Chapter 13

The room was swarming with cops and investigators and each and every one of them had suggested both gingerly and firmly that Dakota leave the room, get something to eat, go get some tea, anything to get her out of the way. Each time one of the men in uniform did, she looked him right in the eye and told him to ‘go fuck himself’. 

“The bear is gone,” Sid reminded her again, squatting in front of her, trying to draw her attention to him and off all of the uniformed men who were buzzing around the room like so many bees and do very little. That was the part that was pissing her off. She wanted someone to do something but no one was letting her do anything. “That’s a good sign.” Slowly she turned her gaze to meet his, and just as she’d done the two or three other times he’d tried the same tactic she just looked at him for a moment, incredulity and simmering rage in her gaze and then looked away. She hated him right now, and he was okay with that. He kind of hated himself too. He’d been selfish, wanting time with her alone, but he’d also thought they were, that Becky was completely safe.

Sid reached for her hand, wanting to soothe her, to comfort her, but as soon as he had her hand, she pulled it away like his skin was poison and put her own back on her lap and sat there, staring straight ahead, eerily still.

Sid went back to pacing. She wouldn’t let him sit with her, hold her, comfort her and she obviously wasn’t going to comfort him so he paced. He had to do something physical. He’d offered to search the beach with some of the other police men but they’d told him to stay with his ‘little woman’ where he could be of some use. Except he wasn’t being of any use to Cody and he felt as guilty as hell and he wanted to find Becky more than anyone here...well, everyone except her Aunt who kept giving all of the men surrounding them dark, threatening looks.

“Look, let me at least search the hotel. If she wandered down a corridor...she liked the elevators,” he tried to explain, remembering how she’d made faces at herself in their mirrored interiors, “she might just be riding up and down and....”

“Yes sir, you did mention that,” one of the dark skinned men with the smooth voices replied condescendingly, smiling to show all of his teeth. “We’ll leave the hotel staff who know the hotel and all of its entrances and exits to that though hmmm?” he replied, patting Sid’s shoulder and then going back to barking orders into his radio. Sid’s hands curled into fists and he clenched his teeth together.

“Then let me join the search on the beach,” he demanded again, only to have the big man give him that same tired smile and shake his head.

“Why don’t you sit with your lady there sir? She looks like she needs a little comfort.” Sid bit back the stream of f bombs he wanted to lace his next comment with and instead turned on his heel and went back to pacing.

“Why aren’t you doing anything?” Dakota’s voice rose over the hum that all of the men’s voices had created and Sid turned to see her standing at the end of what had been Becky’s cot where she’d been excited to ‘camp out’ in, her eyes blazing, nostrils flaring. “Why isn’t anyone doing anything to find my niece!” she shouted, picking up the nearest thing to hand, which was one of the brightly coloured plastic buckets they’d used at the beach, which she then tossed against the wall in frustration.

“I assure you ma’am,” the officer who had just been so patronizing with him now turning around to be equally denigrating to Cody, “I have officers scouring the vicinity. She’s only a very little girl, she can’t have gotten very far.” Sid hadn’t ever really seen the look that was on Dakota’s face now, but he had seen similar expressions on players right before they’d entered into the kind of fight where they weren’t just trying to boost team morale but where they were in it for blood.

“Tell them,” she snarled, her gaze holding his making it crystal clear that this was more of an order than a suggestion. It had been his idea to call the local police and his idea not to tell them why they were here.

“She might just have wondered out to the beach,” he pleaded, knowing the minute he told the Bahamian police that she was in the witness protection program that they would all be handed over to the American Consulate and likely the FBI and that would mean..., “you don’t know that’s what’s happened.”

“Tell them!” she snapped, fury making the light in her eyes look like there were flames dancing behind her irises. He opened his mouth to protest but shut it again just as fast. She was right. They were responsible for that little girl; this wasn’t the time to keep secrets. 

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She hadn’t wanted this responsibility, hadn’t wanted the intrusion on her life, hadn’t wanted to feel anything for a little girl she hardly knew but she did, Cody knew as her nails bit into her palms, drawing blood as she watched Sidney explain their situation to the constable or detective or whatever the tall man with the beady eyes who kept looking at her as if she was something he’d found on the bottom of his shoe.

She was glad Sid looked uncomfortable doing it, glad that he was squirming and looking nervous as the big man glowered down at him. She hadn’t wanted to feel anything for him either, had not wanted him to get past her defences for exactly this reason. The minute she let her guard down something bad happened.

It had always been like this. After the first foster home she’d taught herself not to get too close, not to let emotions override her judgement, not to feel. For years she’d been a master of keeping her distance, even if that meant that everyone on the swim team thought she was aloof, a bitch. It didn’t matter, as long as her heart was safe.

