by Cindy Skaggs
Mick whistled low. “Nice digs.”
Blake nodded agreement. “FBI must pay better than the PD.”
“It’s Sofia’s.” The subtle show of wealth in the size and decor was hard to ignore. Every piece of furniture screamed money. Mob money, that’s what people thought, and they were wrong. Sofia’s grandparents had built the house for her, which was no one’s business. Logan simply wanted time with her, and it didn’t matter if it was in his town house or her home in a gated community. They could live in the ghetto for all he cared. So long as she would have him, he was sticking. “We planned to eat at one, but things spiraled out of control when we opened presents for the kids.” He gestured back at the playroom, where Eli used a dino to attack a set of Barbie dolls.
“He opened the dino den. It was a blast picking that out.” Blake pulled off a leather jacket and tossed it over an armchair that was collecting coats. “Man, I would have stolen anything for a chance to play with that at his age.”
“You were a punk even then,” Mick joked. The two men were brothers in every way but blood.
“We can’t stay long, man,” Blake said. “Mick’s ma wants us at her place by five, and we’ve got an hour drive.”
“Glad you could make it.” He’d wanted witnesses to his life with Sofia, which was weird. Was it weird? “Beer?” he offered as they sat in front of the game. Logan hadn’t been paying attention to football; he’d been too busy watching his family overrun Sofia’s defenses. She shoved her hair off her face and whispered help across the room.
He shook his head no, and she groaned. God, he loved her, loved watching her with his family as much as he enjoyed watching her with Eli.
“Earth to Logan,” Blake called.
“Yeah, what?”
“You said something about beer.”
“Right.” He’d lost track of the conversation when he was watching Sofia, and they didn’t mind calling him on it. He took their good-natured ribbing as he maneuvered back through the kitchen. After he had lost a kidnapping victim several years back, he’d disconnected. He hadn’t meant to, but he’d lost track of Blake and Mick and the rest of his friends from home. It was good to have them back, good to have a normal life without the guilt he’d carried for far too long. Sofia thought he’d rescued her from the clutches of the mob, but she’d saved him as well.
As he walked past her, he brushed a hand along her backside. She leered at him, but he kept moving. He grabbed a six-pack, handed one to each of his parents, one each to Mick and Blake, and another to Peter, who hadn’t said two words since he’d sat on the couch. Logan made quick introductions.
“I remember,” Peter said. “Met the Christmas after the girls were born.” He gave a silent salute with the beer bottle and turned back to the TV. Peter wasn’t much of a conversationalist, but he kept Michelle happy and that’s all a brother could ask.
The game was a blowout. Perfect waste of a holiday game. Before Logan could get entrenched in the television, the doorbell rang again. Sofia sent him a hopeful glance, so he made his way to answer it. Two women, both on the far side of retirement, stood at the door holding a Jell-O salad and a narrow gift bag.
“Welcome, ladies,” Sofia said, waving them in from the kitchen. They deposited their contribution on the kitchen island before detouring to the living room. “We’ve done our share,” they said. “We’ll just sit in here with the men.”
Introductions were passed around. The taller one with a mass of gray curls said her name was Norma and the shorter one was her daughter, Gina. Norma didn’t seem intimidated by the heavy testosterone in the living room. She glanced at the opposite couch, where Mick and Blake sat next to Peter. “So, have you been good this year?”
Mick laughed, tossing back his long blond hair. He wore a leather vest and a tattoo sleeve on his arm. “I’ve been very, very good,” he promised.
Blake shook his head as if to say no, but the ladies skipped right to Logan. “Oh, we already know you’ve been good. You’re the young man who saved Sofia and Eli.”
The way they said it made him feel a million times better about himself than he had that morning when Sofia flinched. If Sofia was telling their story at book group, then there was hope.
“Five-minute warning,” Michelle called from the dining room, where she was putting the finishing touches on the table settings. “Kids, wash up.” The kids didn’t answer.
