Storms of Change

by Radclyffe

  She opened her eyes and saw the picture of Reese in her desert fatigues. Her hat was tucked under her arm and the wind blew through her hair. She was smiling.

  “Oh God, baby, please come home. I love you so much.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Tory knocked on Kate’s front door, her mind a blank. On the drive over, she had tried to think of the right words to say, but none had come. None that would make the message any easier. It had all come down to one simple, unimaginable truth. Your daughter is missing.

  She had delivered difficult messages before. I’m sorry, there’s nothing more we can do. I know this is difficult, but the medicine doesn’t seem to be helping. I wish I had better news… but this was Reese. Reese couldn’t be missing, not when Tory could feel her with every beat of her heart.

  The door opened and Tory met Kate’s eyes. “Kate, I…oh, God, Kate—”

  Kate pulled Tory into her arms and hugged her. “I know. Roger was just here.”

  Tory held on, her eyes closed, her cheek against Kate’s shoulder. She let herself be comforted for another few seconds and then gently pulled away. Kate was pale. “I’m sorry, I should have called to let you know, but I wanted to tell you in person. I didn’t think he’d come here.”

  “No, it’s all right. Roger was decent.” Kate held the door wide, recalling the shock of seeing him at her door after more than twenty years. When she’d recognized pain and not anger in his eyes, she’d known immediately why he had come. Before her heart had the chance to break, he’d said, Missing. Not dead. Three words she clung to. “It was good of him to come. If she weren’t his daughter, we wouldn’t even know she was missing. We’d be left to wonder why we weren’t hearing from her until there was some official word.”

  “He’ll find her, won’t he?”

  “Yes,” Kate said firmly as she led Tory through the living room to the kitchen. “He will.”

  Jean sat at the kitchen table with Reggie dozing on her lap. Her eyes were red rimmed but resolute. “Hello, honey.”

  Tory lifted Reggie into her arms and rubbed her lips against the silky hair, wondering at the innocence of childhood. “Hi. How are you doing?”

  “Fine, considering. Roger didn’t shoot me, which was what he threatened the last time he saw me.” Jean kissed Tory’s cheek. “Reese is going to be all right. Don’t think for a second that she isn’t.”

  “I know,” Tory said thickly. She said the words because she had to believe them, but how could any of them be sure?

  “Have you eaten?” Kate asked briskly, caressing Jean’s shoulder on the way to the refrigerator. “We’re not going to know anything for a little bit, and no one is going to get sick while we wait.”

  “I can’t right now.” Tory shifted Reggie onto her hip. “Would you mind awfully if I went home for a while? I have some calls to make and I’d just like to be around…Reese. Us.” She smiled just a little unsteadily. “Does that make any sense?”

  “Perfectly.” Kate gave her another hug. “Is there anyone you want me to call?”

  “Would you mind finding Bri and asking her to meet me at the house? Just tell her I need to talk to her.”

  Jean went to the kitchen phone. “I’ll do it.”

  “Thanks. And I’ll call you the second I hear anything,” Tory said, gathering the bright yellow plastic tote with Reggie’s things.

  As soon as Tory arrived home she put Reggie down to finish her nap and called Pia. She had just hung up after explaining what had happened and asking Pia to call KT when a cruiser slammed to a stop in the driveway and Bri bolted from the vehicle. Tory steeled herself to repeat the news that she knew was going to cause unbearable pain.

  “What’s wrong?” Bri said as she burst through the door, her eyes automatically scanning the room as if expecting an intruder. Her right hand rested on the butt of her holstered automatic. “Jean said you needed to see me right away. Is the baby okay?”

  “Reggie’s fine.” Tory put both hands on Bri’s forearms and said gently, “Something went wrong with a mission that Reese was on, and she’s missing, honey. Her father just told me a little while ago.”

  Bri stiffened. “Missing. Jesus.” Her eyes went a little wild. “Oh, Christ, Tory.”

