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TWELVE

NICOLE

“P retend to take a selfie and try and get a clear shot of his face.” He handed me his phone. I smiled and pretended to pose and snapped a few in a row then handed it back to him.

“I’ll send this to Cole to run through our database and see if anything comes up.” I kept my eye on the sleazy French man and wondered how long he had followed me. “He still there?”

“Yes.” I rolled up the checkered paper from my tacos.

“Tell me how you knew where to find the birth certificate,” he urged. I didn’t answer right away. I felt uneasy, and he reached under the table and put his hand on my thigh. My gaze went right up to his. “Relax. He’s just watching.”

“Right.” I repeated his words in my head.

“Bruno told me he took my videographer and would hold him hostage until I found that baby. It was obvious the child was someone pretty important. He also made damn sure I knew I needed to get to the child before anyone else did. He obviously wants him badly.”

“And?”

“And two of his men took me to start searching. They had a possible lead on the mother. The guy with the cuts all over his face was the one in charge.”

“The one who had his hands on you at the shootout?”

“Yes.” I nodded.

“Give me the short version, Nicole.” He wanted me to hurry my story along, but it was hard, as my head was everywhere else but where it should be.

“Then Carlos turned out to be really nice.” I closed my eyes and got my mind to focus.

“He’s the owner of the motel. He bought my story that Talya and I were old friends, and I was looking for her.

He shared that she had left an address in her room.

After the explosion, I got separated from the others, so I headed that way. ”

“Seems odd she’d do that.”

“Do what?” I focused on him again.

“Leave an address there. You think it was on purpose?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged and sneaked a look at the French man. “She did book that room for two nights and only stayed for one. If you’re running from someone and you leave an address for someone else, you’d sure run the risk of the bad guy seeing it.”

“Yeah.” He looked thoughtful. “So, you keep it vague and give a landmark and hope that the person who you do want to find it can figure it out.”

“Exactly.” I raised my brows to show we were on the same wavelength. “So, when I got to the address she left, which was a church, I put myself in her shoes and thought where I would go with a newborn.”

“The orphanage.” He nodded like he was impressed. “We thought the same thing.”

I drew in my chin at his comment. “You knew about the orphanage?”

He rubbed his lip like he was going to lie but changed his mind. “We had some intel too, but the guys couldn’t get past the sisters. How did you?”

I didn’t know why, but I felt like I might have missed something. I knew Blackstone had incredible resources, but there was something closed off about Paul, and it made me wonder. “Have you met Talya before?”

He shook his head. “No. How did you get past the sisters?”

I went to touch my pendant but rubbed the side of my neck instead. My past wasn’t part of this. “I guess my story was good enough it played on their hearts. I think they could see I wasn’t looking to hurt them, only to find them.”

“The fact that you’re a woman probably helped.” He nodded. “I can’t say I would blame them for that.”

“Yeah,” I had to agree, “and that’s when one of them mentioned that Talya wanted her son to see where everything had begun or something and mentioned a one-winged dragon in Campeche.

I just stumbled upon that hotel with the shell logo, and when you mentioned that it looked like the wing, I realized I’d found the place.

” I shook my head, still in disbelief at my luck. “How did you know to look there too?”

“Intel.” He didn’t offer more.

“For someone who wants me to share what I know, you’re pretty guarded with your own details.”

Before he could reply, I felt my heart jump into my throat when I saw the French man heading toward us. “He’s coming.”

“Grab your bags.” He stood, and we hurried around the food truck and out into another street with more vendors. “This way,” he said over his shoulder.

For such a big guy, he was quick on his feet.

The street was busy with locals, so we stuck out as tourists.

I wasn’t familiar with the streets in Campeche, so I had to rely on Paul for direction.

People called out as we went by to try to sell us something, and I tried my best to be polite as we hurried past them.

Some were downright pushy, desperate to sell something.

A man grabbed the edge of my shirt trying to sell me some shoes, and I tried to say no and pull away, but he wasn’t having it.

“Paul!” I called, and he reached between us, took my hand, then pulled my shirt from the man’s grasp. He pulled me close to his side and kept one hand on my hip and the other out straight to make a path for us.

“Here,” he ordered, and we ducked into a fish market. He shielded me from view of the door as I fought to catch my breath. I was in shape and took pride in my endurance, but my breath came in nervous gasps and my stomach was in knots.

