Page 66 of Lion’s Den

“One that we hope will lead them to Julio.”

“Did they say what the lead was?”

“No, and I can already tell that you want to grab your phone and call Cam. Do yourself a favor and don’t. Let him run this lead as far as it takes him. I promise you he’ll be back here as soon as they run into a dead end or when they find the boy.”

“Doesn’t it bother you that they left you behind?”

“Why should it? Everyone has unique skills, Sedona. It would be foolish of me to be angry about being separated from the rest of the team. Cam needs me here so he can focus. They don’t need me at the moment, so I’m doing what I can to help Cam concentrate. Because he knows I’ll take care of you and he trusts me, that is one less worry on his shoulders.”

She sighed. “I wish I could help.”

“Your skill is communication, and you’ve already used that to ensure Maria will let the boy talk to Cam and the others when they find him.”

Sedona turned to face him. “Will your team find him?”

“It’s what we do, Sedona. We find people.”

She chuckled. “That’s what Cam said.”

“He’s right. We’re military-trained trackers. That’s what our Special Forces unit did. We tracked high-value people. We found them no matter where they hid.”

Spencer didn’t say what they did with the people their Special Forces team tracked, and she was wise enough not to ask. “That’s good for Julio.”

He grinned. “We’ll get him back, Sedona. We don’t give up. Ever.” Spencer paused and pulled out his phone. He glanced at the screen, then turned it around for Sedona to see.

The text message was from Cam. “Coming back for now. We need Rhys’ help.”

“What do they need Rhys for?”

“They would have lost the trail they could follow on foot if the perp got into a vehicle.”

Ah, she got it. “Rhys can pick up the trail through traffic and security cameras, right?”

“You got it.”

She waited with him for thirty minutes, and yes, she had kept such a close eye on her phone that she saw the numbers change almost each minute of time that moved forward. Finally, Sedona heard the voice she’d been longing to hear. Cam and the rest of his teammates paused for a minute in front of the officer guarding the door, then entered the waiting room.

She eyed the group of men. Holy smoke. These guys were big enough that they made the waiting room seem tiny. Cam was the last one to enter the room. As soon as she saw him, all her jitters and anxiety over his safety vanished.

When he stopped walking and opened his arms, Sedona finished the final few feet at a dead run. Man, those muscular arms closing around her felt so good. Still, she needed to be sure he was safe. “You’re all right?”

He squeezed her a little tighter. “You can’t tell?”

“You’re good at hiding things behind a blank expression, and that’s what you have on your face right now.”

Cam chuckled. “You’re too observant for your own good. I’m fine, Tiger. I admit I’m a little ticked that we ran out of lead.”

Dario snorted. “A little? I think you would have taken a baseball bat to your own SUV if it had made any difference.”

The rest of his teammates chuckled.

Cam signaled his team members, and one by one they introduced themselves to Eddie and Maria.

“Thank you so much for helping to look for Julio,” she whispered. “You didn’t find him?”

Cam stepped forward. “No, ma’am. We found the kidnappers’ trail and traced them to the woods across the street, through to the other side. They had a vehicle parked there.”

“They?” Eddie swallowed hard. “There was more than one of them?”