flash
The hangover hit Mateo like a freight train at sunrise. Sunlight filtered through the velvet curtains of the luxury hotel suite, burning his eyes. Beside him, Valeria was still asleep, smelling of cheap neon cocktails and expensive perfume. Mateo groaned, reaching for his phone on the nightstand. / Chapter 13 / 20

Chapter 13 - Valeria’s Venom

The next afternoon, rain poured over downtown Monterrey. Inside a secluded booth at an upscale bistro, Camila sat opposite a woman she hadn't seen since the courtroom: Valeria.

Valeria looked nothing like the glamorized mistress who had danced in VIP clubs. Her designer clothes were gone, replaced by a simple trench coat. Her eyes were red-rimmed and paranoid.

"You took a big risk calling me, Valeria," Camila said coldly, sipping her espresso.

"I didn't have a choice!" Valeria hissed, looking nervously over her shoulder. "Mateo’s people reached out to me two days ago. They know I co-operated with the police to save myself. He wants me dead, Camila!"

"That sounds like your problem, not mine," Camila replied, her voice completely devoid of sympathy. "You enjoyed his money when he was stepping on me. Now you get to share his fate."

Valeria leaned across the table, her hands trembling as she pulled out a encrypted flash drive. "Wait! I have something you need. Before Mateo was arrested, he forced me to hold onto a hard drive containing the biometric encryption codes to his private vault in Zurich. But last night, somebody tried to break into my apartment and steal it."

Camila stared at the flash drive. "Why bring this to me?"

"Because Alejandro’s security team is the only force capable of keeping me alive!" Valeria pleaded, tears breaking through her heavy mascara. "Give me five million dollars and a safe passage to Europe, and the drive is yours. You can wipe out his last remaining fortune before he uses it to fund a hit on you!"

Camila reached out, picked up the drive, and handed it to Alejandro’s head of security, who was standing right behind her.

"Check it," Camila commanded.

The security chief plugged the drive into a portable diagnostic reader. Within ten seconds, he looked up at Camila with a grim expression. "Mrs. Vance... it’s a trojan virus designed to override our home defense mainframe."

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"You were his Trojan horse," Camila spat, standing up. "He promised you money to deliver this to me, didn't he? You never learn, Valeria."

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