Annie could easily see how Cyrus could lead task forces in Atlanta, but he sure didn’t know how to interact with his sister.
“Enough. Cyrus, you’re wrong. I’m going to listen to Annie. I’ll determine the best decision for the good of the team, and the innocents involved. Right now, we’re faced with a lot of shitty options. You’re right, I hate the idea of sending Annie into danger. But you want to know the truth? I think this is something, with a hell of a lot of planning, has a damn good chance of bringing down the whole operation.”
“Fuck, you can’t be serious.” Cyrus looked at Noah, and then around the table.
“He is serious, and if you could take your foot out of your mouth, and pull your head out of your ass, you could be a help instead of a hindrance,” Sarah said, as she nudged her brother with her shoulder.
“I’ve worked a lot of prostitution ring cases in Atlanta, and those can get really violent and abusive. I can only imagine this will be worse. Won’t you reconsider?” Annie looked into Cyrus’s worried brown eyes, and tried to give him a reassuring smile.
“I’ve made up my mind. You have to understand. I have a daughter of my own. I can’t imagine the hell the mothers of these girls are going through. I have to do this.”
“If I thought I looked young enough to entice them, I’d certainly be doing this, and you wouldn’t be able to stop me,” Sarah said.
“And if I looked less pregnant, I’d do it,” Kali chimed in.
“And I would stand by her, no matter how much it would drive me insane,” Noah said to the large man who looked so forlorn sitting beside his sister.
Finally Cyrus nodded at Annie. “Okay, let’s start working on a plan so we can get you back here with Nell as quickly as possible.”
Chapter Ten
Seth felt like he was juggling flaming knives, and with every passing night he cared less and less if he missed catching one and it stabbed him in the heart. First there were all of the double booked ships he had mostly straightened out, at the cost of a half a million dollars. Then there was Tomas and the money he had stolen from Labado. And then Tomas trying to set up a deal with Vargas so he could pay back Labado. There was Labado bringing Soto into the picture so he could fight with Vargas, not realizing both Vargas and Soto would flatten his organization in a blink of an eye. All of this was going on and he hadn’t had a chance to do anything about Leslie Gordon and her foul sex trafficking operation.
Maybe, just maybe, he could have coped if in the last six days he could have contacted Annie, but she blocked him. Every single time he tried to reach out to her in meditation it was like the door was closed.
Thank God for Nell. He could reach out and connect with her. She had been his lifeline through all this madness, her pure spirit a balm to his soul. But the last two days worried him. It was clear Annie was gone. Nell was anxious and upset. She missed her mother terribly.
He saw his Grandmother Shilah in Nell’s mind. Obviously she was taking care of his daughter, and when he tried to reach out to her, he was met with a mist. Despite their connection in the physical plane, apparently they didn’t have one on the dream plane. So he tried to piece together what was going on through the mind of a one-year-old. It was just one more thing driving him mad. He absolutely adored his daughter, and he was coming to realize she was so much smarter than a normal child her age, but she was still a baby, and they were only communicating in a dream.
“There’s my good girl.”
“DaDa.” Bright colors swirled over his head, cherry red, cobalt blue, Kelly green and lemon yellow. Faster, they swirled, so pretty, until finally they slowed, and he could see they were birds on a wind-up mobile hanging over Nell’s crib.
He was in the rocking chair beside her crib and she was standing up peering over the rail, delighted to see him. Then as if they were one, they looked towards the door of the nursery for Annie and then looked back at one another in disappointment. Where moments before Nell had been smiling, tears now dripped down her face. He went over and swept her into his arms.
“Where’s your mama, baby girl? Do you know?”
She shook her head, and he looked at her in amazement.
“Did you just understand my question?”
This time Nell nodded her head, but Seth saw the tears coming faster. She wasn’t behaving like a normal baby even when she was upset. No wailing for his daughter, just the heartbreaking tears. It reminded him so much of Annie when she was in pain. He pulled the hot little body close to his chest, and tucked her tiny head under his chin. Then he began to sway and hum. Finally she pushed from his chest, and her little tear-stained face almost broke his heart.
“I’ve got you, Nell.”
“Mama.”
“No I’m your Dad, honey.”
She gave him an exasperated look, it was so identical to Annie’s he chuckled, which took her from exasperated to frustrated which if he wasn’t careful she would soon be all out pissed. Again, just like her mom. Seth schooled his features, so he wasn’t smiling, it was tough. He couldn’t wait for the day he was holding his daughter for real.
Where the hell was Annie?
“Mama.” She pointed at him with an almost accusing look.
“Honey, I know, I want to find your mama too. I’m sorry I don’t know where she is. I promise I’ll find her.”
She shook her head, her straight silky black hair fell over her ears. When he looked at her hair, nose, the shape of her face, it was all him. Except for the emerald green eyes filled with recrimination, those were Annie’s eyes. “Mama.” She pressed her finger against his chest.
Shit, she was saying Annie was with him. How was it possible?
“Are you sure? Annie is coming to see me?” This time her hair fell over her eyes as she nodded. He brushed it back, marveling at the softness. Her little lip quivered and the tears started again. He couldn’t blame her. He’d be crying too, if Annie had left him.
