Exposed (2 page)

Deputy U.S. Marshal, Frank Castello, took a long draw off his beer then stretched his left leg out in front of the lawn chair he’d been relaxing in. He pointed to the brace that extended from his knee to his foot. “Last favor you asked of me.”

Luke Edgars, a computer expert with the Treasury division of Homeland Security, let out a groan. “Man, you ever going to let me live that down? How was I to know a homegrown extremist cult would decide to mess up my undercover op by invading the ball, trying to kill the president and half the Joint Chiefs?”

Frank cocked his head to one side and lifted a brow in a you’re-really-going-to-ask-that stare. “Intelligence officer?”

“Walked right into that one,” Dave Edgars, Luke’s oldest brother and a member of the local SWAT team said, dropping down into another lawn chair and handing his brother a beer. “How much longer you going to be on medical leave, Castello?”

“They tell professional athletes with torn ACLs six months,” Sami Carlisle, the only sister of the Edgars clan and an ER nurse said, walking past with a tray full of burgers and brats from the grill her husband Jake was manning. The smell of the food had Frank salivating. He had to admit the FBI special agent knew how to handle a barbecue. “Add on to that the fact you had two gunshot wounds to the same area,” she continued, setting the tray on the table. “I’d be surprised if you got clearance to return to duty before then.”

“He’s in the Marshal’s office, sis. It’s not like he’s going to be running for hundred-yard touchdowns or anything,” Matt Edgars, a former Ohio Highway Patrolman added as he tossed the baseball with his nephew Nicky. He gave Frank a half smirk over his shoulder. “But then you are older than most athletes.”

“He’s not that old. Besides, like you could catch a hundred-yard pass these days?” Dave leaned forward and caught his young son as he started to topple off the picnic table bench. He settled back in his chair with the tot on his lap. “Gotcha,” he said, and received a smile from both his son and wife, Judy.

“Pretty sure I could catch one if you could still throw one,” Matt said, always pushing his older brother’s buttons.

“Is that a challenge?” Dave asked with the confidence of a former star quarterback. “Because only one of us was all-State, and it sure wasn’t you.”

“We could drive over to the high school and see if either of you’ve still got it,” Luke said with the grin of the youngest brother egging the older two into a fight. “Then we can watch Castello try to hobble a few yards.”

“No thanks to you, kid.” Frank took another long swig of his beer. When he first got to know the Edgars family, it had taken him a while to get used to not only the good-natured ribbing they tended to inflict on each other, but the almost rapid-fire delivery of comments from all angles. That they considered him one of them filled a small part of that emptiness in his chest.

Nearly two years ago he’d met the clan when one of his WitSec clients had not only her cover blown, but her Jeep, too—literally. He glanced up as that remarkable young woman, Katie, now an Edgars, set a bowl of potato salad on the table. The very obvious bulge in her middle spoke not only of the passion between her and Matt, but the healing that had taken place in her life. She’d been ecstatic when she’d called him to tell him her news.

“I wanted to tell you before we tell the rest of the family,” she said, after a little bit of small talk. It always touched him that she considered him her part of the family. She’d been a teen when she walked into his office. He’d been the one to protect her while she testified against the monster that was her step-father. He’d helped her start her new life with a new name and identity, like he had so many before. But with Katie, there was something special about her inner strength and delicate vulnerability.

“Matt and I are…we’re…I’m pregnant.”

Tears stung his eyes, and he was glad he was at home alone. “Congratulations! That’s great news.”

“I know,” she said, and he could hear the smile in her voice. “It’s a little overwhelming. I never dreamed I’d find this kind of happiness with a man. Much less become a mother.”

“You’ll make a great mom,” he’d said past the small knot in his throat. She was like a little sister to him, and he wanted only good things in her life. God knows, she deserved them after the hell she’d grown up in.

“I don’t know. My mom was…a mess.” The slight hesitation cut his heart a little. Her mother had been a naïve, selfish woman who put her child’s life in danger to live with a man who was bent on destroying not just the country, but as many lives as he could in the process.

“You’ll be great. You have Matt. And with him comes his mom, Sami, and Judy. They’re all great moms and will walk you through everything.”