Now it wasn’t. Now it was in pieces and she had no one to blame but herself.

‘Should have said no when they told me to take her’, she told herself as she stared down at the half moon shaped wounds in the palms of her hands. ‘Should never have let him in the house that night’ she added, glancing up at where Sid was obviously still trying to explain who she really was despite the passport the Commander had in his hands. He’d made her feel safe, thought that he had made them both safe, but then she’d just been ignoring that little voice in the back of her mind that had been trying to remind her that she couldn’t trust anyone but herself.

‘I could go now’ she thought, for one fleeting moment and then realized that she had nowhere to go. She was stuck on a an island where she knew no one and the only two ways off meant having a passport, which she didn’t have. Not a real one anyway.

‘Besides, I can’t leave her now’. She didn’t really have to tell herself that. She knew it. She could not leave Becky behind. She would not. She’d made a conscious decision to keep her safe. She’d let her down in one, brief moment of selfish madness. It wouldn’t happen twice.

“Do you have a current picture of her?” Cody blinked up at the big man towering over her. She was about to shake her head when Sid offered her phone to the man. He’d asked someone to take a picture of them at the beach in front of the sand castle. The memory of the warm sand under her feet and the tower of packed sand behind them almost made her smile. “Who took this?” the man’s deep voice dragged her back to the present. She looked up blankly at Sid, trying to bring the woman’s face to mind. All she could remember was a big straw hat and a pair of those giant Jackie O shades.

“Just someone on the beach,” Sid shrugged, like details didn’t matter. They mattered now.

“A woman,” Cody said, shutting her eyes, trying to remember the figure behind the phone when they handed it to her. “Big hat,” she added, holding her hands out from her head to demonstrate the width of the brim, “big sunglasses,” she continued, holding her hands up in front of her eyes, making circles between her thumb and forefinger. “Plain black one piece...,” her voice faded as the image completed itself in her brain. “Holy fuck. Agent Keith.” Cody turned her gaze up to meet Sid’s but of course he just looked back at her, waiting for her to explain. He hadn’t met the agents, if they were agents at all. “I need to speak to someone at the American Consulate, right now.” 

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“Tell me again,” the man in the cream coloured linen suit who looked like he could have stepped off of the silver screen and not out from behind a desk smiled encouragingly at Cody as he offered her a sweating glass of unsweetened ice tea. ‘Americans and their unsweetened tea’, Cody thought uncharitably, didn’t they know that you give sweet tea for shock?

“I’d met them right away, well him, Agent Roth as soon as I got to Pittsburgh,” she explained for the second time. A sketch artist had already taken her description of both of the Agents and had left, to go complete the sketches she assumed, or send them to the FBI. “They met me right off the plane, took me to a house...,” she shrugged and looked back at the man who just kept on smiling at her and nodding, making her want to tell him more, except that there wasn’t any more to tell. “I don’t know. I got in touch with them whenever...well, whenever I was scared or thought someone had been around.” Sid reached for her hand again and she snatched it away without looking at him. She had to focus. Becky needed her to focus. He was just a distraction. She kind of wished that he’d just leave.

“So, there were never any other agents?” he asked and Cody shook her head. The man smiled thoughtfully again and nodded and then went back behind his big desk. His drawn out silences, his thoughtful looks were beginning to make her angry. She wanted to go back to the hotel. She was actually pretty pissed that he’d insisted on their coming to the consulate at all. If Becky wandered back to the room and they weren’t there.... “And no one else ever answered the phone when you called them?” Again Cody shook her head and again the man just smiled and nodded.

“Look, I’ve had a lot of contact with official agencies in my life,” she began with a sideways look towards Sid who was sitting next to her, watching her with this pained, concerned look on his face that made her roll her eyes, “but I’ve tried my best never to have to have any kind of contact with cops so, I don’t know, they seemed official to me. Nice suits, nice car...I don’t know what else to tell you.”

“But you didn’t call them when the intruder threatened you?” the consulate official ignored her accusation as he sat down behind his desk and steepled his long, thin fingers. They were all bony knuckles and Cody couldn’t stop staring at them.

“I thought we should get out of the house right away, that was my idea,” Sid offered, and this time when he reached for her hand he didn’t let her take it back. He squeezed her hand tightly and held it in both of his, letting her know that he wasn’t going to be letting go of it any time soon.

“But they didn’t immediately contact you?” the man raised an eyebrow and Sid and Cody looked at one another and then shook their heads.

“No. I guess I hadn’t really thought about that but...no, no one called,” Cody confirmed and then man took a deep breath and then nodded, as if it was all coming together for him, which, Cody thought, she hoped he’d share because she was confused.

