Forever Alexa Part 24

He held her gaze. "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Jack wiggled out of his jeans and drew Livy more solidly in the crook of his arm. "Good night, Alex." He took her hand and laced their fingers, the way he always had when they fell asleep together so long ago.

The old gesture brought her comfort more than fear, so she shut her eyes. "Night, Jack."

CHAPTER 15.

Jackson nudged opened the door to his father's office with his shoulder, carrying two steaming mugs of his mother's spectacular coffee in his hands. "I thought I would find you in here."

Tucker glanced up from his laptop.

Jackson handed over one of the mugs. "Sorry I bailed on you last night. Alex was pretty upset, then Liv needed me."

"I ended up heading to bed. Ethan didn't have anything new when I checked in." Tucker leaned back in the comfy leather chair, holding the cup close to his nose, breathing deep. "d.a.m.n, this smells like heaven." He swallowed and groaned. "I want to marry your mother."

Grinning, Jackson sat on the edge of the desk, sipping the hot, strong brew, and sighed. "n.o.body makes coffee like mom." He drank again, eager for the kick of caffeine. Despite sheer exhaustion, he'd only slept in s.n.a.t.c.hes while he lay with Alex and Olivia. He hadn't been able to shut down his mind. There was too much to think about between Abby's case and the abrupt change in direction his relations.h.i.+p with Alex had taken.

So much for slow and steady. In a matter of an hour, he and Alex had gone from cautious friends to full-on lovers again. He kept waiting to regret their lack of precautions and his confessions of love, but he didn't. How could he? The woman he thought he would have to live without had been wrapped around him, warm, naked, and completely with him-touch for touch and kiss for kiss. He hadn't been able to get enough.

Hints of Alex's vanilla scent still clung to his skin, even after a shower. He and Alex had taken a huge step in the right direction, but he wanted more; he wanted everything, and they had a long way to go. When the heat of pa.s.sion cooled, her guard had gone back up. Alex was still leery; she was waiting for him to hurt her again. It would take time for her to realize he wouldn't be walking away. He had a lot to make up for, even more to prove, but first they had to find Abby. With another deep sip of his coffee, Jackson pushed Alex to the back of his mind and focused on her sister. "Did Ethan come up with anything we can use?"

"You could say that. We just hung up about twenty minutes ago. Apparently he didn't find much in Canon's files, which was what he was searching when I called him early this morning. So he took a detour through a few of the ICE agent's files instead."

Jackson choked on his next swallow. "Ethan hacked into Immigration and Customs Enforcement? f.u.c.k, man, that's Homeland Security."

Tucker shrugged. "If anyone can cover his tracks, it's Ethan."

Jackson shook his head. "b.a.l.l.sy b.a.s.t.a.r.d. So, what'd he find?"

"He thought it interesting that ICE and Canon's taskforce are monitoring a couple of the dating websites in the Baltimore area. Baltimore Dates seems to get a little more scrutiny than others. A few red flags have been raised over some of the ladies frequenting the site-pretty young foreigners looking for their ticket to the States. Maybe there's something to it-more than likely-but then again, maybe not. You just never know."

"Sounds interesting."

"Ethan was intrigued enough to dig deeper, because," Tucker shrugged, "that's what Ethan does."

"Naturally." Jackson crossed his ankles, getting comfortable. Tucker would get to his point eventually.

"Just for s.h.i.+ts and giggles, Ethan decided to play with that new facial recognition scanner he's all hot and bothered about and entered Abby's photograph, along with the other young women recently kidnapped, into the system. He got a hit on Kristen Moore, the teenager who disappeared a month before Abby did."

Jackson's brow shot up as he sat up straighter. "No s.h.i.+t."

"She had a profile-LoveG.o.ddess17. Her information has since been erased, but whoever wiped it clean wasn't aware that Ethan Cooke, Super Computer Geek, would be flying in for a look-see."

"How could they've figured?"

