Man Like Mateo Thunder

Chapter 5

The alarm clock on the bedside table glowed green: 8:30 PM.

Sofia had slept through the day. Mateo had barely left her side. Now he lay in the dark looking at the peeling paint on the ceiling while she breathed beside him, soft and even. But a crease stayed between her brows, and her swollen cheek carried the print of the thug's hand.

He had cleaned the cut on her lip a little after one in the morning, while she sat on the edge of the bath and tried not to flinch. He had made her tea she didn't drink. Twice during the day she had woken, said his name, and gone under again when he answered. Around noon he had called the arena and told the floor manager he would be in for the night shift. The man had laughed and asked if the scrubber thought he had a choice.

Each time he looked at that bruise, the fury came back.

He slid out from under the covers without waking her and crossed the worn floorboards to the tiny kitchen. He poured a glass of water, drank it, and reached into the jacket hanging over the chair.

The satellite phone lit up before he could unlock it.

"Speak."

"Sovereign." Elias sounded urgent. "We have an emergency concerning the municipal contract."

Mateo leaned against the counter. "Report."

"Less than an hour ago, cancellation notices went out across the corporate registries. The municipal logistics contract your wife secured has been revoked by the regional board. Her firm has also been hit with an emergency audit and a public fraud investigation."

The casing of the phone creaked in his grip.

"Explain."

"Rodrigo's people filed a police report and a corporate grievance this morning. The board met in emergency session tonight. They inverted the story."

"Inverted it how?"

"They claim Sofia staged the kidnapping herself as an extortion scheme." Disgust had crept into Elias's professional tone. "That she hired a crew to fake an ambush, manufacture sympathy, and coerce the board into awarding her the contract. The executives panicked. With Victor's political friends leaning on them, they stripped the contract and blacklisted her firm."

"The man I left breathing," Mateo said. "The leader."

"In our custody since last night. He gave us Rodrigo's name in under a minute and Victor's in under two. The order came from the godson. Victor approved it."

"Keep him somewhere he can be produced."

"Already done, sir."

They had failed to break her body, so they had gone after her name and the one victory she had bled for.

In the bedroom, a phone buzzed. A moment later he heard her cry out.

"Hold," Mateo said, and cut the line.

Sofia was sitting up in bed with her phone in both hands, the screen lighting her face. She was sobbing.

"Sofia. I'm here." He kept his voice soft and level. "Talk to me. What happened?"

"It's gone, Mateo." The words tumbled out. "The contract. They cancelled it. All my work, all those nights. It's gone."

"Breathe. Slow down. Who cancelled it? Why?"

"I don't know! The board sent an emergency memo. They said a report came in claiming I hired thugs to stage an attack last night to intimidate the competition. That I faked my own kidnapping. It's a lie! I would never do that! But the media already has it, and the company is blacklisting me. My career is over. We're ruined."

She turned the screen toward him. He read it over her shaking hands. Pending investigation into allegations of coercion and staged violence, the award is rescinded with immediate effect.

"Rescinded," she said. "Three months, and they rescinded it like a parking permit."

He listened to her cry. She had survived last night and pinned everything on this contract to free him, and they had torn it out of her hands and made her the criminal.

"Listen to me, Sofia." Something in his tone cut through her panic. "You did nothing wrong. The truth will come out. I promise you, I will fix this."

"How can you fix this?" she whispered. "We have nothing."

"We have more than you think."

"Mateo." She wiped her face with the heel of her hand. "I love you. But you clean floors for the man who did this. Who are you going to call?"

It was a fair question, and it landed where she hadn't aimed it.

"Someone who owes me," he said.

"Trust me. Stay here. Rest. I'm going to make some calls, and this will be undone. I love you."

He kissed her hair, went back to the kitchen, and closed the door behind him.

"Elias."

"Here, Sovereign."

"Who owns the parent corporation that governs the municipal logistics contract?"

Keys clattered. "The controlling stake belongs to Consolidated Global Holdings Group. The majority shareholder and executive director of the regional board is Alejandro Vance."

Alejandro Vance. The richest man in the city, with holdings on several continents, and a close political ally of Victor.

"Connect me to his private line."

"Connecting now, Sovereign."

Two clicks. Then a voice, sharp with irritation.

"Hello? Who is this? How did you get this number—"

"Alejandro."

Mateo did not raise his voice. The man on the other end stopped breathing immediately recognizing the voice.

"S-Sovereign?" It came out as a croak. "My God. Sovereign, whatever this is, I swear I had no knowledge—"

"Do you wish to go bankrupt within the next sixty seconds, Alejandro?"

"No! Please!" The billionaire was close to weeping. He did not know what he had done, only that arguing meant annihilation. "Tell me what I did wrong and I'll fix it right now!"

Mateo looked out the kitchen window at the lights of the skyline.

"The municipal logistics contract your regional board cancelled tonight," he said. "It belongs to my wife."