Zack (In the Company of Snipers Book 3) (14 page)

In one fell swoop, he lifted her feet off the floor and carried her to the couch in front of the fireplace. Agent Lennox settled her onto his lap, encircling her inside the steel bands of his arms from which there was no escape. She’d landed facing away from him, his head pressed tight to the back of hers. Orange flames licked the fake fire log, but all she saw was LiLi’s blue eyes staring back. The tears she’d held back burst forth, drenching her face and the sleeve of his dress shirt.

“I want my baby,” she sobbed.

“You’re not alone,” he whispered hoarsely, smoothing one of those big hands over her head and shoulder like he needed to calm her. With an irritated yank, he pulled the tie from his neck and tossed it away, nestling her deeper into the crook of his arm. “I wish I could get that through your hard head.”

She cried. All she had was her hard head, as he’d just put it, along with a police scanner, a laptop, and an all city bus pass. That’s all that had gotten her this far, and now she’d failed. It would be Agent Tao verifying her baby’s body. It would be....

“Is she dead?” she asked, unable to look Agent Lennox in the eye. “Is the little girl—” She choked. Saying it once was awful enough.

“No.” He smoothed a gentling hand down her spine and up again to rest between her shoulder blades. “She’s alive. The Coast Guard put extra patrols on the river in that section of Anacostia. They got to her in time. Believe it or not, they’re on your side. Hell. Everyone is.”

“Who’s doing this?” she whined. “How could anyone hurt babies?”

The pain eked out in sobs she could no longer restrain. Only his arms kept her from falling apart and she needed him now, needed the smell of leather and sandalwood in her nose to keep the other smell at bay, the odor of the antiseptic morgue and that other mother’s dead child. The memory twisted her insides. There’d been no joy in her life for too many days. Even the breaks in the case were tragic. The hope that LiLi still lived seemed to rely on other children dying. The awful paradox suffocated her.

“I just want her back.” She pressed her face into his bicep, pulling more of his smell into her soul, trying with all her heart to wrap herself so deep she could finally feel again.
Save me, Agent Lennox. Please, please save me, too.

“We’re going to find her.” The chords of her only lifeline rumbled deep in his chest and against her ear. She clung to him for all she was worth. “I promise. When we do, we’ll save all those other little girls, too.”

Another reality crept onto the couch with them. Mei heard it beneath her ear. She felt it in the puffs of heated breath against her neck. It trickled wet and warm where he rested his chin. He was crying, too. The mantra she’d clung to for so long seemed weak and foolish. Maybe she did need this man. Just this one.

Zack held Mei gently at first, and then as tight as he dared. As harsh as she came across, there was a fragile strength to this woman that spoke to the warrior in him. For the second time in as many days, she’d stirred the deepest chambers of his heart. He’d had serious girlfriends before, but none like Mei. Her mother’s anguish resonated with him, awakening feelings he’d not felt before.

He wiped his face. She didn’t need to know what a sap he was. The lovely scent of cherry blossom filled his nose, oddly comforting in the middle of the bleak ending to another fruitless day.

These were the toughest times in war, when imminent battle was delayed and the wrecking ball of testosterone-driven rage was asked to hold and wait. Stand down. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not. Soldiers grew antsy. Tempers flared. All the pent-up dread and fearful expectations had to go somewhere. He used to pump his highest numbers during down times like that, if only to vent the energy he could not expend against the enemy. It seemed to help. Too bad this wasn’t then.

All he could do was hold her and hope it was enough. The visit to Richards’ office had to have been excruciatingly difficult for Mei. Picking her up and trapping her on his lap was the only thing he could think of to break through the hard wall she seemed intent on maintaining. Oddly, she’d leaned into his arm, content to let him hold her but not willing to face him. Her cheek rested against his bicep instead of his chest. He understood.

“I heard you and Agent Tao,” she said tiredly. “Something else is going on, isn’t it?”

“Yes. The police found another body. A man was killed tonight under the Eleventh Street Bridge.”

“Is he part of this?”

She didn’t jump up and run like he’d half expected. “We think so. His name was Tony Brown. He worked for ATF Director, Kevin Carducci.”

“Who killed him?” Her body softened against him.

“We don’t know yet, but given the location, it might be the same people who dumped these little girls.”

“What’s ATF?”

“Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.” Her question surprised him. She had fake ID badges for every other federal agency. Why not the one Carducci directed? It struck him as an odd piece of coincidence or sheer, damned luck. Suddenly, he was glad she’d missed that particular one. She might not be here in his arms now. She might be laying under some bridge like Tony Brown.

“Oh.” She sighed again, her body tucked into his arm like she belonged there. The fire was warm. Zack stretched his legs and relaxed his grip. She wasn’t going anywhere. They might as well be comfortable. Tomorrow was shaping up to be a heck of a day.

