The Lost Finder Page 21

  Jager stood at attention and bowed to each man seated before him. “Admiral Palloy. Admiral Pintler. Viceroy Bluterre. It is good to see you again.”

  “As it is you, Lieutenant Tolon. You may sit.” Admiral Palloy gestured to the seat with a withered hand.

  The Sumalen humanoid was old for his race at six hundred and fifty years of age, but still he seemed to have aged dramatically since Jager had seen him last.

  “With all due respect, sirs, I wish to stand.” His pulse raced with his daring.

  A small sliver of his conscience knew Brooke would never leave Earth, and would probably be angry for the outrageous idea that had suddenly invaded his thoughts, but Jager had to try.

  He couldn’t give her up without first doing everything he could to keep her.

  “I have an urgent matter to discuss,” he finished, trying to soften his insolence. “If I may.”

  Admiral Palloy smiled as if amused. “You have once again impressed the Alliance leadership with superior performance in the field. Thanks to you, a major catastrophe has been averted, and a serious coup thwarted.” The admiral chuckled. “I may be old, but not so old I cannot offer my top lieutenant a few moments.”

  Jager glanced at the spectragrid. The lush forest still sat directly below them. They hadn’t left Earth’s atmosphere yet. Curious.

  He switched to the admiral’s native tongue, which the other two men understood as well. “My thanks, Viceroy. I merely wish to be of further assistance. I have encountered a superior Earth being I believe would be a great asset to the Alliance.”

  His heart kicked against his ribs. All three men sat motionless, staring at him without revealing a hint as to their thoughts.

  He went on. “I was forced to reveal my true identity and certain aspects of our technology, which she accepted with minimal trepidation. She destroyed the Tetra queen, as well as a new queen hatchling. In the course of my assignment, she demonstrated courage, intelligence, and strength, and I believe loyalty to the cause of the Interplanetary Alliance. It is my recommendation she be recruited as a class ten lieutenant.” He took a deep breath. “Furthermore, I wish to serve as her mentor.” That last part was so bold he expected to be reprimanded.

  The men didn’t speak. Admiral Palloy leaned on the table and tented his fingers. “Ordinarily, your suggestion would be taken under strong consideration. You are a gallant warrior who has demonstrated great intelligence. Not only did you destroy a Tetra infestation before it decimated a protected planet, you exposed and captured a rogue agent who has so far escaped our detection. For your exceptional service, you will be well rewarded.” He opened his tented fingers graciously. “Provided almost any request.”

  Almost any request.

  The statement would have made him hopeful if Admiral Palloy hadn’t begun with the word ordinarily. Jager knew he was to be refused. His last sliver of hope evaporated.

  “As well as five million credits, you have been promoted to general class four.” The old Sumalen smiled in a pitying manner. “So you see why you cannot serve as mentor to a recruit. Name any other wish, and it is yours.”

  There was nothing else he wanted.

  “I understand. My only other wish is to serve the Alliance in whatever way you see fit.”

  Before coming to Earth, this promotion would have been the realization of his dreams. Not only was it an unusually rare promotion to skip a level, but as a general he was permitted to marry any female Sulvarien of his choosing.

  But if Brooke was not to be recruited, it was almost a punishment. He could not marry another after learning the sweet love of Brooke Weaver.

  “Yansomal, Jager Tolon. Wila-mae ee fom rontue.”

  Jager straightened his shoulders as Viceroy Bluterre delivered the news in their native language.

  “Congratulations, Jager Tolon. You have been reassigned.”

  * * * * *

  At two thirty on Sunday, the café was still crowded with its lunch regulars. Esther was sitting at the counter chatting with Dolores. She brightened when Brooke walked in.

  “How’d it go?” she asked excitedly.

  Brooke smiled and nodded. “She’s on her way home.”

  Esther clapped her hands and Dolores whooped. “Coffee’s on the house, sweetheart. Black, right?”

  The thought of a good strong cup of coffee was like a beacon of light on a dark night. “Thanks, that would be great. Is Madeline here?”

