Page 30 of Her Last Hope
Leandra’s mind turned over the events of the last forty-eight hours. Alicia had been at the house when Leandra had arrived, and immediately Leandra had assumed she and Ramos were lovers. Alicia had been nice enough, but she’d made it clear she didn’t like Leandra’s presence. “Her demeanor changed toward me from last night to this morning.”
“That’s because we told her who you were as soon as Nick contacted us,” Fielding said, scratching his head.
“How did she change?” Nick asked, tilting her chin toward him with his thumb.
“Standoffish to ‘I want to kill that bitch.’ I assumed it was because of how badly Ramos wanted up my skirt right in front of her.”
“Why would that bother my agent?” Fielding asked.
“It looked to me like they were fucking.” Leandra enjoyed the way Fielding’s eyes widened from her bluntness.
“I doubt that. Just playing her undercover part,” Fielding said, but he obviously took Leandra’s words to heart. “We never told her to send you anything. We have a secure method of communication.”
“Fuck,” Leandra said.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Nick asked, staring at her with knowing eyes.
“If you’re thinking that Alicia has been turned, then yeah.” She grabbed Nick by the arm, yanking him toward Dylan who stood next to the hood of a car where the blueprints had been laid out. “And either this is all bullshit information, and they’ve moved the merchandise or—”
“It’s an ambush,” Nick said.
“Well, you know what they say about that?” Dylan asked, smiling.
“You attack it head on,” both Logan and Nick saidwith a little more excitement than she would have thought appropriate.
“First off,” Fielding said as he stepped between Leandra and Dylan. “You’re not attacking anything, and second off, our agent hasn’t flipped.”
“You don’t know that,” Leandra said, her blood pumping through her body with a sense of urgency. “Regardless, if our covers have been compromised, we need to get in there and fast, or all those young people are going to be lost forever.” Not to mention, she may never find out where Skyler had been sold to, breaking her promise to the young girl’s parents.
“And you don’t know she has.” Fielding puffed out his chest.
Dylan tapped his earpiece. “I need a visual on Ramos, and I also need an accounting of activity at the warehouse. And where the fuck are the blueprints from the city?”
“Stand down,” Fielding shouted. “I will have all of you arrested for interfering with an investigation.”
“Good luck with that,” Dylan said, rolling up the blueprints. “You’re either on board with us and do things our way, or you can sit back, watch, and maybe learn a thing or two.”
“You arrogant little prick,” Fielding said.
“That I am,” Dylan said. “Leandra, are you ready to roll?”
“I was born ready.”
“That’s my girl,” Nick said, looping his arms over her shoulders and kissing her cheek.
His warm lips burned her already flushed skin. She turned, giving him her best glare.
He just smiled and traced the hickey on her neck with his forefingers.
“All right, Boy Wonder, let’s go.” Leandra laughed as Nick’s expression turned from a smile to a frown.
“I’m Batman. Dylan over there is Boy Wonder,” Nick said.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Fielding talking on his phone and waving his hands wildly while he tossed out a few curses. “He’s not going to let us walk out of here.”
“He’s not going to have a choice,” Logan said, holding up his phone. “Our boss just got the FBI to hire the Aegis Network to run a search and rescue mission, and we’ve been authorized to bring in Dylan and his Delta Force team while they are on a few days leave. Fielding’s hands are tied, though we’re going to have to work with him since he’s the one with the authority to bring Ramos in.”
Fielding tapped his phone before shoving it in his pocket. “You better not fuck up this arrest for me.” He pointed to Leandra.
