Page 32 of The Villain

“Sacramento PD just called. They have Brandon Martins in custody?—”

“I’ll go—” His arm barred me from walking by him.

“Wait,” he said steadily. “They’re bringing him to Armorous for questioning. Harm’s going to go with you.”

Armorous was better than a precinct; there were more rules I could…bend. But to have my brother there…

“Fine.” We walked to the elevator together. “We’ll go up and interrogate him. In the meantime, Athena said she had paintings in her car the morning of the explosion. I don’t know if Hadrian found evidence of them, but I told her I’d check the gallery she was bringing them to; it’s the Tableau in Monterey.”

“I’ll look into it.”

I grunted my thanks. “What about Ivans? Still nothing?”

Ty shook his head.

The way Ivans managed to hide himself under layer after layer of deceit was nothing short of surgical. I’d hunted through every database and resource at our disposal to find anything linked to oneRichard Iverson—property, business, hell, I would’ve taken a fucking parking ticket—but there was nothing. And by the time I came to that conclusion, Ty had uncovered Brandon’s gambling debts and the life insurance policy he’d taken out on Athena.

No matter how unlikely it seemed that Athena could be involved with Ivans and it not be the reason for her attempted murder, the facts pointed in a different direction. So, I held off telling her the truth about Ivans—Iverson;maybe if this truly had to do only with her ex-husband, I could spare her any additional pain.

“We’re missing something,” I said under my breath.

“I feel the same way, but talk to the ex-husband. Maybe that will shed some light.”

“Yeah.”

“Harm. Darius. Good to see you.” Hazard Foster, the owner of Armorous Tactical, greeted us at the door that seemed extra wide just to be able to fit him. He stood a good couple of inches above my six-foot-one and at least an inch above my brother’s six-foot-three.

“How long ago did he arrive?” I asked once we’d made it through pleasantries.

Harm’s pointed stare snapped to me.

“Twenty minutes,” Hazard said, leading us down the hallway.

The building was like a military barracks. Halls of rooms equally spaced. Everything was either metal or painted various shades of gray. Even the massive team—there had to be fourteen or fifteen of them now?—all wore a kind of standard uniform: black pants and black and gray camo tees, the Armorous logo just barely visible in shiny black.

Armorous was like Covington Security, but on steroids. It made sense; Hazard tended to recruit only military elites, most of his team were retired Army Rangers, and their focus was split between tactical training as well as high-value target protection and asset retrieval.

“I held off interrogating him. Figured you’d want to handle that.” Hazard stopped in front of a metal door, the plaque on the front saidInterrogation One.

“Yes.”Questioning Brandon Martins was only the beginning of what I wanted to do to him.

“Sacramento PD said we could have an hour to get the information we need before they’ll have to release him.”

“Got it.” I wouldn’tneed an hour.

Harm grabbed my arm. “Dare?—”

“Give me ten minutes, then come in,” I ordered, belatedly wondering when the last time I’d given orders to my older brother and former commanding officer was.My first guess was never.

His nostrils flared. Harm didn’t like the idea of me going in alone.

“Five minutes,” I growled and shrugged my arm free, shooting him one last look before I walked in the room and closed the door behind me.

“What the hell am I doing here? You can’t just fucking hold me like this. I have rights,” the man whined—actually fucking whined—from the chair he was cuffed to.

Short, dark hair. Dull brown eyes. Quivering jawline. Brandon Martins. Athena’s husband.Piece of shit.His clothes were a mess, and he looked like he hadn’t slept in days.Yeah, this guy was guilty.

I hated him instantly. Not because he was guilty. Not because he was a degenerate gambler. Not because he whined like a fucking coward. No, I hated him instantly because he’d had her. He’d had her smiles. Her laugh. Her talent and compassion. He’d had her love,and this was what he’d done with it.

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