“True. But he is even more valuable now that Emilo is dead. He was Geraldo’s only son.”

  “Emilo’s sister is gone, too. Clara tried to kill Walker’s fiancée a couple of weeks ago to avenge her brother after One-Mile gunned him down. Walker and his buddies ended her.”

  “An eye for an eye,” Laila murmured, then she frowned. “Was Clara the only one who pursued Walker for killing Emilo? No reprisal from Geraldo?”

  “As far as I know, he didn’t lift a finger.” Trees followed her logic. “But why would Geraldo go to such lengths to get his hands on Jorge yet not avenge his son?”

  Laila shrugged. “I can only guess his reasons. Geraldo’s relationship with Emilo was complicated. Perhaps he had resigned himself to the fact that his son was ineffective and would never be fit to lead the cartel. He was not good at his tasks.” Laila sighed in frustration. “I cannot think of the right word.”

  “Emilo was a fuckup.”

  “Yes.”

  “Would Geraldo want the fuckup’s son?”

  “Since Jorge is the only family he has left, likely so.”

  Slowly, Trees took that in. “Let’s work off that theory. Both sides are looking for you or Valeria because they want Jorge—the Ramos brothers to use as a pawn and Geraldo because Jorge is the last of his blood, not to mention the heir of his nose-candy empire.”

  “Yes, but I still cannot say which side is more likely to have kidnapped Kimber.”

  He’d been afraid of that. “Maybe once we see the pictures of the bodies dumped in the EM Security parking lot, we’ll get clarity.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Until then, let me convince you I’m not the mole who endangered you and your family.”

  She gave him a wary glance. “How?”

  “I don’t have any proof it wasn’t me, but you know me, Laila.”

  “Do I?”

  He sighed. “When have I not been a man of my word?”

  “I find trust hard.”

  “Of course you do.” And he knew why. Arguing about that did no good. Neither did spewing logic. He couldn’t refute her feelings. He simply had to give her reasons to doubt those worries. “Tell me how I can convince you.”

  “There is nothing you can do.”

  He wouldn’t accept that. “Listen to your gut. What is it telling you?”

  “My gut has no facts. You were with Walker when he was taken in Mexico.”

  There was only one way she could know that, goddamn it. “You talked to him.”

  And Walker had thrown him under the bus. Of course, in Walker’s shoes, Trees would probably think he was guilty as hell, too.

  Laila stared stonily. “Yes. Is it true?”

  Trees nodded. He had nothing to hide. “We went to Acapulco together on a mission. The afternoon we arrived, we stopped at a restaurant for an early dinner. In the parking lot afterward, we were surrounded by Emilo’s thugs. Walker tossed me the keys and told me to get help. I drove away, only to pass out a mile or two up the road because our food had been drugged. The police found me in their parking lot twelve hours later.”

  She sent him a considering stare. “What about Emilo’s break-in at the St. Louis house? Señor Walker sent you the address and the floor plan—”

  “No. He sent it to our receptionist, Tessa, to send to me. Since I didn’t give it to Emilo, she must have. There’s no one else it could have been.”

  Laila looked skeptical. “Why would she do that?”

  “Money, I guess. She’s a single mother whose boyfriend ran out days before her daughter was born. Making ends meet has probably been tough. And before you ask how she would have made the connections necessary—”

  “I would not. The cartel will make themselves known to anyone they find useful.”

  He hadn’t considered it like that, but… “Exactly.”

  Trees was wracking his brain for another argument to convince Laila he’d never sell her out when she crossed her arms over her chest. “I would like to be alone. I need to think.”

  To decide if he was guilty? That put him on edge, but he didn’t have any good reason to refuse—other than the thought of losing her scared the ever-loving shit out of him. “All right. The doors and windows are locked. The alarm is set. We should start dinner in an hour.”

  “I am not hungry. I will sleep here tonight. Alone.”

  “Cuffed? With the overhead light shining in your face?” Would she stay here under conditions she hated simply to avoid him?

