by Sharon Sala
“I will be careful, but what about you? I couldn’t bear it if something happened to you, too.”
The tenderness of her touch made Luke ache. He wanted so much from her, but he would settle for one sweet kiss.
“Forgive me, Jade.”
“For what?” she asked.
“For this,” he whispered, then lowered his head.
Before she knew it, he was kissing her.
Jade jerked; then her muscles started to tense. But Luke didn’t move. Slowly she began to feel the contact of their lips, then the warmth of his breath against her face. There was no threat, no fear, only an overwhelming need to get closer. She’d never known that touching a man could bring pleasure and not pain.
When he broke the contact, she actually moaned.
Luke deciphered it as fear and instantly regretted his lack of restraint.
“God…I’m sorry, honey. Don’t be afraid. I didn’t intend to scare you. I just wanted to—”
She put her hand on his mouth.
“You didn’t scare me.”
Luke’s heart skipped a beat. “You swear?”
“It was…it was nice.”
Sam yelled at him from downstairs.
Luke stifled a groan. “I’ve got to go.”
Then Jade remembered where he was going. She didn’t know how to say what she was feeling, because she didn’t recognize the emotions. All she knew was that she didn’t want him to go.
“Please,” she begged. “Please come back.”
“Count on it,” Luke said, and then ran out the door and down the stairs.
Jade followed him as far as the hallway, then, remembering her promise, went back inside her bedroom and closed the door. Only this time she wasn’t shutting herself in. She was shutting a killer out.
Luke had spoken quickly with Kevin, who had repeated what he’d told Sam, confirming their worst fears.
“Can you drive?” he asked.
Kevin nodded.
He handed Kevin his keys.
“Take my car and go home. Leave your mower here, and when you get home, tell your mother I said for both of you to stay inside and lock all the doors and windows.”
Kevin’s mouth dropped.
“Sir?”
“Do it,” Luke said. “In a few minutes, there will be police everywhere.”
“Why? What’s happening?”
“That man across the street isn’t Mrs. Tyler’s nephew. He’s a hired killer. I don’t want you to get caught in any cross fire.”
“Oh man,” Kevin said. “He looked so ordinary.” Then it dawned on him what hadn’t been said. “What about Mrs. Tyler?”
Luke shook his head. “I don’t know, but he isn’t in the habit of taking prisoners.”
Kevin’s eyes filled with tears.
“I’m sorry, son,” Luke said, and clapped him roughly on the shoulders. “But you need to understand the seriousness of what’s happening. Now get home and do as I said.”
Kevin nodded, but his hands were trembling as he headed out the door.
Sam came running into the hall just as the door shut.
“Where is Kevin?”
“I gave him the keys to my rental and told him to go home and tell his mother to lock themselves in.”
“Good,” Sam said. “I was going to tell him to stay here, but maybe that’s for the best.”
“What about Earl?” Luke asked.
“The police are on the way. A SWAT team is coming, too.” Then he shook his head. “I knew something was off at Mabel’s, but I ignored it.”
“Don’t you go getting all guilty on me, too,” Luke said. “You read Newton’s rap sheet. Whatever he did to Mabel, he did it days ago. It’s over and done with, no matter what.”
“You don’t think she’s alive, do you?”
“No.”
Sam groaned. “Poor Mabel.”
“Mabel is in God’s hands,” Luke said. “You go stay with Jade. Don’t let her out of your sight.”
“Where are you going?” Sam asked.
“I’ve got to let my men know what’s going on. There’s no reason to assume that Newton knows he’s been made. We’ll be fine…at least until the cops show. Oh…Sam…do you still have that handgun?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Mine’s at home. I had no idea this was going to happen or I would have come better prepared.”
“Wait here,” Sam said. “I’ll go get it.”
He was back within the minute, handing Luke both the gun and a box of ammunition.
Luke loaded it while he stood, then slipped it behind his back into the waistband of his pants and dropped an extra handful of shells into his pocket as he started for the door.
Sam was sick at heart. “Dear God, how has this all come about?”
Luke paused with his hand on the doorknob. What he was going to say was beyond the bounds of friendship, but it had to be said, whether Sam liked it or not.
“Because twenty years ago, your wife rejected her marriage vows and abducted your child. That’s how it came about.”
A muscle jerked at Sam’s right temple. It was the only sign of emotion he showed, and Luke couldn’t tell if it was directed at him or his deceased wife. Then Sam moved.
“I’ll have my cell phone with me. Call me if we need to do something different other than stay here.”
“I will.”
“Uh…Luke?”
“What?”
“Thank you for taking care of us.”
Luke shrugged. “I have no choice. If anything happens to me—”
“Then I’ll take care of her—for both of us.”
Luke stared at Sam for a moment, then smiled. Moments later, he was gone.
Sam started toward the stairs, then paused at the first step. His fingers curled around the newel post, as if gathering strength for the climb ahead of him. His shoulders slumped; his chin dropped toward his chest.
“Oh, Margaret, Margaret…do you know what you’ve done?”
Then he heard Jade calling from above. He lifted his head and gritted his teeth. The time for worrying about the dead was over. It was time to concentrate on the living.
