Save Me (The Archer Brothers 3)

“But you deployed?”

“Within twenty-four hours.”

“We need to find your wife.”

I look at Cara, a mixture of confusion and frustration running through my mind. “Lawson has people on the outside. They’re probably searching for her,” she says, increasing my anxiety.

The thought tears at my insides and I pray Penny has armed herself or is out of the country.

“Anything else in the box?”

I dig through some of the mementos she kept until my fingers touch a key ring. Smiling, I hold it up.

“It’s the key to my storage unit and motorcycle. I doubt it’s still there, but maybe the owner forwarded mail to her or something.”

“Most likely not, but let’s go find out.”

I put everything back in the box, including my gun, and take it with me. It’s a not clear sign of her whereabouts, but at least I know why Lawson came after me … us.

CARA SPEEDS DOWN THE road heading toward the storage unit where I kept my bike. It’s crazy that after being gone for so long, I remember everything. Nothing seems out of place or new as we traverse the city streets.

I’m hoping Penny continued storing my bike after I left, but considering how everything happened so fast my gut is telling me she didn’t have time. Now, more than ever, I want to get my hands on Frannie. I want to shake the truth out of her, torture her until she tells me everything. Where’s my family and our belongings, and more importantly, why? Why the fuck did she target the four of us, or was it just me and the others were part of the casualties?

“Is Lawson really that fucked up to go after my kid because I asked around?”

Cara shakes her head. “Remember Renato?”

“Unfortunately.”

“He had a list of buyers looking for specific children. Some blonde, some brunette, some with green eyes, and one of the most sought after feature was virginity.”

“Excuse me?” My stomach lurches at the ugliness of this situation. Thank God Archer killed that mother fucker when we had the chance. If we had captured him, I have no reason to believe he’d be behind bars. Someone bureaucratic bullshit would’ve had him walking out the front doors of justice. That’s what Capitol Hill money does—it makes problems go away.

Cara nods as she turns the corner. Down the street I can see the storage facility I’ve always used. Before we get there, she pulls over and types out a message on her phone. “I’m getting a warrant just in case they don’t want to talk to us.” Setting her phone back down, she turns toward me.

“I shouldn’t be telling you this because it’s classified and I know this is going to be hard to hear because your daughter was involved, but what your wife did, saved her life. Lawson was tasked with finding children for Renato. In exchange, Lawson got to live out his deranged fantasies. Abigail Chesley was not the first child he raped … there were many others, except we can’t pin those on him because they happened in Cuba. Renato wanted American children and Lawson promised to get them for him in exchange for money and drugs. We believe Lawson was also funneling drugs into the schools in Florida so he could use that as part of his campaign tactics. Even with him behind bars, his goons are making sure they keep up his handiwork. They’re harder to bust and our resources are thin on the case since we have Lawson in custody.

“The list Renato gave Lawson not only included the basic, but included ages and virginity status. Renato’s clients didn’t want kids off the street, they wanted what they called ‘untouched’ children. Some of the clients didn’t care about virginity because they were just interested in turning those children into sex slaves. Those people paid less. If Lawson delivered a less desirable child, he didn’t make as much money. Why he came after Claire, we don’t know. There isn’t a description on the lists that we have which matches hers.”

Cara’s words are hard to digest. The father in me wants to round all of these sick bastards up and kill them one by one. The SEAL in me feels the same way, but would torture them first, making sure they felt death knocking on their door. I swallow the lump in my throat and try to push the nausea in my stomach down.

“But she’s older now, was there a description of her six years ago?” The words barely tumble out of my mouth. Thinking of my baby, any baby for that matter, being on a list causes rage to build inside.

Cara shakes her head. “Not that we’ve found.”

“Then why come after Claire?”

“Easy target, especially if her dad is out of the picture.”

Cara maneuvers back into traffic and heads toward the storage facility. Every time I try to piece this all together, Frannie rears her ugly face in my thoughts. Everything ties to her, but I can’t figure out why. I was never meant to be a detective. Shit, even the trained detectives are having a hard time figuring this out.

“You know, if you guys hadn’t come back, we’d still be trying to piece this together.”

I don’t say anything because honestly there’s nothing left to say.

We park outside the gate and make our way to the front office, hoping someone is working today. Cara opens the door and walks in, with me right behind her. I recognize the man behind the desk; he’s a face I’m familiar with.

“This is the man I rented from,” I whisper in her ear as we approach the desk.