“TBD—but likely. A key is used for entrance. We’ve got a handful of the St. Louis players under surveillance, but we haven’t identified the brains behind the operation. We could grab the secondary people and shut down this location, but unless we get the head of the ring who has the connections to the cartel in Mexico, the pipeline will adapt and continue to flow.”

“So you came in as a Spanish teacher. Lucky timing—for you.”

“I was prepared to play a number of roles, depending on what worked best and was most plausible, but the Spanish teacher gig is a strong fit without any finagling on our end. We jumped on it as soon as we got wind of the opening. It was a scramble to assemble the fake credentials.”

“Which were . . . ?”

He filled her in on his backstory.

“Extreme adventure firm in Spain. Clever. Is the limp fake too?”

“No.”

“What happened?”

“Raid gone bad.” His cryptic response didn’t come close to capturing the chaos that had erupted in the Sonoran desert when the Mexican Feds had shown up too early during a negotiation with a major cartel operative and blown his cover—but why share all the gory details?

“Recent?”

“A year ago. I’ve been doing desk duty for the past few months while I recover. I’m not quite ready to return to my usual type of assignments, but more than capable of handling this job. Since I’m familiar with this area but have been gone long enough to reduce the odds of anyone at Ivy Hill recognizing me, it was an excellent fit. I intended to lay low—and I didn’t expect to run into anyone I knew.”

“Surprise.”

“On both sides, I expect. Why are you here?”

She gave him a topline of her assignment and her backstory, turning the page of the book as she concluded. “Where’s the drop spot?”

“An abandoned barn near the western end of the property.” He indicated another word on the page, keeping his attention on the text.

“I wonder if Stephanie and her boyfriend met up there and ran into trouble with the drug crew?”

“It’s possible. We don’t know how long that pickup point was in use prior to November, or if other drops occurred here. I heard about the disappearance, but it’s a peripheral angle that probably has little bearing on the outcome of my investigation.”

She glared at him. “That disappearance is my main focus—and your investigation is secondary to me.” A hard edge crept into her voice. “Like I was secondary to your career.”

The moment the words spilled from her mouth, her eyes widened, a flush rose on her cheeks, and she jerked her chin down, feigning interest in the book.

In the sudden, oppressive silence, Zeke stopped breathing as shock reverberated through him.

After all these years, her anger hadn’t dissipated. Her hurt hadn’t healed.