The Missing Pieces

by H. S. Strickland

  I noticed that Araylia was snapping the buttons back together on her gown, done feeding Charlotte. “Do you mind if I hold her for a minute?” I asked Araylia.

  She smiled brightly at me, and gestured for me to come closer. I did so, and gazed at the baby before me in awe. She slightly sat up to hand me Charlotte, telling me how to properly hold her.

  Once I had gotten her head in the crook of my bent elbow and was comfortable, I walked over to a rocking chair in the corner of the room. I sat carefully so not to jostle her, and began rocking back and forth. I lifted my free hand, and touched Charlotte’s cheek tenderly. She stirred, and cracked open her beautiful, dark green eyes.

  Eyes just like mine.

  Eyes just like Mace’s.

  I guessed green eyes ran in the family.

  I didn’t even bother to swipe at the tears that ran down my face. There was no point because once the flood gates opened, they didn’t stop.

  “She’s so beautiful,” I gasped, looking at Mace and Ray. They both nodded, and I noticed Araylia had tears running down her face as well.

  I looked back down at Charlotte, and gazed into her eyes. She looked up at me with aweing curiosity.

  My niece was the most beautiful thing I had ever laid eyes on. I loved her already.

  Chapter Ten

  Ryan

  I was in Araylia’s hospital room, clutching Charlotte tightly to my chest. Ray was asleep in the bed, while Mace went downstairs to get coffee. I was pretty sure that he hadn’t slept since getting the call that Ray was in labor. He was running purely on fumes. I couldn’t blame him though. Gazing down at Charlotte in amazement, I knew exactly why he had stayed up the last day and a half.

  Charlotte had Ray’s blonde hair, and Mace’s jade green eyes, almost eerily similar to Sloane’s eyes. She was 7 pounds and 15 ounces of pure perfection. She was awake and staring up at me, smirking occasionally.

  Mace walked through the door, with two coffees in his hands, and his permanent grin. He saw me holding his daughter, and his grin widened further, if that was possible.

  “She’s amazing, isn’t she?” He asked, even though he knew what my answer was going to be.

  “She is.” I nodded, but didn’t look up at him.

  “What do you think of her name?” He mumbled, picking at the label on his coffee cup.

  “I think it’s beautiful, and I think Charlotte would have loved it,” I told him the truth. Had she been alive, she would have been touched by Mace naming his baby girl after her.

  A few minutes passed before he spoke again. “Sloane acted really strange when Araylia told her Charlotte’s name,” he mumbled, almost to himself.

  “How so?”

  “I’m not really sure. She gasped, and her hand flew to her mouth. When she looked up at me she had tears in her eyes. There was something else hidden beneath it all. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but she acted like the name meant more to her.”

  “Well, you gotta think, she’s grown a bond with you. Thinks of you as her brother, so she knows how much Charlotte meant to you and what her death meant to you.” I told him, running my fingers through what little bit of hair Charlotte had.

  “Yeah, maybe so, but I think there is more to it than just that,” he whispered.

  “What are you thinking?” I asked, knowing this was going to eat away at him until he talked about it, and found out some answers.

  “What if Charlotte, my sister, really isn’t dead?” He mumbled, looking at me like it was the most ridiculous question he had ever voiced.

  “What? There’s no way. You said you saw her cut up body being shoved in a body bag.” I shook my head in disbelief.

  “I saw something being shoved into a body bag. There were no defining marks that indicated for sure that it was Charlotte. Whenever she was sent to the coroner’s office, there was no need to identify her. I just assumed because she was in the house when I left, and my parents’ bodies were identified. I didn’t think twice about Charlotte’s body.”

  I mulled his words over. It was possible, but highly unlikely. I wasn’t sure what to say to him. I hadn’t wanted to get his hopes up, and I was scared that whatever I said to him was going to piss him off.

  I tried choosing my words carefully. “Are you sure you want to get into this? I don’t want you to be hurt in the end if Charlotte really isn’t alive. I don’t want you to re-open a painful wound.”