“I know and they’ll all be thrilled. I just wanted you to know first.”

And knowing she cared that much for him had humbled the tears right down his cheek.

Katie stepped sideways toward her husband, snagging the ball mid-flight before it could hit his glove. “Time to eat. Luke’s favor can wait until later.”

“Your mom and dad are pulling up outside with dessert,” Luke’s fiancée, Abigail Whitson, announced to the group as she walked past carrying a hot pan of baked beans. Her announcement had the older grandkids flocking to the backdoor to greet Ben and Mary, the patriarch and matriarch of the clan.

Frank pushed up from the lawn chair, putting his weight on his right leg, grasping his cane with the left. Once he was vertical and sure his path was clear of anyone under the age of ten, he made his way to the picnic table, determined to move without hobbling. He’d gone after his physical therapy with a dogged resolve to have a full recovery. Even the hint of a limp implied he wasn’t up to his job as a Deputy Marshal. Not something you wanted witnesses or criminals thinking. Ever.

At the table he hesitated, trying to decide which end of the bench would work for him when it came time to get up. Suddenly, the lawn chair he’d vacated appeared at the end of the table.

Luke leaned to one side behind him, giving him that lopsided grin of his. “Gotcha covered, big guy.”

“You try helping me sit and I’m using this cane for something besides standing,” he warned, but took the seat gratefully.

A quick prayer from Ben to bless the food, and all discussion about Frank’s leg and Luke’s favor was tabled until after dinner.

“So, anyone have anything from work they can talk about?” Ben asked, which got him a table full of laughter in return.

Between the FBI, Homeland Security, the U.S. Marshals, the local SWAT team, and Matt’s new position as a detective with the local police, about the only ones who could talk about work were the three nurses in the family—Sami, Katie, and Judy. And with the HIPPA laws, they couldn’t divulge names of patients or doctors.

“I was wondering if there was any news about that missing intern? Congresswoman Kelly’s daughter?” Mary asked, spooning potato salad onto her youngest granddaughter’s plate beside her. The two-year old wielded her spoon like a ninja before Sami took control of her daughter.

Jake shook his head as he loaded up his burger. “Not much to tell from our end. We did background checks on both the representative and her daughter, Annabeth, here in town. Since her daughter was last seen working in Washington last month for Congressman Blanton, the FBI is focusing most of the investigation there.”

“It’s would be a shame if she has to step down from her office, but I understand. A missing child certainly comes before anything else, even serving the public,” Mary said. “Anyone know who will be filling in her seat if that’s what she’s announcing this week?”

“Her political party holds that seat, so they’ll choose. Probably Bryon Locklear. Except for Representative Kelly’s positive stance on medical marijuana and pushing for new legislation for it, Locklear is closest to her stand on everything else,” Ben said. Then he focused on Luke and Abby. “How about you two? You hear anything about this young girl?”

The pair exchanged blank looks.

“Not much more than is on the news,” Luke said. “Young, attractive woman, worked for the Congressman almost a year. Didn’t show up for work one Monday last month. No one has seen or heard from her since. It’s like she disappeared without a trace.”

“Even though she doesn’t fit the profile, since she’s well educated and from an affluent family, we still ran her picture through the new anti-sex-slave traffic bureau both in DC and here in Ohio, just to cover all the bases,” Abigail said, shaking her head. “No one has seen anyone matching her description.”

“How is that bureau working?” Matt asked.

Luke reached for the potato salad. “It’s getting lots of funding from both political parties. No one wants to have it on their record that they supported the late Senator Klein or might’ve been caught up in the scandal associated with him.”

“Isn’t your friend working for the local bureau up in Cleveland?” Mary asked Abigail.

“Yes. Brianna decided to quit working in the corporate world and focus on helping stop the sex-slave trafficking going on in that area. She said after what she’d been through, she wanted to stop the exploitation of women.” Abigail smiled. “She’s working closely with Lieutenant Jeffers and the vice squad up there.”

“Isn’t he coming to the wedding with her next weekend?” Katie asked.

“We invited them both, so she wouldn’t feel out of place,” Abigail answered, with a conspiratorial grin to her soon-to-be sister-in-law.

