Page 69 of To Have and to Hold

The race off Riker’s Island and into Manhattan was a slow one. It took close to three hours to get back into Midtown where Jack and Perry were staying, and with no texts or any kind of updates from Knox or Levi, time still wasn’t on my side.

I felt I was getting close to something, I just didn’t know what. Ed Carver’s college obsession with Emme, Jack’s family secret, Oak’s deep involvement with a Mexican drug cartel—facts and circumstances swirling, but never gluing together in the way it seamlessly should. Nothing pointed to where Emme was. Except, I felt like I’d been given the answer; it was hidden, but there, in this arsenal of information.

Usually I only got this feeling when I was near to solving a case.

Jack had given me their hotel room prior to me leaving. I found the hotel easily, bypassed the lobby and went straight to the elevators.

I knocked, the taps in time to the urgency in my ears. Why was I here? Because Oak had touched on an errant, oft-missed detail that once stated aloud, sent alarm bells ringing.

Seasoned lawyers with shady pasts could be extremely good at what they did. The answer lay with Oak himself, even with me. Without my history, I wouldn’t be the attorney—the man—I was today. Sharp. Honed. Protective of every piece of personal information.

Jack answered, clad in button-up, cotton pajamas. “Spencer, what—”

“Is that what happened twenty years ago? Were you protecting Perry from something?”

“Excuse me?”

On reflex, he began shutting the door. I invaded his space. “When you ditched the law license and decided to open up a grocery store in Middle America. Were you protecting Perry?”

“I’m not sure I appreciate your tone.”

“Honey? What’s going on?” Perry sounded from inside the room. I registered tap water running.

“Don’t worry, dear! Get back to your bath. It’s only Spencer.”

“Tell me,” I said, lowering my voice so I wouldn’t alarm Perry. “Just explain what happened. What made you leave the city and your career twenty-six years ago?”

Jack’s lower lip blustered. “I already explained this to you. I fell in love.”

“No.”

Jack’s brows went from perplexed to low and dangerous. “How dare you question the truth, when my daughter is out there somewhere—”

“That’s exactly why I’m here, Jack. For her. If you’re leaving out the tiniest detail that could point us to where Emme’s being kept, that’s on you. I can only do so much with the information I have. But I went to visit someone today, and he explained the true dangers that can follow any lawyer willing to compromise his beliefs to protect his family. Especially if his family is under threat of life. So, I ask again, were you protecting Perry?”

Jack’s breaths became shorter. “We needed to leave.”

Oak’s voice ran through my mind. “What did they have on you?”

“I—who?”

“The cartel. What did they make you do?”

“Oh, Spencer, no.” Jack’s expression slackened. “It wasn’t like that. If you think Emme’s disappearance is linked to drugs, then what I have to say has nothing to do with it.”

It was a blow off-target, but I persisted. “If not that, then what? You must tell me the truth.”

Jack backed away from the door. “I…”

“If it has nothing to do with Emme, then it will stay between you and me. I can promise you that. I won’t be able to sleep tonight thinking there could be something I’m missing out there. A link that could have her back to us tonight, even.”

Hope spread, then died, in his gaze. “Please don’t say things like that. There is no way, no way, what is happening to my daughter is because of what I did almost three decades ago.”

“Then you explaining it will do no damage.”

“That’s not exactly true,” Jack said. “This is opening Pandora’s box…”

“I promise. Between you and me.”

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