Chapter 16
Emily
I’m sitting in our room, having spent the last several hours combing through security footage while Luke is out searching the resort again. I slept like shit last night, well, more so than usual. No matter what I did I couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss we shared on the beach earlier in the evening. Up until yesterday, I was certain that he didn’t think of me as anything more than an employee. I had convinced myself that any feelings were only on my part, that there was no way that he could see me as anything more.
But then yesterday changed everything.
It wasn’t just the kiss that through me, it was his declaration about how I looked. And then there was that kiss. It sounds awful, but I can’t remember the last time I was kissed—like that. It wasn’t the usual awkward first date kiss, instead it was like a kiss shared between familiar lovers. It was how I felt in his arms, how… safe he made me feel. If he would have suggested we forget the rest of the evening and go straight back to our room, I don’t think I would have been able to refuse.
Of course, that didn’t happen and instead I had to remind myself of the real reason we’re here. We’re not here for me and my new boss to start something, especially something that has no chance of working out long-term. No, we’re here to find and return two scared kids to their mother. That reminder made it a lot easier to focus on the rest of the evening—at least until we got back to our room. Luke fell asleep almost immediately, while I tossed and turned most of the night.
When it wasn’t thoughts about the kiss with Luke that kept me up at night, it was memories of the past threatening to take over. Just once I would give anything to not have them sneak up on me, to not have to worry about the questions Luke might ask if I were to wake up, to not have the constant reminder that I’m truly alone in this world.
L: Want to meet me for dinner? Or are you still working?
E: I can meet you. When?
L: 10 minutes?
E: I’ll be there.
I ignore the odd butterfly feeling in my stomach, and quickly close the programs I was running on my laptop. It’s hard not to look more into the texts, especially after the kiss last night. Is it wrong to hope that perhaps he wants to see me for dinner instead of wanting to talk about work? We may have spent the last few days together, but there’s still so much I don’t know about Luke. He’s a very private person; he barely speaks of his past.
I did learn that he’s not married and is dating anyone, something that came as a relief. He’s talked a little about his time in the service, but mostly speaks about starting Dark Water Security. It’s clear he doesn’t have much of a family, if any.
Shaking my head, I walk the short distance to the on-site restaurant where we ate last night. I take a little longer than I probably should to enjoy the feel of the sun on my skin and the wind in my hair. The resort is absolutely gorgeous; it’s clear they’ve spared no expense with anything. The landscaping is immaculate and no matter where you walk there’s never a piece of garbage lying around. The beach and pool areas are pristine, even with the dozens of kids running around. Under any other circumstances, this would be the idea romantic destination for a couple.
As the hostess leads me through the restaurant to where Luke is already seated, I take a moment to take him in. His head is down, clearly reading something on his phone, but he looks just as handsome as every other time I see him. I don’t know if he senses me watching at him, but he looks up and smiles before I even reach the table. I swear my heart stops when our eyes meet…it’s so hard not to see something more in them. Forcing myself to put a stop to those thoughts, I quickly thank the hostess, and sit across from him.
“The resort is only so big, how could we be missing them?” he complains.
“I don’t know.” I agree. “I’ve tapped into the security system and have facial recognition software running through it, but so far that hasn’t found them yet either, if that makes you feel any better.”
“Maybe there’s an area of the resort that isn’t covered by the cameras?”
“I was thinking that too, so I did some research and found some aerial views of the resort,” I explain what I found while he was gone earlier in the day. “The best I can tell is there’s a private area, likely for the owner, not covered by their video surveillance.”
“That seems odd that he wouldn’t have some sort of security system there to keep guests out, right?”
“He does, just not a video system,” I corrects him. “He has a fairly basic alarm, that does include motion sensors, but it’s nothing elaborate. Maybe he thinks it isn’t necessary. Who knows? Plus, there is someone from resort security stationed outside the gated entrance at all times.”
“That could be where Jack is with the kids.”
“It’s possible.” I don’t tell him that I think if they are being hidden there that we probably won’t find them.
