Stone turned to Tessa. “What’s so special about you that he kidnapped Drew to get you to come back? What does Rodriguez really want?”
Tessa froze.
All eyes turned toward her. Even the doc, who had just walked in with another bag of fluids, paused mid-step.
Frankie put her hand on Stone’s thigh, but he didn’t back off. “You’ve been tight-lipped about your Miami op from day one. You said you were working Rodriguez from the inside. But that doesn’t explain why he’d burn half his network just to get you and, when that didn’t work, kidnap Drew to get to you. This isn’t about cleaning up loose ends. Something much bigger is at stake.”
Tessa’s jaw clenched, and her gaze darted to Cross, then back to Stone.
Cross narrowed his eyes. “You’ve been dodging this question for weeks.”
Silence stretched out in the room.
Then finally, Tessa exhaled and said, “Fine. I’ll tell you the truth.”
CHAPTER 15
The buzzingfluorescent lights overhead in the hangar cast a harsh, sterile glare on the concrete floor. The place reeked of fuel, oil, and nerves. Drew sat on a metal folding chair, ankles still loosely bound, wrists red from earlier restraints. They hadn’t bothered tying her again—probably too confident she couldn’t outrun bullets.
Two of Rodriguez’s men leaned against the wall near the floor-to-ceiling doors, rifles slung casually over their shoulders like they were waiting for a delivery, not a jet sent by one of the most dangerous cartel leaders in the hemisphere.
Fuckin’ Rodriguez. The name curled in her gut like she’d eaten bad sushi. She still couldn’t get her brain around the whole thing. Why kidnap her? If Rodriguez was after Cross to get to Tessa, then why bother to kidnapher? Why not just shoot her too and leave her and Cross both in the river?”
She sucked in a breath and tried to banish the image of Cross floating in the river from her brain. She would not focus on that.He was not dead. No fucking way was he dead. She just couldn’t let herself believe that.
There had to be something more going on. Something she was unaware of. Some plot that made it necessary to haveleverage over Tessa. It should’ve been Cross, but that didn’t happen, so they’d taken her. Not that she thought Tessa cared about her at all or even knew of her existence outside of the fact that she was a woman Cross used to date. He must have at least mentioned that. So why was she leverage? Maybe she was just a body, and they thought Tessa wouldn’t let someone else get hurt because of her. But why? They couldn’t possibly have any use for Drew. Not when Tessa was the goal. It was all so confusing.
Across the hangar, Charlie paced. His movements were erratic—tight circles and abrupt stops, like his brain was running hot and his body couldn’t keep up. His lip was swollen, and it made him look meaner than he probably felt.
“You keep pacing like that and you’re gonna wear a hole in the concrete,” Drew muttered.
Charlie threw her a glare over his shoulder. “You try getting tased and dumped in a goddamn swamp, then tell me how Zen you’d be.”
“You brought that on yourself,” she shot back.
He didn’t argue. Just swiped a hand through his hair and sighed, as though the weight of his decisions finally sank in. “I told them where to find you. Figured I’d get paid and walk. But this? This ain’t what I signed up for.”
Drew narrowed her eyes. “You nervous?”
“Hell yes, I’m nervous.” He lowered his voice and leaned toward her. “Rodriguez doesn’t send private jets for the likes of you and me unless there’s something big going on. I sure as hell don’t wanna be anywhere near something big when it comes to the likes of Rodriguez.”
Her stomach clenched, but she kept her face blank. Charlie was not wrong. “So why not just pay you, kill me in the swamp, and call it a day?”
Charlie hesitated. That alone was answer enough. But then he spoke. “It’s not just about you. His girlfriend, whodisappeared a while back? Some people say she worked with the feds—DEA or ATF, no one’s sure. She vanished in Miami. And so did a major drug shipment. Ever since, Rodriguez’s operation has been unraveling. Trust gone, partners bailing. He’s looking for someone to blame… someone he can at least make an example of if he can’t get his drugs back. His people down in South America are pissed as hell at the lost shipment, and they want him to make it up or they’ll make an example of him.”
Drew sat there stunned. “She’s a cop?” she whispered.
Charlie nodded. “That’s the rumor, and that’s what makes the whole mess even more screwy. The drugs that went missing, no one knows where they are, and no arrests were made. All the shit happening to Rodriguez now has nothing to do with the cops.”
“Are you saying that Tessa’s a crooked cop?”
Charlie shrugged. “I ain’t saying anything. I’m just telling you what I heard. This Tessa woman made a huge shipment of drugs disappear, and now the world is looking for her, not just Rodriguez. The cops, too.” Charlie turned to Drew. “And somehow, you got caught in the middle.”
She bit her lip. “But that still doesn’t explain why he wants me alive.”
Charlie gave her a pointed look. “Maybe someone told him you knew something. Maybe someone told him you’d be good leverage. Or maybe he thinks that since she’s a cop, she won’t let someone die because of her. What the hell do I know?”
Her mind immediately jumped to Cross. He would date an ATF agent for sure, but would he be involved with a crooked one? She just couldn’t see it. And although she’d never met Tessa, she was pretty damn sure the woman wouldn’t be able to lie to Cross long term without him suspecting anything. Was he so in love that he wasn’t seeing things clearly? It didn’t track.
