Gone Missing

by Camy Tang

  The siblings froze, staring at each other. Then Fiona burst into tears, running down the stairs and into her brother’s arms.

  SIXTEEN

  Clay held his sister as tightly as he could with one arm, feeling her crying against his shoulder. He’d forgotten how small she was, how slender and fragile.

  “It’s okay, Fi.” He stroked her back like he’d done when they were younger. His throat tightened even as his heart felt filled to bursting. They’d found her. And he’d never chase her away again. He’d protect her from Roman and anyone else who would dare try to hurt her.

  When Fiona’s tears had run themselves out, Ellen came up to them. “I’m assuming you’re okay with these two, but did you want one of us to stay with you?”

  “No, thanks, Ellen,” Fiona said, wiping her face.

  “Well, if you need me, I’m just a holler away.” She gave Joslyn her gun and headed to the house next door to Fiona’s, the first house on the lane. The other cars began to leave.

  “Oh,” Ellen called to Joslyn, “when you need your car, just come on over and we’ll take you to the grocery store.” Then she disappeared into her house.

  “Hi, Joslyn.” Fiona gave her a hug, too. “Come on inside.”

  Clay hadn’t really noticed the cooler air here in the mountains until he walked into the house and felt the comforting warmth from the wood-burning stove in the corner of the spacious living room. There was also the scent of the cinnamon–orange-peel tea that Fiona liked.

  Fiona grabbed some tissues from a box on the coffee table and blew her nose. “How did you guys find me? I was so sure I picked somewhere obscure.”

  “You did,” Joslyn said. “We’re just tenacious.”

  Fiona’s eyes widened. “You didn’t tell Dad, did you?”

  “No, don’t worry,” Clay said. “We guessed someone in Martin’s employ told Roman where you were.”

  “Roman? You mean Richard Roman? That’s who’s after me?”

  “You didn’t know?” Joslyn asked.

  Fiona shook her head. “Have a seat. I’ll get us some tea.”

  Clay made a face, and Fiona suddenly laughed. “You still hate tea?”

  “I hate your herbal stuff. I want something bitter and caffeinated.”

  “You haven’t changed a bit.” Fiona headed into the kitchen.

  Joslyn sat on the couch, and Clay sat next to her, taking her hand. “Thank you,” he said. “This means more to me than just protecting her from Roman. I hadn’t realized how much I missed her in my life.”

  She squeezed his hand, and her joy for him washed over him. “I’m glad you got this second chance with her. You can make up for lost time.”

  “I’m not going to waste it. If anything, I’ve learned that life’s too short to not take risks. I want to take every moment I can to be happy with her.”

  Joslyn looked slightly startled at his words, but she squeezed his hand one more and then withdrew it.

  Fiona came in with three steaming mugs, which she put on the table. Fiona shoved a mug toward him. “Bitter and caffeinated.”

  He grinned and took it. Then he reached out to take her hand. “You’re okay, right?”

  She nodded, looking down.

  “Those guys who kidnapped you didn’t hurt you, did they?”

  “How did you... Oh, you probably talked to Amelia. That’s how you found me, right?”

  “You didn’t make it easy for us,” Clay said.

  “It wasn’t meant to be easy. Two guys had kidnapped me, after all.”

  “What happened?” Joslyn asked.

  “I was in Phoenix. You guys found out I was living there for the past year or so?”

  Clay nodded. “I hired a PI.”

  “I am a PI,” Joslyn said. “Of sorts.”

  “I went to the local art museum. It’s my favorite, so I’d been going often. And then Dad showed up one day, wanting to talk to me. I guess he found me the same way you did, although I really tried to hide my trail.”

  “Why didn’t you tell him where you went when you left LA?” Clay asked.

  “I didn’t want him to find me.” Fiona took a deep breath. “When I was in LA, I was helping Dad launder money and move it into offshore accounts.”

