Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

K ane Townsend stood back and looked at the building Ryker Faulkner was telling him about. Strange how the Townsend brothers had once thought Ryker had been taking advantage of their lawyer sister, Olivia, and now the billionaire shipping magnate was one of their best friends.

Olivia had been in love with Granger Fox, the sheriff of Shadows Landing, all along and not the business tycoon. And Ryker had married an ER nurse, Kenzie. However, Ryker was the reason they had all come to Shadows Landing, thinking they needed to protect their sister.

"When you said the building was close to yours, I didn't know you meant next door." Kane looked at the historic building in downtown Charleston. It was three stories high and would have plenty of room for his headquarters.

"The square footage is perfect for you," Angelica, his new assistant, told him as she reviewed the blueprint of the building. "Do you want me to negotiate with the realtor?"

Angelica was only a couple of years older than Kane. She was tall, lean, had thick dark brown hair down her back, and wore four-inch spiked heels. Ryker's tough-as-nails assistant had recommended her. Apparently, they were members of the same club in Charleston. She had an accounting degree, loved numbers, and was incredibly organized. She had been working as an accountant for one of those national companies that only filed quickie taxes and was bored out of her mind. It wasn't until after Kane hired her that he discovered just which club she and Ryker's assistant were in together. It was a dominatrix club.

The poor realtor representing the property looked equally thrilled at the prospect of negotiating with Angelica, and terrified. Kane had to admit that Ryker had been right. Dominatrices made great assistants. No one intimidated them, there was no drama, and there was no bullshit. Angelica was a whiz with numbers and could organize a hostage rescue with the skill of his brother, Hunter, who was in Special Forces.

"Actually," Ryker said. "I know the owner of the building. I can call them if you're interested." Ryker ignored the realtor, who was beginning to protest.

"Are they going to nickel and dime me? I don't have time to go back and forth on this. I'm already weeks behind because I've been called away so often recently." Kane had meant to get his headquarters set up three weeks ago. So far, he'd been running the company out of his house. But when Angelica cracked the whip, literally, at him to get a move on and a real office, he finally called Ryker about the building.

"Oh, Miss Tibbie might be sweet and old, but she's shrewd. What's your top price? Because I guarantee that you'll pay it."

Angelica answered for him and he shrugged. She was right and she was the money person. One week on the job and she'd saved him tens of thousands of dollars by changing their systems, updating their accounting, and a whole slew of other things.

Ryker stepped away to make the call right as Angelica's work phone rang. "KAT Insurance. This is Angelica."

Angelica pulled out her tablet and got to work. That meant Kane was about to get to work. Only meeting with large clients or a client who had been kidnapped went to Angelica. Every other call went to one of his other agents.

Ryker hung up first. "The building is yours. You paid your top dollar, but Miss Tibbie threw in a basket of her favorite treats to welcome you to the neighborhood."

Angelica hung up and walked over to them. "Sorry, Mr. Townsend, but you're not going to like this one. It's a shitshow."

"Summary?"

"Client is Waverly Davenport. Nineteen year old sister got a ransom text. Lark Davenport is a freshman at Moultrie State University and has no money. She didn't know who to call, so she called the police. The police called Dr. Davenport's boss at Charleston Research and Development Institute who told them to call us since he has a policy with us on Dr. Davenport," Angelica explained. "The sister is a wreck and the police are giving her shit for calling me. They said they would handle any negotiation in partnership with the island police at the resort where Dr. Davenport was staying when she was kidnapped."

Kane frowned. "Charleston Research and Development Institute? Didn't they just get that policy a couple of months ago?"

"Yes. Seems they got it right in time." Angelic sent an email and Kane's phone pinged. "I sent you the file. The sister, Lark Davenport, is at the police station. She's freaking out because the police want her to hand over her phone so they can handle the ransom call if another one comes in."

Kane opened the email. Waverly Davenport's photo came up. The pretty brunette was not what he was expecting. Lots of his clients were young and rich but so fake and entitled. Waverly was none of those things. She was stunning, obviously smart as could be, and nothing was fake about her big smile. Kane nodded to Angelica. "Can you finish up here? Get all the paperwork in order and I'll get the sale closed by the end of the day and the office set up by the end of the week. I'll call you with an update." Kane was already striding toward his car. "Oh, and thanks Ryker. The building is great, even if it means I have to be near your annoying ass."

Ryker chuckled. Most billionaires wouldn't put up with anything below hero-worship treatment. However, Ryker was kept humble by Shadows Landing. Not many people could talk to him as a mere mortal, but everyone from Shadows Landing not only could but did. Ryker's ability to tease and take crap was the main reason they were friends. Kane liked sitting back and ribbing each other. It came with growing up in such a huge family. But now he had another family to save.

Kane didn't need to ask where Lark Davenport was. He could hear her sobs from the lobby of the police station. Kane followed the noise until he saw the teenager standing in front of a rumpled middle-aged detective.

Tears streamed down her face, but she wasn't backing down. "I will not hand over my phone and put my sister's life in your hands until I speak to the person at KAT Insurance."

"Look, Miss Davenport," the detective was saying with his hands up as if he were trying to calm the teenager as he would a frightened horse. "I'm the lead detective here. Some insurance agent isn't going to get your sister back. You need law enforcement knowledge to get her back, not a paper pusher."

"Ah, but if that paper pusher is a trained negotiator and former profiler for the FBI BAU whose sole job it is it negotiate ransoms and bring kidnapped people home, then I'd say Miss Davenport called the right man."

Kane stopped next to the teen and looked at the detective who had just cursed.

"Another freaking Townsend. How many of you are there?" the detective asked.

"It appears you know me, but I don't know you."

"Detective Chambers. I'm acquainted with your sister."

