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)
“He’s our operator, and this is our area of expertise.” Muñoz scowled.
Laila assumed he meant that expression to be intimidating. She had neither the time nor patience for his male posturing. “Do you have six years of experience dealing with Tierra Caliente? I do.”
The room fell silent.
Ghost raised his brows in a silent signal of agreement. “She’s got a point.”
“Son of a bitch.” Muñoz ground his teeth and pointed to a stool at a breakfast bar overlooking the kitchen, on the far side of the living room. “Sit there.”
Laila did, clutching her phone, her mind racing. Every moment she didn’t think of a clever plan was another moment Victor had to kill Trees. She needed to be pulling herself and her thoughts together, crafting a scheme.
Before she could, Hunter and Logan entered through the back door, immediately making eye contact with Muñoz. “We weren’t followed. No one’s out there. What the fuck is going on?”
Logan looked her way. “Laila?”
“Men in a van. They crashed into Trees’s truck. He rolled. He was hurt. They dragged him out—”
“We know,” Logan cut in. “Is there anything else we don’t that we should?”
She frowned, thinking back over the last few hours. But those were memories she would share with no one. Trees’s loving touch, the selfless way he gave her pleasure, the patient way he handled her fears… Then she remembered something else and hopped off the stool. “Let me see his bag.”
“What for?”
Laila wasn’t sure who had asked the question, and she didn’t care. The shock and panic that had seized her brain were finally losing their grip. In their place was pure determination. She would do whatever it took to save Trees.
When she reached Matt, he held the bag again. She didn’t want to wrestle him for it. He would win. But surely he could grasp how she might help without putting herself as risk. “Please.”
He glanced over her head at Trees’s bosses. Someone must have nodded because he handed her the bag.
She took it to the nearby table and unzipped it in a rush. The scent of him clung to his clothes and wafted out, making her knees weak. Making her want to sob again. She only managed to hold on to her emotions through sheer will and plowed through the contents until she finally found what she was looking for and held it up triumphantly. “Victor Ramos’s phone. He is probably the one who took Trees. If I reach out to him—”
“Hold up, Laila,” Hunter cut in, his eyes so intensely blue, like Logan’s, they were almost startling. “We don’t know that Ramos took Trees. Remember, he shot Geraldo Montilla twelve days ago. It’s possible that’s who orchestrated this abduction for revenge.”
His assertion took her aback. That possibility made everything a hundred times more dangerous. And it terrified her even more. “You are right.”
“We need to do some fact finding and recon, figure out what we’re dealing with. Ghost checked the scene. So did Logan and I. No hint of who did this. No witnesses. We talked to the Lafayette PD. There are no traffic cams on that rural stretch of road. So we’ll have to figure this out by rattling some cages and seeing who howls. Let me have that phone, Laila. I want to examine it.”
She didn’t love that idea, but he might be able to find something she couldn’t, so she complied. “Trees started to study it…”
Then he had seen the real video of her with Victor at the motel and come to apologize. After that, they had been too busy making love to focus on the danger coming straight for them.
The realization threatened her hard-won facade.
Suddenly, there was a soft knock at the door. Matt, who was closest, scowled, then looked out the little window. “What the hell is Kimber doing here?”
The woman Geraldo Montilla had held captive. Why would she come?
Matt didn’t wait for an answer, just yanked the door open. A tall woman with auburn hair and a willowy body, rounded slightly with curves given to her by childbirth, entered and scanned the room. When Kimber’s gaze settled on her, a smile lit up her face. “Laila?”
She nodded. “Hello.”
What else could she say? She didn’t want to be rude, but…
“I couldn’t stop her from coming,” said an imposing blond man with a buzz cut and a bad attitude who stepped into the room behind her. In one arm, he cradled a baby girl wrapped in a pink blanket and dripping bows. With his other, he held the hand of a little boy who looked somewhere around five.
Suddenly, Kimber stood in front of her, looking hopeful and uncertain. “I know you don’t know me. But I’ve been begging my husband and my brothers to let me meet you in person for days.” She surprised Laila by taking her hands. “To thank you. I wouldn’t be home and reunited with my children—hell, I probably wouldn’t be alive—if not for you. If there’s anything I can ever do for you…”