by Anna Blakely
Travel. Food. Lodging. That shit wasn’t cheap.
“Everett had a separate savings account,” she explained. “One Anna didn’t know about. He’s been secretly putting money back for years with the plan of surprising Anna with a grand vacation for their fortieth wedding anniversary next year. He said he was going to take her to Paris. Instead, he gave me the money and told me to do whatever it took to find his daughter.”
Zade shook his head because he couldn’t imagine what those poor parents were going through. Or what it had been like for Gabby to be put in such an impossible position.
“Tell me about Grand Isle.” He changed the topic. His voice was steady, but damn if he didn’t feel as though he were standing on rocky ground.
A slight blush began crawling up her neck, and Gabby hugged herself again. The reason for the move was obvious.
She was trying to put a barrier between them. Protecting herself.
Yeah, we’ll have to work on that, sweetheart.
Because he was the last person she needed to hide from.
Gabby cleared her throat. “What about it?”
“Why were you there? Did you find a lead that took you to the island, or…” He let his voice trail off.
Biting her lip, a nervous habit he’d noticed right away, Gabby hesitated a couple of seconds before answering. “I had a lead that took me to New Orleans. A guy I knew, knew a guy who knew a guy…you know how it goes.”
Zade nodded.
“Anyway.” She waved it off. “Someone recognized Sam from the photo I had circulating throughout my contacts. Supposedly this person knew of a trafficking ring running girls from New Orleans to Mexico. Word got back to me, so I hopped the first flight I could get and went to the Big Easy to meet the guy.”
“And?”
“He never showed.” Gabby sighed and looked away. “I asked around. Looked all over the city for him. At first, no one seemed to know anything. I called my contact. He had the same issue finding the source. Said it was like the guy had vanished. Then I found out he’d been arrested on a breaking and entering charge and was being held at the city jail. I went there, but they weren’t allowing any visitors other than family. So that ended that.”
Zade’s gut churned at the thought of Gabby walking the streets of New Orleans alone. At least she was familiar with Chicago. Had grown up there.
New Orleans was a different beast altogether.
“Why go to Grand Isle?”
“To hide out.” Her eyes met his again. “I was angry and sad. I felt so hopeless.” She shook her head. “My funds were starting to run low, and the only real lead I’d come across had disappeared. The idea of going back to Chicago without Sam…” Gabby swallowed, breaking eye contact again. “I know it was a totally selfish move, but I couldn’t bear the thought of facing Everett. Of telling him that, after all he and Anna had done for me, I’d failed them. So I went to Grande Isle because I wanted a few days to think about something other than what Sam was probably going through. I wanted to feel something more than the desperation and sadness…the hopelessness that had consumed my soul.”
Gabby stared up at him, her emerald eyes swimming with unshed tears. “You did that for me, Zade,” she whispered softly. “You gave me exactly what I needed when I needed it, and I have never felt more passion or more joy than when I was in your arms. I’ll never forget that.”
A tear escaped, but she caught it before it could fall. She looked away from him again.
You need to stop doing that, baby.
“Hey.” Zade closed the distance between them. “Look at me.” When Gabby refused, he decided to help her along. With his thumb and forefinger at her chin, he gently lifted her head so she would face him once more. “If what you’re telling me is true”—she started to pull away at his words, but Zade finished before she got the chance—“and I believe that it is…then you have nothing to feel bad about.”
“I spent Everett’s entire savings, Zade. I chased my tail, following one lead to another and then another. I cashed in favors from people I never wanted to see, let alone talk to again, and for what?” Her voice cracked. “Samantha’s still missing, and I’m—”
“We’re going to find her, Gabby,” he vowed solemnly. “My team and I will stop Hector Andino, and we will do everything in our power to find Sam and bring her home.”
Another tear slid from the corner of her eye. This time, Zade was the one who caught it.
“I missed you.” He brushed his thumb across her smooth skin. He hadn’t meant to say those words out loud, but he didn’t regret telling her.
Gabby’s pupils widened, the green surrounding them becoming dark with arousal. “I missed you, too.”
“I have to ask.” Zade swallowed tightly. “Why did you sneak away?”
“Honestly?”
Zade nodded. “Of course.” He waited patiently for her answer.
After a moment’s hesitation, she said, “The time we spent together was…incredible. The best three days of my life.”
If his dick wasn’t already hard, those words would’ve made it stand up and cheer.
“But?”
Gabby sighed. “But when you asked me to come to Texas with you…I don’t know. It was like I got slammed with this enormous sense of guilt.”
“Guilt?”
Her eyes began to well again. “Sam was missing, and every piece of evidence I could find said she’d been taken by that sadistic prick, Andino. Yet there I was living it up with you on a beautiful island. Dancing and eating. Making love for hours on end.” She swiped at another stray tear. “When you asked me to come to Dallas, I wanted to say yes so badly. But the second you went into the bathroom to shower, it hit me.”
“What hit you?”
“How selfish I was being.”
“You weren’t being selfish, sweetheart.” He cupped her face. “You were being human.”
