A Twist of Betrayal

by Allie Harrison

  Dan couldn’t stop the shiver that passed through him as he put it to his ear. “Yeah?” he said.

  “Dan?” It was Steve.

  Steve’s lack of emotion scared him, but only a little. If he was calling with bad news, Dan was certain he’d hear it in Steve’s voice. “Yeah?” he asked again.

  “The FBI is here.”

  Dan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Deke left no room for outsiders here. The last thing Dan needed was to deal with people who didn’t know Justine, who wouldn’t understand what he was going though. He certainly didn’t want the FBI questioning him or looking into his past.

  But anything else, anything other than protocol certainly would raise questions and suspicion. So he played along.

  “All right, I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he said. Dan hung up and met the apprehensive looks of his in-laws.

  “The FBI is at the station,” he informed them.

  “But there’s no news about Justine?” Abby asked.

  “No.”

  “Is that good or bad?”

  Dan held her gaze for a moment, seeing so much of Justine in her. “I don’t know. I have to keep hoping no news is good news,” he answered honestly. “I have to go.”

  He moved to the door, and both Abby and Roger followed him.

  At the door, Roger stopped him. “Son?”

  Dan looked back and met the older man’s gaze. He saw the questions in Roger’s eyes, and Dan wanted to tell the man he was going to get his daughter back safe and sound, but he was terrified it would be a lie. “Yes?”

  “Take care of yourself, too. You look as if you could use some rest. You’ll be no good to her when you find her if you don’t. If you need to come back here for anything, don’t hesitate.”

  Roger saw things with a clarity most people didn’t, Dan realized. He nodded, acknowledging his father-in-law’s advice. “I’ll keep in touch and let you know if anything comes up.”

  It was Roger’s turn to nod. Then Dan was out the door, heading to his truck and wishing suddenly that he’d hugged them both.

  He waited until he was in his truck to call Steve back on his cell.

  “What’s up?” Steve asked.

  “Did the FBI ask specifically for me to come in?” Dan asked.

  “No, I just thought you’d want to know, maybe meet the two agents who are here.”

  “Good. I’d like to get a shower and maybe something to eat before I deal with them.”

  “That’s probably not a bad idea,” Steve put in. “Why don’t you get some rest, too. I’ll hold down the fort and let you know if they come across anything. They did ask if there’s been a ransom note or any phone calls. You haven’t heard anything, have you?”

  “No.”

  “All right.” There was a pause. “Keep in touch, buddy.”

  “I will.” Dan hung up and realized that, like the Albrights, Steve had managed to work his way in, too.

  Dan started his truck and pulled away from the curb. No, he hadn’t gotten a phone call. He had expected one before, but now he was going to act without it.

  After all, he had a pretty good idea where Deke had taken Justine.

  And this time as he drove, no memories touched him, just a cold, sick feeling of fear.

  Chapter 16

  Two Years Ago

  When she saw her secretary’s name on the caller ID, Justine answered her cell. “Estelle, what’s going on? Why are you calling me now? The trial’s about to start.” Justine couldn’t help the questions, despite the fact she knew Estelle had to know the trial was about to start. Estelle never forgot anything, that was why she was able to run Justine’s office with the efficiency of a well-trained drill sergeant.

  “Listen, Justine—”

  Justine’s relationship with her secretary was very informal. She preferred it that way. For some reason it made telling Estelle what to do easier.

  Estelle paused just long enough for Justine’s frustration to boil over. “Spit it out, Estelle. I haven’t got all day.”

  “There’s been a shooting,” Estelle said, sounding oddly out of breath.

  Justine’s heart suddenly hammered in her chest. “Where?”

  “Just outside of Landston, but still in the Landston police jurisdiction. All I know is that what started out as a typical traffic stop ended with shots fired.”

  “Where’d you hear this?” Justine demanded. Her heart suddenly pounded so hard, it hurt and grew three times bigger, enough to choke her. Dan, she thought. Dan was on duty. Oh, please, no! Don’t let me be a widow after only three years of being his wife.

