VANISHED, A Romantic Suspense Novel (Edgars Family Novel)

by Suzanne Ferrell

  “Want to take us all on now?” Matt said, shoving Jake in the shoulder.

  Abigail looked over her shoulder at Luke who’d come to watch right behind her. “Aren’t you going to stop them?” she said in a hushed voice.

  He shook his head, resting his hands on her shoulders. “Nope. Figure let them take out their pissy attitudes on Jake, then they’ll be more receptive of a plan from their little brother.”

  Dave muscled past his brothers. “Just you and me, Carlisle.”

  Jake stood nose-to-nose with the eldest Edgars. “You’d like that since you didn’t get your chance last time, huh, Dave?”

  “You need to learn to treat our sister with more respect.”

  This statement froze the FBI agent. He looked at his wife, his face softening. “There’s no one in the world I respect more than your sister. Even if I think she should’ve stayed home with our kids.”

  “And I told you, as a forensic and ER nurse I’m the most qualified to triage the injuries to Abigail’s friend, as well as any other women we find tonight,” Sami said.

  A somber quiet filled the room. Abigail studied all the men in the house. Determination set along the thin lines of their mouths. Katie had come to stand by Matt, her hand slipping into his. Castello leaned against the door to the garage, part of the group, but still on the edges.

  “Which brings me to the plan,” Luke said as he squeezed her shoulders, the warmth of his hands easing some of her own tension. He filled his family in on as many details as possible, not even skimming over the charred female bodies they’d found. Finally, they talked about the mansion and scheduled party auction they suspected was happening the next night. “If they’re going to move Abby’s friend they might use the auction as a way to transport her out of the States.” He squeezed Abgail’s shoulders again. “Dead or alive.”

  “Make sense,” Dave said. He looked at Jake. “Can your people cover the perimeter?”

  “I’m meeting with them as soon as we’re done here. We’ve called in the National Guard as part of a special task force. How about the local cops? Any help there?”

  “We’ve been working quietly with a Detective Jeffers,” Luke said. “He’s bringing a few officers he trusts over around noon. We’ll work them into the perimeter. Frank did some reconnaissance the other night so we know they have a dock on the backend onto Lake Erie.” He moved to Abigail’s side and punched a few keys on his laptop, bringing up the estate’s ground schematics. He pointed to the lake side of the estate. “We’ll need people here to prevent anyone escaping that direction.”

  “I can get Coast Guard backup,” Jake said. “Dave you want to ride along with them?”

  Dave nodded. “Always love a good boat ride.”

  “Good.” Luke looked over at Castello. “We’ll need to get eyes on the inside. We’ll get Paolo to add me and Abby to the catering crew list. We’ll use that as a way to search areas not in use for the party.”

  “That’s not going to work,” Abigail said, bracing for the argument about to happen.

  Everyone stopped talking and turned to look at her.

  “Not like we can knock on the door and ask to search. Without the evidence BettyJo was trying to get to you, we don’t have a warrant,” Luke said, pointing out the obvious. “To make any of this stick and shut them down, we’re going to have to go in as staff and catch them in the act.”

  “It’s Brianna and I know we have to go in undercover.” When he gave her that I’m-so-glad-you-see-things-my-way-smile she continued, “Going in as staff won’t work because Kirk F. Patrick told us the staff was limited to only certain areas of the house last time. They weren’t allowed near anything that even hinted at the Senator and his son’s involvement in human trafficking. Only guests of a certain type would have that access.”

  The smile died on his face and his eyes hardened. “No.”

  “She has a point,” Dave said.

  “Stay out of this, Dave,” Luke growled without breaking eye contact with her.

  “We could have two sets of people inside,” Matt said.

  “Matt and I could go in with the caterers,” Katie said.

  “And you could be a guest with his girl,” Castello finished.

  “No.” Luke never took his eyes off Abigail.

  “You know it’s the only way,” she said.

  “We’ll find another way.”

  “If we’re going to find these women, we have to be able to play the game, for just one night.”

