Cut to the Chase

by Lori Ryan

  She’d be awake. He’d come to realize she was a night owl. Some nights, she’d let him hang out for a while after they made love, and he’d watch her work on prototypes for different prostheses or mess around taking something apart to see how it worked. Her mind fascinated him. It seemed to work in ways that his mind couldn’t even grasp and she was beautiful when she got so deep in thought about something she forgot he was there.

  It was times like those he realized she was in more pain than she’d let on. She’d forget he was watching and start to rub her arm. Then she’d realize what she was doing and he’d be sent packing soon after. He had a feeling she wasn’t ready for him to see that she required any kind of self-care. Like somehow admitting she needed anything might be admitting a weakness.

  If he was honest with himself, his walls weren’t doing a very good job of protecting his heart. She was getting under his skin and into his heart and soul in a way he wasn’t ready to face. Ignoring what was happening worked better for him for the time being.

  Screw it. He grabbed his phone, wallet, and car keys. He’d be useless in the office tomorrow if he spent the next few hours with Sara before driving home to catch a few hours of sleep, but he didn’t care. He needed her.

  The thought slammed home and his chest tightened. He did need her. His footsteps slowed as he crossed the parking lot and realized, he’d come to need her a lot more than he’d admitted. He wanted more.

  He stared at his car door handle and asked himself if he could let himself love her. Could he go to that place again where he was vulnerable to the kind of pain Vicki’s death had brought him? Could he trust that he wouldn’t let Sara down the way he’d let down Vicki and the baby?

  There wasn’t any doubt in his mind. He was already there. It had snuck up on him and there was no turning back now. And he knew he was a different person than he’d been with Vicki. He and Vicki had loved each other from the time they were young. But somehow, what they had had been poisoned. He’d never been able to fill the hole inside her, and she’d never been able to believe she was enough. They’d just never been strong enough to overcome that.

  He and Sara each had their issues, but he knew they could overcome that. They had to. Because he was in love with her already, and he’d bet she felt the same for him.

  He wouldn’t make the same mistakes this time. He wouldn’t let his pride get in the way of what was best for him and Sara. Of what was best for their relationship and the family he hoped to build with her.

  Now he had to hope he could convince her to let him in. To let her walls down and see that he wasn’t going to leave her like her fiancé had. That he was in this forever. If she didn’t believe him he’d just have to show her. He would prove it to her again and again. Eventually, she’d see it was true.

  He grinned. No matter how long it took, he’d wait for her. He’d have patience enough for both of them. He reached for the car door and froze as a strange feeling stabbed at the back of his neck.

  Then it hit him. The parking lot was dark. It hadn’t been when he’d come in only half an hour before.

  The scuffle of a shoe sounded on the blacktop behind him and he realized the lights in the parking lot were both out. No, not out. Smashed.

  Shit. That was the last thought he had before he saw the movement out of the corner of his eye. By then, it was too late. There was nothing he could do to ward off the blow.

  Chapter 33

  Warrick struggled to open his eyes as sharp pain ricocheted through his skull and a wave of nausea swamped him.

  What the fuck?

  He couldn’t make any sense of anything, but he knew something was very, very wrong. His gut clenched as his thoughts flew to Sara, but he quickly remembered she wasn’t with him. He’d been alone.

  Alone when someone had hit him.

  His hands were bound, not to mention numb. And he was in the back seat of a car. Time slowed while he fought the disorientation.

  His car. He breathed slowly through his nose. His mouth was covered with duct tape. He tried to think through the fog that seemed to fill his head. The car wasn’t moving and there wasn’t anyone else in it. He lay on his side half on the seat and half slumped over the center console that divided the two seats in the back, as though someone had dumped him there.

  The door opened and a man’s face leaned in. He knew the face, but it took him a minute to place it. Something was off. The hair was different. Warrick almost laughed at how changing the simple color of the man’s hair and the angry scar on his cheek had completely changed the man’s appearance. It didn’t seem possible.

