Searching (PAVAD- FBI Romantic Suspense Book 18) Read online

  He’d hate to see something happen to her.

  But the younger girl…

  Boyd had told everyone she was his; that she was his blood.

  Blood was what mattered to that sick son-of-a-bitch. Even if Boyd had deluded himself. Girl didn’t look a thing like him.

  But that dark-brown hair—it sure looked like the other sister’s she didn’t know she had.

  Eugene knew that woman, too, after all.

  As the girl loaded those damned dogs of hers into her four-door Wrangler, Eugene just watched her and waited.

  When she left the driveway of the home that was far too large for one lone woman, he pulled out…and followed.

  103

  She hadn’t wanted to leave him. But Miranda had to file her reports and help wrap up the case against Philip Sullivan/Paul Sturvin. She couldn’t stay with Bentley forever.

  No matter how much she had wanted just that.

  Bentley had cried, terrified she’d not come back for him, no matter how much she had promised. She hadn’t wanted to leave him with strangers, but she hadn’t known what else to do.

  Marilyn Brockman was the only choice she had. A retired child psychologist who had three children, two daughters-in-law, and a son-in-law working at PAVAD, she had volunteered to babysit the foster children Miranda had had before.

  Leaving those children had not felt like this.

  But Marilyn would take care of Bentley. Miranda knew that. The woman had written most of the textbooks out there on dealing with traumatized children. She would be able to help him, Miranda had to keep telling herself that. Marilyn’s daughter had been there as well. Spending the day with Marilyn and all the children Marilyn watched.

  Bentley would be just fine. He was safe. He was with children his own age. Marilyn and her husband were experienced in dealing with traumatized children.

  Bentley would be ok.

  That didn’t help Miranda fight the urge to cry herself.

  That little boy had stolen her heart from that first moment she had seen him in that group home. That wasn’t something she was ever going to deny.

  When he had lifted his arms to her and asked her if she would just hold him for a minute, please, because he missed being held he had wormed right into her soul.

  He’d spent six months in that place of hell, after losing the woman who had been raising him. His security and safety. She would probably never fully know what had happened to him there.

  Miranda knew what it was like to lose your mother. Even though she’d had her sisters, and her father, and her cousins, and her grandmother and aunt, she would never forget that pain.

  Bentley didn’t have anyone. Except for a four-year-old half sister he had never met.

  And her. Someone had to advocate for him.

  As she pulled into the PAVAD parking garage, Miranda tried to figure out exactly what it was she wanted to do.

  She couldn’t just let him go, disappear into the foster system to be forgotten. She just couldn’t. He needed someone to stand up and say “Hey, he matters.”

  She was the only one in line to do that. What that meant for her future, she didn’t have a clue.

  When she stepped inside, the first person she saw was none other than Knight. Her stomach clenched; the last thing she needed right now was to deal with him.

  Not when she already felt so shaken.

  Miranda just kept walking. Even though she could feel him watching her.

  She’d find Max and Jac, find out what was happening with the two little girls. Then she was going to put in for some more comp time. Spend it with Bentley.

  She had a lot of soul-searching to do.

  Because one thing was clear—she’d made a promise to that little boy. One she fully intended to keep.

  Jac was nowhere to be seen. Miranda had been hoping to find her, to spill how she was feeling to Jac. See if her friend could help her figure out an answer.

  But Max was right there, big, strong, and beautiful.

  With a smile twitching at his lips.

  Well. Something good had happened to him.

  She would bet it had entirely everything to do with her best friend.

  104

  Max met the director and Sin Lorcan in the director’s office less than five minutes after he signed off on his final report regarding the Sturvin girls’ case.

  They had opened an additional case into the murder of Philip Sullivan—but that case was being redirected to team two, under Sebastian Lorcan—and Jac.

  To free Max up to devote his time to finding the ones responsible for Andy’s death.

  With Andy’s code broken, they finally had something to go on.

  “The leak is originating in the auxiliary department,” the other man in the room said.

  Sin Lorcan looked as somber as the soberest of judges. Immaculately put together, there was a hardness in his eyes that would terrify those who didn’t know him well.

  Max just saw it as the determination that it was.

  The woman Sin adored had nearly died because of this leak. Max wouldn’t have been any less determined if had been Jac. Or less pissed.

  “Do we have a name yet?”

  “That’s what I want you to find. You finished the wrap-up on the Sturvin case?”

  “Yes. I have Dani and Whit finishing indexing the forensics and confirming the loose ends. We’ll have one of the support teams for the CCU investigate the other deaths associated with Philip Sullivan. But the man is dead—we’ll never be able to charge him.”

  “No. But we’ll have the answers. It’s a wonder no one knew the difference between the two men,” Ed said. “That’s just insane.”

  “No kidding,” Sin said. “Cody has never confused me with one of my brothers. Neither have my sisters-in-law, that I know of.”

  “I think their mother did know. He kept in touch with her, when the real Paul Sturvin wasn’t close to her.”

