Cyber Illusions: Sensory Ops, Book 6

by Nikki Duncan

  While he’d been connected to Sidney’s computer, searching her hard drive, Tyler began to learn about the girl. With several friends, she was a talented writer in the making, judging by her school projects folder, and was also one test away from a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

  The martial arts lessons eased his mind a fraction in that she’d be better equipped to defend herself if she ran into trouble. Not much, but every little bit helped, because the idea of any child being alone in the city terrified him.

  To learn the child was his own daughter horrified him and damn if he didn’t flashback to the story of girls, women, being sold into slavery that had brought Lana into their lives. Every horrible thing he’d ever seen on the job filled his mind.

  Suppressing the sudden need to hold the petite girl with blonde hair and his mom’s gleaming smile, he promised himself they would find her. Fast.

  The possibility of losing his daughter before meeting her was too real and too easily threatened his ability to focus. Shoving down the emotions he didn’t have time to process, he crossed the parking lot to the SUV they’d had at the airport.

  Alone in the car, before he turned on the engine, he looked directly at her. “Would you really have brought them yourself?”

  Her silvery gaze didn’t waver. With her square jaw, prominent cheekbones and exotic looks, she was arresting. Arousing.

  “Yes.” She didn’t hesitate with her firm response, and it elevated his respect a shred. “I miss my father every day. If I’d known who you were and thought for a second you could be a good guy, I’d have brought them.”

  He said nothing else until they were on the way to the first address on his part of the list. “You said Jenny left them. Why, how, could she do that?”

  “I didn’t know her before the kids, but when I met her she was so broke she was barely making enough to keep the kids in diapers. Literally. I’m not so sure she wasn’t nursing them out of financial necessity.”

  “And you took her in?”

  “I offered her a one-time opportunity. I had just landed a large contract in Vegas and needed a spotter in the audience to help look for volunteers. Turned out, she had a knack for picking the real believers. By the end of that first trip, I was already in love with Ryder and Sidney. They were so sweet and never caused a moment’s trouble. I offered her the job on a permanent basis.”

  “Because of her skill at picking a mark or because of the kids?”

  “Believers in magic, not marks, and a little of both. I couldn’t stand the idea of those babies going without just because she’d gotten pregnant before she was ready.”

  “And then she left, leaving them without a mother.”

  “She tried to be there for them.” Taryn shook her head. “I’m not sure her own family ever set a good example of what a mother was. The one time she reached out to them, asking for a place to stay while she saved up some money, they turned her away, telling her she’d been the one to get knocked up and she’d have to be the one to figure her life out. I offered her a room in my house.”

  The Jenny he remembered would have milked that every moment of every day.

  “The kids traveled with us until they were old enough to start school. Then I reworked my schedule to accommodate their breaks. Jenny never let me down when it came to work.”

  “But…?”

  “She wanted to party, and she did because she knew the kids would be safe at home with me.” They’d argued about it, with Taryn trying to get Jenny more involved as a mother. “She preferred to view the kids as a favorite niece and nephew she could visit but didn’t have to be responsible for. By the time her partying started to travel with us, I was so entrenched in the kids’ lives I couldn’t have sent her packing, because I couldn’t stand the idea of what would happen to them.”

  “Who kept the kids while you and Jenny were working?”

  “My mom’s an artist. She used to work as much as any full-timer in corporate America but now is mostly retired. She stays at the house with them when they have school. When they don’t she’ll often travel with us.”

  “You made it easy for her. For Jenny.” He’d been that person for the month they’d dated. The money he made doing computer repairs and the occasional hack for a sneak peek at a test had kept him flush enough to feed her party girl tendencies.

  “I did what I needed to do to keep Ryder and Sidney safe and happy. Then, she met a man of means, as she called him, in the audience of a show and by the end of the weekend she was packing her bags on the way to the nearest chapel.”

  “She was never the most thoughtful person, but I wouldn’t have expected her to be the kind to leave her kids.”

  “I guess, if I’m in a mood to defend her, she did tell the man she had the kids and asked if they could get a nanny. He said the proposal was only extended to her. Then he called his attorney and they drafted the papers to give me full custody. With a hug for me and a kiss on the forehead for the kids, she was gone.”

  “Never to be heard from again,” he said as he parked in the driveway of the first address they were checking. Guilty of theft or not, he had to admit Ryder and Sidney seemed to be lucky to have Taryn in their lives. Thief or not, she cared for them.

  “I’ve seen them in the audience a few times,” she said, getting out of the car, “but she’s never tried to contact me.”

  Thoughts churned in Tyler’s mind, circling like vultures, while he questioned the Tyler Greer who answered the door. The man swore he hadn’t seen Sidney, he took Tyler’s card, promising to call if she showed up, then he wished them good luck in their search.

  He hadn’t expected to find her at the first stop, but expectations didn’t dim the disappointment of failure. After sending a group text to the team that his first stop had been a bust, he drove to the next stop, picking up the conversation on the way.

  “You said Jenny said I was arrested for hacking the FBI. Is that the only thing the kids know about me? They think I’m a criminal?”

