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What else could she say? She didn’t want to be rude, but…
“I couldn’t stop her from coming,” said an imposing blond man with a buzz cut and a bad attitude who stepped into the room behind her. In one arm, he cradled a baby girl wrapped in a pink blanket and dripping bows. With his other, he held the hand of a little boy who looked somewhere around five.
Suddenly, Kimber stood in front of her, looking hopeful and uncertain. “I know you don’t know me. But I’ve been begging my husband and my brothers to let me meet you in person for days.” She surprised Laila by taking her hands. “To thank you. I wouldn’t be home and reunited with my children—hell, I probably wouldn’t be alive—if not for you. If there’s anything I can ever do for you…”
A dozen things crossed her mind. Laila had no plan…but it seemed she finally had an ally. None of these overprotective, testosterone-driven men would let her help, but this woman gripping her fingers tightly just might. “I spent years with those animals. I know how horrible they can be. I could spare you what I endured, so I was happy to do it.”
“And I appreciate you from the bottom of my heart. My brothers suggested that you might be missing your nephew, so I brought my children…”
“Against my wishes,” Deke called across the room. “You’re supposed to be in hiding.”
“Those lowlifes don’t want me,” Kimber called back. “They merely wanted someone to use as leverage.”
Because Montilla wanted to punish EM Security for rescuing and harboring Valeria. And he wanted Jorge. Always back to that eternal, unavoidable problem that had no solution…unless the drug lord died.
Kimber hustled across the room, lifted her sleeping daughter and took her son by the hand, then returned to Laila. “I wanted you to see the lives you made better with your heroic gesture. I know you risked yourself, and I wanted to show you all the grateful people. This is Cal.” She urged the boy closer. “Well, Caleb, but that’s my father’s name, so we call him Cal. Less confusing. He’ll be five in June.”
“Hello.” Cal stuck out his hand politely, eyeing her as a child does a stranger he’s unsure about. “Nice to meet you.”
The boy had manners, and he was absolutely adorable with his mop of sandy hair. He had incredibly blue eyes, the same shade as his father’s. Someday, he would be a heartbreaker.
“Hi,” she said as she shook his hand.
Laila didn’t want to seem rude, and Kimber bringing the children was a lovely gesture, but she was impatient to help Trees—before it was too late. The men were now clustered on the other side of the room, clearly plotting without her.
She couldn’t let that stand.
“And this is Sierra.” Kimber handed the baby to her. “She’s almost eight months old.”
Laila looked down at the precious face with the bowed lips pursing and smacking in her sleep. A bolt of envy pierced her. How she would love to have a son or daughter with Trees, to know the motherly instinct to protect and devote her heart to… Her eyes watered again. She sniffed the tears away.
“She is lovely. You have been very blessed.” Laila handed the baby back to Kimber.
“And I have a future, thanks to you.”
“You are welcome.”
Kimber looked reluctant to leave. “Can I get you anything? Help you with anything?”
“My…boyfriend has been taken by our enemies. Just now.”
The other woman looked stunned. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I overheard that Trees has fallen into enemy hands, but I didn’t know… The two of you?” She smiled. “Good for him.”
“I need to know what they are plotting.” Laila pointed at the men across the room. “I doubt they will tell me, and I am going insane with worry.”
“I’ll work on that. Let me give the children back to their father. Wait here.”
Not as if she had a choice. “Thank you.”
Kimber took the kids and crossed the room. When she did, Laila longed for the bit of comfort the woman, despite being a stranger, had given her. She mostly wanted Trees, but since she couldn’t have him—was worried to death about him—she intended to reach out to the only other person she could.
Slipping from the room, Laila headed through the rest of the unfamiliar house, finding a hallway and a bathroom.
When she turned to shut the door, she found Matt in her face. “You okay?”
“Fine. I need a few minutes to myself.”
“Take your time.”
So they could make a plan without her? Like hell.
Still, she shut the door and locked it, then pulled out her phone and dialed her sister.
Despite the late hour, Valeria answered right away. “What is happening?”
So her sister knew something was up. “Trees was helping to transport me to a new safe location and he was taken by three men in a van. I am scared, Val. Someone took him. I am worried they will kill him. It will be my fault. I should have killed Victor the first time I had the chance. And now—”
“Slow down. I know you are worried, but take a deep breath. You love him?”
“Yes. He is…everything to me. EM Security must save him—now.”
“Do they know who has taken Trees?”
“Not yet. But are they not supposed to be good at these things? Can they not figure it out?”
“Laila…” her sister chided gently. “You must believe that if they had the power to save Trees this minute, they would. Your worry and impatience are driving your panic, but they kept you alive for years. Me, too. Kimber Trenton made it out, yes? There is a chance—”
“We survived because we served a purpose to them. You as a wife, me as a whore, Kimber as a bargaining chip. Trees means nothing to them…” Then Laila realized she might be wrong. “Unless whoever abducted him means to trade him for you.”
Her sister let loose a long, exhausted sigh. “That may very well be, and I hope that is enough to keep him alive for your sake.”
“Hope is not enough for me. If EM Security will do nothing, I must.”
“No.”
Did Valeria think she would value her safety over the man she loved? That she would not lift a finger to save him? “You cannot stop me.”
“You are right; I cannot. But I can help you.”
“Help me?” Laila gaped. “You have Jorge to think about. You have your future.”
“What future? I have none now. I grow weary of this life. Always in hiding. I cannot walk outside for fear of death. Poor Jorge yearns to play in a park. He wants to run and jump and play with a ball. He wants to be a boy. Yet we are perpetually trapped in eight hundred square feet twenty-four hours a day for fear of being taken and beaten and…whatever else. And now these criminals and thugs are threatening the happiness you have finally found. I cannot do this anymore. I will not.”
Laila’s heart seized up. She had already lost Trees tonight, maybe for good. She could not lose her sister, too. “Valeria, do not—”
“Put myself at risk?” She scoffed. “For too long, I let you risk yourself for Jorge’s benefit…and mine. I may be the older sister, but you are so much braver than me. Seemingly so undaunted. You never give up. You never stop fighting for those you love. And I have failed you in every way.”
