The phone rang just as I placed the key in the door to my dorm room. It wasn't her special ring so I didn't rush to answer but the number was another I knew very well when I finally took my phone from my pocket. "Hello?"
"Todd, it's me, Catalina."
"Catalina? Is something wrong with Caitie?" As usual my heart picked up speed and that sick feeling I always get when it comes to worrying about my girl came over me. It's been this way ever since I had to move away from her and has only grown worst with time.
"No-no it's not that. I have to tell you a secret." I smiled with relief as I headed into the room closing the door behind me. Her and her secrets! She has a new one at least once a week. Most of the time I can't make heads or tails out of what she's saying to me.
I've known her since she was about five and I still have yet to understand if the things she says are just the ramblings of an innocent or if her mind really is as brilliant as I'm beginning to suspect. The one thing I know for sure is that she's never set me wrong, not once.
So where most people might brush her off as nothing more than a nuisance kid, I've learned to pay close attention to the things she has to say. "What is it this time sis?"
"Do you know how to fight?" This kid.
"I do yes, why?"
"How good?"
"What do you mean? Why are you asking me this?"
"Daddy's not going to let Caitlin go to school with you if you can't protect her." See what I mean? Her think process is way too advanced for an eight year old going on nine.
"I see, and how do you know this?"
"Hmm! Let's just say I know stuff. I know someone who can help you, I'll tell him to call you, just let me talk to him first okay."
"What? Who, what're you up to?"
"You want Caitie to come to school with you or not?"
"Okay Catalina, I'll wait for your friend to call." I laughed after we hung up, wondering what trick she had up her sleeve this time and just who it was she was planning to give my number to.
I guess from what she said that her dad was still fighting against Caitlin leaving for college a year early. She hadn't said anything to me about it in our last couple of calls, only that her mom was going to talk to him, so I'm holding out hope that all goes well this time.
She's been so excited about prom, it's every high school girl's dream I guess. And since I'd purposely missed mine I too was looking forward to making that memory with her.
Of course she'd told me I could accept any one of the many invites I'd received from the girls at my new school but I'm no fool. I'd never hurt my girl like that no matter how much she said she understood.
She was just mad at her dad for not letting her go with me and going through one of her spells where she was afraid that I'd cheat on her. So I spent that whole night on Facetime with her so she'd know that I never wanted to share anything that important with anyone else. All my landmarks belong to her.
As the phone went to the home screen my baby's face flashed into view. I stared down at her image, taking in her features, missing her more than I ever thought possible. Each day, no, each second away from her has been torture and it's already been more than a year since we last parted.
"Oh baby!" I rubbed my thumb over her face beneath the screen. Thinking that she too was feeling the same made it even harder for me. I can't stand the thought of her hurting or sad, drives me up the damn wall.
I wanted to call her right this second, but I know the rules only too well. Colton Lyon's rules are nothing to screw around with. I know very well that one wrong move on my part can do more harm than good. So I put my phone away and got down to reading to wile away the hours until it was time to call her.
The reward if we wait until after she's done her homework and spent some time with her family, is that we get to stay on the phone as long as we want to, which is what we do every night without fail.
I felt my excitement grow because in a few short months the semester would be over and I'd be seeing her again soon. The past year that had felt so long was finally coming to an end. Now I have to find a way to convince her dad to let me have her.
***
It was two days later as I was getting back from my last class of the day that my phone rang. There was no number in the readout, no name either, which I found strange. And though I should let such calls go to voicemail, my instincts told me that I needed to answer; so I did. "Hello, this is Todd."
"Todd, I got your number from Catalina." I stopped in my tracks and looked down at the phone in surprise. I'd all but forgotten about that conversation in light of everything else I had going on.
"Oh yeah, she said someone was going to call. Who are you again?" I'm pretty sure he's one of their new uncles, but I' m not that well acquainted with any of them for all that Caitlin has told me about them from time to time.
"The name is Mancini, I see you're at my old alma mater, that means you're smart because I can't see where your dad paid for you to get in. I also see that you're a model student who gained the attention of the faculty your first year; good job."
"How do you...?"
"That's not important right now, I just wanted to touch base since I made a promise. I'll be in touch very soon." He hung up the phone in my ear. "Mancini, Mancini, which one is he now?" I shook my head and stepped into my room.
