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Chapter Thirty-Four: Coming Home Was A Mistake

"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free" –John 8:32

"Beck…he can't be her father," Will argued.

It simply wasn't possible; it couldn't be true. Because if it was, that meant someone had lied to him. Either Beck knew and had never said anything, or Beck wasn't aware he had another child, and their father had kept it from them. Will hated the thought of both of those scenarios, the thought of the people he trusted most in the world lying to him.

"Tate was born in 1995 and Amelia and Beck didn't get together until 1996," JJ said softly.

JJ had been hesitant to believe it at first, but she couldn't ignore the facts. She couldn't just pretend like Beck and Tate didn't have identical blue eyes, or that they didn't share the same sense of humor. It seemed impossible, but it was the only thing that made sense.

"Will, I know you don't want to believe it but…" Grant trailed off.

"Beck would've been away at college in '95 and he was at law school in October of '97,"

"He could've come home without telling you," Mack said.

"Garcia, see if there's any record of Beck flying from Boston to New Orleans in September of 1994 and October of 1997," Hotch ordered after calculating around the time Tate would've been conceived.

Morgan, Blake, Mack, and Rossi went into the kitchen, partially to get something to eat but also to give JJ and Will some space.

"How could I have missed this?" Will asked quietly.

"You weren't looking for it," Grant assured him.

"Christ, Grant, anyone with half an eye can see it," he snapped.

There were only a handful of years in Will's life where he hadn't seen his brother at least several times a week. He'd spent almost his entire life looking at Beck's deep blue eyes, and he probably knew them better than he knew his own. And yet he hadn't been able to recognize them when they were right in front of him.

JJ knew Will was beating himself up about this. Hell, he'd been blaming himself for the past five days, torn up inside over the guilt of Tate going missing. JJ blamed herself as well. She was a profiler, trained to see and understand human behavior, and yet she'd been unable to see how similar Tate and Beck were. Everytime something seemed strange about Tate's history, she'd brushed it aside and ignored it, and now Tate was paying for it.

After several minutes, Garcia spoke up quietly.

"He wasn't on any commercial flights in that time period and there's no record of him buying gas anywhere outside of Boston in those months either,".

"We need to talk to your brother," Hotch said.

"You just heard her, it can't be him," Will replied.

"Maybe he wasn't the third man in the room in October but that doesn't mean he's not her father. He could've easily met someone out in Boston," Hotch argued, and Will knew he was right.

They were too alike for it to be a coincidence, and it's not like Will could just ignore it, no matter how much he wanted to.

"Harlan's daughter moved him to a nursing home up here since her husband got a job in DC. I could go see him and try and get some information out of him,".

"Fine, but if nothing turns up then we need to talk to your brother about this," Hotch conceded.

It wasn't that Will was still refusing to believe the truth; he knew it was extremely likely that Beck was Tate's father. But there was no way Beck could've been in that hotel room in 1997, so it was possible he didn't even know Tate was his. If that was the case, there was no way Will was going to make his brother worry even more. It was one thing to have your niece get kidnapped, but it was entirely different to have your daughter go missing. Will wouldn't wish the pain he was feeling on anyone, especially not his brother.

"I'm assuming the nursing home isn't going to let you in at one in the morning, so maybe we should all go get some sleep," Rossi suggested as he came back in from the kitchen.

JJ wanted to argue that they had to keep looking. They couldn't just go home and sleep in their safe, warm home while Tate was god knows where, probably terrified and maybe in pain. To make matters worse, they had an early cold snap and it was supposed to get below freezing at night. Despite the fact that she knew there was a good chance Tate wasn't even in Maryland or Virginia anymore, much less DC, she couldn't stop imagining Tate all alone, cold and scared. But as much as she wanted to argue, she knew Rossi was right. None of them were of any use to Tate if they passed out from exhaustion, and both Harlan and Beck were asleep so they couldn't get any new information till morning anyway.

Visiting hours at the nursing home usually didn't start until one o'clock, but Will had called and explained it was an emergency, so they agreed to let him in at eight in the morning once Harlan had finished his breakfast. JJ and he met Hotch and Reid at the nursing home and as they entered the building Will crossed his fingers that Harlan was somehow lucid. He knew it was unlikely, especially since the man's health had been declining over the past several months as his disease worsened. Truth be told, no one had expected Harlan to live this long. His doctors had told Will and April that he likely only had one to two months back in the spring, but Harlan had never been one to go down without a fight.

