Page 97 of Lion’s Den

Cam held up his free hand. Yeah, he got it. Help her, or else. “Sedona, there’s no need for you to wear yourself out. Do you want to ride up with David?”

She shook her head before he’d finished. “No. I’m going with you. If I can help Julio, I want to be there to do it.”

“Sedona, I’m going to the same place as Cam,” David said. “He’s going the hard way. You’ll get to ride in an air-conditioned cruiser. You sure you don’t want to change your mind?”

Sedona shook her head again. “I’m fine.” When no one said anything, she corrected herself. “I will be fine.”

Cam wrapped his arm around Sedona’s shoulders. “We’ll meet you there, David.”

“If you change your mind, message me, and we’ll choose a rendezvous point.”

“Copy that.” He glanced down at Sedona. “Ready?”

“Let’s go. I can’t stand the thought of Julio with Simpson.”

She wasn’t the only one worried. He still couldn’t figure out why an assassin would take a little kid.

Cam considered the problem from every angle, but nothing felt right until he hit on one idea. He poked at the idea mentally, circled around it, and poked it again.

No matter how often he poked and prodded, the idea felt like the right one. The question he couldn’t answer was who? The boy was a pawn to put pressure on someone. Was that person Sedona or someone else?

Sedona maintained she hadn’t seen or heard anything. Was she right, or did Sedona know more than she realized?

Taking any of her students would be an effective way to pressure her. By taking Julio or Sedona, who was affected the most?

He thought about that as he scanned the area on each side and in front of them. Not too many options where Julio and Sedona’s worlds intersected.

Sedona didn’t have family to pay a ransom for her, if that’s what the kidnappers wanted. Except Cam. He would pay anything to save Sedona’s life. Once she was safe, he’d hunt the kidnappers to the ends of the earth until he found each one of them. But how would the kidnappers know unless they had watched him with Sedona?

That left a connection at school or with Julio. Couldn’t be anything Julio did. Did he see something? Perhaps, but what criminal couldn’t laugh off whatever Julio claimed and make up a plausible lie?

So, Maria, Eddie, maybe the father, the father’s people, or school was the connection, and Sedona was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. She saw or heard too much and was a risk to someone’s operation.

He glanced over his shoulder at Rhys, who instantly moved up.

“Yes, sir?”

“We need information on Maria, Eddie, Julio’s brother, the father, and the father’s people.”

The computer man chuckled. “Reaching for anything, huh?”

“Yeah. Mama Bear Maria will gut me like a trout when she finds out I missed Julio at a second location.” Cam frowned. “Nothing makes sense if the action instigator is Julio. What could a little kid know that threatens a criminal? For that matter, who would believe a five-year-old?”

“Makes sense. What am I looking for?”

“Anything that connects Sedona, Julio, and any of these people and the school.”

“As soon as I’m in one place longer than a couple of minutes, I’ll get on it.”

“Thanks.”

“Yep.” Rhys dropped back into position again to resume guarding Sedona and Cam.

“Why are you investigating Maria?” Sedona glared at him. “She has nothing to do with what’s going on. Maria would never put her children in harm’s way.”

He’d have to disagree with her on that one. “What do you call working from eight o’clock in the morning until after midnight five nights a week and leaving your children in the charge of a surly teenager?”

“Survival. Maria works two jobs to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table.”