Still The One (Family Stone #4 Jack) (Family Stone Romantic Suspense) (3 page)

The psychological impact of her imprisonment would likely take years of therapy to eradicate. And as much as it broke Bliss’s heart, she wasn’t sure that Maria would ever be able to integrate back into society. The isolation Maria had endured would haunt her forever. Which had made the discovery of her disappearance a triple shock. Maria went into sensory overload with minor stimulation from outdoor light and sound. How was she going to handle the stress of being out in the world alone? She needed protection from the basic triggers of everyday life.

The case had been a challenge from start to finish. And now Maria was out there somewhere. Unprotected, alone, and vulnerable. Bliss was worried sick about her.

“The idea was to place her near farms. The smells, the sounds, even the quiet is more similar to the Watsonville/ Salinas area than say, Texas.” She refused to be defensive about her choices regarding Maria. But since Maria disappeared, Bliss had been second guessing every decision she’d made to keep Maria safe.

She realized maybe she hadn’t completely lost the defensive in her tone when Jack’s pitch black eyebrows rose. The scar crease created an interesting arch to his right brow.

“Okay.” Jack shrugged. “Makes sense. But if she was relocated to Iowa, why did you have me fly here first?” Jack continued to skim through the file, looking for something, anything that would give them a lead on where Maria Torres might have gone.

“Several reasons,” Jillian clipped out. “One, we wanted to makes sure you weren’t followed. All we need is Fernandez getting wind of your involvement and tailing you here.”

Jack started to protest, but Jill kept going. “He already knows that Maria escaped. He would have to reason that she had help when she didn’t surface anywhere in California. And there were only a few trusted people involved in her depositions, but if there was even a whisper of scandal, and if somehow Fernandez connected her with you and your company, we didn’t want the trail to lead straight to Iowa in case she is still there somewhere.”

Jack stiffened. Bliss had predicted that he would be unhappy with Jill’s reasons for having him come here.

She’d also told Jill to tell the truth. Jack had an aversion to lies. Jack had never said why he hated lying so much but she knew from past experience that Jack would rather have the unvarnished, uncomfortable truth than a sugar-coated lie.

Bliss smiled at Jill and encouraged her to keep going.

The delay amounted to about seven hours but now wasn’t the time to cut corners. Fernandez had survived for years without detection. They had to take every precaution to keep Maria safe.

“And second?” he asked stiffly.

“We wanted to make sure you have Maria’s best interests at heart.”

Jack’s chest broadened and his eyes narrowed. He shot a blistering glance at Bliss. “Was that your idea?” The words were gritted out through clenched teeth.

Bliss wasn’t about to answer that question. Damn him.
We’ve met
?

Jill tried to draw Jack’s attention back to her, but he didn’t look away from Bliss. So finally Bliss answered carefully, “Our first priority has to be to our clients.”

Which was no answer at all. But Jack’s anger seemed to calm at her words as if he understood the finer points of protecting the innocent.

Jack certainly understood their motivation. Protecting clients. Protecting the innocent. He would want the same.

Judge Adams, Marsh Adams’ father, had asked for Jack specifically to help track and recover Maria Torres with the Adams-Larsen team. Fortunately, before he flew out here, he’d been apprised by Jillian Larsen that the employee who arranged Maria’s new life, the one who would be assisting in the recovery, was Bliss Lee. Jack’s heart had nearly stopped. There couldn’t be more than one Bliss Lee in the world. Half Irish, half Chinese, all female.

Jack really didn’t fucking want to be here. But he’d known when Stone Consulting had an issue with the CIA and he’d used a favor from Judge Adams that he would owe the judge for taking care of it. He just hadn’t thought payback would come so soon or bring up a painful, visual reminder of a time he’d tried like hell to erase from his memory banks.

Jack tried to concentrate on the file. Tried to keep his attention on the paper and words. Tried to hold on to the anger that had sustained him through the plane trip to DC. He resolutely ignored the incredible and compelling draw of Bliss.

She looked...different.

Older, of course, but in a good way. Her face had lost the slightly rounded look of youth and emphasized her Chinese heritage in the tilt of her pale, honey brown eyes, aristocratic cheekbones, strong nose, and wide, unsmiling mouth.

