Once Vanished (Riley Paige #23)

PROLOGUE

Leo Dillard switched off his car engine and sat motionless in the alley, allowing himself to savor this moment.

He reached into the passenger seat for the leather satchel with his tools, then stepped out of the car and walked about fifty yards.

From the shadowed alley behind Riley Paige’s townhouse, he could see the girl sitting with her back to a main-floor window.

She was exactly where his observations had told him she would be — in the family room, probably doing homework. Perfect timing.

A daylight abduction hadn’t been his original plan.

He’d imagined this happening under the cover of darkness, slipping into the house like a phantom while the family slept.

But this... this was better. Earlier, in his apartment, he had watched with satisfaction as his video feed showed Riley Paige and Bill Jeffreys leaving the townhouse together, climbing into Bill’s car.

As he walked calmly across the back yard, he recognized an unexpected gift—telltale white cords of her headphones snaked from the girl’s ears. They would muffle any sound that he made. Now it was time to be bold.

As he approached the elevated deck, Leo mentally reviewed the part of the security system that ShadowCipher had neutralized.

The hacker had assured him that the alarm for the rear entrance had been disabled remotely — a digital sleight of hand that would leave no immediate evidence of tampering.

The system would appear functional, but would fail to alert anyone when the door was breached.

Although ShadowCipher’s abilities weren’t cheap, Leo considered them worth every penny of his grandfather’s inheritance.

He was aware that the security cameras were still working, but the chances were slight that anyone was watching those feeds at this very moment.

He also knew that the cameras would capture his face clearly, but that was part of his design.

Leo wanted Riley to know exactly who had taken her daughter.

He mounted the steps to the deck with the confidence of someone who belonged there.

He withdrew his lock-picking tools and crouched slightly as he inserted the tension wrench into the bottom of the keyhole, applying gentle pressure to create binding.

With his other hand, he slipped in the rake, feeling for the pins.

The lock was of good quality, but no match for his technique.

Leo felt the familiar satisfaction as the pins yielded one by one, the slight clicks and shifts perceptible to his trained touch.

As the final pin yielded and the cylinder turned, allowing the deadbolt to retract, Leo paused.

He eased the door open a crack, listening for any sound from inside the house.

The housekeeper — Gabriela, he recalled from his research — might be in the kitchen, or somewhere downstairs in her living quarters.

If she interfered, he was prepared to deal with her.

The taser would work just as effectively on her as it would on Jilly.

Leo slipped inside, closing the door silently behind him. He moved toward Jilly with calculated steps, the taser now held at the ready in his right hand. Three more steps and he would be close enough to strike.

*

Jilly’s fingers flew across the keyboard, the bass-heavy beat of her music drowning out the world around her.

History homework wasn’t her favorite, but she’d promised Mom she’d maintain her grades this year, and promises meant something in this house.

The essay on the Civil War was almost finished, just a conclusion paragraph to go.

She bobbed her head slightly to the rhythm, lost in the cocoon of sound her headphones created.

Then, despite the music, she heard her little dog, Darby, barking downstairs in Gabriela’s room. A flicker of movement reflected across her laptop screen caught her attention—a shadow where there shouldn’t be one.

Jilly whipped around, her headphones sliding askew as she pivoted in her chair.

Standing mere feet away was the man from the photographs Riley had shown her—Leo Dillard.

The stalker. The man Mom had warned the whole family about.

His hand extended toward her, gripping something dark and rectangular. And he was holding a taser.

“GAbrIELA!” Jilly screamed. She lunged sideways off the chair, her body responding with the instant survival instincts honed from her years on Phoenix streets.

When you grew up having to fight for everything—food, space, respect—you learned quickly, or you suffered.

Jilly had been smaller than most, but what she lacked in size, she made up for in speed and dirty tactics.

Darby rushed into the family room at that moment, his little ears flapping as he yapped at the intruder and darted about snapping at his feet. Darby couldn’t do Leo any real harm, but he had definitely taken him by surprise. The taser missed its mark as Jilly ducked beneath Leo’s outstretched arm.

“You picked the wrong girl, asshole,” she snarled, dropping into a fighting stance, weight balanced on the balls of her feet.

As Darby kept snapping and barking, Jilly lashed out with a swift kick aimed at Leo’s knee, connecting with enough force to make him stagger.

She followed with a straight punch toward his groin, but he twisted, catching her wrist in a grip like iron.

Pain shot up her arm as he wrenched it, trying to spin her around.

“Let GO!” she hissed, driving her elbow backward with all her strength.

She felt it connect with something solid—his ribs or stomach—and heard his grunt of pain.

For a fleeting second, triumph surged through her.

With Darby helping to keep Leo off balance, she could do this.

She could fight him off until Gabriela came.

But Leo was stronger, trained, and prepared.

He recovered quickly, wrapping an arm around her torso, pinning one arm to her side.

Jilly thrashed wildly, her free hand clawing at his face, her feet kicking back at his shins.

Her nails caught skin—his cheek or neck—and she felt the satisfying sting of contact, heard his sharp intake of breath.

“You little—” he started, his voice tight with controlled rage.

Jilly slammed her head backward, aiming for his nose, but hit only the solid plane of his jaw. Pain exploded across the back of her skull, but she didn’t relent, twisting and struggling with every ounce of her strength.

“GAbrIELA! HELP!” she screamed again, hoping the housekeeper would hear her from the lower level of the townhouse.

They bumped against the table, and Leo almost tripped over Darby.

He kicked out at the dog, and Jilly seized the moment to throw her weight forward, trying to break Leo’s grip.

That was when she saw the thing in his hand again—a taser, too close to dodge.

