“That doesn’t matter.” She wasn’t about to drag Hunter into this. “Talk to me. I need to know why.”

Scarlett averted her eyes. “It has absolutely nothing to do with you. I tried to protect you.”

“How is that possible?” Layla’s voice rose. “The bombing, all the attacks? That’s what you call protection?”

Scarlett looked back at her. “I had no choice but to give you up. It was my life or yours, and that was the only choice I could make. Diego saw you on the tape and demanded your name. I am responsible for making sure those tourists sat in your normal spot. I saved you, Layla. I did, whether you want to believe it or not.”

“And you purposely tried to frame Zane to take the fall for your actions.”

Scarlett nodded. “It was the most logical play I could make at the time.”

“And Keith Hammond? What about him?”

Scarlett blew out a breath. “Keith was collateral damage. You brought him into it, and once I knew you were going to talk to him, I had to out him to the cartel as an Agency operative because I knew the cartel would be watching, and if I didn’t give him up, then it would’ve come back on me. That was enough to get him killed, given how much of a warpath Diego is on.”

The burning question was still there. “You still haven’t told me why.”

“When I was a field agent for the DEA, I started working a cartel member named Mateo Lopez. I was convinced he was going to become a top asset.” She took a breath. “I thought I had him turned, but as we spent more and more time together, I ended up falling for him. And instead of me working him, he was working me.”

“So you’re not together?” She needed to get the facts.

“Not anymore. He played me. I thought it was real, but I was the stupid one. He might have cared about me at some point, but his aspirations got bigger than his feelings, and he had me locked in. I had no choice but to do their bidding, or they were going to expose the fact that I was once in a relationship with a top deputy in the cartel. My career would’ve been over. They had far too much leverage on me.”

“What happened with the Honduras op?”