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“We don’t have enough power to handle this kind of situation.” Another new thing came from the whole attack we endured. I would’ve never imagined a day when Ben would be cautious.
“We could watch them, follow Mia’s intel to check the best moment to approach. We can’t let them get to us again. We need to make an offensive.”
“The two of us can’t handle this alone and—”
“The two of you?” Mia’s voice was strained. “Why just the two of you?”
“Mia, I don’t think you should—”
“What? Be a part of this? Are you really still trying to outvote me?”
Mia and Ben were best friends once, to the point where Izzie thought something was going on between them—which was never the case.
Right before our lives were changed, Zach and Mia got into a huge fight about him trying to outvote her from the company, so she’d be away from our investigation and the risks surrounding her, especially since we learned the cartel was after her.
Ben and I were caught in the middle of it, without a clue about how to react having never seen them so angry and hurt at each other. We ended up taking sides—me with Mia, Ben with Zach.
That fight and losing our best friend had marred their friendship, and I was starting to wonder if they’d ever go back to how they were.
“I’m not trying to cut you out, but you’re still recovering. You shouldn’t risk your health yet with this kind of mission.”
She was fuming, and her left hand trembled as she rubbed it with the other one. “I’m not staying back. This is my fight as well. I brought the intel to the company, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit back and let you deal with it all.”
Before he could counter another time, I intervened, “Let’s find a way around it. We can come up with a strategy to investigate the space with as little risk as possible. We don’t need to go today or tomorrow. We’re all trained, we can find a solution.”
At those moments, it was impossible not to miss Zach. He was a natural leader, he knew how to dissolve conflicts—especially between Ben and Mia. He was calm and collected. His absence was screaming for more reasons than one.
“What have you got, Mia?”
After hours of brainstorming about the best way to do a recon on the cartel base, dealing with ongoing private cases, and Ben and Mia snapping at each other, I was drained.
I stepped into my home thinking of how I needed to sleep for three days straight to recover from all the shit surrounding us. But when I smelled Mom’s stew and heard my baby giggling with the young woman who was tempting me, I felt comforted.
“Papi!” Fee ran to me, and I swept her into my arms. “You were goneforever.”
I smelled her hair, the strawberry scent warming something inside me. “And I missed you forever. How was your day, Princess?”
“It was so cool. We had so much fun. Lissie and I had tea, then we were astronauts. I decided I want a pony. We were ballerinas and cowboys...”
As she rambled on and on with the speaking speed and word count only a newly four-year-old girl could provide, I looked up to find Lisa watching us with admiration. I didn’t want to fool myself, but I even spotted attraction. My pants shouldn’t get tighter at that thought, but I couldn’t contain the bastard below.
That I was attracted to a woman twelve years younger was proof enough.
Sofia was still talking about their many adventures, then shimmied down to grab their drawings from her bedroom.
“There’s no need to run,” I called behind her, completely unheard. Before I could embarrass myself in front of Lisa—that seemed to be the norm whenever she was around—my mom came from the kitchen.
“How was work?” Both women asked in unison, and I felt a little bigger at the small show of care from Lisa.
“We had a new lead on a case we’re working on. Other than that, everything is normal. But I might need to be away on Thursday night. We have some things to check, and I’m not sure how long that will take. Could you watch Sofia then, Mom?”
“I’m so sorry, honey, I can’t. I arranged to see your aunt; I even bought the tickets. I can try to change them, but being so close, I don’t know if it’s possible.”
I was happy to see her enjoying her retirement, but with her being gone, I’d need to stay with Sofia. Lisa only worked for me during the day, I couldn’t ask her to keep my baby at night. That meant I needed to postpone our reckon, something I didn’t want to do. But there was no way Ben and Mia could do it alone. Not only was it dangerous for only two people, but I also didn’t trust them not to be at each other’s throats.
“I can watch her,” Lisa suggested.
“I couldn’t ask this of you.”
