Forever Alexa (Book Four In The Bodyguards Of L.A. County Series) (34 page)

She made a purring sound in her throat and attacked his mouth with teeth and tongue.

“Goddamn,” he puffed out as he rushed up the steps. “Screw the bedroom. I’m taking you in the entryway. We’ll get to all those things I plan to do in a few minutes. Looks like four is your lucky number today.” He set her down and leaned her against the door, kissing her, palming her small, firm breast with one hand as he reached in his pocket for the house key.

“Hurry up, Jack,” she urged as her hand snaked into his shorts, torturing them both.

He struggled to put the key in the lock as Alex revved him higher. “Oh my God, I’m going to—”

Without warning, Alex yanked her hand away as if he’d grown thorns. Their breath heaved out, mingling, and she clutched at his t-shirt. “Tucker’s home.”

Jackson glanced over his shoulder as Tucker pulled in the drive. “Fucking-A. I’m going to kick his
ass
.”

Tucker got out and shut the door. “Sorry for interrupting.”

“Is this payback for waking you up the other night? Go drive around the block a few times.” Jackson snapped out of his haze when Tucker didn’t smile or give some sort of crude comeback. “What’s up, man?”

“There’s been another kidnapping.”

Alex’s rosy cheeks paled, and her swollen lips trembled. “Livy? They took Livy?”

“Not Livy, Alexa. She’s with George and Carol.”

Alex sagged against him, and he wrapped his arm around her. “Where?”

“On the outskirts of Servena Park.”

Alex straightened. “Servena Park’s not that far from here.”

“There was a van involved. The victim was visiting with a friend. The friend ran in to her house to tell her mother they were heading to the mall. When the friend came out, two men were yanking the victim into the back. Just like that, they were gone.”

“Not again,” Alex whispered as her body tensed and her hands clutched together at her waist.

“Come on. Let’s get inside.” Jackson had no trouble sticking the key in the lock this time. He twisted the knob and let Alex and Tucker in.

“The media’s all over this one. Amber Alerts were blaring over every station on the way back from DC. I put in a call to Canon, but we won’t be hearing from him for awhile.” They hurried to the living room, and Tucker picked up the remote. “What’s the local news station?”

“Channel 12.” Jackson walked up behind Alex and settled his arms around her waist.

Her clammy hands clung to his forearms as Suzette Martin, Baltimore’s friendly anchorwoman, filled the screen. “—we follow this developing story. Again, fifteen-year-old Margaret Stowers was pulled into the back of a white Chevy work van by two unknown assailants at 3:09 p.m. today in the upscale suburb of Servena Park.” A picture of Margaret Stowers replaced Suzette Martin’s pretty face, and Alex gasped as Jackson’s stomach turned.

“Goddamn,” he muttered as he stared.

“No.
No
.” Alex tore herself from his arms. “This isn’t happening.”

“The girl from Club Jerhico… The picture you took,” Tucker chimed in.

Helpless rage iced Jackson’s veins as he nodded, unable to believe it. “I think we can officially connect Timothy Monroe to the sex ring. It’s a pretty big coincidence he spotted this girl, talked to her, gave her a card, and now she’s missing. I want to get Ethan in on this. Let’s play this out and see if we can find a profile on Baltimore Dates—see if there might be a link. Kristen Moore snuck into clubs, had a profile, and disappeared. Let’s see if Margret did too.”

Tucker glanced at Alex as she stared at the floor. “I’ll get on it. Come up when you can. I need to talk to you.”

“I’ll be right there.”

Jackson struggled to relax his jaw as Tucker disappeared up the stairs. How many more young women’s lives were going to be destroyed before the taskforce found their connection?

He curled his fist, wanting to punch something, then flexed his hand. Destroying his parents’ wall wouldn’t fix the situation. He glanced at Alex and sighed. “Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not.” She looked up from the floor with tears pooling. “Why aren’t the police taking this seriously? How many more girls have to disappear?”

“They’re taking this seriously, Alex.”

“How can you stand here and say that when we both know their only interest is in nailing Zachary Hartwell? There’s so much more to this than the damn CEO of Starlight Entertainment.” She turned away, took two steps, and whirled back around. “Margret’s just a
baby
.”

He jammed a hand through his hair, unable to deny anything Alex said. “We’ve got Ethan on this. If he finds something, we’ll go with it and get Miranda in on it as well.”

