Securing Piper

by Susan Stoker

  Paul reached out a hand and ran it over Kalee’s hair as he exited the grocery store parking lot. It had taken him way longer to accomplish all his errands and he was happy they were now on their way. “Are you excited about our adventure?”

  The little girl tilted her head as she chewed, but she didn’t say anything.

  “You’re awfully quiet, Kalee,” he said. “Usually you talk my ear off.”

  Still she didn’t respond.

  His eyes closed of their own accord, the lids feeling as if they weighed a hundred pounds. He opened them abruptly, and when he looked over, saw Kalee was still staring at him.

  “I’m still tired, baby. Are you tired?” he asked.

  She tentatively nodded.

  “Yeah. Me too. It’s really late,” Paul told her. His head bobbed once more, and he almost missed the sign for carpool parking zip past them on the highway. “I’m thinking we both need some sleep. Then we can continue on with our trip. That sound good?”

  Once again, his daughter nodded.

  How he managed to get the car to the deserted parking lot safely, Paul didn’t know. He hadn’t slept in days. Weeks. He was exhausted. All the worry about his missing daughter had weighed heavily on him, but now they were together again. And he had a feeling he could finally sleep.

  Putting the car in park, he looked around. It was pitch dark outside, and because they were the only car in the lot, he felt relatively safe.

  Kalee finished the chocolate bar and smiled at him.

  As Paul’s eyes ran over his daughter, his gut once more started churning. Something still felt wrong, but he didn’t want to think about it. All he cared about was his baby girl.

  “Go to sleep, Kalee,” he told her. “We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

  She nodded, then turned on her side on the seat and closed her eyes.

  Putting his head back on the headrest, Paul did his best to get some more sleep. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t shake the feeling he’d done something terrible. He even dreamed that his daughter was grown up, frowning down at him.

  Telling him to take her back. To let her go.

  When he woke up hours later, the churning in his gut was worse. And his head felt as if it was going to explode.

  Turning his head to reassure himself that Kalee was safely sleeping next to him—he was surprised to see a child he didn’t recognize.

  She had brown hair instead of auburn, and her skin was much darker than Kalee’s had ever been.

  Paul squeezed his eyes shut and muttered, “No, it’s Kalee. My Kalee.”

  When he opened his eyes and looked to his right, he was relieved to once more see his baby girl sleeping.

  All would be fine. As soon as he got his daughter into Mexico, he’d be home free.

  Ace was hanging on to his temper, his sanity, and his frustration by a very small, thin thread. Piper had arrived home from the hospital with Bubba, and he’d wanted to throw something, hard, after seeing her poor face.

  She had a row of stitches over her eyebrow and bruises were forming on her forehead and cheek. She looked tired and worried, and was devastated that he didn’t have any more information to give her.

  He’d sat her at the table with the rest of the team, and she’d gone over everything she could remember from earlier that evening. Once again, Ace was heartsick that he hadn’t been there. That he hadn’t protected his family better.

  Tex had called back, and they were currently talking about Kalee, trying to come up with anything that might give them a clue as to where Solberg may have taken Rani.

  “I didn’t go over to Kalee’s house a lot,” Piper said. “She always said that her dad needed structure and having people over tended to throw him.”

  Rocco leaned forward. “Structure in what way? What else did she say about him?”

  Piper frowned. “I’m not sure. She spent a lot more time at my house than I did at hers. Oh…there was this one time when she said her dad was in the hospital. I guess we were around fourteen or so? She stayed at our house for about a week, I think.”

  “What hospital?” Tex asked. “I didn’t find any long hospital stays when I researched him.”

  “I don’t know. I mean, I was only fourteen. But I remember her being pretty stressed about it. I asked if he was having surgery, because in my mind, going to the hospital meant being cut open, but she laughed and said no, he was having his head looked at.”

  “Shit. Okay, hang on,” Tex replied.

