by Cindy Dees
“I’ve been in business meetings all day. Let me check my condo. I’ll call you back in a minute.”
Gabe quickly dialed the phone number to his downtown pad and waited impatiently through the recorded message. “Computer, this is Gabe.”
“Good evening, Mr. Dawson. What can I do for you?”
“Is there anyone in my apartment?”
“No, sir. Your residence is currently unoccupied.”
“What time did Willa leave this morning?”
“She left at 9:31 a.m., sir. She exited the elevator at the lobby level of the building.”
Dammit. “Thank you, computer. Text my cell phone if anyone arrives at my apartment.”
“Of course, sir. Shall I prepare a hot bath for you?”
“No.” Gabe wasted no time on niceties with the machine and hung up on it. He dialed back the security firm. “She’s not at my place in Dallas,” he announced. “Have you checked my house in Vengeance?”
“Second place we checked, sir.”
He didn’t know whether to be relieved that Willa’s security team knew her behavior so well, or chagrined that the two of them hadn’t done a better job of hiding their liaison. Gabe frowned. That hum in his gut was turning into a full-blown chorus of wrongness. “Can’t you guys track her cell phone or something?”
“Only law-enforcement authorities can legally access cell-phone signals.”
“Then do it illegally!” he exclaimed. “I’ll take responsibility for it if you get caught.”
“With all due respect, sir, we wouldn’t get caught. My men are very good.”
“Then do it, already. Call me back when you get a location on her.” He was still about a half hour out of Vengeance. His foot pressed down on the gas even harder. “I’ll be in Vengeance in twenty minutes.”
“We should have her signal isolated by then,” the security man said briskly.
He bloody well hoped so. He was going to start hurting people if they didn’t find Willa, and soon. He pulled up in front of his house in eighteen minutes. By what miracle he’d managed to avoid any speed traps or the vigilant Vengeance police force, he couldn’t say.
He charged into his house, shouting, “Willa? Are you here?”
Only the echo of his worried voice answered him. He swore freely and dialed the security company again. “Where is she?” he asked without bothering to identify himself.
“We lost her signal west of Vengeance.”
“What do you mean, lost it?”
“The signal stopped. She must have turned off her phone.”
He sat down heavily on his sofa. Why would Willa run away like this? It was totally unlike her. Not only was she not a rebel by nature, but she had nowhere to go. To his knowledge, she didn’t know anyone in the next county over. Her whole life centered around Vengeance, Texas.
Where was she headed? It was possible she’d headed for the Vacarro oil field, which was about seventy miles west of Vengeance, but surely she knew better than to go to an oil drilling operation by herself. They were dangerous places if a person didn’t know their way around an oil rig.
There wasn’t anything else west of Vengeance but farms and grazing land for hundreds of miles. Was she just driving around randomly? Working things out in her head? He’d been known to do that from time to time. Although it didn’t particularly seem to be her style. Worried, he paced his living room and did his best to ignore the fat lady bellowing a veritable opera of alarm in his gut.
C’mon, Willa. Come home to me. At least call me.
Although, why should she? Despite her effort to put a happy spin on it, fact was, he’d abandoned her last night. He’d been the worst sort of cad and walked out on her after making love to her. She deserved so much better than that. Than him. Was that why she had run? Was this his fault? He swore at himself. How could it not be his fault?
If she was out there somewhere, alone and upset, he owed it to her to find her and make it better. He grabbed his car keys and headed out to his truck. Texas was a big place, but he’d find her somehow. And when he did, he owed her an epic apology.
He headed west toward the hilly area where the security firm had last pinged her cell phone. A series of deep valleys and high bluffs ran north-south through the western part of the county. His geologist’s trained eye identified it as ancient river erosion. Cell-phone coverage in the area was terrible. If she’d gone there, she might not have turned her phone off at all. She could’ve simply lost a cellular signal. The rift ran for nearly fifty miles north and south of Vengeance. She could be anywhere in it. Determination to find her anyway steeled his jaw as he pointed his truck at the area.
