VANISHED, A Romantic Suspense Novel (Edgars Family Novel) (26 page)

“
There’s an unusual amount of similarities in their backgrounds, sir.”

“
Doesn’t matter. You stick to the cases assigned or I’ll have you back in uniform. Is that clear?”

Yeah, the message had been loud and clear. Drop it or else.

Was the warning for a different reason than wasted man hours? Had his captain or someone higher up been involved with the slavery ring? If so, who did he trust with this?

If he went to the wrong people, the women could all disappear—permanently.

In the end he’d acquiesced, but only so far as not pursuing his investigation openly. After that conversation, he’d kept all his inquires on the down low and watched for any other women who might fit the similarities of his victims—and he’d been sure they were all connected somehow.

Only, he’d been way off base.

Lifting the pictures of the suspected victims, he looked at each of them slowly until their images burned in his brain, finishing with Brianna Mathews. He turned off the kitchen light, took her picture and stretched out on his sofa.

He studied Brianna’s face.

Something about her fascinated him. Sure, she was drop-dead gorgeous. He’d noticed that the night she went missing. Hell, how couldn’t he? Her home had been littered with pictures of her.

Normally a woman that narcissistic wouldn’t interest him. The more he learned about her, the more intriguing she became. Abigail was loyal to the woman, so there was something more to her than vanity. According to Abigail, Brianna was quite good with numbers, so she was intelligent, but smart enough to hide the fact when it suited her. They hadn’t discovered what she had planned to share with Abigail before her abduction, but he’d bet money that she’d somehow stumbled onto the slavery ring herself.

All the blood at both crime scenes—her condo and the warehouse—bothered him. Could she have survived that much blood loss? From what he knew about her, if there was one woman who could’ve lasted that torture, Brianna Mathews fit the bill. But to what cost?

The ringtone of his cell phone broke the silence in his apartment. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the caller ID.

“Haven’t gotten any activity on the profile, Edgars,” he said without preamble.

“Didn’t expect you too. We’re going to have to put that on the back burner for now.”

The back of his neck tingled. Something had changed since he left the condo. “Something new come up?”

“Can you be at the safe house before noon tomorrow?”

Aaron checked the calendar on his phone. “Got to check in at the precinct, but then I can be there. Why? What’s up?”

“There’s another auction scheduled for Friday.”

“Damn.” He looked at the photo in his other hand again, a sinking feeling in his stomach. “You think they’re going to move Ms. Mathews then.”

“That’s our guess. It’s time to go on the offensive.”

That idea suited him just fine.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Why the hell did you call the Marshal instead of one of us?” Luke’s oldest brother, Dave, stood almost nose-to-nose with Luke, his voice and accusation rising over the conversations taking place all over the condo’s great room and kitchen.

Abigail, sitting on one of the barstools, swiveled around to watch the pair. Ever since the invasion of Luke’s family she’d been overwhelmed with the amount of people and noise surrounding her. She’d expected his brothers, but was surprised that not only had Luke’s sister-in-law Katie come along, but his sister Samantha had, too. Both were nurses and thought they might be able to help.

“I needed a safe place here. Frank had one.” Luke had his arms crossed over his chest. “What good would it have done me to call you?”

“Might’ve kept you from getting up to your ass in trouble.” Dave poked him in the chest.

“You do know this is my job, right?” Luke took a step closer, indignation written all over his face.

Were they seriously going to start hitting each other?

“They might shove a little, but they haven’t hit each other since Dave left for college, except during kickboxing matches.” Their sister, Sami, scooted onto the stool beside her. “Now, if it were Matt and Luke, yeah, it might come to blows.”

“Or any of them and me,” Sami’s husband Jake said from the other side of the island. He was making another pot of coffee.

“They only attacked you once,” Sami said, with a grin. “And that was only because you’d kidnapped me.”

“He did?” Abigail turned to study the couple.

“Sure did,” Jake said with a wink. Then leaned across the counter to kiss his wife. “Best damn thing I ever did in my life.”

“Even if it meant Matt and Luke beat you up?” Sami teased.

“I gave as good as I got, and there were two of them and only one of me.” Then his lips lifted in a mischievous grin. “Besides, I had to take it easy on them, I was already wounded.”