  “Now, it’s time for things to move on,” Ed said.

  “Sam from ballistics got back to me ten minutes ago. The bullet that killed Paul Sturvin, or whatever name he actually went by, matches the gun that killed Andy. A forty-cal. Same striations.”

  “Have we tied the fourteen burner phones to anyone specifically?” the director asked.

  “Paul Sturvin. That’s it. One of the phones, the one ending in -5758, dialed Sturvin’s number on a regular basis,” Sin said. “We’re still tracking down the others.”

  “And the deposits coincide with the dates of the calls exactly?” Max asked.

  Sin nodded. “That’s been confirmed. Carrie has finally been able to get into the hard drive on Anderson’s laptop—with some tweaking. I don’t know if what she found will hold up forensically in court, considering what she had to do to reconstruct, but it gives us a direction. We found scanned copies of his notes. He was trying to tie the phones to five men—from auxiliary.”

  Max swore.

  The auxiliary team was the backbone of PAVAD. Without those agents there to support the various divisions, and the teams, the job for frontline PAVAD agents would be even more dangerous than what it was.

  The idea that agents in that department were dirty—that jeopardized every live investigation they had.

  105

  He was going to have to change his plans a bit. He hadn’t planned on harming Jaclyn. The redhead was a nice woman and a decent agent. Eugene had never had a problem with her, and she had always treated him with respect.

  She wasn’t connected to either of the two men he wanted to stick it to. Well, no more than her mother had been involved with both of those men at one time or another.

  Jaclyn most certainly didn’t even know that. He couldn’t see the colonel sharing that his wife had fallen for another man. Not with Boyd’s ego.

  He didn’t know much about the other daughter. She wasn’t that remarkable. Small. Hell, she was barely bigger than his ten-year-old grandson. To be honest, Kayden probably outweighed her by a good f
ifteen pounds.

  Not that that gave him pause. Eugene had killed kids before.

  When it was necessary.

  He had been trained in the army more than thirty years ago to do what was necessary when it was necessary. Those skills were some of the very reason he’d made it this far in the bureau in the first place. That and his previous connection to Edward Dennis.

  He snorted at that.

  He was the monster they had made him. Good old Ed had had a hand in shaping him just the way he was.

  He had always found that ironic.

  Natalie Jones turned the dogs loose in the backyard, then stepped up to her sister’s front porch.

  Walked right in.

  Eugene just sat back and waited.

  The women would have to come out sometime.

  Then he would have her.

  A bullet between the eyes. That would be it.

  A clear message to that son-of-a-bitch Boyd Jones that he never should have pissed off the wrong people in Washington. Another message to Ed Dennis, too.

  No one was safe, after all.

  Then Eugene was retiring.

  It was about damned time.

  106

  “You’ve slept with Max!” Her sister squealed. “It’s about time. I thought you were going to be stupid about him forever.”

  Well. Leave it to a baby sister to put it in those terms. “I am not the one who ran for the hills. Max was.”

  “Uh-huh. I think you are just telling yourself that. You should have jumped that man and gotten him naked five years ago. The first time he looked at you like you were everything he ever wanted. Miranda and I have been taking bets about when you’d finally figure things out.”

  “Nice to know you have my back.”

  “Always.” Nat sent her a smile that was identical to their own mother’s. “So what’s next?”

  “Not sure yet. We’re going to take it slow, figure things out between us. We need to make certain Emery’s ok with such a radical change. This will be a huge shock to her.”

  “Oh, like you being at their house seven nights a week instead of four or five? I think that kid has been asking Santa Claus for a Jac-as-Mommy for years. You’ll make her biggest wish come true. You’ll be a beautiful mother. You already are. I’ve seen that every time I’ve been with Emery. Any children you and Max have are going to be the luckiest kids in the world. No matter how you get them.”

  Jac hugged her sister again. “I need to get going. I’m swinging by the hospital to check on the girls. And…return Mr. Bird.” She’d spoken with the head of forensics herself. The stuffed emu hadn’t been processed—it hadn’t been needed. And would be returned to his owner immediately.

  Jac had him all ready to go, along with a stuffed horse she’d picked up specially for Livy.

  “I may stop by and check on them myself this afternoon. When are you on the clock?”

  “I have to be there by noon today, for half a day. I’ve cleared it with Carrie. We’re taking Emery to her favorite restaurant tonight to talk to her about what has happened and what changes there will be. We’re going to go only as fast as she can handle.”

  “You’re thinking to move straight in with Max, aren’t you?”

  “Yes. We’ve wasted enough time as it is.”

  “No kidding. Grab ahold of him, Jacs. And hold on as tight as you can. Time…it’s too fleeting not to.”

  Jac wrapped her arms around her little sister one more time, wishing she could erase the grief.

  But she would never be able to.

  The grief was a part of Nat now. And always would be.

  Maybe with time, it wouldn’t sting her sister quite so much.

  107

  Max finished with the director and headed back to his office. There were a few things he wanted to check into—things the director and Sin had brought up that were tickling the back of his mind.

