Abandoned

by Allison Brennan

  “I’ll find out which class she’s in and have her removed. Please hold.”

  Ryan typed in the school and the directions popped up. It was in the next town over—Cape Haven wasn’t large enough to warrant their own high school. But it was still less than fifteen minutes away.

  He flipped on the grille lights in his truck and drove as fast as he dared through the neighborhood before hitting the two-lane highway. It took four and a half minutes before the principal came on the phone. “Agent Maguire? Eve isn’t on campus. At least, she’s not in her assigned class. I’m having the vice-principal talk to her friends right now, but Eve isn’t someone who has ever cut class before.”

  “What was the last class she was in?”

  “Before lunch she was in math—I confirmed with her teacher that she was there. But no one has seen her since lunch.”

  Ryan called Bartlett and told him that Eve Truman may be in trouble—no one could find her. “I’m going to check out her house—can you get a trace on her cell phone?”

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  Ryan made an illegal U-turn and headed toward the Truman house. He hoped that Eve was playing hooky, because Colter had turned unpredictable and Ryan didn’t know what his plan was.

  He made the call he dreaded. Max answered on the first ring. “Did you find Colter?” she asked.

  “We’re looking. But Eve’s not at school. I don’t know what’s going on, I’m on my way to Gabriel’s house, but I have a bad feeling.”

  “We’re on our way.”

  “No, I think you’re safer at the hospital.”

  The phone was already dead. Dammit! He drove faster.

  * * *

  Eve mentally hit herself for the hundredth time over the last hour.

  You are so stupid! You fell for the oldest line in the book!

  She knew Phillip Colter, sort of. He was an investor at the club, friends with her uncle Brian. She’d only seen him around a few times, but you never forget the super-rich.

  There was an accident at the hotel.

  And she’d gone with him. Just like that. It wasn’t until she was in the backseat and saw the blood on Colter’s arm that she got suspicious.

  “You’re bleeding,” she said. “What happened?”

  “A scaffolding fell. It’s just a scratch.”

  Scaffolding? What scaffolding? They weren’t doing any renovations this season.

  Colter’s driver slowed down at a STOP sign and Eve tried to jump out of the back, but the doors were locked and she couldn’t budge them.

  “Child safety locks,” Colter said. “Go, Vance. Just get us to the house as fast as you can.”

  The house? The driver turned suddenly onto a back road that headed toward the Hendersons’ farm. Why were they going out to Oyster Bay?

  “Let me out!” she screamed. She tried to grab Colter, she didn’t know why, she just wanted out of the car, a sick mix of growing fear and anger and deep dread filling her until she almost couldn’t see straight.

  Colter pulled a gun on her. “I don’t want to hurt you, Eve. Don’t make me pull the trigger.”

  She scrambled as far into the corner of the backseat as she could.

  He caught her eye. “Everyone has lied to you, Eve, for your entire life. I am going to tell you the truth. I’m your father, Eve. Your mother lied, that man who you call your dad lied, but I’m not lying. You are mine, and I will prove it. But first, we’re leaving this godforsaken town.”

  Eve didn’t believe him, but why would he say something like that?

  She sat quietly in the back of the car. She had to find a way to escape. If he thought she’d given up, maybe she could run once they let her out. She wasn’t tied up, and she was a fast runner. She slowly pulled her phone from her back pocket. She dialed 911.

  “Stop the car,” Colter said.

  The driver stopped in the middle of the two-lane highway.

  Colter reached over and slapped her. “Give it to me,” he said. His face was red.

  She pressed Send and handed it to him.

  He ended the call—had it gone through?—and threw the phone out the window.

  “Drive,” he told the driver, and didn’t look again at Eve.

  Why’d you go with him in the first place?

  Stop. Stop with the regrets. Get out of this mess and then she could feel sorry for herself and her own stupidity.

  You thought something had happened to your dad.

  She didn’t care that Gabriel Truman wasn’t her father. She was upset that he’d lied to her, but she loved him. She couldn’t turn it off. She remembered how he’d cried at his mother’s funeral. She’d never seen her dad cry before or since. She’d taken his hand and said, “It’s okay, Daddy. She’s in heaven. Heaven is a happy place. You still have me.”

