Chapter 94 Untitled Chapter

Chapter 94 Untitled Chapter
There were no windows in the room. Maya couldn’t see any anyway, and after a while she stopped looking. Time started to slip out of her hands. Minutes dragged until they felt like hours, and hours stretched until they felt like days. She couldn’t tell what time it was, or how long she had been there, or if it even mattered anymore. The only thing she knew for sure was that she was exhausted. Exhausted from the chair under her, from the ropes cutting into her wrists, from the quiet that never gave her a break. 
Antonio was a few feet away on the floor. His head was down and his hands were still tied behind the chair. The bruise around his eye had gone darker, uglier. Every time she looked at him something hot and angry twisted in her chest. It wasn’t fear. She had been scared before, and this didn’t feel like that. This was anger. They hadn’t done anything to deserve this. Someone decided their lives were convenient, that they could be moved around like pieces on a board, and that someone was probably sitting somewhere right now while people they loved were losing their minds trying to find them. Thinking about her Kendrix, about Roberto hurt more than the ropes did. 
The metal door opened with a sound that made her spine go straight. Antonio’s head lifted immediately. Two guards walked in first, and then Victor came in behind them. He looked calm. Relaxed. Like he was dropping in for a chat, not keeping people tied up in a basement. His expensive shoes clicked against the concrete floor and the sound scraped against her teeth. She hated him immediately. Not because she knew everything about him, but because nobody should be able to walk into a room smiling like that while they are destroying lives. 
He stopped right in front of her and just studied her face. Maya lifted her chin and held his gaze. She wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of looking down. 
“There’s the fire,” he said. 
She didn’t answer. 
He crouched in front of her chair so they were eye level. “You know, you remind me of someone.” 
She kept her mouth closed. 
His smile got wider, like he already knew what she was thinking. “Roberto.” 
Antonio muttered something under his breath that sounded like a curse. 
Victor laughed, quiet and satisfied. “See? Even now, even tied up, people react when his name comes up.” 
Maya's jaw tightened. “What do you want from us?” 
Victor looked almost pleased that she finally spoke. “A conversation.” 
“You kidnapped us for a conversation?” 
“Technically, yes.” 
“That’s pathetic.” She scoffed.
Something in his eyes brightened, like he enjoyed that she said it. “You’re brave.” 
“No,” she said, and didn’t break eye contact. “I’m angry.” 
That did something. It wasn’t much, but his expression shifted, like her answer wasn’t the one he expected. He stood up slow and walked over to Antonio. He circled him once with his arms folded, and Antonio tracked him the whole time, the way you watch a snake when you know you can’t move yet. 
“Tell me something,” Victor said. 
Neither of them answered. 
He looked between them and smiled again, and that smile was starting to feel dangerous in a way his words weren’t. “How long before people start breaking for the ones they love? How far do you think Roberto would go to get you back?” 
Antonio’s face went hard. “Farther than you want him to.” 
Victor’s smile didn’t fall. If anything it got sharper. “That’s the problem.” 
The room went quiet. He tilted his head up toward the ceiling, toward one of the cameras, and Maya followed his gaze. She hadn’t noticed before, but there were more than one. Three. Maybe four. Watching. Recording. Always watching. 
Victor caught her looking. “Smart girl.” 
She looked away too fast. 
He saw it. He chuckled. “You’re trying to figure things out, aren’t you?” 
“Someone has to,” she said. 
He laughed for real that time, not the polite kind. “You’re more interesting than I thought you’d be.” 
Maya hated that word. People like Victor always said “interesting” right before they did something that made you wish you’d never met them. 
The quiet stretched again until it felt heavy. Then he reached into his jacket pocket and her whole body tensed before she could stop it. He pulled out a photograph instead of a weapon and held it out between two fingers. 
“What is that?” she asked. 
“A gift.” 
“I don’t want it.” 
“I wasn’t asking.” 
He set it on the floor next to her chair and turned toward the door. 
Antonio frowned. “What is it supposed to be?” 
Victor stopped with his hand on the door handle. He didn’t look back. “A reminder,” he said, and walked out. 
The door slammed shut. The lock clicked, and the quiet came back and it felt worse than before. 
For several seconds neither of them spoke. Then Maya looked down. Her heart started beating faster for no reason she could name. She leaned forward as far as the ropes would let her and Antonio leaned in too. 
The photograph was old. Faded from time. Creased at the corners like it had been carried around. And there was only one person in it. 
A younger Roberto. Standing beside Victor. Both of them were staring straight at the camera. Neither of them was smiling. Neither of them looked happy to be there. But they were standing together. Shoulder to shoulder. 
Maya and Antonio stared at it for a long while. Neither of them said anything. 
Because suddenly this didn’t feel like some random hostage situation. It felt older. Deeper. And something cold started settling in her chest that had nothing to do with the room. Victor wasn’t just using them to hurt Roberto. He was pulling on something that started long before she ever got dragged into it, and that thought scared her more than the ropes did.