Little White Lies

hopes.” She continued to stare into the vastness of the fast-approaching night.

Chase’s absence put her emotions on a roller coaster with no end.

“Ah… okay. So what I was actually going to say… you did a really great job on the phone. I know it might not sound like it, but… well… you did.” His shuffling feet reminded her of years passed.

She closed her eyes, dropped her head forward. “Thanks.”

“Okay then, I’ve… uh… I’m going back.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

She’d not only lost Chase, she had a long way to win Wyatt again.

16

Wyatt returned to the office where Cael, James and Stuart sat in front of the monitor.

“Everything okay?” James shifted to the end of the desk.

Wyatt shrugged, leaned into the doorframe. “I guess. She says she’s okay.”

The raised eyebrow on James’s face suggested Wyatt should have stayed longer.

“Let’s go ahead, put the paperwork through for your transfers, and pull the little data I’ve found,” Wyatt said.

Cael slid from the computer. Wyatt took his spot, typed his codes into the FBI’s remote system, and followed the menus to the appropriate section for a transfer.

“I’d like to go through the information with you,” Wyatt said.

“I’m in,” James and Cael said.

“Me, too,” Stuart said.

Wyatt turned to find Cael and James on the other side of his desk with their gazes fixed on him.

His confidence in himself waned. “I’m in for the long haul, too.”

“There’s a chance this could hurt worse than any other assignment you’ve had.” Cael nodded toward the open door as the printer began to buzz.

Did he mean Charley?

Wyatt cocked his head as he realized the implications of what he’d offered. The assignment would be a no- brainer-if they found the child. Charley, on the other hand, could, in fact, be the metaphorical death of him. He could give them the data and go, walk out, and leave as she’d done to him, or stay and potentially go through it all over again.

Wyatt turned back to the screen to finish the transfer. “I’ll take my chances.”

Stuart, Cael, and James each found chairs and pulled them up the desk where they waited with an impatience Wyatt knew came from personal ties to a problem. They drummed fingers, tapped toes, and cracked bones in their fingers and necks.

Wyatt shivered each time they did it. He typed to the speed of the system. When he reached the last page, he turned to Cael. “You’re sure you want this transfer?”

Cael nodded.

“Because if I put in for it, you’re going to have to work for me for two years before you can change again.”

Cael acknowledge his ‘yes’ with another head nod.

Wyatt hit the return key. “Done. Now, gentlemen, we have a little boy to track, and I need to know what you’ve found out about that phone call.”

For the next two hours, James and Cael brought Wyatt up to speed on the work they’d done outside the perimeter of law enforcement. Wyatt knew they had to wonder if their trip to Montreal had any connection to Chase’s disappearance. It had happened while they’d been gone, there’d been no leads-typical of cases Wyatt had handled-and Chase’s family had a lot of money-also normal. The fact a note had been left on Sophie, with a number, suggested Charley had been the real target.

The kidnappers made an error, and Chase became their fallback plan.

According to all records, detectives notified the Center for Missing and Exploited Children on the day of the event. The local authorities had issued Amber alerts that stayed active for three days while they gathered leads, none of which panned out. The cops continued to cull through them.

“It’s like sifting for gold,” Cael said. “You think you find a piece and damn if it isn’t pyrite.”

Wyatt looked up from his own stack of information. “I was thinking nearly the same thing.”

The phone log provided nothing new. After another two hours without success, Wyatt’s stomach grumbled. In the quiet of the room, all three faces turned to him.

“Sorry,” he said.

“No, we’re sorry.” James turned from his seat to the clock on the side wall. “We need to eat. It’s way past dinner, and we’ve offered you nothing. Charley will have my hide for that.”

Wyatt smiled at the thought of Charley and James head to head. Big tough man, tiny woman. He could see it. “Let’s take a break. Stuart and I can go get something and come back.”

“Oh, no. No, you don’t. We have food here, and unless you want to deal with the wrath that is Charley, then me, because I’ll have to deal with her, you’ll stay,” James said.

Wyatt noted Cael remained quiet, but his smirk did enough to convey the same message.

Stuart rose. “I’ll ah, just go check in with them,” he said. “See if Lily did any cooking.” He disappeared and left Wyatt with James and Cael.

“We have a confession,” Cael said.

Uh oh. Wyatt braced himself with elbows on the mound of papers before him. He clasped his hands together. “Okay.”

“Now, don’t get mad, but we thought you should know this before much more happens.” James turned to Cael for confirmation.

“Stuart has known about us for a little while,” Cael said.

Stuart had said he’d learned about them in the beginning, right? This I can deal with. “A little while? How long is ‘a little while’?” Wyatt’s question surfaced rife with sarcasm. He sucked in a breath.

They looked at each other before James murmured, “All sixteen years. He’s… ah… been a part of our family the whole time-or, rather, most of the time.”

Stuart hadn’t gotten further with details before he’d dragged Wyatt into his own past. He’d assumed, by way of Stuart’s tag on Lily all those years ago and being yanked into the Army, that he’d left it at that, or maybe seen them once or twice since they both worked for the government. The way James said it made Wyatt think Stuart not only knew but kept up.

But what do I know? I’m the odd man out, good for nothing more than my job.

Wyatt made sure his eyes showed none of the emotion that turned him to stone. Sixteen years and Charley really had come between him and Stuart. Wyatt had found her again only to be stabbed in the heart by her choice.

She’d kept the wrong man close.

***

As they reached into the dinner hour and beyond, Charley’d left the safety of her balcony, pulled Lily into the kitchen, and forced her into some semblance of normalcy. Charley took a spot on a barstool while Lily stirred a pot of who-knew-what or even if it would be edible. On the couch, Sophie wavered between quiet and asleep, and awake and tearful. She stayed hidden under her covers most of the time, thanks to a dose of pain killers administered on a regular basis.

Stuart had taken on Sophie’s latest crying jag when he’d appeared from within what Charley called the man- cave.

“Smells good in here,” Charley said.

“Mmm-hmm,” Lily murmured.