Trusting Xavier
Page 3
Dylan took a couple steps and turned. “You coming?”
Xavier exhaled the breath he’d been holding and nodded. “Yeah.”
He’d always been a private guy. He could have walked into any hospital in the country and his past wouldn’t have been an issue. But with Fierce the driving force behind New Hope, his past would be laid bare with no apologies. Until this moment it hadn’t been a problem.
Now he had to accept that this was probably just the first of who knows how many times that this would come up.
At least while Laramie’s case was front and center.
Xavier stood off to the side, close enough to see Tex on the sleek screen, but keeping himself apart from the team. The lot of them seemed to be comfortable with that hero role.
Xavier had shed that part of his life long ago, trading in his government-issued armor for the satisfaction of helping to heal the broken from the comfort of sweet obscurity. And right now, the distance he put between them might be the only thing keeping him from getting sucked all the way back in.
“What have you got for us?” Dylan said with a nod at the screen.
“You guys owe me big,” Tex said, leaning back in his chair. “I’ve been rooting around in the colon of our government for two weeks, and I’m going to need a night with a phenomenal bottle of whiskey to forget some of the shit I’ve found.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Dylan said.
“You shouldn’t. This rot goes deep, and we’ve got some serious untangling to do, and we need to do it quietly. The longer they don’t know I’m foraging in their henhouse the better,” Tex said.
“What did you find?” Dylan asked.
“You guys happen to hear about a little dustup involving a dirty cop, Jackson Caine?” Tex asked.
Xavier glanced over at Josie knowing she was the one with all the cop connections in Long Beach with her dad being the police chief and all.
“I’ve never heard of him,” Dylan said, glancing around. “Guys?”
“Wait, wasn’t he under investigation for his connection to a trafficking ring that held pregnant women and took their babies once they were born to be sold to adoptive families?” Josie asked.
“Ding, ding, ding, she gets it in one,” Tex said. “Only they never nailed the slippery son of a bitch for it.”
“How the hell did we never hear of that?” Cole asked, glancing around at the team.
Josie shrugged. “I think I caught the tail end of the case on the national news.”
“Probably because it happened in Atlanta and as quickly as the story cropped up, it vanished,” Tex said. “From what I’ve been able to find, evidence went missing, and they finally had to drop the charges a few days ago. The one piece of evidence they still had wasn’t strong enough to put him away for good so they held out for more. He’s been under surveillance for the past month, but he’s kept his nose clean.”
“And the piece of evidence? What is it?” Slyder asked.
“They had his wife in Witsec,” Tex said.
“His wife?” Evan said.
“Laramie Caine,” Tex said quietly.
Xavier stiffened, his eyes locking on the rigid set of Lucas’ shoulders and the way his jaw clenched in time with the fists balled at his side.
No one said a word. They’d become so in tune with one another all it took were fleeting glances and barely perceptible nods to acknowledge the turmoil rolling off Lucas. They waited the man out and gave him the space to take the reins.
“And he’s been conveniently free for a month?” Lucas said, his voice deathly quiet, a sound Xavier hadn’t heard since the night he watched Chloe walk out of New Hope and offer herself over to drug dealers to buy Lucas time.
“Give or take, yeah,” Tex confirmed.
“What night was it? What night specifically did they let him go free?” Lucas growled.
Tex’s mouth flattened into a thin line. “The night Sorelli and his guys descended on New Hope.”
“Wait, that was two nights after Laramie was found,” Cole said, scrubbing a hand over his chin.
“Yes,” Tex confirmed after a series of clicks on his keyboard. “And this has all been hush hush. No public statements from the district attorney about how their star witness went missing. I can’t tell if they’re holding out hope she’ll turn up or if they’re relieved she’s gone. Either way, she’s been at New Hope for over a month and no one appears to know where she’s gone, or even care. You’d think the district attorney would be all over finding her.”
“Unless her disappearing helps him out,” Zane pointed out.
“So, Laramie’s attack wasn’t Caine?” Evan asked, confusion and doubt coloring his deep voice.
Slyder scratched the back of his head and flicked a glance at Lucas. “Or it was, only he didn’t use his own hands; he hired someone to take her out, only they fucked up the job.”
“Or maybe they just took the evidence,” Dylan said.
Each member of the team fed off of one another, drawing out possibilities in a sophisticated dance a choreographer couldn’t have orchestrated. It came from having a solid bond as former SEALs, confidence rooted in a common history, and an unbreakable respect and trust. That’s the only reason Xavier could think of why he was about to open his mouth when they fell silent.
“Or she was the evidence,” Xavier said quietly.
“What the hell does that mean?” Lucas asked, spinning on him.
Jake glanced around at all of them and frowned at Xavier, letting out a low whistle. “She was one of his victims.”
“But she was his wife,” Lucas snarled.
“Ultimately, but that doesn’t mean it started out that way. It doesn’t mean they met and fell in love,” Jake said.
