“I’ll come with you,” Zy offered. “I’ll devote all my energy—”
“No,” Logan whirled on him. “This shit is centered around Valeria Montilla.”
That was true. And nothing good had happened to the team since Caleb, the Edgington brothers, and another former operative had smuggled out the drug lord’s pregnant wife under his nose almost two years ago. Apparently, it didn’t matter that Emilo was now dead. Retribution was incoming.
“Since her safe house was breached last night, Trees and Kane are going to relocate her and her family pronto—and we’ll be monitoring every step.”
Then suddenly, Logan shut the door in his face and lowered his voice to a growl that only Zy could hear.
Less than two minutes later, it opened again. Logan tore out of the conference room, slamming the door behind him with Zy still inside. “Take Kane and get your ass to Orlando today. I’m texting you Valeria Montilla’s number. We gave her your digits, too. If she doesn’t answer at first, keep trying. She won’t take calls from unfamiliar numbers since she’s been getting them all night. You and Kane will bring her to a location we’ll disclose later. Her sister and the little boy, too…once you find them.”
“Hunter already told me.” More or less.
“Good. Don’t fuck up.”
After that warning and more door slamming at the front of the office, the place fell deadly silent.
Zy hauled ass out of the conference room. The rest of the team gravitated to the reception area, clearly shocked by the colonel’s bombshell. Trees hung back. The truth was, none of them had seen this sudden, horrible development coming. But he should have. It would be a problem until they smoked out their goddamn mole.
Tessa rose from her chair behind the reception desk and grabbed Zy’s arm. “Do you know anything beyond the fact Kimber has been taken?”
“No. No one does.”
“I can’t believe this is happening…” She wrung her hands.
“The bosses will do everything they can to find her.”
“What if they can’t?”
Her death would be terrifying, violent, and painful. But Trees didn’t say that out loud. They all knew it.
“Don’t think that way,” Zy tried to reassure her. “The colonel, Hunter, Logan, and Joaquin are the very best at what they do. And I don’t know Deke, but—”
“He’s scary,” Trees put in, in case there was any doubt.
“Then together, they’ll leave no stone unturned to bring her back,” Zy told Tessa. “Have faith.”
“I’m trying.”
Was Tessa’s distress for Kimber real…or a well-rehearsed act? The women were supposedly friends…but EM indisputably had a mole. It wasn’t any of the bosses. It wasn’t Josiah or Cutter, the former operatives who had left to pursue new jobs and happily ever after with their new brides. It couldn’t be Walker, since he’d both nearly died at the Tierra Caliente cartel’s hands and killed Emilo himself. It couldn’t be Kane Preston since it was his first day on the job. It wasn’t Zy. And Trees knew it wasn’t him.
Tessa was the only person left who could possibly be guilty.
Trees drifted back to his desk and studied her. Once, he’d been convinced Tessa was as in love with Zy as he was with her. Now? She’d seemingly wrapped his buddy around her finger with her big tits and batting lashes over huge green eyes. How could Zy not see that Tessa might be playing him?
After launching another in-depth network scan, Trees headed to the back of the office for more coffee. Kane, the new guy, joined him, grabbing the java first.
“I’ve been here an hour, and shit’s already real. Is it always this eventful?”
“No,” he assured. “Hell of a first day, though.”
Kane nodded. “You could say that…”
The guy seemed all right. Trees wasn’t convinced he had the experience to fill the shoes of a former CIA agent and report up to a couple of former SEALs, but they had a mission to complete. Trees would perform to the best of his ability, regardless of Kane. From what he could tell, Valeria and her family had been through enough. She deserved some safety from the murderous cartel who kept hunting her. Her sister, too…if they hadn’t already ended her.
Of course, their rescue lessened the likelihood that Kimber Trenton made it out of captivity alive.
Pierce Walker, their resident sniper, who preferred to be called One-Mile, approached, shaking his head. “Hell of a Monday morning.”
“Yep.” Trees poured himself a steaming black mug, then set the pot down for Walker, who snatched it up and dumped the last of the brew into his cup.
Zy approached then, muttering under his breath. “Those fuckers we work for left me in charge.”
Someone had to be while the bosses devoted themselves to rescuing Kimber, but Zy was a rebel. Him being an authority figure was really ironic. Still, they trusted him. Besides, who else was there? Kane was too new, Walker was crazy, and Trees…well, they thought he was guilty as fuck.
“Where are we with your trip to Florida?” Zy asked.
Clearly, the bosses hadn’t told him much before they raced to their sister’s aid.
“We don’t know exactly where we’re going yet,” Trees said, then explained everything Hunter had relayed about Valeria’s missing sister and son.
Zy nodded. “Logan said as much.”
So they were on the same page. But something about this situation bothered the hell out of Trees. “If the cartel took Laila and Jorge, why would they have kidnapped Kimber this morning, demanding to know Valeria’s location? They seemingly have hostages they can better use as leverage.”
Zy shrugged. “Because they want to flush Valeria out fast and they’re leaving no stone unturned?”
“Maybe.” But Trees wasn’t buying it. Maybe the woman and the toddler had somehow escaped…
“No one has heard from Laila?” Zy asked.
One-Mile shook his head. “She has my number. When I left Florida after relocating them, I made sure she knew how to contact me.”
Without her phone, how could she?
“Unless you hear from her, we need to come up with a plan,” Zy insisted. “If Laila managed to escape, every hour she and Jorge are floating out there without help or resources is another hour they’re likely to be scooped up by Emilo Montilla’s gang. Do we know who’s running the show now that Walker put a bullet in his head?”
One-Mile shrugged. “I made a few friends while I spent a month in Mexico, trying to off the son of a bitch.”
“And?” Zy prompted.
“I’ve heard that some underlings inside Emilo’s compound are trying to seize power…but there’s also gossip that his father intends to take over and oust anyone who gets in his way.”
That made sense. Inside Tierra Caliente, Emilo had been a guppy. Geraldo was a shark.
Trees had a suspicion that the elder Montilla had given the splinter faction to his son in the hopes that he’d grow a set of cajones big enough to run the entire cartel someday. Now that his son was dead, Geraldo was too much of a narcotics king to turn over any part of his operation to Emilo’s underlings.