Page 22 of Thaddeus

“No offense, woman, I don’t care what you’ve told us. I do not trust you, which means I don’t trust you with my wife. You wanna save those girls like you said you do, then you’re coming with us. If you’d rather continue to be a pain in the ass, you can stay here. But you will be cuffed to a bed and gagged. I don’t care who you once were to Thad, and I don’t give the first fuck you think you can take him with that knife in your pocket. After we find the girls, we’ll kindly send you back to the U.S. and you can go on your merry way. Your choice.”

Knife in her pocket?

Sure enough, Emerson had one hand in her pocket and she was fiddling with something. Goddamn, how had I missed that? Oh, right, I was too worried about feelings and shit and not paying attention to the real threat—Emerson herself.

Enough of this shit already. Brooks was right. We needed Emerson to show us the way. But before that happened, I needed to get my head screwed on straight. This was important—young girls’ lives were at stake not to mention the safety of my team.

It was time to get to work.

“What can you tell us about where they’re being held?” I asked.

That stubbornness still firmly had hold of her features. Damn this woman.

“How many guards?” Kyle added.

“Point of entry? And how many girls?” Declan jumped in.

Emerson looked like a deer in the headlights with the three of us peppering her with questions.

“Jeez. Give her a second to answer,” Tatiana scolded. “Important things first, how many men will be guarding the women?”

Emerson took a breath, let it out, and in the time it took her to exhale, she looked like she’d come to some sort of decision. She looked almost defeated.

“There’s a marina on the Ensenada El Placer—”

“That’s where he keeps his yacht, right?” Declan interrupted.

“Yes. The marina has four large industrial buildings. I don’t know what’s in them or who owns them. If you continue past those toward the water there’s a small dirt road. If you blink, you’ll miss it. The entrance just looks like a clearing in the trees. But it is a road.”

“If we pulled up a map, could you point to the entrance?” Max asked.

“I could but I won’t.”

“Why’s that?” His brows pulled together.

“Because I’m not stupid. From what I’ve told you already you could find the road, but not the house. You’ve made your positions clear, so I’ll make mine. I want to speak with those girls before you take them. That’s all I want. I’ll extend you my trust that you’ll do right by them and get them to safety. But in return, I get five minutes alone with them.”

“To do what?” Max kept at her.

“That’s where you’ll have to trust me. After that, we part ways. I’ll save you the trouble and expense sending me back to the States and find my own transportation.”

“Deal,” Declan spoke up before I could protest.

What the fuck?

There was no way Dec was going to let her walk away. She’d be a sitting duck.

“When I was there, the industrial part of the marina was empty and there were no other boats in the slips. The house, if you can call it that, is smaller than this place. It’s more like, I don’t know, a two-room shack with no bathroom or kitchen. At least I didn’t see any. There’s also only one road in, which means one road out. Though you could exit the area by small boat. From the house you can see a beach,” Emerson explained.

“How many guards?” Kyle asked.

“There were two in the house when I was there. Considering I’m still alive I don’t think they had any guarding the perimeter.”

“Why do you say that?” Tatiana joined the conversation.

“Because I’m not a super-sneaky spy. Which means I’m not actually all that good at being invisible. I wasn’t loud, I was careful, but it wasn’t some mission that was carried out with military precision.”

“How’d you follow them?” Max was back to sniffing out her lies. I had the same question. If this house was in some secluded location, how’d she’d get there?