by BJ Wane
Twelve years ago, his casino, along with all the others, had fallen on hard times due to the recession. Faced with mounting debts, he had foolishly taken the carrot Pasquino had dangled in front of him, telling himself it would only be for a year or two until the economy turned around. When the economy improved, as well as his business, he was enjoying reaping the high rewards for very little work or risk to give up his little sideline.
But the look on Piper’s face when he refused to relocate her stateside after her high school graduation worked as an eye opener for him. It wasn’t until that moment that he realized just how much his ward had come to mean to him, how much she filled the gap in his life left from her mother, Christina’s passing.
Christina had come to work in the Empire as a server at the age of twenty, working part-time while attending college and struggling to raise her infant daughter and Charles had fallen fast and hard. Used to limiting his liaisons to sex with the women he employed as escorts, her shy demeanor drew him like a moth to a flame. By the time he had wooed her into bed, he was stunned and pleasantly surprised at how much he enjoyed tutoring her in new ways to please both him and herself. They had been together over a year when she had announced she wanted to return to her home state of Missouri and raise her daughter with small town values. By then, Charles had been irrevocably in love with Christina and had argued and cajoled for weeks trying to get her to change her mind.
Eventually he caved. Christina had never asked him for anything. She kept her own apartment, ignoring the money he deposited regularly into her account to pay for it. She never mentioned marriage, never asked for more of his time, never even asked for fidelity, which he gave her anyway. As much as she loved him despite their twenty year age difference, as hard as he tried to show and tell her he felt the same, he knew she thought theirs was a temporary relationship. So when she asked him for help in relocating to Missouri, he, of course, gave her what she asked for and had never regretted it.
It was harder to maintain a long distance relationship, but they did it for six years until her untimely death in a car accident. Suddenly faced with having sole guardianship of a parentless eight year old while neck deep running a business enterprise that was neither a conducive nor safe environment to raise a child, he did what he thought best and settled Piper in Switzerland. He had never intended to practically force her to remain overseas after she graduated from high school, but by then he realized his biggest mistake in working for Pasquino was not only the threat of the drug dealer learning of her existence, something he had taken great pains to prevent, but the need for her continued exile. That devastating, hurt, betrayed look in her eyes, eyes she inherited from her mother, had brought home to him just how wrong it was to keep her where she so obviously didn’t want to be. It also made him admit how much he had grown to love the girl.
Karl’s untimely murder in a barroom fight last year had turned out to work for his benefit. Pasquino was the one who had insisted he hire Karl when they had started doing business together. At the time, Charles had been glad for the protection as he was smart enough to realize he was getting into bed with a man who had enemies and was very protective of his illegal activities. Karl was also the only person besides Pasquino that knew of their association. When he hired Brody Pearce to take his place, he started cutting back on how much and how many times he ran Pasquino’s money through his casino, giving him different excuses each time. The dealings he had this past year had been conducted without his body guard’s knowledge or presence, making it necessary for him to come up with even more excuses for Brody’s absence.
Three months ago he had put Pasquino off again and that was when Brody noticed periodic tails when they were away from the casino and when he knew he wasn’t going to sever his ties with the man quite yet. But after missing Piper’s college graduation, after hearing the hurt, anger and disillusionment in her voice, he realized there was nothing that could stop her from doing as she pleased now. He had spent the past fourteen years mourning Christine and doing his best by Piper and because her mother’s memory still meant so much to him, as did she, he would continue to do what was best for her. Tonight, he intended to break off with Pasquino, had asked both Brody and Ian to accompany him armed, telling them only that he had a meeting that could get ugly. His only hope, and it was a slim one, is that he convinces Pasquino he is ready to retire, showing him the false medical report Doc, his closest friend for over fifty years, had written for him showing he was in the early stages of cancer that was curable with treatment, long term treatments that would require a slower, less stressful lifestyle.
