“The doctor is optimistic Tommy will pull through with no lasting damage. You did good, Kara. That dog is something else.” Lewis set the cup back on the table. “And you were right. The paramedics said if they’d been much later getting to him, he wouldn’t have survived.”
A sob bubbled up her chest. “If I hadn’t stuck around where I didn’t belong, he never would’ve been kidnapped in the first place.”
“Hey—” Lewis patted her hand “—don’t blame yourself for what the bad guys do. You’ll be happy to know we caught him, by the way. He won’t give you any more trouble.”
Hope lifted her spirits. “You mean I’m free?”
“Not quite.” Lewis shut the door then scooted his chair closer to the bed.
His earlier warning—the mob has a long memory—preyed on her mind, and a soul-splintering moan seeped out from deep inside her. She’d exposed Jake and Tommy. What if the mob didn’t forget them either?
Compassion filled Lewis’s eyes. “We’re close. We’ve confirmed that Tommy’s kidnapper and the guy who shot you are one and the same—Rodney Johns.”
“There was only one guy? I thought after Tommy was kidnapped there must’ve been at least two.”
“No, Johns said he knew you wouldn’t walk away, not after the way you defied me to help the kids off the bus.”
She shivered at how coldly he’d used her compassion against her.
“Ballistics also matched his gun to the shot that killed the P.I. And the sheriff verified Johns is the man who shanked his men outside the coffee shop.”
“And the fire?” Kara hugged herself, remembering how Jake had been there for her every time Johns struck.
“We’re sure he was behind that, too. Although it may be harder to prove.”
“Is that what you have to do to stop the mob from coming after me again?”
“Actually, Johns has no known mob connections. He’s a communications expert with military training, and whoever hired him probably had inside connections. We’re not sure if he was behind the bomb and murder in Boston or if the mob is connected in any way. Someone may have just wanted us to think so.”
Kara’s breath bottled up in her chest. “So you’re saying you don’t know who wants me dead?”
“I’m saying Johns isn’t naming names. But our best theory is still that it’s the guy you saw buy the baby. With the client records destroyed and his contact at the agency already dead, you’re his only remaining threat.”
“But you don’t know who he is or how to find him.” It wasn’t a question, and she didn’t bother trying to keep the hopelessness from her voice. The strains of Christmas carols seeped through the door, and the thought of how lonely the holidays would be as Connie Klumchuck weighed on her mind.
“Not yet, but we have solid leads.” He glanced at his cell phone and thumbed in a response. “Don’t you worry. Chances are good that by the time they spring you from this place, I’ll be able to drive you to the airport and put you on a plane back to Boston. How does that sound?”
Her stomach flip-flopped. It actually didn’t sound as appealing as it would’ve a week ago. “How long does the doctor think I’ll need to stay?”
“Another couple of days.”
Only two days. Would Jake come see her? Would he want to see her?
“You’re lucky the bullet didn’t hit any bone or nerves or you’d be stuck here a lot longer. Of course, the way you were bleeding out, let me tell you, I didn’t think you had a chance. The doc said the bullet lodged under your collarbone and clipped the lateral something or another artery, but the repair went without a hitch.”
“Can I visit Tommy’s room?” She tried to sit up, but scarcely pushed herself an inch off the mattress before falling back, spent.
The marshal frowned. “Afraid not. He’s at Seattle Children’s Hospital.”
Her heart sank even deeper. She desperately needed to see for herself that Tommy was okay. To tell Jake again how sorry she was for...everything.
The door edged open, and the way Lewis sprang from his chair drilled home why Jake wouldn’t want her anywhere near Tommy. Someone still wanted her dead.
Someone who couldn’t care less about the collateral damage.
Sam strode toward her bed and held out a bouquet of pink carnations. “These are from Jake.”
She gasped, her heart soaring. “Thank you.” She buried her nose in the blooms, even though she knew florist’s carnations didn’t share the honey-cinnamon scent of the ones she used to admire in the church garden. Did Jake know that pink carnations meant gratitude?
