Page 20 of Dancing With Redemption

10

Lincoln

“Kai, I need visual confirmation on this please.” Lincoln sent a deed over to his friend’s email, wondering who was giggling in the background with Kai. Some woman who would probably go unnamed, if Lincoln knew anything about the man, and he knew quite a few things about Kai. Lincoln frowned at the phone, even if Kai couldn’t see the look.

“Right away, Lincoln. I’ll have the address checked out by my team.” Kai answered, after shushing whoever was with him. “I’ll be on the ground in an hour, my friend. Don’t worry, we’ll get your girl back.”

Kai was on his way back to New York on a plane, coming back from a quick trip up to Montreal with a ‘friend’. Mmhmm. A friend. Sure. Millions wouldn’t believe Kai, but Lincoln did.

Not.

His mind immediately moved back to Roxie after that last thought, and he started digging through the deeds that Matteo had provided him with. He was looking for a building where this mysterious person that Matteo wouldn’t name yet might have Roxie. So far, Lincoln and his team on the ground, along with some help from Matteo, had searched a dozen buildings. The hours were ticking by, hours that Lincoln didn’t want to waste.

Lincoln had called Kai immediately after Matteo admitted there might be someone after Roxie, even if he hadn’t told him the person’s name or why she might be after Roxie. Lincoln knew it must have more to do with something Roxie’s parents might have been involved with, that she was in the crosshairs because of them, but he couldn’t prove it. Not yet.

“Tanya and Monica, you two find anything yet?” Lincoln asked the two PAs he employed, both of whom had left their daughters with Aunt Katie upstairs. As soon as he figured out that Roxie actually had disappeared, he’d had the older woman take Lily out of school and fly up with the two PAs and a security team in tow. The kids were all upstairs, playing dress-up and having a real tea party, thanks to the cook in the house quickly putting together some tea cakes and a pot of weak tea for the children.

“Not yet, Lincoln. I’m doing some research into Matteo’s past, not finding much there other than he was married recently. He’s stayed pretty much out of the limelight up until now,” Monica said and Tanya agreed with a nod.

“I’m not finding anything about Roxie’s parents either, Lincoln,” Tanya chimed in. “Just the same old thing we always come up with. Marriage certificate, death certificate, a few newspaper pieces on her dad. Nothing else, really.” Tanya made a sour face, but Lincoln knew that was because she considered herself a supersleuth when it came to the Internet. If she wasn’t finding anything, then it was unlikely anybody else would be able to find much either.

“It’s all very strange. In the age when you can pay ten bucks and get anybody’s last known address and phone number, all we can find out about any of these individuals is that they were married, went to a few charity events, and that two of them died. There’s been some kind of stripping going on here.”

Lincoln frowned when Tanya snickered, but she smoothed her face out. She knew what he meant, someone had gone in and stripped out information to protect the privacy of these three individuals. But why? Lincoln could understand Matteo trying to stay lowkey, but why strip out any information about two dead people? It didn’t make sense, but that was the truth he was faced with.

“Alright. If we’re not going to find any kind of unknown properties, we’ll have to stick with the known properties. Have you got team three out at that new address Matteo sent over?” Lincoln’s eyes turned to Monica, who nodded pertly.

“Yep, they’re going in now, let me just listen in.” Monica pointed at the ear bud in her right ear, her eyes going vacant as she listened to the tiny speaker. “Nothing so far. It’s another empty building.”

“Matteo owns a lot of empty buildings. He should really do something with them,” Lincoln mused, but it was just to distract himself while he waited to hear any news that might come in about Roxie. He’d go out himself and look for her, but he was worried he’d be busy storming a building when they found out where she actually was.

For a moment, Lincoln felt a wave of helplessness swamp him. He nearly dropped to his knees as he remembered the last time he’d seen Roxie. Her face was a mask of hurt anger. She’d been…very angry. But he’d seen the hurt beneath that anger. He’d felt it, as if it were his own hurt, and in a way, he had hurt himself when he’d hurt her.

Words, that was all he’d used to hurt her, but they were hateful words, words meant to sting and dig into her soul. He regretted what he’d done now, he had the moment he’d said them actually. But for now, he needed to focus on getting her back. He could beg her for forgiveness later, when she was safe.

He didn’t allow himself to think about the what-ifs, he only thought about the when. When he got Roxie back. When Roxie was safe. When this was all over. Only when all of those whens were reality would he think about anything else. Until then, he’d focus on the things he could do.

Lincoln wasn’t surprised when he found himself upstairs, watching his daughter laugh with her friends, through a small opening he’d made when he cracked the door open. Lily had asked him again about her mother when she arrived at the house with Aunt Katie. Her little face had been red from tears and she sniffled as he took her into his arms. He’d told her the only thing he could, that he’d get her mother back to her as soon as he could.

The redness in her cheeks now was from laughter, as Aunt Katie let her and her friends have as many tiny square cakes as they could push into their mouths. They’d all be bouncing off the walls later, but it was a small price to pay to let them all have a moment of laughter. Lincoln pulled the door closed and went back downstairs.

Let her enjoy this moment of innocent fun, he’d deal with the darker parts of reality for her. Hopefully, he’d have her mother back soon and this would all fade into a strange memory that she couldn’t quite remember. He hoped that’s how it would turn out anyway.

“Matteo’s people found six more properties that should be searched, Lincoln,” Monica said as soon as he stepped into the room, and he nodded in understanding.

They were using a study filled with books, tables and chairs for reading, and a large desk as a control center. It hadn’t changed since the day Lincoln moved in with his mother all those years ago, instantly gaining a brother. Now he had a half-sister to go with the stepbrother, and both were doing as much as they could.

Liam was helping search the buildings. June was in surgery at the moment, but she’d be back at the house as soon as the patient was settled into a recovery room, helping to trawl through information. Lincoln didn’t mind that June was still at work, she was needed there, and her job was important.

He knew both his siblings wanted to help and that was what mattered. Even Dr. Bennet and his soon-to-be new wife were helping by tracking the search teams on a dry-erase board. They were staying in touch with all the teams, marking off properties as they were cleared. They even had Matteo’s and Kai’s teams up, so there wouldn’t be any time wasted with another team searching a building that was cleared already.

It was all very efficient, even if the cops weren’t involved. Lincoln had his doubts about the local police and had decided early on that it was pointless to even bring them in when it would only bring questions up. Questions like who Roxie really was, why she was using a fake identity, and what that might mean down the road for her. There were a few mud puddles that would have to be cleared up later, but for now, his focus was on finding Roxie. He had a feeling their sole interest would be in trying to figure out if she’d committed a crime worth pursuing her for before they ever started to look for her.

Nope, best to just leave them out of the loop, right now. And if things went south when they did find Roxie, if someone had to die to get her back, then it was best if the police weren’t anywhere around when that happened. Matteo had already assured Lincoln that he and his team would do whatever it took to bring Roxie back safe and sound. Whatever it took, the man had said, with an intensity in his eyes that left little doubt that he meant it.

“Right, what else do we need to do, ladies?” He rubbed his hands together, looking at the dry-erase board on their side of the room.

“I’m sending the new addresses over to Dr. Bennet to coordinate the searches with the teams,” Tanya said, typing each address into a message box on the screen of her laptop. “Then I’m going to go through some other files Matteo sent over. There are some properties his uncle owned but the names were never transferred over. He’s not sure if he owns them now or if they’re in some kind of limbo.”