Page 27 of Ravaged Hearts

Wait.

An idea took root in my mind, one that filled me with equal parts optimism and anxiety. There was a way to get to my father. The problem was it involved walking into my own personal nightmare.

“We’re not going to find him,” I said quietly, mostly to myself. “Not fast enough, anyway. He needs to come to us. And I know how to make it happen.” All eyes in the room landed on me.

Beside me, Vaughn tensed. “No.” The single, stern word suggested he’d caught on before the others. “No fucking way, so you can get that idea out of your head.”

“But it’ll work, and you know it.”

“Does someone want to tell me what she’s talking about?” Brandon asked, his eyes volleying between Vaughn and me.

“She’s talking about using herself as bait, that’s what.” Vaughn swallowed his bourbon in one gulp and slammed the glass onto the coffee table. “You heard my answer. No.”

I folded my arms. “I don’t see how we have any other choice.”

Vaughn’s wild eyes were unblinking. “So, what? We throw you out there like a piece of cheese and wait for a giant rat to show up?”

“Exactly. I’ll make contact with a street-level cartel member, get them to filter the message that I’m alive up the food chain, and then someone will come for me. I’ll be taken to Carlos at the compound, so all you’ll need to do is follow me and you’ll know where to hit.”

I put on a brave face, making my proposal sound easy so Vaughn wouldn’t realize how scared I was of returning to myfather. Just thinking about being in the same room as Carlos made panic surge inside me.

Deep in thought, Brandon scratched the dark stubble on his jaw. “It could work.”

Vaughn stabbed a finger at his teammate. “You shut the fuck up.”

I placed my hand on Vaughn’s thigh, hoping that would calm him. “Carlos won’t hurt me. I’m probably the only person alive who can say that.”

My father was inextricably linked to every painful moment in my life. I couldn’t think about him without an overwhelming sense of dread. The idea of being in the same room as the man who represented death, torment, and devastation made my stomach turn watery. Psychologically, our reunion would be traumatic, but Carlos had never been physically violent toward me. If anything, he should be elated by my return.

“We can put a tracker on her,” Sage said. “We’ll know where Hope is the entire time.”

Vaughn ignored Sage’s comment and faced me, seething. “This is bullshit,” he spat. “What if something goes wrong? There’s a reason we haven’t been able to nail Espinoza already. He’s slippery as fuck. If you go back to him, he’ll hide you away again and never let you go. You know that.”

He was right, and it was something I’d already considered but hadn’t wanted to highlight to Vaughn for fear of his reaction. If Carlos had been paranoid about my safety before, he’d increase my security tenfold once he found out I was still alive. It was a risk I was willing to take.

“We’re out of time.” I squeezed his thigh. “You can’t find him without me.”

Vaughn let out a frustrated growl and dragged his hands through his hair, rocking in place.

“Hey.” I shifted my palm to his chest to soothe him. “I’ve spent most of my life wishing there were something I could doto end my father’s cartel. Every life he’s snuffed out, every family suffering the loss of a loved one, their sadness feels like an anchor weighing down my soul because I’ve done nothing to stop it. But I can do this. Ineedto do this.”

Vaughn understood me better than anyone, so he knew how important this was to me. Contributing to my father’s downfall would help heal me in ways no therapy ever could.

He took my face in his palms, and the furrow in his brow deepened as his dark eyes bored into mine. “Don’t hand yourself over to him, please.”

“Don’t ask me not to.” I held his stare, and his pained expression made a thick knot lodge in my throat. “If Brandon and Sage think it’ll work, then I’m all in.”

I didn’t tell them about the other part of my plan. The part that truly would put me in danger but would mean Vaughn and the team wouldn’t have to risk their lives to achieve our goal. Losing even one more innocent life in the hunt for my father was something I couldn’t allow.

So when I finally came face-to-face with Carlos Espinoza, I was going to kill him myself.

12

VAUGHN

Iasked Sage to give Hope a quick tour of the lodge, partly because she was genuinely interested to learn how we supported trafficking victims here at the ranch, but also because I needed to talk to Brandon and put a stop to the bullshit idea that we would allow my woman to hand herself over to the enemy.

I had two words for my teammate.

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