“Unless she's already taken off while I was circling in the damned air. Fuck!”
Elissa sounded slightly winded and Lach pictured her speed-walking if not outright running through the airport. “I'm going to keep searching just in case she did a switch-a-roo with another flight or managed to slip past me. Knowing her, she could have. I’ll call the second I either find her or confirm she’s not here. Then I’ll book a flight back home, hopefully for both of us. There’s one in the wee early hours.”
“Scuttle your search. Go ahead and book your flight now. I need you back at headquarters ASAP.” Lach knew that Elissa would have no hope of finding Gina in Key West.
Because he had just spotted Malcolm McCoy.
“What about?—”
“She’s not there, Elissa. Go home.”
“Lach—”
“That’s an order.” He watched Malcolm board a flight for Frankfurt. “But first, I need you to check the manifest for a flight.” He gave her the details. “Tell me if there are any dogs on board. Do it now!” His stomach clenched at the thought that Gina and Fleur were already on board and Malcolm was trapping them.
“Aye-aye captain!” In the background, he heard Elissa unzip her laptop tote.
“If there’s a dog on board even remotely resembling Fleur, we’re going to need to stop that plane,” he added.
“Can do.” She typed for a moment. “Okay, no dogs on board at all.” Elissa sounded as relieved as Lachlan felt. “Why did you think… Wait, is Malcolm there?” Elissa asked. “Are you with him right now?”
The sweet hope in her voice killed him.
“No, Elissa. I’m watching him get onto that plane right now.” Nothing escaped the big man's attention so Lachlan watched Malcolm from a safe distance as he handed his phone to the attendant to scan. Malcolm didn't seem hesitant. He strode purposefully through the gangway to the plane.
“Call him! Maybe?—”
“Elissa—”
“—he’s trying to get to her before the bad guys?—”
“Elissa—”
“—do and you guys could team up?—”
“Honey. Stop.”
That got her.
He listened to her take a deep breath. “Everyone thought Fia was bad except me,” she said quietly. “But she’s not. Jake and Psychic thought Gina was bad, but she’s not and I knew it. Do you see a pattern here yet?”
Lach sighed. “I can’t risk it, lass, understand?”
“Dammit.” She sounded so disappointed. “I just want all my family back safe and not fighting anymore.”
If the hope in her voice had killed him before, the sad longing in it now nailed his coffin shut.
“I do too, lass.”
Except he wanted more than that. He wanted to destroy whoever was responsible for dividing and scattering his house, turning the people he cared about against each other. Dammit, he had spent so long and worked so hard on Watchdog. It was the lifeline he’d needed to pull him out of despair. It brought Gina back into his life. It gave him brothers again. And sisters, like Elissa. Against the odds, they’d all found each other—saved each other—through Watchdog.
Elissa was right. Watchdog was family.
“All right, she’s not on board but Malcolm looks like he knows what he’s doing. So, I need to know about every flight that flew out of Newark to Frankfurt today.”
“Yeah.” Elissa sounded unsure.
“What?”
