by Robin Perini
She rose to her knees and peered over the middle row of seats. Her stomach plummeted. The back of the ski mask covered his hair.
“Stop. Please, let us out. I won’t tell anyone.”
“You should know better by now. My plans are not yours.” The man looked over his shoulder and pointed a gun directly at her. “Sit down and shut up or you and your kid are dead. And don’t bother trying to call Jared. I have a jammer blocking service. No one can help.”
Would that stop the CTC team from tracking her, too? Maybe not. She’d leave the phone on, hoping they would find her. But she couldn’t count on being rescued. She needed a plan.
Courtney made a show of backing off. She sat flat in the back of the SUV, holding Dylan close. The vehicle swerved and the road became rough. She bounced several inches off the floor. Where were they going?
Think, Courtney. Think.
She felt for her waist. The knife was there. She measured the distance between her and the man driving. The space was awkward. He would shoot her before she could cut him. In the vehicle the knife was useless.
If she could get his gun, she might have a chance. She’d simply have to look for an opportunity.
She pressed Dylan close to her and rocked him, but she couldn’t calm him. What did she expect? Her own heart raced, her nerves were shot. She knew this man might very well kill them both.
The vehicle stopped. Courtney tensed. What was happening now? Was this the end?
“Don’t move,” he whispered. “You do, I kill the kid and leave you alive to know your mistake caused his death.”
She shivered. He exited the car and locked them in. He seemed to be searching all around the car.
When he was finished he opened the door and knelt down searching below the dashboard. He grinned. “Your ace consultants saved me the trouble of removing the GPS chip. Ironic isn’t it. They were trying to protect Jared and you, and they ended up making themselves blind.”
“Why are you doing this?” she asked. Maybe if she figured out why, she could convince him.
He said nothing and started the vehicle, reversing direction. The SUV made another sharp turn and a slurry of mud rose in an arc. Courtney could barely keep upright. Especially with Dylan in her arms.
When he stopped the SUV and opened the door she’d have to be ready.
She had no idea how long they drove, but the landscape hadn’t changed. They pulled up to a small shack, the kind of isolated location where things never ended well.
Courtney gave Dylan a small kiss on his forehead. He looked up at her with so much trust. She prayed she could get them out of this alive. She prayed Jared would find her before anything worse happened.
The kidnapper exited the front and moved around the side. Courtney kept her hand at her waist and braced herself to attack. He yanked open the back end and she froze.
The man gripped an assault weapon in his hands.
She couldn’t escape.
“Put the kid down,” he whispered and threw her a rope.
“Get out of the SUV nice and easy,” he said with a snarl.
She nodded.
“Excellent. You remember.”
“Stand still and hold out your hands. If you try anything, I’ll spray your kid with bullets.”
She reached her hands out in front of her. He wrapped the rope around them and tied the knot off tight.
“Please, just let the baby go. He’s innocent.”
He slapped her across the face. “I told you no speaking. You have money and assume you don’t have to follow the rules.
“Now walk.”
She glanced at Dylan, hesitating. The spring heat was mild, but with the sun shining through the windshield, he’d burn up. “Please, the car will get too hot.”
He slapped her across the cheek again. This time even harder. Her head whipped back and her jaw throbbed.
“Don’t give me a reason, because it’ll hurt Jared just as much to spray this car with bullets and kill you both.”
“He could fall.”
He hit her a third time, but walked back to close the back door.
“Thank you.”
The man raised his hand to hit her. She recoiled and he chuckled. “The kid is Jared’s son. That makes him my most valuable asset. I’ve been waiting years to finish what I started five years ago.”
She gasped in shock at the realization. Oh my God. This wasn’t about her father at all. This was the man who killed Jared’s wife and daughter.
Her throat clenched. No one had seen it. The money must’ve been a diversion the entire time.
And now he planned to kill her and Dylan.
“I see in your eyes you’ve finally figured it out. That’s better than Jared ever did. He never understood. Never realized I should have had everything.”
He lifted the weapon. “Now walk.”
She made her way to the door of the shack.
“Open it.”
Using both hands she twisted the doorknob and the rotting wood swung inward. She turned her head sideways, trying to see behind the mask, to make out who would do this. She couldn’t tell except that behind the ski mask his eyes were flat and dead. He showed no mercy in his expression.
“Go inside and sit in the chair.”
She walked in and sat down. The knife burned at her waist, but in her head every scenario she came up with ended in Dylan’s bullet-riddled body.
There had to be a way to save her son.
“Stay in the chair. If you move, I kill your son. If you speak, I kill your son. If you beg, I kill your son. Do you understand?”
She nodded.
He returned a few moments later with Dylan and the car seat. He strapped the baby in and left him to cry.
She winced, but he seemed impervious to her child’s screams.
Courtney worked her hands against the sturdy rope as surreptitiously as possible. At one point he whirled around and glared at her, staring at the tie.
He picked up the weapon and walked over to the car seat. She sucked in a deep breath and he smiled at her.
She got the message. He controlled everything.
