VANISHED, A Romantic Suspense Novel (Edgars Family Novel) (27 page)

That was thirty minutes ago.

The front door opened and in walked Castello, looking very chauffer-bodyguard-ish. “Don’t say it.”

He couldn’t help it. “Is the car ready, Jeeves?”

Frank narrowed his eyes at him. “Screw you, Edgars. If it weren’t for Abigail going in there with you, you’d be driving yourself. Speaking of which, where is your date for this shindig?”

“Still getting ready.” He looked at his watch and strode over to the bedroom door, knocking a little harder than usual. “Abby, we need to leave. We want to be going in with the rest of the crowd, not standing out by showing up last.”

The door opened and there stood every man’s teenage wet dream.

He started at her toes and worked his way up past her long legs encased in black leather boots up to her mid thighs. A small patch of her creamy white skin peek out between the tops of her boots and the hem of the black-lace mini dress with a V so deep it nearly went to her belly button, beneath which he could make out her black panties and more acres of pale flesh. Her dark hair was sleeked back into a shiny ponytail. Around her neck was a metal necklace that looked like a series of bent half-moons strung on a gold chain that dipped down to cover the exposed top of her cleavage, which only drew your eyes to the swells of her braless breasts. Large round hoop earrings dangled from her ears. Makeup had been applied with the brush of an artist, the final pop of color being her crimson lips.

As if she knew he couldn’t take his eyes off her lips, she parted them and slipped her tongue out to lick across them.

“Whoa,” Castello murmured behind them, snapping Luke out of the seductive haze swirling through his mind and body.

“You have to change.” It wasn’t a request. No way was he taking her into that den of jackals looking like the tastiest morsel for them to consume.

“I can’t,” she said with determination in her eyes.

“She can’t.”

He looked at Castello.

His soon-to-be-ex-friend shrugged and pointed at his watch. “If we’re doing this we need to leave
now
.”

With a growl he reached for the long trench coat slung over her arm and held it for her. “Where’s your weapon hidden?”

“I’m not wearing one,” she replied as she slipped her arms into the coat and headed out the door to the car.

“You’re going to an operation completely unarmed?” Fury swept through him. Even as untried in the field as she was, she was smarter than this.

“I’m not unarmed,” she said, smiling sweetly at Castello as he held the backseat door of the sedan open for her, making Luke want to tear the grin off his friend’s face.

He settled into the seat beside her. “You aren’t unarmed? With no weapon?”

“I have a weapon.” Opening the long purse dangling off her shoulder by a thin chain, she showed him its contents—an ear bud, a gold compact and a tube of lipstick.

“Unless that lipstick’s some sort of James Bond gadget gun, that’s not funny, sweetheart,” he practically growled at her.

“This is a special bag your sister-in-law gave me in case they’re searching the women guests’ bags,” she said, pulling back a flap and there, below the other items was a small gun. She took the ear bud and fixed it deep in her ear, then smiled at him. “Katie gave me this one because it’s so lightweight. The beads of the bag and the heavy compact will explain the weight if anyone holds it besides me. See? I have a weapon, I just don’t have it on me, besides, I have you by my side. What more protection do I need?”

As they headed out for the mansion, the sense of dread he’d had since the evening he found Abby standing in that bloody chaotic crime scene intensified. He grasped her hand in his, staring down into her eyes. “No matter what happens, don’t leave my side tonight.”

* * * * *

“We’re in position,” Aaron Jeffers spoke into his headpiece.

He and a handful of cops he trusted were mixed in among the federal agents Edgars’ brother-in-law had supplied for the operation. Right now he and a rookie cop, Jackson, were settled in the bushes directly across from a small door several feet from the kitchen entrance on the west side of the mansion. The area sloped downward from the front and back of the house into what he assumed was the basement level.

The caterer’s trucks and crew arrived, along with Edgars’ older brother and sister-in-law. He had to admit the guy’s family was impressive with not only their skills and connections, but their loyalty to each other. When Luke had called, the only issue any of them had wasn’t with him needing their help, but him waiting too long to call.