“Let’s take a walk over there after dinner, we’ll act like we’re just exploring the resort and got lost if they question us. Is there anything in that general direction that we could have been headed toward?”
“The spa is not far from there, we could say we were going to use their facilities if we run into someone.”
“Perfect. If you need to head back to the room, I can go over on my own—”
“No, the software is doing its own thing so unfortunately, there isn’t much more for me to do right now.”
“Hey.” He reaches across the table for my hand. Unfortunately, he catches me by surprise, and I immediately jump at his touch. I cringe, hoping he won’t take think it was in reaction to his touch. When he doesn’t take his hand off mine, I let out a small sigh of relief. I’d love to hope he didn’t notice, but by the questioning look in his eyes, I know that’s not the case. “Even if we find nothing while we’re here, we tried. This happens sometimes; we go on a fishing expedition and come back with nothing.”
“I just hate the feeling that he’s here, with them, and hiding from me.”
“I know. Trust me, I know. He’ll slip up though, they all do.”
“Do these cases…do they always end…”
“Not always.” He answers the question I’m trying to ask without actually asking it. I know the statistics, and have worked enough cases to know the answer, but it’s different being on this side. This time I’m actually involved in the case. “Our success rate is very high, but it’s not one hundred percent. Over the last three or so years since we started working on these types of cases, there were only a couple that didn’t… that weren’t closed as we had hoped.”
“That must have been hard.”
“They were, but we learned what we could have done better. Sometimes the people we’re looking for aren’t very smart, so they make finding them easy. But other times, like now, with Jack, they have many more resources at their disposal, which makes hiding very easy. With each case we take on, we learn new things. The ones that aren’t successful are harder, but we take a few days and then regroup to see what we could have done differently. Sometimes, even after looking at it from every possible angle, we realize that there was nothing we could have done differently. More often than not, it’s the system that failed our clients, not us.”
“Like with Mrs. Thompson.”
“Exactly, the system should have protected those children.” His mouth forms a straight line as his anger shows. “There was clear evidence of abuse to both Mrs. Thompson and her children, yet it was ignored by the judge and Jack was granted unsupervised visitation.”
“That’s fucked up.”
“It is.” For the first time since I sat down, he smiles and relaxes just a little.
“How did you first get involved with one of these cases?”
“We were contacted by a local women’s shelter when we first opened Dark Water Security. They were having issues with one woman’s ex coming around and threatening them. They asked if we would provide some temporary, on-site support until her next court case.”
“But how did you go from doing that... to this?”
“We stayed in touch with the woman over the years, providing the occasional support when she needed it. But then one day, she came to our office in tears. Despite all her security systems, one of the women staying at the shelter had her daughter kidnapped by her abusive ex. It wasn’t unlike this case, except the ex didn’t have nearly the amount of money that Jack does.”
“The police wouldn’t help?”
“They did, but the shelter was located in the middle of a city that was experiencing an unusually high rate of crimes related to drugs. There was a lot of political pressure on the mayor to do something about it, which meant nearly all available resources were aimed at that. While they did the best they could, there just wasn’t enough attention put on finding this child.”
“That’s where you came in?”
“Alec and I personally worked the case. We both agreed that if it went south we didn’t want to ruin the careers of any of our staff. You see, there was a strong possibility we could have been arrested for obstruction of justice at the very least. But it was more likely that the charges would have been more along the lines of assault.”
“What happened? How did you get the girl back?”
“It took some digging, but eventually we found out that the ex had the girl stashed away at his cousin’s run down row home, in a pretty shady area of the city. We watched the house for a few days, but the girl was always left with either the ex or the cousin. They never took her from home, but we knew she was in there. Unfortunately, we couldn’t just walk in and grab her. We contacted the detective working on the case, but when he arrived and looked around, the young girl was mysteriously missing even though we knew she had never left the house.”
“He had her hidden somewhere.” I shudder in realization.
“That was our assumption. The detective said there was nothing he could since there were no grounds for a search warrant without proof that she was actually in the house.”
“What did you do?”
“Between you, me, and Alec, we used the city’s drug problem to our advantage.”
