Page 127 of Ruthless Contract
My heart stopped. The air in my lungs turned to ice.
"What did you find?"
"Since months have passed since Marcel was taken, almost a year, actually, normal surveillance footage is gone. Businesses overwrite their systems after a certain amount of time. Gas stations do the same thing. Most residents don't keep footage long either. The only thing I could still access from that timeframe was the city's license plate reader system."
“Did that lead to something?” I asked, wishing he’d hurry up and get to the point.
"Yeah. I found her staff from her social media page. Found their names, then their vehicles and license plate numbers. Then, I started running plates," Tony continued. "Most of the staff had never gone anywhere near Marcel's mother's neighborhood. However, two employees did."
My fingers clenched so tightly around the phone that I thought I might break it.
"Who?" I growled, trying to control my anger.
"Kelly Boyd. Her car was clocked in that neighborhood and near his college campus multiple times the week before he was kidnapped.”
“Who was the other person?” I hissed.
“The second person was Blossom Brooks. She didn’t use her car, though. I found a rental car in her name that was rented the week after he was kidnapped. That car was clocked in the neighborhood twice after his kidnapping.”
Those words ripped the air from my lungs, leaving me unable to breathe, unable to speak. All I could do was stand there, holding the phone, mind and heart in turmoil. Tony continued talking, his voice sounding farther away now.
"Neither vehicle had ever appeared in that neighborhood before those dates."
I closed my eyes.
"Neither vehicle has returned since. That’s all I’ve got for you."
Silence followed those words. Neither of us spoke. There wasn't anything left to say. My eyes slowly opened and drifted toward the red tulips on the center table.
Love. Loyalty. Trust.
My chest tightened until it physically hurt to breathe. There was only one conclusion left. Blossom Brooks wasn't simply Juliet. She was part of the intel hub that had spied on Marcel. And I was guessing that intel hub was called The Circuit.
She or a member of her staff, probably Kelly Boyd, had gathered the information that had led Ettori Zucco straight to my cousin. And Blossom had visited the neighborhood afterward, probably to make sure Marcel had been taken. My gaze remained fixed on the tulips.
Undying love. Loyalty. Trust.
Those words sounded like the cruelest joke I'd ever been told. I ended the call without saying another word. I couldn't seem to take my eyes off the red tulips sitting on the center table. Days ago, those flowers had offered me hope.
Today, they mocked me. Everything she’d done had been a mockery of me. From the first time she hacked my devices to the day she spoke to me about tulips. All of it had been a mockery of me.
Online, she’d called me lover. She’d called me her sweet Romeo. But really, I was just a fucking fool who’d wanted so badly to believe I’d finally met someone I could vibe with. Someone who was interested in some of the same things I was.
I chuckled darkly. She must’ve studied me for a long time, because she’d known exactly how to tame me. And tame me, she had. She’d tamed me so well that I’d ignored all the red flags.
All I could think of was the way she challenged me. The way she looked when she touched herself as I told her how fucking sexy she was. I’d fallen willingly into her web of deceit. I’d drunk her venom without being forced to.
I’d given her my heart and soul without even knowing who she was. And all the while, I’d been being seduced by the enemy. My thoughts drifted to Marcel. To him in the hospital after he was rescued.
To his wounds, to the scars that still existed, both physical and mental. To the vacant look that had been in my cousin's eyes for weeks after he was released from the hospital. Then I remembered the promise I'd made him.
I'd stood beside Marcel's hospital bed and sworn that whoever had played a role in what happened to him would answer for it. No exceptions. No mercy. I’d planned to torture the fucker, then hand him over to Raz so he could do the same.
Then we’d hand him over to Marcel to finish him off. I’d wanted that bastard to suffer a fate worse than death. Death was easy. Death was quick. Death didn’t involve suffering. It was a release. I’d planned to make that bastard suffer before granting him the mercy that was death.
When I’d fantasized about ending that person, I’d had a faceless image in my head. I’d tortured a faceless, nameless person over and over again in my mind for a very long time. Now that person had a face. They had a name.
And it was one that was etched into my heart and soul. My chest tightened so painfully that I had to press my hand against it. I’d promised my family that I’d find out who was behind the intel leak. I’d done that. I’d found the person, the team responsible.
