I pulled off a couple of folders and started to rifle through them, and saw nothing about the man, and just a whole lot of lists of numbers. My cell was still in my hand, so I quickly snapped a few pictures and put them back. As I was stacking them, the word east on the side tab of a file toward the middle caught my attention.
My stomach swirled, something telling me to open up the manila folder and see what was inside it. The voices from outside the office were no longer raised, which meant he could walk back in any second. But the draw to open it up was too much, so I did just that. I didn’t even take in the information on the page as I snapped as many pictures as I could of the first five sheets and then closed it back up. The handle of the door started to turn as I stacked the folders back on top of it, and I made it back to the other side of the desk just in time for Garza to open up his office door and re-enter.
He mumbled something under his breath and looked up at me, his eyes widening. “Fuck. I forgot you were still in here.” He paused and glanced around the room, almost as if he was trying to remember what he was saying before he left. “Yes,” he said to himse
lf. “I need you to find this man, bring him to me, and make sure no one knows where he’s going. I shouldn’t have to tell you to be discreet, Ford. That’s why I’m sending a gringo, you understand?”
“I understand,” I ground out. “How soon do you want him?”
“Three days.” He moved around his office and sat back in his chair. “I don’t want to see you until then. Alejandro has a folder of information ready for you.” He pulled his cell out and spun his chair around, effectively dismissing me.
I gripped my cell in my hand, turned, and exited the office, needing to get out of there as soon as I could. All the women were working twice as hard as they had been when I first entered, and I had no doubt it was because Garza had been out here shouting. The guard from outside the door was now placed inside, and he handed me a folder and then pulled the door open for me without speaking.
My feet wanted to carry me faster out of the club, but I managed to keep a normal pace. I didn’t want to throw off any kind of energy to make anyone suspicious, so I walked outside, the sunlight almost blinding me with how bright it was, and then pushed into my car. My car was a fortress, made for any kind of impact and bulletproof. Whenever I was undercover, I made sure to use my own car because it was the only safe and secure place I had. The one thing I could trust when I was neck-deep in a dangerous world.
I started the engine and pulled away from the curb, staring in my rearview mirror at the guards outside the club. One of them was looking my way, and one was staring ahead. I took a right, turning at the end of the road and drove for about twenty minutes, making sure no one was following me.
A small diner gained my attention, so I pulled into its lot toward the back. I wouldn’t go in, but it’d be a good cover while I checked out the folder I’d been given. The engine idled as I opened the folder and looked through it. The man was a manager for a bank in the city, a forty-something guy who had gotten himself into some serious debt, and I was guessing Garza had bailed him out and loaned him the money in exchange for his services.
I took a photo on my cell, intent on sending it over to Jord, the computer guy on our team. Switching to the photo album app, I clicked on the first one I’d taken and zoomed in to read it. I hadn’t even gotten to the second line written on the first piece of paper when I knew this was why I’d had that gut feeling.
My heart beat rapidly in my chest, and I could hear the whooshing in my ears from my racing pulse. This couldn’t be right. Surely he wouldn’t have…fuck. He had. He’d investigated Belle, and it was all my fault. I’d played my hand the moment he mentioned her in front of Rory, and now he’d gotten a file on her, and I’d only managed to look at the first few pages.
I scrolled through the other photos I’d taken, but all they had was her information, where she went to college, the courses she was taking, and the jobs she was working. I don’t know why it was the latter that had my brows rising, but I couldn’t picture her working, not when her dad was paying for everything, and—
Fuck. If they knew who she was and who her dad was, did that mean he knew who I was too? Shit. Fuck. Shit.
I didn’t hesitate as I dialed the one number you only called when shit hit the fan and there was no way out but through.
“Please enter your code,” a woman’s computerized voice said.
I clicked in the eight-digit code, which would connect me to the right person, and a couple of seconds later, another voice said, “Easton.”
“Brody?” I croaked out.
“Ford?” His tone pitched higher, and I could imagine him standing up at his desk. “What’s—”
“We have a problem.” I closed my eyes and clenched my hand on my lap. “A really big fuckin’ problem.”
Chapter Four
FORD
Waiting had never been my strong suit, but the five hours it took for the team to get here nearly broke me. I was on edge, more so than ever, but I wasn’t sure if it was because the operation had just gone to shit, or because I was about to tell Brody what had happened at the club…with his daughter.
I winced as I thought about his reaction, but it wasn’t like I could lie to him—fuck, I had to lie to him, at least a little. I didn’t have a choice, not if I wanted to make it out of here alive.
The guys had found a safe house an hour away from Garza’s club, and now I was pacing the length of the living room complete with seventies furniture, waiting for them to pull up outside. I should have been looking for the banker Garza wanted, and scoping him out. Instead, I was about to blow up eight months of undercover work. I just hoped we had enough intel to take him down, because if we didn’t, those eight months had been for nothing.
An engine roared closer to the house. I stood next to the window and peeked out of the dirty pane of glass. Sure enough, another car followed, and then all of the guys piled out of the vehicles. My stomach churned with nerves, and I tried to calm myself. I kept my gaze fixated to them as they walked closer to the house, and seconds later, the door was opening, and I was seeing their faces for the first time in months.
Brody looked a little older, his hair graying, but Jord still looked like the thirty-something guy I’d met twenty years ago. No one said anything as they all piled in the house, and Jord started to set up a station for his laptop. Kyle and Ryan scoped out the house, something I’d done when I first got here, and then after what felt like hours but was actually minutes, Brody said, “Fill us in.”
I stepped away from the window and toward the back wall of the living room, my breaths sawing in and out of my body. “I…” My nostrils flared, and my hands clenched. I was never like this. I was always straight to the point, but this was different. “I don’t even know where to start.”
“Maybe with why it’s all gone to shit?” Brody said, his face carefully expressionless.
“I was meeting with Garza last weekend at his club.” I pushed my hands into the front pockets of my jeans and leaned against the wall, trying to act calm when I was anything but that. “When I got to the club, someone…ran into me.” I swallowed, looking at each of the guys in turn. Brody was watching me carefully, while Kyle and Ryan flicked their attention between me and the files full of information on Garza that I’d brought with me as Jord logged in to his laptop.