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

by Lisa Hughey

  Shane slammed the door shut with an oof. For an infinitesimal moment, some raw emotion flashed in Keisha’s eyes. Disappointment. Hurt. What? Hell if he knew, but he did understand that somehow, something had just hurt her.

  “Jack?” Keisha noticed Maria on the sofa, and Bliss standing behind her with a soft expression on her face. “I thought we were supposed to be on vacation.”

  “Yeah. You are. But I needed you,” Jack said with a shrug of his shoulders.

  Shane rubbed his large hand over his abs. “Sorry for the subterfuge.”

  “What’s going on?” Keisha demanded answers, her attitude firmly in place, chin up and curls shaking, as she looked at the two women. “Who are the two chicks?”

  Bliss held out her palm and introduced herself. Keisha scanned her, raised an eyebrow at the suit, and then shifted her attention to Maria. Bliss put a protective hand on Maria’s shoulder. “This is Maria Torres.”

  Shane had faded into the background. But if Jack was right, Keisha seemed to be consciously avoiding looking in that corner of the room.

  “Why does that name sound familiar?” Keisha split her focus between Jack and Maria.

  “She’s one of the girls who were abducted eight years ago.”

  “Hol-ee shit. Is this why Connor and Ava were accused of harassing—”

  “Kind of. But you can’t say anything to anyone.” Jack cautioned. “They don’t know she’s alive yet.”

  Keisha’s head snapped toward Maria so fast her curls hit her in the face. She was moving before Jack could say another word. Keisha threw herself down on the sofa. “It’s a fricking miracle.” She lifted her hand as if she was going to stroke Maria’s hair then paused. “Okay if touch you, baby?”

  Maria nodded.

  “You’re a survivor.” Keisha wrapped her arms around Maria and hugged her tight. “Don’t you forget it.”

  Shane’s jaw dropped. Jack’s heart swelled. He’d been right. Keisha was perfect.

  Maria seemed to just crumple in Keisha’s arms. She dropped her head to Keisha’s shoulder and began to cry silently.

  Bliss had wrapped both arms around her waist and was watching the scene play out between Maria and Keisha with pure distress. Jack wanted to hug her tight too. She was shaking and he could tell that Maria’s acceptance of the physical comfort had shocked her. And she was beating herself up over not anticipating what Maria needed.

  “So what do you need from me?” Keisha pulled out her smart phone and sat poised, body tense and fierce, even as she kept one arm loosely wrapped around Maria’s shoulders. Jack knew he could ask her to take someone out right now and her only question would be: soft or hard?

  “Damn. I knew you’d be perfect.” He chose great employees. “We need you to protect Maria. So we can go after the man who did this.”

  Her hazel eyes sparkled with determination. “On it.”

  “And we need to get her clothes for the press conference.”

  Maria stiffened.

  Keisha bent and murmured in her ear. “You gotta do it. I know it’s goin’ to be hard but he needs to pay.”

  “Bliss and I will set up the logistics. Your job is to take care of our guest.”

  “You don’t need to worry about a thing.” Keisha smiled at Maria, everything about her radiated peace and determination.

  Shane was still propped up against the wall, his gaze glued to Keisha as if he’d never seen her before.

  Jack could understand. He and Keisha had met during Basic at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. He’d only seen the surface of Keisha for years until they’d happened to work together and he’d seen the sweet beneath her gruff. “Maria. We let you have your time. But now we need to know everything you told the marshals. We need every single detail you can remember so that he doesn’t get away with what he did.”

  Keisha said, “You need to tell us all about it.”

  Maria began in a halting monologue. Her voice was like sandpaper on rough wood. Jack realized she’d likely not spoken much in the last eight years.

  She spoke for hours. She told them about the abduction. How scared the four girls had been. About how Fernandez had taken one look at Maria and freaked. “Why did you take her? It was only supposed to be the three.”

  Jack broke out into a sweat when Maria admitted that normally she walked to the fields with Ava. She shot him a beseeching look.

  “I promise you that you will see Ava tomorrow. We need to make sure she stays safe.”