  Piper looked over at Ace, and he saw how much physical pain she was in, but she was refusing to give in to it. Along with the bruising on her face, she was exhausted, and he suspected she was trying to keep him from realizing how badly her head probably hurt.

  “Why don’t you go up to bed?” he suggested softly.

  She stubbornly shook her head. “No. I want to help.”

  “You can’t help if you’re falling asleep in your chair,” Ace chided gently. “And you’re going to want to be at your best when Rani comes home.”

  His pep talk didn’t have the effect he’d hoped it would.

  Piper shook her head again. “She’s not coming home anytime soon, is she?”

  “She is,” Ace emphasized.

  “But Tex has run into a dead end. He said so himself. Mr. Solberg’s in the wind.”

  Ace leaned over and hauled Piper carefully onto his lap. He hated hearing the defeat in her voice. “Solberg’s going to screw up, sweetheart. And when he does, Tex will be there. We’ll be there. Got it?”

  She nodded.

  Ace put his hand on the side of her head and encouraged her to rest on his shoulder. “If you won’t go upstairs, at least close your eyes. I’ll hold you. Okay?”

  She nodded against him, and he felt her body relax. Her arms snaked around him and she held him so tightly, he could practically feel how worried and stressed she was.

  “Found something,” Tex said from the phone on the table.

  “What?” Phantom asked.

  “Paul Solberg checked himself into the Riverton Mental Hospital for a week and a half almost twenty years ago. He used a fake name, but his real name still had to be listed in his records.”

  “What for?” Rocco asked.

  “Schizophrenia.”

  The word echoed around the room, and no one said a thing in response.

  Tex went on. “He was treated and released, and he’s been on medication ever since. He’s had a few relapses here and there over the years, but after his doses were adjusted, he seemed to come out of it.”

  “God,” Piper said from her perch on Ace’s lap. “Back in Timor-Leste, me and Kalee were talking one night, and she said she’d been worried about her dad. When I asked why, she was pretty vague, just said that he was getting older and she was all he had. She also told me something once, but we were in college and drunk at the time, so I didn’t think much about it…but it creeps me out now.”

  “What was that?” Ace asked.

  “She said that if she died before her dad, she didn’t think he’d be able to handle it. That she had a feeling he’d stop taking his meds and would go off the deep end.”

  Silence met her words.

  “I know I should’ve remembered that conversation before now,” Piper said with remorse. “I’d told her the odds of her dying anytime soon were slim to none. Then we started joking about being old and gray and living in the same retirement home together.”

  Ace hugged Piper to him as she started to cry, and he closed his eyes. He understood how she could’ve forgotten about an offhanded comment made years ago when she and her friend were drinking. Especially considering everything else that had happened recently.

  “So Solberg stopped taking his meds and now he’s having delusions,” Tex murmured from the phone. “It makes sense. Hearing about his daughter’s death probably caused him to miss a few doses of his medicine, and things could have just snowballed from there. Seeing Piper again… Given how close she was to hi
s daughter, it was likely too much for him. I’m guessing knowing how much Kalee loved kids, especially those at the orphanage she visited, made his delusions worse, until he really thought Rani was Kalee.”

  “But Kalee wouldn’t have looked anything like Rani,” Phantom said. “With her green eyes and auburn hair, isn’t that a huge stretch?”

  “Not really. When the mind is as stressed as Solberg’s, he’ll see exactly what he wants to see when he looks at Rani,” Tex told them.

  “So how does this get us closer to finding them?” Ace asked.

  There was a beat of silence before Tex said, “I’m still scanning the license plate cameras at the borders and checking other cameras for his vehicle. There are thousands of cars and trucks out there, but I’m hoping I can still get lucky. I’m hoping his mental state means he won’t understand the urgency to get Rani out of the country, and that he’ll mess up sooner rather than later.”

