by B. J Daniels
She was outside the warehouse in the darkness, waiting with Jake, her weapon drawn. When she looked down the side of the building, she saw Dell and her heart leapt into her throat. Had she really seen him signal someone out in the darkness?
Buster and Dell disappeared inside the warehouse. She followed, a terrible feeling taking possession of her. Dell hadn’t been himself lately but he wouldn’t talk about what was bothering him.
She slipped through the side door behind the two agents and stopped to let her eyes adjust to the semi-darkness. The warehouse was large and full of wooden crates. The air smelled musty and dank. Only a dim light burned near the center. She crouched behind a stack of crates for a moment, then moved toward the light and the sound of whispered voices.
As she neared, she realized Dell was talking with someone. Whoever it was, it wasn’t Buster.
“You aren’t changing your mind now,” a male voice snapped. “We’ve worked too hard. Think of Amy.”
“Amy’s dead, Tee.” Dell sounded weary.
She edged closer.
“If you don’t have the stomach for this, I can do it for you.”
“No, I can handle it,” Dell said. “Let’s just get it finished. Your part ready? Then you’d better get out of here. They’ll be coming in any minute.”
Oh God. What kind of trouble was Dell in? Finish what? She slipped to the edge of the crate and peered around the corner. Her heart caught in her throat.
Buster lay sprawled on the warehouse floor. Dell stood over him with another man, both with their backs to her. Dell had his weapon drawn and didn’t seem to even notice Buster’s body beside him. No, Dell wouldn’t— No!
“Make it look good,” Tee said, handing Dell a large clear plastic bag filled with white powder. Then Tee turned and disappeared between two crates.
She felt the hair on her neck rise. She rose to her feet and stepped out, gripping her weapon as she pointed it at her friend. “Dell, tell me Buster isn’t dead. Tell me you didn’t kill him.”
Dell turned slowly.
The memory jerked to a halt, then began again in slow motion.
She could feel tears burn her eyes. Her legs felt weak, the gun in her hand too heavy and awkward. “Dell?” Her voice came out a whispered plea. She could hear the others coming. They’d be here any minute.
“I’m sorry, Abby. You and Frank are next.” He raised his weapon, aiming it right at her.
No!
She saw herself dive to the floor and roll and come up firing. A trained reaction. Instinctive. She felt Dell’s shot whiz past her head, too shocked to even realize how close he’d come to killing her. She saw him take the hits as her finger squeezed off the shots. One in the neck just above his bulletproof vest. The other snapping his head back as he went down.
She watched as if underwater, everything surreal, everything happening in microseconds, nothing making any sense. Someone grabbed her, pulled her back, struggling to get the weapon out of her hand. She fought him off and ran toward the sound of Jake’s voice calling to her.
The building exploded around her. Flames and fire. Someone dragging her out, wrapping her in a rough, smelly fabric. Someone she didn’t know. Pain. Terrible, terrible pain. Then darkness.
She blinked and swallowed. She’d killed Dell. Oh God. She squeezed her eyes shut. No wonder she hadn’t been able to remember. No wonder. Her heart ached as she recalled how close she and Dell had been. Like the little brother she’d never had. She’d loved Dell.
She opened her eyes and saw Tommy Barnett. Tee. He sat across from her in a small room with a low ceiling and dirt floor, watching her. Had he felt the same way about Dell once? What had made him push Dell into doing what he did? Or was he just being protective toward Dell, the same way she’d been?
The difference was, Tommy would kill for Dell. And there was a good chance he knew that she’d been the one who’d fired the shots that had taken his best friend’s life. Her best friend’s. Was that why he’d kidnapped her daughter? Abducted her? Had he seen her shoot Dell that night?
She sat up, using the rough wall behind her for support, her eyes on Tommy Barnett.
“The game’s almost over,” he said. He leaned casually against the opposite wall, facing her. He didn’t appear to be armed. He wore a baseball cap. Both of his hands were in the pockets of his jacket. “I was afraid you were going to miss the last inning.”
