Shane froze at that last image. At first glance, Lacie and Mikaela looked identical. They had similar features, and were of similar build, but Lacie was a bit shorter, curvier. But it was the hair that really did it – both the same shade of golden sunlight at dusk, cut in the waves layered and angled around their faces.
He revised his search to include Mikaela. He brought up the obituary announcement and placed that picture side by side with the wedding photo. Though chronologically only a little more than three years had passed, Mikaela looked much older. There were small lines around her face, a soulful, haunting look in her eyes despite the smile. Her hair was back to what Shane suspected was her natural color – a light brown, much shorter than it had been in the wedding photo.
One of his brothers had mentioned that Mikaela bore a resemblance to Lacie, but he had no idea just how striking it had been. The ache in his chest intensified and a cold shiver slithered down his spine.
No longer worried about appearing overly protective, Shane picked up his phone and called Corinne. She picked up on the first ring.
“Corinne? This is Shane Callaghan. Can I speak with Lacie please? She’s not answering her phone.”
The brief moment of silence on the other end of the line sent waves of foreboding through him. “Corinne?”
“She’s not with you?”
It was Shane’s turn to pause in surprise. “No. She told me she was spending the evening with you.”
“That’s what I thought, too, but she’s not here. When she didn’t answer her cell I figured she was with you...”
“When is the last time you spoke with her?”
“This afternoon. She texted me about the roses you sent.”
“Before the planning meeting or after?”
“Before. It was right before her afternoon class.”
Shane used his years of training and experience to tamp down the sudden rush of panic he felt. His psychic sensors were screaming. “Corinne, stay there in case she calls. I’m going to drive over to the school. Maybe she had car trouble or something.”
He hoped.
Chapter Fifteen
Lacie’s VW was the only vehicle in the lot, but the asphalt was covered in wet leaves and an assortment of twig and branches from the storm. None of the lot lights were on; Shane angled his vehicle so that the Passat was bathed in the glow of his headlights, but he knew it was empty before he even got out.
He checked it out anyway. The rain had slowed to a constant, gentle shower. The lightning and thunder that racked the valley earlier had moved toward the northeast. Occasional glimpses of eerie white-gold strikes backlit the clouds, but they were too far away now to be heard.
Shane opened the driver’s door (it was unlocked) and Lacie’s scent hit him head on. So fresh, so feminine. Sunshine and flowers. It made his stomach clench in worry. When the inner dome light did not come on, Shane used a flashlight to do a quick check of the interior. The keys were still in the ignition. Lacie’s purse and the contents of it were strewn across the passenger seat as if she had been looking for something. Her wallet still sat there, so at least it didn’t look like she had been robbed.
Her phone, Shane realized. Her car had a dead battery and she was looking for her phone to call for help. With a few quick taps he dialed her number and listened. There was no telltale ring in the VW, no muted vibration.
“Hello?” a male voice said through the small device.
“Who is this?” Shane asked, fighting down the sharp twist in his gut.
“Charlie, night custodian. Who’s this?”
“Shane Callaghan. I’m trying to reach Lacie McCain.”
“Ah,” the man said with a slight chuckle. “I should have known this was Lacie’s phone. Found it lying in the conference room, didn’t know who it belonged to.”
“Is Lacie in there?”
“Nope. They all left hours ago.”
“Lacie’s car is still in the lot. I think she might have had some trouble with it. May I come in?” It was a courtesy. Shane was going in whether he received permission or not. There might be some clue in there.
“Not supposed to do that,” the man mused. “Your name is Callaghan, you say?” Shane confirmed that it was. “Guess it’d be alright then. Come to the southern entrance.”
As Shane made his way toward the building, the powerful beam of his flashlight searched the ground and surrounding areas for any indication of Lacie’s earlier movements, but he didn’t have much hope. The storm would have wiped out anything useful.
