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If someone had told Charlotte she would be sitting on a stool eating meatball stew with the man of her dreams, after experiencing some of the most toe-curling, emotionally intimate sex of her life, she would’ve called the men with the white coats. Yet, there she was at five o’clock in the morning, doing just that in nothing but her panties and his T-shirt.

Hawk’s phone vibrated on the counter. Cole’s name popped up, and he put him on speaker.

“Good morning,” Hawk said.

“Mornin’.” Cole sipped something in the background—probably coffee.

Charlotte and Hawk were able to grab at least a couple of hours of sleep. Cole and the rest of them had been up all night. Andi flew in from Washington state yesterday, shortly after Charlotte came to ELC’s office .

“How did it go?” Hawk grabbed the coffee carafe and refilled her mug, then topped off his own.

“Great. Though I doubt Kimball would agree.” Cole recounted Andi’s interaction with the man. “After seeing what happened to him, Helene Wagner was highly motivated to tell us what she knows. And it was a hell of a lot.”

“Oh, my gosh.” Charlotte looked over at Hawk. “You questioned Helene, too?”

“We did, and it’s not good.” Hawk said. “She’s deep in this, and unless she can afford a very slick lawyer who knows how to manipulate the system, she’s going to be seeing the inside of a jail cell.”

The satisfaction at knowing that woman was going to be brought to justice was immeasurable. Charlotte only regretted not being there to see her being questioned.

Cole continued, “HRA has been using Leonard Everett’s company to move kids all over the damn country.”

“What?” Charlotte had suspected as much, but that didn’t make it any less shocking. “How? I mean, I knew they were relocating kids, but they were supposed to be going to vetted sponsors.”

“And some of the kids are going to legitimate sponsors.” Cole explained how Everett had hand-picked drivers to work the HRA contract. “These were the type of people who, for a little extra cash, wouldn’t ask questions and would have no problem fudging the trip mileage numbers.”

Worse than that, they didn’t give a shit about secretly dropping innocent kids off someplace they shouldn’t have been.

“You said some of the kids.” Charlotte asked, “What do you mean?”

“Let’s say the official passenger list has twenty-five kids on it. They would actually load forty kids onto the bus, transport the twenty-five listed to their designated location and drop them off, then take the remaining fifteen somewhere else.”

Charlotte tried to do the math in her head as to how many kids could’ve gone missing in three years, but there was just no way to know. At least, not with the information currently available to them.

“Do we know where they’ve been taking them?” Charlotte imagined how terrified those children must be—separated from their families and shuffled around an unfamiliar country to strangers for God knows what purpose.

“We don’t have that information yet, but we’re going to get it.” Cole’s words were sharp with determination and confidence. “According to what Helene told us, all of Everett’s HRA records are kept on a separate server. Luckily for us, he was stupid enough to connect it to the Internet.”

“How would she know that?” Hawk asked.

“Kimball,” Cole said. “Apparently, she took advantage of the guy’s infatuation with her and squeezed all kinds of information out of him. She was also the one who created that list you found, Charlotte. It was an insurance policy, should anything blow back on her.”

“A lot of good it’ll do her now,” Hawk said. “She never expected someone else would find it first.”

“I just knew she was a self-serving skank.” Charlotte mumbled under her breath, “Sashaying around the office sticking her giant boobs in everyone’s face, staring at Hawk like he was an ice cream cone she wanted to lick. Gross.” There was a long silence. She looked up and realized they’d heard her. “Sorry.”

“No apologies necessary.” There was a beep on Cole’s end. “That’s Luna. Hang on a sec.” He put them on hold and came back a minute later. “Okay, I’ve conferenced her in on this call. Luna, go ahead.”

“Hey, guys. With the information Helene Wagner provided, I was able to access Everett’s server with the HRA information. Since he signed his contract three years ago, there have been four hundred and sixty-eight recorded trips to and from their various intake centers in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The average number of kids transported on the record, per trip, was forty-five. That’s over twenty thousand children that we know of. I’m still looking for any records of the kids who weren’t accounted for. But let’s just assume there were … fifteen kids unaccounted for per trip.” Tap tap tap tap. “Oh, my God—that’s over seven thousand kids.”

“Jesus.” Hawk reached over and covered Charlotte’s hand with his.

