Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Who the fuck had killed him?
Trees didn’t waste time figuring it out. He jumped to the final roof. The rest of the guards swarmed in his direction, but the path between the hacienda and the open desert was clear. Moonlight dipped back behind the clouds, giving him some cover. He just might make it…
He leapt to the ground beside the body. Zy appeared out of the shadows and pressed a finger to his lips. Trees was grateful but not surprised that his buddy had bailed him out. He and Zy had kept each other alive in more than one awful scrape.
Zy tipped his head toward what looked like a garage around fifty yards in the distance, then disappeared behind some brush. Trees followed. They looped around the far side of the building, easing away from additional guards now coming in from the east corner of the estate. Pounding footsteps and heated shouts told Trees the guards had lost their trail.
Less than two minutes later, they approached the garage and Zy spoke into his comm. “We’re coming in hot.”
To his shock, no one was guarding the building. It wasn’t even locked.
Zy rushed in, weapon drawn. But Hunter and Logan had already dispensed with a quartet of guards inside and now sat behind the wheel of a souped-up Jeep—with a mounted fifty cal on the back.
It was a sweet fucking sight.
Hunter turned the engine over, and Zy pressed the button on the wall to open the garage door. The second the vehicle was clear, the elder Edgington floored it. Zy got behind the gun, blasting away anyone who gave chase. Then the desert swallowed them up and they headed straight to the meet point—and safety.
But Laila was still out there…somewhere, probably hunkering down with Victor. Warming his bed. Sucking his cock. Giving him her body. Trees wasn’t resting until he had her back.
February 17
Lafayette, Louisiana
Trees paced his living room with restless energy. Barney watched from the sofa with confusion. And he probably wanted more food, since he was a typical dog.
It had been ten long, fucking empty days since he’d returned from Mexico. Deke and Kimber were together with their children again. The family remained in hiding until they got some solid intel about whether Montilla had died by his gun.
The colonel had come to visit him at the office more than once to express his gratitude. So had Jack Cole, who co-owned Oracle with Deke. The crafty Cajun had jokingly offered him a job, then insisted he wouldn’t dream of poaching from Hunter, Logan, and Joaquin. But he hadn’t sounded like he was kidding at all.
Trees wasn’t interested in jumping ship.
One-Mile and Brea had tied the knot in a small ceremony this past weekend. Trees hadn’t attended. Pictures had been nice, but he hadn’t felt like he could watch two people in love tie their lives together without snarling. Apparently, he’d been surly since their return from Mexico and his inability to find Laila had dragged on. Go figure.
Zy and Tessa had moved in together. They were planning a wedding, too. Trees was thrilled for his buddy. Those two had endured a long, hard road to their happily ever after. They were great people with big hearts who deserved happiness. Which was exactly why the same would never happen for him.
Besides, he still hadn’t seen or heard a single peep out of Laila since he’d left Mexico. Every attempt to trace her had come up empty. Victor Ramos was missing, too, so that fit. They’d holed up together somewhere, fucking their brains out. As much as Trees told himself that he didn’t miss Laila, he’d give anything to be the lucky guy between her legs.
After he found out how and why she’d played him and he paid her back.
Since returning from Mexico, he’d been on a couple of short missions, bodyguarded a TV personality’s son during his drunken Mardi Gras weekend, and spent the rest of the time preparing for the moment he got his hands on his pretty backstabbing Latina.
Madison had called more than once. He hadn’t responded with more than a vague text to say he was drowning in work and would call when he could. He wasn’t fit to keep someone so kind and well-meaning company.
He glanced at the clock. Almost ten. He couldn’t take another fucking sleepless night, burning for Laila as much as he seethed to shake her and fuck her so bad he could almost taste it. He didn’t want to dream about her again. He didn’t want to fixate on her anymore. All the polite ways of locating her weren’t working.
Now he was going to get ruthless.
Grabbing his gear and his keys, Trees gave Barney a pet on the head, set the house alarm he’d had painstakingly rebuilt once the plate glass window in his living room had been replaced, then hopped into his Hummer and headed to Lafayette.