What the fuck was Annie doing coming to him?
His stomach clenched in fear, but his heart leapt with joy. He was going to see Annie after all this time, he would see Annie, be able to hold her, touch her, smell her, and wrap himself in her warmth.
Think Natani! And not with your dick. She’s coming for a reason, and it’s going to be fuck-all bad. It’s going to be the worst thing you can imagine. It’s so bad, you can’t even imagine it.
****
Seth sat straight up in bed, bathed in sweat, the sheet tangled at his feet. He stumbled to the bathroom and threw water on his face, when he looked in the mirror he saw one terrified motherfucker.
Forcing himself to take deep breaths he took a shower, and he didn’t get out until he knew he could get dressed without trembling. He grabbed his cell phone and made the most important call of his life.
Fuck, he got voicemail.
“Evelyn, there is a problem, I need you to meet me at my office immediately.”
He put on a blue pinstripe suit and made his way to the office in record time. It was four am, Tuesday morning.
When he arrived, Sierra was sitting on his desk, wearing a blue pinstripe suit, holding out a cup of coffee for him. Apparently she was tapped into the cameras in his bedroom. Great, just great.
“Were you going to tell me Annie was in Florida?”
Sierra set the coffee on his desk, and picked one with a lipstick stain and took a sip, looking over the brim, gauging his mood.
“You better tell me the truth, or you won’t like the consequences.”
“You won’t hit me. If you haven’t hit that skank of a wife, you sure as hell won’t throw a punch at me. What’s more, I can take you.”
Seth waited.
“Yes, she’s in Florida, and no I hadn’t planned on telling you. Unless, of course, circumstances, warranted it.”
Oh he didn’t like the sound of that at all.
“Why would circumstances warrant it? Why is she in Florida? She should be back in California with Nell.”
“On that we agree. I’m not any happier about this than you are.” Gone was the cocky grin he had been met with, instead he could see strain and worry on the woman’s face.
“Sierra, cut the shit and tell me what’s going on. I’m begging you.”
“We weren’t making any headway on Leslie Gordon’s operation, Brice and Nate had…”
“Fuck no!” Seth roared. He crossed the distance between them in two strides and had Sierra held up by the lapels of her jacket. “Tell me Annie is not going undercover with the slavery operation.”
“Let go of me. This is your one and only warning, before I put you on your ass, Natani,” Sierra said in a deadly voice.
“Answer my question.”
“She’s has a modeling audition today. Put me down.” He let go, and she landed on the desk, miraculously, neither of the coffees spilled.
He turned his back and stalked across his office, and punched a hole in the drywall. If there was pain, he didn’t notice. He went to the window, and stared at the downtown Miami skyline. He needed to get his shit together, he knew he did. He was of no use to Annie in this state.
“How’d you know?”
“Don’t talk to me, Mathers.”
The silence went on for long minutes, until the pain in his hand finally registered. He looked down, and made a fist. He was lucky he hadn’t broken any bones. As it was, he was going to have to come up with some sort of bullshit explanation for the wall and hand.
“Why did you let her,” he asked turning around.
“Have you met her?”
“You’re military, she’s surrounded by found. She’s the least qualified for something like this. She has Nell to take care of. Why did you let her do this?”
“We have to stop this. We can’t go to your people, there’s nobody we can trust. She still looks like she’s a sophomore in college. You realize you’re a perv, right?” Sierra said, in a gently teasing voice.
Seth remembered how Annie always hated being carded whenever they went out, and rarely ordered a glass of wine because of it. She hated how young she looked, and was always doing her make-up to look older. Seth told her she would be grateful in her later years, but it didn’t seem to get through to her.
“Seth?”
“I’m here. Yes, I realize how young Annie looks. Sierra, you have to pull her out. I know how bad this is. I’ve seen up close and personal the hell these girls are going through. You’ve got to stop this now.” He’d get on his knees and beg if necessary. Sierra must have seen his intent, because she got off the desk and stood right in front him, resting her hand on his chest.
“If there had been any other way, we would have gone for it. As soon as Annie heard about the problem we were having, she immediately volunteered. She knew you would object. She said if you found out, this is what we were supposed to tell you. She said you were to think about your daughter. Imagine the hell you would be going through if your little girl had gone missing. What would you do? Wouldn’t you want someone to go to the ends of the Earth to help bring Nell back?”
He closed his eyes, and he couldn’t get the picture of Nell as a young woman out of his head. He suddenly imagined her face, with a tear rolling down, as she was on display with caviar on her body, Annie always had such a deep well of caring and empathized with those around her. She must have realized the hell these young women, girls, were going through, and she put herself on the line to stop the horror. Of course, his Annie would do nothing else.
“You had no right to keep this from me.”
“We were going to tell you if she ended up getting selected. There was no need to tell you until then.”
“Wrong. What happens if they realize she’s a plant right now? I deserved to know the second she was put in harm’s way. She’s my wife, goddammit!”
Sierra looked at him as if he had grown two heads.
