He was in a hurry to get back to pleasure, so his current business was going to be quick. Real quick.
Carson wasn’t as worried about Sam Charles anymore. He was thinking the yokel was just an idiot. Good thing Mike and Asher wouldn’t let Charles get close to Sienna, because this pursuit required his full attention.
Their protection of Sienna allowed Carson to put his worry over Charles on the back burner, since the possibility of Sienna agreeing to be in his movies was slim to none.
This left Carson hurrying, strumming the steering wheel, and grinding the clutch all the way to his hotel. For once in his life, the speed didn’t take him away.
If what he feared most was true—that Sienna was the woman he’d been chasing around looking for—he realized Sam Charles would make a good decoy. The asshole would throw everyone off of him. At least until he figured out what he wanted to do, or needed to do to keep Sienna safe.
Carson took the turns faster than he should, going over what Sienna had told him about herself in his head. He was rolling over her words in his mind. Military kid. But military brats were usually pretty rule-oriented; they didn’t typically avoid paying taxes.
Mike and Asher knew Sienna about seven years, which was around the time she slowly started making it onto the scene. Around the same time period his current client told him their daughter went missing.
He banged the steering wheel with his hand. Luck of the fucking draw. He’d been on a wild-goose chase around the west, and he might have just fallen for the victim.
Carson concentrated on breathing. He needed to be pragmatic, like they taught him to be when he was in training. He couldn’t let emotions rule his thought process. He had about ninety minutes, tops, at the moment. He needed to go back and review his notes in the quiet of his hotel room before he jumped to any conclusions.
Once back at the hotel, he punched the elevator button like it was the enemy. He needed to get back to his room before he put his fist through the wall. His thoughts were moving as fast as he liked to drive.
How could he fall for a stripper? Did he really believe he could have a future with a woman who took her clothes off for hundreds of men every night? One of those fucking men could be trying to take her home at the moment.
Was Sienna a person of interest? Did he even care? Would he turn her in, or help hide her?
What happened to years of service with the government, and the number one rule to never get involved with someone on a case?
Well, he didn’t know.
Life was a bitch.
He dwarfed the miniscule hotel room workspace as he sat down. He crouched down to fit his legs under the desk. Fuck it. Now wasn’t the time to be comfortable. With a bottle of water cracked open since it wouldn’t be smart to have another drink that might further cloud his instincts, Carson opened his laptop and waited for his notes to load. This was such bullshit. He knew this current job was taking much longer than he expected. He was looking for a young woman, twenty-eight years old, who just up and disappeared about seven years ago. There wasn’t even the smallest trace of her. She was good.
When he took the case, he had never expected her to be able to disappear so completely. Her young age combined with the less-than-worldly family who hired him didn’t exactly say “criminal mind.”
Her family appeared to be clueless when it came to the real world, so he was unsure how she planned such a clean escape since she’d grown up in such a sheltered environment. They were like a cult or something. “Religious freaks” was putting it lightly. He wasn’t sure they even associated with anyone in the outside world.
In fact, he had no idea how they knew his friend, Alex, who referred them to him as clients. Oh right, he had a relative who lived in their area, but Alex wasn’t one of those religious freaks.
Maybe Carson could talk to Alex and get some insight?
Nah, that would mean I’d have to reveal this pitiful mistake of falling for the wrong woman.
All the evidence aside, Carson got why the woman wanted to get the hell out. Her family was downright fucked up, in his opinion.
He hated cults. How the hell anyone survived such closeness, scrutiny, and judgment among family members and community, he didn’t know. He would hightail it out of there if he’d been born into such a group.
What if there was more of a reason why this girl fled? Could it be the husband who recently crawled out of the woodwork?
Her family had him running all over. Although she grew up in an urban setting in Brooklyn, New York, her relatives decided it was likely she was hiding in a small rural town as far away from New York as she could get. Why would they say that?
Setting me off course on purpose? Why hire me in the first place?
“Why? How do you figure a rural area? What is she running from?” he remembered asking the parents. He had scanned their faces for any signs of emotion, but had seen none.
“She wanted to live differently, abandon our customs,” her family had told him. “She wanted to experience something different from what she grew up with, so we think a rural community is logical.”
Logical, my ass.
The family’s innocent act didn’t match how desperate they were to find her. He knew it all along, but he became a little too occupied with watching a stripper, who he was now smitten with more than he cared to admit. She had come to represent so much more, and had diverted his focus from his case.
Now, he had several problems on his hands. First, he had let himself fall for an adult dancer. Second, he’d never lost his grip on a case before. Third, how was he going to fix this if Sienna was who he was afraid she was? And did he want to fix it?
If the woman wanted to go her own way, why wouldn’t her family let her? She was an adult at the time she left. Carson couldn’t stop all the scenarios and questions running through his head when his notes finally opened on the screen.
