The Lost Girls

by Allison Brennan

  “The phone cut out—cell reception is terrible here.”

  “She sounded really worried. I thought you said she was fine with us staying longer.”

  His dad drank some water. “I thought she was, but she worries, you know that.”

  Jesse shrugged and sat down on the couch. His mom was moody all the time lately. His dad said it was girl hormones, but Jesse thought it was something else. She’d seemed sad when he left last week. “I should call her back—or maybe we can just go home? Do we have to stay until Friday?”

  “This is important, Jess. You’re right—I should have left you at home, but I thought this would be good for us to have some guy time. You have straight A’s, it’s not like you’re going to miss anything if you miss school for a week. And I talked to Dom, they have season tickets to the football team here. They’re playing tonight.”

  “Really?” Jesse loved soccer. He’d been playing since he was six. But he’d never been to a professional game.

  “I may be able to wrap up everything by Wednesday. We’ll leave as soon as I’m done.”

  “Sure. Whatever.”

  “You’re having fun, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah. Just bored. I wish we didn’t have to leave Acapulco.”

  “I can’t let you just go out and explore—it’s pretty safe here, but you know how Mexico can be. We need to be smart.”

  “I know.” Jesse finished his water bottle. “Can I go swimming?”

  “Of course. You can go anywhere on the property—Dom has forty acres to explore. But come in before noon, the sun can be murder.”

  “Okay.” Jesse put his DS on the charger and left the suite of rooms Dominick Flores, his dad’s boss, let them use. He already had his swim trunks on—he’d been swimming every morning and night since he got here. But he was bored. There were no other kids, everyone was serious except for Gabriella.

  Two of Dominick’s bodyguards asked him where he was going. “Swimming,” he told both of them.

  It was weird to be here in a house full of armed guards. His dad said that Dominick was extremely wealthy and there was always the threat of kidnapping for ransom or thieves. And they were in Mexico. So why not just stay at the resort? At least there was a lot to do—they had a totally badass game room.

  Jesse went outside and around back to the pool. It was early, but hot. It would be sticky and gross later.

  He swam for thirty minutes or so, but it really wasn’t that much fun. Everyone seemed to stay up real late and sleep in … so except for his dad and the guards, he hadn’t seen anyone. Dominick’s younger brother Jose was sort of cool—he had a totally sick gaming system in his apartment and had let Jesse play with him last night. But then he and Gabriella had gone out.

  Jesse dried off, pulled his T-shirt over his head, and went to the back door. It was locked. He walked around the side of the house—the place was a mansion. It had to be like ten thousand square feet. Maybe more. The kitchen door was often open because the cook liked to go out for a smoke like every ten minutes. Yeah, Dominick was rich—he had his own personal chef.

  The kitchen was open, but no one was inside. Jesse picked a muffin off the cooling rack—the cook was a jerk, but he baked the best muffins and pastries. He went through the dining room, down the hall, through the foyer, and thought he heard his dad in the library. The door was partly open, and he almost walked in, but then he heard Dominick raise his voice.

  “I hope you’re right, Carson. I can’t afford any scrutiny right now. Neither can you.”

  “I’m sure it’s nothing,” his dad said. “We’re on track, but I need to get to the bank today, set up the new accounts. By tomorrow—Thursday at the latest—I’ll have moved all the money. Even if the feds track the old accounts, they’ll be shut down.”

  “You’d better be right.”

  “I am,” his dad said. “But I’ve added another layer of security. In three months the new accounts will automatically be converted into yet another new account. I can set it up in advance. So even if—and it’s a big if—they track us, by the time they figure it out, the money will be gone.”

  “I like the plan in concept—but it had better work.”

  “Dom, I’ve been doing this for years. I set up the contigency plan in the first place, and it served you well, didn’t it?”

  Jesse heard two people walking down the main staircase, so he quickly turned into the closest room and shut the door. The room was empty—a sitting room. Dominick had a dozen sitting rooms all over the house. Double doors led into the atrium in the center of the house. Jesse waited until he thought the people had passed, then walked through the double doors and into the atrium. There were lots of plants and even full-sized trees in the huge room. Dom had a lap pool in here, too, but it was for family only, Jesse had been told.

  “Swimming so early, little man?”

  He jumped and almost stumbled halfway up the stairs. Gabriella stood in the middle of the atrium looking up at him.

  “Yeah,” he said. “Before it gets hot.”

  She walked up the stairs and stopped on the stair beneath his. Looked him in the eye and said, “Be careful, Jess. There are a lot of eyes—and ears—in this house.” She then smiled, patted him on the shoulder, and said as she passed him on the stairs, heading toward her apartment, “Next time you go for an early swim, let me know.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “I’m ready,” Sean said to Kane as he slowly started taxiing out of the hangar. His phone vibrated on the console next to him. It was a long text message from Lucy.

  I’m on the road, but right before we left, your friend Madison Spade called the house—about 10 minutes ago. She sounded upset and wanted to know what airport you were at. I told her to call you, but she said she tried and couldn’t reach you. I don’t know what her story is, and I didn’t want to tell her, but she said that she has important information about her husband and son that you have to know before you leave, so I sent her to the airfield. Be careful. I love you.

