Aside from a school trip during my junior year of high school, I'd never been to New York City. When Tyler had lived there for a couple of years, I'd never found time to come and visit him. He'd often made the trip, though, so there had been no point in me dragging my ass all the way to the other side of the country.
Now that I was a grown adult, I was positively impatient to experience the city, instead of just being excited about spending a weekend away with Kate and other friends, as I'd been when I was seventeen. No, now I was absolutely enchanted by the idea that I'd be staying in Matt Murdock's city, right on Peter Parker's playground.
The only problem, really, was that we weren't here to visit or have fun. Not even close. We were here to take down a man who wanted us dead, so that meant we wouldn't wander out of our hotel room.
There would be no strolling around in Central Park hand in hand, no geeky tour exploring movie locations, no sightseeing from the top of the Empire State Building... We'd stay locked into our hotel room, working our asses off, and only going out when we really needed to. I'd still filled my eyes with everything I could on our trip from the airport to the hotel, though.
Since we could use a head start, given that we were coming for Becker in person, we hadn't told people we were leaving Seattle yet. We'd delay and postpone any invitation or offer to visit, until we didn't have much of a choice and would have to come up with an excuse about some random, impulsive trip wherever.
Since we still had our fake passports, it was Andrew and Alexandra Wilson who flew to New York, returning to their home city. As for the hotel reservation, Lex had pulled some strings and gotten his old friend to help us out.
Thanks to Eva's discreet intervention, we had the most secure room available in the hotel her family owned in this city. Even all the way from Greece, she had handled it with rapid efficiency. Our names were nowhere to be found, and we didn't have to deal with anyone in the lobby. The hotel manager himself had been waiting for us in the parking lot beneath the hotel, along with a bellboy for our luggage, and we'd followed the man escorted by two bodyguards. Lex was done taking risks, so even if we were supposedly secure and no one even knew we were on the East Coast, he insisted on the added protection.
The man in charge led us to our room, on the highest level, and the bellboy followed behind with his trolley and on it, the little luggage we'd brought.
"We have no reservation for this room for the next three weeks, and Miss Marleane insisted that you should feel free to stay as long as you want. Should you stay longer, she will personally handle the client in question. The adjacent room, reserved for a security detail, is also yours to use as you please, and you may hire a cook to work in the kitchen of your suite."
"A suite?" I asked, surprised. Just as I did, we stopped in front of a large double door.
"Yes, Miss Marleane demanded the best room." He slid his card into the slot, and just as I read the golden plate indicating the suite's name on the left door, he opened both in a grand gesture. My eyes widened at the sight of the room. "This is the Presidential Suite of the Marleane Plaza," he declared before moving to the side to allow us in first.
Lex stepped into the room, unfazed, and I followed, my gaze wandering all over the luxurious interior. We entered through a beautiful living room, modern in its decoration, and very tasteful, even though it felt unpersonal. The two men in charge of our security waited outside as the staff ones came in. The bellboy asked where he should put our things, and Lex showed him which bags belonged to the master bedroom, and which one could be left here. As he spoke with the manager, I explored the rest of the suite, baffled that all of this space was for us. There were two master suites, an office, a conference room, a small gym with three machines and weights, the vast common room we'd arrived in, and a terrasse that overlooked Central Park of at least two hundred square foot. There even was a fully equipped kitchen, which was clearly meant for a staffer, since it wasn't as lush as the rest of the place.
Hot damn, this was so much more than I'd expected...
Maybe staying locked in here wouldn't be that hard in the end. Not with such a fantastic view, and not with so much space to move around. And we would have a few necessary outings, so I would get to enjoy some of the city.
"Are you sure you want to wave the cleaning services?" the hotel manager was asking Lex when I came back.
"Yes. As Miss Marleane must have told you, our stay here is to remain as discreet as possible. We will contact the reception when we need the bed to be changed or when maids can come to clean. But we mustn't be disturbed without our approval."
"Of course, sir. Will you be using the hotel's room service?"
"We might, but someone from our security must be allowed to oversee the food preparation each time."
Not gonna lie, even I found it a little extreme. Some part of me knew that if Lex was being this cautious about everything, it was because I was involved. More than anything, he wanted to keep me safe. That was why I wasn't making a fuss about it, and letting him dictate the rules of our stay here.
