Last Chance 05 - Second Chance

by Christy Reece

  After rinsing the soap from her hair and body, Keeley turned the shower off and grabbed a towel. Just thinking about her mother gave her a sense of peace.

  Resolved to follow her mother’s example and be strong for her children, she quickly dried off and slipped into a pair of jeans and a button-up cotton blouse. Though the clothes hung on her body, Keeley didn’t care. Apparently whoever had taken her children wanted to see her suffer. Maybe if they saw they had achieved their goal, they’d bring her babies back. Flawed, irrational reasoning, but it gave her some kind of hope and God knew she needed it.

  Keeley braided her wet hair, then, barely glancing at the results, steeled her backbone and headed downstairs. Today was Monday, which meant she had a full day ahead of her in the office. Sending a blast of emails all over the world twice a week was her Monday and Thursday ritual. Each day of the week was devoted to a special task or event … all having one thing in common—getting her children back.

  Tomorrow would be devoted to sending flyers with the girls’ photographs to hospitals, daycare centers, and grocery stores throughout the country.

  Wednesday morning Honor Stone, the special FBI agent in charge of the case, would come for their weekly meeting. In the afternoon, Keeley devoted her time to updating all the social networking sites she’d joined right after the girls had been taken.

  Friday was devoted to answering correspondence and updating the website she’d set up a few days after their abduction. Saturday and Sunday were filled with strategizing what she would do the next week.

  Next Monday it would begin all over again. And would continue until her girls were back home. This she vowed.

  No one had said they were giving up, but she couldn’t help but wonder if that day would come soon.

  The FBI had been helpful and professional. It’d been hard to accept, but Keeley understood their need to reduce the number of agents assigned to the case. Thankfully, the agent they’d left in charge was the most compassionate of the lot. Unlike some of the others, who’d only looked upon her children’s disappearance as a job, Honor’s empathy and humanity came through.

  The press had been another matter. She resented and hated their voracious, never-ending questions. At first they’d been like vultures, with only one thing on their minds—a dramatic or lurid story to tell. She allowed them entrance because she needed their assistance. Getting as much publicity into the world about her babies could only help.

  As much as she had resented their personal, often painful questioning, what hurt even more was when they began to dwindle away, leaving only a handful of local reporters. She told herself it was because more sensational stories were happening and not because they believed the case was over.

  She would not give up and refused to allow anyone else to give up either. Her daughters were coming back to her. Period.

  Her mind out of victim mode and into mission mode, Keeley pushed open the door to the kitchen. She stopped at the entrance, not wanting to disrupt the tender moment Eden and her husband, Jordan, were sharing. Whispering words she couldn’t make out, Jordan pressed a soft kiss to Eden’s lips and held her close in his arms.

  She observed these tender moments almost on a daily basis, and every time she did, a lump developed in her throat. What a beautiful and loving relationship they seemed to have. That kind of close bond in a marriage was foreign to her. Her mother had never married. And Keeley’s marriage to Stephen had never developed into the kind of loving intimacy Jordan and Eden seemed to share.

  Spotting Keeley at the door, Eden pulled away from her husband’s arms and smiled. “Come eat some of Jordan’s pancakes. You’ll love them.”

  Tears sprang to her eyes before she could stop them.

  Eden was at her side immediately. “What’s wrong?”

  Keeley shook her head. What a wimp she was. “I’m sorry. It’s just that pancakes are Hannah’s favorite meal.” She smiled through her tears. “She calls them ‘mama cakes.’”

  Eden gave her a bracing hug. “You have to have faith, Keeley. Soon you’ll be eating them again with both your daughters. Okay?”

  Keeley nodded. Eden was right. She had to stay positive that her girls would be returned to her soon.

  Taking a breath to calm herself, Keeley poured a cup of coffee from the glass carafe on the counter and sat down at the kitchen table.

  Jordan handed her a plate stacked with fluffy pancakes and then dropped into a chair across from her. “We have another operative coming tomorrow.”

  In the middle of pouring maple syrup on her stack of pancakes, she stopped to look at him. “Oh really … who?”

  “Cole Mathison. He’s worked a lot of these cases.” He glanced at his wife and then back to Keeley. “And he’s worked with Agent Stone before.”

  A burst of optimism hit Keeley. The more people on the case, the quicker her babies would be found. “What will Mr. Mathison do?”

  “Cole’s one of our best interrogators, excellent at ferreting out secrets. We’ll sit down and come up with a plan where his talents can be best used.”

  The hopeful news giving her a bit of appetite, Keeley attacked the pancakes with determination, managing six bites, along with a half a glass of orange juice and her requisite three cups of coffee. Then, pulling in another deep breath, she smiled at the two people across the table from her eyeing her with such concern. “I’ll be in my office if anything comes up.”

  “Jordan’s headed out to follow up on the tips that came in last night.”

  Every few days, Jordan mysteriously disappeared for several hours. Though she knew he was working closely with the FBI, Keeley knew he had contacts that weren’t necessarily considered aboveboard.