A pan clattered in the kitchen sink, drawing his attention. Sofia froze with the water running over the pot, and sheer panic lived in her eyes. The horrors of the past were shadows drifting over her face like clouds.
Logan knew what she was afraid of. Even with the mobsters dead and gone, she still worried that one day Eli would disappear. “It’s all right. I’ll go up.” He took the stairs two at a time before hitting Eli’s room. Toys and presents were tossed on the twin bed and the floor was cluttered, but there was no sign of the kids. Frowning, Logan checked the rest of the upstairs rooms. His heart started pumping as he headed downstairs. He peeked into the office Sofia used as a playroom for Eli, but the kids weren’t there. Jesus, when had they last seen the threesome?
Michelle looked up. “They washing up?”
Sofia came around the corner, waiting for his answer. The look on her face was an exact match to the one six months ago when she’d whispered the words “they have my son.” He shook his head, trying not to let his panic show. She went absolutely still. The noise died like someone had called for prayer until all they heard was the whistle and call of a ref from the TV. He couldn’t force the words out of his mouth.
“Eli,” Sofia screamed up the stairs. Any kid within earshot would recognize the angry tone. Frantic energy vibrated off her as she moved to the bottom of the steps and hollered up. The silence was its own answer.
“I’m sure they’re just playing outside,” Sandy suggested.
“It’s cold out.” Michelle wiped her hands on a towel and tossed it on the counter.
“They got their coats last quarter,” Peter said. He glanced at Michelle. “They didn’t ask if they could go out?”
“No. How long ago?”
“I don’t know. It’s football. Sometime in the last quarter.” Peter flicked the power off the TV and tossed the remote to the coffee table. “Ma, would you check upstairs again, make sure they’re not playing hide-and-seek?”
Sandy turned off all the burners and the oven as they gathered. “I told them to take out the garbage,” she said, her frown adding wrinkles to her face. “Where is that?”
“Out back,” Sofia answered. “But I didn’t see them go past.”
Blake and Mick stood. “We’ll check the back.”
Sofia grabbed Logan’s arm, digging her nails into his flesh. “We’ve got the front,” she said.
Chapter Three
Not again. She yanked Logan out the front door because she couldn’t go through the worry alone. The scorch marks along the exterior entryway were a reminder that hers was not a normal life. How had she forgotten? She castigated herself for getting complacent.
“Vicki warned me.” She mumbled the words mostly to herself. Maybe the kids were simply playing in the yard. But no. The front yard was as empty as a teacup at a wine tasting. There were no cars driving through the neighborhood, but unfamiliar cars blocked the long strip of cement leading to the house. Sofia tugged Logan with her as she wove through the cars and trucks, hoping maybe the kids were playing in the long driveway. “Eli.” She screamed his name, the fear scratching her throat. White vapor rose, a testament to the cold.
Her baby had been out in the cold for God knew how long. Acid burned her insides. This was why she kept a paranoid eye on Eli. “What’s wrong with me? I didn’t take her seriously.”
“What are you talking about?”
If anything happened to Eli—
The edge of her vision blurred, fogging her peripheral vision. Tears weren’t far behind. She sucked in a ragged breath and another. She’d gone so long wit
hout a panic attack that this one hit like a semi. Logan grabbed her and pulled her into his arms, his grip unyielding. She struggled, pushing away, tears and hysteria slapping against him along with her tight fists.
“It’s okay,” he murmured.
“How is this okay?”
“It will be okay,” he answered. “Take a deep breath. I promise it will be okay.”
“You can’t promise that.” A quiver weakened her statement.
“I can,” he said, voice tight. “Baby, look at me.”
First she had to focus, but she couldn’t deny the authority in his voice. She took a deep breath and forcefully blinked back the tears and the fears. When she looked up, the hiccups died in her throat.
There he was. Logan Stone, FBI agent, solid and sure and steadfast. His brown eyes stared at her with a look so fierce it stole her breath. It had been so long since she’d seen this part of him, the hard-ass law enforcement officer, but here he was, holding her, solid and warm. “Eli means the world to me. We will find him.”
