She could hear a shuffling sound and a younger woman's voice came on the line. "h.e.l.lo, I am Ana Le. I am a neighbor of Mrs. Zhou. She seems upset and just handed the phone to me."

"Oh, I am sorry," Charlie apologized. "I told her I was an old college friend of her son and wanted to get his contact information. We fell out of contact when he moved back to China."

"China?"

"Yes, he told me he was quitting his job in California and moving to China."

"When was this?"

"Um...about two years ago," Charlie replied, the sick feeling that she got when she was about to find out something she did not want to know growing in her stomach. Licking her dry lips, she continued, "Did he not go back to China?"

Ana answered, "I don't know where you got your information, but Hai died two years ago."

Almost dropping the phone, Charlie repeated numbly, "Died? Two years ago?"

"Yes. He died when he fell asleep in his car and crashed."

"I...I..." Charlie stumbled over her words before pulling herself together. "Thank you, Ms. Le. This is such a shock. Can you perhaps give me the date of his death?"

"Yes, the date was October 12, two years ago."

Hanging up, her heart pounded and her hands shook as she quickly searched her email history. There it was-Hai's group email to her, Eli, and Tim. It came in response to a group email she had sent to everyone. He had said he was moving back to China to take up a position there and it had been nice knowing everyone.

Almost in a trance, Charlie's gaze moved to the date of his email. October 13. The day after he died. Or was killed. Holy moly!

She thought of calling Luke, but stared at the phone in her hand. Patrick told her it was a burner phone when he gave it to her, but she had been too embarra.s.sed to let him know she had no idea what that meant. I just used it to call Hai's mom. Is that traceable? Aughhh!

Marc had picked him up this morning to go to the compound, so his SUV was still in the garage. A quick glance behind her revealed the keys on the peg next to the door leading from the kitchen to the garage. Grabbing her purse, she snagged her laptop and the keys and floored the vehicle down the road.

When she got to the security gates at Jack's place, she looked dumbfounded at the panel. Not knowing the code, she pushed a few b.u.t.tons until a voice came on.

"Girl, what the h.e.l.l are you doing?" Bethany laughed. "I saw you drive up and didn't have time to buzz you in before you started hitting the b.u.t.tons."

"I'm sorry," Charlie said, feeling foolish. "I really need to get in-" The gate had already begun to swing open. "Um...do I just drive in?"

"Charlie, come on, straight to the house."

She recognized Luke's voice and scrunched her nose in irritation. Oh, h.e.l.l, they'll probably all be there waiting for me. She was partially right. When she came to the end of the drive, Luke was the only one standing on the front porch, but as soon as she alighted and ran to him, she could see the others in the living room through the open front door.

"Babe, what's wrong?" Luke asked, his heart pounding on high alert.

Grabbing his hand, she pulled him into the house as she said, "Come on, I'll tell you all at once." Stumbling over the threshold, Luke threw his arm around her waist to steady her. Glancing around the room at the other Saints, then turning her body fully toward Luke, she blurted, "Hai Zhou never went to China. He's dead."

An instant of stunned silence was followed with curses as her p.r.o.nouncement sunk in. Jack barked out, "Back downstairs," and everyone snapped to attention. As she was hustled in front of Luke, she twisted her head around to explain, "I was afraid to use the burner phone. I thought I'd better come."

Squeezing her hand in his, he said, "No problem, sweetheart. I'd rather you be with me now anyway."

Grinning in spite of the situation, she rounded the bottom of the stairs and entered the conference room. Quickly sitting, the group looked at her expectantly and she proceeded to tell them of her discovery.

Finishing, she said, "I haven't checked out anything else, yet. As soon as I realized the date the email was sent was after he died, I knew I needed to come." She held her phone out in her palm and added, "I called from this phone, but then I didn't know what to do with it."

Patrick walked over and took it from her hand. "No problem. I'll get you another."

"Good work," Jack praised Charlie, as he looked over to Luke. "Get us what you can."

Luke left her side and immediately went to his bank of computers, quickly followed by Charlie. As she moved she could not help but notice the expressions of admiration coming from the others. Smiling to herself, she ducked her head as she turned back to stare over Luke's shoulder.

"Hai worked in California for Chow Medical Incorporation. Their site says they are world leaders in meeting the medical community's needs for better, more effective organ transplant technologies. Give me a minute to hack into the HR."

Charlie's fingers dug into his shoulders as she watched him work his magic.

"Got it," he proclaimed. "Hai's employee record is marked as inactive, reason deceased. The official date is October 12."