The feel of her slender figure tucked against his stirred feelings he’d struggled with for days. She was an exotic beauty when she let her guard down. With her dark eyes against creamy golden skin, everything about her was elegant and rich. Not rich in the ways of the world, but in qualities of devotion, perseverance, and fortitude. She had an inner strength that defied the world. Her fierce love for her daughter touched him to his core. For the first time in his life, he could relate. Because of Chai Yenn, he understood.

She shifted in his arms, a quiet murmur on her upturned lips. Tender, soft lips. Close and warm, her cherry blossom fragrance tantalized and teased. With the pleasant pain of her body against his, Zack wanted her in every sense of the word: in his arms, in his bed, and in his life. But not this way. He quelled the impulse to cover her sleeping mouth with his. Now was not the time. Surprised at the depth of his feelings, he tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear and placed a soft kiss on her forehead instead of her lips.

Reality stole his breath.
I think I’m falling in love.

Denial came fast and hard.
Oh, hell no.

Just as quickly, another emotion surfaced, an intense protective instinct to hold on tighter. This woman was different, his feelings for her uncharacteristically passionate, so why had his heart suddenly pounded? Why was his mouth dry? Best question of all, why had he ever kissed her in the first place? The pleasant taste of her lingered. It created a craving that never left his mouth. He pressed his lips to her forehead again and closed his eyes.
God, maybe it is love.

A familiar oriental gong vibrated in his pocket, jerking him out of the enlightening reverie.

“Talk to me,” he whispered into his cell.

“It’s not Mei’s daughter,” David answered promptly.

Zack let out the deep breath he hadn’t known he was holding. “Good to know. I’ll tell her.”

“Claire was at the hospital. She’s having a hard time.”

“Aren’t we all?” he asked as Mei stirred in his arms, her breathing slow and steady. “How bad is this little girl?”

“She’s in intensive care. Someone spotted her from a tour boat. They’re the ones who pulled her out of the river. A nurse happened to be on board, so she started CPR. By the time the police got there, the girl was breathing on her own. How’s Mei?”

The thought of another baby girl hurt and abused like sweet little Chai and Zhen sickened Zack. He looked into the sleeping face of his charge. Even asleep, she looked angry. Her forehead crinkled into a small V between her brows, and her lips were thin and tight. He smoothed his palm over her arm, wishing he could do more.

“She’s sleeping,” he said. “It’s been a tough morning.”

If they were lucky, they’d find LiLi today. If not—

He pushed the thought from his head. All Zack had to do was infiltrate the foster home and let the Tattle Tales he intended to plant do the rest of the job. The whole façade seemed futile, but they had no other leads. With the trail a month old by the time Mei’s plight was made known to the local authorities, there wasn’t much else to go on.

An AMBER Alert now broadcast regularly. Authentic police detectives had interviewed Mei, and The TEAM’s mission had become twofold–find LiLi, and bring the perverse business down at all cost.

Mei seemed to take it well when he told her David’s heartbreaking news, but then she’d broken down again. The rest of their evening turned into a roller coaster with Mei calm one minute, tearful the next. There was no joy to be had when another child lay fighting for her life in the hospital, only gratitude it wasn’t LiLi.

“Are you sure you can do this?” Mei eyed him as he shifted his car into park. “I mean, you’re not a father. You’ve never had a child.”

“No problem,” he replied. It was just a house full of kids. How tough could it be? “You ready?” He hurried to help her out of the car, cocking his elbow for her to take.

“Yes.” She linked her hand at the crook of his elbow. She was different today. Maybe it was because they were going to meet some of the girls, or maybe because she’d gotten a good night’s sleep. He didn’t know why. It just felt good not being a target for a change.

“Comm check.” David’s calm voice sounded in his earpiece.

“Loud and clear,” Zack responded as he closed her door and locked his car. This was an easy day. He glanced at the stern yet pretty woman at his side, planning where to take her to lunch afterward. If nothing else, Mei needed food to sustain her temper. “We’re going in.”

“Copy that.”

Apprehension first entered his mind when he spotted security bars on the windows and painted basement window glass. He relayed the observation to his buddies in the van and rolled his shoulders to feel the weight of the holstered firearms at his sides. For now, those pistols were hidden beneath his jacket. It never hurt to be prepared.

“No alarm system in view. Hold on a second. Let me activate the Interceptor.” He reached into his pants pocket and hit the switch on another of Mother’s inventions; a device no bigger than his key fob which could detect any type of detection system on the premises that might pick up on or interfere with his earpiece and comm link. It was a spy versus spy contraption, no more amazing to Zack than the woman who’d come up with it. Why Mother didn’t go into business for herself and make a billion off her techie inventions was a puzzle he could not solve. Maybe she thrived on the abuse from Alex, or maybe it was the abuse she gave him. Who knew?