In the last year or so Caitlin has been filling me in on the people I met at her home over the holidays. All the strange men that I'd given the side eye until I got the lay of the land and realized they were all married or close to it.
From the little snippets I picked up I knew they were more than just friends of the family and it only took one look to know they were all made of the same stuff as her dad, hard, tough as nails bad-asses that you never want to cross.
***
HANK
***
Lyon's probably going to kill me but I'm doing this for him in a roundabout way. I tapped my fingers on the polished wood of the desk in my home office as I looked out at the New York skyline. For the past few months since coming back from the desert with Lyon and the others I've had something cooking in my brain.
In fact, it's because of little Catalina really that my thoughts started down this path. I've kept in touch with the kids from California who all ended up at my old alma mater as well, so maybe it's providence.
They were more than willing to get on board with what I have in mind and I'm more than ready to use their resources, especially that Track, fucking kid is light years ahead when it comes to technology. If I can get him and Catalina working together we can cut through a lot of the bullshit we have to deal with and free me up to do what I do best.
I haven't told the others about my grand scheme as yet, there are still some kinks to work out, but I foresee a brilliant future for all involved. I'd been surprised when Catalina called and asked me for a 'favor', her word.
I listened to her like I always do and promised to look into it. That's why it had taken me a couple of days to make the call. I had to know what I was dealing with. I figured if the kid was no good Lyon would've disappeared him in one way or another by now.
But the fact that the kid has hung in there for four years says a lot. I'd gone back to the time before he left the town where Lyon still lives, dug into his life and his parents' in the last two and a half years and I like what I see.
The kid hadn't gone to his senior prom when he had more than enough offers, because Lyon wouldn't let his daughter travel out of state to attend. He'd spent the night on Facetime with her instead. For a teen to be that loyal and have such staying power is something you don't see everyday.
When I looked into his life on campus he only looked better. Straight A student who keeps to himself, humble, nice personality, and not one to take any of the offers he's been given from the female student body. Guy is a rock!
In the end that was the cincher for me. After all I wasn't about to get involved with this guy if he was doing Lyon's kid dirty. But everything I've learned tells me that the kid is my kind of people. I was his age when I started working undercover and since Catalina seems to think he needs me, why not? One more kid to add to my cache.
Now to get him on the same team as the others. I know Saunders is a pain in the ass, very cliquish when it comes to his posse. Getting his hardheaded ass to let an outsider in is going to take some finessing on my part.
I sat at my desk for another hour formulating a plan in my head before my wife hunted me down and dragged me off to dinner. Pregnancy has turned her into an eating machine, and apparently I'm supposed to eat every time she does.
I watched my delicate flower polish off a twelve ounce porter house steak with baby potatoes and blanched asparagus spears before hitting the molten lava chocolate cake. "You want some of mine?" I nudged the plate with the tiramisu towards her and her eyes glazed over with greed as she rubbed her newly showing pregnant tummy.
"Hank, I'm not a pig, where do you expect me to put all that?" This as she dug her spoon into my shit. "Ummm, this is so good." I raised my hand for the waiter who came running as if he'd been waiting in the wings. It's always like this when we come to my club; they bend over backwards to please my wife because they know anything less is grounds for termination.
"Sir?"
"Wrap up a tiramisu to go will you?" I passed him two hundred dollar bills which was his tip as my wife grinned across the table at me; I know her so well.
"Hank, you shouldn't have, I'm not going to be able to eat it tonight and by tomorrow it might not taste the same."
I just smiled encouragingly because I was pretty sure the dessert wouldn't make it out of the car, if it made it out of the elevator down. She sat back after making her way through half of mine, her eyes still looking at what was left.
I cut into it with my fork and raised it to her lips, holding back my laugh as she cleaned the tines of any remnants of the sweet concoction. "Don't give me any more Hank or I'll gain ten pounds from this one meal."
"It looks good on you, plus remember what mom said, you're too thin as it is." Mom has been doing her best to fatten my girl up, something about her hips being too narrow. Everyday she has some new thing that's just what Cierra needs to ensure a smooth and healthy pregnancy.
