He let out a long breath. “Where do we go from here?”
Nita picked at the fabric of her jeggings. “I’d like you to stay with me. If you feel comfortable. I’m still in a bit of a mess with the black market hunters trying to kill me, but I’ve got a new plan. A better one.” She swallowed. “One that doesn’t involve murder or blowing up anything.”
Kovit’s smile was soft and disbelieving. “Somehow I doubt that.”
Nita snorted. “Okay, less murder.” She licked her lips. “And after this is all settled, I want to go to college. Maybe you could join me?”
He blinked, slowly. “I don’t know what I’d do in a college.”
Nita shrugged. “It might be fun to find out.”
He considered, his eyes off in some distant place. “Maybe.”
“And we could find your sister?”
“I don’t know,” he whispered. “I don’t know if I want that yet.”
“Is there anything you’d really like to do?”
He considered. “I want . . . I want to go back to Thailand one day.”
“That sounds nice.” She was relieved there was something he could think of. “I’d like to visit too.”
He smiled slightly. “I’d like that.”
Nita’s heart clenched so hard it hurt, and her hands trembled where they were folded in her lap. “I think if we stay together, we should make some new rules.”
He tilted his head to one side, a question.
“I have rules to not break me.” Nita’s voice was soft. “You have rules to not break you. But I think we need rules to keep from breaking us.”
Kovit regarded her with dark eyes. “What kind of rules?”
“I talk through my plans with you, and if you veto them, we think of new ones. Bizarre as this feels to say, I think you have a better moral compass than me. Even if you ignore it a lot.”
A soft smile flitted across his face. “That’s not something I ever expected to hear.”
Nita snorted. “It’s not something I ever expected to say, either.”
Kovit was quiet a moment, before he said, “I won’t torture people where you can hear, unless you ask me to. And I’ll try not to hurt people that would bother you. I know the INHUP agent bothered you. And the dolphin girl. So I’ll try and find more natural sources of pain, and keep my . . . habits to people you can brush aside more easily.”
Nita swallowed, throat choking up. “I’d appreciate that. It would mean a lot to me.”
Kovit nodded, then looked to the floor. Nita looked down at her own folded hands, not sure what she was supposed to do now. The silence stretched, not in a broken way, but in a way like they were both waiting for the other to do something.
Nita raised a hand and leaned toward him, heart pounding, but there was a sudden click and a rattle at the door.
Nita shot to her feet, and raised her gun. Kovit flicked his switchblade out, body already sliding away from hers and into the ready position. The door swung open.
Fabricio walked in.
Fifty
FABRICIO STOPPED in the doorway and looked between Nita and Kovit. His blue eyes were huge, and the blood drained from his face, making it look gray, almost like Mirella’s skin.
He spun around and ran.
Nita raised her gun, but with the hall door open, the room wasn’t soundproof and she might get them in trouble. She lowered it and darted after him.
Her feet slid on the polished floor as she barreled down the hallway after Fabricio, who was stalled at the elevator, desperately pushing the button.
Swearing, he tore himself away from the elevator banks, eyes skimming the hallway, probably for stairwells.
Nita slammed into him, and both of them went tumbling to the ground. She smacked her elbow on the floor, pain shooting up her arm and spiraling through her bones.
Fabricio opened his mouth to scream, and Nita clapped her hand over it. He bit her.
Snarling, Nita grabbed him by his hair and smashed his head into the ground.
Fabricio gasped, his nose broken at an odd angle, blood dripping down his face.
Kovit was there a moment later, body shivering with their pain. He helped Nita haul Fabricio to his feet and drag him back into their soundproofed recording studio.
Fabricio tried to scream as they dragged him, and Kovit jabbed his throat with two fingers, sending Fabricio into a gasping, coughing fit. He only regained his voice when they had already dragged him into the second recording studio and started duct-taping him to a chair. Finally, he began to scream.
“This place is soundproofed, you know,” Nita told him.
“Let him scream.” Kovit ripped off another piece of duct tape. “I like screams. They usually mean something fun will happen soon.”
Nita paused and stared at Kovit, wondering if he’d actually been trained like Pavlov’s dogs to love the sound of screams or if he was just saying that to terrify Fabricio. There was no way to tell from the creepy smile that crossed his face or the hungry look in his eyes.
Fabricio swallowed and stared at them both, the blood running down his face from his nose. “Please, Nita.”
“Don’t you dare ‘please, Nita,’ me. You hired Henry to kill me.”
“You poisoned me! And kidnapped me!”
Nita’s eyes were cold. “I’m not listening to your excuses again, Fabricio.” Nita waved her hand at Kovit. “You’ve met my friend here, the zannie I met in the market. I’m going to ask you some questions. If you don’t answer, Kovit will make you answer.”
Fabricio’s eyes turned to Kovit, dread lurking in their depths. “You’re going to do that anyway, aren’t you?”
“No. If you answer all my questions, Kovit won’t hurt you.”
Fabricio looked at her, his eyes flat and dead. “I don’t believe you.”
“Well, you can answer my questions and take a chance on whether you’ll get hurt after.” Nita shrugged. “Or you can just get hurt.”
Fabricio’s head fell, and he stared at the floor. “What do you want to know?”
Nita considered, then started with a softball. “Your father’s name?”
“Alberto Tácunan.”
“And he runs Tácunan Law.”
“Yes.”
Nita licked her lips. “Do you know the law firm well?”
“I dunno what you mean by that. Are you talking about the legal stuff? Because that’s all over my head.”
“No. The layout of the building.”
Fabricio blinked, and a frown crossed his features. “Yes.”
“Do you know how to get into the building?”
“Obviously.” He blinked. “Oh, do you mean, could I get someone else in?” He considered. “Maybe?”
“And do you know where all the files are stored on the clients there?”
He nodded slowly. “It’s electronic. The computers in the offices are all on a closed network, so any terminal would do, but you’d need the right password to access certain details.”
“I assume people like your father can access everything.”
“Yes.”
Nita’s eyes narrowed. “Do you know your father’s password?”