by Misty Evans
“He’ll stay in town all night.”
Nelson tugged the ledger away from her and took a screen shot with his camera of the page with Angelique’s description. Setting the phone on top of the closed ledger, he took her hands and drew her upright. “You need some sleep so you’re ready for tomorrow. Go to bed. I’ll put the ledgers back and join you in a few minutes.”
“I’m too worked up to sleep.”
She was dead on her feet. “Take a hot shower. It will help.”
He walked her into the bathroom, kissed the top of her head, and shut the door behind him on his way back out.
Before he left, he heard the sound of the shower. Picking up the ledgers, he concealed them in Sophie’s backpack and slipped out into the night to get rid of them.
Chapter Twenty-six
Sophie couldn’t believe Nelson hadn’t arrested her on the spot. Standing under the hot spray in the shower, she closed her eyes and slicked her hair back from her face. A face with a big smile on it.
She’d managed to get Rosalie to safety. Thanks to Nelson and Agent Rios, she had a possible lead on Angelique. While she’d been in the kitchen fixing tea, Wanda had texted to say she found Lexie’s aunt in San Antonio. She planned to meet with Cortana the next day to explain what was going down, after she received word from Sophie that Rodrigo was under arrest, and see if Cortana would be willing to provide a home for the girl.
Everything was going to work out. In a few hours, she would make the bust of her career and send Rodrigo Morales to prison. Once she had Lexie safe and secure, she would continue her search for Angelique.
Hang in there, sis. I won’t let you down this time.
The image of the column of letters and numbers flashed through her brain. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but she was sure she had seen something similar recently. In the morning, she would take one last look at the books she had taken over from Rosalie. Maybe something in them would jog her memory.
With any luck, Nelson would help her track down Angelique. He’d promised he would, and Sophie believed him. The problem would be keeping him out of the fray if Agent Blue decided to blow the whistle on her. With the SCVC Taskforce hot on her trail, and Blue’s cover possibly blown to hell, he had little incentive to keep her illegal scheme a secret. He didn’t seem to care about breaking the rules—he hadn’t gotten in trouble yet for doing so—but he might decide to pay her back for Nelson’s double-cross.
Sophie hung her head, water running down the back of her neck. After all Nelson and done for her, she couldn’t let him take the heat over the lost girls. Ruining her career was one thing, ruining his as well was not an option.
Climbing out of the shower, she toweled off, pulled on a tank top and pj bottoms and slipped into bed. Fatigue consumed her.
If Agent Blue kept his mouth shut, they were safe. If he didn’t…
The only way to protect Nelson was to send him away.
Rock meet hard place.
He wasn’t going to like her cutting ties with him. He’d already told her he was going to help. While she enjoyed that fantasy, what choice did she have? His taskforce was investigating her human smuggling operation. Yes, it was about to go dormant for a while, but if they ever traced it back to her, and she was having a relationship with Nelson, he was going down in flames with her.
After all he’d done for her, she couldn’t let that happen.
No longer smiling, Sophie pressed her thumbs into her temples where a headache was already pounding. In a few hours, it would all be over.
The only question left was who was she taking down with her?
Sometime later, Sophie woke with a start. Flashes of light bounced off her eyelids. She sat up too quick, and the room, illuminated every few seconds by lightning, took on an eerie, disco ball effect. Her hand snaked out and she patted Nelson’s side of the bed.
Empty, the sheets cool to the touch. Did the man ever sleep?
The red numbers of her alarm clock blurred, but seemed to read shortly after three a.m. Slowly, she raised herself into a sitting position and scooted to the edge of the bed.
Rain beat against the side of the apartment, wind howled. Another damn storm. Would the hurricane ever leave them alone?
As the room seemed to contort and fade before coming into bas-relief again, Sophie pinched herself to make sure it wasn’t a vision. Sometimes, it was hard to tell, especially when the shadows seemed to be reaching for her.
The pinch hurt, and her view didn’t change. Her temples still pounded from the earlier headache, probably causing the vertigo. She hadn’t slept enough and the storm’s pressure system was also contributing to her wooziness. The errant and bright lightning acted like a disco ball as she moved across the room.
There were no lights on in the apartment, but the chaotic lightning did a fine job of showing her the way. A body stood in front of the living room window, looking out.
“Nelson?”
He didn’t look at her. “We need to leave.”
“What?”
His gaze was pinned on the night outside the window. “I don’t trust Blue. He could go to Morales and rat us out. We should leave tonight.”
“If we leave, we could blow the whole operation.”
His body was rigid, hands on his hips, jaw muscles jumping. “The FBI has their warrants. They can swoop in anytime and arrest Morales. If Blue tells Morales you’re a Fed, your life is in serious danger.”
Her head was in danger of exploding, not just from the headache but by his one-eighty. “I’m not letting anyone else arrest him. It’s my job and I’ve worked damn hard to keep my cover intact and gather all of that intel on him. Nobody is stealing this case from me.”
Nelson was silent, his strong cheekbones and square jaw beautiful in the shadows.
“Besides,” Sophie mumbled, rubbing her aching head, “I have to be here for Lexie.”
