CAISEY WIPED BARBEQUE sauce from her fingers and set the napkin on her empty plate. Liam had tagged along to dinner, bringing his girlfriend Andrea with him. It was hard to believe it was only a few weeks since they first met, when Liam had seen Andrea’s sister being abducted. They’d been through a lot, but come out of it with a relationship that had a strong foundation of shared faith and weathering the stress that brought them together.
Caisey caught Andrea’s gaze across the table and said, “How are your parents doing?”
Andrea winced. “Not great. They weren’t that close with Sunny, but since her body was found it brought all the old stuff back up. I should have helped her more, got her into rehab or something.”
Liam squeezed her shoulder, his thumb tracing the tendon in Andrea’s neck. She smiled at him. At the other end of the table, Grams had ear-bud headphones in and was laughing at something on Jake’s phone.
Caisey took a deep breath and smiled at the picture her partner and his girlfriend made. “Are they talking to anyone?”
“I had hoped to get them into some kind of counseling.” Andrea sighed. “I know they need help, but they won’t talk to me.”
Liam drew her close. “It’ll take time.”
“I know.”
“That’s what I figure too.” Caisey didn’t want to admit the abduction had scarred her, but she didn’t mind sharing some of what the shrink had told her. “Not that it’s helpful when you’re in the middle of it.”
Time dissipated the effects of most things, or so she’d learned. And yet the slightest thing could bring it all rushing back—the smell of dirt, or a man’s cologne—to the place where Caisey could feel the slam of fists and the fire of pain in her ribs and her face.
Now it was the pain that came when she moved her leg too fast.
Jenna leaned close. “Are you okay?”
Caisey looked at the table at large and the assessing eyes that preferred to see strength in her, not weakness. “Jenna and I joined a dating service.”
Noise erupted. Except for Jake who looked like he was about to throw up.
Caisey grinned. “Although I’m holding out for a couple of Bronco’s players so we can double date, I’ll be scouring the hordes of men that no doubt flock to us when they hear we’re on the market.”
Grams clasped her hands in front of her, a smile on her face.
“We can triple date!”
Liam shot a horrified look at Andrea.
Jake’s eyes were so wide it looked like they were in danger of falling out of his head. “I don’t want to know. Don’t tell me anything. I don’t want to hear any of it.”
Caisey smirked. “Wh-y.” The word was high-pitched and three seconds long. “You could join us. We’ll make it a family event, that way we can see who you’re spending time with and you can check out who’s got their eye on your mom. Sounds perfect if you ask me.”
Jake clapped his hands over his ears. “La la la la la la, I’m not listening to you talk about my mom man-hunting.”
“Jake!”
Caisey laughed. “Well, at least the kid isn’t emotionally scarred by the thought of sharing your attention. Or, he’s not emotionally scarred by that, at least.”
Jake scooped up a glob of ketchup on his spoon and prepared to flick it at Caisey. Jenna sighed. “What is it about the two of you that brings out the inner twelve-year-old in each other?”
Liam waved to the waitress. “Can we have the check, please?”
Jenna got Andrea’s attention off Liam and said, “You guys should come back to ours for dessert.”
It was after eight by the time Caisey pulled onto the driveway. Grams was in the back with Jake, head back eyes closed and mouth open. Jenna was in the front passenger seat texting on her phone.
“Andrea said they’ll be here in a minute.”
Caisey parked the car. “Just don’t let Liam make the coffee. He likes it weak.”
Jenna gagged. “That’s gross.”
They piled out and Jenna went to Grams’ door to help her out. Even if they hung out in the living room Grams wouldn’t hear them if she was in her bedroom sleeping. Just so long as it didn’t get wild like the time Caisey was fifteen and her dad was gone on an assignment in Nevada for the week. Grams had marched out of her room and announced the party was over. No one messed with the crazy old British lady with wild hair and a peach bathrobe.
Liam pulled his SUV on the drive beside her Toyota. Caisey got two steps from the car and saw the open front door.
She bent like she needed to tie her shoe and pulled the gun from her ankle holster. The front door might be open but the alarm wasn’t beeping and the local police hadn’t been summoned by the security company. Either it hadn’t been set, or it had been disconnected by whoever broke in.
“Liam.” She called his name over the roof of the car.
He sauntered over. “You really need an upgrade in the car department.” He reached up and back over his shoulder, bleeping his car locks with a click of the remote button. “That thing is seriously boring.”