“Take it slow,” David advised.

There wasn’t a blade of grass outside the house. An eight-foot high wooden fence concealed the backyard, allowing no visibility. Any other time, the scenario would have felt like a trap. The hair stood up on the back of his neck. It was a trap–for all those children.

“No indication children live here,” Zack relayed to David. “No toys in the yard. No trikes. No swing sets. Nothing.”

“They don’t let them outside to play.”

“They don’t want the girls to run away.” Mei hugged into his bicep.

He scanned the bleak industrial neighborhood where the lone house stood. It didn’t offer much in the way of the big friendly places he’d grown up in, where kids called everyone’s parents Mom and Pop. It didn’t offer much at all.

They climbed the five concrete steps to the porch and knocked on the door. The planks on the porch were weathered and split. Chipped gray paint covered everything.

“First Tattle Tale in place,” Zack said as he pressed the device above the hole where a doorbell had been. Tattle Tales were another of Mother’s genius inventions. Wireless and nearly invisible to the human eye, they resembled common everyday household items: the head of a tack, a vinyl bumper pad one might use to muffle a cabinet door, even a speck of plaster. But the video and audio feed they provided was clear as a bell. Crystal clear.

“Receiving,” David confirmed.

An older Chinese woman jerked the door open, startling Mei. Zack pulled her under his arm.

“You Burns?” the woman snapped, a lighted cigarette dangling off her lip.

“Yes, ma’am. Quentin and Amelia Burns. We’re here to—”

“I know why you here. Me Jun.”

“Her name means, ‘to be truthful’.” David supplied a useless piece of trivia that Zack instantly filed away for a later laugh. This woman had nothing to do with the truth.

Jun opened the door and waved them into the dark interior of the home, a hallway that opened into a room to the right and another hallway straight ahead. Before he moved, Zack pressed another Tattle Tale to the wall beside the front doorjamb, giving David his first view of the interior. The devices were simple to install, no tougher than touching the door with his fingertip.

“Receiving second feed,” he acknowledged the transmission.

An older man waited at the junction of the halls, his arms thick and his clothes baggy. Zack angled Mei so she walked on his other side, away from the stranger. Narrow halls made for perfect ambushes. Not today. Another Tattle Tale went active.

“Third,” David said, as calmly as ever.

Jun directed Zack and Mei into an empty room with a sliding glass door on the opposite wall. “Sit. You wait here,” she barked as she left, shutting the door behind her.

Zack went to the glass, wishing he could shield Mei from whatever was on the other side. He couldn’t. He wasn’t prepared himself.

“Looking at maybe fifty Chinese females, all under the age of ten, maybe younger,” he relayed to his buddies in the surveillance van as he secured the fourth video/listening device to the window frame. Dozens of girls crowded the expansive room; some playing quietly, and others chatting. The child sitting alone beneath the window caught his eye. She sat with her legs curled beneath her, rocking back and forth, her arms wrapped tightly around herself.

The room was Chai multiplied. The lack of smiles, the sea of orange dresses, and the bareness of the gym-like room took his breath. No adults supervised the playtime, if that’s what it was. There seemed to be no need. The girls were oddly calm and orderly, not like any kids he’d grown up with.

“Any signs of abuse?” David asked.

“Other than the fact they’re here?” Zack asked, searching for signs of sickness and physical assault. “Nothing obvious,” he rasped. “God, David. You should see this.”

“I do,” he answered somberly.

“She doesn’t look well, does she?” Mei watched the girl beneath the window. “They’re all so thin. I don’t see LiLi.”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” he reminded her, his arm around her again. “She might not be here.”

The door behind them opened. Jun barked at several girls as they scurried inside. Their faces were expressionless and almost resolute, too mature for their tender ages. Like little orange soldiers, they lined up against the wall and turned to face Zack and Mei without a word. He activated Tale number five to document what was happening inside the room. Stark reality dawned on him. He might not have brought enough Tattle Tales.

“These girls four year to seven year. They good. Strong.” Jun lit up another cigarette. “You like?”

“Hey there.” Zack offered his hand to the first little girl. “How—”

“You no touch! You no talk!” Jun screeched, the cigarette bobbing on her lip. “These girls no talk, so you no talk.”

Zack shrugged. Fine. Whatever. He wasn’t here to make trouble, but what a stupid rule. “How are we supposed to get to know them if we can’t talk to them?” he asked.

“You buy first.” Her crabby face wrinkled like she was trying to intimidate Zack.