The sun had dipped below the west rim of the first valley already, and deep shadows striped the road. Tall deciduous trees, protected down in the valley from Texas’s vicious winds, crowded the asphalt and created a mysterious emerald ambience all around him. He could see Willa coming to a place like this to find comfort.
The security man had mentioned she and her mother had had a fight. Gabe sincerely hoped it hadn’t been over him. Yet another cross for him to bear if he’d come between Willa and her mother.
He’d just topped the rim and was starting down into the next gully when his cell phone rang. He was impressed that he still had coverage out here and snatched it up hopefully. “Willa?”
“No, sir. This is Agent Delaney of the FBI. We have news regarding your wife.”
He really wished they’d quit calling Melinda that. “What news?” he asked quickly.
“We’ve found Dr. Grayson. An operation earlier this evening to liberate her from her captor was successful.”
A week ago, that news would have made him the happiest man alive. But now, he could barely spare attention for the news in the midst of his panic over Willa.
The FBI agent was speaking again. “If you would like to meet me at Vengeance Hospital, that is where your Dr. Grayson is being taken.”
“She’s hurt? How badly?”
“I don’t have that information.”
Dammit. He really wanted to stay out here and look for Willa. But Melinda could be seriously injured and traumatized. He weighed Willa being alone and upset against Melinda definitely hurt and traumatized. Heavily, he turned his truck around and headed back toward town.
As the valley retreated in his rearview mirror, he murmured, “I’ll be back for you, baby. I promise.”
* * *
Willa blinked, but her eyes weren’t working properly. Everything was unfocused in shades of gray around her. Like it was getting dark. Or maybe she was dying. She became aware of pain. Too many places on her body hurt to list, and they all blended into an overwhelming ache that made it hard to think. She was too sleepy to concentrate and figure it all out.
A sound came from nearby. Deep. Braying. Like someone laughing. A laughing hyena. Except those lived in Africa, right? Why was her brain so muddy? Oddly, the sound seemed to be coming from above her. How was that possible? Did birds laugh? Where was she?
Her car. Except it was tilted all crazily on its side. Toward the passenger door. A mat of leaves covered the windows. A big tree branch was sticking into the car like it had grown through the glass. Strange dream.
Her weight hung in the too-tight seat belt and shoulder harness. Hurt. And there was a floppy white bag draped all over her front. She shoved at it, shocked at how feebly her hands moved. Sticky. Her hands were sticky. Curious, she examined her palms. Something black and wet was smeared all over them.
What happened?
Gabe would know. He knew everything. Her mouth tried to form his name. To say it aloud. If she could just say his name, he would appear and rescue her. He always did. But no sound came out of her mouth, and her chest hurt from the exertion. Instead, she wished hard for him to come for her, to take care of her. He always looked out for her. He was so good to her.
Something warm leaked out of her eye and trickled down her cheek. She missed him so much when he wasn’t with her.
As if a piece of her was missing. Was this what love felt like? It was sweetness and pain, joy and sorrow all rolled into one. It would be lovely if only it didn’t hurt so much. The pain was starting to come in waves now, each one a little worse than the one before.
That crazy laughter echoed from above her again as she drifted away on a cloud of peaceful darkness that carried away all the pain. All the confusion. Everything.
* * *
Chaos reigned as Gabe parked in the hospital’s car lot. News trucks were jockeying for position by the emergency-room entrance. Deputy Green was doing his best—and failing—to force the vans back from the hospital doors. A crowd of bystanders had gathered, but for the moment, the Vengeance fire department seemed to have them contained behind wooden sawhorse barriers.
When he hopped out of his SUV, a chorus of shouts went up. The reporters had spotted him. They sounded like a flock of geese. He ignored them as he shoved through the crowd, and Deputy Green waved him through the barricades.
The emergency room was relatively quiet after outside. He spotted the FBI analyst who’d watched Melinda’s videotape and who’d called him.
