Chapter 1

"Sir, your daughter has been kidnapped."

Steve was able to mask his emotions in most occasions. This was not one of them. Most days he put on a cool disinterested mask, showing to the outside world that nothing fazed him. He had to. Steve was so far into the government's spy system that he didn't exist. Steve Johnson ceased to exist 15 years ago. He didn't even have a real name except for Black Eye – named as much for the patch on his eye as his fighting abilities.

The computer screen stared back at him with the foreign words, "Sir, your daughter has been kidnapped." How? Why? Steve had made a lot of enemies in his day. The worst thought he had was that one of his enemies had found out who he was and was going after his family to coax him out into the public.

The next line of the email confirmed his fears. Your identity has been compromised. Steve's breathing was sharp now. His heart beat a little faster. With his identity compromised, he could no longer do his job. One enemy had found his weakness, more enemies would follow. Steve no longer existed, and soon, neither would Black Eye.

He knew other none existent agents would be at his hotel room to debrief him on his job as a secret agent. They would allow him one more mission of finding his daughter, then he would be on his own.

Thinking about what the future held for him, was not in his thought process. Right now he was more concerned with finding his daughter. The fact that he was about to drop into his old life that no longer existed and reveal himself to people who thought he was dead didn't matter. Stephanie had to be found safe, alive, and soon. Steve knew what kind of damage his enemies could do to her, and he wanted to spare her that pain if possible.

If he wasn't already too late.

Stephanie struggled against the ropes around her wrists. She was groggy from the drugs that someone had given her earlier to make her calm down and sleep. The men in the front of the car whispered nonsensical words back and forth with each other. As long as they kept doing that and didn't pay attention to her, she could keep trying to get herself free.

She didn't know who these people were, why they wanted her, or what they were going to do to her. They knew her name because they called her Stephanie. She had been with her mother at the Brady Pub as they were visiting her grandparents, Caroline and Shawn Brady, for the summer. Stephanie had gone out for a breath of air and that's when they grabbed her. She struggled at first, but the two men had drugged her with something and the next thing she knew, she was tied up in the backseat of this car.

"The girl's awake." One of the men said and her eyes met his in the rearview mirror.

The other man turned around and looked at her. "Good morning Stephanie. How are you today?"

Stephanie tried to answer some smart reply, but found that her mouth was taped shut. They just laughed at her. "As long as you stay quiet and stay still, you'll be fine."

The man driving said, "Once we get who we want, we'll let you go." The men laughed again.

Stephanie has a feeling that they didn't have any plans to let her go. She tried screaming, but it didn't do any good. One of the men slapped her across the face and told her to shut up.

"All we want is Black Eye." The man not driving said. "You only have to worry if he doesn't come to rescue you."

Black Eye? Stephanie's mind was racing. Who the hell was Black Eye? There were cops in her family. Uncle Roman and Uncle Bo would be looking for her by now. She hoped that they would be able to find her soon and find out how this Black Eye was.

Stephanie closed her eyes and silently prayed. Please help me. Someone. Anyone.

Chapter 2

"Kayla, come on, wake up." Kayla stirred a little and realized she was in a chair. Why had she fallen asleep in a chair? It had something to do with…

Stephanie!

Her daughter was missing and Kayla wouldn't leave the police station. Kayla woke up to find Hope staring at her. "Stephanie?" Kayla asked, hopeful.

Hope shook her head. "No. Nothing yet." Hope took Kayla's hand in her own. "Why don't we go home. Get some rest. Bo and Roman will call us the minute they find out anything."

Kayla shook her head. "No. I'm not leaving until we find out about Stephanie."

"Hon, we don't even know for sure that she's missing," Hope tried to reassure her. "She's only been gone for a few hours. Maybe she just wandered off somewhere."

"Where would she go? She doesn't know Salem. She wouldn't go anywhere without telling me first. And she doesn't go anywhere without her cell phone." Stephanie's cell phone had been found on the ground outside of the Brady Pub. Stephanie was nowhere to be found.

Bo came up to them then and Kayla stood up to face him. The look on his face was grim. Kayla didn't like that look when she knew it pertained to Stephanie. "How're you holding up, Kay?"

"Where's Stephanie?" were the first words out of her mouth.

"We don't know. We've called on the relatives in Salem and no one has seen her. If we had her cell phone we could track her through the GPS."

"But she doesn't have her cell phone." Kayla said.

"No, she doesn't." Bo said. "And we've traced her calls on the cell. The name that comes up the most often is Derek. She received a call from around the time you said she walked out of the pub to get some air."

"Derek's her boyfriend," Kayla said. "They're on the phone together a lot, which is why she wouldn't have left her cell phone behind. She wouldn't want to miss a call from him."

"There hasn't been a call from him since Stephanie disappeared." Bo said. "Does he know that Stephanie's missing?"

Kayla nodded. "I called awhile ago to see if he knew anything. He didn't. He said that Stephanie had said she was going back into the pub when he hung up the phone with her."