  They’d been suspecting something like this, but hearing his sister say it still seemed unbelievable. “Why? How? Did he force you?”

  Fiona bit her lip and shook her head. “One of the reasons I left Chicago was because Dad had offered me a job in LA. He said it would have short hours and wouldn’t interfere with my degree program. But what he really wanted was my computer expertise to help him launder his money and move it into his accounts in Bara.”

  There were tears in Fiona’s eyes as she looked up at him. “I was so ashamed of what I was doing for him, Clay, after all the grief I gave you over your mob connections. And there I was doing illegal things for my own father. I was mad at you when I left Chicago, but I had always intended to call you and reach out again...except I couldn’t.”

  “Hey, it’s okay.” He moved to sit next to her, even though it was squished in the loveseat she sat in, and put his arm around her. “You know, if prison taught me anything, it’s that we all make mistakes.”

  “At first I was kind of excited about how much money I was making,” Fiona said. “But then I started to hate it more and more. Finally I left LA because I couldn’t keep working for Dad, and I just wanted a clean break. I thought I’d managed to hide from him, but he found me at the museum and said he’d known all along where I was.”

  “What did he want?” Clay asked.

  “Apparently he’d found out that some of his accountants were skimming, so he moved a bigger chunk of his money into his Bara accounts and changed the passwords. He wanted me to come back to work for him because he knew he could trust me and no one else knew about those accounts.”

  “Someone did, or Roman wouldn’t have tried to take you,” Clay said.

  “I don’t know how they’d have found out. No one except Dad knew I was in charge of the Bara accounts. Dad paid all my travel expenses himself in cash, not through the company or any trackable lines of credit.”

  “Roman’s got some sort of mole in Martin’s company. He’s been trying to find you himself, without any of his people around him. We think it’s because he doesn’t trust any of them.”

  “I wondered about that,” Fiona said. “I told Dad I wouldn’t work for him again and I left the museum, but then two guys grabbed me in the parking lot. The thing is, I know Dad’s driver saw me, but he deliberately turned away. That’s when I knew it had to do with Dad somehow.”

  No wonder Martin had decided to ditch his employees to search for Fiona alone.

  “They didn’t know I had my phone in my pocket,” Fiona said. “I was wearing cargo pants and they missed one of the pockets near my knee when they searched me. They put me in the back seat of their car and drove for a while, but then they stopped for gas. I went to the bathroom and tried calling you, Joslyn, but both your numbers were disconnected.”

  “I lost both numbers last year,” Joslyn said.

  “So then I called you,” Fiona said to him, “but they realized something was up, because they broke into the bathroom and took my phone.”

  “What about the postcard?”

  “I managed to steal one of those prestamped postcards when they were dragging me back out to the car,” Fiona said. “I found a pen in the back seat of the car and scribbled that note as fast as I could. Then at the next gas station, I put it in the mail slot. But I managed to run away from those guys and hide—the gas station was right next to a big truck stop. And then I snuck onto the back of a farm truck to get away. I sold my watch to get a bus ticket to Amelia’s house.”

  Clay gave her a on
e-armed hug and felt her body trembling from recounting her story.

  “Is Amelia all right?” Fiona asked.

  “She’s fine,” Clay said. “She’s staying with her boyfriend.”

  “I didn’t want to stay with her for too long because I didn’t want to put her in danger, but it gave me the idea to go to Gabe’s family’s cabin to hide out. I figured it would make it harder for anyone to find me.”

  “We didn’t put it together until Gabe talked about the hiking trips he and Amelia go on all the time.”

  “I know.” Fiona made a face. “Ew. Hiking.”

  Clay and Joslyn laughed. It felt good to have something like that to laugh about after the danger and chaos of the past few days.

  “So you went to Amelia because you didn’t trust your father’s people?” Joslyn asked.

  “Yes. But I didn’t know who wanted me kidnapped or why and the men who took me didn’t offer any clues.”

  “We’ve had two guys after us for the past few days, because we came to Phoenix looking for you,” Clay said.