“And this is the phone they provided to you?” he asked, holding up her phone which he had asked to see as soon as they arrived. Cody nodded, knowing she was starting to get to the end of her rope with this twenty questions bullshit. It was only Sid’s hand squeezing hers that was stopping her from marching out of this room right now. If she didn’t start getting some answers soon.... “We traced both of the numbers you were provided for these ‘agents’,” he made the term sound sarcastic and then smiled like he had said something amusing. Cody frowned. “Neither number works now. I’m afraid, Miss James that a deception has been committed here and I’m afraid that I believe, as I think you do now, that your niece has not merely walked away from your room at the Bimini.”

She’d known it, in the back of her mind, she’d already known it. Still, hearing it said out loud and by an actual card carrying official of the American government made it too real and despite clenched teeth and a silent vow that she wouldn’t, Cody burst into tears.

“So what do we do now?” Sid asked for her. She was mad and wanted to stay mad at him but couldn’t help but shoot him a grateful look for asking the question that she couldn’t voice through her tears.

“Unfortunately all I can say is wait here where we can guarantee your safety and I know that’s not what you want to hear,” the tall man said, getting and moving around his desk to squat down in front of Cody because she wouldn’t, couldn’t look up at him. “The police here are very good, and our people are at the airport and at every marina, but the most important thing is that Becky’s description is with every one of those people. We’re going to find her Miss James. I have a good feeling about this.” 

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The consular’s name was Gordon Andress and he turned out to be a wealth of information, or at least he was willing to pass on the information the FBI was sending on the people that had posed as Agents, who, it turned out, were more likely to be affiliated with the Independent Soldiers gang posing as FBI agents which should have been a good thing, according to Gordon. It should have meant that they were trying to protect both Becky and Dakota. Unfortunately it also meant that if the Hells Angels were aware that is who they were, that they’d have followed them to the island.

That turned out to be Sid’s fault, in a roundabout way and for that Cody had gone back to not speaking to him, which was why he was sitting on his own while Dakota was pacing and biting her nails and swearing under her breath while he watched, feeling totally powerless.

“I was kinda freaked, you know, guy with a gun,” he reminded her for the second time, his comment earning him the same, angry glare that it had the first time. She did stop pacing though. “I’m sorry I left my phone behind. I’m sorry if that’s what led them here,” he repeated, which only earned him an eye roll, right before she went back to pacing and gnawing on her fingernails. “Dakota,” he sighed and then got to his feet and reached for her, pulling her hand away from her mouth. “Cody, you can’t keep punishing me.” Her eyes were cold when she met his gaze but she kept her mouth shut, didn’t so much as bat an eyelash. “I’m not going to stop loving you just because you’re pissed and trying to push me away because it’s the only thing you think you can do.” She looked down at his hand on her arm and then up into his eyes and gave him that look, the look that said ‘stop touching me’ and that warned that if he didn’t she’d make him. He didn’t let go. “I love you and even if you really hate me right now, I think you really love me and I know you think that you can go through this alone but you are going through this with me.” She regarded him for one long moment and then shrugged off his hand and took a step away from him.

“If we hadn’t been doing...what we were doing, she’d be safe and not with some scary biker gang kidnappers,” she snarled at him and then stuck what was left of her thumbnail into her mouth and went back to chewing. The action reminded him so much of the way that Becky sucked on her thumb all the time that Sid had a hard time not smiling, but he knew if he did, it would probably earn him a slap.

“They’ll get her back,” he told her, feeling confident though he wasn’t sure why.

“Maybe,” she replied, with her back to him, “but do you have any idea how damaged she’ll be?” she asked in a small voice. He didn’t and she knew he didn’t. He also realized, with a tightening of his chest that with all the moving around she’d experienced in her life that she probably had a nightmare playing in her head.

“She’s a good kid, a bright kid and she knows that you love her,” he told her as tenderly and as firmly as he could. “They say kids are resilient. I guess you’d know.” She lifted her gaze to meet his, her eyes filled with tears.

“How can you be so fucking positive right now?” she asked, her bottom lip trembling slightly. Sid smiled, not too much, as he pulled her back into his arms.

“I’m the captain of the team remember? It’s my job to keep the guys spirits up. And as your boyfriend,” he added quietly, pressing his lips to her forehead, “it’s my job to remind you that sometimes good things happen to good people.”

“My boyfriend huh?” she whispered, her body melting into his.

“If you’ll have me,” he grinned, rubbing her back gently. She lifted her face to his and for a moment h couldn’t read her expression but a gentle smile broke across her face and then she laid her head on his shoulder and began to cry again. He felt guilty for feeling relieved that she didn’t’ hate him for the moment even if she might hate him again later. At least, for now, she was allowing him to be there for her.

“Sorry to interrupt.” Sid looked over his shoulder to find the consular officer holding the door to his office open a crack, “but there’s a little girl at the airport that matches Becky’s description.”