“One last thing, Sammy decided to do some more digging through HRA’s server. Are you sitting down?” She hesitated. “She discovered that only a handful of the official sponsors of these kids ever underwent even a basic vetting process—background check, rapid DNA tests, those kinds of things.” Luna’s tone gave away her disgust.

“So there’s no guarantee the kids who were accounted for were actually handed over to vetted sponsors,” Hawk said.

“Right, so the number of trafficked kids could be substantially higher.” Cole’s tone was dark.

Charlotte’s heart sank at the thought of the horrors they could be suffering, assuming they were still alive.

“How was all of this happening right under my nose?” She racked her brain for any indication that things hadn’t been on the up-and-up but drew a blank.

She felt sick to her stomach that the company she worked for was being used as an elaborate cover for a human trafficking operation.

“Evil people are very good at hiding their dark deeds. I learned that firsthand.” Luna’s cryptic statement raised Charlotte’s curiosity. “I’ll keep digging through Everett’s server. I promise you, if there’s anything on there about those missing children, I will find it.”

“Thank you, Luna.” The coffee soured in her belly, and she was no longer hungry. “What do we do now?” She slid her bowl away from her.

“We pull Leonard Everett in and let Andi have a go at him,” Cole said.

“Wait, hang on a sec, guys. I think I might’ve found something.” Luna clicked keys at lightning speed in the background. “Yes! It’s this year’s trip list.” More clicking. “Okay, there are three buses scheduled for tomorrow. One is picking up thirty-three kids at the HRA facility in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. Another one is picking up twenty-nine kids in Nogales, Arizona. And the last one is going to the HRA facility in El Paso, Texas. That one is picking up forty-two kids.” She tapped keys. “I’m emailing you the details.”

Hawk and Charlotte’s phones made a sound to indicate they’d received Luna’s email.

“I’ll keep trying to find a list of where the missing kids were sent.” Luna added, “Fingers crossed that they even kept track of that information.”

“Great work, Luna,” Cole said.

“Thanks. I’ll be in touch.” She ended the call.

“Cole, we have to get to those locations before the buses leave with the kids.” Charlotte would at least like to be at one of the sites to help, but she would just get in the way of what the team was doing.

“We will,” he said. “We’ll let them leave with the kids—”

“No, you can’t—”

“Charlotte, it’s the only way to find out where they’re taking them,” Cole said. “Don’t worry. We’ll be tracking them.”

“We’re going to need help.” Hawk moved around behind her and rubbed her tense shoulders.

Bless him and his magical hands.

“As soon as we’re done talking, I’m going to call Beck and Jonathan to see if some of their people can back us up on this,” Cole reminded him. “Andi’s already here, and once she finds out what’s going on, she’ll insist on being a part of it.”

“We need to bring Everett in before he gets wind of what’s happening.” Hawk’s thumbs circled the tight muscles at the base of her neck.

Charlotte tilted her head forward until her chin rested on her chest.

“Eddie and Viking are already on their way to Everett’s house.” Hawk told them about the text they sent from Kimball’s phone.

“What about Pennington and the other people on that list?” Charlotte wanted every single person involved to be punished.

“We can’t make a move on them just yet.” Cole explained, “In order to take them down, we’re going to need irrefutable, rock-solid evidence.”

“What kind of evidence?” Hawk asked the question before she could.

“Testimony from Helene, Everett, Kimball, and the drivers, along with the information we’ve already gathered, should be enough.” Cole added, “But a confession from Pennington or one of the other people on the list would go a long way toward taking them all down.”

“I have an idea.” Charlotte knew Hawk was going to hate it. “You guys can put a wire on me and—”

“Absolutely not.” He swiveled her stool to face him.

“Just hear me out, please. You can put a microphone or whatever on me, then I’ll go into the office and talk to Pennington.” Charlotte warmed up to the idea. “I can tell him about the list, that Helene created it, and that I know all about his disgusting proclivities. Then we can just see what he says.”

“No.” Hawk shook his head. “I do not want you anywhere near that asshole.”

“I’ll meet him at the office.” She set her hand on his chest—that always seemed to calm him. “He’s not going to do anything with all of those people around.”

