Colton's Secret Son

by Carla Cassidy

  He moved his legs and then froze. Something was around one of his ankles. He sat up and leaned over to see what it was. It was something hard and attached to it was a length of chain. He had no idea how long the chain was, but he wasn’t going to get out of bed in the dark and find out.

  He tried to get out of the ring, but it was too tight for him to slip his foot through and get free. He then tugged on the chain, but the other end of it was in the wall and he couldn’t get it to release.

  Tears leaped to his eyes. He was in trouble. He was in really big trouble. His heart pounded frantically and he squeezed his eyes tightly shut.

  He didn’t want to cry. Only babies cried and he wasn’t a baby anymore. He didn’t know how long he’d been in this basement, but it was obviously nighttime outside.

  He knew his mom and Knox would be looking for him. His mom had lots of friends. There were probably hundreds of people searching for him right that very minute. And the sheriff and all his men would be hunting for him, too.

  These thoughts helped him be a little bit less afraid, but not much. Maybe his father would come and find him. His dad chased bad people and put them in jail. Maybe his dad would realize Cody needed him now more than ever and he’d rescue him.

  He held on to that thought as he drifted back to sleep.

  * * *

  Knox stood in the shower and allowed the beat of hot water to massage his tense muscles. It was just after dawn and he’d managed to sleep in fits and starts for about two hours.

  He was grateful that when he’d peeked into Allison’s room a few minutes before she’d been soundly sleeping. She’d need the rest to face the day ahead.

  He’d stood for several long moments in the doorway, just watching her, and wondered how they had screwed everything up so badly between them. And how they had come to this place where apparently somebody had taken their son.

  His mother. It had to be her. If the phone call had been real, then this was all about money. Livia Colton was on the run from the law and the first thing she would need would be plenty of cash. There was no doubt in his mind that she’d kidnapped Cody for monetary gain. It was who she was, and he’d never hated anyone in his life as much as he hated her.

  And how would Allison feel about him if it did turn out to be his mother? He shoved the troubling question out of his head.

  He turned off the shower and grabbed a towel. He intended to call Thorne later and ask him to bring some clothes to him. Knox had no idea how long he’d be there and he didn’t intend to leave unless Allison told him to go or until Cody came home.

  He dressed in the same jeans and polo shirt he’d worn the day before and then left the bathroom. He paused in Allison’s doorway, grateful that the sound of the shower hadn’t awakened her.

  She looked beautiful in the faint dawn light that lit the room. Her features were relaxed and her hair was a silky cloud around her head.

  He had no idea how long this ordeal might last. She’d been so strong the day before, but there was no way to guess when she might reach a breaking point. Hopefully the sleep she’d gotten would keep her strong.

  He was about to leave her doorway when she emitted a small gasp and her eyes flew open. “Cody,” she said in a pleading whisper that broke Knox’s heart. She then sat up and her gaze landed on him.

  He walked over to her bed and sat at the foot. She sat up and pushed strands of hair out of her eyes. “I slept,” she said, her voice filled with heavy guilt. “My son is missing and I went to sleep.”

  “Allison, don’t beat yourself up. Your body needs sleep, no matter what’s going on. I even dozed off for a couple of hours.” He couldn’t help but notice she smelled of warm woman and fresh apples.

  “So nothing else has happened?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “Nothing.” He stared at her for several long moments. “I was just wondering earlier how we got things so screwed up between us.”

  She turned her head toward the window, the morning light caressing her pretty features. “Oh, Knox, we tried so many times, but we just could never get it right.” She turned to look at him once again. “The only thing we got right was making a beautiful baby who has grown into a wonderful, loving boy.” Her voice cracked on the last word. “I just want him home.”

  He reached out and took one of her hands. “We’ll get him home.” He paused for a moment, and then continued. “I think it’s my mother.” The confession was difficult for him, even to a woman who knew what kind of person Knox’s mother was. Shame coursed through him, a shame his mother had made him feel many times before in his life.

  Allison’s eyes widened. “Oh, Knox, you really can’t believe that. I know Livia has done a lot of horrible things, but surely you can’t believe that she would kidnap her own grandson for ransom. I...I don’t want to believe that.” Still, she had to admit, more than once the possibility had jumped into her head.

  “I think she saw that blog on Everything’s Blogger in Texas and realized I have a son, and she saw it as a perfect opportunity to get money. It takes a lot of cash to stay on the run from the law.” His gut churned despite the hollowness inside him.

  She stared at him, her lower lip trembling with emotion. “Do you think she’d hurt him?”

  As always, thoughts of his mother welled up a black despair. “I think she’s capable of anything,” he finally replied.

  She slowly shook her head and pulled her hand from his. “I just don’t believe it. I don’t believe your mother somehow got back here to Shadow Creek and took Cody. I still think it’s Chad...or maybe one of the Billings brothers.”

