Page 29 of Freeing Camila

“I don’t know,” she cried while still typing furiously. “It’s the Jester. He’s good.”

“Surely not better than you?” Eggs said.

“He just might be. And don’t call me Shirley.” Leave it to Haley not to let that reference to the movieAirplanego untouched, even when she was in crisis mode.

“What’s going on?” Jeeves asked.

“We’re being hacked . . . again,” Haley blurted, obviously not at all pleased someone was poking around in her system.

“A hacker who calls himself the Jester has been testing our system for months now,” Flint said.

“He’s a pest,” Haley declared before muttering to her computer screen. “Not today!” she shouted, each keystroke a sharp, angry tap against the keyboard, the sound amplified in the quiet room.

“What does he want this time?” Flint asked. The air crackled with an unspoken tension, a silent understanding between Flint and Haley that was clearly evident, and highly communicative, to Jeeves. This was obviously not their first rodeo.

“He sent an audio file.”

“Play it.”

Haley hit a key, and the audio file began to play. The speakers crackled to life, then a voice, sharp and commanding, filled the room—the voice of someone used to giving orders. Calm. Cold. Negotiating.

“She’s a little older that the usual, but still a virgin. Brunette. Educated. No real connections. Easy to move.”

Jeeves froze. Were they talking about Cammie?

“When can she be ready?” answered a heavily accented voice. Afemalevoice. Jeeves felt a shocking chill as the blood in his veins turned to ice.It couldn’t be.

“ASAP.”

“Fine. Get it done.”

“I trust this will cover the debt?”

“With her and the others. Yes.”

“You’ll have her within twenty-four hours.”

Haley stopped the recording. “Jester sent a voice recognition report he’d run as well. The man is most definitely Gio Piras.

“And the woman?” Flint asked.

With a barely audible murmur, Jeeves uttered the name “Valeria Hurtado,” struggling to reconcile the reality of it with his own incredulity.

Flint’s gaze, hard as flint itself, locked on to him. “Are you sure?”

“Hundred percent.”

“Wait,” Haley stammered. “Who are we talking about?”

“Valeria Hurtado, aka Daniella, a Colombian national, ran a sophisticated trafficking ring from a quiet, unassuming house in Michigan,” Flint answered coldly, the weight of the information heavy in the air.

“Shit. A woman? Really?” Eggs asked in disbelief.

Haley’s fingers were typing away as she gathered whatever information she could about the woman. Jeeves could give her what the public records couldn’t. How cunning the woman was. How she lured unsuspecting men with lurid promises. How she had completely duped everyone she came into contact with. How she lived rent free in his memories and his nightmares.

Her picture popped up on the big screen and Jeeves flinched. “Jesus. She ran a foster home?” Haley cried incredulously. Then she looked at Jeeves. “She was involved in that case you helped with last year in Lake Haven. The one with the Nighthawks?”

Haley was talking about Tin Man and the search and rescue group he worked for. In Lake Haven, Michigan, the Nighthawks operated a specialized training facility where they provided comprehensive instruction to groups of first responders on a wide range of crucial search and rescue techniques. Initially, their rescue efforts focused on Tin Man’s adolescent sister, a girl who had been placed in Valeria’s foster home and who had, while there, made a startling discovery about a human trafficking operation. Later, their rescue efforts extended to Tin Man’s significant other, Sutton, who’d been captured trying to save Tin Man’s sister on her own.

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