by B. B. Reid
“So what are we supposed to do now? Wait around for another ransom note?”
“May I see it?” Lake held out her hand for the note, and when I handed it to her, she read it over. She flipped it at least ten times and each time she read it, her skin paled.
“Do you see something else?”
“No. But I—I don’t think the note is meant for Keiran.”
“What do you mean? His name is written on the back.”
Her hand clapped over her mouth, and she quickly ran from the room before she could explain. Keiran followed after her while the rest of us stood around dumbstruck.
“Because he’s not the addressee,” Q finished. “He’s the answer.”
Someone wanted my brother dead in exchange for Kennedy?
At that moment, Keiran walked back into the living room alone wearing a hard expression. “We need to find Mitch.”
Shit.
“Keenan!”
At the sound of Sheldon’s voice, I looked around, but she was nowhere in sight. I hadn’t even noticed when she left the room, which was a first.
I followed the sound of her crying and found her in what must have been Kennedy’s bedroom. I hadn’t realized the rest had followed me until a chorus of swearing sounded behind me.
Written on the wall in red ink was a message:
SHE DIES IN 24 HOURS.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
SHELDON
NONE OF US knew where to begin after finding the message in Kennedy’s bedroom. We were short on time and leads, and we hadn’t heard from John.
“When was the last time you were here?” Keiran questioned.
“Last night,” Keenan thankfully answered. My throat was still clogged, and I was afraid I would choke on my own tears if I spoke too soon.
My daughter would be dead in just a few hours.
Was I willing to kill?
More importantly, was I willing to kill a friend for my daughter?
There had to be another way. I had to believe it because any other possibility was too painful.
“We need that address,” Keiran growled. “Where the fuck is John?”
“Maybe Keenan knows,” Q offered. The glare he sent Keenan’s way was challenging, but Keenan managed to keep his composure despite being backed into a corner.
This secret John guilted Keenan into keeping was getting out of hand. I silently pleaded with him with my eyes, but Keenan ignored it and pushed away from the wall he currently leaned against.
Three hard knocks on the door interrupted whatever Keenan had been about to say. He made a detour for the door and opened it to reveal not only John but also Jesse standing on the other side.
“Where have you been?” I grilled.
“I came as soon as I could. Can you let us in?” John quipped.
Begrudgingly, I stepped aside to let them in. Jesse made his way to the small dining table Sheldon had positioned in the corner and began to set up.
“I went home first, but when I only found him,” John indicated to Jesse, “I came here next.”
“We received another ransom note. We needed you here hours ago.”
John’s expression darkened as he looked around the room. “Son of a bitch. What did the note say?”
“If Sheldon doesn’t kill Keiran in twenty-four hours, Kennedy will die. Does that sound urgent enough for you?”
“We need that address now,” Keiran ordered. The angry vein in his forehead was beginning to pulse.
“We need to talk, son.”
Kennedy could die soon, and he wanted to talk? “Please, John. Just give us the address.” He turned to me with sad eyes full of regret but no answer.
“What could we possibly have to talk about right this second?”
“Mitch.”
“Yes. I am preparing to blow his head off and bring my niece home. What is there to discuss?”
“Mitch wasn’t the one who took Kennedy.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” I directed to John.
Keiran looked from me to John before pinching the bridge of his nose. “Someone want to tell me what the fuck is going on?”
“Mitch is dying. He has been for the last three years.”
“And you know this how?”
“Because I’ve been keeping him in a cancer facility a few hours away.”
The room chilled noticeably following John’s revelation.
“Come again?”
“Your father came to me three years ago after being diagnosed with a cancerous tumor. By the time he came to me, he was far too weak to take care of himself so I took him to an after treatment facility.”
Keiran was nearly rabid by the time John had finished explaining. “Where?”
“He’s under my protection, Keiran but know this is to protect you, too.”
“Yeah?” Keiran asked. “And who will protect you?”
“Look, the only reason I told you was because I didn’t want to waste the little time we have on a dead end.”
“Bullshit,” Keenan countered. It was the first time he’d spoken since the confrontation began. “If it’s a dead end then give me the address and let me make that decision. You have nothing to lose except your life if you don’t.”
I had never seen Keenan this way before. Threatening people was Keiran’s thing, which made me wonder once again just who it was that returned from California, and could I trust him with my daughter?
Right now, he was part of the hope I held of bringing Kennedy home, and once she was home safe, I would do whatever it took to protect us from him once and for all.
As if sensing my thoughts, he turned to face me, his eyes darkening with each second that passed. He seemed to be sending a silent message, one that I wasn’t too sure I wanted to decipher.
I looked away but not before catching the slow, sinister smile that made him look almost evil.
I could no longer see the person he was. I look at him and all I see is a fallen angel because, in many ways, he is.
“One way or another, we are getting my daughter back tonight,” Keenan announced. “So here is the plan.”