Alex scoffed and rolled her eyes.

Surprised, Jackson stared at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

She shook her head and went to the stairs. “Nothing.”

He followed and pulled her around. “Alex.”

“I’m sorry. I’m just tired, frustrated, and very, very sad for Margret and her family. They have no idea what they’re in for.”

He skimmed her jaw with the pad of his thumb, knowing this was eating her up. “Why don’t you lie down for a few minutes before Olivia gets home?”

A spark of heat snapped into her eyes but quickly died away. “That’s a good idea.”

Puzzled, he held her gaze.

“I’ll catch a nap, Jack. Go ahead and talk to Tucker.” She walked up the steps, and he stared after her. What the hell was that? Seconds later, he headed upstairs, glanced at Alex’s closed door, and went into the office as Tucker hung up the phone.

“Ethan’s on it.”

“Good.” Jackson leaned against the desk and rubbed his fingers over the sudden throbbing in his temple. With a sigh, he dropped his hand. “Fucking-A, man.”

Tucker leaned back in the chair and crossed his feet. “He said he’ll call us back in an hour. He was scanning Margret’s photo into his computer.”

“Hopefully he’ll find something. The club is officially one of their avenues for luring these girls in, so is the website, but does one have anything to do with the other?”

“Good question. Maybe we’ll have a better idea when Ethan gets back to us.” Tucker eased back further until the chair squeaked. “So, what does Alexa think about all this?”

Something in Tucker’s tone had Jackson on alert. “She thinks it sucks. Why?”

He shrugged.

Jackson’s eyes narrowed a fraction. “What’s up?”

Tucker shrugged again. “I met with Miranda’s old partner today—lead sex crimes detective down in DC. Seemed to know a lot about Abby’s case and the ring. I toyed around with a few theories. Brought up the other victims and our thoughts on Baltimore Dates. He was intrigued.”

“Okay.”

“He and I spent a good hour doing some perusing of our own, trying to get things moving again. We found something.” Tucker sat up in front of his laptop and started typing. “Does JennyLove ring any bells?”

“Jenny Love? No. Who the hell’s Jenny Love?”

Tucker turned the screen. “Take a look for yourself.”

Jackson stared at the gorgeous blonde with Alex’s face. “What the fuck?” He spaced out each word, unable to believe what he was looking at. “I told her no.”

“Yeah, well, apparently she didn’t listen.”

His pulse throbbed as he read Jennifer’s profile—just turned 18 and graduated high school. Wants to model or be a fashion photographer. Loves to party and hang out with friends. “I can’t fucking believe this.” He shot off the desk and whirled to face Tucker again. If he’d ever been angrier, he couldn’t think of a time. “I can’t
believe
this. She went behind my back. When did she…” He trailed off, trying to get a grip on his breathing. “Does she have any idea how dangerous this is?”

“I had a feeling this was going to be a shocker. I called Ethan while I was still in DC and had him get started on this.” Tucker pulled a short stack of papers from his laptop case. “She’s gotten a hell of a lot of hits. Two of them are definitely promising.”

“Give me those.” Jackson yanked the sheets out of Tucker’s hand and scanned the numerous correspondences she’d made over the past three days—well over fifty hits, and she was stringing them all along.

“She just went online.”

He tore his gaze from her flirty replies. “Huh?”

“She’s online right now.”

Jackson glanced at the small, green dot by her picture, alerting potential daters that she was available to chat. So much for Alex’s nap. He tossed the papers to the desk and started for the door.

“Where you going, man?”

“Where do you think?” He rubbed at the slow burn of anger scorching his stomach.

“She’s made more contacts than Melinda. Ethan’s running two of the profiles as we speak.”

He stopped and faced Tucker. “What’s your point?”

“My point is I think you should take a couple of deep breaths before you go storming in that room.”

“She lied to me. For three fucking days she’s looked me in the eye and lied.”

Alexa closed herself in her room and hurried to the couch, replaying the last of her conversation with Jack. “Go take a nap?” she seethed as she sat and pulled her laptop on her legs. Did he have any idea how insulting that was? “I’ll go sleep while Abby suffers and another girl disappears.” She glared. “I don’t think so.”