"Well, if you have any question, I'm at your disposal," the manager said, in a way that was a little obsequious. "If you need anything, you can call the lobby and ask to speak with me or my assistant. The staff has been instructed to pass you through. You must be very dear to Miss Marleane, as she asked that you weren't charged for the room and received the best possible treatment."
Oh, that was generous of her. I didn't even want to imagine the cost of such a suite. Not that Lex couldn't afford it, but spending so much money on luxuries we didn't need felt wrong.
"Yes, we are old friends," Lex confirmed with a slight smile.
Old friends who used to be married, I thought to myself.
The manager and the bellboy left us alone, not after Lex had slipped a triple digit bill to the bag man, and the two security men came into the room for a quick check. They assessed what were the weak spots – the balcony, the main doors, and the service entrance by the kitchen – and then cleared with us how things would work out. A team of six men would relay each other in the adjacent room to guard the door. From their room, they had direct access to the suite, and apparently could be here in under twenty seconds. They gave us a remote with a panic button that we needed to push in case an intruder managed to get in.
They offered to set up a more thorough surveillance, with hidden cameras in strategic spots, but both Lex and I decided against it. Yes to being safe, no to having our privacy violated. After a few more minutes of explanations, the men left us to head to their own room. Suddenly, we found ourselves alone for the first time in a few hours.
Without a word, I made my way to the balcony, and leaned onto the stone balustrade, watching the giant park below and the cars, buses, and taxis, making their way into the streets, thirty-two floors beneath us. The weather was amazing, sunny and warm. It was windy up here, so the heat of the mid-summer wasn't as suffocating as it must be down there. Thanks to the park and the emptiness in front of us, the noises of the streets weren't too overwhelming, like a distant murmur. I didn't mind it, since it was only the city's life, her heartbeat and breaths.
Behind me, I heard Lex come my way, until his body pressed itself against mine. He settled his hands on the stone on each side of me, caging me with his large body, and his lips pressed a gentle kiss on my exposed shoulder.
"I feel like Serena Van Der Woodsen," I told him with amusement.
"Who?"
"Nevermind, it's from a show I used to watch. You wouldn't like it at all."
We silently admired the view, snuggled close to one another, his heat radiating through our clothes. It should have been too hot to tolerate this added warmth, but I didn't mind it. Not when he was holding me like this.
The siren of a fire truck resonated all the way to here, breaking through the faint buzz of the activity below. I watched as it appeared, its blue beacon light flashing with urgency. It made its way up the street fast, the other cars letting it pass, and then disappeared at a turn. Even something that I'd seen countless times in the past seemed more interesting in New York.
"How long do you think it'll take to find Ana-Lucía?" I asked, not looking away from the view.
"I'm not sure. Now where we can find her daughter, we should be able to get a hold of her fast."
Thanks to the audio we'd pulled from hacking into Becker's security system, we knew which high school one of the maids' daughter went to. We knew that the girl, Elena, was part of the soccer team, and rather good at it. After a quick search, we'd found her on the high school's Facebook page, which gave us her surname, which we hadn't had until then. Afterward, we'd hacked into the school's database to find the girl's contact information. While we'd found the number for what must have been a burner phone, there was no address linked to her file, so we didn't know where the Pérez family lived.
The name was too common to find anything more detailed, so we'd have to handle it in person. Thanks to her facebook profile, we knew Elena had soccer practice in a small club during the summer break, so all we had to do was follow her home to find out. Following a seventeen years old girl to find out where she lived was very wrong. But we didn't have malicious intent, so that was okay, right? Admittedly, we could have waited for Ana-Lucía after work, but we both agreed it was better to stay away from Becker as much as possible.
"Should we try today?" I asked. "According to the club's schedule, Elena finishes in about two hours. That should give us time to strategize, head over there, and wait for her to come out."
"Are you feeling up to it?"
"The sooner we find her mother, the better. If we don't find out now, we'll waste four days until her next practice day. We need to find Ana-Lucía as soon as possible. Then, we'll talk to her, ask if she'd be willing to help us out, and if she's fine with it, then it's all good. If she's not, we either move on to someone else, or we find another way to get the laptop."
"I'm not sure how we can do that, aside from breaking and entering."
