Page 110 of Emerald

Anna turns to me, her face softening. “I know. I want to save them, too. They deserve a better life. All I’m going to say is your friends don’t have high enough clearance to know that part of the plan.”

Right. Okay. That makes sense.

“Are you saying the agency is involved?” Brooks asks.

Anna rolls her eyes again. “Like I said, it’s on a need-to-know basis. Surely you understand that.” Brooks bristles at her tone.

“You’re saying there’s no way they can trace it back to us?” I ask, turning her attention back to me. “That is all my friends are worried about. We cannot protect ourselves against the cartel.”

“I would never put you or my family in danger,” Anna reassures us. I nod in understanding. “As fun as this has been, I have a tennis lesson I need to attend,” Anna states, standing up and brushing her hands down her designer outfit as if getting rid of imaginary crumbs. “I hope you all understand the plan as I will not be repeating it nor changing it,” she says, and with that she walks out of the living room. I follow her. “You seriously trust those people in there?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t, but I guess I have no choice now, the wheels are in motion, this is the plan. They better not fuck it up,” she warns me.

“They won’t, they are professionals.”

“And if they do, I will put a bullet between their eyes,” she says coldly, flicking her blonde hair over her shoulder and storming out of the house. My stomach turns over her threat. I don’t do well with threats, especially not against the people I love.

I return to the living room. “I’m sorry, Elena, I don’t trust that woman,” Brooks states.

“Neither do I,” Sophie adds. Nash gives me a small smile.

“Look, this is a complicated mission and we are all going to have to trust each other, even if you don’t want to. We need to save Pearl and those ten girls. Anna is probably under a lot of strain. She’s about to blow her carefully constructed cover, and I’m sure her bosses are putting an almighty amount of pressure on her to pull this off. For years, they have been waiting for this moment, so I think maybe we need to give her some grace and let her lead. She knows this world more than we do, she knows the players and their personalities. We just need to follow herinstructions and pray that we all make it out alive for the sake of those stolen women,” I tell them.

“Look, I’m not a fan of Anna, but Elena’s right, we’re going to have to trust her. She is our in,” Nash says, supporting me. I give him a welcome smile.

“Fine. But if I sniff an ounce of this mission going south, I’m pulling the pin on it,” Brooks states.

“What about Pearl and those girls?” I ask him.

“You can’t save them if you’re dead,” he bites back. “I need some fresh air,” he states, getting up and storming out of the living room, with Sophie following him.

“That didn’t go well, did it?” I turn to Nash. He walks over, wraps his arms around me, and kisses my temple.

“Anna is used to being in charge. Brooks is used to being in charge. It’s the clash of the giants. He’ll come around,” he reassures me.

“Hope so, we all need to be on board to make this plan work.”

“I’ll talk to him. Don’t worry about it, everything is going to work out, I promise.”

39

ELENA

“Good luck,” Sophie says, giving me a hug as she and Brooks head off to the event as staff.

“Look after yourself,” I tell her as she gives me a small wave. Brooks throws me a nod before the two of them walk out the door, hopefully not for the last time. My stomach is in knots. Usually, I am calm before a mission, but something about this makes me queasy.

“Are you okay?” Nash asks.

“I have an uneasy feeling about tonight. I hate going into a mission feeling like this.”

“Me too,” he says before he wraps his hand around my neck and pulls me to him. “No matter what, I will have your back tonight. You are my priority.”

I shake my head. “No, please promise me you will save those girls, they must be your priority.”

“I’m not going to lose you, not when I’ve just found you,” he says, pulling our lips together and kissing me passionately.

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