Xavier glanced between them. “What if she was pregnant and alone or a young, single, destitute mother with a happy, healthy—” The comment he’d been about to make died on his lips, the words skidding to a stop in his throat. His heart lurched in his chest, sending his blood surging through his veins hot and heavy. “We just need to speak her language,” he whispered as the pieces slid into place. “How the hell did I miss it? Dammit!” he bit out, heading for the door.
“You want to let us in on what the hell is happening?” Lucas demanded.
Yanking the door open, he turned to them. “Laramie said we have to speak Harmony’s language. How adoptable would she be if she’s deaf? She didn’t speak when she called 9-1-1. She hasn’t spoken since. We thought she was just traumatized. What if she’s waiting for someone to show her that they speak her language?”
“This whole time, oh God,” Chloe whispered.
“I have to go. Dylan—” Xavier said, waiting for the man to look him in the eye. “When you’re done, meet me in my office. I want the details.”
“I was afraid you might say that,” Dylan said with a sigh.
Chapter 4
Armed with a basic sign language book with common greetings, statements, questions, and the alphabet he printed off the internet, Xavier pushed the entire conversation that unfolded in the conference room out of his mind and headed for the resident section of New Hope. They had six families in residence. He stopped for a brief moment where most of them collected in the theater room where the latest Disney movie played across the screen dominating the north wall. Kids huddled on the floor with blankets and pillows, bowls of popcorn in their laps, and wide smiles across their faces.
This is what he was fighting for. He had to remind himself as details emerged that those details had nothing to do with him, with his history, and that this was his purpose.
They ranged from three years old to fourteen. Despite the huge age range, they were bound by common experiences, and the older kids jumped in to help with the younger ones, their level of maturity far beyond their years and so ingrained, no amount of therapy would help them find the childhood that had been eroded away by years of abuse.
Harmony should be in there with them. Instead,
She’d been alone inside herself for too long, and all because he’d missed it.
He stopped at the door to their apartment, and with a light knock, he ducked his head inside.
Kathy Ford, the first social worker to meet Harmony, smiled up from where she sat next to the little girl with a Barbie in her hand. “Dr. Thorne. We weren’t expecting you. Is everything alright?”
“Not quite, but I’m hoping I’m about to change that. Harmony’s mother woke up. She was having some pain so we gave her meds that knocked her out again, but I’m thinking in a few hours, she’ll be ready to see Harmony,” he said, giving a smile to the little girl who stared at him solemnly from a child-sized plush chair in the corner as she dragged a pink plastic brush through the hair of the Barbie clutched in her hand. “She did manage to say something that got me thinking. You mind if I take a minute with Harmony?”
“Not at all,” Kathy said, dragging her chair over the carpet, making room for him.
Harmony kept her gaze fixed on him as he approached her. The back of Kathy’s chair dragged against the wall, but Harmony didn’t even flinch.
He peeled off his jacket and slid off his shoes before lowering himself to the floor in front of her and crossing his legs.
Giving her a reassuring smile and ignoring that pinch of anxiety in his chest, he laid the sheet in his lap with the sign language alphabet and laid his palm against his chest, the sign for “my.”
Harmony’s blue eyes perked up, and the brush stilled in her hand.
If he was right, and everything inside him was screaming that this was it, this was the missing piece to breaking through to Harmony, and Laramie wouldn’t be the only one waking up today. The hand he’d had in that misstep he’d evaluate later.
He kept his index finger and middle finger tight together on each hand in the sign language form of the letter H and tapped them twice in an X motion, the sign for the word “name.”
She dropped her Barbie next to her and shuffled to her knees, her gaze darting between his hands and meeting his eyes.
Holding her attention, he went through the motions to spell his name, hoping that despite her young age, she’d learned enough about letters for him to make the connection with her.
The minute he finished his R, she laid her hand on her chest and formed that same X with her fingers to say, “My name is…” and then with her tiny hands she spelled out H-A-R-M-O-N-Y.
Christ, this was it. She was deaf. This whole time, with her mother in a coma, she sat in silence. She’d been surrounded by kind and caring adults around her; she’d had some of the best care in the country, but she hadn’t heard a word they’d said. The reassurances, the stories they’d read, the songs they had sung—none of it had gotten through to her.
“This whole time,” Kathy whispered from next to him. “How did we miss this?” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion.
“I don’t know. The combination of her being deaf and the trauma? I just don’t know. But we fix this now,” he said.
Harmony’s eyes never left his face. Her bottom lip wobbled, and she put her hands to the floor between them, crawled two steps, and climbed right into his lap. She gave him a glance from under long, dark lashes before dipping her head and settling against his chest with a soft sigh.
No. I can’t do this!
He wanted to hand her over to Kathy, to anyone better suited. But even as the words screamed through his head, his arms wrapped around her and held her warm little body close.
“Kathy, do you have workers who sign? Someone who can spend a good amount of time with Harmony while her mother’s rehabbing, and someone who can teach me?”
“Not on the staff full time, but I know just who to call. Let me see what I can do,” she said, sliding her cell from her purse.
“Thanks,” he said, his throat thick with emotion he didn’t dare examine.
“You took a while,” Dylan said when Xavier stepped into his office.