Charles returned to the bedroom and smiled when he saw the women spooned in a sixty-nine position, their mouths working each other’s pussies. Walking over, he slapped the redhead with her ass turned towards him, saying, “Break it up. I need to get out there and end this party.” He had always enjoyed hosting these parties for his patrons, the ones who liked to drop a butt load of cash in his casino, but he kept his sexual involvements private. Despite his proclivities, he had never been comfortable with fucking in front of others. Leaving the bedroom a few minutes later, a girl on each arm, he walked down the hall, the quieter sounds indicating the gathering was winding down on its own.
Piper waited a few minutes after two of the women had returned downstairs to see if the third would be doing the same. Anxious now to get out of here before she was discovered, especially since the party was winding down rapidly and there were only about half the people left as when she first arrived, she decided to chance slipping into the elevator without waiting for the third woman to leave the restroom and return downstairs. As luck would have it, she exited the bathroom just as Piper rose from her crouched position, dressed now in jeans, tee shirt and running shoes instead of the see through camisole and thong she had come upstairs in. Holding her breath, praying she didn’t look her way, Piper waited for her to move to the stairs. Much to her chagrin, the woman took a position in the corner of the rail, standing there looking down as if she was seeking out someone.
Cursing, Piper was about to crouch down again when she saw Charles enter the room with two women as scantily dressed as the rest of the women in the room. Surprise, shock, despair and anger warred together as the implications of seeing him here, flanked by such young, barely clad women as he greeted the other guests as their host, became crystal clear. She had spent the past week trying not to take it so personally that he had been unable to attend her graduation, telling herself he wouldn’t have missed it if at all possible. Betrayal sliced through her like a knife, the pain cutting deep as she realized he’d rather be partying at his casino with women less than half his age than be with her on her important day, wondered if this party was the type of business that had kept him from visiting her the past three months. Even though there was no blood relation between them, he knew, had to know, she not only thought of him as her father but that he was the only connection to her mother, the only real family she had ever had.
Tears blinding her, she turned to escape into the elevator but stopped abruptly when she spotted the woman standing at the rail aiming a gun at someone below. Her startled, abrupt shout of No! when she saw the gun was pointing toward Charles was followed swiftly by a soft pop from the silencer, an ensuing blossoming red stain on Charles’s chest and utter chaos. Women screamed as Charles fell, and faster than Piper could blink, both Brody and Ian pulled guns and fired at the woman before she had a chance to turn let alone flee. Piper felt hysteria bubble up as the woman toppled silently over the rail to land in a sprawl on the floor below, blood covering her torso. Concern for Charles had her swallowing her resentment, fear and hysteria as she headed to the stairs to go to him.
Brody heard a woman yell no a split second before he heard the telltale release of a silenced report, Sandoval’s gasp as he clutched his chest confirming the shot. Ian was already rising from the fallen body of the female assassin and shaking his head when he saw Piper at the head of the stairs, now
realizing why that soft cry had pierced his gut even before Charles fell. He didn’t have time to wonder what the hell she was doing here or even how she had gotten here. Right now he needed to do damage control, especially as he realized this case had just been shot to hell.
“Stop her,” he told Ian, pointing to Piper descending the stairs before turning his attention to Charles. The rest of the people weren’t wasting any time scattering, none of them wanting to be here when the cops arrived. Doc, a longtime friend as well as a medical doctor, was assisting Charles up and Brody grabbed him from the other side and helped get him back to the room he had just left. “Help’s on the way,” he told both of them as they laid Charles on the bed.
Charles still couldn’t believe he had been so wrong in thinking he could get away from Pasquino. Just as he couldn’t believe he had just seen Piper here, that it had been her shout that had thrown off the assassin’s aim just enough to give him a fighting chance, slim as he knew it was, especially by the looks on both Doc’s and Brody’s faces. Desperation had him clutching Brody’s shirt and making his voice hoarse as he demanded, “Promise me, Brody, promise me you’ll look out for her, keep her safe.”
