“I see. Well, my son will be home this weekend for the fireworks display at the fairgrounds, so I will let him know you called. I expect you’ll be hearing from him.”
“It’s not important. Please don’t bother him about it. Goodbye, Mrs. Strong.”
“Goodbye, then.”
Disappointment clutched at Raven’s belly. How could Matt kiss her like that and then just take off for parts unknown without so much as a little phone call?
She dialed Ken’s cell phone. A feminine voice answered. “Ken’s phone,” she said with a giggle.
“Give me that phone, girl,” Ken boomed from the background. “No one answers my phone but me, Kellie-girl.”
Kellie? Disgusted, Raven disconnected the call. Kellie must have run right to Ken after her talk with Mr. Cruise. He’d certainly cheered her up quickly enough. The catty girl had to try to get everything that belonged to Raven—even her cameraman.
She snatched up her purse and her new contract, and headed for the door. She needed to get out of here.
On the way to her car, she spied Ken and Kellie, locked in an embrace next to his beater of a pickup. Tears stung her eyes. How much more could she lose and still hold it together? Loneliness nearly overwhelmed her.
“Raven! Rave, wait up.”
She turned at the sound of Ken’s voice, her defenses raised and gearing for a fight. “If you’re finished making out with the boss’s daughter,” she said, not caring how testy she sounded, “we have work to do down at Victory Mission. Frank wants a follow-up on Anaya’s story.”
Ken’s lined face scrunched into a frown. “Hey, what’s with the attitude? You sound like a jealous wife—and believe me, I’ve had four of them so I should know.” He adjusted his camera bag over his shoulder. “I just heard the news. Congratulations, kiddo. I never doubted you for a second.”
“Do you really mean it? Or were you pulling for Kellie all along?”
“You mean that little kiss?” He sent her a rakish grin. “That was just a consolation prize.”
“Little kiss, my big toe.” Raven scowled and folded her arms across her chest. “If that was a little kiss, I’d like to see a big one.”
His eyebrow rose. “I’d oblige if you weren’t so much like my own little sister.” He reached out and ruffled her hair, then laughed outright when she swatted his hand away.
“Ha! You’d be the last man on earth I’d kiss anyway. I might as well grab an ashtray and kiss it.” Raven opened her SUV door. “Are you coming?”
Three days at the lake had done wonders for Matt’s nerves. At their secluded family cabin, he’d been able to relax. From his family’s private beach, he watched his daughter splashing about in the water, carefree and full of innocence, blissfully unaware that a man might want to cause her harm, or at the very least, use her for his own financial gain.
The thought clenched his gut and the familiar feeling of helplessness invaded his heart. If only they could stay away from the world forever. But he knew that wasn’t possible. Jamie had ball games and he had to settle his relationship with Raven.
He couldn’t figure out why she hadn’t returned any of his calls. He’d even driven by her house and slipped a note under her door to let her know he was leaving and to give the address where she could reach him in case she wanted to drive up to the lake for a day. But no word.
From the cabin, he heard the jangling of the phone and hopped to his feet. “James! Get out of the water for a few minutes and rest on the beach, I’m going inside to answer the phone.”
“Oh, man! Can’t I stay in?”
“No,” he called over his shoulder. “Get out now.”
The phone rang with persistence. Maybe his thoughts had conjured Raven to call him. A grin played at his lips. “Hello?”
“Jamie looks sweet lying on the beach.” The distorted voice laughed. Evil. Purposeful.
“Who is this? Ray?”
“You really shouldn’t leave her alone like that. You never know who might be watching.”
“What do you want from me? More money?”
“You might be able to put a price on family, Strong. But not me.”
“You’re not going to get her away from me. Do you hear me? No matter what I have to do.”
The line went dead. Snatching his cell phone from the charger by the door, Matt sprinted onto the porch and down the cabin steps. Jamie lay on the beach, so still…His imagination went into overdrive. “Jamie!” To his relief, the little girl sat up. “Yeah, Dad?”