He set a fist against the window edge, bowed his head.
“Nels?” She moved closer. “What’s this about? You’re not yourself.”
Thunder rumbled. Nelson raised his head. “Something’s not right with any of this—Morales, Blue, Chica Bonita. I feel it in my gut, just like I did when we worked together before. Even without Blue, Cooper Harris is looking into your operation. Things could go south for both of us in a big-ass hurry.”
He had the jitters. Maybe it was because of the storm or the fact she’d put him in the line of fire over the lost girls. She got the jitters the night before every big arrest, too.
But they couldn’t bail now. At least she couldn’t. She touched his arm. If she could get him back to bed, let him sleep, he’d feel better come morning. “We can’t leave in this storm, and Blue and Rodrigo are stuck in town while it’s raging, so they can’t get to us. How about we go back to bed and get some rest? We can leave at first light if you’re still feeling anxious.”
He finally canted his head and looked at her. “Two taskforce members discovered the corpses of large, exotic snakes and half-digested rats in a warehouse in Oceanside. A warehouse similar to the one Morales runs here. The evidence suggests the snakes were transporting something in their stomachs.”
“Besides rats?”
He nodded.
“Drugs?”
“Remember the uncut gemstones we found in the pit?”
The realization struck Sophie with the same speed and intensity the lightning outside was arcing through the air. “Diamonds? He’s selling the snakes with diamonds in their stomachs?”
“Exotic snakes like the ones in the pit are worth a lot of money, right? Does it make sense to use them as mules?”
“The gemstones could be worth two to three times as much as the snakes, and like I mentioned before, they’re lightweight, easy to hide, easy to move.”
“So it is possible.”
“Yes.”
His gaze switched back to the window. “But he’d need the right paperwork to get the snakes across the border, or he’d need an undergrou
nd railroad like your smuggling ring. Which do you think Agent Blue is supplying for him? Fake papers or the same underground you’re using?”
Her stomach dropped to the floor. “You can’t be serious. You think Rodrigo and Blue are working together?”
“After learning what we have about Blue, you don’t think it’s a possibility?”
Her legs trembled and she fumbled her way into a chair. In an instant, Nelson was there, like he had been earlier that day when she’d nearly fainted in the kitchen.
He ran his palms up her thighs, down her arms, his eyes searching her face. “I take it from your reaction, that it makes sense?”
His touch and the concern etching deep lines on his face made her want to fall into his arms and never leave. The precursor to the visions was often as bad as the aftermath. “I don’t know. I have a headache from this never-ending storm system, and it makes it impossible to think straight.”
“Let’s get you back to bed. I’ll rub your temples for you.”
Before she could protest, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her across the floor. A massage sounded like just the thing to help her.
She cuddled into Nelson’s warm embrace, ready to ignore his theory on Rodrigo and Blue, when without warning, a vision—brutal and unsparing—bitch-slapped her
Chapter Twenty-seven
Sophie’s body went rigid in Nelson’s arms.
Her jaw clenched, her breath came in gasps, her lips moved but no words came out. Her eyes were open, but unfocused, and she twitched as if someone were prodding her with a branding iron.
“Sophie!” He made it to the bed and gently laid her down. Her body spasmed, as if she were having a seizure, and he wondered if he should find something to put between her teeth so she didn’t bite her tongue.
Her chest heaved; she arched her back. “No,” she cried.
Helpless, he didn’t know what to do. He grabbed her hands but she didn’t grip him back. Her index fingers stuck straight out, rigid. The others curled into her hands.
He took her by the shoulders and gave her a light shake. “Sophie, what’s going on? Do you need medical attention?”
Like she could answer him. He wasn’t even sure she knew he was beside her.
And then, as fast as the episode happened, it disappeared.
A giant gasp left her mouth and she sat straight up, nearly knocking him backward. “Nelson.” She shook her head as if to clear it. “What happened?”
“You tell me. You were fine one second and the next, you were having some sort of seizure.”
She gripped her head with both hands, all her fingers working now, and squeezed her eyes shut. “Oh, hell.”
“What? What happened? Do you have epilepsy or something?”
“Or something.”
He needed to touch her, so he rubbed one of her thighs. “Do you need to see a doctor?”
Her eyes opened and her hands fell into her lap. “A doctor can’t help me.”
A shot of pure fear shot up the back of Nelson’s neck. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“You won’t understand.”
“There are a lot of things about you I don’t understand, but I accept them anyway.”
She cut her eyes to him, then chuckled out of the blue. “You won’t believe me even if I tell you.”
“Try me.”
“All right, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She sighed loudly. “Recipes aren’t the only thing Little Gran shared with me.”
“Okay,” he said hesitantly. “What else?”
“You’re going to think I’m a freak.”
Her reluctance didn’t help his unease. “Soph, just tell me what it is. I won’t think you’re a freak.”
“I have…” She dipped her head, staring at her hands as they played with the hem of her pajama top. “I see things. As in…the future.”
His mind repeated the words. Once. Twice. Three times. “You see the future.”
She nodded.
“Like as in, you can predict it?”
