The man with the silver watch led her upstairs. By the time they reached the landing, the noise from the fight floor had thinned to a low rumble beneath the concrete.
A short corridor led toward a single closed door. A man in a black suit stood outside it, hands clasped in front of him.
As they walked, Mia passed a large window on the right. Beyond it, several men sat in a security room watching monitors that showed different angles of the crowd below and the outside of the building.
When Mia reached the door, the guard stepped in front of her.
“Arms out.”
He gave her a quick, practiced pat-down and then nodded at the man with the silver watch, who opened the door, stood aside to let Mia in, then followed her inside.
The office was cool. The sweat on her arms turned cold the moment she stepped inside.
Valdés sat behind a wide desk, a large wall-mounted screen behind him showing the cage below. Along the side wall, a muted bank of security screens cycled through camera feeds from around the venue. Near the far corner, another door sat almost flush with the wall paneling, marked only by a small green emergency-exit sign above it.
Valdés looked past Mia to the man who had brought her in.
“Stay, Rafa.”
Rafa closed the door behind them and took up a position beside it.
Mounted horizontally on the wall above the screen was a katana in a black lacquered scabbard. Mia’s eyes stayed on it a fraction longer than anything else in the room. The wrapping on the handle had been worn smooth in places, and the metal guard bore the fine scratches of something that had been well used.
Valdés followed her gaze.
“You know what that is?”
“I know what it is.”
“It belonged to a man who tried to kill me.” Valdés looked at Mia. “He was good with it too. Killed two of my men before he reached me.”
“What happened?”
Valdés looked back at her. “I took it from him.”
Mia looked at the sword again. A trophy.
Then she looked back at Valdés.
“Did you order Luis’s death?” she said.
Something in Valdés’s expression shifted.
“So that’s why you’re here.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Cruz works for you.”
“He does.”
“He threatened me. Ordered me to throw the fight. Now Luis is dead.”
“I gave no order to fix your fight. I gave no order concerning Luis.” Valdés’s voice remained calm. “Whatever Cruz did, he did without my authorization.”
“You expect me to believe that your right-hand man decided to do all that on his own?”
Valdés studied her. “Cruz has been making decisions that aren’t his to make for some time.”
“What kind of decisions?”
“The kind that has me questioning whether he still understands who he works for.”
“And Luis is dead because of it.”
“Yes.”
The answer came without hesitation.
Mia’s jaw tightened.
“But something useful has come out of it,” Valdés said.
She stared at him.
“It brought you through my door.”
“And how is that useful?”
Valdés regarded her for a moment. “I think you’re wasting time pretending you still have a life to go back to, Mia.”
Mia said nothing.
“The life you knew is over. Luis is dead. The police are all over your building. Your face is still on posters across the city. Cruz knows you’re still alive, and sooner or later he’ll decide you know too much.”
He let that sit.
“But I look at you and I see value, Mia. You came into one of my fights under a false name, injured badly enough that you should be in a hospital. You got through my security. You won your fight. And now you’re standing in front of me.”
“I came here for answers.”
“And you’ll get them.” Valdés paused. “But after that, you still have to decide what happens next.”
Mia watched him.
“I can offer you something practical. Protection. Documents. A place in this organization.”
“You’re offering me a job.”
“I’m offering you a future.”
“Explain something to me.” Mia held his gaze. “When they found Luis, there was a coin in his hand. Brass. Heavy. A crown on one side, with something long and coiled underneath it.”
Valdés’s expression changed.
“A snake?”
“Looked like one.”
Valdés was quiet for a moment.
“That sounds like one of mine.”
Mia stared at him. “And you expect that to convince me you had nothing to do with it?”
“No.” Valdés leaned back slightly. “Because if it was one of mine, whoever left it got something wrong.”
“What?”
“Someone wanted you to think it was me,” he said. “Someone who knew enough about how I operate to get the coin almost right.”
“Almost?”
Valdés looked at her. “Cruz knew the coin goes under the tongue. Putting it in Luis’s hand wasn’t a mistake. It was insurance.”
Mia frowned.
“To anyone who’d only heard the stories, the coin pointed straight at me. That’s why you’re here now. But if I came asking questions, Cruz had an answer ready. Why would he put it there if he was trying to point the finger at me?”
“But why point this back at you.”
Valdés studied her.
“My guess? Cruz wanted you to come after me.”
“Why? I don’t follow,” Mia said.
“I think Cruz suspects I know he’s been stealing from me,” Valdés said.
“Cruz arranged your fight without my knowledge. Tried to fix the result, moved my money around it. I imagine he expected to make a great deal when you went down in the second and I’d be none the wiser.”
“But I didn’t.”
“No.” Valdés almost smiled. “You fucked that up rather spectacularly. And in doing so, you made Cruz’s life very difficult. A fixed fight only works when the fight ends the way people were promised it would. Yours didn’t. Suddenly there was money missing in my accounts and people asking questions.”
“But why not come after me? Why did he have to kill Luis?”
“Because Luis wasn’t useful to him. You were. And from what I understand, Luis had already started asking questions Cruz didn’t want asked.”
Valdés held her gaze. “Cruz knew what taking Luis from you would do. Turn your life upside down, give you someone to blame, then point you in the right direction.”
“Toward you.”
“Exactly. He figured you’d go after whoever you believed was responsible. All he had to do was make sure you believed it was me.”
Mia studied him.
“That’s a good story.”
“It’s also the truth,” Valdés said.
Mia held his gaze. “If you know Cruz is stealing from you, why is he still breathing?”
“Because taking Cruz is easy. I want to know who I’d be leaving behind.”
“Meaning?”
“He didn’t do this alone. Money moved through accounts he doesn’t control. Men took orders they never reported to me.”
Valdés glanced toward Rafa and held his gaze for a moment before turning back to Mia.
“If I move against Cruz now, everyone else involved starts covering their tracks.”
“So you’re waiting.”
“I’m finding out how far it goes. When I deal with Cruz, I want every name that belongs beside his.”
“And then what?”
“Then I rebuild.” Valdés regarded her. “There’ll be holes in this organization when I’m finished. Positions will need filling.”
Mia understood where this was going.
“You’re still trying to recruit me.”
“I told you I see value in you.” He leaned back slightly. “Someone with your abilities could be invaluable in what comes next.”
Mia studied him.
“You’re asking me to trust a man who keeps a dead man’s sword on his wall as a trophy.”
“I’m not asking you to trust me.”
“Good. Because I don’t.” She paused. “I want proof before I decide anything.”
Valdés looked toward Rafa. “Bring the ledger.”