He rushed to her side and gathered her into his arms.
“Hey!” she groused, wriggling free. “What’s up with that? You about smothered me.”
“Sorry. I just needed a hug.”
“Well, ask next time so I can be ready.” She grinned and flung her arms around his neck in a stranglehold, stealing his heart and his breath. “There. Can I go back into the water now?”
“No. You need to come inside so we can clean the cabin and pack up. We’re going home in the morning.”
“A day early?”
“Yeah. Do you mind?”
She gave a little shrug of bony sun-kissed shoulders. “To tell you the truth, I was starting to get a little bored with just you to play with.”
“Hey, thanks a lot, sport. Maybe I’m overdue for some adult conversation too. Ever think of that?”
A snort blew through her. “You mean like Raven?”
“Maybe.”
“Grams said she better not break your heart again, or else.”
“Or else what?”
“She didn’t say. Just said ‘or else.’”
“I see…” He was going to have to have a word with his mother about what were considered proper topics of conversation with Jamie.
Jamie reached down and snatched up her soggy towel from the sandy beach. “Let’s clean up. Can we make a campfire later and roast hot dogs and marshmallows?”
“Sounds great.”
He held the binoculars to his eyes, watching father and daughter walking toward the cabin. He had to shake his head. Strong was a class-A idiot. Why didn’t it occur to the guy that he was watching the little girl from a boat on the lake?
Their beach might be private, but the water didn’t belong to the Strong family. He’d debated whether to pull the boat in close and snatch up Jamie from the water, just to prove he could, but that was too risky. He wasn’t going to play many more games. Strong had made it clear he wouldn’t give up without a fight.
So, the gloves were off now? This might be fun.
Chapter Sixteen
Raven felt chubby hands climbing up her leg and she glanced down. Anaya’s beautiful brown face looked up and her arms lifted, eliciting a smile from Raven’s lips.
“Hey there, doll,” she said pulling the child into her arms. “I think you’re even more gorgeous today than you were last time I saw you.”
The toddler responded to Raven’s friendly tone with a giggle. Her face split into a grin. She held up two fingers. “Two?”
“Two? Two what?”
“She’s telling you that’s how old she is.” Keri’s husky, amusement-filled voice preceded her into Raven’s personal space.
So far she’d had very little to say to her sister, who still hadn’t brought up the barbecue. But who could even think resentful thoughts while holding such perfection in one’s arms?
“No calls yet?” she asked.
Keri smoothed the little girl’s pigtails. “None.”
The sorrow in her sister’s round brown eyes touched Raven’s heart. “Don’t give up. It’s been less than a week. Maybe this time around the clip will get into the right hands.”
“I hope so, Rave. I don’t know how long they’ll let me keep her. A beauty like Anaya will be so easy to place for adoption. I’ve prayed and prayed, but I can’t help but feel like there’s no point in airing this story in Missouri. Mary wasn’t from around here. It’s just not likely that anyone from her past will recognize her.”
“What if her real family isn’t a good choice to raise her? It’s possible they’re druggies or worse. Why did Mary run off?”
“No. It wasn’t like that. Mary was a victim of an online predator. She was only fourteen and this guy started talking to her through instant messages and e-mail. After a while some of their e-mails back and forth were pretty graphic. Her parents were strict Christians and found out about it. Of course they immediately forbade any further contact and took away the Internet, but it was too late. By then, they’d talked on the phone a couple of times. She went to meet him one night and he kidnapped her, raped her and drove her here to Kansas City where he kept her tied up in a seedy motel. It was only by the grace of God that he didn’t kill her. One day he just left and didn’t come back. The owner of the motel found her tied to the bed after three days with no food or water. She thought she was being rescued. Instead he turned out to be a pimp. He got her well and put her to work.”
Keri’s eyes were filled with tears by the time she finished the story. “Mary’s greatest prayer was that her daughter never ever have to taste the street life. She was this close to calling home, Raven! This close.” The frustration flowed from deep inside Keri, the problem solver. The one who always made things happen. “If only we could get this out!”
