Luke made the last turn on his phone's navigation, and the rental car lot rose before them. After pulling in, he stopped the car, and Piper and Sebastian stepped out. She reached for her purse and Lily's bag, but as she stood to walk around and retrieve Lily, Piper realized that Bash had beaten her to the job. When he stooped to unbuckle the car seat, he took extra care to protect Lily's head from any unnecessary bumps, and Piper could only feel impressed. He looked, not exactly affectionate, but comfortable with the little girl in his arms. Piper tried not to gaze at them overlong.

“Over here,” Bash commanded after they had entered the small building. He directed her to a narrow cubby that sported two chairs and small table with a coffee pot and cups. “This should keep you out of sight until I'm done.”

“But you'll need my credit card and ID,” she protested.

“Forget it,” he shook his head. “If those men traced your phone, they might have your name. Better not to document your presence anywhere specific just in case.”

Frustrated, Piper shuffled obediently to the chairs and seated herself in the one farthest from the door. When he strode over to her a few minutes later, she did not look up at him. Had she flipped so easily from gratitude to dismissal in a few minutes?

“You're welcome,” he threw down, a little irked by her attitude. He didn't really mind paying for the car and didn't ask for her thanks, but maybe some cordiality would be nice.

“Why are you doing all this?” she peered across at him, not reacting to his display. “It doesn't make any sense.”

Her question mollified him, as he realized that skepticism, not irritation had fueled her curtness. “Molly was my date.” He stared at his hands where they twisted on the table. “I want to find her.”

“Well, you're sure wasting a lot of time playing chauffeur to me.”

“Not wasting,” he countered. “Whoever is following you is most likely the only link to Molly.”

Piper pouted a bit, though she knew she shouldn't have. True, she would have liked his reason to stem from some sentiment regarding Piper herself, but Piper wanted to find Molly even more than Bash did. “That's true,” she mumbled.

When he registered her tone, Sebastian barely reined in a smile. Maybe he had misjudged her moment with Luke. “After we drop you off, I guess I'll go back to the Prados and see if I can find something there.”

“Again,” Piper huffed, “it doesn't make any sense. You met Molly at a party, you were going to go on a date with her, and she went missing. So, you call the police like anyone else would and go back to your apartment to tell all of your friends the crazy story. You don't put yourself in danger and take off across three states for someone you've met once.”

You mean, for you? he leveled silently. “Look, Luc – Luke has some experience in this kind of thing, so it made sense to go see him. Then, when he realized that you were in danger, he wanted to help – I’m just tagging along.”

“So, Luke has experience in this kind of thing? Helping find kidnapped people? You don’t hear that every day, though he seems really smart.”

“He is smart,” Sebastian suppressed a twinge of envy. “When we were kids, he could outsmart anyone.”

“I imagine the two of you got into a lot of trouble,” Piper smiled.

The look Bash leveled at her spoke as much confusion as acknowledgement. “We spent most of our time running away from trouble,” he corrected, and Piper peered into a face of earnest solemnity. Her curiosity burned, but the memory weighed so heavily on him that she did not press for an explanation.

“Come here,” Sebastian commanded, leaping up suddenly and tugging Lily gently from her arms, pulling Piper to her feet. He wrapped his free arm around her waist and held her against him and away from the lone window. The feel of her in his arms distracted him for a minute, but all he had to do was keep her still until danger passed, so the lapse cost him little. He inhaled the faint scent of vanilla that followed her wherever she went.

“What's going on?” Piper whispered. Her heart throbbed in her throat, but though she could tell he now held her to hide her, she couldn’t escape the pleasure in experiencing the vision she had imagined – Bash, holding her and protecting her. Against her better judgment, she breathed in the scent of him, of spice and campfires and the wind, and she found herself losing sight of her surroundings.

“Just a precaution,” he murmured, nodding his head toward the window.

As if in a trance, Piper turned her head, her awareness returning against every instinct. She craned her neck to see what he referred to just as a black SUV passed by. Piper stared with bated breath toward the window, trying to make out the driver's face, and she leaned closer to him.

He tried to ignore the warmth that slowly increased in the space between them, holding her at arms-length internally when he stood in danger of overstepping bounds. Not while she’s in danger, he reminded himself.

Though her pulse quickened, Piper found herself less panicked as Sebastian's warmth washed over her. When she recognized a blond ponytail in the vehicle, she released the breath she had not realized she had held, and her head relaxed against Sebastian's chest. He rubbed her back in calming circles, and he felt her relax in his arms.

“It's not them,” he crooned, and his low voice tugged her gently out of her mental lapse, drawing her blue eyes up to his ebony ones. When she stiffened with the realization of her position, he released her smoothly back into the little space. Lily had not reacted to the events, instead tugging gently on a black curl that had unkempt from Sebastian's well-groomed hair. So as not to increase Piper's awkwardness, Sebastian poked at Lily, teasing her for pulling his hair.

