Stolen Hearts

by Marci Bolden

  He closed his eyes. Logically she was right, but that didn’t make him not want to beat the hell out of this unknown man anyway.

  “I need you to prepare yourself for something,” she said in that melodic tone that eased his mind.

  Focusing on her again, he took a breath to brace himself for whatever she was about to toss his way.

  “You’re right when you say Mandy is in trouble. We don’t know what that trouble is or how deep it runs. What we do know is that she seems to have a substance-abuse issue and a codependency on this man. When we find her—and I say when because I believe we will—there is a likelihood that she will be blinded by her addiction. She’s probably not going to be thinking clearly. She’s going to associate you with all the stressors that got her to this point. She’s probably going to be angry and lash out at you. She might even want to stay with whoever is helping her because he’s likely to have convinced her that she needs him and that he’s the only one she can count on. She’s going to resist your help, and because she’s an adult, she has that right.”

  “I’m not going to leave her—”

  “I’m not saying you should or that we will. I’m trying to prepare you for what you may face when we find her. This may not end with just finding her. You may have to fight her every step of the way to get her the help she needs. Even then, Dean, no matter how hard you try, she may choose to never come home. Do you understand?”

  He sank back on the barstool. He hadn’t considered that. He’d been so determined to find Mandy and help her that he hadn’t considered she might not want his help. “How do I… What if…”

  She put her hand on his, and he automatically squeezed her fingers, needing her support. “Start looking for a family attorney now. Someone who can help you try to get guardianship over her and force her into rehab if it comes to that. You may not need to, but you should start preparing for that so you aren’t scrambling once we find her. If you aren’t sure where to start, we can meet with Tika, one of my teammates. She’s our legal expert. She can help point you in the right direction.”

  Dean’s heart and spirits sank with every word she said. By the time she finished, he felt like the world had been yanked out from beneath him. “How did we get here?” he whispered, not really speaking to Alexa. Obviously she didn’t know, couldn’t know. But he didn’t know, either.

  She stepped off her stool and wrapped her arms around him. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

  Dean hadn’t expected her embrace, nor had he realized how much he needed it. With her arms around him and her heat warming him, he suddenly didn’t feel quite so alone in his fears. Slipping his arms around her waist, he pulled her to him and soaked in the comfort she was offering, not caring that she was a virtual stranger. Right now, she was the only chance he had at finding his sister, and if she were willing to shoulder some of his stress, he’d gladly let her.

  3

  Alexa skimmed the long list of usernames Mandy had accumulated for her social media accounts. While most of Mandy’s friends were still in “circling the wagons” mode, determined to protect and preserve their friend’s privacy and dignity, Alexa had convinced one to cough up links to all the websites where Mandy posted pictures and status updates. She wasn’t focused on researching Mandy’s activity right now. She needed to find this Darrin person and determine if he had been supplying Mandy with drugs.

  As soon as she found him and figured out his full name, she might be able to pinpoint his location and hopefully find Mandy in the process.

  Mandy’s social media was pretty much what Alexa expected. A facade. A show of how great college life was. She did notice, however, that the posts had changed over the last year. Mandy’s freshman year was filled with photos of her at activities, participating in events. By the end of her first year, those images changed to selfies of the girl with heavy makeup, hair done, lips pouted. Eyes glazed.

  Alexa didn’t blame Mandy’s online friends for not noticing the difference. These images weren’t anything new to the social media platform. These photos were just a few of hundreds on someone’s feed. Alexa noticed because she was looking. Really looking. Something had shifted dramatically about a year prior to Mandy’s disappearance.

  Alexa didn’t have to think too hard about what that could be.

  On her own for the first time in her life with a growing addiction? Mandy had likely managed to balance those two things the first few months, but eventually, as tended to happen, the addiction took over. A year into being without the influence of her older brother’s care, Mandy had lost control of the thing she likely thought she was handling.

  “Hey,” came a voice from the door.

  Alexa tore her gaze away from a photo of Mandy with her hair puffed out, lips painted red, and glitter on eyes lined with black.

  Rene eased into the room, tilting her head as if afraid she might be interrupting something. “What are you thinking?”

  “Nothing I can prove yet.”

  “Such as?”

  “It’s not uncommon for young women who get caught up in drugs to get caught up in other things to keep in supply.”

  Rene lifted her brows. “You think the Campbell girl is a sex worker?”

  “I think she got in over her head and there are always people willing to offer drug addicts in over their head an alternate solution.”

  “I hope you’re wrong.”

  “Me too.” She turned her monitor to show Rene the image. “About a year ago, her posts went from innocent to…possibly not so innocent. Seemingly overnight.”

  “Could be that guy she was dating.”

  Alexa nodded. “Or it could be a young woman trying out a new style. Anything is possible. Including me reading too much into these photos.”

  “What does your gut say?”

  “My gut says someone saw she was in trouble and instead of throwing her a lifeline, they threw her an anchor. She’s out there somewhere drowning, and if I don’t find her—”

  “We can’t save everyone,” Rene stated firmly. That was the reminder they had to give each other on a regular basis. Every one of their team seemed to take on more burden than they should, more responsibility for their clients than was reasonable. Drawing the line between investigator and human wasn’t always as black and white as it should have been. Sometimes cases drew them in and consumed them.

