1. Angel—Present Day
Chapter one
Angel—Present Day
“Man, you look like something the cat dragged in after rolling around in the mud on a rainy day. When was the last time you went home long enough to take a shower?” my mentor and my father’s best friend asks as he sits on the edge of my desk.
It’s a lone desk that’s in a closet-sized office in the basement of the CIA building in Langley, adorned only with a lamp, a computer, and my broken ego.
I take a sniff of my body to be sure my “uncle” Vinny is only kidding, but wince when I notice that there’s a slight odor that my deodorant no longer masks. “Shouldn’t you be organizing a coup in some foreign country or snatching some high-value target from his bed in the middle of the night?”
He shrugs as if he doesn’t have a care in the world. “Probably.”
Flipping to the next page in the file I’ve been working on for the past couple of months, I don’t bother looking up when I ask, “What are you doing here, Vinny? Isn’t it well past your bedtime?”
“I’m checking in on you. How are you holding up, Kid?” It’s funny how he still calls me “Kid” when I’m a grown man. “It’s gotta be tough on you going from being a field agent to a bottom-dweller, even if it is temporary.”
Six months ago, my sister, Faith, was kidnapped to draw her now fiancé, Jaxon Mitchell, into the open.
It led us to Colombia where we ended up in a five-way battle between three federal agencies, the Southern Knights, and The Sand Vipers cartel.
The CIA had ordered me home once my sister was safe.
However, she and Jaxon went right back into the Vipers’ den.
There was no way I was leaving the country without her.
So, I disobeyed direct orders and stayed.
The price? Desk duty in “the dungeon” where cold case files only grow colder and my career hangs by a thread.
“You and I both know it’s more than a temporary assignment.
It’s a test of my loyalty.” I lean back in my seat and run a hand through my hair, blowing out a long breath as I look at the stark walls that have become my home away from home.
I’m not meant to sit behind a desk, and my skills are being wasted just to prove a point.
Until a few months ago, I was a rising star in the agency and a sniper for the Special Operations Group.
Yet, for some reason, I believe this is where God needs me to be.
As hard as it is for me to swallow, the missing person file I’m currently working on is that reason.
I believe this with my whole heart, and it is the only thing that keeps me from handing in my resignation.
“This is about more than disobeying a direct order to come home. Otherwise, I would have been out of here after three months and back in the field where I belong. We’re going on six and not even a peep from the higher-ups. ”
Vinny nods. “Decades worth of planning to bring stability to Colombia were nearly ruined because of your sister’s abduction.
It wasn’t her fault, though; it was ours.
The CIA failed to control the leader we were putting in place for a regime change, and he went off the rails.
It was me who failed to keep him in line.
So, if there’s anyone to blame for your predicament, you’re looking at him. ”
There’s no use in casting blame. What’s done is done. “Then there’s the article by Anna Jameson that didn’t exactly highlight the CIA in the most positive light. Our only saving grace is that she didn’t mention our names in the story she wrote.”
Vinny agrees. “It’s a good thing, too. If she had, the CIA would have hung us both out to dry and set us up to take the fall.
You’re not only being punished, Angel, you’re being hidden away so that our leadership isn’t constantly reminded of their failure.
The only reason I’m not stuck sitting next to you is because they have other plans for me. ”
“Yeah, well, I suppose everything happens for a reason.” I turn the open file around and slide it across the desk for his viewing pleasure.
He takes a moment to read the contents. “I remember seeing this on the local news when I was visiting your family in Oregon. The FBI was handling it for the first few years, and then the CIA took over when there was a potential link to an international human trafficking ring. The teen was found frozen to death in Glacier National Park.”
Now I slide him the FBI file that wasn’t turned over to the CIA. “Here’s the actual file, given to me by an anonymous source.”
It’s mostly the same information, but I watch and wait for him to find the difference. His eyes widen when he gets to the last few pages. “Sadie Alekseev was found? She’s alive?”