“I promise, just hang on, Charles. Ian’s taking care of Piper, you just worry about hanging in there until help arrives.”
“Go to her now,” Charles demanded implacably. “Get her out of here. I know you care for her, you see to it she’s okay after…I’m all she’s had for a long time. Go now, I need to know she’s in your care.”
Brody didn’t know how Charles knew he had grown fond of Piper, and right now it didn’t matter. If it would set his mind at ease until the paramedics arrived, he’d leave him in Doc’s care and go start damage control. “I’ll bring the paramedics back. Shouldn’t be but a few more minutes.”
“I don’t care who you are, I want to see dad,” Piper demanded again but to no avail. The man who had been with Brody and that woman earlier had stopped her flight down the stairs and hauled her right back up where he was keeping her from finding Charles. There had been so much blood, his face sheet white when Brody and another man had led him back down the hall, but not before Charles had looked up at her. She’d never forget the appalling look on his face when he saw her or the fear and despair that had quickly replaced it.
“Damn it, Piper, what the hell are you doing here?” Brody demanded as worry for her made him lash out when he reached the top of the stairs. He was well aware her rose colored glasses had just been torn from her eyes in a brutal way.
“I want to see him,” she pleaded, ignoring his question. “I’m his daughter, I have every right…” she stumbled to a stop when he simply raised a brow. She really didn’t have any right as she realized he knew Charles was not a blood relation nor had he ever been married to her mother. He had been her legal guardian until she turned eighteen, but now she had no legal claims to fall back on.
“Listen closely, Piper. I know you’ve had a shock and I’ll explain more later. Right now, take the key to my room and wait for me there.” Pulling out his key, he looked at Ian, a look that let him know he was about to break protocol, but, damn it, he wasn’t going to let her continue floundering in the dark when it came to Charles. When Ian nodded, he breathed a sigh of relief that he had his support. When she refused to take the key, he took her cold hand and folded her fingers around it just as police and paramedics were entering the suite below.
“I’ll go down,” Ian said and rushed to show them where Charles was.
“Look Piper, both Ian and I are FBI, working at the casino undercover. That’s over now for reasons I’ll explain later, I just want you to know you can trust me, we’re the good guys in this. Go to my room and wait for me. It’ll take me a while, but we’ll iron this out then.”
Another lie revealed, Piper thought numbly as she took the key. Obviously both Brody and Ian had worked their way into Charles’s employ under false pretenses and for the FBI to do that it had to mean they were investigating Charles for something illegal. Numb with worry and shock, she let Brody key her into the service elevator then watched the door close on his concerned face. Leaving his key at the front desk, saying she found it on the floor, she left the casino and went to check out of her hotel.
Four hours later, Brody and Ian dragged themselves back to his room only to find that Charles wasn’t the only one to have pulled a vanishing act that night. Somehow, returning to the room he had taken Charles, he hadn’t been surprised to find both him and Doc gone, a thorough search revealing a hidden exit in the closet that led directly to the parking garage and Charles’s reserved parking space. That answered one question as to why Charles always used that room during parties. After getting hold of their superior and spending time explaining the dead woman and their case with the local cops, it was almost five a.m. and they were both exhausted. Brody hadn’t been looking forward to shattering the rest of Piper’s night.
“Well, hell. Could this night get any more fucked up?” he swore when they entered his suite to find it empty.
“If it could, I don’t know how. Not much we can do now except start over tomorrow with a search for both of them.” Sprawling face down on one of the beds, Ian mumbled, “But not for at least five hours.”
Resigned to the wait, Brody crashed on the other bed and fell asleep to the image of green eyes staring at him in shocked confusion then in somber resignation.
Chapter Four
Missouri-Five Years Later
“Piper Winters is missing.”
