Page 16 of Unbound

Sarah immediately scooped up Lucas, who was a year and a half old in her free arm, and Antonio and my twin nieces followed with a promise of cookies.

When they were out of earshot I said, “Tessa’s missing. Her SUV was found abandoned a few blocks from the daycare. Her purse, locked inside with her keys. Her phone, on the street smashed. We are on lock down.”

I was fuckin’ relieved that when we called the daycare, the boys were actually there and not gone as well. Sarah picked them up, vowing to keep things as calm and normal for them as possible. I directed her to let me tell the girls what we knew so far.

She’d obviously not uttered a word by how Lisa gasped. Luc put her hand over her mouth and got to her feet. Tia moved away to make room for my sister. She put her hand on Luc’s back. I moved to her. “I’ve got people on this.” I hesitated and thenput my arms around her and gave her a squeeze. My baby sister trembled in my arms.

Normally, this’d be Dare’s job. I wasn’t touchy feely with the girls, never had been. But since he wasn’t here, she grabbed me and held me tight. I felt a lump form in my throat.

“Who–” Tia started to ask.

My expression made her clamp her mouth closed.

“We know who it is. You girls don’t need details. All that matters is that you’re all safe while we find her. I want us all under one roof tonight. Here makes the most sense with the security system.”

I was thinking about buying the house a few doors down and I needed to upgrade that security system, stat. I didn’t like the idea of being in this house overnight. It’d fucked with my head when we’d stayed here after coming back from Costa Rica. But I’d deal; it had to be done.

I let go of Luc and kissed Tia again. “Gotta make more calls.”

I walked down the hall and found myself in my father’s office.

After I shut the door, my blood chilled and acid rose in my throat.

It was exactly the same.

I could feel his presence, caught the faint scent of him. It was his aftershave, his expensive cigars. I half-expected to see him sitting in that chair, eyes that were just like mine on me.

I stared at the empty chair a beat but then I grabbed the phone and moved to the conference table, sitting where I usually sat during the many meetings we’d had here. Directly in my line of vision was a photo on the wall. Pop, me, Dare, and the girls all around a Christmas tree taken just last year.

Lisa had taken that picture. Pop was looking at the camera, joy in his eyes. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck and I clenched my jaw and dialed Dare’s number. He needed to get his ass home.

4

A Week Later

Tessa was still missing. No sign of her. And so was Denarda. His people were saying he was out of the country on business. Against my initial wishes, Dare involved Zack and he picked up a trail that followed Denarda to Canada.

He landed in Vancouver. Alone. Drove up to Whistler with one of his girlfriends, who checked in at a swanky Whistler hotel. We had an investigator on Zack’s team tailing him, but nothing was giving us leads regarding my sister.

Dare involving Zack? I wasn’t thrilled about it at first, but Zack was still running his investigations agency, telling us it was his main gig, still, and would continue to be. And the guy was good at his job. Fucking asshole. And his agency was responsible for a lot of our security for the last few months so we’d have been stuck without him. Didn’t mean I trusted him, though.

Dare did cut his honeymoon short. He and Angel would do the Iceland leg of their tour when things were settled down. He hadn’t told Annette, his ma, that Tessa was missing; she waswrapped up in her husband Tony, whose death was reportedly imminent.

Luc, Eddy, and the kids were staying at Pop’s house. Dare and Angel stayed at their place because he had decent security but whenever he wasn’t home, he’d been dropping Angel off with the other girls.

I’d had my house’s security system upgraded so Tia and I were back home at our place. It was a pain in the ass and a few things about the security of the place didn’t sit well, so I decided I wasn’t buying it. I’d find or build us something later.

She was still suffering with morning sickness, but it didn’t end at noon. She felt like garbage all fucking day long, but kept trying to help out with Tess’s boys over at Pop’s. The girls had pulled together.

On day six after my sister’s disappearance, me and Dare were in Pop’s office at the conference table with Nino and Tino, reviewing options about what to do next, reviewing details about Denarda’s top guys and what they were all up to. We had eyes on the ground in Vegas and were getting regular reports from people.

The house phone rang with an unknown number. I answered.

“Yeah?”

“This Tommy Ferrano?”

“Yeah, who’s this?”

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