Charlie was waiting for him at the door. Shane immediately pegged him as a veteran; he had the haunted look of a man who had seen enough horror in the world and was trying to live out the rest of his life in peace. “Your brother Kane saved my ass in Iraq,” Charlie said by way of greeting. “He is one scary son of a bitch, but a hell of a good man.”
Shane nodded. His eldest sibling was roughly the size of a small mountain and had the personality of a deadly tsunami. He was quiet; no one ever heard him coming, but once he got there, everything around him was decimated. There were hundreds of men like Charlie who owed their lives to Kane.
Unfortunately, Shane didn’t learn much from his look around. Charlie told him he’d had his earphones in most of the night, hadn’t heard or seen anything out of the ordinary until he found the phone in the conference room when the backup generator kicked in. He walked Shane around the building, but again, no luck.
Charlie flipped the switches to turn on the emergency floodlights around the property, bathing the outside in light. Shane had already called Sean and Kieran; they were on their way to assist in a search of the grounds. Charlie said he wanted to help, too. “Lacie’s a good woman. Nice to everyone, you know?”
Yeah, Shane knew. Her gentle, compassionate nature was one of the first things that drew him in.
“She got me this mp3 player for Christmas,” Charlie continued, as if he needed to impart the knowledge. “Said the music would keep me from getting lonely when I’m here at night by myself. Sometimes she leaves Yodels on her desk for me. She knows they’re my favorite.”
Shane nodded. That sounded exactly like something Lacie would do.
Sean pulled up in the family Hummer H2, and Shane was grateful that Nicki had come along, too. His twin’s croie was a former agent of an elite, unsanctioned group known only as the Chameleons. As the only woman to ever be actively included in the Callaghans’ off-the-books team, she had proven herself invaluable time and time again. Kieran jumped out of the back seat with his usual enthusiasm, all-business and raring to go.
Together they methodically covered the grounds. It was Sean who found an area near the far back end of the building where it looked as though some of the landscaping had been crushed. Closer inspection revealed shallow grooves in the seeping mud, consistent with someone crawling – or being dragged, though they ended where the walkway picked up again.
“Sean.”
Nicki’s voice was barely more than a whisper, but Shane’s head whipped up. His heart sank into the bottom of his shoes when he saw Sean crouch down next to Nicki, touch his fingers to the foot-high stone retaining wall, then draw them up to his nose.
Shane didn’t need to invoke his special connection with Sean to know that he’d found blood.
“How bad is it?” he asked.
“Not bad,” Sean answered evenly. “We have to call this in, Shane.”
Shane heard the words he didn’t say aloud. This might be a crime scene.
“I know.” Lacie is fine. She has to be.
“Kieran’s calling in the others.” We’ll find her, Shane.
Fuck yes we will.
“Maybe there’s something helpful on her cell,” Nicki said, standing. “Sean said you found it inside?”
Shane cursed. He’d been so intent on finding Lacie he’d forgotten about the mobile. He pulled it up and glanced at the display. Twelve missed calls. He pressed a couple of buttons and started scrolling through the
list. Four were from him. Six from Corinne. He skipped over those for now. One was from someone named Cindy Sheridan, a brief message concerning a booth they were working on together for the upcoming carnival. And one from Craig Davidson.
That’s the one he listened to first.
Hey, Lacie, it’s Craig. Are you screening or something? Listen, I’m sorry, baby. I know you’re angry with me, but believe me when I tell you I’m only trying to look out for you. You might be all grown up, but in my eyes you’ll always be that skinny little thing with big blue eyes that used to follow me and Bri around all the time. There was a small chuckle, a brief pause. I have to head out of town for a bit, gotta help an old friend. But I’m only a phone call away if you need me, hear? And if that bastard so much as causes you a single tear, I’ll take care of him just like I did that bully in first grade that pushed you on the playground and tried to steal your lunch money. Love ya, babe.
Shane exhaled heavily. It was going to be a long night.
* * *
Lacie moaned as the pain started to return with a vengeance.
“Lacie, baby, ssshhh, it’s okay. I’m right here.”
