He’d gone into The Tipsy Turtle after making arrangements for his father’s cremation. Emmie hadn’t wanted any part of the process. She’d said, “Good riddance. He made our life hell, and he can rot in hell. That’s all I have to say about the man.” Truer words had never been spoken, but someone had to see to the old man’s farewell to this life, and that someone had been him.
That night, his last on leave, after returning to his hotel room, he’d sat on the edge of the bed as memories of life as Rex Devlin’s son haunted his mind. Ghost memories that refused to be banished. The beatings he took to protect Emmie, the nights trying to fall asleep when hunger felt like it was eating his stomach inside out, the bullying at school because he was considered white trash simply because of his clothes. There was never money to buy clothes since his father considered jobs he could actually get beneath him. So what if his children were hungry and wore rags. What money he could scrounge up went for beer and cigarettes.
Baseball had saved him. If not for falling in love with the game, being damn good at it and the coaches who’d mentored him, Cooper figured he’d probably be dead or in prison. His kidnapping and meeting Grayson and Liam had changed the direction of his life, though. Where he’d thought baseball would be his salvation, turned out it had been those two men and the Army.
He’d kept in touch with Grayson and Liam after they were rescued, and one night in their text messages, the idea to make their life’s work saving children had sprouted. From that idea, The Phoenix Three had been born. They’d each joined a different branch of the military to get the skills they’d need to make the dream of rescuing children a success.
He’d put distance between him and his father as soon as he turned eighteen. Before leaving for the Army, he’d arranged for Emmie to live with a teacher who’d always been nice to the two of them. Then, he’d dared his father to go near Emmie. That scene had been ugly, but Cooper had grown and was bigger than his father. He’d thrown every threat he could think of at his father if he didn’t forget he had a daughter. The old man must have believed him, because he had left her alone.
Unable to sit on that bed in that room with the ghost of his father and his cruel words, he’d gone out, walking into the first bar he’d come to. That turned out to be The Tipsy Turtle, where he’d met a beautiful woman who’d silenced his father’s voice. They’d also made a baby, and with that came major changes he was willingly going to embrace. He fully intended to be a part of his little girl’s life.
“You look deep in thought,” Kendall said.
“I guess I was.” He wasn’t going to get into a conversation about his father, but he’d admit to the only good part of this thoughts. “I was remembering the night I met you.”
“Yeah?”
“Best night of my life, Kendall. Even better than I believed now that I know we created a beautiful daughter.” He couldn’t wait to meet his little girl. He just needed to find her.
“I haven’t had any regrets about that night, not even when I found out I was pregnant. What if…” She shuddered.
“Don’t. Don’t even think it. We’re going to find her, and she’s going to be okay.” He prayed to God that was true.
The GPS led them to a small apartment building in a not-great part of town. There was a police car parked in one of the spaces. He stopped next to it. “Stay here a minute.” He got out and approached the car. The officer was writing something, a report probably. At seeing Cooper coming at him, the officer sethis paperwork aside, his expression growing alert. Cooper kept his hands visible, and his own expression relaxed.
It was warm already, and the driver’s side window was down. “Good morning,” Cooper said, stopping a few feet from the car.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes. I’m Cooper Devlin, and I’m working with Detective Rossi from your special crimes unit. He gave me this location where a stolen van was found.”
“Okay.”
He heard the suspicion in the officer’s voice. “You can call him if you want to confirm that. All I want to know is, where was the van found?” He glanced around. “Which parking space?”
“Guess there’s no harm in telling you. It’s the space on the other side of my car.”
“Thanks.” Cooper walked to the middle of the space and looked around. There was a cigarette butt near where the driver’s door would be. Amanda had said the man in the grocery store smelled like smoke. The kidnapper could have dropped it, and the police should have bagged that for evidence.
He returned to the officer. “Our witness said the kidnapper smelled like cigarettes, and there’s a butt the man might have dropped. I need you to bag it and see that Detective Rossi gets it.” He gave the officer credit for not arguing with him.
Kendall opened her door after the officer drove away, and he walked over to her. “Let’s look around. Maybe we’ll spy a camera or find someone who might have seen something.”
They hit pay dirt at the second apartment they came to, and he eyed the angle of the camera. If it was a working one, it should have the van on their feed. As they were walking up to the door, two tween boys carrying skateboards came out of the apartment two doors down.
Cooper headed for them. Both had spiked hair, one with brown hair and one a blond, leather bands on their wrists, oversize shirts and baggy pants. “Dudes, sick boards.”
Grinning, they both held their boards up for his inspection, and one of the boys said, “They’re—”
“Santa Cruz boards.” He hid his grin when both their eyes widened. He’d had a case with a teen boy who was an avid skateboarder. He’d run away, intending to go to a competition where his idol was going to be. After catching up with him, Cooper had concluded that the boy was going to keep running away until he met his idol. He’d taken the boy to the competition, spent time with him and had learned more than he ever wanted to know about skateboards.
“Yeah, man,” the other boy said. “They’re the best.”
“Totally.” Kendall had walked up, and she was staring at him as if he were a green man from outer space. He winked at her before turning his attention back to the boys. “Listen, there was a van parked here earlier. Either of you see the man who drove it?”
“I did,” the blond said. “Dude parked it, took his little girl out and they got in a car.”
Next to him, Kendall gasped. He shook his head, signaling her not to say anything. “When was this?”