“Isshe-“
“We don’t know,” he answered gruffly. “Rico should have checked in by now, but that doesn’t mean anything. They could have run into some trouble and had to go intohiding.”
There was that giant ‘but’ again. “Does that happen veryoften?”
“Sometimes,” he hedged. Cole turned slightly behind her, speaking over his shoulder. “Carter, toss me a water andnapkin.”
A few seconds later, Cole propped her up against the side of the car and wiped off her face. Then he uncapped the bottle and held it to her lips. Too weak to move on her own, Tomi gratefully accepted hisassistance.
“Okay?” He gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and leaned down, dipping his chin to look at her with a concernedgaze.
“Yeah,” she said breathlessly. “I thinkso.”
Tears rushed to her eyes immediately contradicting her words. Cole brushed a tender thumb across her cheek. “She’ll be alright, baby. Rico is one of our best. He’ll move heaven and hell to get the jobdone.”
“But Luis’s guy was already withher.”
“What do you mean?” He askedgently.
Tomi sucked in a breath, fighting the rising sob. “At the auction, he taunted me with pictures of her hanging out with one of his men. He was pretending to like Carrie just to stay close. He said it was insurance to make sure I did what hewanted.”
Cole stiffened, his dark gaze locking onto her. “What did hewant?”
“For me to kill theFrenchman.”
30
The night airimploded on him. Luis had been planning to use her all along to kill the Frenchman. So, when Cole bought her, he really had fucked Luis’s plans. No matter if Luis was a mid-level employee on El Oscuro’s deck, the fucker worked with the cartel, which equaled seriousbloodshed.
Cole grabbed Tomi’s hips, lifted her and carefully placed her in the backseat. Then he ran around to his door and climbed in, slapping Clint’s seat. “Go.”
Clint floored it and they accelerated onto the highway. “Carter, call Rico. Luis has a man onCarrie.”
“Cole?” Tomi’s lip trembled and she looked ready to fall apart right there in the backseat.
His protective instincts rose and he didn’t question them, he hooked her waist and pulled her into his lap, shoving her head down to his shoulder. “It’s okay, baby girl. We’ll findher.”
Carter slammed his phone down. “Noanswer.”
“Shit.” Clint sped up. “What’s goingon?”
Cole stroked Tomi’s hair, trying to sooth her panic. She shook so hard her breaths trembled. Fuck. His every instinct was to shield her in his arms, order Clint to turn this vehicle around and get them as far away from the mission as possible. “Clint, we needto–“
“No can do, bro. We got a tail.” Clint shifted his head to the rearview with intent, both hands on the wheel. “Government.”
“Freaking Stahl couldn’t stay the hell away, could he?” Carter shoved his head against the back of hisseat.
“Clint, we need to lose them. Luis was using Carrie against Tomi. He’d ordered her to kill theFrenchman.”
“The hell you say?” Clint looked back atthem.
Cole met his brother’s pissed off stare head-on. No matter how much Cole longed to keep Tomi all to himself, he knew his brother’s cared for her. “No way the attack at the warehouse wasn’t Luis trying to get his ace in the hole into the Frenchman’s circle. We totally screwed his plans. He’ll be gunning for Tomi. Not just because she knows about his human trafficking, but because she knows about his plans to double-cross hisfriends.”
Carter tapped Clint on the shoulder. “We’ve got anotherone.”
Cole glanced back in time to see a second SUV appear behind them. “Shit.” Out here, on the highway with no buildings or trees to hide in, there would be no losing this tail. “Stahl’s playing us close. He must know something wedon’t.”
A tingle of unease climbed up his neck. They’d made a plan – an agreement – Stahl was supposed to be getting his team set up at the hideout on a secondary perimeter. Cole’s team would be forming the inner perimeter. He would escort the bait.Tomi.
