He’d never felt an instant attraction to anyone the way he did Alex. Women had thrown themselves at him back in his glory days, but he’d had to work to win Alex over. She’d been so serious and sweet—perfect for him. He’d wanted her from the first moment and never anyone else after. Alex had made a man out of him, and he’d walked away.
Jackson reached over and stroked Olivia’s soft cheek as his regret ate him whole. As much as he wanted to be angry with Alex, he couldn’t. He alone destroyed the best part of his life the night he let her run off devastated. Could he really blame her for not sharing the news of her pregnancy?
If he could go back and change it, he would. God knows he’d paid for his mistake every day he’d had to live without her. He’d gone back for Alex, but it had been too late.
“What the hell are you doing, Jackson? What are you thinking? She won’t want to see you.” The worrisome thoughts plagued him as he raced down the interstate to the college. Despite the tension clenching his belly, he drove on.
He had to do this. He needed to apologize and tell her he’d been a fool. If only he’d taken the time to think before he messed everything up. Hours before he ended their relationship, he’d pulled his gun on a robbery suspect for the first time. It had freaked him the hell out. Life right now freaked him the hell out. Everything was so hectic and crazy; the responsibilities were overwhelming. Why did he think pushing Alex away was the answer?
Now she was gone, and he was miserable. The last two months had been hell. He wanted her, needed her—was lost without her.
He pulled into a parking space across the street from her dorm. The calendar announced early spring’s arrival, but the piles of snow told a different story. “Alex, I’m sorry. I love you,” he muttered, practicing what he planned to say. “I didn’t—”
The words froze on his tongue, and he gripped the steering wheel tight when she pushed through the glass door of her building and stepped on the sidewalk. God, he missed her. She was so beautiful bundled in her navy blue coat with her white scarf tied at her neck.
He grabbed the handle on the Jeep and opened the door. Heart pounding, he cupped his hands around his mouth to yell her name, but stopped when a guy came up behind her and said something next to her ear. Alex threw her head back and laughed. Jackson stared, shocked, as the full-throated sound carried across the air and the man took her hand. Blinking his disbelief, he watched them walk away.
He sat in the Jeep long after Alex disappeared down the street, realizing he’d lost everything.
Jackson rubbed a hand over his heart, attempting to banish the raw ache of the still-painful memories. He’d been a coward, and as a result ruined everything years ago, but Alex was here now, and she needed him. He planned to be here for her every step of the way.
Sighing, he toyed with the ends of her soft hair. She broke his heart when she wept for her sister. Her desperate tears had brought him to his knees. Alex and Abby had always been close. They shared an unshakable bond that came from the ashes of a tough childhood. Alex had been as much Abby’s mother as her sibling, which would only make her grief that much worse.
He’d meant what he said when he told Alex she and Olivia were right where they were supposed to be. Nobody knew Alex the way he did. No one could help her through this time the way he would. But first he needed answers. He thought of Abby’s bright blue eyes and free spirit. What the hell had she gotten herself caught up in? Abby’s abduction hadn’t been random; she’d been a planned target. The burn phone was testament to that. Whoever took Abby did their research. They knew about Alex and Olivia; more than likely, the kidnappers knew everything about them.
Alex and Olivia were as much targets as Abby had been. Over his dead body would they meet the same fate. No one was going to touch his daughter or get to Alex. His new mission in life was to make sure the fuckers paid.
With a last brush of his fingers through Alex’s hair and a final look at his daughter, Jackson stood. He needed to talk to Detective Canon again and get in on the case. He’d put up with the double talk and non-answers a few hours before, but that would end now. He walked out of the room and frowned when he noticed the light on under his bedroom door. Twisting the knob, he stepped in and stopped, staring in disbelief. “Ev, what are you doing?”
“Packing.”
“I see that.” Hurrying to where she stood, he pulled the blouse from her fingers and took her hand. “Why?”