  Eden had assured her that Jordan’s methods of getting information from all kinds of sources were legal. Keeley didn’t care if they were legal. She just wanted results. So far nothing substantial had come from his contacts, but that didn’t keep Jordan from trying.

  Eden continued, “I’ll help him clean up in here and join you. Are Jenna or Miranda coming today?”

  Jenna Banks, Keeley’s best friend since they were children, and Miranda, Stephen’s sister, took turns helping her in the office. Since Jenna ran a successful business and Miranda had a six-year-old daughter, they both led very busy lives. Keeley was enormously grateful for their help. Not that it surprised her. Jenna and Miranda loved Hailey and Hannah almost as much as she did.

  “Unless I hear differently, I don’t think Miranda will be here until Friday.” Keeley laughed softly. “I expect we’ll see Jenna again tonight … she’s been dropping by around dinnertime a lot since Mrs. Thompkins has been cooking for us.”

  “I can’t blame her,” Eden said. “Her pot roast is out of this world.”

  Jordan gently nudged Eden toward the door. “I’ll clean up … there’s not that much to do. Go on with Keeley.”

  “You’ll be careful?”

  “Always,” Jordan said.

  At the tender look Jordan gave his wife, Keeley turned away and headed to her office. She wasn’t jealous of their relationship, but after her own failed marriage, seeing what was possible was sometimes painful.

  Flipping the light switches, she went about getting what she thought of as her control room up and running. She called it that because at least here she felt as though she had a modicum of control over the hell her life had become.

  The day she’d returned from the hospital, Keeley had converted what had once been Stephen’s home office into command central. Updating the website she’d set up after her girls were taken and generally making herself a pain in the ass had become a full-time job. She didn’t care. Until her children were back in her arms, this would be her life, and if she had to bug the hell out of every person in the universe, then she would.

  The FBI and LCR had the most-advanced technology and could accomplish much more than she ever could. It didn’t matter. She had to do something, and if she got even one clue, it would have all been worth it
.

  She clicked on her email and was soon immersed, barely hearing Eden quietly enter and begin work at the other desk. She tackled every email as she came to it, refusing to flinch at the sheer cruelty of some people. Within this correspondence could well be the key they’d been searching for for so long.

  Many of the emails were from well-meaning, sympathetic people only wanting an update or to express sympathy. A few didn’t bother with sympathy; they were the nosy ones, wanting to know information without any offer to help. And then there were the sadists who apparently got their rocks off by telling her she was a rotten mother. She printed each one, even the nice ones. Honor, Jordan, and Eden could read them and determine much more than she. Just because the emails seemed nice didn’t mean there wasn’t some underlying message she was missing. She could leave no stone unturned.

  The emailer who insisted on torturing her with the most horrific observations and cruel remarks hadn’t sent anything in the last few days, and unless he finally decided to admit he was the one who took her girls, she hoped she didn’t hear from him today. Some days she handled them better than others. Today, for some reason, she felt even more fragile. As if something was about to happen and she wasn’t as prepared as she needed to be.

  Unfortunately, she wasn’t going to get her wish. An email with the same subject line as usual showed up in her in-box. Closing her eyes, Keeley took a long, bracing breath. Then, determined to weather whatever the creep had to say to her, she clicked on the email.

  SUBJECT: Stupid Bitch loses babies

  Hi Bad Mama Bitch, over a month and still no sightings. Are the brats gone for good? Hopefully they found a better mother than you. Ha! A rabid half-dead hyena would be a better mother than you.

  Later, Bitch.

  After another shaky breath, Keeley hit the print button. Actually this message had an almost friendly tone. Others had been horrendously cruel, giving graphic details of what might have happened to her girls. Maybe he was getting tired of sending them. She sincerely hoped that was the case.

  Keeley didn’t question why she assumed this person was a man. There were plenty of mean-spirited women in the world, but for some reason she could not accept that there was a woman out there who would do something like this. A woman should be able to identify with how gut-wrenchingly painful it was to have your children snatched from you. She realized she was being unfair to the many good men in the world, but she refused to believe another woman could be so cruel.

  “Another one?” Eden’s sympathetic face peered over the top of her computer.

  Keeley released a shaky sigh. “Not as mean as he usually is.”

  Tilting her head a little, Eden posed the question Keeley had just been thinking. “Why do you always refer to this person as ‘he’?”

  “It was a man—or men—who took them.” She shrugged. “And it’s just hard for me to believe that a woman could be that cruel.”

  “First of all, we don’t know that the person sending these emails took your girls. And secondly, don’t kid yourself, women can often be much crueler than men.”

  “So you still don’t think this person took them?”

  “No.”

  “Why?”

  “Gut mostly … but also, why don’t the emails ever mention where the children are, why they were taken, or how they were taken? There’s no mention that you were almost abducted, too, no details given at all. I think this person is taking advantage of a horrific situation to hurt you even more.”

  “But why?”

  “Why does anyone hurt another person?”

  “Do you think it’s someone I know?”

  “It’s possible. Or it could just be someone half a world away who read about this and enjoys inflicting this kind of pain. I gave up asking why people are the way they are a long time ago. Just don’t assume that a woman isn’t capable of this type of cruelty. I was raised by a mother who would take great delight in something like this.”