She shook her head. “What kind of person goes off to find their missing sister and decides to make a weekend of it with a handsome stranger?”
“Stop.” He stared down at her. “You already explained that. You were upset, and you didn’t know how to face Sam’s parents. Wanting to escape all that for a little while is perfectly normal, Gabby.”
“I know. I’m just explaining what was going through my head at the time.”
He wasn’t so sure that was the case but decided not to press the issue.
“And now?” Zade brushed some hair from her forehead and tucked it behind her ear. “What’s going on in your head, now?”
The green in her eyes darkened. Her luscious lips parted. “I—”
Someone knocked on the door, cutting her off.
As if the sound had broken the spell, Gabby stepped back, just out of his reach.
Damn it. “Stay here.”
Pulling his weapon from the back of his waistband, Zade moved silently across the room’s soft carpet. Looking through the peephole, he sighed, slipping the gun against this lower back where it had been before.
From over his shoulder he caught her eye and said, “It’s Gabe.”
All traces of the heat he’d seen mere seconds before had vanished, replaced by a cool, guarded expression.
That’s okay, baby. We’ll get there again, soon.
Releasing the chain guard and flipping the lock, Zade opened the door to greet his team leader.
“Hey, Dawson. What’s up?”
“Just checking in. Wanted to see how things were going with Miss Stevens.” The man’s eyes slid over Zade’s shoulder and back to Zade.
Things were about to go really fucking well until you knocked on the damn door.
“Good.” Zade stepped aside. “Come on in. You’re gonna want to hear what she has to say.”
“Should we call the others?”
“Yes, please,” Gabby answered for him.
Both men swung their heads in her direction.
She gave Gabe a pointed look. “It was bad enough going through
it all with Zade. I’d prefer to not have to repeat the same story over and over again.” As if she realized how short she sounded, Gabby cleared her throat before offering a softer, “If you don’t mind.”
Gabe looked at Zade, back to Gabby, and then back to Zade. “Okay, then. Send out a group text and get their asses in here. Sooner we figure out our next step, the sooner we stop Andino.”
Chapter 8
“So that’s it.” Gabby looked at the intimidating men staring back at her. “That’s everything.”
The entire Bravo Team was huddled around the suite. They’d all listened quietly as Gabby had repeated what she’d told Zade before they’d joined them.
In an attempt to avoid a bunch of questions afterward, she’d decided to share it all. The lead that had taken her to New Orleans, why she went to Grand Isle. All of it.
She’d even explained that her guilt is what drove her to run out on Zade the way she had. Thought maybe it would make her a little more likeable in their eyes.
If they liked her, they’d be more apt to help her.
“So let me get this straight,” Kole addressed Gabby directly. “You’re saying you and our boy, here, showing up at the same island at the same time, and then again in La Paz was nothing more than pure coincidence?”
Coincidence or fate. Take your pick.
“Yes.”
“And Shoemaker went to you for help. The guy entrusted you with his entire life’s savings, all because you spent some time in juvie and practically grew up on the streets?”
Rather than shrink back or look ashamed, Gabby kept her spine straight and her voice strong when she answered the suspicious operative. “Yes.”
“Gabby was his foster daughter, Kole,” Zade told his friend. “He had every reason to trust her.”
She slid Zade a look. Damn, he was adorable when he was being protective.
Still, he needed to know she could handle herself.
“Everett knew what my life was like before,” she spoke up in her own defense. “He studied human culture. The man understands better than most the way people like my mother and I lived.”
“People like you?” Kole stared over at her. “You mean homeless?”
“Kole.” Zade shot his friend a narrowed gaze. The warning in his tone was impossible to miss.
“It’s okay, Zade.” Gabby gave him a tight smile before bringing her gaze back to the suspicious man’s. “To answer your question, Kole, Yes. My mother and I were without a home for a stretch of time. A few times, actually. But I’m not only referring to the homeless. I’m talking about men and women who grow up with nothing and have to fight for everything. There’s a sort of…code, I guess you’d call it.”
“She’s right, Jameson.”
All eyes went to the man Zade had introduced as Nate. The supposed genius of the group explained further.
“The States are filled with hundreds of different cultures, including those who live in low-income areas or on the streets. They all have their own way of doing things. Their own hierarchy of power and control. A way they do business and their own way of handling their business.”
“Exactly.” Gabby nodded. She understood precisely what Nate was saying. “The two most valuable things to people who live on the street are trust and loyalty. If those two qualities aren’t there, a person’s out of that group before they ever had the chance to join. In many ways, life in that type of setting is actually a lot like it was when this country was first established.”
Matt looked genuinely curious. “Meaning?”
“Your word is your bond,” Gabby told him.
“And these people from your past,” Gabe joined in. “The ones who helped you find your leads on your sister’s whereabouts. They trusted you enough, even after all these years, to help you?”
Gabby looked him square in the eye. “Yes.”
“Why?” Kole spoke up again. Clearly, he was the one who would need to most convincing.
