by Meryl Sawyer
So had I, but we both were wrong. Paul Ashton was an even bigger skank than Raoul.
It was amazing that someone as smart as her brother could be fooled by a man like Raoul, but then, she’d been deceived as well. They were siblings and more alike than she’d thought lately.
“Before Raoul left, he confessed to being the one who tried to scare Renata off by having the Cuban woman in the shipping department hex her. He also went to see Aunt Sophie and convinced her Brianna put a hex on her marriage.”
“Why would he do such a thing?”
“He wanted to make trouble for Uncle Doyle because he refused to let him work in our business.”
“That’s really immature. What did he have against Renata?”
“Raoul would be the first to admit money means a lot to him. He thought Renata was going to inherit ‘my fair share’ and it bothered him.”
“Enough to kill her?”
Trent took a deep breath, then expelled it, blowing upward and ruffling the dark hair across his forehead. “I don’t think so, but I can’t be one hundred percent sure. I never thought he would leave me for a woman.”
Taylor glanced at her watch. Fifteen minutes had passed since she’d spoken with Paul.
“Trent, I want to talk to you, but I have to meet Paul for a few minutes at Brew Ha-Ha.”
“Paul? You’re kidding!”
“No. I’m afraid not.”
“He’s back? Where’s he been?”
“I don’t know. He’s going to explain everything to me.”
“How can a man just disappear, then pop up again? Something’s fishy.”
“I’ll find out when I talk to him.” She didn’t want to take the time to explain what a fool she’d been about Paul Ashton.
“Paul better have a damn good excuse. He put you through hell.”
She handed him the key to her apartment. “Wait for me, please. I want to tell you all about it.”
Rushing off, a spasm of guilt hit her. She should stay and let Trent talk out his problems the way they once had. Another part of her wanted to nail this creep in the worst way.
She hesitated, slowing her pace. Nothing she could say to her brother would ease his pain. Nothing.
Time would heal his battered soul, give him perspective. Eventually he would understand Raoul had done him a favor.
Paul was waiting for her outside Brew Ha-Ha. Honey blond hair shagged back into a ponytail the length of a cigar.
Tanned.
Toned.
Megawatt smile.
Exactly the way she remembered him.
He was wearing a tank top underneath a loose fitting blue cotton dress shirt rolled back at the cuffs to reveal a black widow tattooed on his forearm. That was new—and disgusting.
Taylor mustered a smile and made a determined effort to conceal the anger roiling inside her like a detonated grenade.
She touched his face with the tips of her fingers. “I never thought I’d see you again.”
A strange smile—one she didn’t remember—curled his lips upward. “I’m back.”
Something hard jabbed her in the ribs. She looked down and saw the shiny chrome barrel of a gun. In a flash she weighed her options.
A few people were having coffee behind them under the shady banyan tree at Brew Ha-Ha. Paul’s back was to them, and his loose fitting shirt concealed the gun. One scream would bring help.
One scream and a bullet would pierce her heart.
“My car’s parked down the street,” he said as if they were discussing the weather. “Move.”
Auggie’s cold nose on Shane’s arm awakened him. He rolled over and looked across no-man’s-land and saw Taylor wasn’t on her side of the bed.
“Did she let you out, boy?” he asked Auggie.
Of course she had. Taylor adored dogs and was obsessive about Auggie. She was in the bathroom or making coffee.
Would she be in a better mood today?
Probably not.
Betrayal cut to the quick. She wasn’t easily going to forgive him for not telling her about knowing Paul.
He took a leak, then wandered down the hall to the second bathroom, which was outside the bedroom he’d converted into an office. She wasn’t there.
She wasn’t in the kitchen.
Okay, she was pissed and had gone to her apartment. Something clicked in the back of his brain.
He recalled seeing her watch with the newly attached chip on the nightstand at her side of the bed.
“Aw, hell!”