“Hopefully, that's the closest we'll come to encountering the men again,” Piper finally found her voice, though it came out breathy, and she took several steps away from him toward the window.

“You still need to stay away from the window,” Sebastian reach his hand and pulled her deeper into the cubby, though he released her quickly lest he stir up another intense moment between them. Still, he heard her breath speed for a moment as she peered up at him, and he couldn’t escape the impression that she was reacting to his proximity rather than the insecurity of the potential danger.

Just then, the attendant called out for Sebastian, and he fled the little space to the safety of the larger lobby. “Your car is here,” the man informed him, and Sebastian grabbed a small stack of papers off the desk, gesturing to Piper toward the door. He took the few steps necessary to acquire the car seat before following her out to the little SUV.

Where are you? he texted Luciano, and a moment later, an address appeared on the phone.

Once Piper had installed the infant seat in the car, Sebastian placed Lily inside and secured her.

“I think I'll sit back here to keep her calm,” Piper hedged, scared to be alone with Bash after her lapse in the cubby. She kicked herself that the words had come out weak. Like I’m some fainting maiden, she rolled her eyes at herself.

The nervousness in her voice brought another smile to Sebastian's lips, and he said nothing as he placed the car in drive. It was definitely not fear he read in her eyes when she looked at him, unless it was fear at her own feelings. Of course, Sebastian couldn’t relish the realization in current circumstances. He prayed they could wrap up this insane situation as soon as possible so he could go back to normal interactions with Piper – all the intensity made her understandably nervous, and Bash didn’t know how to reassure her that he was safe when everything around her spoke danger. Ten minutes later, the trio turned down a shaded road, and Sebastian began to recognize the accuracy of his prediction.

On the dark, empty industrial road, Sebastian began to doubt his cousin's assertion that he would led them to a parking lot. After a block of curving pavement, Piper pointed out her car parked along the side of the road. Sebastian slowed until he could make out the silhouette of his cousin's face where the man leaned casually against the Accord. Reassured, Sebastian pulled in front of the parked car and stopped, stepping out as soon as he had turned off the ignition.

“What's going on?” Sebastian demanded as he stepped onto the curb.

Piper, not fully trusting the situation, stayed in the car, reaching surreptitiously up to the front door lock and switching it down. If she needed to slip into the driver's seat for a quick getaway, she wanted the extra time that the lock would provide her – assuming no one has a gun, she huffed.

“They found me again,” Luke informed his younger cousin. “Just as I pulled into the parking garage, they rolled in behind me. Almost trapped me inside, but I manage to speed through the garage to the other side before they could hem me in anywhere.

“They tried to trap you in the garage?” Sebastian pressed incredulously.

“If they had, they would have found themselves out-gunned.” Luke lifted the hem of his sport coat, and Sebastian spied a rather impressive-size pistol.

“You don't want to get in a shootout with guys like this.”

“They don't want to get into a shootout with me,” Luke assured him. “I have learned a lot since we left Langley Park, as I know you have. I have dedicated a little more time, though, to those studies that do well against the Langley Park crew. Once I go international, I will need more finesse, but I'm not trying to blend in with these guys. I can just shoot them, and Isaac will back me up for any trouble that results.”

When she glimpsed the flash of light on Luke's hip, Piper stared hard to distinguish the source. She could not know for sure, but it certainly had looked like a gun. Again, her heart sped as she considered the vulnerability of her situation. His glance toward the rental car did nothing to assuage her fears. Because of her desperation, she had thrown herself into the company of two men she hardly knew. Burden with an infant, she could not even protect herself properly. What had she been thinking?

“So, if we can't park the car, what do you suggest?” Sebastian demanded.

Luke pierced his cousin with his gaze, pouring all of his command into the words that followed. “We are going to stay split up for a while. I will drive Piper's car as a decoy, and you three will head toward Armonk. Don't go into the town, though. Stop outside in Katonah, and have her sister meet you there. Piper needs to stay with you – it's the best way to keep the little girl safe. Tell the woman to return down Saw Mill River Parkway, not the interstate. I'm going to meet Saw Mill River south of Katonah and follow her home.” Whether or not Isaac wanted him with the girl, Luke would do everything in his power to keep her out of danger.

“But do we want Piper's car anywhere near her sister?” Sebastian questioned.

“By that time, I will either have run the men off the road, shot them, or be completely sure that I have lost them.”

When Luke grinned, Sebastian shook his head. “Just be careful. This girl is not your responsibility – taking care of her is not your job.”

“But it is,” Luke corrected. In more ways than one. “This is almost the exact reason that I joined. The face has changed, but the situation is all too familiar. I’m not going to leave Piper or this Molly to the gangs or cartels. It's true, they might just kill her. But they might not – and for something that has nothing to do with her. Mariana would want me to do it. If I could have had these skills to prevent her capture four years ago, we would still be with us”

Sebastian clapped his cousin on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, primo. But thank you for doing this.”

