Phoenix Aflame (Alpha Phoenix Book 2)

by Isadora Montrose

  “I’m sure. The insurance policies he took out are a fucking smoking gun. If they aren’t canceled already, they fucking will be. The client won’t have any money to pay us. And we ain’t fucking offing the kid for free.”

  She grunted. But for once she didn’t try to argue.

  “They’re going to be off their guard.” He attempted to pacify her. “They’re going to think this whole thing is over. Let their guard down.”

  That cheered Mom up some. She began to laugh. “I can’t wait to get my hands on that ransom money. I think we should go for the D’Angelo kid.” Mom cut in to his thoughts. “That way they’ll be more likely to pay the ransom. You think five million is enough?”

  They’d been over this before too. Forty million fucking times. “Our best chance for a clean snatch is to take whichever one we can. You gotta remember how much more dangerous kidnapping is than arranging accidents. The important thing is not to get caught. If the kid we can grab is the bitch’s, that’s the one we’ll snatch.”

  Her laugh made his blood freeze. “It’s only fucking justice. They’re the reason you had to grow up without a fucking father. They are the reason we’ve lost a good fucking business. They owe us way more than five million fucking dollars.”

  * * *

  This Disneyland honeymoon had been a wonderful idea. Her nerves had settled down and she and Harrison were growing closer every day. She had known she was fond of Harrison’s child, but now that she was Quincy’s stepmother, their relationship was at a new higher level. She felt so accepted by Quincy that she truly felt as though she now had two daughters. Perhaps she would never have another child of her own, but she thought that her relationship with Quincy would satisfy her maternal instincts.

  The only drawback to the theme park was that it was tiring going from attraction to attraction. And then doubling back so that they could repeat an especially enjoyed ride. After four hectic days and equally hectic nights – Harrison was a tireless and inventive lover – all she wanted to do today stay in bed. But she could hear Harrison’s deep voice rumbling in the other room as he talked to the girls. Her family was already up and raring to go. She sat up reluctantly and fished around for her slippers.

  Harrison appeared at the connecting door. “We woke you up,” he said apologetically.

  “If the girls are awake, it’s past time I got up. I won’t be a moment. I just need to have a quick shower and throw some clothes on and then we can go to breakfast. What do you want to do today? Or rather what do our princesses want to do today?”

  “Our princesses need a reality check,” Harrison said. “I think they’ve had enough Disneyland for the moment. I’ve told them that today we can either go to the beach or we can go to Yorba Regional Park. They’re very torn. What would you prefer?”

  “Midweek there will be fewer people in the park. I’d like to get away from crowds for a bit. Let’s go to the park.” They exchanged kisses as she bustled into the bathroom.

  After breakfast, she wasn’t surprised to discover that Harrison had already rented them a car and found somebody to stock it with water. They were on the road as soon as they had brushed their teeth, driving toward Anaheim.

  Yorba Regional Park was an oasis of green in a very built-up area. “I thought we’d rent bicycles. They have some with seats for children. Would you like that?” Harrison asked.

  It sounded blissfully peaceful. But probably far too energetic. “Why don’t we just walk? There are lovely trails and the girls can burn off some energy running around. Maybe we can take a boat ride later.”

  They had a quiet morning poking around the park and watching the girls as they discovered the pleasures of clambering over felled trees and turning nature into their playground. Tasha was not surprised that just when they were ready for lunch, a concession stand appeared. She was growing used to Harrison always having a plan and carrying a map in his head.

  They bought hot dogs for the girls and hamburgers for themselves. The girls were all for eating at the nearby picnic tables, but Harrison vetoed that. He led them to a secluded area by a pond and magicked a blanket from his backpack for their picnic. Inevitably, the girls gobbled their food and were finished long before Harrison and Tasha.

  “Can we play hide and seek?” begged Quincy.

  Tasha looked around. She silently questioned Harrison who was also quartering the area. There were plenty of bushes and trees for the girls to hide behind and not another soul in sight. Obviously, the other people visiting the park had chosen to eat their lunches where they had bought them.