“Any news?” he asked her tersely.
“Ambulance brought her in a few minutes ago. None of her injuries appear serious.”
“How is she emotionally?” Now there was a question he’d never thought to hear himself ask about Melinda Grayson.
Agent Delaney shrugged. “Haven’t had a chance to speak with her yet. Medics said she was lucid but upset.”
He winced. Melinda upset equated in his mind to her having a screaming hissy fit. Surely, the FBI analyst didn’t mean the word that way. “Can I see her?”
“As soon as the doctors are done treating her.” She added a shade too innocently, “Dr. Grayson asked that you be with her during her debriefing.”
“She did?” Gabe blurted.
“You sound surprised,” Delaney commented mildly.
“She’s usually so strong and independent. It’s not like her to want support from anyone. Being kidnapped must have been a hell of an ordeal for her to ask for me like that.”
He waited impatiently; glad he was here for Melinda, but fretting over Willa. He called the security company and was frustrated that they’d heard nothing from Willa. Problem was the security team was Dallas based. They didn’t know the local area and weren’t being the slightest bit efficient in searching the western part of the county for her. He’d do a much better job of it if he could just get out of here.
But then guilt at the notion of abandoning Melinda, who’d been through an obviously terrible experience, assailed him, and the cycle of relief, fretting, worry and guilt repeated itself. He felt like he was being torn in two, and it sucked.
The weird part was that he didn’t even particularly like Melinda. She was charismatic, though, and once she had her claws in someone’s head, she didn’t let go. It had taken Willa coming along for him to realize how psychologically tied he still was to Melinda.
An urge to turn around and walk out of the emergency room came over him. To hell with Melinda. She was a grown woman and could take care of herself. Lord knew she’d never needed him or anyone else over the years. Willa, on the other hand, could use a friend. Her life had gone to hell in a handbasket, and not one bit of it had been her doing.
He stood up, determined to follow his heart and go find Willa when a male voice said from behind him, “Mr. Dawson?”
He turned to face a physician in a white lab coat. Spatters of blood on the coat sent a hot wave of guilt through Gabe’s gut. “How is she?” he asked quickly.
“Come with me.”
Agent Delaney fell in beside the two men as they strode through a pair of swinging doors. A brightly lit hallway with all the usual medical clutter lining it stretched away from them. The doctor led Gabe to the first door on the left.
Gabe stepped inside, his heart in his throat.
Melinda was sitting up in bed, her arms speckled by Band-Aids, a small piece of tape across her right cheekbone and a bandage around her right knuckles. She had a fading black eye and a little puffiness along her jaw. But all in all, she didn’t look half-bad. She did, however, look royally pissed off. He knew that narrow-eyed glare she was firing at the nurse all too well.
She looked up at the visitors, spotted Gabe and burst into tears. Honest-to-God wetness issuing from her eyes and running down her cheeks. Never, ever had he seen Melinda Grayson shed a tear before. The woman had sat stony-faced through her own father’s funeral, for God’s sake. Yet here she was, bawling theatrically.
She held both hands out to him in a gesture reminiscent of a toddler, and he lurched forward, shaken. Melinda Grayson wanted to be held? The end of the world must be upon them!
He perched on the edge of the high bed and gathered her into his arms. She stiffened against him, but her arms still went jerkily around him. Frankly, after the way Willa cuddled against him all soft and sweet, this was like hugging a cold, wet fish.
But as soon as the thought crossed his mind, he banished it. Melinda was hurt and scared and probably exhausted, and she surely deserved better from him.
“Dr. Grayson, what can you tell me about your kidnapper?” Agent Delaney asked.
Gabe looked up sharply. “You didn’t catch the bastard?”
“Please don’t interrupt, sir, or I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
Melinda’s arms tightened hard around him. Damn, that woman was strong for someone who’d been tied to a chair for the past few weeks. “I never saw him. He kept me blindfolded all the time.”
