by Lisa Childs
There were recent photos of him, too, cut from local newspapers. Every day they ran a story about Thad Kendall being forced to kill to save his sister.
Forced to kill?
Ed doubted that it had been a hardship for the man. And he certainly didn’t appear, in any of the photos, to be struggling with guilt or regret. A true killer, he wasn’t suffering over what he’d done.
Not like Ed had suffered. Not like he was suffering now, shaking with the need for a drink. But he couldn’t dull his pain with alcohol because it also dulled his wits. And he needed his wits about him to deal with Thad Kendall.
Thad needed to suffer, and Ed needed to make certain that he did. It was only too bad that to make Kendall suffer, the woman and the boy would have to suffer, too.
Ed had added pictures of them to his collection of Thad. The woman working at school and shopping at the store and attending church. The boy playing at day care and shopping with his mom at the store, her hand always on his, and her holding him in church. And in the center of the collage was their picture with Santa, their family photo.
But like Ed’s, their family would not be together much longer.
Chapter Eight
NERVES TIGHTENED THAD’S stomach, and he felt like a kid again, caught doing something wrong and waiting for his punishment. Since the age of eleven, Thad had received his hugs, encouragement and affection from Aunt Angela. Those were things he’d rarely had when his parents had been alive.
And he’d received his punishment from Uncle Craig. Having to go to his office at Kendall Communications was tantamount to being sent to the principal’s office. But he had never had any doubt that his uncle cared, that he loved him, and that was why he punished—to make him a better man.
Thad wished that he could be the kind of father to Mark that Uncle Craig had been to him. But how was he going to do that from half a world away? Unlike Thad’s father, Uncle Craig had always put raising the kids before the business, and it hadn’t suffered any.
But running a communication company and doing what Thad did when he was reporting a story were two entirely different things. Uncle Craig had never put them in any danger because of what he did. But when the man arrested for their parents’ murders had been cleared, Thad had wondered if their father had done something that had motivated the killings. He had been ruthless about getting ahead in business, just as ruthless as Thad was when getting the information he needed.
The door creaked open, startling Thad into whirling toward the entrance. Uncle Craig chuckled at his uneasiness. “Take you back?”
“Getting called to your office?” Thad sighed. “Oh, yeah…”
“You didn’t have to come here as often as your brothers did,” Uncle Craig said.
Thad grinned. “That’s because I was the better brother.”
Uncle Craig laughed harder. “You were probably the worst. You were just better at not getting caught.”
The truth of his former guardian’s statement elicited a laugh from Thad, too. That ability of which Uncle Craig spoke had gotten him out of trouble in his youth and had saved his life over the past several years.
“You got caught this time, though,” Uncle Craig mused.
Thad tensed. Had his uncle discovered the truth about him?
“When I disappeared yesterday morning, it was because I stopped by St. Luke’s,” Uncle Craig admitted.
“You saw Mark and Caroline?”
Uncle Craig nodded. “He is definitely your son.”
Maybe that wasn’t a good thing…for Mark. Maybe that was what had caused the incident at the mall, if in fact someone had tried to grab him. Even Ash wasn’t sure since they hadn’t been able to see anything sinister on the security footage.
Uncle Craig settled behind his mahogany desk and pulled out the middle drawer where he’d always kept his checkbook. Over the years Thad had come to this office for money more than he had for punishments. “How much does she want from you?” he asked.
“What?”
“For support. She’s been raising this boy alone for three years,” Uncle Craig reminded him. “She must want some compensation for all the expenses she covered on her own.”
Thad shook his head. “Man, she was right…?.”
“About what?”
“The money,” he replied.
Uncle Craig flipped open his checkbook as if getting ready to write down a figure.
Thad continued, “She said that was what you’d all think she wanted if she tried contacting any of you. It’s why she didn’t try to get a message to me when she realized she was pregnant.”
Now he regretted getting angry with her when he’d discovered he had a son. Having not introduced her to his family when they’d dated, he’d left her in an untenable position.
Uncle Craig leaned back in his chair, his blue eyes narrowed in suspicion. “So she doesn’t want money?”
They had never discussed it, which had Thad flinching with guilt. He’d grown up never having to think about a mortgage or a car loan or student loans, so he’d forgotten that most people didn’t have that same luxury.
He should have offered her money. For the past three years she’d supported their son all by herself, and for the great job she’d done raising him, she deserved the whole Kendall fortune. But she had never asked for any money from him.
He shook his head in response to Uncle Craig’s question.
“Then what does she want?”
Thad expelled a ragged sigh. “For me to not hurt Mark.” Or her again.
Instead of defending or supporting him, Uncle Craig looked more worried than he had about the money. “Will you?”
Thinking of those horrible moments when the boy had disappeared, and of that white SUV Thad kept glimpsing in his rearview mirror, he shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Being a father is a huge responsibility,” the oldest Kendall said. “One I wish I’d taken more seriously when my son was little. I kept thinking we had all the time in the world.”
His and Aunt Angela’s only child had been just a few years older than Mark was now, six, when he died in a car accident.