"Exactly. Kristen looks pretty d.a.m.n different from the missing posters her parents plastered all over the city and news. In those pictures she's virginal-an innocent schoolgirl. Here she's blonde, brown-eyed, and beautiful and definitely doesn't look like she just turned seventeen." Tucker turned the laptop. Kristen was indeed all of those things.

"Certainly has the three B's."

"Not to mention a recent track record for running away and a turbulent home life. Her parents decide to call it splits, and she starts looking for trouble. She was the perfect mark." Tucker turned the computer back in his own direction. "She and someone with the profile name Crazy80 had a few conversations, which Ethan was more than happy to copy for our benefit and send along."

"Son of a b.i.t.c.h." Jackson set his mug down as he stood and walked to Tucker's side of the desk. Finally they were getting somewhere. "Let me see."

Tucker handed over the printed sheets.

Jackson skimmed the first couple of conversations between Kristen and 'Crazy80'. They did the typical get to know you dance with casually flirty questions and answers. Crazy80 bragged about his career in the fas.h.i.+on industry. Kristen shared her plans to get out of Baltimore and move to New York, where she wanted to start her modeling career. She ranted about her parents and their divorce and her desire to be far away from them. "Crazy80's a f.u.c.king pro. He keeps things nice and vague, but Kristen sure as h.e.l.l is willing to spill."

Tucker leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms. "He structures his responses with double talk. It seems like he's saying something, but really he's not saying a G.o.dd.a.m.n thing. Kristen eats up the sympathy he dishes out while she feeds him more information about herself. Pretty cla.s.sic fis.h.i.+ng."

Jackson grunted as he continued scanning through the chats. Crazy80 had definitely played this game a few times. Poor naive Kristen didn't have a chance against declarations of strong feelings and deep connections and promises of a glamorous career. Jackson flipped to the next page and clenched his jaw while he read the rest. "So they met?"

"Looks like."

"f.u.c.king-A," Jackson muttered as he shook his head and continued. Crazy80 and Kristen's date had been magical, something special. Crazy80 wanted to meet with Kristen again and make all of her dreams come true. Jackson frowned as he struggled to decipher Tucker's chicken scratch notes at the bottom of the page. "Jesus, Campbell, where the h.e.l.l did you learn to write? Olivia probably has better handwriting."

"Where'd you learn to read? It says 'Kristen disappeared a week after the last web contact.'

Jackson looked up and met Tucker's stare. "He's one of their lures. Who the h.e.l.l is Crazy80?"

"That was my take, and we're not sure. Ethan's working on that right now, but really, he could be anybody. Photoshop a picture of whoever the h.e.l.l you want into the profile, make something up, and bam-you're Crazy80. Whoever he is, he's smart. He's been careful to use public access computers at the university and public library."

Jackson nodded and scanned the conversations again. "And we're sure on the time frame between Kristen's disappearance and their last 'date'?"

"Absolutely."

"And remind me why the cops never figured this out."

"If Kristen didn't access her Baltimore Dates account at home, there wouldn't be any record in her computer's history. According to the information we have, she was in and out of her parents' house for much of the month before her disappearance. Her mother called the cops several times to report Kristen as a runaway. Kristen may have the three Bs, but she's also a f.u.c.king mess."

"This whole thing's a f.u.c.king mess." Jackson handed the papers back to Tucker. "Refresh my memory-last known whereabouts?"

"Half a block from her friend's apartment building-Ellwood Park area. She'd been cras.h.i.+ng there because she couldn't stand her mother, then out of the blue she decided she wants to take the bus home. Her friend encouraged her to stay, but Kristen wouldn't. Next thing you know, the same friend is calling nine-one-one saying she saw two guys pull Kristen into the back of a van."

"Ellwood Park? At night? By herself?"

"I'm at a loss for words, man. Kids are stupid. They think they're invincible."

"But doesn't it strike you as risky on the kidnapper's part to yank some kid up from the sidewalk like that at what, ten o'clock? I know the area's bad news, but still..."