  “My boyfriend, Marty, just called. He has one of those police radios. He knew you lived in Landston and that your husband is a cop there. And Justine—” she stopped suddenly.

  And Justine didn’t like the pause. “What?” she breathed. Suddenly unable to focus on anything else, she stared at the closed courtroom door. The letters and numbers that read ‘Courtroom 6’ started to blur. The cup of coffee she’d finished a short time ago burned hotter in her stomach than when she’d first swallowed it.

  “It was reported that there’s an officer down.”

  Justine had to fight to keep from going down, too, as her knees threatened to give out beneath her. This was her worst nightmare, happening right before her eyes while she was awake and standing. And Justine could do nothing to stop it. Nor could she stop the helpless sick feeling that washed over her.

  “But you don’t know who it was?” she asked.

  “No,” said Estelle. “I only know the officer involved was taken to County Hospital.”

  “All right,” said Justine, afraid to let out her relief that at least the officer was taken to the hospital and not the morgue. That meant for whoever it was that met with a bullet, there was still hope. “I’m going to talk to the judge.”

  “No, don’t,” Estelle warned. “I already told Clifford about this. He’s on his way there. He said if you try and postpone, it will only give the prosecution weeks to build their case. So he said he’d take the case for you. He knows as much as you do, anyway, and should be able to handle it.”

  “Great, thanks. I’ll head to the hospital as soon as he gets here.”

  “And if you aren’t able to come or call in, we’ll understand,” her secretary added. “So don’t worry about anything, we’ll handle the office.”

  Under other circumstances, Justine might have smiled. She understood what Estelle was trying to say and appreciated what she didn’t say. If it was Dan…

  “Thanks,” Justine muttered again.

  “Let us know what happens.”

  “I will,” Justine promised. She hung up rationalizing how there were seven cops on the Landston small-town police force. It didn’t necessarily mean it was Dan. She hated the fear that settled over her. Even more, she hated his job. She also hated the fact that if it wasn’t Dan involved, this could be the first of many future scares. She swallowed hard, attempting to work her way past the burning in her throat and wondered if she could handle this. Her legs felt like rubber, and her stomach was in a sudden tight knot.

  Then she let out a heavy breath. She could handle this. She took another deep breath and felt—well, better, stronger. For Dan, for the love she had for him, she had to handle this. She could and she would, knowing and trusting she wasn’t alone.

  Clifford arrived shortly after Estelle’s call, and Justine headed for the hospital. Her motions were done in autopilot, and she hardly remembered the drive. She ran to the Emergency Room as quickly as she could wearing her high heels.

  She ignored the gurneys and the waiting patients. The noise of crying and doctors giving orders and the overhead speakers all blurred together. The smell of antiseptic burned her nose. All she could think of was finding Dan.

  “There was a Landston police officer brought in?” she inquired at the busy desk of the nurses’ station. Her words sounded out of breath, but she had no control of it.

  “Are y
ou immediate family?” a nurse in scrubs asked.

  “I don’t know,” Justine had to admit. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath, no matter how hard she tried. “I just heard a police officer was brought in. My husband’s a Landston officer, on duty.”

  “Jus….”

  At the sound of Dan’s voice, Justine turned to find him coming up the hall toward her. There was blood on his uniform shirt. Justine stared at it, thinking surely the doctors wouldn’t let him walk around if he had been shot. She was no longer out of breath. For a long moment, she couldn’t breathe at all. She grew dizzy and thought this was how she would feel just before she fainted. She’d probably crack her head on the floor. At the very least, she was going to be sick.

  Dan reached her and took both her hands in his. His hands were warm, real. He was real. He was alive. She stared at the blood. “It’s not mine,” he said.

  That meant he was whole. He was unhurt. He was safe, and not shot.

  She let out a small cry of relief and let herself fall against him, where she was instantly caught in the warm, living strength of his embrace. She didn’t care about the blood on his shirt, or if any of it got her. All she cared about was Dan.