"I guess it's a good thing we have access to Becker's security system, then. Maybe we'll find a way to be in and out undetected."
"Planning on becoming a cat burglar, are we?" he teased.
"Let's just say I'm willing to anything to get that man down."
"Me too, freckles. Me too..."
• • •
Two hours later, we were parked in front of a small soccerfield in Foxhurst, in the Bronx borough. Behind us, in another black SUV, bodyguards were waiting for our orders. Given the nature of our mission here, we'd decided to be alone in the car, so we could discuss without anyone else hearing us.
The scenery here was nothing like the Upper East Side, and one could feel the poverty running in this neighborhood. Two dozen boys were waiting for their own practice, most of them had worn out shoes, and the synthetic grass of the field behind them had known better days. A vast majority of people here were hispanic, including the coach who was actively blowing in her whistle, spurring the girls to give their everything, shouting orders in Spanish as often as in English.
Knowing I would be living in a suite that must have cost in a single night what people around here usually made in a year made me sick to my stomach. Had Lex been paying for our stay, I would have demanded we switched to a more reasonable location. It wasn't right to spend so much on trivial things when other people had so little. What in the fucking hell was wrong with rich people?
While Lex was wealthy as fuck, richer than I wanted to admit to myself, he had no desire to flaunt his wealth to the world, to buy a super yacht, several Rolls Royce, or invest in a gold toilet bowl. He was 'accidentally' rich for the sole reason that he had worked hard to buy out his father's company, driven by the desire to make him pay for the humiliation he'd put him through over the years. Lex lived comfortably, but not outrageously, and I was thankful for that. When necessary, he didn't hesitate to use his money, though, like now with the two tall and muscular men accompanying us in the other car.
Sudden activity pulled me out of my thoughts. Within seconds, the twenty and some girls that had been practicing came out through a small gate, with a gym bag thrown over the shoulder for most of them. Both Lex and I focused on them, scanning the faces to find a familiar one. The girls exiting mixed with the boys entering, and it became hard to keep track of all the kids. Elena wouldn't be easy to detect, given that most of them matched her description, with dark hair and brown eyes, but we'd studied her picture long enough to recognize her.
Lex, with his insane ability to focus, was the first one to spot her. "There. That's her, right?"
He pointed in the direction she was supposedly in, and then gave me more details when I struggled to see her. When I did, I nearly gasped. He was right. This was Elena, wearing a blue hoodie over her red soccer outfit. She was talking to an older woman, who was accompanied by a young boy. When the woman turned around, my heart skipped a beat, recognizing her instantly. Holy fuck...
"That's Ana-Lucía!" I enthusiastically let out.
It was so strange to have her right here, after seeing hours of her on the live footage from Becker's place. But it was her. Right here. With the same tired eyes, her average height, and her plump figure. Her dark hair was done in the same low bun she always wore at work, and she was even wearing the white tennis shoes we usually saw in the footage. It seemed she was just out of work, and had come to fetch her daughter after she'd done the same with her son.
Elena, Ana-Lucía, and the boy – who I now gathered was Santiago, her other child – took off by foot, and I tapped on Lex's thigh, urgently indicating to him that he needed to follow them. The car was parked in the wrong way, though, so by the time we'd turned it around, we might have lost them. Just as Lex switched the engine on, all three of them disappeared into an adjacent street.
Lex proceeded to maneuver the car out of its spot, but we didn't have time for this. Driven by the adrenaline that was pulsing in my blood, I unfastened my seat belt and opened the door to bolt outside.
"Andrea!" Lex called disapprovingly as I slammed the door shut.
I would be fine. We'd literally just arrived in the city. No one was expecting us to be here. This was too important; we couldn't mess it up.
Doing my best not to collide with anyone, slaloming between the soccer kids and the passers-by, I sprinted toward the corner the trio had disappeared into. As soon as I reached it, I spotted them fifty yards ahead, walking on the other side of the street. Slowing my pace, I aligned it with theirs, staying at a safe distance.
About thirty seconds later, they turned into a small and colorful bodega. I took a few more steps, getting closer to the store's entrance, and leaned back against a brick wall, keeping my eyes on the glass door. Hurried footsteps came to my left, and when I looked, I met the stormy eyes of a very angry Lex.
