"Thank you." Kelsey was tempted to hug the woman again. "You can't imagine—"
"It was no problem," she said. "That's what friends are for."
"You don't even know me."
"You're Eric's wife." She bumped Kelsey's shoulder. "That makes us friends."
"Oh."
The woman smiled and looked past her to Eric. "Well, are you going to explain what we're doing here?"
He cleared his throat and squeezed Kelsey's hand. In clipped sentences and straightforward words, he explained the situation to his friends, glossing over her time of captivity. Not that he could have shared those details, since she hadn't told him. When he finished, Brady stood and met Kelsey's eyes.
"You're saying this Carlos Otero is working with somebody in Nutfield?"
Eric started to speak, but she answered first. "I think so, sir."
Brady paced behind the club chairs. Johnny'd long since tired of sitting on his mother's lap and was stacking blocks in the middle of their circle.
"And you don't think it's a coincidence?" he clarified.
Again, she spoke before Eric could. "I believe it's possible he knew about my marriage to Eric. I'd told Danielle, and I suspect Carlos would have gotten as much information out of her as possible before..."
When she didn't finish, Brady said, "Right." He looked at Sam. "Any experience on the dark web?"
She pulled a MacBook from her giant bag and opened it up. "Nope. But let's see what we can find." She turned to Kelsey. "Do you have a web address I can look at?"
Garrison stood. "While you guys do that, I'm going to make a call."
No, no, no. Who would he be calling? She turned to Eric, knew her fear must've shown on her face, because he smiled and said, "It's okay."
Garrison said, "Did they tell you I used to be with the FBI?"
She shook her head.
Garrison sat again on the chair and leaned toward her. "You can trust me, Kelsey. I'm going to see if this guy's on their radar, and if they can give us any more information about him. Okay?"
He watched her, waited for her to agree.
"It's okay," Eric said again. "Trust me."
She turned back to Garrison. "Okay."
He nodded once and disappeared into another room.
Kelsey opened the iPad, navigated to the page, and showed it to Sam. A moment later, the same page glowed on her screen.
"What's Carlos's screen name?"
"V-E-L-A."
"Vela?" Eric said. "What is that?"
"Sounds familiar," Sam said, "but I can't figure out why."
Kelsey said, "Vela is the name of a constellation in the southern sky that's supposed to look like a ship's sales. It also has something to do with ships." When Rae's eyebrows lifted, she said, "I looked it up." She turned to Sam. "But maybe you're thinking of those mythical creatures in the Harry Potter series."
"Oh, yeah," Sam said.
"Right," Kelsey said. "But that's spelled with two E's. This is just one. Honestly, I'm guessing it's a nod to his home, Venezuela."
"Oh." Sam nodded. "Makes sense."
Eric turned to her with a smile. "You a big Harry Potter fan?"
She thought of Daniel. They'd read the books together, prompting his obsession with all things Hogwarts. And his round glasses and shaggy hair, which were straight out of the first book. "You ever read them?"
"Uh, no," he said.
"You should ask that kid you met the other day if he has. Lots of kids love Harry Potter."
His eyebrows rose. "Good idea. Thanks."
While she and Sam scrolled through the messages, Brady said, "How is that kid. Daniel, right?"
Suddenly, Kelsey couldn't focus on the screen, but she didn't look up. Couldn't show she was interested.
"I haven't seen him in a couple of days," Eric said, "but I talked to him yesterday morning. He's doing good. They got him enrolled in second grade, even though Marisa thinks he'd do well in third. Kid's sharp as a tack, despite his monster mother."
She swallowed the pain those words caused. Eric was right—she was a monster mother. A good mother would never have put her son in such danger. But he'd been born into that danger. And what other choices had she had? She could have given him up for adoption, she supposed. Theoretically. But not in reality. She loved him too much.
She longed for her son with his little round glasses and his little boy smell, his sweet voice and tender kisses. Would she ever hold him again?
"Is he adjusting to life with Nate and Marisa?" Rae asked.