  Laila hesitated, then nodded. “Yes.”

  Trees lay in his solitary bed, eyes glued to the light filtering across the house from Laila’s bedroom. He was hard as steel, but with her around that wasn’t new. What was? Missing her. The big bed he’d always loved having to himself so his long arms and legs had spreading-out room felt too empty.

  One night beside her, and she’d ruined him?

  In his head, he replayed the moment he’d cuffed her to her bed for the night—her still wearing his T-shirt with a wary expression. She looked beautiful with her dark hair spilling across the white pillow, and he’d give anything to know if she was any closer to trusting him. But he had to be patient and let her work that out in her head.

  Trees sighed and stared at the ceiling. Despite being exhausted, he suspected it would be a long night.

  On his nightstand, his phone vibrated. The distraction was almost a relief until he scooped up the device and got a glimpse of the screen. Why the hell would Zy be calling him after midnight?

  “Buddy?”

  “My fucking life is over.”

  “That’s dramatic,” Trees returned tongue-in-cheek, mostly because Zy sounded half-sauced.

  “Yep, but that’s how it feels.”

  Trees frowned. “Are you drinking?”

  “Absofuckinglutely.” Zy sighed. “I don’t know what the fuck to do. Tessa is our mole. Go on. You can say you told me so.”

  Trees bolted straight up in bed. “You sure? How did you figure it out?”

  “Not two hours ago, I gave her a cover story, disinformation I hadn’t spewed to anyone else. It didn’t take long for the cartel’s communications on Abuzz to light up like fireworks.”

  Fuck. That was bad. “I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah. Me, too. Especially since I just got off the phone with Hunter Edgington. He’s pissed that I went rogue and decided to test her on my own. He feels stupid for being wrong, too. He was convinced it was you.”

  “No surprise there.”

  “You’re off the hook with him, so there’s that. But the other bosses need convincing. I’ve got six hours to give them proof it’s Tessa before they move on it.”

  While Zy’s heart was shattering? Damn… “You need help?”

  “Yeah.”

  In that rough syllable, Trees heard his best friend’s broken hopes for a future with Tessa and wished he could say something to make it better.

  “Do you need me to come out there and get you?” He wasn’t sure what he’d do with Laila, but if Zy needed him, he’d figure it out.

  “No, I’m not trashed. I just need you to help me figure out how Tessa could have been the mole all along. She was on maternity leave during the first information leaks.”

  “You got it. I’ll put on a pot of coffee and be waiting for you.”

  “Thanks.” Zy hung up with a sigh that sounded more than tired. It was eat-a-bullet weary.

  That worried the hell out of Trees.

  With a curse, he rose and tossed on some sweatpants and a tee, then headed across the house to Laila. He half expected to see her curled on her side, tresses tumbling behind her, as they always did in sleep. Instead, she lay on her back, gaze glued to the ceiling.

  “Laila?”

  “What?” She jolted, then scrambled to pull the covers closer.

  It wouldn’t do any good to remind her that he’d already seen and touched all the parts she tried to hide. Even so, glimpsing the outline of her nipples through her shirt set his libido off again. Every time he fucking looked at her, he felt as if he hadn’t had sex in decades, rather than being deep inside her mere days ago. “Zy is on his way over. It’s work. I won’t be getting to bed anytime soon, so if you want me to uncuff you…”

  “Please.”

  He approached. The closer he came to her, the faster his heart raced, chugging like mad when he sat on the edge of the bed and took her hand in his. “If tonight works out the way I think, I can prove I’m not the mole who sold your whereabouts to the cartel.”

  Something brightened her eyes—hope?—before she blinked it away. “If you can prove it, I will listen.”

  Trees didn’t blame her for being skeptical, but it frustrated him. “I wish you’d try to believe me regardless.”

  “Why do my feelings matter? You are my bodyguard. You are paid to keep me safe, nothing more.”

  Was she serious? “You think there’s nothing else between us? Can you look me in the eye and tell me you don’t feel a thing for me?”