  “If my gut is right, Charlotte is alive and well. She is actually a lot closer to us than we think as well,” he said, scratching the scruff on his chin and finally taking a seat on the window bed.

  I tore my gaze off Charlotte and looked at Mace with confusion evident on my face, I was sure.

  “Sloane,” he muttered.

  I blanched. That couldn’t be. No fucking way.

  “There is no way,” I rasped, suddenly short of breath.

  “She has the same hair as me, same eyes. It’s possible.”

  I shook my head again.

  Mace looked at me with rage. “You’re fucking my sister!”

  “Calm down, man. We don’t even know that she is your sister, and you need to calm down before Charlotte or Araylia wake up!” I whispered.

  His nostrils flared, but he sat back in his chair. He continued to fume for a few minutes before speaking, “You better not be fucking my sister.”

  “Even if I am fucking your sister, how in the hell was I supposed to know she was your sister when I started fucking her?”

  He seemed to have simmered down after my last question. I had a valid point. If Sloane was really Charlotte, how was I supposed to know he was her sister? We weren’t even sure that Sloane was Charlotte, so I wasn’t worried. The chances of that being possible were slim to none. Although I did wish Charlotte was alive so Mace could have some of his family with him.

  “We need to run an intensive background check on her.” Mace said, going to Araylia’s side and lightly kissing her forehead.

  “I kind of already am.” I looked down at the floor, sheepishly.

  “Uh, why?” Mace asked with a hint of humor in his tone.

  “When she passed out yesterday, she was with some guy named Jeremy. Sloane and Jeremy both told me that they were old friends when she was growing up, but I just had a funny feeling about him. It was nothing bad, but I don’t trust him. So I asked Callum to look into him for me, and he informed me that he would have to look into Sloane more because they are connected in some way. I told him to go for it.”

  Charlotte started stirring in her sleep, whimpering a little. “I think she’s hungry,” I said, standing slowly and carefully to take her to Mace.

  “That is your cue to leave.” Mace growled. He wouldn’t let any of the guys in the room when Araylia was breastfeeding. It was understandable though. I would be the same way if Sloane were to ever have my baby.

  I saluted him and before I hit the door I told him, “Congratulations,” with a goofy grin on my face. He deserved every bit of happiness that he was feeling. I was happy for him.

  I was back at my condo, on the phone with Callum.

  “Do you have any updates on this Jeremy guy?” I barked into the phone. I was frustrated. Sloane wouldn’t pick up the phone when I called her, and I was ten seconds away from slamming my phone down and driving to her house.

  “Yeah, I did. I found something really fucking odd,” Callum mumbled. I heard his fingers tapping away on his keyboard.

  “What?” I grunted.

  “Jeremy’s clean. Same as Sloane. But Jeremy has a file that is sealed. And when I say sealed, I mean that shit is locked up as tight as Fort Knox. I couldn’t get into it if I tried.” I scrubbed my eyes with my free hand. What the fuck had he done to get that file sealed? And what was in that folder? I wasn’t going to feel comfortable with him around Sloane until I got some answers.

  “Alright, thanks man.” I gritted through my teeth, hanging the phone up before Callum could reply.

  I took some time to
lean against the kitchen island, and take in a deep breath. If I went over there before calming down I was likely to explode. I needed to stop and take a breath to calm myself down some. Sloane told me he was just an old friend from her younger days; she didn’t happen to mention that he had a file sealed with God knew what behind it. I was shaking with anger.

  I pulled onto Sloane’s old dirt road, and put the car in park. I stepped out and looked around. Sloane didn’t live in anything fancy like I had expected. Instead she lived on a property that stretched for miles. The house was older, and looked like it could cave in at any given moment. I walked up the front porch and cringed when the steps groaned under my weight. It was only a matter of time before this house would no longer be available to be lived in. I knocked on the door and looked around a little more. Upon closer inspection I could see that the house needed a nice, good paint job.

