Page 35 of K-9 Guardians

“Muñoz pulled it out of my pockets before tying me to a chair in his warehouse and handicapping me,” King said. “Whoever did this has my son. They knew we were going to come after Muñoz, so they killed him, and now we have nothing to go on to bring Julien home.”

“He’s still alive, King. We’re going to find him.” Nervous energy shot down into Scarlett’s fingertips. She needed to keep moving, keep uncovering lead after lead until she fixed this. “Granger, check the rest of the house. I need Muñoz’s phone, a tablet, a laptop—anything that connects to the security system. If we’re lucky, we might get something off the surveillance.”

“You got it.” The counterterrorism agent slipped into a parallel hallway and out of sight.

“You really think whoever did this was careless enough to leave evidence of murder behind?” King’s gaze bored into her. Desperate for the answer.

“It’s worth a try.” Because digging through security systems and building defenses was all she knew how to do. It had to be enough. Otherwise... Julien didn’t stand a chance. And that was what scared her the most. “But there is one more option. Someone I could reach out to.”

King’s chest and shoulders stiffened, pulling him up as straight as if a puppeteer had a hold of a string connected to the crown of his head. “What do you mean? Like a contact within Sangre por Sangre?”

“No. Not exactly. Though this person is involved in the same kind of smuggling as the cartel, and he might know where we need to look for Julien first.” Her skin caught fire from the weight of his attention, but not like it had when they’d slept in the same bed together. “Before, when I told you about how I got the scar across my stomach, I didn’t give you the whole story. I...couldn’t.”

He didn’t have an answer for that, and she didn’t have time to get into every detail if they wanted to recover Julien.

“The truth is my commanding officer brought me into the smuggling operation months before he tried to kill me.” Her lips dried in an instant, begging for relief. Everything she’d worked to hide about her past wasn’t worth the life of a child. No matter what happened next, she’d keep her word to bring Julien home. “I saw him do things I wasn’t supposed to in that time, and I think I can use it to get him to help us.”

HECOULDN’TBREATHE. Couldn’t think.

“Wait. You...” King tried to get his head around what she was trying to tell him while also trying to ignore the dead body at her feet. “He brought you in before the night you were stabbed and left for dead? Which means, you were in on the smuggling operation from the beginning.”

“Yes. I was one of the soldiers stealing cash, weapons and drugs the army confiscated from the enemy forces in the area.” Her voice cracked. As though she’d never admitted any of this out loud. And given the fact she wasn’t sitting somewhere in a cell that didn’t exist on paper, King put his money on the idea she hadn’t. “My commanding officer believed my skills for security systems and defense could work in their favor. And he was right. I made sure none of us were caught.”

Scarlett took a step forward but stopped her approach as every muscle around King’s spine hardened with battle-ready tension. “King, I give you my word, I thought we were putting those resources to good use. I didn’t know the full extent of what they were doing, and I needed—”

“What did you need, Scarlett? The drugs? The money?” The answer didn’t matter. Blood drained from his upper body in a rush, nearly knocking him over. The woman standing in front of him wasn’t the one he’d partnered with over the past few days, the one who’d given him her word to bring his son home.

“No. I just...” Her gaze cut somewhere past his left arm. “I thought we were doing something good. They told me everything was going back to the people we were trying to help, but it was a lie.” A glimmer of tears reflected in her eyes. “Two weeks before I ended up in that hospital, I found out about the human trafficking. My CO and the rest of my team were selling off women and kids to the highest bidders, and I pulled out. I made a plan to expose the entire operation, but I made a mistake. I trusted the wrong person. That’s when my commanding officer decided I couldn’t walk away alive.”

“And what? You want to get in contact with him and ask for help to find my son?” King tried to thread his hand through his hair, for something to distract him from the churn of rage and betrayal, but his balance shot to one side. “No. You know what? Don’t answer that. Because you’re just digging yourself deeper. I have grounds to arrest you and hand you over to the army, Scarlett.”

“Not as long as you’re suspended from the DEA, you don’t.” She took another step, her voice softening, but it wouldn’t work. The manipulation, her proximity—none of it would affect him. Not anymore.

“You lied to me.” And that was what hurt the most, wasn’t it? That Eva had lied about his son’s existence for ten years. That Adam had lied about running his own investigation into Sangre por Sangre while preaching they had to work by the book. But of all the people he’d trusted to have his back, Scarlett was supposed to be different. A partner. Someone who didn’t break their ideals and proceeded on logic and truth. Someone he could rely on to bring his son home.

Only that hadn’t been the case at all. He never knew that person.

That was all anyone was. Appearances.

And he’d taken them all at face value.

“King, listen to me. Hernando Muñoz is dead. The man who orchestrated Julien’s abduction is dead and so is any reason or personal revenge he had to do it. Muñoz had leverage by keeping Julien alive, which gave us time to strategize until he made his move.” Her breathing picked up, making her words wispier. Urgent. “Whoever killed Muñoz has your son. Only now they have no use for Julien. They’ll use him until he doesn’t serve a purpose, and it already might be too late, but I can help. I can reach out to my former CO with where to start looking. I gave you my word—”

“What does your word mean, Scarlett?” The cavern of emptiness he’d tried to fill with his job ached around the edges. For the first time in...ever, he’d finally felt as though he was on the right path. Becoming a father, claiming justice for Eva and Adam, trusting Socorro with Julien’s life. But it’d all been a lie. “You just admitted to being an active participant in an international smuggling ring during your service. Anything you’ve said up until now has been corrupted. Your word means nothing to me. You mean nothing to me, and as of this moment, we’re done.”

He regretted the words the instant he said them, but there it was. Seeping into the silence between them.

Her mouth parted, and a vulnerability he hadn’t witnessed escaped on her next exhale. Color drained from her face and neck, and King half expected her to collapse, but in an instant that raw part of her was contained. As though it never existed. That guarded armor he’d managed to crack through the past few days returned, agonizing second by second, until King couldn’t read anything in her expression.

Scarlett shifted her weight center, almost a full inch taller as she faced off with him. “Well, I’m glad we cleared that up. Consider your deal with Socorro void, Agent Elsher. Should the DEA require statements as to your investigation in Hernando Muñoz from our operatives, please have them reach out to Granger Morais. He’ll be happy to assist.”

Agent Elsher. Not King. The formality stabbed through him as effectively as the blade in his thigh and sent an earthquake of renewed pain into his nervous system. But King wouldn’t break. Not as long as Julien was still out there.

“House is clear. No signs of clothing or toiletries left behind. Whoever was here didn’t stay long. Must’ve taken Muñoz’s devices, too.” Granger rounded back into the kitchen and stopped dead cold. With palpable tension, his hand eased toward the sidearm at his hip as the counterterrorism agent’s gaze bounced between King and his teammate. “Everything okay?”

“We’re done here.” King’s own words seemed to hit harder when coming from Scarlett’s mouth. She tried for a smile, but everyone in the room saw the forced nature behind it. “We can call the body into Albuquerque PD from the SUV. Agent Elsher is going to babysit the scene until they arrive.”

King hadn’t volunteered. But without Socorro resources, staying behind would give him the chance to search the place himself before police arrived on the scene. There had to be something here that could tell him where Julien was. It was Locard’s principle. Anyone coming onto a crime scene left a piece of themselves behind, and anyone leaving took pieces with them. No matter how small. “I just want to find my son.”

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