  He nodded at her and smiled at the girls. “Sure. Make sure you stay within eye shot of us. Remember, if you can’t see us, we can’t see you.”

  Their daughters darted off. Becky headed for the tallest, widest tree and leaned into it covering her eyes. She began counting loudly. When she got to twenty, with only a couple of errors, she shouted, “Ready or not, here I come.”

  “That’s about the only thing they understand correctly about hide and seek,” Tasha said with a laugh. She gathered the wrappers into the sack lunch had come in.

  “They’ll learn.” Harrison stretched out full length on the blanket and closed his eyes. “What shall we do next?”

  “There are boats to rent. Would you like to take us out on the lake?”

  “Sounds good.”

  About fifty yards away, Becky pounced on Quincy, who was lurking in a stand of small trees. “You’re it,” she crowed.

  Quincy ran back to the big tree. Becky circled from bush to bush looking for the perfect hiding place. Quincy counted slowly and more accurately than Becky. Becky made her selection and crawled under a bush. She was going to have dirty knees and palms.

  Quincy shouted, “Ready or not here I come.” She took off at a run in the opposite direction.

  Harrison rocketed to his feet. “Where are the girls?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Tasha had turned toward him when he spoke. But she pointed at the bush where Becky was hiding. Quincy was still darting around looking behind trees. Harrison sprinted over to where Tasha had pointed. She raced after him, calling frantically to Becky. There was no one inside the bush. Just a scrap of folded paper on the dusty soil.

  “I was sure,” she began.

  Harrison stared down at the paper. It was clean and crisp and lay on top of Becky’s hand and knee prints. His heart clenched. He had failed his child. Again. He pulled a clean handkerchief out of his pocket and picked it up by a corner and shook it open. There was printing in block letters. Crude printing as though a child or someone using the wrong hand had written the note.

  He held it so Tasha could see. It was stark and to the point. ‘If you want to see the girl again you’ll have to pay to get her back. Don’t call the cops. It would be a shame if you never saw your daughter again.’

  “Quincy,” Harrison shouted. “Come here.”

  “Daddy, that’s not how you play hide and seek,” protested Quincy.

  “This game is over. Hold your mom’s hand. You two stay here together. I’m going to go after Rebecca.”

  Whoever had taken Becky had a head start on him. He could see from the scuff marks in the dirt that she had crouched under the bush. Over top of her sweet little girl scent was the musky, unpleasant odor of a wolverine. Not the same one who had set the fire in Tasha’s condo. But one of the ones who had been in the Grape Creek ditch. Shift on a stick, that asswipe had lain unobserved while Harrison was supposed to be guarding Becky.

  He whipped out his cell and called Lincoln. “I thought you said those Willets were in jail or had warrants,” he said.

  “Two of them. Two are still missing. Why?” Lincoln asked.

  It was hard to get the words out. “Someone’s taken Becky. A wolverine by the smell. I thought you had put the kibosh on Blaine Sutcliffe’s insurance scam.”

  “I have. I did. All those policies were canceled. They gave Sutcliffe back his premiums because they couldn’t prove anyt
hing. What’s happening?” Lincoln’s flat voice calmed him.

  “She gone. There’s a ransom note. No amount specified.”

  “Let me check with the guys I have tailing you.” Lincoln hung up.

  While he had been talking to Lincoln, he had been tracking the wolverine through the trees. Not a difficult task as the abductor’s foul scent was so pronounced. It was his worst nightmare. He had failed to protect his family – again. Allowed his child to be snatched from under his very eyes. The scent trail ended abruptly at the parking lot. Becky had been put in a vehicle. She could now be anywhere.

  He hurried back toward Tasha and Quincy. Tasha was white-faced and shaking and Quincy was frankly bewildered.

  “I didn’t see anybody,” she sobbed. “Who took Becky?”

  Harrison picked her up. He put his other arm around Tasha’s shoulders. His phone buzzed. He had had to let go of Tasha to answer, but she clung to him and Quincy. Her face was a mixture of fear and hope.