  “She’s on her break out back.” Dolores pointed. “Go on through the kitchen.”

  The back door of the kitchen let out on a small cement patio where an old stove sat collecting rust, an assortment of mismatched chairs circled a small plastic table, and a wooden bench sat in the shade of a single, scrawny tree jutting from a square hole in the cement. Madeline sat on the bench reading a romance novel. When she saw Brooke, she folded the corner of the page and closed the book.

  “Hi.” Brooke lingered in the doorway, suddenly feeling foolish. She’d come here with so much she wanted to say, but now her voice seemed to have quit on her.

  “Hi, yourself.” Madeline smiled one of her beautiful, generous smiles. “Esther said you were looking for a girl at the cult the FBI raided. Did you find her?”

  Brooke nodded. She glanced away, blinking back tears. She dragged in a breath and crossed the cement patio to sit beside her on the bench. Madeline set her book down. Brooke leaned on her knees and stared at her feet.

  “Madeline, I...” Where were those words she was so intent on saying? Brooke had come here knowing she needed to see Madeline, and knowing there was something to say. She now realized it was an apology; not so much for failing Amy, but for succeeding with all the other cases. It just didn’t seem fair.

  But the words caught in her throat suddenly seemed more insulting than consoling.

  Brooke covered her face with her hands. Madeline circled her with her arms and pulled her close. A wave of sorrow rushed forward. Brooke let herself go, crying the tears she had never let herself cry before.

  “I’m so sorry, Madeline.”

  Madeline held her for a long time, rubbing her shoulder absently while she let Brooke cry.

  “I know you needed to say that,” Madeline finally said. Brooke sat back and looked at her. “But you must know I never blamed you.”

  “I blame myself.” She sniffled.

  “I know you do. But it isn’t fair of me to let you.” Madeline shifted on the bench. “I told you I wanted to talk to you. There’s something you need to know.”

  The other woman sighed, and Brooke suspected now it was she who was searching for the right words.

  “You were too young. I never forgave myself for sending you after Amy.”

  “But why? It’s what I do.”

  “It’s what you do now,” Madeline corrected her. “In a way, I set you on this career, so I almost feel like I have a part in every rescue you make.”

  Her smile wavered, and Brooke saw tears glistening in her eyes. “But Brooke, you were twenty-three when I hired you. You didn’t realize how young you still were. I sent you after some very dangerous people, and every day I worried you would be killed.” She took a deep breath. “But I never called you home. I let you risk your life.”

  “No, Madeline.” Brooke gripped her hands. “I had four years with Portland PD. Risking my life was just another day on the job.”

  But Madeline shook her head and a single tear fell, leaving a silver trail down her cheek. “I knew where she was.”

  This came as a surprise. Neither spoke for a long minute.

  “I was too ashamed to tell you she was with Stoyanov. She called me about once a week. She was convinced she would be a star, that the porn was a stepping-stone to blockbuster movies. I didn’t tell you, and I didn’t think you’d find her. I let you search LA, hoping I could convince Amy to go to you the next time she called, and let you take her home. For years I lived with the guilt that if I had told you where she was, you could have found her...sooner.�
��

  Sooner. In time. Brooke had only been a day too late, after spending almost three weeks hunting down leads on Amy.

  “And then you’d both be dead.”

  Madeline’s cryptic but very accurate statement made her shudder. Both Brooke and the police had been vague on the details to spare Madeline the pain, and she’d only been told her daughter had been dead twenty-four hours before discovery. Somehow, instinctively, she must have known.

  When Brooke posed at an audition for a porn flick and snooped her way into the private offices at Stoyanov’s studio, he’d caught her just as she found Amy’s body in a dormitory-sized refrigerator. The sight had been such a shock, so much more horrendous than anything she’d seen on the force, that she’d frozen.

  She’d had a split second to think when he’d caught her. She and Stoyanov had struggled for their concealed weapons and drew simultaneously, both of them in a panic. Her training and his lack thereof, and a good amount of divine intervention, was all that had saved her.

