Wanting (31 page)

Carrie looked into
Calista’s terrified and pain-filled eyes. If Carrie could distract
him long enough, maybe Paige could get Calista out
safely.

Carrie unfastened the
holster.

Chapter 69

*****

Carrie stared at the man,
confusion filling her. “Who are you?”

“
My name is
incidental.”

“
I don’t understand. Do you
have some business here?” She kept her voice as calm as she could.
What did this man want? “With one of the kids?”

“
My business is with you,
Madeline.”

“
My name isn’t Madeline.
It’s Carrie. My mother was Madeline, but she’s been dead for
seventeen years.” Was this that Kevin? He didn’t look anything like
the photographs Agent Len had included in the file.

“
I know that. You just look
so much like her. And like your father.”

“
I do look like my mother
did. But not my father. He had black hair.”

The man smiled a cold shark
smile. “No. He has red hair. A few shades lighter than yours.
Gerald Sparks wasn’t your father. Bet you didn’t know that you were
a little bastard, did you?”

No. And she didn’t believe
this man. Her mother had loved her father, she’d told Carrie so in
those exact words, so many times. “What does it matter? My parents
are dead. Someone killed them when I was nine.”

“
Sorry. He wasn’t. Why
would you want a petty criminal for a father? That’s what he was.”
He waved the gun closer to Calista. Carrie’s breath caught. Calista
was terrified; Carrie had no difficulty interpreting that emotion
on her face.

Carrie’s phone vibrated,
still set to silent, where she’d slipped it into her pocket a few
minutes earlier. It stopped after a moment. Paige’s rang almost
immediately; Carrie could hear the distinctive ring-tone Paige used
for PAVAD calls. Close by. Where was Paige? Had he gotten to her,
too? Paige was fast, and well-trained; she wouldn’t have gone down
easily. Was she hurt? Dead?

Carrie knew who the caller
was. Sebastian. Had to be. Or Alessandra. They were the only two
people who knew she and Paige were down here at the shelter
tonight.

Sebastian.

He’d come for her. He’d
know something was wrong and he’d come for her. With neither her
nor Paige answering their phones, he’d suspect something. And he
wouldn’t stop until he found them. She’d just have to buy them some
time. Somehow.

Everything she’d ever
learned about hostage negotiation at Quantico came rushing
back.

This man would not hurt
anyone else.

Chapter 70

*****

Dan sat at his borrowed
desk in the bullpen—his office carpet was being replaced—and combed
through piles of photographs of women his daughters’ ages. He’d had
Carrie copy the photos to disks and he’d printed out each one. They
were high school yearbook pictures of girls Kelly and Emma’s ages.
It was a long shot, and he knew it; but what other option did he
have? He had the three age-progression photos Carrie had also
provided, and he was comparing.

He’d made it through most
of the high schools in the state of Missouri, although his gut told
him his ex had taken the girls out of the state years ago. Why else
had he not been able to find her, with all of the friends he’d had
on the state police also looking for them? Still, he’d check every
public school yearbook in the United States if that’s what it took
to find his girls.

He wasn’t stopping until he
found them, or they buried him. The sound of someone clearing his
throat behind him had Dan pausing and turning. Ed. His boss, and
probably his closest friend, other than Hellbrook. “Ed.”

“
You find anything?” Ed
asked, nodding to the stack of files. Dan knew that Ed had kept the
file on his girls as an open kidnapping case, even though it didn’t
quite fit the parameters of a PAVAD case. Ed had even spent his own
time looking for the girls. Dan would never forget that. He owed
Ed, for more things than he could count. Ed had been the one to
pull him away from the edge fifteen years ago when the girls had
disappeared. They’d met and worked on a few cases together when Dan
was with the Missouri State Police. And when he’d been shot and
left for dead, Ed had visited him while in the hospital
interviewing witnesses for his own cases. And had offered him a
recommendation, if he’d ever wanted one.

Dan hadn’t been able to
handle the stares of his colleagues when he’d returned to the MSP
and had taken Ed up on the offer. He’d never regretted
it.

“
No. Still nothing. But I
will find them, Ed. I will.”

“
I know you will. And I’ll
help in any way I can.”

“
So what brings you out of
the tower and down here to the lowlies?”

“
A bit of unsettling news
for the CCU.”

“
I see. What? Can you
share?”

“
I can. Between us. Someone
has transferred Evan Stephenson to this unit. He’ll start next week
on Lorcan’s team.”

“
Evan Stephenson? Any
relation to Roger?” The bastard who’d nearly killed Carrie, Jules,
and Georgia less than three months ago. Dan suppressed the anger
that always filled him when he thought of how his former colleague
had targeted the women he cared about. Roger was in a federal
prison psychiatric ward, getting the help—and punishment—he
deserved.

“
Only son. And favors his
father strongly.”

Dan cursed. “That’s going
to be hard for the girls. Especially Carrie. You know she won’t be
able to separate the two.”

“
Probably not at first.
But Lorcan will keep an eye on both of them. You know he
will.”

Dan nodded. Lorcan and
Carrie still rankled, but he was getting used to the idea. Lorcan
had surprised him with the intensity of his actions toward Carrie.
Dan still didn’t know if that was a good thing or bad.

In the meantime, Dan would
reserve judgment. See for himself if the younger man was serious
about Carrie. The girl deserved someone looking out for her, after
all.

Chapter
71

*****

Sebastian would swing by
the shelter and get his damned woman, then take her back to his
apartment. They’d talk about what exactly they both wanted, then
he’d show her exactly how vital to his life she was. He’d not leave
her not knowing again. Period. He loved the damned woman, and he
would not wait a single minute without telling her that
again.