  Justine couldn’t hold him tight enough. She couldn’t touch him enough. “You’re all right,” she said over and over. There were tears in her eyes and on her cheeks, and Justine couldn’t remember how they got there.

  “Yes, I’m fine.”

  He didn’t sound fine. His words were raw, as if he had to force them through his throat. And Justine felt the tension within him as she held him.

  Then, while she might be filled with relief at seeing he was not shot, she was filled with dread at the idea someone was. That someone would be one of Dan’s colleagues. Would this be just like when Dan’s partner died? She was terrified to ask, but had no choice. “What’s the matter? What happened?”

  “It was Jack Fillbrook.”

  The news was a blow that nearly knocked her off her feet.

  “Is he…?” She couldn’t say the word dead.

  “No, and the doctors think he’ll be all right. I rode in the ambulance with him. I held on to him until it got here.”

  “I know that couldn’t have been easy for you.”

  “He’s a great friend and good cop. I know this is hard for you, too.”

  Jack Fillbrook might be a good cop. Justine, however, didn’t see him as a great friend. He constantly flirted and was always trying to put his hands on her. She understood he was a touchy-feely-huggy kind of guy, but he made her uncomfortable. She still never wanted to see him hurt or shot, though. With her arms still around Dan and him still holding her, she led him to the nearby waiting room and forced him to sit down. “What happened?” she asked, seeing he needed to talk, needed to let out some of the pent up emotions that she knew had to be swirling through him.

  In his eyes, she recognized shock and frustration and anger. Hard telling what else he had eating away at him over this incident. She was certain this incident brought up painful memories of losing his partner in the past.

  Dan held her hand tightly, like a drowning man would grasp a life ring. Perhaps now, he would be able to let her into that secret place she knew he kept deep within his heart and he would talk to her about his past. If he didn’t, well, she would just continue to be patient.

  “Jack made a routine traffic stop—expired license registration. I heard the call on the radio and headed in his direction just to be there. It turned out the car was stolen and the guy driving was wanted in Florida for armed robbery.” He turned and looked at her. She let him look deeply into her eyes.

  He offered her a small grin. “Imagine that. All the way from Florida, and he gets stopped in the little town of Landston by a cop who’s hardly been on the force a year.”

  “We’ll probably make the ten o’clock news,” Justine joked, hoping to ease some of the lingering tension. She knew that he had to be thinking about his old partner, Adam, and she was grateful Jack hadn’t died in his arms while they waited for an ambulance. She wanted to draw the emotions out of him, make him talk about what he had to be feeling, even if she couldn’t get him to talk about Adam. Justine knew he harbored that guilt inside him. She saw it in the way he changed the subject as soon as anyone asked him about it or in the way he stopped himself as soon as he caught himself mentioning something Adam had done.

  But Justine wasn’t quite sure how just then. The terror she’d felt when she thought Dan might have been shot left her too raw inside. And for the first time in her law career, she was afraid her words might not have the effect she wanted. She was afraid to start talking. If she did, she might not be able to stop. Never before had she felt so out of control.

  “Remember last month when we had people over for wine and cheese and games, and he got so drunk?” It was a nice memory. Something they could both handle.

  “And he kept wanting to kiss you, until I threatened to kick his butt out the door.”

  Her smile was small. She had forgotten that part, pretty much on purpose. “Don’t ever scare me like this again, okay?”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “I’m just thankful it’s not Jack out here talking to me and holding me while you’re somewhere close by getting worked on by a team of doctors.”

  He gave her slight grin. “As long as he wasn’t trying to kiss you.”

  She let out a deep breath. “Would you consider becoming a stock boy at Mike’s Grocery Store?”

  “I doubt I could handle that.”

  She leaned against him. “Just let me hold you.”

  He let her.

  She wished she could protect him so this never happened again. Protect Dan? She didn’t think she could, even if he did allow it, but she held him anyway.

