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“Work. I’m here for work.”

“What do you do?”

“You want to know what I do?” I could hear the fire crackle through her voice.

“I find very bad people and make friends with them to get information. Then I use it against them later. I do very dangerous things at my own expense for other people’s gain.

I’m wrapped up in something so big and so ugly I don’t see a way out, and now a lot of people are going to get killed. ”

The man laughed loudly, and I could only imagine the murderous rage Nicole felt. “I love how American women are so dramatic.”

I pushed my beer away, stood, and loomed over the man.

“Sorry I’m late, honey.” I tried to control my own temper as I rested a hand on her bare shoulder. “There was a problem, but we got it fixed.” I stared at the man whose mouth was now twisted as he eyed his friends. Do the smart thing and leave.

“No problem.” She looked up at me, relieved. “I’m glad you’re here now.”

When the man didn’t move, I glared at him. Normally, I would be respectful, but he didn’t deserve it. “Did you enjoy my girlfriend’s company?”

“I did.” He smirked, and my hand flexed on her shoulder. “She is a beautiful woman, but I feel her flair for the dramatic doesn’t look good on her.” He tried for an insult because he felt threatened and embarrassed. A sure sign of an insecure man.

“I never asked you to join me, and for the record,” she leaned forward, and I let my hand drop away, “the next time a woman sends you a clear message that she’s not interested, maybe you should listen instead of forcing yourself into her space.”

He took a sip of his beer to drag out his moment as if he thought he had some control over the situation.

I’d had enough. I knocked his beer out of his hand, grabbed his elbow, bent it outward, and slammed his head into the table. He yelped, and I leaned down so he could hear me.

“Leave before I break your arm in front of the men you’re trying to impress.” I nodded with my chin over my shoulder. I held on to him a beat longer to drive my point home. “You even so much as look in her direction again, and I’ll show you exactly what my job is.”

I roughly let go, and he snarled as he rubbed his neck. Thankfully, he was wise enough not to push me any further and rushed to leave the table.

The waitress came rushing over, and I handed her a bill for the broken glass. “My apologies for the mess.”

“No problem.” She looked over her shoulder at the asshole who now stood with his buddies, then she stepped back and motioned that she wanted to say something.

I followed her a few steps from the table.

Nicole threw me a confused glance. “That man is Gabriel Valentin, and he has been watching the senora since she arrived. He even asked my amiga about her. He works with those men.”

Interesting.

“ Gracias .” I headed back to the table, and Nicole gave me a worried look.

“What was that about?”

“Nothing I can’t handle.” She didn’t need to know. I planned to keep an eye out for the guy.

To my surprise, she let it go. “Well, thank you.” She looked exhausted and rubbed her head then flinched a bit. “How much did you hear?”

“Enough. May I?” I pointed to the seat the guy had vacated, and she nodded, so I slid into the booth.

I remembered John and Cole’s warning to be nice and that she wasn’t who we were fighting against. “I think you and I got off on the wrong foot.” I glanced at Gabriel Valentin, who was on his phone. He didn’t take his eyes off us.

“Mm.” She started to click away on her laptop.

“What are you working on?”

“I’m under a deadline to get today’s footage edited and out to Jack, my contact at the Washington Post . CNN’s reporter wasn’t far from where I was, but they don’t have what I do.”

“Edited? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I always thought you correspondents sent in raw footage, and they handled it.”

“Normally, yes, but,” she turned the screen around, and I saw that she had blurred my and Cole’s faces, “I’m meticulous, and I’m always afraid they’ll miss one, and given who you are, I’m not taking any chances.”

I liked that, and again I felt like shit for being so mean to someone who was making sure our identities were kept out of it.

“I appreciate that.”

She closed the computer and slid her drink back in front of her. “It’s my job.”

I knew it wasn’t all her job. She could have sent it and hoped her boss would do what he was paid to do and protect us.

“Paul, do you want to tell me the real reason you’re here?”

The waitress came by and put some appetizers on our table. “On the house.” She smiled. We thanked her, and once she left, I leaned toward Nicole and rested my elbows on the table.

“I think you and I might be after the same thing.” She tilted her head at me and chewed the inside of her cheek as she waited for me to continue. “Trust is everything in our respective jobs, correct?”

