Page 41 of Her Reluctant Hero
She set the packet of film down and went back through her bag. Santiago had sent most of Hector’s things away with him, hadn’t allowed her to keep any of Hector’s belongings in her room in case his clients saw them—mothers weren’t sexy—but she’d smuggled some keepsakes, kept them buried beneath her silks. She found the locket, squeezed her fingers over it before turning to hold it out to Alex.
“A lock of hair from his first haircut.”
Alex took the locket, opened it, touched the fine dark hair inside with his fingertip. She could sense something softening in him.
“You could get a DNA sample from it, couldn’t you?”
He looked up, considering. “Maybe.”
“I don’t have stretch marks because Santiago insisted I take care of myself. His housekeeper, Senora Gamez, made a cream for me, and she helped me apply it twice a day. Santiago wouldn’t pay for diapers, and we’d have too much trouble disposing them anyway, so we used cloth diapers. I had a wet nurse, a girl from nearby. Santiago didn’t want any more wear and tear on my body than need be, and besides, a lactating woman is not sexy.” She couldn’t hide the bitterness in her voice. Her hand hovered near the locket. “So, do you need the hair for DNA?”
He snicked the locket shut. “No, we don’t need to do that.”
The tension that had been humming through her since the phone rang eased a bit. “You believe me?” she asked, not wanting to hope.
“Yeah.” He held the locket by its chain. “Yeah.” He stepped back, not looking at her. “Look, stay here. I’ve got a meeting to get to.”
“I’ll go with you.” The last thing she wanted was to be prisoner again, no matter how luxurious the room.
He shook his head and dropped to the edge of the bed to put on his boots. “You draw too much attention. You need to lay low.”
“I thought you wanted me to draw him out.”
“We don’t even know if he’s here. You’ll be safer waiting for me.”
“I can’t. I need to find my son. Every day he’s away from me is another day he’ll have the chance to forget me.”
“I don’t have any leads on the kid.” He sounded like he regretted it.
“So what do we do?”
“We wait. We think. We reason it out. But I want you to stay here.” He picked up his jacket and strode toward the door.
“Shepard.” Captain Winters greeted Alex at the doorway of the DEA office.
The man was in full uniform, and Alex only had a shirt to throw over his tank top and cargo pants from the previous night. He hated being out of uniform when the situation called for it, and it seemed the situation called for it.
But the captain didn’t say anything about his state of dress, only turned smartly on his heel and started down the hall. Alex stayed in step.
“You connected with the girl last night.”
“Yes, sir. I found her at a nightclub. She’s determined to find someone who knows where her child is.”
Captain Winters made a sound in his throat.
“Sir?”
“We were able to decode some of the files she smuggled out.”
Alex was unprepared for the slap of emotion that accompanied the news. Would he be free of Isabella then? Did he want to be?
Hell, yes, he did, before he made a damn fool of himself again. “Anything useful?”
“We know what happened with the girl and Agent Cortez.”
A ball of ice dropped into his belly. “Sir?” he managed.
The captain looked at him with something like sympathy. “Come see for yourself.”
