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“Are you fucking with me right now?” said Gaspar. “Jacques St. Martine.”

“DNA doesn’t lie,” said Ace. “She’s an exact match for the missing child.

We think, but don’t have the proof yet, that the Ciprianis paid the couple to watch the baby.

Somewhere along the way, they fell in love and had three children of their own or could have been married before, making it a believable family.

Maybe they thought she would be safe in the convent, or maybe that was part of the plan all along. ”

“Did they tell her?” asked Nine.

“They did. She’s confused, angry, somewhat disbelieving, but they’re headed back to the house. She refused to go back to the hotel. She said if there was someone there waiting for them, she wanted to speak to them.”

“Damn,” muttered Ghost. “Well, she’s got Nash, Luc, and Antoine with her. Hopefully, that will be enough manpower if someone is waiting for them. Can you fuck with the cameras?”

“Already done,” said Ace. “They were just cheap cameras bought off the internet. There is something else we need to be concerned about. It was always rumored that one of the reasons the St. Martine baby was kidnapped was because she held the secret to something.”

“An infant? What kind of shit would she have the secret to? It makes no sense at all.”

“I don’t know,” said Ace. “We know that St. Martine and Cipriani had been in a trade and turf war for a while. They were both shipping drugs in and out of Africa and South Africa when one of Cipriani’s planes went down, killing his only brother on board and losing almost twelve million in drugs.”

“I remember that,” said Ghost. “We were actually in Nigeria at the time, and everyone was worried that it would create an all-out drug war in the area.”

“It almost did. Interpol, French police, everyone was panicked about how it would all play out. Then, St. Martine’s infant daughter was kidnapped, and everything stopped. St. Martine’s businesses were suddenly legitimate only, and Cipriani was handling the drug business in the region.”

“He knew that she was alive,” said Nine. “St. Martine. He knew that Cipriani had his daughter, and she was alive. If he thought she was dead, he would have ripped Cipriani’s business apart and taken his head.”

“You’re right,” nodded Gaspar. “But why not pay whatever he wanted and take the girl back? Why not find her on your own?”

“I think that’s what he was trying to do,” said Ace.

“Remember that Cipriani was in trouble about thirty years ago. The feds were after him for tax evasion. The Rubio family out of Cuba was disrupting his shipments and causing trouble in Europe. Then, his wife’s brother was arrested for sex with a minor and eventually, convicted of child trafficking and pornography.

“Cipriani was an old man by then. Maybe he ordered that she be killed, and St. Martine went after her. When he found her gone, he killed the entire family.”

“We need to find out what they want with her,” said Gaspar. “Who runs their families now?”

“You’re not gonna like this,” said Code.

“I never like anything, so this will keep with the norm,” frowned Gaspar.

“Their wives. Claudia St. Martine is eighty-seven years old and, apparently, mean as a snake. Lydia Cipriani is eighty-five and equally as vile. They both blame the other for the deaths of their husbands. It’s all-out war.” Ghost nodded, looking at the others.

“Great. Lucky for us, war is what we do.”

“We go in first,” said Luc, pushing Jenna behind him. Antoine opened the door while Nash stayed at the rear, watching for anyone suspicious.

The blinds were still open and the room still ventilating with the back door opened. They hadn’t gone into the house at all, only watched and waited for someone to return.

“We’re losing daylight,” said Luc. “Go ahead and do your tour, but if we say move, you’re going to move.”

Jenna nodded, knowing that they would do anything to protect her whether she liked it or not.

Walking from room to room, she remembered every detail of what was left behind. It was like a time capsule. The twin’s room was still the same. Two small beds with one dresser and a desk. Jeannie had her own room, as did Jenna.

She smiled at the posters on the wall of the movie stars and her favorite band frontman. Memories of a normal teenage girl. Pinned to a corkboard was a school photo of Nash. She touched it as if to bring back a memory that was long gone.

Nash stood at the doorway watching her, realizing that the photo she touched was of him.

“I remember giving that to you when we graduated,” he whispered. Jenna nodded.

“I knew I couldn’t take it to the convent with me, so I asked my parents – those people – I asked them to keep it safe for me.”

Nash pulled out his thin wallet and smiled. It contained his driver’s license, two credit cards, and a high school photo of one Jenna Brooks. She laughed, nodding at him, then started to cry.

“Hey, hey, it’s all going to be okay,” he said, moving slowly toward her.

“So much time wasted, Nash. For what? I’m a kidnapped French child raised by people not my own, and I have no idea why.

Did it have something to do with what happened to me?

Did the last eight months stem from this?

” She waved her hands around the room, Antoine and Luc now watching her as well.

“I can’t answer that, honey. We want to, and we will. For now, let’s head back to the resort. It’s going to be dark soon.”

She nodded, staring at the three men.

“Jenna? You okay?” asked Antoine.

“C-can I have a hug? Like brotherly hugs?” They all laughed, the three men wrapping their arms around her.

“Better?” asked Nash.

“Much. Surprising how much better that makes you feel.” They closed the drapes again, closed the doors, and walked out of the old house.

“Did you find anything?” whispered Nash to Luc and Antoine.

“Nothing. A few books, nothing inside them, a few old school papers, that’s about it. They lived somewhere else after here, according to Ace, but this was her childhood.”

“Let’s find the other house,” said Nash. Just as they were about to get into the SUV, the neighbor across the street was walking toward them.

“Hi there! Are you folks thinking of buying that old place?” he asked. Nash squeezed Jenna’s hand, silently indicating her silence.

“Well, we’re thinking about it but having trouble locating the owner. We really just want the lot,” smiled Nash.

“Good luck with that. The neighborhood association has been trying to get that place torn down for years. It was abandoned years ago, and apparently, when the developer built the neighborhood, he was told that house had to stay. Someone paid him a lot of money to leave it alone.”

“Is that right?” smirked Antoine. “Filled with gold?” They all chuckled. All except Jenna.

“We all thought so,” laughed the man. “We tried to keep up with the lawn for a while, but it got to be too much for everyone. Once in a while, someone comes in and cleans it up, but they do nothing with the house.”

“Did you know the family?” asked Jenna quietly.

“No. No, ma’am,” he said, shaking his head. “As I mentioned, this land was cleared of homes that looked just like that, and then all of these were built. That one is definitely a mystery, but I guess we’re stuck with it a while longer.”

“Maybe,” nodded Nash. “Maybe not.”

The man spoke to them for a few more minutes and then waved as they left the neighborhood behind them. Jenna didn’t say a word the entire drive back to the resort. Too late to go out to dinner, they used the hotel restaurant once again, eating in relative quiet.

“Jenna, are you okay?” asked Nash, reaching for her hand. This time, she linked her fingers with his and nodded. Nash couldn’t believe it.

“I’m getting there. Are my real parents still alive?” she asked.

“Your mother is. Her name is Claudia St. Martine,” said Antoine.

“Can I meet her? Can I see her?” she asked.

“Let us make sure that she’s not the one placing you in danger, okay?” said Nash. “If she checks out and everything is good, we’ll make sure that you two are able to meet up.”

“Good. Because I have a few things I’d like to get off my chest.”