Because she loved him, too? Now wasn’t the time to ask, and he was too afraid of the answer. “Just like it ripped me up inside to hurt you.”
She gave him a little nod. An acknowledgment? Then she looked out her window. “What’s taking so long?”
Trees had been gone less than two minutes. But Zy got it; she wasn’t ready for this conversation. She was rightfully focused on her daughter’s safety. “He’ll call in a minute.”
Sure enough, a handful of seconds later, his phone buzzed again. “Whatcha got?”
“Nothing visible from the street. House looks closed up, like maybe they’re still asleep. Wait. I spoke too soon. The front blinds just opened. I see…” Trees paused. “Someone’s in there. There’s too much glare to a make out a face or an outline, but the place isn’t empty. And there’s a truck in the carport. I’m running the plate now.”
“What’s he saying?” Tessa demanded.
Zy held up a finger. “I don’t want to know how you’re doing that, buddy.”
“You don’t; it’s illegal as fuck. Gimme a second. And what do you know? The truck is registered to Hector Johnson.”
Good news. “So he’s probably there. How do you want to play this?”
Normally, Zy wouldn’t question the approach. He’d go in one side, Trees in the other, and flank them so there was no escape. But they didn’t know this place, and he had Tessa with him.
“I cased the perimeter of the mobile home park. It’s enclosed inside a brick wall. The only way in or out is the entrance you’re parked next to.”
So Johnson couldn’t sneak out the back. “Excellent. That simplifies the situation.”
“Yep. I should knock on the door. Neither Cash nor Hector knows me. I’ll draw their attention while you slip around the back.”
“With Tessa?”
Trees sighed. “I don’t suppose she’d wait in the car.”
Zy glanced over at her. She looked ready to hurtle herself out of the seat, run to the house, and tear her daughter from the place with her own two hands.
“Negative.”
“Fuck.”
“Yep.” Now that the moment was almost here, he was afraid for Tessa. But they’d already argued about this. She refused to budge. Nothing was more important to her than Hallie. She’d proven that.
“Then put her behind you. Sneak in the back. See if you can find the baby while I keep whoever’s inside occupied.”
“You going to read their meter? Or sell them insurance?”
“I’ll wing it. Something will come to me.”
It always did. “You got everything you need?”
“Yep.”
“Where should I roll in?”
“The mobile home park is shaped like an O so it’s a curved street on each side, bisected by a long, straight drag in the middle. At the entrance, take the fork to the right. Go all the way to the end of the street and park just before you round the bend at the back. From there, walk toward the left side of the park. Johnson is along that wall, in the middle. You should be able to pass yourselves off as a couple taking a morning walk.”
“Roger that.”
After a few more details, they hung up. Zy started the car and followed Trees’s directions, stopping between two mobile homes, one with a well-tended fence and planters out front. The other looked like a cookie-cutter shithole.
He double-checked that his Glock was loaded and the blade he’d strapped just under the hem of his pants was secure. Then he stepped from Tessa’s sedan, watching as she did the same, and locked it before he walked to the front of the vehicle. “Let’s go.”
“What are we doing?”
“Take my hand and walk with me. I’ll explain.”
She did, clasping him tightly. Tension pinged off of her.
“Baby, for this to work, you have to trust me.”
“There’s no one I trust more with my safety.”
Just not with her heart. Zy cursed under his breath. It wasn’t as if he could blame her for that. If he’d pulled his head out of his ass long enough to listen to his gut and kept reminding himself that she would never betray anyone without good reason, maybe he wouldn’t be worried that even if he rescued Hallie and won this battle…he might still lose the war—and Tessa.
Their shoes made almost no sound in the soft earth as they walked toward the address. When they rounded the corner, Trees knocked on the front door. It took a while, but someone finally answered. A man with a glower.
Hector Johnson.
Trees turned on his most congenial smile. Since the guy’s lips rarely curved up unless he got to kill someone who really deserved it, he figured Johnson was as good as dead.
As Trees kept talking—Zy overheard something about extermination services and had to chuckle—he kept his head down and urged Tessa to do the same as they walked past the open door, then veered around the side of the house once they were beyond Johnson’s line of sight.