Page 26 of Shadow Games

Rowan's cheeks went pink. Man, he loved that he could make her blush.

“So, the only thing I can find on the necklace is a very grainy photo. It was given to a family outside of Jaurez almost four hundred years ago and was supposedly passed down through generations of the Ceto cartel family. I don’t think the cartel cares about the logbook. I think they want the necklace.”

“That’s very sound reasoning. Are you sure?”

She shrugged. “As sure as I can be.”

Crossing the room, she retrieved her tablet. Swiping across the screen a couple of times, she held it out to him. “There's a black and white photo. I have an older, well-dressed woman on it. She looks Hispanic. And she had a crown of some type on top of her head. She also wore the necklace that was wrapped in newspaper on the kitchen table.

His brows rose. “That's definitely the necklace, isn't it?”

“I think so.”

“I have kind of a radical idea,” she said, crossing to sit beside him on the couch.

Wyatt had his feet propped on the coffee table, but he dropped them, turning one knee onto the couch. “What's that?”

“I say if we don't figure anything out by tomorrow, we call that number that was on the business card.”

“What business card?” Wyatt asked.

Rowan hopped up from the couch and went to retrieve her backpack. She dug through the contents for a minute, then returned to the couch, handing him a black business card. “When I was attacked after the funeral, the guy stuck this in my bra.”

Wyatt looked at the generic card. There was no name, just a phone number in gold embossed letters. “Who does this go to?”

“I have no idea. But it has to be one of the cartel.”

He surveyed the card. Then picking up his phone, he keyed in the area code. “South Texas, he said.

She nodded. “Very South.”

“So, why would we want to call them?”

“Well, I don't know about you, but I don't care about the necklace,” she said, tossing up her hands. “If I can get them off my back by giving them the necklace, I would think about doing it. I know. They lost a lot of product and cash last week, but I don't think that matters as much as this necklace. If it's as important as I think it is, they’ll write off everything else.

Wyatt thought about it for a moment. “It's worth a try, I suppose.”

The thought of contacting the cartel willingly gave him a hollow feeling in his gut.

“I can word it so that I find out what they want first,” she promised him.

Wyatt looked into her clear green eyes. And knew he would probably say yes to about anything. There was life there now, and she wanted to fight. “Hopefully, Charlie will get back to us and give us some good news.”

“The Navy wants the logbook, and the pictures of the logs I took.”

Wyatt scrubbed a hand over his face. “This would be a lot easier if we knew where the actual logbook was.”

Rowan shrugged. “It's hard to tell where it is now.”

“He could have dropped it in the mail to South Africa for all we know. He mailed his mother a priceless necklace, so why not? Your husband was a dick, Rowan.”

“I know,” she sighed. “Please don't call him my husband. I haven't considered him that for a long time. I dropped my married name and took back James. Probably not officially legal, but I did.”

Wyatt tipped his head and acknowledgment. “Roger that.”

Scrubbing a hand over his face, he sighed. “I think I might go take a nice long hot shower.”

“Enjoy yourself,” Rowan said with a smile. “It should be plenty hot by now.”

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