Still The One (Family Stone #4 Jack) (Family Stone Romantic Suspense)

by Lisa Hughey

  He looked good. Damn him. Better than good, great. He had some new lines around his eyes, and his hair was a little longer. His face had matured, the softness of the young adult he’d been was now honed to a sharpness that only ramped up his attractiveness. A thin strip of hair was missing from his right eyebrow, a white scar creased the arch, and her heart stopped as she recognized that the missing strip was likely from a bullet graze.

  He’d almost had his head blown off.

  She swallowed down the fear that mushroomed through her. Based on the faded whiteness of the scar, the damage had happened a long time ago.

  He’d filled out since she’d last seen him, and he’d already been big to begin with. His physical size had been comforting and engendered a feeling of safety and security for a girl who’d had far too much upheaval and violence in her early life.

  Not that Jack knew anything about that, of course. She’d never told him about her childhood. She wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. Ever.

  Jillian introduced herself, then said, “This is my associate, Bliss Lee.”

  Jack nodded briefly at Bliss, but didn’t offer his hand. Instead he propped his hand on his waist. “We’ve met.”

  We’ve met? We’ve met? That’s it? That was how he was going to acknowledge their history to her boss? “Jack,” she said firmly, refusing to let him see the pain his presence and his casual dismissal of their past relationship brought. She couldn’t bring herself to say it was nice to see him.

  Jack kept his focus on Jillian and barely acknowledged Bliss’s presence. “Let’s get down to business.”

  “Would you like a cup of tea or coffee?” Jillian offered politely.

  Bliss was still stuck in the same spot, rooted to the floor. He’d spoken of the most influential and impactful relationship of her life as if it were a random, accidental encounter in a crowded cafeteria. We’ve met?

  “What I’d like, is to find Maria Torres.” His abrupt shift from observing niceties to cold, hard soldier was just what she needed.

  That jolted Bliss and she realized it was time to take over this meeting. Enough of the old memories and the old Bliss. She wasn’t the same girl she’d been when they’d ended and it was time Jack Stone figured that out.

  “Agreed.” Bliss gestured to the brocade wing chair in the grouped seating off to the side of Jillian’s desk. “Have a seat.”

  She marched over to the other wing chair and sat down as elegantly as possible. She picked up the dossier that held all the information they had about Maria Torres. Everything that Bliss had used to relocate her to a safe house where she didn’t have to worry about being found by José Fernandez. And yet Maria Torres had blown out of that safe house, and almost guaranteed safety, within hours of getting settled there.

  Bliss hadn’t ever lost a client this way and the fact that she hadn’t realized that Maria intended to rabbit from the safe house—as soon as Bliss left—rankled. Maria hadn’t given any indication that she was skittish or worried about her safety. Maria had listened and absorbed everything that they had told her. Promises to keep her safe. Assurances that José Fernandez would not find her. A guard close by in town if she needed anything.

  Maria had seemed to accept their reassurances. But then she’d left.

  Bliss understood the fear. Better than most. But Maria was less safe wandering around the country without the protection of Adams-Larsen than she had been tucked in that little Iowa farm town, and Bliss still couldn’t understand why Maria had felt the need to bolt. But Bliss had to put aside her ego and find Maria damn quick before José Fernandez did.

  They knew that her prison guards would have learned of Maria’s escape from her confinement in Salinas a few days ago. They visited once a week to drop off food and pick up garbage. Maria had left the moment they had departed her prison last week. But they would have been back this week and discovered that she was gone.

  Adams-Larsen and the U.S. Marshals were confident that Fernandez was now looking for Maria based on a cryptic phone conversation between Fernandez and two unknown accomplices. Adams-Larsen was pretty sure that Fernandez had panicked and was trying to tie up loose ends.

  They still had no proof, besides Maria’s officially documented and audio-taped testimony, that Fernandez was guilty of kidnapping and false imprisonment. And they couldn’t bring those facts to light until they had their only eyewitness in hand.