  “I tried to get her to open up about you a few times. From what she said you were a nice enough guy who had no interest in family and got himself in trouble with the FBI. They arrested you. She never heard from you again. She saw no reason to try to find out what prison you might be in.”

  “The one time I did a hack for a real purpose it cost me ten years with my kids. Talk about hindsight that would change a decision.” He’d often thought over the last ten years that the worst decision of his life had led him to the greatest opportunity. Now, hearing about the real cost of that choice, he was rethinking his life.

  Chapter Three

  The second Tyler Greer’s home turned up nothing. The first two shelters on their list also netted nothing of use. Reports from the other teams were equally bleak. Taryn slid into the front seat of Tyler’s SUV and waited for him to get settled. When he had, she asked a question that had been on her mind since opening the door to see him. Well, one of the questions.

  “How’d you do it, Tyler? How’d you turn things around for yourself? Jenny led us to believe you were a lost cause whose only clear path led to life in prison.”

  “The Feds made me a deal I couldn’t refuse.” He laughed a little as he pulled out of the parking lot. “Since I didn’t delete files or share federal secrets when I hacked them, and in fact, proved the innocence of a man on death row, I could go to prison for ten years and pay a fine of $500,000, which I would be paying off on my death bed, or I could put my skills to good use.”

  “For them.”

  He nodded. “I knew the only way I’d succeed would be to cut ties with the life I’d created after leaving home.”

  “Including Jenny.”

  “We’d only been dating a month and both of us knew it would never work. I’d never measure up to what she wanted out of life. She’d never be the partner I wanted.” He shook his head. “Without knowing about the kids, I had no reason to keep in touch with her.”

  “She painted a different picture.” O
ne where Tyler was the villain. Having met him, Taryn could see where some liberties had been taken with the story. He may have made some poor choices but he wasn’t cruel or heartless. Or didn’t seem to be anyway.

  Still, though they shouldn’t have been her burdens to bear, the consequences of the truths that should have been revealed long ago weighed heavy on her mind, her heart and her shoulders. With them came the possibility of a custody battle, and as much as she wanted the kids to know their father, she would fight him if she had to.

  “She excelled at seeing things, people, in a light that suited her desires. I fit the need until she realized I was at school on scholarships because my family was just below middle class and couldn’t afford college.” He released a half-laugh.

  “Why’d she think you had money?”

  “My mom always had a knack for images. Before turning her gift toward interior design, she’d made sure I knew how to project myself as successful. It didn’t hurt that I picked up some computer work on the side, recovering lost documents and cleaning viruses, something there is a lot of in college, so I always had cash. She assumed. I didn’t correct her.”

  “Because you were ashamed or because you didn’t think to?”

  “I’ve never been ashamed of who I am or who I come from, but that doesn’t mean I kick conversations off with a statement of how much money I have in the bank.”

  A perfectly valid sentiment and one she understood.

  Tyler’s phone rang. He answered with the eagerness of a man waiting for life-changing news. As he listened, holding the phone in one hand, the fingers of the hand gripping the steering wheel tightened, squeaking quietly against the leather. He’d grown more anxious with every empty lead and update from his team.

  She was normally a positive person, but with every address they marked off their list, the less she believed they would find Sidney quickly. And the more she worried.

  “Do they remember she was a bad mom?”

  A master of illusions, Taryn was unable to keep one in place for more than a few minutes when it came to the kids. Though she was normally better at putting a positive spin on anything, her concern made it impossible to keep her answers positive. Pretenses were tiring, but being herself with Tyler was proving exhausting.

  “I take your silence as a yes.”

  “They remember what it was like, but they also know it was never about her not caring.” She struggled for the right words. Tyler found them for her.

  “She just cared more for herself.”

  “Jenny wanted glitz and glam,” Taryn admitted. “She said she always found it during our trips and shows.” For Taryn, the only glitz and glam was on the stage beneath the lights. The moment she stepped off the stage, her preference for the simplicity of life at home prevailed. “Plus, with me, she had a built-in babysitter.”

  “Have they had many questions about her leaving?”

  “Sure.” Narrowing her eyes, Taryn looked out the window and tried to study the faces they passed. The darkness made it tough, but when a streetlamp was close enough to the shelters they were visiting, she was able to see some evidence of life on the streets. No smiles. Hard stares. Dirty and torn clothing. “And I’ve always told them the truth. Part of it anyway.”

  “What part?”

  “The part about Jenny being a free spirit who needed her space. She knew it was okay to chase her bliss because they were safe with me, and I’d never let anything bad happen to them.” She dropped her head against the seat and closed her eyes beneath the weight of defeat. “Clearly I’ve failed there.”

  “I’m beginning to think you don’t have it in you to fail them.”

  “Could you try not to sound disappointed when you say that?”

  Buoyed by the small encouragement, she opened her eyes and looked out the window as he turned a corner, brightly lit by a streetlamp that illuminated despair. Discarded trash littered the sidewalk running along the graffiti-covered wall, but the real despair shone on the lined face of a man sitting on the unforgiving ground with a small, blue drawstring bag at his side.

