I looked at the clock on the wall.

It was nearly midnight.

“You don’t want to do this, Alvaro,” I said. “If those men touch my children, I will release the rest of the files.”

“What files?” he scoffed. “We took Matthew’s laptop. We have the drives.”

“You have *his* drives,” I said. “You don’t have mine.”

I looked at the small black USB stick sitting on the kitchen counter.

It contained the full audit of Horizonte Capital’s shell companies in Panama.

“You are bluffing,” Alvaro said, echoing my own words.

“Try me,” I said.

The line went quiet.

I could hear the rain hitting the windowpane behind me.

In the silence, Matthew spoke again, his voice surprisingly firm despite the pain.

“Don’t tell him anything, Inés,” Matthew said.

I heard a sharp, dull blow through the receiver, followed by a grunt of pain.

“Shut up,” a different voice said on the line—one of Alvaro’s men.

“Alvaro!” I shouted. “Stop it!”

“Then give me the location,” Alvaro said. “The real one. I know they aren’t at the cottage anymore.”

My hand began to shake.