“So, you think I’m doing this for you?” Luke smirked.

Rather than answer, Sebastian shrugged and looked away. Whether Luke intended to communicate his own interest in Piper or to tease Bash about his, Bash would not make a big deal about it yet. Not while Piper stood in such insecurity. “I'll text the sister once we're on the road,” Bash declared

“I've been thinking about that,” Luke declared. “I want you to switch phones with me. How is it these men have found us even though Piper disconnected her phone? I think it's possible that your phone was compromised, not hers. She claimed that she didn't get within forty feet of the road until you drove away. But you were in the road at the same time, probably quite close to them.”

“I don't think -”

“Just do it,” Luke insisted. “You'll get your phone back once we meet back up.”

“Fine,” Sebastian agreed. “Text me when you're ready to find me again.”

“I won't need to,” Luke grinned before seating himself back in the car.

While the men had talked, Piper had watched for any indication that Luke would hand the gun over to Bash. She had seen none, but she would not exclude the possibility that Bash possessed a gun of his own. The diversion from their course made Piper suspicious, and the dark and ominous setting did nothing to alleviate her concerns. If she knew one thing about herself, she knew that she trusted people too easily. That was not so much of a risk when she only had herself to protect, but with Lily in her care? Piper had to take more precautions.

What had she known about Sebastian before he had shown up at the Prados'? Basically nothing, and all of that at his own word. A student from Brown, his “trained” cousin, or so they claimed, and a “neighborhood” where his friends had checkered pasts. When she would explain it later, she would claim that the sinister setting had driven her to act, but she did not know for sure. Her vulnerability to Bash made her insecure, and when she felt insecure, she preferred action over waiting.

Just as Sebastian stepped away from the Accord, Piper slid into the front seat of the rental, shifted the vehicle into drive, and whipped it around the opposite direction. She held no confidence in her ability to outmaneuver the “trained” Luke, but she thought that with surprise and speed, she might find herself able to elude them. By the time she reached the turnoff, the men had just seated themselves in the car.

“Good night! What is that woman doing?” Sebastian almost yelled as he threw himself into the car. “You have to go after her!”

“I do,” Luke agreed, slowly lowering himself into the car, “but I don't want to pressure her into doing something stupid. We know where she's going.”

“We do? Oh, right. Her sister's. But do we know where that is?”

Luke shrugged. “For now, we know the right direction. Armonk, New York. Most likely, we'll be able to beat her there. She thinks we don't know anything about her sister, and you were smart enough to keep my job description vague. She certainly won't expect me to be able to find her sister with no name or address.”

“But your CIA friends?”

“If necessary,” Luke smirked. “Let's just search the Net first. Type in her name and hometown. You'll be amazed what you find.”

Piper Hayes, Atlanta, Georgia, Sebastian typed. A few names popped up, and Sebastian thanked God that she had an unusual name.

“So, you've got her. Piper Hayes. Now, go to 'images.'”

There on the phone before him, only the sixth image on the screen, he spied Piper Hayes smiling face – a few years younger, heavier make-up, curled hair ironed straight. “I've got her. Now?”

“Visit the site where the image is sourced. There should be a link beneath the picture.”

Sebastian tapped the link, and a moment later, a story unfolded that focused on the cheerleading squad for Westland Christian School. “She was head cheerleader,” Sebastian murmured, “and captain of the soccer team.”

“The soccer team? It's true love, then,” Luke ribbed.

“Can we stick to business? There's a quote here from her father, a William Davis Hayes. Nice of him to give us his middle name.”

“Certainly easier to track down,” Luke agreed.

“So now I search for William Davis Hayes, and...” Sebastian typed the words into the search box. After several links that spoke only of the father, Sebastian found a link that took him to a church website. “'Bill Hayes, deacon and elder for the Fellowship Presbyterian Church, has volunteered – along with his entire family – to adopt a family in need for this Christmas season. The adoption will include providing presents for the kids, gift cards for the parents, one high-dollar item requested by the family, and Christmas dinner for all. The Hayes family includes Bill Hayes, his wife, Linda, and their children, Piper and Jenkins, known as Jennie on the left, and Oscar and Fallon on the right.' Seriously? Jenkins? Fortunately for us, the sister's name is unusual.”

“To say the least.”

“And people almost always write their full names on their wedding announcements.” Jenkins Hayes, Sebastian typed, and immediately, a page of links displayed on the screen. Skimming down the links, he spotted the page he needed and clicked on it. “'Mr. and Mrs. William Davis Hayes are pleased to announce the impending marriage of their daughter, Jenkins Amelia Hayes to Brian Thomas Pendergrast...' There we go, and another unusual name, though not as rare as 'Jenkins,' I'm sure. So, Brian and Jenkins or Jennie Pendergrast in Armonk, New York. Can't be too hard to find.”

