Page 57 of Fast Vengeance

“No.” Victoria dragged her into a hug and Oceane’s control nearly broke. She didn’t deserve Victoria’s concern. Not when Manny Nieto’s blood ran through her veins. “You have nothing to be sorry about. This isn’t your fault.”

“Yes, it is. My father did this to get me back.” She shuddered, unable to grasp the depths of his depravity. The level of cruelty he could have inflicted on someone.

A big, gentle hand settled on the top of her head. “This is on him. Not you. He’s the monster and he makes his own choices.” Gabe.

She didn’t deserve his understanding or support either. This entire situation was because of her and her father. Her jaw trembled, shock finally hitting her. “Brock was still alive on the video?” she made herself ask.

“Yes,” Victoria answered.

But might not be now. “When was it taken?”

“We’re not sure. Maybe a few minutes ago,” Gabe said.

As the shock and anguish began to recede, something stronger began to form in their place.

Anger. A deep, burning resolve to do something about this.

For vengeance. To make sure her father could never hurt anyone ever again.

She stood, locked her knees and wiped at her face impatiently with the heels of her hands. The peppermint gum helped freshen her mouth, the queasiness subsiding a little. “Do they know where he is?”

“Somewhere near Cancún, we think,” Victoria said.

Cancún? Her attention sharpened on her friend. “What makes you think that?”

“One of Ruiz’s sicarios called in a tip, thinking he was being anonymous. They traced the call to there. And he sent a picture of a house where he claimed Brock was being held.”

“Show me.”

Gabe curled a hand around her waist as he guided her back inside to a desk where a folder was laid out. The moment she saw the photo of the house, her heart stuttered. My God…

“I’ve been there,” she said, her heartbeat quickening.

“When?” Gabe asked, turning to wave Taggart and the others over before looking down at her again.

“When I was young. We used to stay there on vacation sometimes. My fath—” No. She wouldn’t call him that any longer. Not one damn time more. “Nieto would come and meet us. He would stay for a few days at a time, sometimes longer.” And he and her mother always told her he couldn’t stay long because he needed to travel so often for business.

God, she’d been such a fool. A brainwashed, idiotic ostrich that would rather stick its head in the sand than see the truth that had been right there in front of her for her entire life.

“Are you certain?”

She glanced up into Taggart’s stern face. The rest of the team was gathered around them, watching her, their expressions hard. She felt like they blamed her partly for this. And rightly so. “Yes. Nieto told me it belonged to a friend, but I’m betting if we dig a little, it will be owned by one of his companies.”

“Do you remember the address?”

“No. But I remember the neighborhood.” She glanced around. “I need a map.”

Someone shoved a laptop in front of her seconds later, a map on screen. She didn’t know the street names or even what the neighboring properties looked like. But she remembered the name of the beach her parents had taken her to play on. It was within easy walking distance of the house. Maybe a few minutes on foot.

She located it on the map, tried to remember which direction they’d walked in to get to and from it. “Somewhere in here,” she said, circling a neighborhood of waterfront homes with her finger. “We had an unobstructed ocean view from the back of the house. The lots were big. There was a big garden out back with a tall fountain in the middle. It had trimmed hedges around it. And a sculpture of a dolphin.”

Gabe leaned forward and tapped a few buttons to enlarge the satellite map, zooming in on the area she’d indicated. Making it larger. Larger still, until the rooflines and yards became distinct.

Her anxious gaze landed on a familiar landmark in one of them. “There.”

Gabe zoomed in closer still and Oceane’s heart began to pound. A knot-formation of trimmed hedges came into view in the backyard, a fountain in the center. And the dolphin off in the corner. “This is it.”

“Get eyes on this address,” Taggart commanded to the room.

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