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“That's why I need your help,” he hesitated. “You're the only person who can help me find my brother. With you being in the Secret Service, and all. It would come in handy, very much, in tracking down his whereabouts.”

“I don't understand,” I murmured doubtfully. “What do you mean by finding him? He's in jail.”

“That's just it, Maya,” Arturo said quietly, his voice suddenly alarmingly cold. “He isn't in jail.”

“What?”

I could feel my blood run cold, and the colour drain out of my face. I could feel my heart drop inside of me.

Knowing that this was bad.

Really, really fucking bad…

“I called in the police earlier, asking to arrange a visit to see Donte,” Arturo murmured. “They were confused by my call. Said that nobody by the name of Donte Abruzzi had been admitted into prison.” He broke off his sentence, balling his hands into fists. “Nothing about the murders, or anything.”

“What the fuck?” I breathed, unable to believe my ears.

Not being able to make sense of what was happening, and what I was hearing.

What the actual fuck was going on?!

“That's so fucking weird.” I trailed off my sentence, shaking my head.

Trying to process the information in my head, but failing.

“W -” I stammered shakily, “where is he then?”

“That's where I need your help,” Arturo breathed desperately, looking completely and utterly numb and defeated. “I don't know where he is. I think your boss had some sort of ulterior motive. If he was really going to arrest Donte for his involvement in the Russian Mafia, he would have arrested the whole family. Not just Donte. He must have some sort of vendetta against Donte. I can't quite put my finger on where I've seen him before, but I think him and Donte have history, and your boss wants revenge.”

Arturo let out a deep sigh. I could feel my body tremble with terror. Shaking with the fear that something bad could be happening to Donte right now, and I didn’t have the slightest fucking idea about it.

“His motive was never to put Donte in jail,” Arturo sneered. “Because it isn't Donte who's behind those murders.”

“W - What are you implying?”

Tears started to spill down my cheeks, grief overtaking my body and clouding my vision and mind.

“Because they both have history, and your boss wants vengeance…”

“W - what?!”

“I think he wants to kill Donte,” Arturo breathed.

“No. NO!” I screamed bloody murder, feeling my chest constricting.

I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t fucking breathe.

“This is why you have to help me!” Arturo roared.

“W – what can I do?!” I cried hysterically.

“We have to find Donte before it comes to that,” Arturo said quietly.

49

maya

Me and Arturo were on our way back to Washington, where my base for the Secret Service was. I knew that I'd left, but I was praying that my identity scanning card would still work. And I provided Arturo with an FBI outfit just like mine, so that it wouldn't arouse suspicion when he came in with me.

After a long drive for hours, we finally arrived at my base. I made my way inside, and Arturo trod carefully behind me. We reached the door, and I let out a nervous sigh that I didn’t know I was holding.

“This is my base,” I explained. “Let's hope my identity scan still works.”

Arturo nodded in response. I said prayers to God inside of my head before I scanned the card against the detector. I was expecting it to flash red, but it flashed green, and the door opened. I couldn’t believe my fucking luck.

Finally, something was going right for once, after everything terrible that had happened lately.

“It's working!” I breathed. “It's open. Let's go inside.”

We made our way inside to the main room.

“What now?” Arturo asked, shrugging and furrowing his eyebrows, immersed in thought.

As I searched the room, I couldn't see Brett anywhere. I found this weird…

Brett always turned up to work, without fail. I guessed things had changed since we broke up.

“Let me take you to the security control room,” I said quickly, and led him to the direction of the room.