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NINE

PAUL

“E xcuse me.” I stepped away from a member of the hotel staff to answer Cole’s call. I hadn’t heard from him since the previous day and had been worried something might have happened. Daniel’s reassurance that all was well had eased my mind only a little. “Tell me you got it.”

“Someone already picked it up.”

“The birth certificate?” My stomach dropped.

“What? How?” I fought to remember my training and took a couple of slow, even breaths.

This was on a whole different level than anything I’d been involved with before.

I already felt the pull of what it would be like to be a parent.

Fuck, I was a parent. Breathe , in and out, in and out. “Start from the beginning.”

“Talya didn’t go to the church. You were right about that.

She went to an orphanage across the street.

The sisters wouldn’t give us much other than confirming she’d stayed there for a few days.

They told us we could wait around and speak with Father Antonio, but he didn’t show up until this morning.

They must have called him because he knew why we were there.

We explained who we were and why we were in Mexico.

Plus, we showed him the letter from Talya, and that seemed to soften him up a little. ”

“Good.” I nodded like they could see me.

“Turns out someone came by yesterday, after us?—”

“Who?”

“Some woman. The priest said she seemed to know Talya. I guess she left a mark on the sisters, enough to convince them to give her the birth certificate.”

I rubbed my head. “My guess would be Talya’s friend.”

“That’s ours too. I asked them to describe her. They just said she was slim with dark hair. Not much, but it might give us a clue.”

I had no idea what her friend looked like, but Cole was right. Even the smallest detail could help. “At least we know Talya and the baby were there, and that’s something.”

The sound of an engine as it fought to change gears ground through the speakers. I wondered what the hell they were driving. “Damn this thing,” I heard John complain.

“You have to baby her, John, go easy.” Cole chuckled. “So, tell me you found the place Talya talked about in the letter.”

“Yeah, I’m here now. I spent the night and dug around a little. I haven’t gotten much from the locals yet, but I will.”

“All right, text me the address. We’re on our way.”

“Pastels, fedoras, and boat shoes,” Mark hooted, and it made Cole laugh. I shook my head. You never knew what went on inside Mark’s brain.

“Hold on, Cole.” I spotted Nicole by the front desk. “You know that war correspondent Ben Bale was worried about? She’s here.”

“Nicole Winter. Really?”

“Mmm.” I watched her show something to a guy, who shrugged at her then waved her off.

“I suppose it’s not surprising. Frank said she’s working in that area. She had a clip on the news about that Cartel hit on the motel. Ben was relieved when we told him. She’s probably working leads.”

“Hey, man,” John’s voice came through, “ask her if she’s heard if Bruno Perez is alive. It would be good to have confirmation on that.”

“Yeah, good idea.” He had a point. She’d have a lot of connections, probably more than I even realized.

“Handing you back to Cole.”

“Okay. See you soon, buddy.”

“John’s right. That’s not a bad idea. Have you talked to her yet?” Cole was back.

I turned my back on Nicole in case she read lips. “Yes, but not much, a bit of a closed book. She’s a pro. I gotta respect that.”

“Me too, but give her ten minutes with Mark and we’ll see how true your theory is.” He chuckled, and I grinned at how true that statement was.

“Did you give her much?”

“She was watching me, so I let her know I knew her. Just enough to bait the hook, nothing more.”

“Good. Okay, I’ll see you in a few hours.”

“Copy that.” I hung up.

I looked back at Nicole. She seemed to be studying something. Curious, I walked toward her. She stood next to the front desk and stared at the wall above the attendant’s head as he answered phones and tended to guests.

She must have sensed me next to her because she pointed with her chin toward the emblem on the wall. “That’s a strange looking shell, isn’t it?”

I studied the oddly shaped shell for a moment and remembered Talya’s words. She said she wanted a special way to remember this place. Our special spot, she called it. I remembered her smile as she told me what it looked like to her.

“Yeah,” I said without thinking, “looks more like a dragon wing to me.” Her eyes widened, and she turned to look at me.

“What did you say?”

“Well, it does, doesn’t it?” I shrugged.

She tapped her lips while I studied the bruises on her face.

I was about to ask about them when she seemed to snap out of whatever trance she was in.