  “She’s right, wonder genius,” Castello said. “Someone’s going to have to walk in there like they belong or we’ll never find Brianna and the other women.”

  She laid her hand on Luke’s, knowing he was thinking about the dream again. “I’ll be safe, right beside you. You won’t let anything happen to me.”

  “Damn straight.” He stared at her hard, then at every other person in the room, slowly making his decision. “We’ll have two pairs of operatives in the house. Katie and Matt, you can go in with Paolo’s catering team.” He looked at Castello. “We’ll have Kirk F. Patrick get them uniforms.”

  “Who’s this Kirk F. Patrick?” Jake asked.

  “And what’s the F stand for?” Matt asked.

  “He’s one of Castello’s minions. And you can ask him about the F tonight.” Luke winked at Abigail then went back to the estate’s layout. “A lot of the party seemed to take place out on the balcony area in back last time, so we’ll need a team there. Jake, you coordinate your people at these exits and Sami, you’re going to need to be close enough to come in once we have the women. Let’s have you just outside the estate and down the road. We’ll need a van to carry the injured. You think you can handle that?”

  His younger sister’s face lit up. “If it’s got wheels and a gear shift I can handle it.”

  “No stunt driving, Samantha,” her husband said, his voice full of warning.

  “Who, me?” She batted her eyes at Jake and all her brothers laughed.

  Certain it was a family joke, Abigail was just glad to have the tension in the room eased a bit.

  “There’s still one problem,” Dave said. “How are you going to get onto this exclusive list?”

  Abigail looked at Luke then grinned at his oldest brother. “Not a problem at all. He’ll hack us in.”

  * * * * *

  What was taking her so long?

  Luke looked at the bedroom door for the second time in five minutes and tugged at the collar of his silk dress shirt.

  While he’d been busy hacking into Dylan Klein’s private email accounts and files—a very sordid place that left him feeling slimy, but nothing to connect him directly to the women or the dating websites—and setting up two extra attendees among the hundred-plus on the guest list, Sami and Katie had taken Abby on a shopping trip. They’d managed him this getup of gray silk shirt, skinny black tie, and charcoal suit, as well as medical supplies the girls thought they might need. Once he’d gotten cleaned up and dressed, they’d shoved him out of the bedroom to get Katie in her catering uniform and Abby into her undercover clothes.

  An hour and a half ago.

  He checked the guest list on line once more. Their names were still on there. Or rather, his was. Deciding to go with the master and submissive idea, he’d posted his real name—easier to keep track of the truth than try to remember a lie—and kept Abby as “a guest”. If anyone asked, he planned to introduce her as my girl or Ms. Whitson.

  He’d made sure to attach his cover ID as a computer software engineer and CEO of a Fortune 500 company, along with a contact to his fictitious company’s website in case anyone got curious and wanted to check it out. Hopefully, it would withstand any scrutiny at least for tonight. He just hoped that if Senator Klein was at the auction party, he wouldn’t remember their brief meeting back in December.

  Dave, Jake and Sami had headed out to meet with the Jeffers’ police team, Jake’s people and the National Guard. They wanted to be in place and deep in cove
r before guests arrived. He and Abby needed to find her friend before Jake’s team closed the dragnet. Jake also wanted to be sure the Coast Guard was far enough out that no guests arriving by boat would get spooked.

  That was forty-five minutes ago.

  Matt had already collected Katie, both of them dressed in black pants, white shirts and black bowties—the server uniforms to help them blend in—and the pair headed out to meet up with Kirk and join Paolo’s catering crew. They’d double checked their weapons before leaving and thanks to Jake’s team of FBI agents all of the family was wired with ear buds to hear the team’s actions. They also had the new fancy phone watches that allowed them to communicate if needed. They’d coordinated numbers and how to conference call to their ear buds before they left.

  That was thirty minutes ago.

  The front door opened and in walked Castello, looking very chauffer-bodyguard-ish. “Don’t say it.”