  Then, before Tory had a chance to offer the comfort she had planned along with the now-familiar, if empty, words of reassurance, Bri gathered Tory into her arms and held her against her chest. She stroked her hair and murmured, “Don’t worry. She’ll be okay.”

  Bri wasn’t as tall as Reese or as muscular, but there was no mistaking her power now. The gesture was so different than the maternal embrace that Kate had bestowed and so much like the automatic protective response Reese would have made that Tory nearly broke. There had been so few people in her life that she had leaned on. KT, so long ago, and Reese. The two women in her life she had loved with all she was. The only two she had ever trusted completely; the only two whose strength she had ever accepted when her own had faltered. Now, it seemed, there was another.

  “I am so damn scared,” Tory whispered.

  “Yeah,” Bri murmured, seeing no point in pretending she wasn’t, too. She kept her arm around Tory’s shoulder and guided her to the sofa, where she continued to hold her even after they were seated. When Tory leaned her head against her shoulder, Bri experienced a swell of pride and terrible affection. She wanted to make Tory’s hurt and fear go away so badly she ached. She’d never felt this need to care for any woman other than Caroline, and even though this was different, she understood that it was love. “What happened?”

  Tory told her what little she knew, realizing there were questions she should have asked that she hadn’t been able to think of when Reese’s father had been in her office. All she’d been able to think of then was that Reese might be hurt. That someone, for reasons she would never be able to understand, had wanted to kill the woman she loved. There was no way for her to understand that, to rationalize it, or to ever accept it, because she could not fathom anything, beyond protecting her child and Reese, that she would kill for. Beneath her confusion and pain, she was furious at the insanity of it.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t ask…” Tory trembled. “All I could think was that Reese…” She searched Bri’s face, wondering if she’d been right about the strength she’d imagined. Bri met her inquiring gaze calmly, her blue eyes dark with worry but steady. So steady. “I feel so helpless. Waiting. Not knowing if she’s hurt.”

  “I know. It sucks.”

  Tory laughed through her tears. “Oh God, sweetie. It really does.”

  “Reese’s father was here?” Bri asked.

  “Yes, he came himself to tell me what happened. He said he’d call me as soon as anything…as soon as... God, I don’t know what’s supposed to happen next.”

  “Did he leave a number? Do you think he’d talk to me?”

  Tory shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe he gave something to Randy. God, I was so rattled I didn’t think…”

  “You’re not supposed to have to.” Bri kissed Tory’s cheek and stood. “I’m going to call my dad. He needs to know about Reese, and I bet he can find out what’s going on.”

  Tory smiled, touched by the faith Bri had in those she loved. Warmed by it. “You go ahead and do that, sweetie. Thank you.”

  “I’m just doing what Reese would tell me to do, if she were here.”

  “She wouldn’t have to tell you,” Tory said. “You already know.”

  Bri blushed. “I’m going to call Caroline, too.”

  Tory nodded, understanding the need to touch the ones you loved in the midst of life’s pain.

  *

  Half a block down the street from Rica’s gallery, Carter sat in her parked vehicle with the engine running, wondering what was so important that Rica would have gone directly there from the clinic instead of home. Every few seconds she checked her mirrors and scanned the streets on both sides looking for anyone else who was also watching Rica. So far she hadn’t seen
anyone, but she expected to at any moment. She’d been trying to puzzle out exactly what Enzo’s next move would be, but putting herself in the mind of a psychopath was difficult despite all the practice she’d had playing them on the job. She wasn’t as certain as Rica that Enzo would seek retribution, because the last thing a man who’d been embarrassed by a woman wanted to do was call attention to it. She doubted that more than a handful of people even knew about the incident, if that many. In all likelihood, Enzo had crawled off to lick his wounds, figuratively speaking. Still, she didn’t believe that Enzo would give up in his quest for Rica, especially not now.

  “So all right, so maybe it wasn’t the smartest move to challenge him,” Carter muttered, hating to agree with Allen even obliquely. “It’s not like I had a choice.”

