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Evan nodded, Adam’s apple bobbing. “Y-yeah.”
Win turned to Mathieu and took his arm, guiding him to the corner of the room. “If we have a location then we can work with that,” he muttered to Mathieu.
Mathieu held his gaze for a moment and Win ached for him. He already knew he was the only person the other man allowed to see the grief, the hopelessness he felt. His fear too, that they might not find the last piece of the puzzle. This was a mission Mathieu had taken up, a mission to avenge his father, and he wouldn’t stop until everyone involved paid with their lives.
That included Jairo, something Win pretended he didn’t know. Something he pretended didn’t make his heart twinge a little. But he’d picked his side.
And he had zero regrets.
“Mathieu.”
Mathieu nodded and Win turned back to Evan. “Give us what you have—the location as well as the date and time.”
He noticed the way relief loosened Evan’s shoulders as he removed his laptop from the backpack on his back and opened it, agile fingers flying over the keys, then he grabbed the notepad and pen that was on Mathieu’s desk and scribbled down the information. “That’s what I’ve got so far.”
“Thanks,” Win offered when Mathieu didn’t speak. “Please keep working on the video.” He glanced at Jason, the silent sentry who stood at the door with his hands behind his back, jerking his chin in a signal for Jason to escort Evan out. When the two men were gone, Win faced Mathieu, smoothing a hand over his lover’s head. “Talk to me.”
Mathieu huffed out a breath. “I feel like it’s one step forward, two steps back with this shit. No matter the progress we make, we still have no answers.”
“But wewillfind those answers,” Win told him forcefully. “We won’t stop.” And he would be at Mathieu’s side every step of the way to see it through. He held up the piece of paper. “We have an address.”
Thirty minutes later, they were in the car headed to the address Evan had given them. Whoever’s home it was, that person had to have a clue as to the identity of the men in the video, right? They’d left Jason back at the house, only taking one bodyguard with them who doubled as a driver as they left via the secret tunnel in Mathieu’s office.
Thighs pressed to Win’s in the backseat of the blacked-out SUV, Mathieu scrolled through documents on an iPad with laser-focused concentration, brow furrowed.
“There’s no name on the property.” He’d had Evan find all the information about the home and who owned it and send it to him. Now, he read it over, frown getting deeper and deeper. “The owner is listed as Helix Park Holdings, and it’s based out of New York. And the owner of Helix Park is another fucking corporation based out of Australia. No names, just corporations hidden inside corporations.” He bit out a curse and dropped the iPad down onto the seat, sitting back with a sigh.
“Relax.” Win rubbed Mathieu’s thigh. He wished he had the answers, but there was nothing he could— No, that wasn’t true. He had what Mathieu didn’t. Or rather, who.
He had Jairo.
“Sir, we’re here.”
Win and Mathieu jerked upright and Mathieu rolled the window down since the location was on his side.
“Fuck.”
“Goddamn it!”
There was nothing there. The sun was setting, but Win made out the freshly flattened earth. A building once stood there, someone’s house, but it was gone now. The ground was bulldozed and appeared as barren as Win felt.
Fuck. It.
How were they always two steps behind?
Mathieu opened the door and got out and Win followed. Together, they walked over to the space, Mathieu pulling out his phone to check the Google Earth image of the house. A house that had been there as recently as two weeks prior.
The phone in Mathieu’s palm buzzed with an incoming call and he answered it on speaker as Win continued to glance around with his hands on his hips. “Yes.”
“You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?”
Win spun around to Mathieu, gaze zeroing in on the phone in his hand. The caller ID saidunknown callerand the voice was clearly distorted to disguise the person’s identity, but this was their seventh man. Had to be. How did he know—
“Who is this?” Mathieu’s jaw ticked. Win knew how hard it was for his lover to maintain control; he saw the evidence of it in how tightly Mathieu gripped the phone.
“Don’t you worry yourself about that.”
“You planned my father’s death.” Mathieu’s voice rose. “I will find you.”