“What about when that video of you was filmed? Did you see him then? Or even a silhouette? How tall was he? What kind of build did he have? Race? Coloring? Anything?” the agent persisted.
Melinda shook her head. “There was just the camera on a tripod. He told me what to say from another room.”
Agent Delaney pounced on that. “So he did script that video for you.”
Melinda’s gaze narrowed fractionally. Had Gabe not been inches away from her and not been so very familiar with her, he probably wouldn’t have seen it. Now why did the agent’s statement irritate Melinda like that?
“No, no. He just told me when to talk.”
“Did he ever say anything about Senator John Merris, Sheriff Burris or a young man named David Reed?”
“No. Why?”
“All three men were murdered at about the same time you were kidnapped, ma’am.”
Melinda did the strangest thing then. She burst into tears. No kidding. Wet stuff on her cheeks, sobbing hysterically, tears. Gabe was flabbergasted. The Iron Maiden knew how to cry? Wow. She must be a whole lot more messed up than she’d been showing initially.
The questioning paused until she could collect herself, but then continued onward, albeit more gently after Melinda’s breakdown. And so it went. Agent Delaney pressed for details, and Melinda steadfastly denied knowing anything significant about the kidnapper. No matter what questions the FBI agent asked, no useful information was forthcoming from his ex-wife.
Although, every now and then, Melinda would tense slightly or give away some tiny facial expression of anger. But all the while, she clung to him like a pitifully scared child. When the agent suggested a polygraph test, Melinda burst into loud tears once more and buried her face against his chest. He’d never seen her act even remotely like this before. She was definitely a lot more rattled than he’d expected.
When Melinda’s crying bout refused to wind down, Agent Delaney gave up with a visible sigh, and retreated from the room. The moment she left, Melinda’s tantrum eased.
“It’s okay, Mel,” he soothed her. “No one’s going to make you take a polygraph. You’re the victim here. They’re just trying to catch your kidnapper and were hoping you could help.”
“Well, I can’t!” she exclaimed, pushing away from him. She turned her ire on the nurse. “Get me some damned painkillers, already.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am. The
doctor will have to prescribe those.”
“Well, what’s he waiting for? The Second Coming?” Melinda snapped.
This was more like her. Funny how he’d forgotten how nasty Melinda could be. Maybe he’d been around it for so long he’d gotten numb to it. Willa would never dream of being so mean to anyone— Stop it. Stop comparing the two women!
The nurse answered Melinda with thin patience, “The FBI asked that you not be medicated until they’d had a chance to speak with you.”
“Clearly, they’ve spoken with me. So get that damned doctor in here to do his damned job.”
Yup. Melinda was back to her usual bitchy, domineering self.
Agent Delaney poked her head back into the room just then. “Oh. I forgot to ask earlier. Did your captor have any sort of an accent in his voice?”
Melinda sagged against Gabe immediately. He caught her weight in surprise as she answered tiredly, “No. None. Midwest neutral.”
“Thanks.” Agent Delaney smiled pleasantly as she backed out of the room.
Melinda sat back up and snapped at the nurse. “Now, get me that doctor.”
Thoroughly confused, Gabe stood up. “Let me go see if I can find him for you.” The nurse threw him a grateful look. Little did she know he was escaping as much as he was trying to help out.
Agent Delaney was lounging against the opposite wall of the hallway, and straightened up to walk beside him as he headed for the nurses’ station. “Interesting woman, your wife.”
“Ex-wife.”
“She always that big a drama queen?”
Gabe stopped and turned to face the agent as he considered her question. He answered slowly, “Yes. But not in that way. I’ve never seen her cry in all the years I’ve known her. And she’s not usually so...”
“Erratic?” Agent Delaney supplied.
“Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of touchy-feely.”
“She’s quite an actress, your ex-wife. What drew you to her in the first place?”
An actress? That was an interesting observation. But it hadn’t been what attracted him to Melinda. He explained, “She’s shockingly charismatic. Tends to disapprove of you when you meet her. Makes you want to earn her approval.”