  No man wanted to be bested in a competition for a woman’s affections, and Carter had known very few men in her life who could tolerate losing to a woman. Enzo was not going to let that affront go, and she didn’t intend to give him the opportunity to vent his bruised ego on Rica. Unfortunately, she hadn’t quite figured out how she was going to watch Rica twenty-four hours a day, especially now that Rica wanted nothing to do with her.

  If you come anywhere near me again, I’ll do the job myself.

  When Rica had said those words, Carter had no doubt that she had meant them. Her face had been pale, but cold and hard as marble.

  “You fucked this one up royally.” Carter rubbed her face and stretched her cramped legs beneath the dashboard. It wasn’t Rica’s anger that continued to gnaw at her, but the memory of those few seconds of shocked hurt that she had glimpsed in Rica’s eyes before Rica had locked her feelings down. She’d proven to Rica that she was just like everyone else in her life—someone who used her, someone who lied to her, someone who pretended to care about her, because of who her father was. That’s what Rica believed. Ironically, that’s what Carter should have done, but she’d made a fatal error. She’d caught a glimpse of the woman behind the mask, and she’d wanted her.

  Carter tensed as the door to Rica’s gallery opened. Rica came out, locked the door, and walked briskly to her car, which she had left with the hazard lights blinking in the loading zone out front. Grateful for any activity to take her mind off the hollow ache in the center of her chest and the sick feeling she got every time she remembered Rica telling her to get out, Carter eased into traffic five cars behind Rica. She followed her as Rica drove directly home, slowing when Rica turned onto her street and driving past until she could make a U-turn in a motel parking lot a few blocks away. When she turned into Rica’s street and passed her house, Rica’s car was nowhere to be seen.

  Probably already in the garage.

  She made a thorough survey of the street and saw no one. The few cars parked in front of houses appeared to be empty. She stopped three houses away and settled in to watch.

  *

  At 9:30 p.m., Tory opened the door to Nelson Parker. She put her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. “Hi.”

  “Hi,” Nelson said gruffly, bestowing a quick hug. He followed Tory into the living room and nodded in the direction of the others congregated there.

  Pia was in the kitchen making a pot of coffee. Kate and Jean were upstairs with the baby. They had arrived at suppertime, insisting upon fixing a dinner that Tory had not been able to eat. KT, who had flown over from Boston as soon as her shift had ended at eight p.m, was outside on the deck. Bri and Caroline were on the couch. Bri was no longer in uniform but wore a skintight black T-shirt and jeans with motorcycle boots and sat splayed in one corner with Caroline curled up in her arms. They looked like young lion cubs, ready to fight or make love with equal fervor.

  “Is there any news?” Tory asked, trying not to sound as anxious as she felt.

  “Well,” Nelson said, turning his cap in his hands, “I got through to General Conlon. It took me a couple of hours. You’d think I was trying to talk to the president.”

  Tory took one step forward and faltered, knowing from the look on Nelson’s face there was no good news.

  “He wouldn’t tell me anything at first, but I finally got him to come across with a couple of things.”

  “Let me get Kate and Jean,” Tory said.

  “We’re right here,” Jean said as they came down the stairs. “Reggie’s asleep.”

  Jean settled into one of the overstuffed chairs and Kate perched on the arm. KT came to stand in the doorway between the deck and the large living room. Her eyes drifted across the heads of those seated to where Pia stood in the kitchen. Pia smiled softly and tilted her head in Tory’s direction. KT nodded, walked to Tory, and took her hand.

  “Why don’t you sit down, Vic.”

  “I don’t want to si—” Tory stopped, hearing the anger at the same time as the panic edged a little closer to the surface. She squeezed KT’s hand. “Thanks.”

  KT and Tory sat on the sofa, and KT kept Tory’s hand in hers. Nelson perched on a stool he pulled over from the breakfast bar. He looked at his watch.

  “This is what I know. Reese has been missing for just about twenty-four hours.”

  Tory unconsciously drew KT’s hand into her lap and clasped it with both of hers. Twenty-four hours. If Reese was wounded, twenty-four hours could make the difference between life and death. If she’d been captured, God, what could they do to her in that amount of time?