  “Well, shit,” Sean said and stopped the plane. He showed Kane the message. “What is Madison up to?”

  “No good,” Kane responded.

  Sean called Madison’s number. She picked up immediately. Before he could get a word out, Madison said, “Don’t leave! I’m almost there!”

  “You are not coming with me.”

  “No, no, it’s not like that. I talked to Carson. He and Jesse are fine. You don’t need to go.”

  Every instinct in Sean’s body told him either she was lying or not telling him the entire truth.

  “Did he call you?”

  “Yes! I spoke to both of them. Please—I just got to the airport. Your girlfriend told me where you were.”

  “I know. She told me.”

  Madison clearly wasn’t expecting that answer.

  “You should have called me.”

  “I didn’t think you’d talk to me! You were very mean when I called earlier. I have to see you. I’m canceling this whole thing. They’re fine. I just panicked. But they’re fine, really.”

  Sean hung up. He did not believe this. “Watch the plane,” he said to Kane and climbed out of the cockpit. By the time he dropped to the tarmac, he saw a white sedan racing toward him. She screeched to a halt only feet from the tail of the plane and jumped out of the car. “Thank God you haven’t left.”

  She looked frantic and took a deep breath. “Carson called me thirty minutes ago. He and Jesse are fine. I talked to Jesse. They’re fine, they were robbed. They’ll be back on Friday.”

  “Robbed?”

  “Yes, that’s why he couldn’t call me, didn’t get my messages. Their passports were stolen, they’re at the American embassy. That’s where they called me from.”

  He didn’t believe one word.

  “The American embassy where?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t ask. Probably Acapulco.”

  “And he couldn’t call you for three days.”

  “He didn�
�t have time to explain everything! He just told me they were fine, they were at the embassy and straightening everything out. I talked to Jesse myself.”

  That he believed. She had talked to her son but he didn’t know whether that was to verify he was alive, or because he was really safe.

  “Give me your phone.”

  “What?”

  “I’m tired of the games. Give me your fucking phone.”

  “I’m not hiring you. I’m unhiring you. You can’t do this. Just leave it alone.”

  He yanked her purse from her hands, retrieved her phone, then tossed the purse back at her. He walked back to the plane.

  Sean said, “Spade made contact.” He tossed Madison’s phone to Kane, who grabbed it with one hand. “Plug that into my tablet and break her passcode.” He reached into his go-bag and pulled out a phone. He wrote the number down on a pad, then walked back to Madison.

  She stood exactly where he’d left her, eyes wide.

  He handed her the burn phone. “This is how I will contact you.”

  “You don’t understand…”

  “What did he say?” Sean stepped forward and Madison stepped back. He didn’t care if he looked or sounded threatening; she was lying to him and now he knew for certain that her no-good husband and his son were in danger.

  “They’re fine. They’ll be back on Friday.”

  “And?”

  “And … that’s it. Please don’t go. I should never have come to you. I should never have told you…”

  “You’re lying.”

  She straightened her spine and stared him in the eye. “Who are you?”

  “If you don’t tell me exactly what your husband said, you’re putting your son in greater danger. My son. And I will do anything to protect my son.”

  “I’m not lying, Sean. Carson called me and said they were fine, he just has more business, and he will be home on Friday.”

  “And?”

  Her eyes darted toward the plane, just briefly, before looking Sean in the eye. “And … nothing.”

  “So the whole story that they were robbed and at the American embassy was a big fat lie.” Sean turned and started walking away.

  “No!” Madison ran after him. She grabbed him and he shook her off. “Please, Sean, trust me.”

  That was it. “Trust you? You lied to me for thirteen years. I have a son. He doesn’t even know who I am. You kept that from me. I will never forgive you. I will never trust you. And now you’re lying to me again to protect your husband, putting my son in danger. Your son. You know what I think? I think your husband is laundering money, and if he’s in Mexico, that means he’s doing it for the cartels. And if he’s laundering money for the cartels, you and Jesse already have a target on your backs.”

  She was shaking. “I-I talked to J-Jesse. He’s f-fine.”

  “No matter how many fucking times you tell me Jesse is fine, he’s not fine. I will bring him back. At this point, I don’t give a fuck what happens to your husband. But Jesse is not going to be used as a pawn between Carson and the cartels or whoever the hell he’s screwing around with. And there is nothing you can do or say to stop me.”

  Sean returned to his plane. He was shaking. Fear and anger. He started the plane again and rolled forward.

  “Blocked number. Six-minute conversation.”

  “And?”

  “Your program said it originated within fifty miles of Guadalajara.”

  “If he calls again, I’ll run a program to trace it.”

  “We have a meeting with security in Acapulco.”

  Sean didn’t say anything.

  “We need intel.”

  “Four to five hours to Acapulco, and that’s pushing it if we have to hop back on the plane for another three-hour leg to Guadalajara. We’ll need to refuel someplace.”

  “We’re covered. Sean, don’t change the plan.”

  “We have no fucking plan because we don’t know what the fuck is going on or where the fuck they are!”

  Sean turned toward the runway. He glanced once back toward the tarmac. Madison was standing right where he’d left her.