  He couldn’t help it. “Is the car ready, Jeeves?”

  Frank narrowed his eyes at him. “Screw you, Edgars. If it weren’t for Abigail going in there with you, you’d be driving yourself. Speaking of which, where is your date for this shindig?”

  “Still getting ready.” He looked at his watch and strode over to the bedroom door, knocking a little harder than usual. “Abby, we need to leave. We want to be going in with the rest of the crowd, not standing out by showing up last.”

  The door opened and there stood every man’s teenage wet dream.

  He started at her toes and worked his way up past her long legs encased in black leather boots up to her mid thighs. A small patch of her creamy white skin peek out between the tops of her boots and the hem of the black-lace mini dress with a V so deep it nearly went to her belly button, beneath which he could make out her black panties and more acres of pale flesh. Her dark hair was sleeked back into a shiny ponytail. Around her neck was a metal necklace that looked like a series of bent half-moons strung on a gold chain that dipped down to cover the exposed top of her cleavage, which only drew your eyes to the swells of her braless breasts. Large round hoop earrings dangled from her ears. Makeup had been applied with the brush of an artist, the final pop of color being her crimson lips.

  As if she knew he couldn’t take his eyes off her lips, she parted them and slipped her tongue out to lick across them.

  “Whoa,” Castello murmured behind them, snapping Luke out of the seductive haze swirling through his mind and body.

  “You have to change.” It wasn’t a request. No way was he taking her into that den of jackals looking like the tastiest morsel for them to consume.

  “I can’t,” she said with determination in her eyes.

  “She can’t.”

  He looked at Castello.

  His soon-to-be-ex-friend shrugged and pointed at his watch. “If we’re doing this we need to leave now.”

  With a growl he reached for the long trench coat slung over her arm and held it for her. “Where’s your weapon hidden?”

  “I’m not wearing one,” she replied as she slipped her arms into the coat and headed out the door to the car.

  “You’re going to an operation completely unarmed?” Fury swept through him. Even as untried in the field as she was, she was smarter than this.

  “I’m not unarmed,” she said, smiling sweetly at Castello as he held the backseat door of the sedan open for her, making Luke want to tear the grin off his friend’s face.

  He settled into the seat beside her. “You aren’t unarmed? With no weapon?”

  “I have a weapon.” Opening the long purse dangling off her shoulder by a thin chain, she showed him its contents—an ear bud, a gold compact and a tube of lipstick.

  “Unless that lipstick’s some sort of James Bond gadget gun, that’s not funny, sweetheart,” he practically growled at her.

  “This is a special bag your sister-in-law gave me in case they’re searching the women guests’ bags,” she said, pulling back a flap and there, below the other items was a small gun. She took the ear bud and fixed it deep in her ear, then smiled at him. “Katie gave me this one because it’s so lightweight. The beads of the bag and the heavy compact will explain the weight if anyone holds it besides me. See? I have a weapon, I just don’t have it on me, besides, I have you by my side. What more protection do I need?”

  As they headed out for the mansion, the sense of dread he’d had since the evening he found Abby standing in that bloody chaotic crime scene intensified. He grasped her hand in his, staring down into her eyes. “No matter what happens, don’t leave my side tonight.”

  * * * * *

  “We’re in position,” Aaron Jeffers spoke into his headpiece.

  He and a handful of cops he trusted were mixed in among the federal agents Edgars’ brother-in-law had supplied for the operation. Right now he and a rookie cop, Jackson, were settled in the bushes directly across from a small door several feet from the kitchen entrance on the west side of the mansion. The area sloped downward from the front and back of the house into what he assumed was the basement level.

  The caterer’s trucks and crew arrived, along with Edgars’ older brother and sister-in-law. He had to admit the guy’s family was impressive with not only their skills and connections, but their loyalty to each other. When Luke had called, the only issue any of them had wasn’t with him needing their help, but him waiting too long to call.