That had been the hardest memory to forget. She’d always been smiling, laughing. She’d told him once that she tried to find joy in every day, and that she tried to live up to her name. Life had certainly been full of bliss when they were together.

Her waist was slimmer and her breasts a little bigger based on the snug, revealing fit of her shirt. That was another thing. She used to be all colors and light, but the suit she wore was a bland, subdued navy, her shirt a plain white button up, as if she’d hidden her lightness behind boring clothes and somber colors. Or was it gone completely?

Bliss was now streamlined and sleek like a racehorse. Lots of curves, full breasts, gorgeous ass, not skinny, but not fat. And she moved with a sensual, serene maturity that had been missing at twenty.

Her body had lost the sweet softness that she’d wrapped around him eagerly. She’d drawn him in, given him a haven, a place to just be, without the responsibility that had been the cornerstone of his existence since the day his father left him in charge of the house and his family.

At fourteen, he’d been overwhelmed, terrified of fucking up, and just plain scared. But he’d stepped up and taken care of his brothers and sister, and to some extent Shelley, his de facto step-mom even though she had the good sense not to marry his father.

But none of that mattered now. Now was all about protecting himself.

He needed to maintain the anger. And keep
her
angry. He’d seen her start to soften and he couldn’t bear that. He needed her tough, a little mean. Because if she showed her softer side, he might start to lower his defenses. His anger had faded some in the face of her profound changes. This older, subdued Bliss was so radically different from his memories, he couldn’t afford to give in to the urge to touch her, hold her, talk to her.

Jack shook off the need to ask her what had happened to her. This wasn’t about him. Or her. He needed to focus on the case they needed to solve and leave the memories and the questions about what happened to her behind.

This was about Maria Torres. “Are you sure she left Iowa of her own accord?”

“Video surveillance of the ATM machines where she withdrew the money and the store security cameras don’t show anyone with her. We analyzed her facial patterns using a cutting edge technology that measures infrared body temps and reactions and she showed no signs of undue stress. She acted furtive, nervous, skittish, but not afraid.” Bliss clipped out. Her melodious voice had gone flat, monotone.

“And you’re sure that Fernandez knows she escaped the house where he’d held her imprisoned?”

“He definitely knows she’s gone. He’s circling the wagons. He’s back in California, and based on some cell phone taps from this morning he’s looking to tie up loose ends.” Bliss continued to recite facts in a bland, even voice. “He used his receptionist’s cell phone to call someone and order them to observe and apprehend a link to his problem.”

“How do you know it was him?”

“Voice recognition software.”

“How’d you get the taps on associates phones?”

Bliss kept silent.

Jack snapped his fingers. Judge Adams was one of the few who knew exactly what Fernandez was accused of and he was the one who asked Jack to help here. “Judge Adams.”

She gave a little tilt to her head but didn’t verbally acknowledge his guess any other way.

“You still have the tapes?”

Bliss nodded.

“Great. Can I listen to them later?”

“I’ll get you a transcript. Good enough?”

Jack responded. “Fine.”

“Do we know who he called?”

“No. They were using a burner phone.” Bliss said, “We could pinpoint their general location from triangulating the cell towers the call bounced off but we don’t have any idea of their identities. Fernandez was careful not to use any names.”

Jillian Larsen tapped out a text on her smart phone. “Something urgent with another client just came up. I’m going to leave this to you two.”

Bliss’s head shot up from where she was reviewing documents and for one brief moment, Jack saw panic in her eyes. Then he blinked and whatever he thought he saw was replaced by the same bland, unsmiling face that she had been projecting since he walked in.

But what if her indifference to him, to everything, was all a disguise? An act?

Jack felt the uncontrollable urge to shake her up. To rattle that calm facade and see what came tumbling out. To see if that blast of panic was real. “I was ready seven hours ago. I’m just waiting on the expert, Ms. Lee.”

Larsen aimed a fierce look at Jack. “Put aside your issues and work together. This is an important witness.”