  Warrick stared into the face of his former father-in-law. William Tyvek wasn’t on the run. He was right here.

  Warrick began to curse the man through the tape over his mouth, anger coursing through his veins at all the man had done. It was then he noticed the look in the man’s eye. It was the look of a true madman.

  Tyvek looked over his shoulder, then back at Warrick, a look of amusement crossing his face, though Warrick couldn’t begin to fathom what was so entertaining to the man. How could he take pleasure in all he’d done?

  When he and Vicki had been growing up, Tyvek had been uncompromising and strict, but he had always loved his daughter. How does a man who loved someone the way Tyvek had loved Vicki turn into such a monster?

  “Sorry, Warrick. I can’t have you drawing attention to us. She’ll be here soon.” He raised a syringe and plunged it into Warrick’s arm.

  She? Vicki? Was Tyvek that far gone?

  “She’ll come, and then we’ll get started.”

  Warrick’s eyes flew to the building behind Tyvek. The Simms logo. They were in front of his office building. Why the hell would they be here?

  As his brain grew fuzzy and a wave of heaviness washed over him from the drug, the answer came to Warrick. Tyvek wasn’t talking about Vicki.

  Sara. Tyvek was going after Sara.

  Warrick fought to stay conscious. He needed to stop this. To stop whatever Tyvek had in mind. He couldn’t—wouldn’t—lose Sara. He couldn’t see another woman he loved destroyed.

  Chapter 34

  Sara had taken the sidewalk surrounding the park instead of the path that cut through it. She’d bought an extra coffee in case she ran into one of the regulars who hung out in the park. As she rounded the corner, she saw Buddy shuffling toward her. He raised his head and caught sight of her, and his face transformed. She smiled and waved.

  He'd started talking to her more and more, and it turned out, he was a really funny guy. She was pretty sure he made up most of what he told her, but she didn’t care. It made her laugh and he seemed to have fun making her laugh. Who was she to object?

  She was twenty feet from him when a car pulled up.

  No, not a car. Warrick’s car. But it wasn’t Warrick behind the wheel.

  Sara walked to the passenger side window and leaned over to look in. The man behind the wheel leaned toward her as the window came down.

  And then her heart stopped. He held a gun. Only it wasn’t pointed at her. If it had been pointed at her, she could have run. He was inside the car, making it hard for him to get a clear shot at her if she sprinted toward the back of the car instead of turning to run directly away.

  He must have known she would try. He had his weapon pointed at a figure in the back. An unconscious and bound Warrick with dried blood on one side of his face.

  Sara’s heart slammed in her chest at the sight and she stepped closer. His breathing looked shallow. Too shallow.

  She swallowed hard as her brain raced for some way out of this. It had to be a mistake, right? Maybe a dream. No, a nightmare.

  But she was painfully aware that it was no dream. She couldn’t be more awake.

  “Get in the car, sweetheart,” the man said. Sara’s eyes flew to him. His tone was all wrong. He spoke to her as if he knew her, as if he were picking up a friend or family member. He’d called her sweetheart in a tender way. Who does that with a gun in
their hand?

  There was something familiar about him, and yet, she was almost positive she didn’t know him. Did she?

  Scenarios flew through Sara’s mind, but there wasn’t an end to this where she could run away and leave Warrick with this man. Sara glanced to where Buddy was still ambling toward her. His eyes caught hers and she could see the confusion on his face. Good. She could use that.

  She dropped the coffees she held, letting them fall to her feet. She took one last hard look at Buddy, hoping he would realize something was wrong. Please, let him realize there was something wrong.

  Then she turned away. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, opened the car door and stepped in.

  Chapter 35

  Jarrod Harmon took one look at Darla and the man she was dragging behind her and knew something was wrong. Darla avoided the police station at all costs. It took a lot for her to come down here and seek him out.

  He stood as she came through the doors to the major crimes unit. “Darla, what is it?”

