Chapter Fifteen
Last Chance Rescue Headquarters
Noah stood at the front of the large conference room. When he’d moved LCR headquarters to the States a few years back, he hadn’t anticipated needing a lot of space. Much of LCR’s mission planning took place in their satellite offices. If more space was needed, the Paris office, run by LCR operatives Eden St. Claire and Jordan Montgomery, was used. This was different. Not only would they be running two ops, possibly simultaneously, they were involving more than LCR operatives. Both Samara and Anna were here, not only to help in planning but as moral support for Riley.
Since space was limited, all seats were taken. At some point, he might need to call in more operatives, but for right now, the people sitting around the table would be the primary agents.
His gaze moved around the room. Some of the brightest and best of LCR were here, every one of them focused on the mission. Though they had risked life and limb on numerous operations over the years, the knowledge that this mission involved one of their own made the stakes even higher. There wasn’t a person here whom he didn’t trust with his life.
The conference table was long and narrow. On the right side sat Samara and Anna, along with Sabrina, Aidan, Justin, and Riley. The left side held Eden, Jordan, Angela, Jake, and McKenna Sloane. They were some of his most experienced people, but he had additional reasons for bringing Eden and McKenna in on the mission. Their considerable experience would be important for the op, but it was the trauma they had both endured that might be of more use to Riley.
“We all have varying degrees of knowledge about this case. I’m going to start at the beginning so we’re all on the same page.”
He glanced over at Riley. They’d discussed this a few hours earlier. Nothing would be held back that was pertinent to the case. The specifics of her imprisonment and what had been done to her were, in his opinion, not pertinent. If she wanted to share any of those details, that was her choice. Still, certain facts were going to be uncomfortable for her. He had every faith that she would tough it out and be fine.
“A couple of days ago, I met with a prospective client. He indicated his daughter was missing. Had been missing awhile. He said he and his wife were close to giving up hope. As with many of our cases, he said he believed Last Chance Rescue was his last hope.
“I talked to him on the phone and got a strange vibe. The minute I met him, I knew something was off. He said all the right things, but it was practiced, staged. I believed he was looking for someone, perhaps even his daughter, but the more I listened, the more I realized that her well-being wasn’t his primary concern. When he showed me a photograph of his daughter, my suspicions were confirmed. The photograph was of Ingram.
“I got as much information as I could, assuring him we would do all we could to find his daughter.”
Noah shifted his gaze to Riley again. Though she was paler than normal, her mouth was set in a firm line. She would see this through.
“I’ve asked Ingram to fill us in on as much as she feels comfortable sharing. If I feel additional information should be revealed, I’ll do so.”
He felt rather than saw Riley take a deep breath, and then she began to speak, her voice matter-of-fact, as if she were discussing a stranger.
“I was raised in Atlanta as Jessica King. I thought we were a normal family. My father was a strict man but not harsh, my mother seemingly kind. I was homeschooled. I never questioned why I didn’t have friends. My parents kept me occupied. I believed my father was a consultant. Although I can’t recall what he might have consulted anyone about, he wasn’t at home but a few days a week.
“I wasn’t deprived of anything other than social contacts. I had an aptitude for music, and my father paid for piano teachers and voice coaches. Looking back on it now, I realize their sole concentration was on me. I thought it was because they loved me. On my eighteenth birthday, I discovered they had been preparing me.”
When she stopped, no one said a word. Was it shock that kept them silent? Riley didn’t want to know. She glanced up at Noah. They had an agreement. If she gave him a certain look, he would continue her story. She was giving him that look now.
As if he’d intended to continue all along, he said, “Riley was taken to a hotel room and introduced to a man named Dimitri. She believes he was approximately forty-five to fifty-five. Her parents left her with him. She hasn’t seen them since.”
Odd, but it sounded less shocking when Noah told it that way. No need to tell them the other details. Like, she’d thought her parents were having some sort of surprise party for her. Which, looking back, would have been extremely weird, since she’d had no friends to attend a party. And no one but Dimitri knew that after they left, she had tugged and pulled on that damned locked door, screaming to be let out. Crying for her parents, immersed in an unimaginable hurt. Her bewilderment at her abandonment was so immense, the terror of her situation didn’t hit her until it was too late.
With the prick of a needle, she’d fallen into the arms of a monster, a sadist whose only source of enjoyment was the agony he inflicted on her.
A large hand grabbed hold of hers. She looked down to see it was Justin’s. Another hand, smaller and softer, took her other hand. Anna.
Emotion clogged her throat. She hadn’t had friends then, but she had them now. Her determination renewed, she nodded at Noah and said, “I woke up in a mansion. Needless to say, my stay was not a pleasant one. He held me prisoner for three years. I escaped on my twenty-first birthday.”
“How?”
The question came from McKenna. Though there were no tears in the other operative’s eyes, Riley saw the compassion and the understanding. It hit her then, perhaps more than ever before. Every person in this room had been through their own version of hell. She was no different. What an odd thing to find comfort in, but she did. She wasn’t alone anymore. She hadn’t been alone since Noah rescued her.