“You have a wife, and she’s a drug-addicted, criminal whore.”
“Annie’s been my wife from the first moment I made love to her. I always intended to marry her. She knew it and I knew it.”
“Is that the reason you got her pregnant, because she was your wife?” Sierra’s voice was filled with derision.
“I’m only going to answer because you’re Annie’s friend. Obviously our birth control failed. There is no way I would have ever put Annie in that position and then taken another assignment. No way would I have done that.” He watched as her hazel eyes considered him. She must have seen something because she finally nodded her head.
“Okay then. I’m still not buying this wife thing, but I definitely believe you love her, how can you not. She’s Annie. I’m supposed to hear something by noon today. I’ll keep you informed every step of the way, what I hear, you’ll hear.”
This was going to be the worst day of his life. No wonder she had been blocking their dream connections. Well this shit would stop now. Not only would Sierra keep him in the loop, so would Annie. He wasn’t going to be left out by anyone from now on.
****
“Why is she still at your office if you figured out the shipping problems?”
Seth watched the plate of eggs drip down the wall of the dining room. Obviously the home drug rehabilitation program was going fabulously.
“Because I said so.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s a perfectly acceptable answer when dealing with a child,” Seth said, in as calm a tone as he could manage.
Tomas laughed into his napkin, but then managed to pull himself together. “I have to agree with Portia in this instance, why is Ms. Pierce still working with you if we have worked out all of the double booking issues?”
“I think we have more issues with Benitez Shipping than the double booking, don’t you Tomas? We have some missing monies Evelyn Pierce is eminently capable of moving into current status instead of showing last year. Then as payments are brought in to cover these outstanding debits, they will match up to current receivables, instead of grossly overdue debts we will be hard-pressed to explain.”
“She sounds like a genius.”
“She is.” She really wasn’t. At least not at manipulating the books. He was handling them, but it was a good cover. He wanted her planted in his office so she could keep him informed of Annie’s progress.
“Well I don’t like it. Make her go away, Daddy.” A salt shaker went winging across the room and shattered a mirror.
“Stefan,” Tomas yelled. Stefan immediately came into the room. Seth figured he had been standing outside the door, waiting to be called in.
“Take Portia to her room. Search it. Obviously she has been getting her hands on coke. Also, call the doctor. Portia, if you’re not very careful, I will send you to rehab, and you know how much you hate that. As it stands now, you are grounded for a week. No shopping, no leaving the grounds.”
“Daddy!” she shrieked, as she picked up the pepper shaker. Stefan’s big hand covered hers, plucking the crystal shaker out of her fist before she could throw it.
“Go with Stefan before I make it two weeks.”
She pushed from the table, and upended her chair before Stefan could catch it. Stefan followed her out of the room. Tomas turned to Seth. “She is such a high spirited girl. I just wish her mother hadn’t died when she was so young, then she wouldn’t be so out of control now.”
Yeah, that was it.
“So do you really think Ms. Pierce can fix the books? I spoke to Vargas two days ago, and he is positive there will be a shipment ready for us in ten to twelve days. All we have to do is have a ship ready to make the pick up when he gives us the signal.”
“That’s all we have to do?” Seth was incredulous.
“Yes, I can’t believe how everything is coming together. I’m going to be out of this mess in less than two weeks. Thank God for Evelyn Pierce and Vargas.”
“Tomas, we can’t have a ship wandering around in international waters for forty-eight hours waiting for a signal to pull into port. That�
��s going to raise all kind of red flags. Vargas has to give us a specific arrival time, so we can plan.”
“Of course I suggested that, I’m not stupid. I’ve run this company for years without you Carson. Watch your tone. When I told him, he was…well, he was very forceful that this was the way things needed to be done. So naturally I agreed.”
“Naturally.”
“Boy, don’t think I can’t hear your sarcasm, because I can. It’s your job to figure out how to get this done. It’s what I pay you for.”
Seth took two deep breaths. “Let’s get this really clear old man, I married into this circus. I’m not on your payroll. There is nothing you have that holds my loyalty but my sense of honor. I’ll pull your ass out of the fire with Labado because I got sucked into this through my own stupidity, but don’t ever think you own me. Are we clear?” Seth threw down his napkin and stormed out of the dining room.
He briefly considered getting into his Ferrari, but realized he was operating on five hours of sleep in three days, he’d crash for sure. Annie and Nell were depending on him. He went to his room, passing Portia’s bedroom on the way. Stefan was standing outside her door like a sentinel, and nodded at him.
He went into his bedroom, and wished the monitoring devices had been eliminated here as they were at his office, but it couldn’t happen. He was stuck. He had made his bed as soon as he volunteered to take the one last assignment. Why did he do it? He had the world laid out at his feet, and he tossed it away. Sitting on the bed, he thought about taking off his shoes but before he could do anything sleep overcame him and he fell over sideways.
****
“Sierra told you?” Annie was curled up with her knees tucked under her chin, at the end of the crappy couch in the filthy motel room.
“Is this why you’ve been blocking me?”
“Not entirely. You were married. What we were doing was wrong.”
Forsaken (The Found Book 2) Page 9