He broke off as the sheriff’s deputy pulled into the school parking lot. Drew glanced at his watch, a little stunned to realize less than ten minutes had passed. Drew saw immediately that the deputy had been expecting to find Quinn there.
“Detective Dunbar called me,” he mentioned. “Said you were working a possible threat that could be related. That it might be a kidnapping.”
“Yes,” Quinn said, his voice flatter than Drew had ever heard it. The man was angry, he realized. Good. So was he. And hearing the word kidnapping out loud added a layer of terror to the anger. It was not a pleasant combination.
Quinn introduced them as Luke’s parents. The man, whose name tag read “R. George,” was respectful and reassuring. And got right to business, which Drew appreciated.
“Juvie detective is on her way, but I’ll get started.”
“There are several kids involved, possible witnesses. It’ll take some finesse, they’re pretty young,” Hayley said.
An hour later, they had a picture, albeit incomplete, of what had happened.
It was Alyssa who found the key, when one little girl who recognized her as Luke’s mom said she’d seen Luke talking to the man who had kept one of the puppies from “getting runned over” by an arriving school bus.
“He was a nice man,” she repeated. “He saved the black-and-white one.”
Drew’s heart sank. For all the warnings about bad people using animals, it was only natural to a six-year-old that someone who saved a helpless puppy had to be good. Innocents just didn’t think that way, which was why it worked so often.
“Was he somebody’s dad?” Alyssa asked.
“I don’t think so.”
“Have you ever seen him before?” Drew asked.
Everyone expected a no, and froze when the wide-eyed girl slowly nodded. Drew wasn’t sure if she was wide-eyed because of what she was saying, or because he was asking and he was so much bigger than she. He left it, with effort, to Alyssa, as did the deputy, who merely waited as she reached out and took the child’s hand. The tiny fingers curled around hers. Drew wondered if it was just Alyssa who was able to elicit such instant trust, or if it was something that somehow came with motherhood.
“Where?” she asked gently.
“Over there,” she said, vaguely gesturing toward the thick juniper hedge that served as the playground’s fence. The hedge where Cutter had found Luke’s shoe.
If her heart had kicked into overdrive as his had, Alyssa managed to hide it, keeping her tone even and casual with the already nervous child.
“When did you see him?” she asked.
“Couple times.”
“Lately?”
The girl frowned. Alyssa tried again. “After Halloween or before?”
“After,” she said confidently. “But today he was still carrying his pumpkin bag. Silly. Halloween was way long ago.”
Drew sucked in a sharp breath. “What kind of bag?”
She looked at him warily, telling him he hadn’t been as successful as Alyssa in keeping his tone level. But she answered.
“Pumpkin. You know, like you fill with straw and stuff and it looks like a big jack-o-lantern.”
The girl held her arms out in a big circle. Drew knew, all right. They were a frequent sight in yards all over for that spooky holiday, black garbage bags with orange pumpkins with carved faces printed on the sides.
Large bags.
Large enough to stuff with a six-year-old boy.
Chapter 27
Alyssa sat on one of the chairs in the principal’s conference room and stared down once more at the text message displayed on her phone’s screen. It seemed a mocking parody, the grim words in the stylish font she had chosen just because she’d been bored with the standard one that had been preinstalled.
The message had come in nearly an hour ago, but still she stared at it unbelievingly.
Price has gone up. A million bucks if you want to see the kid again. Instructions to follow.
“Whatever he wants, I’ll pay it,” Drew said flatly. “I don’t care what it costs, what we have to sell or put up as collateral. We’ll worry about him coming back for more after we have Luke back safe.”
Alyssa ignored her own trembling. It was pointless, useless, accomplished nothing. She focused on Drew’s voice, on the determination there. He’d never not followed through, and he would now. He would get Luke back, somehow. She had to believe that.
“Oh, he won’t be coming back for more,” Quinn said, with a conviction Alyssa appreciated, although it didn’t give her the same feeling as Drew’s determination. Not that she didn’t think Quinn equally capable of follow through, but Quinn was working on the principle of a missing child he wasn’t connected to.
Drew was looking for his son.
It hit her then, just how true what she’d said—had it truly only been last night?—had been. Drew was her son’s father, in every sense but one, and that one seemed, in this moment definitely the least important.
Other memories crowded in then, hot, potent memories of the rest of last night, of how she’d turned to him, what he’d done to her and she to him, after she’d intentionally lowered her defenses and taken that step she’d known even then could well be irrevocable.
She fought down a flood of guilt, her panicked heart clamoring that this was what she got for that, that there was, of course, a price to be paid for the sweetness she’d found in the dark. Wasn’t there always? It had been fine when it had been an obligation response, a cold sort of payback. Something she’d done only because she felt she owed him.
You couldn’t be hurt if your feelings weren’t involved, right? At least, that’s what she’d always told herself. She wasn’t so sure anymore. Either that she couldn’t be hurt, or that her feelings weren’t involved.
But this time she had known. She had known and she had wanted it anyway. More than she could remember wanting anything in her life. Or anyone. Including Doug.
