Chapter 25
A.J. glanced at the digital clock on the top of his computer monitor and wondered how Josie’s lasagna had turned out.
At the thought of food, his stomach growled.
Maria would be back any minute with the Chinese take-out they’d ordered while they monitored an op halfway across the globe.
Unless the team ran into something unexpected and needed additional support, there wasn’t much for A.J.
to do, so he passed the time reviewing the intel Devon Marco had gathered so far on Charlie’s SEAL team’s mission.
Marco had been in Colombia for a week, and he’d used the time to interface with the Navy to get as full a report as they were willing to provide.
When it wasn’t much more than what TSI had already been told, Marco started working with his own in-country contacts to fill in the blanks.
As a former DEA agent who’d spent most of his time undercover, Marco’s network was vast and well-informed, and his working theory to explain the SEAL team’s catastrophic disaster was disturbing and brilliant.
The far-reaching implications had the US government officially engaged with TSI to continue the investigation, and Marco, of course, had volunteered to stay in South America for as long as it took to find justice for Charlie.
Charlie’s death hit A.J. hard and out of the blue at random times.
He knew it would be worse for Josie. Healing, as A.J.
knew all too well, didn’t take a linear path.
His mind was still on Josie when his cell phone pinged an alert.
His spine stiffened and his stomach dropped when the app showed the emergency alarm at his house had been triggered.
Maria breezed into the room, her arms filled with take-out containers.
“They were out of dumplings. Seriously, how can they be out of dumplings?” she ranted, unloading the contents of the bags onto the conference table.
When she caught the look on A.J.’s face, she paused. “What’s wrong?”
He gripped his phone and swallowed hard. “My house alarm tripped.”
Maria’s face lost all humor. “The silent alarm?”
He nodded. “I’m calling Josie now.”
Before he could hit her number, the phone rang in his hand.
“It’s Josie,” he said, tapping the answer button.
But it wasn’t Josie. It was his son, and, at the panicked sound of his voice, A.J. surged to his feet.
“What’s wrong?” A.J. asked, keeping his voice as measured as possible despite the fear clawing at his chest.
“Dad,” Adam said, his voice a broken whisper. “There’s somebody bad at the house. Josie gave me her phone and told me to hide with Ellie and Fluff under the porch.”
“Are you under there now?”
“Yeah.”
Sweat prickled his spine. “Where’s Josie?”
“She’s still in the house, I think. She said not to come out no matter what unless you tell us to.”
“Good. That’s good. You stay there. I’m on my way. Stay on the phone with me. I’m going to call the police on the other line, but don’t hang up. I’m here, Adam.”
“Okay, Dad.”
A.J. put the call on hold and dialed 911.
“What can I do?” Maria asked, dinner forgotten on the table.
“Call Cam. Tell him what’s going on. Stay here and monitor the op.”
“On it,” Maria said and pulled her cell phone out.
A.J. snagged his keys and bolted out the door, phone against his ear.
When the dispatcher answered, he barked out the details of the situation, as much as he knew, and gave his address in a clipped tone. When the unruffled woman on the other end of the line assured him that officers were on the way, he switched the call back to his son.
“Adam?”
“Daddy?”
Daddy.
Jesus. He had to get to his kids and to Josie. His body functioned on autopilot as he sped out of the underground parking garage and onto the busy city street.
“The police are coming. Tell me when you hear sirens, okay?”
“Okay,” Adam whispered.
“How’s Ellie?”
“She’s hugging Fluff and I’m hugging her.”
A.J.’s eyes burned, and for a second, he couldn’t speak as he imagined his children huddled together outside in the growing darkness.
Traffic hadn’t dissipated yet. He resisted the urge to lay on the horn and run his SUV onto the sidewalk to get around the lazily moving cars ahead of him, but there was nowhere to go.
“Can you hear anything from inside?” A.J. asked.
“No, but I think I heard a car driving away.”
A car had driven away from his property, and Josie hadn’t come back outside to get the kids. Icy tentacles of dread crept up A.J.’s spine. Josie had triggered the alarm and hidden his kids under the porch, and now she was likely gone.
He should have come right home when Josie texted earlier about Kevin.