My girl enjoys the attention and I'm forever grateful to mom who's going overboard because she knows my baby doesn't have a mother to fuss over her. "I won't be for much longer. It seems like every time I see mom she's feeding me."
She broke into the latest tale of Justine's theatrics. Mom has no boundaries so she's invaded every aspect of my wife's life. Even her asshole boss hasn't been spared. He's already been warned about what would happen to him if he overworks her daughter in law, or sends her out on any dangerous missions.
I sat for another few minutes in case she changed her mind and wanted to finish off my dessert and by the time dinner was over I knew what I was going to do with Todd Henderson, but I needed to test him first. If he fails I'll let Lyon kick his ass to the curb. I'm not about to have my new 'niece' hooked up with a dud.
***
TODD
***
That first call was followed not long after by another that was just as strange. There was no hello, and the only reason I knew it was him was because of the missing name and number on my phone screen. As was to be his way for all future calls, he got straight to the point.
"Mancini here, how much training have you had kid?"
"I'm not sure I understand, training?" He didn't answer.
"I've trained as an athlete, taken karate and Taekwondo since I was a kid but I've never had any real training as a fighter if that's what you're asking."
"Sometimes fighting doesn't always have to be with your fists, your mind's what I'm after for now. Though if you're going to work with me you'll have to know how to protect yourself. That can come later."
"Wait, what do you mean work with you?"
"Did Catalina tell you anything about me?"
"Not really."
"Do you know why she asked me to call you?"
"Well yeah, she seems to think that her dad won't allow Caitlin to leave for college a year early if I can't protect her."
"What do you think?"
"I'm not sure, I mean I know Mr. Lyon is a bit protective, but protect her from what? Is there something going on that I don't know about?" My mind went to the men I'd seen at her family's home over the holidays a year ago and all the secrecy surrounding them. My gut started to hurt.
"I'll tell you all you need to know in the future, right now I only need to know one thing from you."
"And what's that?"
"Do you want her there with you?"
"Of course."
"Then you're going to do everything I tell you to do. And Todd, this conversation doesn't go any further than the two of us." He hung up the phone.
He called me with a lot of strange requests in the next couple of weeks and by the end of the first month I finally understood the strange questions Catalina had asked me before she gave him my number.
Though I never got to meet him in person, it didn't take me long to realize what he was and what he was, is the real deal. I couldn't find anything on this guy, but since he'd let it slip that first day that he'd gone to school here, I did some digging.
I came away even more confused than before. There was nothing! Almost as if someone had walked around behind this guy and erased his existence not only here on campus, but his whole life between the ages of nineteen and his mid twenties.
His life seems to have started after he opened his business in New York, which makes no sense whatsoever. But one thing was for certain; everyone who knew him from his time here, meaning older faculty members, had great respect and admiration for this guy.
I got another one of his strange phone calls days later, something I was growing used to. I felt like I'd walked onto the set of a James Bond movie each time I dealt with this guy. No lead up, nothing, just straight to the point as usual.
"I'm sending someone to you. He'll tell you what you need to do next; I'll be in touch." And that's how I met Jace Saunders and his crew. I'd been walking across campus a couple days after that cryptic phone call when this kid approached and started walking in step with me.
"You Todd?" He was relaxed, laid back, and the way he made it look like we were old friends just catching up as we walked along to anyone who might be looking made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. This had to be Mancini's guy.
"I am, and you are?"
"Jace! He called and told me to come find you but I needed to check you out myself before following that particular order." He looked at me as we walked, that same friendly smile in place.
I couldn't tell how old this kid was but guessed he wasn't much older than me or maybe a little younger. You couldn't tell from his demeanor. This was no ordinary college student. "How do you know Mancini?"
He gave me a quick rundown of their relationship, which again only left me with more questions than answers. They'd met him once in person and have been 'working' with him for a few months. I still don't know what that meant, working with him, but before I knew it I was knee deep in some kind of Op.
"Tomorrow I'll take you back to my place, your dorm is no place to talk; later." He walked off, heading down the path that lead away from my dorm building and for some reason I knew not to turn and watch him. Just what the heck has Catalina gotten me into?
True to his word, the next day at about the same time he met me but instead of walking towards my dorm like the day before, he took me to the parking lot where a sweet Phantom sat. Even in a lot filled with over expensive cars, my Ranger being one of them, his ride stood out.