Could he really feel that when she’d been the reason his son was in danger in the first place?
She searched for a card among the buds. “No card?”
“Sorry.” Sam pulled a chair up to the bed opposite Lewis. “He asked me to pick up a bouquet when I mentioned I was stopping by.”
Kara stuffed down her silly disappointment as Jake’s harsh words following the kidnapper’s call replayed in her head. Get her out of here. I need to take care of my son now. She squeezed shut her eyes. “They’re lovely. Please, tell him thank-you for me.”
“How about I let you tell him yourself? He’d like you to give him a call in Tommy’s room when you feel up to it. The marshal has the number.”
Kara nodded, not daring to open her eyes for fear the tears pooling there would spill. And another memory rushed over her, warming her like a kiss of sunshine—Jake clutching her hand as she lay wounded on the ground when he should’ve been searching for his son.
“Hey—” Sam chucked her chin “—I have good news.”
Her eyes burst open. “You do?” she said at the same time as Lewis.
“Yes, thanks to your description, we’ve identified the guy who bought the baby—a wealthy businessman from Delaware, born in November, like we’d guessed from the topaz stone you remembered seeing on his ring.” Sam’s face beamed. “Turns out that six months ago his wife had a stillborn baby and suffered severe depression after the loss. She was kept in a psychiatric ward for three months. The neighbors said that they’d heard rumors the baby had died, but the husband kept saying, ‘There was just a little complication with the birth and she’d be right as rain soon.’ So no one was sure what to think. But a couple of neighbors called in tips after the adoption ring story broke. Turns out the woman came home with a three-month-old baby the day after you saw the exchange in the park.”
“Oh, the poor woman. She’ll be devastated to lose another child.”
“Sure,” the marshal said, disgust tingeing his voice, “but she’d have to be beyond naive to believe that quick an adoption had been legal.” He returned his attention to Sam. “Have the feds arrested them yet?”
“Uh.” Sam pulled out his cell phone and glanced at the screen, and she had the niggling feeling he’d done so to avoid answering Lewis’s question. Rising, he handed her the phone. “I think this one’s for you.”
“Me?” She hadn’t even heard it ring.
Sam winked and motioned to Lewis. “C’mon, let’s get a coffee and give the woman some privacy.”
Trembling, Kara waited until the door closed behind them before answering. The sound of Jake’s gentle voice turned her inside out. “Jake, I’m so sorry for what happened to Tommy. I—”
“Shh, Tommy’s going to be okay.” Except the crack in Jake’s voice said Tommy wasn’t okay yet.
A regretful sigh seeped from her chest. “It’s my fault he’s hurt.”
“How are you feeling?”
Her heart squeezed at his concern and how graciously he avoided casting blame.
“Kara?”
“Sore. But Lewis says I might be released in a couple of days.”
A long silence filled the gulf between them as hope that he’d ask her to s
tay succumbed to the reality.
“What will you do then?” he asked finally, sounding beyond exhausted. She closed her eyes and tried to picture the joy in his eyes when they’d hugged outside the bus, but all she could see was the hollow look she’d seen in his eyes after Tommy was taken and hear his scathing You shouldn’t be here.
She cupped her hand over her mouth to muffle a whimper. Then, letting her hand slip to her throat, she drew a fortifying breath. “I guess I go back to Boston.”
* * *
The heaviness in Jake’s heart deepened as Tommy remained limp in Sherri’s embrace, scarcely looking at the stuffed monkey she’d tried to cajole him with. She tucked him back under the covers and set the monkey beside his listless son, then walked around the bed with open arms.
Jake stood and gratefully received her hug, wistfully wishing it was Kara in his arms.
“I’m sorry,” Sherri whispered. “Have the doctors given you any idea how long it will take him to...be himself again?”