"Can you find out what he worked on?" Monty asked, looking at his watch. "Jack? We've got a conference with Nick in about ten minutes."

"Good," Jack responded. "We'll have a lot to go over."

Charlie sat quickly in her chair and said, "We can do this faster with two of us working." As Luke worked to determine Hai's department at Chow Medical, Charlie looked into his death report.

"Luke?" Charlie waited until he lifted his head to look at her before she said, "Remember, Hai was a software engineer. He would have been hired to work on their programs in some capacity."

"Thanks, sweetheart," he replied with a smile, looking back at his monitor.

Once more, she could not hold back the grin, feeling the energy in the room and knowing she was a part of it. As she and Luke continued to work on Hai, Jude set up the video-conference with Nick, who shortly appeared on the screen. His familiar scowl in place, he greeted the Saints.

"You got more for me?" Nick asked.

"We've got a lot," Monty replied and began to review the intelligence Charlie had uncovered about the Cheung Medical clinic. Covering her conversations with Penny and her suspicions about human trafficking as well as organ trafficking, he ended his report with the latest on Hai Zhou.

"G.o.ddammit," Nick cursed, rubbing his hand over his short, dark hair.

"I can see Hai's old email account. It was deactivated but I've got it pulled up," Luke stated. He began scrolling through and added, "It appears someone went through and deleted some messages after October 12 of that year. Someone would only do that if they had something to hide."

"Encrypted?" Charlie asked, glancing back to his monitor.

"Nope. Looks like an amateur job of trying to hide some things." Cursing loudly, Luke shook his head. "I accepted Tim's explanation too readily about Hai and did not follow through enough!"

"I never questioned it either," Charlie said. "Neither did Eli or Tim."

"Whoever did it probably figured no one would come looking after he was dead by an apparent accident," Blaise surmised.

"Hey, guys," Charlie called out. "His accident report doesn't give me much, but an insurance claim was filed on behalf of his mom and the report from the insurance company that investigated stated that the brakes on his car did not work. They don't list why, but it was the reason they denied the claim. It appears the mom never questioned the report."

"It's rare that brakes suddenly just stop working," Cam threw out. "I've seen too many cuts in my time not to lean that way."

"Got it," Luke called out again. "He was working on the programs that list the transplant donor national database, to be used by hospitals. I've got an email here where he contacted his supervisor saying as he worked on the final program he questioned why it only went to certain private doctors and not the national center."

Luke and Charlie looked at each other, both of their minds quickly a.n.a.lyzing the possibilities.

Charlie looked at the group, including the screen with Nick's image staring at her, and said, "If we are considering the possibility of illegal organ transplantation, then it would make sense that someone has to have a way to connect the doctors that are harvesting the organs with doctors that don't mind getting an organ any way they can for their patients."

Cam interjected, "Remember, Miriam said that organs have to be used within a certain time frame."

"What if this company was looking into a way to extend that time? Then organs harvested anywhere in the world could be sent to the highest bidder." Charlie surmised.

The room resounded with f.u.c.kin' h.e.l.ls and d.a.m.ns, even from the screen as Nick joined the others, before she continued, "And what better victims to do this to than young runaways or homeless persons; no one checks up on their whereabouts."

Taking a deep breath, Nick said, "This investigation just got a whole lot bigger and a f.u.c.kuva lot more complicated."

"I don't care," Charlie stated emphatically. "Right now, I want Penny and her friend safe."

"What about the human trafficking angle?" Chad asked, his eyes full of concern. "How does that fit in?"

Shrugging, Charlie said, "I don't know. Maybe nowhere. It's just that there seemed to be a connection between the Chinese mafia and trafficking of young people as well as organs."

Jack looked at Nick and said, "I'm sending some of my men into Cheung's clinic tonight to see what they can find."

For once Nick did not argue the legality of such a search, but had to add the throwaway caution, "Whatever they find, get it to me so I can work on this in a way that'll stand up in court."

The Saints spared a grin, remembering the number of times Mitch would say the same thing.

Bart, leaning forward, resting his arms on the table, pinned the group with a stare. "And if we find something that needs immediate attention...like Penny or someone else?"

Nick's lips thinned for only a second before answering, "Then you take care of it."

Bart's handsome face relaxed into a slight smile as he winked at Charlie. "You got it."

Chapter 27.

Penny slipped into David's room, her heart skipping a beat when she saw his bed was empty. A noise from the other side of the room startled her, but her fear was replaced with a grin as David stood from the chair, his arms out wide.

