Wicked and True (Wicked & Devoted 4)

Raking a hand across his short stubble, Zy sighed. “I fucking don’t like this. And you don’t have any idea who he was?”

She shook her head. “I’ve never seen him before. He didn’t look familiar to you?”

“Nope. I’ll ask One-Mile if he’s seen anyone hanging around lately and look at the security cameras to see if we caught a better angle of him. In the meantime, you shouldn’t walk to and from your car alone.”

That was no problem. She didn’t want to. “So what do we do now?”

“Carry on with our day, I guess. We have a shitload to accomplish. Let’s start by making some phone calls and seeing if there’s been any progress on the Kimber front. And I’ll take a look at the security cameras and let you know if this guy looks familiar. And until we know who he is or what he wants, I won’t let you out of my sight.”

Tessa exhaled in relief. She always felt safer with Zy. “Promise?”

He glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then reached for her hand. “Baby, I’m not going anywhere.”

After another long day at the office, full of one frustration and dead end after another, it was nearly time to quit. Tessa had gathered her things, and Zy was following her to her car when his phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket. Hunter.

Shit.

“It’s the boss. I should take this,” he told her as he scanned the area around her car, finding it clear. Only One-Mile’s Jeep and his bike were in the vicinity.

It bugged the hell out of him that someone had accosted Tessa in the parking lot. It bothered him even more that the stranger knew so much, including where to stand to avoid their parking lot cameras capturing a full-frontal shot of his face. But Zy would have to unpack that later.

“I can wait for a few minutes.”

“Go get Hallie. I’ll watch you walk to your car.”

“Okay. I’ll go home and start dinner. If you can eat with us, come on over.”

“I’ll let you know.” He watched Tessa make her way to her vehicle as he answered the call. “Garrett.”

“Hey.”

In that one syllable, Zy heard his boss’s exhaustion and worry. “How are you doing? Anything new?”

“No. Whoever has my sister grabbed her from the parking lot at the grocery store. It looks like they followed her there, pulled up beside her in a van, and grabbed her as she stepped out of her SUV. The plates are registered to a stolen truck in Texas, so we have nowhere to go from there. They tossed her purse into her front seat, phone and all, like they knew Deke would trace her to the store and find a dead end. No prints on anything. The only sign of Kimber since is that fucking picture with a gun to her head and a demand to know Valeria Montilla’s location.”

“I’m sorry, man. Tell me how I can help.”

“Nothing you can do. Whoever has my sister seems to have a sixth sense about who we’ll call and where we’ll look next. It’s fucking frustrating.”

Zy smiled at Tessa when she got into her little sedan safely and drove away with a wave. “If you think of something I can do—”

“Make progress on finding our mole. Anything new?”

Renewing the argument that neither Trees nor Tessa would sell them out would fall on deaf ears. “I’m working on it. I need more than a day.”

Hunter sighed again. “Yeah, but we don’t have a lot of time. Hear anything new from Trees? He tried to call me earlier. I missed it.”

“I talked to him this morning. Last I heard, he and Kane had come up with a plan to separate. They’ll each bring one of the sisters to Louisiana because anyone looking for Valeria is probably looking for two women with a toddler, so changing the optics should help.”

“If that’s the plan, then tell Kane that he takes Valeria and no communicating with Trees about location. End of conversation.”

Because, according to Hunter, Trees might still be guilty. Ugh… “Okay. But they’re having trouble connecting with Laila. She’s reluctant to leave the shelter, and Valeria refuses to leave the state without her son.”

“It’s a shitty fucking time to get stubborn, but it’s her kid. I get it.”

Zy knew Hunter meant that. He would do anything for his son, Phoenix.

“I know what my assignment is.” Even if it was bullshit. “Anything you want me to get One-Mile working on?”

“Not yet. Until we know who the fuck we’re dealing with, there’s no one to shoot. But tell him to stay ready. If this is going where I fear, he may be taking another trip to Mexico.”

No surprise there. “You got it.”

Zy almost told Hunter about the asshole in the parking lot, but his boss didn’t need more on his plate. He’d already tasked One-Mile with helping to track down Tessa’s stranger. If Hunter needed the sniper’s services to rescue Kimber, Zy would have him back-burner this mess. But he didn’t like this thug threatening and rattling Tessa.