"Okay." Bo said, making notes. "We'll get someone to interview him. See if he knows more than he's letting on. Do you trust this kid?"

"He's a good kid. He wouldn't hurt Stephanie." Kayla said and then wondered if maybe she had misjudged the kid. But then Derek was such a sweetheart and he was in L.A. There was no way he would hurt Stephanie in anyway. Kayla banished any thoughts she had of Derek hurting Stephanie far from her mind.

Bo was still taking notes on things he had to do and investigate. "We'll find her Kay. Don't worry. We'll find her."

Kayla watched as Bo walked away as he was summoned by Roman. Her big brothers were going to find Stephanie. She had to believe that. If only she had some information, any information, she could find her daughter herself. But she had nothing to go on.

"Kayla, let's go home for awhile," Hope said. "Get some rest. You'll be of no use to Stephanie if you don't get any rest."

"Hope, thank you, but I'm staying here." Kayla said. "If Shawn was the one missing, would you be at home? No you'd be here working the case."

"Yes, I would be, but I'm a cop."

"No. You're a mother. And so am I."

So Kayla waited. And listened. For any kind of clue.

It was nighttime in Salem when Steve arrived. He had flown into the old airstrip at the edge of town so he could avoid the people of Salem as much as he could. While he wanted to work on the case as soon as possible and get his daughter back home safe and sound he wasn't sure how to approach the residents of Salem as he was supposed to be dead.

He wasn't sure he could face Kayla. Her daughter was missing because of him. Because of things he had done in the past. His past wasn't supposed to intersect with his family's life. He'd been promised that the danger would never harm their lives. Steve had been promised, but he knew that there was never a guarantee. The danger could be unleashed with information in the wrong hands.

Steve wanted to strangle whoever had kidnapped Stephanie, and he probably would. But he had to find her first.

He'd been briefed shortly before he arrived in Salem. Stephanie had been outside the Brady Pub on her cell phone. When she finished her call, she was about to go back outside when she had been grabbed by men in black. The ISA had received a message that the men wanted Black Eye or his daughter would be dead in two days.

As he drove into town, he pulled out his secure phone and let the ISA know he had arrived in Salem. Soon, the local police department would be overrun with ISA. He could care less whether Roman and Bo Brady had any problems with the ISA butting into their business, he wanted to find his daughter with whatever means possible.

"Daddy's coming." Steve said as he passed the Welcome to Salem Sign.

Captain Roman Brady cursed at the fax that he had just received. All investigation into his niece, Stephanie Johnson's, case was to cease because the ISA was taking over. On one level, he knew this was not a good sign since Stephanie had been missing for less than 24 hours and wasn't technically "missing" yet. But if the ISA was involved, whatever happened to Stephanie was serious. The ISA had more resources than he did, but Roman wanted to be able to find his niece himself. He didn't know how he was going to be able to tell his sister that Stephanie's disappearance was more serious than any one of them thought.

Why would the ISA be involved in a missing person's case less than 24 hours after it happened? He was going to have to call John Black and get some more information about the ISA involvement.

Then Roman read the note further. A carrier would be delivering a package straight to him with the name of a high-powered ISA Agent whom would be taking over the lead of the case. Roman was already afraid for Stephanie, but to have such a protocol to protect the name of an agent, Roman was extremely afraid. It was very likely that this agent was one of the nameless men that were rumored to carry out the most dangerous missions. So dangerous, that if caught, the government wouldn't claim them as their own because these men didn't exist.

How the hell did one of those nonexistent agents get involved with Stephanie? She couldn't know anyone in the ISA.

The carrier arrived then with a confidential package. Inside the package was the information he was looking for. The agent went by the name Black Eye. Roman would be able to identify the agent because he wore a patch on his left eye.

Black Eye. Roman had heard whispers of him through the ISA grapevine. The man was dangerous. Probably the most dangerous agent the ISA had.

This was really serious if the man they called Black Eye was involved.

Roman watched Kayla and Hope out in the police station. Kayla was hoping for any kind of news. How the hell was going to tell her about the ISA and this man called Black Eye being involved?

And Stephanie. What kind of danger was she in? They had to find her fast. As he watched Kayla, he didn't know how his sister was going to make it if they didn't find Stephanie safe, alive, and fast. After Steve died, Stephanie was all that Kayla was able to hang onto to live.

Wait a minute. Roman took another look at the confidential report in front of him. Black Eye. Characterized by a patch on his eye. Patch. Steve.

What if Black Eye was Steve? Roman tried to shake the thought from his mind. But he couldn't. Black Eye was dangerous. Steve could be dangerous. Black Eye was being called in to find Stephanie. Steve was Stephanie's father. There were too many coincidences.

Except Steve wouldn't do that to his family. He wouldn't let them think he was dead for all these years, would he?

No. Steve wouldn't do that to his family. Roman settled for that thought and pushed the rest of it all to the back of his mind. He would tell Bo about the ISA, but Black Eye and his suspicions about Steve that wouldn't leave his mind he would keep to himself.