“I understand you wanting to protect her, Hawk, believe me, I do. But she’s got a point.” She couldn’t believe Cole agreed with her. “You could go with her but just stay out of sight.”

“Trust me, Pennington’s not going to do anything to me.” Charlotte huffed. “The man can’t even pick up his own dry cleaning.”

“Shit.” Hawk rubbed the back of his neck. “Are you sure Pennington will even be in the office?”

“Yes, he’s in the office two days a week.” On the days leading up to a board meeting. “Today is one of those days.”

Hawk wasn’t happy about the plan, but he knew it was their best hope for ending this horrible situation.

“I know you’ll keep me safe.” She’d never been more certain of anything in her life.

The three of them spent several minutes walking through the plan. It was fascinating, the way they came up with backup plans, just in case things fell through.

The plan was for Charlotte to contact Pennington and tell him she wanted to meet with him in his office. Of course, he would agree. She and Hawk would then head to the HRA building, where Hawk would wait in her office and listen in on their conversation.

“Did you by chance bring a shirt with buttons?” Hawk asked.

“Um, yeah. Why?”

“You’ll be wearing a button camera to record your interaction.” He gathered their bowls, rinsed them off, and set them in the sink.

“Go ahead and call Pennington,” Cole said. “Dulce’s office is closer to the HRA facility, so why don’t you guys meet me there at nine o’clock, and I’ll bring the camera.”

“Okay, we’ll set the meeting with Pennington for nine forty-five.” Hawk handed Charlotte her phone. “We’ll see you at nine.”

He ended the call, cupped his hand beneath her chin, and tilted her face up to him. “Are you sure you want to do this? We can find another way to get what we need.”

“Hawk, I have to do this.” Charlotte needed him to understand. “Those kids deserve to have as many people fighting for them as possible. I can’t do what you guys do, but I can certainly record a conversation.” She stepped close to him. “Please, let me do this.”

“Fine, but if he so much as raises his voice at you, I’m coming in.” He was not a happy camper, but he respected her feelings too much to stop her.

“Here goes nothing.” She searched her contact list for Pennington’s office number, took a deep breath, and tapped the screen.

She checked that it was on speaker, and after several rings, he answered.

“Ambrose Pennington.” He sounded frustrated.

She smiled, knowing it was because Helene wasn’t there to field his calls.

“Hello, Ambrose.” She’d never called him by his first name before, but it was more civil than what she really wanted to call him. And she felt like needling him. “What’s the matter, no Helene today?”

“She’s … she’s ill.” That was a big fat lie. “Who is this?” he huffed.

“You don’t recognize my voice?” Charlotte put on a pouty voice. “Well, I’m hurt.”

“Ms. Cavanaugh? Is that you?” His voice became excited. “Where are you? I’ve been wanting to … to chat with you about something for some time.”

I’ll just bet you have.

“What a coincidence—I want to chat with you, too.” She cast her first stone. “Oh, and just so you know, Helene isn’t sick. She’s been detained.”

“Detained?” He tried to play it off, but there was no hiding his alarm. “Good heavens, what has she done?”

“Since you’re already there, how about we discuss that, and so much more, in your office.” She looked to Hawk, who mouthed a time. “I’ll be there at nine forty-five.”

“Actually, I was just heading over to my private office.” He rattled off the location. “I would prefer to meet there.”

“I don’t think you get it, Ambrose. You’re not calling the shots here.” She was enjoying this shift in their power dynamic. “We will meet in your office at the HRA building or we don’t meet at all, and I will go straight to the police with what I have.”

He was sputtering when she ended the call.

Her heart was racing, and she blew out a long breath.

“You did great, Sweets.” Hawk held her in his arms and kissed the top of her head. “Why don’t you go ahead and shower while I clean up the kitchen.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.” He gave her a quick kiss, released her, and turned to the sink.

“I’ll just be a few minutes.” She hurried back to the guest room and opened the closet.

She found the black button-down shirt and grabbed it and her extra pair of jeans. Then she rushed to the dresser, pulled out a pair of panties and bra, and went into the guest bath to use the shower.

She twisted the faucet until she reached the perfect temperature, then stepped into the steamy space. As she washed her hair, she ran through the plan, including the backups.

Charlotte would not fail.

Ambrose Pennington’s time as a free man was ending soon.