"Get in." He stood at the driver's side while I stood next to the passenger side door wondering if this was a good move. It was do or die time and the reality is that I didn't know this guy or Mancini whoever he is and for all I know they could be into some sick shit. I wouldn't be the first college kid to disappear off of campus never to be heard from again. But again my instincts kicked in and I did as he said.
We drove about ten minutes away to one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the area. I know it well because I'd been looking for a place here just in case Caitlin was able to join me.
I know the hefty price tags, so when he pulled into the underground garage of one of the newest buildings my brows lifted. He must be loaded. A one bedroom in this place goes for a million and up, and there are no rental units.
"You live here?" I stood next to the car once we got out and looked around. There were only a handful of cars in the garage which made no sense for a building this size.
"Yep!" He lead me to a private elevator and punched in a code before ushering me in ahead of him.
The damn thing was gold and glass. Don't get me wrong, my family isn't exactly poor and my inheritance when I turned eighteen is nothing to sneeze at, but I'm pretty sure this place was out of my range. The places I'd been looking at were in the three hundred thousand dollar range and I was more looking to rent than buy.
I didn't want to seem gauche so didn't ask how he could afford it. The elevator climbed to the ninth of ten floors and stopped; he'd pressed the button for the tenth floor. The doors slid open and he didn't move as this blonde bombshell with a kid in her arms came rushing to the opened doors, smiling a mile wide.
"Oops, sorry Jace, I didn't know you had company." She started to walk away.
"Come here Sian!" She came back looking sheepish.
He stepped into the open doorway keeping the doors from closing as he towered over her. "Was there something you needed baby?"
From the way he leaned down to kiss the baby's head I guessed the kid might be his and grew even more confused. "No, her brother's asleep and she's about to go down so I thought..." She looked at me with her cheeks red and I looked over her head. Something about the two of them smacked of the way I am with my girl so I'm guessing she's the reason for the ring on his finger.
"I'll be down shortly wait for me." He kissed the top of her head and stepped back into the elevator; smooth.
"How old are you if you don't mind me asking?"
"Eighteen, almost nineteen; why?"
"Oh nothing, that's your wife." It was a statement not a question.
The smile that crossed his face looked like it came from his soul. "She is yes, you'll get to meet everyone in due time." He punched the tenth floor again and the elevator made the smooth ride up. The doors opened onto a wide open space and my eyes were immediately drawn to the bank of windows that looked out onto the city, what a view.
"Wait, you live on the ninth floor and have an office on the tenth floor?" He smirked at me before walking to the very back of the space where there were a couple of guys waiting for us behind a one way glass partition.
"I own the building." Well damn!
I know for a fact that when this place was going up a four bedroom unit was going for twenty-five million. No one else seemed phased in the least by the luxurious surroundings and I wasn't about to show my small town ass so I kept my questions to myself.
"Guys he's here. Todd, this is Track, Shane, Alec and Jared, my brother in law." I shook their hands all the while sizing them up the way they were doing me. It was only as I stood there in the massive space that I wondered just what the hell I was doing there.
Didn't this whole thing start with Catalina thinking I needed to know how to fight to protect Caitlin? Where exactly was Mancini going with this?
"I know you've never done anything like this before, we're relatively new to it as well but you should know, once we show you what we're about to, there's no turning back. Mancini didn't share too much about you, only that we can trust you but I'll tell you upfront, the jury's still out on that one."
"These guys are my family, my wife you've already met. You do anything to harm any one of them now or in the future and they'll never find your body. Track he's all yours I need to go see my wife for a minute."
"Did Red come in yet? I didn't hear from her." His brother in law asked.
"Her car's in the garage, all of them are home, don't know why they haven't called, probably planning some shit to get us out of here tonight."
He turned and left leaving me with the other four. Track, the only black man in the group beckoned for me to follow him to one of the five desks and a computer that didn't come out of any store I've ever been to and I know my computers.
"Mancini wanted you to start with this!" He opened a folder on the screen and I didn't know what the hell I was looking at until I started reading. Every hair on my body stood up as every molecule of my being went ice cold.
"What the hell is this?" He didn't answer and I didn't expect him to since the question was rhetorical. It was very obvious what I was looking at. I felt in turns sick to my stomach and pissed way the fuck off.