  Laila looked away. “Are you going to uncuff me?”

  “Yeah.” It wouldn’t do any good to press the issue.

  Seconds later, she was free. He left the room before he spilled more of his heart and headed to the kitchen. He flipped on the coffeepot before heading out front, shotgun in hand, to breathe in the crisp night air.

  Twenty minutes later, Zy pulled up and stepped off his bike, gesturing to the firearm. “Is that your idea of a warm welcome? I can go if you’re that adamant about sleep.”

  “Ha ha. Just being cautious, keeping out the riffraff, you know. But now that you’re here, maybe I should shoot you just for the hell of it.”

  “Pass.” Zy sighed. “Sorry. I’m all out of jokes.”

  Trees didn’t doubt that. Frankly, he felt pretty much the same. “Yeah. You look like someone shit all over your life. I was just trying to lighten your mood.”

  “I appreciate that, but don’t.”

  “All right. I’ll zip it.”

  As his buddy hung his helmet on his handlebars, Trees opened the front door.

  “Where’s Laila?”

  Since Zy had enough going on with the Tessa situation, Trees gave him a flippant answer. “In her room, waiting for me to fall asleep before she’ll risk getting into bed and closing her eyes.”

  “She still doesn’t trust you?”

  “She doesn’t trust anyone. I’m trying not to take it personally.”

  “Even if it’s not a knock against you, that’s got to be hard. You’re the dude most people trust with whatever they value—vehicles, pets, girlfriends.”

  “Yeah.” Wasn’t irony a bitch? “She’s not most people.”

  “Is she making noise about wanting to be with her sister?”

  Trees stepped inside the house and locked the shotgun back in its case. “Some, but Valeria admitted to Laila she’s the reason they’re apart.”

  “At least she’s not blaming you. Did she ever let you buy her warmer clothes?”

  “Negative. No offense, buddy, but could we talk about your misery instead?” Besides, the clock to build the bosses a timeline of Tessa’s guilt was ticking down.

  “Why not? Everyone else is.”

  Together, they made their way to the kitchen, and Zy folded himself into a chair as Trees poured coffee and slid a mug across the table. “Sorry, man. Tell me what happened?”

  Zy did, explaining that he’d fed Tessa his cover story. It had taken less than an hour for his disinformation to spread through their community on Abuzz. Trees suspected he’d heard the G-rated version of events because, even at a glance, it was obvious Zy hadn’t managed to stay out of Tessa’s bed. And that had fucked with Zy’s head even more.

  “This is killing you, and you still love her.”

  Zy frowned. “I try to tell myself I don’t. That I’m in love with who I thought she was and I miss what it seemed we had. But I can’t lie to myself. She double-crossed me, and she would only do that for some reason she thinks is necessary. And I can’t make myself unlove her.”

  “I know.” It was fucking sad. Trees had always suspected that when Zy fell, it would be real and lasting. He’d never imagined the reciprocation would be a lie.

  “She’s not capable of intentionally hurting people she cares about. Which says she could only do this because she doesn’t really give a shit about me at all.”

  And that was killing Zy. “I don’t believe that. I’ve watched her. I’ve seen the way she looks at you, and I think she loves you.” At least as much as she would let herself. The attachment was there…but Trees suspected that Tessa loved money more. “Any chance she doesn’t understand the ramifications of what she was doing?”

  “No.”

  “Maybe she—”

  “Whatever you’re going to say, no. Don’t try to make this better. You can’t. So let’s just get this shit done. The bosses want a timeline of the mole’s activities, so…I guess we’ll start at the beginning. Go through the backups. See what you can find in the electronic records on the EM servers.”

  “How long do you have?”

  Zy glanced at his phone. “Another five hours, give or take ten minutes.”

  Trees scoffed. “The bosses don’t want the fucking world or anything.”

  “They never do…”

  “I’ve got a spare computer in the office. Would you grab it? I’ll start capturing the data sets and pulling them down. Once I’ve got them, I’ll show you what we’re looking for, then you can search the records, too. This will go twice as fast if we both look.”

