Chapter Thirty-One

"What the fuck are you doing, Roman?" Finn asks me, his voice soft and concerned.

Truth be told, I"m more than a little concerned myself. I let Guerrero take Mila and Tahani. If I survive the day…it"ll be one that will haunt me for the rest of my life. But what other choice did I have? Had I not agreed, he would have killed them both right then and there. Benson and Carter, too.

I couldn"t let that happen.

"I don"t know," I mutter to Finn, scrubbing a hand down my face. It"s been an hour since Guerrero agreed to my trade, and I haven"t heard a word since. Brady, Selena, and I are driving aimlessly in the direction of Sacramento, but I don"t know where Guerrero"s taking my girls. I"m losing my mind. "I don"t fucking know, okay? I"m making this shit up as I go."

Finn is completely silent. So are Brady and Selena. The silence is oppressive, weighing on me like an anvil on my chest. Taking a breath through the weight is painful, but I have to keep fucking breathing. Until Mila and Tahani are safe, I have to keep moving forward.

"Are you pinging his phone?" I ask, praying like hell that Finn"s still willing to give me that much help.

"Yeah. Shit." He huffs out a breath. "He"s been moving for the last forty-five minutes. Our best guess is that he"s taking them to Santa Cruz."

"What the fuck?" I growl, my brow furrowing. How the fuck does Guerrero know about Santa Cruz? Hell, how the fuck does he know any of the shit he"s managed to find out about my life?

"We"re going to Santa Cruz," I mutter to Brady.

One dark brow rises above his sunglasses, his lips set in a grim line. "We have a mole," he says, loud enough for Finn to hear.

"Damn sure seems that way, doesn"t it?" Finn asks.

I don"t even want to consider the possibility, but I"m careful…really fucking careful about what I say and to whom. No one outside of our team knows enough about my life to have passed anything useful to Guerrero. Not about Santa Cruz. Not about Tahani. Certainly not about Mila. But he knew about them anyway, knew exactly where to find them.

"Agent Gregory," Selena says softly.

I glance in the rearview mirror to find her eyeing me, one side of her mouth quirked down into a frown. She"s been quiet since we left Los Angeles, barely saying more than two words. If she"s afraid we really are going to hurt her or hand her over to Guerrero, she"s not showing it. I don"t know if she wants out from under Guerrero or not. I can"t figure her out. I don"t really have the time or energy to try right now.

"Yeah?" I ask her instead.

"I know nothing about a mole," she says, holding my gaze in the mirror, "but he"s known about you since you killed Javier Lopez." Her gaze flits to Brady and then back to me, making it clear she knows why I killed Javier, the gangbanger who went after Brady"s family. "Javier wasn"t alone that night. Jesus de Silva was waiting down the block."

"Jesus Christ," I whisper, suddenly wishing we had killed de Silva when we had the chance.

"Motherfucker," Brady swears, his body going rigid at the realization that we both missed him out there that night.

"When Jesus told Jose what happened, Jose was going to send someone for you, but you disappeared," Selena continues quietly. "I think he had someone bug your house while you were away." Her lips twist, disgust and sympathy chasing one another across her face. "I heard him talking about it."

I take several deep breaths, fighting back the rage crawling up my spine. My grip on the phone tightens until my knuckles ache. Guerrero was in my house, invading every aspect of my life before I even brought Mila home. He gleaned anything he knows about her and Tahani from me, from my home. Everything I said, everything I did… he"s known for weeks.

Every moan and whimper Mila gave me…every word I said to her…that motherfucker heard them all. When we catch up to him, I"m going to break his jaw for that alone.

How much of our plans did he overhear?

"We have to assume he knows everything," I mutter, though I"m not sure if I"m talking to Finn and Brady or to myself. The thought of Guerrero knowing everything we"ve been doing has a haze of red tinging the edges of my vision. I never suspected that they"d been inside my house even before they burned it down or that they were listening to every word I said there.

"Not for long," Brady growls from beside me, clutching the steering wheel so tight his knuckles are white. That has to hurt like hell because his hand is definitely fucking broken, but he doesn"t even flinch. "This shit ends today."

"I"ll get Santa Cruz to put a team on your condo," Finn says. "If he takes them there, we"ll know about it."

