VANISHED, A Romantic Suspense Novel (Edgars Family Novel) by Suzanne Ferrell

memory, Luke.” Wanting to make him understand, she pushed away from the feel of his body and the delicious scent that comforted her. She focused on his eyes. “Mine are still shots. No noise. So when the policeman asked me if I’d seen the man’s face, my mind simply pulled up the image I’d glimpsed through the door when he first came into the bedroom.”
    “Please don’t tell me he knew you were there, that you watched…” He swallowed as if he couldn’t even finish the thought.
    She shook her head. “No. Of course not. Mama had lots of male visitors. That’s what I thought of them. I learned later that she had a bad coke habit and supplemented her income for it working as a prostitute. She usually let me stay in my room while the men were there, but sometimes she would hide me in her closet, warning me to be very quiet, and kept the men in the living room. Even in her drugged-warped mind, there were some of her customers she knew I needed to be protected from. That particular night she warned me not to make a sound, no matter what. Later there were loud noises and I peeked through the crack in the closet door.”
    Once again her mind pulled a snapshot out of a drawer.
    “He was angry and followed her into the room. Tall, big-bodied with shaggy black hair. He had a scar on his face and a tattoo on his arm. I remember that the most, because I’d never seen one before. I described it as a black star with a circle of blue around it. Later I learned it was a pentagram for a gang that ran that part of town.”
    “Did you see anything else after that?” Luke sounded in more pain than she was feeling.
    “No. He was mean looking and I didn’t want him to find me in Mama’s closet, so I curled into the corner with my teddy bear and blanket. That’s where the police found me.”
    “How long were you in there?”
    “They said just overnight. Our neighbor usually watched me for Mama when she was working at the café down the street. When we weren’t at her door the next morning, she came looking and found Mama. She’s the one who insisted the police search the apartment for me. I didn’t really see much until the policeman carried me past Mama’s body.”
    “And that triggered your photographic memory.”
    She nodded. “The man’s image that I described to the police helped them find my mother’s murderer. The courts set up counseling sessions for a while with a very nice lady. She helped me understand that channeling the events into snapshots helped me distance myself from the trauma of not only that night, but how I lived the early years of my life.”
    “And now? Do you still use it to distance yourself from events?”
    Before she could answer that question, his laptop pinged beside them. Realizing she was still seated on Luke’s lap, she quickly slid to the side as he reached for the computer.
    “Is that Brianna’s cell phone?”
    “The program’s picked up her signal.” He typed some codes into the computer.
    “That’s a good thing, right?”
    He stopped what he was doing to focus that intense gaze on her once more. “It means her battery is still connected to the phone. It doesn’t tell us if the phone is with her or if she’s okay.”
    “I understand that. It’s just…” Unable to finish, she swallowed hard to tamp down her fears.
    “She’s family. Believe me, I get that. We’ll just take this in baby steps, okay?” he said, reaching out to squeeze her hand.
    “Okay. I can do that.”
    “Good.” Releasing her hand, he went back to typing away on the laptop.
    Watching him so focused on the computer screen, she realized he wasn’t just an arrogant flirt like she’d always believed. Except for the waitress today and the news reporter last night, he’d wielded very little of his usual annoying frat-boy charm.
    Seeing the purpose-driven agent who’d shown her both understanding and tenderness just now disturbed her far more. This man was dangerous.
    This Luke, she could