The Lost Girls

by Allison Brennan

  “Just in time for breakfast,” Lucy said, breaking the awkward silence.

  “Seems you’re not surprised to see me,” Siobhan said to Kane.

  “I’m not.” He didn’t elaborate. What did he know about the baby? Marisol and Ana? She opened her mouth to ask, but he cut her off.

  “We need to leave, Sean.”

  “Breakfast first,” Sean said.

  Siobhan frowned, looked from Kane to Sean and back again. Silent communication.

  Lucy took Sean’s hand and pulled him from the room. Siobhan glanced over her shoulder, wistful. They loved each other and told each other often. They didn’t stop touching. The little things. Sean brushing by her shoulder, planting a light kiss on her lips. Lucy rubbing his biceps. They couldn’t pass each other without physical contact. Why couldn’t she have that? Why did she have to fight for everything?

  Kane took over where Sean left off and slipped Siobhan a breakfast burrito. Then he pulled out aluminum foil as if he knew the kitchen well and made two burritos to go for him and Sean. He dished up the remainder of the food for Lucy, put it on the island, and popped a bottle of hot sauce next to her plate.

  “I like her,” Siobhan said, hating the silence between them.

  “She’s one of the best.”

  “From you, high praise.”

  “Don’t do anything stupid, Siobhan.”

  She bristled. “Don’t start.”

  “You were arrested.” He turned around and stared at her. There was a flash in his eyes, heat and ice, and she almost couldn’t speak.

  “I did what had to be done. You would have done the same.”

  “I would never have been caught.”

  “I’m just not as good as you then,” she snipped. “Where are you and Sean off to? Someone disappeared in Mexico, Sean said?”

  Kane opened his mouth, then closed it. He glanced over Siobhan’s shoulder, and for a moment Siobhan saw indecision on his face. Kane was never indecisive.

  “Businessman disappeared with his son,” he said. “Friend of Sean’s.”

  Kane put the breakfast burritos and several water bottles into a small cooler and zipped it up. He was about to walk out when Siobhan reached out and touched him.

  “Kane.”

  “Good-bye.”

  “I meant what I said three months ago, and if you think I’ve forgotten, you’re an idiot. I certainly know you haven’t.”

  He walked out.

  “Well, dammit, that didn’t go well,” she muttered and ate her breakfast.

  * * *

  Kane drove, which irked Sean—he much preferred driving.

  “You didn’t tell me Siobhan was at your house.”

  “Problem?”

  No answer.

  “She was pretty shaken last night. What was I supposed to do, tell Lucy to leave her in Laredo after her motel room was ransacked?”

  “Why didn’t she call us?” Kane said.

  It took Sean a full minute to understand what Kane was talking about. “You mean, why did she call Rick and not JT?”

  “The feds are ill equipped to handle this situation.”

  Sean had second—well, tenth—thoughts on leaving Lucy this week. “Lucy told me about the case.”

  “She doesn’t know the half of it.”

  That angered Sean. “Then give her something. She trusts you, Kane. If you keep something important from her because of some stupid jealousy thing, that’s on you.”

  “This has nothing to do with jealousy, little brother. I talked to Rick. This isn’t sex trafficking. It’s black-market babies.”

  “Lucy is good at her job. She already figured it out.”

  “I didn’t say she wasn’t.”

  “What’s with you and Siobhan?”

  “She finds trouble. Actively seeks it out. If she had a lead on the missing sisters, she should have contacted RCK. Rick chose his side long ago. He’s good, but he and his people can’t do what needs to be done.”

  Sean’s phone rang, cutting off this infuriating conversation. He glanced down and swore under his breath before answering. “Madison.”

  “Where are you? What’s going on?”

  “I told you last night that Kane and I were leaving first thing in the morning.”

  “And I told you I need to come with you!”

  “And I said no. Go back to California, Madison. There is nothing you can do except slow us down. If you hear from Carson or Jesse, call me at this number. Otherwise, I don’t want to hear from you at all.”

