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Ayla slumped back in her seat, disappointment deflating her. She’d been hoping that Baggs would have learned something that would help her find her sister. A spring from the ancient vehicle poked her shoulder and she shifted to avoid it.

“Did you half-ass it?” Oz demanded.

“I didn’t half-ass anything.” Baggs sounded irritated, and maybe insulted, too. “I knew it was important to be careful, so I was careful. I wouldn’t risk your Pollita’s twin.”

Something in his voice changed as he said that, and Ayla knew he was speaking the truth. He’d done everything he could. She was certain of it.

“Then how the fuck did that woman make you? Not only make you, but elude you?”

Baggs pulled to a stop at a traffic light and turned to give Oz a hard stare. “Personally, dude, I’m putting my money on her being more than she seemed—a hell of a lot more—but that’s just me. Maybe you have a different read.”

Sitting upright, Ayla leaned forward again. “What do you mean by more than she seemed ?”

It was Oz who answered. “He’s saying she has training. Likely some heavy-duty training.”

The light turned green, but vehicles blocked the intersection.

It was another moment before Baggs was able to accelerate.

It wasn’t rush hour—at least Ayla didn’t think it was because it was Saturday—but traffic was still bumper to bumper.

They were moving at a snail’s pace and no one said anything that made sense.

Ayla was tired of not understanding what was going on. Maybe she sounded stupid, but she wanted more information. “What is heavy-duty training ?”

Neither man spoke.

“Are you talking spy training?”

“Not necessarily.” Oz didn’t look at her and Ayla found that aggravating, too.

“Explain it to me like I’m five,” she growled.

The silence stoked her temper.

“Dude,” Baggs said when it became obvious Oz would not reply, “I’m driving. You tell your woman what could be going on. I think she needs to know.”

Need to know? This was why Oz wasn’t sharing anything with her? Ayla upped the wattage on her glare, but he continued to face forward. She hoped he could sense the force of her anger. This was her sister’s life on the line.

At least Baggs was on her side. Sort of. She couldn’t forget that he was Oz’s friend first.

Pushing the hair off his face, Oz sighed and then he turned.

He didn’t miss her ire. “Calm down, Pollita. We don’t know who this woman is or if she has any connection to your twin at all.

Maybe she really did think you were someone else, and that’s why she came over.

Jumping to conclusions won’t find Iona more quickly. ”

Ayla started to argue with him, realized it wasn’t worth the energy, and returned to the question she asked originally. “What kind of training would allow her to disappear if it wasn’t spy training?”

“It could have been luck,” Oz said.

Baggs grunted, expressing his opinion on that suggestion.

Oz ignored Baggs. “Or she could work in security.”

“Like a security guard?”

“I was thinking more like a specialist. It’s possible she could be part of a high-level team of bodyguards, something equivalent to the Secret Service, but in the private sector.” Oz went back to looking out the front window.

Ayla mulled that over, but she had no idea how likely any of the scenarios were.

Hell, for all she knew, Oz was blowing smoke, and she was na?ve enough to buy it.

Working in public relations had taught her to identify spin, but this was so far outside her realm of experience that she didn’t know what to believe. She put the topic aside.

“Who—”

“The question to ask first isn’t who she is—that’s secondary—the more important question is what was her reason for stopping by our table.” Oz frowned. “If it was mistaken identity, then it’s understandable, but if she came over with a purpose, then I’d like to know what that was.”

She hadn’t considered that. Ayla assumed that the woman thought she was her sister, but what if it was something else? What if she had an agenda? What other reason could?—

Baggs slammed on the brakes and laid on the horn. Ayla squeaked and grabbed for Oz’s seat to brace herself.

When they were moving again, Oz complained without heat, “Dude, I like my spleen.”

“It was either brake hard or crash. Your spleen would be unhappier then.” For an instant, he glanced back at her in the rearview mirror. “Sorry about that, ma’am. Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Worry about the other drivers, not me.

” Ayla considered what Oz had said before the near miss.

“About that woman. What you’re saying is she might have had ulterior motives for coming over to the table.

That I shouldn’t take it at face value that she thought I was Io.

But that doesn’t make sense. What kind of ulterior motives? ”

The men remained quiet, but before Ayla could work up a head of steam, Baggs said, “She might have thought she recognized the Wizard from his time working for the drug lord. Maybe she pretended to be interested in you to get a closer look at him.”

Oz gave her a quick glance. “I got fired less than two weeks ago. Not everyone may know that I’m no longer employed, and Vargas does have enemies, including another drug lord that he’s at war with.”

“And the group the rebels kicked out,” Baggs added. “They were coming over the wall of Vargas’s hacienda to attack that night you had guard duty. And it doesn’t even have to be because of the drug lord. We had our own run-in with them.”

“They should be in disarray.” Ayla saw Oz frown as he spoke.

“It’s been a week. Enough time for a new leader to take over and muster the troops. If she’s associated with them, we need to watch our backs.”

“Lurch—”

“Lurch would be primary, but we went in with him. If that group of motherfu—sorry, ma’am. If that group wants revenge, we’re at risk, too.”

“What woman would want anything to do with those assholes?” Oz asked.

“There are women who write love letters to serial killers,” Ayla said. She might not know exactly what they were talking about, but the character of the men under discussion was clear.

“There you go,” Baggs said.

There was another silence, but this time she knew both men were thinking things through. She took the opportunity herself. While she had less information and no experience making sense of this type of thing, she categorized what she had.

“Let me get this straight,” Ayla said slowly.

