As the architect on record for the project, Graham had been invited to say a few words to the crowd, but he’d declined so that the guest of honor—the Mexican ambassador to the United States—would have more time at the podium. Manuel Garza was just winding up his speech. He had close ties to PemCo Oil and had been a strong advocate of deregulating Mexico’s petroleum industry to allow in foreign investors. He’d seized the opportunity to stress the necessity of developing a regional energy program and cited the PemCo Tower as a symbolic merger of the two great neighbors. It was a gutsy speech, considering the protests back home.
As the ambassador began to close, Graham’s attention drifted to the windows and to the panoramic view of the city. Even now, standing at the very pinnacle of his dream, he could scarcely believe he’d accomplished what he had set out to do—make his mark on the skyline of his hometown.
As he’d told Ellie earlier, the accomplishment was not his alone. Austin-based Hollister and Associates had collaborated on the design with a larger architectural firm in Houston, as well as with the developer, builder and representatives from PemCo Oil.
Thousands of hours had gone into both the design and construction of the building, but all that was behind Graham now. When he walked out of the building tonight, his role in the project would be greatly diminished. He and Kendall would finally be able to enjoy the vacation they’d been talking about for years. A month-long adventure that would take them to Bora Bora, Hong Kong, Singapore and finally the Australian outback.
The tickets and itinerary, along with their passports, were tucked away in his desk drawer at home, their suitcases had been brought down from the attic and Kendall had been feverishly shopping for weeks.
From the parade of sundresses, shoes and sportswear that had been modeled in their bedroom night after night, the one thing that stood out in Graham’s memory was a certain turquoise bikini that made him anticipate even more keenly the long, luxurious days on a private island in the South Pacific that would launch the trip.
He could picture Kendall’s long, toned body stretched out on the sand, her skin warm and silky to his touch. The image was so vivid that Graham could almost smell the coconut oil, but the stirring of warmth in the lower part of his body was all too real. He needed to think about something else.
You know, a trip like that…just the two of you…I wouldn’t be surprised if Kendall came home pregnant.
His thoughts skidded to a halt as his sister-in-law’s prediction rushed through his head. How would he feel about that? Graham wondered. He’d never thought of himself as the paternal type, but deep down, he knew that wasn’t the real reason for his hesitancy.
After five years of marital bliss, he still harbored a secret doubt about his relationship with Kendall. What if she decided to leave him again?
His gaze went back to her. He couldn’t help it. He loved looking at her. But as she drifted closer, he noticed something he hadn’t been able to see from a distance. The anxious glitter in her dark eyes might have gone unnoticed if he hadn’t been watching her so closely. She was still smiling, but tension tightened the corners of her mouth and her fingers strayed to the gold necklace at her throat, a sure sign that she was upset.
She stopped for a moment, waylaid by someone Graham didn’t know, and as the man leaned in to make himself heard over the ambassador, Kendall’s gaze uneasily searched the room. Her eyes found Graham, moved away, then came back, a silent plea emanating from the brown depths.
Something was wrong. Graham could see the distress on her face. He started toward her, but at the same moment, a waiter collided with someone in front of him. The heavy tray of crystal flutes toppled, showering champagne over those in the immediate vicinity.
A collective gasp rose from the crowd as everyone scurried out of the way, and Graham’s view of Kendall was momentarily blocked.
Somewhere nearby a woman screamed. Not the shocked squeal of someone who had been doused by champagne, but a horrified, ear-splitting shriek that stunned the room into silence.
Everyone seemed to drop back a step, creating a void at the front of the room where a man had collapsed. Graham recognized him instantly. It was Manuel Garza.
Graham’s first thought was that the man had had a heart attack as he left the podium, but then he saw a crimson puddle beneath Garza’s left shoulder.
The ambassador’s wife was on her knees beside him, her hands covered in blood. She looked up, her eyes frantic and brimming. “Por favor! Someone help him!”
Graham reacted instinctively. He moved forward, not really knowing what he could do, but in the space of a heartbeat, security came out of the woodwork. Graham was pushed back into the crowd by a man wearing an earpiece. As the officer spoke rapidly into a transmitter concealed by his sleeve, he turned away, and Graham saw someone else rush toward the wounded man.
A hand reached out and grabbed her, but she jerked free and shouted, “For God’s sake, I’m a doctor! Let me help him!”
The ambassador’s personal bodyguards quickly formed a protective circle around him as the undercover HPD officers assigned to the event moved to restore order. But in the initial pandemonium, Graham had lost sight of Kendall.
He turned now, desperate to find her. He couldn’t see her at first, but then he spotted a splash of red near the entrance.
“Kendall!”
Whether she somehow heard him over the roar of the panicked crowd, or whether the force of his gaze drew her attention, Graham didn’t know. But at that exact moment, she glanced back, her gaze clinging to his a split second before he found himself pushed back against the wall.
He called out to Kendall, but his voice was lost in the din. Frantic to reach her, Graham tore himself free and fought his way through the terrified mob.
But by the time he reached the door, his wife had vanished.