“But we both know no one has as much time as they think they have,” Uncle Craig continued, “to spend with the people they love.”
“What happened to Connor was a horrible, horrible accident,” Thad said. One for which he suspected his aunt and uncle had blamed themselves for many years.
“As a parent, it’s our responsibility to keep our children safe,” Uncle Craig said, confirming Thad’s suspicion and eliciting his own guilt.
If he had put Mark in danger…
“The boy’s mother—”
“Caroline Emerson,” Thad said, because she was so much more than just the mother of his child. He had loved her even before she’d given him a son.
“Caroline seemed especially nervous and protective, even in church,” Uncle Craig remarked. “When she caught me watching them, she seemed truly frightened. I left quickly so I wouldn’t upset her.”
“Ash found out about Mark because of an incident at the mall. Didn’t he tell you about it?” When he’d spilled Thad’s secret…
Uncle Craig nodded his silver-haired head. “Yes. But he wasn’t concerned about it. He wrote it off as the holiday crush and crowds at the mall.”
Thad wished he could write it off as easily. But doubt and fear gnawed at him.
“But then Ash isn’t a father quite yet,” Uncle Craig continued, “so he doesn’t have a parent’s instincts. Caroline does, and she seems quite concerned about her son’s safety.”
“Our son,” Thad automatically corrected him.
“What do your instincts say?” Uncle Craig asked.
Thad pushed a slightly shaking hand through his hair. “My instincts are overdeveloped,” he admitted. “Because of the places I’ve been the past several years, I see danger everywhere.”
“If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have survived,” Uncle Craig said, his blue eyes bright with emotion. “And
if you go back again, you may not.”
He was used to his aunt begging him not to leave whenever he came home. But his uncle had always seemed to understand that it was something he needed to do.
“The first three years of that little boy’s life, he didn’t have a father,” Uncle Craig reminded him. “Do you want him to grow up without one?”
“I just want him to grow up,” Thad said, “safe and happy.”
“So you do think he’s in danger?”
Thad sighed. “I learned long ago that it doesn’t matter where you are—a war-torn country or asleep in your own bed—you can be in danger.”
“That’s something you shouldn’t have had to learn as young as you did,” Uncle Craig said.
It was something Thad intended to do his damnedest to make sure Mark didn’t learn for a long time.
WHEN SHE HAD AGREED to let Thad see Mark whenever he wanted, she hadn’t considered how much he would want to. And how much that would make her want him.
He leaned over the bed and kissed Mark’s forehead. “Good night, little buddy.”
“Good night, Daddy,” Mark murmured sleepily, his eyes already closed.
Caroline wished she could close her eyes and blot out the image of Thad Kendall as a loving father. It would have been better had he been unattached and uninvolved; then Mark wouldn’t miss him so much when he left.
And neither would she.
He joined her in the hall, pulling the door almost closed behind him. “I’ll never get used to that.”
“What?” she asked.
“Him calling me Daddy.” He touched his chest, as if the word physically affected his heart.
Maybe it did. Caroline’s heart was reacting, too. It beat faster at the sight of Thad in a black T-shirt that was molded to his muscular chest.
“Looks like you got wetter during his bath than he did,” she remarked.
He chuckled. “Yeah, sorry about that. I’ll clean up the bathroom.”
She shook her head. “I already did when you were reading him his bedtime story.”
A muscle twitched along his cheek. “A Christmas story…”
“Sorry,” she said with a gentle smile. “Like most little kids, Mark loves Christmas.” Because nothing bad had happened on any of his Christmases. Her heart ached for the pain Thad had suffered at such a young age.
“That’s good,” Thad said. “I’m glad. And I’ll make an effort to get over my aversion to it…for him.”
“Finding your parents’ killer would help you with that,” she mused. “Are you any closer?”
He shook his head. “No. And that was the gift I really wanted to give my family this Christmas. Justice and closure.”
“You’ll do it,” she said with absolute certainty. Thad Kendall was the kind of man who always succeeded in his goals. Too bad one of his goals was to remain single. “And you know you don’t have to spend as much time around here as you do, if you’d rather be focusing on your investigation.”
“Actually, I’d like to spend more time with Mark,” he said. “I’d be happy to watch him during the day while you’re at work.”
“You want me to pull him out of day care?” She studied his handsome face through narrowed eyes, suspecting he had a reason other than just wanting to spend more time with his son.
He nodded. “I missed three years of his life. I’d like to get to know my son.”
“I’ll be off on my break in a few more days,” she said. Because of the holiday falling on the weekend, she had only a half day off the Friday before Christmas Eve, but she didn’t have to return until after New Year’s Day.
“But it’s crazy for you to have to pay for day care when I’m available to watch him,” Thad persisted. The check he’d forced on her earlier weakened his argument. He insisted on paying for day care and all Mark’s expenses.
Hell, he’d wanted to pay off her mortgage and her car, too. But she’d never wanted his money. What she wanted was much harder to attain: his heart.
“Watch him or guard him?” she asked.
Now she wondered about all the time he’d been spending with them since that night at the mall. In the past week and a half, he’d been over every day the minute she picked up Mark from day care. “You really think he’s in danger?”