His original notes were about as bare as a cue ball. This should have sent up a number of red flags, but at the time, Carson was determined to do a favor for his friend Alex. After all, Alex’s family had taken him in when he had no one.
Glancing over the notes from his initial meeting, he was starting to doubt his decision.
Female, disappeared, early twenties.
Name: Lilach Dasher
Current Age: 28
Hair: brown
Eyes: green
Weight: 120 lbs.
Height: 5’9”
Parents spent the last six years looking on their own by reaching out to family while saving funds. Why wasn’t the situation more urgent to them?
Didn’t contact authorities? “No, we don’t do things like that in our community.” Small religious community governs itself???? (Need to research.)
Carson banged his fist into the small hotel desk, making the whole damn thing shake. Then went back to reading his notes.
Young woman was just gone. All her clothes and personal belongings were still in the house, including her purse. Purse was missing cash, but credit card and license still there.
Both first and second meetings, family reiterated, “Prefer not to bring outsiders into our lives. Not our way.”
Initially, parents told community their daughter was “visiting sick relative” in anticipation of her returning, when she realized couldn’t make it on her own. ALMOST SEVEN YEARS AGO?
He downed the rest of his water bottle, wishing it was something stronger, and then chucked it across the room. It did nothing to alleviate the anger that gripped him.
When she didn’t come back, community spread many rumors. She was sick. She ran away to a new religion. Family assured everyone she was now “volunteering at military base.”
Why so much covering up? Lies.
Christ, he could chuck a grenade across the entire hotel and it wouldn’t dispel his fury.
Carson scrolled down the screen to the part where the bombshell dropped. After working the case for almost a month, he had flown back to New York f
or a periodic reporting meeting with the family when he was unexpectedly introduced to the young woman’s husband.
Husband. If he’d had any inkling there was something wrong with the case before this monkey wrench had been thrown into the works, it was certainly confirmed afterward. The case was now gnawing a hole in his gut.
***Edited to add after MEETING HUSBAND, Elon Finder:
Married name is Lilach Finder.
Husband went to bed at night (husband and wife slept in separate bedrooms during wife’s menstrual cycle?—need to learn more about this). He woke to wife missing. Husband usually went to bed late, around one a.m., and woke by six a.m. daily, so wife escaped during small window of time. There was no sign of foul play. No forced entry.
Carson sat on his hands, tucking them underneath his legs to avoid punching a hole straight through the wall. If Sienna was actually Lilach Finder, then she had a husband she’d neglected to tell him about.
THIS IS ALL NEWS. Woman ran from apartment shared with husband, not family home? More lies.
In-laws’ opinion and status extremely important to these people; son-in-law very involved with offering theories now that he’s alerted to investigation.
Family tells son-in-law, they “set out to find daughter to surprise him, please him when they brought her back.”
Bringing her back would restore the relations between his family and their own. FOR
REAL—what about their daughter? SOMETHING IS OFF. Don’t they want to find her?
He stood up and stretched his legs, looking for somewhere to escape the ugliness glaring in front of him, and realized there was absolutely nowhere. He had to finish.
“Small personal crisis,” they told neighbors, and “wanted to commit herself to something noble.”
When pushed, family feigned ignorance on why she left. Continued to claim personal identity crisis.
Feel certain she’s living in some tight-knit community out west, but not urban. That was where she would feel comfortable.
Their friends have been saving for five years to hire someone.
Almost a sense of desperation in finding her, but not because they miss her? In-laws, in-laws, in-laws—all they talk about.
Missing piece to the puzzle: Did woman have money? [no]
Did woman hold key to money, secrets? [Maybe with in-laws?]
Carson hung his head. He had obviously failed this young woman, wherever she was. That was all the information he had. All of it.
He ran a hand through his hair, contemplating the facts he knew and compared them to everything he learned today.
Lilach Finder had green eyes and brown hair. Sienna was completely bare down there, so no knowing her true hair color. And her eyes were blue. Right?
No way they’re the same person.
Sienna had showed up out of nowhere in Vegas about seven years ago and joined a mostly all-cash business. The woman he was looking for being missing the same amount of time was an unusual coincidence, that was all.
He had one picture he’d been given of Lilach. She was teaching a lesson to a group of children, and was pictured lighting some religious-type candles. Her hands were cupped loosely around her face, leaving a slight shadow to fall on her features. There was a clear beauty to her, but her hair was definitely brown and her nose wasn’t perfect like the woman he had come to care too much about.
The woman performing a blessing and praying to a god he didn’t even believe in wasn’t Sienna. How could it be? Sienna provoked the most impure thoughts in men and women. She wasn’t the type to cook dinner, set the table, and observe an age-old custom every week while hosting neighborhood children.
He paced the carpet in the hotel room, walking back and forth, leaving a distinct trail of his footprints crossing the room.