I steeple my fingers under my chin and use the tips of my toes to swivel my chair back and forth. “She’s more than just alive, Vinny. We know her and her brother. We’ve even worked alongside them both. Read on.”
“Sadie Alekseev, 14 years old, was kidnapped and held inside a cave system within the boundaries of Glacier National Park. After a week of captivity, she escaped and evaded her captor, trekking westward across 40 miles of wilderness. Sadie Alekseev was found in a barn five miles northeast of Eureka, Montana, by Abel and Sarah Graham. She was near death, hypothermic, and severely malnourished. Officer Katrina Petrov was called to the scene.”
Vinny continues to read the report highlighting how Sadie’s discovery, medical care, and transportation to Fort Belvoir Army Medical Center near Washington, D.C.
, were kept hidden from the public. Her parents, Emil and Maya Alekseev, and her brother, Natan, were also taken to the FBI office near the hospital.
After that, the family changed their names and continued living their lives in an undisclosed location. The new names are not in the file.
I gesture to the folder. “Since Sadie never saw her captor’s face, you’ll note that the family chose not to be put into Witness Protection because there was no telling how long it would be before the man was caught.
However, the entire family was given new identities for Sadie’s protection after her name and picture were splashed all over the local news channels in the Pacific Northwest. But that’s it.
Their new names aren’t in the file, but I have a source who informed me that her parents, Emil and Maya, became Michael and Elaine Zurkowski, while her brother, Natan, chose the name Owen.
Sadie chose the name Daisy. Take a look at who the FBI agents in charge were? ”
Vinny’s eyes dart back and forth between the folder and me. “Robert Finnegan, who is now the current Director of the FBI.”
“Yep. Look at who his partner was,” I tell him.
He does as I ask. “His partner was Roger Cavenaugh, the current Director of Operations for the Southern Knights. Now I know your anonymous source.”
“It’s a small world,” I joke.
“It does explain why Owen Zurkowski moved up the ranks so quickly in the FBI to becoming the Director’s go-to guy at such a young age,” Vinny says, putting the pieces together. “He was groomed.”
“And why the brother-sister duo now works for the Southern Knights,” I add.
Vinny closes the folder and slides it back to me.
“I’m curious. Of all the files, in all the boxes down here, how did you come across this one?
Even more so, how does Daisy feel about you looking into her past after how things ended between the two of you?
Does she even know that you’re digging into her case? ”
“Like I said, everything happens for a reason. I believe I was meant to be down here even if it’s not where I wanted to be.
Anna Jameson, aka Grace Atwood, was given the number to this office when she started asking questions about the first few abductions.
I was the person she spoke to and I looked up the file for her.
It just so happened to be Daisy’s abduction.
Voila! Here we are. So, yes, Daisy knows that Grace and I have teamed up to find a clue that could point us in the right direction. ”
With an eyebrow raised, Vinny asks, “And Daisy’s okay with it? You kissed her and then said it didn’t mean anything; which we both know is a lie.”
It was a lie. That kiss—more like kisses—were unlike any other I’d ever had.
For the first time in my life, I didn’t want to run away from my fear of commitment.
Yet, that’s exactly what I did when confronted by my sister when she found out.
I panicked and blurted out that the kiss was just because two people needed an outlet for their emotions.
And just my luck, Daisy overheard and hasn’t spoken more than a few sentences to me since.
At the time of the kiss, Daisy was fretting over my sister being held captive as much as I was.
I didn’t understand why she was in tears over a woman she’d known less than a year, but looking at the file in front of me, the reason is crystal clear.
Daisy had been through it herself and knew what kind of emotional toll my sister was experiencing.
I sigh. “I’ve tried to apologize for my faux pas, but Daisy won’t give me the time of day.
Maybe if I find something that can help her in her quest to capture the man who abducted her, she’ll think of it as a grand gesture and at least allow me to make amends,” I tell him.
“All Grace and I need is one break to make that happen. One clue that’s been overlooked. ”
“What have you found so far?” Vinny asks, now intrigued.