“How?”
“This is the part of our business that not everyone agrees with.” He shakes his head, and hesitates only for a moment, before continuing. “We got our hands on some drugs and, one night, when everyone was asleep we planted a large number of pills throughout the house.”
“You didn’t?” I say in disbelief, I never would have expected something like that from him.
“Not one of our best moments, but we were running out of options. It was either that or kidnap the little girl. We then called in an anonymous tip to the police department, who immediately raided the place.”
“They found her?”
“They did.” I don’t miss the look of pride in his eyes. “She was reunited with her mom at the hospital.”
“Did he…?”
“She had bruises and scratches on her, plus she was dehydrated. Seems he would lock her in the bedroom for hours on end. They found a closet where he hid her at times as well.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Wish I was. Her father eventually had his parental rights terminated and was sent to prison for more than ten years between the kidnapping and drug charges. It’s not something we’re proud to have done, but in this case—”
“It was the only thing you could do.” I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing
“Exactly. What about you? Did you ever have to do anything that pushed the envelope for the people you helped?”
“It’s nothing compared to what you’ve had to do, I’m sure. But I’ve sent plenty of anonymous tips to local police departments, child custody lawyers, and even the district attorney’s office to help with cases they’ve worked on. Once or twice, I may have also sent proof to the person’s employer.”
“Ouch.” He laughs. “What do you say we finish up here and take that walk?”
“Sounds good.”
As we exit the restaurant, he takes my hand in his again. This time I manage not to jump at his sudden touch. My first thought it he only did it to keep up our cover as a couple, but when he doesn’t release my hand as we round the corner I begin to think that perhaps I was wrong. There’s no one around, he’s stepped even closer to me rather than away.
“How are you adjusting to Virginia?” he asks.
“It’s…different from San Diego.”
“I bet.”
“I haven’t had much of a chance to explore the area, but so far I like it.”
“Do you miss San Diego?”
“Yeah,” I admit, “but it was time to move on. Every time I turned around in the house, I was reminded of my dad. I’d see the bookshelf he built, the hole in the wall he patched up after I swung my bedroom door open too hard—there was nothing that didn’t remind me that he was gone.”
“You didn’t move back to your place…after?”
“I gave up the lease on my apartment when he got sick. I could have found my own place, but…”
“You weren’t ready.”
“I don’t know if I wasn’t ready or if there wasn’t a reason to. It was easier to stay there than to face the idea of doing something with the house and all of his stuff.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“No, it’s fine.” I gently squeeze his hand not wanting him to feel guilty. “I know you didn’t. Even though, at first, I wasn’t sure this was the right move for me, I’m really glad Alec pushed me into coming. I think I needed the push.”
“San Diego is always just a plane ticket away if you want to go back for a visit, you know. You’ll have vacation time you can use.”
“Maybe.”
Although I know he’s right, I can’t see myself ever going back to San Diego. Even though it held plenty of memories for me with my dad, there’s nothing left there now that’s he’s gone. Before I left to come to Virginia, I finally found the courage to spread his ashes along the hiking trail we used to spend hours on every weekend. It was his last wish: he told me that he wanted the wind to take him to explore the rest of the world he never had a chance to.
I blink the unshed tears from my eyes when I realize that Luke has slowed our walking down probably realizing I needed a minute. I take a deep breath and force myself to look around, knowing we both need to concentrate on the reason we’re here to begin with.
“I’m guessing that’s the area ahead.” I alert him a few minutes later.
We stroll a little further, nodding to the guard stationed outside the gated entrance and continue down the path without question. We pretend to stop and look out at the view.
“I’m going to come back tonight and see if I can get a better look.”
“Are you sure? What if they catch you? What if—”
“I’ll need you to monitor their security system from the room,” he interrupts. “You can turn it off remotely right? Or at least the motion sensors?”
“I can, but—”
“You take care of that and leave the rest to me.”
“I don’t know, Luke.”
“It’ll be fine,” with a squeeze of my hand he somehow manages to reassure me. “I’ll be in and out without anyone noticing.”