  No court of law would convict or even allow the taped evidence without the actual witness live and in person. Or without some other authority to validate the credibility of the witness. Otherwise everything was just hearsay and could be thrown out of court and Adams-Larsen left themselves open to a slander charge.

  As far as Fernandez’s reputation, there might be a blip on the political meter, but without any proof, without Maria, they were screwed. He’d get off scot free.

  José Fernandez was the scum of the earth and Bliss wanted to nail him to the wall and watch him bleed. Watch his life be crushed, just like he’d crushed Maria’s spirit for the last eight years. Bastard.

  “This is her last known location.” Bliss pointed to the small farming town on the map as Jack seated himself in the delicate chair. His shoulders were nearly as broad as the chair back and his large frame dwarfed the feminine lines of the chair, causing a tingle deep inside at his sheer size and dominating presence. Until he opened his mouth.

  “Iowa?” Jack frowned. “What the hell was she doing in Iowa?”

  Bliss stiffened. She’d worked tirelessly to get Maria to a place where she’d be at ease and could try to reintegrate into the world. To a place where she would feel comfortable enough to actually have a life and not just hole up in a new, different prison.

  “Are you an expert in witness relocation, Mr. Stone?” Jillian asked graciously, a pleasant and almost vacuous smile on her classically beautiful face. Thank God for Jill.

  Jack was zipping through the contents of the file Bliss had handed him, absorbing information. Even while he responded and questioned the contents, he was assimilating. She’d forgotten about his innate ability to multi-task. Jack had a brilliant mind. Which had made his decision to go into the military and use his brawn an even odder choice to her. A more heartbreaking choice. He could have been anything. Done anything. And he’d chosen to put his life on the line. And while his intentions were honorable, Bliss had not been able to handle even the potential for any more violence and loss in her life.

  But she couldn’t tell Jack that. She hadn’t told him that the thought of him in danger left her with nightmares. She’d started waking up in the middle of the night sweating, her fight or flight instinct triggered, her heart tripping like she’d been discovered. The nightmares had brought back all the fear and sadness she’d spent years trying to overcome.

  He’d never even noticed that she’d been totally freaked out. Either that or he hadn’t cared enough to ask what was wrong. After weeks of worry and stress, she’d realized that she wasn’t going to be able to do it. To be able to live with the fact that Jack would be under constant threat of danger. Just the thought of him in peril brought too many of her own demons screaming to the forefront of her mind.

  And he may have been shocked when she’d told him they were done. But he’d never tried, not once, to talk it out with her. He’d just packed up his stuff and left. She may have verbally ended their relationship but he’d physically ended it by walking away. By not fighting for them like he’d planned to fight for their country.

  “No.” He fingered the papers in the file. “But I would have thought you’d place her somewhere with at least a decent amount of Spanish speakers.”

  “Her English is better than her Spanish now,” Bliss informed him. “She spent the last eight years alone with a television set that only received three English speaking channels. She hasn’t spoken Spanish in a very long time.”

  Bliss hesitated. She hated to explain herself but since he was here and needed to work with them, needed to work with
her…he needed a firmer grasp of the oddities of this situation.

  Maria’s placement was radically different from their usual ‘special’ clients. Normally the client came to them and wanted to disappear. They had already come to terms with the realities of taking on a new life to be safe. They knew if they followed the rules, they could escape the threat that plagued them.

  Maria Torres was a completely unique case.

  She’d been imprisoned below ground, in a dank basement, for eight years. Her only contact with the outside world had come from three television channels and the pigs who checked on her once a week. They shoved bags of food and clothing in through a small cat door and retrieved her garbage bags using a long metal trash grabber. She rarely even saw their faces.

  At twenty-three, she’d basically been in isolation for one third of her lifetime.