Not bothering with underwear, he pulled on a pair of jeans and grabbed a T-shirt. Spearing his fingers through his wild hair, he raced out of his apartment, Auggie at his heels.
Across the courtyard, he banged on her back door with his clenched fist. A few seconds later, Trent answered the door. His red, puffy eyes barely registered.
“Where’s Taylor?”
“She’ll be right back. She went to meet Paul Ash ton.”
Like a sucker punch to the gut, the air whooshed out of Shane’s lungs. It was a second before he could say, “Oh, shit!”
Doyle walked down to Taylor’s office. She still hadn’t arrived. Strange, he thought. Taylor was usually among the first here, especially on a day when they had scheduled a meeting with an important vendor.
Trent hadn’t come in either. The whole damn place was falling apart. The family wasn’t very interested in running the business. The sooner it was sold, the better.
His secretary raced down the hall toward him, calling, “Mrs. Maxwell is on the telephone. She says it’s an emergency.”
Doyle rushed back to his office and picked up the telephone. “Vanessa, what’s wrong?”
“Taylor just called me,” Vanessa said, tears in her voice. “She’s been kidnapped.”
“Kidnapped?”
Doyle dropped into his chair, suddenly feeling wrung out. Old. He’d never had children. Taylor was like the daughter he’d never had. How could this have happened to her?
“A-are y-you there?” Vanessa was crying now.
“Yes. I’m here.”
He stared at his brother’s photographs on the wall. One of them was Taylor’s picture on the day she graduated from Yale. He’d been as proud of her as had her parents.
Maybe prouder.
“Who took Taylor? What do they want?”
“S-she she didn’t—or couldn’t—say. She’s going to call back.”
“Okay. Stay calm. Obviously this is about money. We should prepare to raise—”
“Should I call the police? Taylor warned me not to but—”
“I’m going to get ahold of Shane Donovan. We’ll come to your house. Don’t do a thing until we talk. Understand?”
“Yes, but Caleb thinks we should have the police—”
“I don’t care what he thinks. You listen to me. We need to discuss this and come up with a plan—if you want to see your daughter alive again.”
He slammed down the receiver, perspiring so much a trickle of sweat ran down his temple into his eyebrow. He swiped his forehead with his cuff and yelled at his secretary to get him Shane’s cell phone number.
While he waited he called Brianna. “Bad news, honey. Someone has kidnapped Taylor.”
“I knew it,” cried Brianna. “I knew she was in danger.”
His secretary handed him Shane’s number, and he told Brianna, “Meet me at Vanessa’s as soon as you can.”
He punched in Donovan’s number, and he answered on the second ring.
“Why did you leave Taylor alone?” he demanded.
“How do you know Taylor’s alone?” Shane shot back.
“Because someone has kidnapped her. She called her mother to tell her.”
“Paul Ashton has her. I’m here with Trent at Brew Ha-Ha. People saw her get into a car with him.”
“Ashton? I thought he was dead.”
“No. It’s a long story. I—”
“Meet me at Vanessa’s as soon as you can. Bring Trent
with you.”
“I’ll get Vince, too.”
“Good idea.”
“What does Ashton want?” Shane asked.
“Who knows? According to Vanessa, Taylor didn’t say who kidnapped her. She’s going to call back with more information.”
“Trust me. Ashton has her.”
Chapter 30
“Everybody calm down,” Shane ordered. His tone was so sharp that Auggie, seated at his side, flinched. “Crying and arguing isn’t going to do Taylor any good.”
“I say we call the police,” said Caleb.
“That’s sure to get her killed,” Trent retorted.
Shane had already explained to the family gathered in the library about Paul’s using their Web site and about his drug escapades in Colombia. They’d been shocked except for Vanessa, who was already crying so it was hard to tell what she thought.
“The question is, what does Ashton want?” Doyle said. “Money? Why didn’t he just ask for it?”
“I don’t think this is about money,” Brianna said. “It’s about revenge.”