“Oh, Jackson, why do you think?” She grabbed the light pink top and set it in one of the many open suitcases.
He jammed his fingers through his hair, hardly able to keep up with another emotional crisis. “I thought we were okay, Ev. You said we were okay. I know I’m asking a lot of you right now, but please don’t go.”
“I’ve had time to think this afternoon. I can’t compete with your past. Quite frankly, I don’t want to.” She put a pair of folded slacks in another bag, hanger still in place.
He dropped his hand. “Compete with my past? I’m not asking you to. You have to give me some time to adjust here. This is hard on all of us.”
“I want them to go to a motel.” Evelyn yanked a drawer open and pulled free several pairs of frilly silk panties.
He frowned, surprised by the heat behind her words. “That’s not an option.”
She whirled away from dresser. “Why?”
“Because they’re in danger. Abby’s abductor killed her while Alex listened tonight. They threatened to take Olivia.”
Evelyn’s shocked eyes met his as she gasped. “My God, Jackson. That’s awful.”
He walked to her and settled his hands on her shoulders, desperately wanting her to stay. “Yes, it is. She’s going to need a friend. I can’t just walk away. We have a daughter. I know that’s not fair to you, and I know this isn’t what you signed up for, but this is where we’re at.”
“You’re in love with her.” She blinked back tears.
“No.” He shook his head vehemently, needing to deny the truth. Alex was here. He planned to help her out, but Evelyn was his chance to move on. He and Alex shared a daughter, a past, but it was doubtful they shared a future. He couldn’t spend the rest of his life yearning for what he could never have. “No, I’m not.”
“Yes, Jackson, you are. You and I have dated off and on for just about a year now. I thought we were moving in the right direction, but then I saw the way you look at her. I want that. I want to be with someone who looks at me the way you do her.”
“What are you talking about? How do I look at her?” How did he look at Alex? No different than he did any other beautiful woman, he assured himself.
“As if she’s your whole world.”
“No.” He shook his head again and closed his eyes as the arrow hit the mark. But still he needed to deny. “Alex used to be my whole world. She used to be everything.”
“She still is.” Evelyn pulled away and zipped her full suitcases.
The commotion woke the sleeping puppy. Mutt yawned, stood, and began to sniff around.
“Ev, please stay.” His voice rang with an edge of panic. “Please stay and give us all a little time to get used to this.”
“I can’t.” Her voice shook as she set the luggage on the floor and snapped cases on top of cases. “Do you realize you’ve never told me you love me?”
“Yes, I have.”
“No. I tell you I love you. You always say ‘you too.’ I’ve never heard the words. Now I know why. They belong to someone else.”
He took her arm, desperate. “Evelyn, please. They belong to you.” He wanted nothing more than for that to be true.
She let loose a humorless laugh as tears trailed down her cheeks. “Even now, when it’s all on the line, you can’t say it.” She yanked away, ignoring Mutt as he jumped at her leg. “Goodbye, Jackson.” She wiped at he
r eyes.
“Ev. Ev, I’m sorry.”
“Me too.” She pulled her enormous cases behind her and strolled out of his life.
Jackson absentmindedly rubbed the puppy curled in his lap while he stared at his office phone. Evelyn was gone. She actually left. Just like that, she’d packed up her clothes, her scented candles, and whatever else she’d placed around the house and took off. It was as if she had never been here, as if they hadn’t lived together for almost six weeks. His whole life had changed in a matter of a day, and she hadn’t given him a chance to adjust. They’d been building something steady and strong, and now it was over.
So why wasn’t he devastated? Why didn’t he feel torn in half the way he did when he saw Alex with the man on the sidewalk? He and Evelyn had good chemistry. They had fun. Their relationship was easy—maybe too easy. He hadn’t realized he’d never told her he loved her until she pointed it out. Why?
Because he didn’t.
