by Zoe Dawson
“Fine. Then why are you wasting your time tracking me down and busting my chops?”
He set his hands on his hips. “These are dangerous people, Emma. We found the complex’s landscaper murdered so he could take his shirt.”
Shocked and horrified, she just stood there hurting for the dead man and his family, thinking the killer meant to murder her sister as well. They weren’t going to get away with this. She had to use every ounce of that emotion to make sure whomever was responsible would pay.
“I was a cop for ten years and have been a PI for three years. I dealt with extremely dangerous criminals every day. That’s not going to scare me off. I have every right to hunt for my nephew, and nothing you say will stop me. So either arrest me for impeding your investigation or get out of my way.” Oh, shoot. This man brought out the worst in her.
She was just about to apologize when he said, “Your gun?”
“What?” she bit out. He held out his hand. “I have a permit.”
“I’m sure you do.” He did a “gimme” gesture with his fingers. She pulled the gun she carried in a holster at her lower back and set it in his palm. He checked the safety and pocketed the weapon. “Turn around,” he said through gritted teeth.
She huffed and did as he asked. When she felt the cold steel against her wrists, and his hot skin against hers, she swore under her breath. “There’s no need for this. I’m just trying to help.” She gritted her teeth against the reaction her body experienced when he touched her. His wide chest and broad shoulders, all that muscled power beneath his expensive suit…
He was close behind her, and when he leaned in to speak into her ear, his warm breath made her shiver. She tried to chalk that up to reaction, but she knew she was lying to herself. “Civilians helping is something NCIS frowns on, Ms. St. John. It could muck up the evidence.” He marched her to his car and opened the back door.
Emma sighed, ducking her head to get inside. She couldn’t let her emotions get to her. “Exactly. I could work with you.”
At his dubious look, she swallowed hard. How could she convince him? “Don’t cut me out. I can help you.” The need churned in her gut and wouldn’t go away, no matter what she did, from this moment to the day she stopped drawing breath. If she didn’t see this through, it would haunt her every waking hour.
She’d taken care of Lily since they’d been kids, protected her against their indifferent and mean-spirited grandmother, who resented them for messing up her perfect life and interfering with her work. It had been them together against the world and she couldn’t just let NCIS take over and handle the investigation. She couldn’t.
Derrick turned around and stared at her; she bit back the tears. This was too important. She had to act professional. Not like a grieving sister and panicked aunt. Getting her nephew back and making the person who hurt her sister pay would be the only outcomes she could handle.
He sighed. “We don’t make a habit of arresting grieving sisters, Ms. St. John. I resent you for making me do it.”
He turned back around and put the car in gear. “Well, then, we’re even, Agent Gunn,” she said softly to his suddenly stiff shoulders. “Are you going to tell me if you found this George Douglas or not?” she asked when the pressure to know became too much.
“My pal at NCIS is looking for that car right now and tracking down the guy who rented it. With traffic cams all over this city, the AMBER Alert active, we’ll spot it and that will give us some clue where he might have gone.” He pulled onto the highway and said, “I did interrogate Lily’s CO. They were having an affair.”
“What?” If Lily had kept this from her, what else had she kept secret? Had she been too afraid of Emma’s interference? Had Emma driven her sister to keep these secrets?
“He seems like a decent guy. They were planning to get married, and she was offered a position in Okinawa. They were going overseas together.”
Trying to ease the sudden knot in her throat, she tightened her bound hands into fists, the hard wad of tension in her belly intensifying. Experiencing a flurry of emotions—pain, guilt, anger and hurt—Emma had thought she and Lily had an unshakable bond. But when Lily had shocked the hell out of Emma with the news that she was taking an overseas assignment in Japan, Emma had voiced her disapproval. The fact that her sister would be too far away for Emma to keep an eye on her fueled the worry that had made Emma’s words harsh. And, to Emma’s incredulous surprise, Lily had pushed back, hard. She’d told Emma to mind her own business for once and stop crapping all over her rainbows, dampening her happiness and pointing out problems. Lily had stormed out, and Emma hadn’t heard from her in days. But they’d reconciled somewhat when Lily had asked Emma to watch Matty. Now she was in a coma and might never wake up, all that promise gone. Had she been too heavy-handed in Lily’s life? Was that because her own had been so empty?
