Page 59 of Fast Vengeance

“Say I play along and pretend to believe you’re his daughter. I’m not gonna give you his damn number, so why don’t you tell me what you want to say and I’ll think about passing it along to him?”

She hoped someone was tracing the call. They must be. “You tell him from me that I’ll come to him—”

Across the table Victoria gasped, shook her head and opened her mouth as if to protest, but Oceane wouldn’t stop.

“I’ll come to him, but only if he releases Agent Hamilton immediately. You tell him from me that if he hurts Hamilton any more, I’ll hate him forever and he’ll never get what he wants.” She drew a shallow breath. “Tell him right now and tell him he has ten minutes to answer at this number. And you’d better tell him, because if he finds out you didn’t pass on the message and he lost his chance to see me, he’ll kill you.” She hung up, her cheeks on fire, the righteous anger inside her burning out of control.

“Oceane, no,” Victoria blurted, but before Oceane could respond Gabe grasped her upper arm and whirled her to face him.

His expression was taut, his pale blue eyes full of rage. And something else.

Apprehension. He was afraid for her.

“What the hell did you just do?” he demanded.

He didn’t speak Spanish fluently, so he might not have understood everything. The only one on the team who did was Rodriguez, and he was staring at her in shock, and also maybe a little admiration mixed in. “I…”

Gabe’s jaw flexed, his face hard. “What did you say, Oceane?”

“She said she’ll meet Nieto if he lets Hamilton go,” Rodriguez said.

Murmurs and indrawn breaths filled the air as Oceane stared at Gabe.

“No,” Taggart said in an adamant tone, shaking his head. “You’re not doing that. It’s way too risky. We’re not handing you over to him. That’s not how we operate.”

“I know. That’s why I’m going to him voluntarily.”

“You can’t.”

“I can. Unless I’m under arrest and wasn’t aware of it?” She raised an eyebrow at him, not caring if she came off as a bitch. She was done with being victimized. With being used. Done with sitting back and watching her life crumble around her, with allowing others to be hurt or killed because of the man who had given her fifty percent of her DNA.

Taggart didn’t answer, but a muscle bunched in his jaw.

“Nieto won’t hurt me, because he wants me back.” For whatever reason. That was the only thing she was certain of anymore. “So if he agrees to free Brock, I’ll do a swap for him. You can track me and move in to arrest him once Brock is free.” This was the only way, and he had to know it. The best shot they had at arresting Nieto.

The only way to make things right and find justice for her mother, Brock and herself.

Gabe swore and stalked away a few paces, hands on hips as he faced away from her. She winced inside, hating that he’d turned away, but there was nothing she could do. She’d set the wheels in motion and couldn’t go back now.

Taggart dragged a hand over his face and sighed. “Shit. I can’t legally stop you. But if you go ahead with this, you need to understand that I can’t guarantee your protection. And neither can they,” he added, looking at the Mexican officials.

“Understood. And I’m going ahead with it.” She squelched the ripple of unease that moved under her skin at the thought of undertaking such a dangerous mission. Because dammit, she was the only one who might be able to end this in time.

She glanced at Gabe, flinched at the anger vibrating off him, his ice blue eyes searing her now. She couldn’t take his anger right now. She needed to be alone, come to terms with what she’d done and was about to do.

“Now I’d like some time to myself if you don’t mind,” she said, her voice quieter now, steady even though she was terrified. “Nieto’s only got nine minutes left to call me back.”

Phone in hand, she turned away from everyone and headed for a private office, scared as hell and sure she’d lost her damn mind.

Chapter Sixteen

Gabe wasn’t happy about this. At all. In fact, he was convinced this was a really bad fucking idea.

They might free Hamilton if they did this. Maybe. Though based on that video, it might already be too late.

They may even get Nieto out of the deal if they were real lucky. But the odds of something happening to Oceane through any part of this plan were way too fucking high. Just thinking about what she might walk into tonight made his blood pressure soar.

“We don’t have much time to pull this off,” Taggart said to the team in a private office they’d piled into for an emergency meeting. He could see Oceane through the window in another office down the hall, and someone had taken Victoria somewhere. Analysts now thought that the anonymous tip about the target house had been sent by someone working for either Montoya or El Escorpion, in the hopes of getting rid of Nieto.

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