"Bill!" Harlan called as he caught sight of them as they entered the rec room, and Will tried not to seem disappointed.

"Hey Harlan, how's it going?" he asked the man, knowing he couldn't just cut straight to the chase or he'd upset the man.

"It's good, Billy. Who've you got with you?".

"Just some friends," Will told him, glancing at JJ. He'd learned that saying anything to make Harlan think he wasn't Bill was a bad idea, and only made the man paranoid, so telling him JJ was his wife was out of the question.

"Harlan, I need you to listen to me, okay? I have to ask you something important, and I need you to tell me the truth," Will said slowly as he pulled up a chair to sit across from Harlan.

"What's wrong Billy?"

"You remember that night in October? We drove out to Missippii and met Tommy and Lauren," Will asked, trying to spark what little memory the man had left.

Harlan suddenly tensed and almost seemed scared. He quickly glanced at Hotch, Reid, and JJ, before looking back to Will. Seeming to understand the man didn't want to talk in front of them, Hotch and Reid left the room. JJ stayed, needing to hear what Harlan had to say, but she hung back to give the men some space.

"I thought we agreed not to talk about that," he said.

"I know Harlan but-" Will began.

"No buts, Billy. We gave our word and it's best for everyone that we keep it," he reminded Will.

"Harlan, I swear I wouldn't be bringing this up if it wasn't important, but I need to know about what you remember from that night,".

"No, alright, just drop it. You, Chuck, and I all promised we'd never say anything. He can't find them, surely you know that as well as I do," Harlan seethed.

Will suddenly remembered the last time he'd brought up October 10th in front of the man. He'd grown pale, almost fearful, and he'd told Will never to speak of it again. Something had happened that night, something that made Harlan, the Jacobs, and his father afraid. They were terrified of something, he just didn't know what.

"Who's he, Harlan? Who can't find them?" Will asked.

"Don't be stupid, Billy, it's not a good look on you. We swore to Chuck we'd take care of it and never say anything again. For Christ's sake, you're gonna betray a member of the force? Since when were you a man that broke his word?".

"Harlan, please," Will pleaded.

"I think you should leave, Billy,".

"Will, we can go find whoever Chuck is," JJ said softly from behind him.

Will stayed silent for a moment as he stared at Harlan and then slowly stood up. He glanced at JJ, and she began to head out of the rec room to find Hotch and Reid. Will turned back to the man that was practically his uncle.

"Goodbye, Harlan," he said quietly. "Thanks for everything,".

He didn't know why he felt the need to say that. After all, the man had hardly been helpful. But there was a sense of finality in the air; something that told him he wouldn't be seeing his uncle again. So, he thanked him for everything the man had ever done for him. For watching him grow up, for teaching him how to be a cop, for being there when his father died.

"Goodbye, Billy,".

They hurried back to the Bureau and the four of them entered the office to find Garica, Rossi, Morgan, and Mack sitting in the conference room drinking coffee.

"Garcia, we need files on every cop that worked for the New Orleans Police Department in 1997 that was named Charles," JJ told her, assuming that Chuck was a nickname for Charles.

"On it," the woman replied as she opened her laptop, deciding it was quicker than going back to her lair.

"What'd he say?" Rossi asked.

"All we got out of him was that some guy named Chuck was the third man in the room," Will said.

JJ knew Will wished they'd gotten more, but a name was good. Because that name might belong to someone that could help. Someone that wasn't dead and whose brain and memories hadn't been destroyed by a debilitating disease. Whoever this Chuck was, he could help them find Tate, so long as they could find him.

"Did Theo remember any sort of physical details about this other guy?" JJ asked Mack.

"Just that he had brown hair and was average height. He was eight so he couldn't really get a good guess as to how old the guy was. I guess anyone is old to a kid that young," he explained.

After a few minutes of the sound of Garcia typing away furiously at her keyboard, the woman spoke up.

"It looks like there were ten officers with the name Charles that were employed by the department in 1997. Four of them weren't caucasian, so we can get rid of them as a possibility. One of them was blonde, and one had red hair so they're also out and that leaves us with four guys,".

"Any of them go by Chuck?" Hotch asked, and Garcia shook her head.

"Harlan never calls people by their actual name, he's got like a million nicknames for everyone," Will explained.

"Ok, so who are our options out of the remaining guys?" Morgan asked.