Game? She heard the cheering then. The echo of the loudspeaker. Someone had just made a home run. She glanced around in confusion. They appeared to be in an old dugout.
She swallowed, her tongue feeling thick, dry as Texas dust. “Where is my daughter?” Her voice broke as all her fears welled up like tears inside her.
“She’s at the ball game,” he said matter-of-factly. “Where else would she be on a spring night like this?”
She frowned.
“Don’t worry, you’ll see her soon.”
He seemed so…normal, she thought. Not like a kidnapper at all. Not even like a drug dealer. He looked like the boy next door.
“What is it you want?” she asked, sitting up a little straighter. Her head ached from where he’d hit her. “The money?”
“I make my own money,” he said, waving off even the idea. “I’m just finishing what Dell started.”
He made it sound as if he was talking about a project, like rebuilding an old car or refinishing a boat. Not about kidnapping a child. Not about murdering people.
“This is about his girlfriend, the one who was killed.”
He nodded. “Amy. Dell loved her more than anything. They were going to get married right after graduation, couldn’t wait. Then we were going to take over the barbecue joint so Bud and Lenore could have some fun. Dell’d always wanted that. His parents had worked so hard for so many years.” He smiled. “Dell was going to make me a partner. We were going to franchise and open up H’s Barbecue restaurants all over Texas. It would have worked, too.” His smile faded.
“I don’t understand.”
“Frank Jordan killed Amy,” Tommy said as if it all made perfect sense to him. She was sure it did. Because Frank had killed more than Dell’s girlfriend. He’d killed the boys’ dream, their planned futures.
She stared at Tommy, wondering desperately why she and Elena were a part of this. Frank was dying in a hospital in San Antonio. Maybe was already dead. Dell and Tommy had gotten their revenge. What more did Tommy want? Unless he’d seen her kill Dell. Was that what this was all about?
“What does my daughter have to do with this?” she asked, afraid of the answer.
He stared at her. “You really don’t know?”
She felt her heart lurch.
“Dell always said how smart you were. He admired you a lot. He really liked you,” Tommy assured her. “He said you were the best agent he’d ever met, because you were smart but you also cared. It tore him up knowing he had to kill you.”
She thought of that moment of hesitation before Dell fired at her. It had cost him his life. But he had fired. He would have killed her. If she’d let him.
“Why?” she asked, tears welling in her eyes. “What was the point? All those years, working so hard to get into the FBI, getting put into Frank’s division, why didn’t Dell just kill him years ago?”
Tommy shook his head. “Dell always said that anything worth doing, was worth doing right. He wanted to get close to him, get to know him. He wanted Frank to know him as well. At first Dell was just going to gain his trust and then tell him who he was and execute him for murdering Amy, but then we realized how much help Dell could be to me in his position so we thought, why hurry?”
So Dell had been helping his drug-dealing friend. “Frank didn’t mean to kill Amy. It was an accident in the line of duty,” she said, but Tommy didn’t seem to hear her.
“Then, Dell realized that killing Frank was almost like putting him out of his misery.”
She stared at Tommy. It was true. The Frank Jordan she knew was not a
happy man. She’d always thought it was Crystal’s drinking that had made him that way. Now she wondered if Frank’s unhappiness was what had caused Crystal’s drinking. “His ex-wife told me that Frank never got over Amy’s death.
Tommy shook his head. “It wasn’t Amy who was eating him up inside. It was you.”
“Me?”
“You still don’t get it, do you? You figured out so much. Just like Dell said, you’re smart. But you can’t see what’s been right in front of you the whole time. Just like Frank didn’t see Dell.”
She frowned as she looked up at Tommy, seized by a terrible premonition. Frank had covered up how Dell and Buster had died that night in the warehouse. It had never come out that they’d been shot by one of the other agents. Why had Frank done that?
Tommy nodded as if he could see her coming to the realization. “You were Frank’s favorite. You wouldn’t believe the strings he pulled to get you on his team. He was so proud of you. Dell said only a fool couldn’t have seen it. Dell was no fool.”
