Page 51 of Her Noble Protector

“Prints?” Harry asked.

“The cops haven’t processed it yet,” Clint answered. “We’ll know as soon as they know.”

“I don’t want to know how you’re doing this,” Harry said with his hands up.

“We won’t tell you,” Lydia said with her head down.

Clint looked up at Harry from his laptop on the other side of the dining room table. “Harry, Lyd and I are about an hour away from getting into the Mexican federales system, but that is only going to tell us what they reported, not what really happened. Do you have any sources down there?”

Harry stood up and took out his phone. “Let me make a couple of phone calls. I might.”

Clint nodded.

Raiden waited until Harry had walked away, then he spoke low to Clint and Lydia. After talking to Kane, he realized that Lydia had been working as a quasi-member of Midnight Delta for years. He didn’t quite understand it, but he wasn’t going to argue anything that worked at this point in the game.

“I talked to Max,” Raiden said. “He’s having Captain Hale push to get info. The man is fucking pissed about what happened to Cami. Harry might have connections, but Nic’s father is going to cut through everything and find out what the fuck went on down there. I’m positive this comes down to that bitch Maria. I need to find out more about her when I go back to see Cami in the hospital tonight. But the Captain is going to find out Maria’s connections and where the hell she is.”

Lydia looked up from her laptop. “You’re going to go easy on her, right?”

Raiden gave her an incredulous look. “Of course I am.”

Clint gave Raiden a stand-down look, and Raiden took a deep breath. “Sorry, Lydia. You don’t know me, sorry if I’m coming off too strong. But of course, I’m going to go in gentle with Cami.”

She smiled and nodded.

“Okay, that’s one half of the puzzle,” Clint nodded. “But according to Cami’s statement, there wasn’t a woman in that van, so Maria didn’t do the kidnapping. They still have to get Lisa in front of Maria. This is good news, Raiden.”

“Right,” Raiden gritted out.

“It is,” Lydia said as she put her hand on top of his. “Your girl is strong; she’s going to do everything to stay alive, and we got in on this quick. We’ll find her.”

Raiden closed his eyes. He wished that were true. But Lisa was barely back on her feet and the idea of her being captured again? It would devastate her. Even if she came out of this alive, how could she ever recover?

* * *

A door opened and the video game shut off. “Baby, thank God you’re here,” the man said in Spanish.

“What in the hell have you gotten me into this time?” a woman asked.

“Nellie, I need your help. We’ve got a situation.”

“A woman is tied up, gagged, and blindfolded on a couch here. I can see we have a damned situation.” She was growling.

“Please don’t be mad, darlin’. I’ll make it up to you. You know this deal is worth a lot of cash.”

“Jesus Christ, Mel. You’ve got a woman blindfolded on the couch. She’s not here of her own free will. What in the hell are you thinking? Let her go, I don’t care how much money this deal is worth, I don’t want any part of it.”

Lisa heard the door opening. The woman was planning on leaving. Lisa didn’t want to be left alone. She pulled at the bindings on her wrists. He’d put on another set of zip-ties after she’d had her water. Same with her ankles.

“Alberto said he knows where we live,” the man whispered.

“Who knows where we live?”

“The guy who shot and killed Alberto today. He killed him in cold blood. He knows where we live, Nellie. Where our kids live. We gotta do what he says.”

The door slammed shut.

“What have you done, baby?” Her words were a horrified whisper.