“Yes.”

“All right, this is me trusting you. I just hope you’ll do the same.

” I went against my head and followed my gut.

“Blackstone’s been hired to find a missing toddler, one that if found by the Cartel will most likely end up dead in a matter of months.

He’s the grandson of the Canos family, but they only just learned about him a few days back.

” I waited and watched, but her face remained unreadable.

She was good; I’d give her that. “Which brings me to you.”

“Me,” she repeated, not as a question but as statement.

“You’ve shown up in three places where I’ve been, and then today, when your purse spilled out, I saw a copy of a birth certificate.

I realize now we might be searching for the same child.

I need to know what you know, because at the end of the day, he’s an innocent baby, and no baby deserves to be used as a pawn in a game of power. ” I held back my personal connection.

Her piercing eyes drilled into mine as she took a moment to think. Her slim fingers rubbed across her collarbone and drew my eyes to the delicate skin at her neck. A thin gold chain disappeared under her black tank top, and I found myself curious as to what might be on the end of it.

“If I share what I know,” she said quietly, and I pulled my gaze back up to her eyes and gave myself a mental shake, “you have to promise me that you guys won’t cut me out of this operation. You’ll promise to share what you know, in real time, and let me continue to do my job along the way.”

“I can’t promise that.” She grabbed her laptop and went to stand, but I swung up my leg to block her way out.

“I’ve mentioned before that Blackstone doesn’t work with the press, or anyone else, for that matter.

Our training doesn’t lend itself to that.

We all know what we need to do, where we need to be at any given moment.

It’s how we get home to our families with a heartbeat.

Babysitting someone as we go just isn’t going to fly here. ”

“What’s the difference between someone you’ve rescued verses someone you work with?

” She had me there. “You’re still doing your job while you protect them and get them out, right?

” I hated that she had a point, but I didn’t want to admit it.

She let out a frustrated sigh. “You sure know how to be a gentleman one moment and insulting the next.” She pushed my leg down and slid out of the booth.

Fuck . I dropped my head and wished I could shake the stress that sat heavily on my shoulders.

I was a nice guy—at least I thought I was, once upon a time—but sometimes I didn’t recognize myself in the mirror.

Ivy said I would slip from time to time from being Paul to Eric.

That I had to fight the urge to protect my real identity and remember I was me again.

That was proving to be harder than ever since I discovered I had a son up for grabs with the Cartel.

My phone rang, and I dug it out of my pocket. “Hey.”

“You in your room?” Cole asked.

“No, I was talking to Nicole.”

“Good. I just got off the phone with Frank, and he wants us to let Nicole in.”

I glanced at the door and thought how odd that was. It wasn’t like Frank, unless he knew something we didn’t.

“He didn’t give me much.” His tone told me he thought the same thing. “He said she’s been cleared and that it would be wise to have her on our side. She’s got some connections we could use through Sully Sanchez.” I hated that asshole. “Should I send Mark down?”

“Everyone needs a little Mark in their lives,” Mark chimed in.

“He never misses anything, does he?” I grunted.

“Nope, never.” Cole chuckled. “So, do you want him?”

I looked up at the ceiling and knew I needed to make things right. “No, I got this.”

“All right, check in later.”

“Yeah.” I hung up, swung out of the booth, and headed out of the restaurant.

The lobby wasn’t too busy, but she wasn’t there. I moved out to the pool area, but she wasn’t there either. I headed to the front desk and brought up a photo of Nicole from the internet.

“ Disculpe .” I started to speak Spanish but stopped myself and remembered I needed to seem like a typical tourist. “Did you see this woman walk by just now?”

“ Si ,” the man nodded, “she asked for directions to a clothing shop.”

“Thanks. Which one?”

He gave me quick directions, and I headed outside.

She was brave; I’d give her that. After what we’d just been through with the Cartel, she still had enough balls to leave the hotel to shop.

I found the place easily and immediately spotted her as she stood in front of a mirror in a black halter dress.

I suppressed my whistle as I studied her.

The dress fit her body like a glove. There was a long, narrow cutout that ran from the neck down to her pelvis.