  “Report,” he barked at Lincoln.

  “There’s good news and bad news.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Ames and Gardiner have the abductor under surveillance. They saw the snatch although they were too far away to prevent it. They are following him. That’s the good news. The bad news is that he’s on the freeway and they only have one vehicle.”

  “What should we do?”

  “You should put Quincy somewhere safe with Tasha, and then you should take phoenix and rendezvous with Ames and Gardiner. They need backup.”

  He and Linc worked out a plan, while the three of them walked toward their rental. Linc ended the call so he could share the plan with Ames and Gardiner and tell them to keep an eye out for Harrison. Harrison was still explaining that Tasha was to return to the hotel and stay in their rooms with Quincy when her phone rang. She stopped dead and yanked it out of her purse, gazing at it as if it were a snake.

  “Go ahead. Answer it.” He swung Quincy onto his shoulders and urged Tasha to keep moving.

  She cleared her throat. Pressed answer. “Tasha D’Angelo,” she said firmly. He was proud of her. She didn’t sound nearly as rattled as she was.

  “If you want her back, the price is five million. Go to your hotel. I’ll call you there.” The hoarse voice cut out.

  “What should I do?” She looked at him wide-eyed and anxious.

  “When they call back, stall them. Say that getting hold of five million dollars in a hurry isn’t easy. Tell them I’ve gone to talk to the bank to see if I can borrow the money. Do you think you can handle that?”

  She nodded. “Do you think you’ll be able to catch them before they hurt her?”

  “What do I do?”

  She nodded again. She looked marginally less scared. “Let’s go, Quincy. We have to be brave while Daddy looks for Becky.”

  “I’m going to take phoenix here,” he told them as the parking lot came into view. He pointed to a thick cluster of bushes. He stripped. He had time to make up, and he didn’t think that he was going to risk lesser phoenix. He had too much distance to cover. For speed, greater phoenix had the edge.

  Thank heavens for his blanket. While Tasha and Quincy watched he rapidly morphed into greater phoenix. Quincy’s face was rapt. Perhaps she had never witnessed a shift before. Yet another way in which he had failed as a father. Tasha looked even more frightened. But he didn’t have time to reassure his wife. His reluctance to discuss the rites of the phoenix had circled around to bite him on the ass.

  Once he was in the air, he watched as Tasha and Quincy drove away, before racing after Lincoln’s shifters. His twenty-four-foot wingspan enabled him to make good time. Lincoln had said the wolverine’s SUV was heading into the hills. He had memorized the license plate numbers for Ames and Gardiner’s vehicle as well as for the SUV the wolverine was driving. But the freeway was as crowded as usual and he worried he would miss two vehicles out of so many.

  He anxiously looked through the bumper-to-bumper traffic for Ames and Gardiner’s white van. Bingo. There was their unmarked panel van moving sedately with the traffic. They were five or six car-lengths behind a dark green SUV which had heavily tinted side and rear windows. Not an unusual detail in a vehicle in the land of perpetual sunshine. But it meant he could only see the driver. He circled overhead so he could look through the windshield. He saw only a male driver. Where was the woman?

  The SUV was holding a steady pace, not weaving in and out of traffic, but just chugging along. Ames and Gardiner changed lanes and fell back. A few minutes later they switched back into the SUV’s lane and crept up a little closer. Harrison knew they were doing their best to remain unobserved by Becky’s abductor by making sure that he saw different vehicles in his rearview mirror.

  All the same, Ames and Gardiner nearly missed the SUV’s rapid exit. It cut across three lanes of traffic and exited. Ames and Gardiner’s van signaled and followed. Harrison didn’t have to cut across any lanes, he just angled his wings and followed the green SUV. Off the highway, the driver was no longer as confident. He slowed to a crawl as though he wasn’t sure where his turnoff was. Overhead Harrison could soar higher and higher and survey the layout of the land.

  There were houses everywhere here in these hills, although they were still full of wild places too steep or eroded to build on. It had been a mistake for the wolverines to head for territory where animals could find plenty of cover. Becky’s abductor drove higher and higher into the hills. Harrison guessed he was probably looking for the road leading to an unstable cliff where no houses overlooked the canyon below.