Jesus Christ. How did this shit get so out of control?

When dealing with criminals, things rarely go precisely as planned. Despite our best efforts, our intel isn"t always accurate. Cases get fucked up. Shit goes wrong. But in ten years, it"s never gone this wrong before. The fact that it has this time is worrisome. Not just because Guerrero has Mila and Tahani, which is reason enough to worry, but because Guerrero isn"t known for being a criminal mastermind.

He"s smart, but he isn"t fucking smart enough to have planned all of this. Pedro Francisco is pulling the strings, exactly like we feared weeks ago. And I"m not so sure Guerrero will hand Mila and Tahani over, not even to save his girl and kid. Not if he"s under orders from Francisco.

That thought terrifies me.

"At least we know where the fucking guns are," Finn says. He pauses for a second and then blows out a breath. "We need to know what Ortega knows, Roman."

"I hear you," I tell him, not making any promises. Finn can order me to bring her in all he wants, but he won"t because he knows as well as I do that until Mila and Tahani are safe, I"ll do whatever I have to do.

My gaze drifts to Selena in the rearview mirror again. She"s staring out the window, one hand held protectively over her stomach. Her lips are turned down at the corners, but she looks sad more than anything. Dressed in jeans and a simple t-shirt with her hair tossed up in a ponytail and no makeup on, she looks vulnerable. She"s also much younger than I first thought, barely older than Tahani and Mila. I can"t help but wonder, yet again, how someone like her ended up with someone like Guerrero.

I"m not sure she"d tell me if I asked. Sometimes, you can"t save everyone, no matter how much you might wish you could.

Fifteen minutes outside of Santa Cruz, Selena"s phone rings. The sound has me ready to climb out of my skin. My nerves are shot. The team sitting on the condo hasn"t seen anyone, and it"s been four hours since I last heard from Mila and Tahani. Brady made the drive as quickly as possible, doing well over 100mph, but it still took too fucking long.

"It"s him," Selena says, her voice small and quiet. The closer we"ve gotten, the more distressed she"s become. I think she"s holding it together by sheer force of will alone, but that vulnerability shines through the cracks in her armor a little more frequently now. She jumps anytime Brady or I speak, and her voice shakes when she replies to any questions.

Whatever Guerrero is to her…it"s not by choice. That much is clear. And I have no fucking clue what I"m going to do about that.

"Here." She holds her phone out to me.

I ignore the way her hands shake, instead focusing on Jose Guerrero"s name on the display.

"You should be in Santa Cruz soon, no?" he asks as soon as I have the phone to my ear.

"Yes," I snap, gritting my teeth. It pisses me off that he knows we"ve been tracking him. He sounds amused, as if this entire fucking debacle is entertaining to him. I"m sure it probably is. Guys like Guerrero thrive on chaos and discord. They excel at making life miserable for others and do it because they take pleasure in ruining lives.

If I could reach through the phone here and now and end his life, I would.

"Your girlfriend told me about a lovely little restaurant. We should meet there."

"No."

"No?" He chuckles. "I have your daughter and your girlfriend, Gregory."

"And I have yours," I remind him. He doesn"t get to call the shots. He doesn"t get to invade any other aspects of my life. Fuck that. If he wants Selena back, I want him out in the open, where I can see him coming.

He"s silent for a long moment, and then he sighs. "Very well, Gregory. Where do you want to do this?"

"Cowell Beach," I respond immediately. With rain threatening, the beach will be deserted enough to keep bystanders from being caught in the middle if things go badly but open enough to make sure we aren"t ambushed.

"Very well," he says again, his tone resigned. "If the cops show, I will kill your daughter and then your girlfriend."

"They won"t," I growl, fighting the urge to tell him to go fuck himself and his threats. Until Mila and Tahani are safe, I need to keep my shit together. But he isn"t leaving Cowell Beach alive, not if I can help it. "I want to talk to my girls."

"Don"t you trust me?"

"Put them on the phone, or you can go fuck yourself, Guerrero," I mutter, my patience wearing thin.

"Watch your tone," he snaps right back at me.

"Then put my goddamn daughter or Mila on the phone," I growl. "If I don"t hear from them, I"ll kill your girl. Do not test me."

