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“Nicole,” I called quietly, but I couldn’t spot her.

“Nicole!” I said a little louder as dread started to come over me.

“Nicole?” I studied the top of the water for any signs that she could be submerged.

I found myself getting upset, and that was very unlike me.

I was good at not getting attached or letting my emotions get the best of me.

Suddenly, she popped up, coughing and sputtering. I swam toward her, grabbed her by the waist, and swam her back toward shore until I could stand.

“Hey,” I tried to soothe her, “you’re okay.

Take a deep breath.” She coughed some more then rolled to face me with a terrified expression.

Her chin quivered so hard I could hear her teeth rattle.

My heart squeezed to the point of pain. “I got you.” I pushed her hair back and studied her face to make sure she was really all right.

“That was way too close.” I wasn’t sure if she meant the men or too close to death.

Tears mixed with the beads of water on her face, and I wasn’t sure what to do to help her, so I went with what my body said to do.

I moved my hand to her head and slowly lowered my face to hers.

I stopped inches from her lips and waited for her to tell me it was what she wanted, too.

Her eyes moved to mine then to my lips, and that was enough for me.

I pulled her to me, our lips connected, and we both threw our terror of almost dying into the kiss.

Her legs wrapped around my waist, and I pulled her closer to me.

My body came alive, and for a brief moment, I felt a rush I hadn’t felt in years.

She moaned when I shifted her on my waist and she felt how turned on I had become. It was the worst timing, and the worst place to let my guard down, but we were caught up in the heat of the moment.

Only the sound of the boat engine returning made me tear away from her.

“Paul,” she cried against my lips.

“It’s coming back. We need to go.” I helped her stand, took her hand, and we dashed up the sand and hid until the boat was gone. Then we trudged the last fifteen minutes to the cottage.

“What the hell happened to you two?” Mark looked at us, covered in sand and dripping wet.

“Any word on the child?” I ignored his question.

“No, but we’ll fill you in asap.”

“Where’s Keith?” I needed to know he was okay.

“Here,” he answered, coming in behind us. “I lost them. They think we’re in town.”

“They’re smart.” I removed my heavy jacket and pulled off my sagging prosthetics and tossed the nasty fake skin into the trash.

“A group of them searched the shoreline, too.” Nicole headed for the bathroom, and I hoped what happened hadn’t rocked her too badly.

I knew that in her job she’d have been through some nasty stuff, but after that party, it had gone from bad to worse in a hurry.

“We had a few close calls.” I nodded toward the bathroom.

John handed me a towel. “Is she okay?”

I dried my hair then toed off my wet shoes. “Yeah.” I looked around the cabin. “So, how’d tonight go? What happened?”

“Get cleaned up.” Cole tossed his burger wrapper on the table. “We’ll fill you in then.”

I bit my lower lip in frustration and pulled from my training. “Copy that.”

I headed for the bedroom to get cleaned up. I stripped, wrapped a towel around me, grabbed some soap from my bag, and went outside to use the pool shower since Nicole was in the bathroom.

The shower felt great, but I kept it short and hurried back inside to get into some dry clothes. Just as I pulled up my camo pants, the door opened.

“Sorry.” She turned away, holding the towel tightly around her.

“It’s fine.” I pulled on my ball hat then snagged my t-shirt off the bed as I moved toward her. “How are you doing?”

“Fine,” she answered too quickly, “just tired.” She lowered herself onto the mattress.

“Do you want to come hear how things went at Selena’s?”

She looked away, and I could see she needed a moment to gather herself. “Since there’s no child out there, I’ll assume they had no luck. I think I’ll skip this one. You can fill me in later.”

“Fair enough.” I understood that. “Hungry?” When she didn’t answer, I tugged on my shirt. “Come out as soon as you feel like it, then. Just remember the team needs to know what you do so we can plan our next move.” She slowly nodded, so I let her be.

“Heads up.” Mike tossed me a wrapped burger, and I caught it as I sat down next to Cole. “It’s old, but it’s food.”

I was so hungry I didn’t care what I was putting in my body tonight. I had that thing gone in three bites. Mike slid another over, and I inhaled that one too. “Nicole hungry?”

“I’ll take one to her later. She needs a second.” I nodded for Cole to start. I was anxious to know what they found, if anything.

“Before I start this,” Cole brought up the body camera footage from their evening, “you need to know that the boy,” he lowered his voice, “wasn’t there.

” I knew by his look I was in for some blood.

He hit play, and I watched as they approached the house and entered through the side door.

I could see three bodies that looked like they’d been flung around the place at random, and another was tied to a chair. It was obvious he’d been tortured.

“We immediately checked for the child. There was no sign of him anywhere and no sign of the friend. We tracked down the landlady. She said Talya and the baby moved in with Selena about a year or so ago. She told us she often heard Selena arguing with her boyfriend after that about wanting time alone but how she couldn’t get it.

“It was obvious that the landlady didn’t like Selena’s boyfriend and was sympathetic to Talya and the baby.

She said Selena was two-faced. She seemed really great when Talya was there but turned nasty about her when the boyfriend came around.

I guess after Talya died,” he cleared his throat, and I knew he was trying to be sensitive, “the friend struggled with the baby. I guess he cried a lot. Then once the boyfriend moved in, she said things got really strained.”

“Jesus, the poor kid lost his mother. What’d they expect?” My stomach was in turmoil over what my poor son must have gone through. “What else did she say?”

“Not much. She said she had a strange feeling that things weren’t good and was worried about the baby.