* * * * *
“I don’t feel good about this,” Lake said for the thousandth time as she paced back and forth. The guys minus Dash and Jesse had taken off for a town about three hours away where John had first found Sophia and Keiran.
If I weren't so afraid, I would have laughed at how life could come full circle when you least expect it, but nothing about this night was laughable.
Keenan and Keiran had chosen to go with their gut with only just a few hours left. If they were right, Kennedy would be back in my arms tonight. If they were wrong…
“I feel like I should be doing something.”
“There’s one little detail your boyfriends seemed to have forgotten about,” Jesse quipped without taking his eyes from the computer. He had been silently working on pulling up a satellite feed of the house.
“What’s that?”
“The FBI,” he spelled out slowly. “Has anyone bothered to fill them in?”
“Believe me, they didn’t forget,” Dash stated. “If Kennedy is in that house, then no one involved will be walking out alive. Besides, the FBI hasn’t been too helpful and neither have the private investigators my father hired.”
“I think the only thing left to do was to deny their services after Keiran bludgeoned one of them, don’t you think?” This came from Lake, who had now taken to jamming her fingers through her hair.
“It’s going to be okay, Lake.”
“But what if it isn’t and Keiran goes away forever? God, he was finally shedding the slave and becoming his own person, but then suddenly someone comes back to finish the job.” She sunk down the wall until she reached the floor. “Even if he doesn’t die or isn’t sent away forever, what if this resets him? We all saw what happened in the hospital.”
“What I saw was someone who would do anything to protect his loved ones. That’s who he is today. He’s abl
e to love and you have to believe that it’s the only thing motivating him. If you can believe in anything, believe in love.”
She seemed to be thinking it over before she locked her gaze with mine. “Will you be able to do the same?”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
KEENAN
“WHAT DO YOU see?”
We made the three-hour trip in half the time and had been staking out the house for the last thirty minutes. The house was average in style and size and wasn’t a place anyone would expect an abducted child to be held making it the perfect spot.
“Nothing. This is the place,” Keiran stated, echoing my inner thoughts.
“What are we going to do about the Feds?” Q asked from the backseat.
“Once we confirm Kennedy is here, we’ll report it, but not a minute before. I want the motherfuckers who took my little girl to suffer.”
“How do you want to do this?” Keiran asked.
“Hot and fast. There’s no way of telling where Kennedy is in that house. I don’t want to give them a chance to have the advantage. We make quick work of it. Sheldon said there were two men who took her. There could be more, but we leave one alive for questioning before we kill him. John, do you remember how you got in before?”
According to John, the locks were designed to keep anyone who didn’t have a key from getting in or out.
“I’ve got it covered, son.”
“Good. Once you get us in, Keiran and I will take the lead. You and Quentin will pull up the rear. There are four rooms plus the common areas. Kennedy is likely being held in one of the rooms.”
There was a fifty percent chance we’d fail and lose everything including our lives, but I owed it the child I created to try. It was more than my parents had ever given me.
“John,” I called back for my father’s attention.
“Yes, son?”
“I want you to know that if my daughter is in there, I will kill you myself.” From the corner of my eye, I saw Keiran turn his attention from the house and on me. I boldly met his gaze, daring him to protest, but when he simply nodded, I relaxed.
John wisely chose not to respond. Father or not, he had screwed with my daughter’s life to protect a man that didn’t deserve to live. I could care less what his intentions were.
We approached the house quickly, taking care to stay hidden in the shadows. I listened for voices, and when I heard the low but unmistakable sound of voices, I was ready to burst through the door. The reminder from my conscience that it could very well be a family having dinner was the only thing to keep me from ruining the entire mission.
John made quick work of the door, and in no time, we were through. The entryway was dark but empty, and as we moved deeper inside, I could hear deep voices drifting down from upstairs. We followed the sound to a door on a top floor.
“Do you think she’ll do it, Vick?”
Vick? I wondered how good of a chance it could be that this Vick was the same investigator the Chambers hired to find Kennedy.
“If the bitch knows what’s good for the little brat, she will. She’s only got a couple hours.”
“How are we supposed to know if she killed him?”
“We wait until we get the call.”
“But how will he know?”
“It’s not our problem. Once we get the call—”
His head was blown off before he could finish speaking. As soon as his body dropped, I trained my gun on the freckle-faced guy with carrot-colored hair. He didn’t appear old enough to even be out of high school.
“If you don’t stop screaming, you’ll join your buddy.”
He frantically looked around the room for an ally before he settled on Q as his best bet. “Don’t look at me, bitch.”
“Take anything you want, just don’t kill me.”
“Do you know what I’m here for?”
“N—no.” He shook his head hard for emphasis.
“Do you know who this is?” I asked pointing to Keiran. He blinked a few times, focusing his gaze on my brother and shook his head again.
“This is Keiran Masters.” Recognition had shone in his eyes before terror took over.
“If you’re Keiran,” stammered, “then who are you?” he asked.