Tucker shrugged. "c.r.a.ppy neighborhood. n.o.body gives a s.h.i.+t. There weren't any other witnesses, or at least no one else came forward. Seemed to work for them. Their method has worked for them every time, whether it be ten at night or four thirty in the afternoon, like with Abby."

Jackson made a sound in his throat and took another sip from his mug. "Did Ethan find a profile on anyone else? What about Abby?"

"No. At least not yet. He's still digging, but this is a d.a.m.n good lead."

Jackson nodded. "I agree. When we find out who this guy is, it'll only be a matter of time before he leads us to Abby."

"I'm going to talk to a friend on the force out in LA, see if she'd be willing to play decoy. I think we should set up a profile of our own. We might get a hit."

"Good idea-"

The knock at the door cut Jackson off. Alex peeked her head in and met his eyes. "Am I interrupting?"

"No, come on in." Jackson's stomach clutched as she sent him a smile. d.a.m.n, she took his breath away. Despite Olivia waking them four hours after they lay down, Alex appeared rested. Alex smiled again while he stared at her in her snug blue jeans and light blue Sagawa Elementary PTO t-s.h.i.+rt, remembering the way she'd come alive in his arms before the sun came up. They had burned up the sheets more times than he could count in their college days, but it had been different last night; they had been different last night. Each touch and taste had meant more. He had taken their relations.h.i.+p for granted before. He would never make the same mistake again. "Where's Liv?"

"She wanted Grammy to French braid her hair so she could be a real princess for the annual Matthew's Neighborhood Barbeque this afternoon. I guess my regular braids aren't good enough." She chuckled.

He grinned. "A princess wants what a princess wants."

"This is true." She moved closer to the desk. "I thought I would pop in and see if Ethan had any more news on those websites."

"Actually, he found a few things. Tucker and I were just discussing it."

"That's great."

He loved watching her eyes brighten. "We're looking into a couple of dating sites Detective Canon and his taskforce keep an eye on."

She frowned. "But what does that have to do with Abby?"

"Honestly, we're not sure yet, but we can't afford to overlook anything."

"What about Renzo? I thought you said you had something." The light had vanished from her eyes.

"We do, but this doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Renzo. That'll take some time to figure out."

"Oh." She sat on the couch by the fireplace with a barely perceptible huff.

"One of the young women who vanished before Abby had a profile on Baltimore Dates. She was corresponding with someone on a regular basis up until the week she disappeared. The conversations follow a pretty cla.s.sic pattern used by somebody fis.h.i.+ng for a victim. This has s.e.x trafficking written all over it, Alex. We haven't connected all the pieces yet, but this has serious potential." Maybe it was unfair to get her hopes up, but he truly believed this might be their big break. A b.u.mp on the right card could bring the whole house tumbling down.

"Abby wasn't into online dating. She tried it once a couple years back. Her first and only experience turned out to be a disaster. The guy she went out with was an obnoxious chauvinist. She left the restaurant through the kitchen, and that was the end of that. Besides, Abby doesn't have any trouble attracting a date if and when she wants one."

"I'm sure that's true, but there's a connection somehow. Kristen converses with a potential lure in a s.e.x ring and disappears a week later in an identical way to your sister. There's definitely something here." He looked at Tucker, who nodded his agreement.

"I guess." She stood and started toward the door. "I'll have to take your word for it."

He snagged her hand as she moved pa.s.sed and pulled her to him, slinging his arm around her waist. "Take my word for it." He ran his hand up and down her back as he looked her in the eye. "This is the first time we have a serious lead to follow. Answers are waiting for us somewhere in cybers.p.a.ce. Trust me on this."

"Of course I do."

His hand stilled on her back. "Good." He brushed his lips over hers. "Keep it up."

Her fingers curled into his s.h.i.+rt. They both knew he wasn't speaking of Abby's case. He held her gaze as Tucker's computer made a pinging noise, alerting them to a new e-mail.

