“Finally.” He sighed. “It was a fucking long, scary-ass day. But yeah, we’re on the road now. And I need to talk to you.”
It sounded serious, and Zy’s gut seized. “What’s up?”
“Kane and I connected with Valeria, and she got her son back. They left a few hours ago in a minivan. He plans to drive straight through. But I got word that the safe house they had for Valeria isn’t available anymore, so where do you want us to go?”
Good question.
“I’d ask one of the bosses,” Trees continued, “but with everything they have going on, I didn’t want to come to them with more problems.”
“Yeah. Let me…call Cutter. He’s a local boy, and he and Shealyn are back from their honeymoon.”
“And from what I heard, her sister’s wedding to Josiah got derailed by violence two days ago. They might be busy.”
“Well, we’re likely to have another situation like that on our hands if Cutter doesn’t spare me five minutes.”
Trees sighed. “True. Yeah, call him, then let Kane know.”
“What about you and Laila? Where will you go?”
“I rented an RV. We’re posing as a married couple on vacation, seeing the country before we have a baby.”
“You’re serious?”
Trees sighed. “We stopped to pick up supplies before we headed out of Orlando, and some chatty tourists started talking to us in the grocery store, so I made up a story. Laila was clinging to me like she was terrified. She literally expects Emilo’s henchmen to jump her at any moment. They messed her up.”
Zy had heard the same from One-Mile, who’d talked to Laila when Emilo had held him captive a few months back. “She feels safe with you?”
“As safe as she feels with any man, but it’s not much. I told her I was a friend of Walker’s. It helped. He’s apparently the good guy since he politely declined to rape her.”
“Jesus. So what’s your plan?”
“We’re going to make our way back slowly, make sure Valeria gets situated into whatever safe house you can find for her. If it looks good, like no one is watching it, then I’ll take Laila out there. If it gets hit…my plan B is to take Laila to my place.”
“Well, it’s secure enough.”
“It should be, yeah. There’s just one problem.” Trees dropped his voice. “Laila is so damn sexy, I can barely keep my eyes—and everything else—off of her.”
Falling in instant lust was so unlike Trees, it took Zy aback. “Does she suspect?”
“There are only so many ways to hide an erection like mine.”
True. Trees wasn’t just tall; he was built big everywhere. Zy knew because, thanks to Uncle Sam, they’d been in close quarters for years, often in places where privacy was next to nil. “Do you need to speed up your trip?”
“And what happens if I do and Tierra Caliente figures out where Valeria is hiding? Laila will be collateral damage. After the hell I suspect she’s been through, she deserves some fucking safety, man.”
Zy couldn’t argue with that. “Yeah. Okay, let me see what I can toss together. You keep on keeping on, and I’ll touch base with Kane soon.”
How the fuck he’d find a place that quickly, Zy wasn’t sure, but it was time to get to work.
Which meant that making love to Tessa would have to wait.
Fuck.
“Great, buddy. Thanks.”
“Talk to you tomorrow.”
“Don’t hang up,” Trees insisted.
“Something else going on?”
“Yeah…” His buddy sounded mighty reluctant to say what.
“Talk to me.”
“Are you sitting?”
Oh, shit. “No, and I don’t have time to now. What the fuck is happening?”
“When Laila escaped the house in Orlando, she couldn’t get to her phone, which was charging in her bedroom. But she managed to knock out one of her assailants and—”
“How the hell did she do that? Because if you’re attracted to her, I know she’s a tiny thing.”
“Fuck, I hate that I have a type,” he grumbled. “Yeah, she is. And she knocked the son of a bitch out by surprising him with a loaded diaper pail to the face.”
The situation wasn’t funny, but Zy couldn’t hold in a laugh. “She sounds resourceful. Bet that guy thought it was a shitty fight.”
“Yeah. Laila is…something,” he said barely above a whisper.
“Where is she now?”
“Sleeping in the back. Finally. That’s why I wanted to call you. At our last stop, we pulled into a gas station to fill up. Thankfully, when Laila got her assailant’s phone, it was unlocked and she had the presence of mind to change the passcode. I was going to wipe the thing clean but—”
“Get to the point.” He had a safe house to find pronto.
“I browsed the phone while we were filling up. This guy was Tierra Caliente, and you won’t like how they’re communicating.”
Zy froze. He had a terrible notion where this conversation was going. “Don’t say it.”
“I don’t want to, but I have to, man. They’re using Abuzz.”