  “Sean—don’t be like this.”

  That was rich, coming from a woman who’d lied to him for thirteen years. Lies of omission were still lies. “I’m serious. If I need something, I’ll call.” He hung up. “Don’t say anything.”

  Kane didn’t speak. Sean was angry, but more angry with himself. He had wanted to talk to Lucy, but when? In front of Siobhan? Wake her up in the middle of the night? Damn, he couldn’t sleep most of the night, but he must have crashed late because he hadn’t even heard Lucy get up.

  He was embarrassed by his past behavior. His irresponsibility. Angry at Madison for keeping this secret. Worried about Jesse, a kid he didn’t know, depending on a man he thought of as his father who was a criminal. Sean wanted his son in his life, but what would he say when he met the kid? I’m your dad, I love you.

  And he felt selfish and then guilty for feeling that way. Why did this have to happen now? Why six weeks before his wedding? Why couldn’t this have happened two years ago, before he met Lucy? Or in two months, after they were married and back from their honeymoon.

  There was no good time to be told you had a half-grown child.

  “You didn’t tell her, did you?”

  How did Kane know things he shouldn’t know?

  “There wasn’t time.”

  “Call her.”

  “I’m not telling her over the damn phone.” And that was that, subject dropped.

  Kane turned into the small private airport that Sean used. They checked in with the desk, filed a flight plan that was as vague as they could get away with, and Kane walked over to the edge of a runway. “Wow. Nice ride. Where’d you get it?” Sean couldn’t help but admire the Piper Seneca.

  “Friend of JT’s. He knows everyone, and everyone seems to owe him a favor.”

  “Who else knows?”

  “I haven’t told anyone, but the kid looks just like you, Sean. JT didn’t ask. He didn’t have to.”

  “I fucked this up.”

  “You did shit. This is on Madison. What you do from this moment forward is on you.”

  Sean said, “I’m flying.”

  “Good, because I didn’t sleep last night.”

  Sean got himself familiar with the Seneca. He asked Kane, “You talked to Rick—what does he know about the situation in Laredo?”

  “Nothing more than Armstrong and Lucy know. I gave him information about my search for the girls when they first disappeared. The guy they worked for is clean. Believe me, I pushed. He gave me access to his employees, I found a few lowlifes, but no one with ties to the girls or to trafficking. I tracked law enforcement, they didn’t find anything—no bodies have popped up that could be the girls.” He paused. “I know they were grabbed in the middle of the night. Their roommates were paid off by some lowlife to disappear. I think they’re dead.”

  “Siobhan didn’t tell me that.”

  “She doesn’t know because it led nowhere. I tracked down the lowlife. Throat slit. Whoever he was working for took care of loose threads.”

  Sean hesitated. As if Kane could read his mind, he said, “Rick—and you—vouch for Armstrong. And I planted some seeds in Rick’s head that they may want backup they can trust down there, that this case could either disappear with no leads or blow wide open.”

  “Nate.”

  Sean would feel better if Nate was watching Lucy’s back.

  “I could send in my people, but we’re spread thin right now. Partly because I’ve
been out of commission. Let’s get your kid back on US soil and then we can both be involved.”

  “Lucy absorbs everything. These investigations—yes, she’s good, I trust her, but she can lose herself.”

  “You love her. I get it.” Kane closed his eyes. “It’s why I don’t get involved.”

  “You don’t? Really?” Sean would have laughed if he weren’t so worried. “Then what was that thing with Siobhan in my kitchen?”

  Kane didn’t respond. Typical.

  Sean finished getting himself familiar with the plane so he could take her up.

  * * *

  Madison McAllister Spade paced the hotel room. How could she go back to California when her son was missing? When her husband wouldn’t return her calls? When her entire world was falling apart and she could do not one thing to stop it?