“I hear the sirens, Dad,” Adam said, pulling A.J. from his spinning thoughts.
“The police are going to check out the house. They know you’re there, but just in case something’s going on inside, you two stay hidden for now.”
“Okay,” Adam said.
Traffic started moving, but it seemed like time slowed, until finally A.J.
pulled into his driveway. The glaring lights of three police cars pierced the twilight and reflected off his living room windows.
He jumped out of the SUV, barely remembering to turn off the ignition, and ran toward the front door.
An officer, positioned on the front steps, held up his arms.
“This is my house, and my kids are hiding out back,” he barked.
The officer’s expression softened.
“Is it clear inside?” A.J. asked.
“It’s clear.”
“Is Josie inside?”
“There was no one inside, but there were signs of a struggle. We’re securing the scene now, and detectives are on the way.”
“I need to get my kids,” A.J said, backing away from the door. “I’ll go around.”
“The detectives will need to talk to them, but go make sure they’re okay,” the officer said.
A.J. ran around the side of the house and dropped to his knees at the Fluff-sized hole in the underside of the decking.
“Adam? Ellie? I’m here,” A.J. called, his voice breaking.
“Daddy!” Ellie shouted.
A small, blond head appeared, and A.J. lifted his daughter out from under the deck. She tumbled into his arms, and he squeezed her tightly. His son emerged next, and A.J. pulled him into the embrace. Fluff followed, nudging the small group with his wet snout.
“Is Josie okay?” Adam mumbled into A.J.’s shoulder.
A.J. swallowed hard. Relief to have his children safe battled with his fear for Josie.
Kevin must have returned. Josie’s brother posed a serious threat, that much was obvious.
Just how much of a threat A.J. didn’t know, and that fact had his entire nervous system kicking into high gear. He had to find her.
“Dad? Is she okay?” Adam repeated.
A.J. didn’t want to lie to his son. He’d never lied to the kids about their mom or how sick she’d been. He opted to stick with a simplified version of the truth.
“I don’t know what happened yet, but Josie isn’t in the house. We need to go talk to the police. Are you guys up for that?” he asked gently.
Ellie lifted her head. “Let’s go now. The police need to help Josie.”
“I’m ready, Dad,” Adam said, nodding.
A.J. squeezed both kids and stood with Ellie still in his arms and Adam clinging to his waist. As he rounded the corner to the front yard, Cam’s SUV barreled up the driveway. A wave of relief hit A.J. when his best friend’s boots hit the ground.
Cam stalked toward them. Despite the fierce expression on his face, Cam reached for Ellie, the gesture automatic. A.J.’s daughter wiggled out of his arms and leaped into Cam’s.
“Uncle Cam, did you hear? Something bad happened. Josie made us hide under the porch in Fluff’s special spot, and now we have to go talk to the police so they can help us find Josie.”
“I heard, Ellie belly,” Cam said, shifting Ellie to one side and ruffling Adam’s hair. “You guys okay?”
Cam directed his question to the kids, but his eyes were on A.J.
“We’re okay, Uncle Cam. Fluff stayed with us, and we talked to Dad the whole time,” Adam answered.
“Good. You guys did everything right,” Cam said.
“The detectives are pulling up,” A.J. said, gesturing at the latest vehicle to clog his driveway.
“I’ll hang with these two for a couple of minutes if you want to see what’s happening inside,” Cam said.
“Thanks,” A.J. said, reluctant to leave his kids but desperate to do something, anything, to find Josie.
He met the detectives as they walked up his front steps and introduced himself. They entered the house together, and the detectives warned him not to touch anything. A.J.’s eyes snagged on the overturned lamp and shattered lightbulb. Otherwise, nothing looked amiss.
A.J. stood at the edge of his living room, arms crossed over his chest, and listened as the officers updated the detectives on the situation. Within moments, the small group turned toward him.
“You called it in?” the detective, who’d introduced herself as Morgan, asked in a no-nonsense tone. Laser-sharp brown eyes focused on him.
“I did. My kids called me at work.”
“You work for Tactical Solutions International?” Morgan asked.
“I’m one of the owners,” he said.