“I’m coming, sweetheart.”
Otis Jacks took the last round of his antibiotic and then winked at himself in the mirror. In thirty minutes, he would leave for his dental visit. He never went early to appointments like this, because he hated to wait. By the time he was through today, the decayed tooth would be gone. After that, he didn’t give a fuck what excuse the plastic surgeon came up with next. He would have a new face by the end of the week or he would give the doctor a reason to have to practice on himself. As soon as he could travel, he would be setting up his new residence in a country that did not have an ex-tradition agreement with the U.S.
He switched on the television and then, out of habit, began surfing channels. Curiously, it was a crawl at the bottom of the CNN screen that captured his attention, rather than the lead story on a crisis in the mideast.
“Man and his nurse murdered in St. Louis hospital. Authorities suspect link to the return of business magnate Sam Cochrane’s kidnapped daughter.”
Otis’s mouth dropped open; then he jumped to his feet. Someone—probably that loser who had called—had blown it for everyone. All he’d had to do was lie low. But hell no. What he’d done was going to unload a closet full of skeletons for sure.
Suddenly the idea of a new face was less important than getting the hell out while the getting was good. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and made a quick call.
“Francoise…it’s me, Jacks. Are my papers ready?”
“Not quite. You said—”
“Plans change. I need them by tomorrow morning,” Otis snapped. “Finish them now. I’ll make it worth your while.”
He hung up, then grabbed his car keys and headed out the door. He was going to be early to his dental appointment after all.
Johnny Newton’s hand wasn’t doing so good. The wo
unds were red and puffy, and there was a red streak running from one of them toward his wrist. Despite his meager attempts at doctoring, it had gotten infected. He’d always heard that fingernails carried loads of germs. Obviously the old saying was right.
“Sorry son-of-a-bitch,” Johnny muttered, as he dug through Mabel’s medicine chest for something stronger than alcohol. His constant use had depleted the stash. He found nothing left but an out-of-date tube of antiseptic ointment. 1992? Fuck.
With no other options but the nearly empty bottle of alcohol, he poured what was left over the festering wounds, then tossed the empty bottle in the trash. He glanced at his watch. There were only a couple of hours left until nightfall, which he’d decided would be the time to strike. Carefully he parted the bathroom curtains just enough to look at the house across the street. The guards were still there. He frowned. It was too late to rethink his options, but if he had it to do over, he would have popped the woman when he had the chance and taken the guy out on his way out of town.
Never one to dwell on a mistake, he moved away from the window, still confident that he could make all this work. Besides, he had the chance to make an easy hundred thousand just for offing one man when this job was done. Once it got dark, he was going to pay a little visit to the house across the street, then head to L.A. But he wouldn’t do the job there until he knew for sure the money was in the bank. No sir. Johnny Newton’s father might have been a fool, but he hadn’t raised one.
He moved through the second story of the house, poking in drawers and cubbyholes, more out of boredom than with intention to steal. A few minutes later, he heard a car starting up across the street. He picked up his binoculars and, out of curiosity, looked to see who was behind the wheel.
It was a kid. He shrugged and started to turn away when it dawned on him that he’d seen that kid before. He was the kid who’d mowed Mabel’s lawn. He trained the binoculars on the kid’s face. He looked weird, all wild-eyed and slack-jawed.
“What the hell?” he muttered, and shifted his gaze a little bit to the left. “His lawn mower? Why is he leaving without that?”
A few seconds later, a tall, dark-haired man came out of the house and walked down the driveway to the street and spoke to one of the guards. Johnny frowned. Something was going on. He could feel it.
The man stayed at the street with the guard, then suddenly took his leave. Johnny watched the man disappear around the back of the house, but he never returned. Finally he convinced himself that what he’d seen meant nothing. He laid down the binoculars and thought about calling pizza delivery. He’d been thinking about one all day. Trouble was, he doubted if Mabel was in the habit of calling out for her meals, and he didn’t want to draw undue attention. Cursing the state of affairs in which he now found himself, he went downstairs to raid Mabel’s kitchen one more time.
The skin on Luke’s neck was still crawling, even after he’d gone around to the back of Sam’s house. He couldn’t prove it, but he would have been willing to bet that Johnny Newton had been watching them from a window of Mabel’s house. It made him sick to his stomach, just thinking of what must have happened to her, but common sense told him that Johnny Newton would not have saddled himself with a hostage.
He quickly explained to the guards in the back about the imminent arrival of the police and also told them to stay out of the way. They were there as protection for the Cochranes and nothing else. As soon as they understood what was going on, he slipped out the back gate and ran down the alley. If he was lucky, he could circle around to the back of Mabel’s house before the police appeared. That way, if Newton got wind of what was happening before they arrived, maybe he could head him off.
Sam knocked on Jade’s door. “Honey, it’s me. May I come in?”
Jade ran to the door and opened it wide. “I’m so scared.”
He nodded. “So am I. I thought, if you didn’t mind, I’d wait it out in here with you.”
Her expression betrayed her relief. “No, I don’t mind. In fact, I’m grateful.”
