Lola was already at work by the time Quint dropped Ree off at the bar. Agent Miguel Brown had been assigned to work the arrest with Quint. Brown was a solid agent and a lucky draw. The two had worked together a few times and had a good rapport.
Brown followed Constantin back to his Houston house. There was one hiccup. He had both his brother and Lili with him, which meant the two of them must know Matias was about to flee the country again. It also stood to reason that Matias wanted to take his daughter with him. Thus, the double protection.
The other complication was the fact that Wonder Boy might be staking out Constantin’s house, since it seemed likely Matias would show there. None of this fell into the category of warm and fuzzy for Quint except for the fact that Ree would be twenty minutes away at the bar working on Lola.
Quint jogged back to his truck and then hopped into the driver’s seat after checking all four tires. Thankfully, they had air. Otherwise, he’d planned to put a real hurt on Wonder Boy. He met Brown a couple of blocks from the residence.
Brown was six feet two inches of football-worthy build. His black hair was cut military short. He didn’t say a whole lot, which was fine with Quint.
Quint liked working with Agent Brown, or Brownie, as he’d been nicknamed.
“Hey, Brownie. Are you ready to do this?” Quint asked.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” Brownie quipped as he stood at the driver’s-side door of Quint’s vehicle.
“I’m guessing you’ve been watching the place,” Quint said.
“The floor plan is a three-bedroom. It’s a two-story, and there are cameras. I found the weak spot, though. A bathroom window on the ground floor. Fair warning, it’s tiny,” Brownie said.
“Why is it always the bathroom window?” Quint groaned.
“They just don’t expect us to be able to squeeze through, I guess.” Brownie smiled. For a man of his size, Quint heard he could morph his body to fit the smallest places.
“Let’s do this.” Quint exited his vehicle after firing off a text to Shelly to give her a heads-up. Weapons at the ready and no darkness to shield them, he and Brownie trucked on past a few houses until they’d weaved their way to the bathroom window in question.
“You first,” Brownie whispered. “I’ll cover out here.”
Quint forced the window open. Bathroom window locks in old houses weren’t the hardest to get through. He used Brownie’s thigh as leverage to hoist himself up and in. Quint waited for his partner to climb through and join him. They listened at the door of the hall bath to the voices coming from the next room.
“Any chance you speak Romanian?” Quint asked in barely a whisper.
Brownie compressed his lips into a frown as he shook his head.
They could go in guns blazing and risk a bullet with Lili, which seemed like a horrible idea. There was no way Quint could do that to the little girl or her mother. No. They needed a distraction.
The wait seemed like an eternity. But the break came when someone knocked on the front door. A few seconds later, an argument broke out. Baptiste came running down the hall with Lili.
Quint jumped in front of Baptiste, and then threw a knockout punch that dazed the guy, grabbing the little girl before she fell to the floor. Capitalizing on the moment, Brownie made his move. A choke hold that Quint didn’t wish on anybody. His respect level for Brownie went up a few more notches, though. The little girl was winding up to belt out a cry. Quint covered her mouth with his hand and tried to get her to make eye contact. No use. She was too young to understand any of this, so he made a funny face at her as Brownie took the man to the ground in a few moves that would make any high school wrestler proud.
When Baptiste was facedown and in cuffs, Quint handed over Lili and went for the living room.
Matias and Constantin were midfight. The door was open, and Wonder Boy rushed in about the same time as Quint. Great.
“Try not to get in my way,” Quint shouted to the DEA agent. Shelly was nowhere to be seen, but then, Wonder Boy probably told her to wait in the car so he could take all the credit.
“What are you doing here?” Nick asked.
Quint had no time for small talk. As it was, Constantin had come up with a gun that was presently pointed at Matias’s chest. Quint dived at them both and wrestled the gun out of Constantin’s hand. The weapon went flying.
“Secure it” was all Quint managed to get out. The DEA agent didn’t seem capable of rolling up his sleeves and helping.
Two on one, Quint struggled for control of the fight. He took a couple of punches to the stomach and a kick to the shin that was going to leave a mark. It wasn’t until Shelly arrived that he started to get the upper hand. She jumped into the fray as Wonder Boy stood near the door with his phone in hand, texting.
