She noticed Josh enter the police station. Lin followed her gaze.
“Excuse me,” Lin said. “I need to speak with Chief Mills before I leave.” He nodded to Josh as he left the office and Josh entered.
She stood to greet him, resisting the urge to reach out to him, to give the comfort they’d shared. The emotional turmoil this family had been through wouldn’t end with Larkin’s death. In fact, without a body to bury, their grief might be lasting. “How’s Patti?”
“She’ll be better when she can bury her daughter.”
He didn’t have to say the words for her to know that he would be better then, too. Despite his time as a ranger, witnessing multiple deaths, the deaths of those closest to him, including Candace’s, was devastating.
“I have something I need to confess to you, Josh. I feel like I misled you when we first met. I didn’t come here as part of an FBI investigation in human trafficking. I came here alone, having taken a leave of absence from the FBI three months ago. There was never an official FBI investigation into Candace’s disappearance. Perhaps if I had told you the truth earlier, you could have done something else besides pin all your hopes on me to find her.”
“I’m glad you told me, but I don’t think it would have made a difference. It only reinforces what I knew all along. You were the only one who did anything to find Candace. For that, I’m grateful.”
“I wish I could have done more.”
“You did all you could. I don’t think there’s anything more you could have done, Elise. I suspect Candace was dead long before you came to town.” He moved away from her. “What will you do now? Go back to the FBI?”
“I’m not sure. I really don’t know what good I could do there.”
“Then stay here with me.”
“What?”
“I can’t bear to lose anyone else I care about, Elise. Maybe...maybe there is a chance for us.”
If you don’t return to the FBI.
He didn’t say those words, but she heard them regardless. He’d already shared his fears about her job being dangerous. It wouldn’t be fair to him to continue on with a dangerous job. But if she’d already decided she wasn’t going to return to the FBI... She sucked in a breath. How could she weigh the benefits of an FBI career against her love for Josh Adams? But how could she go back to that life where every decision she made seemed to be the wrong one?
He looked at her, his eyes pressing into hers as he moved closer to her. Suddenly, his arms were around her, pulling her against him, and he was claiming her lips. All thoughts of the pain of this case subsided and she lost herself in his embrace. He was her rock, her solid stone that would keep her anchored and safe.
Her mind spun with this new revelation. She could have a future with Josh. It wasn’t too late. This new wrinkle should have made her decision easier... Then why didn’t it?
He pulled away from her but locked his fingers with hers. “I told Daniel I would come by the search area. I think he wants me there as the face of the family.”
She nodded, knowing it was necessary for him to go, and also she knew he wouldn’t give up until he found Candace’s body. She silently prayed they would find her. She prayed they would finally find the closure this family so badly needed.
“I should go by and see Patti.”
“She’s at the school.” He must have seen Elise’s surprised expression. “She said she couldn’t stand being at the house alone. She needed to occupy her mind. It’s the last day of classes before Christmas break.”
She nodded. “I’ll go by the school.”
He kissed her again then was gone, leaving her to make her decision.
She drove to the school and was heading inside when she spotted Brooke leaning against the school building on the sidewalk.
Elise approached her, surprised to see the girl at school. “What are you doing here?”
She appeared nervous as she spoke to Elise. “I had exams. I didn’t want to miss them.”
“I’m sure you could have gotten an extension for the tests.”
“I—I wanted to get them over with. My dad said we might not come back after the break. We might be moving again.”
Elise was saddened to hear that. Brooke needed help getting over what Larkin had put her through. She needed counseling and a support structure she doubted the girl would receive from her father.
But there was no need for Brooke and her family to stay. She wouldn’t have to testify now that Larkin had committed suicide. There were no legal reasons for her to stay. And the memories would haunt her for the rest of her life.
Elise could still see the fear that gripped her eyes, pain that would not go away for a very long time. She reached out for Brooke and the girl flinched. “He can’t hurt you anymore, Brooke. You’re safe now.”
“I know that,” she said, but the confidence in those words didn’t reach her eyes. “That man can’t hurt me again.”
But she was still hurting. That man, that experience, would continue to hurt her daily.
“You still have my number, Brooke. If you need anything, even just to talk, call me.”
The girl glanced around nervously then took a step closer to Elise as if she had a secret she was hesitant to share. She opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by the sound of a horn blaring.
Elise saw a beat-up Chevy causing the noise and a young man only a few years older than Brooke behind the wheel pressing hard on the horn to get their attention. Brooke moved away from her and Elise saw her shut down. Whatever had been on her mind, whatever she had been about to share with Elise, was gone.
“I have to go,” she said instead, rushing toward the waiting car.
The boy got out and met her. “What did she want?”
