by T. J. Kline
Rose laughed, the sweet sound almost musical. “I suppose you are? Trust me, the two of you are so much alike, it’s disgusting.”
From anyone else, the comment would be offensive but from her twin, it was affectionate candor. “Well, we can’t all be saints like you, Rose,” she teased, the corner of her mouth lifting slightly.
“That’s not what my students call me,” she countered with a mischievous grin. “I’m mean Miss Blades. Ask any of them.”
Toni rolled her eyes. "Sure, you are."
It was odd to think they’d both disappointed their mother when they didn’t follow their father’s footsteps as a judge, but at least Rose had chosen a “safe” profession, one where there was never a worry she’d return home at night. The most dangerous part of her profession was one of the little rugrats biting her during a tantrum. Toni had been the one who broke her mother’s heart by going into law enforcement. Toni's choice was an unpleasant dinner topic for the first four years of her career and, because she refused to resign, her mother had blamed her for her nightly indigestion and her migraines. Toni secretly suspected she was behind Leo’s request. The woman could wear down a hardened criminal.
“Look, kiddo,” Rose said, growing serious and using her pet name for Toni as the older sibling by six minutes. “I get that you don’t like being told what to do. You never liked it when Mom and Dad tried, or when I do it.”
“Who you? Bossy?” Toni snorted and shot a sidelong glance at her sister. “Never.”
“But,” Rose went on, ignoring Toni’s remark, “It’s not like you didn't agree to step down this year. You both agreed, remember?”
“Me? Forget?” Toni grumbled under her breath. Rose glared at her. “It’s not like you and Mom let me.”
“We’re trying to protect you, Toni. Don’t you think this family has suffered enough losses? We don’t want to lose you too.”
Toni dipped her chin and frowned. “Are we going to do this again? This is my job, Rose. I’m good at it.”
“That doesn’t mean I have to like the fact that not only are you in a job where people shoot at you but you’re deliberately putting yourself in a position more risky than most.” She glanced at the file folder on the table. “At least if you were a cop, you’d be wearing a Kevlar vest, not some freaking miniskirt and tube top, propositioning Johns and hanging out in crack houses. Why do you think Dad hated it so much?”
Toni arched a brow at her sister’s reminder of how many times their father had tried to convince her to join the local police force instead of the FBI, though his recommendation had been the one that clinched the job for her. "That was low."
"I’m sorry.” Rose refused to meet Toni’s scowl. “But you have to understand—"
“How do you know about Johns, Miss Prim and Proper?” She didn't want to fight with her sister about this any more than she had with Leo.
Rose tipped her head to one side, exasperated. “This isn’t a damn joke, Toni.”
“You teach kids with that mouth, too?” Rose frowned but Toni saw the concern in her eyes. “Look,” she went on before Rose continued, “I know how to do my job. I’m well-trained and there’s a reason they keep giving me these. I'm not taking risks. I always have back-up and I’m under constant surveillance.”
“You got shot last year.”
“That was just a flesh wound in my upper arm. It didn’t hurt anything.”
It wasn’t exactly true. The injury had hurt like hell and she had a nice scar on her bicep now, but she’d healed quickly. In fact, she'd been back out on her next case only a few months later.
“Why can’t you guys trust me?” Toni wished she didn't sound so much like a kid pleading for a toy.
Rose shook her head, ducking it to hide the tears welling up. “Why can’t you get a normal job? So I won't worry about seeing you at night.”
Toni eyed the file on the table. While this was primarily a sex trafficking ring, the word on the streets was that they weren’t just dealing in girls. This particular operation was expanding and beginning to use the girls as mules to transport their drugs. There were also suspicions they’d added guns and child labor to their list of exports across the border. Local kids were disappearing. She couldn't stand by and watch another go missing if she was in a position to catch at least one or two of these assholes and put them behind bars.