“Because when I knew them back in the day, I helped them.” Gabby shrugged. “They owed me.” When the men in the room shared a look, she quickly added, “It’s not what you’re thinking. When I was younger, I’d watch their kids while they looked for jobs. Or for those who were lucky enough to find one, I babysat while they worked. I didn’t charge them anything more than the occasional meal. I like kids, and it gave me something to do. Plus, my mom wasn’t around much.”
Babysitting also meant she didn’t have to spend her days all alone.
Refusing to look Zade’s way for fear she’d see pity in his eyes, she continued on, “As I got older and found myself moving around from this area to that, I had a tendency to gravitate toward the groups that were ‘in the know’, so to speak. I never got involved in their illegal dealings, though they sometimes asked me to. They never pushed, mainly because I helped them in other ways.”
Gabe studied her closely. “Like what?”
“I taught some of them how to read on the side. It helped them appear more intelligent to their…associates. Thankfully learning always came very easily to me.” A handy characteristic to have when you went from school to school because your mom couldn’t seem to stay in one place for more than a month or two.
The group was quiet as they processed what she was saying.
“My point in all this”—she summed it up for them—“is all the things I did for these people was all stuff that most people would consider simple or beneath them. But to those I helped along the way…those little things meant a lot.”
“So when you went to them for help, they were happy to do it,” Matt surmised.
“Exactly.” Gabby’s heart felt heavy. “I thought it was paying off, too. Until tonight. Now I know it was all for nothing.”
“Why do you say that?” Zade asked from his place beside her.
She met his gaze. “I was finally going to make contact with Hector Andino tonight. Then you guys showed up and”—she looked around the room—“here we are. I don’t know if he went to the club tonight, or if he’ll be there tomorrow. Either way, I’m pretty sure I’ve lost my chances with him.”
“Your chances with him?” Zade’s brows rose in a high arch.
Gabby had a feeling he wasn’t going to like this part. But a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, right?
“I…may have heard Andino has a thing for redheads.” She bit her lip as that little tidbit sank in.
It took all of two seconds.
“You were hoping to hook up with him?” Muttering a low curse, Zade shot up from the couch and swung around. He stared down at her with a look of shock and anger. “I thought you were going there to follow him or something.”
Yep. He’s pissed.
“I wasn’t trying to hook up with the sick bastard, but yes. I was hoping to catch his eye.”
“Catch his eye?” Zade looked down at her like she’d lost her damn mind.
At this point, she was beginning to think maybe she had.
Even so, Gabby refused to let him or anyone else make her feel bad for doing the only thing she could to try to save the woman she considered her sister.
Rising to her feet, she faced off with the very pissed off man. “Yes, Zade. I wanted to catch his eye. I thought maybe, if I could get close enough to him, I could find out more about his business. Overhear a conversation or see something that would lead me to where Sam is being held.”
“That’s actually not a bad idea,” Nate commented.
If looks could kill, the one Zade gave his friend in that moment would’ve been lethal. “Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“Just hear me out.” Nate held up a hand. He looked at her then back to Zade. “What if Gabby could get close to Andino?” When Zade started shaking his head before his friend had even finished the question, Nate added, “Not by herself. With you there, too.”
Wait, what?
Confused, Gabby looked over at Nate. “I don’t understand.”
The handsome tech guy explai
ned, “I’ve done a shit ton of reading on human trafficking, lately. Most of the buyers in this game are wealthy, middle-aged men. But sometimes it’s a woman. They’re either looking for a girl for themselves or a boyfriend or spouse, or a woman will act on a buyer’s behalf.”
“Like the middleman?” Matt asked.
“Exactly.” Nate nodded. “Oftentimes, those women meet with the seller ahead of the actual sale.” He looked over at Zade. “And they’re almost always accompanied by at least one bodyguard. If not more.”
Gabe was the next to speak. “So you’re saying we send Gabby in, posing as a buyer with Zade as her bodyguard?”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Nate answered his boss. “We can run the idea by Ghost tonight, see if his team has any objections. If not, I think it’s our best shot at getting close to Andino’s operation.” Nate’s eyes found Gabby’s. “That is, if you agree to it, of course. You don’t have to, by any means. Not gonna lie, it’s a dangerous assignment. I’m sure you’ll want to take a few minutes to think abou—”
“I’ll do it!” Gabby blurted, cutting him off.
“No.” Zade scowled at the others and then her. “No way.”
With her hands now resting on her narrow hips, Gabby glared up at him. “I don’t recall asking for your permission.”
Zade put his hands on his own hips and leaned in toward her. “This is not happening.”
Gabby refused to back down. “This is a chance to save Sam. This is also not your decision to make.”
A muscle in his jaw twitched as he clenched his teeth together. She expected him to yell or scream. Instead, Zade’s voice turned scary low.
Eyes still locked with hers, he said, “Give us the room.”
Much to her surprise—and a little to her dismay—the other men started moving toward the door without so much as a peep.
As they began filtering out of the room, Zade slowly made his way closer to her, not stopping until he’d closed the gap between them.
Needing him to understand, Gabby started talking the second they left.