  Alexa started to tell Rene she was aware of that, but then she stopped and smiled. “You guys are worried about me?”

  “Always.”

  “I appreciate that, but I’m doing fine. Really. I’m worried for her. For her brother if…if we don’t find her or what he’ll learn if we do. But I’m fine.”

  “I know how cases of missing young women stir memories for you. If you want help on this case, let me know, okay?”

  “I will.”

  Alexa returned her attention to Mandy’s social page and her original mission of identifying Darrin and determining whether he was the mysterious D mentioned in Mandy’s journal. After skimming a year’s worth of images, she moved on to other social media sites, where she stopped scrolling when she reached the previous Christmas.

  A photo of Mandy and Dean caught her eye and mesmerized Alexa for some reason. They were pressed cheek to cheek, and the smiles on both were…content. To anyone else, their smiles might have seemed bright and heartfelt, but Alexa saw more in their eyes than the eerily similar amber hue they shared.

  Sadness undercut the joy they were exuding. Their first Christmas without their mother. Bittersweet time between siblings. Early enough into Mandy’s addiction that she could still hide it. Alexa tried to concentrate on the missing young woman, but her focus kept drifting back to Dean. His face was as clean-cut in the photo as in the one she’d seen in his bedroom. Before his mother had died and Mandy had gone missing.

  His eyes reflected the increased burden in the photo on Alexa’s screen, but nothing like what she saw in them when he gave her that pleading look t
hat seemed to be fixed to his face. His eyes held her captive now that she didn’t have to worry about him noticing her stare. A slight hook to his nearly perfect nose pointed to full lips that spread wide with his smile. His teeth, like his nose, had just enough imperfection to add to his appeal.

  Perfect…but not quite.

  Handsome enough to know it, but not conceited enough to take it to the next step. She liked that. She liked his strength, physically and emotionally. She liked the confidence he seemed to harbor in these older photos, the ones before his life crashed down on him a second time. More than anything, she liked how much love he clearly had for Mandy.

  She’s in trouble, she heard him say in her mind. My little sister is in trouble.

  “Yes, she is,” Alexa whispered to his photograph. She just hoped she was able to find Mandy and convince her to get the help she so obviously needed.

  Deciding she needed caffeine to get through the rest of Mandy’s social media, Alexa headed toward the little break room where the team drank too much coffee and shared snacks, and where someone—Eva, she suspected—kept a bottle of vodka in the freezer.

  “Don’t put that away,” she said when she walked in just as Holly was about to return the coffee carafe to the burner.

  Holly glanced over her shoulder as she grabbed another mug and filled it. “How are things going?”

  “I’m growing more and more confident she has been pulled into prostitution and…” She let her words trail off when she realized Holly wasn’t actually listening to her. Nudging the team leader with her elbow, she waited until they made eye contact.

  Holly’s almost clear blue eyes seemed haunted. Whatever was occupying her mind was not a happy thought.

  Putting her hand to Holly’s arm, she squeezed lightly. “Hey. What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  Alexa frowned dramatically to show her disbelief. “Bullshit.”

  Holly shook her head as if to dismiss the conversation, but Alexa wasn’t so easily discouraged. Of all the women around here, she was the only one who seemed comfortable talking about things, which explained why her teammates tended to open up to her more easily. Holly tugged on the silver heart charm that dangled from her necklace, a sure sign she was anxious about something.

  The pendant had belonged to her mother. Alexa had never seen Holly without it. She’d asked about it one night while the two of them were out drinking away a case gone bad. Holly had shared that when she was eight years old, she’d witnessed her mother’s rape and murder. Alexa tried to get her to talk about it more than once, but Holly always shut down.

  “How do you ever get any work done?” Holly asked. “When I walked by your office earlier, you were in a therapy session with Rene. Now me?”

  Alexa grinned. “It’s not therapy, Hol. It’s friendship. Friends talk.” Tilting her head, she whispered, “Is it about your mother?”

  The jolt that shook her seemed to indicate Alexa had hit the issue right on the head.

  Holly started to protest, but something in her eyes seemed to give in. “I told you I’ve been trying to find the man who…”

  “I know.”

  “It’s a long shot. My mom was murdered over twenty years ago. Finding her killer now…”

  Alexa’s stomach tensed. The uneasiness in Holly’s voice was something she’d never heard before. Holly was always so damned confident.

  “What did you find?” Alexa pressed.

  Holly licked her lip and stared into her mug. “I never told my dad that I was researching Mom’s death. Jack thought it was important to question him, since he found her.”

  “Yes, I know.”

  When an intruder had kicked in the back door while Holly and her mother were watching television, her mother had hidden Holly. Then, just a little girl, Holly had peered under the couch and witnessed her mother’s assault just before she was stabbed to death. Though Holly still believed she froze, anyone else would understand the girl had been in shock. She had stayed hidden until her father came home from working the late shift and found the scene and finally rescued her from her hiding place.

