Caitlin let the motion of the helicopter ride comfort her as Dom flew them back to Van Nuys. She'd had a disturbed night. She'd lain awake in the bed she usually shared with Hawke and wondered how they fixed the gulf that was opening up between them. She bit her lip. She'd questioned her decision to let him go with Rowan without a single word of protest practically every time she closed her eyes. The situation was certainly testing the trust between them.

'You OK?' Dom's quiet question startled her out of her thoughts.

'Yeah.' Caitlin tried a smile. She knew the older man was worried about her, worried about them and she wasn't up to convincing him there wasn't a problem.

Dom glanced across the cockpit. He could tell she hadn't slept well; there were tell-tale shadows under her eyes and her face was pale under the scattering of freckles. His lips firmed. He understood Hawke had wanted to help Rowan but there was no doubt in his mind that he was treating Caitlin thoughtlessly at best. It had been the reason why he'd seen Caitlin home to the cabin the night before and why he'd stayed over. 'You said Marella was meeting us at the hangar?'

'Yeah.' Caitlin folded her arms. 'I gave all the information I could last night. She said she'd have something for us this morning.'

'Good.' Dom murmured before he requested an approach to the hangar from the control tower. They could see Marella waiting by the limo as they came into land and both of them hurried out of the chopper to greet her.

'Hi.' Caitlin gestured at the hangar. 'You want to come inside?'

Marella nodded sending the dark curly hair bouncing on her shoulders. She handed Caitlin a folder as the three of them made their way inside. 'This won't take long. There's not a great deal I was able to find out about a potential spate of kidnappings in the area.'

'Damn.' Caitlin threw her jacket on the chair and went to switch the coffee pot on, still clutching the folder in one hand.

'But there was quite a substantial amount of information about Rowan Carver.'

Caitlin froze and turned back to Marella questioningly.

The other woman smiled grimly. 'Until Friday last week Rowan Carver was working for an aeronautical firm in Las Vegas called GlideAir. They have a contract with the government to build two stealth capable passenger jets potentially for use in ferrying large members of the government to safety in the event of a nuclear attack or some other disaster.' She put her hands in the pockets of the white coat she wore. 'Rowan was hired as a test pilot and from all reports was doing very well. They were surprised by her resignation and are eager to speak with her.'

'Why?' Dom prompted.

'Apparently about three months ago, she began to see a man called Mack Jones, the head of security at GlideAir. Their relationship was an open secret within the company and as they had no direct managerial line wasn't particularly frowned upon. Two weeks ago, he disappeared into thin air along with the head of Finance, a guy called Howard Gough and a good ten million dollars worth of company funds.'

'Mamma Mia.' Dom muttered slumping onto a desk. 'That's a lot of money.'

'A lot of money and if it can't be recovered quickly, GlideAir will go out of business.' Marella shifted her weight on the white stilettos she wore. 'The FBI and State Treasury Department are already working on tracking the stolen money.'

'They think Rowan is involved.' Caitlin said reading the folder.

'She was questioned but they let her go.' Marella sighed. 'The report noted she seemed shocked by the turn of events and was credible. It was only because she suddenly resigned on Friday that their interest skyrocketed again. They went to the apartment she had listed but she'd already moved. No forwarding address.'

'So what has this got to do with Rowan's sister?' Dom said gesturing.

'Allie Carver is a student at the University of Las Vegas. The campus office confirms she also hasn't attended lectures this week and admit it's unusual behaviour for her.' Marella sighed. 'I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to work out that somehow the embezzlement at GlideAir and Rowan's missing sister are all connected.'

'But how?' Dom threw his hands up. 'Ah it doesn't make any sense.'

'Maybe it does…' Caitlin murmured.

'What's your theory?' Marella asked.

'I'm not exactly sure I have one yet.' Caitlin admitted. 'But what if Rowan knows more about the embezzlement than the bad guys want her to? Maybe they've taken Allie to ensure her silence.'

'And now she's trying to get her sister back on the sly with our help.' Dom concluded. 'You could be right.'

'Yeah but Hawke's working in the dark, Dom.' Caitlin reminded him. 'He needs to know this.'

'You have the address?'

'Yeah.' Caitlin reached into her purse and scribbled it down again before she handed it over to Dom.

'I'll take the Jet Ranger and head to Vegas. He's going to need back up. Tell him I'm on my way if he calls.' Dom said. 'You stay here on stand by with the Lady and maybe do some more digging on these guys, huh?'

Caitlin frowned. 'Are you sure you don't want me to come along and for us both to take the Lady?'

Dom shook his head. 'It won't be easy finding somewhere to hide her in Vegas. It'd be much better if we only took her if we have to.'

Caitlin sighed. 'OK then.' She watched Dom slap his red cap back over the thin wispy grey curls. 'Dom?'

'Yeah?' He turned to look over his shoulder at her.

'Tell Hawke…' she hesitated, 'tell him I'm missing him.'

Dom nodded. 'I will.'

