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  But if she didn’t, Hamilton was almost certainly dead.

  So no matter how he sliced it, this thing was a shit sandwich.

  ****

  Victoria choked back tears as she rushed down the hall to the stairwell and ran the three flights to the floor where Oceane’s room was. Her friend hadn’t answered her phone when Victoria had called a few minutes ago.

  The hallway was empty. She was out of breath, trembling as she knocked on the door. Seconds passed. She knocked again, hard enough to hurt her knuckles. “Oceane. Open up.”

  No answer.

  “Dammit.” Where was she? At this time of night Oceane was usually curled up in bed either reading or watching TV.

  She couldn’t believe Brock had been taken hostage, let alone by Nieto. When she thought of what he must be enduring right now at the hands of those animals Nieto and the others used as sicarios…

  Violent, vivid images bombarded her. Memories of what had been done to her and the other girls during her captivity. The way her family had been massacred. The countless other Veneno victims she had seen photographs of during her research for her books.

  “Oh, God, Brock,” she whispered, her shoulders hitching as her voice crumbled. She couldn’t bear it. Couldn’t stand to think of him being tortured and eventually killed, and it was worse that she knew exactly what that kind of fear and pain felt like.

  He owned her, heart, soul and body. Leaving him behind when she flew out of D.C. tomorrow was unbearable enough, but this? Leaving when he was in peril and she would never know what had happened to him?

  Her stomach pitched. The muscles beneath her jaw tightened, saliva pooling in her mouth. She sank to the floor and swallowed repeatedly, willing the nausea to pass. Think, Victoria, think.

  If Nieto had taken him, then it meant he planned to use Brock for something. Torturing and killing him as a fuck you to the DEA and the rest of the government proved nothing. He wanted something. He wanted—

  His daughter.

  Victoria put a hand to her mouth. “Oh, no.” Gabe’s message was now all too clear. She had to find Oceane, explain what had happened and then…

  God, it was so selfish of her, but she wanted Oceane to do whatever it was they asked. What kind of horrible human being was she, to want her friend to endanger herself for Brock?

  But I love him.

  A tear slipped down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away with the side of her hand and stood, intending to call one of the marshals on her security detail. Her thumb was poised above the button when her phone buzzed in her hand.

  The marshal she’d been about to call. “Hey, I was just—”

  “Where are you?”

  “On my way back from Oceane’s room.”

  “Commander Taggart has called a remote emergency meeting. They want you in the third-floor conference room in five minutes.”

  Her stomach sank like a brick. She stopped, set her free hand on the wall to hold her up. Because if Taggart was calling them together to announce that Brock was dead… “Is Brock dead?” She could barely force the words out of her tight throat.

  “No.” He paused, and she could breathe again. “I hadn’t realized you’d heard about him already.”

  She ignored the second part and hurried for the elevator, praying Nieto hadn’t hurt Brock. She would do anything to save him. “Meet you at the conference room in five.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “What’s happened? Something about my father?” Oceane asked as one of the marshals assigned to her security detail hustled her down the hall to the conference room. He’d tracked her down in the WITSEC Safesite library where she’d been looking for a book.

  “Yes.”

  Her stomach knotted. What had he done now? “Why does Commander Taggart want to talk to me?”

  “There’s a situation unfolding,” was all he said, and opened the door for her.

  DEA and WITSEC officials filled the room. Across the long, rectangular table in the center of the room, she spotted Victoria. Her friend looked up at her, face pale, her dark eyes haunted.

  The knots pulled tighter. What the hell was happening? She headed straight for the table, concerned for her friend. “Are you all right?”

  “Honestly?” Victoria shook her head. “No. Brock’s been taken hostage.”

  Oceane gasped and stopped in her tracks. “How is that even possible?”

  “FAST Bravo is in Veracruz to help with an op. He was taken there.”

  No. “When?”

  “A few hours ago.”

  She swallowed, her pulse thudding in her throat. “My father is behind it?”

  The pity on Victoria’s face gave her the answer.

  “No. Damn it, no!” Why was he doing this? She spun to face the officials at the far end of the room just as Taggart’s face appeared on the large screen mounted on the wall.

  “Commander,” one of the DEA agents said. “We’re all here, including Miss Nieto and Miss Gomez.”

  Oceane scowled. She couldn’t wait until WITSEC gave her a new surname. She hated being affiliated with her father even on that level.

  Needing the support of a friend, she rounded the table and sat beside Victoria. The other woman reached for her hand, held on tight as the meeting began. Oceane fought tears of rage and frustration as she listened to what had happened, and how her father had claimed responsibility before making his outrageous demand. The threat was clear: bring her to him, or Hamilton would die.

  Although he would likely die no matter what they did. That was how monsters like her father operated.

  As she listened to the possible responses and actions being discussed in the room, all the betrayal rushed back. All the pain and despair. The grief she was still trying to figure out how to deal with.

  She had been chased from her home by her father’s rivals because he had wanted to take over Ruiz’s territory and claim his place within the cartel. When she had fled as she had been taught, choosing to come to the U.S., he had done everything in his power to drag her back to Mexico—even going so far as to have the tracker planted on her.

