Page 42 of Her Reluctant Hero
He led Alex into a darkened room with a large computer monitor on the desk. The captain introduced Alex to the agent in charge, Agent O’Malley, and the two techs at the table. Alex nodded greetings to them but his attention was already on the screen. What would he see, and why was it important that he see it?
“The first file we were able to open is Cortez.”
At the captain’s nod, the tech started the video. Alex took a step closer.
“Why was this encoded?” Alex asked, hiding a wince as Cortez’s battered face appeared on the plasma screen.
“Because it’s proof they had a US agent,” O’Malley said.
Alex distanced himself from the man being tortured on the screen. He let himself think of it as a TV program as the man silently suffered random blows to the face from a guy with fists the size of a Mack truck.
A door opened on screen, and Isabella stumbled in. After a moment, Alex could see someone had his fist wrapped in her hair, holding her head at a painful angle. She made a choked sound when she saw Cortez, and he went stiff at the sight of her. Too late, he’d given himself away. The agent was in love with her.
“What is he to you?” the man holding her demanded.
“Nothing,” she gasped.
“Liar! What is he to you?” the man screamed.
She flinched from the sound and cried out when he twisted her hair. Cortez said her name, very softly, and Isabella opened her eyes to look at him, her expression sorrowful.
The ham-fisted man moved in front of Cortez, but not blocking his face from the camera. He lifted a knife to Cortez’s cheek.
“Do you want this to be the last thing you see?” the man—Saldana? Alex couldn’t tell, his face was obscured—asked, leaning close to Cortez, dragging Isabella with him.
Cortez’s gaze flicked to Isabella’s. She was sobbing.
Mack Truck dug the knife in.
“Do not close your eyes,” Saldana growled to Isabella, “or you will be next.”
So she didn’t. She watched. Because she didn’t look away as they carved out Cortez’s eyes, neither did Alex. Winters let the video play out until Isabella’s keening died away and Cortez slumped in his chair.
“The next video,” Winters said crisply, as if they hadn’t just watched a man die, “is her punishment.”
“Why would they—? Jesus.”
Saldana shoved Isabella into the room on the screen, and Alex’s heart lurched before he reminded himself this was months ago, that she was safe in a Miami hotel room now. Mack Truck followed. Saldana stepped aside and Mack Truck spun Isabella toward him, tore her dress from her body with hands still stained with Cortez’s blood.
She didn’t fight as the man pushed her to the bed and lowered his big body over her. Of all things to help him distance himself from what he was watching, that helped the most. The woman he knew would fight. This broken woman was not her.
“Turn it off,” Alex said softly, lowering his head.
Winters gave him an unreadable look, then nodded to the tech, and the room was silent.
“The kid appears later in the video. She was telling the truth. But the boy’s probably dead now. Saldana probably told her he sent the kid back and just dumped his body in the jungle somewhere.”
“It’s his kid.” Even as he said it, Alex knew it didn’t mean anything. He of all people knew parentage didn’t make someone human.
“You need to prepare her.”
Alex shook his head. “I can’t do it. It’s all she’s got to hold on to now.”
“Shepard. You’re too involved.”
Panic hit him hard in the gut. He’d never been accused of that before. “Don’t pull me.”
“I’m not. Just watch yourself. Be aware you may never find the kid.”