  The psychological impact of her imprisonment would likely take years of therapy to eradicate. And as much as it broke Bliss’s heart, she wasn’t sure that Maria would ever be able to integrate back into society. The isolation Maria had endured would haunt her forever. Which had made the discovery of her disappearance a triple shock. Maria went into sensory overload with minor stimulation from outdoor light and sound. How was she going to handle the stress of being out in the world alone? She needed protection from the basic triggers of everyday life.

  The case had been a challenge from start to finish. And now Maria was out there somewhere. Unprotected, alone, and vulnerable. Bliss was worried sick about her.

  “The idea was to place her near farms. The smells, the sounds, even the quiet is more similar to the Watsonville/ Salinas area than say, Texas.” She refused to be defensive about her choices regarding Maria. But since Maria disappeared, Bliss had been second guessing every decision she’d made to keep Maria safe.

  She realized maybe she hadn’t completely lost the defensive in her tone when Jack’s pitch black eyebrows rose. The scar crease created an interesting arch to his right brow.

  “Okay.” Jack shrugged. “Makes sense. But if she was relocated to Iowa, why did you have me fly here first?” Jack continued to skim through the file, looking for something, anything that would give them a lead on where Maria Torres might have gone.

  “Several reasons,” Jillian clipped out. “One, we wanted to makes sure you weren’t followed. All we need is Fernandez getting wind of your involvement and tailing you here.”

  Jack started to protest, but Jill kept going. “He already knows that Maria escaped. He would have to reason that she had help when she didn’t surface anywhere in California. And there were only a few trusted people involved in her depositions, but if there was even a whisper of scandal, and if somehow Fernandez connected her with you and your company, we didn’t want the trail to lead straight to Iowa in case she is still there somewhere.”

  Jack stiffened. Bliss had predicted that he would be unhappy with Jill’s reasons for having him come here.

  She’d also told Jill to tell the truth. Jack had an aversion to lies. Jack had never said why he hated lying so much but she knew from past experience that Jack would rather have the unvarnished, uncomfortable truth than a sugar-coated lie.

  Bliss smiled at Jill and encouraged her to keep going.

  The delay amounted to about seven hours but now wasn’t the time to cut corners. Fernandez had survived for years without detection. They had to take every precaution to keep Maria safe.

  “And second?” he asked stiffly.

  “We wanted to make sure you have Maria’s best interests at heart.”

  Jack’s chest broadened and his eyes narrowed. He shot a blistering glance at Bliss. “Was that your idea?” The words were gritted out through clenched teeth.

  Bliss wasn’t about to answer that question. Damn him. We’ve met?

  Jill tried to draw Jack’s attention back to her, but he didn’t look away from Bliss. So finally Bliss answered carefully, “Our first priority has to be to our clients.”

  Which was no answer at all. But Jack’s anger seemed to calm at her words as if he understood the finer points of protecting the innocent.

  Jack certainly understood their motivation. Protecting clients. Protecting the innocent. He would want the same.

  Judge Adams, Marsh Adams’ father, had asked for Jack specifically to help track and recover Maria Torres with the Adams-Larsen team. Fortunately, before he flew out here, he’d been apprised by Jillian Larsen that the employee who arranged Maria’s new life, the one who would be assisting in the recovery, was Bliss Lee. Jack’s heart had nearly stopped. There couldn’t be more than one Bliss Lee in the world. Half Irish, half Chinese, all female.

  Jack really didn’t fucking want to be here. But he’d known when Stone Consulting had an issue with the CIA and he’d used a favor from Judge Adams that he would owe the judge for taking care of it. He just hadn’t thought payback would come so soon or bring up a painful, visual reminder of a time he’d tried like hell to erase from his memory banks.

  Jack tried to concentrate on the file. Tried to keep his attention on the paper and words. Tried to hold on to the anger that had sustained him through the plane trip to DC. He resolutely ignored the incredible and compelling draw of Bliss.

  She looked…different.