  Then the worst of all. After his attempts to locate and bring them home failed, her mother had been brutally raped and murdered.

  Oceane couldn’t grasp it. Still refused to believe that her father had ordered the murder. He was an accomplished liar, yes. But he had loved her mother. No matter what other lies he had told her or hidden by omission, Oceane was sure of that much.

  She had seen them together many times, though not often as an adult. After she graduated high school he had become an absentee parent, seeing her only rarely, maybe once or twice a year. But without a doubt, her parents had loved each other, no matter how screwed up or unconventional their relationship was.

  Evil as her father was, she couldn’t accept that he would order the murder of the woman he’d loved for nearly three decades.

  But now this. Taking the FAST Bravo team leader hostage to force the American government to turn her over to him. He was clearly desperate or crazy. Or both.

  She struggled to get out of her head and listen to what was being said now. They were talking about flying her down to Mexico tonight, to assist in the case going forward. The thought of stepping foot on Mexican soil again scared the hell out of her.

  The U.S. government had kept her here under 24/7 protection because of the reward her father had offered for her capture and safe return to him, and in case they needed her help with the investigation on her father or Montoya. Now the time had come.

  She wasn’t stupid. They wanted to use her as a lure to draw her father out. This wasn’t even about saving Hamilton. For Commander Taggart and Victoria it was, but for the DEA and FBI, involving Oceane was part of the bigger picture. To get her father.

  In a lull between suggestions that ranged from the ridiculous to the impossible, Commander Taggart stopped and spoke to her directly. “Do you have anything to add, Miss Nieto?”

  “Oceane,” she correc
ted, hating that damn name. “I’ve been in the U.S. for too long. He’d never trust me now, even if I showed up on his doorstep pretending I wanted to reconcile.” Which she didn’t. She would sooner shoot him in his lying face, spit on him, then tell him what she truly thought of him before walking away and leaving him to die on the floor.

  “We’re not suggesting you actually meet him.”

  She didn’t see any other way to pull this off. “He won’t hurt me.” Not physically. He might be crazy and evil, but no, he wouldn’t harm her. The lengths he had gone to in order to recover her showed that.

  “Regardless, we’re not going to hand you over to anyone. We can work out the logistics of our next step once I get the green light, but to make this work your call to your father’s contact has to come from within Mexico, in case they trace it. They need to know we’re serious and not playing games. And we don’t have much time to give you to think this over. Brock Hamilton’s life is hanging in the balance, and this also might be our only shot at arresting your father.”

  He paused, his pale aqua eyes holding hers. “Will you help us?”

  Oceane looked over at Victoria. Her friend’s dark eyes searched hers. Full of pain. Fear. Because Brock’s life was in danger. Because Oceane’s father was a raging psychopath who thought he could get away with anything simply because he was rich and powerful.

  “Gabe called me earlier,” Victoria said to her. “He asked me to tell you that you don’t have to do this.”

  Oceane absorbed the words for a moment, warmth spreading inside her to know that Gabe would try to protect her, attempt to ease her conscience if she said no. Victoria had done her duty in passing on the message. But beneath the words, Oceane heard the plea in her friend’s voice.

  And she understood. Because if their positions were reversed and it was Gabe’s life in danger, Oceane would want Victoria to do everything in her power to free him.

  Oceane’s choice was clear. Brock was Gabe’s team leader. He meant a great deal to Victoria. And to Oceane as well. She considered him a friend. She couldn’t be a coward, sit here at the WITSEC site where it was safe and just let him die simply because she was afraid.

  “Yes I do,” she murmured, and squeezed her friend’s hand as she turned her attention to the front of the room. “Commander Taggart.”

  All eyes swung to her, the room going quiet. Brock didn’t have much time, if he was still alive. Oceane wanted to save him. She wanted justice for her and her mother. She wanted all of this to be over with and behind her so she could move forward. Or at least try to.

  The only way that would ever happen was if she helped them catch her father. Because she was the only bait that could lure this particular shark.

  “I’ll do it,” she said, her voice clear and steady in spite of the way she shook inside. She’d come a long way in terms of being able to mask her fear during her time here. Maybe she’d even managed to fool everyone in the room just now.

  Taggart gave her a tight, relieved smile. “Thank you. I’ll start making arrangements on my end now and confirm everything with you once you arrive.”

  “All right.”

  She walked out of the meeting in a daze, trailing behind one of her marshals. Her phone rang. She pulled it out, her heart tripping when she saw Gabe’s number, and ducked around the corner for a moment’s privacy. The marshal continued on another dozen or so paces before stopping, giving her some room. “Hi,” she said on a sigh, aching to hear his voice.

  “You don’t have to do this. It’s dangerous. Maybe more dangerous than anything you’ve faced so far because we can’t control what happens down here,” he said in a clipped tone.

  He must have been in the room with Taggart and overheard everything. “It’s a plane ride and a few phone calls. It’s the least I can do for Brock.”

  “It’s way more than that, and you know it.”

  Yes. So much could go wrong between now and then. Her father had eyes and ears everywhere throughout Mexico, even in the government and law enforcement. Money and threats against family members helped keep corruption strong in her homeland.