  It was as if he said the magic words. Maria’s whole body relaxed, she nodded her short chin length hair bobbed against her neck. “We must keep Ava safe.”

  Jack’s heart swelled at the thought of Ava reuniting with Maria again. He couldn’t wait to make that happen.

  “So you were a mistake?” Bliss spoke evenly.

  “Yes.” Maria smiled sadly. “But the other three, apparently they were dispensable.”

  “What happened to them?” Jack asked softly.

  Maria started shaking again. “The two men, they came to take them away.”

  Jack stiffened. This was going to be bad.

  “Sofia, she was a virgin and the one…he hurt her.” Maria started to cry again.

  “Bastard,” Keisha whispered.

  “Dios mio, the blood it was everywhere.” Maria wiped the tears from her face with trembling fingers. “And then she didn’t move.”

  One of the captors had raped her. It sounded like she’d hemorrhaged to death. Fuck. Jack wanted to rage and shout but that wouldn’t help Maria right now. “Do you know what they did with her?”

  “They buried her in the forest.”

  “Which one?” Jack’s brain was working at hyper speed. If they could find Sofia’s body, it would be one more nail in Fernandez’s coffin.

  “Point Lobos.”

  That was on the coast, but there was the meadow. Jack thought about the Lace Lichen Trail. With the moss and shadowy, muted light, it would be the perfect place to hide a body. They might never find her.

  Bliss asked softly, “What about the other two girls?”

  Maria pursed her mouth. “I never saw them again.”

  “And you only saw Fernandez one time?”

  “Yes.”

  “But you’re sure it was him?”

  “Si. Yes. He was a friend,” she spat the word. “Of my parents.”

  That must be why Fernandez was so upset when they’d grabbed Maria.

  Jack had one last question for her. He knew it would hurt. And he hated to have to ask. Dammit.

  But Keisha beat him to it. “Why’d he leave you in that hole, baby?” Keisha stroked the damp hair away from Maria’s face.

  Maria began to rock back and forth. “I don’t know. Why me? Why me?”

  Only Fernandez could answer that question. Jack couldn’t wait.

  ***

  “Shane and I will be back as soon as we can.” Keisha reassured Maria. They had seemed to bond.

  Maria nodded.

  “Why don’t you get some rest?” Bliss suggested.

  “I can’t. I can’t sleep.”

  “Why don’t you at least lie down on the sofa.” Jack patted the cushions.

  Maria shuffled to the sofa, her movements like a woman three times her age. She settled in the corner against the arm.

  “I want to nail that bastard,” Keisha said fiercely.

  “We have to wait until we have Maria’s DNA confirmation.” Jack caught his employee in a one armed hug. “And then we will.”

  “How long do we have to wait?”

  “We should have the results tomorrow.” Bliss was still beating herself up over the fact that she hadn’t realized that Maria needed touch, affection. She would have preferred to go get Maria her new clothes, but she’d lost her once and couldn’t take the chance that Maria would bolt again.

  “You two need to get to the clothing store before it closes,” Jack directed.

  Keisha nodded her agreement. “We need anything
else?”

  They agreed to bring back food for everyone.

  “See you soon.” Shane’s deep voice echoed from the doorway. He held his arm across the doorway, and surveyed the parking lot and surrounding woods before he let Keisha exit.

  “Seriously, dude?” Keisha tossed her curls. “I was in the damn Navy.”

  “Can’t help it.” Shane shrugged. “Don’t care if you like it or not.”

  They continued bickering as the door swung shut.

  “You okay?” Jack asked Bliss.

  Apparently he’d noticed that she was upset about her lack of emotional attention to Maria.

  Maria, who had fallen into a light doze. Bliss was thankful that she trusted them enough to fall asleep in their presence.

  She gestured to the small kitchenette bar. “So, we’ve got Maria, we’ll have the DNA results. I wish we had some way to tie him to the house.”

  Jack eyed her for another moment before he accepted that she didn’t want to talk about it.

  Jack took the seat next to her. His heat warmed the air and the scent of Jack surrounded her in a haze of comfort.