  After a literal gunfight in which they’d both fired wildly multiple times, Brooke hit him square in the chest, killing him instantly. The gunfire had brought police, and without realizing what she’d done, an illegal pornography cartel specializing in underage girls had dissolved overnight.

  But it was no use arguing with Madeline. The same luck that had saved her on Thursday might have saved her the day before. Or it might not have, either day. It was a risk Brooke took in her line of work.

  “You will not take the blame for what those scumbags did,” Brooke insisted. She’d learned later that Amy had been accidentally overdosed with the heroin used to make the reluctant girls “entertain” the producers and other VIPs at an industry party the night before. Her body had been stashed in the office refrigerator to wait until they could dispose of her unseen. Had Brooke been a single day later, they probably never would have known what happened to Amy.

  “Nor will you.”

  Brooke sat back.

  “It doesn’t matter if you’d have told me where she was or not. It was my job to find her.”

  “And you did.” Madeline smiled. “You did a great thing that day. How many other girls did you save?”

  Not enough. One lost is too many.

  “There is something else I never told you.”

  Brooke watched a tiny brown bird flitting through a tree visible over the patio’s back fence. This conversation was having the opposite effect. She had not come here intending to bring Madeline’s misery back to life.

  “Amy and I had a terrible fight. It’s why she left. I told her she would never succeed in life if she didn’t get her head wrapped around school. She was determined to prove me wrong.”

  “Madeline, please don’t do this. Millions of kids fight with their parents. That’s the standard script.”

  “But millions of kids don’t run away.” Madeline shifted on the bench and gathered Brooke’s hands. “My point is this: I’ve let go of my guilt, and you should too.”

  Strangely, in crying these tears for Amy, Brooke felt as if she had.

  “What happened was not your fault, not my fault, and it wasn’t Amy’s fault. She was a victim, but so were you and I.”

  Madeline was right. Yul Stoyanov had hurt them all. He was the reason she carried this pain.

  “I’ve come a long way since Amy’s death, and my only regret,” she squeezed Brooke’s hands, “my only regret, is that I didn’t tell her I loved her.”

  A light went on in Brooke’s head.

  She hadn’t told Jager she loved him. God, she’d been such a fool. Trust was so hard, and her pride was so rigid. If you ever come to Earth again, you could call me. What an idiot she was!

  Madeline smiled through her tears as she turned her hand. A diamond engagement ring glinted in the sunlight. “I’m getting married.”

  The stone shimmered through Brooke’s tears, giving off rainbow fractals. “Madeline, that’s wonderful. Who is it?”

  “Chief Johnson. All this time I thought he just liked my coffee.”

  Brooke laughed. A little more of her guilt lifted away.

  “We’ve been dating for two years. I’ve started my life over, Brooke. And so should you.”

  A tear escaped. “I’m happy for you.”

  “He didn’t want to get married until he retired. Didn’t want a wife and a dangerous career both.” Madeline snorted. “Like there’s any danger here in Ridgemont.”

  “Not until I come back to town, anyway,” Brooke said. If she only knew.

  Madeline frowned. “Enough, young lady.” Her disapproval bled into a smile. “You’ll come to the wedding?”

  “I wouldn’t miss it.”

  “I hope that means you’re staying in town.” Madeline gave her fingers another squeeze. “Are we good?”

  She hugged Madeline and kissed her cheek. “We’re good.” Brooke jumped to her feet. “Madeline, thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “You reminded me that I need to tell someone I love him.”

  If only she wasn’t too late!

  * * * * *

  Brooke drove through town as fast as she dared. At nearly three o’clock, the highway was crowded with vacationers returning from the coast.

  She glanced at the dashboard clock again. She was probably too late, but she didn’t try too hard on the mental calculations to figure out if Jager had been picked up already. She was afraid that would only confirm she was right.

  She had to try. She couldn’t let him disappear into the galaxy without telling him she loved him.