Castello shook his head slightly. Poor Jeffers. When two women started plotting matchmaking for you, your goose was cooked.

“She’s even got Kirk F. Patrick working for her, part-time,” Frank said, before biting into his brat. Man, could Jake grill up some meat.

“The kid you have acting as caretaker for your safe house in Cleveland?” Matt asked. “How’s he doing?”

“Good. Studying Criminal Justice. Between his first year at the Cuyahoga Community College, and all the work Brianna and her bureau has him doing, he’s staying out of trouble. Which is making his grandmother very happy.”

“Well, it’s good something positive came out of the horrible mess Senator Klein and his cronies had going on. Such a disgrace that a member of our government could be up to something so shameful.” Mary said. “I just wish they’d find that poor Annabeth Kelly, before something terrible happens to her.”

Frank’s gaze snapped to Jake’s across the table, then to Matt, Luke, and Dave. They all believed the same thing. If no one had seen or heard from her in nearly a month, the likelihood was that she wouldn’t be found alive.

* * * * *

“You know Luke wasn’t the only intelligence officer caught off guard at the inaugural ball,” Abigail said, as she slipped into the vacant lawn chair beside Frank. The rest of the clan had gone home, except Jake and Sami, who were busy tucking children into bed. “Every security agency in the capital dropped the ball that night.”

“Hell, I know that. All the security at that gala, and no one knew what the other one was doing.”

“Well, we did sort of go in under cover.”

“Because Luke and Jake wanted it that way.”

“And in the end, we did get the Army lieutenant who had stolen the SAMS and tried to sell them to the arms dealer, Brinker,” Abigail said, staring at him with those big, intelligent eyes.

Damn, Luke was one lucky man to have someone as smart as her.

Frank reached down and scratched just under the top of the brace on his left leg. “Wish we could’ve taken down Brinker, too, the slimy bastard. It was a shame we had to actually be sure he got out of the hotel safely. If anyone deserved to die in there, it was him.”

“No, we couldn’t let him die, or those missiles might’ve been sold elsewhere. That was our mission, but it did all work out in the end. It took us a month longer, but we got the weapons. And we helped stop the Red Mantle from killing the president.” Abigail pulled one long leg up onto the chair and wrapped her arm around it. Tall for a woman, she could pass for a supermodel. Did, in fact. That was her cover story the night of the ball. It still amazed him how brilliant she was, and how little she really cared for her looks. He’d even heard her tell her future sisters-in-law that Luke was going to be the pretty one in their family.

And speak of the devil, here he came, all grins, and three bottles of beer in his hand.

“So, did you tell him what we need?” Luke said, handing them each a beer and pulling another chair closer.

Frank took a long drink from his bottle. “Having a woman beg for help for you now, wonder boy?”

Luke laughed. “Like she’d let me. Besides, this really isn’t a favor for just me. It’s for both of us, and Abby came up with the idea first.”

“In that case, I’m listening.” He couldn’t help giving the tall brunette a half smile and wink. “What’s the favor, Abigail?”

“Next week at the wedding,” she said, then hesitated, glancing at Luke who took her hand in his and nodded for her to continue. “Well, usually the bride’s father walks her down the aisle, and I since I’m an orphan, I really don’t have anyone to do that for me.”

A lump settled in Frank’s throat. He swallowed it down and took another drink of his beer.

“When she was fretting over walking up the aisle alone, I mentioned that you did a great job of it for Katie and Matt at their wedding,” Luke said, his face serious for once.

“If you don’t want to, I understand, I mean, you were there for Katie years before she’d met Matt,” Abigail said, then pulled her upper lip between her teeth, like one of Luke’s nieces often did.

“I’d be honored,” Frank said, his voice a little thick with emotion. The day he’d walked Katie down the aisle to marry Matt was the day he’d become an unofficial member of the Edgars clan. How could he turn down Abigail and Luke when it was so important to them? “Just don’t expect me to make a speech.”

“Man, I was hoping you’d do a twenty-minute monologue at the reception,” Luke said.

“Not fucking happening, kid.”

Luke laughed. “Okay, but you have to be in the wedding pictures this time.”