“I didn’t believe it for a minute. I always knew you had a plan—you were behaving way too meekly.” She touched her fingers to her hot cheek.
“You, too.” He tapped his own face. “You need ice for that.”
“Those two obviously didn’t know anything about—”
“Shh.” Nash put a finger to his lips and glanced down at Danny, still prone in the gravel with Denali standing guard.
She flipped the gun around in her hand, crouched beside Danny and cracked him on the back of his head with the butt. He passed out with a grunt. “Now we can talk.”
Nash raised his eyebrows. “I can see where you would have problems on a PD with your methods.”
“I already figured I’m not cut out to be a cop.” She handed the gun to Nash. “They didn’t know anything about Lanier.”
“Didn’t appear to, unless they were keeping that piece of info to themselves. We knew they were after Brett, but we finally learned why. He’d stupidly intercepted one of Las Moscas’ mules at the border. Did he really think they’d let him get away with that?”
“Maybe that’s why he hatched the blackmailing scheme with Jaycee. He planned to return the drugs to Las Moscas.”
“They probably would’ve never let him live after that—or they’d force him into becoming one of their mules. That’s what they do—human fodder.” His eyes narrowed as he peered down at Danny. “I’m glad you knocked him out.”
“So, Lanier, or whoever works for Lanier, took Wyatt and probably took the drugs, too.”
“Lanier isn’t doing his own dirty work.” He stroked her hair. “Look how he used you.”
“I wonder if Lanier knows his flunky stole those drugs.” She snapped her fingers. “Maybe we can use that information to get Wyatt. If Lanier’s hired killer stole those drugs and didn’t tell his boss, he wouldn’t want his boss to find out, would he?”
“No, but he wouldn’t want his boss to know he helped us find Wyatt, either. And there’s one small detail. We don’t know who the hit man was.”
“Hit man?” Emily snorted. “I think you’re elevating the guy’s credentials. If the killer stole those drugs, he’s probably another junkie like Brett.”
For the second time in the past twelve hours, sirens blared through the night.
Denali lifted his head, and his ears quivered.
Nash patted the dog’s furry side. “You can go inside, boy. You’ve done a good job tonight. Wait until I tell Clay.”
Emily had transferred Brett’s GPS app from his phone to hers, and she dragged her phone out of her back pocket to check on Wyatt...or at least Wyatt’s car seat. “Wyatt is still in the same spot. Do we tell the police tonight? Do we tell Espinoza?”
“I think we have to, Emily.”
“They don’t know Brett’s recent history like we do. They won’t know the significance of this tracker. They won’t have the same urgency.”
“Maybe not, so we tell them and then we go to Phoenix ourselves. We’re private citizens, or at least in this capacity I am. We don’t need a search warrant or probable cause. We can get the jump on this, and Espinoza can come in later and tie things up with a bow.”
She pinched his sleeve. “Do you think that’s how this is going to end, tied up with a bow?”
“I’ll do my damnedest to make sure of it, and I know you will, too.” He nodded toward the emergency vehicles pulling into his driveway. “But first things first.”
The Paradiso PD flooded the scene, along with Border Patrol. Danny came around just in time to be arrested and loaded into the back of a police car.
Emily finally followed Nash into the house, where Gustavo’s body lay in the kitchen, blood spreading out from beneath his facedown body onto Nash’s beautiful hardwood floor. She had more sympathy for the floor. She only regretted not witnessing Nash take him out.
The police had plenty of questions for her and Nash, and they had to confiscate Nash’s weapon. The Border Patrol put him on leave immediately, which would save him from taking another vacation or personal day to go up to Phoenix.
By the time Espinoza showed up on the scene, the sun was rising and the medical examiner had loaded Gustavo’s body in the van.
The only thing left to do was clean that floor.
As Emily went through the questions and the explanations, she kept her phone cupped in her hand and kept checking on that red dot. With Espinoza here, she knew they’d have to turn that information over to him. Would he make light of it? Perhaps it would be to their advantage if he did. Then they’d be free to pursue the leads without being hampered by protocol.
That was what she’d hated most about police work. Proper procedures always hampered true justice.
Emily’s heart fluttered as Nash shook Espinoza’s hand and drew him close. She glanced down at her phone again and sucked in a breath.
The first contact from Marcus Lanier since she’d told him she was working as Wyatt’s nanny. She swept the message open, and a tingle of fear crept up her back as she read the text.
Her head jerked up, and she zeroed in on Nash and Espinoza.
Then she rushed toward them to stop the conversation at any cost.
Chapter Eighteen
Espinoza shifted his toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other. “Do you believe that these Las Moscas soldiers didn’t kill Fillmore? I can see them going in there looking for their drugs, and once they figured Fillmore didn’t have them, they killed him. Wyatt was already gone because the person or persons who kidnapped him didn’t know about any drugs and left Fillmore alive after they took the baby.”
Nash followed the path of the toothpick for a few seconds before he answered. “That could be. Every word that comes out of their mouths is suspect.”
“They must’ve really believed you could get a line on Jaycee’s baby to risk coming to a Border Patrol