"The fuck do you think you're doing?!" he muttered.
"Whatever it takes – like we said."
The two bodyguards were following him, jogging to catch up with us. With a harsh hand gesture, he ordered them to stay back, and they obeyed instantly, halting their strides and waiting for their next instruction.
"Doing whatever it takes doesn't mean we get to be careless, Andrea!"
"I'm not being careless. What could happen to me, Lex? We're in broad daylight, and we haven't even been in this city for four hours. No one's trying to kill us yet."
"It was safer in the car."
"Well, with the time it would have taken to turn the car around, we would have passed here now and we would have lost them. That's four days gone that we can't get back," I justified, reminding him of the tight schedule we were working with.
He only now realized Ana-Lucía and Elena were nowhere in sight and looked around to find them. "They are in there," I explained, pointing at the small shop.
"Did they see you?"
"No."
His hand wrapped itself around my arm, just above my elbow, and he pulled me back a little, so I'd be further from the bodega's entrance. I held back an eye-roll, knowing he had good intentions. He then told the two men following us to stay thirty steps away from us and remain discreet, before moving in an inconspicuous position next to me, his eyes on the store.
Even though we had a lot on our mind at the moment, I couldn't help but notice how nice it felt to be out in the open like this. The activity buzzing all around us was electrifying, and coupled with the rush I'd gotten following the trio, I felt alive. Lex and I had been cooped up for so long, I'd forgotten what it was like to be in the center of so much life like this. We hadn't been outside when in Seattle, not even once, and when we were in Canada, the small town nearby hadn't been very dynamic.
A few minutes passed without us talking, and I broke first, forever the talkative one.
"What will we do when we find out where she lives?" I asked in a low voice, minding the couple that passed by us.
"I don't know yet."
"We needed her address so we could reach out to her."
"Yes."
"But she's here right now."
"I'm aware of that."
"We might not get another occasion like this one, Lex," I urged.
"You don't know that."
"Then tell me. What are we going to do? How will we reach out to her?"
"We'll figure something out."
His gaze sharpened, still locked on the bodega, and when I turned around, I saw Ana-Lucía and her kids exiting the shop. They were carrying paper bags with groceries, and the son had a lollipop shoved into his mouth, a wide grin on his face. As they walked away, we followed her from a distance, still on the opposite site of the street.
This was a golden opportunity. We might not get another one for days, maybe a full week. The woman was right here for the taking. All we had to do was talk to her. What else could we do, really? Call her and ask for a meeting? She would refuse, finding it weird. The sole goal of finding out where she lived was to wait for her one day when she came out of work to accost her and ask for a chat.
So basically what we had right now. It might never get any better than this.
"Lex, we need to do this now," I insisted, turning to him. After a slight hesitation, he shook his head, disapproving. "Baby, please... Trust me."
I begged him with my eyes, pleading with him to have faith in my guts. We'd save days if not a week if we did this now. The other opportunities we'd have wouldn't be better than this. We didn't have time to waste, trying to come up with a better plan than this.
Eventually, he gave in, and offered me a nod, his brows tense with uncertainty.
Before he could change his mind, I took his hand in mine and pulled him behind me. After making sure there were no cars, I crossed the road at a hurried pace. We trotted toward the little family, and once we were close enough, I called out the maid.
"Ana-Lucía!" She didn't hear me the first time, but when I shouted it again, she glimpsed back at us before stopping in her tracks.
I released Lex's hand, and we walked up to her hurriedly. Her children had stopped too, staring at us with as much confusion as their mother.
"Yes?" she asked with a thick accent once we reached her.
"¿Podríamos tener un momento de su tiempo, por favor? [Could we have a moment of your time, please?]" I asked, my heart racing in my chest. Fuck, what if Lex had been right? What if we should have waited?
"[Do I know you?]"
"[No, but please. This is important.]"
"[Sorry, but I have to get home and get dinner started,]" she refused, clearly not trusting us. Her son tried to ask something, but she stopped him before he could speak.
"[We'll pay for your dinner,]" I offered. "[Take out. Anything you want. Please, Ana-Lucía.]"
