He approached the international arrivals gate with a triumphant smile on his face, a man about to walk out into a future he had arranged entirely to his own advantage.

That smile is the thing I most wish I had seen with my own eyes.

Because of what happened to it next.

Chapter 15 — The Smile Vanished

That smile vanished in a fraction of a second.

Standing at the exit of the jet bridge, directly in Julian’s path, was not the empty concourse he expected, and not, as he might briefly have hoped when he registered official uniforms, some routine customs inconvenience.

Standing there was a line of six uniformed federal marshals, flanked by two officers from the LAPD’s child abduction unit, an emergency caseworker with a folder, and, in a pristine charcoal suit, arms folded, waiting, Martin Shaw.