  Ace sighed in defeat. That wasn’t acceptable, but there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. Rani’s life and the mental health of his wife were dependent on a man who’d lost everything, and had nothing to lose. Fuck.

  Paul gripped the steering wheel tightly and stared out the front windshield. He’d driven himself and Kalee as close to the border crossing as he dared. Morning rush hour had started and he knew he needed to get out and take Kalee’s hand and start walking. Joining the other travelers heading to Mexico.

  But something was holding him back. The nightmares had continued even though he wasn’t sleeping. He kept seeing Kalee as a grown woman, and she wouldn’t stop frowning at him. She was asking him to take her back. Back to her family. Which made no sense, as he was her family. It was the two of them against the world. Always had been. And he didn’t know where she wanted to be taken back to.

  He glanced over at Kalee and saw she was sitting patiently in the seat next to him. Which, come to think of it, was odd. His Kalee never sat still. She was always wiggling and giggling.

  That was another thing. Why wasn’t Kalee talking to him? She was a talker, always had been. Loved to laugh and babble to herself and him.

  But now she simply stared at him. Her big brown eyes holding so many secrets.

  Wait. No…her green eyes full of secrets.

  Closing his eyes, Paul shook his head. Snatches of conversations he’d had with a grown-up Kalee flashed through his mind.

  Promise me you won’t stop taking your meds.

  Dad, I need you around for a long time, and you can only be there for me if you keep taking your medicine.

  No matter what, you have to take your pills every morning.

  Promise me, Dad.

  Promise me.

  Promise me.

  Hearing something from next to him, Paul opened his eyes and looked over at the little girl. She’d opened the glove compartment and was flipping through the papers there. She pulled out his wallet and smiled. She opened it—then went completely still.

  Her little fingers traced a small picture he had there. He’d been carrying it for years. Kalee at her college graduation. She had a huge smile on her face, and she was standing next to him with her arm around him.

  The little girl turned to look up at Paul and said the first word he’d heard her speak. And it was spoken in an accent. “Kalee.”

  And in that second…a moment of clarity in his fractured mind…what he’d done came crashing down on Paul.

  The little girl next to him wasn’t his daughter.

  Wasn’t his Kalee.

  His beautiful daughter was dead. Killed thousands of miles away, and he hadn’t been able to say goodbye. Hadn’t been able to tell her one last time how much he loved her.

  Tears welled in his eyes and he began sobbing. Crying for the loss of his precious daughter. The disappointment that he wouldn’t be able to see her ever again.

  In the middle of his breakdown, Paul felt a warm weight on his lap.

  Opening his eyes, he saw the little girl he’d been convinced was his own. She’d crawled onto his lap and was hugging him tightly.

  “Kalee nice. Love her,” the little girl said.

  That made Paul cry even harder. He hugged the small child to his chest and completely lost it.

  Morning had arrived, and they were no closer to finding Paul Solberg and Rani than they were the evening before. An Amber Alert had gone out and the police were fielding calls from people claiming to have seen both man and child, but so far none of the leads had panned out.

  Gumby had called into work and was informed of what happened by their commander, and he and Sidney drove straight from the hotel to Ace’s house.

  Caite had also come by, and the women were all huddled together on the couch.

  Ace appreciated all of his friends more than he could say. He’d never understood the exact level of thankfulness he’d have until right this moment. He’d been there for Caite when she’d been in trouble. Sidney too. Though when Rocco and Gumby had tried to express their thanks, he’d pretty much blown them off at the time.

  But he got it now.

  There was nothing in the world like good friends.

  Friends who would drop everything to be there for you and the people you loved.

  Bubba was entertaining Sinta and Rex was reading to Kemala. Caite and Sidney were keeping Piper occupied and just being there, supporting her.

  Tex was still doing everything in his power to track down Solberg electronically. Rocco had been in touch with their commander and was trying to find out what the border patrol agents knew. Even Phantom—currently sitting at Ace’s dining room table, compulsively sharpening his K-BAR knife—was oddly reassuring.

