Looking for Lainey - A gripping psychological thriller

by Kristen Middleton

  “That sounds wonderful. I bet Lainey and Sammy are going to be ecstatic to see Tara,” Carissa said.

  “Yes. She was released from the hospital yesterday and the kids weren’t able to visit her. They were really disappointed,” Beth said. “So, I can’t wait to see their faces when they see her today.”

  “You’ve been to see her, I heard. How is she doing, do you know?” Tom asked.

  “Well, she definitely has a long road ahead of her,” Carissa said sadly. “Medically, her leg will recover, the doctor said. Mitch’s bullet only grazed her outer thigh. Had it been in an artery, she wouldn’t be here right now.”

  “Wow,” said Tom, shaking his head.

  “Yeah, they don’t think that he intended to kill Tara,” Carissa said.

  “That’s surprising,” Beth said dryly.

  “I know, right?” Carissa said, thinking about Mitch. He would have shot her without thinking twice. Something told Carissa that he didn’t have the heart to kill the teenager, however. “Anyway, the poor girl went through hell, especially when she was first taken.”

  “They had her since she was eleven, right?” Beth asked.

  “Yes.” Carissa also knew that Tara had been sexually molested and exploited, but didn’t divulge that information. It wasn’t her right.

  “That poor child,” Beth said, staring off into space. “I can’t imagine what it was like for her or what those creeps did.”

  Carissa nodded. “More than we’ll ever know, I’m sure. She is definitely going to need a lot of support and counseling. But, you know, through all of the madness, she found the will to defy her abductors and help Lainey and Sammy. I think knowing that is going to help her heal, more than anything.”

  “Let’s hope so. We owe her, that’s for sure,” Beth said.

  “And Lainey can’t say enough good things about her. Fortunately, it sounds like she was able to get them out of there before they were,” a disgusted look spread across Tom’s face, “assaulted.”

  “She did,” Carissa said, knowing what he was really trying to say. Neither child appeared to have been sexually molested.

  “Did they ever catch the guys in the Tahoe?” Beth asked. “The ones who almost killed you at Mitch’s?”

  “Unfortunately, no. But, Detective Samuels is trying to find out all he can about Anna Dubov. What we’ve learned so far is that she was originally from Grozny, but moved to America when she was sixteen.”

  “Really?” said Beth, frowning. “Was she involved with trafficking even back then?”

  “Maybe. They don’t know for sure but... I feel like she was groomed from an early age to help the people who sent her here. A victim too, in her own right.”

  “Crazy,” Tom said as they stopped at the coffee machine.

  “Child trafficking isn’t just a horrible, horrible crime. It’s big business. There are over 1.5 million victims in the U.S. alone. And worldwide,” Carissa sighed. “I read somewhere that it was over twenty-million. They say it’s starting to surpass weapon sales.”

  Tom and Beth looked shocked.

  “If you think about it, what’s even scarier is that there are so many sick, twisted people out there who support this behavior,” Tom said, looking gutted. “What’s this world coming, to?”

  “It’s a frightening place to live,” agreed Carissa.

  “I’m just... so grateful that you saved our little girl,” Beth said, with tears in her eyes. “And you risked your life to do it.”

  Carissa put her hand on Beth’s shoulder. “Lainey was worth it. So was Sammy. They all are.”

  Chapter 59

  Carissa

  AS THEY DROVE away from Lainey’s party, later in the day, Carissa smiled to herself as she remembered the joyful expressions on Lainey and Sammy’s faces when they saw Tara. They looked at her as a true hero even if she still didn’t feel like one herself. She knew that the teen had deep feelings of guilt for not helping some of the earlier children the group had kidnapped. Which was why Carissa had cornered her in the kitchen.

  “You weren’t meant to save them all,” Carissa told her as they were hovering over appetizers.

  Tara looked at her in surprise.

  “We all have paths in life. And pitfalls. Some have it much worse than others, you can definitely attest to that.”

  She looked down at her hands but remained silent.

  Carissa continued. “I understand the regret you have. But, forgive yourself. You have to.”

  “There were so many others kids,” Tara said, her eyes filling with tears. “And... I did nothing.”

  “You did try, though, didn’t you?”

  Her eyes widened.

  “You tried escaping once and they hurt you, badly. Don’t beat yourself up for being terrified that it would have happened again. Because, it would have.”

  “How do you know?”

  Carissa smiled and handed her a napkin for the tears that were beginning to roll down Tara’s face. “My intuition is pretty good.”

  “That’s right,” she said, breaking into a smile. “My mother told me about you.”

  “Did Carol also tell you how she never stopped searching for you?” Carissa said, knowing that it was something Tara needed to hear.

  Tara dabbed at her face. “Kurt told me that she didn’t even try, but... I don’t know. I guess I thought she was too busy trying to care for the twins.”

  “She was definitely busy, but your mother loves you fiercely. Just like she does your siblings. The woman never stopped searching for you and never gave up.”

  Tara smiled sadly. “That’s what she told me, too.”

  “Good. Believe her. You can also believe that she’ll be a smother-mother for a very long time,” Carissa said with a smirk. “You won’t be able to go to the bathroom without her making sure you made it there safely.”

