Meika scowled, but had no choice but to comply. “I’m a Traveler.”

“Congratulations. Go home and get a cookie.” I turned back to Ruben. “We don’t need her, and she doesn’t want to help anyway.”

“We do need her, and she will help whether she wants to or not.”

“Help with what?” Meika asked, obviously thrown off by the fact that neither of us had stripped naked to flaunt our nonexistent sexual relationship in front of her. When no one answered, she took a closer look at her husband and I could almost see the lightbulb blink to life over her head. “You found him.” She stomped toward him, brandishing the knife. “You will not bring that little bastard into my house.”

Cavazos grabbed her wrist and squeezed. Meika gasped, and the knife fell to the floor. She glared up at him, and he stared back without releasing her or easing his grip. “Do not ever speak like that about my child again.” He let her go, and she rubbed her wrist, but resisted the obvious urge to back away from him. “The child, as it turns out, is a girl. And Jake Tower has taken her. Olivia is going to help me get her back.”

“Tower? Why?” Meika glanced at me, and I nodded to confirm what he’d said, though my version might have gone a little differently.

“That’s what this is about, Michaela. There’s no affair.” I’d been trying to tell her that, but she’d always refused to listen, and I wasn’t allowed to give specifics about my work for Ruben. But since he’d disclosed our business, I could finally speak about it in front of her. “The217;7;s just a scared, probably traumatized little girl, only a couple of years older than Isabel.”

Her eyes flashed angrily. “Do not say my daughter’s name. You don’t get to talk about her.”

“Fine.” I could understand that. Names are power and family is sacred, and I wasn’t a part of her family. I didn’t want to be. “But Ruben’s right. We probably will need a Traveler.”

“Go to hell,” she snapped. “I won’t help you bring back the product of his infidelity.”

Ruben rolled his eyes, finally tiring of the theatrics. “Michaela, sit on the couch and shut up.”

She went—she had no other choice—and I was impressed that she managed to slink across the room instead of stomping like a pissed-off toddler. Meika dropped onto the couch sideways, so she could still see us both, and I would have bet a year’s rent that she was really regretting the oboedientia part of her marriage oath.

“She’s just going to get us all killed,” I said, meeting Michaela’s hateful gaze boldly, though I spoke to her husband. Including Hadley.

“She will do as she’s told,” he insisted. “And make my life miserable in return, no doubt.” Cavazos glanced at his watch. “My men should be ready to go in a few minutes. All we need is a location. Call Caballero and find out what’s taking so long.”

I pulled my phone from my pocket, irritated by the order, yet unable to resist it, but before I could even flip it open, it buzzed in my hand and a message appeared on-screen. From Cam’s phone.

“Shit…” I mumbled, and scanned the text again, to make sure I’d read it right. “Tell your men to go home,” I said, and Cavazos lifted both brows in question. “A sledgehammer won’t work for this one. We’re gonna have to use a scalpel.”

“What the hell is she doing here?” Cam asked with one glance at Michaela, before he’d even closed the front door.

“Spewing venom with every word.” I thoroughly enjoyed the angry look she shot at me. Its effectiveness had worn off about fifty heated glances ago.

“I came to kill my husband’s whore,” she snapped.

Cam laughed, which pissed her off even more. “How’d that work out for you?”

I stifled a smile and wrapped one arm around his waist. “You know, I thought she’d be happy to find out I’m not sleeping with her husband, but instead, she seems to have…I don’t know…lost her purpose. It’s like neutering a cat—now she just sits there and licks herself.”

“She killed Elle?” Anne asked, and I sobered instantly at the reminder. Michaela might have been neutered for the moment, but she knew how to work the loopholes every bit as well as I did, and she was the reason we were all here. Killing Elle had set this whole catastrophe in motion.

“Elle?” Meika frowned, obviously trying to place the name.

“Tamara Parker was really Noelle Maddox,” I explained, my voice so cold I could practically see my own breath. “One of our best friends.”

Meika shrugged. “Your friend was fucking my husband.”

“Then why didn’t you kill him?” Anne shouted, and Cam led her past the couch, drawing her away from the temporarily caged psychopath.

“If I could kill him, the little brat would be an orphan, rather than a bastard,” Meika mumbled. I wasn’t sure anyone else heard her, but I did, and I’d had enough.

“All right, bitch, listen up…” I dropped onto the couch next to Michaela and felt carefully between the cushions for the knife I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten about. Even empty-handed, she was fierce, and when she got in my face, ready to shout, like I’d known she would, I pressed the tip of my reclaimed knife into her stomach, just hard enough that she could feel the point.

Meika froze, and I followed her frightened-deer glance to find Ruben watching us in interest. But making no move to intervene.