by Natalie Dean
She came to the door of the apartment and rang the doorbell. She flashed back to the first time she’d been there, searching out with her powers to judge whether someone was inside, whether the criminal had left any obvious clues. Now, she’d grown to love seeing that door. It meant she could escape from her troubles and have someone to cherish. Two of them, actually, but each in very different ways.
She knocked.
“Come in!” she heard David say from inside.
She twisted the handle and walked on in. Inside, David, aka The Celtic, was sitting at the table. He glanced up at Adrianna and winked affectionately before focusing back on his daughter. Ellie was sitting on the floor, using crayons to continue her artwork on the wall. The art had grown since Adrianna had first seen it.
“Hey, sweetie,” Adrianna said as Ellie came sprinting up to her and tackled her leg in a hug. “How’s the little artist?”
David kept working on the laptop on his table. Apparently, he’d been an aspiring writer. A writer of what? Romances, of all things. Adrianna had laughed when she first heard that, making him blush. She’d apologized and explained: he was all-so-perfect to start with. It only made sense that he was a hopeless romantic just to top everything off. Even though he was still fighting professionally, Adrianna had inspired him to try to continue his otherwise untouched passion.
“Oh,” he said as he typed away madly. “She’s been working hard. Look at the end.”
Adrianna followed the trail of artwork. Initially, David had attempted to keep Ellie from drawing on the white walls, but he’d finally given up. She tended to follow a surprisingly linear fashion, moving from left to right. Walking along it, you could see her art getting better. You’d also see some important events. They weren’t normal events like “ the first day of school!” but tended to be more like “that time that we went to see that cute puppy at school!”’
As Adrianna traveled down the trail, she found herself feeling happier and happier. At first, she’d been completely oblivious. It was pretty primitive stuff. Just some random lines with a couple distinguishable pictures. But the more time she spent with them, the more she became an expert in child-art reading. Not much, but she was able to pick out a couple different animals: dog, cow, fish, and some people. The most obvious was David, and every now and then a couple friends from school.
But then, at the most recent art, knee-high on the wall, Adrianna found a new person.
Her.
Her breath caught for a second. It was the first time Ellie had drawn her.
“Oh, baby,” she crouched and looked Ellie in the eye. Ellie sheepishly studied her little shoes. “That’s so beautiful! You’re so talented. Can you give me a hug?”
Ellie shuffled in. When Adrianna was just walking around, she was more than happy to come sprinting up to tackle her. But when Ellie was actually asked for a hug, she suddenly became the literal embodiment of shyness. Finally, after months of inching closer, she buried her head in Adrianna’s chest. She was so small that her arms could barely reach all the way around.
“Hey,” David said. “I got you a present.”
“Yeah?” She ruffled up Ellie’s hair and joined him at the table. “What’s the occasion?”
“Oh, nothing,” he said frankly. “Just thinking about how beautiful you are.”
She pecked him on the cheek. “You’re so sweet. You’re a real romantic, you know that?”
“Sweet like candy.”
Adrianna tried to make that jump and failed. “Um… why?”
“You know, like one of those lollipops with the chewy centers? Hard on the exterior and soft on the center? Don’t worry about it. It sounded better in my head.”
She patted her hands on the table. “I believe you were talking about a present?”
“Oh, yeah.” He laughed. “I forgot already.” He pointed to his head. “Too many concussions and all that. It’s in the bedroom.”
She stood up, giving him a funny look, and walked towards it. She had no idea what on earth to expect. He was very unpredictable in his gift-giving choices. One time he’d given her chocolates and roses, then the next time he’d given her an entire dress made of balloons in traditional balloon-animal style.
She’d worn it one time. He’d snapped a few pictures for gags, then started poking her dress with a paperclip. She had been forced to retreat to the bedroom before she was standing in the living room, completely naked.
So she was understandably wary of this new one.
She rounded the corner and pushed open the door very, very cautiously. She looked back at David, who was staring at her with a big ole’ grin. She couldn’t read him.
The door swung open.
There, sitting on The Celtic’s bed, was the biggest teddy bear Adrianna had ever seen. It put normal, real bears to shame. Its giant head scraped the ceiling, it’s fluffy paws wider than a man’s height.
“Oh.” She said. She had no other words. “Oh, my goodness.”
She laughed. She tried to avoid it, but she just couldn’t help herself. “What on earth, David? Where’d you even get this thing?”
“I found it online,” David said as she walked back over to him, still chuckling from the big teddy bear. “Do you like it?”
“I love it,” she said. She reached across the table, stealing his hands from the keyboard. She squeezed his hands affectionately. “I love you.”
“I love you more,” he said.
As Adrianna sat there in that chair, watching Ellie become an expert artist on the walls that David had tried so very hard to keep clean, watching David follow his dreams by writing, Adrianna finally realized something.
That was where she belonged.
Sure, she’d taken some twists and turns in her life. She’d become an agent of the FBI. She’d never had time for romance or for children. Part of her had always wondered if she would ever find time for them. But meeting David, aka The Celtic, had taught her something.
She never found time for love. She just didn’t have enough seconds in the day to stumble upon any extra time.