Rushing in for a hug, she smiled up at him. His color was good and he appeared to be in the peak of health. Trying to push down her fears, she held on tightly as her arms squeezed around his middle.

He kissed the top of her head and said, "We need to talk."

An involuntary jerk shot through her body as the smile dropped from her face. He led her over to the bed and pulled her up in it next to him. She lay her head on his chest, hearing his strong heartbeat.

"The surgery is going to be tomorrow."

The words came out plainly with no fanfare, but they slammed into Penny as though blared with trumpets. Her fingers, which had been resting on his stomach, clenched in fear.

"Now, before you say anything," he began, "let me tell you what I've been told. I'll be prepped tomorrow but I won't be in this building. They have a separate surgical place and that's where I'll be."

Jerking her head from his chest, she peered into his face. "What about me? I don't want to stay here without you."

"I know. I asked about that. They said that you'll be taken with me."

Releasing her held breath, she searched his face, trying to judge his emotion. "How are you with all of this, David? How do you really feel? Please be honest with me...that's all we have."

He cupped her face, running his thumb over her soft skin, but said nothing for a while. Finally, he asked, "Do you realize we've never even had s.e.x?"

Blinking in confusion at the change in topic, she c.o.c.ked her head to the side. "Well...I...yeah, of course I know."

"Have you ever wondered why?" he asked, his soft breath caressing her face.

Biting her bottom lip, she shook her head. "I just thought...uh...that maybe you didn't really want-"

Chuckling, he said, "Penny, I'm a normal sixteen, almost seventeen-year-old male. Of course I've thought of s.e.x." Grinning at her blush, he added, "I'd be thinking about it even if you were plain and homely...but you're not. You're gorgeous and sweet and loving. And I've thought of having s.e.x with you every day for all these months we've been together."

Blue eyes wide, she blushed as she asked, "Then why haven't you-"

"Because I made a promise to myself that I would not have you until we could be in a real bed. You were too precious to try to make love to under a tree where anyone could see...or crammed into a shelter where others around would know what we were doing. For me...I would wait until I could give you what you deserved, and that was just the two of us in a real bed."

He let the words flow over her before he continued. "And that's one of the reasons I'm doing this surgery. I want that money...I want to be able to get a small place with you and have that bed. I want our first time to be special."

Penny attempted to blink away the first tear that fell, but was unable to stem the flow. No one in her life had ever offered her a more precious gift. Not her dad that left when she was a baby. Not her stepdad who leered at her and barely waited to touch her when he could. And not her mom, who knew the monster she married but did not protect her own daughter. But this man-boy...was offering her everything he had to give.

The sobs burst forth as she buried her face in his t-shirt, her body bucking with their force. He wrapped his arms around her tightly and held on for his life, while making soft, gently shushing noises.

When her sobs finally subsided, she gazed up at him again through watery eyes and said, "If you want...we're in a bed now."

His breath caught in his throat as he realized what she was offering. The inner battle raged inside as her soft body pressed closely to his. His swollen erection pressed against her stomach, his body ready and eager.

Drawing in a ragged breath, he made up his mind as he leaned the scant distance to kiss her lips, tasting the salt of her tears. "No, babe. Not now. Not when we're scared and desperate. But soon. As soon as I recover and we have our place. Then, and only then, will we make love for the first time."

Nodding while still snuggled close to him, she whispered into the darkness, "I love you, David."

Instead of leaving his bed and heading back to her room, she continued to rest her head on his chest, and heard the words she longed to hear as he promised, "I love you too, Penny. I'll love you as long as I live."

Easily re-wiring the security on the Cheung Medical clinic, Bart and Cam slipped into the back of the building. Using the building's blueprints, they made their way from the back examining rooms and labs, checking the reception area, and then back to the staff rooms.

Following their standard operating procedures, they slipped specialized thumb drives into every computer in the clinic, including the one in reception, and notified Luke they were ready. He was in a Saints' van parked down the street and began the process of downloading everything from the computers. Charlie had come with him, fascinated to see how he worked in the field and eager to learn.

It had taken almost ten minutes before he was able to give them the signal to pull the drives out. Looking over at Charlie, he noticed her grinning. "Like this?"

"Oh, yeah," she gushed. "I never knew how you obtained all of your information, only able to see part of what you were doing. But this," she said, waving her hands around at the equipment in the van, "is amazing." Pausing to hold his gaze for a moment, she added, "Thanks for letting me come."

Leaning over, he kissed her quickly before replying, "You'll have to thank Jack. I think he's finally getting used to you working with us."