Page 26 of Her Last Hope
She curled her fingers around his wrist while his hand still cupped her neck. He studied her face,wondering if she could ever move beyond the pain of her past.
He blinked. What was he thinking? He hadn’t moved on, and he probably never would.
“I think the hickey sealed that cover,” Logan said, laughing.
It sealed more than that, Nick thought.
5
The sun disappeared behind the horizon, leaving a fiery glow across the Florida sky. Leandra never thought she’d enjoy the south, but if she were being honest with herself, she missed it.
Even the damn heat.
The only reason she’d moved back north was to be near her family for their support after Kent had passed, but she’d fallen in love with the south almost as much as she loved Kent.
She sat next to Nick in the front seat of a dark-colored luxury SUV. Logan was situated in the back. She found their relationship to be filled with a loving angst that only brothers could share. Of course, she had no idea, considering she had no siblings herself, and neither had her husband.
She loved their sarcastic banter and was humbled by the way Logan seemed to drop everything to help his brother, which in turned helped her, and thatthought gave her a warm shiver. She understood why Nick’s brother had his back, but why did Nick have hers? The thought he might care about her sent a different kind of shiver across her body.
She’d fallen so hard and fast for Kent that she’d barely had a chance to catch her breath before she found herself walking down the aisle in a white dress on her father’s arm.
Stealing a glance at Nick, her breath hitched. He looked her way and smiled. Her heart pounded so fast against her chest she figured it had jostled her breasts.
Nick pulled the SUV into a parking garage about five miles from the warehouse where Agent Fielding and his team had set up a meet to go over their part of the plan.
“You really think this is a good idea?” Leandra asked. Her interaction with the FBI had always been antagonistic in nature. Being a PI wasn’t always valued by various law enforcement agencies.
Not to mention, she had a tendency to bend the law.
Just a tad.
Nick backed into the designated spot, across from three dark government cars. “I don’t like bringing in the Feds, but he’s got a man in Ramos’ camp, and we need to know who that is and how to protect him.”
Logan shifted in the back seat. “They had Ramos dead to rights on the casinos, but until Leandra here showed up, almost nothing on the trafficking, at least from what we’ve dug up on their investigation.”
“According to Fielding and his agency,” Leandra muttered. “Don’t you think it’s a little strange they had an inside guy for this long and he barely knew about the human trafficking ring?”
“The thought crossed my mind,” Nick said.
“I’m happy to help take this asshole down, but I don’t want them getting in the way of me finding my client’s daughter, or trying to shut me out.” Leandra reached out and touched Nick’s forearm. “I’m not stopping until I find her.”
He curled his long fingers over hers. His gentle smile sucker punched her lungs.
She swallowed.
“Neither am I.” He stared into her eyes with such deep intent it made everything around her blur.
Except him.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
“Mia hasn’t been able to decipher the merchandise list, which also makes me skeptical that maybe it’s a distraction,” Logan said, snapping Leandra from her trance. “And worries me that Fielding is in contact with the agent, who might be giving us a line of crap.”
“What does she say about the email?” Nick asked.
“She’s still tracing it back to…” Logan paused for a moment… “something about finding the IP address where the email was created and tracking it through that.”
Leandra nodded. “Any luck getting blueprints of the warehouse from the town?”