Nate and Marisa. Were they good people? Were they kind people? Eric considered them friends, and based on what she saw here, he chose his friends well.
"Seems to be," Eric said. "He hasn't told them anything else about his mom, and I've had zero luck finding the woman."
"Here," Sam said.
Sam pointed, and Kelsey forced herself to focus on the screen.
TakeTwo: Need 1E, BL, BR, RH
Vela: Same $?
TakeTwo: Half w/ info
Sam read the lines aloud. "What does that first line mean? E, B-L, B-R, R-H?"
Kelsey had a guess. She'd seen those codes often enough in this chatroom. She wanted to see if this group would come up with anything better.
A minute later, Rae said, "Blonde, brunette, and redhead?"
Exactly what Kelsey had guessed.
Eric added, "Maybe one each?"
"Yes. That makes sense." Rae's enthusiasm waned as she considered what it meant. "Oh, my God. He's talking about selling...people. Women."
"Not women," Kelsey said. "Girls."
The room was silent as they considered that.
Eric broke it when he said, "It's the last line that bothers me."
Kelsey read it again. "Half with info."
Eric looked at Kelsey, swallowed hard. "What information do you suppose he's selling?"
"Oh." Kelsey's insides squeezed tight.
"We can't know for sure," Brady said.
"What other information would he have right now? Information worth the price of..." Eric waved toward the laptop on Sam's lap.
Garrison returned, and Brady faced him. "What'd you learn?"
"I'll have to wait for a call back." He sat and looked at Kelsey. "I'd like to share what you've told us. They'll be able to do a lot more with this information than we will."
The very thought of it made her stomach churn. "Can we find out what they know without telling them about this? I'm afraid... Carlos was always bribing people. I'd like to keep the circle small, if we could."
Garrison focused on Kelsey. He inched forward in his seat and leaned toward her, imploring her. "The FBI are experts in this sort of thing. You don't need to do this alone. You can't do it alone."
The thought of not being alone nearly thawed her determination. But she'd already let too many people in on her secret. "I trusted them already. I told them everything I knew about Carlos and his people."
"And a lot of them were put away," Garrison said.
"Not by the federal government, though. By the State of Florida. The feds... It wasn't important to them. They didn't see Carlos for what he was. They saw him as...as a pimp. Not a slave trader."
Garrison was nodding slowly, listening carefully. "But things have changed in the last ten years. Attitudes have changed. If a prostitute isn't eighteen, regardless of her attitude about her...profession, she's a victim."
"I was over eighteen." Kelsey remembered very well how the police had treated her and Misty, the disgust on their faces, the shame that had covered her like a layer of grime. "That's not how it was."
"It's changed, Kelsey. You've seen it, I'm sure, all the information about human trafficking, awareness campaigns, that sort of thing. Attitudes have changed. I promise you, my friends at the Bureau will take it very seriously."
Maybe he was right. But...could she trust him?
She didn't know. And she wasn't ready to make that decision. "Carlos is free, and they didn't care a whi
t. I can't risk that happening again."
"So you're willing to risk your own life?" Garrison said. "Because if I'm reading the situation right, he won't have any qualms about killing you."
He wouldn't kill her, though. That was the biggest secret she hadn't shared. Carlos wouldn't kill her until he had what he wanted from her.
She'd die before she let that happen.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Friday
I had to go to school today. Mr. Nate told me I should say that I got to go to school, because school is a privlige, and there are kids in other countries who don't get to go. I'm not trying to be ungrateful, cause Mama said I should always be grateful. But they put me in second grade. I should be in third. Even Miss Marisa thinks so. She'd know, too. She's smart, and she works at the school. They should have listened to her. But when Eric asked me when I first met him, I told him I was in second grade, because that's what Mama told me to say. Now I'm stuck with it. I have to make the best of it until Mama gets back. Then, she'll fix it.