“You’ve been using that excuse since the day we met,” Luke said, his attention diverted from his older brother.

“That’s because you attacked me the moment you walked into the cabin.”

Matt wandered over from the sofa where he’d been seated next to his wife, watching his brothers. “In case you don’t remember, you held our sister captive in the woods.”

“He did?” Abigail asked Sami.

She leaned in to talk softly. “Yes. But it was only because he’d been wounded and needed my help.”

“Doesn’t matter, a man doesn’t take a woman by force,” Dave said.

The smile on Jake’s face eased a little and a predatory gleam entered his eyes. “Trust me when I tell you I never
took
your sister by force, ever.”

“Jake!” Sami stared at her husband with an open mouth and her face flushed bright pink.

And with that the two older brothers cornered their brother-in-law in the small kitchen.

“Want to take us all on now?” Matt said, shoving Jake in the shoulder.

Abigail looked over her shoulder at Luke who’d come to watch right behind her. “Aren’t you going to stop them?” she said in a hushed voice.

He shook his head, resting his hands on her shoulders. “Nope. Figure let them take out their pissy attitudes on Jake, then they’ll be more receptive of a plan from their little brother.”

Dave muscled past his brothers. “Just you and me, Carlisle.”

Jake stood nose-to-nose with the eldest Edgars. “You’d like that since you didn’t get your chance last time, huh, Dave?”

“You need to learn to treat our sister with more respect.”

This statement froze the FBI agent. He looked at his wife, his face softening. “There’s no one in the world I respect more than your sister. Even if I think she should’ve stayed home with our kids.”

“And I told you, as a forensic and ER nurse I’m the most qualified to triage the injuries to Abigail’s friend, as well as any other women we find tonight,” Sami said.

A somber quiet filled the room. Abigail studied all the men in the house. Determination set along the thin lines of their mouths. Katie had come to stand by Matt, her hand slipping into his. Castello leaned against the door to the garage, part of the group, but still on the edges.

“Which brings me to the plan,” Luke said as he squeezed her shoulders, the warmth of his hands easing some of her own tension. He filled his family in on as many details as possible, not even skimming over the charred female bodies they’d found. Finally, they talked about the mansion and scheduled party auction they suspected was happening the next night. “If they’re going to move Abby’s friend they might use the auction as a way to transport her out of the States.” He squeezed Abgail’s shoulders again. “Dead or alive.”

“Make sense,” Dave said. He looked at Jake. “Can your people cover the perimeter?”

“I’m meeting with them as soon as we’re done here. We’ve called in the National Guard as part of a special task force. How about the local cops? Any help there?”

“We’ve been working quietly with a Detective Jeffers,” Luke said. “He’s bringing a few officers he trusts over around noon. We’ll work them into the perimeter. Frank did some reconnaissance the other night so we know they have a dock on the backend onto Lake Erie.” He moved to Abigail’s side and punched a few keys on his laptop, bringing up the estate’s ground schematics. He pointed to the lake side of the estate. “We’ll need people here to prevent anyone escaping that direction.”

“I can get Coast Guard backup,” Jake said. “Dave you want to ride along with them?”

Dave nodded. “Always love a good boat ride.”

“Good.” Luke looked over at Castello. “We’ll need to get eyes on the inside. We’ll get Paolo to add me and Abby to the catering crew list. We’ll use that as a way to search areas not in use for the party.”

“That’s not going to work,” Abigail said, bracing for the argument about to happen.

Everyone stopped talking and turned to look at her.

“Not like we can knock on the door and ask to search. Without the evidence BettyJo was trying to get to you, we don’t have a warrant,” Luke said, pointing out the obvious. “To make any of this stick and shut them down, we’re going to have to go in as staff and catch them in the act.”

“It’s
Brianna
and I know we have to go in undercover.” When he gave her that I’m-so-glad-you-see-things-my-way-smile she continued, “Going in as staff won’t work because Kirk F. Patrick told us the staff was limited to only certain areas of the house last time. They weren’t allowed near anything that even hinted at the Senator and his son’s involvement in human trafficking. Only guests of a certain type would have that access.”

The smile died on his face and his eyes hardened. “No.”