Sofia swallowed. “I trust you.” He’d saved Eli once. He would do it again. Logan Stone always had a plan.
“What did you mean, Vicki warned you?”
“She called, right as your parents got here this morning.” In the Christmas chaos, she’d forgotten to tell him. Or was this yet another example of holding things close to the vest? “Here.” She grabbed the phone out of her pocket but dropped it to the cement.
Logan bent and picked it up. The message he replayed sounded even more ominous after Eli’s disappearance. “Another cryptic message from the mob princess. It’s like last summer all over again, with Vicki dropping clues and then disappearing.”
“Don’t. Please.” Vicki was her best friend. Sofia grabbed Logan’s hand. “Whatever this is, it’s not her fault.”
“We don’t know that. Not after last time.”
Last time, Vicki had been partially responsible for Eli’s kidnapping, in a twisted way that only made sense from the inside. She’d discovered the plan, so she’d manipulated the players to keep Eli safe and ultimately free Sofia from Nick’s sadistic grasp. “Why would she warn me if she were involved?”
“The woman is a master game player—” Logan cut himself short when Michelle and Peter stepped onto the lawn wearing thick down jackets. “Anything?”
“No. The girls have never done anything like this.” The pleading look in Michelle’s brown eyes added more tension to the situation. “They’re older than Eli. You must think…” She swiped an errant tear. “Wherever they are, they’ll watch over Eli.”
God, in her panic, she’d forgotten the twins. If Logan’s family knew about her past, they’d blame her for the girls’ disappearance. The whole thing was her fault, and because of the mobster she had once married, Eli, Anna, and Emma were gone. Thinking she could have a normal relationship was naive.
Nausea rolled up her throat, bringing with it coffee and cream. She couldn’t do this again. Seconds later, bile rose. She ran for the house but only made it as far as the mulched landscape by the front door before she puked in the trimmed bushes. Acid stung her nose, tears rushed down her cheeks. Breath. She needed a breath as her body heaved and convulsed with the fear she couldn’t face.
Logan was right there, a solid force at her back. When she finished, he handed her a tissue and led her away from the stench. “We need to talk about Vicki.”
“Not here.” Sofia glanced across the lawn at Michelle and Peter. At some point, they might need to know, but right now, she couldn’t face their censure. “We need to set up a search party or something.”
Mick and Blake joined them as they formed a circle of six.
“The kids took out the garbage,” Blake said. His pale green eyes were nearly translucent in the winter sunlight.
Peter and Michelle shared a look. Peter gripped her hand tight. “We’re going to drive around. They can’t have gotten far.”
“It’s a small, gated community, so it won’t take long for you to drive every street. Call or text if you hear anything. We’ll do the same,” Logan said.
Sofia envied them the movement, the getting out and being part of the solution, but she’d wait for Logan to make the call. Once their van pulled onto the street, Logan turned to her. “Go inside.”
“I’m not hiding out while you solve this.” Had he forgotten who she was?
“I’m not asking you to. Ask my mom to stay here in case the kids come back. Right now, we work on the assumption that they’re just a group of kids who wandered off. Have Mom act as communication central. All calls and texts go through her.”
“Okay.” The task centered her.
“Then grab a jacket—”
“I’m fine—”
“It’s cold. We could be out here awhile. You’re no good to Eli if you’re not operating on all cylinders.”
The mundane didn’t matter. She didn’t need a coat, but the idea of Eli and the girls missing for too long in the winter air… A hiccup shook her chest as she walked into the house. Dark—still hours away—came early in the winter, but better the dark and cold than the threat Vicki had warned her against.
…
“You think this is a mob hit?” Blake asked.
Logan turned on his friend. “Not helpful.”
“I take no pleasure in asking, but it’s the obvious question.”
