VANISHED, A Romantic Suspense Novel (Edgars Family Novel) Read Online Free PDF

Hollister-Klein?” He loved the game of twenty questions. You discovered the most interesting details when you played it—like how Abby curled her toes when she was thinking.
    “Just that they’re a major importer and exporter and have defense contracts to move equipment throughout the world.”
    Standard public information anyone could glean from the news or internet. He reached for the television remote, tracing his fingers over the keys. “And your friend gave you no hint what the irregularities she found might pertain to?”
    “She told me something didn’t add up on a new project she was working on.” Abby yawned.
    “I don’t suppose I could talk you into going home and letting me handle this?”
    She shook her head. “No. Brianna called me. She and I have known each other since the day she came to the orphanage. I want to help her.”
    “You were in an orphanage?” He couldn’t hide his surprise. He’d never thought of Abby’s past, but he’d assumed it was like his—mother, father, siblings.
    “My mother died when I was three and I went to live at the Sisters of the Sacred Heart orphanage. Brianna came along about a year later, and we became friends. Even after she’d been adopted a few years later, she always wrote me.”
    “I thought you said she was your college roommate.”
    “We stayed in touch all through school. When it was time to go to college, we planned it together and ended up at MIT, me on scholarship, her on her adoptive parents’ Money. Brianna is the nearest thing I have to a sister.” Tears formed in Abby’s eyes, and she blinked hard at them. “So, no. I’m not going home until I find her or find out what happened to her.”
    Uncomfortable with her pain, Luke pushed himself off the bed. “Then get some sleep. We’ll start searching for answers in the morning.”
    He stopped at the connecting door. “Leave this open. Just in case.”
    “I’m a big girl, Luke. I don’t need the door open just to feel safe.”
    He grinned at her. “Maybe it will make me feel safer.”
     
    * * * * *
     
    The two men relaxed in leather chairs opposite each other across the polished mahogany desk in the century-old library. They sat in silence for a few moments, sipping their cognac. Smoke rings from their cigars wafted above their heads, filling the room with a spicy Indonesian aroma. The firelight in the river-stone fireplace flickered off the dark panels of the walls.
    “Did she tell you where it was?” The gray-haired man asked.
    “No. I’m afraid our men were a little too enthusiastic in their efforts.” The younger man took a sip from his crystal snifter. “All she mumbled before passing out was something about it being with an Abby.”
    He pulled out his phone and played the recording he’d made of her interrogation.
    “ Tell us what you did with it, bitch.”
    Smack.
    “ I don’t know what you want.”
    “ The flash drive. We know you made one.”
    Smack. Thud. Crack.
    “ Uhm,” she moaned.
    “That’s when they broke her nose,” Dylan interpreted the sound before her moans started.
    “ Tell us and we’ll stop. Don’t and I can do this all night.”
    “ Sister Compassionatta,” she whispered.
    “ A Sister? You left it with a nun?”
    Another thud as fist met flesh. More cracks as they’d broken her cheek and eye socket.
    “ Abby, Sister.”
    Then nothing as she’d passed out.
    “An Abbey.” The first man swirled the golden liquid in his snifter and studied the fire for a moment. “Did she go near a church after she left the office?”
    The other man shook his head then ran his fingers through his dark hair. “We tailed her from the minute she left the building until she got to her condo. She made two stops along the way, the dry cleaners and the grocers, then home.”
    “See if there are any Catholic churches near those businesses she might’ve dropped the information off at when we weren’t looking.” The older man held up his hand to stave off any