Echo

by Anne Conley

  Simon gave credit to the genius of whoever was behind this. They’d hit a market that would give them a limitless supply of women.

  As if echoing his thoughts, Quinten muttered, “Fucking brilliant.”

  “So you charge it every night, right? When was the last time you plugged it into your laptop?”

  “I charge it every night but not always on my laptop. I haven’t done that since I was home. Y’all have my laptop, remember?” Her voice was a little shaky but steady. Simon saw the relief in her eyes that they finally had a reason for her attacks.

  Hollerman was checking his phone. “Simon, I need to take this, it’s the PD.”

  “Tell them what we’ve found out. See if the others have one of these StrongArm modifications.”

  Dex nodded, answering with one hand while pressing a finger to his ear with the other, leaving the room.

  Simon sighed. “Okay. What’s next? We know how they’ve been tracking her. We need to find out who’s behind this.”

  Evan came bustling in, looking harried with deep, dark circles etched under his eyes. Simon felt a little bad. He’d been working non-stop trying to bring down a major human trafficking ring they’d stumbled upon. But he had to find out what was happening with Lacie.

  After updating him, Simon left Evan with Lacie’s laptop and the bracelet, hoping his team could work some of their magic.

  He was on his way to Quinten’s office when Hollerman found him.

  “Police apprehended one of Lacie’s suspects breaking into another victim’s house. They’re putting him in a lineup for her to pick from when y’all can get down there.”

  Lacie’s grip on Simon’s hand tightened, in fear or relief, he wasn’t sure. He hadn’t let her go since he saw those pictures. Whoever had sent them wanted them to know he was watching them and knew where they would go.

  Simon looked at his watch. “We’ll get over there later this morning. I need to talk to Quinten first.”

  “Well, I don’t see him leaving anytime soon, but I wouldn’t dawdle,” Hollerman drawled.

  Simon nodded, walking past him, dragging Lacie along behind him. He knocked on the doorframe of Quinten’s office, eliciting a grunt of acknowledgement.

  His brother looked up from the enormous book he was reading, most likely a law tome of some sort, and quirked an eyebrow at Simon, looking from him to Lacie and back again.

  “You want me to wear the bracelet and live in your house until this asshole comes out of hiding. I’m to be the bait?”

  “Better than Lacie,” Simon shot back.

  “I didn’t say it wasn’t. I’d do the same thing if Val were in danger.” Neither man acknowledged the fact Simon hadn’t made any declarations to Lacie like that. Quinten made no bones about the fact he loved Valerie and would lay down his life for her in a heartbeat. “I’ll go over there and make some noise now.”

  Simon felt a rush of affection for his brother, even though he wouldn’t show it beyond a slap on the back. Quinten wasn’t a gushy type, but when Simon had first come to him with the idea for Pierce Securities, Quinten was the one who’d been supportive from the beginning and helped him set up the legalities of it. No negativity, only suggestions to make things work. And he’d been with him every step of the way.

  Gotta love brothers.

  They’d figured out the tracking device.

  Jonas cracked his knuckles with a gleeful grin on his face at the thought.

  Her bracelet had been switched to someone else. Someone with a lower pulse rate and more stamina. His guess was it was one of the Pierce brothers, although that could be wishful thinking on his part. He wanted it to be a Pierce brother. That got him closer to his goal.

  For the past week, Jonas had been single-minded in his focus to get his hands on Bonnie Pierce. He’d sort of put her on the back burner while he got this current endeavor underway, but now that the Pierce boys had gotten involved, he’d resumed his laser-sites on her.

  It was just too damned tempting. His priorities had suddenly shifted, and the vague plan he’d had for the Pierce brothers had taken shape.

  After doing away with last night’s whore, he’d gotten V to ready the van and load up with tranquilizer darts for today’s mission. It was going to be a doozy.