  The door flew open and I was met with the barrel of a gun. I held my hands up in a defensive matter, showing whoever it was that I was not here to hurt anyone. I had started to wonder if I had the right address to Sloane’s house.

  Suddenly, the end of the gun wasn’t all I could see. Jeremy’s frame filled my vision and I clenched my jaw hard to prevent myself from attacking him. He was the one with the gun; I didn’t think it would have been wise to beat the shit out of him.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” I growled.

  “I could ask you the same thing,” he rumbled, slipping the gun into the waistband of his pants.

  “Why the fuck did you open the door and immediately point that thing in my face?” I said, waving to the area where he had just put the gun away.

  “Safety measures.”

  “Safety measures? I’m not gonna fucking harm anyone!” I yelled, the veins in my neck were probably popping because of my anger.

  “You never know, man. Sorry. Why don’t you come in? I assume you’re here for Sloane.” He gestured to the cracked door.

  I blew out a relieved breath, and side stepped Jeremey to get into the house.

  “Sloane, you have a visitor!” Jeremy boomed.

  I heard a door down the hall open then Sloane’s soft voice. “Who is here? I wasn’t expecting anyone, were you?”

  She appeared in the tiny kitchen that was connected to the living room. She was wearing a pair of shorts, but they were hardly noticeable because one of my sweatshirts swallowed her whole. Her brown hair was piled on top of her head in some sort of bun. And she had a tiny pair of glasses on. I hadn’t known she wore glasses.

  “Oh! What are you doing here?” Her neck turned a beautiful shade of pink, letting me know that she was embarrassed by her appearance, although I wasn’t sure why.

  “I came to talk to you about something important.”

  It was hard, staying in routed to the same spot, not moving to go after her.

  “Oh well, what is it?” She mumbled, removing her glasses and shoving them on top of her head.

  “Can we talk somewhere more private?” I shot my eyes to Jeremy, telling her I didn’t want to talk in front of him.

  She nodded her head and walked my way. When she passed Jeremy she whispered something in his ear, and then walked the rest of the way to me.

  “Let’s go outside. There’s a porch swing that I love sitting on when the sun starts to fade,” she said, smiling. I felt the warm touch of her hand wrapping around mine, and almost sighed. I knew we left things rocky the other day, but I was glad that she wasn’t still so mad at me that she wouldn’t talk to me.

  She walked down the steps, but I stopped short.

  I looked at her seriously. “Are you sure those steps can hold the two of us at the same time?”

  She giggled uncontrollably for a few minutes before looking up at me. “Yes, they will hold us both up. I promise. Come on,” she held her hand out to me. I walked down the four steps, careful to balance my weight perfectly.

  Seriously, those stairs were going to come down!

  I took Sloane’s hand again, and she began walking me to the right of the house. I hadn’t noticed but the porch continued over onto the right side of the house. I wasn’t quite sure why they didn’t build a wrap-around-porch though.

  “Why wasn’t this a wrap-around-porch?” I voiced my thoughts.

  “I’m not really sure. When I started renting it I noticed the landlord was an older gentleman. He told me that his wife had recently passed and that she loved this swing. I think they had had plans on making it wrap around, but I don’t think he had the heart to do it after she passed. And like I said he was older. I don’t think he could have finished it himself.”

  She bounced up the steps happily, and turned to wait for me. I took these steps just as carefully as the others, but sighed in relief when they didn’t creak and groan under my weight. Sloane walked a little further down the porch and came to a stop. I peeked over her head and saw the swing that she had been talking about. She sat down first and then patted the spot next to her, gesturing for me to sit.

  Sloane planted her feet on the porch floor and started swinging after I sat down. We didn’t speak for a few minutes, not wanting to break the serenity of the moment. Sloane started at the sky and had a look of awe on her face when the sun started to set.

  “It’s beautiful,” I mumbled after I had torn my eyes away from Sloane.

  “It is. You know how the beach is your little piece of bliss? Well this is mine. I love being here. When the sun fades, and dark comes.” She looked wistful and I couldn’t figure out why.

