Page 134 of Vow

She nodded. “I know.”

“Do you?”

She knew enough to know she wanted it.

Wanted Andino.

“Yes. I’ve never been more ready.”

Dante grinned. “Good. Now, I have a … well, let’s call it a wedding gift, of sorts, for you.”

“You didn’t have—”

“I do. We all do. Your friend … Valeria Gomez.”

Haven blinked. “What about her?”

“About a month ago, Andino asked me to use some of my contacts—I have the very best given how long I have been around, and who my wife is—to find your friend, or whatever information I could pull.”

Why did her chest feel so tight?

Why was she scared to ask … “Did you find her?”

“We believe so,” Dante murmured. “In Mexico, it seems. When she up and left from your place, did you notice anything strange? Someone following you or her? Did she mention—”

“No.”

“And your place was—”

“Fine,” Haven said quietly. “Nothing was out of place. A couple of her bags were gone. She left a lot of her stuff, and Maria’s.”

“She didn’t have very much to begin with, did she?”

“More Maria.”

Dante cleared his throat. “But what she had, I assume, would be important to her?”

Haven nodded. “She left her mom’s necklace behind. A picture of her sister.”

“And she wouldn’t have left those, you think?”

“Probably not.”

“I have every reason to believe Valeria was taken by force, but in such a way that it would look to you like she decided to take off again.”

God, she didn’t want to ask.

“By the cartel?”

“The Gomez cartel,” Dante confirmed. “She’s married to the son who runs the majority of the operation—Andino said you had that information.”

“She never told me that, though,” Haven admitted. “She never told me anything about why she ran from Mexico.”

“Because she probably didn’t want to be married to him.”

That prickling feeling behind her eyes was back. The tears were threatening to fall again. Dante didn’t miss it.

“Haven,” he said gently, “we know, and so that allows us to do something now. Or call someone who can do something for your friend. This is something for another day. And we will get to it, I promise. Today, though, is all for you.”