Page 47 of Sold on Them

“Thank you,” I say, my voice rough from the tears. I clear my throat. “I’m okay now. Or at least as okay as I can be until we get them back.”

“Are you sure?” Royce still has one of his arms wrapped around my shoulders as he glances at me. “If you need more time, we have a little while until we get back to Detroit.”

I shake my head. “I don’t need it. I need to get to work. I’ve got to see what properties the cartel uses in Detroit. They don’t have a large operation in the US—especially not this far north. There shouldn’t be many. That’ll make it easier for us to narrow it down and get them back as soon as possible.”

“Alright.” Royce turns, reaching behind him and grabbing my laptop. “It’ll probably be easier once we set up a base, but see what you can find out now. I’ll see if I can find a house for us to rent. I’d rather not be staying in a hotel while we’re working on this. Too many innocents could be injured. It’s clear the cartel was close to finding us in Detroit. I don’t know if they’ll continue to look for us now that they have Damon and Mackenzie, but I’d rather not take any chances.”

“And I’ll just keep driving,” Cormac says from the driver’s seat, his eyes meeting mine in the rearview mirror once more. “We’ve got this, Park. We’re going to end this.”

I nod. “We are—just as soon as we rescue Damon and Mackenzie.”

Royce settles into the seat behind Cormac, finally pulling on his seatbelt as he works on his phone to find us somewhere to set up a base of operations.

I get my computer booted up, connecting to the SUV’s WiFi hotspot to connect to the Internet. It’s easy enough to get lost in the task as I search for properties owned by any of the shell companies we know the cartel uses. Sure, there could be new ones that they’ve started using, but I’m hopeful that Carlos will want me to find him easily.

I hear Royce and Cormac talking but pay no attention to their words. The timber of their voices and the normalcy of doing what I do best settles my emotions even more. They won’t settle completely until this is all over, but I’m thankful that they’re no longer overwhelming me. That’s not something we can afford in our line of work.

When the car rolls to a stop, I glance up in shock.

We’re parked in front of a cabin surrounded by trees, telling me we’re not in the Detroit city limits. “Where are we?”

“Not too far from where you grew up,” Royce offers as he swings his door open. “We wanted something out of the way. It’s a little over an hour to Detroit from here—just the opposite direction we’d been driving in. This should be good for a base.”

I hum, pushing open my door and stepping out, computer still in hand. I grab my bag that holds everything I’ll need to get set up and head straight for the door.

“The code is 2-4-6-1-7-5,” Royce calls to me, and I enter it into the keypad on the door.

I push it open when it unlocks, stepping inside. A quick sweep of the room to the right reveals a living room, and I continue to move down the hallway until I reach the kitchen. There’s a table big enough for me to set up at in there, and I get to work doing just that.

Within twenty minutes, I have my whole system up and running—thanks to Royce bringing in my other two laptops. It would be better to have my desktop set up for this, but it’s hard to bring it on the run with us. This has been doing the job, and it’ll continue to do it while I look for where Carlos is keeping my loves.

Once more, I lose myself in my work as Cormac and Royce move around the cabin, speaking in low voices so as not to disturb me.

It won’t be much longer before I know exactly where they’re being kept, and then we can make the real plan. I just wish it would go a little faster, but I can be patient.

I’ve spent nearly two years being patient, so I know I can last a little bit longer.

Chapter Eighteen

Cormac

This is the part of the mission I hate.

There’s not a damn thing Royce and I can do until Parker finds Carlos’s location. No plans can be made. No decisions can be made. It’s frustrating as hell.

It’s even worse this time because I find myself worrying over what Damon and Mackenzie are likely facing right now. When Royce and I made the decision to search them out and find a safe way for Parker to see them, I never thought I’d end up falling for them as well. I know Royce is on the same page.

Obviously, neither of us is in love with the two of them like Parker, but we could be given enough time. The last thing I want is for that time to be cut short because we dragged them into themess that is our lives. Not only would it break Parker in a way that I don’t think Royce or I could fix, but I think it would break all of us.

“What heavy thoughts are you thinking, Cor?” Royce settles onto the couch beside me, taking my hand in his.

I scoff, leaning my head back so I can stare up at the ceiling. “How I didn’t expect for us to fall for Damon and Mackenzie over the course of two days. Of how it’ll break Parker in an irreparable way if anything happens to either of them. Of how I think it’ll break all three of us. If we can’t save them, then everything we love will be lost. How can life change so drastically over a weekend?”

“Heavy thoughts, indeed,” Royce murmurs, leaning back to mirror me. “As much as I’d like to argue with your words, I think you’re right. This is one mission we cannot fail.”

“I’m worried about them being in Carlos’s hold.”

From all accounts Carlos Alvarez is a mean bastard who will do anything he has to in order to get what he wants. He’s our prime suspect in the murder of Santos Santiago’s wife. We just haven’t been able to work out his motivation, or how he could’ve pulled off framing Parker. My gut tells me he’s the one who did it, but without proof there’s nothing we can do. We’ll only have one chance at speaking to Santos, and we’ll have to have proof of Parker’s innocence for him. We won’t get a second chance. That’s why we’ve been on the run so long. Whoever did this has covered their tracks well.

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