Second Chance (38 page)

He’d wanted nothing more than to go over and reassure her that everything would be okay and she would soon have her daughter back, but he’d forced himself to stay on the other side of the room. She might not have looked as if she hated him when she saw him, but her mind was on Hailey, as it should be. If she felt anything other than hatred for him, it was only gratitude. Nothing more.

Once she had her daughter back with her, she could go home and hopefully never have to worry about their safety ever again.

Still, the need to reassure her that things would soon be over propelled him toward her.

“Everything set?” Eden asked.

“Yes. We’ll do a quick review in a few minutes.” He glanced toward Keeley and then back at Eden. “Mind if I talk to Keeley?”

“Not at all.” She gave Keeley a reassuring squeeze to her arm, then she and Jordan moved away.

Before he could speak, Keeley said, “Cole, please forgive me. I’m sorry, for so many things. Thank you for all you’ve done. I don’t know how to thank you enough.”

The tension inside him eased. She might not feel the way he’d like for her to, but knowing she didn’t hate him helped a hell of a lot. “None of that matters now, Keeley. We’re going to get Hailey back. Then everything will be as it should be.”

“What does that mean?”

“Just that you can finally get your life back on track.” He glanced at the small group of LCR operatives gathered in a corner. “Those people over there are here for only one purpose. To rescue Hailey.”

“Thank you … but—”

“I’ve got to go review with the group. I just wanted to tell you that it’ll soon be over.”

Before she could say anything else, Cole turned away and headed toward the group waiting for him. She looked so worried and sad. If he stayed any longer, he’d try to take her in his arms. He wouldn’t make that mistake again.

His eyes took in the three operatives who would be going in with him. Five others stood behind them. They would provide technical support and backup if needed. He stood in the middle of the room and reviewed their plan.

“We know this adoption agency is a front for the illegal one going on in the back.” He shot a glance at Eden. “Eden, you’ll go in the front and express an interest in seeing the child you looked at before. From what you said, there’re only two or three people who work out front. One will probably go in the back with you. Once you neutralize him, give us a click on your mic.”

He shot a glance at the man leaning against the wall as if too lazy to stand up straight. Cole’s first impression of Dylan Savage hadn’t been a good one. He’d soon learned how wrong he was. The man’s laid-back, “I don’t give a shit” attitude was a front for one of the toughest and hardest-working operatives LCR had. Cole felt damn lucky to have him on this op. “Dylan, once you hear the click, you come through the back door. If there’s anyone else in the back besides the kids and Eden, they’ll try to go through the back to escape.”

His expression never changing, Dylan gave a slow nod of understanding.

Turning to McKenna, Cole said, “You and I will go in as a couple looking for a legal adoption. Once Dylan and Eden give us the all clear, we take the people up front.”

To the rest of the group, he said, “Once we neutralize any threat, you guys come in and let’s round up the kids. The authorities will come along with you. Any questions?”

A soft, hesitant voice spoke up from the other side of the room. “Should I be close by?”

Cole turned to Keeley. Forcing himself to see her as only a client of LCR, he said, “Eden will grab your daughter and bring her to you. We’re about a block away from the agency.”

“But couldn’t I—”

“You’ll stay here.” She flinched at his hard voice, but he didn’t care. Having her in harm’s way even the slightest amount wasn’t something he was willing to risk.

Shea wrapped her arm around Keeley’s shoulders and whispered something. Keeley’s eyes never moved off Cole. He kept his face deliberately harsh and unreadable. If Keeley wanted to think him a hard-ass, that was her problem.

He turned back to the group. “Any other questions?”

When everyone shook their heads, he said, “Let’s get ready. We go in half an hour.”

Keeley tried her best not to be hurt as she watched the small group disperse, each getting ready to save her daughter. They were putting their lives on the line, and to resent being treated like a civilian was not only incredibly selfish, it was pointless. She was a civilian. She had no idea how to help apprehend these people, and getting in the way of saving her daughter wasn’t something she would risk. But she so wanted to be as close to Hailey as possible. Her little girl would be
terrified and God knew she’d been traumatized enough over the last few months as it was.

