Page 50

Chapter 49

Three days later, Auburn showed Evie and I the apartment in his building, and we loved it. It was on the first floor and opened up to a private, fenced courtyard so our animals could run around and play while we were working. There were three spare bedrooms in case we decided to add to our family.

Yesterday, he’d introduced us to his realtor, who had shown us a couple commercial properties that would be great for a bakery. I’d chosen the one that was only a block from the Bouvier office building where Eden would be working. I loved that I’d have my wife within walking distance of my bakery.

I stood behind Eden and wrapped my arms around her in the apartment. Auburn had gone back up the penthouse to give us some privacy to discuss it.

“What do you think?” she asked, her eyes roaming over the hardwood floors and sage-green walls. “Does it feel like home?”

“You feel like home,” I told her, kissing the side of her neck and inhaling her honey scent. The smell of my wife still intoxicated me, even after all these years. “But yes, this does feel like home.”

“It’s not too close to the rest of the family? I know they can be a bit overwhelming. Gianna has already warned me that she would be coming down to get Paulie snuggles every day.”

Placing my fingers on her jaw to tilt her face toward me, I pressed my lips firmly to hers. “I want that. I want us to be immersed in family. You’ve missed out on so much, baby.”

She turned and pressed her beautiful body against mine, arms wrapped around my neck. “Then I say we should take it. What do you think about Dad and Stella’s offer?”

I chuckled. “You mean their demand that Paulie won’t be going to daycare because he’ll be getting spoiled by his grandparents every day?”

Eden nodded. “I like the idea, at least while he’s so little. It would minimize his exposure to too many kids so he doesn’t get sick again.”

“Agreed. And maybe when he’s a toddler, we can put him in that learning center Kassie mentioned. Maybe for a few days a week?”

“That sounds perfect. And you like the space for the bakery? The one close to where I’ll be working?”

“I do. I think I’d like to make it like a chain of our bakery in the Keys, but perhaps with a new name?”

“So not Sweet Heaven?”

I ran my knuckles down the peachy skin of her cheek. “I was thinking Sweet Eden . Maybe have it like a Garden of Eden theme.”

Tears filled her eyes but she nodded vigorously. “I love that. I’ll get started on a logo design tonight. Oooh, we could have lots of foliage and 3-D apples hanging from the trees. What do you think about red and green for the colors? Not like Christmas green; something a little softer.”

“I’ll like anything you come up with. We can ask Auburn about interior decorators, and you can work with them.” I could see her mind filling with ideas and feel the excitement thrumming through her. My wife loved a project.

“Have you talked to Fiero today?”

“This morning before breakfast. He said the house is fine.” A smirk slipped across my lips. “He asked about Charlisse no less than three times while we talked.”

Eden’s eyebrows lifted in two perfect arches. “I thought they looked a little cozy at the Christmas party. She hasn’t said anything about it though.”

“Guess we’ll see when she goes back to Marathon. I’m glad she agreed to help Maria and Barry run the bakery. I don’t want to sell it because it belonged to Charles and Mimsy.”

“And Maria is prepared to talk to the staff once news about the return of Evie Bouvier goes public?” she asked wryly.

“She is.” We’d shared parts of our story with her so the staff at the bakery wouldn’t be blindsided by the news. None of the gory details like my true identity, just the basics about Eden’s kidnapping and our decision to go into hiding to ensure her safety. Maria had been very sympathetic and understanding. I only hoped everyone else would be as well.

“And she’ll talk to Maz? I don’t want everyone I worked with to think I was some kind of shady character.”

I kissed the tip of her nose. “They won’t. Everyone there adores you. They’ll understand the concept of self-preservation. It’s innate in humans.”

“So, we’re really doing this, huh?” she asked, gazing around at the apartment that would soon be our new home.

“As long as everything goes okay with the FBI this afternoon.”

Because for all I know, I’ll be in jail by the end of the day.

