Page 23 of Deadly Lies

Nope. Wasn’t buying it.

But I would talk to the authorities later. I had to get my girl.

“How did you find her address? Did you follow her?”

“No. It was on the visiting paperwork at San Quentin. I’m still an NCIS agent, Mitch. Joaquín was my case. I have connections.”

Right. “Okay. Thanks, Ashley. I’m going to get there as fast as possible. I can’t thank you enough. You’re a rock star.”

“I know. You’re welcome, Mitch.”

I hung up the phone and called my contact at the FBI. He answered on the first ring.

“Sienna has been found. She’s in Marin.”

“Yup. Just got the word. We’re heading up there now. Local agents will get to her first. We’ll be there in seven hours. Would you like to ride with us?”

Seven hours? Fuck that.

“No—I can’t wait that long. I’ll find my own way.”

“Got it. I’m happy she’s been recovered. Most of these cases don’t end well.”

He wasn’t nearly as happy as I was. And he didn’t have to remind me of the bad outcomes. They had been playing through my head day and night. “Thanks, man. See you there.”

Grant was in the bedroom in the hotel suite. I knocked on the door, and he opened it.

“Ashley found her.”

Grant’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious? Are you sure?”

“Yup. Just talked to her.” I beamed. My heart drummed in my chest. My baby was safe. I was as happy as I had been the day she was born.

“Where did she find her? Who had her?”

“Some apartment. She said she followed a lead.”

“That’s a pretty big lead.”

“Well, Ashley claims they went to visit Joaquín and saw a girl who looked like Tiffany. Ashley got her address from the prison and then went there, where she found Sienna.”

Grant scratched his chin. “Tiffany—the girl Joaquín killed—had Sienna?”

“Seems like it. I don’t understand at all.”

“Was Mia with Ashley?”

“She didn’t say. I’m going to call Beck and see if he can fly us there.”

Grant embraced me, and I didn’t pull away. “I’m glad you found her. I was worried. I thought…”

He didn’t finish that sentence. He didn’t need to. I knew what he thought. What I had tortured myself since the moment she’d been taken. As a Navy SEAL, I didn’t see the world the way civilians saw it. I saw the depths of hell. And I had been stuck in purgatory imagining what had happened to my girl. Tortured. Abused. Alone. Scared. How could I had ever gone on with my life if she wasn’t safe?

And who the fuck took her, and why? If this was a sex-trafficking abduction, surely she would have been hidden somewhere by now. Or already smuggled to Mexico, where I would never find her.

I owed Ashley the world. How could I ever repay her?

Guilt crashed over me. I had been so cruel to her last time we spoke, practically blaming her for Sienna being kidnapped and for chasing wild leads. But she’d been right all along, and without her, I would never have found my daughter.