Second Chances: A PAVAD Duet (6 page)

Kelly turned and stared at
her father. The silver-haired man nodded at Ally from across the
patio, and she stepped toward the far counter where he stood buying
more cookies. “Excuse me; I’m going to grab a few cookies for the
rest of the team. Kel―you want a few more to...atomize?”

They all looked at the
plate in front of Kelly. Nothing remained of the cookies, just tiny
crumbs. Even the raisins had been pulverized. “No, Al, I’m
good.”

Ally firmed her resolve.
Nothing would get accomplished if she stood like a mother hen over
the girl. She stepped away, leaving her best friend staring up at
Dan Reynolds.

The little girl was still
in there; Dan realized that as soon as she firmed her chin and
raised frightened eyes to him. He’d always hated it when she was
scared. She’d always been a tough little thing, doing her best to
be brave. He itched to grab his baby and hold her like he used
to―purple hair and all.

But he knew it wasn’t the
right time for that. He waited until the pretty little doc scurried
away before sinking into the newly vacated chair. His aching leg
thanked him, but the rest of him was ready to break. He’d never
been so tense in all of his life. Why should one skinny girl
inspire such nerves?

“
I never forgot you girls.
And I never stopped searching.”

“
Searching?” She refused to
look at him again, staring instead at a spot just past his left
shoulder. “It’s not like we hid.”

“
Where did you go? Where
did your mother take you, then?”

“
She and Joe―“

“
Joe?” Dan’s hands clenched
on the table. “Joe Phillips? My partner?”

Kelly hesitated. “Yes. They
took us up to Canada for about five years. Joe had family up there.
He and mother married about six months after you di―after she said
you died.”

“
Did she? Funny that. The
divorce I filed wasn’t final until that next year.” Dan did his
best to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

“
I guess I don’t know if
they married or not.” Kelly’s voice held enough bitterness of its
own. “Joe left before I graduated high school. I talk to him now
and then.”

“
Was he good to you
girls?”

“
He was ok. He never hit
us, never yelled.” Kelly was quiet for a moment. “What
happened?”

“
I was shot. Hurt pretty
bad for a while there, kiddo.”

“
I know that part. I saw
you.” She beat narrow fingers on the tabletop. She was skinny.
Always had been, had been long and lean as a kid. Even as a baby.
This girl reminded him of Paige in build. Style of clothes, too.
His daughter wore a black tank top with what looked like metal
fishhooks on the collar. She had skull earrings in. But they were
somewhat hard to see, hidden behind the strawberry blond and grape
purple hair.

Her eyes were still the
same, big, sharp, and dark green. Like his. She wore a silver ring
shaped like a bullet on her hand.

“
When did you see me?” Beth
hadn’t brought the girls to see him back then. And he wouldn’t have
wanted her to. He’d been damned near Swiss cheese. Hooked to
numerous machines. Weak. His kids hadn’t needed to see
that.

“
I snuck over to the
hospital. The day before Mother took us.” Kelly shrugged. “I saw
you through the door. You looked dead then. So when Mother said
you’d died, I believed her. And because I did, I explained it to
Em.”

“
How are your
sisters?”

“
Ok. Em’s...well...Emma’s
Emma. And Gracie...Mother stuck her in boarding school two years
ago.” Kelly’s words were quiet. She still refused to meet his eyes.
“I’ll have to call them. Tell them. About you. That Mother
lied.”

She lifted tear-filled eyes
to his face. Dan’s hand immediately shot to cover his daughter’s.
He touched his child for the first time in fifteen years, four
months, and two days. “I don’t know. Do I think she was doing what
she thought best for you girls? I can’t say. Somehow I doubt it. I
won’t bad-mouth your mother, Kelly. She is the mother of my
children and I will always respect that. But what she did...it
hurt. And I find that hard to forgive. Tell me something...were you
girls happy?”

