The Lost Girls

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

After the last seventy-two hours, the flight back to Texas was relatively uneventful.

Sean needed uneventful.

They made two stops. One to refuel in the middle of nowhere-how Kane had friends in the oddest, most remote places always surprised Sean. The other was in Hidalgo, where the FBI was waiting to take Carson Spade into custody. Sean didn’t know the agents, but JT did. He took responsibility for the official RCK statement on the extraction of Carson Spade. No one at RCK talked officially to any law enforcement agency except JT.

Jesse had slept almost the entire plane ride, even through a few rough patches when they were low on fuel and hitting some turbulence. But he woke up when they landed in Hidalgo and watched as his stepfather was taken into custody.

Kane put his hand on Jesse’s shoulder. “It’s going to be okay, kid.”

“I know. Thank you.”

Kane cracked a grin. “He’s already more polite than you ever were, Sean.”

Carson Spade practically growled. “Madison will never let you near him, not after what you’ve done.”

Sean glared at Spade. He was in deep. Could the feds even trust him? That wasn’t Sean’s concern.

He glanced down at Jesse. Yes, Carson Spade was Sean’s concern, because he was in his son’s life. Even if Spade went to prison for the rest of his life, he had worked for some very bad people, and those people may seek retribution on Spade’s family.

Sean’s son.

Kane caught his eye. His expression was hard, as if he knew exactly what Sean was thinking. Kane put his arm around Jesse’s shoulders, silently showing Spade-and Sean-that Jesse was under their wing. That the Rogan family would protect him.

The FBI agents drove away with Spade, and JT came over to them. “Sean, do you have a minute?”

Sean followed JT away from the others. Jack and Matt were refueling the plane and talking. Sean had learned that Matt was Jack’s brother-in-law. That, more than the fact that Matt was a prosecutor and JT’s closest friend, was probably why he’d come to help. Because he was family. It was truly a small world.

“First, the feds are going to want to talk to Jesse, but I convinced them to let you bring him back to his mother in San Antonio. Madison Spade has been told not to leave town until after she and Jesse are both deposed. I thought you might want some alone time with your son first.”

“Thank you.” He cleared his throat, surprised at the emotions that ran through him. It was like he was one big emotional balloon that could burst at any moment.

“Sean, I want you to come back full-time with RCK.”

Sean hadn’t expected that. He didn’t know what to expect-maybe a lecture, or a warning. For years he’d wanted to please his brothers-and JT, who was the next closest thing to a brother-but he always felt like he’d fallen short. That he’d disappointed them. When he left, he left on his terms, because he realized that his brother Duke-his guardian, his mentor, his tormentor-would never think of him as an equal. Sean would always be the problem child, the kid who got in trouble and tried to charm his way out of it.

Duke never gave him the benefit of the doubt.

“You know why I left.”

“Yes.” JT looked Sean squarely in the eye. “Family is complicated, and while we love our family unconditionally, there are still… long memories. Deep resentments. Sometimes we can’t overcome our own insecurities, guilt, failures, or fears. Duke is a good man, but he has a blind spot when it comes to you. He’s trying. I want you back in RCK. Me. And Jack. You’ve already been working freelance, but I want you under our umbrella. You’re an asset, one I don’t think any of us appreciated until you were gone. You won’t be working under Duke. You may have to work with him, because when you two partnered on security systems it was truly a sight to behold. You work well together… But you would be a full partner. Like Jack. Like Duke. Like Kane. Like me. Equals.”

Sean was speechless. He hadn’t been expecting the offer, and he didn’t really know what to think about it. He missed his old assignments, but he didn’t miss the tension.

If he was really a full partner, an equal, maybe he could find a way to work with Duke.

JT continued. “It won’t be easy. Jack and Duke are both married to federal agents, you soon will be, and there are times when we won’t necessarily see eye-to-eye. But I know we’ll make it work. I want to make it work.”

“I need to talk to Lucy. I need a few days.”

JT nodded. He slapped Sean on the back and said, “You were good back there. Truly good. Even with the personal stakes. But it’s not because of this operation that I’m asking you back. It’s because you make RCK better.”

“I appreciate it.”

