His bitterness poured over her and into her, adding to the same tainted emotions she already felt, enhancing them. Kara didn’t ask him why he wanted to kill Alvarez. She knew now that Alvarez had burned some deep ache into his soul. She saw the pain bleed from his eyes every time she looked at him. Alvarez had taken her sister, too. And other people’s sisters and daughters. Even after her parents had been killed by a man like Alvarez, she’d lived to please her father, to support the law, the system. Not anymore. Men like Alvarez always got by the system.

“Good,” she whispered, letting her head fall back against the window. She didn’t say more. He didn’t say more. Silence carried them to the other side of the Bay Bridge.

Chapter Nineteen

CHAPTER

NINETEEN

Blake parked his truck several rows back from the black sedan sitting in the exact spot Kyle had told him it would be in. “That’s them?” Kara asked.

Blake checked the plate against the license Kyle had managed to text him and nodded. “That’s them.” He keyed in Kyle’s cell.

Kyle answered on the first ring. “You’re here?”

“With eyes on our target,” Blake confirmed. “Get the girls out of here while we distract the jerk offs.”

“Will do,” Kyle agreed. “Luke set up rooms at the Oakland Marriott, so we’re headed there. He and Royce already have a team headed to the airport. They’ll be here in a few hours.”

The muscles in Blake’s shoulders bunched just thinking about Luke and Royce showing up. “Then what are you talking to me for? Get the hell over there.”

“Right. Reading beneath your assholeness, I’m stressed about them showing up too. You better stay alive tonight. Your brothers want to kill you themselves.” He hung up.

Blake ground his teeth and settled his phone back onto his belt.

“We need a plan,” Kara said instantly. “If they saw us helping the girls—”

“We have to assume they did. And we have a plan. You stay here and I go confront them.”

“I’m not staying here.” Stubborn determination laced the words.

Blake turned to her. “You’re supposed to be a secretary, Kara. The idea is that we convince them that’s exactly what you are.”

“You aren’t going out there alone. We don’t know how many of them there are.”

“You’re staying.”

“I’ll just follow you, Blake. This is what I do. I’m an agent. I’m—”