Wicked as Lies (Wicked & Devoted 3)

“Yeah. To be honest, if anyone had asked me which of the five of us was the mole, I would have put my money on Walker.”

“Same.”

“If he was secretly working for the cartel, they did a really good job of beating the shit out of him and making it look good. I believed it one hundred percent.”

Zy guessed it was possible, but Occam’s razor suggested that the simplest solution was usually the right one. If he applied that principle to this situation, One-Mile was being held against his will, and he would fucking die if they didn’t do something soon.

“Joaquin also suggested it was possible that Montilla had the jump on our information because we’d been hacked.”

Trees turned to him. “You know…maybe. On Tuesday, the day before we left, they had some guy in the office they’d borrowed from Jack Cole and Deke Trenton over at Oracle. Um…he had an unusual name. Stone, that’s it. Apparently, he’s a hacker. After a little digging, I found out he did time for it, too.” He frowned. “Anyway, Logan told me the guy had come to eradicate some virus on the server, but I could have done that, so I don’t know why he was there.”

Zy vaguely remembered seeing Stone, but the fact they had contracted with someone else when Trees was perfectly qualified for the job seemed odd. Or said the bosses were suspicious. He wanted to get to the bottom of that shit.

“I didn’t meet him.”

“Might be worth a follow-up to see what Stone found.”

“Might be.” Zy nodded. But inside he seethed. The bosses were giving everyone a different story and trying to trap someone in a lie. He was fucking done with all this game playing. As soon as they recovered One-Mile, he would let them all have it. “So what happened south of the border?”

“They ended up jumping us in the parking lot. I’d asked Walker to hold my bag so I could tie my shoes. When I looked up, we were surrounded. I had the keys and I was close to the car. He tried to gun them down and fight them off. It was five against two, and they had surprise on their side. Walker screamed at me to go, so I did, remembering a police station I’d seen just down the street. I was praying Montilla hadn’t bought them off so I could get them to help me go back for him. I remember my vision being really blurry as I rolled into the parking lot. It was hot, and I was sick as fuck to my stomach. Sweating like mad. I almost hit another car exiting as I swerved into a parking spot. Then…I don’t remember anything until someone woke me up just before dawn. I had one foot out of the car, surrounded by my own puke. And of course One-Mile was long gone.” He sighed. “You now know what I know.”

None of that was particularly helpful. “Who else knew the double-secret plan besides you and Walker?”

“Hunter, since he gave us the mission. I’m assuming the other bosses.”

Probably, but what was to say one of them wasn’t guilty and trying to deflect blame? Nothing…except Zy wasn’t buying it. They were hard-ass sons of bitches, but they weren’t the kind of warrior to sell out one of their own.

Which left him with another dead end.

Son of a bitch.

“We’ll keep digging,” Zy assured. “In the meantime, we’ll beat every bush and call in every favor until we get a bead on Walker.”

August 24

“Thanks for dinner, babe.” Cash was still chewing his last bite as he rose from the table. “By the way, the meatloaf needs more sauce next time.”

Why? He’d just smother it in ketchup. “Where are you going?”

He headed for the living room. “Sorry to eat and run, but you know it’s Sunday.”

Translation: he was ready for some football, regardless of whatever else was going on.

“You said you’d feed Hallie.”

He winced. “That baby spinach shit smells.”

He’d said the same thing about the diaper pail, and Tessa understood…kind of. Parenting required adjustment. She couldn’t expect super-dad overnight—but he needed to try. “It’s not that bad.”

“Well, since it doesn’t make you gag, you should feed her.” He pressed the remote to flip on the TV as he flopped onto the sofa.

“If I feed her, you need to give her a bath. She’d probably enjoy spending time with you.”

“Babe…not on Sunday. The Bengals and the Cardinals are about to kick off.”

Since Cash had never lived in either Ohio or Arizona, and the games were still preseason, why did he care who won? And why was he prioritizing it above bonding with his daughter, which he claimed was the reason he wanted to move in with them?

A couple of weeks into their cohabitation, and Tessa was beginning to wonder if this co-parenting arrangement would work out.