Rocco fell into step next to her as they entered the trail, leaving the crashing waves and sandy beach behind for the coolness of the rainforest jungle.
They walked along, debating possibilities for Eddie’s role within the cartel and what they might find when they reached the coordinates. Eddie had established a powerful connection that was likely out of reach to El Sombro for some reason. It was the only logical explanation for why El Sombro would be willing to do business with the leader of a small drug gang from San Juan.
But Rocco had to admit Eddie had changed in the three years since he’d left Puerto Rico. He wasn’t the same brash, selfish, and risky informant Rocco remembered. The man had grown in age and experience, becoming more savvy and well-connected.
Rocco said, “Eddie was smug with Dante last night. He emphasized that he has a special relationship with El Sombro that he wants others to respect. You’ve spent most of your career monitoring the players in the global drug trade. Any ideas on who Eddie could know that El Sombro doesn’t?”
“No,” Jemma snapped. “If I did, I would’ve shared the information.”
“Hey,” Rocco grabbed her arm to stop her from walking away. “I didn’t mean it like that. I know you wouldn’t withhold anything from the investigation. But I also know that some ideas are such long shots that it may not be worth sending the team down a rabbit hole to look into. That’s all I meant.”
Jemma relaxed. “Sorry. I’m anxious for us to get a real break in this op. Something we can dig into and use to take El Sombro down.”
“These coordinates could be it,” Rocco said. “Any evidence that Eddie went to this location?”
She shook her head. “He has elite-level encryption and security protection. Location tracking is masked and diverted through thousands of points, making it impossible to use his phone to find his location.”
“Unless a tracker app was loaded onto it,” Rocco said. “Wish we’d thought of doing that before I got the phone back to him last night.”
“Yeah, too bad we didn’t think to do that,” Jemma said, looking away. “We can’t put all of our eggs in Eddie’s basket. This connection angle could be a dead end. We still have the shipments to the clinic, which could be a faster way of getting the evidence.”
“Faster …” Rocco said. “I don’t know about that.”
“This mission has dragged on for over three years.” Jemma turned to face him, her hands resting against the sexy curves of her hips. “We need to find a way to wrap this up. Now.”
Rocco bit back a smile. “What’s with the sudden urgency?”
“What do you mean?” Jemma’s eyes grew wide.
“You’ve preached patience for this op, defending it, and me, to your boss for the past three years, which I appreciate. Getting them to go along with putting me on the undercover assignment wasn't easy. Tank told me the lengths you went through to make it happen, despite what …” he inhaled a deep breath but surprisingly felt none of the usual tension when he thought about his dad’s murder.
“The police files in the brown envelope,” Jemma said, her features softening as she stepped closer to him. “I shouldn’t have tried to push you to talk about your dad.”
“My dad’s murder is the single hardest thing I’ve gone through in my entire life,” Rocco said, a peace settling over him at sharing this part of himself with Jemma. He didn’t just want to. He needed to.
The connection building between them wasn’t a fling or temporary thing for him. He wanted to explore a future with her,however that might look. Letting Jemma into his life, the good and the bad, was a necessary first step.
One he hoped would also help her open up more to him.
“You don’t have to talk about it.”
“No one had ever called me out on the statement I’d given the police back then. The lies I told.”
“You saw him being murdered, didn’t you. You didn’t just find his body. You saw it happen,” Jemma said.
“Yeah, I did,” Rocco admitted. “I didn’t see his killer. The guy was in the shadows. There’s no way I could’ve identified him for the police, but I knew he was a big-time drug dealer, and he’d been putting pressure on my dad to allow drugs to be sold out of the clinic. My dad stood up to them and got his head blown off for it.”
“Rocco, I’m so sorry.”
“In my head, I know an eleven-year-old kid couldn’t have done a damn thing to stop it from happening,” Rocco said, then dragged his hands down his face. “But in my heart, I can’t help but play out thousands of scenarios of things I could’ve done differently that might have kept my dad alive.”
“You can’t torture yourself that way,” Jemma said, slipping her hands around his waist.
He was instantly soothed and comforted by her touch. Rocco pulled her closer, their bodies pressed against each other.
“I have no doubts that your dad’s only concern was for your safety. He wouldn’t change a damn thing because he’s looking down on you from heaven and is so proud of the man you’ve become. How you’ve dedicated your life to fighting men like the bastard who took his life.”
“That’s why it doesn’t bother me that I’ve spent three years on this op. I’ve helped the DEA piece together details of El Sombro’s operation that we didn’t have before. I’ll spend another three years,if that’s what it takes, to ensure we put him behind bars,” Rocco said.