Jake scrubbed his hand over his face and sank into the chair beside Tommy’s bed where he’d been keeping vigil for the past three days. “No, they said trauma can make a child detached from what’s going on around him. And that each one reengages a little differently.”
Sherri squeezed his hand. “He’ll come around.”
“I know he will.” Jake blinked back tears that had been coming too easily these past few days. “I’m just grateful he’s alive. I—” He pressed his lips together to contain the emotion storming around his chest.
Sherri rubbed his back. “And Kara’s alive, too. And will soon have her life back, thanks to you. You did good, Jake.”
Jake shook his head. “It wasn’t me. It was all God. I didn’t know where to look for Tommy. I never even wanted my parents to get that nutty dog.” He swiped at his nose. “And I sure didn’t know how to get him to find Tommy. I thank God that He didn’t let Kara listen to me. That she came back—” He squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath until his emotions were under control. “She came back to help, knowing it was a trap. But God spared them both.”
“Wow.” Sherri bent down and retrieved the Bible that had slipped from his lap when he stood. “I expected you to be questioning why God let it come to that. Why didn’t He just let the police nab the bad guys three months ago so she never would’ve had to leave Boston? None of this would ever have happened.”
Jake’s heart lurched. “But then I never would’ve met her.”
Sherri grinned. “Have you told her how you feel about her?”
A breath that felt as if it had been pent up for three long days leeched from his chest. Standing, he leaned over his son and stroked a wisp of feathery blond hair from his forehead. “It wouldn’t be fair to her.”
“Excuse me?” Sherri sounded utterly confused.
Jake smoothed Tommy’s sheets and continued without facing his cousin. “After April died, I didn’t think I’d ever feel this way again. To be honest, I didn’t really want to. I never wanted to let another woman down.”
“You didn’t let April down,” Sherri insisted. “You can’t spend your life tormenting yourself with what-ifs. God was in control then, just like He was out in the woods.” Silence hung between them for a moment. “Sometimes He chooses to spare our loved ones. Sometimes He doesn’t, for reasons only the Lord knows and I don’t pretend to understand. We ask for things and rant at Him when He doesn’t give them to us, but you know what Sam said to me after his crazy mission to arrest his now-fiancée?”
“What?”
“That the greatest blessings sometimes come through the darkest moments. Like you just said, if the police had nabbed those guys back in Boston, you never would have met Kara. And she is really great. You need to tell her how you feel.”
Jake let out a ragged sigh, his fingers fisting the sheets he’d just smoothed. “She has family in Boston, a life. I can’t ask her to leave that for me, and as strong as my feelings are for her, even after such a short time, I couldn’t uproot Tommy, take him from his grandparents and move across the country to be with her. It wouldn’t be fair.”
Sherri chuckled.
Jake spun on his heel and glared at her. “I don’t see what’s so amusing.”
“You. I think you’ve finally come to terms with the fact that you didn’t let April down, but your hero complex is as strong as ever. You’re sacrificing your happiness to do what you think is best for Kara and for Tommy.”
He gritted his teeth. “That’s because I love them. And when you love someone, you put what’s best for them ahead of what you want for yourself.”
She rolled her eyes. “What’s best for them? How do you know what’s best for them? From what I hear, you ordered the marshal to take Kara away. That sure wasn’t best for Tommy. And who in their right mind would have wished that house fire on Kara? But after seeing the two of you together, I’m convinced God knew exactly what He was doing. Maybe before you start getting all noble and sacrificial on the people you love, you should ask them what they want.”
Tommy curled onto his side and faced them, his eyes slipping open. “Where’s Kara?” he whispered flatly, his voice as lifeless as his eyes.
Jake stroked his son’s hair. “She’s still in the hospital, but I’m sure she’ll come see you as soon as she can.”
Seemingly satisfied, his son closed his eyes again.