  Max also wanted to text Jac, to see how the Sturvin girls were doing. He knew she was on her way there today.

  He wanted her to check in with him, give him an update on the girls. Talk to him. He needed to make certain she was ok with what had happened between them last night.

  He had a ring in his pocket. His grandmother’s. Pamela had never been offered it, but Jac—it would be perfect for her.

  As soon as he figured out the best way to ask her.

  They had waited long enough.

  Hell, Max knew it—he was just wanting to see her.

  Confirm that things that had changed between them were real. Corny, but until he had her in his house, married to him, and at his side where the woman belonged—a part of him would be afraid it wouldn’t happen.

  Not until it did.

  He wasn’t willing to take any chances she’d escape him.

  He opened his email account. He had work to do. As soon as every loose end with the Sturvin case was tied up, he would clear his schedule.

  It was time to hit Andy’s case as hard as he possibly could again. To find the traitors threatening them all.

  PAVAD was still being hunted. It was time they doubled the guards, armed the sentries and prepared for attack.

  He was going to be a part of that.

  There were still answers out there. Max just had to find them.

  He read what was there in the first email and swore.

  Max jumped to his feet, and grabbed his phone.

  All thoughts of finding Jac were gone. The attackers were closer than any of them had realized.

  He dialed Sin Lorcan’s number quickly. When the other man answered, Max just had one thing to say.

  “We need to find Todd Barnes now. He has all the answers we’ve been looking for.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  “I’m heading to the director’s office now. Meet me there in two minutes.”

  108

  Eugene waited. He’d been good at waiting for years. One of his skills. Waiting, and following orders.

  That was apparently what he was known for—waiting and doing what he was told.

  He’d done what he was told twenty-three years ago.

  It had gotten a woman he actually had cared about killed. Hard to forget that.

  He was just a damned grunt. A year away from mandatory retirement—unless he was given special dispensation by a director—he had spent thirty-two years doing what he was told.

  The quintessential yes-man of the FBI.

  He didn’t have much to show for it. The investments that were paying off so well were investments he’d made himself. Not like he’d gotten rich working for the bureau.

  He had just enough for one man to retire to a Caribbean island and live the good life. Without any worries.

  He’d joined the bureau because it had seemed like a good idea at the time. Because Ed Dennis had given him a recommendation and had promised the bureau would serve him well.

  In a way, Eugene had followed orders back then, too.

  He’d had three kids to support, after all. Then the job had just become habit.

  His damned security blanket. A way for him to have some fucking excitement in his life. Something beyond diapers and school plays and kids who whined all the damned time—then only came around once every few months when they were adults.

  Eugene was done with all of that.

  If it hadn’t been for that bastard Boyd Jones and what had happened fifteen years ago, he wouldn’t be just a lowly grunt. He’d have moved up years ago. Would have had a higher position in the bureau than PAVAD auxiliary supervisor. That everyone in the auxiliary department reported to him mattered little.

  Boyd had been dogging Eugene since the day they’d buried Boyd’s wife all those years ago.

  Felicia Jones’s funeral was the last funeral Eugene had ever attended where he’d actually felt something more than boredom.

  Boyd had been insinuating himself in Eugene’s career from a distance.

  Screwing him over.

  When he’d been offered a c
hance to get back at Colonel Boyd Jones for all the man’s sins, of course Eugene had jumped at it.

  He had four men that he trusted fully to do what he was telling them to do. And he wasn’t even the one paying him for their loyalty.

  Eugene wasn’t stupid; Young, Harris, Garbison, and Fallow would sell him out in a heartbeat to save their own skins.

  He’d finish this one thing, mostly because he despised that son-of-a-bitch Boyd Jones. Then he was out of there.

  He had enough blood on his hands. It was time to retire.

  109

  They weren’t going to get any answers from Todd Barnes. Within half an hour of receiving Barnes’s email, Max had mobilized whomever he could find and tracked Barnes down at a hotel.

  He’d been too late.

  Max looked down at the man as the paramedics tried to get him stabilized and bit back a curse. He should have looked closer. Should have watched what Barnes was doing a bit more.

  There had been a reason Barnes was brought in right now. They should have realized that.

  That they hadn’t was on Max’s conscience.

  Barnes wasn’t conscious. And from the looks of what had happened to his head, he might not ever be again.

  Max looked at the other men surrounding where Barnes had been found. “What do we know so far?”

  “We found him like this,” Ken Chalmers said. He had blood on his hands and his shirt. “Thought he was gone, until his hand moved. Looked like he was dialing a phone. Or had one clenched in his hand when he was shot.”

  Max swore.

  He didn’t personally care for Barnes, but that he’d been shot in his hotel room like this sickened him. “We need to find what he’s involved in.”

  “Someone took his laptop,” Knight said from behind Chalmers. Max wasn’t certain why the man was even there. He bit back a curse.

  Knight hadn’t looked all that different the day he’d been shot in the head in his own apartment a few years ago. Max had seen the other man for himself that day.