He couldn’t take this. Couldn’t take Kelsey looking at him with that look on her face. “We’ve lost the girls. Bridges moved them two days ago when he decided I might get too close.”
“Cantori doesn’t know where they are?” She followed him out the back door onto the terrace.
“We’ll give Gracie a shot at him, but I don’t think he knows. He’s gloating like crazy that we killed Bridges and now we can’t get to them.” He looked out, down the long backyard, past the terrace, past the pool and pool house to the bay where his boat sat at the end of the pier.
But he’d run away once. For two years he’d run from the pain and the responsibility and left Bridges to finish the job. And look how that had turned out. He wasn’t narcissistic enough to believe he was the only man for the job, but he knew himself well enough to know he’d never be able to look in the mirror if he didn’t finish this now.
He slowly turned to face Kelsey. “Where’s the car Bridges drove in? Maybe there’s something in there we can use.”
“Nolan has his ear out for the baby in the room next door, so she’ll be fine. Let’s take the golf cart and drive out to the main street. If he walked in, it should be parked somewhere along there.”
She was right. The car was parked about five hundred yards down Bay Street, tucked into an indentation in the woods. Ethan parked the golf cart and walked to it, dry grass crunching under his boots.
“Technically we should let an evidence team process the car.” Ethan battled with himself over whether to even open the door. But if there were something in there that could help him find the girls and he didn’t look …
A car whizzed by on the street. Kelsey opened the door on her side. The backseat was filled with fast-food bags and take-out coffee cups. “Ew.”
“It’s about four and a half hours from Jacksonville to Sea Breeze. Maybe we can find the room where he stayed while he was here.” Ethan looked at the car, his hands on his hips.
“If he stayed in one. This is disgusting, but I guess we can sift through all that garbage to find out where he went. It’s like an evidence map all on its own.”
“Or we could just look on the GPS.” Ethan’s eyes were on the small dash-mounted machine. He dug his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed. “Nolan, can you figure out a GPS?”
Nolan bit off a response.
“Okay, stupid question. Next stupid question. How do I get it out of the car?”
Kelsey watched Ethan get more and more involved in the chase for information. She knew that suggesting they find the young women was the right thing, but he was almost obsessed with it, as if he could make up for the past by accomplishing this one thing. She just hoped he wouldn’t be disappointed.
Sometimes things don’t work out the way you plan. And in that case, she’d learned, you have to go on and accept things the way they are, not the way you hope they will be.
But in this case they were talking about human lives. Would the girls figure out they could escape? Could they even escape? She had no idea what kind of living conditions they were in or if they were guarded or locked in. All she could do was pray while the real experts did everything they could to find the girls.
Ethan had dispatched a cop to guard the car until the FBI could send a team to pick it up to be processed at their big lab in Quantico. He was currently hovering over Nolan, watching as the computer guru downloaded the information from the GPS.
If this didn’t work, she didn’t know what they would do. She heard a faint noise from the bedroom next door and stepped closer to listen to see if Janie’s nap was over already.
Nolan let out a triumphant yell as he finally got the right connection and data poured onto the screen. Ethan was right back over his shoulder. Nolan turned around. “You know if I find something, I’ll let you know.”
Ethan backed away, hands up. “Okay. We’re just in a little bit of a time crunch here, but no worries.”
“I’m going to do a data search. If he’s been to any place more than twice, it will pop up. We’ll exclude restaurants and coffee shops. It’ll still leave a lot of places, but …” Three names popped up on the list.
“Wow. Looks like we’ve got something.” Kelsey could hear the suppressed excitement in Nolan’s voice. “He must not’ve had this GPS very long.”
Ethan looked at the screen. “Check them out.”
“Okay, running checks on these properties now. If there’s anything on them, we’ll see—okay. There’s one house, one business, and this one looks like an apartment building. It’s in red here. Let me click and see …”
He hummed to himself for a second or two. “Oh. This could be something, Ethan. The apartment building is scheduled for demolition, but crews aren’t set to begin work until the first of next month.”
