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Laila knew better than to believe they would let her come along. But she had other ways of helping. She just needed time to think of a crafty approach and some privacy.
Muñoz shook his head. “My brothers have already searched the scene. So has Ghost. These guys were good. We couldn’t find anything.”
She turned to look at the operative in the ski cap with the unusual eyes, then back to Trees’s boss. “So you intend to do nothing? He is your employee. He risked his life because you assigned him to protect me, and now he may die horribly because of it. You cannot—”
“Of course we’re doing something. We’re working on it now.”
Matt crashed inside a moment later, carrying Laila’s bag. She ran to the duffel and dragged out her phone, just in case Trees had somehow reached out to her.
Nothing.
She bit her lip to stifle a cry. Tears served no purpose. She had to stay strong and think.
Laila hardly noticed when Matt stepped outside again. But the disturbance when he walked back in, Trees’s go-bag in hand, had her head snapping up. The sight of it crushed her all over again, and it was foolish. Of course no one had hit Trees merely to rob him of whatever worldly goods he’d had in his vehicle. Victor wanted Trees under his thumb because he wanted revenge. He wanted to torment her again. He wanted to snuff Trees out as revenge for his brother’s death.
She had to stop him.
Matt dropped the duffel on the floor. “Hunter and Logan are coming up the drive. Deke isn’t far behind.”
“Deke?” Muñoz was clearly puzzled. “Is he coming for support?”
Matt shrugged. “Where should I put Laila?”
“You will not put me anywhere. If you are making plans to rescue Trees, I insist on helping.”
“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.”
