VANISHED, A Romantic Suspense Novel (Edgars Family Novel) (25 page)

Dear God, the cuts and bruises turned him on
.

“I hurt all over, Dylan,” she whispered just to see his reaction. There it was. Fire in his eyes.

He traced a finger up her cheek. “Have you seen your face?”

Tears welled up and she let them slide down. “No.” And she didn’t need to. She could hardly breathe through her nose from where they’d smashed it in the first day, blood caked inside and clogging it. One eye was nearly swollen shut. Her lips felt inches thick and the cuts along them stung every time she talked.

“Such a shame my men damaged so rare a beauty as yours. But it’s your own fault, sweetheart,” he said, letting his hands trails down her arms. She tried not to wince when he squeezed the left one just above the elbow where dark bruises covered it.

“It is?” He was crazy if he thought she’d take the blame for this torture.

He slid his hands down her sides, past the ribs she was certain were broken on both sides, because it hurt too damn much to inhale.

“You shouldn’t have gone snooping into things that weren’t your business,” he said, letting his hands glide over the knife cuts on her thighs. “I see Bertram decided to practice his knife skills on you. He has quite the talent, wouldn’t you say? Able to inflict enough pain and bloodshed without really risking your death too soon.”

He was crazy. And crazy was tricky to manipulate.

Not waiting for her answer, he moved his hands between her thighs, making her open them wider with a nudge.

She obeyed. Her survival might very well depend on which one of them played this game of seduction and lies better.

* * * * *

“You’re going to need to move up the timetable,” Frank said, drawing their attention again.

“Why?” Luke asked, already dreading the answer. “We’ve started a profile on the dating sites to see if we can make contact with whoever is drawing the women into their scheme. It’s only been up tonight. Will take a little more time than that.”

Frank shook his head. “Won’t work. Paolo, the caterer, also told me he’d been hired for another event this Friday night.”

Two days.

“If they’re planning to ship Bonnie out of there, it will be during or right after that party,” he said, his mind already trying to find a way to get into the mansion. “We could go in with the caterers.”

Frank nodded. “I didn’t give Paolo details about why we wanted to know the group’s location. Got the idea he didn’t want to know details. But with some more arm-twisting we can get a few people inside with Kirk.”

“We’d need to do an assault from outside, too. I wonder how many people Jeffers can get us?”

“You and he don’t know who can be trusted. You’re going to have to call Columbus,” Castello said, giving him a meaningful look.

Call the family
.

“We need to find
Brianna
before anyone storms from outside. I’ll need to go inside, too.” Abby said beside him.

“No.”

Both Abby and Castello looked at him.

“No to calling the cavalry?” Frank asked.

“Or to me going in to find Brianna?” Abby asked, that stubborn glint in her eyes.

“Both.” He ran his hands through his hair while they both stood there watching him. He focused on Castello, because he couldn’t deal with the idea of Abby even remotely close to this operation. “I’m trying to keep this off official records for as long as possible. You know they’ll storm in here, take over and Abby’ll be in danger before the group’s leaders are caught.”

“It’s your case. They’ll move on it how you want. Besides the Fed has resources we’re going to need to bring down a Senator,” Frank said.

They both knew Luke’s brother-in-law would have to be called into the situation.

“I won’t be in danger with you by my side,” Abby said, crossing her arms beneath her breasts, her brows drawn down in that stubborn set he’d learned meant she was digging in her heels.

He couldn’t deal with her right now, so he turned to Frank. “Okay, I’ll call them. But if any of them get hurt, you get to explain it to Mom.”

That caught Abby’s attention “Exactly who are you calling?”

“Three of the biggest pains in my ass,” Luke said, taking out his phone and punching numbers. He pointed to Castello. “He makes it a quartet.”

The dial tone sounded in his ear as he watched Abby. She’d turned her head to one side, her glasses resting on the tip of her nose. Gently, she nibbled on her bottom lip, reminding him how it had tasted earlier when she’d been snuggled on top of him.

“
This better be good, Luke. Judy’s about to put dinner on the table.”

“Dinner can wait, Dave, it’s about Senator Klein.”