Shane raked his fingers through his hair, silently cursing himself, yet again, for letting Taylor out of his sight.
“He hasn’t asked for money,” Shane said, “because he wants us to sweat.”
“Why make Taylor call?” Vince asked. “Why didn’t Ashton call himself?”
“He doesn’t want us to know he’s involved,” Shane told them. “Trent just happened to run into Taylor, and she told him who she was meeting.”
“He doesn’t realize we know,” Caleb said, “unless Taylor told him.”
“Give her some credit,” Shane ground out the words. “She wouldn’t tell him.”
“Lower your voices,” Vince ordered from the doorway. He’d been using the electronic device to check the house for bugs.
“Find something?” Shane asked.
“There’s a bug in the den and in the terrace dining area.”
“The places the family gathers,” commented Doyle. “Paul would know this.”
“No bugs in here?” Vanessa asked with a faraway look. She’d seen Vince check the room and had listened to Shane explain, but it obviously hadn’t registered.
“Nothing in here, honey,” Caleb said.
“This was my brother’s lair. We rarely used this room until lately,” said Doyle.
“We can talk freely in here,” Vince told them, “but keep your voices low, so the other bugs don’t pick up anything.”
“Why not remove them?” asked Caleb.
“I don’t want Ashton to know we suspect anything,” Shane replied. “Plus we may want to feed him false information.”
Trent asked, “Why is he doing this?”
“Good question,” Shane said. “I think Brianna may be correct. He sees this as payback time. Right, Vanessa?”
Taylor’s mother gazed at him a moment, then nodded. “I suppose … it’s possible.”
“What are you trying to say?” Caleb asked.
Shane waited to hear Vanessa’s reply. From checking her bank account, he was fairly sure what she was going to tell them.
“It’s no secret,” Vanessa said. “I never liked the man. None of you did either.”
“True,” Trent agreed while Brianna and Doyle nodded.
“I was afraid Taylor would marry him,” she continued. “I wanted to get some dirt on Paul, so I hired a private detective.”
“Who did you use?” asked Vince.
“Rick Masters. He tailed Paul for three months.” Vanessa waved her hand toward the desk. “He gave me a complete written report.”
“What did it say?” Shane asked.
“Paul was dealing drugs. I thought it was just a simple, small-time operation. Mr. Masters gave me no reason to believe he was a major player, or that he was using our Web site.”
“What Masters observed were probably petty-cash operations,” Shane said. “The serious money goes into offshore accounts. And remember, Ashton was pretending to be a struggling photographer. He didn’t want to—”
The doorbell rang, and Trent said, “That’ll be Lisa.”
“You called Lisa?” asked Brianna.
“Yes. She and Taylor were very close when Paul was around. She may know something that will help us.”
A moment later, Maria brought Lisa into the library. Trent had already told her about the kidnapping, and he spent a minute explaining about Vanessa having a private detective shadow Paul.
Shane tried to keep his cool by petting Auggie. He hated wasting time, but Trent was right. Lisa might have valuable information.
“Taylor’s like a sister to me,” Lisa told them. “I’ll do anything to help her. So will Jim.”
“I don’t know what he can do,” Vanessa said sharply.
“He’s available if we need him.” Lisa took a deep breath. “What I’m going to say has to be kept secret. I know you all suspected Jim of tampering with the Web site and maybe even murder.”
“We know Jim didn’t touch the Web site,” Trent said.
“He had nothing to do with Renata’s death,” Lisa said. “He was working at El Tambor on an undercover assignment with the police department. His brother is a detective, you know, and he got Jim the job because of his special accounting skills. Jim cracked the case, but he could get killed if anyone finds out what his role was before it comes to trial.”
Interesting, Shane thought. He wouldn’t have guessed that one.
“Maybe we should call his brother and see if the detective can help us,” Caleb said.
“Paul might kill Taylor immediately if we go to the police,” Brianna said.
“I agree,” Doyle added. “When she calls again, act as if you haven’t a clue who took her.”