“Are you sure about that, Jake?” Sherri hissed. “Did you ask her to come? Last time I talked to her, she was feeling really guilty about what happened to Tommy. I wouldn’t be surprised if she thinks you’d prefer not to see her.”
“That’s ridiculous. She saved Tommy’s life! If anything, I don’t want her to see him still so listless and go back to Boston blaming herself, like I’ve done over April’s death for the past five years.”
Sherri gripped the sides of her head, tangling her fingers in her hair. “Argh! Men!”
Jake blinked, too stunned to have a clue what he’d done wrong now.
She bolted to her feet and stalked to the door. “Just call her. Okay?”
She didn’t wait for a response. Good thing, too, because he wasn’t sure he agreed. In fact, he was close to positive he didn’t. He’d picked up the phone a hundred times since talking to her Tuesday morning, wanting to beg her to stay in Stalwart, wanting to tell her how he felt. But it wouldn’t be fair to put that kind of pressure on her, to make her feel as torn as he felt. Her family was in Boston. She must miss them and her life there terribly. All she’d known since moving here was loneliness, unhappiness and life-threatening, nightmarish days.
He cared about her too much to make her choose between him and her life in Boston.
His mind flashed back to what she’d said at the cabin. It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to you and your family. You’ve all been so kind, made me feel... She’d choked up then, and had deflected his question about how he and his family made her feel.
His heart thundered in his chest. Suddenly everything in him wanted to—
Jake whirred toward a sound at the door. “Mom, Dad, just the people I need to see. Can you stay with Tommy so I can visit Kara? It’s important.”
The wary glance Mom slanted Dad sent alarm bells clanging in Jake’s head.
“What’s going on?”
Dad pulled him away from Tommy’s bed and lowered his voice. “They might be moving her.”
“Is she worse?”
“No, nothing like that. The FBI think they identified the guy who contracted the sniper.”
“That’s great news!”
“No. He hopped a plane to Seattle. Landed an hour ago.”
Blindsided by the gravity in his father’s voice, Jake back stepped. “They think he’s coming after her himself?”
Dad squeezed Jake’s shoulder. “The feds
, the airport police, Seattle P.D., Sam’s department, the marshal’s office, everyone is working to track him down.”
“I have to go to her.” Jake pushed past his father and leaned over Tommy’s bed. Brushing back his son’s hair, he pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Gran and Gramps are going to stay with you for a bit, Tommy. But I’ll be back soon. I promise.”
Tommy didn’t stir, compounding the weight in Jake’s chest as he straightened. “I’ll have my cell phone on me. Call me if anything changes.”
Mom pulled Jake into a warm hug. “He’ll be fine. And we’ll be praying.” She pushed him away. “Now go.”
The midday traffic made the trip take twice as long as it should have. That and the police barricades stopping every car heading toward Hadyn. He didn’t know whether to feel reassured that they were pulling out all the stops to catch this guy or terrified that they felt they needed to.
He pulled into the first available spot in the hospital’s parking lot and raced toward the door.
“Hey,” an older gentleman called after him. “You forgot the parking meter.”
Jake ignored him. They could give him a thousand-dollar ticket for all he cared. He wasn’t wasting a second longer than necessary. He plowed through the front doors, and at the sight of the crowd waiting for the elevators, veered toward the stairwell.
As he burst onto the fourth floor, a security guard caught his arm. “Where do you think you’re going?”
Jake fought his hold. “Let go of me. I’m Jake Steele. Here to see a friend.”
The marshal peeked out a door down the hall, a cell phone pressed to his ear. “It’s okay,” he said to the guard. “He’s with us.”
The guard released him with a nod, and Jake supposed he should be grateful that the guard was taking Kara’s protection so seriously. He hurried to the marshal still standing in the doorway. “Any word on the manhunt?”
“I’ll let him know,” the marshal said into his cell phone, then stepped into the hall. “Yeah, just got word that they caught the guy. He had the child with him.”
Identity Withheld Page 17
