The smell of burnt tobacco drifted to her nose and she turned her head to see Luis smoking a cigar.
“Isn’t one of your products for COPD?” she asked.
“You only live once, and we all die,” Luis said. “I enjoy cigars.”
“That’s your second one for the day, amigo,” Antonio said as he returned to the table, looking pointedly at Nico who sighed and vacated his place so his boss could take the seat beside Charly. He nodded to the crumbs of carrot cake left on her plate, a satisfied smile on his face. “You have no problem eating dessert?”
“I have no problem eating,” Charly said. “As long as it’s nothing exotic.”
A mischievous gleam entered Antonio’s eyes.
“I don’t like that look in your eyes.”
He had the gall to look innocent. Innocent was a suspicious look on Antonio, even if he looked cute. Charly’s mind scratched like a record as her brain backtracked. In what universe did she consider Antonio cute?
“Have you ever tried—”
“No.”
“I haven’t said anything,” Antonio protested.
“Whatever it is … no. I take back what I said. I’m a meat and potatoes person.” Brazilian potato salad was delicious and the one she had tonight was the best. How an ornery woman like Ida created delicious food was beyond Charly’s comprehension.
“I’m sure I can find you something exotic to try and you’d love it,” Antonio said.
Renata, who was talking to Luis, interrupted their conversation. “I’d tell you to run away, but we need you.”
“Should I have a word with you too?” the man beside her asked Renata in a silky voice.
“I don’t need you to fight my battles,” Charly groused. “If anything, it’s you that I should be protected from.”
Luis started laughing, then started coughing.
“Oscar,” Antonio said, and his bodyguard walked over to Luis.
“I’m fine.” Luis continued coughing, belying his words, but he surrendered his cigar to Oscar.
“Has he been smoking a lot when I was in the States?” Andrade asked Renata.
The woman shrugged. “I’m not about to rat on an old man.”
Ida came back with a pot of tea and a little plate of candies. “According to Nico, he has.”
The older man glared at the housekeeper. “Snitch.”
“We’re just concerned for you,” Ida said. “Stop being an idiot.”
“Does he have a condition?” Charly asked Antonio.
“My condition is having too many people in my personal business,” Luis grumbled, but took a candy from the plate anyway, hurriedly unwrapping it as he went into another fit of coughing. He popped it into his mouth.
Antonio was about to answer her when Nico hurried back into the dining room. Charly hadn’t even noticed him leave.
“Charly, you have another message in your inbox,” Nico said, his face looked like he was about to hurl his dinner.
“I didn’t even know what the first one said,” she said dryly.
“All the first one said was ‘Are you there?’” the young man said as if it was inconsequential.
“What is it, Nico?” Antonio asked, a hard edge entering his tone.
“The second one, mue Dios,” Nico dropped into an empty chair while staring at his tablet.
“Nico, if you don’t say anything this instant, you’re going to give everyone a heart attack,” Ida said sharply. “What is it?”
“It’s Pierre.” His eyes lifted in anguish, looking at Renata. “I think he’s dead.”
It wasn’t until Renata let out an anguished sob that Charly remembered who Pierre was.
“Nooooo!”
Renata’s scream split through the dining room. Antonio slowly got up from his chair, reeling at this turn of events.
His instinct was to comfort his friend, but it was impossible to do so without finding out what the hell Nico was talking about. He walked over to the young man whose light mocha skin was almost purple, face scrunched as silent tears rolled down his cheeks.
Antonio grabbed the tablet from him, jaws clenching as he studied the lifeless face staring back at him. Its features were splotchy and there was a thin line across his neck. He was familiar with how he was killed.
Strangled by a garrote.
“Let me see,” Renata cried.
Luis wisely took the tablet from him while Antonio turned to engulf Renata in a hug. “It’s him. Don’t look for now.”
“They gave the location of his body,” the older man said.
Antonio stared at his mentor over the head of the sobbing woman in his arms. “What else did the message say?”
“‘We know Andrade has you.’”
“Fuck,” Antonio growled, handing Renata to Luis and facing Dr. Bennett. “You should give them a response.”
The doctor drew in a deep breath before exhaling a resigned one. The slumping of her shoulders had Antonio rethinking his spurt of anger upon learning of Pierre’s death. Although it did remind him that he wasn’t sure if she was Charles Bennett or not.
“How do you explain that?” Renata turned on the doctor accusingly. “If that’s not you, who told them Antonio has you?”
“It could be the PNO,” Luis appeared to be the sole voice of reason.
“And I’m not hiding that I have Dr. Bennett,” Antonio said. “The whole point is to rattle them.”
“Well, you got your reaction all right,” Renata spat.
“Let me see,” the doctor said, her face impassive.
“I don’t think …” Nico started.
Dr. Bennett stood. “What? You think I can’t stand to see a dead man’s face? I know I don’t look like one right now, but I am a doctor who’s seen patients in the throes of a hemorrhagic fever and, I can assure you, it’s not a pretty sight. That message is for me. If you want my help, do not ever”—she gritted—“ever keep things from me.”
Antonio nodded for Nico to hand over the tablet.
The doctor accepted the device and stared at the screen. Her eyes closed. After expelling another sigh, she opened her eyes and scrolled past the exchanges between Doctor Z and the person behind the Charles Bennett email.