Adrianna learned that to find love, you must take the bull by the horns and make time. She was busy. She still had her job. She still had a life apart from them, but she’d decided to just find a way to make time for them.
And she had a funny feeling, the likes of which she hadn’t had in years, that everything was going to turn out all right.
THE END
The Missing Girl
Book Description
THE MISSING GIRL
Book 2 of the Innocent & Missing Series
A Romantic Suspense Novella
Even though she isn't my daughter, my motherly instincts have kicked in... someone took her, and it's up to me to find out who.
My intuition had been telling me something was off...we shouldn't have left Ellie there.
If it weren't for David, Ellie's MMA fighter dad, who also happens to be my hot fiancé, I wouldn't even have her in my life. Now she's GONE, and I'll do anything in my power to keep her from getting hurt. Even if it means risking my job and my life...AGAIN.
My boss has forbidden me to be involved with this case...he's sadly mistaken if he thinks I'm just going to sit by and wait for those other incompetent agents to find her.
Time is running out. We have to find Ellie, and we have to find her now...
Chapter 1
Adrianna was at the mall when she felt a dark soul wash over her.
She was used to sensing auras with her sixth sense, but to feel one so potently twisted was something of a shock. It stole the breath from her, so much that she had to stop and look for it.
Ellie caught onto her uncomfortableness. Adrianna was swiftly learning how perceptive kids are. Ellie could pick up on things that adults couldn’t. She didn’t say anything. She just tugged on Adrianna’s shirt with those big eyes, trying to make whatever it was better.
Adrianna brought her in close and kept scouring for the owner of the aura.
She spotted a young man by a clothing shop. No. Not him. An older couple. Not them. She had scanned half a dozen passerby before she spotted him.
He was a bigger man, misshapen and broken. She couldn’t distinguish any particular features, but there was no doubt about it- that was the one. Even in the bright light of the mall, he was shadowed by the hoodie that covered his eyes. She couldn’t even pick out his skin tone.
She felt a flitter of danger cross her spine. Whatever the man was, whoever he was, that was not the kind of person that Ellie needed to be nearby. Adrianna could handle him, probably. She was an armed FBI agent. Not too many folks could stand up to her.
“Let’s go,” she said. The soldier had kicked in over her mom nature. There was danger. They should evacuate. Ellie had been confused the first couple of times that Adrianna had switched into her professional form, but she had grown used to it.
They left the big man behind by going up the escalator, but when Adrianna turned to look, he was still watching them. Adrianna scowled. Probably just a punk, but her senses were rarely wrong.
That man was dark.
Not skin wise dark. Soul wise dark. She could feel it all the way up the escalator. The people she pursued for her job often had such feelings about them- rapists, killers, criminals in general. She wanted to go figure out what he was doing there, but she had Ellie with her. She could hardly just walk up to an imposing stranger and question him.
Ellie looked up at Adrianna, who she had really grown to love. Adrianna had been worried that the transition wouldn’t be smooth, but Ellie had taken to her quickly. Now, the two girls were basically inseparable. “Adrianna?”
“Yes, sweetie?”
“Why are we going this way? I thought we were going to that store down there.”
This was another one of those things that Adrianna struggled to communicate. To a grown-up, she could say that her intuition told her to get far away from that guy. To a five-year-old, that wasn’t something that she could just declare. She’d tried once. Ellie had peppered her with questions. “Why? How? Why?” That was a big one for Ellie - why. Adrianna rarely had an explanation. She had attempted to explain her sixth sense to Ellie one time, but Ellie had absolutely panicked because she didn’t have them. Ellie felt alienated. The only woman in her life had this sixth sense, and she didn’t.
Adrianna had tried to assure her that most other people didn’t have those abilities and that she was completely normal, but Ellie was having none of it.
So when Ellie asked her why they left, she just said, “Because we need to. You want to go get ice cream?”
Upon Adrianna uttering the words “ice cream,” Ellie completely forgot about everything and shrieked with childlike joy.
A few minutes later, they were sitting at one of the best stores in the mall: the ice cream shop. It was an old mom-and-pop store that just adored Ellie. There was a lot to adore. Ellie was cute as a button and as hardy as one too. That was one of Adrianna’s greatest worries- that she’d be rearing a wimp. Adrianna herself had taken bullets, been interrogated, and pretty much endured all manner of pain. It wouldn’t fit to have her try to raise a kid that couldn’t handle herself. That wasn’t the case, Ellie was the type of girl that ran around all day long and roughhoused with the neighborhood boys. She would probably grow out of it around puberty, but for the time being, it was fun to see her wrestling and goofing around like Adrianna did at that age.
While Ellie ate her treat, Adrianna thought about the situation. She couldn’t feel the aura anymore, so the guy was probably gone, but the residue of it was still staining Adrianna’s mind. And the strange thing was that he had been watching them. He wasn’t just out for a stroll. It seemed like he had been there specifically for them.
Not a comforting thought for Adrianna.
David, aka The Celtic, dropped by just as Ellie was getting a brain freeze.
“Aiighhhhhhhhh!” Ellie moaned, grabbing her head. “My head!”