“Dimitri held a dinner party. After it was over, he told me to leave the room. The servants left, too. They were distracted for a moment and didn’t see me hide under a food cart that was covered by a cloth. They pushed the cart into the kitchen. It was late, and the staff decided to wait until the next day to clean up. The instant they left, I got out and followed them. I knew how to be small and silent. There were at least a half dozen of them. They never noticed me following them. They went through an outside door. I caught it before it could close, waited a few seconds, and then walked out.”
She gave a wan smile. “Seems unbelievable now. It was so damn easy.”
She didn’t add the obvious. Couldn’t verbalize it. Had it been that easy all along, and she just hadn’t tried, timid, beaten-down mouse that she was? She hadn’t tried to escape simply because she’d been too afraid. She had accepted that the abuse was her lot in life. Then Dimitri had made that one announcement—so profound and frightening it had woken her up, jerked her out of her frozen, mindless acceptance. She had realized she had no choice. Leaving had become her only option. If she had been caught, he might have killed her. Death had been preferable to what her future held if she had stayed.
“That was a very brave thing to do.”
This came from Eden St. Claire. One of the strongest, bravest women she knew.
“Not really. It was done out of necessity and fear.”
“That’s what being brave is about, Riley.”
She managed a strained smile and then glanced back up to Noah for him to continue.
“Here’s what we know about William Larson. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Loretta. We believe Loretta is the same woman Ingram knew as Lorraine King.
“We haven’t seen her, but discreet questioning of the neighbors has confirmed they have a teenage daughter named Keira. They stick to themselves. No friends or relatives visit them.”
“How’d you get this info so fast?” Aidan asked.
“The minute Larson walked out of the hotel, he had a tail. I rarely meet a prospecti
ve client without having an LCR operative standing by. I don’t usually need one, but in this case, I did.” He shrugged. “Mia and Jared Livingston followed Larson to the airport. Jared purchased a plane ticket and flew to LA on the same flight that William took. Jared watched him hail a taxi at LAX and followed him to his home in Lakewood.
“Since then, we’ve discovered a few more things about Larson’s operation.”
“Operation?” Aidan said.
“Yes. Seems Larson has two other families besides Loretta and Keira. In each location, he has a wife and a teenager. One is a girl about fourteen. The other is a young boy, around twelve. One home is in Pasadena, the other in Cypress.”
“He’s got his own damn factory,” Justin snarled.
“Close to it.”
Even though Noah had given her this information earlier today, her head was still reeling. Did this information perhaps confirm their suspicions that these people were not her parents? She prayed fervently that that was the case. Having their blood both revolted her and scared the hell out of her.
How many times had Larson done this? Had he had multiple families when she was living with them? Had that been why he was away from home so much? Were there other people even now enduring a hell he had sold them into?
“We’re doing more recon. He may have more houses, more families than the three we know about. In the meantime, I have Shea and Ethan Bishop monitoring one of the houses. Gabe Maddox and Cole Mathison are watching the other one. And Jared and Mia have eyes on the house where Keira is living. If more houses are found, I’ll send more people.
“Here’s where the speculation comes in,” Noah continued. “Since we know what Larson did with Ingram, there’s no reason to believe he’s not done this several times before. Multiple dwellings, multiple families, who knows how many children.”
“He’s selling them.” The anger in Jordan Montgomery’s voice was all the more evident by its seething quietness.
“Yes,” Noah said simply. “My belief is that he’s training them for specific purposes, possibly for specific people.”
“The return on his investment would have to be huge to spend so many years on them,” Sabrina said. She glanced over at Riley. Fiery anger made her green eyes glint like emeralds.
“True. He may have varying degrees of involvement before he makes a sale. We won’t know everything until we’re able to question him.”
“Please say that will be soon,” Jake said.
“Not as soon as we’d like. But we’ll get there. This will be a two-pronged mission,” Noah stated. “One team will concentrate on William Larson, along with the women posing as his wives. That team will rescue any children in his custody now.
“Another team will take on Dimitri, once we find him.”
Noah glanced at Riley. He had thought to spare her by making her just another team member but with a specific job. Thanks to Samara and Anna, he had changed his mind. Putting Riley in charge gave her the distance she needed. If she could look at this mission as just another job of rescuing innocents and taking down bad people, her focus could be on her mission, not her emotions.
“Ingram, if you’ll get everyone up to speed on some of the specifics.”
Her game face on, Riley stood and faced her fellow operatives. If she felt the least bit embarrassed or uneasy about what this mission was about, she hid it well. When he had offered her the lead on the job, he had reminded her of two very important points. One was that every operative on this mission had faced their own hell in some way. That this was hers had no bearing on who she was to them. Secondly, she was a professional operative with years of experience under her belt. If he didn’t trust her to do the job, he wouldn’t put her in charge of the op. Period.
“Jessica remembers very little, other than her captor’s name was Dimitri. After her escape, she remembers hearing what sounded like Greek being spoken and seeing signs in Greek. She spoke to no one. She managed to stow away on a cruise ship bound for France.
“In the two weeks it took to get to France, as well as a few more days there before she was rescued, Jessica’s so-called parents had ample time to disappear. Until a few days ago, when William Larson met with Noah, we had no clue where they might be.”