  As they traveled through the sleepy, upper-class hills of Simon Pierce’s domain, they watched the GPS tracker for whoever was wearing Lacie’s bracelet. When the hulking figure showed, jogging down the path in sweats with the hoodie pulled up, he knew it was Quinten. The easy athleticism would have given it away, but Jonas had done his homework. He knew the massive bulk was Quinten. At six foot seven, he was the biggest member of the Pierce Securities team.

  Yes, Quinten would deter most guys, but Jonas had come prepared for him.

  V pulled the van up next to the jogger, and recognition registered in his eyes, as well as resignation when he saw the gun leveled at him. Jonas pulled the trigger, smiled as the big guy fell, and helped V load him up.

  Perfect.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Lacie sat in Simon’s rental car, riding along to the police station for the line-up, twisting her hands in her lap. A knot of dread settled in her stomach, pooling and eating away at her.

  She had to do this. The fact the suspect might possibly be one of the ones who’d broken into her house should have been enough. But the fact he’d been apprehended breaking into another woman’s house shook her to the core.

  There were other women being targeted, living through this hellish nightmare, and they didn’t have the stalwart Simon by their side.

  A sudden thought struck her. “What about Emily? We bought the modifications together. Is she in trouble?”

  Simon’s hands whitened on the steering wheel. “It’s a possibility. But it looks like this guy has a particular ‘type’ he’s looking for. Thankfully, Emily doesn’t fit it yet.”

  Emily was a little overweight. Did that keep her safe?

  “Should I call her? Warn her?”

  Simon nodded. “Yes, we’ll call her this evening when we’ve got a place to stay. I’m going to talk to someone at the police station about issuing a public warning against these modifications. We may end up needing to talk to a news outlet. But I’d really like to know who’s behind it, or our warnings to the public will just make him go underground.”

  He spoke of the media as if a trip to hell were preferable, and Lacie smiled at him in spite of her trepidations.

  But she was still scared. What if she choked and couldn’t recognize him? She’d been told it was the man matching the description of her second attack, and she’d tried to remember the events of that night to refresh her brain, but they were all so vague. What if she failed the other women by not being able to pick him?

  What if she picked the wrong man? What if her hazy memories failed her and she condemned an innocent? She’d heard of that happening a lot recently, especially in light of recent DNA testing that had exonerated hundreds of convicts. There wasn’t any DNA from her scene to match him to, so what if she fingered the wrong man?

  Or what if, somehow, he saw her? He’d been to her house once. What if he came back and killed her after she picked him out and accused him?

  Her breathing had gotten fast and shallow, and Lacie forced a deep inhale. If he wanted retribution, he would have come back and gotten it already.

  Simon reached over and steadied her busy hands.

  “Relax. This is going to be okay. I promise.” His words and soothing tone reassured her immeasurably. Her breathing evened out as he clasped her hand in his and rubbed the back of it with his thumb.

  When they arrived at the police station, it was much how she’d expected it to be: a bustling hive of activity in a maze of cheap but clean furniture. Men and women everywhere walked with a purpose, as
if they were late for important meetings. It made Lacie feel both insignificant and very important, as if she were in the way and helping them meet their goal of putting away bad guys at the same time. It was a strange dichotomy and left her feeling out of sorts and uncomfortable.

  Simon spoke quietly to an officer, then led her into a small room with a huge window. Lacie knew it was two-way glass—the people on the other side wouldn’t be able to see her—but she still trembled.

  When the men were all filed in, though, her thoughts of not being able to pick him out were squashed. As soon as she saw his eyes, she knew. Lacie hadn’t been able to recall his eye color for the police, only that they were dark.

  But when she saw this man, his eyes stared straight at her. His head was slightly down, but his eyes were open and straight ahead. She recognized the dangerous brown depths, the dark circles under them, the angry crinkles at the edges. He was dressed in a suit. Not a fancy one, like Simon’s, but his shoes were nice and probably expensive. It was a weird contradiction with him dressed like a mid-level executive and that dangerous face and eyes. She wouldn’t want to do business with him.