  Dave, the oldest brother, had been particularly pissed off that Luke had called Marshal Castello instead of him. A small, humorous thought hit him. He might envy Luke his big family, but as an only child he’d never had to answer to an older brother or two.

  Light at the kitchen caught his attention as someone came out to the van then went back inside. The area on this side of the house was dark as most of the party activity seemed to be on the north side where the main patio and balconies were and to the east where the patio extended into the garden.

  Since he knew the files of the five women he’d been tracking, the team thought he should be one of the ones inside searching. The idea was to get him into the mansion to help locate and secure the women, in particular Ms. Mathews, since she could bear witness to how the women were bought and sold.

  Once the party was underway he was to gain access to that door and wait for instructions from Edgars. If Edgars’ schematics of the place were correct, that entrance was near the stairwell that led to the basement—the place the women were most likely being held.

  Images of all the blood at both the condo and garage crime scenes filled his mind. He just hoped Ms. Mathews was alive inside this place. Such a beautiful and courageous woman deserved to get justice.

  * * * * *

  “Sami?”

  “Yes, Jake?” She smiled in the dark. It was the third time he’d checked her position in the past thirty minutes.

  “You know to stay hidden until we’ve secured the women and all the gang, right?”

  “Yes. We haven’t moved since you left us.” She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Really the man was such a worrywart about her. She was in the safest place of everyone.

  “Special Agent Malcom is there with you?”

  She glanced at the young agent seated beside her. “Yes, he’s videoing every car and license plate that passes us on the way into the mansion. Just like you instructed him.”

  Jake had left Malcom with her. Another team, including some highway patrolmen Matt had called in, were just a few yards farther back down the road, ready to shut off access in or out of the estate once the action started inside the mansion.

  “Good,” Jake said. “Luke and Abigail should be passing you soon. Stay safe.”

  Shaking her head at his overprotective side, she glanced at her watch as another SUV passed their hiding spot. They’d agreed on the time for Luke and Abigail’s arrival, so the teams would be on alert that their operatives were in the building. Once inside the mansion, the GPS on Luke’s watch would ping off the similar one Matt wore and on the watches of the other mai
n team members, Dave, Jake, Castello and the police detective Jeffers. That would be the signal for the detective to get inside the building.

  Her job was to be ready to drive onto the estate once the women had been found and the perpetrators rounded up. She clenched her hand around the steering wheel.

  How many women were there? Was Abigail’s friend still there? Was she alive? According to Abigail and Luke, they believed she’d been tortured and had lost quite a bit of blood. The physical injuries would be her first priority, but how much mental torture had she and the other women suffered?

  Another car passed them. Special Agent Malcolm snapped the license plate with his infrared camera, then checked the letters and numbers against the one for Luke’s sedan.

  “It’s a match, ma’am,” he said.

  She talked into the watch phone on her wrist. “Jake, they’re here.”

  Time for the party to begin.

  * * * * *

  While the undercover operation might be Luke and Abigail’s to run, it was Jake’s responsibility to see that everything went off without a hitch. Especially keeping Sami out of the mix until all the danger was complete. She wasn’t happy about it, but she was part of the mop-up detail.

  Hunkered down beneath a copse of huge Michigan pines, he studied the map of the estate on his phone with Captain Davis of the National Guard. As a Supervisory Special Agent, Jake had let the Special Agent in charge of his area know the bones of the case and the suspected kidnapping and enslavement of women. They’d quickly formed a makeshift task force for tonight’s operation and called in the National Guard, Coast Guard and highway patrol to pad their numbers, as well as make a tight net for capturing anyone involved.

  “Jeffers’ team is on the west side of the building. Dave’s team from the Coast Guard will cover the lakefront. That leaves us with the east side where the patio extends and the main entrance.” He pointed to the two spots on the map. “You take half your men, Captain, and scatter them on both sides of the main entrance. The highway patrol are securing the road on both sides to prevent anyone else from entering now that my people are inside. I’ll spread the rest of your men on the east side. No one moves until the word Omaha comes from me, understand?”