“Sorry about disturbing your rest a while ago,” Sam said. “I know you didn’t sleep last night.”
Jade could tell how hard Sam was trying to help. She could only imagine how he felt as she constantly shut him out. Raphael had begged her to be open to belonging to her family again. Now she knew how right he’d been. If it wasn’t for Sam and Luke, she would have been lost through all of this. She wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned her head against his chest.
“No, I didn’t sleep. I kept imagining Raphael on that metal table in the morgue, remembering what his last moments had been like, then knowing he’d faced them alone. I took my grief out on you and Velma…and then Luke, and I’m so sorry. I know you’re getting tired of hearing me constantly apologizing for my behavior. I don’t want you to think I’m ungrateful, because I’m not. You made Raphael’s last days bearable, and for that I will always be grateful.”
Sam took her in his arms. “Honey…I did it because I love you, and I knew you loved him. It’s that simple.”
Jade sighed. “Simple was not a word in our vocabulary,” she said. “Everything we did was such a struggle.”
Sam hugged her, then urged her over to the bed.
“Why don’t you lie down…at least for a bit? I promise I won’t leave you alone, and if you happen to fall asleep, so much the better.”
Jade shook her head. “I’ll sit down if you will, but there is no way I’ll be able to sleep. Not as long as I know Luke is in danger.”
“You like him a little, don’t you?” Sam asked.
Jade looked startled. “Who? You mean Luke?” Then she quickly looked away. “Sure I like him. He’s been very good to me.”
“Is gratitude all you feel?”
Jade shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Sam sat down on the bed beside her, then took her hands.
“We missed so many firsts with each other, didn’t we?” he said.
Jade nodded.
“No first day of school. No first roller skates or first bike. No first date or first prom.”
Jade saw his eyes fill with tears.
“I am so sorry I didn’t find you,” Sam said. “I feel such horrible guilt for what happened to you. I should have seen Margaret’s unhappiness. I should have looked for you longer…tried harder…something…anything.” Then he shuddered. “Anything to avoid what happened to you.”
“It happened. I survived it. I’m past it.”
Sam looked up. “Are you? I mean, really past it?”
Jade shrugged. “I don’t know. I like to think I am. But I’ve never tested myself to see if I could have a normal relationship with anyone.”
“Would you want to?” he asked.
Jade looked down at the floor, then up at a shadow in the corner of the ceiling.
“I wonder what’s happening across the street. Do you think it would be safe if we peeked out to—”
“Jade?”
She frowned. Sam wasn’t going to let her change the subject. So be it.
“You’re talking about Luke, aren’t you?”
“You may call this meddling, but since I never got to be a father in all the ways that count, I would like to think that I can be a friend.”
“Anyone can be a friend,” she said. “I think I’d like you better as a father.”
Suddenly Sam’s vision was blurred. He tried to speak but couldn’t get past the tears. Then Jade laid her head on his shoulder and patted his knee.
“If you don’t mind…I think I might try calling you Dad.”
“Mind? Oh, honey…” He put his arms around her and then pulled her close. “It would make me very happy.”
“I think it would make me happy, too,” she said. There was a long silence, then she added, “As for Luke, he frightens me a little. But I’ve already lost Raphael, and it frightens me even more to think of life without Luke, too.”
Sam smiled to himself as he pulled her close.
Had Luke known what Sam and his daughter were discussing, he might have hesitated at what he was about to do. But the thought of Johnny Newton escaping from the police was enough to keep him moving. Soon he had circled the block and was coming in at the edge of the Tyler property from the back.
He was behind the detached garage and trying to figure the best way to get into the house when he saw a strange vehicle parked in Mabel’s garage.
With a quick glance toward the house, he slipped inside, then moved between the cars, breaking off all four of the valve stems on the rental’s tires. The quiet hiss of escaping air was all he needed to hear. Newton wouldn’t be going anywhere in that car.
Once again he glanced toward the house. All was still silent, but as he was contemplating his first move, he saw the first police car pull up in front of the house. He lost count after the sixth car and knew that an equal amount or more would have arrived from the other direction.
It was only a matter of time before Newton saw them. Which meant he would do one of three things. Take a stand and negotiate—possibly claiming he had Mabel as a hostage—make a run for it, or shoot it out. Without waiting to see what he would do, Luke slipped out of the garage, then headed for the back door.
It was locked, which didn’t surprise him. He didn’t have his lock picks with him, and shooting his way in, or breaking a window, would only alert Newton. On the off chance that Mabel was still alive, he needed to find a way to get into the house before Newton took her as a shield and started shooting at the cops.
The Tyler house had a full basement and the windows were old. All he had to do was find one that no longer locked and come in from below.
Newton was polishing off a can of Vienna sausages when he happened to glance out the kitchen window. A police car sped past. His heart thumped; then he reminded himself that cops had been coming and going across the street ever since his arrival. It didn’t mean a damn thing. But when the second, then the third flew past, his instinct for survival kicked in. He tossed the can into the sink and ran toward the front of the house, pulling his gun as he went. What he saw made him panic. The cars hadn’t gone across the street. They were gathering in front of this house.