  Chapter 17

  Justine woke with a start to the dark, musty smell of the small room and shivered. She held herself in the hug of her dream, and for a moment she managed to convince herself that Dan really held her. But, she was unable to stop the reality that slowly seeped in, replacing her nightmare with something worse, something she could never wake up from and escape. Through the endless black, she couldn’t see her watch, but the stiffness she felt through her body told her she’d slept for a long time. That and her bladder was full, and her stomach rolled over and over in absolute hunger.

  She shifted and sat up.

  It was then that the nausea took hold. Sudden and strong, it left her dizzy. Oh, please, not now.

  She sat perfectly still, rubbed her stomach and breathed. Deep. In. Out. Over and over. Minutes ticked by. She had no idea how many.

  Please, God, let me protect this little child starting out within me. Give me strength, she mentally begged.

  What if she couldn’t protect it? What if Dan didn’t accept it?

  After some time, the nausea subsided, but her gut-wrenching fear did not.

  A tear slid down her cheek before she could stop it. She wanted Dan. Forever. She wanted the baby, too. Why couldn’t she have them both? She could dwell on the question in the darkness forever, but it wasn’t going to get her out of this mess. For now, she had other important things to think about. Like her safety. Like finding a bathroom. Like getting herself home and back to Dan in one safe piece.

  She closed her eyes against the endless darkness and imagined a safe warm place, with Dan beside her. She remembered her dream, so strong, so real.

  Her imaginary safe place suddenly transformed into a bathroom.

  Okay, so finding the bathroom had to come first. The guy who took her held a lot of anger, and she knew he wouldn’t take too kindly to having any accidents in his house. He was liable to rub her nose in it like an animal that was being housetrained.

  She was good at reading into people, had to be in order to read a witness or a panel of jurors, and she knew she could easily read this kidnapper.

  What she couldn’t read or understand was how he and Dan knew one another. She would have thought h
e was obviously someone Dan had arrested set out on revenge, until he’d made that remark about Dan being wanted by the FBI.

  Through the darkness, she felt the wall, and using it as a guide, made her way on her hands and knees around to the locked door. She pressed her ear against the aged wood and listened.

  The sound of the lock unbolting was loud in her ear and she barely had time to move away before the door swung open in toward her.

  A soft ray of morning light poured in and stung her eyes.

  The man in front of her was completely different from the man who had grabbed her and dragged her away from the grocery store parking lot.

  This man had a military haircut, broad nose and strong jaw with a pointed chin, complete with a dimple.

  But his eyes were the same icy blue. He wore a black T-shirt, showing every muscle, as if advertising she’d better not mess with him. Camo pants with what must have been twenty pockets, finished his fashion statement. At least, this time, he held no gun in his hand.

  Still, the fact that he did nothing to hide his face from her sent her heart pounding.

  “Have a nice nap?” he barked.

  She licked her lips, trying to bring some moisture to her sticky-feeling, suddenly dry mouth.

  “What, cat got your tongue?” he asked.

  “I have to go to the bathroom,” she said. “Please.”

  He studied her for a long moment. “Okay.”

  He even reached out a hand to her as if to help her to her feet.

  She stared at his hand.

  “I’m not all bad,” he assured her.

  His words didn’t convince her. Eyeing him carefully, she scrambled to her feet without his help.

  “Don’t try anything stupid,” he said.

  Justine fought the urge to chuckle. What did he expect her to say? Oh, I’m going to. I plan to escape out the bathroom window as soon as I get the chance. And if you catch me, feel free to pop me in the face again.

  “I just have to go the bathroom. I can’t wait any longer.” At least that much was true.

  Light poured in through the windows, illuminating the large room of the cabin. It wasn’t stuffy or cool as it had been the previous night. But then there was a fire burning in the fireplace. The state trooper, still wearing his uniform coat, was on the floor, his hands handcuffed behind him around the single beam of the room. He looked like he was sleeping. The gash on his head had scabbed over. To her relief, his chest moved with his breathing.