  She had never wanted Sean Rogan to know about Jesse. In a perfect world, she would have stood up to her father and told Sean from the beginning … or, maybe not. She’d been nineteen. Sean wasn’t even eighteen when they were dating, though he was far more mature, and a lot more fun, than anyone her age. They’d been silly and stupid and she knew exactly when they conceived Jesse. Four weeks before Sean was expelled, the first weekend after classes started, Sean had flown them to Las Vegas, bought quality fake IDs, and they gambled and drank and went to shows for two amazing nights. Sean had won a huge amount of money at blackjack, and she suspected he was counting cards—he was that good. And it was that weekend he’d told her about the professor who had child porn on his computer.

  She’d told him to turn the professor over to the university. Then he admitted that he’d hacked the computer to play a prank on the guy because he was a jerk and that’s when he found the videos.

  “They won’t care about that—if he has child pornography, you might get a slap on the wrist.”

  “I think they’ll bury it. Remember the fraternity that was accused of feeding girls mickeys at that blowout party last spring? Slap on the wrist because no one could prove who was behind it. Big institutions want to make problems disappear. Then there’s the fact that he’s a tenured professor.”

  “Sean—what are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know yet. But I’m going to expose him, one way or the other.”

  What would she have done if Sean hadn’t been expelled? If she didn’t have an excuse to keep her pregnancy secret? Would she have stood up to her father and told Sean about the baby? Would she have expected a wedding? A commitment? He hadn’t loved her. Not then. Maybe he could have learned to …

  She could lie to herself all she wanted, but he didn’t love her like she loved him, and she didn’t want to be the burden. The girl who had to get married. The girl who roped a guy into a family. They had fun, and that’s all it was. He was smart and exciting, he treated her very well, he was considerate … but he didn’t love her.

  As it was, she’d left school after the semester ended, before she started to show, and transferred to UCLA. Because even though Sean went to Stanford for only a year, he had made a lot of friends. She didn’t keep in touch with any of them. She rebuilt her life in LA.

  She’d gone through a litany of emotions from grief to embarrassment to anger to sorrow. She considered an abortion—had even made an appointment—but in the end, she couldn’t keep it. This baby was part of her, and deep down she knew that no matter what her father thought of Sean Rogan, he had good genes. He was attractive and smart. He was a genius. If she’d gone to a sperm bank and checked the boxes of what she wanted in a donor, Sean Rogan would have been at the top of the list.

  Carson Spade was the opposite of Sean in so many ways, though just as handsome and just as endearing. But Carson wasn’t wild. He was five years older than her, stalwart, a businessman who cared about image and status. She wanted to tell herself she didn’t care about those things, but that would be a lie. She did because her father expected it. He wanted the whole package, not just money, but stature, respect, respectability. Carson Spade was everything her father wanted in a son-in-law, so when they started dating a year after Jesse was born, he’d gone from boyfriend to fiancé in a matter of months. He loved Jesse as if he were his own son. And that was one of the reasons Madison loved Carson. He loved Jesse unconditionally. He didn’t care who his father was, and didn’t hold it against her for keeping the information from Sean.

  It wasn’t until Jesse was eight and came to them with some simple addition and subtraction that they told him the truth—at least, part of the truth. That Carson wasn’t his biological father, but he loved him as much as if he were.

  Madison put her hand to her stomach. She felt sick. She should never have told Jesse that his father hadn’t wanted him. She should never have told Jesse that his father was a wild college boy and she’d had a lapse in judgment. That it had been a one-night stand. She didn’t say that, exactly—she had to phrase it so an eight-year-old would understand—but Jesse got it.

  She just hadn’t expected that Sean and Jesse would ever meet.

  Her phone rang. It was a blocked number, but she answered it immediately.

  “Hello?”

  “Mom?”

  “Jesse! Oh God, are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, Mom. Sorry I didn’t call sooner, we couldn’t get a signal. Dad wants to talk to you.”

  There were muffled voices, then Carson came on the phone. He said to Jesse in the background, “Go grab me a bottled water, will you please, Jess? Then you can talk to your mom again.”

