Page 10 of Fighting for Scarlett

Death.

Sitting in a jail cell for the rest of her life was too good for someone who would take a drug that could mean the difference between life and death to soldiers in the field, and sell it to someone who would find a way to use it against her country.

The last two days had been spent trying to get a location on Raul Castillo’s jungle mansion. They had an approximate location, but the man was rich, the kind of rich that afforded him the benefits of being able to pay off anyone he liked, including law enforcement and politicians.

When he wasn’t buying people off, he was ruling through fear, and no one was willing to give up the man’s exact location.

Not that he and his team wouldn’t find it.

Prey were helping, too, even if they didn't seem to want to believe what was right in front of their faces. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d had a traitor in their midst. In fact, Fox himself had almost lost his now-wife Evie when a traitor at Prey gave up her location when she was hiding from a mob boss who wanted her dead.

“We might have a lead on Scarlett’s location,” Spider suddenly announced.

Like a switch had been flipped, the room suddenly went completely silent. Nobody even moved.

“Where is she?” he asked, breaking the spell. He wanted to get the hell out there and start looking for the woman who had fooled them all. Tate wouldn’t be able to relax until she was sitting in a jail cell somewhere. Knowing she was out there, had maybe already received her payment from Raul and disappeared to some tiny corner of the world where she thought she would be safe, was eating him alive.

She’d be wrong though.

If it took him the rest of his life, Tate would hunt her down and see that she was made to face the sins she had committed.

While his team never took their eyes off Spider, all the Prey people turned to shoot him glares. He was prepared to take their frustration, he got it. They were upset, they’d been blindsided here, just like he had been when his father had called him from jail. But he wasn’t the bad guy. That was Scarlett. And it was the job of all of them to find her and see that she was punished for her choices.

“We compiled all the data we have on Raul Castillo, and we’ve managed to narrow it down to a fifty-square-mile section of jungle in central Mexico,” Spider replied tightly. It was clear he didn't like this, but like it or not, it was happening.

The cards had already been dealt by Scarlett herself and now they all needed to scramble and play their hands.

That was all he needed to hear.

Now he and his team could get out there. Shouldn’t take them all that long to clear an area of jungle that size. Wasn’t like he could imagine a man as wealthy as Raul Castillo living in some tiny little hut that would be hard to pick up.

Already pushing back from the table, he nodded. “We’ll keep you updated.”

“Wait,” the brunette he knew was Cassidy said, also shoving away from the table. “You can't go out there like that, like you're about to take down a terrorist.”

“Scarlett didn't do what that email implies,” the green-eyed blonde, Ella, agreed, also standing up.

“You don’t know her like we do. There is zero way she would do this,” the blue-eyed blonde, Lucy, quickly added. “Scarlett is good, sweet, and kind. She has the biggest heart ever and truly cares about people.”

Looks could be deceiving.

Tate knew that better than most.

He had actively encouraged his father to pursue a relationship with the woman who wound up destroying his life. That was guilt he would have to live with the rest of his life, and if Athena Team tried to get in the middle of this, they, too, would have to live with the guilt of knowing they contributed to what Scarlett had set in motion.

“I get it. You guys are close. But sometimes we don’t see what's right in front of us,” Tate said gently because he truly did understand where they were coming from. “But facts are, there is a dead man tattooed with Raul Castillo’s mark in her apartment, killed with her weapon, and an email that suggests she’s selling the Reactivator to the weapons dealer.”

“But she texted me that she needed help,” Lucy protested.

“Or she was trying to set up an alibi not knowing about the email that had been found,” he suggested. “Likely, she hoped everyone would believe she had just been kidnapped, and while they would look for her they would eventually give up. Maybe she has a whole plan to eventually fake her death. I don’t know. None of us do. But what we do know is Scarlett is tangled up with Raul Castillo. That fact is indisputable.”

“Scarlett said you were a real jerk,” Ella muttered. “She still has no reason to do any of this.”

“Actually, she does,” he countered. Over the last forty-eight hours, he’d gathered every bit of intel he could about his target. And what he’d learned suggested Scarlett did indeed have reason to sell the drug to the enemy. “Grew up abandoned by her parents who prioritized military careers over her and her brother. Grandparents, also military, were strict and uncompromising. Placed in foster care after their deaths when neither parent would give up their career. Then she lost her brother, who also abandoned her to join the military only a few months after you began working on this drug. I’d say if anyone has a reason to dislike the military and sell a drug that could save the lives of soldiers it would be Scarlett Madden.”

CHAPTER THREE

January 11th

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