Toni ran her hands down her thighs and picked up the file, squaring her shoulders, before letting out a long breath and turning back toward her sister. “I can't walk away from this, Rose. You make a difference in the classroom. You’re shaping minds before they become warped by the very people I’m trying to protect them from. I make a difference, too. I help people, too.” She silently pleaded with her sister to understand. “This is who I am, not what I do. It’s more than just a job to me. I thought you understood that.”
“I do.” Rose swiped at her eyes and stood up, meeting her twin’s pained gaze with a desperate one of her own. “That doesn’t mean I have to like it, or stand by and watch you throw away the best thing to ever cross your path.”
“You mean, Leo.”
“Yes, Leo. The man wants to marry you and start a family if you’d give him any indication you were ready. He’s been waiting for you for two years.”
Toni shook her head. She’d thought they were on the same page, but things had changed. Not her love for Leo, or her desire to marry him. But she’d been in the middle of the fight for so long, she didn’t want to walk away from it, didn’t want to watch other agents be the heroes while she was trapped inside doing paperwork. She wanted the excitement, the thrill of the pursuit, the glory of the capture. She didn’t understand why she and Leo couldn’t have both. But she suspected Leo wanted the same thing for her as her mother and Rose - safety and security. They wanted to put her away like a porcelain doll. But that wasn't the life she wanted. She sighed, knowing her sister wouldn’t understand and walked toward the other side of the study, determined to get that drink now.
“Where are you going?” Rose followed her.
Spinning on her heel, she faced her sister down, determined that this would be the last time they had this discussion. “We’re done with this, Rose. You made your career choices; let me make mine.”
“You promised.” Rose stabbed her with the accusation.
“I promised Leo.” She pierced her sister with an accusing glare. “Although, you and Mom put him up to it. Stop meddling in my love life.” If I still have one. “Maybe if you spent half that time and energy on your own relationships, I wouldn’t be the only one engaged.”
Guilt assailed Toni as soon as the words slipped past her lips. It was a sore subject for Rose. As much as she wanted to settle down, marry and have a family, as beautiful and kind and generous as she was, it hadn’t happened for her yet. Somehow, she’d only attracted losers and deadbeats.
Rose stopped halfway across the room, shaking her head as Toni ducked her own sheepishly and walked away.
“Typical Toni. The conversation takes a turn you don’t like and you sucker punch before you turn tail and run. One of these days, you’re going to have to face the truth. You’re afraid of letting anyone and anything become more important to you than this job. This job isn’t who you are,” she said, mimicking Toni’s earlier declaration. “It’s who you want to be.”
Toni turned and walked back toward Rose but she didn't give her the opportunity to speak.
"Yes, it’s who you wish you could become - the protector of the world, the righter of wrongs - and that is great, but you’re not a superhero from a movie, Toni. You’re not going to single-handedly save the world, no matter how much you think you can. Stop pushing away the people who love you for the people who don’t know you exist.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Do you love him?”
“Leo?” Rose arched a brow. “Of course, I do.”
“Then stop acting so afraid of your own vulnerability and let your guard down. You�
��re okay with putting your life on the line but not your heart and you’re using this job as a wall to keep from admitting it.”
Tension stiffened her spine as Toni closed her eyes against the chinks her sister’s words took from the armor around her heart. Toni had always held Leo at an arms’ distance. Not because she didn’t love him but because, one day, there would be a knock at the door. A fellow officer relaying the tragic news. It wasn't a matter of if but a matter of when.
Toni's purpose in life was to protect people, especially those she loved, not cause them more pain. She was able to assure the safety of her mother and sister, here in the high tower of their ritzy mansion their father had provided. Here, in the hills of Vegas, she could defend their fortress. But not Leo, not while he was on the streets. His job was as deadly as hers.
But he loved it and she loved him too much to ask him to give it up. Why couldn’t he do the same for her?
Leo watched through the one-way mirrored pane in the door as the man inside the interrogation room cracked his knuckles, looking around the narrow room anxiously. He’d been sitting this way, bouncing his leg and eyeing the door, for almost an hour but Leo chose to keep him waiting longer. The more agitated this suspect got, the more eager he’d be to talk once given the opportunity.
