Wicked as Seduction: Trees & Laila - Part 1 (Wicked & Devoted 5)

“Long story short?” Zy began. “Our mole is Tessa’s ex-boyfriend. Here’s our timeline. Last January, we think Aspen planted spyware on Tessa’s laptop since she was using the machine while Tessa was on maternity leave.”

Trees scowled. “How is that possible? She could barely find the button to turn the machine on?”

“The way I heard it, she wasn’t good for much but answering phones,” Joaquin drawled.

“It must have been an act.” Zy leaned in. “At the time, Colonel Edgington hired Aspen to temp after Tessa’s ex, Cash, recommended her.”

“Yeah,” Hunter confirmed. “I don’t think Dad knew anyone else.”

“That’s how the mission last March, the one in which I was injured, went south,” Zy explained. “Tessa returned a couple of weeks after that.”

“I reformatted her computer then, which wiped out whatever spyware Aspen put on it,” Trees added.

“Exactly. And every other mission went off without a hitch until August twentieth, when One-Mile was captured in Acapulco,” Zy said. “It’s no coincidence that Cash moved back in with Tessa to ‘co-parent’ Hallie on August ninth. Around that timeframe, emails started leaving Tessa’s computer in the middle of the night, when Cash was supposedly gaming for work, a job that seems like a bullshit cover.”

“Go on,” Hunter prompted.

“The mission in September to rescue Walker turned out okay because Tessa was in Tennessee when her father died. She’d locked up her computer at the office, where Cash couldn’t get to it. But Tessa was back and taking her computer home again when Emilo Montilla received the address and floor plan of Valeria’s safe house in St. Louis at the end of October. I helped Tessa boot the asshole from her house for good in mid-November.”

“That explanation makes sense, but there are holes,” Logan pointed out.

“Exactly,” Trees seconded. “Laila was nearly taken from what should have been a secure location in Orlando nearly a week ago. How do you explain that?”

“That’s the one hole in our theory,” Zy admitted. “I don’t know how to account for it.”

“Hang on. I think I might.” Trees reached for Tessa’s laptop, searched through the code on the back end, and found exactly what he was looking for. “The spyware is back. And this version is more advanced. It allows the user to search through our servers.”

Hunter Edgington swore something long and ugly.

“Cash must have reinstalled it.” Zy looked like he wanted to kill the motherfucker.

Trees wouldn’t mind getting in on that. The asshole had fucked Laila’s peace of mind for a buck.

“The little son of a bitch,” Logan spit out.

There was just one problem… “If they had every keystroke and could break into our servers, why did they kidnap Hallie and make Tessa cough up information?”

“What?” the trio of bosses exploded at once.

“On Tuesday, Tessa was approached in the EM parking lot by a man we can’t identify. He offered her money for information. She refused. She woke up the next morning, and her baby was gone. They’ve been using her to extract information from Tessa since.”

“So I’m asking why, if they can read every word we’ve ever stored electronically?” Trees reiterated.

“Because, knowing we had a mole, we kept the locations of our current safe houses out of all digital communications,” Logan said.

“So the cartel got desperate, I guess.” Zy shrugged.

“But they’ve already kidnapped Kimber,” Hunter pointed out. “So why take Hallie, too?”

“There are two different factions at work here.” Trees explained everything Laila had told him.

Silence fell.

Hunter finally broke it. “That makes a shitload of sense.”

“We’ve been wondering if Emilo’s death splintered the organization. The fact it has sucks ass. Now we have to fight a two-pronged war. We’ve hired Walker’s friend, Matt, temporarily to help us find Kimber. But we’re still short two operatives.”

“I know you’re working day and night to bring your sister back,” Zy said. “I have an idea on how to shut down Cash and the faction of the cartel that paid him while hopefully bringing Hallie home unharmed.”

After a bit more conversation and some refining of the plan, they ended the call.

Zy stifled a yawn. Trees stretched, feeling exhaustion tug at him. The strategy continued, but both were feeling the lack of sleep.

Tessa returned, clean and dressed in fresh clothes, so they caught her up on the plan. She looked rattled. “Do you think that will work?”

Trees was as reluctant as Zy to tell her the truth. It was a long shot.

“It’s the best plan we’ve got,” Zy hedged.

Tessa nodded, but she appeared crestfallen. She could read between the lines. Trees hurt for her.

“We should all get some sleep. It’s going to be a big day,” he pointed out.

Zy nodded, but he looked Tessa’s way, like they had unfinished business. After what the two of them had endured, Trees wasn’t surprised.

“I’m going to grab some shut-eye since it’s nearly five a.m.,” he told them. “The futon in the office is available. ’Night.”