She studied him, looking baffled. “You don’t know?”

“Fuck no, I don’t know. What girls being sold to whom, Kara?”

“I’m not completely sure. I just know there have been girls disappearing, and they work at that restaurant. I overheard Eduardo telling Tami that she was going to be sold off if she didn’t deliver this other girl he wanted to him.”

Blake scrubbed his jaw and cursed under his breath. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You work for Mendez, Blake. I know you say you’re a contractor, but—”

“I damn sure don’t support selling off woman, Kara. That’s some f**ked-up shit.” He lowered his voice. “When I told you that you could trust me, I meant it.”

“I don’t trust anyone involved with Mendez.”

“And yet you’re involved with Mendez.”

“I told you. I have to be or I wouldn’t be.”

“For the money.”

“No. Yes. For my family. We can’t do this now. The other woman Eduardo wanted. She has no family and he’s cleared her records in some way and intends to make her disappear. I have to get to her and get her out of town.”

“You have her address?”

“Yes.” She held up the piece of paper.

He took it from her and he glanced down at the address. “Give me my keys.”

She fished them from her purse and he motioned her inside the truck. Once they were inside, he started the engine. “Where’s Tami going?”

“The Omni in San Jose. I wanted her across the bridge and in something high end and secure where Eduardo couldn’t get to her easily. It seemed the best option until I could get to her until I could make other arrangements for her.”

“Other arrangements,” he repeated.

“Yes.”

“What arrangements?”

“I didn’t think that far ahead.”

Smart answer, but he wasn’t buying it. She knew what she was doing. He called Kyle and gave him the rundown. “I’ll get the other girl and take her with me to pick up Tami,” Kyle said. “We’re going to have to get them into protective custody, Blake. You know that. We have to talk about what that means.”

In other words, if they let the feds know what was happening; Blake would get pulled out of the cartel and investigated. He scrubbed his jaw, considering the very real possibility he needed to get his brothers involved. They had a soft spot for women. No matter how much they worried about Blake and Alvarez, they wouldn’t blow a chance to break up an operation selling woman off like shoes in a store. “Just keep the two women safe tonight,” Blake said. “We’ll deal with the rest tomorrow.”

“There’s something else you need to know,” Kyle said, and something in his voice had Blake stiffening.

A few seconds later, Blake had listened to the news Kyle had to share and his gut was one big knot. He ended the call and didn’t look at Kara. He couldn’t look at her now.

“Who is that you’re talking to?” she asked. “What’s happening?”

“That was a trusted friend. He’ll make sure the women are safe.” He put the truck in reverse and didn’t say another word, his mind and emotions racing, that dark place he so often visited threatening to take control.

Kara must have sensed it because she didn’t speak and barely made a sound, but as soon as they pulled up to her apartment, she was out of the truck, as if she couldn’t escape fast enough. At her door, he pushed it open and she stared up at him, hesitating to go inside.

His eyes met hers, and he saw her trepidation. She might not know what he’d found out on that phone call, but she sensed something was up. And oh yeah—something was up, all right. “I’ll pick you up and carry you in if I have to,” he promised.

She inhaled, as if steeling herself for what came next, and headed inside. He pursued her and shut the door, shackling her arm and pressing her into the wall, his legs shackling hers. “I know who you are, Kara.”

Part III

Chapter One

I know who you are, Kara.

Kara’s heart raced at Blake’s declaration, his strong, powerful body trapping hers against the entry wall inside her apartment and preventing her escape, his hands pressed to the surface by either side of her head. He was caging her, trying to intimidate her. Trying to get her to admit what he couldn’t know. Reassuring herself she’d covered her tracks well, she searched the hard lines of his handsome face, probing his rich brown eyes, and finding none of the passion and heat they’d held only hours before—just hard steel and anger.

Memories of what had passed between them before she’d left him sleeping in her bed, of hours of erotic lovemaking, of the connection they’d shared that defied him working for one of the most lethal cartels in the world, confused her and twisted her in knots. She hadn’t wanted to want him. She hadn’t wanted to leave him. “If this is about me sneaking out—”

“I know who you are, Kara,” he repeated, and that same hard steel from his eyes was in his voice.

He couldn’t know, she assured herself. It was impossible. “No matter how many times you insist otherwise, I’m still just me. I’m still Kara Tatum—”

“Wrong answer,” he said, and there was no time for her rebuttal. In a flash, he’d grabbed her purse, with her gun nestled inside, and tossed it to the ground. Kara jerked to retrieve it at the same moment Blake lifted her and threw her over his shoulder.