Gone Too Far (Devlin & Falco #2) - Debra Webb Page 0,93

be free of him.

She would always belong to him because of what she took from him.

“No.” She shook her head, slapped the heel of her hand against the steering wheel. Carlos Osorio had never come after her. He didn’t care about her. He’d made sure she wouldn’t remember anything important. This was just another fragment of memory that likely was nothing more than a hallucination.

She had invaded his compound. Stolen his son’s heart and then taken his life. Yeah, she had taken something from him all right, but she’d lost plenty as well.

Was that why he had allowed her to live? He wanted her to suffer with those particular demons for the rest of her days?

Bastard.

Watch for the sign.

The air stalled in Sadie’s lungs as the voice rang out in her head, louder than the heavy metal band on the radio blaring in her ears.

There will be a sign when the time comes.

Was the girl . . . a sign?

Could the old bastard finally be coming for Sadie? After all this time?

She spotted the stopped truck a split second before she would have barreled into it. She cut right. Hard. Her Saab bounced off the shoulder of the road and into the ditch.

Her head banged into the driver’s window before the vehicle came to a jarring stop against a culvert. The airbag blew up in her face.

When she could move, Sadie smacked the deflated bag from her body. She coughed. Her chest would be sore as hell tomorrow. Rubbing at the side of her bruised head, she stared out the shattered windshield at her damaged front end.

“Idiot.”

She should have stopped somewhere after returning the truck and walked off the damn panic attack. She’d done it hundreds of times before. What had she been thinking?

“Damn it!”

She dug out her cell and called a wrecker. With one en route, she climbed from behind the wheel and propped against the wounded vehicle.

An Uber home would be the quickest way to get out of here. She could get another car to use until hers was fixed.

Right now, she really needed that damned drink.

Not true. What she needed was to know more about Alice Cortez and her family. She considered calling Falco, but Devlin would be the best source. And Devlin was far more desperate at the moment than Falco.

Sadie tapped the name in her contact list. Devlin answered on the second ring.

“Can you give me a ride?”

Sadie’s Loft

Sixth Avenue, Twenty-Seventh Street

Birmingham, 2:40 p.m.

Sadie pointed to a grainy photo she had printed from the internet. “This is the image a sketch artist did right after I came back. That’s what I could recall of the girl, Isabella.”

Devlin stared at the wall of notes Sadie had made. Pieces of memories. Fragments of time. “She could be Alice,” Devlin said. “No question.”

“The voice is right.” Sadie shrugged. “More mature, but right.”

Devlin shook her head. “I can’t believe you got into Brighton Academy so easily. Geez. What am I paying for?”

“Good question,” Sadie concurred. “I was able to watch her for a few minutes—the girl, I mean. She did this little twirl around like a ballerina. I saw Isabella do it a hundred times.”

“Most girls want to be a ballerina at one time or another in their lives,” Devlin countered.

“Yeah, yeah.” Sadie didn’t have kids. She knew nothing of what little girls did or wanted.

“Walk me through what you actually remember,” Devlin said.

Sadie grabbed her mug of coffee from the table and stalked toward the sofa. “I was assigned to the task force in July. By September I was in tight with the son, Eduardo—Eddie to his friends. By October I was living at the compound. By Christmas we were engaged.”

The other part Sadie had long ago decided she wouldn’t talk about. To anyone. Her father knew because the doctors had told him there were indications Sadie had given birth a few months prior. She’d never told anyone else.

“Were you able to pass along usable intelligence while you were undercover?”

Sadie downed a hefty swallow of coffee. “I did. Not as much as I would have liked but more than anyone else had ever managed before. I was the first undercover to get inside the compound. It took getting really close to the family. Digging in deep.”

“I imagine it was difficult to play the part so completely.”

“I don’t know.” Sadie stared at her half-empty cup. “Part of me became my cover. It’s the only way to make it real. You pull on that skin and become the person you’re