, and she couldn’t get the smell of smoke out of her nose. She remembered seeing Damien, but every time she asked where he was, either the person she asked didn’t know, or she was told he’d be allowed to see her soon.
Had she hallucinated seeing him when they pulled her out of the back of the studio? She remembered hearing his voice, but then she also heard pounding and what sounded like axes on the door. The men who had pulled her out had been dressed like firefighters, and she remembered hearing a lot of sirens over the blare of the fire alarm.
Her studio … she choked back a sob because it hurt to cry as she realized her studio was gone, along with everything she’d put inside it during the past two weeks. There were framed pictures of her in various costumes that she’d found on the Internet from old competitions. She’d had them made for the front studio wall.
They can be replaced.
As Sela went over everything in her mind, she realized all of it could be replaced. The only thing that mattered was that she was alive. She longed to see Damien, though, and hold him, and reassure herself that he was all right.
She was tired of being poked and prodded, tired of having this damn oxygen mask on her face, and tired of not knowing what was going on. Snippets of conversation from the doctors and nurses filing past her bed reached her ears, and each time she heard something else about the fire at the mall, her panic grew. What the hell had caused that explosion? She remembered the ground shaking and guessed that’s what had happened.
Finally, she heard a familiar voice, and struggled to sit up higher. She yanked the mask off her face, only to put it back on as soon as she found she still couldn’t breathe without difficulty. Tears pricked her eyes, and this time she couldn’t stop them as Damien’s face came into view. Damien’s beautiful face, and his big dark eyes, filled with love and relief.
“Sela, oh mi amor. It’s all right. Don’t cry. I’m here now. You’re all right. You’re going to be okay.”
His arms were around her, holding her close as she cried through the pain and the fear. His hands stroked her back and her hair the way she loved, and suddenly everything was right and perfect in her world once more.
“You saved me,” she whispered. “I called to you in my head and you saved me.”
“The firefighters saved you, niña. I was merely close by, and thank God I was.”
He was wrong, but it didn’t matter. He had saved her. She knew it, and she would hang onto that thought for the rest of her life, because she was never leaving his side again.
Chapter Sixteen
Sela listened to the events of two days ago as Damien filled her in on everything he’d learned since the fire. She didn’t have words for any of it. Ernest, making good on his threat to Tomás, had nearly succeeded in killing her as well. The mall was ruined. They’d have to start all over again.
“Tomás had insurance, and he wants to build it again. It will be even better this time, but you can’t have the same set-up, Sela. They want no rooms behind the walls like you had. Too risky.”
She nodded. Talking still hurt, so she did it as little as possible. The doctors told her it was likely her voice would be hoarse for a while yet, weeks perhaps. They said the pain would subside, and there was no permanent damage to her lungs. They all told her she was very, very lucky, but she already knew that.
“Ernest
has left the country, but it doesn’t matter. The men who planted the bomb behind the units likely worked for him, or he was one of the three that were seen, but the police have no leads on who they were. Immigration said the threats he made are enough. They won’t let him back in, and they won’t let any of the crew he worked with back in either.”
Damien had already told her that a woman who lived in one of the apartments next to the mall saw three men get out of a van and walk behind the units, but she didn’t get a good enough look at them or the van before it sped away after the men ran out from behind the buildings.
“Explosion?” she asked.
“Yes, what we both heard and felt was an explosion.” Sela had told him she’d felt the ground shake right before the fire alarms went off. “I was two blocks away getting our dinner, and I left it to run over there.”
He settled his weight next to her on the bed so he could move closer. He’d barely left her side for two days, and she couldn’t wait to go back to his apartment. She was never leaving it again.
“Santino is coming over again after work,” he said. “I don’t think he believes me when I tell him you’re okay, all day long, every hour on the hour.”
She smiled and rolled her eyes. She’d dropped her phone while crawling toward the door, but Damien had already bought her a new one. Santino had texted her every half hour since Damien had called him from the ER. It was nice to have people who loved you that much, so she really didn’t mind, but there was nothing new to tell him. She was fine, and they were sending her home tomorrow or later tonight once her latest blood work came back.
“How long will it take to rebuild the mall?” she asked.
Damien grinned. “That’s the longest sentence you’ve spoken in two days.”
She smiled in return as she waited for his answer.
“I’m not sure. Six months, minimum. I’m sorry, niña. You’ll have to keep teaching at the gym.”