Page 23 of Emerald

“No.”

“Get alone then,” he states seriously.

Kicking off the sheets that were wrapped around my naked body, I get up and walk from the bedroom, down the corridor tomy living room. I stare out through the windows and across the sandy beach. The waves slowly lap against the shoreline, it’s my small part of paradise.

“I’m alone now, what do you need?” I ask him.

Brooks and I were in the SEALs together for ten years before each of us took a bullet saving our team when a routine situation went south thanks to some bad intel. Killed both of our careers. We then headed to the private security game in the Middle East after a year of rehab. I was over the desert, sick of seeing sand with no turquoise blue to break it up. I’d had enough of eating the fucking flies and the scorching sun. Brooks stayed on, and I headed to Mexico where I did private security. It’s as tough as the Middle East, but a hell of a lot more of a party atmosphere. It was all good and great until my knee blew out after dancing on a bar top. I decided it would be better for me to sit behind the bar instead of standing on it.

“Need a favor,” he asks.

“Anything, what is it?”

“One of Sophie’s sisters is coming over to Tulum looking for a friend who has gone missing,” he explains.

“Missing?”

“Yeah, we believe she is with Dominguez.”

Shit.

Is he fucking serious right now? “You’re talking about Pedro?” I ask to be clear that we are talking about what I think we’re talking about.

“Yes. His son specifically,” Brooks adds.

“Fuck. That’s not good, that boy is psycho. If he has her, I don’t know if she’s still alive, man. He’s a sadistic little fuck,” I warn him. “She involved any of the authorities?”

“No, she’s coming alone,” he advises.

“She can’t come here alone, Brooks. They will eat her up and spit her out. Her fate will be the same as her friend’s,” I tell him seriously.

“That’s why we are sending her to you,” my oldest friend tells me.

“Brooks, what the fuck, man. I know you’re pussy-whipped by Sophie, but sending her sister halfway across the world to find a dead friend isn’t a smart idea.”

“I don’t pull in my favors often, Nash. I am with this one.”

This is true, Brooks never asks for anything from me. But this is a suicide mission, even for me. “Man, you’re really complicating my life with this bullshit, you know?”

“I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important,” he adds.

“Why are you not coming with her?”

“That’s on a need-to-know basis, bud,” he explains.

What has he got himself caught up in? “You better not blame me if something happens to this girl.”

“Don’t let anything happen to her,” Brooks bites back.

“She’s not going to be going off playing Nancy Drew, is she?”

“She might be a handful, but you know how to tame a woman or two, don’t you?” he states with a chuckle.

“You’ve put me on babysitting duties, haven’t you? You know there isn’t a hope of her finding her friend but she’s as stubborn as Sophie, isn’t she? So, she’s coming here anyway, and you want me to make sure she doesn’t get into anything she shouldn’t,” I ask him.

“Something like that. I also said she could stay with you,” he adds with a chuckle.

“You’re lucky I fucking like you, otherwise, I’d be telling you to fuck off.”

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