“Right,” said Shane. “Ask her who kidnapped her and see what she says.”
“I will,” Vanessa responded. “I’m not taking any medication. I need to be as clear-headed as possible.”
“Do you want to tell us how you got rid of Paul?” Shane asked.
“I thought about calling in the police, but I decided it would take too long and he might plea-bargain or something.”
“Quite likely,” Vince said.
“You don’t know Paul,” Vanessa continued. “He had a mesmerizing personality, and somehow he got his hooks into Taylor. I was afraid he’d persuade her that he was framed or reformed or something.”
“I know what you mean,” Brianna said. “Paul has a way about him. He fascinates most women.”
Vanessa nodded. “So I went to see Paul and told him if he didn’t leave Miami, I would go to the police.”
“That’s when he hit you up for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
“To relocate,” Vanessa told Shane. “I thought it was worth every penny to get rid of him. I never imagined this would happen.”
Shane hadn’t seen it coming, either. It took balls to come back to the States after cutting a deal with the government Either that or Ashton was stone crazy.
“I offered Raoul money, too, at one point. Then Caleb made me see how wrong it was to interfere.”
“People have to make their own mistakes,” Caleb said. “How else are they going to learn?”
“While I’m owning up to what I’ve done, I need to tell all of you something important.” Vanessa sat up straighter and glanced sideways at Caleb. “I knew Renata was my daughter without a DNA test. You see, I met Caleb at the foster home. He was my first love. He was Renata’s father.”
It took a minute for her words to really register with Shane. Everyone else was just as surprised, judging by their slack-jawed expressions.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Trent asked, his voice tight with emotion. “Then we wouldn’t have given Renata such a hard time.”
Good point.
Vanessa heaved a sigh. “I should have. I wish with all my heart I had, but I didn’t think you and Taylor would understand about Caleb.”
“Oh, Mother, of course we w
ould have understood.”
“I didn’t want her to tell,” Caleb said. “It’s best to keep the past in the past. I’ve done things I’m not proud of, and I didn’t want to embarrass Vanessa, but I’m a new man now.”
Yeah, right.
“How did you get Renata?” Brianna wanted to know.
“The foster mother took the baby from Vanessa. She came to me to get me to sign the consent form. I refused to give up my daughter. I took her and raised her. She was the light of my life.”
Sure, so you let her support you by stripping, Shane thought. He leaned down to pat Auggie and hide what had to be a disgusted expression on his face.
As if reading his thoughts, Caleb added, “I never wanted Renata to be an exotic dancer, but she was stubborn beyond belief. She was like that from the time she could walk.”
“She took after me,” Vanessa said wistfully. “I’m too stubborn sometimes.”
“You had to be to survive,” Caleb said.
“This is a crisis,” Vanessa said, “and I need everyone to understand Caleb is like family. He’s going to stay with me until my time comes. He’ll be at my side through all of this.”
“So will we,” Brianna told Vanessa. “So will we.”
“I don’t know what I’ll do if my actions get both my daughters killed.”
“You think Paul killed Renata?” asked Lisa. “Why? He didn’t know her, did he?”
“No, but it was a sure way to get back at Vanessa,” Shane said, “and throw the company into chaos.”
“He made a mess of things at To The Maxx. That’s for certain,” Doyle said.
“Ashton bought himself some time while he continued to make money using the Web site,” Shane added.
“Paul was here often enough,” Trent added. “He would know how to get into the house even if the alarm had been activated. He could easily have slipped in and killed Renata.”
“Right now we should be concentrating on finding where Ashton’s holding Taylor.” Shane knew he sounded impatient, but they couldn’t afford to waste time. “I’ve thought about this and decided he must have her in a private home or some secluded spot.”
“Most likely,” Vince agreed. “It’s hard to get a woman out of the car, up the stairs or elevator to an apartment at gunpoint without risking someone seeing you and calling the cops.”