The puzzled expression faded, and the intense gaze from her photo settled on her face.

“Aren’t you going to accuse me of stalking you?

” I grinned, and she raised her eyebrow as she recalled our earlier conversation.

“Or are you stalking me?” I raised my own brows.

“I’d have to know who you are in order to stalk you.” She seemed at ease with me. “Or at least know your damn name.”

“I’ve stalked people with less information,” I teased, but there was a level of seriousness to my words.

“Good to know.” She shifted her bag over her shoulder. She flinched, and I wondered if she was in pain.

“You take anything for that?”

She looked away with a huff then shifted her bag again, but more gently this time. “If you must know, the last pain pill I had, I gave to a woman who’d been shot in the stomach, then a few minutes later she was dead with a bullet in her head.”

“Guess our worlds aren’t all that different.” I gave her a sad smile.

“Not the first punch I’ve taken and probably won’t be the last. It’s all part of the job.”

Punch? I wanted to dig, but one of the workers I’d been trying to track down appeared, and I didn’t want to lose him. I pulled out my stash of pills in their tin container. She gave it an odd look before she looked up at me again. “This’ll help.” I handed her two. “Take one now and one later.”

“So you say.” She made a face. “The last time I was given a white pill, I ended up in a drug lord’s house in the middle of nowhere. Thank you, but no thanks.” She stepped back.

“Do I look like I’m trying to drug you?”

“Well, you apparently think you know me.”

“Oh, I do.”

She rolled her eyes, and I found myself rather amused that I got under her skin. “You accuse me of stalking you, and now you’re handing out pain meds from your pocket.”

“It’s just a gesture.” I kept my eye on the guy I wanted to talk to. “Take them.”

She shook her head. “Hot coffee and a walk on the beach are more my speed.” She turned to walk away, but something ate at me.

“Nicole?”

“Yeah?” she answered as she turned back.

“You gave away your last pain pill to a woman shot in the gut. She’d never make it anyway. You must have known that.”

Her mouth drooped and her eyes went from sad to vulnerable. “I had to do what I could. She had a ten-year-old son.”

A rush of emotions went through me when I saw how much she cared about the local people. “I’m sorry she died.”

“Me too, but it’s why I’m here.” She looked down then headed for the door.

Before Shadows, I’d met my fair share of war correspondents, and most were detached and more focused on filming everything they saw rather than on what was actually happening to the people around them.

I understood it. It hurt less that way, but when we lost our empathy, I thought it made things even more dangerous.

That was when tunnel vision presented itself.

“ Disculpe .” The man held out his hand. “The front desk told me you wanted to see me?” he finished in English.

“Yes,” I smiled warmly, “I’m looking for my girlfriend.

She went missing a while back with our son.

” I went with the family angle to pull at the heart strings.

“The woman at the desk said you might know her.” I pulled out a photo of Talya and the baby.

He leaned down and studied it for a moment, but then his eyes went to slits as he studied me.

“How do I know she isn’t running from you, senor ?” His face hardened.

“No, no, she was here for a holiday, then she disappeared. Please, I really love them. I need to find them. I’d never hurt her or our son.”

“Okay, si ,” he seemed to accept my story, “she was here for a time, but I have not seen her for a long while. Leonardo, who cares for our pool, he really liked the little one. He will be here,” he glanced at his watch, “at two for work.” He pointed out the French doors toward the ocean.

“Pool is that way. You should speak with him.”

“If you think of anything at all…”

“Of course.” He nodded. “I think about it.”

I spent a few hours in my room on my laptop talking to Chili about where Talya could have hidden our son.

“I have some calls out, to my boys in the south.” Chili’s presence over the video call was oddly comforting.

He was my only link to my past life here, but the only part of that life I missed was Talya.

“Something happened about a week and a half ago in Mexico City that sparked this whole witch hunt.”

“Mexico City?” I asked, and he grunted his confirmation. “Any idea what that was?”

“No, call it a sixth sense, but something happened. Mark my words. It’s ugly, too.”

“Yeah,” I dropped my head in my hand, “I feel that, too.”

“Let me dig. If there’s something to be found, I’ll find it.”

“I appreciate it.”

“You know I got you. Always have.”