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When you’re ready to let go of the past and embrace the future, you know where to find me.
Such a simple statement, yet she found it so much easier to bury herself in her work and try to block out the pain of losing Dean. She knew she was in denial, shying away from grasping the courage to believe in everything he offered and represented: a man who loved her, despite her flaws and imperfect past. Using work as an excuse to avoid facing her deepest insecurities was not only ineffective, it was the coward’s way out, she knew. And she abhorred that she lacked the internal fortitude to confront and reconcile her greatest weaknesses—which revolved around the inability to believe in herself, as well as forgive herself for the mistake that had ruled the past two years of her life.
Closing the file on the new case she’d been working on, she stood and went to the window in her office, trying to shake off her disheartened mood. Unfortunately, the bright sunshine and clear view offered no escape from her disturbing thoughts or the more sensual memories of Dean—memories that had a way of edging into her mind when she least expected them.
“Jo, Roseanne Edwards is on line three for you.” Melodie’s voice drifted through the intercom on Jo’s desk, snapping her out of her bout of regret. “She says it’s an emergency.”
“I’ll take the call,” she told Melodie, and moved back toward her desk.
Roseanne, a new client, had arrived first thing that morning and literally begged Jo to take on her abduction case. Yesterday, her husband, Michael, had violated the terms of his bail for assault and battery to his wife, blatantly ignored restraining orders, and had kidnapped their eight-year-old daughter, Lily, when she’d gone outside to check the mail. According to Roseanne, she and Michael were embroiled in a nasty divorce case over his ex
cessive drinking and abuse, and she’d expressed fear that her husband might hurt the young girl, since he had violent tendencies. While the police had been informed of the abduction, she’d contacted Jo to secure her services to help track her husband.
She picked up the receiver. “What’s up, Roseanne?”
“He finally called,” the other woman said, her tone high-pitched and near hysterical. “I heard Lily crying in the background and he’s threatening to hurt her if I don’t promise to cancel our divorce proceedings. I told him I’d do anything just so long as he lets her go, but he hung up on me and hasn’t called back. Oh, God, what am I going to do?”
Jo tamped down the apprehension that tightened in her own chest. “Roseanne, I’ll do whatever I can to find your daughter, but you have to stay calm and focused for me.”
“I’ll never forgive myself if he hurts Lily,” she said, her voice catching on a sob.
“Nobody is going to hurt Lily, not if I can help it.” It was a promise Jo had no right to give, but she was compelled to offer hope and assurance to Roseanne in any way she could. “I need some personal information from you about your husband to try to track him down quickly.”
“I’ll give you anything I have, just so long as you get my baby girl back.”
It took Jo another five minutes to soothe the upset mother enough so that she could gather all the necessary account numbers, passwords, and authorization codes to run a trace on recent activity on their joint credit card accounts. The urgency of the case spurred her on, and once she hung up with Roseanne she jumped on the Internet and the phone to pull in long overdue favors from various sources. She contacted informants and even a retired detective her father used to be good friends with until she gained the valuable information she sought.
Within three hours she’d discovered that Michael Edwards had recently used one of those joint credit cards to check into a low-rate motel in Concord, approximately half an hour outside of Oakland. The trace was a prime piece of evidence, and just what Jo needed to track and find the man holding his own daughter hostage.
Gathering up her notes, she stuffed them into a file folder that also held Michael’s picture, a copy of the restraining order he’d violated, as well as all the necessary paperwork she needed to arrest the man for breaching the terms of his bond agreement. Just as she reached for her shoulder holster, Cole walked into her office and came to an abrupt stop when he saw her quick movements as she secured her revolver against her left side.
“Where are you off to?” he asked.
Jo clenched her jaw in annoyance. She didn’t need an interrogation from her brother when time was of the essence, but she knew from experience that he’d never let her walk out the door without giving him an explanation. She kept it as succinct as possible. “I’m going to check a lead on the Edwards case.”
Surprise transformed his taut features. “You know where Roseanne’s husband is?”
Cole had been there that morning when Roseanne had sought Jo’s services and knew the details of the case. “Possibly,” she replied, treading carefully with her answers. Slipping into her black leather jacket, she adjusted the sides so it concealed her weapon and handcuffs. “I’ll have a better answer for you once I verify the information I was given.”
He scowled at her. “The man is said to be armed and dangerous, Jo. I’ll have Noah go with you.” He turned, stuck his head out the door, and before Jo could stop him he yelled down the hall, “Melodie, send Noah into Jo’s office immediately.”
Jo felt her temper rise and resisted the urge to pick up the brass paperweight on her desk and pitch it at her brother’s thick head. “I don’t need or want a babysitter, Cole. I can handle this case on my own.” Her tone was adamant, her words succinct.
He didn’t seem to notice. “I’m not giving you a choice,” he refuted. “You either take Noah with you, or I take over the case.”
His ultimatum struck her like a physical blow and once again made her all too aware that her brother didn’t trust her to handle things on her own.
Noah entered the room on the tail end of Cole’s comment, took in the standoff and tension between brother and sister, and frowned. “What’s going on?”
Cole waved a hand toward Jo, his expression creased with annoyance. “Jo’s following a dangerous lead and she’s going to get herself hurt, or worse.”
Her cheeks heated with indignation, and she rounded her desk to close the distance between her and her brothers, feeling the onslaught of a long-overdue battle brewing deep within.
“I’m going to tell you both exactly what’s going on,” she said, reaching deep inside for the kind of strength and fortitude she hadn’t allowed herself to grasp for too long. “I’m tired of being coddled and treated like I don’t know the business or what the hell I’m doing.” She pinned Cole with a direct look. “I just went through all this doubt and upheaval from you with Dean when I wanted you to trust in my instincts. Dean was and is an innocent man, and I was right. Yet here we are having this same conversation, with you questioning what I’m capable of, what I can handle, and if I’ll make the right decisions.” Her voice cracked, and she realized that she was just as much at fault for letting them overwhelm her with their take-charge personalities. Not anymore. “I’ve had enough of your overbearing, dominating attitudes.”
Cole looked stunned by her outburst, obviously having no clue how she’d felt, while Noah regarded her with equal measures of surprise and amusement. Neither said a word, and she took advantage of the silence.
“I love you guys,” she said, meaning the heartfelt declaration. “You’ve done so much for me and you’ve always been there when I needed you the most. When Mom died, you took care of me, and when Dad passed away you both did your best to raise me. But you’ve also taken that responsibility to the extreme, beyond where it all should have ended when I graduated from college and decided to become a cop.”
