RunningScaredBN (18 page)

“Since then, we’ve discovered a few more things about Larson’s operation.”

“Operation?” Aidan said.

“Yes. Seems Larson has two other families besides Loretta and Keira. In each location, he has a wife and a teenager. One is a girl about fourteen. The other is a young boy, around twelve. One home is in Pasadena, the other in Cypress.”

“He’s got his own damn factory,” Justin snarled.

“Close to it.”

Even though Noah had given her this information earlier today, her head was still reeling. Did this information perhaps confirm their suspicions that these people were not her parents? She prayed fervently that that was the case. Having their blood both revolted her and scared the hell out of her.

How many times had Larson done this? Had he had multiple families when she was living with them? Had that been why he was away from home so much? Were there other people even now enduring a hell he had sold them into?

“We’re doing more recon. He may have more houses, more families than the three we know about. In the meantime, I have Shea and Ethan Bishop monitoring one of the houses. Gabe Maddox and Cole Mathison are watching the other one. And Jared and Mia have eyes on the house where Keira is living. If more houses are found, I’ll send more people.

“Here’s where the speculation comes in,” Noah continued. “Since we know what Larson did with Ingram, there’s no reason to believe he’s not done this several times before. Multiple dwellings, multiple families, who knows how many children.”

“He’s selling them.” The anger in Jordan Montgomery’s voice was all the more evident by its seething quietness.

“Yes,” Noah said simply. “My belief is that he’s training them for specific purposes, possibly for specific people.”

“The return on his investment would have to be huge to spend so many years on them,” Sabrina said. She glanced over at Riley. Fiery anger made her green eyes glint like emeralds.
 

“True. He may have varying degrees of involvement before he makes a sale. We won’t know everything until we’re able to question him.”

“Please say that will be soon,” Jake said.

“Not as soon as we’d like. But we’ll get there. This will be a two-pronged mission,” Noah stated. “One team will concentrate on William Larson, along with the women posing as his wives. That team will rescue any children in his custody now.

“Another team will take on Dimitri, once we find him.”

Noah glanced at Riley. He had thought to spare her by making her just another team member but with a specific job. Thanks to Samara and Anna, he had changed his mind. Putting Riley in charge gave her the distance she needed. If she could look at this mission as just another job of rescuing innocents and taking down bad people, her focus could be on her mission, not her emotions.

“Ingram, if you’ll get everyone up to speed on some of the specifics.”

Her game face on, Riley stood and faced her fellow operatives. If she felt the least bit embarrassed or uneasy about what this mission was about, she hid it well. When he had offered her the lead on the job, he had reminded her of two very important points. One was that every operative on this mission had faced their own hell in some way. That this was hers had no bearing on who she was to them. Secondly, she was a professional operative with years of experience under her belt. If he didn’t trust her to do the job, he wouldn’t put her in charge of the op. Period.

“Jessica remembers very little, other than her captor’s name was Dimitri. After her escape, she remembers hearing what sounded like Greek being spoken and seeing signs in Greek. She spoke to no one. She managed to stow away on a cruise ship bound for France.

“In the two weeks it took to get to France, as well as a few more days there before she was rescued, Jessica’s so-called parents had ample time to disappear. Until a few days ago, when William Larson met with Noah, we had no clue where they might be.”

Riley took in a silent breath. Pretending this was just another op by referring to herself in the third person brought attention to her discomfort of the situation. Noah was right. She needed to get past this and focus on the op. Just because they knew she had been a victim at one time didn’t mean they knew the brutal facts of what had been done to her. Besides, she was no longer a victim.
 

As if she wasn’t revealing difficult details, Aidan said, “So if you’ve been missing for eight years, why’s Larson just now coming to LCR?”

“Since we didn’t know where he was until last week,” Noah said, “it’s hard to say. Something has obviously happened to compel Larson to search, or renew the search, but we don’t know what this is.”

“If he’s getting ready to sell another child,” Eden said, “perhaps he feels the need to clear this matter up.”

Riley shrugged. “Dimitri may have asked for a refund.”
 

As a joke, it fell flat. There was an awkward silence in the room until Justin growled, “Bottom line, we’re going to get the son of a bitch.”

“Oh yes, we most definitely are,” Noah said softly.

 
“And we’re sure that Larson has no clue that Riley is one of us?” Sabrina asked.

A small glow ignited at Sabrina’s words. Yes, she was one of them. They still saw her as their team member. Nothing had to change. She was a valuable member of Last Chance Rescue, an operative with considerable skills. She needed to remember that.

“We’re the only ones who know who and where Jessica is,” Noah said. “We control the situation. We manipulate them into playing our game. We set the players in motion. Then we strike. Our mission is to not only rescue the teenagers Larson currently has, but also everyone he’s sold through the years. We will also identify who and where this Dimitri is. I don’t care if he’s on the moon, we will find him.”

“Are local authorities in LA aware of Larson?” Eden asked.

“Not yet,” Noah said. “When it’s time, I’ll ask operative Honor Stone to make contact. She’s still got close ties to the FBI and can smooth the way for us. However, until we get our plan in place, we’re keeping everything within our LCR family.”

Riley knew Noah’s reference to family was no accident. He had told her, as had Samara, that LCR was her family, that she would always be one of them.
 

Even though she felt frozen inside, a small glow continued to burn within her. Revealing her past to her co-workers might have been the most difficult thing she’d had to do. Telling it to her LCR family hadn’t been nearly as tough.
 