For an instant she felt as if Doug himself had orchestrated this, from beyond the grave, that he was somehow paying her back for turning to his brother.
For wanting his brother.
For enjoying it far more with his brother than she ever had with him.
And that was something she never would have thought possible. But then, she hadn’t known sex could be like it had been last night, with both of them willing and for, if not the right reasons, at least better ones.
“Liam says there was no other trace of Oliver in the woods,” Quinn said, yanking her back to the present, moving on as if Drew hadn’t spoken about simply paying the ransom. “Cutter didn’t cue on anything.”
Drew’s brows lowered slightly. “Would he have? I mean, he was tracking Luke.”
Quinn nodded. “Cutter would have known, made the switch from tracking Luke to Oliver. To him, the site where Oliver grabbed him would have had both scents mixed together, so he would have connected them.”
“Amazing,” Drew said, glancing at the dog who was once more getting up to pace the room. Alyssa had noticed the pattern. Up, down, trying to rest then getting up to pace again—the dog was acting as she felt, edgy, nervous, wanting to do something, anything, but not knowing what.
“He doesn’t wait any better than we do,” Hayley said. “He’d rather be doing. Something. Anything. Just as we would.”
Alyssa let out a compressed breath at the acknowledgement of frustration. Just sitting here when Luke was apparently in dire trouble seemed so wrong. She watched the dog for a moment, remembering his certainty as he’d tracked through the woods.
“Are we really sure about what happened?” she asked tentatively. “I mean, we’re assuming it’s Baird because that’s the only thing that makes sense, but do you really think he—” She stopped, gulping in air that sud
denly seemed in short supply. Then she tried again. “Do you really think he put Luke in a garbage bag?”
“It’s a lot of surmising,” Quinn agreed, “but not without foundation.”
Alyssa felt a shudder go through her. Guilt rose up again, in a different form this time but even more potent.
“We should have pulled him out of school,” she said again, looking at Drew, feeling somehow she owed him this, on top of everything else. “You were right. I was worried about him being scared, and now I know he should have been. Then maybe he...”
Drew didn’t gloat, but then he never did. She was Luke’s mother and he’d let her win that battle because of that. “Later,” he said. “That doesn’t help get Luke back now.”
He was right—again—she thought. She was being self-indulgent, placing blame when it couldn’t help, when it didn’t really matter. What really mattered was finding Luke. She nodded once, sharply, decisively.
“It was a mistake to trust anybody but ourselves,” Quinn said grimly.
“What do we do now?” Alyssa asked. “Just wait?”
That seemed beyond her, to just sit and wait while Luke was out there, terrified and maybe even hurt. She’d thought the day when a cop had shown up at the door of the rundown trailer they’d been living in and told her Doug was dead would forever be the worst of her life.
She’d been wrong.
“I have no intention of just sitting around waiting for this piece of debris to call,” Drew said.
“Nor do we,” Hayley said. “The sheriff’s office is handling the rest of the kid and staff interviews. Liam and Teague are going door to door down the street where Cutter led us. We’ve got more faith in him than the deputies do. If anybody saw the car that was parked there, we’ll find them.”
“Then what?” Alyssa asked, trying to find hope in that.
“Then we have something to work with,” Quinn said.
“The school’s being very cooperative,” Hayley said. “They know their reputation is at stake.”
“Not to mention their liability,” Quinn said drily.
“I don’t care about that right now, either. Once Luke is back, I’ll build them that new playground they want gratis, as long as he’s okay,” Drew said.
“But a million dollars...can we come up with that kind of money?” Alyssa asked quietly.
“The business is worth more,” Drew said. “The big fish are always looking to buy us out. I’ll come up with it somehow.”
The business. The business his great-grandfather had begun, the business four generations of Kileys had built and saved through tough times. Yet he talked of selling as if it were nothing.
To him it was, next to Luke.
“You won’t have to,” Quinn said in response to Drew’s words.
“What?”
“Foxworth will cover it, if it comes to that.”
Drew’s eyes narrowed. “A million dollars? Are you kidding?”
“No,” Quinn said calmly, as if his family’s foundation handed out that amount every day. Who knows, Alyssa thought, maybe they did.
“It’s part of the deal,” Hayley explained. “If we take on a case, we take on all aspects of it. That’s why we’re so selective.”
“Maybe you should have stuck to your no domestic cases rule,” Drew said.
“But it didn’t stay that kind of case, did it?” Quinn said.
“We should have known that would happen when Cutter insisted we get involved,” Hayley said.
The door to the small room opened. Alyssa’s heart leapt. A tall, lean man with dark hair touched with silver at the temples stepped into the room. Hayley smiled, a wide smile of welcome; obviously this was someone she knew and liked.
Quinn stood. “Brett,” he said, holding out a hand.
The other man took it, nodding as they shook hands. “Hayley,” he said with an answering smile as he acknowledged her.
Quinn turned back. “Meet Drew and Alyssa Kiley. Luke’s parents. This is Detective Dunbar.”