Maybe she wants me to pretend I can't read and stuff, but it's too late for that, 'cause they know I can. And I can add and subtract, and I was even learning my times tables. I think I'll keep working on those without telling anybody, or else when I go back to third grade, everybody else will know them and I won't, and people will think I'm stupid.
I made one friend today. Her name is Mary Katherine, and she wears her hair in long braids and has glasses and freckles and a runny nose. At least I had somebody to sit with at lunch. I'm glad I don't have to go back until Monday. And Mary Katherine said that it might snow on Monday. Maybe there'll be a snow day and I won't have to go back until Tuesday. I asked her, and she said they have snow days in New Hampshire, too. All the kids were talking about it.
I hope it snows, but not until Sunday, because Eric promised to take me out to lunch tomorrow. I can't wait to see him.
I just thought of something. What if the snow keeps Mama from coming back?
I'd rather go to school on Monday and sit in second grade than have Mama not come back. I don't think I want it to snow after all.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
"I wonder if this is what it's like to have teenagers." The next morning, Eric waited by the front door while Kelsey walked down at the pace of molasses. "I'm not changing my mind."
She stopped halfway and glared. "I'm perfectly capable of staying here by myself."
"Sam wants you to come."
"I won't take off. I promise, I'll be here when you get back." Kelsey continued to the bottom of the stairs and crossed her arms.
The thought of coming home to her, his wife... He was tempted to let her stay, just so he could experience that one time. But then his smarter self took over. "Sam thinks the two of you can gather more information."
"How can she possibly help?"
"You'll be surprised," Eric said. "Y'all will probably have the whole thing solved by the time I get back."
"I don't have to go if I don't want to."
"You don't have to go to Sam's, you're right. You can come with me to meet Daniel." He doubted the kid would appreciate the tagalong, but Kelsey came first.
For some reason, that suggestion made her eyes fill with tears, and that made him feel about two feet tall. He didn't want to leave her any more than she wanted him to leave, but he'd made a promise to the kid, and he wasn't going to break it.
Eric prayed for patience, for wisdom. He hadn't wanted to bring this up, but it seemed that whatever that miscreant Otero had done to her hadn't completely drained Kelsey of the stubborn streak he remembered. "Sweetheart, remember that line on the message board yesterday, the one about information? What if Carlos knows you're here. My house is secure, and I'm a cop. If someone were after you, they'd wait until you were alone. Therefore, you're not going to be alone. No arguments."
The color drained from her face.
Eric wanted to pull her in his arms, but the memory of the night before kept him from stepping forward. He took her hand and squeezed. "Garrison will be there. He'll protect you. Maybe we should think about finding a safe house somewhere. I bet Sam would let us use one of her cabins."
"You don't think I'm safe here?"
"You've been running from him for a decade, Kelsey. If you think he has someone in town looking for you, then what do you think?"
She considered the question, sighed. "You're probably right." She looked around his house. "I like it here."
That remark made his morning. He'd thought, when he bought the house, that she'd like it. It was nice to know he'd at least gotten that right. He squeezed her hand. "We don't need to make any decisions right now. Besides, Sam's waiting for you, and Daniel's waiting for me."
Kelsey ducked her head, searched for her boots. But he'd seen something unexpected in her eyes before she did. Something painfully sad. Like longing. Like maybe she was missing him already.
Was she planning to take off today?
He'd have to clue Garrison in, make sure the man didn't let her get away. Maybe that made him a terrible person, but Eric didn't care. She wasn't leaving.
He couldn't let her leave. When they'd caught Otero, put him behind bars, then if she wanted to leave him, to go back to whomever it was she'd left, then fine. He'd let her go. It would kill him, but he'd let her. Not now, though. Eric wouldn't be able to survive it if she left him now, on the run, nobody to count on. He'd never sleep again for worrying about her.
Finally, she was ready to walk out the door. He ushered Magic into the backseat of the Jeep, then helped Kelsey in the front. At Sam's condo in town, he escorted her to the door.
"I'll be back in a couple of hours." Eric kissed her on the forehead, and she disappeared inside.