'I have to get back to the FIRM.' Marella said following him. 'Call me if you need anything more.'

'I will do.' Caitlin raised the folder. 'And thanks.'

Marella nodded in acknowledgement and headed back out to the limo.

Caitlin sat down heavily in one of the office chairs. Her fingers tapped restlessly against the beige folder. She should head to the computers in the Lair; they were all hooked up somehow with every single intelligence database in the country. She stood up intending to leave when the phone rang. She picked it up. 'Santini Air.' The silence on the other end had her rolling her eyes. 'Hello?' The continuing silence had her slamming the receiver into the cradle. The phone rang again almost immediately. She swept it up.

'Now look you creep…'

'Caitlin?'

Hawke's voice had her sinking back into her chair. 'Hawke. Hi.'

'What's going on?'

His concern soothed her. 'It's nothing just another crank call.' She twisted the wire between her fingers. 'How's it going?'

'No luck.' Hawke admitted. 'We've taken a break so I thought I'd give you a call and see if Marella had managed to come up with anything on any other abductions yet.'

'Marella didn't discover anything about any other abductions.'

'OK…' His disappointment was evident.

'Hawke, she did discover something though.' Caitlin said interrupting him. Her hand clutched the phone harder.

There was silence.

'Hawke?'

'I'm here.' Hawke confirmed.

'Hawke, Rowan hasn't been completely honest with you…'

'Caitlin…'

'Just listen to me.' Caitlin insisted trying hard not to be hurt at the sharp use of her name. She filled him in on the details of Marella's investigation. 'Dom's on his way to Rowan's apartment now to give you some back up.'

Hawke sighed. 'And you?'

'I'll stay with the Lady in case you need us, do some more digging and see if I can find where Gough or Jones might have stashed Allie.'

'Thanks.' Hawke said gruffly. There was the sound of a woman's voice – Rowan's – in the background. 'I have to go.'

'Yeah.' Caitlin sighed. 'Stay safe.'

'Bye.'

The dull tone of the line sounded in her ear and she dropped the receiver back into its cradle. Caitlin stood up again and started to gather her things. A knock at the office door didn't halt her activity as she called for the visitor to enter. 'Can I help you?' She asked without looking up.

'I hope so.'

The smooth Texan drawl had her head whipping round to the doorway. 'Tom!' Caitlin smiled and moved to greet her ex-boyfriend and almost brother-in-law with a friendly hug. 'It's good to see you.' She stepped back to take a good look at him. The last time she'd seen him had been the day of his nearly wedding to her sister. He'd taken being jilted with a quiet dignity but she'd seen the constant commiserations and pity wearing at him as the day had gone on. She hadn't blamed him when he'd finally headed for his own ranch and some peace.

'You're looking beautiful as always.' Tom complimented bringing a faint blush to her cheeks.

'How are you?' She asked.

'Doing much better.' Tom said easily. His brown eyes swept over Caitlin and settled on the multi-coloured bruise on the side of her forehead. He touched it gently. 'What happened?'

'Stunt went wrong.' Caitlin made a face and pulled away from him. 'Some idiot put a real rocket into the launcher rather than a dummy. It caught my tail rotor and I had to do a crash landing. I kinda caught my head on the side of the cockpit.'

'You seem to be making a habit of crash landing lately.' Tom frowned.

Caitlin shrugged. 'Occupational hazard.' She gestured at a chair. 'So what are you doing here?'

'I decided to do some travelling.' Tom smiled. 'Getting jilted made me realise I haven't done much with my life beyond sit on my Daddy's ranch and wait to take it over.'

'Where are you headed?' Caitlin said silently agreeing with Tom's assessment of his own life.

'Figure I'll start here in LA, do some sight-seeing. Maybe head over to Hawaii, onto Asia. Possibly Australia; I'd like to see some of their ranches.' He shrugged. 'Told the folks I'd be gone a whole year.'

'Wow.' Caitlin wondered at the change in him; he'd always been such a homebody.

'Maybe I can fill you and Hawke in on my plans over dinner?' Tom suggested.

Caitlin hesitated, torn. She wasn't sure Hawke would be pleased about her having dinner with Tom on her own.

Tom smiled as the silence continued. 'It wasn't meant to be a difficult question.'

Caitlin smiled back and made her decision; Hawke was currently running Vegas with his ex-girlfriend, he had no call to object to her spending one evening with Tom. 'Hawke's not in town but I'd love to.'

'Great.' Tom grinned reminding her of the boy she'd dated in high school. 'I'll pick you up here at six?'

'Six sounds good.' Caitlin agreed readily. 'Do you have a contact number in case something comes up and I need to reach you?'

'Sure.' Tom reached into his breast pocket on the shirt he wore and pulled out a slim white card. 'The hotel I'm staying at.'

'Great.' Caitlin said. 'I'll see you at six.' She waited until he'd left the hangar before closing up and making her way to the Lair. The sooner she found where Allie was, the sooner she'd have Hawke home.