  There was even a chance that someone in the room with Taggart right now could leak her impending arrival and she might walk into a trap when she arrived back on Mexican soil. But what was the alternative? Letting Brock be tortured to death?

  “I have to do it.” Oceane thought of Victoria and what she must be going through right now, knowing Brock had been taken captive by the cartel that had cost her so much.

  It was so unfair. And sad. Victoria had suffered so much. Even more than Oceane had. She couldn’t imagine ever recovering from the kind of loss and abuse her friend had suffered. Why shouldn’t Victoria be able to find some happiness after all she’d been through? Why couldn’t people like them have a happily ever after?

  The sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the sons.

  Or in her case, daughters.

  “You don’t have to,” Gabe argued.

  “Gabe, please. I need to do this. Don’t you see? I owe it to Brock. My mother. To Victoria. And I owe it to myself. I want to save Brock if I can. I want to help put my father away. It’s time for me to be brave. If I walk away from this chance I’ll never be able to live with myself going forward.”

  His hard sigh came through the line, full of frustration. “Dammit, I knew you’d say that.”

  She gave a wobbly smile, even though he couldn’t see her. “You know me so well. And also, it’s really good to hear your voice right now.”

  He was silent a moment. “There’s nothing I can say to change your mind?”

  She put a hand to her bubbling stomach, blew out a shaky breath. She was scared to death. But this was the right thing to do. If she wanted to be able to live with herself, then she had to see this thing through. “No. But I’m going to have you and the rest of FAST Bravo there to have my back, right?” She waited a beat and when he didn’t answer right away the fear grew. Right?

  “Yeah. We’ll have your back every step of the way.”

  The twisting in her gut eased a little, and her heart squeezed at the intensity in his voice. He cared about her. A lot more than he’d let on whenever they spent time together. It touched her deeply, because she was falling for him and was glad to know she might not have done it alone. “Good. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

  “Okay. Be safe.”

  “I will.” She sighed and lowered the phone.

  It was finally time to go home. Face her demons head on.

  And slay them if she got the chance.

  ****

  “Miss Gomez, will you stay a minute?” Taggart asked her as Oceane and a few others left the room.

  Victoria paused in the act of pushing up from her chair and sat back down again. “Of course.”

  Taggart waited until it was just her, her security and a few other officials. “Would you be willing to accompany Oceane down here?”

  She hid her surprise, her pulse jumping. “Yes, absolutely.”

  “I know you two are close, and I think she’d feel better if you came with her. Also, in terms of intel, you’re the best insider source on the Veneno players we’re after. There might be something you know that could give us a lead. It would mean postponing your move tomorrow, but I feel you would be a valuable asset in this case. Your insight might mean the difference for us being able to locate and recover Agent Hamilton in time.”

  Did he suspect that she and Brock were involved? Whether he did or not, it didn’t matter now. “I’ll do whatever I can to assist you in finding Agent Hamilton.”

  He gave a tight smile. “Thank you. I realize this puts you at risk. Rest assured, we’ll make sure you have adequate protection the entire time.”

  She nodded, appreciating the reassurance, but she was only concerned about Brock right now. Even with all she’d suffered from the cartel, she was absolutely going to Mexico. “I’m ready.” Ready to go into enemy territory and do whatever was necessary to save Brock
.

  “Good. I’ll get you the flight info as soon as I’ve got it.”

  Victoria’s heart pounded as she left the room and headed for the elevator. She hoped the plane would be ready soon, because she couldn’t stand waiting when Brock was being held captive.

  Rounding the corner, she stopped when she saw Oceane standing there with her cell in hand, looking sad. “You all right?”

  “Yes. No. I’m not sure.”

  Victoria pulled her into a hug, squeezed her fiercely. “Thank you. I know it’s a totally inadequate thing to say in light of the risks you’re taking to do this, but…thank you.”

  Oceane nodded, returning the embrace. “You love him.”

  “Yes.” She didn’t even consider pretending otherwise with Oceane.

  “Even though you’re leaving tomorrow.”

  “I’m not leaving tomorrow,” Victoria said as she pulled back.

  Those pretty blue-gray eyes focused on her. “You’re not?”

  She shook her head. “I’m flying down to Veracruz with you tonight.”

  Oceane’s eyes widened. “Really?”

  “Yes. They want me to assist with the investigation from there, because of my background.” Her lips curved in a humorless smile. “I’m considered a bona fide insider expert on the Veneno cartel because of my investigative work and my insider knowledge gained during captivity. They also thought you’d be more comfortable if I went along, plus it’ll only cost them a plane ticket. But I don’t care about why they’re sending me. I just want to help Brock any way I can.”

  A relieved smile spread across her friend’s face. “I’m so glad you’re coming.”

  “Me too. I just wish we were on the flight down there already. For Brock, every minute counts.”

  “Yes.” She reached out for Victoria’s hand, squeezed. “We’ll get him back. I swear it.”

  Victoria prayed it was true. Because the alternative would destroy what was left of her soul.

  ****

  Brock’s teeth chattered as he came to in complete darkness. His head pounded and there was a bitter, metallic taste in his mouth.