A.J. couldn’t read anything from Morgan’s voice or expression. She had a scowl to rival Cam’s, but she’d been wearing it since she’d arrived, so it may have just been her default setting.
“Walk us through what happened,” she ordered.
“I had a late night at the office monitoring an overseas op. Josie was home with the kids.”
“Josie’s your girlfriend? Josie Callahan?” Morgan interrupted.
“Yes. She lives here with us,” A.J. said.
Morgan motioned for him to continue.
“My phone alerted me that the silent, emergency alarm on my home security system had been tripped. I was about to call Josie when my son, Adam, called me. He said Josie told him to take Ellie, my daughter, and Fluff, our dog, out back and hide under the porch. She told them not to come out, no matter what they heard, until I got here. I called the police first, then my business partner, Cam Taylor, and headed here. I stayed on the line with my son until I arrived. The police were already on site.”
“Was someone trying to break into the house?” Morgan asked.
“I think Josie’s half-brother was at the door. She must have felt threatened to send the kids out to hide like she did.”
“Does Ms. Callahan have a negative history with her half-brother?”
A.J. blew out a breath. As impatient as he was to start working the situation himself, he recognized he had to update the police with relevant intel, so he gave Detective Morgan a quick and dirty version of Josie’s relationship with Kevin Murphy.
“He was here this afternoon, before the kids got home from school. I think Josie downplayed whatever happened between them. When she texted me, she said Kevin was gone, and she told me there was no need to come home.” The muscles in A.J.’s jaw flexed. “I should have come home.”
Morgan’s expression softened slightly. “Is there anything else you want to add before we talk with the kids?”
“If I think of anything, I’ll let you know,” he answered.
A.J. walked back toward his open front door and motioned for Cam to bring Adam and Ellie inside.
Detective Morgan waited for the kids to settle themselves on the sofa, with A.J. between them, and sat across from them. She leaned forward and looked both of his children in the eyes.
“I know this was a really scary night, and you’re probably very worried right now,” she said. A.J.’s respect for her went up a notch when she spoke to the kids with an earnest tone.
“Josie isn’t our mom, but we love her a lot. Our mom died, so you have to find Josie and make sure she’s okay. You’re going to find her, right?” Ellie’s words came out in a rush.
“We are going to do everything we can to find her really quickly,” Morgan said.
“Good,” Ellie said, head nodding and blond curls bouncing.
“I’d like to ask you a few questions about what happened tonight. Would that be okay?” Morgan continued.
“I’ll tell you everything. We had to hide under the porch with Fluff because a bad man came to the door and yelled at Josie. He did not sound nice at all.” Ellie paused to take a breath.
Morgan took the opportunity to interrupt, looking between both children. “Someone was at the door. Did Josie say who it was?”
It was Adam who answered. “Josie said to hide with Fluff and Ellie under the porch. She gave us her phone and told me to call Dad and tell him Kevin was here.”
Adam turned to look at A.J. with a stricken expression on his face. “I forgot she said Kevin.”
“That’s okay,” A.J. assured his son. “We already suspected him.”
Adam’s shoulders relaxed, and Morgan continued with her questions. “Once you were hiding under the porch, did you hear anything else?”
“Just a car driving away, but it was hard to hear from the backyard.”
“You two are doing great. Just a couple more things,” Morgan said.
The detective asked a few pointed questions designed to pull details from the kids’ memories, but because they’d been hiding during most of the incident, there wasn’t much more they could add.
When Morgan stood, Cam emerged from the kitchen, and A.J. knew he’d heard every word of the conversation.
“Liss is home. She’s offered to take the kids and Fluff overnight,” Cam offered.
A.J. glanced at his kids. They were shaken up. He wanted to be the one to tuck them into bed and keep watch over them, but his urgent need to find Josie, to make sure she was safe, to bring her back home, overwhelmed him.
He gave Cam a curt nod and received a knowing look in return.
“I’ll be back in thirty minutes,” his best friend promised.
While the kids raced up the stairs to grab pajamas and toothbrushes, Morgan turned her now stony expression back to A.J.
“We need to prep for a ransom call,” she said.