"Charles Miller, Charles Deveraux, Charles Bates, and Charles LeBlanc,".

Will froze when he heard the name Deveraux as the puzzle pieces began to slide into place. Beck had never told him what his brother's name was, but he knew the man existed, and he knew his last name was Deveraux. It had to be him, it just had to be. It was too much of a coincidence if it wasn't.

"It's Deveraux," Will said, and everyone looked at him, surprised.

"Are you sure? We can go through them all and rule people out," Hotch offered.

"I'm 90% sure,".

"Well, let's see if he's our guy," Garcia said as she pulled up the man's profile on her computer and displayed it on the TV.

A photo of a man came up on the screen and the team was met with a familiar face. It was Beck, except for the fact that it wasn't. The man had the same nose and sharp jawline, and the same deep blue eyes. But it wasn't Will's brother. This man had a different mouth, and his brown hair was just a shade lighter; the same shade as Tate's. His face was slightly wider, but other than that, he was almost the spitting image of Beck.

"What the…" Morgan trailed off, as, like everyone else in the room, he clearly recognized how eerily similar the man was to Beck.

"Does it have the names of his parents listed in the personnel file?" Will asked Garcia, and he heard her clacking away as he continued to stare at the photo.

"Andrew and Beth Deveraux,".

"That's Beck's brother," Will said.

Tate wasn't Beck's child, JJ realized. She was Charles'. Part of her wanted to sigh with relief. She would never be able to forgive herself if none of them had noticed Tate was Beck's; if Beck had to go through what she and Will were right now. Even worse, she didn't want to have to deal with the reality that Beck might have been lying to Will for years. This was a reality they could all live with.

"What else do we have on him?" Hotch asked quietly.

"Okay, it looks like he was born in 1971. He joined the force at 22 in 1993, right after he graduated college. Went to Princeton by the looks of it, and had an IQ of 170. Um…his emergency contact was his sister, Collins Landry. Two years after he joined the force he became a homicide detective, so him being close with Bill and Harlan makes sense,".

It wasn't enough, JJ knew that. Knowing he had a pretty much flawless record as a cop wouldn't do them any good. They needed to know more about the man, something that could help them figure out the role he played in it all. Something that could help them get Tate back.

"What about his personal life?" Morgan asked and more clicking could be heard from the computer.

"He married Lila Benoit the same year he joined the force; they'd met in high school. Lila gave birth to their daughter, Kenzie, on the 15th of March, 1995. The couple got divorced in early April of 1996, rather unexpectedly according to other people in the department. Lila remarried in April of the following year and she and Charlie, as most people called him, went to court for custody of the kid in May of '97. The judge only gave him every other weekend, and…oh god…" Garcia paused.

"What? What is it?" JJ asked.

"Lila Benoit was found dead in her kitchen on October 10th, 1997. Her new husband, Daniel Brown, was apparently upstate visiting family, and the prints on the murder weapon matched Charlie. By the time the police got there, Charlie had left and taken his daughter. When they finally caught up to him, Charlie confessed to murdering his ex-wife and later confessed to also killing their daughter. Apparently, he told the lead detectives on the case that he crossed the border into Mississippi and dumped her body in the river. They never found it," she finished, sounding horrified.

"Any pictures of the kid?" Mack asked after a moment of silence.

Garcia pulled up a picture of Charlie and his daughter, and sure enough, it was Tate. JJ had managed to find a few photos of Tate at around three years old at the Jacobs home, and she was identical to Kenzie Deveraux, albeit slightly older. Kenzie. Her daughter's name was Kenzie.

"We need to talk to Deveraux," JJ told the team.

"I'm assuming he's in prison in Louisiana," Hotch said to Garica.

"No, actually. He was sentenced to life without parole and was originally in Louisiana but his lawyer was concerned for his safety since he was a cop. They got a judge to move him to…" she paused, looking through his record for a moment. "Buckingham Correctional Facility in Virginia,".

"That's two hours from here, we could drive down now and meet him," Morgan said.

"Alright, Reid, JJ, Will, and I will drive down. Everyone else go back and review what we have so far," Hotch ordered.

"You ready?" Reid asked as Will looked into the empty interrogation room through the two-way mirror.

It'd been decided that Hotch and JJ would stay outside while Will and Reid talked to Charlie. Hotch could be intimidating, and they wanted Charlie to trust them since he was clearly lying about killing his daughter, and JJ didn't think she was in the right mindset to interview someone.