She swallowed, fear making her numb. Outside the dugout the crowd was screaming. Where was Elena? Somewhere out there watching the game? Eating popcorn, drinking a soda, waiting for her mommy and daddy to show up with Sweet Ana? Abby prayed so.
“What are you trying to tell me?” Her words came out in a hoarse whisper.
“Frank Jordan is your father.”
Chapter Sixteen
Her father? Abby stared at Tommy. “My father died before I was born.”
He shook his head. “Dell found out that Frank Jordan sent checks monthly to a woman named Ana Fuentes in Galveston, Texas.”
The ground beneath her no longer felt solid. “No. That can’t be. He’d have told me.”
Tommy lifted a brow. “He ran out on your mother when she was pregnant with you. Why would he tell you that? Especially after your mother killed herself.”
Her head spun. No. She wanted to argue. Dell had gotten it wrong. But she couldn’t find the words. She remembered the way Jake had hesitated when she’d asked about her mother. She closed her eyes, unable to will it away. Frank. Her father. On some level, she knew it was true. The way her grandmother had never told her how her father and mother had died. Why they’d died so young.
And later, the way she’d gotten into the FBI and quickly become part of Frank Jordan’s team. The special treatment Frank had always given her. The odd argument they’d had the day of the explosion. The conversation they’d had in Study Butte. She had been his favorite and she’d known it. She just hadn’t known why. Until now.
She let her gaze fall on Tommy’s face. Oh, God. Now she understood. She understood it all. An eye for an eye. Take from Frank the one thing he valued most. Or in this case, the two things. His daughter and granddaughter.
She felt such a sudden sense of loss, not just for a father she hadn’t known, but for the wasted years. Like Elena, she’d yearned for a father. There had been a time when she’d have given anything for one. Why had Frank walked out on her mother? Why had he never told her who he really was?
“I had hoped Frank would be here to see this,” Tommy said. “But it will just have to be enough that he knew I’d taken his granddaughter before he died.”
So much lost and for what? “Is Frank—”
“Dead?” Tommy shrugged. “One way or the other.” He pulled a pistol from his jacket pocket and glanced out of the dugout. “The game is over. We’d better go get Elena.” He motioned with the gun for her to lead the way.
She struggled to her feet, fighting back the grief, the loss, the fear. She had to think of Elena now. Elena had found her father and she’d be damned if she’d let anyone take that away from her. Jake would be on his way. She’d told him she was in Houston. And she knew Jake. He’d find her. Somehow. Even as she thought it, she knew it was inconceivable that he’d find her and Elena in a city this size. Even if he could get here in time.
But she wanted to see him, to look into his handsome face, to touch him again. After all these years they’d been apart, she couldn’t bear the thought that she might not see him one more time.
“Don’t plan on Jake,” Tommy said as if he’d read her mind.
She looked back at him in surprise.
He smiled. “I figured you were thinking he’d be coming to your rescue soon.” He shook his head. “Not this time.”
JAKE FLEW into Houston in the dark, desperately trying to put all the pieces together quickly. Reese met him at the airport.
“You were right,” Reese said as they hurried to the car. “The Texas Red Devils are playing at Bay-view Field. It’s about twenty minutes from here. You wanna drive?”
“No, you drive,” Jake said getting into the passenger side. “You know Houston much better than I do.”
Jake watched the city pass in a blur through his window. On the flight, he’d had a long time to think. Too long. Someone at the FBI had falsified the fingerprint and autopsy reports. Frank. But if he didn’t have Elena, then why had he tried to make everyone think Abby was dead?
“Why would Frank lie about Abby’s real identity?” he asked Reese.
Reese shrugged. “Maybe he got the wrong information. Or had some reason to not want anyone to know the truth.”
Jake shook his head, remembering that moment of doubt when he’d heard the news. “You personally had the reports done, right?”
“Yeah, but Frank got wind of them,” Reese said. “I didn’t see the results until they’d gone through him.”