Riley took in a silent breath. Pretending this was just another op by referring to herself in the third person brought attention to her discomfort of the situation. Noah was right. She needed to get past this and focus on the op. Just because they knew she had been a victim at one time didn’t mean they knew the brutal facts of what had been done to her. Besides, she was no longer a victim.
As if she wasn’t revealing difficult details, Aidan said, “So if you’ve been missing for eight years, why’s Larson just now coming to LCR?”
“Since we didn’t know where he was until last week,” Noah said, “it’s hard to say. Something has obviously happened to compel Larson to search, or renew the search, but we don’t know what this is.”
“If he’s getting ready to sell another child,” Eden said, “perhaps he feels the need to clear this matter up.”
Riley shrugged. “Dimitri may have asked for a refund.”
As a joke, it fell flat. There was an awkward silence in the room until Justin growled, “Bottom line, we’re going to get the son of a bitch.”
“Oh yes, we most definitely are,” Noah said softly.
“And we’re sure that Larson has no clue that Riley is one of us?” Sabrina asked.
A small glow ignited at Sabrina’s words. Yes, she was one of them. They still saw her as their team member. Nothing had to change. She was a valuable member of Last Chance Rescue, an operative with considerable skills. She needed to remember that.
“We’re the only ones who know who and where Jessica is,” Noah said. “We control the situation. We manipulate them into playing our game. We set the players in motion. Then we strike. Our mission is to not only rescue the teenagers Larson currently has, but also everyone he’s sold through the years. We will also identify who and where this Dimitri is. I don’t care if he’s on the moon, we will find him.”
“Are local authorities in LA aware of Larson?” Eden asked.
“Not yet,” Noah said. “When it’s time, I’ll ask operative Honor Stone to make contact. She’s still got close ties to the FBI and can smooth the way for us. However, until we get our plan in place, we’re keeping everything within our LCR family.”
Riley knew Noah’s reference to family was no accident. He had told her, as had Samara, that LCR was her family, that she would always be one of them.
Even though she felt frozen inside, a small glow continued to burn within her. Revealing her past to her co-workers might have been the most difficult thing she’d had to do. Telling it to her LCR family hadn’t been nearly as tough.
Justin didn’t think he’d ever seen anyone braver in his life. Riley continued to amaze him. She’d sat, calm and matter-of-fact, and described the hell she’d lived as if it were just another case. Other than the slight stumble when she referred to herself as Jessica, she’d been in total control of the meeting without a hint of emotional baggage to impede her. He had already known he was in over his head. Last night had confirmed that for him. He’d never known anyone who could drive him crazy with both frustration and desire the way Riley did. And he’d never admired anyone more.
He could read her better than anyone. Much of her calm demeanor was an act, but hell, where did she get the courage? He was damn sure if he’d been in her shoes, he would’ve been belligerent, sarcastic, and furious.
Needing to get up and moving, do something to move forward, Justin said, “So where do we go from here?”
McCall stood and joined Riley at the front of the room. “I’m going to wait a few more days, then contact Larson with a possible lead. I won’t give him a lot of information. I’ll tell him things are fluid, but there could be a break soon.
“Depending on his reaction to this news, I may tell him I know about the other o
rganizations he’s got looking for Jessica and ask him to back away from them.” His mouth gave a grim twist. “I’d rather these organizations use their limited resources to focus on victims who actually need saving. We’ve got this covered.”
McCall walked over to a map of California. “As mentioned, we know about three of Larson’s houses. There could be more. Jared and Mia are monitoring his activities.
“Once I alert Larson that there may be a break in the case, I anticipate he’ll want all the details. I’ll give him only enough to keep him hooked until we’re ready to go to the next step.
“In the meantime, we’ll be setting up a cover in East Tennessee. The offices we used for the Wakeford sting a couple of months back are still available. It’s a good, easy cover for us. Once we’re set, I’ll feed him enough information for him to locate Jessica.
“We’re figuring he’ll play it one of two ways. Either Larson will have someone abduct Ingram and take her to Dimitri. Or he’ll tell Dimitri where she’s located, and Dimitri will have his people take her.”
“I’ve agreed to have some trackers implanted,” Riley said. “Once I’m abducted, LCR can track me to Dimitri’s location.”
“What’s to keep Larson or Dimitri from having her killed?” Thorne asked.
Riley answered, her voice both calm and confident, “Dimitri’s got a lot of fury stored up, saving it for the day he finds me, but if he wants me dead, he won’t kill me right away. He’ll want me to suffer. That will require time alone with me.”
“He’ll want to take you somewhere that’s safe for him,” McKenna said. “Cowards like that think of their own skin first.”
Justin appreciated that McKenna kept the conversation moving forward so the operatives didn’t get mired in the horrific images that Riley’s statement conjured.
There wasn’t an operative at LCR who didn’t know what McKenna had gone through years ago. Both McKenna and her husband, Lucas Kane, had helped bring down the man who’d hurt her. Justin hoped for the same kind of scenario for Riley, with one exception. He wanted to see Dimitri hurting. Bad. And he wanted to be the one to give it to him.
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