Beneath the Secrets Part 3(4)

Shoving open the door, he exited into the cool San Francisco air, the breeze a welcome relief from the heat of his anger and, yes, his fear. He’d not felt fear in a long damn time, but he felt it now. Fear pissed him off. Fear gutted a person and destroyed them. Fear did not let him hunt Alvarez with all guns blazing, balls to the wall.

“Fuck!” he cursed, using the word Kara hated because she hated it, because he didn’t want to feel this growing attachment to her. Pacing, he tried to burn off the adrenaline burning through his body. Kara was going to hate him when he was done with her tonight, and trying to convince himself that was for the best. It was what had to happen. He couldn’t keep her close to him as he had Whitney. He couldn’t risk getting her killed. Kara hating him might be good. Maybe then he could stop thinking about her, stop with this damnable distraction that was going to make him give a damn if he was killed. Giving a damn and fear—two things that would be his weaknesses to Alvarez, and both came down to one person. Kara. Kara was his true weakness.

Blake stopped pacing, scrubbing a hand over his face. Grinding his teeth, he snatched his phone from his pocket and glanced discreetly at the window above, finding the barely there crack he expected to see. Kara was listening to see who he called. There had never been a chance in hell this woman was a secretary, and if she thought Mendez was stupid enough to believe that himself, she was wrong. He’d figure her out sooner than later, if he hadn’t already.

Dreading the call he was about to make, Blake punched the auto-dial for his brother Luke. “Where the hell are you?” Luke asked the instant he answered. “You damn sure aren’t on the job you said you were on. I checked. I’ve left you three messages. Why aren’t you answering your phone?”

“Why were you checking on me in the first place?”

“Where are you, Blake?”

Blake sat down on the step in front of the door and sighed, accepting the inevitable beating his brothers were going to give him when they heard the details. “In San Francisco.”

“Tell me this isn’t about Alvarez.”

“Okay, I won’t. I’ve stumbled onto a slave trade operation going on down here. Young and pretty girls are being kidnapped and forced into things I don’t think either of us wants to imagine. I’ve got two I rescued who need a safe house. Kyle has them locked down in a hotel right now.” He paused and glanced over his shoulder up at the window, before turning his back to it and lowering his voice. “Actually, make that three women who need protection. I have one with me.”

Luke cursed. “And let me guess. Alvarez is running the operation.”

“Yeah.” Blake ran his fingers over his jaw. “Alvarez is running the operation.”

“How deep are you into this?”

He rotated back around. “I’m working as head of security for one of his top men.”

“Damn it, Blake—”

“I’m going to get enough shit from Royce over this, so save me yours,” Blake snapped. “I have women who need help and a shot at bringing this * down once and for all. Are you in or out?”

“You know we’re in. We’ll charter a flight and get a team there tomorrow. I’ll work on arranging a safe house.”

“Kyle has his hands full taking care of two of the women. I need you to check on someone for me. I need to know everything you can find out about Anna Michaels. Her sister is Kara Michaels, an FBI agent on a leave of absence. Actually…f*ck. I’m not sure what her sister’s name is. Their father was FBI and he was compromised on an undercover job, and Kara and her sister were given new identities.”

“If they’re in witness protection plans it will be nearly impossible to get that information, even at the highest level where Royce has connections. Why is this important?”

“Kara is here, trying to find her sister. She seems to think she’s one of the kidnapped women. I’ll need to get back to you on the sister’s name. Just get me everything you can on Kara and make sure no one but Kyle has been digging around in her file.”

“You mean Royce digging around. If Kyle got you information on Kara, he got it from Royce. And Royce is going to be pissed when he finds out Kyle lied about why to protect you, because we both know he didn’t tell him Kara tracked back to you hunting Alvarez.”

“He was just doing as ordered.”

Luke was silent a long moment before he said, “I’m not even going to bother asking the ten questions on my mind right now.”

“Thank you for that little piece of heaven,” Blake replied in mock relief.

“Royce—”

“Will turn heaven to hell. Believe me, I know.”

Luke changed the subject. “Is Kara one of the women you’re protecting?”

“I thought you weren’t asking the ten questions.”

“This is the eleventh.”

Blake’s lips thinned. “Yes.”

He snorted. “Does she know you’re protecting her? Because I’m pretty sure she’s trained to protect herself and others for that matter.”

“No,” he confessed. “But she’s about to.”

Luke whistled. “The shit’s about to hit the fan. She’s going to bust your chops.”

“You don’t even know her.”