“Why were you checking on me in the first place?”

“Where are you, Blake?”

Blake sat down on the step in front of the door and sighed, accepting the inevitable beating his brothers were going to give him when they heard the details. “In San Francisco.”

“Tell me this isn’t about Alvarez.”

“Okay, I won’t. I’ve stumbled onto a slave trade operation going on down here. Young and pretty girls are being kidnapped and forced into things I don’t think either of us wants to imagine. I’ve got two I rescued who need a safe house. Kyle has them locked down in a hotel right now.” He paused and glanced over his shoulder up at the window, before turning his back to it and lowering his voice. “Actually, make that three women who need protection. I have one with me.”

Luke cursed. “And let me guess. Alvarez is running the operation.”

“Yeah.” Blake ran his fingers over his jaw. “Alvarez is running the operation.”

“How deep are you into this?”

He rotated back around. “I’m working as head of security for one of his top men.”

“Damn it, Blake—”

“I’m going to get enough shit from Royce over this, so save me yours,” Blake snapped. “I have women who need help and a shot at bringing this ass**le down once and for all. Are you in or out?”

“You know we’re in. We’ll charter a flight and get a team there tomorrow. I’ll work on arranging a safe house.”

“Kyle has his hands full taking care of two of the women. I need you to check on someone for me. I need to know everything you can find out about Anna Michaels. Her sister is Kara Michaels, an FBI agent on a leave of absence. Actually…fuck. I’m not sure what her sister’s name is. Their father was FBI and he was compromised on an undercover job, and Kara and her sister were given new identities.”

“If they’re in witness protection plans it will be nearly impossible to get that information, even at the highest level where Royce has connections. Why is this important?”

“Kara is here, trying to find her sister. She seems to think she’s one of the kidnapped women. I’ll need to get back to you on the sister’s name. Just get me everything you can on Kara and make sure no one but Kyle has been digging around in her file.”

“You mean Royce digging around. If Kyle got you information on Kara, he got it from Royce. And Royce is going to be pissed when he finds out Kyle lied about why to protect you, because we both know he didn’t tell him Kara tracked back to you hunting Alvarez.”

“He was just doing as ordered.”

Luke was silent a long moment before he said, “I’m not even going to bother asking the ten questions on my mind right now.”

“Thank you for that little piece of heaven,” Blake replied in mock relief.

“Royce—”

“Will turn heaven to hell. Believe me, I know.”

Luke changed the subject. “Is Kara one of the women you’re protecting?”

“I thought you weren’t asking the ten questions.”

“This is the eleventh.”

Blake’s lips thinned. “Yes.”

He snorted. “Does she know you’re protecting her? Because I’m pretty sure she’s trained to protect herself and others for that matter.”

“No,” he confessed. “But she’s about to.”

Luke whistled. “The shit’s about to hit the fan. She’s going to bust your chops.”

“You don’t even know her.”

“I know enough. She’s FBI and her father was FBI. That enough to assume her to be tough and independent. To top that all off, she’s gone undercover inside the cartel to save her sister. That takes a pair of balls.”

“Alone,” Blake said. “She went into this alone, which is a death wish.”

“Sounds familiar,” Luke replied dryly. “Like my brother who just went MIA.”

“Screw you, Luke.”

“I’m just speaking facts. And you better be prepared for what’s coming when you try to shut down Kara. This is not a woman you send to her room and promise cookies or candy-coated orgasms, Blake. I assume that’s your plan, right?”

“Seriously, Luke. Screw you.”

Luke chuckled. “Yeah yeah, I love you too, bro. I’ll let you know what I find out about your poor, helpless FBI agent.” He hung up.

Blake growled under his breath and returned his phone to his belt, but he didn’t move. He just sat there, thinking about Kara, and he didn’t give a damn if she was FBI. She wasn’t going back inside the cartel, even if that meant he had to tie her to a bed and keep her there. Of course, he wouldn’t be in that bed. Not anymore. Not until Alvarez was dead. The distraction was too dangerous. He and Kara were not doing candy-coated anything.

Shoving to his feet, he entered the apartment, locked the door, and charged up the stairs, his adrenaline pumping in anticipation of a confrontation.

Chapter Three

Blake rounded the corner of the stairs and found Kara standing by the couch, her long, dark hair in sexy disarray, her hand firmly holding a gun on him. He wasn’t the least bit rattled or dissuaded, charging right on ahead toward her with long, determined steps.

Her eyes went wide at his continued approach and she backed into the couch. “Stop or I’ll—”