Evie and I walked into the FBI offices behind Kassie Bouvier, who marched like a goddamn boss when she was in lawyer mode. She was dressed in a black suit jacket, pale-green top, and sleek black pants. It looked like the outfit had been tailor-made for her pregnant frame, but considering she was married to a designer at one of the largest fashion companies in the world, that probably wasn’t too far off the mark.

Evie wore a simple floral shift dress and sandals, while I was in a light-blue dress shirt and khaki pants. It was strange wearing dressy clothes after we’d been existing mostly in beach bum wear for seventeen years, but Kassie had selected our outfits for us. She said we looked demure and trustworthy.

We were shown into one of those interrogation rooms with the one-way glass along one wall, and Kassie sniffed her disapproval as we sat. “Well, this is fancy. I didn’t realize this was an interrogation.”

The older agent, dressed in a dark-brown suit, heaved himself into a chair across from us. “When one of the best criminal defense attorneys in the state calls and requests a meeting, we really like to roll out the red carpet.”

Kassie's lips curved into something a little sweet and a lot sharp. “Why, thank you, Agent Saunders. I accept your compliment and your hospitality. This isn’t actually a criminal matter though. It’s more of a…” She tapped her chin in mock-thought. “Let’s call it a courtesy call. I’m here to let you know that one of your cold cases has been resolved.”

The other agent, a guy in his thirties with sandy hair and a goatee, leaned forward with his forearms on the table. “Which case?”

Kass looked down at her fingers, running a thumb back and forth over her smooth, pink nails in an oh-so-casual manner before raising her eyes back to the agents. “The disappearance of Evelyn Bouvier.”

The younger man, Agent Peters, looked confused, but Saunders’s posture instantly went ramrod straight. He’d apparently been around long enough to remember the case.”

“And how exactly has it—” He froze when his eyes landed on Evie, who was sitting on a padded chair between me and Kassie. The man leaned forward so far, his stomach was practically flush with the table separating us. His mouth gaped open like a fish, and his sharp eyes narrowed and then widened as his composure slipped. “Holy shit. You’re Evie Bouvier.”

“I am,” she agreed.

Saunders leaned back and rubbed a hand over his receding salt-and-pepper hairline, his eyes never leaving my wife. “Jesus, how long has it been? Fifteen, twenty years?”

“A little over seventeen,” Evie specified.

The man had soulful brown eyes, but they held the edge of calculation, and I had no doubt he was good at his job. “Wow, okay. And who’s your friend?” he asked, gesturing toward me. I did my best to appear unaffected, like Kassie had directed.

“This is my husband, Dane Osbourne.”

He didn’t appear to recognize me, and I sent a silent shout of thanks to Robert and Jamie Smith for their excellent disguise skills. “Can you tell me what happened to you?”

“I was taken by human traffickers,” she replied calmly, and the man’s lips turned down at the corners.

“I’m so sorry that happened to you,” he said with genuine regret and sincerity in his tone. “We figured it was something like that. You didn’t fit the profile for a runaway.”

“Thank you, Agent Saunders.”

“And where have you been all this time, Mrs., uh, Osbourne?”

“In the Florida Keys.” She kept her answers direct and succinct, also courtesy of Kassie’s coaching.

He lifted an eyebrow and nodded, scruffing his hand over the hint of a five-o-clock shadow on his jaw. “All right, I’ll need to pull some files. Would you mind waiting for a few minutes? We’ll also need to get fingerprints from Mrs. Osbourne for verification purposes.”

“Certainly,” Kassie said crisply. “Evie is thrilled to be here and help you put this case to rest.” Okay, thrilled might be pushing it a bit, but speaking with law enforcement was an inevitable truth we had to deal with.

“Thank you,” Saunders said, sounding a lot less combative now. “Peters, can you get our guests some refreshments?” Ahhh, now we’re guests worthy of snacks.

Both men left the room, and Agent Peters came back a few minutes later with a tray laden with a variety of drinks and a basket full of snacks, including Chex-Mix, chips, and bags of cookies that I knew would taste like dirt. We declined food and each accepted a bottle of cool water before he retreated.