The prongs hit her side, and her world exploded into white-hot agony.

Every muscle in her body seized at once, the pain unlike anything she’d ever experienced.

Her legs gave way beneath her, and she would have collapsed completely if not for Leo’s arm still around her waist. The room tilted and spun as the current ceased, leaving her gasping and twitching, her muscles spasming involuntarily.

“My mom is going to kill you,” Jilly managed to gasp, her voice a ragged whisper. “She’ll hunt you down...”

She could hear Leo murmur in her ear over the racket of Darby barking as he lowered her partially to the floor. “That’s exactly what I’m counting on, Jilly.”

Then something pressed against her face—a cloth that smelled sharp and chemical. She tried to hold her breath, to turn her head away, but the cloth covered her mouth and nose, the fumes burning her throat and lungs when she finally had to gasp for air. The chemical scent overwhelmed her senses.

*

Gabriela had just settled onto her small sofa, a cup of chamomile tea steaming on the side table beside her, with Jilly’s little dog Darby and April’s black-and-white cat Marbles both asleep at her feet.

The basement apartment was cool and quiet.

She closed her eyes, allowing herself fifteen minutes of rest before starting dinner preparations.

The townhouse above her was peaceful—April away at college, Riley and Bill at an appointment in Quantico, and Jilly diligently tackling her homework.

Suddenly, Darby snapped awake and started yapping, then headed up the stairs.

“What on earth …?” Gabriela muttered.

That was when she heard it—Jilly’s scream.

“GAbrIELA!”

She could hear more distant yapping and the sound of a struggle in the family room.

“Dios mío,” she whispered as she bolted upright. She moved across the room fast, to the closet where Riley had installed the lockbox. She punched in the code—Jilly’s birthday, 0-6-1-2. The black metal box popped open, revealing the Ruger SR22 nestled in its foam cushion.

“It’s a .22 caliber—smaller than what I carry, but with less recoil,” Riley had explained. “Semi-automatic, ten rounds in the magazine. Simple safety switch here, see? Red means it’s ready to fire.”

Riley had taken her to the range three separate times until Gabriela could hit the center of a target consistently. “For protection,” Riley had said. “Because sometimes I can’t be here.”

Like now.

Gabriela grabbed the gun. Before rushing to the stairs, she checked the safety, just as Riley had taught her. She took the steps two at a time. She reached the main floor of the townhouse, gun now held in both hands, pointed at the floor as she moved.

“Jilly!” she called out, rounding the corner into the family room.

The scene that greeted her froze her blood.

Jilly lay limp in the arms of a man Gabriela instantly recognized from the photographs.

He had one arm wrapped around Jilly’s torso, supporting her sagging weight.

With his other hand, he pressed a cloth firmly over the girl’s face.

Jilly’s eyes were fluttering closed, her struggles reduced to feeble twitches.

Darby was darting around at Leo’s feet, barking helplessly while Leo kicked him away.

“Let her go!” Gabriela commanded, raising the gun and flicking off the safety in one fluid motion, just as Riley had drilled her to do. The red indicator glared like a drop of blood.

Leo’s head snapped up, genuine surprise flickering across his features before settling into something more calculated.

Gabriela could see that he hadn’t expected this.

Hadn’t factored her into his plans—or at least not with a gun in her hand.

And it didn’t look like he’d expected a dog, either.

For a heartbeat, Gabriela saw uncertainty in his eyes.

Then he smiled—a terrible, confident smile—and shifted Jilly’s unconscious form directly in front of him like a shield.

“I don’t think you want to risk that shot,” Leo said, his voice calm. He repositioned Jilly so that her head lolled against his chest, her body completely covering his vital organs. “Not with her in the way.”

Gabriela’s arms remained steady, the gun trained on them, but she couldn’t shoot without risking Jilly. And Darby was obviously too little to be a real threat.

“The police are coming,” Gabriela bluffed, her accent thickening with stress. “Riley knows you are here.”

Leo laughed softly, backing toward the deck door, dragging Jilly with him. “No, she doesn’t. But she will. That’s the whole point.”

Gabriela tracked their movement with the gun, shuffling sideways to maintain her position, desperately seeking any opening, any moment when Leo’s body might become exposed enough for a safe shot. But he was too careful, too skilled at keeping Jilly positioned perfectly.

“Put the gun down, Gabriela,” Leo said. “I know you won’t risk hurting her.”

He was right. Years in this house, watching over Riley’s two girls, cooking their meals, bandaging their wounds, holding them through nightmares. She had promised Riley—promised herself—that she would protect them. And now she was failing.

“She is just a child,” Gabriela pleaded, her voice breaking. “Take me instead.”

Something like amusement flickered across Leo’s face. “That wouldn’t serve my purpose.” He reached the door now. “Riley needs to understand what it means to have something precious taken from her. Thanks for the offer, though. Maybe another time.”

With Darby still darting around his feet, he backed out onto the deck, his eyes never leaving Gabriela’s, calculating his escape with each step. Gabriela followed as far as the doorway, the Ruger still aimed uselessly in their direction.

“Riley will find you,” Gabriela said, her voice steadier now, fueled by certainty. “Wherever you go. Whatever you do. She will never stop hunting you.”

Leo paused at the top of the deck stairs, Jilly still clutched against him like a grotesque shield. For the briefest moment, something like anticipation glittered in his eyes.

“I’m counting on it,” he replied. Then he carried his captive across the small back yard and out the back gate, leaving the yapping dog behind.

Only when they disappeared from view did Gabriela lower the gun. Her hands shook now, delayed shock setting in as she fumbled to dial 911. Then she would have to call Riley to tell her that the monster had taken Jilly.