  A second later Carson said in a low voice, “Madison, what have you done?”

  “What have I done? You disappeared with our son! I waited at the airport, thinking you missed your flight, but you didn’t call, didn’t text. You weren’t on any plane and you checked out on Saturday. I have no idea where you’ve been for three days! What the hell is going on, Carson? Why haven’t you returned my calls?”

  “Stop. Please, Madison. Just calm down.”

  “Calm down?”

  “You panicked. You’re putting us all in danger. Someone has been sniffing around, a PI making calls. Did you hire someone to find me?”

  “Yes! Yes I did because I thought you were kidnapped or … or worse.”

  “Dear God, Madison, you’re going to get us all killed! Call them off.”

  Madison sank down into the hotel desk chair. Killed? Killed? This could not be happening. What was her husband doing?

  “Are you being held? For ransom? Do they want money? I have money—my dad—”

  “No, Madison, nothing like that! Jeez, girl, your imagination is out of control. This is just business.”

  “This is not just business! Carson, tell me, or I swear, I’ll send an army after you.”

  “It’s nothing I can’t handle. Just a little money problem. I’m fixing it, and then we’ll be on the next flight home. But you have got to call off the dogs. Right now. You’ll freak out people we don’t want to freak out. You’re lucky I found out about it before my employer did.”

  “I cannot believe this, Carson.” Madison was going to hyperventilate. She could feel it building and tried to force herself to calm down. Panicking was not going to get her son back. “You have my son in the middle of something this dangerous?”

  “It’s not dangerous! Just someone else’s mistake I need to fix. Trust me, Madison. I love you, I love Jesse. This is just a small glitch and I’m the only one who can fix it. Nothing is going to happen to him, but you’re panicking, and that’s not good for any of us.”

  “You should have told me from the beginning. You should never have brought Jesse down there.”

  “I’m taking a risk calling you now. If everything goes right, I’ll be done here by Thursday, Friday at the latest.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Honey, I’d tell you, but right now you’re not thinking straight, and the last thing I need is you showing up here. Or sending a damn PI after me. Call him off. I mean it. I love you, Maddie.”

&n
bsp; He hung up. He hung up on her!

  She was torn. Carson was obviously in the middle of something potentially dangerous, which put Jesse in danger. But she’d just spoken to both of them, and they sounded fine. They were alive, they were healthy, Jesse didn’t sound like anything was wrong. She wanted Sean to bring her son back … but she didn’t want to get her husband hurt.

  “How could you do this to me?” she screamed in the silence of her hotel room.

  She had to trust Carson. They had celebrated their tenth anniversary in April. She loved him. Her father respected him. He’d provided for her, took another man’s son as his own, helped her build her own business—antiques, something she loved and was good at. She had a life and Carson and Jesse were a part of that life. They were her life.

  Coming to Sean Rogan was a mistake. Carson was right, she’d panicked. Why had she even come here? What had she hoped to gain?

  Because you hadn’t spoken to your husband and son in three days and Carson lied to you.

  Damn damn damn!

  Why hadn’t she called her father?

  She knew why. Her father would know then that Carson was moonlighting. He would know they had financial problems that Carson had taken a second job to remedy. And Carson wouldn’t forgive her. He may never forgive her for talking to Sean. Why had she called Sean? She could have found someone else …

  Punishment. You were mad at Carson for scaring you, for taking Jesse when you really didn’t want him to go … and then lying to you. So you went to the one person you should never have seen again.

  “It’s okay,” she told herself, as if speaking out loud would make it true. “Jesse is my son, I would do anything to protect my son.”

  Carson and Jesse were safe. For now. She had to call off Sean. To keep them safe.

  She grabbed her purse and cell phone and ran out of the hotel.

  * * *

  Jesse brought his dad the water bottle. He’d already drunk half of another on the way back from the kitchen. “Here,” he said. “Where’s Mom?”