Anaya yawned and laid her chubby cheek against Raven’s shoulder. Raven pressed a kiss on the soft skin. “If I were Katie Couric, I’d get this little girl on the Today show tomorrow.”
Keri gave her a watery smile. “I know you would, Raven. I appreciate all you’ve done. Don’t think I don’t, okay? I’m just afraid we’re wasting our time.”
“Rave,” Ken’s voice broke into the conversation as he filled the doorway to Keri’s office. “You about ready to wrap this up? We should get back to the station.”
“All right. Here, take her, she’s starting to drool on my shirt anyway.”
A laugh bubbled from Keri’s lips. “You loved every second of holding that warm, sweet baby in your arms.”
“You’ll never get me to confess,” Raven said with mock determination. “Shoot me, beat me, boil me in oil, I’ll never admit to wanting one of my own.”
She stopped short, her own shock reflected on her sister’s face. “Well, then,” Keri said. “That was more than I would have guessed. Looks like running into ol’ Matthew again is starting to bring out your Molly-Homemaker side. I just knew it was in there somewhere.” She laughed.
Raven squelched her irritation at her own slip of the tongue and rolled her eyes. “Don’t order my wedding dress just yet, little sister.”
“Well, that’ll be a relief to poor Dad. Can you imagine marrying off three daughters in less than three years? Not to mention his own wedding if Ruth ever talks him into actually taking the long walk down the aisle.”
Raven bristled at the very sound of Ruth’s name. “If we’re lucky, she never will.”
Keri scowled. “I don’t get why you have such a problem with Ruth.”
“I don’t get why you don’t have a problem with her.”
“For one thing, Dad’s crazy about her. She’s good for him. She makes him laugh.”
“She sure isn’t Mom,” Raven muttered.
“No, she’s not. She’s Ruth and she makes Dad laugh. I remember how he laughed at Mom’s silliness. Don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“He has that same tender affection for Ruth. Sure, her Texas eccentricity can be overpowering at times, but her heart is as big as her home state and believe me, she makes him happy. You might as well accept it, because I’d be surprised if they aren’t married by the end of the year.”
“Raven! You coming or not?” Ken’s impatience usually grated on Raven like a squeaky shopping cart, but this time his grumpy insistence came as a welcome excuse to boogie on out of there before she said something she’d regret.
“All right. I have to go, Kere-Bear.”
“Wait, before you go. I have to tell you something.”
Raven snatched up her purse from Keri’s desk. “Tell me what?”
“Dad and Ruth are coming tomorrow for the weekend.”
“I know. Dad told me when I called home the other night.”
“You called Dad? Is everything okay?”
“That’s an insulting implication.”
“Well, you have to admit…”
“Oh, all right. I don’t call Dad enough, but in this case, I just called to say hi and he told me about your little get-together.”
Keri laughed. “I wouldn’t exactly call it little. Probably every man, woman and child within a four-mile radius is going to show up for barbecue.”
Everyone except me.
“Anyway, I didn’t figure you’d want to come help out, but Justin said I should ask. Would you care to offer your wonderful services to help feed the poor?”
“Actually, Justin’s right. I’d love to come and help out.” A sense of relief streamed through Raven’s body. She smiled and gave her sister a one-armed hug. “What time will you start barbecuing?”
“We won’t actually until Saturday, but Dad and Ruth are coming tomorrow so that we can prepare the meat and side dishes. Want to come help with that?”
Raven walked toward the door. “I think I’ll pass on that one,” she tossed over her shoulder. “See you on Saturday.”
“Be here early. By eight at least. We have a lot of meat to cook. I imagine people will start lining up pretty early and come through more than once.”
“All right. I’ll be here by eight.”
Ken growled at her when she met him outside. “’Bout time. I had to circle the block four times.”
“Sorry.”