Jackson closed his eyes. He definitely didn’t love Evelyn. He’d wanted to. He’d tried. God how he’d tried, but Alex was always there in the back of his mind. He leaned his head against the soft leather of his chair as the weight of despair crushed him. Would Alex haunt him forever? Would he always love someone he couldn’t have?
Alex was here in his house—asleep in his bed. She had carried his child, but that hardly guaranteed them a future. He’d read her weary eyes and nervous, jerky body language while they tucked Olivia in to bed. Alex’s shield was up, and it would be hell on earth trying to knock the layers away. He had damaged a piece of her and destroyed her trust. He wouldn’t get it back easily.
Sure, she had leaned on him throughout the day, but she was vulnerable, at rock bottom. Alex would bounce back soon enough. She wouldn’t stop until she had justice for her sister. Alex was a fighter. He had broken her heart, yet she’d carried on with her life just fine and raised their little girl without him. He loved her, always had, always would, but that didn’t mean much if the feelings weren’t mutual.
With a sigh, Jackson picked up the phone. He couldn’t change the past. And the future… They would have to take that a day at a time. Alex needed help now. He would concentrate on the present for a while. He punched in Detective Canon’s office number and waited. It was six a.m. on the East Coast. Canon was probably there.
“Detective Canon.”
“Detective Canon, this is Jackson Matthews. We spoke yesterday about the Abigail Harris case.”
“Yes. What can I do for you?”
“Several things, but let’s start with the call Alexa Harris received at one a.m. Pacific Time. Did you boys get a trace?”
“I’m afraid I’m not able to share that information with you.”
Jackson adjusted Mutt in his lap as he raised his legs and crossed them on the desk. He might as well get comfortable. This was going to take a while. “Oh come on now, Detective, give it a try.”
“I’ve already told you what I can, Mr. Matthews.”
“Which was a whole lot of nothing.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry’s not good enough. I was a cop myself for two years—Pittsburg PD. Now I work for Ethan Cooke Security—Los Angeles Branch. Risk Assessment Specialist. Go ahead and look me up.”
“Mr. Matthews—”
“You can either be straight with me right here and now, or I’ll go around you. I still have plenty of connections out east.”
Detective Canon let loose a heavy sigh. “Mr. Matthews, you’re backing me into a corner.”
“Someone’s threatening my three-year-old. I’ll back you off a cliff if that’s how I’ll get answers.”
The sigh again.
This time a humorless smile curved Jackson’s lips.
“The feds called me shortly after five—one a.m. your time,” Detective Canon began. “They triangulated a signal half an hour north of Baltimore at one of the inlets on Loch Raven Reservoir. A team of agents along with a group of our men went to check it out. They located the phone and dusted for prints. Came up with nothing. They brought in search-and-rescue dogs, who followed a trail of tire tracks for a mile before they lost Ms. Harris’s scent. The feds had the cadaver dogs search the area and follow the same tracks, but they didn’t alert, so that’s something. CSI made a mold of the tire tracks and any footprints found at the location.”
“That’s a lot of action. Break it down for me.”
“Despite the nature of the abductors’ last phone call, there’s a strong possibility Abigail Harris is still alive.”
Jackson sat up in his chair, and Mutt yipped his startled surprise. “Run that by me again.”
“CSI assures me that if Ms. Harris had been killed in the area, which the phone call alluded to, her remains would’ve begun their decomposition process right away. The cadaver dogs utilized are a Quantico trained team—the best the FBI has to offer. They can pick up on fresh remains almost immediately after death.”
“So Abby’s alive?”
“More than likely. As I said when we spoke earlier, we’ve seen this MO on three other occasions over the last six months. The ransom piece is new, but the method of abduction is dead on. Alexa Harris shared with us in an interview Friday evening that she remembered a van following her off and on throughout the day as they traveled home from Virginia Beach. In all four kidnapping incidences, young women have been taken by two men who rush from a tan, silver, white, and now gray van. The only difference between Abigail Harris’s case and the other three is the burn phone. This is the first time the kidnappers have attempted contact with the family.”
