Page 16 of Freeing Camila

“Tell her I’m fine,”

“She won’t believe that,” Tin Man returned.

Jeeves sighed. “I’m trying, man. I owe her a lot. I know that.

“You’ve already apologized. She’s good with that.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“But you still carry the guilt. I get it.”

“I was a dick to her. Never should have happened that way. I’ll forever feel like a jackass and a failure where she is concerned.” There were simply no alternatives. He’d always wallow in regret from his actions. Not only had he failed Sutton, but he’d failed in his promise to Liam as well. Although Liam had urgently requested that Sutton be looked after in the event of anything happening to him, he had neglected his duty, and the burden of his inaction pressed heavily upon his conscience.

A long, drawn-out sigh, heavy with unspoken words, drifted across the phone line to Jeeves. “No use beating a dead horse,” Tin Man said before changing the subject. “Anything new?”

Jeeves knew Tin Man was asking about their investigation into El Sombra and the people who worked for him in the states. Wishing there was more he could give his friend he said, “A SEAL team raided one of El Sombra’s suspected compounds in Colombia.”

“Let me guess, there was nothing.”

“Pretty much. They were packing up. No sign of El Sombra.”

“Of course.”

“But there was one curiosity left behind.”

“Anything that could lead us to that bastard?” Tin Man asked, the hope clear as day in his tone.

“Unfortunately, no. Just a woman.”

“Valeria?” Since Sutton’s rescue, they had all been looking for Valeria Hurtado. The woman was responsible for a trafficking ring that nearly got Tin Man’s sister kidnapped. She was also the woman who’d lured both Jeeves and Liam away from camp that awful night in Colombia. The desire to see her head on a platter consumed Jeeves, a dark wish fueled by an intense desire for revenge. He wouldn’t rest until that woman was captured or killed. Preferably the latter.

“No. An innocent. An American woman.”

“Fuck,” Tin Man spat.

“She was found locked up with a bunch of Colombian girls. Close to death too, from what I understand.”

“What the fuck was she doing there?”

“Her father sold her.”

Jeeves had to hold the phone away from his ear as Tin Man shouted, “The fuck you say?” He briefed his former Ranger buddy on Baker’s findings regarding the woman, carefully leaving out his personal encounter and the mesmerizing allure of her deep brown eyes.

“Baker set her up with a new identity,” he finished.

“That’s good. Fuck, that poor girl. And I thought what Bethany had been through was rough.”

“Itwasrough,” Jeeves insisted. “Just in a different way.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“How’s she doing?”

“You know Bethany.”

A slow smile spread across Jeeves’ face as he pictured the brave teenager. “Strongest girl I know.”

Tin Man let out a chuckle, the sound light and airy. “You got that right.” Jeeves distinctly picked up on the joyful lilt in his friend’s voice; the sound was so reassuring that a wave of relief washed over him, banishing his previous anxieties. Tin Man had been through a lot and he deserved all the happiness that Sutton and Bethany brought into his life. They seemed to be exactly what he needed.

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