  “We need a way to pressure him that will be so in his face that we break him.”

  “Something really public.” Bliss set her computer on the kitchenette counter and booted it up so she could look on Fernandez’s website for his appearance schedule. “We know he is here locally. Let’s find out where he’ll be tomorrow.”

  Jack grinned. “Hey, I have a friend who reports the local news. I bet I could get Charity to ask some pointed questions.”

  Bliss’s curiosity rose as she wondered how close a friend Charity was. But before she could ask, there was a pounding at the door.

  Jack strode toward the entrance to their room. “They must have forgotten something.”

  “Check the security peephole first.”

  Maria sat up groggily and rubbed at her eyes.

  Jack shot her a look then pulled the tail of his t-shirt from his waist and put his hand around the grip of his weapon.

  A strange uneasiness seized Bliss. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

  Jack peered through the peephole. “No one there.”

  “Jack, get away from the door.” Bliss’s voice never rose but the panic was evident. “Maria, take cover.”

  She couldn’t stop the sheer terror bubbling through her. Something was really wrong. She groped in her messenger bag for her weapon.

  Suddenly the door splintered around the doorknob. Jack pulled Maria to her feet and then yanked her down behind the sofa. “Stay down,” he murmured fiercely. The sharp retort of silenced rounds as they punctured the flimsy wood were the only sounds in the room besides Bliss’s frantic breath.

  Bliss took cover behind the breakfast bar counter and peered around the side so she could see the doorway. Her heart bulleted in her chest. If Jack had still been standing in front of the door, he’d be full of holes right now.

  Jack leveled his weapon at the doorway. “Get in the bedroom,” he ordered them both.

  Blood trickled down his temple. The sight paralyzed Bliss for a minute. “Were you hit?”

  “No. I’m fine.” Jack ignored the blood dripping onto his collar. He must have been hurt by flying wood slivers.

  Two men burst through the door, their hands wrapped around their weapons. Bliss had seconds to process. Two men. Average height. One dark skinned, one lighter. Both wearing tan ski masks so their faces were not visible. But their appearances were ragged and desperate as if they’d been sleeping in their clothes.

  After the initial barrage of bullets, the silence was deafening.

  “No one move.” One of the men ordered, his voice was gruff and uneven with a hint of an accent.

  Maria whimpered at the sound of his voice.

  Shit. They must be the men who kidnapped her and kept her prisoner for all those years.

  “How’d you find us?” Jack asked.

  “Who the fuck cares?” the dark skinned one said. His gun was pointed at Bliss. “Give us the girl and we’ll let you go.”

  Girl? They couldn’t possibly be talking about Maria?

  The bigger, lighter skinned man held his weapon pointed at Jack and Maria. His arm was trembling.

  This was a clusterfuck waiting to happen. Both the men were unsteady and close to complete meltdown.

  Bliss stared at them, stared at the men responsible for Maria’s suffering. Responsible for her years of captivity. Her fear. And all the rage that Bliss had suppressed for years jetted to the surface in a burst of adrenaline.

  Bliss quit cowering behind the breakfast bar and stood tall. “Leave her alone.”

  “Jesus, Bliss.” Jack snarled, “Get down.”

  “Forget about her, chica.” The smaller one’s hand trembled. “Save yourself.”

  All the years of suppressing her longing for her sister, her father, hoping for her family to be whole again, the hurt, the disillusionment when the marshals had decided to keep them separated forever. Every single attempt to find them, every single denial of her request to see them, rose up in a fireball of rage. “I will not let you hurt her anymore.”

  Jack shoved Maria to the floor and trying to draw both men’s attention, shouted, “Get down.”

  The shout was the distraction they needed. Both men took their attention from their targets briefly. Bliss’s heart shot to her throat. Dammit Jack.

  “Shoulders.” She commanded Jack and hoped he got her meaning.

  Bliss practiced weekly at the Adams-Larsen indoor range. Their shots rang out simultaneously. The percussive blast was deafening in the small hotel suite.