  Tara laughed.

  “Seriously, though, you’re a strong, brave young woman and you have a long life ahead of you,” Carissa said, feeling it in her heart. She also sensed that Tara was going to get into law enforcement or something similar. She even told her.

  “I was thinking that I wanted to become an online investigator or something,” Tara said. “So that I can bust monsters, like Kurt, from hurting other kids.”

  “You’ll be very good at it,” Carissa told her, staring into her eyes. “Just remember that you won’t be able to save everyone, but the ones you do... will make it all worth it.”

  “My mom said that you specialize in trying to find missing children,” Tara said.

  “I don’t know if I ‘specialize’ in it. It’s where my path has directed me so far. I would love to help anyone who needs it,” she replied.

  Sammy suddenly ran into the room holding an iPad. There was music playing from it.

  “What are you watching?” Carissa asked as Sammy grabbed a handful of chips.

  “It’s this app that lets you lip-sync to music,” he replied, showing it to her.

  On the screen was a girl around twelve or thirteen lip-syncing a song by Taylor Swift.

  “Who’s she? A friend?” Carissa asked. The girl was pretty, with her light brown hair and large green eyes.

  “Not a close one. She’s really popular on here, though,” he replied. “She has like fifty-thousand followers.”

  “Can I see that?” Carissa asked, her gut suddenly filling with dread.

  “Sure,” he said, handing her the iPad.

  Carissa noticed that the girl, whose online name was Emma-maze, had hundreds of videos. She watched a couple more and although the videos were fun and cute, something about them worried her.

  “Are you okay?” Tara asked.

  She looked up. “Yeah,” she replied, smiling. “I just... I don’t know. All of this online stuff the kids are into these days. It’s a little overwhelming how much time they spend doing stuff like this. I mean, this girl has hundreds of videos, it looks like.”

  “That’s why she’s so popular,” Sammy
said, crunching on chips.

  “Strangers can’t look up any of her personal information, can they?” Carissa asked.

  “Only if they ask her for it and she gives it to them,” he replied.

  As relieved as she’d been to hear that, Carissa still felt uneasy and didn’t know if it had to do with the girl on the videos or something else.

  “What are you thinking about?” Dustin asked as they headed to what he’d told her was a potential client’s house.

  She told him about the iPad.

  “I’ve heard of that lip-syncing app. All the kids are crazy about it now. They can make and share music videos with their friends. Even a lot of adults are into it.” He frowned. “I’m sure it draws the freaks in too.”

  “Yeah. That’s what I was thinking,” Carissa said, imagining that it was yet another way for them to try and trap children. “I was watching Emma-maze and... I don’t know. I started getting that feeling of dread I get when something is about to go wrong.”

  “Do you think she’s in danger?” he asked, frowning.

  “I don’t know,” Carissa replied, wishing that she had a better handle on her psychic abilities.

  “Maybe we should contact her?”

  “And say what? I’m a psychic and I think you might be in trouble?” Carissa said dryly. “I mean, who knows... I might be getting bad vibes about one of her followers.”

  “I see your point. You said she has thousands of them?”

  “Yeah.”

  He let out a ragged sigh. “Maybe you should sign up for an account?”

  “Maybe. Or, maybe I’ll just go home and meditate to see if something comes to me?” she said, chewing on her lower lip.

  “Home as in ‘our’ home?” he asked with a hopeful smile.

  The last few days, Carissa and Dustin had been working on their relationship and things were going well. They’d talked about moving in together and she knew that wedding bells were probably in their future. This was both good and bad. Good, because she loved the man with all her heart. Bad, because she wanted it to be a surprise when he finally asked, but she already knew he’d been shopping for rings.

  “That depends on which house you mean,” she said, smiling. “I told you before, I’m not moving into your place. It’s cramped and we both need more space.”

  Especially if they were to have children and Carissa wanted that.

  “Yours isn’t exactly a palace either,” he chided. “But, as long as we’re on the subject...”

  “Uh oh. What does that mean?” she asked, wondering suddenly if he was going to ‘pop the question’.

  “You’ll see,” he replied, biting back a smile.

  “I wish you wouldn’t have said that,” Carissa said, turning on the music to try and block whatever the surprise was that he had in store. A couple of miles later, Dustin turned down a road that led to a newer development.

  “Close your eyes,” he said.

  Carissa did what he asked and when he stopped the truck, he told her to open them.

  “What’s this?” she asked, looking out the window at a snow-covered field that was close to a nature preserve and elementary school.

  He grabbed her hand. “The location of our new home.”

  Her eyes widened. She looked outside again and imagined the two of them designing a house together. Moving in. Getting a dog. Starting a family.

  “Obviously, we should make it official,” he replied, reaching into his jacket pocket. He pulled out a small, black box. “I’m sure you knew this was coming.”

  Her eyes filled with tears as he opened it up, showing her the diamond engagement ring inside. “Maybe, I did. But... definitely not today,” she said.

  Dustin grinned. “Really? I actually surprised you for once?”