Caisey glanced at the front door. She looked back and saw his eyes flare. She kept her voice even so no one knew anything was wrong. “I’m not buying a new car just because you think mine ruins your street cred. If I want a wild ride I go in Jenna’s Mustang. Why do you think we won’t let Jake drive until he’s seventeen?”
Jenna’s hands went to her hips. “You said we were waiting until he was responsible. You didn’t say it was because I’m some crazy driver. Which I am not.”
Liam gave Caisey a short nod and turned to Andrea. “Take Grams, Jenna and Jake back to your place.” He handed over his car keys. “Go. Now.”
**
Caisey swept through her bedroom and the bathroom and left the shower curtain pulled back when she came out. “Clear in there too.”
Her leg hurt like nobody’s business and she really needed to take more Ibuprofen, but that would have to wait. She’d wanted to be off the crutches and was willing to be on her feet less to make it happen but it’d been a long day. She needed to get this done because it was time to lie down.
Liam stood beside her bed, his brow creased as he took in the room. “Did Jenna decorate in here?”
“No. I did.” Caisey put her free hand on her hip. “What’s wrong with it?” “Nothing. It’s just…very…uh, purple.”
“I happen to like purple.”
His lip twitched. “I guess so.”
“What now?”
Liam rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. “So nothing was disturbed?”
“Not that I can see.” Caisey scratched her hair. “Front door ajar, alarm disconnected. Maybe when the perp left, they didn’t check it was shut. Or they were in a hurry.”
“They?”
Caisey shrugged. “But why break in and let us know you did if you aren’t going to take anything?”
“You guys didn’t leave it open?”
She shook her head. “I checked it myself.”
“Looking for something. Didn’t find it.” Liam’s face was set. “Sending you a message, maybe? We can get to you.”
“But why?”
“You tell me.”
Caisey trailed him down the stairs. “There’s nothing obvious I can think of, just the prison chaplain who visited earlier. He was looking for my dad, had a letter for Gabe Carlen.”
Liam frowned. “As in, the Toben Carlen case?”
Caisey nodded. “Gabe agreed to testify against his father. Dad hoped to get the uncle too, but the charges were dropped for lack of evidence. The uncle went back to work running guns, drugs, women. Toben went to jail and Gabe disappeared. Probably witness protection, but I was seventeen.”
And at the time, Caisey had been in no condition to be inquisitive about her dad’s work. Not when knowing would put her in more danger than not knowing ever did.
Liam’s lips were a thin line. “I hate coincidences.”
“Me too, but there’s not much I can do. Except—”
Caisey could have kicked herself. She went back upstairs and pulled open the top drawer of her dresser where she’d stashed the letter. Liam was still at the bottom of the stairs when she sat on the top step, trying to hide the wince from both her leg and the situation. “The letter the chaplain gave me is gone.”
“So the uncle has either you or the prison on radar? I’d guess both. Chaplain visits you. Ping. He has someone break in to get the letter. What did it say?”
“I didn’t read it.”
“Do you know where Gabe Carlen is?”
“He’s been missing for years.”
“The uncle probably still wants revenge.”
Caisey shrugged. “I’d have thought he’d be busy, what with his gun-running, drug- dealing, flesh-peddling organization still in full swing. But what do I know?”
“Getting that close to being brought down, he probably still hates his nephew enough to use resources keeping tabs on people who might lead him to Gabe.”
“But I don’t know where Gabe is. It was years ago.”
The questions persisted, even after Grams, Jenna and Jake came home. After Liam was done on the phone with the security company making sure her system was still working fine. After Caisey had taken painkillers. And a bath, where she had to keep her leg out of the water the whole time. Which kind of defeated the purpose, but she didn’t care. Then she stretched out in bed and stared at the ceiling.
Why did his name have to come up again after all these years? Gabe had disappeared from her life and she’d made peace with that even if she didn’t understand why he’d never contacted her. It might carry a risk, but she would do everything she could so the person she cared about knew she had never forgotten them—which proved her theory that he hadn’t thought as much of their one date as she had. But that didn’t make sense at all. The signs had been there.
Or she thought they had.
Evidently Gabe had just been passing the time until he testified against his father. Blowing off steam, hanging out doing something normal before his whole life changed. She’d wanted to ask her father if Gabe had mentioned her at all after he left, but she’d never been able to muster the courage.
Then Gabe’s uncle had her kidnapped, and there was nothing more to say.