Luke had walked out onto the patio in back, leaving Abigail with a ton of questions. That left Frank to answer her questions.

“Who is Dave?”

“His oldest brother,” Frank answered, apparently not wanting to give more information.

“And why would Luke be calling him?”

“He’s a cop. Other brother Matt is a highway patrolman and their brother-in-law, Jake, is FBI.”

“Oh. I thought he’d be calling people in his own agency.”

“Neither one will have the jurisdiction Jake will. Other than the possible fraud that you and your friend may have found, this doesn’t fall under Treasury. Besides, this is personal. Luke’s been looking into Senator Klein for some time now.”

“Why?”

Frank patted the barstool beside him and she sat down, waiting for the explanation.

“Because a crazed gunman took Dave’s wife hostage along with the senator’s son last winter. Something in the way the senator’s people handled it tipped Dave and Luke’s radar that something might not be on the up-and-up. They’ve been thinking it was illegal arms sales.”

“But since it’s not, Homeland won’t be too interested in what we’ve found,” she said.

“Kidnapping and transportation of illegal aliens, sex-slave trade? This is all going to be under the Federal umbrella, but Luke wants to keep your name out of anything official.” Frank winked at her. “So we call family.”

She couldn’t help but grin at him. “You’re part of their family, aren’t you?”

He lifted his eyebrows and nodded. “Matt’s wife, Katie, was once in my WITSEC program. When her cover was blown and Matt came into her life, I sort of got attached to the crazy Edgars clan.”

Before she could tell him how envious she was, Luke sauntered back in the room to stand on the kitchen side of the island. “Jake, Dave, Matt and Katie are on their way.”

“Your sister-in-law is law enforcement, too?” she asked.

Luke shot Frank a narrowed-eyed look. “See you’ve been filling her in on the family dynamics.”

Frank shrugged, looking none too concerned that he’d been sharing family secrets. “Just a little background information I thought she might need to know before the gang gets here.”

“Katie’s a neonatal nurse,” Luke said, turning his attention back to her, “but she grew up in a paramilitary cult and handles herself well with guns, as well as disarming security systems and bombs.”

“Bet she volunteered and Matt wasn’t happy,” Frank said, a bit of humor in his voice.

“Actually, once he heard what these guys were doing to women, Matt just said she’d be coming, too. Guess he wasn’t going to even start the fight over her staying home.”

“And the Fed?” Frank asked.

“Jake said he’d get the details once he was here and decide how to proceed. He wanted to know about the local cop situation and I let him know we had them involved, but Jeffers hasn’t contacted his boss, yet. The rest we’ll deal with in the morning.” Luke yawned and stretched, then walked around the counter. He took her by the hand and pulled her off her seat. “You get the couch, old man. We’ve got something to discuss in private.”

Without looking back he led her into the bedroom and closed the door behind him.

“You might’ve just announced to him that we’re sleeping together,” Abigail said as she stalked across the room, her cheeks still warm from his highhandedness.

“Sweetheart, he figured that out this morning when you came out dressed in my shirt,” Luke said, slowly advancing on her.

She held up her hand and took a step backward. “Don’t touch me.”

“Why?” he asked, even though he stopped more than an arm’s length away.

“Because we need to talk and I can’t think straight when you touch me.”

He smiled that little-boy grin of his and her heart did a flip. She forced the charm from her mind and subdued the urge to walk into his arms.

What she had to say was important.

“You
know
I have to go in to the mansion.” She hurried on when he opened his mouth to speak. “I’m the one Brianna called. If they’ve got her imprisoned there I’m the only one she’ll know and trust. She saved me once and I now it’s my turn to save her.”

“How did she save you?” he asked, all humor gone.

“When we lived at the orphanage I was bullied quite a bit, especially by the boys.” She folded her arms around her middle. “One day, a gang of them had me cornered behind the gym. They’d broken my glasses and were calling me names, like ostrich and freak. Just when I thought they were going to do more, Brie comes running out of nowhere right into the middle of them with her back to me and both hands up in fists, threatening them.”

“She was going to take them all on for you.”