Dave, the oldest brother, had been particularly pissed off that Luke had called Marshal Castello instead of him. A small, humorous thought hit him. He might envy Luke his big family, but as an only child he’d never had to answer to an older brother or two.

Light at the kitchen caught his attention as someone came out to the van then went back inside. The area on this side of the house was dark as most of the party activity seemed to be on the north side where the main patio and balconies were and to the east where the patio extended into the garden.

Since he knew the files of the five women he’d been tracking, the team thought he should be one of the ones inside searching. The idea was to get him into the mansion to help locate and secure the women, in particular Ms. Mathews, since she could bear witness to how the women were bought and sold.

Once the party was underway he was to gain access to that door and wait for instructions from Edgars. If Edgars’ schematics of the place were correct, that entrance was near the stairwell that led to the basement—the place the women were most likely being held.

Images of all the blood at both the condo and garage crime scenes filled his mind. He just hoped Ms. Mathews was alive inside this place. Such a beautiful and courageous woman deserved to get justice.

* * * * *

“
Sami?”

“Yes, Jake?” She smiled in the dark. It was the third time he’d checked her position in the past thirty minutes.

“
You know to stay hidden until we’ve secured the women and all the gang, right?”

“Yes. We haven’t moved since you left us.” She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Really the man was such a worrywart about her. She was in the safest place of everyone.

“
Special Agent Malcom is there with you?”

She glanced at the young agent seated beside her. “Yes, he’s videoing every car and license plate that passes us on the way into the mansion. Just like you instructed him.”

Jake had left Malcom with her. Another team, including some highway patrolmen Matt had called in, were just a few yards farther back down the road, ready to shut off access in or out of the estate once the action started inside the mansion.

“
Good,” Jake said. “Luke and Abigail should be passing you soon. Stay safe.”

Shaking her head at his overprotective side, she glanced at her watch as another SUV passed their hiding spot. They’d agreed on the time for Luke and Abigail’s arrival, so the teams would be on alert that their operatives were in the building. Once inside the mansion, the GPS on Luke’s watch would ping off the similar one Matt wore and on the watches of the other main team members, Dave, Jake, Castello and the police detective Jeffers. That would be the signal for the detective to get inside the building.

Her job was to be ready to drive onto the estate once the women had been found and the perpetrators rounded up. She clenched her hand around the steering wheel.

How many women were there? Was Abigail’s friend still there? Was she alive? According to Abigail and Luke, they believed she’d been tortured and had lost quite a bit of blood. The physical injuries would be her first priority, but how much mental torture had she and the other women suffered?

Another car passed them. Special Agent Malcolm snapped the license plate with his infrared camera, then checked the letters and numbers against the one for Luke’s sedan.

“It’s a match, ma’am,” he said.

She talked into the watch phone on her wrist. “Jake, they’re here.”

Time for the party to begin.

* * * * *

While the undercover operation might be Luke and Abigail’s to run, it was Jake’s responsibility to see that everything went off without a hitch. Especially keeping Sami out of the mix until all the danger was complete. She wasn’t happy about it, but she was part of the mop-up detail.

Hunkered down beneath a copse of huge Michigan pines, he studied the map of the estate on his phone with Captain Davis of the National Guard. As a Supervisory Special Agent, Jake had let the Special Agent in charge of his area know the bones of the case and the suspected kidnapping and enslavement of women. They’d quickly formed a makeshift task force for tonight’s operation and called in the National Guard, Coast Guard and highway patrol to pad their numbers, as well as make a tight net for capturing anyone involved.

“Jeffers’ team is on the west side of the building. Dave’s team from the Coast Guard will cover the lakefront. That leaves us with the east side where the patio extends and the main entrance.” He pointed to the two spots on the map. “You take half your men, Captain, and scatter them on both sides of the main entrance. The highway patrol are securing the road on both sides to prevent anyone else from entering now that my people are inside. I’ll spread the rest of your men on the east side. No one moves until the word Omaha comes from me, understand?”

“Yes, sir. Omaha is the go word.”

Silently, Davis and half his detail moved out using the trees as cover on their way to surround the main entrance.