“You think my near-perfect arrest record is all due to hard work and nothing else?”
“Um, yeah?”
She released the edge of her top and sighed. “It is, actually. The only other times I’ve had visions while working are when I’ve been near you. You wanted to know how I knew you were in the pit getting beat up? I had a vision and saw you there. Why do you think I always work alone? I have to. Just in case I do have one. How would I explain these episodes—my visions—to a partner?”
Between the wild storm outside and the unnerving revelation going on inside, Nelson had the sudden impression he’d landed in the Twilight Zone. “Why do you only have visions when you’re around me?”
“I used to have them about my family. Growing up, Little Gran said it was because I loved them, and that made their link to me stronger.”
Nelson sat back. This was some kind of craziness all right. “So you…?”
“Love you?” Sophie tilted her head back on her neck and let go of a heavy sigh. When she finally righted herself, she locked eyes with him. “Do you think I’m a freak?”
He needed to choose his words carefully. “Of course not. It’s just, I’ve never encountered anyone with the gift.”
Her posture softened. “That’s what Little Gran called it too. A gift.”
He was no longer as freaked out about her visions as he was about the other thing she’d said. “So are you?”
“What?”
He gave her a small grin. “In love with me?”
There was a long, heavy pause. She stretched it out, making him wait. Torturing him, and then…
“It’s a possibility. The visions are never about anyone but those I care for.”
“A possibility?” Wow, she knew how to get a guy’s hopes up and then leave him hanging by a thread. “Would you say it’s a strong possibility?”
Her lips broke apart a bit with the hint of a smile. The storm had moved off and lightning flashed softly in the distance, casting a lovely spotlight on her high cheekbones. She stuck her tongue in the tiny gap between her teeth and gave a deep-bellied laugh. “Si. A strong possibility.”
He leaned in. “So what did you see?”
Her smile vanished and she closed her eyes. “I’m not sure. It seemed to be the same vision I had of you in the snake pit a few days ago, only I heard screaming. A woman’s screams, not yours.”
“Did you recognize the woman?”
“No.” She opened her eyes. “Maybe it was only an echo of the first vision. It seemed like an almost exact replica.”
“Has that ever happened before?”
Solemnly, she nodded. “With Angelique. I used to have the same vision over and over. She was struggling against a pair of men dragging her into a van.”
Nelson drew her into a hug, shifting his body around so he could rock her. Minutes passed and he stroked her hair, whispering platitudes in her ear. She loved him. It was more—much more—than he could ever hope for.
After a while, he felt the shift in her breathing, saw the soft rise and fall of her chest. He waited another few minutes until her sleep deepened, and then he left her in bed to go call Harris and tell him he was hunting down Agent Blue.
“The tropical storm has been upgraded to a hurricane.” Harris said. “It’s turned inland again.” Static crackled across the airwaves, his voice cutting in and out. “No one’s going anywhere tonight. Hunker down and cinch up. We’re riding this one out.”
Nelson tightened his hold on the phone. Two hours until sunrise and he was outside on the porch, watching the garden next to the apartment take another beating as a fresh wave of wind and rain pummeled it.
The storm was bad, but in his mind, this was the perfect time to strike. Neither Blue nor Morales would be moving around.
He had to raise his voice slightly to be heard over the sheeting rain. “I think Blue and Morales are working together to get those snakes across the border.”
He couldn’t exactly tell his boss about Blue forging the papers for Sophie’s lost girls, so he didn’t. “Call it a hunch. I’ve been turning it over in my mind all night. I think Blue threatened to expose Ciro Morales at some point, and Ciro kicked him out. After he died, Blue cut a deal with Rodrigo. They kept their official cover as enemies intact to keep suspicions off of them, and meanwhile, they’ve been shipping everything from bath salts and diamonds to sex slaves into America. The drugs and girls make them money, but it’s the rocks that secure their future.”
“That’s a serious accusation, Cruz. What does Agent Blue gain out of all of this?”
“He knows the Agency isn’t going to leave him down here forever, and the day will come when his little enterprise ends. If he goes back to Langley, he could get benched for the crimes they’ve been letting him get away with, or worse, they could offer him up and send him to jail. The CIA has left him alone, not because he’s feeding valuable intel back to them, but because if they don’t, he might blow the covers off a lot of other agents in this area.”
Nelson snuck back into the apartment, closing the door softly behind him. Now he lowered his voice. “My guess is he’s been planning his retirement carefully for the past couple of years and when he found out about Sophie’s operation, he kicked it into high gear. He and Rodrigo are both planning their escapes to go underground. The gemstones are easy to hide, store, and retrieve. Between the two of them, they could have millions waiting for them in America when they pull the plug down here.”
There was a long silence from Harris’s end and some background talk with Agent Rios. Harris came back on the line a moment later. “Is the meeting tomorrow with the European dealer still a go?”
“As far as I know, but with the hurricane stirring things up, it could get cancelled or postponed. We can’t take that chance. Blue could disappear on us, or Morales could get wind we’re onto him. We need to shut down this operation asap, starting with our CIA friend.”