"Yeah," Will replied, and he and Reid headed inside and sat down at the cold metal table.

After a few minutes, Will heard the distinct buzzer of the prison door unlocking and two men came in. A guard led Charlie to the seat and went to cuff his arm to the table.

"You can leave it off, we'll be fine," Reid told the guard.

"If you say so," the man said before leaving.

The similarities between Charlie and Beck were even more obvious in person, and anyone would be able to tell they were brothers. It seemed the Deveraux genes were strong, as Will had Garcia show him pictures of Andrew Deveraux earlier in the day and the man shared the same nose, jaw, and eyes as his sons. Tate clearly took after her father, as Lila Benoit had red hair and green eyes. In fact, the only thing Tate shared with her mother was her nose, and she had a slightly rounder face than the rest of the Deverauxs, but everything else was pure Charlie.

"Mr. Deveraux, I'm Dr. Spencer Reid. I'm from the FBI and we'd like to ask you a few questions if you don't mind," Reid said.

"It's been thirteen years, why now?" Charlie asked, seeming slightly annoyed.

The man's New Orleans accent had faded over the years, but anyone would still be able to tell he was from the South. It was softer than Will's, and he doubted anyone ever complained about not being able to understand the man. He had a few gray hairs and seemed slightly tired, but all in all, he looked in remarkably good shape for pushing 40 and being in prison for 13 years.

"Just tying up a few loose ends in some cases. As long as we have your cooperation, it shouldn't take long," Reid assured him.

"Alright, and who's he?"

"Will LaMontagne," Will said, holding out his hand for the man to shake.

Charlie flinched so slightly it was almost unnoticeable before slowly reaching out and shaking Will's hand. Will had decided to just get straight to it and see the man's reaction rather than beating around the bush.

"Pleasure," the man said quietly.

"So, Mr. Deveraux, could you tell us what occurred on the night of October 10th, 1997?" Reid asked.

"Lila left me for some pathetic bastard and then they took my kid from me. I went over to the house and I wanted to see Kenzie, but Lila refused. Daniel wasn't home so…I suppose I took advantage of the opportunity. I slit her throat with my knife, then grabbed Kenzie and left,".

"If you wanted to be with your daughter, why would you kill her?" Reid inquired.

"I knew I was gonna go down for killing Lila. I didn't exactly have time to plan it so there was too much evidence. With me in jail, Kenzie would've gone to Daniel. If she couldn't be with me, then I didn't want her with anyone," Charlie answered.

There was a dark gleam in the man's eyes; something Will had never seen in Tate's or Beck's. It looked out of place, and the twisted smile on the man's face seemed wrong. If it wasn't for the fact that he knew Charlie didn't kill his daughter, he would've believed the whole story. But if Charlie didn't kill Tate, there was a good chance he didn't kill Lila. He was locked up and couldn't hurt Tate, which meant they needed to find out who did kill Lila because they were dangerous to Tate.

"Now, what really happened that night?" Will asked.

"I just told you what happened," Charlie replied, staring Will straight in the eye.

"They never found your daughter's body," Reid said softly.

"Well, the Mississippi's a big river and it stormin' something' awful that night. Anyone would've had a hard time finding it,".

"Alright, I guess we'll let you get on with your day," Reid said as he closed the file and went to stand up. Will saw him glance towards him and he knew it was time.

"Nice seeing you," Charlie said sarcastically.

"I'll tell Harlan you said hello," Will said, standing up.

"Harlan?" Charlie asked, sounding slightly surprised.

"Well, yeah. You, him, and my daddy, we're all friends, weren't you?"

"I suppose,"

"And Tommy Jacobs as well, right? Awfully tragic what happened, isn't it?".

"I don't know what you mean," Charlie replied and Will could see the man stiffen.

Will sat back down at the table and Reid followed his lead. They didn't have time to play games anymore, they needed to know everything Charlie knew. Otherwise, they had no chance of finding Tate.

"Well, he and his wife died in a car wreck about eight years ago. Their son, Theo, you remember him right? He got murdered almost two years back. It was the strangest thing, he was just found dead in the house after being stabbed to death," Will explained.

Charlie tilted his head ever so slightly as he observed Will. It was an action that Will recognized all too well from his own daughter. He could tell the man was getting worried; his posture was starting to look defensive. Charlie was connecting the dots and he was preparing himself to deny everything.

