12. Vaughn
12
VAUGHN
I asked Sage to give Hope a quick tour of the lodge, partly because she was genuinely interested to learn how we supported trafficking victims here at the ranch, but also because I needed to talk to Brandon and put a stop to the bullshit idea that we would allow my woman to hand herself over to the enemy.
I had two words for my teammate.
Fuck. That.
Brandon entered a code on the security panel, and we stepped inside the nerve center of his intelligence-gathering operations. The room was at odds with the rustic feel of the rest of the lodge. A dozen screens with live camera feeds from around the globe filled one wall. On the other side of the room was a large desk with laptops, tablets, and whatever gadgets an elite hacker required.
“Before you come at me”—Brandon closed the door behind us—“take a deep breath, and remember we’re on the same side.”
My jaw clenched. I didn’t want to be mad at Brandon, but he was enabling Hope’s plans, and that didn’t sit well with me. “ That’s easy for you to say. What if it were Sage volunteering to put herself in danger?”
“I’d probably be as worked up as you. But I’d listen to her, and if her argument was sound, then I’d respect her decision. You can’t let your emotions get caught up in this.”
“My emotions?” I let out an incredulous laugh and started pacing the room. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I’ve spent years not giving a shit about anyone. Fucking years , man. And then I finally find a woman who means something to me, who makes me feel something, and you expect me to just let her go? Just send her off to that pit of vipers without me? I might never get her back. She could be hurt or killed.” I spun to face Brandon. “So please tell me, how the fuck am I supposed to not get emotional?”
Brandon folded his arms across his chest and planted his feet wide. “You remember the objective of our entire operation. You look into the eyes of the victims recovering here and tell them why we haven’t stopped the assholes who keep hurting women just like them. And while you’re at it, think about the people in Hope’s village, who are running out of time before they meet their own version of hell. And if you really want to get deep about it, consider what this will mean to Hope. Because if you take this away from her, Brother, she’ll never look at you the same way again.”
I took one breath, then another as each of Brandon’s annoyingly valid points clawed at me more painfully than all the cuts that had marred my skin combined.
I propped my hands behind my head, clutched my hair, and let out a savage growl. “This is fucked-up.”
“I know.” Brandon nodded.
“If anything happens to her?—”
“I won’t let it. We won’t let it.” He gave me a meaningful look. “This will have the team’s full support. Everyone gets called in for this op. ”
That meant my brother Owen, Kane and his twin Wyatt, Shep, plus a bunch more guys we’d recruited over the last couple of years. It was a solid unit, the best I’d ever worked with. It didn’t make me any more comfortable about what Hope would have to do. I’d rather go through torture a thousand times over than send her to Espinoza.
I shook my head. “If the plan’s not a thousand percent solid?—”
“It will be.” He held up a palm to placate me. “And if it’s not, we won’t send her. You have my word.”
No op was foolproof. We did our best to mitigate the risks, but there was always an element of unknown.
Brandon leaned against the desk and crossed one ankle over the other. “You’re in love with her.” The bastard didn’t even have the decency to frame it as a question.
I rubbed at the ache beneath my ribs, at the place where I’d thought my heart had long since abandoned me.
Was that what this feeling was? Had I fallen in love with Hope? The realization both terrified and surprised me. Maybe it explained why even now, when I knew Hope was safe and under the same roof as me, she was still too far away. I craved her nearness like a goddamn toddler their security blanket. So how was I supposed to let her walk into the devil’s lair without my protection? She was more precious to me than anything.
I dragged my hands over my face before bracing them on my hips. “Things between Hope and me are…intense. It’s all happened so fast.”
“The moment I laid eyes on Sage, I knew she was it for me.” One side of Brandon’s lips tilted up as though he were remembering the first time they met. “Took a little longer for her to catch on.”
I scratched the stubble on my cheek. “Pretty sure Hope wanted to punch me in the face as soon as I opened my mouth. ”
Brandon made a poor effort of concealing his mirth. “Respectfully, Decker, everyone wants to punch you in the face as soon as you open your mouth.”
Fair point.
“I want you to check this out.” Brandon went to a cabinet and plucked something from it. “New tech from a contact. Specifically designed for a woman.” He came toward me with a small box.
I opened it and found two items. A black claw-style hair clip and a feminine silver belt buckle. “What am I looking at?”
He folded his arms. “The smallest GPS trackers on the planet.”
I picked up the clip and inspected it. It weighed a little more than expected but looked like a regular hair accessory. The buckle was just as impressive. How the heck had Brandon’s gadget person crammed GPS tech inside these things?
“Battery life?” I asked.
“They’re good for up to a month. They only send out a location ping every minute, so they use very little power.”
“GPS will only work aboveground, right?” I handed the items back to Brandon. “What if Hope is in a basement or a tunnel?”
“That’s why this tech is so smart. If it can’t connect to satellites to find a GPS signal, it’ll piggyback off a nearby cell phone to triangulate its location and transmit coordinates accurate to within a few meters. For example, if you’re underground and someone nearby has a phone, when that person goes topside and regains cell coverage, we get a notification with the GPS tracker’s location.”
I scratched the side of my head. “So these trackers are kind of like an AirTag in disguise?”