Evie fumbled with the lid of her water before I took it from her, cracked it open, and handed it back. “Sorry, I’m nervous,” she whispered, which earned her a pointed look from Kassie. A look that told us there were probably cameras or at least someone monitoring behind that glass.

After a female worker came in and took Evie’s fingerprints, we sat for almost an hour, not discussing anything more consequential than what we were having for dinner that night. Both agents returned, and Saunders had a laptop and a thick folder stuffed with papers.

They sat across from us, Peters lifting the lid of the laptop and Saunders knocking a knuckle against the worn manila file. “This is only the tip of the iceberg, but it’s the most pertinent information. Would you like to tell us what happened to you, Eden? Sorry, Evie,” he corrected, his ‘mishap’ letting us know he’d done a little research into our lives in Florida while he’d been gone. Yep, he was sharp.

“As you probably know, I was in Cancún with my friends on a Spring Break vacation. I think the resort was called Green Diamond.” The older man nodded, and Evie launched into the story about going to look for her phone all the way to when she was fighting against the two men. “I heard them say they were taking me to a boat.”

Peters took copious notes, his fingers clacking against the keys, while Saunders kept his eyes firmly on Evie. “What kind of boat?” he asked.

“I’m not sure. I’d lost consciousness by the time they carried me to it.”

Saunders made a quiet grunting noise. “We became suspicious they were transporting kidnapped people by boat. The government is patrolling those waters more often now than they did back then.”

“Happy to hear it,” Evie replied.

“Can you tell me what happened next?”

My wife inhaled a breath and nodded. “I woke up in some kind of warehouse, in Mexico, I think, but I can’t be sure. There were four other girls there too. Cara, Nesha, and two girls named Jennifer.” Her eyes dropped to her lap. “I always wondered what happened to them. Have they been found?”

Saunders cast a look at Peters who began tapping on the screen of his computer before typing again. “There was a woman named Jennifer Anderson who went missing from the same area as you. Different resort though.” His lips tightened. “Her body was found a few weeks later in Texas. I see missing persons reports for the other women, but nothing else.” His eyes were shaded with sadness and apology.

A tear slipped down Evie’s downcast face, and Kassie produced a tissue that seemed to appear from out of thin air and handed it over. Evie swiped her face and raised her head, firming her shoulders. “Thank you for telling me.”

“Do you need a break?” Saunders asked kindly, and my wife shook her head. “Can you tell us what happened next?”

She told them what she could remember about the warehouse and then about being transported to the house in New Orleans. For almost an hour, she talked and they peppered her with questions about the descriptions and details.

“Just to clarify, there was a false wall in the back of the truck?” Saunders asked.

I reached for Evie’s hand. This part was always the hardest for her to talk about, the tiny space she’d been trapped in, the lack of freedom that had given her monstrous nightmares.

“Yes. We were chained to the side wall, and then they closed the fake wall. There was barely room to breathe, and it smelled like urine and vomit. I felt like a caged animal.”

Saunders winced and shook his head in disgust. “I know this is difficult, but these details do help us learn more about traffickers. We appreciate you sharing with us.”

“That’s what I’m here for. I don’t like thinking of anyone else going through that,” Evie said with a tremulous smile, but she didn’t drop another tear. For the millionth time in my life, I was astounded by the strength and bravery of my extraordinary wife. “Anyway, like I said, we were taken to a house in New Orleans.”

She told them what she could remember about the house. How many bedrooms she saw. The mattresses on the floor.

“I’m sorry I don’t remember all the details. It’s been a long time,” she said.

Agent Saunders smiled. “You’re doing fine. Better than I would be doing. What happened when you got to the house? Were you assaulted?”

