Wicked and True (Wicked & Devoted 4)

“Laila is only valuable to them if she leads to me.” Valeria frowned. “You understand that, no? And she has been hurt too many times by the people in my life. Convincing her and my mother to come stay with me for the summer shortly after I married was the worst mistake of all. My husband took them prisoner to keep me in line. The cartel…they hurt her. Very much. Her life would have been better if I had not begged her to come. So as much as I love my sister, maybe she should not come here.”

He’d have to see how the bosses felt about that. “We’ll take that under advisement. But our immediate goal is to keep you and your loved ones safe, especially after the difficulties you’ve had for the past few months.”

“I appreciate that you are trying, but I am disappointed. I enjoyed my house in St. Louis. I had never seen snow or known winter until I lived there. I loved it. I felt safe, unlike in Florida. I had a feeling almost immediately that we were being watched. Mr. Edgington assured me that was not possible.” She snorted, and he heard bitterness in the sound. “But I was never safe there. Neither was my son. Do you have any children?”

“No.” Though he hoped Hallie would see him as a father figure someday.

“Then you do not know what it does to a mother to fear for her child’s safety or the lengths she will go to in order to protect her little one.”

Valeria was right, and he could hardly blame her for worrying about her son after the difficult life she and her sister had endured at the hands of the Tierra Caliente cartel. “I don’t.”

“Someday you might. I am sure the same is true of all fathers.” Her face softened with empathy. “And siblings. My heart goes out to the Edgingtons. I hate to imagine what they are going through.”

Zy whipped his stare to Valeria. She could only know that if Kane was blabbing. Goddamn it, Valeria didn’t need to know about this. It would only make her wonder if the protectors she’d hired would sell her out for Kimber’s return. But Hunter, Logan, and Joaquin were busy, so he intended to have a chat with the new guy.

For now, he pasted on a smile. “Don’t worry. They’ve got everything under control, and I’m sure the recent chaos and your displacement is temporary. We’ll find you a new location and a new identity so you can start over soon.”

“I would like that as well.” She sent him an acidic smile. “But clearly my old life is not yet ready to let me begin a new one. Excuse me.”

With that, she disappeared into the back bedroom and shut the door, leaving Zy alone with a couple of hours to stew.

He checked all the locks and wasn’t surprised that Cutter’s place was shipshape. One-Mile often called the guy a Boy Scout, as if that was an insult, but Bryant had always seemed prepared.

While he waited, he texted Tessa but got no reply. She should still be at the office. Maybe she was busy? Doing what, he couldn’t imagine, but it was possible one of the bosses had called and given her something urgent. He’d figure it out when he got back.

At four thirty, he gave Kane a wake-up call. The guy returned a few minutes later still looking bleary-eyed, but at least he now had some gas in his tank. Unfortunately, Zy couldn’t take the time to get on him about opening his big mouth to clients. He wanted to catch Tessa before she went home, and he had to lock up the office.

Zy headed out, stopping by his place to drop off the engagement ring and finally grab some damn food. Then he raced back to the office, arriving a little after five.

Tessa was already gone, damn it. But One-Mile was still around.

“Hey,” Zy called to the sniper as he walked through the door. “Anything new?”

“Not that I know of. But I took a long lunch.” He flashed a cocky grin. “I got back about three. Tessa headed out shortly after that. Said she had a headache. But, um…”

“What?” There was something One-Mile wasn’t saying.

“I don’t know how many headaches make a woman cry and look at her phone every thirty seconds.”

He’d never heard of that kind of headache, either. Something had upset Tessa. Was her stepmother giving her shit again? Had Cash come back and threatened her? Whatever it was, she hadn’t wanted to talk about it, and Zy didn’t like that. “Fuck.”

“Do you know what’s up with her? She says you two didn’t fight.”

“We didn’t.”

Walker shrugged. “Then I don’t know, man, but I would address that head-on ASAP.”

Zy intended to. “Yeah. I’m out. You leaving?”