Kane smiled at him and Detective Chambers shivered. Good. "Kane Townsend. Nice to meet you, but I will be taking Miss Davenport and her phone, and we'll be leaving. Right now. However, I will call if I need any police assistance."

"This is a mistake," Detective Chambers called out, but Kane was already walking out with Lark Davenport hurrying beside him.

"That was so freaking cool," Lark said as she kept up with his long strides out of the police station. "He was pushing me out like I was to just turn over my phone and trust him to get my sister back."

"He's probably a very good detective, but hostage negotiations are completely different. By the way, I'm Kane Townsend. My company holds the hostage and ransom policy on your sister. It's my job to get her back."

Kane opened the door to his car and Lark got in. "I don't understand. Why would my sister have a hostage policy? She's a physicist who works at a research company."

"That's what we're going to find out, Lark."

Kane merged into traffic with his GPS taking him to Charleston Research and Development Institute.

"You're going to let me come?" Lark asked hesitantly, but Kane could hear the relief in her voice.

"I have found that families who are kept up to date on the situation are calmer, make more rational decisions, and are able to give me better information so I can get their loved ones back quicker." Kane was impressed with Lark. It was clear she'd been nearly hysterical with fear and frustration. But since he came on the scene, she'd calmed down and he could tell she was listening and processing everything he was telling her. Lark reminded him of Penelope, his youngest sister. He couldn't imagine Penelope, at nineteen, having to handle this situation. "Where are your parents?" Kane asked. "I think we should fill them in."

Lark's shoulders collapsed and she turned her head away from him to look out the window. "They died five years ago. Waverly is my only family. She's taken care of me since I was fourteen. No one has ever taken care of her in the past five years since she became my guardian. I only realized it this summer. I was too young and upset, thinking only about poor me losing my parents to realize Waverly had not only lost them too, but she'd been thrust into the role of parent, too. She took care of me. Made sure I went to the best boarding school in the world for me after I did a summer of therapy. Made sure I went on every school trip, on every spring break, on every trip to Europe with my friends. All the while, she was here alone, working. This summer, I realized that. I finally got my sister back. We had the best summer and now she's gone."

Tears rolled down her face. Kane was used to families crying, but he needed this information to better understand Waverly and to better negotiate with the kidnappers. "What was different this summer?" Kane asked.

"She stopped treating me like a little kid, and I stopped seeing her as someone who was trying to be my mother. We saw each other as sisters again. We went to concerts together. We surfed. She met my friends. We binged movies and shows. We talked, like really talked. It felt as if I had gotten my sister back and now, she's been taken from me. I have to get her back."

"We will," Kane told her. "Tell me about this trip she was on."

Lark took a deep breath and refocused. "She'd just finished this huge project at work that she'd been working on, like, forever. She was going to patent whatever it was when she got home. This was the first vacation she'd been on since our parents were killed by a drunk driver." Lark told him about the resort she was at and about their last conversation.

"Good job, Lark," Kane told her before calling his assistant. "Angelica, get me in touch with the island police handling the Davenport case."

Kane pulled into the Charleston Research and Development Institute with a fuller picture than he had an hour ago. "Do you know anything about your sister's co-workers?" Kane asked Lark.

"Yeah. Garvey Levins is her boss and he's been really nice to her. Hired her when she was still in school. He and his wife invite her to everything. I think they kinda treat her like one of their children. Plus, they've always been nice to me too. Maria would send me care packages during finals week. Elwood is the person she works with the most and I've met him once. He's a Golden Retriever."

"He's a dog?" Kane asked, slightly confused.

Lark giggled. "No, but he's like a Golden Retriever with her. He just wants her to pay attention to him. He's super nice, sweet, and smart. But it's totally obvious to anyone with eyes that he'd do anything she says because he likes her. Like, you know how a Golden just stares adoringly at their owners?"

"Ah," Kane said, getting the picture. "Are they in a relationship?"

"Ew, no," Lark said in such a way that he was instantly reminded that she was a teenager. "Like I said, he's super nice, but Waverly is like the only person in the world oblivious to his feelings. Plus, he'd be a horrible boyfriend for her."

"I thought you said he was nice." Kane was really getting confused about this non-romantic relationship.

"He totally is, but they're so similar. They would literally be the most boring couple in the world. Waverly needs someone more . . . how do I say this without being mean?" Lark looked up as if the sky might hold the answer. "Assertive, but not in an asshole way. In a way that says he knows who he is, knows he can support her both emotionally and physically, be smart enough and secure enough to handle my sister's super high IQ, all the while pushing my sister a little here and there to bring her out of the bubble she's created for herself."

"What bubble?" Kane asked as they approached the building, believing Lark sounded way more emotionally mature than her nineteen years.

"Waverly has always been a little different. She took after my dad, who was a genius, and I mean literally. Mom was a debutante here in Charleston. Waverly was not a deb. She would talk about science and numbers when she got nervous. It works great in her job, but as an eighteen year old with a bunch of other teens? It made her a bit of an outcast, so she created a bubble that only had people in it that wouldn't make her feel strange, talking about advanced math and physics. That bubble was, and is, pretty small simply because of the subject matter."

"And Elwood is in that bubble, so she'd always be playing it safe if she were with him." Kane got it now and Lark nodded.

"I know there are a lot of other people she works with, but the only other name regularly mentioned is Kelvin. She thinks he's an entitled asshole. She says he does the least amount of work and isn't nearly as smart as he thinks he is, but always plays it off as he's the smartest person in the room. She says he doesn't listen to her guidance and always complains to Garvey about her. Is that the kind of information you need?"

Kane stopped at the first security checkpoint. "That was perfect. Now, let's go see what your sister was working on."