“Who really wants to be lost?” Jaden asked and then let the comment sit.
Daniel issued a sharp sigh.
“Kids go missing every day. Why are you looking for this one?” he asked.
“My agency has been hired by her aunt to find her,” Jaden said.
“Your agency?” Daniel stated. “I thought you ran a peach farm.”
“It’s an orchard.”
Daniel shot another stiff look at Jaden.
“Did Bear talk you into this?”
“No. But I did consult with him before taking the leap. I take projects on a case-by-case basis. I’m a lone wolf and my wife is due to give birth at any minute.” Jaden looked away from Daniel when he said the last part.
“Why not her parents?” Daniel cocked an eyebrow. “Divorced?”
“Mom is remarried. If I’m honest, I don’t like the stepdad much. I’m not saying that I think he’s involved in the girl’s disappearance but he’s a jerk,” Jaden admitted.
“You’ve interviewed the family?”
“It was the condition I had before signing the contract,” Jaden said.
“Let me see if I can sum this up. Mom and Dad are divorced. Dad’s alone. Mom has moved on with another man. She wants a fresh start. Stepdad and her kid don’t get along so great. It’s creating tension. Maybe Mom wants the kid from her last marriage out of the way,” Daniel stated.
“Look at that,” Jaden countered. “Problem solved. We can all go home.”
“Why did you sign a contract on a job you couldn’t take?” Daniel folded his arms.
“I didn’t sign it yet.” Jaden walked over to a drawer in the adjacent room and pulled out a stack of papers. He returned to the island and dropped them onto the granite.
“You don’t think the mom’s involved.” It was a statement.
“Neither do the cops,” Jaden said. “Although, with this being international and considered a runaway not much is being done to investigate.”
“Why do they think she’s a runaway?”
“The best friend she was vacationing with said she kept swearing she wasn’t going home. You can imagine how many resources a city gives to chasing down runaways on foreign soil,” Jaden continued.
Daniel didn’t need to be in law enforcement to solve for X on that equation. “What about news organizations? Surely, there’s media pressure.”
“Stepdad made it clear he thinks she made the choice not to come home.” Jaden stabbed his index finger into the stack of papers. “It’s all right there.”
“What about Mom?”
“She went along with what her husband said.” Jaden shrugged.
“I’m assuming there’s a biological father,” Daniel said.
Jaden nodded.
“Where does he play into the hand?”
“He seemed distraught. Admitted life hasn’t been great for the kid since the divorce and especially in the last year with Mom getting remarried. Said there’d been a lot of tension and the kid has been acting out. He was quick to say that none of it was her fault and that he couldn’t say for sure that she didn’t decide to sneak off while everything cooled down with her mother,” Jaden answered. “Said he overheard a conversation with her and a friend where she said she needed a break from all the drama going on at home.”
“But the aunt doesn’t agree.”
“Bingo.”
It made sense considering she was the one who’d hired Jaden.
“And Mom?”
“I would’ve thought she’d be more concerned,” Jaden admitted. “Don’t get me wrong, she put on a good show, waterworks and the whole gambit.”
Daniel stared at the papers in front of him. “You don’t think she cares about her daughter?”
“Not as much as she fears her new husband’s reactions to what she says,” Jaden confessed.
“That makes him suspect in my book,” Daniel said.
“He was here in the States at the time of her disappearance.”
“Doesn’t mean he didn’t hire out the job.” Daniel nodded toward the file. “What else’s in there? What about school?”
“Straight As. Expensive education. Prep-something-or-other. All on Dad’s dime,” Jaden continued. “But that came to a screeching halt. With child support payments, he and Mom decided to switch her to public this year.”
“At that age the kid most likely felt like losing her friends would be the end of the world,” Daniel surmised. He couldn’t help but wonder how much Ruthie’s life would’ve changed if Naomi had gone through with her threat of leaving him if he didn’t get his act together. He couldn’t blame his wife. He’d needed the shock in order to check back into life. Haiti was supposed to be his kick-start.
A knock sounded from behind, jarring him out of his revelry.
Daniel’s gaze bounced from the door to Jaden. His friend didn’t seem surprised by the interruption. Daniel half expected Jaden to wait for Lauren to check to see who it was. Instead, he shouted, “Come in.”
“This turning into a party?” Daniel scanned his friend’s face.
Jaden shot him a look.
The door opened and a blond with legs for days walked in. She wore a button-down blouse and skirt with a slit that revealed a peek at toned thighs. She was beautiful, and it felt like someone punched him in the gut when she entered the room.
“Thanks for coming on short notice,” Jaden said to the tall woman with just enough curves.
She acknowledged Jaden but her gaze quickly locked onto Daniel as she strode toward him. Her high heels clicked against the wood floors.
“I’m Clara Robins.” She extended her hand.
Daniel stared at it. Physical contact was a bad idea based on his body’s initial reaction to the blond beauty. Up close, she looked remarkably similar to the girl in the photo. It wasn’t hard to make the leap that this was her aunt.
He turned to Jaden, turning his back to her. “What the hell is this about?”
“Ashlyn, the girl in the photo, is her niece,” Jaden informed.
“Why is she here?” Daniel asked, feeling like he’d just mistakenly walked into an intervention only to realize it was his.
Clara took a seat beside Daniel. Interesting choice considering there were others to choose from that didn’t have her so close that he could inhale her perfume—a mix of flowers and sunshine on a spring day. He didn’t want to
