Wicked and True (Wicked & Devoted 4)

While Trees tapped away at his laptop, Zy’s phone buzzed. “Why is One-Mile calling me on a Saturday morning?”

Trees snorted as he peered at his screen. “I hope all hell isn’t breaking loose.”

Zy nodded and answered. Tessa held her breath. If something in the business needed immediate attention, would they put Hallie on hold? She had barely twenty hours left to prove their theory and save her baby.

“Hey, Walker…”

Tessa listened to Zy’s side of the call with half an ear—until it became clear that he had info about the guy who had threatened her in the parking lot. The man who had taken Hallie.

Her heart leapt, and she shoved herself into Zy’s face all but talking into his phone for him. “Does he know this guy’s name? Or where to find him?”

Zy wrapped an arm around her and pulled her to his side, away from the device. “Keep going.” He paused. “Yeah. And?” Another pause. Then Zy made a motion to Trees for a pen. Tessa saw one on the far side of the table and lunged for it. He scribbled a name. Johnson. “Thanks. I’ll run with it.”

“The man from the parking lot is named Johnson?” she rushed to ask as he ended the call.

“Apparently. One-Mile has been researching. He showed the guy’s picture around a police precinct this morning and got a hit. Someone arrested him a few months back for petty possession and remembered the belligerent SOB.”

Tessa had no idea how that man had gotten mixed up in a cartel based in Mexico, but now wasn’t the time for that question. “That’s great! If we can find him…he has Hallie and—”

“Not necessarily. But if not, we’ll see what light he can shed as soon as I hunt him down. It would be fucking helpful if we had a first name.”

“Got a picture?” Trees asked. “Along with a last name, I might be able to get something while the scan to find your ex-douche is working in the background, Tessa.”

“Scan?”

“Yeah, it just takes a while to ping all the cell towers in the state.”

She was shocked. “You can do that?”

He grinned. “Well, I’m not supposed to, but…”

Trees was devious. Right.

“How did you get Cash’s number?”

He held up her phone. “I was doing a deep dive on it, so it wasn’t hard to find.”

Of course.

“Look at Tuesday afternoon’s security footage of the EM parking lot,” Zy insisted.

“On it.” With a few clicks, a new screen popped up. Video scrolled in rapid time across his monitor, then froze on the face burned into her memory.

“That’s him,” she gasped. “The man who stopped me in the parking lot. The man who calls when he has a demand in exchange for Hallie’s safety.”

“And if she’s not with him, he probably knows where she is,” Zy said.

Trees nodded. “Now if I just had a fucking first name… He never mentioned it?”

Laila strolled over with steaming plates and glanced at the screen. Her eyes widened, and she gaped, nearly dropping all the food. “Hector.”

Tessa helped her set the plates on the table before they fell from her trembling hands. “Mr. Johnson’s first name?”

She froze, looking terrified. “I do not know his last name, but in Mexico, in Emilo’s compound, he was called Hector. And he was greatly feared and fiercely loyal to my brother-in-law. He is not a man you want to cross.”

Trees scowled and rose to take Laila in his grasp. “Did he hurt you?”

“Many times.”

The big man’s face turned mean. “Then he’ll find out I’m not a man to cross, either. I’ll make him pay.”

Laila looked at him like he was crazy. “You cannot.”

“Can’t,” he corrected. “And oh, yes. I absolutely can.”

He pulled up some search engine Tessa had never seen, one far more powerful and secretive than Google. He typed in Hector Johnson’s name. Moments later, an address popped up. “Gotcha, you son of a bitch.”

Tessa scanned it, wondering what part of town that was when a ding resounded in the background.

Trees flipped to that window, read a few lines of some long string of code, and smiled. “Gotcha, too. Should have known you assholes would stick together.”

Tessa’s heart caught. “What do you mean?”

“Hector and your ex? They’re at the same address.”

“Fuck,” Zy cursed. “They’re in this together.”

“Cash helped take his own daughter from me?” Tessa couldn’t comprehend it. Cash had never wanted Hallie before.

Of course, he only wanted their baby when she could be used to help him get ahead.

“Yeah. Let’s go save Hallie and get the bastard.”

“Both of them,” Trees growled. “I’m coming with you.”

Zy scowled and sent a head bob in Laila’s direction. “You’re supposed to stay here.”

“One-Mile can come protect her for a few hours.”

“You’d leave her with that crazy SOB?”

“He didn’t hurt her in Mexico when he had the chance.”

“True. Then I’ll call him and tell him to get his ass out here.”