  And he’d hugged her tightly and told her she was the best thing God had given him.

  She would never forget when he built her the doll boat for her sixth birthday. She didn’t want Barbies or baby dolls, she wanted to play sailor. When she was seven, she wanted to go into the navy like her daddy, and painted her boat gray and put army guys on the deck. She’d made a mess of the beautiful boat, but her dad didn’t care. They played naval battles for weeks, and then she cried because she had ruined his beautiful boat. He told her they would strip it and restain it together, which they did.

  When she won her first race, he was there cheering her on. When she lost two weeks later and had been so mad because her team had screwed up, he told her the captain is always responsible for his mates, and not to be too hard on them.

  “You are the pilot. They look to you for direction. If you berate them, they won’t trust you. Be positive, train together, and take responsibility for your loss. They will respect you more—and perform better—next time.”

  When they started talking about colleges when she started high school, she said she wanted to stay close. Maybe not even go to college.

  “I didn’t go to college. I won’t say I regret it, I wanted to be in the navy. But sometimes I wish I had gone later. There are more opportunities for college graduates.”

  “Is it because I was born that you didn’t go?”

  “No, baby, it’s not. It’s because I never thought I was smart enough.”

  “You’re the smartest person I know.”

  He hugged her. “If you choose not to go to college, you need a plan—and to be able to develop it into a career that is both satisfying and supports you. But you’re smart, kid, very smart. You should go to college and at least see all that is available to you.”

  “Molly’s brother is at Virginia Tech. He got a scholarship. I don’t know if I can get one.”

  “There are lots of ways to fund college, don’t worry about that. VT is a great school, and if that’s where you want to go, then we’ll sit down, figure out what we need to do to get there.”

  “I don’t know what I want to do. I love sailing so much, but that’s a hobby, you know?”

  “You love animals. You can be a veterinarian.”

  “Too much math.”

  They laughed. Eve was a good student, but had never seemed to master math concepts.

  “Maybe a marine biologist,” she said. “Or maybe graphic design. I got an A on my art project, the one where we designed an ad. Uncle Brian let me use his computer at the resort, it has all these programs on it that we have at school. My teacher said I had a good eye.”

  “Honestly, you can do anything, Eve. The world is your oyster.”

  “What does that even mean?” She giggled.

  Tears burned behind Eve’s eyes but she held them back. The truck turned in to the gated property down the road from the Hendersons. The gate closed behind them and they drove to the house.

  Colter got out and walked up the stairs. The driver opened her door. He tried to grab her arm. She kicked him in the stomach. She was aiming lower, but missed. She kicked again. He grabbed her leg and she kicked up, her tennis sh
oe hitting him square in the jaw. He grunted and she managed to fall out of the truck. She got up and ran.

  He was faster. He had her before she got fifty feet away, and tackled her. Blood filled her mouth and her face scraped against the rocky ground.

  She fought, spit at him, tried to scratch him, but he grabbed her from behind and half-carried, half-dragged her to the house.

  Colter said, “You’re beginning to make me angry. Tie her up, Vance, I won’t have any more of this nonsense. Eve, when I explain everything, you’ll understand.”

  She spat in his face.

  He slapped her so hard she almost fell from his goon’s grip.

  The three of them entered the house.

  A familiar voice said, “I brought the boat, but why do you … oh, my God, Eve!”

  “Uncle Brian?” she cried through her swollen mouth. “Help me.”

  “What have you done, Phillip? Why—”

  “You lied to me,” Colter said. “You knew that Gabriel wasn’t this girl’s father.”

  “What’s going on, Uncle Brian?” Eve pleaded.

  “Look, Mr. Colter, Jimmy wasn’t around. There was no harm in letting Gabriel raise her. Jimmy left. Why do you care? Let her go, please. She’s not a part of this.”

  “She’s everything. She’s mine!”