  Older, of course, but in a good way. Her face had lost the slightly rounded look of youth and emphasized her Chinese heritage in the tilt of her pale, honey brown eyes, aristocratic cheekbones, strong nose, and wide, unsmiling mouth.

  That had been the hardest memory to forget. She’d always been smiling, laughing. She’d told him once that she tried to find joy in every day, and that she tried to live up to her name. Life had certainly been full of bliss when they were together.

  Her waist was slimmer and her breasts a little bigger based on the snug, revealing fit of her shirt. That was another thing. She used to be all colors and light, but the suit she wore was a bland, subdued navy, her shirt a plain white button up, as if she’d hidden her lightness behind boring clothes and somber colors. Or was it gone completely?

  Bliss was now streamlined and sleek like a racehorse. Lots of curves, full breasts, gorgeous ass, not skinny, but not fat. And she moved with a sensual, serene maturity that had been missing at twenty.

  Her body had lost the sweet softness that she’d wrapped around him eagerly. She’d drawn him in, given him a haven, a place to just be, without the responsibility that had been the cornerstone of his existence since the day his father left him in charge of the house and his family.

  At fourteen, he’d been overwhelmed, terrified of fucking up, and just plain scared. But he’d stepped up and taken care of his brothers and sister, and to some extent Shelley, his de facto step-mom even though she had the good sense not to marry his father.

  But none of that mattered now. Now was all about protecting himself.

  He needed to maintain the anger. And keep her angry. He’d seen her start to soften and he couldn’t bear that. He needed her tough, a little mean. Because if she showed her softer side, he might start to lower his defenses. His anger had faded some in the face of her profound changes. This older, subdued Bliss was so radically different from his memories, he couldn’t afford to give in to the urge to touch her, hold her, talk to her.

  Jack shook off the need to ask her what had happened to her. This wasn’t about him. Or her. He needed to focus on the case they needed to solve and leave the memories and the questions about what happened to her behind.

  This was about Maria Torres. “Are you sure she left Iowa of her own accord?”

  “Video surveillance of the ATM machines where she withdrew the money and the store security cameras don’t show anyone with her. We analyzed her facial patterns using a cutting edge technology that measures infrared body temps and reactions and she showed no signs of undue stress. She acted furtive, nervous, skittish, but not afraid.” Bliss clipped out. Her melodious voice had gone flat, monotone.

  “And you’re sure that Fernandez knows she
escaped the house where he’d held her imprisoned?”

  “He definitely knows she’s gone. He’s circling the wagons. He’s back in California, and based on some cell phone taps from this morning he’s looking to tie up loose ends.” Bliss continued to recite facts in a bland, even voice. “He used his receptionist’s cell phone to call someone and order them to observe and apprehend a link to his problem.”

  “How do you know it was him?”

  “Voice recognition software.”

  “How’d you get the taps on associates phones?”

  Bliss kept silent.

  Jack snapped his fingers. Judge Adams was one of the few who knew exactly what Fernandez was accused of and he was the one who asked Jack to help here. “Judge Adams.”

  She gave a little tilt to her head but didn’t verbally acknowledge his guess any other way.

  “You still have the tapes?”

  Bliss nodded.

  “Great. Can I listen to them later?”

  “I’ll get you a transcript. Good enough?”

  Jack responded. “Fine.”

  “Do we know who he called?”

  “No. They were using a burner phone.” Bliss said, “We could pinpoint their general location from triangulating the cell towers the call bounced off but we don’t have any idea of their identities. Fernandez was careful not to use any names.”

  Jillian Larsen tapped out a text on her smart phone. “Something urgent with another client just came up. I’m going to leave this to you two.”

  Bliss’s head shot up from where she was reviewing documents and for one brief moment, Jack saw panic in her eyes. Then he blinked and whatever he thought he saw was replaced by the same bland, unsmiling face that she had been projecting since he walked in.

  But what if her indifference to him, to everything, was all a disguise? An act?