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“Who is she?” I bark as I take her in.
She has golden-tanned skin, high cheekbones, full, lush, dusty pink lips, and warm, honey-colored hair that reaches past her shoulders. What catches my attention the most and refuses to let me look away from her are her eyes.
One eye is a vivid green, and the other is the color of warm chocolate with a streak of copper bisecting it. They’re hypnotic.
“This is Salem Harris. She is twenty-eight years old and employed by the government, though they didn’t tell me in what capacity or what she did for them, and I can’t find a record of her anywhere.”
“A spook?” I ask, my eyes not leaving the bewitching ones of the woman on the screen.
“If she were a spy, I doubt they would be trying to get her back. You know as well as I do that if she were caught by the enemy, the government would deny all knowledge of her,” Cooper states.
“So if they want her back, then she either has information that they don’t want falling into the wrong hands or—” Oz starts, but I cut him off.
“Or she has something they want.”
“Exactly,” Evander agrees before clicking to the next image, which is of a large compound with armed guards surrounding it.
“This is the Ortiz compound. It’s located just outside of Guatemala City in the foothills of the Sierra de las Nubes.”
“Cartel?” Creed asks.
“Yep. Seems there has been a coup. The former leader, Gerardo Ortiz, has been overthrown by his son, Alejandro, who is now in charge.”
“And to celebrate, he decided to kidnap a US government official?” Jagger snorts.
“Could be that she was already inside as a plant. Either her cover has been blown—and if that’s the case, then this won’t be a rescue mission but a recovery mission—or she can’t make contact back home without exposure,” Cooper says, making my gut clench.
“Is there proof of life?” Oz asks, frowning.
“No. Nobody has heard or seen anything of Salem in over three months.”
“Three months? Are they fucking serious?” Crew curses.
“Something about all this doesn’t add up,” Greg points out.
“I agree, but if this is some kind of set-up, who is the target? Salem, us, or Alejandro Ortiz?”
Nobody answers as we all try to put the pieces together. The problem is, we just don’t have enough to go on.
“I can decline the job. I’m afraid to put us in a situation with next to no information and that many unfriendlies on the ground,” Cooper says, breaking the silence, as he leans back in his chair and looks around the table at us all.
“But if this is real and Salem is in trouble, we’re the only shot at freedom she has.” Oz is the one to say what I’m thinking.
I look over at him, and when he nods, I turn back to Cooper. “We’ll do it. Oz and me.”
“You sure? You’ve had a lot going on lately. I was thinking that me and—”
“I said we’ll do it. Send everything you have to my tablet, plus whatever else you managed to dig up because I know those fuckers only gave you the bare minimum.” I say the last part to Evander, who nods.
“You got it. I’ll also tell them it’s payment upfront. The government is more crooked than most criminals I know.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Slade mumbles. And he’d know after spending ten years behind bars for something he didn’t do. He still had to fight for restitution and to clear his name when a decorated officer framed him for the murder of his wife. Instead of a public apology, they tried to hush it all up. Funnily enough, Slade wasn’t okay with that.
I stand, and with a final look at the Ortiz compound, I head up to my room to pack.
I yank my bag down from the top shelf of my closet as Oz walks in and sits on the end of my bed.
“You felt it too, right?” he asks me.