Justin didn’t think he’d ever seen anyone braver in his life. Riley continued to amaze him. She’d sat, calm and matter-of-fact, and described the hell she’d lived as if it were just another case. Other than the slight stumble when she referred to herself as Jessica, she’d been in total control of the meeting without a hint of emotional baggage to impede her. He had already known he was in over his head. Last night had confirmed that for him. He’d never known anyone who could drive him crazy with both frustration and desire the way Riley did. And he’d never admired anyone more.

He could read her better than anyone. Much of her calm demeanor was an act, but hell, where did she get the courage? He was damn sure if he’d been in her shoes, he would’ve been belligerent, sarcastic, and furious.
 

Needing to get up and moving, do something to move forward, Justin said, “So where do we go from here?”
 

McCall stood and joined Riley at the front of the room. “I’m going to wait a few more days, then contact Larson with a possible lead. I won’t give him a lot of information. I’ll tell him things are fluid, but there could be a break soon.

“Depending on his reaction to this news, I may tell him I know about the other organizations he’s got looking for Jessica and ask him to back away from them.” His mouth gave a grim twist. “I’d rather these organizations use their limited resources to focus on victims who actually need saving. We’ve got this covered.”

McCall walked over to a map of California. “As mentioned, we know about three of Larson’s houses. There could be more. Jared and Mia are monitoring his activities.
 

“Once I alert Larson that there may be a break in the case, I anticipate he’ll want all the details. I’ll give him only enough to keep him hooked until we’re ready to go to the next step.

 
“In the meantime, we’ll be setting up a cover in East Tennessee. The offices we used for the Wakeford sting a couple of months back are still available. It’s a good, easy cover for us. Once we’re set, I’ll feed him enough information for him to locate Jessica.

“We’re figuring he’ll play it one of two ways. Either Larson will have someone abduct Ingram and take her to Dimitri. Or he’ll tell Dimitri where she’s located, and Dimitri will have his people take her.”

“I’ve agreed to have some trackers implanted,” Riley said. “Once I’m abducted, LCR can track me to Dimitri’s location.”

“What’s to keep Larson or Dimitri from having her killed?” Thorne asked.
 

Riley answered, her voice both calm and confident, “Dimitri’s got a lot of fury stored up, saving it for the day he finds me, but if he wants me dead, he won’t kill me right away. He’ll want me to suffer. That will require time alone with me.”

 
“He’ll want to take you somewhere that’s safe for him,” McKenna said. “Cowards like that think of their own skin first.”

Justin appreciated that McKenna kept the conversation moving forward so the operatives didn’t get mired in the horrific images that Riley’s statement conjured.
 

There wasn’t an operative at LCR who didn’t know what McKenna had gone through years ago. Both McKenna and her husband, Lucas Kane, had helped bring down the man who’d hurt her. Justin hoped for the same kind of scenario for Riley, with one exception. He wanted to see Dimitri hurting. Bad. And he wanted to be the one to give it to him.
 

“Now that everyone knows the basic plan, let’s talk strategy and undercover assignments.” Noah passed out individual assignment folders to each operative. “Our initial setup will include undercover assignments for Riley, McKenna, Justin, and Anna. Depending on what we learn and how things develop, I may involve several more of you.

“Over the next few days, we’ll get everyone into place and settled. Everyone else is on call until this is over. We’ll communicate frequently and stay—”

“Wait,” Aidan said. “Why the hell is Anna working an op? She’s not an operative.”

 
Though there had been a few surprised expressions when Noah had mentioned Anna, Aidan’s reaction and blunt words raised several eyebrows.

“You have a problem with the assignments, Thorne?” McCall asked.

Never one to back down, Thorne said, “Hell yeah, I do. Anna’s not trained to handle something this dangerous. She’s not—”

“Anna is right here and can speak for herself,” Anna interrupted. “I’m not going to get in the way of the big, bad LCR operatives doing their jobs. Got that, Thorne?”

As if she hadn’t spoken to him, Thorne kept his focus on McCall. “Why the hell would you put an untrained civilian on an op?”

“Anna has participated in several LCR training scenarios. She isn’t a full-fledged operative”—McCall shot Anna a quick smile—“despite my many offers for her to join our team. She is, however, a highly skilled individual who can not only defend herself and others, she’ll be there for moral support for Riley.” McCall paused, cocked his head. “That ease your mind, Thorne, or do we need to discuss this further?”

Admirably ignoring the ice-cold glare from Anna, Thorne jerked his head in a stiff nod. “Whatever you say.”

Taking him at his word, McCall went on to discuss the others’ roles. The tension eased out of the room. Justin opened his assignment folder. He read quickly, nodding with approval. He was familiar with the location. It was a good cover. Setup time would take a few days, giving him time with Riley. She kept throwing up barriers, insisting things wouldn’t work between them. He had every intention of breaking down those barriers and making sure she understood one important thing: He was here to stay.

Chapter Sixteen

“Kelly, can I see you a minute?”

Noah had waited until Riley disappeared into the elevator.

Kelly gave a frustrated look as the door closed on Riley’s pale, determined face, and then he turned back to Noah. “Yeah. What’s up?”

“Let’s go to my office.”

As soon as Kelly followed him into his office, Noah closed the door and, in an uncharacteristic move, locked it.

In silence, he went to the bar against the wall, pulled out a couple of cold waters from the fridge, and tossed one to Kelly.
 

The operative caught it one-handed but didn’t open it, the expression on his face wary.

Going to his desk, Noah leaned back in his chair. He was about to break a half-dozen self-imposed rules, and even as his gut churned, he saw no option.
 

“I talked to Riley this morning, before the briefing.”

“Yeah, she told me she was meeting with you.”

Noah leaned forward. “Let me be blunt. I know that you and Riley are involved, that you slept together last night.”