Page 57 of Everything We Found

“Guess,” he barked.

“Lacy, the woman I told you about who tracked Aimee down at the funeral. Kristen says she’d been harassing Aimee on and off, sending clues.”

“I know who she is.”

“She finally sent Aimee something convincing enough to get her to book a last-minute flight to Puerto Escondido.”

Thomas aggressively rubbed at his face as he restlessly paced.

“Who is Lacy?”

“Imelda’s friend.”

“And Imelda is…?”

“Never mind. Long story.” Thomas sliced a hand through the air and dropped into the chair in front of her. He was a shadow of his former self. The media had dragged him through the mud along with his company. James’s discovery always had to have been a worry in the back of his mind. But with all the recent arrests and the media switching their focus away from the Hidalgos and onto something new and scathing as it always did, shouldn’t it now be safe for James to return home? Shouldn’t they all be safe?

She asked him just that and he shook his head. “Prisons don’t keep people like Ruiz from issuing kill orders. And you forget, James isn’t James anymore.”

Nadia stared. “He never regained his memory?”

“No. He has no idea who Aimee is, or the man he was.” Thomas rested his head in his hand, his elbow planted on the chair’s arm.

Aimee was going to be devastated. To find him and not have him remember her? Nadia sent out all the good vibes that Ianwould be there to catch her when she fell. Because Aimee would fall.

“Worried she’ll find out about you?” Thomas quietly asked.

Her gaze swerved to his face. She stared down at him with cold, threatening eyes. “Only way she does is if you tell her.” Or she did. But yes, she was worried. She’d been fretting about it since the beginning. “You better not dare.” She shook a finger at him.

He grasped her hand. “Sit down.” She resisted. “Your legs look phenomenal in those shoes but looking up at you hurts my neck. Please, sit down,” he implored in a tone soaked in exhaustion.

Heat flashed up her neck before she could stop it. Of all the moments for him to notice her legs he chose now.

Nadia wanted to be furious with him, but her features pulled in tight with worry. She settled in the chair beside him if only not to ask him if he’d been eating and getting enough sleep. Or if anyone had been taking care of him. Because he obviously had been neglecting himself. At only thirty-four, his hair was graying and his eyes were sunken. He didn’t wear his clothes. The dark gray pressed pants and button-down dress shirt hung on him.

Thomas tipped his head back and closed his eyes. “Thank you.”

“You’re tired.”

“Exhausted.” He kept his eyes closed. “Why’d you let her go?”

Ian. He’d convinced her. But he hadn’t been the only reason.

“We’ve been trapped, Aimee and me. Hers a cage of grief. Mine, guilt.”

Thomas lifted a brow, urging her to explain.

“Whether or not Aimee found him, she needed closure. All our efforts to get her to move forward were pointless if she didn’t have that. This trip was supposed to have given her that.”

“And when the Hidalgos find out James is still alive and they kill Aimee for retribution? James survived and the very agencies that took their leaders into custody hid him right under their noses, making them look incompetent and stupid. You don’t think they’ll want revenge?”

“I’d like to think James is insignificant enough that they don’t care. Or that they’ve forgotten about him.”

Thomas stared hard at her. “I thought Aimee was the naive one.” He leaned forward, bringing them closer, and his voice frosted over. “There is a very real probability James possesses damning evidence that could sway a jury in Ruiz’s trial. Guarantee that man’s life imprisonment without parole. Mexico’s attorney general’s office is banking on that. It’s the only reason they’ve kept him in their witness protection program and haven’t deported him. You might as well have signed his death certificate by exposing him.”

Terror was dry ice burning inside Nadia, threatening to crack her open. Her chest trembled as she took an unsteady breath. She wouldn’t shoulder the blame for this.

“James has no memory. What he doesn’t know can’t be used against him.”