Page 57 of Her Noble Protector

“I’ve been busy looking over the shit that Clint and Lydia sent me. Didn’t have time to hold your hand and sing Kumbaya.” Kane’s growl sounded refreshed.

“Don’t bust my balls, and tell me what you’ve got.”

“Talked to Captain Hale. Some of the Federales down in the Yucatan peninsula are in the pocket of the newest cartel down there. Maria Jimenez was busy sleeping with the guy who launched the kidnapping. You wanna know the name of the guy who runs the cartel?”

Raiden squeezed the bridge of his nose. “Something Jimenez?” Raiden guessed.

“Yep, Rolando Jimenez. Maria is his niece.”

“Fuck.”

“She takes after her uncle. She likes to slice and dice is the word on the street.”

Raiden thought about the scar on Lisa’s arm. “You know that we’re on a time clock, right?” Raiden asked.

“Yep. I figure she’s got to make her way over the border. She’s going to want to get personal with Lisa.”

“How good is Clint?” Raiden asked softly. He’d remembered hearing some rumors after they started working together and it had been weighing on him.

“You couldn’t ask for better,” Kane said.

“I heard that he was having some problems,” Raiden said. “That head injury. I called him because his last name started with ‘A’ so he was the first name on my phone,” Raiden admitted.

“I’m serious as a fucking heart attack,” Kane said. “Clint beat that back. I don’t know how the hell he did it, but he did. Probably with Lydia’s help. I looked over everything he and Lydia have put together; it’s spot on.”

For the first time in hours, Raiden felt himself give a small sigh of relief.

“We’re going to find the gardener,” Raiden said. “We’ll be knocking on doors here in the neighborhood this morning.”

“Good call,” Kane said. “Put A.J. on it. She can get anybody talking.”

Raiden smiled. It was true, Kane’s wife had a way about her.

“Clint has all of Rick’s communication devices hacked, so if the gardener calls him, he’ll be able to track him.”

“What about the dead guy’s phone?” Kane asked. “Wasn’t that the guy who had the communication with the gardener?”

“Rick put him and his phone in a forty-gallon barrel of oil. It’s gone. Lydia is going to tap into the cell phone records today.”

“Good woman. Look, this will be the last time I can check in. Tonight we’re going live.”

God, he hated not being there with his team, but he needed to be here for Lisa.

“Raiden,” Kane said sharply. “You’re where you need to be.”

“What, you can read minds now?” Raiden asked.

“Yes. Yes, I can.”

Raiden chuckled. “Be safe.”

“Always.”

* * *

It had been just like the movies—the man had put some foul-smelling cloth over her nose and mouth and then she’d passed out. When she’d woken up, she’d had a pounding headache. Now here she was in somebody’s trailer in the middle of nowhere, still with her hands and feet tied. At least the blindfold and gag were gone.

Lisa looked around, waiting for the panic to set in, the taste of fear to coat her tongue. She didn’t feel it. Instead, she felt angry. Angry that for just maybe twenty-four hours, she had been eating and sleeping and beginning to feel like herself again. She had Camilla and Raiden with her, making her feel like she mattered, and she’d been seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, and now it was being ripped away.