Then a few weeks ago she came by to collect the rent, and the place had been abandoned.

She said they left in a hurry, since there were still dirty dishes in the sink, laundry in the washer, things like that.

Tonight, about three hours before we got there, she got word from a neighbor that they heard gun shots.

She arrived and found this.” He pointed to the video.

“They’re Canos’ people.” Cole showed me a photo of the inside of a man’s wrist. It had been inked with a Canos honor tattoo.

“From what the neighbors saw, sounds like Perez’s guys showed up and killed them. ”

“Doesn’t seem like they wrecked the place.” I watched the screen replay the video.

“No, lucky for the landlady.” Mark handed me a bottle of water. “They were on a mission to find the kid. They found Canos’ guys instead.” He chuckled. “Sorry.” He looked at me.

“We’re getting closer. That’s what matters,” I said more for myself than for him.

“I heard your night ended in the water.” Mark leaned his arms on his thighs. “Did you get anything from the party?”

“I think Nicole did, but we haven’t had a chance to talk.

I lucked out and recognized a guy I knew from before.

I lipread him saying Chili’s name and had to get close to find out what they were saying.

The gist is I guess he was kicking up too much dust and they were on to him.

I managed to let him know he needed to abort and get out. ”

“Shit,” Cole huffed.

“Yeah,” I rubbed my tired face, “then Bruno showed up, and he had a scrambler on him. I didn’t hear her say her code word, and he got his hands on Nicole. It was just one mess after another. But she knows something, and once she gets her head back on straight, she’ll be out to share it.”

Nicole appeared a few minutes later, freshly changed with towel-dried hair. I closed the laptop and reached for the bag of food. “I thought you might want a cold, nine-hour-old burger.” I handed it to her with a shrug. “Sorry, but it’s the best we could do.”

“How’d you know?” She tried to banter back, but I could tell something was really bothering her. “Thanks.”

“So, how was the party?” Mark asked as he kicked up his feet at an attempt to relax the room.

She tugged at her sleeve, and it was hard to miss the raw marks on her wrist. My guess, it was Bruno. “Eventful.” She tore at the wrapper and started in on the burger. She swallowed and wiped her mouth. “I better share this now, so I don’t forget anything.” She put the burger down on the table.

“All right.” Cole nodded, and all attention was on her.

“Turns out Bruno has Sully and me both looking for the child. He’s playing us but doesn’t realize that Sully and I go way back, and we talk.

I have no loyalty to any Cartel members, of course, but if I did, it would be with Sully.

He held that party to attract the attention of Rafael, but he couldn’t get close enough to him to do what Bruno ordered.

“As I’ve mentioned before, Rafael has a type, and it’s not men.

So, I worked him, and he let me in a little, baited me with some possible new stories.

” Her face dipped, and I wondered what kind of stories he offered.

“I got his attention and pulled him away from his friends then did my thing. I told him how I had the media basically in the palm of my hand and how useful that could be to him. He got cocky and started to brag about this new business deal he had going on.”

“Do you think he thought you already knew about the child?” John asked.

“Not positive, but I think so because I made sure he knew Sully and I worked together from time to time. The fact that I’d been invited to the party may have helped. I played it cool. I made sure to act more interested in him than what he was sharing.”

“Smart,” I chimed in.

“Thanks.” She gave me a quick glance. “He told me that his girlfriend got her hands on something that would be worth a lot of money to some people. He wanted me to help spread the word that this something is up for sale, and the highest bidder wins. The auction, for want of a better word, closes in two days.”

“Anything else?” Cole probed. “Did he give you any idea of where this item, obviously the child, is being held?”

“No, but he did make an off-the-wall comment about how the prize would become fish food if he didn’t get what he wanted.

He laughed and said he’d get his cash either way.

” She looked over when we all went silent.

I knew she caught the sympathetic looks John and Keith threw my way.

“I know. It’s terrible, isn’t it? He has no regard at all for human life. ”

“He’s an animal,” John agreed, “but the fact there’s a deadline means we need to work fast.”

“Nicole,” Cole leaned forward from where he sat on the couch, “can you tell us what Bruno was doing at the party? I thought Sully told you he wasn’t going to be there.”

She had just picked the burger back up, but at Cole’s words, she dropped it on the table, unfinished. “Sully had no idea, and I could tell he was just as blindsided as I was that he showed.” She seemed about to say something, then paused as if she didn’t want to share the rest.

“And?” I encouraged her.

“And he reminded me that I worked for him, which is a joke. I’ve never worked for Bruno. He’s delusional.” She rubbed her face. “Though you’re definitely on his radar now.” She looked at me. “Be careful, Paul. There’s something bigger going on here. I can feel it.”

I glanced at John then back to her. “Meaning?”

“Bruno’s got bigger plans for me. Sully hinted at it.

I have no idea what because he got pulled away before I could press him on it.

I’ve been thinking about it.” She bit her lip.

“Sully knew about Ben being chipped and how furious Bruno was about the tracker not working. He’s up to something, and Sully thinks it’s to do with getting revenge for his uncle’s death. ”

John looked at Cole. “We need to find out what Sully knows about Bruno.”

Nicole’s face fell, and I wondered what she hadn’t said. She rubbed her neck and looked tired, and I decided not to push.

“We leave before sunup to sweep Selena’s place.” Nicole looked at me. “I need to see it for myself. We may find something they missed,” I explained. “For now, why don’t you get some sleep?”

“Yeah,” she stood in a zombie-like state, “I think I need to.”