Courtney couldn’t move. She couldn’t call for help. She couldn’t try to convince him to let her go. She couldn’t reach the knife.
She and Dylan were well and truly trapped.
Chapter Twelve
His ranch house had turned into a mausoleum. Every instinct screamed to search the roads, the mountains, the ranch, everywhere, but he had no leads.
He wandered from room to room, but in every square foot a crisp memory of Dylan’s laughter or Courtney’s smile would haunt him. He stopped by the guest room. His eyes closed in pain at the view of the crib. He moved down the hall to the kitchen. A plate of snickerdoodles sat there, lonely and pathetic.
Finally, he pushed through the large mahogany study doors. Where she’d shared with him the danger she and Dylan were in. Where he’d vowed to save her. Where they’d made love for the second time.
Courtney and Dylan had changed his life the moment she’d driven onto his land in that powder blue Mustang. He’d been dead inside for so long, he’d never even realized it. She’d dragged him kicking and screaming back to life. Right now he wondered if that was a good or a bad thing.
Velma would say good. Roscoe would say bad. For Jared, the jury was still out.
What Courtney had done was make him feel again. She’d brought him hope, he’d dared to believe in the possibilities, and now she and Dylan were gone. The feelings remained, though, except instead of a warmth inside, it was dark and ice laden.
The worst part, they’d been a half mile from getting out of Texas and regrouping. So close. Jared had been standing just feet away.
How had the guy pulled it off? Jared should have been able to protect them. He mig
ht never be able to forgive himself. When he and Blake had realized they wouldn’t be able to follow, and that the nearest deputy was twenty minutes away, Jared had known he’d been beaten. That he’d failed. Despite the planning and preparation and the determination.
He was at a madman’s mercy.
Jared circled the room, but there wasn’t an inch that Courtney and Jared hadn’t touched.
He had to get them back.
He stopped at the coffee table across from the couch. The cell phone the kidnapper had left with Courtney lay there, taunting him. Jared stared at it unblinking. Would the man even call?
He slipped the phone in his pocket. It was a call he couldn’t afford to miss. “He must have seen me leave with Courtney and Dylan and decided to switch up his plan, though I don’t know how.” Jared looked over at Léon. “What’s your gut tell you?”
“That’s why we’re looking at an inside job with a high tech expert. Too much has gone wrong. I’ve got my men interviewing every member of the staff again. Zane’s executing a deep dive. If there’s something there, we’ll find it.” The operative frowned and Jared’s gut twisted in fear.
Jared rubbed his eyes. “I hope the guy’s just greedy. He can have the money if he’ll let Courtney and Dylan go.”
“Me, too, Jared. Me, too.”
But Jared could read the man’s eyes. They were cautious and wary. Jared wouldn’t ask for odds. He didn’t want to know because he refused to let himself consider the alternative. He would find Courtney and Dylan. He would bring them back safe and sound, and then he’d send them as far away from Last Chance Ranch and Carder as quickly as possible so they could live their lives in peace.
“How long have we been waiting?” Jared asked, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Two hours.”
Léon’s tone didn’t evoke optimism. They all knew the truth. Unless they caught a break, the guy was in charge. They needed him to call.
A knock sounded at the front door. Léon left the study to answer it.
“Can I see him?”
Jared tensed at Blake Redmond’s voice. The man couldn’t apologize enough. Jared wished he could blame the sheriff, but there was nothing the man could have done to stop the abduction, except to never have stopped the SUV in the first place. Okay, so maybe he blamed Blake a bit. But the truth was, Jared knew the only one at fault was himself. He should’ve taken them into the mountains when his gut was screaming at him to do so.
The sheriff entered the room, hat in hand. His boots scuffed across the floor. “Any news?”
Jared shook his head. “No note, no ransom, no call. No nothing.”
“Damn, I’m sorry.” Blake frowned. “I have more bad news, unfortunately. We found Derek’s truck abandoned near the Criswell place. I’m sorry to say we found blood on the back of the seat.”
“Not an accident.”
Blake shook head. “Sorry.”
Jared braced himself. God, how was he going to tell Roscoe? “And Derek.”
“We don’t know. My deputies are still searching. Maybe he wondered off, disoriented from his injury.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Jared met Blake’s gaze. “The guy has been ahead of us from the start. He’s been toying with us since he wrote the note.”
Léon entered the room with a duffel. “Here’s the money. When he calls we’ll be ready to make the drop.”
Jared froze at the sight. He clamped his jaw shut. Five years vanished in the space of a heartbeat. Steeling himself, he opened the bag and stared at the bundles of cash.
“This still doesn’t make sense. Did whoever come up with this scheme want money, and want Jamison to lose his family? Is this about revenge? Why focus everything on me.”
“You’ve got the money.” Léon twisted his lips into a frown. “But you’re right. Nothing fits. It’s all off. Zane investigated all the employees who lost their jobs because of the mill going under. No one lost a close family member.”
“We’re missing something,” Jared said. “Something that’s right in front of us.”
“It feels like a diversion,” Léon said. “Similar to the fire. He didn’t leave any kind of trace evidence, either here or on the highway. He’s a ghost.”
