Carter by Kathi S. Barton Page B

happened. Once she’d not been on campus; there had been a trip that was class related. No one knew what the trip was, but she and others, also unknown to the campus security, were on it. The next few times he’d gone there, no one knew who he was talking about. They didn’t have her registered for any classes and never had. The room that he knew she was staying in was devoid of anything that was hers, and there wasn’t a person on campus that had seen her.
    And sending a crew to get her had resulted in her getting hurt. Not that he cared, but when she started sending his men to him in body bags, he’d gotten pissed. She was a minor, his minor, and she was going to fucking do as he told her or he was going to know the reason why. And now she had a kid.
    Everything he’d read about what she could do told him that the boy would be stronger. Would know more than her. Daniel had no information on the boy other than he was male and hers. Now he knew how old he was, but nothing else. He didn’t even know what he looked like, who his father was, or—and this really pissed him off—what abilities, if any, he had. For all he knew, the boy could be a dud.
    It was only by chance that they’d found the woman who worked for his daughter. She’d had a picture on her cell phone that one of his men had seen. It was then that he’d put a man on her to do whatever he deemed necessary to find Dane. Two weeks into the project, they found out about the son.
    That had been over two months ago. And now…Christ, he was back to square one again. And it was going to be harder now that she knew he was onto her than it had been before. Trying to buy out the Lanning man was impossible. All of them had more money than Daniel had ever had over his entire life. His door opened after a short knock and he bid them enter.
    “Dane just landed at a little airport about three miles from here. The plane is registered to Lanning Search and Rescue. They’re still on the strip.” Daniel grabbed his coat as Victor continued telling him what he knew. “I don’t know what she’s doing with them, but the company is known for its ability to find anything or anyone. Mostly they work in disasters, landslides, kidnappings. This one involved a family of three that was taken from their home. She isn’t mentioned in the report, but she’s there. I have men working at all the strips around here, and he was just handed her picture this morning.”
    “How long do we have?” Victor looked at him when he didn’t answer. “You just happened to be handing out the picture and there she was? Just like that, after years of trying to find her?”
    “Pretty much. I was driving by that one when some of the pictures came in. I stopped in, printed a few of them, and handed him one. Lucky for us, I’d given him my cell number so he could contact me when I’m not at my office. This guy thought she was on it when she left so had pulled up the footage from that time and found her. He said that the plane had called in for landing time, and he tried to delay them but was overridden when he stepped out. I’ve got two men at the runway now, as well as a cop that I know on standby. I’m sort of playing this by ear right now.”
    The police escorted him through lights. Stop signs meant nothing to them. He was this close to getting her, and he wasn’t going to be stopped by a couple of broken laws. It was most unfortunate that someone had been cleaning house at the precinct or he might have had more help. As it was he had no ears within the building, and no one to keep him apprised of when he was being investigated. But soon that would stop as well. He was going to clean his own house as soon as he got Dane back.
    He got out of the plane just as they were disembarking. Daniel watched them on the strip as they all seemed to be joking and having a grand time. He didn’t see his daughter, but that didn’t mean anything. She was there, and he knew it. What he didn’t count