Page 19 of The Fortunate Ones
Before he could respond, Henry was back and clearing his throat, a flash drive in his hand.
“Here you go, Mr. Hayes.” His gaze flashed away from mine, his unease obvious. “If you’re, um, doing something less than legal with this, I’d?—”
I took the flash drive. “I promise you’ll be left completely out of it.”
Henry’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he nodded. “Okay. Okay. That’s good. Well, best of luck with everything.”
Skye barely hid his smile as we thanked the man again and left, understanding a dismissal when we heard it.
“Found him!” Diego slammed his hand on the desk in triumph as he stood, his chair rolling a few feet behind him. In an instant, we were all alert. This morning, after we’d annoyed him all day yesterday, Diego had moved into the conference room to stop us from constantly crowding in his office. We tried to hover in shifts, but currently Brooks, Skye, and I were all present. Maverick was making us dinner, and Luca had just left to work to check in on some of the other Castellano businesses. He was mostly a figure head at this point, but he still dropped in occasionally to make sure everything was running smoothly.
“You found him? Where?”
“North Carolina. The Outer Banks of all places. I took the liberty of tracing his family’s phones. He finally contacted his wife. He was vague but gave her enough of a location for meto narrow it down. Then he logged into two separate banking apps using the public Wi-Fi at Starbucks. I was able to use the timestamp for that to check the CCTV cameras and saw him enter a car, a different one than he was driving here. It’s a rental, but it was registered to a Mateo Ramirez, which is Charles’s son’s name. There’s a local address listed on the paperwork.” Because of course Diego had managed to find the paperwork. “It’s a little bungalow. I can’t be sure he’s there, but it’s a start.”
“It’s more than a start. It’s fucking genius, D!” Brooks all but shouted, bouncing up from the chair he had been rocking back and forth in.
Diego rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
“I would,” I told him, dragging my chair close enough so that we were almost touching. “I don’t know how I ever survived without you. You’re amazing.”
Diego’s cheeks flushed and he brushed me off.
“I’m guessing you’re going to go there?” he asked.
“Could be a trap,” Skye inputted.
“It’s possible. I’m buying into your theory that he wants me to chase him. I don’t know why, but like I said earlier, I can’t ignore it. So yeah. I’m going to go. I’ll go talk to Luca about the plan.”
Diego grunted in response before sitting back down. “I’ll get everything set up for you to travel. Plane?”
“Yes, please, angel.” No point in wasting time.
Skye stood, stretching, his bright pink shirt lifting to show his shredded abs. “I’ll get your documents and weapons.”
Brooks hopped up on his toes. “Want me to pack for you?” He sounded hopeful.
“Thank you, sweetheart. That would be helpful. And thanks, Skye. I would prepare for Luc too, as I’m sure he’s going to want to come.”
“Got it,” Skye answered before wrapping an arm around Brooks. “C’mon, sunshine, let’s go pack for our men that are about to walk into a trap.”
“Seriously, dude? Can you not?”
The two of them continued to smack-talk until I could no longer hear them. I turned to Diego, who was focused on the screens in front of him.
“Are you okay, angel?” I didn’t have to elaborate. He knew what I was asking. I’d just gotten back and I was leaving again. Hopefully not for long, but there were a lot of unknowns in this.
Diego’s eyes flickered toward me before he went back to his work. “Yeah. I’ll miss you, and I’ll worry. But I get why you’re leaving, and I won’t be alone.”
“Never, angel. I love you,” I reminded him. My fingers twitched, desperate to touch, but I didn’t know if it would be welcome. I stilled my hand.
Diego finally pulled away from his monitors, turning in his chair to look at me.
His hand trembled a little, but his gaze was steady as he put his in mine. My heart fluttered.
“Go talk to Luca. I’ll get everything ready for you.” He smiled softly, caring. “I’ll be here when you get back.”
CHAPTER 7