“Nothing’s happened.”
She nodded, clinging to the faint reassurance. “And you said that man at church was your uncle.”
“Sorry about that.”
“He wanted to see his great-nephew,” she said. He had undoubtedly also wanted to check her out. He probably wondered what the heck Thad had ever seen in her. She wasn’t a svelte socialite like Thad’s mother had been; she was a real woman with real curves and damn proud of it.
“I need to bring you and Mark to Sunday dinner and have you meet the whole family,” he said.
She heard the reluctance in his deep voice. “Need to—not want to.”
He shrugged. “They can be overwhelming. Meeting all these new relatives at once might be a bit much for Mark.”
She was touched that he had considered their son’s feelings. “I think he’ll like having a lot of family.”
Thad chuckled. “They’re all dying to meet him. Aunt Angela’s been bugging me to get his Christmas list.”
“He told Santa what he wanted for Christmas was family,” she reminded him. “Sounds like he’ll get it.” With aunts and uncles, but not the family he really wanted—Mommy, Daddy and Mark.
“What do you want for Christmas?” she asked. “Besides your parents’ killer brought to justice?”
He stepped closer, backing her against the wall. “You. I want you, Caroline.”
He pressed his hips against hers, leaving her no doubt how much he wanted her. And he covered her mouth with his, parting her lips for the hot invasion of his tongue.
Her pulse quickened with desire. She wanted him, too. So much….
He lifted his head and implored her, his voice gruff with passion, “Let me stay tonight…?.”
To make love with her—or to protect her and Mark?
He touched her then—with his intense gaze and with his hands, sliding them down the sides of her breasts. His wet shirt had dampened hers, so that her hardened nipples were visible through the thin cotton. He groaned. “Caroline.”
She wanted him to touch her there. She wanted him to touch her everywhere. She slid her arms around his shoulders and tangled her fingers in his soft hair, pulling his head down for another kiss.
“Be mine tonight,” he urged her.
She was already his; she had been his for years. But he only wanted a night. She wanted forever. While she knew, intimately, how good making love with him was, she wanted more.
She forced herself to push him back. “You need to leave.”
EVEN THE COLD NIGHT AIR blowing through his open coat to his still-damp T-shirt didn’t cool Thad’s desire. He wanted Caroline even more than he had four years ago, and four years ago he’d wanted her more than he had any other woman.
She was so beautiful and smart. And it was because she was smart that she refused to let him any closer. He didn’t blame her, not after he’d hurt her before. Leaving her last time had been the hardest thing he’d ever done. To leave her and Mark this time…
Pain clutched his heart at just the thought. Then pain nipped his hand when he gripped the door handle. Blood streaked from his fingers, glass embedded in his skin.
In the glow of the streetlamp, his own reflection radiated back from the shattered window of his driver’s door. The windshield was also broken. Hell, every damn window had been broken.
He ducked down, in case whoever had damaged the vehicle was still around, and he noted that all his tires were flat, the sidewalls slashed. While he’d been inside the house with Caroline and Mark, someone had been just outside, vandalizing his vehicle with such malice.
And maybe that person was still outside or, worse yet, trying to get inside the house. Out of reflex he reac
hed beneath his jacket, but his gun wasn’t there. That first night back, when he’d shot Natalie’s stalker—her half brother—he’d had to use Gray’s gun because he never tried to bring one through airport security. In other countries, he got his weapons through secret contacts. Fortunately, he had a couple contacts in St. Louis, too, but because he hadn’t wanted to alarm Caroline, he’d left the gun in the glove box.
Of his vandalized car…
Keeping low, he dragged open the door and reached inside. Glass littered the dash and the seats. He got cut again as he fumbled for the glove box. His gun glinted in the darkness.
Maybe the vandal hadn’t been inside his car. Or maybe he hadn’t needed Thad’s gun because he was already armed. With his free hand, Thad reached for his cell. He punched in a number and gave an address.
“Get here as fast as you can.”
He had no intention of waiting for his backup, though, not when Caroline and Mark could be in danger. His gun clenched tight in his bleeding hand, he headed toward the house fully prepared to kill again. He would do anything to protect his family.
Chapter Nine
Caroline shivered with nerves and cold. If he hadn’t flashed his badge, she wouldn’t have let the man inside—not at this hour. He wasn’t wearing a uniform or a suit but jeans and a wrinkled shirt that looked like he’d picked it up off the floor.
It was actually the name on the badge that had compelled her to unlock the door and let him inside: Detective Ash Kendall.
Cold air had rushed in with him. But what he’d told her had chilled her far more. “Thad’s missing?”
“He called me—gave me your address and told me to get here right away,” Ash said. “But he’s gone.”
“He just drove off?”
Ash shook his head. His hair wasn’t as dark a brown as Thad’s, and his eyes were green instead of blue, yet, from their guarded intensity, they were unmistakably brothers. “Not in his car.”
“Why?” she asked. “Did something happen to it?”
Ash hesitated a moment as if deliberating how much to tell her. Then he admitted, “The tires have been slashed and all the windows broken.”