"Then their poor daughter. It's so sad, isn't it?" Reid said and Will nodded.

He could see Charlie try to restrain himself from asking, but just like any father, he couldn't refrain from wanting to know about his child.

"What about their daughter?".

"Well, it's horrible. She went missing about a week ago and the police don't have any leads," Will told the man.

A flash of fear ran through the man's eyes before he caught himself and put his mask of indifference back on.

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?" Reid asked.

The man looked at them and Will knew he understood. Charlie knew that the secret he, Bill, and Harlan had kept for so long was out. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to tell them what really happened.

"I'm afraid I can't help you, gentlemen. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have other things I'd rather be doing with my time," Charlie said as he stood up and started to go over to the door.

Knowing this was their last chance, Will reached into his coat pocket. He felt the cool metal under his fingers and he pulled out the necklace, dropping it on the table. The gold coin that Tate had worn every day since Harlan had given it to her clanked on the metal table, and Charlie turned around at the noise.

"Where did you get that?" Charlie asked, looking pale.

"Harlan gave it to my daughter as a Christmas present two years ago. My wife and I adopted her after her brother, Theo, died. Sometimes it seems like the Jacobs family was cursed or something. First, Tommy and Lauren died in the accident, and then Theo was murdered. And now, Tate's missing. I know you gave your word and I know you think you were protecting her, but we need the truth. Without it, we have a snowball's chance in hell of finding her. So I'm asking you, as a father, please tell us,".

Will held his breath as the man thought over his pleas. After a moment, he nodded and Will sighed in relief.

"Turn that camera off," Charlie said, nodding toward the camera mounted on the corner of the ceiling. "And I'll tell you everything you want to know,".

"So, what really happened that night?" Hotch asked Charlie.

After they had gotten the camera turned off, Charlie had agreed to let Hotch and JJ come in to listen to what he had to say. JJ just hoped it would actually help them find Tate. It was strange, sitting across from Tate's father. For so long, JJ had believed the man to be dead. But now, here he was, and Tate's resemblance to her father was remarkably clear.

"Lila had told me a few days before that Daniel was supposed to be out of town. So, when it started storming, I decided to go over and check on her and Kenzie. When I got there, she was…on the kitchen floor. There was blood everywhere and my knife was on the floor. It was a family heirloom, everyone knew I carried it, but I'd lost it a week before. The bloody footprints on the floor were my shoe size, not Daniel's, and I knew I'd been set up. So, I grabbed Kenzie and got the hell out of there and just drove as fast as I could," Charlie explained.

"Why would Daniel kill her?" JJ asked.

"They got married pretty quickly and a few months in, Lila started noticing that Daniel was a little…off. He acted like a loving husband and this amazing father but that's all it was–an act. Daniel had a temper and he could gaslight you like there was no tomorrow,".

"He was a psychopath," Reid said, and Charlie nodded.

"That's what I assumed. Lila wanted out of the marriage. I'm pretty sure I was the only one she ever told, but Daniel must have found out and lost it on her,".

JJ could see the pain in the man's eyes. He'd clearly still loved his wife when she died. It had to have been horrible, to find your wife dead on the floor and have everyone think you did it. He'd known Daniel was coming after him, and Charlie had worried he'd come for Tate too. Charlie had only been acting in Tate's best interests when he gave her to Thomas and Lauren.

"Why did you get a divorce?" JJ wondered and the pain on the man's face became even more apparent.

"Right after Kenzie was born, we found out Lila was pregnant again. She was slightly pissed but we were happy about it. She joked it was because my mother was Scottish. Apparently, that's why it made sense that we would have Irish twins. He was born on the 27th of February, 1998. Except, Lila was in labor for 25, maybe 26, hours. And when he finally came out…he wasn't," the man paused, choking slightly. "He wasn't breathing. They said he was stillborn. Lila was never the same after that. We weren't the same. A few months later, she asked for a divorce. I tried to talk her out of it but once Lila got something in her mind, that was that,".

"What was his name?" Will asked.

JJ knew he was thinking about the baby. Just like Charlie, they too had a child they'd never see again. She was sure if the baby had lived long enough for them to find out the gender, they would've given him or her a name.

"Finley. Finn," Charlie said softly. "Lila was half-French, half-Irish. Neither of us ever liked any French names so we picked a Scottish one for Kenz and an Irish and Scottish one for Finn,".