Jared paced back and forth. A ghost. The déjà vu feeling made Jared nauseous. He glared at the phone. “Why don’t you call?” he shouted.
The front door rattled with the sound of a key entering the dead bolt. Jared palmed his Glock and stood in the hallway waiting.
Tim escorted a limping figure into the foyer. Jared slipped the pistol back into the holster and strode over to the foreman. “Roscoe. Getting out of bed was a damn fool thing to do.”
Jared patted his shoulder. “I know, but she’s a survivor. She’ll pull out of this.”
“Of course she will,” Roscoe said. “She’s not through mothering the lot of us. Any news?”
Jared shook his head, avoiding his foreman’s gaze. He wouldn’t tell him about Derek yet. Not until they knew more.
Roscoe cleared his throat. “Courtney’s tough and determined. She’ll come out of this. So will that boy.”
Jared tamped down his emotions. “I believe that, but I’m a little surprised to hear those words coming from you.”
“City girls can grow on you,” Roscoe said, glancing away.
“Since when?” Jared asked.
“Since a gal from New York schooled me on assuming the worst.” He adjusted his cane. “She’s a keeper.”
If things were different, Jared would move heaven and earth to convince her to stay once he found her. But that wasn’t where he saw the night ending.
He only saw an empty house, an empty bed and an empty life. He had every intention of saving her and then letting her go to keep her safe.
He lowered his head and rubbed the sting from his eye.
A grandmother clock chimed. Outside, dusk had begun to darken the sky. “Where are you? Courtney? Please be okay.”
The phone in his pocket vibrated. The kidnapper’s phone.
He grabbed it and pressed the speakerphone.
“King.”
For a moment he heard nothing.
“Jared King,” the voice whispered. “It’s been a long time.”
His gaze flew to Léon’s. “Do I know you?”
“Perhaps you’ll recognize me this way.” There was a pause over the phone. “You didn’t follow the rules. Again. You haven’t learned anything. Five years ago or now.”
That mechanized voice. Jared’s legs shook and he stumbled into the study. He sank into the chair so his legs would hold him. Impossible. Five years ago. It was him. The man who had killed Alyssa.
“Surprise,” he said. “Did you miss me?”
“You son of a bitch.”
“I like the title, but it’s not true. My mother was a saint.”
“Shall we return to unfinished business. I didn’t receive my payment five years ago. I tacked on interest this time.”
Jared glanced over at Léon. What the hell was going on? They’d figured out where the odd amount came from. Edward Jamison.”
Léon shook his head.
“You’re confused, are you? Don’t be. I may have tweaked the numbers a bit just for fun when I realized our game wasn’t over. You were a naughty boy, going to New York, falling for another girl. Getting her pregnant.”
“Who are you?” How had he known? Courtney had only come to him a few days ago. “You don’t have to do this. Courtney and Dylan are innocent.”
The voice chuckled, and the inhuman sound made him shiver. “But you aren’t.”
Jared thrust his hand through his hair. “What do you want?”
“Oh, I’m getting exactly what I want. You know I could hang up and just let that be the end. I suppose you might find them. Someday.”
<
br /> “What about your money?”
“There is that.”
A long pause made Jared want to leap through the phone and strangle the guy. Léon came up beside Jared and pressed the mute button. “I know you want to challenge him,” the operative said. “Don’t. He wants to be in charge. Let him. We still haven’t identified him, and if Jamison isn’t involved, Zane’s search has been one giant waste of time. You need to do whatever it takes to have this meet.”
Jared gave a curt nod. “I know. But when I’m near the guy, I’m not holding back.”
“Jared. I think it’s time we have a reunion. How about we take a walk down memory lane. Bring the money to the pier at Last Chance Lake. You have one hour. And leave your little friends at home. If I see the sheriff or those spies you tried to hire leave your house, she and your son are dead.”
“Wait—”
The call ended. Jared sent Léon a desperate look. “Could you trace it?”
The CTC operative shook his head. “He timed it perfectly. We only needed three more seconds. We did get that he’s probably in the county.”
“Of course he is. He’ll be at the lake in an hour.” Jared shook his head. “We’re out of options. He’s looking for an excuse to kill them.” He looked around the room from man to man. “Either I’m going alone, or it has to look like I’m going alone. I won’t take any chances with their lives. Not this time.”
León frowned. “We don’t have much time to put any fail safes in place. He could be there already. Watching and waiting.”
Jared’s frowned deepened. “Which is why this time, I’m going to do exactly what he says.”
* * *
A SLIVER OF red sky lined the horizon. It was getting dark. She could only make out the boat sitting near a platform at the center of the lake.
Her son was strapped to his car seat in that boat, the kidnapper sitting right beside him holding a pistol. Dylan was completely vulnerable, completely at his mercy.
So was she. Because she would do anything to keep Dylan safe.
Courtney sat in the wooden chair her masked kidnapper had placed on the end of the pier. Her hands were still bound and since he’d left her, she’d been working her wrists against the strong hemp. She could feel the blood dripping off her fingertips.