Evie rolled her lips inward. “Not sexually. I overheard Ethan and Felipe saying that it was against the rules to have sex with us, but they did hit me. Dragged me by the hair. Chained me to a chair. I wasn’t allowed to take a shower, even after sweating for at least ten hours in the back of that truck. And I remember being really hungry and thirsty.”

I eyed the two agents who both had sour looks on their faces when she talked about the barbaric treatment.

“Do you remember seeing anyone else at the house?” Saunders asked.

“Um, I think maybe there was a guard outside, but it was dark and I was really tired, so I don’t remember much about him. I could hear people coming and going, and then the house felt empty, so I assumed the other women had been picked up.”

“Did someone come for you?”

And here we go. Kassie had counseled us to tell the truth as much as possible without incriminating ourselves.

Evie lifted her chin and skirted the truth. “I heard them say someone had bought me, but I escaped so I never saw him.”

Good girl , I told her with a squeeze of her hand.

“Do you know the name of the person who bought you?”

She swallowed and announced, “Luca Cappitani.”

You could have heard a pin drop in that room. Both agents stared at Evie like she’d grown a second head, and then Peters began typing furiously on his keyboard.

Saunders cleared his throat. “And was that name familiar to you, Evie?”

She nodded. “I knew he was some big Mafia asshole.”

That drew a smile from the man. “Can you tell me how you escaped?”

Evie scrunched her face. “I don’t remember everything. Like I said, I was hurting and sleep deprived. But when Felipe and Ethan were… distracted, I sneaked out.” If by distracted, you mean dead…

“Through a window?” Saunder prompted.

“No, through one of the doors when the guard came into the house and went into another room. Once I was free, I saw a man on the street and asked him for help.” She turned her head and smiled at me. “Dane saved me.”

“You didn’t think to call your family?”

Evie swiveled her head slowly back to the agent. “Funnily enough, the people who kidnapped me and planned to sell me didn’t provide me with a cell phone. I found it quite discourteous of them.”

Ahhh, there’s my Wildcat.

Saunders cleared his throat to cover what I was sure was a chuckle. “Good point.” He turned his attention to me. “Couldn’t you have let Evie use your phone?”

“It was seventeen years ago. Not everyone had a phone glued to their hand back then.” Again, sliding around the edges of the truth. I didn’t actually say I didn’t have a cell phone, but he seemed to accept the non-answer.

“What happened next?”

I picked up that question. “Once Evie told me her story and who was involved, we decided to run. I was aware that Luca Cappitani had a reputation for being ruthless, and I felt Evie’s life was in danger.”

Saunders propped his elbow on the table and rested the side of his index finger against his lips. “Just like that.”

“Yes,” replied.

“You just up and left your life to go on the run with a woman you didn’t even know?”

Shrugging, I said, “I didn’t have any family to speak of and I was between jobs.” I met my wife’s eyes. “We had an instant connection. It wasn’t a hard decision.”

He leaned over to look at the laptop and clicked on the screen a couple times. “Your marriage certificate says you were married in January, but you didn’t even meet Evie until March when she went missing.”

Fuck. I hadn’t thought of that.

Kassie saved my ass with a dismissive hand wave. “Must have been a mistake at the county clerk’s office. You know how busy those places can get. Someone must have keyed in the wrong month. Happens all the time.” It was complete and utter bullshit, and we all knew it.

The agent looked unimpressed and shot back with an immediate question. “Who is Eden Osbourne?”

My wife lifted her chin. “That’s the name I decided to go by.”

Saunders was quiet for a long moment before asking, “Did you have your first name changed legally?”

“I did not.”

“So, your driver's license and passport were forged?” Shit shit shit.

But Evie leaned forward a little and met the agent’s eye with an unyielding stare. “Do you have a daughter, Agent Saunders?”

He seemed taken aback by the question, and it took him a second to answer. “I have two, actually.”

“And if one of them found themselves in a… situation , what would you tell them to do so that one day they could find their way back to you?”

His face morphed into a grimace, and he reluctantly said, “Anything they had to do.”

Evie nodded. “Good. Can we move on from this topic then?”