  Unable to comprehend anyone being so vicious, Keeley asked, “How did you escape from being like her?”

  A small sad smile curved her mouth. “I had a stepfather who was the total opposite … and I had Jordan.”

  “You knew Jordan as a child?”

  Eden stood and stretched. “Let’s take a walk outside; I’ll tell you our story.”

  Biting her lip, Keeley glanced down at her monitor. As much as she wanted to get some fresh air and learn more about Eden and Jordan, she was torn. “You go on, I’ll—”

  “No arguments. It might help you sleep.”

  Appreciating Eden’s gentle bullying, Keeley stood and followed Eden out the door. Fresh air could only help.

  Still, she couldn’t get Eden’s comments out of her mind. The emails could be coming from a woman … even possibly one she knew? Keeley couldn’t accept that. No one she knew could be so incredibly evil.

  four

  Cole took a long swallow of coffee, hoping to sideline the oncoming headache. They were less frequent now. Doctors said that at some point, they’d go away completely. Couldn’t be soon enough for him.

  A glance at his watch assured him he had four more hours before the plane touched down at the Fairview airport. The remaining hours of the flight he would devote to reviewing the files one more time, including the things he’d avoided last night.

  The vibration of his cellphone in his pocket delayed the inevitable a little longer. He checked the readout and instantly felt a lift to his spirits. Shea. Though he figured he’d be getting a lecture, that didn’t keep him from enjoying talking to her.

  “Hello, Shea.”

  “I can’t believe you’re going to do this.”

  “What happened to ‘Hello, how are you’?”

  “Why would you put yourself through this?”

  “You, of all people, shouldn’t have to ask me that. In fact, I’m damn pissed that you and Ethan kept it from me.”

  “Because we knew exactly how you would react. Besides, Eden and Jordan can—”

  “I’m not disputing Eden and Jordan’s qualifications. But you had to know I’d be on it as soon as I found out.”

  “We thought you had enough on your plate. How’d you find out? You were supposed to be incommunicado for months.”

  “McKenna.”

  Her sigh held exasperation. “Remind me to have a talk with her next time I see her.”

  Picturing the determined and feisty McKenna battling the spirited Shea was almost amusing.

  “She did the right thing. I need to be on this case.”

  “You’ve been hurt enough.” The thickness in her voice told him she was close to tears. He didn’t like to think of her crying, but he would not back down.

  “You risked your life to avenge me when you thought I was dead. Do you think I can do anything less for this woman?”

  “Dammit, what happened wasn’t your fault.”

  “Doesn’t matter. It still happened.” He softened his voice. “I’ll be fine. I promise.”

  He heard an audible swallow. “How are you feeling?”

  Thankful she’d dropped the subject, he said, “Better each day. You?”

  “Almost completely recovered. No nightmares in weeks. Headaches are almost completely gone, too.”

  “I’m glad.”

  The knowledge that Rosemount had found Shea because of Cole’s drug-induced ramblings was bad enough. But after she’d been captured, Cole had stood and watched while she was being tortured and had done nothing to stop it. Those memories tore at his insides like shards of glass. Didn’t matter that he’d been drugged and hadn’t even known what the hell was going on. The recollections of her torture had come back quickly … were still featured in his nightmares.

  “Are you really feeling better?” Shea asked.

  “I’m getting there. Finding those kids will help a lot.”

  “You want us to help?”

  A smile lifted his lips. Cole touched his fingers to his mouth, unable to resist feeling i
t. Smiling was more spontaneous now, but still felt odd on his face.

  “I thought you and Ethan were concentrating on something else.”

  Shea laughed. “Well, we have to come up for air sometime.”

  Cole heard a growl in the background. Just as he figured, Ethan had been listening the entire time, and this was probably the only part of the discussion he’d disagreed with.

  “Thanks for the offer, but I’ll be fine. You guys stay busy making me a godfather.”

  Another laugh. Thank God Shea had almost completely recovered. Hearing her laugh eased the pain inside him. She deserved every happiness. Finally marrying the man she’d been in love with forever had helped her heal more than anything.

  “You’ll be the first to know when that happens.”

  “How’re Gabe and Skylar doing?”

  Another soft laugh. “Behaving like two fools in love. I’ve never seen a man smile as much as Gabe has since they got back together. And Skylar is glowing like the sun. They came over last night and we celebrated the house they closed on yesterday. It’s just a few miles down the road from us.”

  “Give them my congratulations, will you?”

  “Will do. And please, Cole, let us know if we can help.”

  “I will, Shea. Thanks.”

  Somewhat heartened by talking to his former wife, Cole pocketed his phone. She sounded so much like the old Shea, and hopefully, soon, she would learn she was expecting.

  Though she and Ethan had married several months ago, the doctors had advised Shea to wait awhile before trying to conceive, giving her body time to completely heal. She’d recently been given the go-ahead, and knowing his friends, he fully expected to hear good news very soon.

  If there was anything worthwhile that came out of the hellacious experience he and Shea had suffered, it was that Ethan and Shea finally got their happy ending.