Ethan had his hand on his phone already. “We need to get units out there to check it out.” He closed his eyes. “Dear God, please let this be it.”
An hour later, while they waited for word from the Jacksonville Police Department, they gathered again around Tyler’s dining room table. The master of the bed-and-breakfast sat at the end of the table with an ice pack on the back of his head. “Remind me again how this guy got through our security?”
Nolan shrugged and stuffed a chocolate chip cookie in his mouth. “It’s a big property. We had to reassign some assets to make sure we had everything covered in here. And even then we had some blind spots. I knew that if he got through one of the holes, there were enough of us in position to take care of him.”
“Thanks for telling me that.” Tyler scowled at Nolan.
Ethan walked into the room with Janie in his arms. “It could’ve been bad. It definitely could’ve been worse than it was.”
“But it wasn’t. We’re all okay.” Kelsey reminded him. She couldn’t eat. Not yet. Not until they heard that the girls were safe. Ethan was smiling, but the tension in his shoulders told her he hadn’t heard anything.
“Almost all okay,” Tyler muttered, then looked up at Janie. “Janie, do you want a cookie?”
He curled his finger at Ethan to get him to bring the baby over. So far Tyler’d had no luck getting her to come to him. But he kept trying.
“Cookie!” She lunged forward, nearly plunging to the floor until Tyler dropped his ice pack and snagged her from midair.
“Huh. Wonders never cease.” Ethan nudged his brother in the shoulder. His phone rang. He went completely still.
Kelsey stood, walking over to him, just to let him know she was there. He’d faced so much alone. Not because other people weren’t willing to stand with him, but because he’d pushed them away.
She wasn’t going to let him push her away.
“Ethan Clark.” He listened. “Yes. Okay, I appreciate you calling to let us know.” He was quiet again. “Thank you, sir.”
He hung up the phone and stared at it.
“What?” Nolan wasn’t waiting any longer. He’d apparently gotten every bit as invested in the outcome of this case as the rest of them. “What happened?”
Ethan looked from each one to the next, then his face broke into the most beautiful smile. “They got them.”
He lifted Kelsey and swung her around, shouting. “They got to them in time.”
“Sweet!” Nolan fist-punched the air and grabbed another cookie. “I’m going to take a nap.”
Gracie laughed as she picked up the ice pack her husband dropped again as he danced around the room with Janie. “We all need a nap. Except Tyler. He can’t go to sleep with that concussion.”
“Drat.” He stopped dancing. “But that’s okay. Janie and I will eat cookies, won’t we, precious?”
“Cookie!” Janie beamed at her new friend.
Ethan grabbed Kelsey’s face and kissed her. She widened her eyes to look at his face and caught a glimpse at the rest of the room as they all stared.
Ethan let her go, glanced around, grinned, then kissed her again. “We did good.”
She smiled. “Yes
, we did. Although I can’t imagine all the investigating the FBI will have to do to figure out what happened with all those adoptions.”
Ethan shook his head, but he smiled again. “But those girls aren’t going to be trapped in that life. And that, my girl, is a win.”
His happiness was infectious. She was happy, so happy, that he had finally closed the case he had started two and a half years ago, but she knew things weren’t over yet.
Ethan’s phone beeped in his hand. He looked at her and swallowed hard, the room going quiet around them. “It’s the field office in Mobile. They’re the ones who’ve been guarding Charlie.”
He stepped out of the room to talk on the phone, his body a straight arrow of tension. He’d been waiting for this moment.
Her heart ached for him, for having to come to grips with missing two years of his son’s life.
And it broke for the adoptive parents. It was little comfort that they had been scammed by some of the best in the business.
Ethan walked back into the room, his face white. “They’ve released Charlie and his family from protective custody. The parents want him to meet me.” His eyebrows drew together, his throat working. “Tomorrow at ten.”