No one asked any questions for a moment, letting Charlie take a break for a while.

"What happened after you left the house?" Hotch asked.

"I knew I was gonna go down for it and that they'd catch up to me eventually. I'd worked with your father. He was a man I knew could be trusted. So, I called him and he told me to head to Mississippi and he'd meet me there. He called up Harlan and the two of them convinced Thomas and Lauren to help. They'd wanted another kid for a while and Tommy had plenty of job offers from around the country. A few hours later, we met at a motel and your dad already had counterfeit papers ready to go. Birth certificate, passport, social security. Everything they'd need to make people think Kenzie was their daughter,".

"And then they left the city?" Reid continued.

"Yeah, we told them to pick somewhere far away, a city on the coast. It'd be harder for Daniel to find them and the police wouldn't be searching that far. Lauren, Theo and Kenzie left for Boston that night and Tommy stayed behind to tie up a few things so nobody would be suspicious. We knew they'd be looking for Kenzie and I if I was still on the run, and Lauren wouldn't be able to get past roadblocks if they set them up. So, Harlan and Bill brought me in, and I confessed once we knew there was no getting out of it,"

The room went silent for a minute and JJ tried to let what Charlie had told them sink in. It was sort of a relief knowing that Bill and Beck hadn't done anything truly wrong. Sure, Bill had lied and broken the law, but it was to protect Tate. And Tate hadn't been kidnapped from people who loved her or stolen from a family, she'd been given up for her own safety.

"It was the only way, okay? You have to believe that. I wouldn't have done it if there was another option," Charlie pleaded.

"We know," JJ assured him.

"So, now what?" Charlie asked.

"We track down Brown. Even if he doesn't have her, he's the only lead we have and we can't exactly let a murderer walk around free. And we'll get you released into FBI custody. No one will ask too many questions and you can stay in the office," Hotch explained and Charlie's posture seemed to sag with relief.

Even if Daniel Brown had nothing to do with Tate's disappearance, even if nothing turned up from their talk with Charlie, the time they'd spent had been worth it. Because Charlie was an innocent man. He'd been in prison for 13 years for a crime he didn't commit all while the real murderer was free. He deserved to have his innocence proven.

The team once again sat in the conference room, waiting for Garcia to dig up what she could on Daniel Brown. Hotch had managed to get Charlie released into FBI custody for an indefinite period of time, and it was almost scary how easy it'd been. He was sitting in a chair at the table drinking coffee, wearing jeans and a blue and green flannel shirt over a white t-shirt, having changed out of his prison clothes. Technically, they were supposed to have anyone in their custody handcuffed, but since they knew he was innocent it obviously wasn't necessary.

"Okay, I think I got him," Garcia said as she turned the monitor on.

JJ's blood ran cold as the picture of Daniel Brown came up on the screen. She knew that man. She'd met him and talked to him several times, and so had Tate.

"Yep, that's him. Fuckin' bastard," Charlie scoffed.

"Isn't that.." Will began, looking over at JJ.

"That's Tate's teacher," she finished, and everyone looked over at her in shock.

"Are you sure?" Morgan asked, and JJ nodded.

"He taught her history class freshman year and half of last year before he quit,".

"That son of a bitch," Charlie snapped.

"He was right there the whole time," Will said in disbelief.

"He used a different name though. Donovan, I think. Matthew Donovan," JJ told Garcia, and the woman quickly pulled up his employment record.

"Yep, he taught history for eighteen months at the school before quitting unexpectedly. His resume says he worked at other schools and he has plenty of references but there's no actual record of him working anywhere else,".

"So he was there just to watch Tate," Mack said and JJ nodded.

"He's been planning this. He was right under our noses for almost two years just watching and waiting," JJ said shakily.

This was worse than they thought. This wasn't a spur-of-the-moment kidnapping. Brown had wanted Tate. He'd been planning, which meant he made sure nothing could go wrong. He'd been careful to leave no witnesses or even a trace of Tate.

He was the wolf in sheep's clothing, lying in wait until the perfect moment arose for him to take Tate.

He had Tate. The question was: what was he going to do with her?

"Love isn't about grand gestures, or the moon and the stars. It's just dumb luck. And sometimes, you meet someone who feels the same way. And then, sometimes, you're unlucky. But one day, you're gonna meet someone who appreciates you for who you are. I mean, there's seven billion people on the planet. I know one of them is gonna climb up on a moon for you." – Otis Milburn