Back in his Jeep, he texted Garrison. Don't let her leave. No matter what she tells you.
A minute later, Garrison texted back. I'll do my best.
Why didn't that response make Eric feel better? Because Kelsey was a grown woman, and Garrison wouldn't hold her against her will.
He considered calling Marisa and telling her he couldn't meet Daniel after all. But he'd made a promise. And if Kelsey wanted to leave that badly, then nobody would be able to stop her.
He turned away from the condo complex and headed toward Marisa and Nate's place near the lake. It was a nice day, sunny and relatively warm. The temperature was forecasted to be in the upper thirties. Eric figured it was warm enough to try out that skateboard for a little while. He hoped the kid would like it.
But he couldn't keep his thoughts on Daniel, not with the memory of the night before itching to be replayed.
He hadn't planned it, and if he could go back and undo it... No, he wouldn't, even if he could.
They'd picked up Chinese and a movie on their way home from Brady's house. After the food, they'd sat side-by-side on the couch to watch the movie, a comedy neither of them had seen. Somehow, they'd gone from sitting to lying, her in front, watching the movie. Him behind her, watching her laugh.
He'd looked down at her face, at the way her eyelashes fluttered every time she blinked, the way her cheeks turned pink with every off-color joke.
It felt natural, her in his arms, like they'd been lying just like that forever. Felt natural when he'd brushed her hair out of her face, run his fingers down the length of it, enjoyed the silky strands against his skin. He liked it long, liked the color she'd put in it. Then he'd rested his hand on her waist. Still as thin as ever. His hand had traveled over her hip, then landed on her upper thigh.
Her laughing stilled, and the atmosphere changed.
He inhaled her scent, shampoo and soap and Kelsey.
He brushed a kiss in her hair. On her temple. She shifted, and he found that space right behind her ear, kissed it, too.
She turned to face him, and all wisdom slipped right out of his mind. They kissed, hands exploring, movie forgotten.
Her simple, whispered question snapped him out of his daze. "Do you have protection?"
"Of course not." He hadn't seen his wife in a decade. Even condoms had expiration dates. "Do you?"
"No." Her expression looked pained. "But we could risk it."
But rational thought seeped in. "Bad idea."
Where he'd found the strength to say it, he had no idea.
The moment passed, though his need didn't. He wanted her so much, he ached. And he didn't feel guilty about that. She was his wife. He could sleep with her without a twinge of guilt. But until he knew the whole story, he had to wait. Until he knew if she was going to stay or go back to the person she swore didn't exist, he had to wait. Because if she left him again, if she left him for somebody else...
There was somebody. He knew that. He'd seen the longing in her eyes when she'd talked about her home in...wherever. Not Kansas City.
So it was good they'd stopped.
And he wouldn't let himself think about babies, though he wanted one of those. Or two of them, or more.
He was overwhelmed by want.
The night before, they'd sat up, kept watching the movie until the final credits rolled. Then she pecked him on the cheek and went to bed.
He took a long, cold shower and slept on the couch. Partly to make sure she didn't try to escape again. Partly to make sure nobody came in to get her. Partly because he needed a more space between them than her closed door provided.
It was with great relief that he parked outside of Nate and Marisa's home. He needed a distraction badly. The house wasn't lakeside, but it was within walking distance of one of the beaches. Unlike the cabins that ringed the lake, this house was newer, two-story, and had a lovely yard for Marisa's daughter, Ana, to play in. Eric figured Daniel enjoyed the yard, too, on the warmer days.
He climbed the front porch steps and rang the bell. Inside, he heard the smack-smack-smack of someone running across the hardwood floor. A moment later, the door swung open, and Daniel stood there, a wide smile on his face.
"You came." The boy's voice was matter-of-fact, but his eyes gave away his excitement. Maybe his relief.
"Sorry I'm late."
A woman rounded the corner from the kitchen. She was gorgeous with that long brown hair and those wide brown eyes.
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