  Uncle Brian stepped back. “What? I don’t think—”

  “You’re right, you don’t think. You didn’t tell me about the FBI agent, you didn’t tell me that Martha had a child, and you didn’t give me everything that was in that reporter’s cottage. There was so much more than a few pictures.”

  “I didn’t know what you wanted. I did the best I could—”

  Uncle Brian? What was he doing? What had he done? He was helping this man?

  “Martha and I were together in Paris when this child was conceived. That was all on the timeline on Maxine Revere’s wall. You left that part out.”

  “I didn’t know—I didn’t think—”

  “You don’t think, Cooper.”

  A gun went off, and Uncle Brian fell to the floor.

  Eve screamed. “No! No! I’m not going with you. Uncle Brian! Let me go!” She kicked and thrashed and another man ran in. He pulled her arms back and tied her wrists together.

  “Good Lord,” Colter said, “shut her up and get her on the damn boat. We’re leaving.”

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Max didn’t want to leave David, but he could be in surgery for hours, and Eve was in danger right now.

  Gabriel sped back to Cape Haven, his hands tight and white on the steering wheel, and Max was forced to grip the dashboard a couple of times in sheer panic as he erratically passed cars that were going the speed limit.

  Her heart was racing as she answered her cell phone when they were only minutes from town.

  “Ryan, please tell me you found her.”

  “The sheriff’s department raided Colter’s house. Brian Cooper was inside, DOA. Eve’s phone was traced to a road leading from the highway to the Colter compound. The caretaker is in custody, but isn’t talking. I gave a list of the stolen art to the sheriff and some of it is here, in Cape Haven. I’m going to assume they are the originals but need to wait for authentication. The two pieces that had been bought at auction from Martha’s Georgia storage locker are in the master bedroom. And the Caravaggio is in Colter’s office. If it’s real, you were right.”

  “I usually am. But this time, I don’t feel so good about it.”

  “I’m heading back to Havenly now—one of the staff called the sheriff and thinks that Cooper took a boat out from the pier. Said he was acting strange and didn’t acknowledge her when she spoke to him. I don’t have any other details, but I’m alerting the Coast Guard in case we get confirmation. If he took a boat, he had to have gone around the cape to Oyster Bay. There were vehicles at Colter’s house, but no one except the caretaker was found on the property.”

  “We’ll be there in five minutes.” Three, with the way Gabriel was driving.

  She told him what Ryan had said.

  “Why would Colter take her? Why?”

  “Leverage, but I couldn’t say for certain.”

  “Brian—I can’t believe he betrayed us like this. Why would he bring Colter a boat?”

  “Maybe to leverage him? Help Colter escape to save Eve?”

  “I don’t know him anymore. And now I can’t even ask him why! Eve is just a little girl. She’s innocent. She’s not part of this!”

  “Focus, Gabriel. You need to calm down. It’s hard, but we have to be smart about this.”

  “He wants that damn painting, he can have it! I just want Eve. I need her safe.”

  “We’ll get her back.”

  “Why did you have to come in the first place? Why did you have to be here? Everything was fine until you showed up.”

  Long ago, her grandmother had told her to never apologize if she wasn’t sorry. What could she say now? She was sorry on the one hand—she had no idea that her search for the truth about her mother would have present-day repercussions. But at the same time, searching for the truth was part of who she was, and any apology would be a lie. She couldn’t think about how she would have done things differently—she didn’t have the information ten days ago about Gabriel, Eve, or Colter.

  “I am truly sorry that Eve ended up in the middle of this.”

  “It’s my fault. I should never have lied to her.”

  “No, it’s not your fault, Gabriel. It’s not yours and it’s not mine. Everything you did was to protect her—an innocent child who was being used as a pawn by her biological parents. She understands that.”

  “Did I do it for her? Or to protect myself?”

  “You’re too honorable of a man to act so selfishly, to protect himself over others. I believe that, and Eve knows it. So get over the guilt, control your anger and your fear so that we can find Eve and bring her back safe.”