  “That’s him, number five.” She shuddered as she whispered the words. With a sudden, dawning clarity, Lacie knew he would know it was her behind the glass, fingering him as her would-be rapist. He would know. He would remember. And she would never be safe.

  After some more paperwork, Lacie was ready to go home with Simon. “I need to use the restroom first.” He was leading her down a hallway when he was stopped by a man. Lacie continued, feeling Simon’s watchful gaze on her back the rest of the way.

  Lacie caught herself dawdling in the bathroom, needing the peace after the high stress volume of the police room she’d been in. Everything was constant motion in the APD main area—cubicles and people and phones ringing everywhere. After taking care of necessities, she splashed cold water on her face and pushed back the faint headache behind her eyes.

  A friendly-sounding voice came through a small crack in the door. “Miss Hill? Mr. Pierce wants me to walk you to his car.”

  “I’m coming.” It was weird. She didn’t think Simon would leave her alone until they’d caught whoever was behind all this, but if he trusted this police officer, she would too. She pushed outside and found a nice-looking, youngish policeman waiting for her. She managed a weak smile, and he took her by the elbow and started steering her to the door at the end of the hallway.

  Simon was going over everything with Nguyen as well as the FBI agent that had just gotten there. They had facts but weren’t putting them together right. If the FBI knew something they didn’t, they weren’t telling Simon, not that he expected they would.

  His phone rang while they were going over the list of perps—again. Simon was impatient, needing to get back to Lacie.

  When he saw it was his sister, Simon answered. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Quinten called and dropped the code word on me.”

  So there was a reason he hadn’t been picking up his phone. Simon had been calling him most of the day.

  “By the way, we really need to update the code word.”

  “What did he say, Bonnie?” Simon tried to hide his frustration, not wanting to upset her, but the code word was only to be used in emergencies. And knowing what was going down, Simon felt fear for his brother and wondered why the fuck he’d called Bonnie.

  “He told me to put down the pudding cup and meet him at this address. He made me write it down and repeat it back to him. There was a man in the background, feeding him the words. And he sounded funny, like he was drunk.”

  “Okay, give me the address.” Simon grabbed a piece of paper and wrote it down as he went into the hallway. Nguyen gave him an odd look. It was a remote location in the new warehouse district. No telling where Quinten was, but the pudding cup reference was the siblings’ code word for danger. They hadn’t used it in years, and Simon never at all. The age difference made it a no-go for him. But when one of them was in trouble, the word pudding was what they used to alert the other.

  “I’m on my way out there to scope it out for you. I’ll call back when I get there.”

  “No, you’re not, Bonnie. This guy is dangerous. And there has to be a reason Quinten is involving you.” Simon’s heart leapt into his throat. “You stay where Zack can watch out for you. This is a really bad situation.” Jonas was definitely involved, and things were coming to a head. If he didn’t have the evidence before to prove it, the fact that he obviously had Quinten made it a certainty for him. Jonas would stop at nothing to ruin anybody with the last name of Pierce.

  Simon made some hurried excuses about work to Nguyen and the FBI before turning to go find Lacie. She’d been in the restroom long enough. He knew she probably just wanted some quiet time, but now was not the time for luxuries like that.

  He pounded on the door to the women’s bathroom, only for it to open and Amber Banks slide out. “I know the laws have changed, but I’m sure you’d find the men’s restroom more comfortable,” she joked.

  “Is Lacie in there? Tallish, brunette braid, jeans?”

  Amber shook her head. “It’s empty.” Thankfully, she grasped the seriousness. “I’ll put out a bulletin?”

  “Yeah, do that,” Simon raced down the hallway. “Dex has been with her, he can give you details!” Calling over his shoulder, he didn’t bother skidding to a halt before crashing through the door at the end of the hallway to the outside.