  He would allow her this moment of denial, mostly because he was afraid that if it really was his mother he had no idea what lengths Allison would go to when Cody was returned. He knew she’d do whatever possible to keep Livia out of her son’s life, but would she take Cody away from him, too? It didn’t matter what she believed. What would kill him more than anything was if he had unintentionally brought danger to Allison and Cody. If he hadn’t come back here, then the blog probably wouldn’t have been written and Livia wouldn’t know about Cody’s existence. If the kidnapper turned out to be his mother and something horrible happened, he didn’t know how Allison would ever forgive him, and he didn’t know how he’d ever forgive himself.

  “I’m going to head downstairs and whip up some breakfast,” he said as he got up from the bed. If he lingered there any longer with the scent of her swirling in his brain, he’d want to reach for her. He’d want to escape his own black thoughts in her slender, warm arms.

  They hadn’t been able to get it right in the past and he didn’t think there was any way they’d get it right in the future, especially if Livia was behind the kidnapping.

  “I’m going to take a quick shower and then I’ll be down,” she replied.

  He left her room and headed down the stairs. The scent of freshly brewed coffee filled the air as he headed to the kitchen.

  Jim and Wendall were at the table with coffee cups in front of them. “Good morning,” Wendall said. “I hope you don’t mind that we helped ourselves.”

  “I don’t mind a bit.” Knox walked over to the counter and poured himself a cup of the fresh brew. “Did you two get any sleep last night?”

  “We both got a couple of hours,” Jim replied. “The sofa is very comfortable.”

  “Either one of you thought about running for sheriff in the fall?” Knox asked.

  “Not me,” Wendall replied with a short laugh.

  “Or me, either,” Jim added. “I like what I do right now. I don’t need the headache.”

  “Speaking of headaches, the kidnapping made the news. Everything’s Blogger has it up on their site,” Wendall said.

  “I wish I knew how in the hell they get their information.” Knox pulled an egg carton out of the refrigerator
. He fought against the impotent frustration and anger that had filled him since he’d awakened in Cody’s lower bunk bed.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if Sheriff Jeffries contacted them,” Jim said. “The site mentioned a press event here at eight this morning.”

  Knox looked at the clock. It was just after six. Would a press release help or hurt things? He couldn’t know. “What do you think about some scrambled eggs and toast?”

  “Sounds good to us,” Wendall replied.

  As Knox got busy whipping eggs with milk, he wondered when they’d hear something from the caller. If that person really did have Cody, then how would they get proof of life? Would a picture appear in Allison’s text messages? On his? Had the call been from the real kidnapper? Maybe it really had been nothing but a hoax, but then what had happened to Cody? So many questions with no answers. If he focused on them, he’d be insane.

  The eggs were in the skillet when Allison appeared. She’d obviously showered and changed her clothes, and her hair was in a neat bun at the nape of her neck. She wore a pair of jeans and a tailored white blouse with a navy blue blazer. She looked strong and in control.

  She returned the deputies’ greetings and then poured herself a cup of coffee. “Can I help?” she asked Knox.

  “No, I’ve got this. Just sit and relax.” He popped slices of bread into the toaster. It felt so wrong to be doing something as mundane as fixing breakfast when his son was missing.

  He needed to be strong for Allison, and he wanted to stay strong for Cody, but he had to continue to swallow against thick emotion that rose up in the back of his throat.

  He’d dreamed of making breakfast for Cody. He’d imagined his son sitting at a table and filling the kitchen with his wonderful laughter while Knox whipped up French toast or bacon and eggs.

  The fact that he’d had none of those kinds of moments with his own father only made him hunger to have them with his own son. He needed to make certain that everything he had longed for as a fatherless boy he gave to Cody. They were fantasies he still wanted desperately to become a reality.

  They ate in relative silence. Allison picked at her food, not really eating but instead moving the eggs from one place to another on the plate.

  Knox didn’t have any appetite, but he ate like a soldier needing fuel for whatever lay ahead. He tried desperately to keep himself from feeling anything.

  After all, he was the unemotional Fort Knox. He wasn’t accustomed to emotion. He wasn’t used to feeling fear and rage and love and regret, but all those roiled around inside him.

  Seeing Allison in bed had definitely screwed with his head. Despite the trauma of a missing son, he’d wanted her. He wanted her even now.

  The ring of the phone shattered the silence.

  Allison’s eyes widened but she didn’t hesitate like she had before. She grabbed the receiver and said a firm hello.

  “I have the boy.” It was definitely a female voice, although it didn’t sound like Knox’s mother.

  “What do you want?” Allison asked as her gaze locked with his.

  “I want you to sacrifice a black cat by the light of a full moon.”

  Allison frowned. “Excuse me?”

  “And then you should dance naked in a circle around a tombstone in the cemetery.”

  Knox took the receiver from Allison. “I’ve got the police heading to your house right now,” he said angrily. “Don’t call this number again.” He slammed down the receiver.

  “It came from a local number. I’ll call dispatch and let them do a reverse lookup and get somebody over there,” Wendall said.

  “Who would do something like that?” Allison asked as Wendall stepped out of the kitchen. “What kind of a person would make a phone call like that to parents with a missing child?”

  “Probably a lonely old woman who will be perfectly happy if the police show up at her house, because she’ll then have somebody to talk to,” Jim said.