  Gabriel screeched to a stop at the main entrance of the resort. Several sheriff’s cars were there, and a Norfolk police car. Law enforcement had pulled out all the stops and called in neighboring communities to help in the search.

  Max jumped out of the truck, wobbling just a bit from the crazy drive. She saw Ryan and strode over to him. He put his hand on her arm, squeezed. “How’s David?” he asked quietly.

  “Still in surgery.”

  He nodded, concern in his eyes. “He clipped Colter. Don’t know how bad it is, but there was blood spatter and a bullet near the door. Not a lot of blood, but by the location it looks like the bullet went through his arm.”

  Gabriel was shouting at Sheriff Bartlett who yelled right back at him. Ryan rushed over to mediate. “Truman, you have to calm down.”

  “We’ve got this, Gabriel,” Bartlett said. “Back off or you’ll be sitting in one of my vehicles.”

  “That’s my daughter out there!” Gabriel turned to Ryan. “Where is the boat? Where is Colter?”

  “The Coast Guard is standing by and we’re waiting for an inventory so we can give them the hull number and description.”

  “I can tell you. Let me through, one look and I can give you everything.”

  Ryan nodded to Bartlett, and the four of them rushed down to the docks. Gabriel took thirty seconds and said, “He has Haven III. I have all the specs.”

  Ryan took them down and called the Coast Guard.

  Gabriel started walking down the dock. Max was listening to Ryan’s conversation, but keeping her eye on Gabriel.

  Gabriel was standing a hundred feet away, but she could practically feel the tension and fear rolling off him.

  “The hostage is sixteen, blond, five feet four inches tall. Eve Truman,” Ryan was saying. “Yes, he’s armed and dangerous. Unknown how many hostiles on the boat.”

  Gabriel untied the ropes of one of the boats, a cruiser that could practically fly across the water. As soon as Max realized what he intended to do, she started running down the docks. “Ryan,” she called over her
shoulder, but wasn’t certain he heard her.

  “Gabriel, don’t!” she yelled.

  He ignored her and jumped into the boat. Max ran as fast as she could, grateful that she was wearing boots and not heels. She slipped once and caught herself, and jumped on the boat just as Gabriel got the engine started and was pulling out of the slip.

  “You’re coming with me then,” Gabriel said and picked up speed. “I am not going to play these games with the cops. That is my daughter out there. She’s the only thing that matters to me.”

  Max could hear Ryan shouting from the dock. She called him and watched him put his phone to his ear.

  “What are you doing?” he demanded.

  “I can’t let him go by himself—tell the Coast Guard.”

  “Shit, I’m coming after you. He’s going to get you and Eve killed.”

  “I can talk to him.”

  “I’ll track you through your phone for as long as I can.”

  Max ended the call and said, “Gabriel, think. The Coast Guard is searching for the boat. They have the training for this.”

  “I’m going to give him that damn painting.”

  “Let the FBI and Coast Guard negotiate.”

  “He took my daughter. Why hasn’t he called me? He must know something. Or he thinks I know where that damn painting is. Or he found it. Maybe he saw us, I don’t know!”

  Max considered the possibilities. “He must have known what I was looking for. Found a way into the cottage.”

  “Brian,” Gabriel spat out. “Brian betrayed me. He could have used a master key. Given it to Colter, for all I know.”

  Max opened the box at the back of the boat and found the life vests. She immediately put one on. With the way Gabriel was driving the boat she didn’t want to be tossed overboard. The small yacht was big enough that she didn’t think she could fall overboard easily, but she wasn’t taking chances.

  “It’s my fault,” Gabriel said again.

  “Just stop with that!” Guilt could make people do stupid things.

  “I broke into your cottage,” Gabriel said. “I saw everything in your office. I told Brian that you were looking into Martha’s disappearance, because he’s the only one who knew that Eve was Jimmy’s daughter. Hell, I don’t even know if Eve is Jimmy’s daughter! It’s not like we can ask Martha! I didn’t take anything, but he knew what was there … he must have gone in, too, and then reported to Colter. How could he do that to me? To Eve? I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I’m going to get her back.”