She gripped his hand, held it tight in hers.
A half smile tipped the corner of his mouth. “Do you think your experience at handling awkward family situations might come in handy?”
“It sure couldn’t hurt. I’ll be happy to go with you.” In a way, he was right. She was used to dealing with tense and difficult family situations.
Ethan’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.
Janie reached for him. He picked her up, kissing her under the chin and making her laugh.
Ethan had taken a bad situation and somehow come up with a way to keep everyone safe. They just had to figure out a way to do the same for him.
Ethan gripped the steering wheel as they drove across the bridge into Pensacola, where the family was meeting them. “It’s a church social worker who’s coordinating the meeting. Someone their pastor recommended, I think. We’re meeting at the First Community Church on the playground.”
“I know. You told me. It’s going to be fine.”
“We should’ve brought Janie. She’d like a playground.” His voice was tight, his nerves about to take over. His stomach hurt. He’d already eaten an entire roll of Tums this morning, and he was thinking about stopping for another one.
“It’s better without other children. It’s not your first time meeting Charlie, but—”
“It’s the first time he’ll remember. I know. Do you think he’ll like the truck I bought him? I’m still not sure.”
“All little boys like dump trucks. They like anything they can collect stuff in and roll around. Trust me.”
He braked at a stoplight and let his head fall back against the headrest. “You know more about my little boy than I do. What am I doing? Maybe I should just let this go.”
There it was, the thought that he hadn’t wanted to voice out loud, right out there in the open where he hadn’t wanted it to be.
“Why would you do that? You have the opportunity to give your child the greatest gift on earth. The chance to know his father.”
“Charlie already has a dad.” His lips pressed tightly back together as traffic moved forward.
“But he doesn’t have you. Or his Uncle Tyler or Uncle Matt or Uncle Marcus. Not to mention your mom and dad, who will adore him. He is doubly lucky. He has two families who will love and cherish him.” She reached for his hand and unclenched his fingers from the wheel, instead lacing them with hers. “Don’t steal the opportunity from him by not giving this a chance.”
He put his blinker on. “Thanks for coming.”
“It’s my pleasure. And really, believe it or not, this is not the weirdest family reunion I’ve been a part of as a social worker.”
As they pulled into the parking lot, the playground was in plain sight. Kelsey heard Ethan whisk in a breath at the sight of a little boy running for the slide, chubby legs pumping.
“There he is.” Ethan swallowed audibly. “Oh, he’s so big.”
“Come on, let’s go meet them.” She opened her door and heard Ethan do the same. He walked behind her as she met a short, perky redhead coming across the playground. He knew from the pictures that this wasn’t Charlie’s mom.
“Hi, I’m Sabrina. I’m a counselor here at the church. Dave and Linda asked me if I would be here when they met you for the first time. You must be Ethan.” She held out her hand and he took it.
He couldn’t say anything. Truth be told, he didn’t really even look at her. He only had eyes for the little boy wearing khaki shorts and a bright blue hoodie that he kept trying to take off.
Kelsey stuck her hand out. “I’m Kelsey Rogers. I’m a social worker with DCF in Emerald County.” As the woman’s eyes widened, Kelsey quickly said, “Oh, no. I’m here strictly as a friend.”
“Come meet Dave and Linda.” The perky redhead, whose name Ethan had already forgotten, led them over to a bench where the couple stood nervously waiting. “Dave, Linda, this is Ethan.”
Dave was a tall string bean of a guy, but his handshake was firm.
Linda’s eyes were already full of tears before they were ever introduced, and she didn’t shake his hand at all, opting instead for a hug. “I can’t believe what you’ve been through. Ever since we heard from the FBI, we’ve been praying for you.”
His eyes welled up, too. “You—that’s very generous, Linda.” He shook his head. “I didn’t know what to expect today.”
