Chapter 36

Dalton

“Miguel?” Nadia whispered as the man came into view. “Oh no! No, no, no, no, no! Take me back,” she demanded, her Spanish accent quite thick. “If he finds out that I’m in with the cops, I’m as good as dead.”

She tried to get up off the hotel bed, but I halted her movement. “When he finds out you’ve been playing him this entire time, you’ll be good as dead too,” I told her.

“He’s right, you know,” Miguel chimed in, her shoulders tensing under my hand. “Your best chance at survival here is to give us what you have on Ortiz and his operation. Dalton,” he motioned toward me with a tilt of his head, “is only here to take you back to Wentworth.”

Her eyes rounded. “I’m not going back there!”

“We’ll talk about that later,” I said. “First, you’re going to give Miguel all the information he needs, then we’ll talk about returning you to your fiancé.”

“What about the women?” she shrieked.

“We’ll get to that in a bit,” Miguel reassured her. “Right now, I need to know about your affiliation with Ortiz. How deep are you in with him, Ms. Alvarez?”

Nadia had gone quiet after copping to being the lure for the women Ortiz had kidnapped, by acting like the damsel in distress, a perfect act to prey on her fellow womankind. She’d provided Miguel with Ortiz’s associates, as well as various ports he’d used to ship the women out to their buyers. Unfortunately, she was unable to provide us with buyer information, but mentioned that Ortiz carried his laptop with him everywhere he went, and that she was sure that he had buyer history stored on the device. As much as Ortiz loved having her around, she was never allowed to mix and mingle with the rich men that would come to sample the ‘product.’

“I love him, you know,” she whispered. “Max. I’d seen him with Ortiz a few times, and I knew that he’d be an easy in. He came off as a pompous self-serving jerk at first, but he isn’t that kind of man.” She pressed her lips together before continuing. “I didn’t know that Scott was in with Ortiz though. That’s why I can’t go back. Ortiz will know that I double-crossed him. Scott will tell him. He hates his father, so it won’t take much for him to turn. I can’t risk Max’s life by going back there.”

“That won’t matter when Enrique Ortiz ends up in jail,” Theo supplied as he entered the room with food.

The woman looked at Theo as if he had three heads.

“That man can get to anyone and everyone when he wants to.”

“Wentworth will be in his own cell by the end of this too, Nadia,” Miguel stated. “And I’m not going to lie, once they’re done with you in Canada, since you’re crimes are here, you’ll be brought back. You’ve been cooperative, and that’ll help you out, but I make no promises that you won’t see the inside of a cell yourself.”

The woman nodded. “I knew that might happen. I’m okay with it. I’m just sad that it all had to lead to Max’s career being finished. I didn’t mean to—”

“You didn’t do this to him.” Theo crouched down in front of her, a sympathetic expression on his face, then reached into the brown paper bag in his hand and pulled out a sandwich, handing it to her. “He did this to himself by being involved with a known cartel head.”

Her nod was curt as she fiddled with her lunch’s wrapping.

“There’s no way Max can hide from this when the authorities go in. It’s not going to be tonight, but I expect that he’ll be apprehended within the next few days,” Miguel explained to her.

Setting her sandwich down, she got up and walked toward the hotel room’s only window. Releasing a sigh filled with defeat, she said, “I know.”

Giving the woman time, I turned to Theo, then asked, “The guys get off okay?” as I dug into my lunch.

Preacher had taken Shane, Cade, Brycen, and Tate back stateside so they could fly home, before coming back for myself and Nadia, who wasn’t done with Miguel’s debrief. Theo had stuck around, not only of his own volition but Morgan had served to enforce this decision.

“Yeah.”

It was eight the next morning by the time Nadia and I awaited our transfer that would take us from Washington to Ottawa. We’d left at three in the morning, hopping on Preacher’s bird, which took us to Houston, barely making it on the next flight out.

Theo was already up in the air, on his way back home.

Home.

I so badly wanted to be there. With Devolin. In bed.

I didn’t care if we were naked or clothed, I just wanted her in my arms. I’d missed that woman something fierce, despite having her voice at my constant disposal this entire week. Not having spoken to her in nearly twenty-four hours, I was going crazy trying to get ahold of her at this very moment, and she wasn’t answering. Considering it was early in the morning for her to be out and about, I immediately hung up, then dialed Rex’s number.

“She’s fine,” he answered. “We’re at that lady, Morgan’s, place again. Call me crazy, bro, but playing in the dirt at the ass crack of dawn is not my idea of a good Sunday morning.”

It wasn’t one of mine either, but I couldn’t help imagining what Devolin would look like in Morgan’s gardens, smudges of dirt on her cheeks, smelling of earth and the sweetness that came from the flowers.

Trying to keep my musings for when I was traveling alone, I cleared my throat, sticking to the business at hand.

“Anything else since we last talked?” That had been more than a couple of days ago now.

“She had me fix the vent above her shower,” he said. “It must have slid a bit after I removed the camera, and she noticed it.”

“And?”

“When the guys got back last night, Devolin was still working on her computers. Brycen came in and dropped an envelope on her desk.” I had a feeling of where this was heading and I knew it wasn’t going to be good. “She opened it.”

“And?”

“I think this is why we’re here so early this morning,” Rex said. “She told me she was concerned about Morgan being out here alone during her pregnancy. She doesn’t know I read the letter after she thought she’d tucked it away in her desk. The other woman and her husband have both been mentioned.”

“Theo?”

“Yeah,” he confirmed.

“Fuck!” I punched my thigh, garnering attention from a few passengers milling about, along with Nadia’s concerned gaze meeting mine. I shook my head, giving her a wave of my hand to let her know I was fine. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Letting you go now. I need to get a message to Theo before he lands so he knows what to expect.”

“Got it,” he said. “Later.”

I disconnected.