“So maybe you didn’t like that idea and you two fought.”
Emma stiffened and glared at his back. “What are you saying? I pushed Lily down the stairs because I couldn’t let her go to Japan? I hired some thug to abduct my nephew, and I have him stashed away to keep him safe?”
“Did you? Do you have him?”
She leaned forward and said, her tone glacial, “No. I would never hurt my sister. Never deprive my nephew of his mother, no matter how much I disagreed with her.”
“I have to ask these questions,” he said, meeting her gaze briefly in the rearview. “It’s nothing personal. Just the fact that well-meaning family members can get carried away.”
“I didn’t,” she said as his eyes flicked away. “We fought. Sisters fight, but we would have worked it out.”
He pulled up to the Pendleton office and got out of the car. Helping her out, he kept his hand on her arm. She wanted to shrug him off, but she didn’t want it to matter, so she endured his touch.
Once they emerged from the elevator and entered the bullpen, his teammates all stared at him. One woman looked nonplussed and rubbed at her forehead. “What’s going on?”
“I arrested her.”
“Derrick,” a tall woman with honey-blond hair said, clearly appalled at his treatment of her.
“Take her to the conference room and remove the cuffs,” the first woman instructed.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said and escorted her into the conference room. He unlocked the cuffs and slipped them back into the pouch under his suit coat.
She rubbed her wrists. His eyes went there and he looked away, another little frisson of heat sizzling through her. Damn that reaction.
“You’re pretty self-assured about everything you do, aren’t you?” Okay, so maybe she was picking a fight. That helped to neutralize this…thing between them.
He didn’t answer, and she sighed. Did she peg him or what?
Emma hadn’t had time to research the tattoo Gail had mentioned, but the sound of it gave her an idea of what it was. To get her mind off the vibes she was getting from Derrick, and give him some information that might be helpful, she said, “That tattoo is Santa Muerte, Saint Death. It’s usually depicted by a woman with designs on her face and stitched lips, chalky white skin. Many Mexicans revere her as a popular icon. You can ask her for love, money, or wealth, but it’s also insanely popular with drug dealers or criminals and acts as protection. Connecting with death hopefully will protect them.”
“You’re pretty knowledgeable about Mexican culture.”
“I’ve cleared several cases in Mexico. I saw firsthand the tattoos and the worship of her. I speak fluent Spanish. I could be an asset.”
“You think someone is going to ransom your nephew?”
“No, I don’t think he will be ransomed. I think he was taken for a reason and my sister stood in the way, but I have no idea for what purpose.”
He pulled out his cell and gave the person on the other end the information about the tat.
His boss entered the room, and she came forward. “Supervisory Special Agent Kai Talbot. Have a seat, Ms. St. Jo
hn.”
Emma sat, keeping her eyes on this woman. She was formidable in a nonthreatening way, and Emma liked her. It was inordinately easier to deal with her than to have to interact with that gorgeous, pushy alpha male.
Even with her attention on Kai, she was aware of him looming in the background, his presence palpable, distracting her all over again.
Emma leaned forward and asked, “Does he have to be here?”
Kai smiled and nodded. “He’s one of the best.” She sat forward and said, “I have more information.” Emma steeled herself to hear about what had happened to her sister. “She has defensive wounds. She fought hard before she was thrown down the stairs. It’s the doctor’s assessment that she didn’t break her fall—a human reflex. She would have had to been unconscious when she tumbled.”
“My little sister fought. I’m so proud of her.”
“This all very likely happened very early yesterday morning. He’s had all this time to take your nephew anywhere. But we have a Be on the Lookout—BOLO alert—in progress.”
