by Kylie Brant
Cam was silent for a moment. “Why didn’t you leave when you heard the bust was going down? Moreno didn’t have them then. You had the opportunity.”
“Think I didn’t know?” The blonde man leaned forward. “I was two blocks away from returning to the meeting when I saw the place swarming with federal agents. I got in my car and headed home, fully intending on scooping up Gabby and the baby and heading to an airport. Didn’t matter where we went, at least not at first. I could worry about laying a false trail later. Once they were safe.”
He rapped the table lightly with his knuckles. “But when I got home Gabriela was rushing Zoe to the hospital. Her cold had turned to pneumonia. She was there for eight days, four in critical care.” His smile was terrible. “Gave me a reason for missing the bust, so my little girl almost dying is the only reason Moreno let me live.”
The explanation was close enough to what Harlow had told him the other night to ring true. Or Harlow could have been fed faulty information to make what Cam was hearing right now sound like the truth. He rubbed his jaw.
“You understand the credibility issue here, right?”
“I do.” The man gave a slow nod. “Especially since I was given the task of finding you and killing you if you weren’t in prison.”
When Sophia gave a little gasp, Cam found her hand under the table. Squeezed it reassuringly.
“But here’s the thing.” Baldwin looked from one of them to the other. “I’ll go right out that front door with you. Turn myself over to the feds. I wasn’t exactly promoted after the whole thing went down, but Moreno is having a hard time rebuilding with the pressure they’re still putting on his operation. I know things. His new routes. The schedule of shipments. I’ll give the feds everything I’ve got, but first they have to come up with a workable plan for getting my family away from Moreno.” He sat back. “I don’t care about prison. All I want is safety for my family.”
Cam glanced at Sophia. Saw the understanding on her face. “We’re sort of in the middle of a case. I’ve still got a killer to catch.”
Baldwin nodded. “I have a little while. But only a little. When your case is over…I want your word that you’ll help me find a way through this.”
There was an easy decision to make here. All Cam had to do was alert the agent in the car out front. Let them haul Baldwin off and get the information he seemed so desperate to give.
That would be the safe thing. The smart thing. There was no reason for Cam to be involved. Unless he remembered the times he’d sat at Matt and Gabriela’s kitchen table, sharing a meal with them. Recalled being asked to act as Zoe’s godfather at her baptism.
He could pretend the man sitting across from him was no different than the other drug runners who had been on Moreno’s payroll.
But that would be a lie.
Feeling like he was stepping off the edge of a very steep precipice, Cam nodded.
“You have my word.”
Coming Soon
Look for Facing Evil, the exciting conclusion of the Circle of Evil Trilogy, coming in May 2014.