He waited while she looked
around, while she started to speak then thought better of it. Then
she shook her head. Blurted it all out in a rush. “Hell no, we
weren’t happy! She treated us like trash. That’s why Emma won’t
speak to her, or even of her. That’s why Gracie’s two hundred miles
away in a damned boarding school! That’s why I barely put up with
her, just so I can see my baby sister! Dammit, we were miserable!
And where the hell were you?”

“
Searching for you every
spare moment of the day.” Dan held her hand when she tried to pull
it away. “I can show you the proof. All the leads I tracked down
over the years. Everyone I interviewed. I never suspected she’d
gone with Joe. They’d always seemed to hate each other. I never
thought she’d go to Canada. If I had, maybe I could have found you
sooner. I’m sorry I didn’t, Kelly girl. You will never know how
much. But you’re here now. Can you give me a chance to get to know
you?”

She bit her bottom lip, a
habit she’d had since a small child. He nearly smiled seeing that
familiar gesture. His baby! She nodded. “I’d like that. And I’d
like to see that file. If you don’t mind.”

It was obvious she didn’t
trust him. But at least she was willing to give him a chance. Dan
took heart in that.

It was a start.

He finally had a second
chance with his children. And he intended to take it.

Ally stepped up beside the
silver-haired man. He nodded in her direction, “Dr. Brewster, I
presume? I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced. I’m Director
Edward Dennis. I believe you were stuck in an elevator with my
daughter, Georgia, this morning?”

“
Nice to meet you, sir.”
Ally stuttered the words, flushing under his intense gaze. He
seemed to be reading her soul, and that...bothered her. Edward
Dennis was a strange man.

“
Been one hell of a morning
hasn’t it? How many other people can be greeted with ‘hello, I
think you were stuck in an elevator, delivered a baby, and helped
reunite a father and lost child’ all in the same morning?” He
wrapped his hands around the handle of a bag full of cookies. He
had to have at least four dozen. Hopefully, he didn’t plan to eat
all of them.

“
Yes, sir.” Ally placed her
own smaller order. A dozen chocolate chips would go over real well
in the lab.

“
Please, no need to stand
on formality out here. It’s usually just Dennis.”

“
I’m Ally, then.” Ally
resisted the urge to send another glance in Kelly’s direction. “May
I ask you something?”

“
Of course.”

“
What happened? I thought
Kelly’s father was dead. Kelly thought Kelly’s father was
dead.”

Dan Reynolds was holding
Kelly’s hand, something few men rarely did. But apparently Kelly
allowed it from her father.

“
I’ve looked into the
situation, I’ll admit it. From what I can say, when Dan was injured
several years ago, his wife packed up their three children and left
him. Never to be seen or heard from again. Until today.”

“
Oh my God!” Ally nearly
spilled the coffee in her left hand. “Why would she do that? How
could she do that? To her own children?”

“
I don’t know. But it’s not
the first time I’ve seen it happen. Nor, I’m afraid, will it be the
last. Some people, Ally, just don’t care who they hurt. Not if it
serves their own end. And Dan was the kind of parent who would do
anything for his girls. Anything. He never stopped searching for
those kids. Probably bled every day for them. And as much as he’s
formed an adoptive family out of some of the younger agents here,
it couldn’t ever be the same as having his own kids nearby. Never.
Come, we’ll leave him and his daughter alone for a
while.”

Ally obediently followed
the man who was effectively the entire unit’s boss. He was intense,
intimidating, and slightly cold in manner. But she found she liked
him. Almost as much as she’d liked Dan Reynolds.

But the hands Dan had
touched her with had lingered for a long time after the touch
ended, in a way that the director’s didn’t. The hand he’d placed on
her back as they walked the short distance to the field office was
friendly, polite. But it did little to heat Ally’s insides. She’d
have to think of that.

She picked up the thread of
their conversation after a moment. “He never even got close to
finding them?”

“
No. I even tried calling
in a few favors myself.” Dennis held open the door for her as they
entered the lobby. “Not that Dan needs to know that, of course. But
I couldn’t find as much as a hint of that woman.”