Derrick was watching her, and she allowed herself to look over at him. For one single moment she wondered how it would feel to have his arms around her, comforting her just like his body language and his eyes broadcasted he wanted to. Her eyes filled up with tears as she tried to swallow. Derrick inhaled sharply and started toward her, almost as if he didn’t remember Kai was even in the room.
Her heart jumped into overdrive, pounding so hard it felt as if it would come through her ribs. She shifted her eyes to Kai, feeling her face drained of blood, but Kai’s expression and eyes softened, too. Emma looked down, trying to keep her composure, her pulse laboring, her breath jammed up in her chest, fighting her anger and anguish, all mixed up into a surging desire to maim someone.
Compelled, she looked back at Derrick. Holding his gaze, she stared at him, this time with the pain and desolation she couldn’t hide, bar tears spilling over.
Dragging in a ragged breath, he swore viciously and quietly to himself. Snatching up a box of tissues on the table, he walked over and offered her one. It was clear to her he considered it a paltry offering, but she pulled one out of the box and sat there as the tears rolled off her jaw.
They gave her a few moments of silence to absorb the information and handle her grief.
“Emma, Derrick arrested you for a reason. We can’t have civilians—”
“I wouldn’t say I was a civilian.”
“We have a murder now included in this investigation.”
“I’m not immune to that. Who was he?”
“The landscaper, Kevin Sherman. He was a grandfather and husband, had two grown daughters. Found him in the back of his pickup truck.”
Her heart went out to the family again. “I used to be an LAPD detective, and I worked homicide. Now I’m a private investigator and successful enough to have offices in San Francisco, LA, and here in San Diego. I want the people who took my nephew and hurt my sister.”
“So do we.”
“Not as much as I do,” she said fervently, meeting Kai’s eyes straight on, blotting her eyes with the tissue, showing her need to actively participate and see this through. Emma’s meaning struck home as Kai acknowledged her right to be involved. “He’s my family. I want in on this.”
“We don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be personally involved,” Derrick growled, pushing through his already disheveled hair and yanking on his already displaced tie. The smooth skin of his chest peeked out from between the open collar of his dress shirt.
Why did she have to have this reaction to him? How was it that he projected so much from those hard, flinty eyes without really saying anything, and she had to resist the urge to shiver? Deep down he cared and his sense of justice was evident in the cadence of his voice. But Emma had just lost the stable world she’d constructed for herself, Lily and Matty. She was broken and hurting, feeling horribly guilty, and she didn’t know any other way to handle this. She might have been struggling, but she wasn’t defeated. “I’d be an asset. As I said, I speak fluent Spanish, and I’ve been to Mexico many times. I have even negotiated for a kidnapped businessman and worked with the FBI. I’m fully qualified with a handgun. I can do things federal agents can’t because I have fewer restrictions on the letter of the law. I can help on this investigation.” She pulled an envelope out of her purse. “Here is my résumé.”
Derrick strode over and turned her chair. “You’re too close to this.”
She stood and faced off against him, her temper tripping, the grief igniting her deep-seated need to protect her sister and the agonizing realization that she’d failed so utterly. She had to do this. Be involved. There was no other way, and she’d die trying because she had to. It was the only way she could live with herself.
“You can’t stop me from investigating if I choose to. I don’t care if I lose my license or you throw me in jail. I’ll get bail and then I’ll do what is necessary to find out who did this. You can either allow me to work with you, or I’ll do it on my own.”
He took a step closer and she tensed, not because he was threatening her. She didn’t need this distraction. It would be so much easier to deal with Kai alone. This man already had a way of seeing past her defenses, to some other place she was unaccustomed to people reaching. It was like he knew what it was like to have to keep every shred of vulnerability under wraps. Like he understood. She rejected that. It wasn’t possible to understand what she’d gone through, what Lily had to endure at the hands of their grandmother.