  Yeah, he had the best friends on the planet.

  But his love for them didn’t do one damn thing to ease his fear for Rani.

  Where was she? Was she scared? Worried? Did she think he and Piper had given her away to Solberg? All the what-ifs were driving him crazy. The only thing he could do was wait, and that sucked.

  “Come on, Solberg. Give us one little hint. That’s all. Just one,” he whispered.

  Just then, Ace’s phone rang, and every head came up and stared at him as he answered. Seeing it was Tex, he put it on speaker so everyone could hear.

  “Ace.”

  “It’s Tex. Just for shits and giggles, because I wasn’t finding anything else, I started checking some of the cameras in the carpool parking lots near the border. It was a long shot, but I literally didn’t have anywhere else to look.”

  “Did you find him?” Ace interrupted.

  “Possibly. At least, I found a car matching the rental’s description. The license plate was different, but he could’ve switched it or something.”

  Ace was on the move before Tex had finished speaking. He went over to Piper and kissed her long and hard before bringing his hand up to the side of her head. His thumb caressed her unblemished cheek for a moment before she whispered, “Go.”

  It was all he needed to hear.

  Turning, he saw Bubba motion to Rocco that he’d stay with the girls and Piper. Rex also said he’d stay.

  Everything had been decided in seconds, it was another reason Ace loved these men. They worked together like a well-oiled machine. There was no bickering about who would stay and who would go.

  “It’s not much,” Tex was saying as the four remaining SEALs headed for the door. “But it’s something. The vehicle drove past the camera and parked in the back corner of the lot, out of camera range. I’m afraid the footage is a few hours old. Apparently the city turns off the cameras at night because no one uses the lot between one and four in the morning.”

  “Shit,” Rocco swore. “So he might’ve already left.”

  “Yeah,” Tex confirmed. “I’m still checking the cameras at the border, but I thought you might want to know about the maybe-sighting.” He rattled off the address of the parking lot and Ace saw Phantom jotting it down and checking his phone for the location.

  “Yeah,” Ace told hi
m. “We definitely wanted to know.”

  “The lot doesn’t look like it’s too far from here,” Phantom said. “It’s too fucking close to the border for comfort though.”

  “Yeah, that’s why these kinds of parking lots are popular. People meet up there and carpool across the border. It’s easier,” Tex explained.

  “All right, we’re on our way,” Ace told Tex after they’d all climbed into Gumby’s Silverado.

  “Call me if you find anything. It might help me narrow down my search parameters,” Tex ordered.

  “Will do,” Ace said. “Thanks for the heads up.”

  Both men hung up and Ace held on as Gumby tore out of his driveway and headed for the interstate. Phantom gave directions as Gumby drove way too fast, but no one complained or said a word about it. They all knew the chances of Solberg still being in that parking lot were slim, but no one wanted to admit it out loud.

  Within twenty minutes, Gumby pulled off the interstate and into the carpool parking lot. It wasn’t empty anymore, as the sun was rising and commuters had already begun to show up to head to work and catch their rides.

  “Where did Tex say the car had parked?” Rocco asked from the back seat next to Ace.

  “Southwest corner,” Ace said tersely.

  The second they drove around the back side of the lot, everyone could see that there was no car there that matched the one Paul had been driving.

  “Damn,” Ace muttered.

  “I’m not willing to give up,” Rocco said. “Let’s head to San Ysidro and see if we can spot his car.”

  Ace nodded. The last thing he wanted was to go back to his house and tell Piper that they were too late. That Solberg had been gone by the time they’d arrived.

  Gumby headed back to the interstate and turned south. With every mile that passed, Ace got more and more depressed. He and the others were men of action. They got intel and acted on it, more often than not completing their mission in the process. But at the moment it felt as if they were like chickens with their heads cut off. Running around with no clear purpose and trying to find the end of a rainbow and the proverbial gold.