Her Name Was Annie by Beth Rinyu (the little red hen read aloud txt) 📕

“Got what wrong?” I asked.

“I think it’s your ex who should have sucker written on his forehead for letting someone as great as you slip away.”

My cheeks heated over his compliment. “That’s funny because I was thinking the same thing about you and your ex.” I managed a smile.

“Goodbye, Stephanie.” He leaned over, placing a gentle kiss on my cheek, then walked out the door, restoring my faith that maybe there were a few good men left out there.

Chapter 36

RELIEF WASHED OVER me as I stepped off the plane. As if a 5:15 a.m. flight wasn’t bad enough, the kid sitting behind me kicking my seat for nearly the entire five hours of it took it to a whole new level. It amazed me how his mother just sat there the entire time, allowing him to do it. That was until the older woman sitting beside me finally turned around and said something once he began to shift his strikes upon her seat.

As I ambled through the airport, I dug around my purse for my phone. I needed to text Francesca. Her last words when she had dropped me off at the airport were to text her the moment I landed to let her know I had arrived safely. It was odd to me because once my mother passed away, I thought I had lost the one person who would worry incessantly about my well-being. Now that Francesca came along, it seemed as if I had found that once again in her. When I took my phone off airplane mode, I found two texts from Kara asking me to call her ASAP and one from Francesca asking me to call Kara the moment I had landed. I sat down on the bench, with my heart beating at a rapid speed as I pulled up Kara’s name in my favorites. I had given Kara Francesca’s number in case of emergency, and knowing she had contacted her when she couldn’t get a hold of me had my guard up.

“Mom,” Kara answered immediately, and I could tell right away she’d been crying.

“Kara, what’s going on?” I asked. Terrified to hear her reply.

“Dad…” She let out a loud sob, and my heart sank.

“Kara!” I called. “What happened?” I was frantic, needing her to pull it together to finish getting the words out.

“Ms. McGuire?” Ian’s voice came through the other end of the phone as Kara’s crying continued in the background.

“Ian, what’s going on?”

“There was a shooting earlier.” I felt all the blood drain from my face. “At a bust that went down. Agent McGuire was shot.” Ian’s voice was grim and defeated.

“Is-is he okay?” I closed my eyes and clutched tightly to my phone, praying he’d say he was.

“He’s in surgery right now.” I nodded, needing to pull it together for Kara even though my heart was breaking as well. Ian gave me all the details of which hospital they were at and where to meet them. I was so thankful he was there with Kara when I couldn’t be. I sprinted through the airport and into the parking area. My hands were trembling when I got into my car and gripped the steering wheel. I took a deep, cleansing breath, trying to ease my nerves just enough so I could drive. “Please let him be okay. Please,” I whispered, allowing the tears to finally expel from my eyes like a river.

_______________

Kara was sitting with her eyes closed and her head resting on Ian’s shoulder when I entered the waiting area of the hospital. “She just fell asleep,” Ian whispered.

“Any more news?” I whispered back, taking a seat beside him.

“No.” Ian’s face was pale and worn.

“What happened?”

“We had been working on this case for a while now. It ties in with one that Agent McGuire worked on years ago.” I cinched my eyebrows in confusion. “I can get in a lot of trouble if anyone finds out I’m telling you this.” Ian dropped his voice even lower.

“I promise, I won’t say a word.”

He nodded and continued. “There was this case involving the Antonaci family from years ago. The father passed away in prison, this past November.”

My heart dropped at the mention of that last name. It was the case Jack headed up that led to the arrest of the father, thus in turn causing his son to take his revenge on our unborn child, Kara, and me. All of the evidence was there to arrest the son for what he’d done, but he ended up hiring some hotshot lawyer who’d gotten him off on a technicality.

Jack never got over it. I also believed the son never got over his hatred for Jack for locking his father up. Then it dawned on me, what Ian had just said, the father had passed away in November. The same time of the drowning and when the pictures of Kara and me were found. It was all making sense now as to why Jack was so uptight after that. I was certain he had thought it may have been connected to this case. One that had haunted him for most of his career.

“Guy continued the family business of racketeering on multiple levels. He was using his construction business as a front. He more recently expanded his business to human trafficking,” Ian explained.

“Oh God.” I shuddered in disgust.

“He was being watched by the agency, but everything he was doing was so under the radar, it was hard to move in. We thought we had him on Christmas Day, and it turned out to be a no go.”

I suddenly remembered how Jack had gotten called into work on Christmas and the apprehension that seemed to follow him as he left. “So, it didn’t pan out on Christmas?”

“No. It was a false lead. It wasn’t until last month when the ex-girlfriend of Guy Antonaci contacted the agency. She wanted to give some pretty damming evidence, but she’d only deal with Agent McGuire. So he met up with her