“One more thing.” He put up his finger to have Sean wait, and walked over to the plane. He spoke briefly to Jack and Matt, then went inside and came out empty-handed. Odd.

This week had surprised him. JT and Jack had Kane’s back. They didn’t work south of the border anymore, but when Kane and Sean needed them, they were there. That kind of brotherhood went beyond blood. And for the first time, Sean felt like he was really one of them. Not just Duke Rogan’s smart-aleck troublemaking little brother, but one of the team.

Returning to RCK had a lot of pros, more pros than cons. The only big hurdle might be Sean himself-whether he could forgive his brother Duke, whether he could pull himself out of the role of the troublemaking little brother, whether he could get over his insecurities and resentments. Maybe his entire problem with RCK in the first place had been psychological.

JT came back over to him. “The bearer bonds. They’re in the lock chest on the plane. I need you to take them to your house. You have a safe, correct?”

“Yes.”

“State of the art, I assume.”

Sean smiled. “Yes.”

“Those bonds are hot right now. There are a lot of people who want those bonds for a variety of reasons. Until things cool down, I’d like you to keep them in your safe.”

“Okay,” Sean said, skeptical. “Though RCK has a safe, too. Bigger. Better.”

“It’s complicated. But Rick Stockton and I have an agreement-and it works for us. One of the terms is that we don’t keep certain information from each other. After the operation, he heard about the bonds… and asked me if I had them. I said not anymore. So I can’t have them, at least not right now. When things settle down, we’ll arrange a time for you to bring them back to RCK.”

“Okay.” Sean was curious-more than a little curious-but he would do research on the bonds later. Talk to Kane.

First things first. Reunite Jesse with Madison. See Lucy.

“You’re good here?” JT said. “Kane’s going to go with you to San Antonio, just in case. I don’t expect trouble, but…”

He didn’t need to say anything else.

Sean asked, “Do we have a report on casualties?”

“All I know for certain is that Samuel Flores is a confirmed kill and Jose Flores is alive and well. He’s the least of my concerns.”

“There was a girl, with Alberto. Young. And an infant.”

“Gabriella got the girl and baby out, but I don’t know where they are. The Romeros will try to get them back to the States. I don’t have a report on Alberto, Dominick, or Jasmine, but we have people down there. We’ll have intel soon.”

“Thank you.”

“Watch your back, Sean. Until we get a full and confirmed report, we all have targets on our back.”

JT left with Jack and Matt. Kane walked over with Jesse. “Ready?”

“We’re fueled, let me just check over the plane and we can go.”

“What’s going to happen now?” Jesse asked Sean.

“The FBI will talk to Carson. Decide if they have enough to arrest him. There’ll be a trial. Your mom will be questioned about how much she knew. You may be questioned.”

“My mom didn’t know anything. She wouldn’t have let me go if she did.”

Maybe, maybe not. Maybe she was willfully blind to the truth.

“Carson isn’t all bad,” Jesse said.

“No one is all bad.” That wasn’t true. Sean had promised never to lie to Jesse, and he’d just lied. “Well, there are some people who are mostly bad, but let me tell you something. When Carson recognized me last night, the first thing he thought about was you. He was worried about you.”

“But you weren’t going to hurt me.”

“No, never. But he didn’t know what the plan was, and he knew that whatever it was it would be dangerous. And he didn’t know if I was there to take you away from your mother.”

“Would you?”

“I thought about it for half a minute.” Sean stared at Jesse. He hadn’t been there for him. Through no fault of his own, he hadn’t been there. But would he have made a good father? He didn’t know. “Look, right or wrong, your mother did what she did and we can’t change that. But she loves you. She was there for you every day since you were born. I wouldn’t take you away from her. Okay? Don’t worry about what’s going to happen.”

“I can’t help it.”

“I get that. But you can’t affect it. It’s going to happen, good or bad, based on the courts and the FBI and lawyers and everyone except you and me. But we’re good, Jesse, I hope. I want-I want to get to know you. Is that okay?”

“Yeah. I want that, too.” He bit his lip. “Can I call my mom? Let her know I’m okay?”

“I already sent her a message, but yeah, it’s safe to call now.”

Sean wanted to take Jesse back to Madison and then go to Lucy. He had an uneasy feeling that something was very wrong.