The two agents looked at each other incredulously before Saunders heaved out an exhausted breath and faced us again. “Why didn’t you contact law enforcement?”

Again, I fielded the question. “The simple answer is Luca Cappitani. It was well known that anyone who tried to testify against him ended up missing or dead. There’s a lot of stuff on the internet about it, as well as documentaries. You can look it up.”

“But we could have protected you through the WITSEC program.”

Kassie let out an indelicate snort. “And how well has that worked out for you in the past, Agent?”

His teeth clenched in anger at the program’s abject failure when it came to witnesses against Luca. “Mrs. Osbourne, why did you bring a criminal defense attorney with you today?”

Kass reached for Evie’s hand in a show of solidarity. “Evie brought her sister-in-law with her. As I’m sure you’re aware, I’m married to her brother, Monty. However, if someone were to want to harass this poor woman about minor indiscretions that hurt no one , I’m certainly able to switch to my attorney hat at a moment’s notice.”

I could tell the man was completely exasperated, and I had to fight to keep my smile contained. But that urge quickly faded when he focused on me but spoke to Evie.

“Mrs. Osbourne, have you ever heard of Damiano Cappitani?”

To our credit, neither of us flinched.

“Is he related to Luca?” she asked.

He was still looking at me. “Yes, he’s Luca’s younger son.”

She tilted her head in the picture of innocence. “Is he a criminal too?”

Jesus, I fucking love my wife.

Saunders floundered a bit. “Well, he… uhhh. We don’t have any direct evidence that Damiano’s a criminal, but he was on our radar because he’s Luca’s son.” Then the agent built up a head of steam, his tone filled with more confidence. “Suddenly though, he disappeared. No one saw or heard from him. If I’m not mistaken, it was some time during the same year you went missing. Rumor had it he’d moved to Italy, but Peters checked that out, and there’s no record of his passport leaving the United States.”

Well. Fuck. He knows.

Kassie—the motherfucking queen of calm—stood and said, “Wow, Agent Saunders. That is a fascinating story. Really, it is, and I do appreciate a good tale, but I believe the Osbournes would like to get back home. They have a baby boy that’s probably getting up from his nap about right now.”

Saunders stood too. “It’s my job to determine whether these two are involved in any illegal activity.”

“Oh, good grief!” Kassie cried, throwing her arms up and letting them fall. “These are not the people you should be focusing on. I’m sure you can look on that little screen of yours and see that the Osbournes have had nothing more serious than a speeding ticket in seventeen years. In fact, they have been model citizens. Dane runs a bakery. Evie got a college degree and is the head of marketing at a hospital that rehabilitates sea turtles. She also goes into schools and talks to children about turtles and conservation. They rescued two pets and donate to charities supporting victims of human trafficking. Not to mention, seven months out of the year, they get up at the ass crack of dawn and patrol the beach to help preserve turtle nests. If you find any criminal activity in all that, then arrest them.”

At some point during all that, she’d flattened her palms on the table and leaned over it. Peters and Saunders were both arching backward in their chairs with eyes as round as beach balls.

Kassie straightened and reached behind her, pulling Evie to her feet. “I have a good idea,” she went on because the damn agents were rendered mute. Grasping Evie by the arms, she held her wrists out toward the agents, almost like an offering. “Why don’t you put the cuffs on Evie really tight. So tight you leave bruises and make her have flashbacks to something no human being should ever go through.”

Mother of God, no wonder she’s considered the best defense attorney in New York.

Then Kass’s voice turned softer, and she shifted Evie so the two women were facing each other, their hands clasped together. “Maybe you could treat this woman—this beautiful woman who has given up seventeen years of her life in order to survive one of the most brutal Mafia bosses of this century—perhaps you could treat her like her kidnappers did and mark her face, split her lip, make her bleed.”