Selena whimpers in the backseat, making me feel like a dick, but I"m fucking sick of this son of a bitch. For weeks, he"s been making my life hell. I"m not in the mood for his little jokes and laughter.

"Watch it," Brady cautions from beside me.

I take a deep breath, trying to rein in my temper.

Guerrero is silent for a brief moment, and then a shuffling comes down the line.

"Daddy?"

The fear in Tahani"s voice hits me like a kick to the gut. Her voice is little more than a whisper, and that fucks me up. Tahani doesn"t whisper. She isn"t soft-spoken or quiet like Mila. She"s loud and spontaneous and always laughing. My kid is scared because some motherfucker crawled out of the gutter and went after her because of me. He knew how to get to her because of me.

I never wanted her in the middle of this. For years, I"ve tried to protect her from this shit, to keep her out of the crosshairs, and I failed.

"Hey, kiddo. Are you and Mila okay?" I ask her, my throat raw and my heart bleeding.

"Yes," she whispers.

"I"m so sorry, Tahani. I swear, I"m coming for you and Mila. Just hang on for me, okay?" There are a thousand things I want to say to her, but I can"t. Not here. Not yet.

"Okay. I love you, Daddy."

"I love you too, kid."

"Roman," Mila says a moment later.

"Are you okay, baby?" I ask, gripping the phone more tightly as her calm voice washes over me. She"s so goddamn strong, so fucking brave. I don"t deserve her, but I"ll kill to keep her. When this is over, no one will ever touch her again.

"I"m fine. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I lie, swallowing hard. "I"m good, baby. I"ll be there soon, and all of this will be over, okay?"

"Okay. I love you."

"God, I love you too."

"See?" Guerrero asks a heartbeat later. "I haven"t harmed a hair on their pretty little heads, Gregory. Now let me speak to Selena."

I want to tell him to go fuck himself again, but I can"t. He let me talk to my girls. I have to let him talk to his.

"He wants to talk to you," I mutter, holding the phone out to Selena.

For a moment, I think she"s going to refuse. She looks at me, then at the phone in my hand, and then back to me. Before I can tell her to take the damn thing, she sighs softly and reaches for it.

"Jose," she says and then frowns. "Estoy bien." Fear skitters across her face before she quickly schools her expression. "?Lo siento! No le dije nada a él." Her voice shakes, and then she whispers, "No, he dicho nada, ?lo juro!"

Brady catches my gaze and lifts a brow as if to ask what the fuck.

Selena listens to whatever Guerrero has to say, her eyes falling closed. "?Lo siento!" she mumbles into the phone and then holds it out to me again, her hands visibly shaking this time.

"You have an hour to get to this beach," Guerrero says to me, his voice noticeably strained.

The line disconnects.

Selena slumps back in the seat, those cracks in her armor now canyons. Whatever Guerrero is to her…whatever she"s doing with him…I can"t fucking hand her over. Not after hearing her side of that conversation.

"Fuck," I mutter, slamming my head back against the seat.

"What didn"t you tell us?" Brady asks her, his voice hard and unyielding. He speaks Spanish fluently, too.

She doesn"t say anything.

"We can"t help you if you don"t talk to us, Selena," he says.

"No one can help me," she mumbles sadly.

"Try us."

She"s silent for so long that I don"t think she"s going to respond, but then she sighs. "You won"t have to kill me to get your family back, Agent Gregory," she says, turning to stare out the window. "Jose won"t let anything happen to this baby, I promise you that."

"You sure about that?" Brady asks point-blank. "He left you alone in that big house. Doesn"t seem like he cares too fucking much about keeping you safe."

"I"m positive," she says with a bitter laugh.

"He wants kids or something?" he asks her.

She shrugs a shoulder. "I doubt that. His boss does, however."

His boss? What the fuck?

"What the fuck?" Brady asks.

Selena places her hand over her stomach again as if she"s trying to protect her baby. Her eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror again. The fear in them is unmistakable. It"s potent and raw, sending a chill through me.

"The kid isn"t his," I mutter.

"Jose is my brother," she whispers.

"Then whose fucking baby is it?" Brady demands, his voice sharp.

