by B. B. Reid
I laughed, and when he looked at me curiously, I pointed to his shirt.
His face twisted as he took in his shirt, which no doubt cost more than my rent. “Great, now I’m covered in snot.”
“It looks good on you. I hear it’s all the rage in Paris.”
“Oh, yeah? How am I supposed to catch women with my sister’s boogers all over me?”
His joke made me panic and I could no longer keep from asking the question I held in all these years. “Dash?”
“Yeah?”
“Why don’t you find her?”
Just like that, his expression transformed from playful to serious. “Because she doesn’t want to be found… and she doesn’t want me.”
“But how will you ever know for sure if you don’t go after her?” My question seemed to make him hesitant as he rubbed the back of his neck in the way he did when he was nervous. “I have to tell you something. I’m—”
A knock on my door interrupted whatever he had been ready to say. I went to open the door and found Keenan standing on the other side with a guy I recognized but whose name I couldn’t remember. His blond, wavy hair and bright blue eyes gave him a polished, college look, and I wondered if I’d gone to school with him. Maybe he was in a fraternity.
“Are you going to let us in or continue to drool over Jesse?”
Jesse! He was the tech geek that had Lake befriended in high school. He attended our school only briefly before moving again. He came around again when Lake decided to play detective and uncover Keiran’s past.
“What are you doing here?”
“We’re here to help find rugrat.” Quentin, who I hadn’t noticed standing just behind Jesse, answered before shouldering his way past Keenan and Jesse and into the apartment.
“May I?” Jesse seemed to be the only male with manners.
I wordlessly gestured for him to enter. He flashed me a polite smile before entering but not before casting a sympathetic glance my way.
And then there was one…
“Where have you been?” The question had flown out before I knew that I would even ask it. I wanted to take it back, but the self-satisfied smirk on his face made it too late.
“Honey, I’m home,” Keenan singsonged. He wrapped an arm around my waist before picking me up to move me aside and enter the apartment.
As soon as he set me on my feet, I dug my nails into his skin, forcing him to let me go. “Our daughter has been missing for a week and you spend that time having a high school reunion?”
“So now she’s our daughter?”
I heard my hand impact the right side of his face before I ever felt the sting in my own hand. I took a timorous step back when his expression shifted from shock to amusement. Even so, I could see the deception in his gaze. His smile said he was amused, but his eyes promised retribution.
“You’re going to pay for that later,” he whispered so low I almost hadn’t caught it.
“Get away from my sister and explain where the fuck you’ve been for the last week.”
For the first time in four years, I was thankful for my brother’s presence and interference. This time it was I who wore a smug look.
“It’s nice to see you too, Dash,” Keenan replied seemingly unfazed. He walked deeper into my apartment, giving it a once over.
“Keenan,” Dash growled in warning.
“While you all were checking alleys and holding vigils, I was searching for the man I know has Kennedy.”
“You don’t think we’ve tried that? That the FBI hasn’t tried that? We’ve covered every angle. We’ve tried to find Mitch if he even can be found. With all his debts, he’s likely dead by now.”
“Or he was just waiting for the perfect opportunity,” Quentin added. “I don’t think we should sleep on Mitch until we are absolutely certain.
“He’s right.” Lake emerged from Kennedy’s bedroom where she had been sleeping. “Besides… we haven’t checked every angle.”
Her and Jesse seemed to have some kind of silent conversation going on.
“Camden,” Jesse blurted.
“Who is Camden?” Keenan asked.
“Camden isn’t a person. It’s a place. It’s where your grandparents live and where your father came from.”
“And you know this how?”
“When Keiran blackmailed me, I did some digging. Jesse and I came across very little, but what we did uncover was obviously meant to stay hidden. Mitch’s parents. Your grandparent’s,” Lake directed to Keenan, “are still alive, and I believe they are still living in Camden.”
“So we go there,” Dash stated. “How far?”
“A couple of hours?”
My heart skipped a beat at the possibility that my daughter was close even if she was currently in the hands of some of the world’s most vicious people.
“There is only one question. Why would my grandparents take Kennedy? I’ve never even met them. They’ve never shown interest in us so why her?”
Was it jealousy I detected in Keenan’s voice? Our daughter might have been kidnapped by these people and he was jealous?
“I know it doesn’t make much sense, but it’s the only angle we’ve got left. It can’t hurt.”
“It doesn’t matter. I want my daughter back. I don’t care if we have to search the pope’s house. We’re going. Do you have an address?”
“No, but that’s where I come in,” Jesse stated, stepping forward. It was only then I noticed a duffle in his right hand. “Just give me twenty-four hours tops.”
“Twenty-four hours? But it’s already been a week. She could be—”
“Don’t say it,” Keenan ordered. He was so close that his breath fanned across my skin causing me to shiver. When did he move so close? “It won’t help anything, and we need to stay focused.”