  “Sure. On it.” Zy disappeared down the hall.

  After a few minutes and a minor run-in with Laila, they settled back at the kitchen table.

  “You ready to do this?” Trees tried to focus on the task at hand.

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  “I’ve got the data sets ready. We need to account for all the breaches in EM Security’s information, times when the enemy seemed to know shit they shouldn’t have, and see if we can trace it back to any communication from Tessa, identify who it was going to, and how she might have passed the information.”

  Zy nodded. “So what am I looking for?”

  “Anything. Emails, website hits, log-ins to online locations that seem fishy. If I have to drill down to the keystroke level, I will. But let’s see what we can establish without that since months of that info would take more than five hours to comb through.”

  “Sure.”

  “You take January through March. She was on maternity leave most of that time, so the majority of the emails and communications you’ll be sifting through will belong to Aspen.” Trees almost winced when he said the temp’s name.

  “Oh, god help us all. I’d forgotten about her.”

  “I’d like to…” Trees rolled his eyes. “I’ll take April through August and see what kind of patterns emerge. Oh, and be sure to look at any cookies, plug-ins, or other programs she might have downloaded. I compiled a list of EM-approved software.” He slid the paper on the table between them. “Anything else is something she would have downloaded without telling the bosses and worth looking at. If you have questions about what you find, holler. I’ll figure it out.”

  “Thanks.”

  Obviously, he wasn’t grateful at all. How could he be, actively working to gather evidence against the woman he loved?

  Trees reached across the table to slap his shoulder in support. “You’re welcome.”

  Then they both dived in. Trees worked faster since Zy’s specialty wasn’t tech but demolitions. Trees didn’t pretend to be anything but functional when it came to blowing shit up.

  “What is toy voyaging?” Zy asked suddenly. “Any idea?”

  “No. What the hell?”

  Zy looked it up, then just started shaking his head. “Who sends their toys with strangers so they can be photographed around the world? And why is that a thing?”

  “Is it? Really?”

  “It is for Aspen,” Zy went on to explain. “Apparently, she got a kick out of that.”

  “Because that’s not weird or anything,” Trees quipped.

  “Not at all. So here’s a piece of software either she or Tessa downloaded on January thirty-first, exactly one year ago. The location suggests it was installed onto Tessa’s machine. Was she in the office that day?”

  Since Zy hadn’t begun working for EM Security yet, he had no way of knowing, so Trees stepped in. “Let me bump that against a calendar I maintained. I told the colonel I wasn’t a fan of letting the temp use Tessa’s machine because we didn’t know her, but we didn’t have a spare at the time. So I kept track of who had control of it when.” Trees flipped over to another document on his computer and scanned it with a frown. “That was one of Tessa’s last days in the office before her maternity leave. She was supposed to have worked with Aspen the following Monday through Wednesday, as I recall. But she went into labor on Tuesday morning and didn’t come back until the end of March.”

  “So Tessa probably downloaded this?”

  “Most likely. What is it?”

  Zy scowled as he scanned the code again. “Looks like some sort of spyware maybe.”

  “Let me see.” Trees craned his head to study the screen—and he didn’t like what he saw. “Fuck. This is some hand-coded shit that collects every keystroke, but it also enables stealth remote access from anywhere in the world.”

  Zy paled. “So whoever installed this could tap into Tessa’s computer at will and could see every time she or Aspen hit a key? And they could access our servers without anyone being the wiser?”

  As much as he hated to tell his buddy, Trees couldn’t sugarcoat this. “Yep. I begged Aspen to let me scan that computer a couple of times. Every time, she said it crashed or she finger-flubbed whatever she’d been typing and ended up somewhere in the computer she shouldn’t be, like a command prompt.”

  “Then Tessa couldn’t have had anything to do with this. She’s not a computer whiz, and she definitely doesn’t know anything about writing code, especially something that involved.”

  “You think Aspen does?” Trees pointed out. At least Tessa was good at her job. The temp had been a wreck.