Her mouth felt as though someone had stuffed it full of dry cotton. Every part of her ached, and there was a God-awful pounding in her head that made her stomach roil. With substantial effort she forced her eyelids open. Thank God it was relatively dark; even the soft muted light from the single lamp felt like a blade driving into her eyes. Everything was fuzzy and out-of-focus, but she knew that voice.
“Craig?” she rasped.
Strong hands pushed her back when she tried to sit up. Yes, she knew those hands, too. Hands that didn’t know their own strength.
“Take it easy, babe. Here, sip this.” Craig held a straw to her lips and she did as he commanded. Cool, delicious water eased down her parched throat, and she was sure she had never tasted any better.
“What happened? Where are we?” Was that her voice? They were the words she had formed in her mind with the intention of speaking, but that didn’t sound like her voice at all, and it was so very far away.
The side of the bed lifted slightly as Craig rose to ease another pillow beneath her head so she could swallow easier. Even that small movement made her wince in pain.
“What do you remember?”
Lacie closed her eyes and tried to think. It was like trying to swim through mud. Visions of lightning and thunder burned the insides of her lids, her body shivered, remembering the icy cold rain. “There was a storm...”
“Yes, there was a bad storm,” he confirmed, his tone low and soothing.
Disjointed images appeared briefly in her mind, fading almost as quickly as they appeared. It took a while to piece enough together to make sense of it. Why couldn’t she think?
She remembered a parking lot, sitting in her Passat. A feeling of relief – the teacher’s meeting was finally over – but she was very tired. She was just going to close her eyes for a moment... “I fell asleep, I think,” she mumbled. “In my car. And then it wouldn’t start.”
“Why didn’t you call for help?”
Yes, why hadn’t she? The images jumbled together again; Lacie tried to take a deep breath, but a sharp pain kept her from inhaling too much, effectively disrupting her train of thought and she had to start all over again from the beginning. “I... I couldn’t find it. It wasn’t in my purse.”
Craig lifted the straw to her lips again, encouraging her to take another sip when her voice cracked. “I.... I went to the school, but Charlie didn’t see me. I fell... and then...” Her brows furrowed together as she struggled to recall what happened next. She looked into his face and blinked. “Then you came.” She frowned. “Why were you there?”
Craig placed his hand gently on her arm. “Thank God I found you when I did, Lacie. How do you feel?”
Well, that one was easy enough to answer. “Awful,” she groaned truthfully. If only the terrible pain in her head would let up a little she might be able to think...
“Tell me where it hurts, Lacie.”
“Everywhere...” She tried to do an inventory, she really did. She’d heard once that the body couldn’t process more than one pain at a time, but that was total bull. So many different parts of her were screaming out in agony, all of it jumbling together, her mind incapable of sorting it out. Craig’s outline was blurring again.
“Corinne... I need to call Corinne...”
“Sshhhh, relax,” Craig said quietly. “It’s okay, baby. I’m here and I’m going to take good care of you.”
She mumbled something. It was getting harder to form words again; she could feel the darkness creeping up around her, surrounding her.
“Here. Drink this. It’ll help with the pain.” Craig exchanged the water for the small glass of juice. She didn’t have the strength to fight him. She was tired, and she just wanted the pain to stop. Craig was here, and he would watch over her until she could think straight again, just like when they were kids and that bully had pushed her into the slide and she’d hit her head...
“Can’t ... stay... awake...” she murmured.
“I know. Sleep now, baby. Everything’s going to be alright.”
Craig sat next to her, holding her hand. She could feel it, but she lacked the ability to move. A glorious numbness was beginning to spread through her again, suffocating the horrible pain. She still had so many questions, but it was hard to think past the pain and the fog and the lovely numbness, and her mouth didn’t seem to be working properly.
