Page 46 of Hunted Hearts
“I might have programmed in a back door so I can keep an eye on them.” His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as though it was suddenly constricted. “Charlie is my second family. It was hard as hell walking away from them.”
Theo could count on two fingers how many times he’d seen Denver get emotional. One when they lost their mother. The other whenever he looked at his baby daughter.
“If I can’t be there to watch their sixes, the least I can do is watch out for them this way.”
Theo nodded, thoughts lingering on his own SEAL team. “So why are you sharing all this with me?”
“Because Charlie just completed an op.”
His chest tightened.
Denver wordlessly pulled out his phone. He held it up to show Theo the screen. Photos of children, huddled together on a dock, in some cases clinging to each other. Several had blankets draped over their shoulders.
Theo’s gaze cut over the background of what could only be a harbor. He could practically smell that photo.
“What am I looking at?”
“These kids are Romanian.”
He waited for more.
“Look closer. What do you see?”
He took the phone from his brother and held it close, scouring the photo. For a beat, he paused on the kids’ faces. Fear glowed in their eyes, and he couldn’t look for long. He dragged his gaze over their clothes.
Not ragged, but not clean either.
A couple older kids stood on the edge of the group, clutching plastic bags. Using his finger and thumb, he zoomed the photo to get a better look at the bags.
Then he saw it.
The logo.
“Oh my god.” His words emitted as a hot rasp propelled like a red-hot coal through his throat. “It’s the logo of Juliette’s charity.”
Denver was watching him. “Only these kids aren’t in Eastern Europe. They were picked up here in the US. They were being trafficked.”
“And Charlie found them because of the intel I was passed. The note.” Realization washed over him with a pull of a tidal wave, the certainty what he said was true.
He met Denver’s serious gaze.
Now emotion thickenedhisthroat. What he had done, taking that note and getting it into the hands of the right people, hadmattered.At the time, it hadn’t seemed like much, but the expressions on those kids’ faces didn’t lie.
“Hell,” he gritted out, thrusting the phone at Denver. “If I’d shared the intel with you instead, Charlie team could have reached the kidssomuch sooner. How many were already lost? Sold? Fuck!”
Denver set the phone on the table. “You followed protocol, Theo. You had a chain of command—one I wasn’t in. If you could have even found me.”
His jaw popped from clenching it so tight. “It’s time to bring in our brothers.”
After a brief nod, he strode out of the room. Theo’s mind whirled as he listened to his brother’s footsteps fade down the hallway, then the faint rumble of voices as he gathered the Black Heart team, maybe for the very first conference in this room.
The logo. The charity.
Juliette.
His heart flexed as her name filled his mind. Unable to remain still, he took off, pacing around the room in prowling strides. He passed the case full of gadgets but didn’t really see them.
He was suddenly back in Turkey with that note in his hand.
