Man Like Mateo Thunder

Chapter 4

The work lights hummed over the dusty concrete and threw long shadows across the unfinished floor. Sofia lay curled on the ground, her breath shallow and shuddering. Shock had turned her limbs to lead.

Footsteps approached. She flinched and squeezed her eyes shut.

Hands slid under her shoulders and knees and lifted her from the floor. Gentle hands.

She opened her eyes. Mateo.

For a second her mind could not fit the man holding her to the sounds that had come out of the dark. There was no violence in his face. His eyes were wide with concern, his jaw tight, as he held her against his chest.

"Mateo?" Her fingers closed weakly on his lapel. "You came back? You didn't run away?"

He carried her toward the broken doorway, where the night wind came through.

"I couldn't leave you," he said.

Tears blurred her eyes. She had spent the last hour sure she would be raped or killed in this shell of a building. And here was her quiet, bullied husband, holding her as if nothing else in the world mattered.

She pulled his head down and kissed him hard. The kiss tasted of dust. She put everything she felt for him into it.

When she drew back, she laid her palm against his cheek.

"You are so brave," she whispered, smiling through the tears. "You came all this way alone. You risked everything for me."

The praise stung. He rested his forehead against hers and said nothing.

At the edge of the floor she finally saw it: the iron fire door torn off its hinges, and behind them, the dark shapes of the kidnappers lying where they had fallen.

She looked from the bodies to her husband's face.

"Mateo...What happened here? Did you do this?"

"No." He shook his head. "I didn't come alone. I knew I couldn't fight them, so I called someone. A security contractor from the arena who owed me a favor. He was waiting outside when I got here, and he went in ahead of me."

"A security contractor?"

"When those men chased me down the corridor, they ran straight into him. He dealt with them in the dark while I came back for you."

"I heard it," she said slowly. "I had my eyes shut. I heard something, and then that man hit the wall." She looked at Mateo's hands. "There's blood on your knuckles."

"I fell on the stairs coming up. I wasn't exactly graceful." He tried a smile. "You know me."

She did know him. She knew the man who apologized to waiters and carried spiders outside in a cup. She let out a breath that was almost a laugh.

"What's his name? Your contractor. I want to thank him."

"He'd rather you didn't. Men like that don't like to be thanked." That part, at least, was true.

Sofia tried to take it in. "Where is he now?"

"He told me to get you out and went to handle the rest and call the authorities. He said to leave before the police arrive, so we don't get pulled into an investigation involving Victor."

She shuddered at the name. She wanted no part of anything that put them back in front of that man.

"You're right." She held tighter to his jacket. "Let's go. Please, Mateo. Take me home."

"I've got you."

He carried her down the concrete stairwell and out to the street, where her old sedan sat at the curb. He settled her in the passenger seat and got behind the wheel.

He drove them out of the docklands toward the quiet outskirts of the city.

Neither of them spoke for several blocks. Sofia watched the neon slide past the window. The adrenaline was gone, and exhaustion had moved into her bones. But a question had been waiting.

"Mateo. When those men took me... do you know what they wanted?"

His hands stayed steady on the wheel. "What did they want?"

"The municipal logistics contract." There was pride in her voice, and bitterness. "The one I've been building for three months. I wanted it to be a surprise. The upfront commission would have paid off everything we owe Victor. I wanted to get you out of that arena for good."

She had taken blows and worse threats tonight, all to rescue him from a debt that did not exist. His knuckles went white on the wheel.

"You shouldn't have risked your life for that," he said thickly. "Your safety matters more to me than any debt."

"It isn't any debt. It's thirty years of your life." She turned to face him. "Do you know what my mother said to me last week? She said I should cut my losses. That a woman my age could still do better."

"What did you tell her?"

"That I already did better. Then I didn't speak to her for four days." She was quiet for a moment. "They don't see you, Mateo. They never have. I used to think it was my job to make them. Now I just want to take you somewhere they can't reach."

His heart broke. He did not deserve her love. He could not answer that.

"I couldn't watch you suffer down there anymore." She leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes. "I just wanted our lives back."

He glanced over as she slid into an uneasy sleep against the glass. She had walked through fire for him. Everyone who had laid a hand on her tonight was going to answer for it.