Chapter Two
Kendall had no idea what had just happened in the room behind her. She’d heard the crash of glass, a scream and then all hell broke loose. She glanced over her shoulder, trying desperately to find Graham again, but someone grabbed her arm and pulled her into the hallway.
“Hurry!” the man ordered in a raspy voice. “This way!”
“Wait!” Kendall tried to resist, but he was too strong.
“I told you. Do as I say and nobody gets hurt.” He shoved her toward the elevators, and when she stumbled, he grabbed her arm again and jerked her upright.
Dread tightened in her chest. She hadn’t seen or heard from Hector Reyes in years, not since the night she’d tried to flee Mexico for good. Not since the horrible car accident that had left her battered and scarred and wanting to die.
And then she’d opened her eyes one morning and found Graham at her bedside. She’d later learned from the doctors that she’d been unconscious for nearly a week before his arrival and had been given very little hope of survival. But somehow she must have sensed Graham’s presence. Somehow his voice had lured her from the darkness.
For days, he remained at her bedside, talking to her softly when he thought she’d drifted off. He’d been candid about the ambiguity of his feelings, perhaps because he wasn’t sure if she could actually comprehend what he was saying.
But she’d heard every word. Lying flat on her back with her face and head swathed in bandages, both arms broken and one leg in traction, drugs dulling but not obliterating the constant pain, she’d listened. And she’d wondered how any woman in her right mind could have ever allowed a man like Graham Hollister to slip away from her.
She’d vowed to herself over and over that if she was lucky enough to survive her wounds, if she was fortunate enough to have a chance to start over, she would do everything in her power to change, to become the kind of person a man like Graham deserved.
But she should have known that the past—those terrible secrets—would eventually catch up with her. That her life before the reconciliation would come back to haunt her. And just when they were thinking of starting a family.
Kendall blinked back hot tears as she stepped into the elevator. She didn’t look at the man beside her. She couldn’t.
“I told you where the money is. Take it and let me go,” she pleaded.
He was a tall, swarthy man with gleaming black eyes and flawless English. “What assurance do I have that the police won’t be waiting for me at the drop point?”
“I wouldn’t do that. You know I wouldn’t. There’s too much at stake. If anyone were ever to find out—”
He laughed. “Yes, you’ve covered your tracks well, haven’t you? You’ve always been very clever. I’ll give you that.” His voice hardened. “But the answer is no. You’re coming with me. Once I have the money, I’ll let you go.”
“Can I at least call my husband and tell him I’m okay? He’ll know something is wrong. I would never leave without telling him.”
“You’ll call him as soon as we’re safely out of the building. Trust me, you don’t want him to follow us. The situation could get very nasty.”
Kendall closed her eyes. “Please don’t hurt him—”
“As I said, no one will get hurt as long as you cooperate. So just relax and enjoy the ride. It’ll soon be over.”
“How soon?”
“As soon as I know you haven’t betrayed me. Because we both know what you are capable of, do we not?”
She suppressed another shiver as she felt his gaze sweep over her. Hector Reyes had once been employed by the same man she’d worked for in Mexico. Leo Kittering was an American ex-pat who had remarried well and used his wife’s resources to forge a powerful empire.
At one time, he’d been a major power broker, but then his only son had died, and all Kittering had been able to focus on was revenge.
Whether Hector Reyes still worked for him or not, she didn’t know, but she had a feeling that if Kittering had sent him, she would already be dead. Collecting a hundred thousand dollars in extortion money would not even be on Leo Kittering’s radar.
The elevator slid to a stop on the third floor. They got off and used the stairwell to reach the lobby level.
Hector seemed to know his way around very well. He led her quickly down a narrow corridor to an emergency exit that opened into a dead end street.
Kendall braced herself for the alarm she thought would go off when the emergency door was opened, but all remained silent. She wondered if the system had somehow been disengaged, either by Hector or perhaps an accomplice inside the building.
A black van, nearly invisible in the shadowy alley, waited nearby and inched forward as they emerged from the building. A panel slid open in the side, and Hector pushed her toward the vehicle.
As Kendall stumbled forward, someone inside the van grabbed her and pulled her inside. Hector scrambled in behind her, shoved the door closed and the van took off so abruptly, Kendall lost her balance and fell.
Huddled on the floor, she glanced around. Besides Hector and the driver, there were two other men in the back of the van, masked and armed with assault rifles. They spoke in Spanish, so low and rapid that Kendall had trouble following the conversation, even though she’d once lived in Mexico.
But she had no trouble interpreting the danger she suddenly found herself in. This was no ordinary extortion or blackmail scheme. She was being kidnapped. Obviously, the money that Hector had asked for had been a diversion, a way to get and keep her off guard. Now they would go to Graham. He would find out everything.
But it wouldn’t matter because she would be dead.
Kendall wasn’t naive enough to believe they would release her once they had what they wanted. She knew her chances.
Panic mushroomed in her throat, and it was all she could do to swallow a scream. How was she going to get away from them?
Hector picked up her evening bag, removed her cell phone and tossed it toward her. “Call your husband. Tell him you are all right and you want him to meet you at home.”
“But we’re spending the night in Houston—”
“Do it!”