  Dried out bushes and scrawny trees grew into the eroded hillside. The remains of dressed stone walls lay at the foot of the cliff where a mudslide had carried them. Their sharp edges stood out from the smooth river rocks of the arroyo. The slide was old enough that scrubby trees and bush had taken root around the rock fall. If there had ever been houses above, they were long gone. He wasn’t surprised to see the SUV head to the lonely spot.

  Ames and Gardiner must have been tracking him, for they continued past the turnoff the SUV had taken. They parked their van among some trees by the side of the road. Harrison could see their white vehicle, but probably from the road it was now invisible. A lynx and a mountain lion slipped out the back door leaving it open. They split up and disappeared into the sandy-colored vegetation.

  Harrison circled higher. Just off the gravel road, a primitive lean-to had been built out of cut branches. The wolverines had made camp. This was a planned snatch. No news there. The ransom note had indicated as much. The SUV pulled into a hollow in the brush a few yards from the lean-to.

  A short stocky man got out and began to pile cut branches over his vehicle until it was obscured even from the air. Where was Rebecca? The kidnapper ducked back into his camouflaged parking spot. Harrison heard a door open. His ears strained for any sound indicating that Rebecca was still alive. Nothing.

  The wolverine emerged from the concealed SUV carrying Harrison’s daughter over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift. Becky’s pink shorts and purple T-shirt didn’t squirm. Unconscious. Drugged. He hoped. He had to get this retrieval right. He could not survive losing another child.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Quincy was weeping and distraught. Tasha didn’t bother trying to get her to hush. She was upset herself. Quincy was just a little girl. She was entitled to vent her feelings.

  If she could have, she too would have wailed. The shifters had a big headstart. She had to trust that Harrison loved Becky enough to save her. Of course he did. Just as she would die to keep Quincy safe. She was very conscious of the trust that Harrison had placed in her by giving her responsibility for his sole remaining child.

  “Mamma T,” sobbed Quincy from her car seat, “I’m sorry I didn’t find Becky.”

  “It’s not your fault, sweetheart. Daddy will find Becky.” She hoped that was true. She hoped her little girl was still alive. But the freeway was no place to be brooding. She had to conc
entrate on getting them safely back to the hotel in one piece. No one followed them. No one tried to intercept them. But it was beyond scary that the kidnapper had her cell phone number.

  At the hotel, they caught a few stares in the elevator because Quincy could not stop crying. Tasha put her arm around the little girl’s shoulders but she didn’t scold. There was no point. Quincy’s grief and guilt were as heartfelt and unchangeable as they were inevitable.

  The peaceful hotel suite mocked her. Everywhere was the evidence of what had been a happy vacation – a happy honeymoon. Everywhere there were traces of her daughter. She wanted to scream and relieve her feelings, but she had to be strong. Quincy needed her. Becky needed her.

  If only they could call the cops. But even though she and Harrison had not discussed it, she realized that would just endanger Becky. How could they possibly explain she had been taken by a couple of wolverines? And what if the kidnappers retaliated by killing her?

  What would Harrison do? He would lock the hotel door and put on the night latch – after he had made sure there was no one in the closets. “Stay by the door,” she told Quincy. “I’ll tell you when you can latch it.”

  Quincy stayed obediently by the door. “What are you doing, Mamma T?”

  “A walk-through,” she said as cheerfully as she could. Which wasn’t very cheerful at all.

  There was no one under the beds, and no way for anyone to be under the solid platforms that supported the mattresses. The closets held their suitcases and their hanging clothes and a couple of spare pillows. Neither bathroom had an occupant. No one lurked behind the curtains.

  “Latch the door,” she called. There was a little click as Quincy slid the night latch into place. Knowing the wolverines had been watching them, she felt no safer here in their suite.

  “Would you like to watch television?”

  Quincy nodded.

  “Cinderella?”

  “It’s Becky’s favorite.”