  She was breathing as though she’d run all the way to the precinct. “Sara is in trouble.” She frowned a bit. “We think. Maybe.”

  “Sara?” Jarrod tried to think back through to the friends of Darla’s that he’d met, but none were ringing a bell.

  Darla nodded and pulled her friend forward. “Tell him, Buddy.”

  The man ducked his eyes and nodded but didn’t say anything.

  “Buddy saw Sara this morning. She was coming to bring him coffee like she always does, then someone picked her up in a car. But the thing is, she didn’t bring Buddy his coffee. She dropped it on the ground and she looks at Buddy all funny like there’s something wrong.”

  As tips went, it wasn’t a great one, but something in Jarrod’s gut tightened. “Do you mean Sara Blackburn? Warrick Staunton’s girlfriend?”

  “Yeah, Sara.” Darla nodded at Jarrod like she was resisting calling him an idiot. Either that or simply thankful he was finally catching on.

  “Buddy, what made you think something was wrong, other than the look she gave you?”

  “I think there was a gun,” Buddy said quietly. “The man had a gun on her.”

  He frowned and dialed Warrick’s number. No answer.

  He dialed the number for Simms Pharmaceutical next, raising his hand to wave his partner, Cal, over in the meantime. He spoke briefly with Warrick’s assistant before hanging up. He quickly filled Cal in.

  “Warrick and Sara are both no-shows at work. The assistant said she can’t reach either of them. They aren’t returning calls and Sara has missed a couple of meetings she’d scheduled this morning.”

  “You think this could be linked to Tyvek?”

  Jarrod shrugged. “Could be nothing. It’s hard to know at this point. Warrick’s assistant is checking the parking lot for their cars. She’ll call us back.” He turned to Buddy. “Did you get a look at the man in the car?”

  Buddy shook his head. “Not really,” he mumbled. “Saw the gun, though. He held it up at her, then pointed it into the back seat.”

  “What kind of car was it? Do you know the make or the color? Any idea of the plate number?”

  “Fancy. Real fancy. Black. License plate started with TZ3.”

  “Cal—”

  “On it,” Cal said, sitting in front of his computer screen and slapping away at the keys before Jarrod even made the request. He paused a minute before looking up. “Warrick Staunton drives a black Mercedes Maybach. License plate matches.”

  Cal hit a few more keys, then turned the monitor toward Buddy. “Is this the car you saw?”

  Buddy nodded. “That’s it.” For once, there seemed to be some power behind his words instead of the doubt they’d heard so far. “That’s the one I saw.”

  Cal pulled up a picture of Warrick. “Was this the man driving?”

  Buddy shook his head slowly and shrugged. Jarrod took it to mean the man didn’t know. Call pulled up the photo they’d gotten from one of the computer guys. They’d taken an old image of William Tyvek and given him brown hair to see what he would look like if he was the one who’d used the hair dye at the apartment they had raided. Tyvek never showed back up to the place.

  A canvas of the neighbors had been a little more helpful. The woman across the hall had been only too happy to help them. She was plump and happy, at least until they mentioned her neighbor. Then she’d scowled and said he was rude and didn’t talk to anyone. Kathi Gilliam had told them the picture the computer guys had come up with wasn’t too far off. She’d told them to lighten the hair a bit and add a scar to his right cheek.

  Cal showed the picture to Buddy. “Could this be him?”

  Another shrug.

  Shit. They might or might not have a crime. Sara might or might not be in danger. Warrick Staunton or William Tyvek might or might not be involved. Perfect.

  Chapter 36

  Sara’s mind raced. As soon as they’d gotten away from the center of town, the man had pulled over and made her drive. She couldn’t make out who he might be or what he wanted, but he knew to stay far enough away from her. If he didn’t come close, she couldn’t readily get the weapon. If he came in close to her, she could disarm him. She hadn’t done it in a long time but she was confident enough in her skills to take the chance. Because what other choice did she have?