“So let’s go with the theory that Abby is alive and the same people who abducted three other young women have also taken her. Why would they want to make contact with Alex? What’s changed?”
“Nothing. My gut’s telling me this is a diversionary tactic. A vice team spotted one of the victims last month in a strip club in DC, then again in Baltimore. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ran several raids—without luck. Now they know we’re on to them.”
Jackson’s stomach sank as the pieces started fitting together, but he would let the detective play it out. “You lost me. Who knows you’re on to them?”
“The Mid-Atlantic sex ring. Our vice teams are putting in overtime at some of the seedier strip clubs and prostitution joints in the Baltimore/DC area. They’re getting closer to blowing this thing wide open. The FBI and ICE as well as the Baltimore and DC PDs are working a joint taskforce to bring this group down. They’re big and dangerous. An agent was made yesterday. They found him floating in the Potomac last night.”
Dread quickly replaced unease. “Son of a bitch.” The situation was more dire than he’d imagined. A sex ring had a bead on his family. “Sex trafficking? Are you telling me Abby may be caught up in sex trafficking? That doesn’t make a damn bit of sense.”
“Doesn’t have to, Mr. Matthews. They see what they want and take it. But that’s where we hit our dead end. We haven’t been able to find the common denominator. Why were these girls targeted and taken? How were they targeted? We’ve been through their computers, cell phones, have talked to close friends and family. None of the typical avenues we check are coming up as a green light. Nothing fits. Nothing matches to string the four victims we know of together. Until we figure that out, we aren’t bringing anyone home.”
Jackson rubbed his fingers over his brow and closed his tired eyes. “So, what’s the next step?”
“We’ll continue to search for leads until we can take this operation down. Our biggest objective right now is focusing on the major players. I want them wrapped up with a goddamn bow. Zachary Hartwell, CEO of Starlight Entertainment—he’s our number one man, dirty fucker. He’s smart, slippery, lawyered up, and he’s mine. The Commissioner and DA are breathing down my back to bag him on something tha
t’ll stick.”
Jackson recognized a personal vendetta when he heard one. “That could take months, even years. What does that mean for Abby and the other victims?”
“It means were working our asses off to get them home.”
“But not until Zachary Hartwell takes the fall.”
“I’m doing the best I can here, Mr. Matthews. We’re all doing the best we can. I’ll keep you up to date with any new developments.”
“Thank you, Detective.” Jackson hung up and scrubbed his hands over his face. “What a fucking nightmare,” he muttered. Kidnapping to murder to sex trafficking. If this latest development in Abby’s case was the road they would be traveling, it was bound to be long and ugly. If Abby was still alive, she was going to be a mess when they found her—if they found her. The call had been made north of Baltimore an hour ago. She could be anywhere by now.
He stood, wanting to talk to Ethan and begin formulating a plan, but it was late. First thing in the morning he would start making his calls. He wouldn’t be leaving Abby’s fate in Detective Canon’s hands. Jackson read between the lines just fine. Abby and the other young women weren’t on his list of priorities unless they were going to help him bring down the Mid-Atlantic sex ring, which was highly doubtful. Abby was taking a backseat to politics and pretty promotions. That wasn’t acceptable.
He twisted off the gooseneck lamp and started down the hall, carrying the snoring puppy. How was he going to tell Alex? How could he get her hopes up with news that Abby might be alive only to dash them with the rest?
He turned into his room and laid Mutt on the small bed he’d made out of a couple of spare blankets. Mutt gave him a half-hearted tail wag before he rolled to his back and went to sleep. “You definitely have the right idea,” Jackson muttered as he stood and pulled off his shirt, tossing it across the room in the general direction of the hamper. Abby’s situation was bad, as bad as it got, but his hands were tied for now. He needed access to Ethan’s fancy computers before he could do anything more.
Forever Alexa (Book Four In The Bodyguards Of L.A. County Series) Page 8