"From Ethan," Tucker said. "He sent us-well, son of a f.u.c.king... Take a look at this." Tucker turned the laptop. The grainy image Jackson had snapped of the man dancing with the underage girl at Club Jericho had been cleaned up and filled the left side of Tucker's screen. Another cropped photograph of the same black-haired, brown-eyed man filled the right side.

"Bingo," Jackson muttered. He read aloud the small caption attached at the bottom. "This is Tim Monroe. He's a freelance fas.h.i.+on photographer with numerous connections in the modeling industry. According to Ethan, Tim and Renzo's names overlapped on several different occasions-they worked several of the same runway shows, snapped photos at many of the same shoots. Oh, and isn't this interesting. He also has a profile on Baltimore Dates. This is the picture on the right." He flicked his finger toward the screen. "Of course, Ethan couldn't find anything overly alarming in his interactions with women eighteen years of age or older, except on more than one occasion he's checked out the foreigners Canon's taskforce keeps an eye on." He looked at Tucker.

Alex leaned closer to the laptop, studying Ethan's latest e-mail. "What does this mean exactly?"

"It means we've got a few big coincidences here. Tim Monroe has an eye for young girls and foreign women, and he has a connection to Renzo. He also has a connection to the same dating website Kristen was affiliated with. Ethan's going to have to do some more work."

Alex stood straight. "Is Tim Monroe the one who was corresponding with Kristen?"

"We can't be sure. Monroe's profile name is PhotoShop, but the person who potentially lured and arranged Kristen's disappearance is Crazy80."

"Then how can you say this is connected? What if Tim Monroe just happens to have a profile on Baltimore Dates? Baltimore is a large city; it's not that hard to fathom. Many singles look for love online."

"True, but not all singles are professionally connected to a man who was dating your sister just a few weeks before she disappeared. And how many do you think go to clubs to flirt with young girls when there are literally hundreds of legal adults surrounding them. If Monroe is looking for love, he isn't looking in the right places-unless he's a trafficker." Jackson's excitement built as he glanced from Alex to Tucker. This was going to be their big break. "I'm willing to bet my house that Tim and Renzo have something to do with Abby and Kristen's disappearance."

"Then let's call Detective Canon." Alex reached for the landline.

Jackson settled his hand on top of hers, holding the receiver in place. "Not yet. Give us some time to toss this around."

"We're wasting time by 'tossing this around.' You're theory makes perfect sense."

"I'm with Jackson on this one," Tucker supplied. "I don't see dissecting the angles as wasting time. The taskforce would definitely check out what we pa.s.s along, but unless they find a solid connection between Cruz, Monroe, and Zachary Hartwell, they're not going to touch it. Plus, Canon will just get b.i.t.c.hy knowing we still have our noses in on this when he's told Jackson to back off. Cops are real b.a.s.t.a.r.ds that way."

Temper darkened Alex's blue eyes. "Well that's unacceptable. This isn't a game of yours or mine. My sister is suffering."

Jackson pulled her rigid hand from the phone and held it in his. "Now that we have something absolutely solid... We won't give up until Abby's home, Alex. I promise." He gave her icy fingers a gentle squeeze. "Tucker's going to call one of his former co-workers, a detective with LAPD, and ask her if she's willing to be our decoy-off the record."

"Decoy?"

"Yeah, you know, set up an account on Baltimore Dates and pose as a young woman traffickers would find interesting."

"I'll do it."

He could only stare as Alex's words froze his heart. "No."

"Yes." She yanked her hand from his grip. "This is a great idea."

"Forget it. Absolutely not." His heart now shuddered as trickles of unease grew to full bloom.

"Tucker's friend lives in LA. I'm right here. I want to do this for Abby."

"Melinda's a cop, Alex," Tucker interjected. "She does decoy work all the time."

"Melinda's sister isn't missing." She seared Tucker with a look.