He gripped the back of my neck with a tight squeeze, silencing my smart retort. It was a move no one else seemed to notice as the others had formed a plan on how to get Kennedy back.
My gaze fell on a picture of her I took last summer during her first trip to the beach. She had been in love with the water. I could still hear the sound of her tinkling laughter as she pointed at the surfers and yelled, “My turn,” at the top of her lungs. She never forgot that trip and almost every day she’d asked for the beach. I had planned to take her again after graduation.
I didn’t realize I was hyperventilating until I was being lifted in strong arms and carried away from the worried gazes.
“I got her, man,” Keenan gruffly stated. Dash had probably stood to come to my rescue just as an older brother should.
But when Keenan managed to get me in my bedroom and lay me down on the bed, I wondered how good of a brother he actually was.
I sat up quickly and looked around as if my bedroom was a foreign place. “Why am I in here?”
“You were having a panic attack.”
“I’m fine now.”
“Are you sure?” His concern surprised me. A week ago, he had sung a different tune and now he was helping me?
“I’d like to be alone.” That was only partially true. Alone was the last thing I needed right now, but neither did I want to be in his company. I couldn’t stand the silence and the void the empty apartment created without Kennedy.
“Done.”
When he walked out and slowly shut my bedroom door behind him, I was relieved and partly amazed at how easy it was to get rid of him. I lay back against the pillows and closed my eyes.
Maybe he had gotten over his anger.
CHAPTER NINE
KEENAN
I’VE BEEN PLANNING for this moment all week long. After two days of searching for Kennedy high and low, I had to rethink my strategy. With Keiran in jail once again, I called up Quentin for intel on the organization that enslaved them both fourteen years ago. Four years ago, they were completely eradicated, and the major players, as well as many of the minor players, were now serving hard time in prison. That didn’t leave many answers left.
He was after money, and since he couldn’t possibly claim any money with both of her parents alive, it left only one solution.
He would sell her.
But to who?
The leader of the child enslavement ring was murdered in prison shortly after his arrest.
Everyone was currently huddled around the dining table, peering over Jesse’s shoulder who was already typing away on his computer that looked like it shouldn’t belong in an ordinary citizen’s possession.
Quentin had suggested we enlist his help based on the work he did for Keiran years ago. Apparently, he was a wiz with a laptop and internet connection. He was currently an intelligence contractor working for large corporations and the military to help find and bury information.
After high school, Quentin had enrolled straight in the Army and completed two tours in four years. He always seemed to be on the go as if he was running from someone or something. I guess we all had demons though I wouldn’t doubt that his were more fucked up than mine were.
“How’s she doing?”
“She’s fine. She’s lying down to rest and thinks everyone should give her some space.”
“Everyone or just you?” Dash asked.
“Do you want to say what you have to say so you can finally get your panties out of a bunch?”
“Motherfucker, I don’t want to say anything to you, but what I do want is to beat you into an early grave for what you did to my sister.”
“What happened between me and her is none of your business, and your sister can take care of herself. Actually, I take that back. Clearly she can’t, but no worries… Daddy’s home.”
No sooner had I spoke the words Dash was on me. His fist nearly broke my jaw on impact, and I crashed into the wall behind me but quickly recovered. I battled with whether or not to return the favor and effectively ruin our friendship forever, but when he caught my jaw again, I threw caution to the wind.
I pushed forward and used his momentum with my strength to flip him over my shoulder, sending him crashing into the wall behind me. When I twisted around, he was already on his feet. Looking at him, no one would ever guess he was becoming one of this country’s most powerful businessmen, but I was ready for him.
Dash’s next move was thwarted by Quentin putting him in a headlock. Jesse had stepped forward between the two of us, and I had just noticed Lake’s hand on my arm.
“What the hell is going on here?” Sheldon yelled from her bedroom door. Her face was contorted with fury as she took a look around the room. When her gaze landed on a large dent in the wall, she bound forward. When she stood in front of me, she poked her finger in my chest. “Where the hell do you get off on trashing my apartment?”
“You should ask your brother. He started it.”
“News flash—you aren’t sixteen anymore, and you cannot just fight in my apartment. What if someone calls the police? We are supposed to be looking for my daughter, not picking fights. Whatever issues you two have with each other needs to wait until Kennedy is home safe.”
“Watch your tone, girl. I’m here, aren’t I? If you were a good mother, she wouldn’t have been taken in the first place.”
“Keenan!” This time it was Lake to raise her voice.
Where the hell had that come from?
I didn’t want to mean it, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t. Somewhere out there, my daughter, whom I’d never met, was out there suffering because her mother didn’t protect her, and not only that, but she didn’t fight hard enough. She gave up.
“You have no idea what kind of mother I am to her.”
“And whose fault is that?”
“Bro,” Quentin interjected as he came between us. “Now is not the time. We’re so close to finding rugrat. You two can fight over who’s the better parent when we get her back.
