Page 39 of Wicked Ambition

Oz turned his head. “It’s hard to say.”

“Try.”

“I already explained. It depends on who she works for. It depends if her interest was in you or if it was in me or Baggs. There are too many factors in play to even start guessing.”

Ayla slumped back, immediately moving as the spring poked her again. They had just discussed this, but she wanted answers. Now. “I’m worried about Io,” she said as a sort of apology.

“I know, Pollita.”

Taking a deep breath, Ayla tried to stop spinning in circles. Instead of repeating the same questions, she needed to focus. She needed to prioritize. Nothing was more important than locating her sister. The woman only mattered if she contributed to the goal. Find Iona.

Not knowing where to start killed her. Her original plan of traveling to San Isidro and asking around seemed incredibly stupid. Tears welled. Impatiently, Ayla blinked them away. She hated feeling overly emotional, but Io meant everything to her. She couldn’t imagine her life without her.

The thought of losing her twin had more tears forming, and this time Ayla couldn’t contain them. How embarrassing. Unobtrusively, she tried to wipe them away before one of the guys noticed. She wasn’t successful.

Baggs caught her in the rearview mirror. “Dude,” he said quietly, and when he had Oz’s attention, he made a quick gesture with his chin toward the back seat.

Ayla bowed her head, blinked harder, and wiped hurriedly at her cheeks. She normally wasn’t a crier, and she hated being caught in a weak moment. All her hard work to stem her tears was undermined when Oz’s hand covered her knee and squeezed.

The comfort surprised her.

She knew the big, hard man who’d rescued her more than once since her arrival in Puerto Jardin. The man who promised to keep her safe while he helped her search for her sister. She was familiar with the man who was generous in bed and who made sure she enjoyed the night as much as he had.

But this man was a surprise. His touch conveyed compassion, empathy, caring.

Ayla raised her head, her eyes meeting Oz’s. There was sympathy there. Understanding. Concern.

Uh-oh.It was simple to resist the mercenary. It wouldn’t be as easy for Ayla to maintain her distance from this version of Oz.

Chapter 16

Oz tipped the room service waiter, closed the hotel room door behind him, and gave a light knock on the bathroom door as he wheeled the breakfast cart over to the table. Ayla was slow getting ready this morning, but he wasn’t complaining. The longer she took, the less time she was outside and visible. Besides, it prevented the waiter from seeing her. Even in disguise, it was better to keep her under wraps.

He frowned as he shifted the covered plates from the cart to the table. Oz was beginning to worry about Ayla. She’d hardly touched dinner last night before she’d crashed. Sure, she was stressed over her sister, but all she wanted this morning was toast and plain scrambled eggs. No spice. She’d been clear about that. Luckily, the hotel served American-style breakfasts as well as Puerto Jardinese, but they wouldn’t be able to count on that at any other place they stayed.

Still no Ayla.

Pushing the cart between the beds to get it out of the way, Oz tapped on the bathroom door again. “Pollita, the food’s here. You can finish up in there after you eat.”

His worry increased when the door opened. She was dressed, wearing white pants and another top with some sort of swirly pattern, but she didn’t have her wig or makeup on yet. Her face looked pale. Winding his index finger in the end of one of her blonde curls, he asked, “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “Did you hear anything from Baggs? Did he learn anything last night?”

Oz shook his head, and with one last caress of her hair, he lowered his arm. “He’ll check in before we get rolling.”

Probably. He kept that qualifier to himself. They’d had one hell of an argument last night when Ayla realized they weren’t stopping at the hotel just to drop off their things before heading out to look for her sister.

Fuck, he didn’t want to deal with that again. She’d gone from reasonable, to furious, to tears, and back to furious so quickly, he hadn’t been able to keep up. The only thing that saved his ass was convincing her that Baggs would do the after-dark searches and fill them in about what he discovered. If she found out the truth… Yeah.

Hand resting lightly on the small of her back, he steered her toward the table. This was a mid-tier hotel for Trujillo. Oz couldn’t risk taking her to a top-end place, not with the Russians searching for her sister, but this one was nice enough.

They had two queen-size beds, a desk, a round table with two chairs in front of the window, and a flat-screen television. Considering some of the oddball hotels in the city, this was a win. But they were going to need to move around, and like American breakfast, they wouldn’t be able to count on this level of accommodation in the future. Going back and forth from the safe house, though, was one hell of a risk. Not only for the op but for Ayla as well.

Once she was seated, Oz lifted the lids from her plates. She’d asked for the butter on the side, and using a knife, she gingerlyadded a little to her toast. He waited until she took a bite, then moved to his side of the table, removed the plate covers from his dishes, and deposited all of them on the cart.

He opted for an American-style breakfast, too, for a change of pace. His omelet was spicy, loaded with cheese and vegetables, and he’d gotten a side of sausage patties. Reaching for his coffee cup, Oz raised his gaze to check how Ayla was doing with her food. She looked green.

“Are you okay?” he asked again, this time more urgently.

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