Brandon’s face deadpanned. “No, you tech buffoon. They’re much more sophisticated than those clunky discs.” He snapped the box closed and placed it on his desk. “With Hope wearing them, won’t you at least feel a little reassured?”
I frowned. “Not remotely. As soon as Espinoza has someone pick her up, we’ll have no control over what happens to her.”
“Her father won’t hurt her. He’ll be so shocked to find out she’s alive that I doubt he’ll think to question if she has an ulterior motive.”
“Maybe. But seeing him again will be triggering for Hope.”
“If she didn’t think she could handle it, she wouldn’t have put it on the table.” Brandon stepped toward me. “Brother, I know a strong, intelligent woman when I see one, and Hope is just as brave and determined as Sage. Believe me when I say that those things can’t be contained.” He exhaled a deep breath. “I get it. You can’t stand the idea of her safety being out of your control. But ask yourself this: If it were any other woman, would you be on board with the op?”
I grunted. “That’s not the point.”
“It’s exactly the point, and if you can’t get your head squared away, I’ll sideline you from the mission.”
“The fuck you will.”
What would I do? Sit around my cabin waiting for updates? Absolutely fucking not.
“Watch me.” Brandon held my stare to emphasize the seriousness of his intent. “You need to be okay with this op, or at least pretend like you are, for Hope’s sake.”
The door bleeped, and Sage and Hope walked in.
Hope’s eyes found mine, and she paused her approach. “Sorry. Are we interrupting?”
I held my hand out, and when Hope came to me, I wrapped my arm around her, tucking her against my side.
“No.” Brandon shook his head. “It’s good that you’re here. We were about to work out the details of the op.”
My boss gave me a look that warned me to keep my negative opinions to myself or he’d toss me in the brig until the mission was over. The cell, hidden in the basement of the lodge, was a relic from when the Wolf Street Mafia had owned the property, and I didn’t want to be the first of our team to test it out.
“Good,” Hope said. “I have some ideas, but go ahead and tell me what you’re thinking.”
Brandon sat against the edge of his desk again. “First of all, we need a plan for how to get your father’s attention.”
Sage perched herself beside Brandon. “The cartel could be arriving in Playa de la Palmera any moment now. Why don’t we do it there?”
“No,” I replied firmly. “That region is hot with narcos who want Hope dead. They might get trigger-happy before they realize she’s telling the truth about her identity.”
Hope gnawed on her bottom lip. “I suppose it’s a little too on the nose if I show up in Manzanillo. What if I surface in Acapulco, where Carlos lied about being?”
Brandon nodded. “It makes sense that you’d go there if you wanted to find your father, plus it’s where you spent your early years. Do you have any relatives there?”
“Carlos has a sister in Acapulco, but they’ve been estranged since I was a little girl. My uncle was murdered working for the PCC, and my aunt never forgave Carlos for putting her husband in danger. I doubt she’d have any way to contact him.”
“What if you show up somewhere public like a shopping mall or a hotel lobby?” Sage asked.
“Or a church?” Hope suggested. “There was one my family attended every Sunday. Father Bernardo—if he’s still alive—used to know everyone in our community. I bet he could get word to the cartel.”
“I like it,” Sage said. “And a church will be easier for us to monitor than a mall or hotel. Smaller space. Fewer people.”
Brandon stroked his jaw. “Your father sends men to get you. Since he’s thought you were dead for three years, it’s safe to assume he’ll want to see you, so they bring you to him—presumably at the compound—and then we’ve got him.”
Sage strummed her fingers on the desk. “Any suggestions for your cover story?”
“Why not go with a partial truth?” Hope shrugged. “I’ll tell Carlos I survived Alvarez’s attack, and when I recovered, I decided I wanted freedom from cartel life. That part is accurate. I just need to convince him that I’ve changed my mind and want to come home.”
Sage nodded. “It’s an easy story to keep straight.”
I grunted and glanced at the others. “You’re all trying to make this sound simple.”
Brandon adjusted his glasses. “We’ve carried out far more complex ops successfully.”
Again with the truth. Why did my teammate have to be so damn logical?
Hope leaned into me. “It’ll be okay. You told me a bunch of times that you guys are good at what you do. You weren’t lying, were you?”
Me and my big mouth. Why had I talked up the team’s skills so hard?
“He wasn’t bluffing,” added Sage. “If you have a rich, powerful asshole that needs taking care of, these are the men you want on your side.”
“Hope, are you absolutely sure you want to do this?” Brandon asked. “What you’re offering isn’t without risks. You can back out, and none of us will think any less of you.”
“I’m sure.” Hope made eye contact with Brandon and Sage, then finally aimed her look of steadfast determination at me. “I want to do this.”
Brandon rounded the desk to his computer workstation. I guessed he wasn’t wasting a moment in getting started. “We’ll handle it from here,” he said. “Why don’t you guys get some rest? After the rough day you’ve had, you’ll need it to be ready for tomorrow.”
I frowned. “Tomorrow?”
“Yeah.” He picked up his phone to tap out a message. “I’m calling the team in. We’re spinning up at eighteen hundred hours.”
I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Taking down Espinoza was priority one, but I wasn’t ready to let go of Hope so soon.
Fuck. One night. That was all we had left together before I had to deliver her to the jaws of the enemy.