“The answer is I don’t fucking know.” The words exploded from him, and Logan had to pace away or risk taking his anger out on his friends. He paced to the end of the drive to get some fucking air.
The memory of Eli’s little arms around his neck that morning twisted into a noose, cutting off all air. Logan had zero perspective on this case. Eli wasn’t some random victim. He was—
Logan scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck. Eli was his, and he’d turn the world over to bring him home, but after the debacle that had nearly ended his career—when Sofia’s ex-husband had died in a shoot-out—Logan had been pulled off the case. He didn’t know jack shit about what was happening with the Calvetti family now that the mob boss was dead. But he might know someone who did.
Blake was a cop working on an FBI drug task force. He knew the players in the area. Logan marched back up the driveway. “What do you know about this?”
“There’s always chatter, but nothing definitive. My take is that most of the snakes are too busy eating up Calvetti territory to mess with Calvetti’s kid. I can make a few calls, but in the meantime, we need to shut down all entry and exit points to the neighborhood.”
“Right.” Shit, of course. Logan took a breath and regained control. He sent Blake to the park at the other end of the neighborhood. “There’s a service gate back there.” The gate was how Sofia had escaped after a bomb went off at her house. “It’s locked, but Sofia had a key at one time, so we have to assume others could as well.”
Truck tires squealed as Blake spun out of the drive and headed to the back of the neighborhood. Sofia returned and handed Logan a jacket. The mask she often wore was firmly in place, leaving her looking as emotionless as a mannequin. The return of the ice queen seriously screwed with his focus, something they couldn’t afford. Not if they were going to find Eli. Logan turned to Mick. “Do you have your bike or your truck?”
“Truck. What do you need from me, boss?” As simple as that, Mick was all in. Kids were his weakness, if he had one.
“Go to the front of the neighborhood, where you entered the control access gates. Block off the exit. In case…”
He didn’t finish it, but Sofia did. “In case someone tries to take the kids out of the neighborhood?”
Logan nodded.
Mick reached over and touched her shoulder in a gentle manner. The contrast of his size with his compassion seemed to quiet her nerves. “This is just a precaution, but I want you to know I won’t let anyone through. I know what you’re going through. What you’re thinking. I lost—” He shook his head, sending his long locks flying. “I promise. No o
ne gets through.”
Logan trusted Mick’s veracity beyond a shadow of a doubt. The guy was the size of a truck. Mick could block the exit with his body and not even a Humvee would get through. “Call or text with any new information.”
“Roger that.”
He didn’t wait for Mick to take off. Instead, Logan grabbed Sofia by the elbow and led her back to the house.
“Wait.” She resisted, pulling away with every ounce of energy. A single tear dripped down her pale cheek. “I want to go out. Look for the kids.”
“We will, but first we need to talk.”
She stopped struggling at his firm tone. “About what?”
“About what your former sister-in-law is up to these days.”
Chapter Four
The chill from Sofia was like holding an ice block and just as comfortable. Her back went stiff, and her tears evaporated. An invisible wall settled between them as Logan led Sofia back to the house.
No. Logan refused to give in, to let the ice queen return. She deserved better than that, and he loved her too much to let her return to a world of isolation. But how to convince her otherwise when she’d so obviously separated from everyone, him in particular? Questioning Vicki’s loyalty wasn’t going to earn him any brownie points, but they had to pursue all avenues before too much time passed.
“This way.” Logan led Sofia toward the stairs. They needed to have this conversation away from his family, but when they came inside, his parents intercepted them. He gave them a rundown of progress, let them know where everyone went in the search.
“Kids do this kind of thing. Logan did this kind of thing all the time.” Sandy twisted a dish towel around her hand. “I’m sure they’re fine.”
His mother needed to believe that, but Logan needed to prepare for the worst. It had happened once before. “Am I forgetting anything?” he asked. His father was a retired cop. He would see the holes Logan was too emotional to recognize.
“We need boots on the ground. The kids left on foot, assuming they took off on their own.”