He looked like a typical clean-cut, All-American kid looking fresh out of high school and right off the football field even though he’d just turned twenty. His rap sheet indicated he’d been busted once for possession of marijuana and once for public intoxication a few years ago, then nothing. He'd been clean since and had cooperated when they picked him up, allowing them to take his truck and, in spite of his obvious agitation, he’d been patient about waiting for them to come talk to him.
It was all too simple for Leo’s liking, especially considering that, if Forensics came back with anything that tied his truck to the other two missing girls, he’d be charged with kidnapping three young women. Assuming they could make it stick. But that wasn’t Leo's problem; that was on the D.A.’s shoulders.
However, this kid was being incredibly cooperative for someone hiding three women, which meant one of three things: he was innocent, the girls were dead or they'd been removed from the area and he didn't worry about them being found. Leo's gut was telling him it was the latter.
He opened the door and entered, pretending distraction as he shuffled through a file folder, before glancing up at the kid. “Mr. uh…Wilson, how are you today, sir? I'll do my best to get you out of here quickly.”
Craig Wilson scowled back at him but rubbed his palms over his thighs several times. “I hope so. I’ve been here forever and I gotta get to work.”
Leo nodded sympathetically as he studied Wilson’s reaction but noted that he wasn’t overly antagonistic. “I apologize for the delay. We’re busy today.” Leo slid into the chair on the opposite side of the table.
Glanced back at the camera mounted in the corner of the ceiling, Leo waved and gave a thumb’s up. The kid’s gaze followed his.
“Who are you waving at?”
“We record everything. I was signaling them to start the video. So, what do you do?”
“What?” The kid looked confused.
"You said you had to get to work. Where do you work?"
"Oh, I…" Craig twisted to the left, hooking one arm over the back of the chair and arranging the other on the table, trying to look casual but clearly unnerved. "I'm a delivery driver for the 4Teen Center."
"You like it?" Leo leaned back in his chair, hoping his posture would encourage the kid to relax.
The kid gave a half-hearted shrug and looked down at his hand. "I guess. I mean, it's a job, right?"
"You use your own vehicle?"
"Nah, I use a company truck." He mimicked Leo's relaxed position, reclined in the chair with his hands on the table, without realizing he was doing it.
“Do they know you use it outside business hours?”
“Yeah, they said I could since my car broke down.”
"Cool. Would you like something to drink? Soda? Water?" Leo wanted him amenable, thinking Leo was his new best friend.
"Sure. Water's good." The kid shifted, stretching his legs out in front of him and crossing his ankles.
This kid was eating out of the palm of his hand at this point. Leo rose, as if he would get it, and opened the file, pulling out a school picture of the most recent girl to go missing. She was beaming, her blue eyes bright with youthful optimism. He leaned over the table, sliding the picture in front of the kid. “This is your girlfriend, right?”
Wilson turned the photograph toward him with a finger, glancing down at it before nudging it back toward Leo. “Megan’s one of them.”
Leo gave him a conspiratorial grin. “A real Romeo, huh? How many do you have?” Wilson shrugged a shoulder, looking suddenly annoyed. “When was the last time you saw her?”
The kid met his gaze, narrowing his eyes. “I don’t know.”
“Think hard.”
Wilson tensed, turning to one side again and sighed. A defensive posture if Leo had ever seen one. “I picked her up from school the other day. We went to a movie, then I dropped her off.”
“Where?”
“At her house.”
“And you haven’t seen her since?” Leo eyed the kid as he gave another half-hearted shrug. “Talked to her on the phone? Texts?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been busy.”
“Sure, you have. Oh, that's right, because you have a job.” Leo’s voice was patronizing, but he didn’t think this kid was bright enough to catch on.
“Yeah.” Wilson tried to pop his knuckles again. “What’s this about? Did she do something?”
Leo pursed his lips, watching Wilson. He debated not telling him anything but Leo was certain Wilson was playing games with him. Most criminals tried and the news of Megan’s disappearance had aired on this morning's news. Even with the few details they had kept quiet, it was likely Wilson had heard about his girlfriend’s disappearance, which made him playing dumb more suspicious.
