Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Logan winced. “I know you don’t trust her, but my baby sister’s life is hanging in the balance. We have to try.”
“You do.” Trees and his attitude backed down. Laila had stabbed him in the back, but he’d recover…eventually. The Edgingtons and Deke Trenton had a hole in their lives that would never be filled if they didn’t recover Kimber alive. She had children who needed her, and she’d done nothing to deserve death at these monsters’ hands. “Just…watch your six.”
“That’s your job tonight.” Logan hesitated. “No idea where Laila is now?”
With Victor Ramos, probably celebrating the moment that asshole had shot him and he’d conked his fucking head on the pavement. “No. Don’t you? You’ve talked to her.”
“Not me. She reached out to Valeria, but Laila refused to even tell her sister where she’d gone. Valeria said she sounded rattled. She was crying. That’s why I thought”—he shrugged—“I don’t know, that maybe the video she’d sent was fabricated so you’d keep your distance.”
There was a time he would have thought that, too. Now he knew better. “Nope.”
Logan must have realized that was a closed subject since he changed it. “We’re less than ten away from the meet point. You need anything?”
Like a pep talk? Fuck that. “No. I’ll gear up when everyone else does.”
“All right. The colonel is supposed to call with—”
The phone rang, interrupting whatever Logan had been about to say. He lunged for it, putting it on speaker. “Talk to me, Dad.”
The team’s former owner sighed tiredly. “We poked around as much as we dared. We don’t know if Kimber is there, but the place is as quiet as it’s going to get. We need to go in now. If this security is their version of a skeleton crew, it’s heavy duty. It’s obvious the Mexican army is rubbing elbows with DEA to protect the cartel.”
Trees couldn’t say he was surprised. He’d seen plenty of evidence over the years that both were corrupt to the core.
“Money talks,” Logan drawled.
“Sadly, it does,” the elder Edgington agreed. “But I suspect security will get even more serious after sunrise, so it’s now or never.”
“South and west still the best ways in?” Logan asked.
“Yeah. There’s only a handful of guards by the stables, all armed to the teeth, of course. But something’s…off. As far as Hunter and Ghost could tell, there were no horses in the stables, so why bother guarding them?”
“Maybe that’s where Montilla is stashing drugs or counting money,” Logan surmised.
“Or holding hostages,” Trees added.
“I’m wondering that,” Caleb Edgington said. “Deke and I got a brief peek inside the main house. It’s ostentatious as hell and over the top, like Hugh Hefner and Liberace decorated the place together. Booze was flowing, and there were naked women everywhere.”
“So Montilla is there partying?” Logan surmised.
“I caught a glimpse of the son of a bitch, yeah. And since he has others in the house, I doubt he’d keep Kimber where anyone might find her.”
“Why not? No one will double-cross him, unless they want to die,” Logan pointed out.
“For the right cash incentive, people will risk anything.” The colonel smiled tightly. “He knows that.”
“True.” Logan turned to Trees. “Maybe you’re right about what Montilla is really stashing in the stables.”
“How far are you from the meet point?” Caleb asked.
“About three. The others there waiting?”
“Yeah. Listen, Hunter is talking to Kata now. I think you ought to—”
“I was already planning to call Tara. I’ll see you soon.”
The Edgington brothers were both notoriously devoted to their gorgeous, gutsy wives. But missions like this would rattle even the strongest women, despite the fact they’d dealt with their husbands being Navy SEALs once upon a time.
“Tell her you love her.” The colonel hesitated. “I’m worried about this.”
Since Laila had provided the intel, Trees was, too. If she was playing for Victor Ramos’s team, it stood to reason that her lover—fuck, that term made him grind his teeth—wanted them all dead. If Ramos pulled that off, he’d have a nearly open path to Valeria and the means to pull Montilla’s strings.
Caleb said goodbye, and Logan immediately dialed his wife. Trees heard a sleepy female voice answer. “Hello?”
“Cherry,” Logan murmured.
Trees tuned out their intimate conversation, giving his boss what privacy he could, but the tones of their devotion still seeped into his ears…then stabbed his wounded heart. He’d never have that since he’d been dumb enough to fall for Laila. Yeah, she’d done something shitty, but even knowing that, he couldn’t seem to wrest the organ in his chest back from her cold grip.
God, he was a stupid bastard.
He was getting hardcore on his mental flagellation when Logan braked in front of what looked like an abandoned barn in the middle of nowhere.
“I gotta go. I’ll call when I can. I love you and the girls, Cherry.” Logan clenched his jaw, then hung up.