Chapter 40 Chapter 40

Leo's POV

"Gustavo Escobar," I said to Blair and Luca as we stood by the car

parked on the side of a road that went through Caracas, the capital city

of Venezuela that we'd been searching through for days for any sign of

Ella. "She said that he is a rival to Martinez and that is all.”

They looked at me blankly.

"I know it's not much but it's somewhere to start and somebody has to

know something about him," I continued. "And if he hates Martinez

even as half as much as I do, he will help us find him and in due course,

my Luna."

"I suppose he's gotta be pretty powerful if he's a rival to Martinez," Blair

said. "The police might have something."

"The police are corrupt and this man will be paying them off. They

aren't gonna tell us shit," I replied running my hand through my hair.

"It's worth a try, Alpha,” Luca insisted. "You don't usually have issues

getting information out of people.”

Blair shrugged, "We've gotta try."

I nodded, "Okay."

An hour later, we were in the head police station in Caracas.

"Donde esta tu jefe?" I asked striding up to the front desk. "Where is

your boss?"

The man looked up at me from his low chair behind the desk and I

stepped closer, resting my arms over the desk, and raised my eyebrow.

"Donde esta tu jefe?!" I repeated.

He meagrely pointed to a door that led into a hallway.

"Gracias," I replied, already marching towards it, Blair and Luca

following me.

"Sefior!-" the man called as I walked through the door.

There was a sign in Spanish translating to “authorised personnel only*

but I held up my hand to the receptionist who was now frantically

following us and immediately silenced him.

It wasn't long until we found the police chief's office. He looked up at

us as we came in and confusion spread over his face. He was a stony

looking man with hard creases in his face and a square hair cut.

"What are you doing in my office, gringos?" he asked. "You have to

have permission.”

"I need information on a man named Gustavo Escobar,” I said ignoring

him.

"And you are...?" he questioned with a raised eyebrow. "The DEA?"

"Leonardo Loren," I replied with a sarcastic smile before holding out my

hand.

His eyes shifted at the mention of my name and he straightened his tie.

He was human but his reaction told me that he knew exactly who I was.

"So I assume from your question referring to the DEA, you know who

Mr Escobar is?" I asked.

"I've never heard the name," he replied with a shrug.

"How much is he paying you to turn a blind eye?" I asked.

"You might like to take your questions elsewhere, Mr Loren," he said. "I

know nothing."

I sighed and exchanged irritated looks with Blair. I had a feeling this

would happen. I gestured to Luca and he locked the door to the office

and stood blocking the only exit.

"Mr..." I began.

"Perez," he finished looking between the three of us nervously.

"Mr Perez," I began again. "You know who I am and you know what I

am. You know that I can hear your every heartbeat and you know that I

know you are lying to me. So let's skip the bullshit, what do you know

about Gustavo Escobar?"

He stayed silent as I glared him down. I spotted his hand slowly inching

towards the phone on his desk and slammed my hand onto it before he

could reach it and crushed the dial pad.

After glancing down at the bent and crumbled metal of the phone, he

slowly looked back up to my eyes.

"Preferably before you piss me off,” I added taking a deep breath.

He leant back in his chair, clearly feigning confidence and smiled.

"You are right, Alpha,” Mr Perez said. "He is paying me to "turn a blind

eye’... to take no notice, to keep no files and to have no information.”

"And what if someone offered a higher price?" I asked. "Does it

magically materialise?"

"..depends how much you're offering?" he said.

My face hardened. I was done playing nice.

I seized him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him across the desk.

"Where do you keep it?" I growled.

I then noticed a pair of keys on the desk and threw them to Blair.

"Check the filing cabinet,” I ordered.

"You won't find it there," he replied struggling to breathe from how

tightly I was gripping his shirt around his neck.

"Then where?" I snarled.

"He'll hunt me down and kill me for telling you."

"And I will kill you right here and now if you don't,” I hissed. "And do

you want to know why I need this information? Not because I want to

challenge him or kill him but because Andrea Martinez has my Luna

and is threatening to murder and do terrible things to her. His biggest

rival, Gustavo Escobar, is my best shot of getting her back alive and I

will not let anything stand in my way."

Still gasping for air he finally agreed, "I'll show you."

I released him and wiped the sweat off my brow.

"Now would be great,” I said as he rearranged his clothing and stopped

to catch his breath.

He nodded frantically and picked up a different set of keys from his

drawer and headed to the door that Luca was still guarding.

"Follow me," he said approaching Luca who reluctantly moved aside

and let him out in response to a reassuring nod from me.

"Make sure no one follows us," I whispered in his ear as we passed and

he nodded.

Blair and I followed Mr Perez down to a basement as Luca stayed back

at the top of the stairs, once again guarding the entrance. After he

unlocked a few doors, we were soon in a tiny filing room with many

boxes.

"The box at the top on the left,” he said pointing to the highest shelf

which only I stood a chance of reaching.

The light was dim and I could only just make out that it was labelled

with the name Gustavo Escobar.

"You don't happen to have anything on Martinez whilst we're here?

We've tried before but never got this far,” Blair said.

"No one has information on Martinez," Mr Perez said gravely.

This time he wasn't lying.

"But you are right in thinking Escobar is your best shot in getting

some,” he added as I looked inside the box to find envelopes of photos,

sheets of coordinates, legal papers and a whole host of other files on

him.

"The most recent location we were able to track him to was a house in

Peru,” Mr Perez said pointing to one of the coordinates. "That was last

week."

"Gracias," I said taking out a pen and circling it. "And sorry for...nearly

strangling you."

"Werewolves care about their mates. I get it,” he replied. "Now go. Find

her."

"Adios," I said and Blair nodded before we marched out of the police

station with the box, picking up Luca along the way.