Page 56 of Fixed Asset

Tom seemed to be considering his options.

Berta had obviously grown impatient. “Calista is a brave woman. Young, still learning how to be patient and when it’s time to strike. Many years ago, her older sister was taken. Her family searched and searched. Years passed but she never gave up hope. Then her sister was found overdosed in Berlin.”

“She was trafficked,” Catarina noted.

“Yes. Calista has made it her mission to bring awareness but also to rescue and return victims home. Much like what Saint here does. These women need a champion, a savior, and she has a beautiful soul, so she’s decided that savior will be her. She reminds me of you, Catarina. Mia too. Brave. Strong. But not as smart. She wants to save the world, not just those she can.

“I have counseled her and warned her; if she continues on her path, she will drive herself mad. But for her, they are all her sister, someone’s sister, possibly someone’s mother, and she cannot see past it. I also warned her to be careful in Juárez. She wasn’t ready for the danger that lurks there, the evil. They are devils preying on the weak.”

Pete didn’t have to look at Catarina to know she was all in to rescue this woman. The same as he didn’t need to look at Jack to know the man was in danger of a stroke.

Berta made her position known. “You may use any and all of my resources to find her.” She stopped and scooted to the edge of her chair. “But hear me, Mr. Washington, this is your only warning. Don’t ever play games with me again. And don’t ever set a young woman in harm’s way to get my attention. Yes, I got word there was a brown-haired, doe-eyed American who was ripe. Yes, I had my people in Tegucigalpa trying to find her before she got hurt. But anything can happen, and she could’ve gotten hurt. There are other ways to get what you want. Never again, or our arrangement is over.”

Tom looked properly chastised but not sorry.

“Why is Calista so important to you you’d risk your freedom, Catarina’s life, and Berta’s censure? Not to mention, drag me and my team into this?”

“Her father saved my life.”

Pete studied the man. That might’ve been true, but there was more to it.

“We can sit here all day and play this game; it’s not someone I care about in the hands of a madman,” Pete said. “Or you can stop wasting my fucking time and tell the truth.”

“That’s the truth,” Tom lied.

When no one spoke, Tom looked at Catarina.

“After you left the Marshals Service and became a free agent, I looked into you and your last op. I knew about Las Vegas. I knew you had a connection to Jack, and I knew Jack worked with Pete. I knew what happened in Juárez, and that Mason would be all in to take Rafael’s cousin down once he learned of Carlos’s interest in Mia. If Mason’s in, Pete will have his back, and I’d have an off-the-books team to rescue a woman I care a great deal about. I used you to get to them and Berta. I’d apologize for that but I’m not sorry. I’d do anything, including betraying my oath, to save Calista.”

“You’re a fucking dick,” Jack growled.

“I’m more than that, Jack. But right now, I’m a man desperate to save a woman.”

Goddamnit.

Pete knew what was coming before it happened.

“I’m in,” Mason readily agreed.

Tom had been right; Mason was all in. If he couldn’t get his hands on Rafael, the cousin of the man who’d threatened the violation and murder of Mia would do.

Pete had come to understand his own demons and how to tame them.

Mason had no interest in taming the beast within.

This was going to get messy.

Chapter Sixteen

The beast had been unleashed.

And it wasn’t my Jack who looked murderous; it was Mason.

The sight was frightening.

The vibe in the room was inching toward nuclear, and I wasn’t sure how to cool it off before it blew.

“Do you know where she’s being held?” Pete asked.