“All right, so show me your resourcefulness. Let's find this sister.”

+++++++++++

As she clutched the steering wheel, Piper's hands still shook. She had done it. Somehow, she had left them behind, and now she only needed to get to Jennie in a timely manner. Pulling into a driveway seemed all too easy to predict, but since Piper could not afford to drive like a maniac, evasion trumped escape. The men had apparently not predicted it, though, because after turning back the way they had come from, she zipped into the next residential area and parked behind a big SUV. Though the action rendered her invisible from the main road, anyone driving down the residential road would have seen her the moment he passed the SUV. No one had come looking.

Now, Piper just needed to contact her sister. Though Jennie had always shown a proclivity to accept strays, Piper did not imagine the woman had ever thought about accepting a stray baby. With one of Jennie's own kids in diapers, surely the woman had an end to the depths of her maternal urges. Only way to be sure is to call her, Piper reasoned.

From what Piper had seen in movies, pursuers always tracked their prey using the phone itself, not the phone number. She recognized her folly in putting so much faith in movies, but she didn't know how much the plane tickets for Lily and herself would cost once the Prados contacted Piper – if they contact me, she corrected herself. The fact meant that buying a GPS could not happen, and Piper needed a map if she were to make it to Jennie's house.

Having convinced herself, Piper hopped off the interstate at Katonah and kept driving for a few miles until she ran into her cell phone provider in Bedford Hills. Twenty minutes later, she walked out of the store with a mid-priced smart phone. Though she had forgotten her sister's number, never having actually typed in the numbers after programming it into her original phone, Piper tapped in her mother's number.

Hey, mom. Sorry if you've been texting me. This is Piper. My phone's messed up. Do you have Jennie's number? I don't have it in my new phone.

After a short scolding about “these things called landlines,” Mrs. Hayes sent Piper the number, along with several miss yous, love yous, and “can't wait for you to move back home”s. Piper replied with her own versions of the same before dialing in her sister's number.

“Pip!” Jennie sang into the phone. “How are you? You tired of the northeastern winters yet?”

Piper sucked in a fortifying breath, then forced nonchalance into her tone. “Oh, they're not all that bad with the right clothes. I had to retire my flip-flops by sophomore year.”

With a bout of small talk, Piper softened her sister up until the opportune time, then dropped the bomb and listened for the fallout. Not that she felt any assurance of its success. “So, you know how you have a tendency to pick up strays?” Piper began tentatively.

“Don't tell me you've started doing it? It's a bad habit and hard to break.”

“Well, I didn't exactly pick up a stray – it was sort of dumped in my lap. And it's kind of not an animal.”

For a moment, Jennie said nothing, but when she spoke, her voice held an odd excitement. Piper rolled her eyes, amused at her sister's idiosyncrasy. “Well, do tell. I'm all riled up here now.”

“It's a baby,” Piper released the latches that held back the missile, listening as it whistled to the explosion below.

“Well, Piper, you can't just pick up a stray baby. There are laws about that. I mean, if there weren't, I'd probably have a few handed to me by some of the local high school girls.”

“You still volunteering in the online counseling?”

“Still volunteering; but seriously. You can't keep a baby.”

Piper prepped herself for a long, drawn out story. “In this case, I kind of have to. See, apparently her mom and dad are in some kind of danger – they're researchers in Peru – and they just need me to take her for a few days until they can get to a safe place. Then I'm supposed to fly with her to the safe location and leave her with her mom and dad or some relatives. They gave me money and everything. I trust these people, so I'm going to do as they ask.”

“Pip, you trust everyone.”

“Regardless, I babysat for these people for weeks. My sponsoring professor introduced me to them as 'two of the nicest people he has ever met.' Seriously, I have to do this.”

Jennie sucked a long, drawn-out breath through the phone, then, “Okay. So what do you want from me.”

“I just want to come stay with you until I hear from the Prados. Then I'll fly out with Lily and leave you alone.”

“Oh, send me a picture of her,” Jennie suddenly begged, enthusiasm finally overtaking her caution.

“Will Brian be okay with this?” Piper suddenly wondered.

“Brian is out of town for the next four days. Maybe five. So just make sure you're out by then.”

With a sigh of relief, Piper said her goodbyes and hung up the phone. At the next stop light, she sent her sister the picture. Everything would work out now, Piper imagined. Except for Molly, she upbraided herself. Even if Lily and her parents got back together, how would Piper ever find her best friend? The sudden realization stabbed Piper through the heart, but she had to focus on Lily. Creating a new victim by fretting over a current victim seemed counterproductive and wrong.

When Piper pulled up to Jennie's two-story colonial, all thoughts of Molly had fallen to the background.