- Text Size +
Chapter Eleven

-- Howie --

"Hi daddy."

"Hi Stefie. Daddy misses you."

"I miss you!"

"Are you being good?"

"Uh-huh. I sanged a song today."

"I bet it was muy bonito."

She giggled.

"Muy, muy."

I smiled. "Can you put mommy on the phone?"

"YUP!"

"Howie, Is everything okay?"

I closed my eyes. The cautiously optimistic part of me wanted to say yes. The rational part of me wanted to say no.

"It's as okay as it can be."

Leigh sighed. I pictured those warm eyes and her soft smile. Stefie's face was in minature to her own.

They were my girls. And I was fighting to rescue another innocent girl.

I just felt highly unqualified.

"Be safe. I love you."

I closed my eyes. "I love you too. Give Stefie and James a kiss for me."

"I will."

I hung up and rubbed my temples. I had another headache. It was the pressure of the monumental task that lay before us.

"Howie, it's time to go."

I checked my phone. Six-thirty. I glanced at AJ. He was leaning against the door, a solemn expression on his face. I knew he wanted to go in with guns blazing. I was more apt to let the FBI do their job.

But just in case they didn't...

"Alright, let's go."

"Wait."

Kev ran a hand through his hair. He knelt down and opened a box I hadn't seen before. Four knives in sheaths lay inside. He passed them around like it was every day that the Backstreet Boys carried daggers.

"What's this for?" I asked.

"For protection."

AJ studied his with appreciation. It wasn't a gun, a bat, or a club, but it was something. He slid it into the waistband of his jeans next to his hip. I did the same.

I prayed I wouldn't have to use it. But if it came down to stopping Aaron from escaping...

I would have to do what I had to do.

This was for Nick.

-----------------------------

-- Mike --

"What do you mean Nick got out undetected?"

My stepdaughter was beside herself. She was crumpled on the couch crying her eyes out. Her mother, my wife, was looking at me like I was the last and only hope.

"He left his cell phone and he found the bug we put on him. Both things were left in the upstairs bedroom."

Incompetence. This never would have been acceptable when I was a part of the team. Every last one of these fools would have been fired.

But that was a previous generation. We were living in a time when the government was trying to fix their image of a totalitarian state.

And with that, the FBI had turned into pansies.

"Any clue where he went?"

"We're keeping an eye out around the cigar warehouses."

I almost slapped him. His father had been a hero. I had trusted him with my life...

"You seriously think Jane Carter is a more viable lead?"

Henry just stared at me.

"I'm FBI."

FBI. It used to stand for Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Now it stood for Foolishly Believes Idiots.

And Jane Carter was a HUGE idiot.

She had messed with the wrong family.

------------------------------------

-- Kevin --

Waiting to leave for the club had been the hardest part of the entire day. To distract myself, I had called home and talked to Addy and Dan. Mason was with his mom for Spring Break. I wouldn't call the middle of March 'Spring,' but that was the way schools did things nowadays.

We were a block away from the club. I took a deep breath.

"Guys, I want to do the prayer circle."

It was a pre-show tradition, but if ever there was a time we needed a prayer, it was now. The others seem to agree. We clasped hands and lowered our heads. Brian took the lead.

"Almighty and eternal God, those who take refuge in you will be glad and forever will shout for joy. Protect us with the shield of your strength and keep us safe from all evil and harm. May the power of your love enable us to return home in safety with all whom we love. Watch over Brooklyn and guide us in our search so that we may return her to those who wait to welcome her with open arms. For we may ever praise you for your loving care. We ask this through Christ our Lord..."

"Amen," we said in unison.

In tandem all of our hands went to the knives we had hidden under our shirts.

I felt deep down that something bad was going to go down...

Tonight.