Two hours later, Sean knocked on Madison’s hotel room. She opened the door.

Madison looked like a wreck. She threw her arms around Jesse and began to cry. “Oh my God, oh my God, Jesse, are you okay?” She held him at arm’s length, brushed the hair away from his face, then hugged him again.

“I’m okay, Mom. Mom, I can’t breathe.”

“You can’t breathe? Do you need a doctor?”

“You’re squeezing me.”

She let go. But she couldn’t stop touching him. His face. His hair.

“You’re okay.” She took a deep breath. Then she turned to Sean and slapped him. “I told you not to go!”

Sean stared at her and controlled his anger. “Don’t.”

“I told you they were okay. You put my son’s life in danger!”

Sean stepped into the hotel room. Kane was outside the door. He gave Sean a look of confidence before Sean closed the door.

“Jesse was in a house owned by a crime family.”

“There’s no proof of that. You’re making it up to make me look bad.”

“You? No. Carson? Yes. The FBI has plenty on him. He’s not getting out of this.”

“No. You did this, somehow. When I came to you, you found a way to discredit me…” As she spoke she realized how idiotic she sounded, so Sean didn’t say a word.

“How could this have happened?” she said, wiping tears from her face.

“Carson wanted to give you everything you wanted,” Jesse said.

Madison stared at her son as if he were a stranger. “What? You mean your father.”

“He’s not my father,” Jesse said.

Madison turned to Sean. “You promised you wouldn’t tell him!”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Carson raised you, Jesse. He loves you. He loves us. He wanted us.”

“Mom, he’s a criminal. He launders money for the drug cartels.”

“You can’t believe what Sean tells you. He’ll say anything to hurt me. I’m sorry, Jesse, but Sean and I were very young when we met. He was wild, he’d been expelled from Stanford and was almost put in prison for computer hacking! I didn’t want you around that. I wanted to protect you.”

Sean wanted to hit her. How dare she bring that up-here, now. Like this.

“There are two sides to every story,” Sean said, his voice low. He caught Madison’s eye. She was in full panic. She was afraid of losing everything, of losing her son.

Jesse said, “Mom, stop. Sean didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know.”

Madison looked like she was going to faint. Or puke. Or both. Sean still had no sympathy for her.

“Honey, this is just mixed up in your head. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for everything, and when Carson gets here, he’ll explain.”

“They arrested him at the airport.”

“What? No!” She grabbed her purse. “I have to go see him. Come on, Jesse.”

“I don’t want to go. I don’t want to see him right now.”

“I’ll stay with him,” Sean said. He didn’t want to stay. He wanted to go home and see Lucy. But he could bring Jesse with him. “He can come home with me.”

“No way. Absolutely not.”

“Why not, Mom?”

“Because! He’s not your father!”

Jesse looked from Sean to his mom. “But-what?”

“Madison!” Sean snapped. “Tell him the truth. Now, or dammit, I will get a paternity test and prove it.”

“I mean to say, he’s your biological father, but he didn’t raise you.”

“Because you didn’t tell him about me. Right, Mom? You kept it a secret.”

“I-” She was going to lie again, Sean could see it in her eyes. “We were young. He wasn’t ready to be a father.”

“That might have been the case then,” Sean said, “but I’m not a teenager anymore. And you didn’t give me a chance to prove myself to you, or to Jesse.”

“We’ll talk about this later. I need to see my husband.”

Jesse sat down on the bed. “I’m not going.”

Sean didn’t want to see Jesse start taking this whole thing out on his mother-no matter how much she deserved it. He said to Madison, “It’s been a long couple of days. And the FBI isn’t going to let you see Carson, not yet. My advice? Find him a good lawyer.”

“He already has one.”

“Maybe find him a lawyer who doesn’t also work for the drug cartels. They’re known to eat their own when threatened.”

She paled, and Sean felt guilty for being so blunt. But the truth was, Madison had to grow up and face the music. Her husband was a money launderer for some very nasty people. He was going to prison. There was no way around it.

“I’ll find him a lawyer,” she said.

Sean turned to Jesse. “I’ll see you later.”

Jesse ran over and hugged him. He whispered, “I was really scared the whole time.”

Sean’s heart tightened. “You know what?” he whispered back. “So was I.”