  But he stayed carefully back away from her as he made her move to the driver’s seat. Once she had her hands on the wheel, she had to focus on driving while he kept his weapon on Warrick. She willed Warrick to wake, at least to move so she’d know he was okay.

  “Where are we going?” She tried asking the same question she’d asked moments before. Other than spitting out directions at her from time-to-time, the man hadn’t spoken.

  She cleared her throat and tried again, shooting for calm. “Can you tell me why you’re doing this? What you want from us?” She glanced in the rearview mirror, hoping to see Warrick was still breathing. See some movement. Something.

  He lay eerily still.

  “Because it has to be different this time. It has to end.” She almost jumped when the man spoke, but his words brought her no closer to understanding.

  “I let you down before, Vicki. I know that. I won’t do it this time.” He was pleading with her.

  Sara held her breath. He thought she was Vicki? Did he mean Warrick’s wife? Why would he think she was Warrick’s wife?

  “I—” she started to speak then stopped. She didn’t know if it was better to tell the man she wasn’t Vicki or to go along with him. She didn’t know what to do. Would it send him further over the edge if she convinced him she wasn’t Vicki?

  Then it hit her. William Tyvek.

  The man had to be William Tyvek. She glanced over. She’d only ever seen pictures of the man, but he’d had gray hair in all of them. Could this be Tyvek?

  A groan from the back seat drew Tyvek’s attention and Sara checked the rearview mirror again. At least Warrick had made some noise. That had to be good. She hoped

  “Get off here,” Tyvek said as he scowled at Warrick in the backseat. “We have to get him to the house before he wakes up. You have to see him for what he really is this time. You need to see the devil and learn not to chase him and his temptations this time, Vicki. It’s the only way.”

  Sara choked on the ball of bile in her throat as his words played in her head. The only way. For three such innocent words, they seemed entirely too ominous to her.

  Chapter 37

  Jarrod rubbed at the back of his neck. The feeling of ants biting at his skin back there wouldn’t go away. He knew what that meant.

  “Spidey senses goin’ a little nutty, huh?” Cal asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Mine, too, brother.” They’d gotten all the information they could from Darla and Buddy, before approaching their captain. Captain Calhoun hadn’t been impressed. A strange look and dropped coffees wasn’t enough for him to roll out the cavalry. Jarrod understood, but it didn’t mean he co
uld walk away from this.

  Cal leaned closer to Jarrod. “The Captain said we couldn’t waste resources looking for Warrick or Sara until we had evidence they were actually in trouble. Just because we can’t check traffic cams or put out a BOLO doesn’t mean we can’t check out a few places on our own.”

  “Where? I doubt Tyvek would go to his house. It’s been sealed up. In the past, his focus has been on Staunton. We can check the old Simms property again. See if he went back there.” The doubt in Jarrod’s voice said he didn’t genuinely believe they’d be there.

  “Hang on.” Cal clicked keys while Jarrod waited. “Warrick’s family owns properties around the world, but nothing close by.”

  Jarrod looked at his partner. He didn’t have any ideas to offer and the frustration only pissed him off more.

  “Let me check one more thing.” Cal worked on the computer while Jarrod waited somewhat impatiently. Minutes later, Cal was frowning.

  “What?”

  “When we didn’t find Tyvek in the apartment the Balls had put him up in, I checked to see if they owned other property anywhere in town that they might have put him up in. They have their house, but they also own a few rental properties, aside from the apartment building he’d been in. Could he be using one of those?”

  “It’s worth a look,” Jarrod stood as Cal printed out a list of addresses. “How many are there?”

  “Three.”

  “Let’s hit those first. See what we find.” Jarrod rubbed the back of his neck again. He wished instead of ant bites, he’d get clear instructions. They could sure as hell use it right now.

  Chapter 38

  Jarrod and Cal pulled up to the Staunton estate once again, ringing the buzzer at the front gates.