  Bliss’s shot hit her target in the shoulder joint. He reflexively pulled his trigger but the shot went wide and hit the refrigerator.

  “Bliss, get down, dammit.”

  Jack had hit his guy in the hand. He’d dropped the weapon and fortunately the gun didn’t go off. Both the kidnappers dropped to the floor and howled.

  Jack gave his gun to Maria. “Only shoot if you have to.

  Jack pulled plastic zip ties from Shane’s duffel. Bliss got up to help and he practically took her head off. “Stay behind the counter and cover me. Shoot them again if they make any move to get up.

  Jack quickly restrained their arms behind their backs. And then Bliss was on the phone with Garrett. “We need medics.”

  After Jack got the ties on their feet, he ripped the mask from the first man’s head. Maria stood tall and nodded. Bliss would never forget the look on her face. Pure satisfaction. “He’s the one who raped Sofia.”

  Quickly Jack ripped off the other mask and Maria nodded again. “That’s them.”

  Jack pulled identification from their pockets and flipped open the first man’s wallet. As he took in their names, a feral satisfaction spread through him.

  They had Fernandez now.

  Eleven

  The confrontation was set.

  The men who’d broken into the hotel room were Fernandez’s brothers. They had been on their way to make sure the house went up and saw Shane’s car leaving the two lane road. So they had followed them back to their hotel and waited until Shane and Keisha left, believing they could scare Jack and Bliss into giving up Maria.

  The men had no prior arrests or illegal activity on their records. They’d been model citizens which explained how they had managed to keep Maria a secret all those years. But when they’d been confronted with their complicity in kidnapping the girls and holding Maria prisoner, they had rolled over on Fernandez. He’d managed to hold Sofia’s death over them for years.

  Once they realized that Maria was communicating with the U.S. Marshals, they knew they were screwed. The marshals had managed to hold them overnight without the requisite phone calls, so Fernandez had no idea that he was going down.

  Keisha had taken perfect care of Maria when they’d returned to the hotel.

  Jack still wasn’t sure he’d recovered from the danger to Bliss. At random times his
heart would start to beat frantically and his blood pressure would rise. He’d seen the edge of fury in her eyes when she’d gone after the Fernandez brothers. She’d scared the hell out of him.

  But the case was almost over.

  The U.S. Marshals were here. Jess was on the roof of the building across the street with a camera rather than her sniper rifle.

  It felt as if the entire world had gone crazy. Riley, who apparently had been out of communication for several days, was home from the Philippines and had a thing with Di Lundberg. Never in a million years would he have seen that coming. Con and Ava were together. Jess and Colin. Everyone had paired off and it felt unbelievably weird.

  Riley, Connor, Colin, and Shane were going to be Maria’s human wall. Ava and Keisha were on hand to rally around Maria.

  Jack had decided to let Ava and Maria confront Fernandez.

  Bliss was tucked away in the back of the room. She’d found the perfect vantage point to watch Fernandez get taken down. Adams-Larsen couldn’t reveal their role in the care and protection of Maria so she was well out of the limelight.

  Fernandez had a town hall meeting today at the VFW specifically for the Farm Workers Association. Jack couldn’t have scripted this confrontation better if he’d tried.

  Fernandez was dressed in Average José casual: Levi’s, a plaid flannel shirt, and a pair of scuffed cowboy boots. But he still had the thousand dollar buffed and shined look beneath the Wal-Mart attire.

  “Scumbag,” Bliss muttered.

  Jack had chosen to stay in the background with Bliss. She’d been all business, and since they’d found Maria yesterday, they’d had no time alone. Jack had coordinated with his brothers and sister while Bliss had worked with the U.S. Marshals to make sure this all went to plan.

  The old hall was packed to the rafters with Fernandez’s adoring public.

  This was nothing more than a glorified photo op for Fernandez. Luckily it was a slow news day everywhere else because Jack was pretty sure this surprise was going to catapult Charity into a national figure by tonight. When Jack had approached her about the scoop, she’d initially been skeptical but once he showed her the evidence, she’d jumped at the chance to ‘interview’ Fernandez.