Heated Pursuit (Alpha Security #1)(4)
Sweaty and annoyed, Rafe cracked his neck and prayed for patience as he got his turn. “I’m not so sure you’re following along, Red. Fuentes isn’t a tame little *cat. He’s the goddamned Dr. Frankenstein of the drug world.”
Penny leaned against the back of the couch, arms folded across her chest. She cocked up one delicate eyebrow as if something were wrong with him. And hell, maybe there was. He’d always prided himself on being cool and levelheaded. In his line of work, a quick temper got you in tough scrapes. Or dead. But for some reason, this little sprite of a woman put him close to an edge he didn’t know he had.
“He also loves dabbling in human trafficking and generalized murder and mayhem. Do you have something to tell me that I don’t already know?” she asked.
“Do you have any idea what would happen if a man like him got his hands on a sweet little thing like yourself?”
“No, because I’m too busy imagining what a man like him is doing to Rachel.”
Her voice caught on her niece’s name. Her gaze, previously matching his head-on, lost its ferocity with a few quick blinks. But it was the nibbling of her lower lip that was a red flare shot inches from his face.
Rafe told himself to give her a second to collect herself. But there was too much on the line, and not solely the team’s mission to bring down Fuentes before the bastard spread his superdrug, Freedom, to the States. Left to the atrocities of San Pedro Sula, no way could Penny come out whole and intact, and more importantly, she shouldn’t have to take that kind of risk. The fact she felt it necessary bothered him a hell of a lot.
Rafe ignored Trey’s grumbles from across the room. “If Fuentes has Rachel, we’ll find her.”
A chorus of nods and hell yeahs filtered through the group.
“You mean like you’ve found him?” She rolled her eyes with a snort. “I’m sorry. You said you’ve been down here looking for him for how long? Months? Rachel doesn’t have that kind of time. You’ve said yourself that Fuentes is a monster. If he doesn’t kill her or sell her to the highest bidder, then she becomes a walking guinea pig. I’m not going to let that happen.”
Trey unfolded his six-foot body from the couch and stood. “And you think you can do any better? Jesus, Penn, we’re trained for this kind of shit. You’re trained to place children in loving homes and help the elderly work out the kinks in their social security checks. What you’re not is a—”
“A social worker.”
“That’s exactly my point.” Trey nodded, looking smug.
“I mean, I’m not a social worker.” She gestured toward the laptop that sat on the beat-up coffee table. “Look it up. And it’ll speed things along if you use the Lebanon County Sheriff’s Office database.”
Logan, former Marine sniper and resident country boy, was already on it. With his well-worn cowboy boots and chewed-to-hell toothpick sticking out of his mouth, no one but his teammates would’ve expected it to take him less than a minute before letting out a loud, and obviously impressed, whistle. “Hot damn. Looks like our redheaded viper’s packing more than a mean kick. She’s got a license.”
Logan chuckled. Hands propped behind his head, he leaned back so the rest of the team could read the screen.
Trey gawked at the computer, then at Penny. “You’re a goddamned bounty hunter? What the f*ck happened to being a social worker?”
“I got tired of the women in my shelter being afraid because their no-good exes skipped out on parole. And the term I’d prefer you use is bail enforcement agent.” An impish grin slipped onto her face as she scanned their surprised expressions. “I may not be a card-carrying member of the Commando Club, but I’m not entirely helpless either. And I’m not flying into this with blinders over my eyes.”
Most people chose not to meet Rafe’s gaze head-on. When he was young, he chalked it up to the startling contrast of his tanned coloring given to him by his Guatemalan mother and the blue eyes of his Anglo-American father. Then the closer he got to his teenage years, he partnered the oddity up with a f*ck-off scowl, and like magic, most people kept their distance.
Obviously, Penny wasn’t included in that tally. Not only did she hold his gaze without so much as a blink, but she challenged it with a subtle eyebrow lift. The woman needed to come with a too-intense-for-public-consumption warning label.
“Kidnapping’s good business,” he pointed out. “This country’s filled with all kinds of low-level pond scum looking to make a few bucks. What makes you think it’s Fuentes who has Rachel?”
“Because she e-mailed me a picture of him right after he threatened her for sticking her nose in his business.”
“What business?”
“The disappearances of young women in the village where she’d been stationed. It didn’t take long for her to notice that each one coincided with visits from Fuentes and his men—which was at least once every other week, sometimes more frequent. The bastard had the elders thinking that the wrath of God would strike them down if they so much as muttered a word about it, much less interfered.”
Realization started to dawn. “And let me guess…she wasn’t so accommodating.”
“Rachel loved those people. She loved her job. The NGO she was working for wrote her off as bailing her post, but Rachel wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t have gone unless someone made her leave.”