There would be difficulties
for them—he was in a position of authority professionally. That was
one thing. Another was her obvious need for routine. He’d have to
adapt to that. And he knew he could. He loved her enough to do
that. Willingly, easily, immediately.

But first he had to find
her, and convince her he wasn’t like the other guys in her past.
Guys who deserved to be decked for making her feel the way they
had. She wasn’t worth being with long term? How could they tell her
that? What in the hell were they thinking?

Or had they realized that
she was just too damned good for them? That was most likely it.
Sebastian loved her honesty, loved that she just didn’t get the
petty, snarky nuances of people sometimes. Loved that she always
saw the good in people first. The way with her, things just were.
He always knew where he stood with Carrie.

He quickened his pace as he
neared the lobby. Even though it was close to seven at night, there
were still people in the lobby. That was unusual—most times the
lobby emptied around five, just like any other office building in
the nation, despite being federal.

A redheaded woman stood
talking to Jeff, the security guard. She had another woman and a
tall man with her.

Sebastian’s heart picked
up. Carrie. What was she still doing here?

It wasn’t her.

Jeff saw him and his face
cleared with relief. “Unit Chief Lorcan, sir. I’m glad you’re still
here. These people...they are looking for Agent Sparks. I think you
may be able to help them.”

The redheaded woman and her
strawberry blonde companion both turned to look at him. Sebastian
stopped walking and just stared. And stared some more.

Now he saw why the normally
unruffled security guard seemed so nonplussed.

“
Carrie’s left for the
evening, Jeff.” Who would be looking for Carrie this late at night?
And what was so important that it couldn’t have waited until
morning?

The women looked enough
like Carrie to be her sisters. The one was almost a copy of Carrie
right down to the hazel eyes. Her hair, though, wasn’t quite as
dark, although it was close.

He looked at the women,
feeling every instinct he possessed stand on end and tell him that
trouble was about to happen. “Who are you? And why are you looking
for Carrie?”

The darker haired woman
studied him for a moment. “Who are you, and what business is it of
yours?”

“
I’m Unit Chief Sebastian
Lorcan. Carrie and I...we’re involved. Now, you are?”

The woman studied him from
eyes that were damn near on identical to Carrie’s. It disconcerted
him for a moment. “I’m Brynna, this is my sister Melody. Carrie’s
our half-sister. And we think she’s in trouble.”

Sebastian wrapped his
fingers around her arm, the same way he’d done to Carrie a hundred
times in the last week. She was even the same height and build as
Carrie. And she tensed, just like Carrie used to. So much like
her…“What do you mean?”

“
Our father is here
searching for Carrie. He’s been looking for her since she was nine
and I was seven. He didn’t even know about her until her mom was
murdered,” the strawberry blonde said.

“
Murdered? Carrie just
told me her mother was dead!” Someone spoke from behind Sebastian.
He turned, found Alessandra and Reynolds staring at the same group
he was. Jules Bellows and Edward Dennis were right behind them.
Their surprise was clear on their faces.

“
Her mother’s throat was
cut. Carrie watched the whole thing from her mother’s closet. The
cops found her. My father was called to the scene—he retired from
the force last year—and realized that Carrie was his daughter. When
he tried to get her, to bring her home where she belonged, Carrie
was gone. Someone had been paid to make her disappear. It took him
this long to find her.” The one that looked and acted the most like
Carrie was the one who spoke.

Sebastian tried to take it
all in quickly. Their story jibed with what Carrie had told him.
That much he couldn’t deny. And he couldn’t deny the physical proof
in front of him. The one woman, Brynna, even had the same shaped
front teeth as Carrie. “And there is danger her to her now
because?”

“
Because the cop who made
her disappear into the system? He was arrested, charged, and spent
seventeen years in prison. And now he’s out and looking for
Carrie.” The strawberry blonde was brimming with impatience. “And
my father is looking for him.”

“
Why Carrie?” Dan asked.
Sebastian understood the hostility in the older man’s tone. “Why
now?”

“
Her mother was a junkie
and had something he wanted. We think he assumes Carrie has it. Our
father is the one who arrested him. They grew up together and were
once partners. And Rush has a grudge against my father. See where
this is going? He had a double reason for going after Carrie. And
my father texted me this morning. He’s seen Rush. Now, can you tell
us where our sister is? Because I can damn well guarantee my father
and Rush are pretty close. And that won’t be good for any of them.”
The strawberry blonde moved with the same sense of contained energy
as her sister. It was like a knife right through him. He’d find
Carrie; before this Rush guy did. He’d deal with the long-lost
family shit later. They would deal with it. Together.

“
This guy has been
stalking Carrie? For how long?” Sebastian pulled his phone from his
pocket and hit the number to speed dial Carrie again. He waited. No
answer. Carrie always answered her phone. She never had it less
than a foot away from her at all times. This was the third time
she’d ignored his call.

“
He’s been following her
for at least three weeks, that we know of. Dad thinks he’s the one
who vandalized her apartment,” the strawberry blonde said in a
voice so like Carrie’s Sebastian did a double-take.

He tried Paige’s next.
Nothing.

Something was wrong. He
knew it. He tried the shelter’s landline number, something he’d
programed into his cell the day Carrie told him of her involvement
in the foundation.

Paige answered on the third
ring. After a brief conversation, Sebastian started to disconnect.
A loud report had him pausing. Paige cursed. “Paige?”

“
Shots fired, boss. Inside
the building. Something’s wrong!” Her voice was tight and
hushed.

“
I’m on my way. Sending
backup!” Sebastian’s heart froze in his chest at her words. He
could hear the sounds of sirens starting. “Paige?”