Abigail nodded through the tears welled in her eyes. Dashing at them with one hand, she fought to gain control of her emotions. She needed Luke to understand why she had to do this.

“It wasn’t just that. For the first time since my mother died, someone had shown that I was worth caring about. Someone showed me that I mattered to them. And I learned I could trust people—or at least Brianna.”

“She’s not the only one you can trust, Abby,” he said, understanding and a promise in his eyes.

“I need to do this.”

“I know.”

“You know?” she asked, trying to determine if he truly meant what he said. He wasn’t going to fight her? Or was he just placating her?

He inhaled slowly and exhaled even slower, a big decision coming with the action. “I knew it in the other room as soon as the words were out of your mouth.”

She blinked hard, some of the tension that had filled her since they came in the room easing.

He frowned. “Just because I agree that yes, you do have to go in to identify Brianna and you’ve earned the right to be there when we rescue her, it doesn’t mean I like putting you in danger any better.”

Then it hit her.

The big super-spy, Luke Edgars, cared about her. It wasn’t her lack of field experience that had him concerned. It was his feelings for her. And it was fear. Fear for her. Fear that his dream would come true.

Slowly she approached him like a wounded lion. “I won’t do anything rash.”

“Damn right you won’t.”

She stopped inches away. “I’ll follow your every command.”

“Damn right you will.”

She slid her hand up his arm, over his shoulder and along his jaw. “I’ll stay right by your side.”

He jerked her into his body, lowering his lips to hover just above hers. “Damn straight.”

Then he claimed her mouth with all the tension she felt strumming through his body pressed so tightly to hers. She wound both arms around his shoulders, letting her fingers play in his thick, dusky-blond hair. He slid his hands down her back to grip her by her ass and lifted until she was pressed tightly against the ridge of his erection. A moan escaped her as he rocked them both in the rhythm of mating. When she parted her lips for him and he slipped his tongue inside, he growled inside her mouth and the feeling sent thrills down her. She’d caused this need inside him. Her. No one else.

God, she wasn’t going to last. She gripped him by the hair and pulled back until their lips parted and he stared down at her with passion-filled eyes. “I need you,” she said.

“I know, sweetheart,” he murmured, trying to capture her mouth once more.

“No, Luke. Now!”

He laughed.
The damn man laughed
.

Then he lifted her, forcing her to release her hold on his hair and grip his shoulders, at the same time wrapping her legs around his hips. And wasn’t that the best thing? The thick ridge behind his pants rubbed even harder against her. She forgave him the laugh.

He walked backwards until he landed hard on the bed, which creaked with the new weight.

Abigail froze. “Oh, my God. What about Frank?”

“He can get his own woman,” he said with a grin just before catching her mouth with his again.

Then it was a sudden flurry of hands and fingers until their clothes landed into piles on the floor. Straddling his lap, she looked into Luke’s eyes as he handed her the condom, the powerful connection in his gaze speaking of trust and need. Her fingers shook as she covered him—the first time she’d ever done such a thing with any lover.

Another first with Luke.

Then he lifted her until she slid down onto his shaft, impaling her and sealing them as one. A deep moan escaped him.

“You fit me so well,” he murmured as he gripped her hips and helped her ride them both to completion.

* * * * *

In the near dark Aaron hunched over his kitchen table, the overhead pot light letting him study the files again. The faint light from his laptop flickered as he clicked it to update. Still no activity for their fake girl, Mary’s profile. It was after midnight. Doubt they’d get a hit tonight. Might as well shut it down.

He signed out and closed the lid. Then he reached for the glass of rum and coke he’d been sipping on since coming home.

The information he’d learned at Edgars’ safe house had stunned him. He’d been so sure he was looking for a serial killer. How had this sex slavery ring been working right under their noses all this time? Could someone in the local political scene, besides Senator Klein, be helping to keep the group’s activities off the radar? If so, did their tentacles reach into his own department?

“
Don’t go looking for cases when there aren’t any, Jeffers,”
his boss, Captain Davis, told him when he’d brought his suspicions to him about the possibility of a serial killer.
“Our job is to try and locate those people we know are missing, not those that might be.”