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.”
“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