Xavier closed the door behind him and tossed his jacket over the back of his leatherback chair. “I stayed with Harmony until they got a social worker here that knows sign language.”
“So she is deaf,” Dylan said.
“Yes.” Xavier dropped into his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose. “What did I miss?”
“Not a whole lot since there are enough holes in this whole situation to swallow an armada of ships. We’re putting tight surveillance on Caine, and Tex is going to keep digging. Cole, Slyder, and Zane are going to see if they can find any witnesses who might have seen something the night Laramie was attacked. If it was a hired hit and we can locate him, it shouldn’t take long to get him to talk. Money only buys the customer so much when it comes to hired thugs. Josie is going to get with her dad and see where the disconnect is between the local authorities who found Laramie and witness protection, at least on this end. Evan is calling a friend in Georgia who might be able to help us with the DA angle because someone should have been prepping Laramie for trial. But it’s going to take some time and subtlety. There’re a lot of gaps, hidden connections, and at the heart of all of it, it’s looking like an army of dirty cops.”
A knock punctuated Dylan’s words, and Lucas walked in. “Harmony,” he said, tension tight in his expression. “Is she—”
Xavier waved him in and waited for him to shut the door. “Yes, she’s deaf. The good news is signing with her broke the barrier. We’ve got a social worker who signs here now, and Laramie will wake up at any time. She’ll be able to spend some time with her.”
“I want to be there,” Lucas said.
“I never thought there was a chance of you leaving,” Xavier said.
“About what you said before, about Laramie…if she’s one of his victims—” Lucas began.
“If? If she’s not, then she’s in on it. Do you really think that’s possible?” Dylan asked.
Lucas shook his head in firm denial. “No, I don’t.”
Dylan nodded. “So let’s go with victim unless she gives you reason to think otherwise.”
“We can’t rule anything out,” Xavier said, glancing between the two of them.
Lucas pierced him with a sharp glare, and Dylan narrowed his eyes.
“Just hear me out. If there’s a chance she was in on this, do you really want to turn Harmony over to her? Think about that,” Xavier said. Okay, so the likelihood was slim to none, but they had to consider it. No one had been talking up until this point, not even Laramie.
“She wouldn’t put her own child in the line of fire,” Lucas said.
Xavier glanced up at him and loosened his tie. “I would hope not, but we don’t know a whole hell of a lot right now, and can you say that for sure? You haven’t seen her in eight years.”
Lucas slammed a fist down on Xavier’s desk. “I know how she was raised. I know—”
Xavier didn’t even blink. “We all know that means nothing. Adults make choices. They betray the people they love. They’re easily influenced. They’re tempted by greed, lust, money—the truth is, none of us know right now whose side you sister is on.”
“Someone believed her, they had her in Witsec,” Lucas said.
“But that doesn’t mean she wasn’t involved. She could have turned state’s evidence. We just don’t know,” Xavier pointed out.
“I know you don’t want to believe it, but he’s right,” Dylan said quietly. “We need more information. We need to talk to your sister and look at this objectively.”
Until Dylan had agreed, Xavier still wasn’t one hundred percent sure he was unbiased. At every turn, his past tried to crowd his present, and he had to admit, he still hadn’t made peace with it and maybe never would. Which was exactly why other than brainstorming, he wasn’t stepping foot in this. If Laramie had nothing to hide and was on the side of right, Xavier would do everything in his power with medicine and rehab to give her the tools she needed going forward. But that was it. That’s where it ended.
“I’m going in to sit with her. I want to be there when she opens her eyes. And then you’ll see I’m right,” Lucas vowed before storming out the door.
Dylan sighed and scrubbed his hands over his face. “I’m beginning to wonder if he’s up for this.”
“It’s his sister. If he can let Chloe walk out that door, he can do this. He just needs to fight a few demons along the way. Thanks for siding with me,” Xavier said.
“I don’t know that I do. I still don’t know if you’re being smart and objective or if you’re just as haunted by ghosts as the rest of us. I’m hoping it’s the former, but I’m going to warn you, tread carefully on this one. You talk about being easily influenced, well, I’m not entirely sure your past isn’t influencing you. You were picked because you’re the best, but also because based on your history, we believed you wanted to make a difference. I don’t want to find out I was wrong about you and you’re really here to question every woman on their complicity—”
“I would never do that,” Xavier said, his stomach knotting at the thought. He didn’t take this job to punish random women all because he couldn’t punish the one woman who deserved his scorn.
“I hope not. Christ. I thought having a daughter partying it up in college was going to be the death of me, but it’s going to be watching you guys through this case.”
“In case you’ve forgotten, I’m not on the case,” Xavier said.
“You were on the case the minute you took a special interest in Laramie over a month ago. Lola said you haven’t gone home since she was admitted. She’s been stable for a long time and still you’ve stayed. You may not be on the case the way we are, but you’re into this up to your eyeballs.”
Dylan walked out and left Xavier staring after him. He should go home right now and prove Dylan wrong. Dr. Keith was in right now, and there wasn’t a single reason for Xavier to stay.
Except he wanted a shot at talking to Laramie too.
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