When she moved, I saw her bare thigh peek out of a slit.

It was sexy but elegant. Why the hell would she need a dress like that?

I shook off the strange feeling that had come over me.

Her face fell as she saw me, and she whispered something to the woman helping her before she came toward me. She granted me one hell of a death glare as she approached.

“What are you doing here?”

“We weren’t done talking.” I couldn’t help but think about how gorgeous she looked. “What are you doing in that?”

She looked down at the dress and shook her head. “Sully’s having a party, and I need be there.”

So, she really does have an in with Sully Sanchez.

“Wearing that?”

“Wow, thanks.” She mistook what I meant. “A friend of mine gave me a tip and the guest list for a party Sully’s having tomorrow night. Seems there’ll be a guest my friend thought I might want to talk to, and if I’m going to find—" She stopped herself. “Let’s just say I need to speak to him.”

“What makes you think he’ll speak to you?”

“Because,” she purred and raised a brow, “he just so happens to enjoy American women.” I could hear the disgust in her voice.

“When and where?”

She laughed darkly. “No, Paul. You made it perfectly clear where we stand. I work alone.” She turned to leave, and I caught the back of the dress and saw it mirrored the front.

The curve of her spine made my knees weak.

Christ, I forgot what it was like to be around a single woman.

I thought of the wives at Shadows. They were almost like sisters.

Nicole was definitely not a sister. She was something else entirely.

“Shit.” I turned away and hated the feelings her body drew to the surface.

When I left Talya in Mexico, I promised myself I wouldn’t look at another woman again because of what I did for a living.

Life had proven to me over and over that I wasn’t meant to find happiness that way because it always had to come to an end.

Now more than ever, I needed to focus on anything but a woman.

Especially one who would rather see me hit by a bus.

I watched from outside the shop as she bought a pair of shoes and earrings. She paid and headed out.

“You done?” I asked, and she rolled her eyes. “I figured we should get something to eat.”

“I’m not hungry.” She turned away, and I moved to block her path.

“Yes, you are.” I didn’t mean to sound knowing. “Everyone needs to eat, and we are not done talking.”

She looked across the street when something caught her eye. “Let’s go this way.”

I wanted to ask what she’d seen but instinct told me to follow.

She seemed to relax and never said another word. We found a food truck a few blocks away and ordered some tacos. We sat at a table under some twinkle lights, and to my delight, she ate heartily. I hated girls who didn’t eat; it wasn’t real.

“I spoke with the team.” I figured I should break the silence since I shut her down last time. She kept eating. “It’ll be an adjustment, but we’ll work with you. More than anything, we need to be able to trust you and know you trust us.”

“What’s messed up is that you’re an American soldier. You had my trust from the start. It was you who broke it. You accused me of following you, then you insulted me and yelled at me rather than just ask me about the birth certificate. I understand you’re here to do a job, but so am I.”

“Nicole, I?—”

“Let me finish, Paul. I need you to respect my job and not belittle me because I don’t wear camo and carry a rifle. We’re all working toward the same goal, and until you can see that, I don’t think we can do this.”

I pressed my lips together and knew she had every right to call me out. I came at her in the wrong way, but she didn’t know how personal this whole thing was. Not that I’d tell her.

“You’re different than the other guys.” She brushed her fingers free of cilantro. “You seem heavier, more uptight.”

I nodded. “Maybe I’ve had more than my fair share of heavy.”

“I can understand that statement.” She sighed then reached into her bag and handed me an envelope. “One of us needs to start the trust train. I guess it’ll have to be me.”

I looked inside and saw my son’s birth certificate.

It was the original. This copy wasn’t redacted, and a million emotions ran through me as I read Tayla’s name, then next to it, Eric Noah .

I blinked away sudden tears before she could see them and swallowed hard. She’d named him after me. The old me.

“Thank you.” I quickly tucked it in my pocket, worried that I would show how much it affected me. Suddenly, her eyes shifted over my shoulder and her expression fell.

“What?” I went to turn, but she grabbed my hand to stop me.

“We’re, what, ten minutes from the hotel, nestled between two buildings next to a taco truck?”

“Right.”

“So, what are the odds the man from the restaurant would be here?”