Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 128307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
“It’s Macy.” The pride in my tone can’t be missed. “She’s as smart as she is beautiful.”
Crew whistles in agreement, then calms down enough to solve the puzzle I gave him earlier. “Macy’s with the bureau?”
A confirming hum vibrates on my lips. “She’s the head of a task force on the West Coast.”
“But secretly the running point for Kendall’s case?”
I let silence speak on my behalf.
His huff this time is wary instead of impressed. “She needs to be careful. This runs deeper than anyone realizes.”
“This?”
He’s good. Not as good as Macy, but he’s up there. “This…” He waits for the air to go stale before continuing. “I’ll forward you my notes. I’ve got phone records, emails, and a few photos that Kendall sent me during her last week at NYU that have never been included in her file. There’s a guy in the background of one image from her sale three years ago—”
“Kendall was sold ten years after her abduction?” Paper shredding rips through my ears when I flick through her file. I’d remember a fact like that, but I don’t recall ever seeing anything about her being sold years later.
“Yeah.” Crew’s grinding teeth bellow down the line. “Three years ago in Miami. By the time we raided the warehouse, she had already been transported to her new owner.”
His personal ties to the case make him share intel without realizing it, but I keep probing for more. “We?”
Air whizzes out his nose as he mutters smugly, “This goes higher than the bureau, Agent Rogers.”
Reading between the lines, I say, “CIA.”
He neither confirms nor denies my accusation. I don’t need his confirmation. I’ve known for years that most of the baby-making trade runs outside US borders, and his silence is extremely telling.
I talk from both my heart and my head. “If you want to find Kendall, you need to bring Macy onto your team.”
He sounds reluctant. “I can’t do that. I don’t have the authority.”
“Bring her in as a consultant. You don’t need approval from the hierarchy to do that.” I know this firsthand, as I’ve worked with the CIA under the same guise many times in the past fourteen years.
After a stint of silence, Crew says, “I don’t feel comfortable doing that.”
“Why?” I snap out, my anger rising.
He scoffs as if he couldn’t read a billboard sign if it were directly in front of him. “She’s pregnant, and I don’t give a fuck what you say; a prosthetic stomach didn’t cause the discomfort that crossed her face when she sat on the yoga mat during Lamaze class.”
“She’s due in six weeks.” After a quick calculation, I correct, “Five weeks.”
“Then there you fucking go!”
“You don’t know Macy. She could solve this case in five weeks. You’ve just got to give her the chance.”
“I—”
“Meet with her. Show her what you’ve got and give her the chance to show you her skills. If you still don’t believe me after that, I’ll never suggest it again.”
His pause is longer this time around.
I take it as an agreement.
“I’ll forward you an address. You can meet with her tomorrow at ten.”
I’m about to disconnect our call when Crew shouts my name.
“Yeah?” I reply after squashing my phone back against my ear.
“Why are you doing this?”
I don’t know him, so he doesn’t need an explanation; however, I give it to him anyway. “Because I need to know she’s going to be okay.” I should stop there, but I can’t. “I need to know that I didn’t break her.”
31
MACY
Recently cleaned wet hair swishes against my back as I peer out the window for the umpteenth time this morning. I’m early. I always am with anything related to Kendall. I’d rather be early than show up late. It was the one thing my father ingrained in me before his staff took over his teachings.
I intertwine my fingers to stop my fidgeting as tension bubbles under my skin. I’d thought about this for years, but I pictured myself anxiously pacing, waiting for my colleagues to brief Kendall before they released her into my care. I never expected to meet the man who loved her enough to keep searching for her long after most gave up.
But here I am, waiting in the foyer of a local hotel for Crew to arrive. I feel off balance, like I’m about to step onto a moving train. But I am also excited. My veins are bubbling with as much euphoria now as they were when Grayson was adamant he needed to tape my belly before our meeting. Though he knew the bed rest was fabricated, he erred on the side of caution.
The tension in the bathroom this morning was off the charts. Mercifully, my unborn son has no issues keeping the focus on him. He booted Grayson’s hand hard enough for me to fold in two, and for Grayson’s laugh to boom around the bathroom.