At that point, Kassie turned her glare on the agents again. “If so, make sure to take photos so I can share them with the press. I’m sure they would love to hear how a victim of human trafficking was treated by the FBI. But no matter what, I guarantee that Evie will not lose one ounce of her strength and resilience. She is the most amazing woman I’ve ever met, and she deserves nothing but our respect, not our scorn because she maybe fudged a little paperwork to stay alive.”

Okay, I’ll just be honest here. I’m really close to fucking crying.

Peters was staring somewhere in the vicinity of his feet, and Saunders’s eyes were locked on the two women. He pressed his lips into a line, and I was pretty sure I saw his chin tremble. Then he stood and took a deep breath.

“You’re right, Ms. Bouvier, and I apologize if I came across harshly. Mrs. Osbourne, you have my gratitude for volunteering to speak with us today.” His eyes flitted to me and held there, but they didn’t hold any hatred, and I knew we were going to be okay. “You as well, Mr. Osbourne.”

“Excellent!” Kassie chirped, switching to sweetness in an instant. “If you’d like to have a joint press conference to let the world know Evie has been found, we’d be happy to participate. I think the optics would be great for your office since the case went unsolved for almost two decades.”

Ouch. Okay, maybe sweetness with a side of cyanide.

Then it was all handshakes and appreciation until Kassie led us out the way we came. Once we were down the hallway and out of earshot, Evie whispered, “Do you think they’re going to let it drop?”

“Yep,” Kassie said confidently, flashing us a smile. “Because I am goo-oood.”

As we emerged from the building, we saw a familiar figure leaned against a lamppost. Monty was dressed stylishly in a patterned short-sleeved shirt and black pants that tapered to the bottom hem. He wore black loafers with no socks and looked like a dude that designed clothes for living while engaging in a little MMA fighting on his off days. Seriously, Evie’s brother was brawny. Cruz was too, while Auburn was built more like me, taller and leaner but still muscular.

“Hey,” Monty said, jogging up to us and kissing his wife’s lips and then her belly. “How did it go?”

“Your wife kicks ass,” I blurted, still jazzed up about the successful meeting.

“Yours does too,” he said, smooching Evie’s cheek. “But really, how did everything go? You all right, sis?”

“Really good, thanks to Kassie. I think everything is going to be okay now.”

“Good,” he sighed, shoulders lowering an inch in relief.

“I have one more favor to ask of you, Kassie,” I said, and she swiveled her curious gaze to me.

“Sure. What’s up?”

“Well, we have documents with our names on them and a certificate saying we’re married, but they were forged. I would like us to have legal legal papers, not illegal legal papers, if that makes sense.”

“It does. I have an expert in my office that can help you file the papers for a legal name change and all that. And a new marriage certificate, but you’d have to have a ceremony for that.”

“Actually, that all sounds great, but I had something in mind in addition to that, and it would also affect Paulie.” I had everyone’s attention, and I laid it out for them.

When I was done, my wife threw herself at me and squealed. “You really want to do that?”

“I really do, Wildcat.”

Monty looked at me with something akin to respect, which was all I wanted from him. He didn’t have to think of me like a friend, but I did hope we could be mutually respectful for Evie’s sake. And he had seemed to soften toward me a teeny bit the past few days.

He looked at his wife like she was the second coming of Christ and asked, “You hungry, Kasserole?”

“Are Pamela Anderson’s boobs fake?” she asked with a raised brow.

“I refuse to answer any question regarding any other woman’s boobs, on the grounds it may incriminate me.”

Evie laughed her sweet laugh, and she looked so happy in the June New York sunlight. So happy and so free. “You’re not as dumb as you look, Mon.”

“Appreciate that. While we eat, we can discuss what you want for your wedding dress.” He looked me up and down, appraising, and asked, “Can I design your tux too?”

“I, uh, of course.”

Then he shocked the shit out of me by tossing a casual arm around my shoulders and grinning. “Cool, bro. Let’s go feed our women.”

And just like that, I felt the thrill of acceptance, the warmth of a family that was good and loving. And now I was a part of it.