  It wasn’t the first time she’d seen a similar sight. It wasn’t the first time she’d looked at the face of a homeless person and felt her heart crack. The people they passed might be homeless, but the reality of their circumstances, the grief and loss and weariness, were very much at home on their faces and in their hearts.

  Tears filled her eyes as she looked back at the man as they passed. He shifted, following her gaze, and when he did, he moved his hand on the bag at his side.

  “Tyler, stop. Stop the car.” She was reaching for her seat belt release and the door handle even before he complied. As soon as he did stop, she was out of the SUV and moving toward the man.

  The closer she got the clearer the name below the mascot on the bag became. Sidney.

  Taryn pulled her phone out with Sidney’s picture on the lock screen as she reminded herself to reign in her excitement. Every fiber and follicle of her being said they were close to answers. “Excuse me, can you tell me where you got your bag?”

  “Taryn?” Tyler asked as he moved up behind her.

  Instead of responding to Tyler, she lifted her phone to show the man Sidney’s picture and focused fully on his crinkled eyes. Relying on her ability to read people, and she didn’t think the man had done anything to Sidney in order to get the bag, she knelt down.

  Cleaner than the other homeless people they’d crossed paths with at the shelter or that she’d seen on the streets, the man’s clothes were less tattered and his face and head had been recently shaved. He looked up at her with alert directness she hadn’t expected.

  “We’re looking for this girl.” She showed him the phone, but kept her gaze on his. She pointed to the bag. “Her name’s Sidney. The lion is her school mascot.”

  “Sweet Sidney.” The man smiled a yellow-toothed smile and nodding, he patted the bag. “She said I could have it, on account of my bag got ripped when some kids tried to take it. Not sure what they think they’re gonna get from the likes of me.”

  “Sounds like her.” Taryn smiled. Back home, a classmate’s house had burned. Sidney cleaned out her closet, taking the girl half her clothes and shoes. Then she’d refused to let Taryn replace them.

  “It’s really important that we find her. Can you tell us when this happened? Maybe where you were or what direction she headed?” she asked, surprised that Tyler stood quietly back while she did. He was the Fed and he’d been unbendingly in control since he’d found out about Sidney.

  “Why you looking for her?” Protectiveness hardened the man’s brown eyes. He didn’t blink while waiting for an answer.

  Full disclosure seemed like the track to take if she wanted the man to help her. “She’s looking for her father.” Taryn pointed behind her to Tyler. “This is him.”

  “Doesn’t look like a man she’d find out here on the streets.”

  “It’s a long story,” Taryn said.

  “Where’d you say you saw her?” Tyler cut in.

  “You better not be lying.”

  “I’m not.” And she wasn’t understanding why the man before her seemed so protective of Sidney. It could be his nature. Taryn suspected more accurately that Sidney had charmed him quickly with family stories like she so often did.

  The gaze that watched her so closely narrowed. She knew nothing about the man’s life, or why he was living on the streets, but she liked him. “I’m her guardian, Taryn. I have to find her.”

  He pointed at himself. “People call me Lucky, on account of a land mine didn’t go off when I stepped on it.”

  Even as she chuckled internally at his repeated use of “on account of”, her heart broke a little at the irony of a man nicknamed Lucky living on the streets. And as kind as Lucky seemed to be, she’d had enough of the small talk. “She’s waited a long time to meet her father.”

  “It was at the soup kitchen on sixth near the end of dinner.”

  “That’s only a few
blocks from here,” Tyler said, looking up from his phone.

  Taryn’s heart rocketed, hopeful that they were also close to finding Sidney.

  “Lucky, did she say where she was heading?”

  The old man shook his head. “I tried to get her to go to a shelter. Didn’t like the idea of her being on her own, but she swore she was okay.”

  “Taryn.” Tyler nodded toward the SUV as he punched in a number on his phone.

  “Thank you, Lucky.” She motioned for him to give her a minute and turned back to Lucky. Some people made her want to give them more time, and Lucky was one of those people. Pulling the cash from her pocket, she passed it to Lucky. “For helping, and for trying to take care of Sidney.”

  “Too many people get left behind in this world. Kids should never be the victims.”

  With a wave and goodbye, Taryn headed back to the SUV where Tyler was just hanging up the phone.

  “We’re redefining and narrowing the search.”

  The control he’d given up momentarily while she talked to Lucky was firmly back in his grasp. “You seem pretty confident.”

  “We have the highest close rate on cases than any other team in the Bureau because we’re good. In this case, I grew up on these streets.” With energy washing off him in crashing waves, he turned east and headed toward the ocean.

  He flipped on the search lights mounted on the outside of his door frames and drove slowly, with each of them watching outside the windows for any sign of Sidney. Each street took them farther from the rundown section of town, moving closer and closer to the cleaner area of the middle class.

  Without looking her way, still watching the streets, Tyler asked, “Why didn’t you ever adopt Ryder and Sidney?”

  “I’ve thought about it. A lot, because while blood may be thicker than water it’s not always better. At first I thought it would make things more permanent in case Jenny changed her mind. That made me feel callous so I set it aside. Then we moved and the kids were getting settled into a new school and routine. Guess the timing hasn’t been right, but at the end of the day, with or without a piece of paper, they’re mine.”