Jake turned to the young sergeant left with him. Using hand signals, he instructed them to move out in pairs, spreading through the trees and slowly making a net to prevent anyone escaping.

“Erie One come in,” he said into his watch phone.

“
This is Erie One, Eagle’s Nest. We’re in position,”
Dave replied.

“The net is in place. Close the water exit.”

“
Roger that.”

Jake inhaled and slowly blew out the air. Everything was in position. It was up to Luke and Abigail now.

* * * * *

Standing on the bridge of the Coast Guard boat about a football field’s length down the shore from the estate’s pier, Dave heard Sami’s announcement that Luke and Abigail had arrived. A final boat steered into the dock. He contacted the second Coast Guard boat to move closer. No one was to enter or leave the area now that their people were inside the mansion.

He wished he was inside. It ate at him that both his younger brothers and their women were inside where all the potential danger lay and he was working the perimeter. Matt and Katie didn’t worry him too much. The pair worked well together. He’d seen that when they’d helped rescue his wife last winter. They’d watch each other’s back.

It was Luke that had him concerned. Usually, he was the smart ass who would take unnecessary risks. Hell, that’s how he’d gotten into hacking and nearly jailed as a teenager. It had taken a few rounds in the kick boxing ring and a serious conversation to convince the kid his skills could be put to better use. In the past, he’d always been a good team member, but this was a different case. This time he was in the epicenter and his life was on the line, not to mention the lives of his partner, Abigail, and their witness, Ms. Mathews.

For the first time his youngest brother seemed to be taking the situation very seriously. It was as if finding these women and stopping the slave traders had become personal.

A smile tugged at his lips.

Okay, it was Abigail that had made it personal to Luke. That was evident from the moment he’d introduced her to them. Sometimes it just took the right woman to make a man step up.

As the boat neared the shoreline and the mansion came into view, he lifted his binoculars to watch the last group of guests exit the small yacht.

A large bodyguard exited first, securing the gangplank. Behind him came an Asian businessman and a young, barely dressed woman. He shook his head. In all his years in law enforcement, it never ceased to amaze him what kinds of kinks people would get into.

The trio walked down the gangplank and to the entrance to the patio where dozens of people mingled. He adjusted his scopes to study the crowd. Although there were definitely guards walking discreetly around the perimeter—big, bulky guys in suits—none seemed to be openly carrying weapons. What they had under the suits was a whole other question.

After a few minutes, Luke stepped out on the patio, a scowl on his face and on his arm—

Holy shit!

Abigail looked like a supermodel dressed to catch the eye of every male in the place.

* * * * *

“We’re glad you could join us tonight, Mr. Edgars,” Peter Hollister said, shaking Luke’s hand.

As they’d driven to the mansion Abigail had studied pictures of all the guests expected to be at the auction party tonight, as well as the management staff of Hollister-Klein, on her laptop. Peter Hollister, the Chief Marketing Officer for the company, was just as movie-star handsome in person as he was on the website. A number of their guests tonight were corporate managers for their clients. Was being part of the sex slave ring a perk for doing business with Hollister-Klein and part of Peter’s marketing plan?

“I’m most happy to be included in tonight’s gathering. Such a nice change of pace from the usual country-club fare most companies offer,” Luke said, using his charming I’m-harmless smile on one of their hosts. He turned to nod at her. “This is
my girl
, Ms. Whitson.”

“Welcome, Ms. Whitson.” Not offering to shake her hand which would suggest she was his equal, Hollister slid his gaze over her from head to toe and back, stopping at her chest where the black lace dress hinted at everything beneath. She tried not to shiver in disgust at the leering interest the man didn’t even bother to hide.

Despite Luke’s displeasure at her outfit, compared to the other women in the room, she was almost dressed conservatively. Other than a lingerie fashion show she’d once attended with Brianna, she’d never seen so many corsets and thongs on display in one place. While she maintained an exterior calm and subdued image—a submissive woman on the arm of the man responsible for her every need—her inner self wanted to gawk open-mouthed like a kid at a circus sideshow at the other women on display.