Raul’s gloved fist caught Tony in the jaw, snapping his head back.
Everything went fuzzy, and a buzz sounded in his head. For one blessed moment, he couldn’t think. Then the ringing stopped and the guilt slammed back into him harder than Raul’s punch. He pushed it away with a trio of jabs that left his knuckles throbbing and Raul stumbling backward.
“Break!” Paulie, the gym’s manager, leaned over the ropes. “Tony, you got a call.”
He pushed the rubber mouth guard out far enough to speak. “Tell them I’m not here.”
“It’s Cam.”
No doubt wanting the Anders’s debrief. He’d shoved his cell phone—with the recording he’d made of Anders confessing—along with the USB drive he’d pocketed at his number two this morning and blasted out of the office.
“I’m still not here.” He popped his mouth guard back in and raised his fists. In another twenty-five minutes he wouldn’t have a sparring partner to help beat the memory of Sylvie’s hurt and fury out of his head. He’d be left to do it himself with a bottle of Jack Daniels, saving the ice for a pack on his knee.
“He says it’s an emergency.” The old man looked to the ceiling and clicked his tongue against the back of his teeth. “Something about a Sophie… Sherry…”
Tony’s arms dropped. Praying he was wrong, he spun around to face the grizzled gym manager. “Sylvie?”
“Yeah, that’s it. Sylvie.”
Ton
y vaulted over the ropes, yanking off the protective headgear and spitting out his mouth guard on the way to the phone at the check-in desk. Unable to pick it up with his gloved hands, he began tearing away at the laces with his teeth.
“Hey, shit for brains, how about I hand it to you before you ruin those gloves?” Paulie lifted the cordless receiver, holding it out so Tony could capture it between his shoulder and ear.
“Talk to me, Cam.” He yelled the words over the panic alarm screaming in his head.
“That’s some weird shit on the USB drive you gave me.”
Irritation surged through Tony. “You called me for weird shit?”
“Just listen. It’s not a list of dates and names like the other stuff you found in Anders’s office. It’s poetry.”
He scowled. “I don’t have time to hear some psycho’s rhymes.” The clock was ticking closer to the gym’s closing time, and he had more damage to inflict on himself.
“But this shit doesn’t sound like Anders. Here’s the first one: ‘Like the wild canids, I’ll tear you down. Expose your secrets to all the town. Leave you bloody, crying out in pain. My vengeance will pour down like the heaviest of rains.’”
His toes itched inside his sweat-soaked boxing shoes. Canids? Where had he heard that before? The answer hovered just out of reach.
“Did you hear what I said?” Cam’s voice disrupted Tony’s train of thought.
“What? No.” The tension in his shoulders wound tighter.
“Carlos never checked back in yesterday.”
Tony’s scowl deepened. “He was supposed to be running that proxy search at Ivy’s apartment.” Suddenly, he remembered. That’s where he’d heard “canids.” When ’Los and Ivy were talking about Magic Battledome.
“Which is exactly where we found him an hour ago—drugged and out cold on the floor. I don’t know what the doc shot him full of in the ER, but it had an immediate effect. It was enough to make a bull stand up and tango. He’s raring to go.”
“Where was Ivy when this went down?” Tony shoved both gloved hands at Paulie, who immediately went to work unlacing them.
“According to ’Los, she’s gone. He thinks someone took her. Of course, he could be hallucinating from the meds.”
All at once, the pieces slid neatly together in Tony’s mind.
Ivy had started Killer Style Blogging with Drea and Sylvie. She knew the ins and outs of the system. She could have hacked in without a sweat. After being friends for years, she’d be familiar with Sylvie’s habits and haunts. Anders had been her dealer, so she’d have access to his secret office. She must have dropped the USB and planted Sylvie’s laptop there after she’d gotten what she needed from it. She’d told ’Los that Magic Battledome helped her think one step ahead of her enemies.
Damn it to hell!