  “Oh, no.” Fiona’s hand tightened in his.

  “Hey, we’re okay.”

  “Oh, yeah.” She poked at his cast. “Sure. You’re great.”

  It probably wasn’t the best time to talk about the bomb at her house and at Joslyn’s apartment. Clay cleared his throat. “Anyway, we got a photo of them and Joslyn has some spider web program—”

  “It’s a web-crawler,” Joslyn said. “A friend and I have been working on a facial-recognition program that looks for photos on the web.”

  “Whoa,” Fiona said. “You need serious processing power for that. Did you—”

  Clay cleared his throat. “Remember, Neanderthal in the room.”

  “I’ll tell you later,” Joslyn said to Fiona with a smile.

  “The two guys work for Roman,” Clay said. “You seem to know him?”

  “I’ve heard of him. Before I started working for Dad, they were rivals. But then Dad outsmarted him in some business deal and Richard Roman was livid.”

  “We think that one of the reasons he wants you is because of your knowledge of the offshore accounts in Bara,” Joslyn said.

  Fiona’s brows furrowed. “But it’s been three weeks. Dad must have contacted his private banker to arrange to transfer the Bara money to some other account by now.”

  “I don’t know if Martin knew you were gone right away, especially if one of his people arranged for Roman’s men to take you,” Joslyn said thoughtfully. “We went to Bobby’s house in Tahoe, and he said Martin came around looking for you only two weeks ago. Perhaps the money hasn’t been moved yet.”

  Fiona thought about it. “Maybe not. He might still be in the process of transferring it. Once he does, the accounts I know will become obsolete.”

  “He might still come after you,” Clay growled. “You know about Martin’s finances and contacts, and Roman might want to target you just out of revenge against Martin.”

  Fiona gave a short, hard laugh. “Like Dad would care.”

  “What do you mean?” Clay asked.

  “Dad doesn’t care about me,” Fiona spat out. “Do you know what he said when he saw me at the museum? It was all about his money, and how his accountants had betrayed him. He knew I’d never betray him because I was his blood and so I’d feel the same way about his money.”

  “He cares about you because you’re his blood,” Joslyn said.

  “He was like that even when I was working for him in LA. He was never interested in me, or my friends, or anything in my life. It was all him and his business and the work I was doing for him. It’s another reason I wanted to leave and not tell him where I was going.”

  Fiona looked at Clay. “I was always so sorry for how he treated you when he and Mom divorced, for how he just didn’t seem to care. I made excuses for him because it seemed like he loved me. But he didn’t—he was grooming me to work for him, or maybe eventually take over his business, I don’t know. He only cares about himself, and I’m sorry I never saw that.” Her arms tightened around him, and tears fell down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry for all the arguments we had back in Chicago. I was so hypocritical. I was too ashamed to contact you again.”

  “Hey, it’s okay.” He squeezed her tight, resting his head against her hair. “No matter what you’ve done, Fi, I will always love you.”

  “You have to,” she said in a muffled voice. “You’re my brother.”

  “I will always love you, too,” Joslyn said. “I’ll be here for you.”

  “We’ve spent three weeks looking for you,” Clay said. “That’s got to prove it to you.”

  “But with everything I’ve done,” Fiona said. “I feel so awful.”

  “Love covers over a multitude of sins.” He said it automatically, without even thinking, and he remembered it was Patrick’s favorite Bible verse. And he suddenly understood. It summed up how he felt about his sister—the things she had done didn’t change the way he felt about her. So then, wouldn’t God feel the same way about Clay and his past?

  The O’Neills had accepted him, Joslyn had put her trust in him. Maybe he wasn’t as worthless and unlovable as he’d always thought he was. As Martin had made him think he was.

  Maybe he wasn’t as alone as he always felt.

  “So what happens now?” Fiona asked in a small voice.

  “We find out how to stop Roman from coming after you,” Joslyn said.