I didn't quite get why Mancini would want me to get involved with something like this, what any of it had to do with Caitie and I, but it didn't seem to matter. What I was looking at wasn't exactly something you could just turn away from.
I got sucked in that quick and spent the next few hours pouring over the shit on the screen. People came and went, some of them female, I think I even heard babies, but I never took my focus off the screen.
Track tapped me on the shoulder some time later and that's when I shook myself out of my fugue state. "Time to go, you've been sitting here for five hours." That long? Shit, I've got just enough time to do my homework before it's time to call Caitlin.
I stood and worked the kinks out of my legs, which seemed to have gone to sleep a while ago without me noticing. "I don't have to tell you not to discuss what you saw with anyone." Jace came over with the others. I was still finding it hard to believe that these guys were a good year younger than me.
They all seemed so well put together, mature, and years beyond their peers. I don't remember being that stoic when I was their age, but then again, I wasn't dealing with the sort of stuff they do then either.
"Sure, no problem, but I don't see..." I was about to say I didn't see what any of this had to do with me getting Caitie to come to school with me a year early but Jace held up his hand.
"Mancini will tell you everything you need to know in his own time. I don't know shit. He just told me to find you and bring you in."
"Does he do that a lot?" He shook his head before he turned to walk away.
"Nope, you're the first. I would tell you that he's not the kind of guy to do things lightly. I'll come get you tomorrow but right now Alec's gonna take you back to campus." He said all this while walking away.
That was the first of many such meetings and by the end of week three I was in deep. I still wasn't allowed around the women but I got it, they still didn't know me and from what I'd learned so far, they weren't the most trusting bunch.
Each night when I left their place, like clockwork Mancini would call me just as I was entering the dorm, spooky. He'd ask for my progress on what I was working on, my thoughts, if I had any ideas of how to proceed, things like that. Things I was sure he already had the answers to.
The subject matter freaked me the fuck out because I was still trying to see the correlation between young girls being trafficked and Caitlin, but whenever I asked he'd ignore me, just not say shit.
So, he never said why he chose me to be part of this and I stopped asking. Our only contact was by phone, some of the weirdest damn conversations I've ever had in my life and the more we talked the more I got the sense that he was studying me from afar, the guy just knew too much.
Because sis seemed to trust him, and I was sure he was a friend of Mr. Lyon, I didn't question him or anything he asked me to do. The only issue I had with him was his strict rules on secrecy. I wasn't allowed to tell Caitlin that we were in touch, I wasn't even allowed to tell Catalina that he'd called and she was the one who'd given him my number.
By the end of the second month I found myself being put through some kind of basic training that I'm pretty sure the SEALs developed back in the fifties or some shit.
These lessons took place on the basement level of Jace Saunders' building. The guy really did own the whole place, I'd checked after that first night. I'm not going to say how much he shelled out for the whole building but he could've fed three over populated third world nations for half a century and still have some left for another Phantom or two easy.
By then Jace Saunders and his crew had stopped sizing me up and I'd learned to be at ease around them. They were a tight knit group that reminded me of my future father in law and his crew and just like Colton Lyon, I found Jace to be very protective of his friends.
It was easy to see from the get that he was the one in charge of their little group, the one who reeled them in from going too far. He was also a year younger than I and had a wife and kids; I never forgot that shit.
I promised myself to ask him how he managed that one, but in the beginning we were all too busy with whatever Mancini threw at us to think about our own personal lives.
We'd been spending most of our time together working on computers, each of us working on something different that in the end turned out to be pieces of the same puzzle. And when that picture finally became clear I asked him once again; what the fuck this shit had to do with Caitlin.
"What makes you think it has anything to do with her?"
"Isn't she the reason you got in touch with me in the first place? I just don't understand what this is all about. I do notice that most of these girls come from small towns like mine. Is Caitlin in some kind of trouble?"
Though I couldn't see her dad letting anything like the sick shit I'd just been wading through happen to her.
"I'll answer that question in due time. Your first Op is in two weeks, you need to be ready."
"Wait, what? What am I going to be doing?"
"Jace has all the info, he'll get with you tonight. And Todd, what we do here goes no further than you and I and the boys in that room with you." Again he hung up the phone.