“Nothing,” Brooke told him then waited as he opened the door for her. Once she was in the seat, he slammed the door and turned back to Elise, glaring. He was a young man, not much older than Brooke, but the scowl on his face and the missing teeth as he sneered at her indicated past drug use. This wasn’t the kind of boy Brooke needed to be associating with.
Elise moved toward the car. “Who is this?” she asked Brooke through the open window.
“My cousin Roy.”
Roy flashed a smug grin then walked back around to the driver’s side and got in. He roared away a moment later before Elise could ask any further questions.
Something about this situation felt wrong. What had Brooke been about to say before Roy’s arrival, and why had his presence shut her down? Was the girl hiding something about Larkin? Elise realized suddenly what bothered her about the case against Larkin—it all hung on Brooke’s assertion that Peter Larkin was the man who attacked her and killed Candace. Did the girl know more about the situation than she was letting on? Had her father convinced her to remain quiet about what she knew?
Elise had nothing but her gut to go on, but her gut was telling her loud and clear that Brooke Martin might still be in trouble.
* * *
What are you doing, Josh?
He closed the door to his truck but didn’t turn the key. Instead, he leaned against the steering wheel and tried to pull his thoughts back to a rational, coherent process instead of the jumble Elise Richardson made him.
He’d nearly lost her, and the fear that notion sent flooding through him was almost more than he’d been able to bear. But it had simultaneously given him the desire to hold her tightly to make certain nothing happened to separate them and driven him to flee from her and the feelings she evoked in him.
The thought that he could lose her—the thought that he could lose anyone else—was more than he could stand.
He drove home, the pulling in his heart still present as he imagined himself walking through his empty apartment. What would it be like to have someone to come home to?
A female presence to add life to his shell of an existence?
He could see Elise stepping easily into that role. Slowly, he felt the life returning to him the more he was with her, the longer her influence, her beauty, was around. Her passion and determination were infectious and he’d been stung.
But what would he do if he lost her? If something happened to her?
Or worse, if she left on her own?
He didn’t know which was worse. He only knew that thinking about her leaving town stabbed him harder and sharper than his knife in its sheath.
He pulled up at his apartment and found a group of trucks parked in the lot and a bunch of familiar faces gathered together.
He knew them in a moment. Matt, Colton, Levi, Garrett, Blake—his ranger brothers, always there for him when he needed them.
“What are you all doing here?” he asked as they gathered around him.
Colton spoke up. “We’re here to help with the search.” He squeezed Josh’s shoulder. “We’ll find her and bring her home.”
And even though he knew they were looking for only a body now, it meant the world to know his brothers had his back.
* * *
Elise knocked on Patti’s office door.
Her face was drawn as she stared up at Elise with reddened eyes and a slight I-will-be-fine-eventually smile on her face. “I couldn’t stay at that house alone,” she said, pulling together a stack of papers to file. “It was too quiet. Besides, this is exam week and I’m down a teacher. So if Josh sent you here to take me home, I’m not going. Not yet.”
“Josh didn’t send me. I wanted to check on you and he said you were here. How are you holding up?”
She stopped then lowered herself into a chair, the stack of papers still in her arms. “I don’t know. I suppose I knew this was coming. She’d been gone too long, but I still held out hope. Now that’s gone, too.”
“Patti, I’m so sorry.”
She stared up at Elise and frowned. “I thought God sent you here to bring my baby home. I thought you were part of His plan.”
“I wish I were,” Elise said, and she meant it. She wished there was a greater hand at work to bring Candace home. “I saw Brooke as I was walking in.”
“Oh, yes, Brooke.” A flash of grief passed through her eyes and Elise was sorry she’d mentioned the name. Brooke had come home to her family, while Candace had not. “I didn’t get a chance to check on her myself. I’m a little surprised she was back to school already. How was she?”
Elise hesitated, not wanting to burden Patti any further, but she needed to know more about Brooke if she was to put to rest the unease growing inside of her. “A boy just a few years older than Brooke picked her up. She said he was her cousin, but he seemed overly protective for a cousin, almost as if I was snooping around his property. Can you tell me about her family life?”
“Not much. Truthfully, Brooke spent a lot of time at our house with Candace. I often thought she didn’t want to go home, but I chalked it up to them being friends and not wanting to be apart. You know how teenage girls can be.”
“Have you ever met her parents?”
“Only her father. Brooke’s mother left them years ago.”
“What do you think of Rick Martin?”
Patti sat down in her chair. “Let me put it this way. I think Candace wanted to set us up so she and Brooke could be sisters. I politely but firmly informed her that wouldn’t happen, but I was always pleased to allow Brooke to stay over whenever she liked.”
“Do you suspect he’s abusive?”
“No, just very involved in her life, but also very emotionally distant. Brooke had to call him whenever she arrived and when she left, and he would text her a lot while she was at the house. He was always checking in with her. It didn’t seem to me to be out of concern. It seemed overly protective. In fact, it was downright controlling.”