  “Don’t start thinking about maybes, Vic,” KT murmured. “Let’s just deal with the facts.”

  “Keep telling me that,” Tory said.

  “No problem.”

  “Do they know where she is?” Tory asked.

  Nelson shrugged. “If they do, he wasn’t going to say. He did say that it was standard procedure to prepare an extraction team. They’re going to go get her—all of them—as soon as they get a fix on them. That message was clear.”

  “Are they going to tell us when?”

  “I don’t think so,” Nelson said. “That’s SOP, too.”

  “So we wait.” Tory wondered how long she could stand it.

  Bri unwrapped herself from Caroline and stood abruptly. “I’m going out for some air.”

  “Don’t take that motorcycle of yours,” Nelson said automatically. “Not when your head’s not on right.”

  “My head’s just fine.” Bri glared.

  Caroline grasped Bri’s hand and gave Nelson a small smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll go with her. We’ll be back in a little while.”

  Nelson watched them walk out. “Damn kid.”

  “She’ll be all right, Nelson,” Tory said, knowing that he had never really gotten over almost losing her. “She’s been a rock, and now she just needs the chance to get a handle on being scared. Caroline will help her with that.”

  “Good thing. I don’t seem to be able to.”

  KT clapped him on the shoulder and caught Pia’s eye. “Some of us take longer than others to get the message.”

  Nelson grinned and even Tory smiled. Then they all found seats and settled down quietly to wait.

  *

  Just before one a.m., the last light in Rica’s house went out and Carter decided she’d turned in for the night. There’d been no activity on the upscale residential street since shortly after midnight, when a car full of partygoers had tumbled out and weaved their raucous way into one of the nearby houses. If anyone was watching Rica’s house besides her, they weren’t doing it from a vehicle. Street surveillance in this part of town made no sense, because if Rica were to leave in her car, she’d be gone before anyone could make their way to a vehicle without being obvious about it. Carter decided Rica was safe until morning, started her car, and headed home.

  Bone tired and emotionally worn out, she pulled her SUV into the alley next to her building. The building next door, a converted garage that was now the office for one of the whale watch concessions, was dark. Still in the clothes she’d worn to the party the night before, she was hungry, she smelled, and she needed a shower. She just made it to the
bottom of the stairs leading up to her second-floor apartment when a blow from behind caught her in the kidney and sent her sprawling onto the stairs. As she fell, she yanked the automatic from her waistband and twisted, trying to land on her back so she could get a shot off at whoever had hit her. She landed hard on her shoulder just as a foot connected with her wrist. Her hand went numb and she dropped her gun. Two dark shapes loomed above her.

  “Get smart, bitch,” a gravelly voice grated. “Stop sniffing around pussy that don’t belong to you.”

  Carter tried to place the voice. “I don’t know wha—”

  A boot drove into her midsection, and she gagged as bile flooded her throat.

  “Sure you do,” the other one said. “You’ve got good taste in cunts. You’re just trying to eat at someone else’s table.” He laughed, as if pleased with his own joke.

  Carter kicked him in the knee and he howled. She almost got her feet under her when something flat and hard rammed her temple. Her vision dimmed and her legs wobbled. The next blow took her down for good. A short, harsh flash lit up the alley and her world went black.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Rica lay awake in the dark, listening to the wind and the night sounds. The codeine had helped ease the throbbing in her face, and she had dozed on and off throughout the evening. Now, well into the night, her head still pounded, but that wasn’t the pain that kept sleep away. And nothing that came in a bottle was going to dull the ache that had settled around her heart.

  She had almost convinced herself that the previous night had been a dream. That the incredible rightness of Carter’s hands on her body, inside her body, had only been a perfect fantasy. A wish and nothing more. But it wasn’t just the heat of Carter’s mouth or her firm body and soft hands that she couldn’t forget, but the quiet way Carter listened when Rica spoke of her past and the hard fury in Carter’s eyes when Enzo had touched her.