“I should have let that gang of hooligans have your hubcaps. That would serve you right.”
“Sheesh, you are a grouch. And chuck the cigarette out the window. You know I don’t let anyone smoke in here.”
He took one last, long suck and flicked it out the window. “Happy?”
“Very.” She tossed him a smug grin. “Hey Ken, do you know anyone who works for network news?”
A short laugh shot from his lips. “If I did, would I be working at a local cable channel?”
“How should I know?” Her defenses rose at the possible slight to the channel where she just happened to be the new anchor. Where was his loyalty?
“Why do you ask, anyway?”
Raven lifted her feet and rested her knees and shins on the front dash while she sank down in her seat. “Keri thinks we might be wasting time airing the segments in Missouri. She thinks Mary’s parents live in a whole other state.”
“Don’t tell Frank. He loves this bleeding-heart stuff. Besides viewers are calling and e-mailing like crazy.”
“I know. But what’s the point in airing something that isn’t going to do any good?”
“Are you serious?” Ken tossed her an incredulous look before focusing back on traffic.
Raven nodded.
“Ratings?” Ken shrugged. “I don’t know. If I had a way to get this out for you, I would, you know.”
“I know you would, Ken. And I appreciate the thought.” Raven smiled and touched his hand. It wasn’t often she caught a glimpse of Ken’s gentle side, but at times like this, she knew he cared about her. “I guess we need a miracle.”
Ken’s cynical laugh filled the SUV but stopped as abruptly as it had begun. “What? You mean you’re seriously going to pray for a miracle?”
Raven shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. As a last resort.”
“Never thought I’d see the day, little girl.”
Raven didn’t answer. Rather, she turned to stare out at the traffic, not really seeing anything as her thoughts took her upward.
Here’s one for you God. How about getting this story out on a national level? Help me help this little girl and I’ll…Raven conjured up the image of Anaya’s sweet face. I’ll go to church again on Sunday.
Matthew sat at his desk, glad to be home. He clic
ked on his e-mail and scrolled through the spam, forwards and other junk mail. He stopped scrolling and opened an e-mail with the subject line: Anaya
A smile lifted the corners of his lips as he reached for the phone.
Raven slammed in the door and tossed her keys on the counter. She’d spent the entire afternoon editing the piece from the mission, unable to shake the deal she’d made with God. She knew better. God didn’t make deals. It was His way or the highway.
“Come on, Ginger, let’s go watch TV.” She reached for her stuffed cat and stopped short. Ginger’s chair was empty? When did Ginger get up and slink away?
Must have left Ginger in the living room. “Here, kitty, kitty,” she said with a grin. No sign of Ginger. Bedroom? After checking every room possible, Raven’s humor turned sour. Where could the stuffed cat have gone?
Had someone broken in? Panic gave her a nudge. She began a thorough search of anything valuable. Digital camera? Check. Laptop? Check. Mother’s princess cut diamond engagement ring and ruby necklace? Check. DVD player, VCR, TV, camcorder. Everything sat in its proper place, mocking her with the absurdity of the idea that someone might have actually stolen her thirty-year-old stuffed cat instead of something with resale value.
She spent the next half hour combing every inch of her house. Finally, she plopped dejectedly onto her sofa. She had no choice but to conclude that her beloved childhood toy was lost. She must have stuck it away in a box somewhere by mistake during one of her sporadic periods of cleaning. Ugh. She’d been so distracted lately. There was no telling where it was.
Suddenly only chocolate would do. Lots of it. A blissful chocolate fest wouldn’t bring Ginger back, but it would definitely take her into oblivion for the time being. She shoved herself up from the couch and headed into the kitchen to snag some rocky road ice cream. The flashing light on her answering machine caught her eye. She pressed the button and continued to the freezer.
“Raven. It’s Sonny. I’ll call again later.”
Beep.
“Hi, Raven. It’s Sonny again. I guess you’re still not home.”
Beep.
Betrayal of Trust Page 13