“Patti, did the police look at Brooke’s father or her cousin as suspects when Candace disappeared?”
“I don’t know for sure. I know they spoke to him. But there was no reason to believe they had anything to do with Candace’s disappearance, especially after Brooke’s statement that she ran away.”
“If Brooke knew her family had a hand in harming Candace, she may have reason to cover it up by telling that runaway story.”
“You suspect she’s covering for them?”
“Or she’s too frightened to tell the truth. I want to speak with her more in depth.”
“You know her father wouldn’t let you speak to her before. What makes you think this time will be different?”
“Because this time I’m going to their house, and I’m not leaving until I’m convinced Brooke is safe.”
Patti picked up the phone. “I’m calling Josh.”
Elise stopped her. “Don’t call him just yet.”
“Elise, you should wait and let Josh go with you.”
“I’m only going to talk. I’ll be fine.”
Elise walked out. This situation with Brooke bothered her. She was certain Brooke had wanted to tell her something, something secretive, something her family wouldn’t want her to expose. Was there more to the story with Larkin? Or was someone else hurting this girl, someone else she hadn’t yet revealed?
One way or another, she would find out. She wouldn’t let another girl slip through her fingers the way Allie Peterson had and the way Candace had.
Elise got into her car and started the engine. Only then did she realize the confusion and disorientation of the day had finally subsided. She knew who she was. She might not always be FBI, but she would always fight to protect girls in danger no matter what the cost to her.
Her heart tore at the realization.
There could never be a future between her and Josh.
* * *
It was dark when Elise found the house. She pulled into the long driveway. The house sat back on a lot and the closest houses were a good trek away. With no street lamps this far out, Elise relied on her headlights. She parked, noticing no outside lights on the house. She left her headlights burning but also grabbed her flashlight from the glove compartment before getting out and heading toward the house.
She knocked and heard movement from inside, but no one answered.
She knocked again. “Brooke? It’s Agent Richardson. I’d like to speak to you again if you don’t mind.”
She heard movement again then a pounding, causing her head to jerk up and her heart to race. Elise pulled her gun. That sounded like someone hitting the floor. Something was going on inside and it didn’t sound good.
She reached for the door handle and it turned. She pushed open the door, cautiously glancing around.
“Agent Richardson with the FBI,” she announced. “I’m coming inside.”
The room was nearly cleared out with only two chairs and a card table and boxes stacked against the wall, but the room stank of cigarette smoke and the haze of it met her as she pushed open the door, evidence that someone had been here very recently. She hadn’t imagined hearing someone inside. One chair was back-side on the floor, obviously knocked over in the rush to get out when Elise knocked.
“Hello,” Elise called to whomever was there. “I was just dropping by to check on Brooke. I don’t want any trouble.”
No response, but she sensed someone was inside.
She checked the bedrooms and found mostly boxes. It looked as if the Martins were preparing to leave town. Was it because of what had happened to Brooke? Or was it because the family had something darker to hide...like her suspicion that someone was still hurting the girl?
She pushed open a bedroom door and found what had probably been Brooke’s bedroom. The walls were pink and the curtain frilly. She checked the closet and found girls’ clothes. On the dresser was what looked to b
e the purse she’d seen Brooke carrying earlier that afternoon. So they had come back to this house. But now where were they? And why could she not push away that nagging suspicion that something in this household wasn’t right?
She checked the other two bedrooms and found no one. She moved toward the kitchen. The cabinets were cleared out and even the refrigerator was empty. Wherever this family was, wherever they were going, she needed to find them in order to make certain Brooke was safe. Even if her suspicion that someone was still hurting Brooke was wrong, the girl needed counseling to deal with what she’d been through. Not only had she been abducted and abused by someone she’d trusted, she’d also lost her best friend and dealt with the knowledge that she could have been killed, as well.
Elise turned to leave, but tripped over a rug on the floor and fell. The rug slid, revealing a cellar door with a locked padlock.
A secret door!
She saw a set of keys hanging on the wall and grabbed them. They fit into the lock. She pulled off the padlock and opened the door to reveal a set of stairs leading underground to a basement-like area. But why keep it padlocked?
Elise pulled out her flashlight, drew her gun and headed down the steps. She scanned the area with her light but saw only a bloodstained mattress thrown into the corner and a makeshift toilet.
Movement from the opposite corner startled her and she turned her light and weapon that way.
A figure shielded her eyes against the light. “Agent Richardson? Is that you?” The voice sounded so young, so innocent.
Brooke.
Elise moved toward her, her gun held high and her suspicions on full alert. “Are you hurt? Who did this to you, Brooke? Who locked you down here?”
The girl’s eyes pooled with tears. “Agent Richardson, I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about, Brooke. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I did really want to talk to you,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “I wanted to tell you the truth, but they wouldn’t let me.”
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