Page 37 of Deadly Lust

And as happy as I was with her, I questioned if I really had any idea who Mia actually was. Or if she was putting on a play, with me as her captive audience.

The next morning, I slipped out before Mia woke and drove straight to Kyle’s pad in Mission Beach.

Dude had more money than I would ever see in my lifetime, and the dumbass gave up that lifestyle to go hunt terrorists. I loved what I did, and I knew he loved it, too, but it didn’t stop me from thinking he was out of his mind for becoming a SEAL. He was, however, exceptional at what he did, and if anyone could find this woman, it would be Kyle. He was whip-smart, and even former Team guys had mad respect for him.

I rang the doorbell, hoping I wasn’t waking anyone. Kyle answered and stepped aside so I could come in. His girlfriend, Sara, one of the cheerleaders who had been kidnapped on a USO tour, was relaxing on his sofa—another SEAL falling in love with the girl he’d saved. It was like none of us could ever be in a normal relationship.

Kyle put his hand on my shoulder. “What’s up, my man?”

“Can we talk?”

Kyle gave me the same look he gave me when I was smarting off at work before nodding to the back hallway that led to his office.

I waved to Sara as we passed and she smiled as she returned the gesture. She’d completely recovered from being held hostage in Afghanistan, but every time I saw her, my mind flashed to how she’d looked when we’d found her. Blood on her neck, dirt covering her body. Cowering in a cave in her bra and panties. Finding her alive had been one of the best moments of my life. One of the moments that I realized all the pain and sacrifices I’d made to become a SEAL had been worth it. We’d saved her.

I stepped into his office and Kyle shut the door behind us.

“This is about the boy, isn’t it? The guys I have on it think that he could be Joaquín’s son. Is that why he did it? Because Tiffany had his kid and he never knew?”

My heart pounded. I had no intention of lying to Kyle. “The boy isn’t Joaquín’s son. He’s mine.”

Kyle’s eyes widened, and he leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his desk. “Say what?”

“Yup. Turns out Mia was pregnant. I never knew—just found out. She left me and had the baby in San Francisco. But she was told our baby died in the hospital, which obviously wasn’t the case since he’s alive and well. We have no idea how Tiffany ended up with him.”

His mouth slackened, and he rubbed his jaw. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“So, Mia’s back in town? I thought you hadn’t heard from her. I’ve been worried about her. You were such a dick to her when she came to The Pickled Frog asking for help.”

“Yeah, she’s back. Actually…she’s Ksenya.”

Kyle let out a laugh and smirked. “Are you serious, man? You’re not going to believe me, but I had my suspicious. I chalked them up to too many concussions. She looks so different—what did she do? She had plastic surgery to fool us?”

“Something like that.”

“Wow. You’re blowing my mind.”

“Yeah, well, it gets worse. I don’t think Joaquín is innocent. There are just too many questions, ya know?”

He nodded. “Joaquín was always a bit off, but murder? I’m not sure. Don’t get me wrong, lots of guys snap for no real reason, but just because you have questions doesn’t mean he’s a murderer. But do you remember what happened in Afghanistan? Before Sara was taken?”

That deployment was a haze. War was always a mind fuck. “No, what?”

“Joaquín had snuck off one night on that deployment with some village elders. When I asked him about it, he looked me dead in the eye and said he wanted to have tea with them, learn about their culture. He technically hadn’t done anything wrong, so I didn’t write him up, but why the fuck would he do that?”

My mouth became dry. Kyle was an officer—he could write our asses up whenever he wanted to. “I never knew about that.” Maybe he had been smuggling drugs. I remembered that he had been buddies with another Team guy who had smuggled drugs from Aruba but I’d never thought anything about it. That dude had been kicked out. “Did you ever catch Joaquín doing drugs?”

Kyle glared at me. “No. Did you?”

“No.” I paused, careful not to rat out Mitch. “But I heard rumors that Joaquín had been using and had a local dealer.”

“Yeah, well, he pissed clean. I’ll look into the drugs, too. But for now,” he said, waving away that whole line of thought, “back to your son. We haven’t located him or the woman yet. We did find the company they rented the U-Haul from and traced the truck to San Rafael.”

San Rafael was in Marin County across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was also where Joaquín and Mia were from. “Anything else?”

“We traced the grandma’s family to an area called the Canal. Staked out her sister’s house, but we haven’t found anything. But my guy asked around, and someone said he thought he saw the grandma and the kid at the bus stop, but we couldn’t verify it.”