  He had to find her and get her out of Jonas’s clutches. Sure as shit, he knew Jonas had her, or one of his accomplices was doing all the dirty work for him.

  Either way, if he couldn’t save her, he wasn’t under any illusions about what would eventually happen to her. Pulling out his phone, he ran as he spoke to whoever answered.

  “I need everyone to this address.” He rattled off the address Bonnie had given him to Miriam. “Leave Deena Rae and Zack there for backup. Quinten and Lacie have been taken, and Bonnie is on her goddamned motherfucking way.” He got to the stupid Kia he’d been rented. “Full gear. I want every bit of firepower we have. This guy’s dangerous. Everything in me says it’s Jonas.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Jonas knew as soon as Simon showed up. He watched on the cameras as Simon put his car in park and chewed on the inside of his lip while he came up with a plan. His mouth moved occasionally, but Jonas didn’t have audio on the cameras and couldn’t pick up who he was talking to or what he was saying, so he just imagined it.

  The Pierce guys were smart but not smart enough. Jonas was sure he was communicating with the rest of his team via some mic communications. He spoke into his walkie-talkie.

  “When they get here, they’ll have a comm system to disable. Be sure you get that.”

  “Roger.”

  He went back to watching. Simon Pierce was cool and collected, sorting all the information in his head before making a move. It wouldn’t matter. Jonas had a mindfuck planned for him, and it would be epic.

  One of those moldy-oldie songs Julia used to love came on the radio. He turned it up before talking to Bonnie, who was hogtied on the bed in the sleeper.

  “This was Julia’s favorite. She used to sing it in the shower.” He hummed along while reminiscing. When Julia had first shown up on his steps with her mother, Dad had been so proud of them—his two new girls—he’d crowed. And it had been love at first sight for Jonas. His new stepsister had been everything to his fifteen-year-old self. And she had reciprocated.

  All the sneaking around while their parents had been on dates and stuff had that whole taboo aspect that turned both of them on. The loss of their virginities had led to more intense stuff, experiments with bondage and pain. Jonas and Julia. It had been a beautiful affair, and the senator had seemed to encourage it with his unwillingness to acknowledge it.

  “Love at first sigh
t,” he was speaking to Bonnie again. “Do you even know what that means?” Bonnie’s eyes widened with fright, and Jonas felt his erection stirring to life. The similarities between Bonnie and Julia were eerie. At first, when he’d seen Bonnie walking into the intro to psychology class they’d shared, he really thought she was Julia. His Julia, who’d disappeared. There were times when he still couldn’t tell the difference between them—like now.

  He’d hogtied Julia like this, and she’d loved it. The fear in her eyes had been nearly identical to the woman currently in the sleeper of his truck. He was tempted to go back there and play and see if her tits were like Julia’s, too, but knew if he got distracted, he would blow this operation.

  And he had the Pierce boys in his sights. He couldn’t let them go now.

  “Be patient, my sweet. Soon, we’ll have all the time in the world.” Julia’s wide, brown eyes looked back at him in the mirror he’d set up to watch the sleeper compartment behind him, and she began struggling. Jonas blinked hard and looked again. Bonnie’s eyes stared back at him, full of fear and an unnatural duplicate of Julia’s. That was why he’d become obsessed with Bonnie and had to fucking have her.

  It would have had him back there with her in a heartbeat, except movement on his laptop had him looking at the camera feed again.

  They were here.

  Clicking on the walkie-talkie, he said, “Back entrance. Get them.”

  “Roger, boss.”

  He watched as his men and the rest of the Pierce boys got into a small firefight before the Pierce boys were overpowered and shoved into the back of his truck. That’s what happened when you had a small army of mercenaries on the payroll.

  “Perfect. Okay, get into positions and let’s get ready to roll.”

  He looked over to Lacie, who had been silent next to him this entire time. When she’d woken from the drug, she’d simply watched him, as if afraid of what he would do. She should be. He was going to do it all.