“The possibilities include mistaken identity, that the woman works for Oz’s drug lord, a rival drug lord, a group expelled from the rebel troops and gone rogue, and who else?

The mob?” She considered that and added, “Although there were mobsters in the café, and she was on her own.”

“Don’t let that throw you,” Oz said. “Those men were flunkies. The woman would be high-level. They might not be aware she was on their team, but I don’t think she works for Petrova or Ivanov.”

“Why not?”

“When those men tried to grab you at the hotel, they used your sister’s name. They want her badly. The only people following us were the flunkies, and they decided it wasn’t worth their time when the rain hit.”

“If you were only watching for the flunkies?—”

“I wasn’t, Pollita. I had my eyes open for anyone tailing us. If the woman worked for Petrova, she would have called in reinforcements.”

“Maybe she didn’t have time to call because Baggs was following her.”

“She shook him off her ass in about two seconds. She had plenty of time to call.”

“It wasn’t two seconds.” Baggs sounded aggrieved.

“Two minutes, two seconds. Same difference,” Oz shot back.

Ayla rolled her eyes at the byplay. “What about traffic slowing down the reinforcements? We can hardly move with how congested the streets are.”

Oz shrugged. “That’s a possibility, but my gut says no.”

His gut. Right. “Your gut? Would that be psychic woo-woo shit?”

He turned to look over his shoulder at her. “That’s different.”

“Only because it’s you.” She waved off whatever he was about to say. “How accurate is your gut?”

“Accurate enough that I trust it.”

It didn’t tell Ayla much, but didn’t soldiers develop instincts?

Oz would have been in the US military before becoming a mercenary.

He must have reliable instincts to survive in Puerto Jardin.

“If I trust your gut, you should be able to trust my link to Io.” She frowned at his expression and changed the subject.

“What you’re telling me is that we don’t know if that woman was interested in me, you, or Baggs. ”

“Probably not Baggs,” Oz said.

“Why not Baggs?”

“He just got down here a few weeks ago and this is his first time in Puerto Jardin.”

“Unless it’s the rebel rejects,” Baggs said.

Oz’s sigh was loud and long, and if Ayla could see his face, she’d bet his eyes were closed. “Dude, please. We both know while it’s a possibility, it’s not the most likely one.”

“I might be new, but I’m aware that ruling out options without evidence is a great way to fu—mess things up.

Sorry, ma’am. As far as I’m concerned, all factions are suspect until there’s concrete proof otherwise.

” A car nearly took off their front end.

Baggs tapped the brakes and laid on the horn again.

“That includes groups you haven’t named yet,” he continued as if they didn’t almost get hit by another driver.

“We don’t know who Io ran across while searching for Fuentes. ”

“Fuck,” Oz muttered as the car drew to a stop at another light. “That means we can’t cross anyone off the list. If it wasn’t just a mistake.”

Ayla’s thoughts swirled. All she’d asked about was the woman, and now her head was swimming.

She went to push both hands through her hair, ran into the wig, and froze before she knocked it off.

This was going to be a pain in the ass if she couldn’t do simple things, but she kept her mouth shut.

If she complained, she could see Oz dumping her somewhere he deemed safe and looking for Io without her.

She wasn’t allowing that to happen, not when her link to her sister could be the only way to find her.

The light went green and Baggs inched forward. “I don’t think there was any mistake. She lost me like a pro, and pros don’t fu—mess up like that. Her visit to our table was calculated. You can lay money on it.”

Ayla’s heart beat faster. “Do you think she knows something about Io?”

Oz turned his head. “It’s hard to say.”

“Try.”

“I already explained. It depends on who she works for. It depends if her interest was in you or if it was in me or Baggs. There are too many factors in play to even start guessing.”

Ayla slumped back, immediately moving as the spring poked her again. They had just discussed this, but she wanted answers. Now. “I’m worried about Io,” she said as a sort of apology.

“I know, Pollita.”

Taking a deep breath, Ayla tried to stop spinning in circles. Instead of repeating the same questions, she needed to focus. She needed to prioritize. Nothing was more important than locating her sister. The woman only mattered if she contributed to the goal. Find Iona.

Not knowing where to start killed her. Her original plan of traveling to San Isidro and asking around seemed incredibly stupid. Tears welled. Impatiently, Ayla blinked them away. She hated feeling overly emotional, but Io meant everything to her. She couldn’t imagine her life without her.

The thought of losing her twin had more tears forming, and this time Ayla couldn’t contain them. How embarrassing. Unobtrusively, she tried to wipe them away before one of the guys noticed. She wasn’t successful.

Baggs caught her in the rearview mirror. “Dude,” he said quietly, and when he had Oz’s attention, he made a quick gesture with his chin toward the back seat.

Ayla bowed her head, blinked harder, and wiped hurriedly at her cheeks. She normally wasn’t a crier, and she hated being caught in a weak moment. All her hard work to stem her tears was undermined when Oz’s hand covered her knee and squeezed.

The comfort surprised her.

She knew the big, hard man who’d rescued her more than once since her arrival in Puerto Jardin. The man who promised to keep her safe while he helped her search for her sister. She was familiar with the man who was generous in bed and who made sure she enjoyed the night as much as he had.

But this man was a surprise. His touch conveyed compassion, empathy, caring.

Ayla raised her head, her eyes meeting Oz’s. There was sympathy there. Understanding. Concern.

Uh-oh. It was simple to resist the mercenary. It wouldn’t be as easy for Ayla to maintain her distance from this version of Oz.