  “For once? You’re the one person who keeps me guessing,” she joked.

  “Good.” He took the ring out. “What isn’t a surprise to you, I hope, is how much I love you, Carissa.”

  “I love you, too,” she said hoarsely.

  “When we were apart, I was miserable. In fact,” he looked at the ring, “I actually purchased this during that time.”

  “You did?” she asked, surprised.

  “Yeah. I knew that you were the only woman for me and that... no matter what it took, I was going to get you back.”

  Her heart felt like it was overflowing with happiness.

  Staring into her eyes, he said, “So, what do you say? Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

  Too choked up to talk, she nodded.

  He slid the ring on her finger and they kissed.

  “Are you sure you didn’t see this coming?” he asked, brushing away some of her fallen tears with his thumb.

  “If I did I wouldn’t have worn so much mascara,” Carissa replied, laughing.

  “You do look a little like a raccoon,” he said with a tender smile. “But, you’re my raccoon and that’s all that matters.”

  Carissa stared lovingly at him. Although she could tell that their future wouldn’t always be easy, it would be filled with love and laughter. And, unfortunately... sadness. Sadness for the missing. The ones they’d work so hard to find but would somehow slip through their fingers.

  Still, she knew that rough and bumpy path was theirs to walk together. No matter what heartache they’d endure along the way.

  “So, should we get out and start plotting out the house?” Dustin said, nodding toward the property.

  Excited at the idea, she nodded.

  They got out of the truck, and for the first time in a long while, Carissa was able to focus on something joyful. Not only their new house, but their new life together as a married couple.

  “So, how many bedrooms should we have?” he asked.

  Knowing what he was really asking, she told him as many as he wanted.

  “Are you saying that you don’t know how many children we’re going to have?” he asked, his eyes widening.

  Thankfully, she didn’t. “Besides you?” she joked. “No.”

  Dustin laughed.

  “I should probably call my mother,” Carissa said, taking out her cell phone. “She’s going to be so excited.”

  “Then, she approves of me?”

  “Of course! She loves you. Why do you think she makes so much strawberry rhubarb jam every year? She knows you’re crazy about it. What is it that she always says? Oh, yeah. ‘The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach’.”

  “And other body parts,” he said with a wicked grin.

  She rolled her eyes. “I’m definitely not sharing that fact with my mother.”

  He slid his arms around her waist. “Believe me, she might not be psychic, but she’s a feisty, Irish woman who was married to a cop. I’m thinking she already knows and probably has some secrets of her own.”

  Carissa smiled.

  The end

  Thank you for reading Looking for Lainey. If you enjoyed the story, I hope you’ll leave a review. It would mean so much to me.

  I do plan on adding more Carissa Jones books, if the interest is there. So, another good reason to leave a review 

  Also, for more information on Missing Children programs, check out the National Center For Missing & Exploited Children. Although my story was obviously fiction, human trafficking is very real and can happen to anyone (not just kids).

  www.missingkids.com

  www.kristenmiddleton.com

  www.cassiealexandrabooks.com

  Warning – steamy. Recommended for ages 18 and older.

  Get this ebook free when you sign up for my newsletter!

  Megan Fontaine has been on the run for the last eighteen years, hiding from a crazed Lycan Alpha obsessed with possessing her. Now that her unsuspecting daughter, Caitlyn, is nearing her first Blue Moon as a Lycan, however, she decides to return to Pine River, Minnesota, reunite with her mother, and face the demons that have been haunting her for the past eighteen years.

  Torin Rylan’s mission
was to locate Megan Fontaine for a bounty that would help pay his hefty gambling debt. But after an unsuspecting encounter in the woods with the female Lycan, he finds himself wanting to undermine his employer and claim the red-haired beauty for himself.

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  Steamy Romance Books by K.L. Middleton

  Recommended For ages 18 and older due to sexual situations and language.

  Tangled Beauty

  Tangled Mess

  Tangled Fury

  Sharp Edges

  Billionaire at Sea

  Billionaire at Sea Book 2

  Gritty Biker Romance by Cassie Alexandra (pen name)

  For ages 18 and older. Vulgar language and sexual content.

  Resisting the Biker

  Surviving the Biker

  Fearing the Biker

  Breaking the Biker

  Taming the Biker

  Loving the Biker

  Luring the Biker

  Biker Romance / Co-written with Kristie K. Shafer

  Phoenix Rising

  Fantasy / Romance / Horror – Kristen Middleton

  VAMPIRES and SHIFTERS – Recommended for ages 17 and older due to language and sexual situations. (These are definitely not Twilight)

  Blur

  Shiver

  Vengeance

  Illusions

  Venom

  Slade

  Toxic

  Claimed by the Lycan

  Jezebel

  Deviant

  WITCHES - Adventure

  Enchanted Secrets

  Enchanted Objects

  Enchanted Spells

  ZOMBIES – Humor, adventure, and romance

  Origins

  Running Wild

  Dead Endz

  Road Kill

  End Zone

  ALIENS - Adventure

  Planet Z

  Blood of Brekkon

  CRIME THRILLER

  Searching for Faith