That statement had been playing like a mantra over and over in his head for the past two days, and now, as Brody and Ian pulled up to Piper’s cabin home nestled in the Missouri Ozarks, and parked behind a bright blue jeep, Brody felt a combination of worry and anger threatening his control once again. Piper had proven to be very resourceful following her vanishing act from the Empire five years ago, having left without a trace until, six months later, his diligence had paid off and he discovered she was living in Hope, Missouri, a small touristy town about twenty miles from Branson. Brody had no intention of involving himself in the life she had made for herself here, no intention of looking her up or seeing her again despite the way he had never been able to forget her, that he still dreamt about their one night together and had nightmares about the look on her face when he had last seen her.
After Charles Sandoval’s disappearance, their case against both him and Pasquino had stumbled to a halt. Rumor had it that Pasquino had sent the assassin after Sandoval and rumor also had it that Sandoval was dead. Brody and Ian had agreed it would have been difficult, if not impossible for Charles to have survived what looked to have been massive blood loss, but his good friend, Doc Sorensen, was a highly skilled surgeon and if anyone could have pulled him through, it would have been Doc. Not only did he have the medical skills and access to a private clinic, he and Charles were as close as only two people could be who had fifty years of friendship behind them.
Brody, Ian and their superiors found themselves frustrated at the turn of events, especially since they didn’t have enough evidence that Charles was money laundering for Pasquino, and therefore no way to justify spending the time and money trying to find him, and it was decided to try once again to infiltrate Pasquino’s lair, something that had failed in the past. But their efforts had finally paid off, and six months ago another operative had managed to get hired on with the drug lord. Ian and Brody had been assigned other cases in the meantime and Piper had been all but forgotten by everyone but them. In those first few months after Brody had discovered her whereabouts, their office, including Brody had kept tabs on her by contacting Gary Norton, the county sheriff, to enlist his help in watching to see if Charles got in touch with her in any way. A year later, his boss said she was a dead end, but Brody wasn’t willing to abandon her completely given her connection to Charles and the chance that the assassin didn’t complete her contract, that her adoptive father still lived.
Brody had kept in touch with Gary
, which was why Gary had called him personally with the news that Piper’s friend and business partner, Haley Parsons, had reported her missing after she didn’t show for a planned meet and she couldn’t reach her by phone. The sheriff had driven out to her isolated home and found no sign of foul play, but also no sign of Piper. Enlisting Ian’s help, they had left Virginia immediately.
The cabin was eerily silent as they got out of his car, the surrounding woods rustled with the soft sound of leaves waving in the breeze, the scamper of squirrels and the musical melody of birds. The muted echo of waves rolling onto the shore from Lake Table Rock could be heard but not seen indicating it was a short walk away.
“Somehow, I didn’t picture her as the outdoorsy type,” Ian remarked as they walked up the gravel path and stepped onto the front porch. Flower boxes lined the rail, the brightly colored annuals looking well-tended.
Brody too was having trouble imagining the young girl who he remembered as being soft both inside and out with the rugged surroundings, trouble picturing her behind the wheel of the four-wheel drive Wrangler or tending the large garden on the side of the house. The door was unlocked, and even though the sheriff told them it would be since that was the way he found it and he didn’t have a key, both men pulled their guns and entered cautiously.
“Piper,” Brody called out loud enough to be heard down the hall and up to the loft, but only silence greeted him. With one sweeping glance they could see the great room, dining area and kitchen were empty. The casual, lived in look surprised Brody as he remembered her small apartment as being meticulously clean, not a thing out of place. Here, in these rooms, magazines and books were strewn on the low round coffee table, brightly colored pillows in a mishmash of patterns and sizes were tossed haphazardly on the cream leather sofa and two matching recliners, a pair of flip flops lay under the dining table that was covered with sketches of women’s lingerie, a pair of gym shorts were draped on a chair and dishes, both clean and dirty cluttered brick red stone countertops as if she didn’t have time or simply didn’t care to put them away or in the dishwasher.