  Holly blinked, seeming to pull herself from whatever was playing out in her mind, and looked at Alexa. “He was furious. Not that we brought up bad memories, Lex, but that we were trying to solve the case. His reaction was…unsettling. To say the least.”

  Taking the mug Holly had filled for her, Alexa sat at the table and patted the surface until Holly joined her. Putting her hand on Holly’s arm, she searched her gaze. “What are you thinking?”

  “Things I don’t want to think,” she whispered, sounding ashamed.

  “Do you think your father had something to do with the attack?”

  Closing her eyes, Holly let out a slow breath. “I don’t want to. If he were a witness in any other case, that would be my instinct. But he’s… This is my dad, Lex. He’s a drunk and an idiot and completely irresponsible. But he’s still my dad, and I shouldn’t be thinking that he could have had something to do with what…” She put her hand to the pendant dangling from her neck.

  “Shh,” Alexa soothed. “Don’t let your mind go back to that night. Not right now. Holly, sometimes people we love do bad things. You know that as well as I do. But sometimes, as PIs, we look so hard for signs that people did bad things, we see things that aren’t there. What does Jack think?”

  “After the funeral, Dad put me in martial arts classes and taught me how to use a gun. I always told myself he did all that as his way of coping. He wasn’t there to protect us when Mom was murdered, so he wanted to make sure nothing like that happened to me. That made sense in my mind. Jack thinks that Dad’s reaction was more of a PTSD response. All the classes and time spent shooting was over the top. I agree with that, but I really felt that he just needed to know that if someone ever came after me, I could handle it. His reaction last night was more than that. He warned us not to get involved. That it was over, to let it go, that he wouldn’t have any part in trying to solve this case.” She creased her brow. “I didn’t feel like he was saying any of that out of a parental concern that something might happen to me, not like I thought when I was young. He was scared, Lex. He was scared of what I might discover.”

  “I think it’s time to pass this on to the team. Let us take over.”

  “No, I can’t—”

  Gripping Holly’s hand, Alexa lifted her brows to emphasize how serious she was about what she was about to say. “If your father was somehow involved in your mother’s death, you should not be the one to discover that.”

  “Jack is helping me.”

  “That’s great. Jack is a wonderful detective. He’s also too close to this. Let us take this over.”

  Holly sat quiet, but only for a few heartbeats, before shaking her head. “I owe it to my mother to find the truth. No matter how ugly it is.”

  “Hey, guys,” Tika said hesitantly from the door. “Everything okay?”

  Alexa waited, hoping Holly would tell their teammate the truth.

  Holly cleared her throat and pushed herself up. “Long day already. That’s all. How are you?”

  “Fine,” she said, clearly not believing Holly’s response. She watched, a look of perplexity on her face, as Holly left.

  As soon as they were alone, Alexa frowned and shook her head, signaling Tika to keep her questions to herself—she wouldn’t be answering them.

  Sipping her coffee, she sat back, hoping the legal mind of their team didn’t need to unload. As much as Alexa enjoyed being the sounding board for her team, she was feeling a bit drained after Holly’s confession.

  Dean parked outside his dad’s house and stared up at the two-story farmhouse. Years and years ago, this block used to be one big lot with horses and sheep. As time passed and progress moved into the area, the original owner was pushed out and the lot broken into several. Even so, the original plot of land with the farmhouse had the biggest yard on the block. As a kid, Dean had begged to come to his dad’s house becaus
e there was so much more room to play outside.

  His mom didn’t bring him and Mandy over often. She always had excuses for why they couldn’t go. It wasn’t until Dean was a teenager that he realized that his dad didn’t want them there. He had remarried and his new wife had two kids of her own—kids who seemed to have replaced Dean and Mandy. Even their names were similar: David and Maggie.

  His mom had lied to protect her kids from knowing they were unwanted by their own father. Dean remembered how frustrated it would make his mother when he asked, but she never told him the truth until he pushed the issue one day.

  She’d frowned and apologized as if it was her fault she’d married a bastard.

  He never understood how his father just walked out of one life and into another without any consideration for the family he left behind. He had just accepted it as fact and did his best to stop caring that he and Mandy meant less to their father than their stepsiblings, whom they barely knew. As time went on, they saw less and less of their dad and his new family.

  Neither Dean nor Mandy had asked why. Neither had cared.

  However, everything seemed like a lie now, seemed to be a facade, and thinking about the sudden break in his family caused a nagging in his gut that was like a tsunami warning.

  Run for higher ground, a voice in his mind screamed, before you get swept away.

  Instead of listening, he turned off the ignition and opened the car door. Huffing out a heavy breath, he forced his feet to move up the sidewalk until he was pressing on the doorbell. Looking around, Dean realized that the landscaping hadn’t changed in as long as he could remember. Everything was the same. Trisha, his stepmother, made sure everything looked immaculate on the surface, but Dean knew better.

  Lies, bitterness, and a whole lot of resentment were hidden within these walls.

  His dad opened the door, and Dean wasn’t surprised at the frown that formed on the man’s lips.

  “May I come in?” Dean asked.

  Still scowling, his dad stepped aside. “It’s late.”