Shea’s quiet reassurance in her ear had helped, but still a small part of her smarted from Cole’s attitude. Stupid, really. After the things she’d said to him, he had every right to act that way. She was lucky he hadn’t just said to hell with the job and given it over to someone else. Of course, he wouldn’t do that for one very simple reason: he was a man who kept his promises. Cole had said he would rescue Hailey and that’s exactly what he was doing.

But then what? Despite the joy of knowing she’d soon be holding her daughter, Keeley couldn’t stop thinking about Cole. Had she ruined his feelings for her completely?

She’d done a lousy job of telling him what was in her heart. All the things that had been eating at her had come out in one giant, gushing, bubbling wave of words. Only she hadn’t said the one thing she probably should have said. She hadn’t been able to form the words, because if she’d said “I love you” and he hadn’t responded in kind, she would have been devastated.

As she watched the small group of operatives head out the door, going to save her daughter, she saw Cole’s stoic expression and cried inside. Did it matter if he didn’t love her? What if something happened and she never got another chance?

Sitting in a car just down the road from the adoption agency, Cole heard Eden open the door to the building of the agency. The mic in his ear picked up the sounds perfectly.

“May I help you?” a gruff-sounding female voice asked.

A young and seemingly timid Eden said, “I was here
the other day … with my husband. We were looking at a child for a special adoption.”

“Oh yes. I remember you.”

“I was wondering if I could see her again. My husband is on a business trip and suggested I take one more look before we made up our minds. Would that be okay?”

Eden was playing it just right. The bastards would be caught off guard by her innocent-young-woman act. If Jordan had gone in with her, they might be more wary. No one who looked at Eden would suspect that behind that slender, delicate-as-a-flower façade was a lethal and dangerous operative.

There was a long pause and Cole tensed. Had they suspected something? Had he underestimated their intelligence? He released a relieved breath when a male voice said, “She’s asleep. You can go in and look at her, but don’t try to wake her up.”

Cole’s jaw clenched. They’d likely drugged Hailey to keep her quiet.

Footsteps sounded and then there was total silence. He held his breath.

Finally Eden’s voice came through loud and clear. “Oh, she looks so peaceful, doesn’t she?”

“Yeah. You going to get her or not?” the man asked.

“Oh yes, we want her. In fact, I think I’ll take her right now.”

Several successive noises followed, as if Eden was delivering a few blows. Then he heard a grunt and a thud. Silence again. Then Cole heard the sweetest sound of all come over the mic—a definite and distinctive click. Their “go” signal.

Cole shot a glance at McKenna. “Let’s go.”

As he and McKenna headed to the building, Eden spoke low: “Okay, I got him tied up and out of the way. Don’t see anyone else. We got five kids here. They’re all
asleep, probably drugged. I—Shit, someone’s coming. Dylan, he’s coming your way.”

“I see him. Hold on, everybody.” Once again there was silence, then sounds of a scuffle, a groan of pain, and then a thud.

“Okay. He’s out,” Dylan said.

“See anyone else?” Cole asked.

“Clear,” Dylan answered.

“Clear here,” Eden said.

“How many up front?”

“Two. Man and a woman,” Eden said.

“Cameras?”

“Didn’t see any.”

“Okay, we’re heading in.”

He shot a glance at McKenna as they walked up the steps. He’d worked with her only a couple of times. After saving her life once, he probably knew her about as well as almost anyone, which meant not at all. She was one of LCR’s most secretive operatives.

Despite her odd quirks, she was a damn good operative and had saved a lot of lives. Besides, there weren’t any LCR operatives he knew of that didn’t have a few oddities. Seeing and experiencing hell seemed to have that effect on people.

Since she usually dressed like a teenaged boy or a punk rocker, he was surprised to find that when she dressed like a woman, McKenna was actually very attractive. There was an elegance and femininity he’d never noticed before. She, like so many LCR operatives, was a chameleon, becoming what she needed to be to get the job done.

They reached the top step, gave each other a slight nod, and then Cole pushed the door open for McKenna to go ahead of him.

The office was one of understated elegance. An attractive middle-aged woman sat behind a desk. A man,
probably in his late twenties, stood beside the desk talking to her.