Jake nodded. “What else did you find out about this Tommy Barnett?”
“Other than the fact that he’s a drug dealer? Not much.”
“Abby said he was a friend of Dell Harper’s.”
“Tommy Barnett is from Houston, Dell’s old neighborhood.”
“The same neighborhood we’re headed for, right?”
Reese nodded. “You think he took Abby and Elena to the ball game?”
“Just a feeling,” he said, praying his instincts were right. Dell had loved to play baseball. Jake recalled a photograph of Abby and Dell after a game, Dell’s arm around Abby’s shoulder, their heads close together, both smiling broadly. The memory clutched at his stomach.
Jake could kick himself now for not digging into Dell’s background, for not being more suspicious of the man. But he’d thought it was just jealousy that had made him suspect Dell, and hadn’t listened to his instincts.
Reese turned into the baseball field parking lot and could see the ballpark ahead. It was deserted. His heart lunged in his chest. His instincts had been wrong. Or he hadn’t gotten here in time.
“The game got out early,” he said.
“No.” Reese pointed to an adjacent ballpark where the lights still glowed on the field but only a couple of cars remained in the lot. “Looks like you’re right on target.”
AS ABBY walked across the field, she saw that they were in an older field. The lights of another park shone down on the deep green of the diamond in the distance. Earlier she’d heard cars leaving, the sounds diminishing. Now the lights blinked off, pitching the park into darkness except for a shaft of light spilling out from beneath the concession area below the stands.
Under a moon cloaked in clouds, she walked ahead of Tommy across the dew-damp field, her eyes on the light, her heart pounding. Elena. Oh God, let her be all right. At that moment, she had just one wish. To hold her daughter in her arms. Even for one last time.
The stands stood empty and dark. Quiet settled over the ballpark and the humid spring night, as they crossed the deserted diamond.
Suddenly she spotted Elena in the dark bleachers. A man sat next to her. Elena waved excitedly when she saw her. The man rose and took Elena’s hand. They started down the steps toward the field.
Her heart leapt into her throat at the sight of her daughter. All her FBI training hadn’t prepared her for this. She knew better than to try to talk Tommy out of the finale he’d planned. His loyalty to Dell was unconditional. And she’d he
ard enough that night at the warehouse to know that it had been Tommy who had forced Dell to go through with his plot against Frank Jordan and Buster McNorton.
Nothing she could say would change Tommy’s mind. She understood his commitment. While misplaced, it reminded her of the commitment she felt for her daughter. The same one she’d made years ago to Jake Cantrell. She would kill for Elena and Jake.
But she also knew that the odds of getting herself and Elena out of this weren’t good. While she might be able to get the better of Tommy, she didn’t stand much of a chance against two men.
And all the training in the world couldn’t make her forget that this was her little girl running toward her. Her daughter who trusted and loved her without question.
She felt paralyzed at the thought of risking Elena’s life. Because anything she did would be risky at best.
She glanced back at Tommy. He’d put the gun into his pocket again along with his hand. His look warned her to be very careful of what she did or said.
“Mommy!” Elena cried as she ran to her. “I flew in a helicopter all over and I got sick and threw up and I slept funny and I cried and I saw a baseball game and I ate hot dogs and popcorn and cotton candy and I so wanted my Sweet Ana and you, Mommy, and Daddy. They said you’d come. Where’s Daddy? Why didn’t he come with you?”
Abby fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around her baby, hugging her desperately. “Oh, Elena.” What a resilient child, always finding that silver lining.
“I missed you, Mommy,” Elena whispered.
“I missed you, too, chica suena.” She felt Tommy behind her.
“Let’s go down to the concession stand,” he said. She heard him take a deep breath. “Dell did love the game of baseball. He would have loved a night like this.”
She heard the break in Tommy’s voice, the anguish. As she pulled Elena up into her arms, she thought of Dell, the little brother she’d always wanted. “I loved Dell, too,” she whispered and looked over at Tommy.