  Fiona shuddered. “The past three weeks have been awful, looking over my shoulder all the time.”

  Joslyn nodded gravely. “I understand.”

  Clay wanted to know the story behind the empathy in her words. He wanted to protect her.

  He also wanted to protect Fiona. He wasn’t going to lose her again. There had to be a way to eliminate the threat against her and keep her safe.

  But how?

  SEVENTEEN

  “I’m sorry,” Fiona said. “I don’t have any additional information on Richard Roman.”

  Joslyn realized that for some reason, she’d been hoping that once they found Fiona, suddenly all the answers to their dilemma would appear. Perhaps exhaustion was clouding her judgment.

  “Then we need to take you to Sonoma to protect you,” Clay said.

  “No.” Fiona shook her head violently. “I left Amelia because I didn’t want to get anyone else involved in this. I even tried to keep aloof from the neighbors here, but they were so friendly, and then they needed help with their computers...” Fiona shrugged helplessly. “I don’t want to put anyone else in danger.”

  “The O’Neills aren’t just anyone,” Clay said. “They can handle themselves and anyone else Roman throws at them. And it doesn’t hurt that they’re friends with a local detective.”

  “Your friends here can handle themselves, too,” Joslyn said, “but my bosses are trained for stuff like this.”

  “Why can’t I just hide out here until Dad has moved his money?”

  “Like I said, the problem is that Roman might still target you even after the money is gone, if only to get revenge on Martin,” Clay said.

  “I’m not sure it’ll make a difference to Dad,” Fiona said bitterly.

  “It’ll make a difference to me,” Clay told her fiercely. He wasn’t angry—he loved her. He didn’t want anyone to hurt her.

  Tomas...Tomas had hurt Joslyn himself.

  It was such a contrast, these two strong men, one an ugly memory who still seemed to have her in a choke hold as she walked through her daily life, and the other who had burst into her life like a whirlwind, who made her laugh, made her feel brave, made her feel safe.

  “I just can’t be comfortable until you’re out of danger,” Clay told Fiona.

  Fiona sighed. “I know that, but if Roma
n is going to come after me no matter what, then what do we do?”

  Joslyn sighed and admitted, “We don’t have a game plan other than hiding you with my friends. We were hoping you’d have some information on Roman.”

  “How about we have lunch,” Fiona said. “I’m starving and even if I’m coming with you two, I’m not going on an empty stomach.”

  While Fiona made quesadillas for them, Joslyn called Liam and Elisabeth.

  “We found Fiona,” she said.

  “Praise God,” Elisabeth said. “So she’s at Gabe’s family cabin in Santa Cruz? That’s pretty smart of her.”

  “But she didn’t even know Roman was the one after her.”

  Elisabeth sighed. “Well, Liam and I have been researching Roman since you were on the road. I’ll email you what we have.”

  “Thanks.”

  They sat down to lunch, and Clay was so obviously happy to be with his sister again that it nearly made Joslyn ache for him. He wanted to know what she’d been doing, all the little details of her life. Whenever she asked him about his life in Illinois, he shook his head and said, “I want to hear about you, first.” It occurred to her that this was who he was, enthusiastic about life, loyal, giving.

  Finally they finished lunch and they had to discuss what would happen next.

  “I think it would be safer to take you to Sonoma,” Clay said to Fiona. “Even if we don’t know yet what we’ll do, at least you’ll have people around you who know how to protect you.”

  “These people know how to protect me,” Fiona said. “And you said yourself that Roman’s men are in Sonoma. How will that be any safer?”

  “She has a point,” Joslyn said. Then something else occurred to her. “Hiding might spur Roman on, too, like a treasure hunt. Some men are like that.”

  Fiona said, “So if I can’t hide, then what?”

  “We need to make it so that if Roman so much as touches you, it would cause terrible repercussions for him,” Clay said. “Something so bad for him that it would be enough of a deterrent to keep him away.”