  She suspected he knew, but she wouldn’t feel right until he heard it from her own lips.

  She turned off the main highway onto the remote road leading up the mountain. Somehow, if she could only say those words, their separation wouldn’t seem so...final.

  Halfway up the remote mountain road, the car started sputtering. “What the heck—no!” The tank was on E. The engine died, leaving her just enough momentum to roll to the side of the road.

  Brooke jumped out and looked in both directions. There wasn’t another car on the lonely road. Tall trees flanked either side, creating a canopy that all but blocked out the sun. It was cold, but she didn’t bother with her light fleece jacket, the last clean thing she had. She set off at a run, knowing she’d be warmed up soon enough.

  The road she’d traveled hundreds of times seemed suddenly strange. As close as she felt she got, each time she rounded a bend expecting to find the chained-off access road, she came to another bend, another dip, another curve she suddenly remembered. Her lungs were burning by the time she reached the dirt road.

  She would never catch him in time. It was probably already too late.

  But Brooke didn’t stop running. It was a small inconvenience to pay for the chance to say she loved him.

  She loved him!

  The dirt road was steep and rutted by runoff. She twisted her ankle again on one of them, reigniting hot pain.

  Brooke burst onto the open meadow, surprised she reached the top before her lungs exploded.

  There wasn’t a soul around. She screamed his name anyway.

  As if to mock her, a cold wind slipped through her clothes and chilled her sweaty body.

  “Jager! Can you hear me?”

  Only silence answered her.

  “Jager—I love you!” She whirled in a circle, staring at the crisp blue sky. “I have to tell you, I love you!”

  “Brooke!”

  She froze. Had she imagined it?

  “Jager?”

  “Brooke!”

  It was his voice. She spun in the direction she thought it came from.

  Jager angled through two scrubby bushes and pushed a pine bough out of his way. Brooke ran two tentative steps and stopped. Was that really him?

  He looked up and smiled. He broke into a run. So did she. Brooke leapt into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist.

  “Jager, what are you doing here?” She kissed h
is neck and face, breathing in his wonderful scent.

  He leaned back so he could see her, holding her with arms locked around her back. “I’ve been reassigned.” He grinned. “To Earth.”

  She caught her breath, afraid to believe what he’d just said.

  “And I have been promoted to general class four.”

  She laughed. “Congratulations. Shall we celebrate?”

  “I have a new assignment for which I will need your assistance.” He set her on her feet.

  Business came first. That was fine, perfectly fine. “Sure, whatever I can do.”

  “I am to travel to the domicile occupied by Roall Vinill and intercept any transmissions. It is a critical and potentially dangerous assignment.”

  “Where do I come in?”

  “I will need a guide who can take me to a township called Flagstaff. Do you know it?”

  “That’s in Arizona. I can take you there.”

  “Mine is a long-term position for which I have been instructed to assimilate into this society. I will need your assistance in doing so. Furthermore, I have been ordered to take a wife and raise a family. Do you know where I might find a wife?”

  She stared, agape.

  He grinned as he pulled her close. She felt the evidence of his true intentions against her belly. Jager was teasing! Well, she thought he was, anyway. She hoped he was.

  His smile faded and seriousness filled his eyes. “Will you be my wife?”

  “Oh, Jager!”

  He seemed perplexed. “Does that make you sad?”

  She shook her head and swiped at an escaping tear. “Happier than you know.” She leaned in and kissed him. “There is nothing I want more than to be your wife.”

  He relaxed, as though he’d been afraid she would refuse. He bent his legs and scooped her onto his hips again. She eagerly wrapped her legs around his waist.

  “There’s something you need to know about Earth humans.”

  He kissed her chin. “What is that?”

  “We like to make love outside almost as much as we do inside.”

  ~ * ~

  I would like to personally thank you for reading The Lost Finder. I sincerely hope that you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you liked this book, please consider leaving a positive review at Amazon or Goodreads. Your opinion truly does matter; both to me and to other readers.