Kendall mustered up a cool defiance. “Why should I? If you had any intention of letting me go, you would have taken the money and run.”
“Now you are being too clever for your own good,” Hector advised. “If you don’t do exactly as I say, this will end very badly for you. And for your husband.”
At the threat to Graham, Kendall’s courage flagged. “What do you want?” she said raggedly. “If it’s more money—”
“Some things are more important than money,” one of the men barked, his lips curling in disgust. He was tall and dark, with the cruelest eyes Kendall had ever looked into. “But someone like you would have a difficult time comprehending that.”
“What do you want from—”
“Enough!” The man hit her with the back of his hand, and Kendall fell back, stunned by the pain. Light exploded behind her eyes, and for a moment, she thought she would pass out.
Hector Reyes knelt beside her and leaning in very close, he placed his lips against her ear. “These men will kill us both if you don’t do as I tell you,” he whispered, curling her fingers around the cell phone he placed in her limp hand. “They’ll put a bullet in my skull, but you won’t be so lucky. Comprende?”
SECURITY moved quickly to seal the exits, but in the initial confusion, Graham managed to slip out of the room without being detained. He hurried down the long corridor, not knowing if Kendall had come this way or not. Or if he would be stopped before he reached the elevators. All he knew was that he had to find her.
He had no idea who the man was that she’d left with, but Graham’s first panicked thought was that the stranger was somehow connected to the attack on the ambassador. And he’d taken Kendall hostage.
But he didn’t see how that was possible. The man had been nowhere near Garza when he collapsed.
Something else niggled at Graham. When Kendall turned at the door, their gazes had clung for a moment before he’d been pushed back against the wall. But in that split second, he’d seen her face clearly. She’d looked pale and anxious, but she hadn’t been frightened.
A chill slid down Graham’s spine as he hurried toward the elevators. The notion that Kendall had left with the stranger of her own accord filled him with the darkest dread even as he told himself there had to be a logical explanation for her behavior.
When she’d walked out before, Graham had been all too willing to take the easy way out, to bury himself in his work and let their relationship drift toward divorce.
But in the five years since the reconciliation, their marriage had grown stronger every day. Or so he’d thought.
Now doubt tore through his heart, and he remembered all the hours that he’d devoted to the PemCo Oil project. All the evenings he couldn’t make it home for dinner. The trips. The cancelled plans. Had his wife again grown restless while he pursued his dream?
He would have known if she were that unhappy. They were so close. They talked every day, no matter how busy his schedule. There had to be a perfectly innocent reason for her hasty departure. There had to be—
The vibration of his cell phone inside his breast pocket cut off Graham’s thoughts, and as he pulled out the phone, he glanced at the display. It was Kendall.
Relief washed over him as he lifted the phone to his ear. “Kendall?” When she didn’t answer, Graham said anxiously, “Are you all right? Where are you?”
Still more silence. Then finally she whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
“Sorry for what? Why did you leave like that?”
“I had to.” Her voice was low and shaky and Graham knew that something was very wrong.
“Are you sick? Why didn’t you tell me? We could have left together.”
“I didn’t want to tear you away. This is your night, Graham. And I’m sorry I ruined it.”
“I don’t give a damn about that. Just tell me what’s happened? Where are you?”
“I never wanted to hurt you. You have to believe that.”
“Tell me what’s going on, Kendall. You’re scaring the hell out of me.”
“I’ve done things, Graham. Things you don’t know anything about. But it was a long time ago. I’m not the same person I was back then. I’ve changed because of you.”
His grip tightened on the phone. “Listen to me. I don’t care what you did in the past. We’ve both made mistakes. Whatever it is, we can work it out.”
“Not this time.”
“Don’t say that.”
“I love you—” Her voice broke and Graham heard a male voice mutter something in the background.
“Who’s with you?” he demanded.
“No one. It’s not what you think.”
“I don’t know what to think! Just tell me where you are. I’ll come get you. We can talk this out. Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad.”
He heard her draw a shaky breath. “Do you really mean that?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then meet me at home. I’ll tell you everything. We’ll see then if you still want to work it out.”
The connection went dead and Graham immediately tried to call her back. Her phone rang and rang, but she’d obviously turned it off.
Cursing inwardly, Graham started toward the elevator, then stopped as the walls started to spin. He recognized the symptoms—it was an old problem—but this time the vertigo had come on so suddenly, he’d had no time to prepare, no time to focus. He could feel the eighty-five-story building sway as the walls tilted and the floor seemed to disappear beneath him.
For a moment, he imagined himself standing on one of the steel support beams, and he blindly put out a hand to steady himself. That was when he saw Kendall’s earring lying on the floor in front of the elevators. He knew it was hers because he’d given her the pear-shaped rubies as an early anniversary present.
The earring must have fallen off as she got onto the elevator. Or had she left it on purpose as some sort of clue to alert Graham that she hadn’t left of her own free will?
He was grasping at straws, Graham realized. Kendall hadn’t been coerced into leaving. He’d seen her at the door. The look in her eyes when she’d glanced back hadn’t been fear. It had been regret and Graham had no idea why.
Texas Ransom Page 3