Fuming, she stared out at the restless waters, attempting to gather herself, thankful that Livy wasn’t home just yet. Her little girl would be bursting with excitement over her aquarium adventures, and Alexa wasn’t in a place to enjoy her baby’s lively stories. She couldn’t get Margret Stowers’ pretty young face out of her mind or the echoing screams of her sister when the two men pulled her into the back of the van, just the way they had their latest victim.

Determined to do what she could, Alexa settled the laptop more truly on her legs and typed in the address for Baltimore Dates. She tapped her finger against the mouse in a rapid, restless rhythm, waiting, while the small circular rainbow spun in the center of her screen. “Come on.” The connection was taking
forever
. Finally the site popped up, and she logged in and immediately scanned her messages for a return correspondence from either of the two profile names that made the hair stand up on the back of her neck every time she interacted with them. “Yes.” She clicked on Steve-O and read:

Hey beautiful,

I’m sitting here staring at your picture. When are you going to say yes and have dinner with me? I’ll bring my camera. We can go to the park after and snap some pictures. I’ll pass them on to my friend at the modeling agency.

— S

Alexa’s pulse kicked into high gear as she shot to standing. This was their lure. This was Crazy80. She could
feel
it. She rushed to the door and opened it, ready to confess all to Jack, but stopped. How was he going to react? Not well. Not well at all. What if he didn’t want her to answer? What if he put a stop to the whole thing? She chewed her bottom lip as she stared at George’s office down the hall, listening to the deep murmurs of Jack and Tucker’s voices through the partially open door.

Not yet. She couldn’t tell him yet. Alexa closed herself back in the room and pressed her forehead to the wood. This was another giant leap down a road that could ruin her and Jack, but she had to think of Abby. Her sister was depending on her. She would make Jack understand.

With her mind made up, Alexa took a deep breath and hurried back to the computer. If she secured a date with Steve-O first, then went to Jack and Tucker, they would be more likely to let her meet the guy, especially after she showed them the chats she’d been printing and hiding in her suitcase for the past two days. They were so similar to the conversations between Crazy80 and Kristen Moore. Alexa wiggled her butt more firmly in the seat and placed her hands on the keyboard. “Okay.” She wiggled again. “Here goes nothing.”

Steve,

This must be fate. I’ve been thinking of you all day. I would love to have dinner.

— Jenny

She read the three lines several times, scrutinizing every word. Was her message too much, or too little? Did she sound young enough, or perhaps too old? She was wasting time. If Steve-O was part of the trafficking ring—and he almost certainly was—he wasn’t interested in anything but an agreement to meet. Her hand hovered over ‘send’ as her heart thundered. This was it. She crossed her fingers and clicked the button.

She moved the arrow to the corner of the screen, intending to ex out, but stopped when the computer alerted her to a new message. “Holy Cow.” Steve-O had responded already. She clicked on the latest reply as the bedroom door crashed open. Alexa’s hand flew to her chest as she gasped and looked at Jack. “You scared me half to death.”

He walked to where she sat, looming over her, staring down, his eyes unreadable.

She quickly closed her laptop. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

He didn’t move, didn’t speak.

Why was he looking at her like that? Swallowing, she got to her feet. “You’re scaring me. Is Livy okay?”

“Quick nap.” His voice was dangerously quiet.

“I wasn’t—I wasn’t tired.” She curled her fingers around the charm on her necklace, and her gaze darted to the laptop, following his steady stare. Did he know? How could he? “I—”

“You lied to me.”

She closed her eyes, absorbing the venomous slap of his words.

“I said you lied to me.”

“Yes.” She nodded and tried to remain calm, hoping she could find a way to make him understand. Her stomach sank as she opened her eyes and met his. “I lied to you.”

“I’ve been honest with you from the start, and you went behind my back.”

What would they have left after they finished here? “Yes. I didn’t feel like I had any other option.”

He let loose a humorless laugh. “Give me a fucking break.”

“I’m sorry.” She brushed a hand over his arm, and he stepped back. “I never wanted to hurt you.”

“You’re sorry?”

“Yes, very. I didn’t want to do this. I tried to think of another way, but you tied my hands.”

His brow shot up. “I tied your hands?”

“You wouldn’t hear me out when I suggested you use me as a decoy.”

He rocked back on his heels. “I wouldn’t hear you out?”

“Stop that,” she snapped and turned away from his ruthless gaze. “Stop repeating everything I say.”