A car rumbled up the driveway. Jemma glanced over her shoulder to see the bulletproof, black Mercedes sedan with dark, tinted windows.
“Look who’s here, Eduardito,” Jemma said as the little boy raced into her arms. He was getting too big to be carried, but she knew he loved being held. He’d lost his mother so young and clung to any affection from the women in his life.
Carrying him toward the driveway, she said,“Eduardito, are you excited to see your papi?”
The baby boy giggled in response. “He’s been gone a long time.”
“I know, but now he’s back. Aren’t you glad to see him?”
“Yay, Papi,” the little boy squealed.
Jemma turned to see Nomar approaching them, hands full of bags.
“Not as excited as his papi is to see him,” Nomar said, dropping the bags in the grass. He closed the distance between them. “And you, too.”
Nomar leaned down and kissed her. His mouth roughly claimed her as his tongue thrust inside.
Jemma couldn’t breathe.
She pushed the phone back into her purse, reeling from thetruth that seemed so clear. She wasn’t sure how she hadn’t put the pieces together earlier.
Eddie Baez was the little boy she’d cared for when she was undercover gathering evidence against the Ortiz Cartel.
Eddie was Nomar’s … son.
And she was damn sure she could get him to lead her straight to his father. The next time she crossed paths with Nomar, it would be on her terms, and he wouldn’t live to hurt anyone again.
Chapter 33
Rocco inhaled a sharp breath and gazed at the dark beauty.
Jemma leaned against the side of the Jeep, a cute frown between her eyebrows as she gazed at a GPS map on the tablet. The Samana Peninsula was breathtaking, but it didn’t hold a candle to the woman standing before him.
Dressed in a white t-shirt and khaki cargo shorts, Jemma crossed one long leg over the other. Her deep brown skin shimmered under the noon sun. Less than twelve hours ago, he’d been balls deep inside of her, having the best sex of his life. Not how he’d envisioned their first time together, but he sure as fuck wasn’t complaining. Three years ago, he’d thought having sex with her would free him of the strings that tethered them. Prove that she was no different from other women.
Problem was … Jemmawasdifferent.
They’d long since crossed an emotional intimacy line with each other. It had only been a matter of time before the physical intimacy followed. And he liked the effect it had on Jemma. She was more relaxed with him, accepting and open to the idea that maybe they could be … something.
A single ground rule had been made clear and reiterated between them this morning—whatever was going on between them was to be kept a secret. The Proteus team could never discover that the fake relationship had taken on some very real relationship activities.
Jemma gazed up at him. “Stop staring and help me.”
“You’re too beautiful, I couldn’t help myself.”
“Focus, Forrester,” Jemma said, ignoring his attempts to flirt. She was in full Proteus supervisor mode, unable to be distracted.
“The only thing of value that Proteus found on Eddie’s cell phone was a cryptic text with these coordinates,” Jemma said, then turned the tablet toward him.
The cell phone had been Eddie’s personal burner. Phone logs and text messages were tracked and traced to known people in his life—friends, lovers, local businesses in San Juan. Nothing interesting in the text messages, mainly sexting and casual conversations, except for the one text message with the coordinates.
Whatever phone he used for drug operations, it wasn’t this one.
Jemma continued, “Based on the satellite images, it’s a spot in the middle of a dense jungle. There are a few trails that could get us close, then we’d need to make our own way to the spot from there.”
Rocco glanced at the screen, noting the three trails Jemma had found. Growing up traversing the El Yunque mountains in Puerto Rico, he was skilled at identifying which trails would present the least challenges. The most important thing was to get to the coordinates quickly to determine what was there. He pointed to the screen and said, “That’s the trail we want. It’s closer to the streams and will avoid the extreme elevation changes on the other routes.”
Jemma looked impressed. “Works for me.” She grabbed two backpacks from the Jeep, tossed one at him, and put the other on. “Looks like we have a three-hour hike ahead of us, so let’s get going.”
