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In the moment she had simply been grateful that she wasn’t alone. Kind of like now, where she was given a somewhat friendly face. Then again, being captive with another man was in a way that torture of its own.The place of your nightmares. That was what Ramon had said.
She frowned. “What did they do?”
Ramon studied the file in front of him. “You don’t want to know. But when they were done, they traded me to another cartel. Then another. I was lost in the shuffle, then managed to persuade Navarro that it was in his best interest for me to workforhim rather than be captive. I earned my place here in a way the FBI never allowed me to do. Because they never completely trusted that I wouldn’t turn on them. When my handler wrote the report that I had gone off the reservation and become a turncoat, do you really think anyone was surprised? More like it was a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“I was surprised to hear it.” But he was right, because part of her had also been unsurprised to learn that he’d turned. “I do understand. And I would help you get your standing back if that’s what you want to do.”
He shook his head. “You think I care? The FBI never did me any favors. Why tell them there’s poisoned fruit on the tree? They’ll never believe it anyway.”
“I would.” Kenna could use that to convince others. “We could get what we needed to prove it to everyone else.”
“I think you’re saying whatever you need to say just so you can try and get out of here.” Ramon glanced over at her. “And then the minute you get free, you’ll make a run for it and leave me holding the bag.”
“I don’t do that,” she said. “I don’t hang people out to dry.”
“Then I know you’ll never tell Navarro where to find Camila.” Ramon tossed the file aside and picked up the next one. “You only save people and try to be a champion for justice, but there’s none to be found down here. There’s nothing but the dust and ashes of what you thought your life would be. And there’s nothing you can do about it. So as soon as you realize that, the sooner we can try to figure out how to make it through the rest of the day.”
“So that’s it? You aren’t even going to try?” She wanted to shake him. But how would that possibly persuade him to help her? It would all be based on faith, and she didn’t think he had it in him to trust anyone, least of all someone who hadn’t stuck their neck out to help him.
Back in that interview room during the exercise they’d been teamed up on at Quantico, she might have diverted the course of things away from him. But it wouldn’t hold weight with Ramon now. She had nothing to offer him that he couldn’t get himself.
“I haven’t lived this long by being dumb,” he said. “I can keep myself alive.”
“Until you can’t.”
“At which point I’ll be too dead to care.”
Kenna wasn’t worried about the part where her life would be taken from her. She was more worried about what might happen before that.
And how much pain she would have to suffer.
Elliott Preston wanted revenge for the death of his brother. Wondering how he would extract that from her was stealing the last threads of sanity she had left.
Kenna grabbed the edge of the file and tried to tear it. She didn’t have enough strength to rip the card. She pulled out the first piece paper and shredded it into pieces, flinging them all over the place. Tearing apart page after page until there was nothing left of the file. She scrunched it between her hands and crumpled it, tossing it aside.
“You feel better now?”
“No, I don’t!” she screamed. After that she only had the strength to slump back against the wall. Her eyes fluttered closed, and all the energy in her seemed to dissipate into the floor beneath her. “I need to get out of here.”
It wasn’t the first time she’d contemplated ending her life the way Bradley had. Making the choice to leave this world behind and face whatever was next because she couldn’t stand the idea of even one more second of the torture that her life had become.
He had lost hope and used what was around him to end his life. In the process he had given Kenna a way to escape.
Right now she had nothing.
Heavy footsteps in the hallway drew her eyes open. The light shifted beneath the door. She heard the lock rattle, then the door swung open and Benjamin strode in.
He dragged her up by her hair. “You thought you could pit us against each other, and I wouldn’t hit back at you? Well, guess what. Turns outyou’rethe one who has been killing people. Time to take a pound of flesh out of your hide.”
Kenna managed to get her feet under her.
A weapon. She needed a weapon.
Ramon said something, the sound like yelling but she couldn’t make out even one syllable over the pounding in her ears. She gasped for air. The pain in her scalp felt like he was ripping her hair from the root.
Ramon slammed into the two of them, knocking Kenna’s head against the wall.
She blinked and tried to get her equilibrium back. A weapon. A phone. Surely Benjamin had one of those on him, and she might be able to get it before someone came in here. She tried to speak, but no words would form on her lips.
