Chapter 24
I've been out here on the balcony of the hotel room since five in my dress pants and white t-shirt.
The mountain air at this hour is the kind of cold that clears everything. No fog. No noise. Just the dark outline of the ranges and the first pale suggestion of light bleeding along their edges.
My coffee went cold twenty minutes ago.
I don’t need the caffeine this morning. I woke up edgy. Ready for a fight.
I slide out my cell and dial David’s number. Time to see what he’s found, poor bastard. He might be regretting being so amiable when I first asked him on this special project.
David picks up on the second ring. "I was about to call you."
"Sounds promising.”
The clicking of his keyboard fills the line. I brace against the railing, staring out at the view while he pulls up whatever he's found.
"I've been tracking Rourke,” David says. "He drives the swapped plate vehicle as his regular vehicle. My tracking suggests he moves mostly between Iron Covenant, the strip club owned by his president, Marcus Cross, and several residential locations around Sacramento."
“Have you had any visual confirmation of the women?"
"I pulled CCTV from the strip club parking lot — there's a neighboring business that covers both lots. And yes, I got visuals on both Beatriz and Isabel exiting the club, but not together. Same day, hours apart. Both got into Rourke's vehicle separately, at different times."
I dread what’s next. Separating the women is a tactic I’ve seen before, and it’s one used in premeditated trafficking operations.
I try to stop my mind from predicting David’s next words, but this isn’t the first time GhostEye has cracked down on human trafficking.
And let’s face it, criminals aren’t that innovative.
I feel the slow creep of dread up my spine as David reveals his next piece of information.
"I was able to trace the vehicle of one of the women to a specific residence. The CCTV from a convenience store nearby has the entrances and exits of said residence covered. I saw him taking Beatriz into the property." David pauses. "But Isabel–"
She never went there. I fucking know it before he says, but I let him continue with futile hope that I’m wrong.
“Extrapolating the time Isabel should have arrived at the house based on Beatriz’s arrival.” He hesitates and sighs roughly. “Isabel isn’t in the same location where Beatriz is being held.”
My chest tightens at those two words. Being held.
“Those are choice words, David.”
“Rio,” his voice is tight, “I’ve gone through all the surveillance material we have and she hasn’t come back out of the residence at all.”
My blood goes cold.
She could be held there.
She could be buried there.
I have to believe the former. Human cargo isn’t profitable if it’s not working.
But also, a huge problem is the professional layout.
Separate locations already means a coordinated extraction of victims. Raid one house, and whoever's watching the other moves the women before you can get anywhere near them unless both are hit at the same time.
It makes taking down operations a lot harder, often time-consuming.
Criminals know that.
“So you haven’t been able to trace Isabel to a location?”
“Sorry. Not yet.”
"Keep digging," I say. “There’s at least one other location. We need to find it.”
"I'm on it."
"And David—" I pause. "Don't contact the authorities. Not yet."
"Really?”
“Iron Covenant has local authorities in the pocket. Any tip-offs compromise the victims.”
Every instinct I have says to call it in right now. Beatriz is in a house in Sacramento, being held against her will. Every hour we wait is an hour that something worse could happen to her. Every hour is an hour closer to her being moved, sold, gone.
But Marcus Cross has people in that jurisdiction. Even without Delilah telling me that first day in my office, I know it. And David knows it, too.
One call to the wrong cop and Beatriz disappears before anyone gets near her. And then Isabel — wherever the hell she is — becomes completely unreachable.
If Iron Covenant has been smart enough to have multiple locations, this operation might not be new. It could be well established. There could be more women we don’t even know about.
I have to let David handle that.
Right now, we know for certain that Isabel and Beatriz are victims.
And the only move that saves both of them is finding them both first. We’d need to move on both locations at the same time with clean law enforcement. No leaks. No warnings. No cop with Marcus's number in his phone making a quiet call before we get there.
I don’t have to say all that. David understands.