“Sleep, Lacie. Let the medicine help you.” Whatever he had given her, it was some powerful stuff. No matter how hard she fought it, it was dragging her under. Pretty soon her eyes grew heavy and the pain faded until she was simply floating on the most wonderful cloud. It felt good to relax into it, to let her body settle into the warmth and comfort of the bed and the pillows.
“That’s my girl,” she heard him whisper as she felt his lips touch her forehead. “Pleasant dreams, baby.”
* * *
Once he was sure she was asleep, Craig put the rest of the potent meds back in his locked cabinet. It would not do to have her get her hands on these by accident. They’d been dosed for his height and weight – which was substantially more than hers, designed to help him with the terrible pain he still suffered at times. Tonight they would help Lacie. She’d gone out a lot quicker than he’d expected; perhaps even half a dose was still too much for her much smaller frame. Or maybe he should have waited until the other stuff wore off.
“Sweet Lacie,” he murmured, pulling back the blankets he had so hastily wrapped around her in an attempt to stem her shivering. His first priority had been getting her warm. Now that she no longer felt like a bag of ice, he could look toward other things.
Her clothes clung to her, still damp and splattered with mud and blood. He checked again, lifting her eyelids, talking to her, squeezing her hand, ensuring that she was completely out. Lacie would not be pleased with what he was about to do next, but there was nothing for it. She needed care, and he would be the one to provide it.
As he should be.
Craig removed her clothing, piece by piece. He’d known Lacie all her life, yet now his hands were actually trembling. How many times had he touched her, held her over the years? But never like this. Never with so much intimacy, so much reverence.
He sucked in a breath when she finally lay in nothing but her pretty underclothes before him, her normally sun-kissed skin looking pale. It was so soft, so beautiful, except for a couple a bruises, not all of which were caused by her recent fall. Craig scowled at the discolorations around her hips, echoes of fingers that gripped her too roughly in the throes of passion. He gritted his teeth at the telltale red marks in the tender flesh between her neck and her shoulders where that animal had sunk his teeth into her like the rabid beast he was.
He couldn’t dwell on that now, though; Lacie needed him. He forced himself to put all that aside and evaluate her injuries. Her ankle was swolle
n and already turning an ugly shade of purple, most likely sprained. He’d have to tape that up. The pale pink cast about her hand had been reduced to a soft, pulpy mass that he cut away, section by section. Underneath, her hand was a mottled mess of purple and black, extending down through a wrist that was now swelling quickly as well. Turning her ever so carefully, he saw the blossoming bruise and an ugly gash along her back and winced. Running his hands over her carefully, he concluded that nothing was broken, but she sure was going to hurt like hell for a while and probably need a few stitches. Overall, he was pleased to see that it wasn’t as bad as he had feared.
Now that he had assessed her needs, he felt better. There was nothing here he couldn’t deal with. He had the supplies he needed and enough basic first aid training to care for her, though he would have to monitor her closely. For now, there was no reason to seek help elsewhere, and for that he was glad. It was just another among a series of signs and events, all of which he now believed were nothing less than destiny leading them to this moment.
Lacie was meant to be his. He had always known that, but she hadn’t, and life had certainly thrown a few curveballs in the way. Her brother Brian, for one. Brian shouldn’t have warned him off Lacie. They’d been like brothers from the moment Brian stood up for him on the first day of school, when all the other kids were making fun of him because his clothes were old and dirty and not the right size. They could have been real brothers if Brian had just been able to accept the truth.
He hadn’t wanted to leak their location overseas. He still felt bad about that. But he couldn’t take the chance that Brian would continue to try to keep them apart. And he’d paid his debt, hadn’t he? The explosions he’d rigged as a distraction had backfired and nearly taken him out, too.
It was Fate’s way of intervening. And now it was giving him the opportunity to show Lacie the truth, to finally get her to see what had been right there in front of her the whole time. She had made a grave mistake in trusting Shane Callaghan, and in giving herself to him, but Craig would forgive her. He would show her the error of her ways, and she would know who truly loved her.
Beyond Affection: Callaghan Brothers, Book 6 Page 13