She hesitated, and while her children were already negotiating which restaurant they'd get to order dinner from, I believed it was the urgency in my voice that compelled her to consider my request. Her eyes traveled between Lex and me, and she glimpsed at her kids quickly. From everything we'd heard in the hours we'd watched, she was a good woman, and she did the right thing whenever she could.
"[You can have ten minutes,]" she gave in. I let out the breath I'd been holding as she turned to her children, giving them instructions. Elena gave her bag of groceries to her little brother, and Ana-Lucía then handed hers to the girl in exchange. She told them to get home and wait for her, insisting that they behaved and that Elena mustn't be mean to Santiago.
The kids took off, a little thrown off, and they glimpsed back at us every few steps, wondering what this could be about. When they turned left at the end of the street, Ana-Lucía faced us, her eyes full of questions. The one thing we'd never noticed about her in the security footage was the color of her irises. They were a striking deep shade of green, which she'd apparently passed to her son.
"[How do you know my name?]" was her first question.
"[It's a long story. Could we get you a coffee while we explain everything?]" I offered, lifting my hand to show the small deli about thirty yards away.
"[Fine, but the good kind.]"
"[Of course.]"
When I turned to Lex, he was a little lost, oblivious to the language, but I gave him a confident nod. We'd gotten what we needed – a chat with Ana-Lucía. Now, all that was left was convincing her to help us out.
We all walked to the deli, and the bodyguards thankfully remained far enough, invisible as Lex had ordered. If she spotted them, Ana-Lucía might get cold feet and change her mind. A strong smell of spices teased my nostrils when we stepped into the shop. It was narrow but deep, with a long serve over fridge full of edible goods, a few self-serve glass door refrigerators with drinks in them, and a couple of tables in the back of the room.
"[Order whatever you want. We're offering,]" I told Ana-Lucía with an encouraging smile.
Walking up to the counter, she ordered a coffee for herself, asking the clerk to make it from the expensive beans, and then a pastel de gloria, with three more that she asked in a bag to take back home for her family.
"Do you want a coffee?" I asked Lex. He nodded, and I turned to the chilled display full of pastries. My stomach had been in knots minutes ago, but the South-American delicacies were suddenly calling me. Looking back at Lex, I pointed at the fridge. "Do you want to share something to eat?"
"I'm good. Take whatever you want."
Once I got to the man running the shop, I ordered a tea for me, another good coffee for Lex, and the same thing as Ana-Lucía had gotten for herself, thinking she must know what was the shop's best strength. When the time to pay came, Lex was faster than I was to take out his wallet, so he handed a bill to the clerk, telling him to keep the dollar and some change.
With our hot beverages and pastries in hand, we walked to the back of the shop. We picked one of the small plastic tables, pulling the metal chairs back to sit on them.
For a moment, I stared at my steaming cup of tea, wondering how I should start. Lex and I had discussed this on the plane on our way here, so we had an overall idea of how we should lead the conversation. But now that I was right here, sitting with who might be our only hope, I wasn't so sure on what was the best approach.
As she waited for me to say something, Ana-Lucía ripped a small piece of her pastel de gloria and brought it to her mouth. I was tempted to do the same, but held back, trying to seem serious and professional.
"[Ana-Lucía, we... we wanted to meet you because we have a favor to ask,]" I eventually said, pulling her focus away from the pastry and onto me.
"[I'm not sure how I could help you with anything. I make minimum wage in a maximum wage city where I barely understand the language. Most days, I'm the one in need of favors.]"
"[I get that, but you could help us out tremendously. And we're willing to pay you for it. All you have to do is give us your price.]"
The mention of money caught her attention, and she pondered for a moment. Now that I'd seen the neighborhood she lived in, and the poor state of her son's shoes, it was easy to guess she was struggling to make ends meet, like millions of people in this city. Whatever price she'd ask in exchange for helping us, I'd talk with Lex to make sure she'd get more. If she accepted our offer, the magnitude of the favor she'd do for us was priceless.
Still pensive, she took a sip of her dark brew, her eyes alternating between Lex and me. She was gauging us, trying to estimate how credible we were. Slowly, she put her paper cup down, and her thumb ran over the pinkish lipstick mark she'd left on the edge of it.
When her eyes met mine again, I knew we'd convinced her to at least listen to what we had to say. Her lips parted, and she asserted the words I'd been dying to hear.
"[I'm listening.]"