  After the dark had begun to creep in she turned to me and asked, “What is it that you wanted to talk about?”

  I rubbed my forehead. I had a sinking feeling that I was about to ruin her peacefulness.

  “When I was introduced to Jeremy for some reason I didn’t trust him. It was an instinct. I didn’t get the vibes that he was a bad guy, just that I couldn’t trust him.” I told her, peaking at her. She nodded, silently telling me to go on. She put her feet up on the railing, and I kept swinging.

  “Well I called Callum that night, and told him to look into him. Intensely. That also meant looking into you. I talked to Callum earlier, and he told me that everything was fine, but one thing. There was a file that had been sealed. Sealed so tight that even he couldn’t get into it. That means that it had to have been sealed by the FBI or something higher up. I’m not comfortable with you being around him while he has some secret file sealed up. It could have anything in it. He could have raped someone and we wouldn’t know it because the file is sealed.” I took in the first deep breath since finding out about the file.

  It felt good to tell Sloane what was going on in my head. I was worried sick about her. Not only because she was with a man that had secrets, but because we hadn’t talked since Araylia was in labor. And even then we didn’t really talk about her not wanting to go home with me.

  Sloane took in a deep breath, seemingly trying to control her emotions.

  “There are several things wrong with this. One, you had no right to look into him. Yes, I understand that you are just trying to look out for me and protect me, but you need to start trusting me. Two, he didn’t rape anyone and I am literally awed that you would say something like that. Jeremy has a past and it’s not my past to tell. I will go in and ask him to sit out here with you while I drink a glass of wine and try to calm myself down.”

  She patted my leg twice, stood up, and disappeared around the side of the house. A few minutes later Jeremy appeared and sat down next to me.

  “Sloane said you wanted to talk to me about something.” He crossed his arms over his chest, and looked at me out of the corner of his eye.

  “Not something I’m proud of now that Sloane has put things into perspective for me, but I looked into you. At the hospital, I got a vibe, didn’t trust you. So I asked one of Mace’s guys to look into you more. He found out that you were clean, but there was a file sealed. Anything could have been behind that file, so I came over here to talk to her
about it. She told me it’s not her story to tell. I’m sorry for probing into your life, but I’m trying to protect my woman. And apparently I have a crazy imagination, because of all the things I thought you could be hiding.” I let it all hang out. I had no reason to lie to him.

  Jeremy scrubbed his hands over his face then through his hair. “I had really hoped you wouldn’t go digging, but I knew that was wishful thinking especially when it involves a woman like Sloane.”

  I frowned in confusion. I had no fucking clue what he was talking about.

  “I’m not who I say I am. I mean technically I am, but my real name isn’t Jeremy. It’s Zane. I work for the FBI. I go undercover quite a lot. The only reason I’m here is because I heard that Sloane had moved here and I hadn’t seen her in a long time. The file is sealed because I had requested it after being with the FBI for several years. I also grew up in foster homes like Sloane. I stayed in one foster home for several years they had a little girl already, she was a few years younger than me. Well after being there for a while they decided they wanted another little boy. He had been there for a few months when I heard him sneak into the girl’s room. I heard her saying no repeatedly and acted on instincts. I almost killed that boy, but I felt protective of her. If I ever decided to get a different job, I didn’t want them seeing that and thinking something else entirely, just like you.”

  I blanched. I felt like a total fucking idiot. I should have trusted Sloane. She knew who she was around and I should have trusted that. But, fuck, I didn’t know what else to do. She made me feel something inside that I had never felt before. I felt protective over her just like Jeremy…or Zane felt protective of his foster-sister.

  “I fucked up,” I sighed, knowing Sloane was going to be pissed at me once again. It seemed like all I could do with her is screw things up.

  “You did, but you had good reasoning. If I were in a relationship with Sloane I would have done anything. Be damned if she was mad. It’s in our instincts to protect the ones we love, man.” He clapped me on the shoulder and stood.

  “Love…I…I don’t love her. Not yet,” I stammered nervously, looking down at anything but him.