  Kane didn’t say anything as Sean built up speed and lifted off. If this was any other day and any other trip, Sean would have appreciated the state-of-the-art plane. The comfort. The speed. But today … now … he just wanted to find his son.

  His son.

  Kane said, “Control your emotions.”

  “I am.”

  “Bullshit.”

  Sean spent more time than necessary playing with the gauges and controls. Kane knew what he was doing. Getting his shit together.

  “We landed on somebody’s radar,” Sean said. “That’s why Carson called her.”

  “I talked to one person who I trust. But he may have tripped something getting details on Spade. Who did you talk to?”

  “No one except you and JT and Jaye.” Sean paused. “I dug around in Carson’s finances.”

  “Trip anything?”

  “Doubtful, but I didn’t have time to be extra cautious. The only way he would know I was digging was if he was watching real-time or had a program that knew exactly what to look for in a hack.”

  “How likely?”

  “Well, I’d say highly unlikely unless he’s working with top tech people. Or he had someone like me set it up for him. Or if he was suspicious. And if he’s laundering money, he would be suspicious.”

  “We tipped our hand. One of us—you or me. Or Jaye. You have her running backgrounds and financials?”

  “She’s just as good as me when it comes to covering her tracks.”

  There was only so much they could do. If someone was monitoring finances live and they were smart, they might see something odd. If they were up to no good, they would be suspicious of anything out of the ordinary.

  Kane continued. “My security guy in Acapulco is pulling feeds from the resort Spade was at. We’ll know who, if anyone, he met with. What he did. What he fucking ate for breakfast and when he took a shit. We need that intel, otherwise we’re going in blind. So stay on course, Sean.” He paused. “Jesse is a Rogan, we’re not going to leave him behind. I promise you that. But we’re not going to be stupid about it, just like you weren’t stupid when you rescued me outside Santiago.”

  Kane was right. Of course he was, he’d been doing these kind of rescues for twenty years. It was in his blood. Sean was just the driver—or pilot, as the case may be. He had to trust his brother.

  “She lied. In part. I’m sure she talked to Spade and Jesse, but he told her something else. Something that freaked her out so much that she came to the airport and tried to stop us.”

  “The question is, did she tell Spade who she hired?”

  Sean considered the conversation he’d just had with Madison. “My guess is no. She wouldn’t want him to know she came to me when the going got tough. Carson must know I’m Jesse’s real father. And Madison is trying to salvage her life right now.”

  “We’ll go on that assumption, but you have to remember, Sean—the Rogan name is akin to God in some places, and Satan in others. We’re certainly not in Kansas anymore.”

  Sean glanced at his brother with a half smile. “A joke. Really.”

  Kane smiled, closed his eyes, and went to sleep.

  Sean flew. And thought about the lost years.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Lucy, Noah, and Siobhan arrived in Laredo just after nine thirty Tuesday morning. Lucy had spent the two-hour drive reviewing notes from their analyst regarding the properties managed by Direct Property Holdings.

  TO:

  SSA N. Armstrong

  FROM:

  Z. Charles, Analyst III

  RE:

  Case 16-T4022209-A

  CC:

  SA L. Kincaid

  The two properties in question are owned by different entities, but run by the same property management company out of San Antonio as I forwarded yesterday. Direct Property Holdings—DPH—has no identifiable employe
es, but I’ve sent a request to access tax records. DPH is owned by Direct Business Management registered in Reno, Nevada; I’ve requested the corporate filings from Nevada but based on what I’ve learned so far, I suspect that there will not be any individuals listed on those records.

  I have, however, backtraced seven additional properties managed by DPH that are within a hundred-mile radius of the Freer property. There may be more, and I will continue to work this angle. The list is attached. I will trace these companies as far as I can, but I’ve seen this before and it’s far out of my skill set. I would like to bring this to the attention of our White Collar Crimes Division who may have additional insight into how this is set up and how the operational tree is organized. However, because this is a highly sensitive issue I wanted your approval first, and if there was a specific person I should discuss this with.

  I’ve begun the search of all individuals in the photographs you forwarded. It’ll take some time. The brothel pays under the table, so I have no employment records. I’ll forward positive identifications as I receive them. The first is attached: Leo Musgrove. He has a record and was easy to find.

  Lucy looked at the list of addresses. Two were in the Laredo area. One was in Del Rio. It was familiar. She started flipping through her notes.

  “It’s the same place,” Noah said.

  “Excuse me?”

  “You’re looking at the list of addresses. I already confirmed that the Del Rio address is the brothel that Barrow investigated. There are three in the San Antonio area, and Nate and Kenzie are going to check them out today if they get a break in their current caseload; otherwise we’ll check on them tomorrow. In the meantime I’ve asked Rick to smooth over some ruffled feathers.”

  Lucy couldn’t imagine what she’d done that upset anyone.

  Noah laughed. “It’s not you. Jeez, Luce, do you always think you’re the one making waves?”

  “Lately,” she said.

  “This time, it’s me, and I’m not going to apologize. I don’t have to—I’m not going to be in San Antonio forever. You know Dean Hooper, right?”