He stood his ground, kept his gaze steady on hers. She had to grudgingly admit that this man wasn’t intimidated by her like so many were. “Let us handle this. We’ll keep you fully informed—”
Derrick’s and Kai’s cells rang, and they answered in unison. Then looked at each other, their gazes triumphant. Disconnecting the call, Kai said, “We found the vehicle.”
They both headed for the door, and Emma was determined she wasn’t going to be left here to ponder ineffectually while the “professionals” conducted the investigation.
“No,” Derrick said, holding up his hand.
She went around him, and he grabbed her arm.
“Let her go, Derrick.”
He threw a surprised and questioning look toward Kai.
“Maybe she’ll spot something we miss.”
Shaking off his hand, Emma followed them out to the bullpen, to the big plasma screen where they were already running footage of the black Crown sedan.
As soon as Kai, Derrick and Emma approached, Austin Beck, the other agent she remembered as Derrick’s partner from Lily’s house, stood up with a remote in his hand. Again, he was dressed more like a chic surfer boy than an agent—upscale knit hoodie in soft gray, black military-inspired jacket and a pair of orange pants, dark navy midtop deck shoes on his feet.
“I found the car just outside La Mesa, then picked it up again on the highway toward downtown. He stopped at a pharmacy before getting back in the car. I’m still looking for it after it left the pharmacy. The rendering from Ms. Baker was spot on. I’m running him through face-recognition right now.”
The blond woman came up alongside them and took the remote from Austin.
“This is Special Agent Amber Michaels,” Derrick said.
Amber nodded to her and smiled encouragingly. “I researched the tattoo with the information that Emma gave us. I found this.” She clicked the remote and the tattoo came up on one side along with several men to the other. “These are the Los Equis, The Xs in English. It’s considered a criminal syndicate by the Mexican government. The US has deemed it the most technologically cutting-edge, sophisticated, brutal, callously vicious and dangerous cartel operating in Mexico.”
The blood drained from Emma’s face. This was much worse than she had imagined. The implications of this boggled her mind. Had her nephew been taken where it would be twice as hard to find him? How had these people come into her sister’s life? She would never have consorted w
ith criminals. Her job in the Navy meant too much to her. Emma wanted to dismiss this avenue of the investigation because it was so far-fetched. Lily hadn’t ever been to Mexico.
Amber was still talking. “They run their organization out of the state of Michoacán and came to power during the massive attacks by the government and DEA against the kingpins in the area. That left a big hole to fill. The seconds-in-command and all their soldiers needed leadership, and they got it from this man.” She put up a picture of a big, well-built, handsome man dressed impeccably in a blue suit. His tanned face was wreathed in a smile that crinkled his piercing eyes, a stunning contrast to his silver hair. “Gilberto Ortega, Monte Diablo—the Devil Mountain, as he’s dubbed, because he’s such a big man. His wife is deceased, killed in crossfire from a smaller rival cartel. Rumor has it he wiped them out, slaughtered everyone involved. But there is no proof and he was never charged,” she said, her voice grim. “He has one son, Arturo.” She put up another man’s photo, tanned, fit and a younger version of his attractive father. “Arturo loves to live well and is somewhat of an international playboy.” Amber switched to a close-up of the tattoo, a woman’s eye with the big, red X. “Everyone in that organization has this tat. It’s their calling card, and it’s symbolic of their oneness with death and their ability to mete it out as they see fit.” She then put up the grainy picture of the man behind the sedan’s wheel. “They are said to employ teen assassins, which fits perfectly with the rendering of the guy Lieutenant Baker described.”
The blood came rushing back, flushing her cheeks until they felt hot. She felt sickened and horrified, not only at the implications of her sister’s fall, realizing that it could have been so much worse, but that these ruthless men could have Matty. “My sister would never get involved with a cartel!” Emma said, turning to face Amber. But the sickness and the horror were mixed in with the fact that Lily had been so damn trusting and sweet, so eager for love and affection, so eager to be in love. What had she done? What had she subjected Matty to without even realizing it? Oh, Lily…so naive.