“She’s missing.” He observed the kid’s response to the revelation and unsurprised when there wasn’t one.
“Missing?” Wilson's gaze shifted up, toward the ceiling, as if he might find his alibi there. “You sure she didn’t just run away? I mean, she fought with her mom a lot.”
Leo folded his hands, laying them over the file. “Really? Imagine that, a teenage girl fighting with her mother. Except, her mother told us they'd been fighting. The day she disappeared as a matter of fact. About Megan dating a guy five years older than she was and how her mother didn’t like it.”
Wilson held his hands in front of himself as he jumped up, sending the chair skittering over the chipped linoleum. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, man!”
Leo did the same. “Sit down,” Leo ordered and the young man complied slowly. “See? This is where we’ve got a little problem. You were the last person seen with Megan.”
“I told you, I took her home.”
“I know what you said.” Leo leaned forward on his steepled fingers. “But no one saw that and…” He paused as he slid into his chair again. “Let’s say, I don’t believe you.”
Wilson’s eyes shifted toward the camera in the corner before cutting back to Leo. “What…what do you mean?”
“Well, we’ve already talked to her parents, and they didn’t like you much. They said you convinced Megan to sneak out and meet with you. That they warned you that, if it happened again, they were calling the cops. And now, here you are, trying to deflect attention from yourself and pointing the finger at Megan’s mother.” Leo shot Wilson a sympathetic grin and crossed his arms. “What happened? Was it another fight with her mom about you? Maybe she asked you to take her somewhere, and you felt guilty enough to do it.”
There was a flicker of fear in Wilson’s eyes. “No, I mean, well, sort of, but…” Wilson stammered, stumbling over his words and getting agitated. “She’s told me she wanted to run away before
and tried to get me to let her move in with me, but I told her to stay. I mean, she’s a kid. I didn't want her to move in with me.”
“Because then she’d find out about those other girlfriends, right?”
“I drove her to the 4Teen Center. They help kids who want to run away get themselves on track. They help them work things out with their parents. I thought they could help her too."
Leo rolled his eyes as the door opened and an officer brought him in a report. He leafed through it before dropping it into the file on the table and pursing his lips at the kid in front of him. “You might be missing work today, after all, Mr. Wilson.”
“Why?”
“Because Megan wasn't the only one in your truck. You had a few other girls in there too, didn't you?” Leo tugged the pictures of the other missing girls out and laid them side by side across the table, lining them up in front of Wilson. “You know all these girls, don’t you? All girlfriends? Or did you help them run away too?”
Recognition widened Wilson’s eyes for a brief moment as he took in each photograph. Fear filled his face, his hands splayed on the slick metal table and he looked like he might try to make a run for it. After a long pause, he exhaled slowly, lifting his gaze from the pictures to meet Leo’s. “I want a lawyer.”
Leo smiled and nodded, rising from his chair. “I bet you do.”
4
Toni tucked the receipt from the coat check into her clutch and gazed across the bustling ballroom. She wasn’t sure what strings the FBI had pulled to get her a ticket, but she wasn’t going to complain.
The black-tie event for the 4Teen Crisis Center sold out every year, bringing in celebrities and their checkbooks. It was invariably one of the premiere events in Las Vegas, which was an accomplishment for any charity event in a city known for its vibrant entertainment. But this year the committee had gone overboard, turning the entire room into a dazzling display of richness. Swarovski crystals glistened in the overhead chandeliers while sheer draperies danced over the ceiling. Bright lights played over them, casting a waltz of color and shadows as a full orchestra played in the back of the room. Tables, surrounded by Las Vegas's elite, courted the peripheries of a dance floor where the beauty and money circulated. Rolex watches, designer clothing, and more diamonds than were part of the British Crown Jewels were on glorious display as Toni eased herself into the room, blending into the crowd in her Prada, introducing herself as Casey Miles.