This guy needed to be slapped.
“You got him?” Quint asked Shelly as she rolled on top of Matias, practically crushing his arms, forcing them against his torso.
“I got this,” she confirmed through gasps. Sure enough, she wrangled a pair of handcuffs onto Matias and then sat him on his backside.
By then, Quint had Constantin in cuffs.
“Do you plan on actually getting your hands dirty, Wonder Boy?” Quint probably shouldn’t goad Nick, but he couldn’t help himself. People like him made the job even more dangerous.
“What did you say?” Nick asked, looking ready to pick a fight now that all the heavy lifting was done. “I’m involving local police if you must know.”
“This one belongs to us,” Quint reassured.
A scared little girl cried in the background. All Quint could think was that he needed to get her to her mother.
Brownie poked his head in, looking like he didn’t know what to do with the screaming kid in his arms.
“Grab the car seat out of the Lambo parked out back. I need to get this baby to her mother,” Quint said as he took the little girl from Brownie’s arms. “We’re going to take you to your momma.”
The little angel with big puffy red eyes said, “Momma?”
“That’s right. Momma,” Quint said. Before he could check his phone to see where Ree was, she came bolting through the door.
The little girl hiccupped as she stuck her thumb in her mouth.
“I got here as fast as I could.” Ree turned around and said, “It’s done. It’s safe. You can come take Lili now.”
Ree gave a knowing look to Quint, and he realized Lola must have agreed to testify. She came running into the house as soon as Ree gave the green light, as did Esteban.
“My mother,” Lola said as she took her daughter in her arms and started gently bouncing. “She will join us. No? That is the deal. No?”
“Your mother is being picked up by our agents as we speak.” Quint double-checked his phone. “In fact, she’s boarding a helicopter that will take her to an airport. She’ll be here in the States by morning.”
“Thank you,” Lola said, hugging her daughter tighter to her chest. “It’s been a nightmare ever since I realized what kind of person Matias was. I didn’t know, and then I got pregnant. I don’t regret my daughter, but I’m so tired of this life.”
“And your brother?” Quint asked.
Lola nodded. “Is waiting in the car. He never wanted any part of this. He’s a good person. He did what he had to in order to protect Lili.”
“You’re safe now,” Quint reassured. “Let’s get you out of here.”
Lola nodded.
“You can’t leave my scene,” Nick stated.
“Don’t worry,” Shelly said to Quint. “I’ll corroborate your side of the story.”
“So will I,” Brownie confirmed.
“Nick, it’s time you took a desk job,” Shelly said. “You won’t get away with this one.”
Quint gave her a quick salute before ushering his witness out the door. Ree followed, staying silent until they made it to the truck. Esteban joined them along the way, and it didn’t take twenty minutes for a US marshal to pick up the family.
“Best of luck to you, Lola,” Ree said, and in a surprise move gave Lola a hug.
“Thank you. Because of you, she’ll have a life,” Lola said. “Bless you and your family.”
“I don’t have a family of my own,” Ree corrected.
“Someday, you will. And it will be beautiful,” Lola said before walking away with the marshal.
Ree turned to Quint and said, “I guess our work is done.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” he said. “We’ll be in paperwork up to our ears sorting this mess out.”
“I’ll leave most of that to you,” she said. “I’m tired, and I need to sleep in my own bed tonight.”
She turned to walk away, but he couldn’t let her leave things like that. Not with so much left unsaid.
“Ree,” he started.
She stopped.
“What if I’m not ready to be done?” he asked.
“I’m listening,” she said.
“How big is your bed?” he asked, hope filling his chest.
“Give me a couple of days and come measure for yourself,” she said as she kept walking in the opposite direction.
“I will,” he said, and he fully meant it.
Look for the next book in USA TODAY bestselling author Barb Han’s A Ree and Quint Novel series, Eyewitness Man and Wife, on sale next month.
And if you missed the first book in the series,
Undercover Couple is available now,
wherever Harlequin Intrigue books are sold!
Keep reading for an excerpt from Undercover Rescue by Nicole Helm.