Yet, there was something to this strange woman in the picture. An uncanny and untainted innocence, the same quality he immediately was attracted to in Sienna. Even with a few slight imperfections, there was an inexplicable beauty to the woman guarding her face with her hands. As if she had a spark waiting to be released, untapped purity and goodness.
Carson thought back to Sienna’s innocence, which drew him further to her, how it was a bit strange for the industry she worked in, but there could be other reasons. Like her saying she was a military brat. Her family might not have laid down roots long enough for her to form a relationship as a younger woman, although that didn’t fit the path she had chosen now. Still a possibility, though.
Typically, women in the adult entertainment industry came from a hard life and looked for a way to make good money. Lots of it. Many of them had sordid stories. Stripping made them a lot of cash, so the money went a long way for a woman who never finished school, a commonality among strippers.
He knew he was generalizing in his head, but he was trying to figure out Sienna. He was desperate to prove she wasn’t Lilach, yet a military background wasn’t standard issue for adults-only nightclub work.
There definitely was something else at play, but Sienna couldn’t have run from a highly religious sect to be a stripper only out of fear of God?
Exhausted from going nowhere either physically or mentally, Carson sat on the edge of the bed.
Maybe it wasn’t the religion. Was it the husband who popped out of nowhere a week ago? Had Sienna been in a violent relationship and run to Vegas to escape it?
The answers to all those questions could be yes, and she still might not be Lilach. It might be only an awful joke. All he had to go on were the similar time frames, and the look set deep in both women’s eyes.
Well, and Sam Charles, who had Sienna pretty spooked. Was she afraid her past was catching up with her?
The pieces were all falling into place, but Carson needed to be one hundred percent certain.
He formulated a quick plan so he could get back to the Tunnel before Sienna started to wonder where he was. Obviously, he wasn’t going to breathe a word of this to anyone. He would head back to Brooklyn next week, even though he really didn’t want to, especially now that he and Sienna were becoming so close, crossing a chasm and entering a new phase in their relationship.
First, he would question the husband and get more pictures. Her family needed to provide more information and stop being so damn outlandish about their customs. Fucking weirdos. He knew he hated this case for a reason.
Carson definitely wasn’t going to share what he knew about Sam Charles. He would let the man provide a great distraction while he did his own work in the background.
All he could think about was the fact that he was all-in with Sienna now. His first priority was to put his suspicions to bed about Sienna being the runaway he’d been looking for, so he could move forward with her. There was no denying it, he was in deep. And it was way more than physical.
This was the price he paid for never getting involved and falling hard for the first woman who twisted his head up.
Grabbing his valet ticket and room key, Carson ran for the door. Now he wanted to find Lilach more than ever, to prove himself wrong and get back to convincing Sienna to take a chance on him.
Somewhere deep down, Carson knew that wasn’t going to be the case.
SIENNA FINISHED her second act of the night and headed straight to her dressing room. She was surprised how much she missed Carson being in the crowd. Looking out, finding his gaze hot on her, had become part of her routine. It didn’t matter whether he was front and center or sitting at the back bar, she felt more alone than ever before without being able to make eye contact with him.
She was done fooling herself how much she was drawn to the man. She was going to enjoy this with him, whatever this was, until she came up with a new fallback plan.
Sienna wasn’t in a hurry to run, although she probably should have been. She was being selfish and wanted to soak up every last ounce of perfection, goodness, and sweetness she could, which she was ready to indulge in now that she was finished dancing for the evening.
After cha
nging quickly and settling in to unwind on her couch, she heard a heavy knock on her door. She sighed out loud. The person behind the knock wasn’t the source of everything ripe and delicious in her life at the moment, she could tell even before opening the door.
Opening the door a crack, she found Mike filling up the doorway with his huge bulk, wearing his usual high-tops, jeans, and black warm-up jacket. Missing his usual smile, his face was grim.
“Hey, Sie. You did great tonight. You feeling good?” he asked as Asher followed behind him into her dressing room.
Ugh. Asher is going to be pissed.
Sienna pasted a smile on her face. “I’m good. I swear. I was a little spooked earlier, but I know you guys have it under control.”
“Sie, doll, you can’t go off to the Strip or public places without us knowing. I know you trust Carson, and strangely, I do, too. But I can’t protect you without knowing all the details.”
This, from Asher, wasn’t as bad as she thought, and Mike nodded in agreement. Both men wore the same serious expression.
Time for a little damage control.
“I know. I was swept up in the moment with Carson picking me up and wanting to go somewhere new. I’ll check in from now on,” she promised.
Sienna knew she had to give them the words they wanted to hear, despite what she might be planning. There was no way she could let them catch on to her line of thinking. Her Tunnel family wanted her to make promises, so she did, yet she felt guilty that they were empty ones.
“Okay, baby,” Asher said while pulling her in for a hug, then placed a kiss on her forehead. “You’re my family, you know that, right? If something happens to you, I have no clue what I would do.” His lips turned up into a tiny smile.
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