Jack bristled. “Believe me I have a vested interest in this guy. He pissed in my backyard.” Besides the fact that he had a favor to repay to Judge Adams, the opportunity to give Ava peace of mind burned like a fire in his gut.

“Excellent.” Jillian sauntered to the door of her office and glanced back one more time. “This situation needs to have a happy conclusion.”

She closed the door with a muffled thump. And Jack and Bliss were alone for the first time in thirteen years.

Three

Suddenly the silence was laden with tension. Jack needed to hold onto his anger. But it was hard to stay angry in the face of her obvious changes when what he really wanted to do was ask her what had happened to her. But that was far too personal a topic for the strangers they were now.

Anger. Anger. Anger
. He tried to channel the anger so he could stay immune to the underlying sorrow that he sensed in her. “So Fernandez knows she’s escaped. Do you think he has any idea that Adams-Larsen was involved in relocating her?”

“Most people are unaware that we do anything but PR and image consulting.” Bliss ran one long elegant finger over a line of type in the report. “We’ve maintained a ninety-nine percent success rate with our clients by being overly cautious.”

Jack had been briefed by Judge Adams, Marsh Adams’s father, about the other more secretive services that the company offered. But it had been a very short and succinct recitation. They relocated witnesses and people in mortal danger and gave them new lives where they could be safe. “So I’m a special case.”

She jerked involuntarily before she could control the movement. “Yes. That information is usually very high clearance and individual case basis. And normally you wouldn’t need to know.” Bliss kept her attention on the reports. “But Fernandez has resources in high places, and if he is aware of our...other business, then anything we put online or over the airwaves could be tracked.”

Jack agreed.

“I think we should go completely radio silent on this.” Bliss finally held his gaze for one long fraught moment.

She wanted him to cut contact with his office. His first instinct was to argue, but then he thought about the fact that Ava had slim ties to the missing woman Maria Torres. And the fact that he had Connor looking into Fernandez’s background. Maybe Bliss had a point.

“I have my brother digging for any information he can uncover on Fernandez.” Jack figured they needed to share information and now was the wrong time to hold back. “What if he needs to contact me with information?”

“Phones off.” She crossed her arms over her chest, the move plumped her breasts slightly, the hint of cleavage only a shadow in the V of her button up shirt. “No compromise. Maria’s life is at stake. You’re talking about a guy who had no qualms about leaving her trapped in a basement for
eight
years.”

Jack swallowed. “So....” If they had no contact with anyone else, it meant the two of them would be working extremely closely together.

“It’s just you and me,” she said grimly.

Him and Bliss. A hitch of some emotion he refused to name constricted his chest.

He needed to remind himself that there was no him and Bliss for the long term. Just in the context of this case for a very short period of time they would have to work together. Distance. Perspective. Focus on her new life.
That didn’t include you, you dumbass.

She’d clearly done just fine. Without him.

Jack’s blood pressure rose. Stress and worry pushed at his skull from the inside. Fuck. He did not need to pursue that line of thinking. Business. Keep his focus on business.

“Is Maria your typical client?”

“I can safely say that I’ve never had to relocate someone who has been basically held hostage for eight years in a basement, who never saw the light of day, or anyone besides her captors.”

Jack bent forward in the fancy brocade chair, the more delicate frame groaned as he shifted his two hundred and fifty pound bulk. He bunched his fists and scowled. “That bastard.”

“Yes. Which is why we need to find Maria before he does,” Bliss returned solemnly.

Jack was in complete agreement. “Where do you think she went?” He leaned closer to her and her jasmine perfume teased his senses.

Bliss subtly leaned back in her chair, increasing the distance between them. “That’s it. I don’t have a clue.” Jack could see that she was beating herself up over the fact that she couldn’t intuit what Maria had been thinking. “I should have had some idea that she didn’t trust us. I should have realized that she was going to bolt.”

For a few seconds she clearly forgot he was in the office with her, her honey-colored gaze far off and unfocused. “Dammit. I should have known.”

“But you don’t have any personal experience with a total relocation,” Jack argued. He couldn’t stand to see that anguished look in her eyes. “You shouldn’t beat yourself up.”