THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

to him.
    “What about her family? If she just up and disappeared, and her husband is known to have a temper, why aren’t they clamoring about her disappearance? Is she in touch with them? She must be. I mean, if he’s a mean S.O.B., who’s to say he didn’t beat them to death and bury them in the basement?”
    “No family.” Eli tossed another document across the table. “She went into state care at the age of eight, when her mother, a single-parent, was shot dead at work.”
    “Domestic situation?”
    Eli shook his head. “Good guess, but no. It was a co-worker who’d recently been fired. He went postal, killing his boss and Lucy’s mother, and injuring three others.”
    “And she went immediately into foster care?”
    “Yep. And for two of those years — approximately age 11 through 13 — she stayed with a foster family by the name of Dickinson. Albert and Gail Dickinson.”
    Delano frowned. Albert Dickinson? “In St. Cloud? On the north side?”
    “Yep.”
    “The same foster home where Ainsley lived for the better part of two years.”
    “Bingo.”
    Delano raked his hair back. All too easily, he imagined the two girls bonding, clinging together… “I guess that sheds some light on why Ainsley has sacrificed every disposable dime she’s earned for the last year and a half.”
    “I guess so.”
    “Do we know where they are, this Lucy Michaels and her child?”
    “Do we really need to know that?”
    Damn Eli for his questions. Of course, that’s what made him so valuable. Delano met the other man’s probing gaze with a level stare of his own. “Yes.”
    Eli leaned back in his chair. “Why? So you can use the information to keep Ainsley in the fold, once she figures out she can’t possibly be infected? Or that you’re exploiting her for her genetic material?”
    Delano felt the bite of his own nails in his palms, and forced his fists to unclench. “You seem inordinately concerned about Miss Crawford.”
    “Of course I’m concerned about her. But dammit, Delano, I’m just as concerned about you. I’m as passionate as you are about stopping these murderous bastards, but there’s a line beyond which you go at your peril.”
    Delano felt the anger rise in his chest, felt the blood lust rise with it, too. He clamped down on it. Hard .
    Eli had been there, to that line he talked about, and maybe some distance beyond. And he’d somehow made his way back. He knew whereof he spoke. That knowledge tempered his words.
    “I appreciate your concern, my friend, but you can rest easy. I was actually thinking more in terms of being able to offer Ainsley an assurance that her loved ones would be safe. Because it occurs to me that if Mrs. Michaels found it necessary to go to these lengths to get free of her abuser, it’s not likely he’s going to shrug it off and move on with his life.”
    Eli rubbed his left temple. “Okay, you got me there. And no, we don’t yet know where she is, but it’s only a matter of time before our people find her.”
    “So you do have someone on it?”
    “Several someones.”
    At Delano’s uplifted eyebrow, Eli rolled his eyes.
    “Let’s say I anticipated your answer.”
    “And Chief Michaels? Is he also looking for her?”
    “Oh, he’s beating the bushes for her, all right. And he’s got a few things going for him. Not only does he have the resources of law enforcement at his fingertips, but he comes from money, too. Lots of capital there to finance an ongoing search.”
    “But?”
    “But his pockets aren’t quite deep enough. He can keep a succession of PIs on payroll, and if he’s careful, he can abuse the police resources under his control. Together, that’s a pretty potent combination. But frankly, he doesn’t have enough money to crack open the doors we opened. If he finds her, it will be through a serious misstep on her part, and so far, she doesn’t seem inclined to careless mistakes.”
    “Good work.”
    Eli inclined his head in acknowledgement. “Would you like a report on my afternoon with Ainsley?”
    Before Delano could reply emphatically in the negative, the piercing bleat of alarm rent the air.
    Both men surged to their feet.
    “Fire alarm,” Eli opined. He whipped out his radio and conferred quickly with security staff downstairs. Seconds later, he holstered the radio. “It’s the real thing. We got a small blaze on the second floor, and fire trucks on the way.”
    Dammit. “We’ll have to evacuate.”
    Eli cursed. “This