Wicked and True (Wicked & Devoted 4)

“Tell him to hurry,” Tessa insisted. She needed her baby almost more than she needed to breathe. And she was desperate to get over to this address before the men moved—and took her daughter with them. “We need him.”

Zy nodded. “You got it.”

Zy glanced at Tessa, who looked tense and withdrawn in the passenger’s seat of her little sedan. As they sped to Hector Johnson’s place, he wished like hell they could clear the air now. But she wasn’t in a good headspace, and he was at least half to blame for that.

Why hadn’t he shut the fuck up in the bunker when he’d had the chance?

The only good thing he’d done this morning was drop Hunter a text to tell him Tessa’s double cross wasn’t at all responsible for Kimber’s abduction and that he needed a few more hours. After that, he’d explain everything.

“Baby, I know you’re worried.” Zy was, too…but he didn’t want to say that. Even if he didn’t share Hallie’s blood, that was his little girl, damn it. He knew how ruthless cartels could be. He’d seen the human carnage they left behind firsthand. It fucking killed him to think of that baby in their clutches. “But—”

“How can I not be?”

“If Hallie isn’t at this location, we’ll keep looking. We’ll find her. I’m not giving up.”

“We’re running out of time.” Her voice broke with worry—and broke his heart. “Hector Johnson supposedly lives at this address, but what if he’s not there now? Or at all anymore?”

“Cash is. We can physically place him there. He knows something, guaranteed. It’s not a coincidence he’s at the very address of the man who accosted you in the parking lot. And if that’s a dead end, we’ll find Aspen. She’s somehow involved. She can’t be too hard to track down. And she didn’t come across as too tough…or too smart. Believe me, I’ll do everything in my power to bring Hallie back.”

And if he was too late, he would cause every motherfucker who’d had a hand in hurting their baby girl ten times the pain before he ended each one. Not only to rain Hallie’s vengeance down on them but to prove to Tessa that he would always be here for her. She didn’t believe that now, and if he could take back the hurt he’d caused her in the last few hours, he would. But regrets were like assholes; everyone had one. Lamenting what he couldn’t change was pointless. He could only try to move forward from here.

Tessa gathered her knees to her chest, eyes filling with tears. “I’m scared.”

She didn’t mean for her own safety. The fact she’d insisted on coming along, even though Trees had decided to join this operation, told Zy she wasn’t giving a thought about her well-being. She only cared about Hallie’s. Zy was both awed and terrified of the lengths she’d go to in order to save her daughter.

He took Tessa’s hand in his. “We have a plan. Hector and Cash have no idea we’re coming. We’ll surprise them. If Hallie is there, I will die before I let anything happen to her.”

“Zy…”

She thought he was full of BS and hyperbole, but he straight-up meant that. “I’m going to make it better, whatever I have to do.”

Tessa bit at her lip but didn’t respond.

Maybe she believed him. Maybe she didn’t. That wasn’t where he needed to focus now. Time to get his head in this op or there would be casualties…and not just among the enemy.

Zy glanced in the rearview mirror. Trees followed in his Hummer. When they neared Johnson’s neighborhood, Trees would take the lead since neither Hector nor Cash had ever seen him, cruise by the house, then report back on activity. From there, they’d finish formulating their plan of attack.

“Seriously,” Zy told Tessa. “Trees isn’t going to let this go, either.”

He had a vendetta to settle, and he was out for blood.

“Trees definitely seems ready to avenge Laila’s honor or whatever.”

Zy shrugged like he couldn’t explain it, but he could. If Trees had stepped over the corporate line to take the skittish woman to bed—Zy still wasn’t sure how that had happened—then Trees was feeling something more than passing lust. The man lived by a rigid code of right and wrong. He would only violate that for a cause he considered more important than rule and more sacred than order.

“He’s a protector.” That was a safe answer.

“You all are. But for him this situation is more.”

Tessa was definitely observant. “Yeah.”

“When did Laila get here? How?”

Zy hadn’t been honest with her about the retrieval mission when it had gone down, but he had no reason not to explain now. He gave her the short version. If they made it through this confrontation, he’d answer whatever questions she had. If not…it wouldn’t matter.