“We didn’t either.” Dave took his wife’s hand. “We want you to know that we consider Charlie our son. He—has been since the day we first laid eyes on him.” Dave’s voice broke, but he continued after a deep breath. “We also know that we have to—we want to—find a way to make you a part of his life. He needs all of us. It wouldn’t be fair to him any other way.”
His wife had tears running down her face.
Ethan didn’t think he could breathe. And then, he heard the little voice. “Daddy!”
He turned. And realized his son was talking to Dave.
He nodded. He wasn’t Charlie’s daddy. Dave was.
His chest hurt, his heart feeling like it was breaking into a million pieces.
“Charlie, I want you to meet a friend of mine. This is …” Dave stopped, unsure.
Ethan smiled, surprising himself. “Ethan. Ethan’s fine.”
“Ethan’s here to see you. Why don’t you show him the slide?”
Big blue-gray eyes, the mirror image of Ethan’s, blinked solemnly. Then he wiggled out of Dave’s arms. “Okay, come on, Ee-tan.”
Ethan looked back at Kelsey and smiled.
That evening, as the sun was going down, Kelsey found Ethan exactly where she knew he would be. On his boat, where he always went when he needed to think. It was no wonder, with everything that had happened today. She’d been overwhelmed. She couldn’t imagine how he felt.
He was standing at the stern, looking out at the open water beyond them. He stood so straight and tall, carried so much willingly on his broad shoulders. He took her breath away.
She stepped on board and, as he felt the shift in balance, he turned around.
“Hey there.”
Kelsey hesitated before walking any closer. “I thought I’d find you here. Want some company?”
“Sure. Want a Coke? I just have the real thing, none of that diet stuff.”
She laughed at the face he made. “That’s no problem. I tend to prefer my sugar straight up, anyway.”
He chuckled, low and deep in his chest. The sound was pure. There was much more to come for Ethan, but it was clear that a piece of him had been restored in the reunion with his son.
Kelsey cleared her throat. “I’ll get the drinks.”
She walked into the galley in the cabin of his boat and got two cans from Ethan’s small refrigerator. Back on the deck, she tossed one to him, sat besi
de him on the stern of the boat and cracked open her can.
For a long minute, she didn’t say anything, just let the stress of the day seep out of her. The last few days had been full of overwhelming highs and lows. The rocking of the boat and the sound of the breeze were so peaceful.
She glanced to the side, still seeing tension in his profile. “Are you worried?”
He never answered quickly. It was one of the things she loved about him. He always thought things through, and this time was no different. He nodded slowly. “A little. Everything was so emotional today. The hard work starts now. Trying to figure out where to go from here. How to really make things work with two families who love him.”
“You’re right. It won’t be easy. But oh, Ethan. He was so precious today.”
He shot a grin at her. “He was, wasn’t he?”
They sat in silence a few more minutes. The sun was a giant, glowing orange ball in the west. It sank farther toward the water every second, sending ribbons of multicolored light sparkling across the surface.
“Ethan, I love you.” She blurted it, and immediately wished she could take it back.
As still as he was by habit, he went even more still. She fought nervous laughter back and instead just spoke all the things she’d been feeling. “I know it’s irrational because we’ve known each other such a short time, but that’s just the way my heart works.”
Kelsey could see the beginnings of panic on his face. He wasn’t ready to hear this, and she’d gone and blundered into it, committing to a path she couldn’t come back from. But it was the truth, no matter how silly it sounded when she said it out loud.
She forced herself to finish out the thought. “I told you about my childhood.”
He nodded.
“Losing everyone like that, it changes you. But it wasn’t the only time I lost a person I cared about. It wasn’t even the first time. In the mission field, goodbyes are just part of life.”
Ethan reached for her hand. “That must’ve been a hard lesson to learn as a young person.”
“What I learned was never to wait—always tell the people you love how you feel. You might not have another chance.” She stared out at the water, where a pelican was diving for his dinner. “So there you go.”
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