Page 74 of Everything We Found

“Trust me. He’s more than interested. Why do you think I’m here? He was very concerned about you. He cares for you, a lot, and it’s obvious. You’ve been through so much, and I can’t begin to conceive what you need to process, but don’t give up so quickly on him.”

“We’ll see.”

“Are you glad you went, despite everything?” Nadia asked, coming to a stop in front of Aimee’s house.

“I am. I needed to see for myself what had happened.”

Aimee unfolded from Nadia’s car, retrieving her luggage in the backseat. Nadia blew her a kiss and Aimee wished her goodnight before shutting the door. Nadia watched her head for her house. When Aimee reached her front door, she eased down the window, remembering she’d forgotten to tell her something very important. “Hey!”

Aimee turned around.

“I love you.”

Aimee smiled, and Nadia almost burst with joy over how genuine and broad it was. “I know,” she said, and Nadia laughed. Despite her sadness and reluctant resignation—which she knew would take time for her to get past—there was a lightness about her. Aimee was resilient. She was ready to move on. She would be all right. Better than all right.

Nadia watched her go into the house, holding her secret close to her chest. She hadn’t told Aimee she’d known about Jamesbecause of what Thomas had said. But rather what Aimee had said. She didn’t want to know Thomas’s full story about James. Because she understood better than Nadia that closure didn’t always come from revelations. Sometimes it came from letting go of the need to know.

23

NADIA

PRESENT DAY

“When? Where?” Thomas set aside his coffee, suddenly alert.

Cammy came into the kitchen. “My guy didn’t tell me. Only that Kane was brought in for questioning late last night. They’ve been interrogating him since. The Hidalgos kidnapped his family over a week ago.”

“My god.” Nadia set down the spatula and turned off the stove.

Thomas swore under his breath.

“Nobody noticed his wife and kids have been gone that long?” Nadia rubbed her upper arms, overcome with a glacial dread.

“They noticed.” Cammy slipped her phone into her robe pocket. “Kane has been calling his kids in sick and emailing his wife’s work from her laptop.”

“Do they know where his family is?” Thomas asked.

Cammy shook her head. “You know what I know. That’s all I was told, which isn’t public. I’m retired, and my contact would be up shit creek if their superiors discovered they’d been leaking me information. Multiple agencies received quite a blowwith Kane’s betrayal. He’s pretty high up now in the DEA, was privy to the details of multiple classified operations. I’m going to fathom a guess that included Ruiz’s transfer. Anyway, my contact only told me because they know you’re here with me. They want you to stay put until your new papers arrive.”

Thomas looked at the floor, rubbing his forearm, his unease obvious. He didn’t like what he was hearing. Kane had sold them out to keep his family alive. It was a hard blow.

Nadia left the kitchen to turn on the TV. There had to be updates on Ruiz since last night. She surfed the channels, landing on a breaking news report, a ribbon ticking across the bottom of the screen.

“Shocking new developments surrounding Fernando Ruiz’s escape three days ago have just come to our attention,” reported news anchor Maureen Curry. “Our investigative team has learned Ruiz’s prison transfer was part of a covert collaborative operation between the U.S. and Mexican governments that went catastrophically wrong.”

The broadcast drew Thomas and Cammy into the living room, their stares fixed on the screen. Nadia nervously chewed on her thumb, glancing at Thomas when she felt his palm rest on her lower back. He caught her gaze and she noticed how dark the circles were below his eyes, the deepening of the lines between his brows. He’d barely slept last night, and he was desperately trying to process the cascade of information coming at him. They both were. And they hadn’t even finished their coffees yet.

“According to our sources, Ruiz’s relocation to the Rio Grande Secure Confinement facility was, in fact, a ploy designed to lure Tito Guerrero, the Los Zopilotes Cartel kingpin, out into the open.

“Guerrero is one of the FBI’s most wanted men with a fifteen-million-dollar reward for his capture and has long evaded authorities. Next to the Hidalgos, the Los Zopilotes are a majorsupplier of fentanyl into the United States. Together, the two drug-trafficking organizations control approximately eighty to ninety percent of the fentanyl market. The Zopilotes are reputed for their brutal tactics, and the two cartels have a long and bloody history of territorial disputes and battles over supply routes.” The screen flashed to a map of Mexico with shaded areas designating their territories.

“Mexican authorities have long held the belief that Ruiz was personally responsible for the torture and assassination of Guerrero’s oldest son, Jesus, twelve years ago. Intelligence gathered by agencies from both countries indicated Guerrero wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to settle the score.”

Tremors of unease ran through Nadia. “They were using Ruiz as bait.”

A muscle twitched in Thomas’s cheek.

“The collision three days ago that killed both drivers and two prison guards, leaving a third in critical condition, was not part of the operation. While it’s unclear if the setup drew Guerrero out into the open, or if it had been the Zopilotes who caused the accident, our sources report Ruiz had known about the transport well in advance and may have been able to get classified details to his associates.”