The woman smiled up at Cole and said, “Can I help you?”

“Yes, we’d like to inquire about an adoption,” Cole said.

“Do you have paperwork?”

Pulling a legal-looking document from his pocket, Cole unfolded it and handed it to the woman. Something dropped from the document and the man beside the desk went to pick it up. Cole hit him on the head; the man collapsed to the floor. The woman behind the desk sprang to her feet and then yelped as McKenna grabbed her arm.

Cole gave the woman a cold stare. “Anyone else in the building?”

Jerking at the hard grip McKenna had on her, she snarled, “You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”

“Maybe after this is all over, you and I can sit down and you can tell me exactly who I’m dealing with,” Cole said.

“You’ll pay for this.”

A small, wry smile tilted McKenna’s mouth. “That line never gets old, does it?”

Cole held a gun on the woman while McKenna tied her hands behind her back.

Cole’s gaze swept the small office. No indication of cameras, but he wouldn’t rule that out. “Okay, guys. We all clear?”

“I’m clear,” Dylan answered.

“Me too,” Eden said.

He looked at McKenna. “Stay here. Alert me if you see anything odd.”

Barely giving McKenna an opportunity to nod her agreement, Cole pushed open the door to a small hallway. His heart lurched and then went into overdrive.
Eden stood at the end of the hallway holding a small, brown-haired girl. The child appeared to be asleep, but even from a distance Cole recognized the sweet face of Hailey Fairchild.

Peace like he’d never known flowed through him. Keeley was finally getting her daughter back. Cole’s pledge had been fulfilled.

Keeley couldn’t sit still any longer. She’d stared at the radio left in the room and had heard every word. Hailey had been found. Without asking permission, Keeley ran through the door. No one tried to stop her and if they had she would have knocked them out of the way.

She stood on the street, unsure which direction Cole would be coming with Hailey. People milled around her, dodging her. Some looked at her strangely. She saw nothing, her mind only on one thing. And then, like the parting of the Red Sea, the crowd divided into halves and Cole strode toward her, a small child in his arms. Keeley’s heart stopped. The closer he came, the more her heart dropped. She looked nothing like Hailey. How could they have thought …?

Cole murmured something to the child who had her arms wrapped around his neck. The little girl lifted her head to peek around, and Keeley saw an angel’s face. Her angel—Hailey.

Sobbing and laughing all at once, Keeley took off running; Cole stopped and put Hailey on the sidewalk.

“Hailey!” Keeley screamed.

“Mommy!”

Keeley scooped up her daughter in his arms and swung her around. Tears pouring from her eyes, she buried her face against Hailey’s soft neck and cried.

She held her for several long seconds, absorbing the
wonder of having her baby back in her arms. Finally able to raise her head, she looked over to where Cole stood. Only he was no longer there. Keeley whirled around. She saw Eden and Jordan standing a few feet away. Shea and Ethan were walking toward her … but where was Cole?

   A few hours later, Keeley was tucking Hailey into the small bed they’d set up on the plane. After LCR doctors had examined Hailey and declared her healthy, the two of them had been hustled onto a private jet. It had been done quietly, efficiently, and quickly … and Cole hadn’t been anywhere to be found.

Even Shea and Ethan didn’t know where he’d gone. Eden said that he’d stood for several seconds watching the mother and daughter reunion and then had turned around and disappeared into the crowd.

She hadn’t said goodbye. Hadn’t said thank you. And most important, she hadn’t said, “I love you.”

Would she ever see him again? Keeley straightened her spine. The last few months she had learned a lot about herself. Some of the things she’d learned, she hadn’t liked. She realized that until her children had been taken, she’d never truly fought for anything. But when they had disappeared, she had stood her ground on more than one occasion. Now it was time to fight for herself.

She’d always been stubborn and an optimist, but had never had the confidence to demand respect. Which was one of the reasons she’d allowed Elizabeth to treat her as she had. And one of the reasons she’d stayed in a bad marriage.

That Keeley was gone. Forever. She’d survived one of the most unspeakable horrors a woman could know—losing her children. She had never given up hope they would be found. And now, that fortitude and determination
would see her through for Cole. She would not give up on him.