Sheldon stepped back and disappeared into the kitchenette where she grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and chugged it.
When she finished, I watched her plentiful chest heave up and down from exertion before ripping my gaze away to face Dash. He glared from the other side of the apartment while Jesse stood in front of him. Did he think he was protecting him or me?
Dash’s duty was to his sister, and if it were mine, I would have reacted the same. Even so… if he insisted on standing between Sheldon and me, I was prepared to do what was necessary.
“There’s this older boy at school who keeps picking on me. Today, he took my lunch and I was hungry all day because I was too afraid to tell. What should I do?”
“You kill.”
“Kill?”
“Yes. You hurt them before they hurt you.”
I heard Keiran’s voice in my head from when I was eleven and he was twelve. He had just gone to junior high that year, leaving me alone. I had never had to fend for myself before because I’d always had Keiran by my side, but that was the year I learned.
After he had told me what to do, he taught me how to use a knife and showed me the gun he mysteriously had hidden in the backyard. Whenever my father wasn’t home, we’d practice with the knife on snakes or whatever we could find.
But all that changed the day Keiran had dared me to use the knife for real. I’d come home with a black eye courtesy of Tommy. Keiran had said it was time to teach him a lesson, and at school that next day, I did.
I didn’t kill him, but after he’d gone home with his face mutilated, his parents no longer deemed the area a safe place to live.
I made sure he would never talk before deciding not to kill him. Unlike Keiran, I couldn’t kill as easily, but it was safe to say we weren’t all that different after all.
“I think I’m going to take off,” I announced unnecessarily because I had nothing else to give.
Once her apartment door closed behind me, I placed a phone call.
“Get everything ready.”
Once I gave the order, I ended the call.
* * * * *
“Don’t look so surprised to see me, brother. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t need your help.” I took a seat in the plastic orange visiting chair, facing Keiran.
“I figured as much. I’m just surprised you’re here at all.”
“Well, the daughter I never knew I had is missing. I feel a certain obligation to stay.”
“And after she’s found?”
“Look, I’m just taking this one fucked up situation at a time. I can’t see that far into the future,” I lied.
“You would leave behind your kid?”
“She’s been doing okay so far without me.” My words came out bitter, which was unexpected. The thought of leaving them behind again made my blood run cold, but I wouldn’t allow my feelings to ruin me again.
This time I would be the one doing the ruining.
“She could do better if she had you.”
“Why are you so sure about that?”
“Because you know what it’s like to be without a father.”
I wasn’t expecting his response and wondered when Keiran had become so insightful.
“That won’t be a problem if we don’t find her soon.”
“I don’t think it was anyone from the organization. Most of them were arrested and the rest have likely scattered to unknown parts. It’s Mitch. It has to be, and if it is him, then there is a great chance Kennedy is still alive.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because he’ll try to use her for ransom.”
“What would make him think we have the money?”
“Because we’ve inherited the second portion of our inheritance.”
“How much?”
“A whopping ten million each.”
“He’s going to want it all.”
“And we’re going to give it to him right before I kill him.”
“My daughter, my kill.”
“You’ve never killed anyone before.”
“I think it’s as good a
time as any to start.”
Keiran didn’t respond. Instead, he held my stare as if trying to read me. After a few moments of intense silence, I broke it.
“What if he sold her?”
“He won’t.”
“And you are sure of this how?”
“Because what he can get for ransom from us is a thousand times more than what he will get for selling her. The girls don’t sell for much.”
“This is my fucking daughter we are talking about,” I growled. I didn’t like the casual way he spoke of bartering her as if she were a fucking goat.
“And this is real life. If you can’t handle what I’m saying, what makes you think you could kill him when the time comes? Because it will come, Keenan. He isn’t walking away again and I’m not walking on the right side of the law this time.”
I nodded my head in agreement. Mitch had many reasons to die. My mother and my daughter had suffered at his hands… and my brother.
I could see the worry and fear that Keiran tried to hide with a hard visage. He was fighting himself to be a protector.
“Did Quentin tell you about Camden?”
“He did, but I wondered what was taking you so long to tell me yourself.”
“Because nothing’s changed.”
“I never said it had.”
An uncomfortable silence fell between us once again as we both became lost in our thoughts. A part of me wished I’d never come on to Lake and yet a part of me wished I’d been successful. I also wish I knew which part was stronger.
“So, what was that at the hospital?” I knew I wouldn’t have to elaborate given the way he hung his head and took a deep breath before meeting my stare again.
“I fucked up.”
“No shit. I thought things were good between you two.”
“They are… they were. It’s not her. It’s me. I fucked up in California.”
“What did you do?”
“Those men I killed. I promised Lake I wouldn’t murder again. I convinced her I had put the past behind me, but clearly, I haven’t. I don’t even know how to tell her.”
“Are you afraid she’ll leave?”
He laughed though a dark look clouded his features. “No.”
