Page 83 of Born for Starlight

"Try? Oh, Senhor Costa, I just know in my heart that you will make my wish come true. You’re just that kind of man."

Matthew cleared his throat and took over. "Two items on my side. I want a walkthrough before we arrive. One. Me and one of my men, your head of security, the full route."

"Our security is handled by the state, Senhor Grainger. Very professional, I assure⁠—"

"I'm sure they are. I still walk the route. My principal received threats before we left the States, which is why I also want you to know she has additional security in this city. Men you won't see. They've been here since we landed, and they'll be there today." He let that sit. "I want everyone to know everything up front. Fewer surprises."

Costa's eyes flicked toward the window, just once, then came back with a refreshed smile. "Of course. Of course. Eleven. I will arrange it with Ferraz, our chief. You will find everything in perfect order."

"Looking forward to it."

Costa rose, kissed my hand, blessed my heart, my career, my generosity, and possibly my future children, and left a wake of cologne all the way to the door.

The latch clicked. Matthew turned around, and the glare was back at full power.

"You blew it. We had one job this morning, keep him comfortable, and you asked to see the orphans. You watched him start sweating and you kept pushing."

"That's exactly what I would have said." I stepped right into his space, and I did not need a step stool to hold his eyes. "Angelica Drakos has asked for the kids at every orphanage, hospital, and shelter she has ever visited on three continents. It's on record. It's in profiles. It is the brand, Matthew.”

“You pushed and played that man so hard, he’ll be trying to untwist his dick for a week!”

“I’m known for getting my way. If I'd sat there nodding at his little schedule and never once asked to meet a child, that's the red flag. Costa would've been on the phone before the elevator hit the lobby, asking who got to her." I patted his cheek. "So, eat dirt."

Through the wall, faint but unmistakable, came laughter.

Matthew closed his eyes.

The door opened, with Beto coming through, grinning, the others following. “There are many new terms I have learned today,” Beto said. “Eat dirt is good, but untwisting dick is best.”

Layla and I laughed in unison.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Instituto Aurora was beautiful.

That was the first thing wrong with it.

State institutions in this part of the world ran on stretched budgets and tired staff, and it showed in honest ways. Rust on the gate hinges. Weeds in the fence line. Aurora gleamed. Fresh whitewash on every wall facing the road, new gravel raked smooth in the drive, flowerbeds planted in neat rows the same yellow as the state flag. Somebody had spent real money making this place photograph well.

Paint was cheap. Paint over rot was cheaper than fixing rot.

Beto rolled us through the gates of the property at exactly one o’clock, and a man came down the front steps of the main building to meet us with his hand already out.

"Senhor Grainger. My name is Ferraz. Chief of security." He was a shade over fifty, gray hair in a brush cut, wide shoulders. I’d bet my bottom dollar he was ex-military. The handshake was dry, correct. His eyes did the thing professional eyes did, boots, hands, jacket line, then back to my face. "Senhor Costa asks me to give you everything you need."

"Appreciate it. This is Deke. He documents while we walk. Standard for our advance work."

"Of course."

Deke lifted the camera and started earning his pay. We walked the route.

Front gates, where the photographs would happen at three. The steps, where the check got handed over at three forty. The door the press came through, the door they left through, the spot where the vans parked. Deke shot all of it, pretending to be bored as hell.

Perfect.

Ferraz answered every question I asked and volunteered nothing. He'd done this before, but not for visiting movie stars.

The inside smelled like industrial disinfectant over something older. Every institution on earth smelled like that. I stopped noticing after two hallways.