David decided to get in on the action and copied her. “Oh, the pain! Must… fight….through… it!” As he did this, he feigned injury and fell towards the ground, dropping all the bags of goodies he had just bought.
David wasn’t the kind of guy that Adrianna had expected him to be when she’d first been sent to track him down. He was a big kid at heart - proved by him flopping like a dying fish on the floor. A grown man just playing on the floor right there in the mall, in front of the entire store. His goal was to enjoy life, plain and simple, regardless of who was watching.
Ellie giggled and dove from the stool onto David, which probably was a bad idea, but David caught her and the two burst into laughter like a couple of middle school girls at a dance. Adrianna was left to be the mature one, trying to ignore all the befuddled looks of confusion from other customers.
She was honestly getting used to his random bursts of childish actions. It had embarrassed her the first couple months of their relationship, but whenever he showed up, life just got…better. First of all, he was an MMA fighter that was dominating the ring, so Adrianna felt safer with him around. She could handle herself, no problem, but it felt comforting to have a partner to take on the world with. Second of all, it was like all of Adrianna’s worries got lifted off by him whenever he showed up. He made her smile, made her laugh. Made her forget her troubles.
He was her Superman, and she was his…not Lois Lane, but someone equally talented. She didn’t sit around all day waiting to be saved. That’s why they made such a wonderful- and dangerous- pair.
Finally, David and Ellie fought through the pain and joined her at the table. Ellie went back to snacking, and David pecked Adrianna on the lips.
“I got you something,” he told her.
Uh-oh.
Every time David said he got her something, Adrianna prepared herself. She never knew what on earth it could be. “Oh, yeah?”
He reached into one of the bags and pulled out….a pipe. One of those tobacco pipes that educated gentlemen used in the old days.
Adrianna’s eyebrow jumped up so far she thought it might escape. “You bought me a pipe?”
He nodded enthusiastically.
“Thanks….why?”
“Why not?”
She tried but failed to hold back a laugh. “I guess so.” She looked at Ellie, who was swinging her feet around happily, not paying a lick of attention. “I need to talk to you.”
Instantly, David was all business. That was something she really appreciated- he could be a joker when she wanted, but when he knew something was serious, he was all business. That’s probably why she hadn’t known about his childishness when they’d first met- he was stressed the entire time.
She told him about the mysterious, hooded man. He nodded silently when she was finished. “That’s… not good. You’ve never seen him before?”
“Nope. But he was indeed watching us. I think he was looking at Ellie.”
His eyes fired up. He was incredibly protective of Ellie. “You can’t sense him here anymore?”
“No.”
“Let me know if he shows back up again.”
She nodded. She was hoping nothing would come of it, and that she would never see him again, but something in her soul told her that she hadn’t seen the last of the stranger.
Something told her she’d see more of him than she could ever want to see.
Chapter 2
They arrived back at the car a little while later. Adrianna always drove. David didn’t mind. Adrianna was honestly just the better driver. She’d never had a ticket. David, however, had a special seat at the DMV reserved for him for all the money he’d paid them for tickets.
They drove back to the apartment. It took about half an hour, which was excellent time for them. Usually, it took double that. Even more unusually, Adrianna didn’t get a single call from her office. Typically, the FBI kept her up to date on everything- break-ins, suspects being spotted here or there, that kind of thing, just in case she happened to be around. Ad
rianna wasn’t an actual agent that went in every day from 9-5 and hung around the office. She was what some of them called a Hound, a fearsome term for agents that rarely did any office work, who went out into the field and chased down suspects. But nevertheless, business was quiet.
When they got back to the apartment, Adrianna and David went to work on wrapping presents while Ellie dashed off to play. She was a popular little kid, which was great for some things, but awful for others. It seemed like every week they were dropping her off at another birthday party or letting her stay at a sleepover. It was expensive, too. The older the kids got, the more expensive toys that were required. At first, they could give a three dollar toy and the child would be delighted. Not anymore.
As they were wrapping, The Celtic brought up something. “Hey babe,” he said while trying unsuccessfully to tape two pieces of wrapping paper together. “Wanna get something to eat tonight? And do you have the scissors?”
She handed over the scissors. “Where do you want to eat?”
A little while later, after a couple places were shot down, they decided to go ahead and do something they hadn’t done in as long as they could remember- going out to a nice, romantic dinner. They had a strict rule- if Ellie couldn’t come, they didn’t go. They didn’t go to R-rated movies, they didn’t go to fancy restaurants, nothing. Adrianna had sat through more fast food and more kids movies than she had ever expected she was capable of surviving.
Adrianna instantly thought they shouldn’t go out to eat. The biggest thing was that they didn’t want to leave Ellie alone at the house (the restaurant had a strict no kids policy). But then again, as David reminded her, Ellie was going to a birthday party for a friend that night. It’d be a perfect crime- dropping Ellie off to hang out with her friends at a bowling alley, while they had some time to each other.
“But what if that guy from the mall shows up?”
He shrugged. “There’s too many people. He couldn’t do anything. And we don’t know he was after us, right?”
