Chapter 14
Cooper smiled at the surprise in Kendall’s eyes. “You certainly do.”
“Why don’t you give Kendall a quick tour,” Grayson said. “We’ll meet you in the conference room in ten.”
“Can do.” His phone chimed, and he smiled when he eyed the screen. “It’s my sister.” He put his phone to his ear. “Hey, unless the sky’s falling, I can’t talk right now, but I need to tell you something. You going to be around tonight?”
“Yes. Can you give me a hint?”
“Nope. Talk tonight.” He disconnected before she could ask more questions.
“You’re going to tell her about Livie?” Kendall asked.
“And you. Come on, let’s take that tour.” The war room always impressed everyone, so he took her there first.
“Cool,” she said when he put his palm on the black box next to the door and the click of the lock rescinding sounded.
“This room is where we plan missions.”
“Wow,” she said as her gaze took in the room.
It was pretty cool. In the middle of the room was a conference table that would seat ten with monitors in front of each seat.
The top half of one wall was a flat screen that was connected to the three high-tech computers placed on the three desks along the wall.
They could project any location in the world onto the screen.
She walked to the whiteboard in the back of the room. “Who are all these children?”
“They’re kids we’ve rescued.” There weren’t any names attached to the photos, but he and his brothers knew every child’s name. “Most of them have been reunited with their families.”
“What about the ones who weren’t?”
“Those are in foster homes, but we keep tabs on them, make sure they’re okay and being treated right.”
She turned to him, and her eyes were watery. “Incredible what you guys do. You find them alive. Mine are all dead.”
He moved until he was in front of her. “But you help give their families closure.” He trailed his thumb over her cheek, catching a tear. “That’s important, too.”
“I know. I just wish I could do more, you know?”
“Yeah, I do. What’s your feeling on guns?”
“My dad gave me shooting lessons when I turned seventeen. I do own a gun, but it’s in a locked case high on a shelf in my closet. Why?”
“Your answer depended on whether I showed you another room before we go meet Gray and Liam.” He took her hand. “Come with me.” At the door to their weapons room, he put his hand on the security reader. When the lock disengaged, he opened the door, then stepped back, letting her enter first.
“Whoa,” she said.
He followed her into the room. The walls were filled with guns of all kinds, smoke bombs, night vision goggles, bulletproof vests and more.
Some were weapons they’d collected during their time in the military, but most were items they’d added after starting The Phoenix Three.
They seldom had to make use of any of the weapons in this room, but they occasionally had.
She picked up a pair of night vision goggles. “I’ve always wondered what it looked like with these on.”
“Put it on.” He flipped the on button, activating the battery.
“This is weird.” She turned to him and grinned. “You’re green.” She removed them and placed them back on the hook. “I think they’d take some getting used to.”
“It doesn’t take long.”
“What’s next on the tour?”
“It’s time to sit down with my brothers.”
She glanced up at him, surprise on her face. “Oh, I didn’t realize you were brothers.”
“We’re not blood brothers, but brothers all the same.”
“I love that.”
“When you’re held in a room for two weeks with two other boys, you bond. I hated the kidnapping part, but that event brought Gray and Liam into my life, and I’ll never regret that.”
“The Phoenix Three. The three of you from the ashes.”
He smiled, liking that she got it. “That’s right. Here’s the conference room where we’re meeting.” He opened the door, allowing her to walk in first. Without waiting to be told, she took a seat across from Grayson and Liam, and he sat next to her.
“What the three of you have created here is pretty incredible,” she said. “My favorite thing was the board with pictures of all the children you’ve saved.”
“We couldn’t have done it without each other,” Liam said.
Grayson nodded. “He’s right. Each of those children has a story, a life that we were able to hopefully help change for the better.”
“Amen to that,” Cooper said. He swiveled his chair toward Kendall. “Ready to talk about why we’re here?”
“I wish there wasn’t a reason for it, but since there is, yes.”
He wished the same. When they found who had taken Livie and was now threatening Kendall, Grayson and Liam were going to have to hold him back from doing serious damage to the man.
“I’m going to put the note that was pinned to Livie up on the screen,” Grayson said. “There are some clues in it.” He glanced at Kendall. “Is that okay with you?”
When she visibly swallowed as she nodded, Cooper wanted to pull her onto his lap, wrap his arms around her and make all of this go away. Cooper read the note again when it appeared on the screen.
Dearest Kendall, your little girl is such a beautiful child.
I thought about keeping her, but she’s not the prize I want.
It was fun, though, being able to steal her away from you.
To let you worry. You, with all your sad podcast stories.
Now you understand how those families felt when their child went missing, so think of it as me doing you a favor. You’re welcome.
I’ll be seeing you, love. Soon.
A devoted fan.
The note ignited a rage inside him. He’d had to kill when in the military, but he’d never liked that he had to. Now, though? There was a man out there he could kill and still sleep at night. “He listens to her podcasts and is obsessed with her.”
Grayson nodded. “Yes, and there’s something else. We have to consider the possibility that Livie isn’t the first child he’s taken. We’ve sent the email to an FBI profiler but haven’t heard back yet.”
Kendall gasped. “Oh, God. You think he’s done this before?”
“After Coop sent us a copy of the note, Gray and I agreed it was likely,” Liam said.
“I did some research, and there are five unsolved child kidnappings within a two-hundred-mile radius of Decatur. I’ve been listening to some of your podcasts, and you did one on Lacy Alexander.
Remember her? Six years old, taken from her bed in the middle of the night three years ago? ”
“Yes. The parents were suspects until her body was found in a shallow grave in the woods.” Her eyes widened.
“There was a note pinned to her shirt. Just like Livie. What the note said wasn’t released to the public, but apparently it was enough to clear the parents.
Her abductor was never caught, which is why I did a podcast on her. ”
Grayson picked up his pen and wrote something on a notepad. “I’ll see if the police will tell me what it said.”
“I only went back ten years, so there could be more,” Liam said.
Kendall sat back in her chair. “His note to me says he’ll see me soon. I can’t live my life jumping at every shadow. What can I do?”
“What can we do?” Cooper said. “First, you and Livie aren’t going to be left alone until the man is behind bars.
” He’d worked with his brothers long enough to know what they were thinking, and it took only a glance at both of them to see them look from him to Kendall, to know they had the same thought as him.
He wished there was another way, but they needed to draw the man threatening Kendall in, set a trap. “How often do you do a podcast?” he asked her.
“Once a month. I record it and then air it on the first Monday of every month. Why?”
“Three weeks before the next one, then. Would you be willing to record one using a script from us?”
“If you think it will help, absolutely. I’ll do anything to help you find him.”
“Do your listeners communicate with you?” Cooper asked.
“Yes. I have a special email… Oh, his note is addressed to Kendall, and he says he’s a devoted fan.
” Her gaze lifted to the screen again. “I should have picked up on that the first time I read it, but at the time, all I could think about was having Livie safely home and taking care of her. I podcast under a pen name, Kendra Hartley. I’m cautious about giving out my identity.
He says he’s a devoted fan, but the note’s addressed to Kendall. ”
“We picked up on that,” Cooper said.
She pushed away from the table. “I have to go.”