  “In that case I don’t know whether to be outraged at her or sad for her,” Allison replied.

  “Since the news is out about Cody’s disappearance, you can probably expect to get some crank phone calls,” Jim replied.

  Knox looked at Allison as she sank back down in the kitchen chair. The strength that she had displayed since she’d come downstairs appeared to have seeped away.

  Her shoulders drooped and she closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she cast Knox a weary glance. “I don’t know if I can do this,” she said softly.

  “Of course you can,” he replied firmly. “You were strong enough to raise him all alone for the last nine years. You’re strong enough to do whatever needs to be done for him now.”

  And just that quickly he was angry with her. “I need to go make some phone calls,” he said, not wanting to air the raging emotions that filled him. He strode out of the kitchen and out the front door.

  The morning air was cold, but he scarcely noticed with the heat of anger coursing through him. She’d had nine years with Cody and he’d only had less than two weeks with him.

  Cody didn’t even know that Knox was his father. He should have insisted Allison tell him on the very first day that Knox had realized Cody was his son. Dammit, Allison should have let him tell Cody before now. What if he never was able to hear Cody call him Dad? What if he never got to cook breakfast for his boy?

  He sank down on the porch swing, his legs suddenly feeling too weak to hold him upright. He told himself it was the brightness of the rising sun that caused tears to well up in his eyes. But the sun had never made so many tears and his chest had never been so knotted, so tight.

  He’d spent the last ten years not caring about anyone but himself. His heart, his emotions, had been easy to manage because he hadn’t had many. But now he was overwhelmed.

  He pressed his eyes tightly closed in an effort to staunch the tears. But as the thought of never seeing his son again exploded in his mind, he lost it.

  Tears oozed from his eyes and he angrily brushed them away, only to have more trek down his cheeks. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew his anger should be directed at the kidnapper and not at Allison, but right now he was irrational and just damned angry at the world.

  Chapter 10

  “A news van just pulled up out front,” Knox announced when he returned to the kitchen.

  Allison studied his features carefully, unsure what had sent him out of the house a half an hour earlier. His cool blue eyes were shuttered, giving away nothing of his inner thoughts. His shoulders were set in rigidity, and tension radiated out from him.

  The doorbell rang and Wendall got up from his chair. “Do you all want to talk to the press? Make a statement of any kind?”

  “I don’t,” Knox said and then looked at her. “But go ahead if you want to.”

  “No, I don’t want to give the kidnapper the pleasure.” Allison had seen the parents of kidnapped or missing children standing at press conferences, begging for mercy as they wept in despair. She didn’t want to be one of those parents, unless she was convinced it would somehow help them find Cody.

  “Then I’ll get the door and tell them to stay off your property.” Wendall left the kitchen.

  “I imagine Sheriff Jeffries will want you two standing next to him when he holds the press conference,” Jim said.

  “I have no intention of sharing his limelight,” Knox replied.

  “He’s not a big fan of the Coltons anyway,” Jim replied and then clamped his mouth shut as if he’d said too much.

  “I’d already gotten that impression from him,” Knox replied drily. “I guess he’s of a mind that one bad apple spoils the whole barrel.”

  “Or he’s just an ass,” Allison said.

  A burst of laughter escaped both Knox and Jim. The sound was surprisingly welcome, despi
te the pain that racked her heart. “Sorry,” Jim said as he cut his laughter short.

  “It’s okay.” Allison smiled at the deputy who had sat through the long night with them and now wore a faint weariness in the depths of his green eyes.

  Wendall returned to the kitchen. “I told all the people outside to stay out of your yard and if any of them knocked on your door for a statement or interview I’d arrest them.”

  “Thank you. Have you heard anything from Sheriff Jeffries this morning?” Allison asked.

  Wendall shook his head. “Nothing, but I expect him to be here anytime.”

  She moved over to the window and stared outside. She was trying to hold on to her sanity when all she wanted to do was crumple to the ground and scream for her son.

  The house didn’t feel like her home, not without Cody running up and down the stairs, not without his laughter filling all the dark corners. This home was now an empty, alien place and would remain so until she got her son back.

  Her brain still couldn’t quite wrap around the fact that two uniformed deputies had taken up residence here and that a news van was parked outside and curious neighbors were gathering in the street and along the sidewalk.

  The only modicum of comfort was Knox’s presence. He was the only person she knew who felt what she did, who had the same burning emptiness inside, an emptiness that wouldn’t be filled until Cody was back home again.

  And even he couldn’t feel the depth of despair that she did. He’d only had two weeks to love Cody; she’d had over nine years. She’d carried him for nine months; she’d given him life, and her womb now ached with his absence.

  Knox had shocked her with his confession that he thought somehow Livia was behind the kidnapping. One of the reasons Allison hadn’t contacted him when she’d found herself pregnant was her desire to protect Cody forever from Livia Colton. It hadn’t mattered to her that the woman was in prison. She’d known then that she couldn’t underestimate Livia’s reach, despite the bars that surrounded her. She preferred to cling to the belief that a stupid drunk had taken her son rather than contemplate the possibility of it being Livia.