Page 76 of Wicked Ambition

A moment later, the vehicle pulled away.

It was a nice home in a quiet neighborhood, and losing it gave Fuentes a pang. Despite that, it was time to move on before the Special Forces team arrived to perform a rescue.

Chapter 30

In his peripheral vision, Oz saw Ayla dab at her eyes. “Don’t cry, Pollita.”

“I’m not crying,” she lied as she brushed away more tears.

They were nearing the entrance to the neighborhood, and there wasn’t any traffic at the moment. He felt comfortable taking his gaze off the road long enough to give her a yeah-sure look. Maybe she didn’t want to be crying, but she sure as hell was.

“Ayla, be reasonable.”

That got her to stop staring out the front window and glare at him instead. “Reasonable?Reasonable?I needed a disguise, you said, so Ireasonablyallowed you to outfit me in a wig and new clothes. It wasn’t safe to search after dark, so Ireasonablyallowed you to tuck me away in a hotel as soon as late afternoon hit. Your friends are checking out the dangerous areas of Trujillo, so Ireasonablyallowed you to guide our search. What did I gain by being reasonable?”

A sick feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. “Ayla?—”

“No. Now I can clearly see how you maneuvered me. We were never looking for Io. You just let mebelievewe were trying to find her. I trusted you, Oziah. I won’t make that mistake again.”

The knots in his stomach tightened. Oz pulled the car over and put it in park. He couldn’t have this discussion while driving. “There was no chance I could approach the house, not without someone calling the authorities, and if you think I was going to let you go up to the door, you haven’t been paying attention.”

“You couldn’t have snuck to the back of the house and taken a look to see if there was lattice over the windows like I described? Maybe peeked inside, looking for Io or signs she was there?”

Oz shifted to face her more squarely. “There was security.”

“There wasn’t even a fence,” she scoffed.

“No, but there were security cameras. I spotted three without getting out of the car to look. They probably have other measures in place as well, things I couldn’t identify without a closer check.”

Ayla’s tears were falling faster, and behind them, he saw disillusionment. The constriction spread to his chest. The glimmer he had of the three of them—him, Ayla, and the baby—being a family was slipping away, transforming into lawyers and joint custody agreements.

“Do you plan to just drive away and leave Io behind?”

He didn’t know what to say. The twin connection thing was bunk, but it would only worsen the situation to mention that.

“Or are we going to get backup?” She wiped impatiently at her cheeks. “She could be gone by the time we return with help.”

“Pollita, I know you think your sister was in that house, but?—”

“But you never believed me about the link to Io. Telling me to use my connection as we drove around this subdivision was another part of your plan to keep me from truly searching for mysister. Was Baggs ever really looking for her, or was that another lie you told me?”

Oz fought the need to grimace. He was deep in the doghouse. “Baggs was looking. Heislooking. So are some of my other friends.”

“And in the meantime, you stalled me, delayed me, and hid me in hotel rooms. We even drove to San Isidro to keep me out of the way. Bad luck for you the mobsters turned up.”

There was no mistaking how angry Ayla was. Worse than that, though, was the disappointment in him. His actions hurt her deeply. “All I wanted to do was keep you and our baby safe.” His voice came out thick, but he made no effort to clear his throat.

“We didn’t even know I was pregnant when you dreamed up your plan. Don’t use the baby as an excuse for your dishonesty.”

“Maybe I wantedyousafe, Pollita. Did you think of that?”

Instead of answering, she opened the glove box, found a rag, pulled it out, and used that to wipe at her face. Oz winced, not knowing if it was clean or not, and struggled to keep his mouth shut. He couldn’t stay silent. “For God’s sake, don’t use that on your eyes. We don’t know what the fuck is on that rag. I don’t want you blinded.”

Ayla stiffened, eyed the rag like it was radioactive, and tossed it back in the glove box, closing it with a gasp. At least she was willing to listen to a degree. Did that mean he hadn’t completely destroyed her faith in him?

“What do you plan to do next?” she asked.

Oz hesitated but told the truth. “We’ll drive back to Trujillo and find a hotel.”

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