“I should have seen it.” Bales never stopped moving, never sped up or slowed down or showed any hint of the toll this had to be taking. “The way the trail kept disappearing and reappearing. The way she was keeping to herself.”

“You couldn’t have known.” Cady wasn’t being generous. If she hadn’t believed that, she wouldn’t have said it.

Every muscle in Bales Bennett’s body went taut. “She did this for me.”

Ness had taken Bella to bring Cady home, to bring Mac home, to give Cady’s father one last chance to make things right. I could see that but couldn’t bring myself to care, because Ness Ashby had victimized an innocent child. She’d taken Jude. Whatever game she was playing, whatever her goal was now, she was using the person I loved most in this world to do it.

The person I’d hurt. The person I’d meant to hurt. The person who’d never done anything but try to take care of me.

“She did this,” Bales said a second time, his voice sharp, “for me.”

“And what about the bodies she buried?” Gabriel had hung back, silent in the shadows, from the moment the FBI had taken the evidence we’d found. Now he didn’t seem to be able to stop himself from speaking. “If one of them is Andrés—did she do that for me?”

I hadn’t stopped once to think about what Ness being the kidnapper might mean for Gabriel. He’d known her. He’d trusted her.

“Whatever she’s done or hasn’t done,” Bales said, meeting Gabriel’s gaze and holding it, “I cannot believe the woman I know would have kept any information about your brother’s disappearance from you.”

“The woman you know took Jude.” Free was on the warpath. “She knocked him out and took him and left some sick treasure map behind. I don’t think we can assume there’s much she wouldn’t do.”

“Free’s right.” Cady’s voice resonated with the ache I could feel building deep in the pit of my stomach, deep in my bones. “The Ness I thought I knew wouldn’t have taken my son. She couldn’t have.”

“You didn’t see her,” Bales said, his head bowed, his fingers holding tight to his pack. “When Ash went missing, you were too caught up in your own grief to see hers. But I saw it, day in and day out.” He forced his eyes back up to Cady’s, his head still bowed. “I made the call to my contacts in South America.”

Cady took a literal step back from that admission.