"I'll have more by this afternoon," he says. “Just gonna grab a few hours of shuteye then I’m back at it.”
“Course. Thanks, David.”
I hang up and stand there with the phone in my hand and the cold settling back around me.
The balcony door slides open behind me.
Delilah stands in the doorway in my black dress shirt from last night, hair still sleep-messy, bare feet on the cold tile. For a second, we gaze at each other. The morning after sits between us — not uncomfortable exactly, just aware.
"Hey," I say.
"Hey." She wraps her arms around herself against the cold and steps out, leaning back on the wall. "Was that David?"
"Yeah."
She looks out at the mountains. “Why do I feel like it isn’t good news?”
"He found Beatriz,” I say.
Her green eyes light up. “Where is she? Can you get her–”
I cut her off. “He hasn’t had a confirmation on Isabel. And this means they aren’t being held together.
Her eyebrows knit.
I keep my voice level. “If we try to get Beatriz now, it could send out an alert to move Isabel and we’ll be at square one. So I’m afraid it’s not as simple as storming the castle.”
Not to mention, we have no warrant.
“And even when we find Isabel, because your dad has law enforcement in the pocket up there, we need to build something that involves the Feds instead.”
She absorbs that slowly. “Do you think this is a big enough operation for them to care?”
I nod. “David's still digging, but I've been through trafficking cases before at GhostEye. The structure with multiple locations? It could be bigger than just Beatriz and Isabel. Possibly more women are being held. You said there are more coming.”
She goes very still, it’s almost like she’s stopped breathing. She whispers. “I swear, I only spoke to two.”
“Don’t go there, Princess.”
There is no way in hell she needs to justify herself to me. Or fucking anybody.
My phone buzzes in my pocket.
I ignore it.
It buzzes again.
She glances at me. "You going to get that?"
I don’t want to because David doesn’t work that fast so, at this hour, and given the situation I’m in, it can only be one other person.
I pull my cell out.
Enzo's name fills the screen.
Zo
Hermano. Why does a mid-level analyst suddenly have full system access? I'm looking at a flag that went up. Call me when you have a minute.
"What is it?" she asks.
"Enzo," I say. "He found out I gave David full system access."
She crosses her arms. "That's bad."
"Yeah." My admission surprises me.
But despite Delilah and me being impossible, the truth comes out easily with her.
"What are you going to tell him?"
“The truth,” I say.
She looks at me for a moment, and she offers a soft smile.
"I like that about you," she says quietly, her fingertips bracing against the wall. “You’re either silent or honest.”
I drink in the sight of her — standing in my shirt, wild, raven hair and eyes like a black panther.
We’re fucking twin flames; only a woman like her could put up with the way I roll.
I never thought I’d be able to fall for someone again. The combination of Mariana’s death and my mom’s death happening in succession stabbed my heart to shreds. I didn’t think I had a heart left until Delilah walked into my life.
She’s young and deserves the life she wants. Freedom. Choice. She doesn’t need another man weighing her down wherever she’s going, and I’m not so sure I’m coming out of this without baggage.
Something in the way she stares at me tells me we’re thinking the same thing.
It doesn’t end with us together, but last night? Damn did it feel like the ending was supposed to be different.
Even though I shouldn’t, I close the distance between us and pull her into my arms. The mountains are in front of us. Her breath warms my skin right through the cotton of my t-shirt. I hold her and foolishly imagine what it would be like for it to end like this instead.
"At least Beatriz was found," she says quietly. "But how is David going to find Isabel?”
"The bad news about Enzo's text," I say, "is that I have to tell him about everything going on.”
She mumbles against my chest. “What’s the good news?”
"The good news is that now he’ll be in." I stare at the landscape. "Enzo and Ava. They've been on the sidelines of this whole thing, and now they’ll be in the arena.”
She draws a circle on my chest. "What's the difference? Doesn't David have the same tools?"
I laugh humorlessly. "Nobody has the same tools as Ava and Enzo."