Selena doesn"t say anything, but her gaze doesn"t waver from mine, and I know exactly whose kid she"s carrying. I see the truth burning in those dark eyes right alongside the fear.

"Motherfucker," I swear loudly, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"You gotta be kidding me," Brady says half a second later, and I know he"s figured out what she isn"t saying, too.

She"s pregnant with Pedro Francisco"s kid. Whether by choice or by force, the baby in her belly is the only heir to a goddamn drug empire. If Guerrero is a monster, Francisco is the fucking devil. He runs the cartel in Sinaloa. Guerrero might as well be his fucking lapdog. His crimes pale in comparison to the shit Francisco has done over the years.

But Selena Ortega is a hell of a lot more valuable than we ever suspected. Because Francisco"s been trying for an heir with his wife for years. I guess the motherfucker finally found a way to give himself one.

Jesus Christ.

"If you kill Jose and send me back, you know what will happen," she says, her voice soft and resigned. "You said yourself that they will come for me."

She"s not wrong. Guerrero is a death sentence hanging over her head, but Francisco is something worse. If anyone finds out she"s carrying his kid and not Guerrero"s, his enemies will tear California apart to find her. Guerrero"s little war will pale in comparison to what will happen if Francisco"s enemies get their hands on his kid. If she"s lucky, they"ll kill her and the kid quickly. If she"s not…there will be no stopping Francisco. It"ll be a bloodbath.

For a minute, I consider telling her that"s not my fucking problem. I don"t want to deal with this shit when her brother has Mila and Tahani, but I can"t tell her that. With Guerrero to protect her, she stood a chance of keeping her kid safe. Without him, her kid is as good as dead, and so is she.

I close my eyes, defeat coursing through me in a flood.

No matter what I do here, someone loses. Guerrero will do anything for Francisco…including handing Mila and Tahani back, safe and sound. But I can"t use Selena to secure their safety. Not if it means putting an innocent baby into Francisco"s hands. Not if it means dragging the continent into this war. I may be walking a thin line, but I"m still a fucking cop, and I can"t let either happen any more than I can let Guerrero hurt my family.

I can"t hand her over.

As I expected, Cowell Beach is all but deserted, the rain clouds overhead having driven everyone indoors. The wind whips around me as I stare down at the beach from the bluff, suddenly wishing like hell that I"d chosen a more public location. Seaweed and trash litter the sand below, strewn carelessly. The entire area looks dirty, dingy, and far too fucking exposed for the shit I"m about to do.

"Are you sure about this?" Brady asks, reluctance stamped across every weary line of his face as he takes in the same view from his position beside me. "We can find a different way."

"No, we can"t."

He sighs, rubbing a hand across his head. He knows I"m right, though. There is no other way. In half an hour, I"ve got to walk down to that beach and meet Guerrero. And I have to do it alone.

Brady has to get Selena the hell out of California, immediately. If I manage to kill her brother, she"s going to need to disappear. And if I don"t manage to kill the son of a bitch…well, she"s going to need to disappear then, too. We can"t risk Francisco getting his hands on her or her baby.

"If I don"t make it out of this, you take care of my girls, Brady," I mutter to him, swallowing hard at the thought of losing today. If I do…fuck, just let me get Mila and Tahani out first.

Brady is the closest thing to a brother I"ve got. He has been for ten damn years. If I don"t make it out alive, there is no one else I"d trust with my family. It"s the closest to an apology I have for being a dick when Guerrero"s men went after his family.

"Fuck," he swears, hearing what I don"t say. He reaches out and pulls me into a hug before pounding me on the back. His forehead touches mine the same way it has every goddamn time we"ve made it through hell and lived to tell the tale. "I"ll take care of them like they"re my own," he promises before stepping back. "Be careful, brother."

"I will." I glance over my shoulder at the woman sitting in the passenger seat of his SUV. "No one can know where she"s at, man. Not even Finn." I trust Finn with my life, but this isn"t the kind of shit he could keep from his bosses. If we"re going to have any chance of keeping her kid out of Francisco"s hands, everyone has to believe she disappeared.

Brady grunts his agreement and then shakes his head. "This is fucked."

Yeah, it is, but for better or worse, we"re committed now.