Page 20 of The Last Promise You Made

Gia shut the door, turning to look at Maddox and me with an attitude that screamed defiance, as if she already suspected we wouldn’t like or agree to what she had to say.

“I’m not leaving her until I know she’s safe.”

My chest heaved. I didn’t know what that meant. Gia had said, “Take Addy home,” in the same sentence as the word “we,” but before I could think of the right questions to ask, she continued, “She’s spoken maybe a dozen or so words since we found her in the hotel room. She was hiding under the bed in a space that would barely fit a book. She had her mother’s blood on her. I don’t know what she saw, but I do know if the Lovatos even suspect she was in that room, they’ll be looking for her. And if Ravyn was able to hand off something to her that could be used as leverage that they didn’t take from the room already, they’ll be even more desperate. The cartel doesn’t leave loose ends.”

“They’d kill a kid?” The words were out before I could take them back.

“They’d kill their own child if it meant keeping their secrets.”

My gut turned nastily. Was Addy someone in the cartel’s kid rather than mine?

“Who knows she’s here?” Maddox asked.

“I kept the knowledge of her existence down to a minimum. There are six people besides those of us in this room who know, and only three of them know the contents of that letter. I trust my boss and my teammate with my life, but the Lovatos have a way of getting information that should be secure.”

“You think they’ll come for her?” I grunted out.

“Even if she didn’t see anything, they don’t know that. Only time will tell if they find out about her, if she saw anything, or if her mother really gave her something we can use. So, until we know otherwise, we have to assume she’s at risk.”

I looked through the window of the door to the tiny child with her head bent over the device, and dark fury welled through me again—this time, at the idea of anyone trying to hurt her.

“You didn’t find anything on her? That Ravyn left?” Maddox asked.

“Nothing in the hotel room. But then again, none of the electronics she needed to do her job were there either. So, they could have taken whatever proof she’d gathered with them after they killed her. All that was in Addy’s backpack were clothes, two books, some personal hygiene items, and that Nintendo. As you might imagine, tech is kind of our thing in the NSA, so I explored it a bit before I let her have it. I don’t think anything is there, but I’ll take a better look later. I think it’s fairly new as there are only a couple games on it, or maybe they didn’t have the money to buy more.”

I instantly wanted to buy Addy a dozen games. Maybe a hundred. Give her a whole damn room full of them. Give her a room full of rainbows and sparkles just like Mila’s room at Maddox’s place.

“Last I heard, no one’s been able to identify the head of the cartel. Just a large base of foot soldiers,” Maddox said.

“We’ve had some leads, and we were working a source, but every time we think we’re getting somewhere, the person we’ve got our sights on winds up dead.”

“The task force has a leak?”

“It may not be a direct leak. I’m not putting it past the Lovatos to have paid informants within multiple agencies, but it’s also much more likely that, with her skills, Anna—Ravyn—opened a door directly into some federal systems.”

For some reason, Gia’s calm, her almost lackadaisical attitude about it all, pissed me off. “What you’re telling me is you have nothing? There’s no end in sight? This child could be in danger for years—which means her being here could put my entire family at risk.”

“She is your family,” Gia snapped.

“So you and a thief say,” I growled back.

“Take a breath,” Maddox demanded, looking between us. “We’ll run a DNA test, and we’ll know for sure.”

“You can’t do that,” Gia said, shaking her head. “I didn’t even run her DNA back in Colorado. If you do it now, and there’s a match to something in the system, it’ll flag something somewhere, and you’ll end up with multiple law enforcement agencies and the Lovatos banging down your door.”

“She’s here. She exists. And everyone in Willow Creek is going to know about it as soon as I show up anywhere with her at my side.”

Gia looked as pissed about this as I was about the entire situation. Her jaw worked as she looked out the door at Addy. Then, her chin went up as she turned back to us and said, “We’ll say she’s mine for now.”

I scoffed. Gia didn’t look old enough to have a seven-year-old daughter, no matter her confidence and don’t-fuck-with-me attitude. “What? You were a teen mom?”

“She’s seven, asswipe, not twelve. There are plenty of people who have kids at twenty.”

I could feel Maddox watching the bouncing match between Gia and me. I was pretty sure if I looked at him, he would be trying to decide whether to laugh or defend me. The laugh was probably winning.

“Addy and I can stay in one of the guest cabins at the ranch. You can get to know each other without the pressure of living under the same roof. I can make sure she’s safe. We all get what we want.”

I was just about to retort with something along the lines of when hell froze over when my brother’s soft voice stopped me. “Except for her. I’m pretty sure all she wants is her mother back.”

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