“She has a point,” Dave said.

“Stay out of this, Dave,” Luke growled without breaking eye contact with her.

“We could have two sets of people inside,” Matt said.

“Matt and I could go in with the caterers,” Katie said.

“And you could be a guest with his girl,” Castello finished.

“No.” Luke never took his eyes off Abigail.

“You know it’s the only way,” she said.

“We’ll find another way.”

“If we’re going to find these women, we have to be able to play the game, for just one night.”

“She’s right, wonder genius,” Castello said. “Someone’s going to have to walk in there like they belong or we’ll never find Brianna and the other women.”

She laid her hand on Luke’s, knowing he was thinking about the dream again. “I’ll be safe, right beside you. You won’t let anything happen to me.”

“Damn straight.” He stared at her hard, then at every other person in the room, slowly making his decision. “We’ll have two pairs of operatives in the house. Katie and Matt, you can go in with Paolo’s catering team.” He looked at Castello. “We’ll have Kirk F. Patrick get them uniforms.”

“Who’s this Kirk F. Patrick?” Jake asked.

“And what’s the F stand for?” Matt asked.

“He’s one of Castello’s minions. And you can ask him about the F tonight.” Luke winked at Abigail then went back to the estate’s layout. “A lot of the party seemed to take place out on the balcony area in back last time, so we’ll need a team there. Jake, you coordinate your people at these exits and Sami, you’re going to need to be close enough to come in once we have the women. Let’s have you just outside the estate and down the road. We’ll need a van to carry the injured. You think you can handle that?”

His younger sister’s face lit up. “If it’s got wheels and a gear shift I can handle it.”

“No stunt driving, Samantha,” her husband said, his voice full of warning.

“Who, me?” She batted her eyes at Jake and all her brothers laughed.

Certain it was a family joke, Abigail was just glad to have the tension in the room eased a bit.

“There’s still one problem,” Dave said. “How are you going to get onto this exclusive list?”

Abigail looked at Luke then grinned at his oldest brother. “Not a problem at all. He’ll hack us in.”

* * * * *

What was taking her so long?

Luke looked at the bedroom door for the second time in five minutes and tugged at the collar of his silk dress shirt.

While he’d been busy hacking into Dylan Klein’s private email accounts and files—a very sordid place that left him feeling slimy, but nothing to connect him directly to the women or the dating websites—and setting up two extra attendees among the hundred-plus on the guest list, Sami and Katie had taken Abby on a shopping trip. They’d managed him this getup of gray silk shirt, skinny black tie, and charcoal suit, as well as medical supplies the girls thought they might need. Once he’d gotten cleaned up and dressed, they’d shoved him out of the bedroom to get Katie in her catering uniform and Abby into her undercover clothes.

An hour and a half ago.

He checked the guest list on line once more. Their names were still on there. Or rather, his was. Deciding to go with the master and submissive idea, he’d posted his real name—easier to keep track of the truth than try to remember a lie—and kept Abby as “a guest”. If anyone asked, he planned to introduce her as
my girl
or Ms. Whitson.

He’d made sure to attach his cover ID as a computer software engineer and CEO of a Fortune 500 company, along with a contact to his fictitious company’s website in case anyone got curious and wanted to check it out. Hopefully, it would withstand any scrutiny at least for tonight. He just hoped that if Senator Klein was at the auction party, he wouldn’t remember their brief meeting back in December.

Dave, Jake and Sami had headed out to meet with the Jeffers’ police team, Jake’s people and the National Guard. They wanted to be in place and deep in cover before guests arrived. He and Abby needed to find her friend before Jake’s team closed the dragnet. Jake also wanted to be sure the Coast Guard was far enough out that no guests arriving by boat would get spooked.

That was forty-five minutes ago.

Matt had already collected Katie, both of them dressed in black pants, white shirts and black bowties—the server uniforms to help them blend in—and the pair headed out to meet up with Kirk and join Paolo’s catering crew. They’d double checked their weapons before leaving and thanks to Jake’s team of FBI agents all of the family was wired with ear buds to hear the team’s actions. They also had the new fancy phone watches that allowed them to communicate if needed. They’d coordinated numbers and how to conference call to their ear buds before they left.