than that.”
Seth shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
Oshiro pulled the photocopy up to his face, comparing it with the real ultrasound. Then he nodded as he saw what Lucy had spotted earlier. “He’s not just threatening her. He’s staking his claim.”
“Exactly. Which is why he removed any identifying info from the ultrasound image in the ad. Daddy is a legend among child pornographers. If he emerges from the shadows after not being heard from for fourteen years, you can bet they’ll listen and obey.”
“Wait.” Oshiro frowned, all the skin on his shaven head wrinkling into furrows. “That means he could call on them for help. He could have a freaking army of perverts at his command, watching and waiting for the right time to grab June and her baby.”
Lucy nodded. “Which means it’s not only about finding Daddy—it’s about protecting June from an anonymous army commanded by a man techno-savvy enough to hack into a medical center’s protected database.”
Seth pushed to his feet, leaning his weight forward onto the tabletop. “We need to do both. Oshiro, you take June, hide her, keep her safe. And you,” he directed a laser-sharp gaze at Lucy, “you and I are going to find this bastard, hunt him down, and make him call off his dogs. And I don’t care how the hell we do it.”
Chapter 7
OF COURSE, IT never was as simple as that—a fact that Seth Bernhart, as a former AUSA, should have known. It worried Lucy that he’d allowed his emotions to get the better of him. She could understand why, with his family involved, but it made her leery. Would he be less of an asset to protecting June and more of a liability?
Oshiro picked up on her feelings. After she sent Seth out to work with Taylor and Walden, the Deputy Marshal lingered behind, just long enough to meet her gaze. “Don’t worry about Bernhart,” he grumbled. “He’s solid.”
Then he was gone to commandeer a cubicle and arrange for a safe house for June. Lucy stared through the glass walls of her office, watching body language tell a story as Taylor coaxed a smile from June while they worked at searching her online footprint for any signs of a security breach. Walden looked over from his own workstation, his chair pushed uncomfortably far from his desk as he positioned himself between June and the door, playing the role of protector.
Seth hovered behind June, one hand on her shoulder, leaning between her and Taylor as he added his own details to the database Taylor was constructing. But it was June who Lucy focused on. She’d survived, not just Daddy’s abuse but also the trauma of entering a world she was wholly unprepared for. Despite all that, she’d found the courage to stand up and try to make a difference.
Lucy glanced at her desk littered with a backlog of memos and office detritus. Meeting someone like June put things in perspective.
The child predator known as Daddy had gone undetected for over two decades—in fact, if he hadn’t released the Baby Girl collection and made the mistake of selling June when she grew too old for his preferential needs, he might never have gotten onto their radar at all.
How many more men like him were out there? It was a question she asked herself so often that she’d worn the edges off like a worry stone, no longer charging her with anxiety and anger but rather simply leaving her exhausted and feeling older than someone still a year shy of forty should.
Avoiding her desk with its overflowing in-box, she turned to her window garden. From the water sitting in the saucers, it was clear her bromeliads and orchids had suffered from too much attention rather than neglect. The thought brought a smile as she pictured each of her team members wandering in here on some random pretense to care for her plants while she was gone.
Why had Daddy kept Baby Girl alive? she wondered as she examined the plants, seeing if she could salvage any. Why sell her instead of killing
Seth shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
Oshiro pulled the photocopy up to his face, comparing it with the real ultrasound. Then he nodded as he saw what Lucy had spotted earlier. “He’s not just threatening her. He’s staking his claim.”
“Exactly. Which is why he removed any identifying info from the ultrasound image in the ad. Daddy is a legend among child pornographers. If he emerges from the shadows after not being heard from for fourteen years, you can bet they’ll listen and obey.”
“Wait.” Oshiro frowned, all the skin on his shaven head wrinkling into furrows. “That means he could call on them for help. He could have a freaking army of perverts at his command, watching and waiting for the right time to grab June and her baby.”
Lucy nodded. “Which means it’s not only about finding Daddy—it’s about protecting June from an anonymous army commanded by a man techno-savvy enough to hack into a medical center’s protected database.”
Seth pushed to his feet, leaning his weight forward onto the tabletop. “We need to do both. Oshiro, you take June, hide her, keep her safe. And you,” he directed a laser-sharp gaze at Lucy, “you and I are going to find this bastard, hunt him down, and make him call off his dogs. And I don’t care how the hell we do it.”
Chapter 7
OF COURSE, IT never was as simple as that—a fact that Seth Bernhart, as a former AUSA, should have known. It worried Lucy that he’d allowed his emotions to get the better of him. She could understand why, with his family involved, but it made her leery. Would he be less of an asset to protecting June and more of a liability?
Oshiro picked up on her feelings. After she sent Seth out to work with Taylor and Walden, the Deputy Marshal lingered behind, just long enough to meet her gaze. “Don’t worry about Bernhart,” he grumbled. “He’s solid.”
Then he was gone to commandeer a cubicle and arrange for a safe house for June. Lucy stared through the glass walls of her office, watching body language tell a story as Taylor coaxed a smile from June while they worked at searching her online footprint for any signs of a security breach. Walden looked over from his own workstation, his chair pushed uncomfortably far from his desk as he positioned himself between June and the door, playing the role of protector.
Seth hovered behind June, one hand on her shoulder, leaning between her and Taylor as he added his own details to the database Taylor was constructing. But it was June who Lucy focused on. She’d survived, not just Daddy’s abuse but also the trauma of entering a world she was wholly unprepared for. Despite all that, she’d found the courage to stand up and try to make a difference.
Lucy glanced at her desk littered with a backlog of memos and office detritus. Meeting someone like June put things in perspective.
The child predator known as Daddy had gone undetected for over two decades—in fact, if he hadn’t released the Baby Girl collection and made the mistake of selling June when she grew too old for his preferential needs, he might never have gotten onto their radar at all.
How many more men like him were out there? It was a question she asked herself so often that she’d worn the edges off like a worry stone, no longer charging her with anxiety and anger but rather simply leaving her exhausted and feeling older than someone still a year shy of forty should.
Avoiding her desk with its overflowing in-box, she turned to her window garden. From the water sitting in the saucers, it was clear her bromeliads and orchids had suffered from too much attention rather than neglect. The thought brought a smile as she pictured each of her team members wandering in here on some random pretense to care for her plants while she was gone.
Why had Daddy kept Baby Girl alive? she wondered as she examined the plants, seeing if she could salvage any. Why sell her instead of killing
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