Alyssa studied the man for a moment. He looked lean and fit, his face and body looked much younger than his hair and eyes would suggest. She guessed those eyes had seen a lot, much of it unpleasant. There was nothing openly hard-line or hard-hitting about him, but she sensed it was there, under the surface, to be called upon if need be.
She was surprised he was here, Hayley had said he wasn’t a missing-persons detective.
“Didn’t expect you in person,” Quinn said, echoing her thoughts.
The man shrugged. “I heard the call go out. Seems like your case suddenly turned into something else.”
“Yes,” Quinn said, and gave him a quick rundown.
Alyssa watched the man as Quinn explained their complicated situation, explained that Luke’s biological father was Drew’s brother, but they were now married. He glanced at them then, but if he was making any judgments it didn’t show.
There was a lot of respect between the two men, that was clear. Somehow that reassured her. She had the unexpected thought that she was sitting in a room with three examples of the strongest kind of men, different, yet all quintessentially male. Quinn, with his air of command, now Dunbar, with that quiet power just beneath the surface. And of course Drew, with his strength and steady, unwavering dedication to doing what was right.
She glanced at Hayley, who wore a tiny smile as if she were thinking the same thing. Hayley glanced her way and the smile widened slightly, and Alyssa knew she’d been right. That expression said “They’re really something, aren’t they?” as clearly as if the other woman had spoken.
A muffled voice Alyssa still recognized as Liam’s issued from the phone Quinn had put down on the table.
“Boss?”
Quinn picked it up. “Go, Liam.”
The phone crackled, but she heard the words anyway.
“Got two wits with matching info. I think we’ve got an ID on the car.”
Alyssa’s heart leapt, her pulse picking up speed. She sensed Drew’s sudden stillness, knew if she touched him his every muscle would be taut, ready.
“Plate?” Dunbar asked instantly.
“Agreement on all but the last two digits,” said another voice, Teague this time. “But we’ve got agreement on the make and color.”
Quinn looked at the detective. “Enough for an Amber Alert?”
Alyssa’s breath caught. The idea of Luke’s description being broadcast on police radios all over, and showing up on the many informational signs along the highways, both reassured and horrified her. Reassured her that it was being done, and horrified her that it was necessary. She hoped she never saw one of those signs, the image would never leave her.
“I’ll make sure of it,” Dunbar said. “And I’ll get somebody working on coming up with the rest of the plate.”
“I’ll put Tyler to work on that, too,” Quinn said, then added, “With your permission.”
Dunbar flashed the other man a wry look. “As if that would stop you. But I appreciate the courtesy.”
“Which,” Hayley put in, “he doesn’t extend to just anybody.”
Dunbar looked at Hayley, and Alyssa thought she saw a flicker of something in the man’s eyes. Sadness, longing, or something she couldn’t put an exact name to.
“I’m honored.” Alyssa sensed there was a solid core of truth under the dry words.
Drew spoke for the first time since the detective’s arrival. “The ferry cams,” he said. “Where that car was parked was between two of them. If he went east or west on the highway...”
“They would have caught him,” Quinn said, getting there instantly. “And if they didn’t, that narrows it down to side streets. Great call. Brett?”
“I’ll call DOT,” he said, “but from past experience I’d say
it’ll take them half an hour just to get started.”
“Tyler can do it faster,” Quinn said, “but he might have to...”
“Yeah. I didn’t hear that,” Dunbar said.
“I’ll get him started,” Hayley said, walking off to one side with her phone in hand.
Alyssa took a deep breath. Crazily, now that something was finally happening she felt more wound up than she had been when they’d been sitting here doing nothing.
They would find the car, they would find and deal with Baird, and they would find Luke. He would be fine, and they’d take him home and work on forgetting this had ever happened. That was how it had to be.
Anything less was unfathomable.
Chapter 28
It went against his instincts to leave the place where Luke had been last, and Drew had to pound home the logic that he was gone, and that hanging around there wasn’t accomplishing anything. The juvenile detective had arrived, a young woman Dunbar assured them would get whatever remaining information there was to get. Drew had still hesitated, but Dunbar trusted the woman, and Quinn fully trusted Dunbar. And he had the distinct feeling Quinn didn’t bestow his trust lightly. And that he was able to pick good people was obvious; they were all around him.
Still, it took all he had to stop himself from driving all over town, searching. Except that if Oliver had a car, he could be anywhere by now. The sheriffs were looking. The info was out to the State Patrol. Law enforcement was in motion, doing what it did.
But to them, a missing child, while critical, wasn’t personal. For all their dedication, Luke wasn’t their child. Although Dunbar had acted as if he were, Drew had to admit that.
And so did Foxworth. Liam, Teague and the formidable Rafer were actively searching, and unlike the sheriff’s office, which had other things to deal with, they were doing it to the exclusion of all else. Drew knew their best hope was Foxworth, with the resources he didn’t completely understand yet.
One of those resources, Cutter, was not happy. As they arrived at the Foxworth building, that anonymous three-story green building that housed this remarkable operation, the dog looked exactly as Drew felt, downcast, head lowered, tail dragging.
Operation Unleashed Page 21