“Paul.” I squeezed his arm when I spotted the French man step into the fish market.

“Impossible.” Paul looked down at me, then his eyes narrowed in on my purse. He slipped it off my shoulder, bent down, and emptied it on top of a freezer.

“What are you doing?” He opened my makeup bag and fished around inside. I grabbed my mascara as it rolled off the top. “Hey! I don’t have much, so—” He held up a small flat thing, the size of a quarter, with a lion’s head engraved it in. “Is that a tracking device?”

He snapped a few photos of it then tucked it in his pocket and looked around while I grabbed all my stuff and shoved it back inside my purse. He grabbed my arm and whisked us back outside.

“Okay, let’s get back to the hotel,” he grunted.

“Paul, was that a tracking device?” I’d seen them before, but none had looked quite like the one he’d found. He didn’t answer, and I knew it wasn’t time to argue.

“Cole,” his phone was to his ear, “she was bugged.” He paused as he listened. “All right.” He hung up then he picked up speed, and I fought to keep up.

“What did Cole say?” Again, I got silence. I curbed my temper momentarily.

My legs and feet killed me by the time we made it back to the hotel, but I wasn’t about to complain.

I needed to show I could keep up. That I was one of them.

I glanced down at the new dress still draped over my arm and felt bad the fabric was now a wrinkled clump.

I didn’t have many pretty things, because I basically lived out of a knapsack.

I always tried to convince myself I didn’t care about material things, but the truth was I did to a degree.

A group of seniors were loading a bus for the airport, and their luggage was all around them. Paul let go of my arm and offered to help a lady put her bag in the storage compartment. As he did, he slipped the tracker in her souvenir bag and smiled as he stood.

“Thank you, dear.” She gave him a gummy smile, and Paul kindly patted her on the arm as she took the stairs with help from the driver. Seconds later, the bus engine started, and they pulled away.

Paul didn’t miss a beat in his stride as he took my arm and walked me back inside the hotel like I was a child in trouble. “That’ll buy us a few hours.”

He spoke more to himself than me. That made my back go up. Enough .

When he entered the elevator, I stayed back. “Nicole,” he ordered, “get in.”

“We had a deal.”

His jaw flexed as he cursed under his breath. “I’ll explain once we get inside a room.”

I weighed my options and figured it was better to get out of the lobby than to fight out in the open.

“I warned you to keep me in the loop.” I stepped into the elevator.

“You talk about trust, then you give me nothing,” I muttered and hoped I’d made my point.

The doors closed, and we stood in pissed off silence as the floors ticked by on the screen.

Once they opened, he headed for his room, and I followed.

He looked over his shoulder as he opened the door, and I stopped dead in my tracks when I took in what the team members were doing.

It looked like a fully operational command center being stripped down at Mach speed.

How did I miss all their equipment in the van before?

“You made it.” Mark grinned at me with a hand full of wires. “Welcome to the dream team.”

“I’d say thanks, but so far it’s been interesting,” My voice was full of sarcasm.

“In fairness, I did offer to be the one to ask you to join us, but Paul wanted to do it.”

I draped my dress over the back of a chair and let my bag fall on the floor. “I find that hard to believe.” I tossed Paul a look, but his face was emotionless as he grabbed his own bag and started to root around inside it. “So, who was that French guy, anyway?”

“Gabriel Valentin,” John said, “probably hired by your friend Bruno.” He shook his head. “Seems Bruno isn’t pleased you slipped away from his guys.”

“You mean melty face driver guy.” I shivered dramatically and huffed then looked at John. “How do you know about me working for Bruno?” I glanced at Mark, who seemed to have no problem letting me in.

“Paul had us on the phone at that point.” Mark gave me a small smile. “It’s what we do.”

I should have known.

“So, you’re up to speed?” I felt tired as my adrenaline fizzled out.

Cole handed me a bottle of water and a chocolate bar. “Somewhat. But I have a few questions if you feel up to talking a bit more.”

“Can I freshen up real fast?”

“Sorry,” he pointed to my duffle bag in the corner, “but we need to hit the road. Finding the tracker only bought us a little time. You’ll have to wait until we find a new place.” When the hell did they go into my room and get my stuff?

“You’re a part of the team now,” Keith muttered behind me.