Page 188 of Beat of Love
Kamila straightened, her head turning as she tracked Brandy-Lyn until she climbed into the Yukon with the girls.
Smith froze the frame and zoomed in again. Kamila’s face filled the screen, a look of pure hatred twisting her features.
Rafferty’s body turned cold. All those months … Brandy-Lyn had been in Kamila’s crosshairs. “Fuck,” he whispered.
Before he could get lost in his dark musings, Stas walked in. “We’re ready for you.”
With a last fulminating look at the face on the monitor, he followed Smith from his office to ops command center.
“You were right, Lawson,” Fox said moments later, the Brazilian operator’s face filling the screen. “Themansãowas rigged to blow. And Carvalho’s gone.”
Rafferty sank back in the leather chair, frustration rising like a tide.
He was torn clean in two.
That three a.m. decision gnawed at him, warring with the instinctive desire to personally throttle Kamila after seeing the way she looked at Brandy-Lyn on that footage.
Had he made the right call?
One part of him itched to get on the next plane, track Kamila down, and finish what he started.
The other part saw the life he could have here.
Beautiful. Undeserved.
Yet, somehow, his for the taking.
And the relief on Brandy-Lyn’s face when he told her he wasn’t going. The way she folded into him, whispering a quiet, heartfelt thank you against his chest. That moment had anchored him more than anything else could.
But even as it grounded him, another truth cut through — he’d seen the vengeance in Kamila’s eyes. Knew the darkness she carried, the awful things she was capable of.
And until she was stopped, no one he loved would ever truly be safe.
But to stop her, they had to find her.
And he knew her better than anyone.
So, in that respect, hecouldhelp bring her down.
But from a distance.
Rafferty looked up, voice low but certain. “To track her, you’ll need everything I know. Every tell, every habit, every place she might run.” He let out a slow breath. “No one knows her like I do. So yeah, I’m staying here, but Ineedto be part of it.”
Stas stood across the room, arms crossed, gaze steady. “You made the right call, brother. We’ve got this. She’s not slipping away this time.”
The other operators — Kosta, Ryker, Ruby, Bones, Gunner, Mario, and Banks — each echoed their own version of Stas’s vow.
Rafferty nodded slowly. “I trust you,” he said. “I do.” After a beat of silence he added, low and certain, “But when the time comes … I need to confront her.”
It wasn’t lost on Rafferty that this was the same team who had pulled him and Esther out of Brazil just months ago. And now they were diving back into danger — again — because of his past mistakes.
As if reading his thoughts, Stas cut in. “Whatever it is you’re thinking … don’t. This is what we do. We track, we find, but in this case, we apprehend, not rescue.”
Rafferty gave a faint, crooked smile. “Noted.” He glanced around the room, taking them all in. Their steady presence, their readiness. “It’s just … I spent years working alone. Undercover. Cut off. No backup. No one to trust.” His voice dropped slightly. “And now, being part of a team like this? It’s not something I take for granted.”
A few nods passed around the room, quiet and solid.
Kosta — team lead — stepped forward. “We start from the beginning. Go over everything you gave the authorities in Brazil. Anywhere she’d go to ground. Safe houses, stash points — places she ran ops from.”