“
That’s horrible.
Absolutely awful. I know Kelly’s mother isn’t exactly a nice
person, but to take his kids while he’s hurt? That was
cruel.”

“
The cruelest thing that
could ever happen to a father.”

“
Kelly’s been trying to
convince her mother for the last two years to let her have
guardianship of Grace,” Ally told him, feeling strangely free to
confide in this strange man. “Beth is dangling the girl over
Kelly’s head. Forcing Kelly to do things just to see her sister. I
don’t know what the story is with Emma. Not really.”

“
Make sure Dan knows this,”
Dennis said, eyes sharpening like a hawk’s. “Because from what I
understand, he filed custody papers when he filed his divorce. If
I’m not mistaken, the courts found in his favor. It’s not Beth’s
decision to make. When we say she kidnapped those girls, she
literally kidnapped those girls. Dan had full custody. From the day
the divorce was final. And since the youngest is a minor, Dan still
is the custodial parent in the state of Missouri.”

Ally’s eyes widened,
knowing what that would mean to her friend.

All Kelly had to do was
convince her father her sister belonged with her.

Ally was silent the rest of
the way into the lobby. It was only when a young guy with wild
blond hair and thick glasses darted to Edward Dennis’s side did his
attention shift from her. “Sir, Carrie’s tracked the hacker. I
thought you’d want the address.”

“
And what is it?” Edward
Dennis asked just as Marianna approached Ally, her blue eyes on the
cookies in Ally’s hands. For such a lean and toned woman, Marianna
was obsessive about chocolate.

“
624 W Powell St.” The man
said.

Marianna gasped, her hands
fumbling the cookies. “Oh my God!”

“
What is it?” Dennis’s
attention snapped in the brunette’s direction. “Is something
wrong?”

“
Yes! That’s my address!”
The older woman’s eyes were wide, her mouth trembled. “Surely they
wouldn’t...”

Dennis’s eyes narrowed, his
free hand wrapped around Marianna’s forearm. Her skin showed white
where his fingers dug in. Neither seemed aware of how tightly he
held her. Ally held her breath while she waited to see what
happened. Dennis spoke. “Who?”

“
My children...my son,
Teddy,” Marianna’s eyes darted to Ally for support. “Oh my God,
sir, I am so sorry. I can guarantee it won’t happen again. If
you’ll excuse me, I think I have something to take care of. I’ll be
bringing the culprit to you shortly.”

Marianna left Ally, the
blond man, and Edward Dennis staring at her figure as she left
through the doors Ally had just entered.

“
Dr. Brewster, care to
explain?” Dennis asked.

“
Frankly, sir, the
Glendower boys are just something you have to see for
yourself.”

His daughter held a
doctorate in forensic sciences. His daughter, Dr. Kelly
Reynolds―Dan liked the sound of that. She’d always been a bright
girl, but that she’d chosen science--that surprised him. She’d told
him a few things about her sisters, about herself. She wasn’t as
talkative, as effusive as he remembered her being as a
child.

But things had changed a
lot since then.

They finished their coffee,
before lingering on the walk back toward the big stone building
where they both worked. Dan couldn’t get over the shock of it. His
daughter, casually walking back into his life as if he’d never lost
her. He couldn’t be a luckier man than he was today. “Kelly, I do
want you to remember one thing―no matter what; I loved you girls
and missed you every single day.”

She nodded, didn’t say
anything. Walked at his side. She was nearly as tall as he was;
something that surprised him since her mother had been shorter. Of
course, she did wear the same type of black boots that Paige
favored, which probably gave her a two inch lift.

He stopped her just outside
the door. “Kid, I know fifteen years is a lot of years, and I won’t
rush you. But I would like to get to know you again. And if you
ever need anything―I’m right here.”

He knew she most likely
needed some time to process what had happened. He knew he did. It
had been one hell of a first day back for him.