“I’m the father of the little girl you took.” And that’s when the begging began. I had to hit him with the gun a few times to get him to shut up long enough. “I’m trying to have a polite conversation with you, but you keep interrupting me.”
“I’m sorry, sir.” His sniffling was starting to bug me, so I decided against torturing him.
“I’m only going to ask this once so pay attention. Where is my daughter?”
“She’s in the guest room down the hall on the right.”
Wow. That was easy.
I hoped the surprise I felt didn’t show on my face, but judging by the terror still evident in his eyes, I knew I still looked like a man bent on killing.
“Please, just let me go. I didn’t even want to do it.” He screamed hysterically.
“But you did, my friend.” I was surprised by the calm in my own voice even though every nerve, vein, and blood vessel inside me raged.
As soon as I walked out, leaving Keiran and Q behind with him, the screaming began again. John followed me, claiming he didn’t have the stomach for torture.
I followed the simple directions to a door just down the hall. I put my ear to the door and listened for voices just in case it was a trap. I heard the small sound of crying on the other side and threw caution to the wind.
I tried the knob, but the door was locked so I threw my shoulder against it. Eventually, the door gave way and I burst through. Wood chips fell around me and temporarily blocked my vision of the small bundle huddled on the bed.
“Kennedy?” her crying had become little whimpers. She tried to make herself appear small out of fear. I suddenly realized I didn’t make the greatest entrance into her life.
“Keenan?” I turned towards John, who had a hand held out as if to block me. When he noticed the look in my eyes, he said, “Do you really want her first memory of you to be like this? She doesn’t know you, and she is already scared.”
“Papa?” The angelic yet timid sound of her voice nearly made me come undone. She recognized John and tried to sit up, but I noticed that her movements appeared sluggish.
Had she just woken up?
“Papa, I’m scared and wanna go home now.”
“Oh, sweetheart, we’re going to take you home right now. Your mother has missed you so much.”
“The bad man hurt mama.” She looked at me when she said it, and I couldn’t help the guilty flush that heated my skin. She looked just as her mother described. The perfect mix of her mother and me.
“She’s just fine, angel. She has been worried sick so let’s not waste any more time.” He picked her up, and I hated the way she clung to him. Jealously ripped through me fast and hard. I wanted to take her from him but knew it wouldn’t be a smart move. I was essentially a stranger to her.
“Who’s he?” She looked at me once again and ducked her head to hide against John’s neck. John looked to me for an answer, but I shook my head.
Seeing her in the flesh, I realized I wasn’t ready.
Would I ever be?
“They’ve been drugging her,” John stated as soon as we had Kennedy settled in the car. She fell asleep against the back seat almost immediately.
“How do you know?”
“Her pupils are severely dilated. Her movements are sluggish and her words slurred. She’s very developed for her age and can talk like a child twice her age. Sheldon has done very well with her.”
“Are you defending her?”
“I know what you are thinking of doing. Sheldon is a good mother and you were gone. Do you really think she would have kept her from you if she knew where you were?”
“Yes,” I answered without hesitation. “She would have though she likes to think she wouldn’t have, and if I’m wro
ng, she will now.”
“With reason, I’m sure.”
“Would you like for me to carry out my promise now so my daughter can have nightmares of your death for the rest of her life?”
“Do what you want to me, son, if it will make up for all the years I—” He stopped and stared off into the distance for a few heartbeats. “If I had known what my absence then and later had been doing to you, I wouldn’t have—”
“I don’t believe it and neither do you. You would have because you were in pain, but most of all, you were selfish and weak.”
Footsteps approaching cut short our conversation, and when I looked back, Keiran and Q had emerged from the house. The blood that lightly splattered their shirts became more evident the closer they came.
“Don’t let Kennedy see your shirts.”
“Damn… a daddy for three minutes and you’re already bossy,” Q joked. Keiran wordlessly removed his shirt, followed by Q.
“What did you find out?”
“He claimed he didn’t know who his employer was. He kept talking about some rich guy who promised them a lot of money to kidnap Kennedy. He said they were promised double if they had to kill her.”
“Did you take care of it?”
“What do you think?” Keiran countered darkly.
“I don’t know what he thinks, but I think we need to call the Feds and get rugrat home soon,” Q interjected.
* * * * *
Up until the wee hours of the morning, I had gone through the interrogation process that usually followed a murder.
No, I didn’t act with malicious intent.
Yes, it was self-defense.
No, I was not given information on the whereabouts of Kennedy before acting.
They were all lies that I managed to tell well. I had no idea how Keiran fared given he’d just been released from jail on assault charges and not twenty-four hours later had been located in a house of dead bodies.
By noon, we were all standing on the sidewalk appearing none the worse for wear. Dash was there minus the girls as instructed.
“How is she?” I asked as soon as I was in talking distance.
“She’s fine. Sheldon wanted to take her back to her apartment, but we managed to convince her to stay at least one more night. It was an emotional night for them both. You should have seen them together.”
