by Lisa Childs
“I can’t believe that’s where you hid.” That was where Royce had found him—hanging from the side of the building. “You managed to climb up at night in the fog?” The kid amazed the hell out of him.
Jeremy nodded again. “You taught me.”
“Not all that.” He brushed a knuckle against the kid’s high forehead. “You’ve got that up here. Brains. And guts, kid, more guts than most men I know.”
The kid blinked furiously as his face flushed bright red. “Nobody…” His voice cracked. “Thanks…”
An awkward silence hung between them where Royce was conscious of his arms hanging heavy at his sides. He wanted to wrap them around the kid, wanted to hold him tight.
“And,” Jeremy continued. “I had to get away from the dogs.”
Royce laughed. “Yeah…you did.” He squeezed the nape of the boy’s neck, pulling the kid’s head against his heart as it filled with love. “God, you’re smart.”
Jeremy sniffed hard, fighting back tears. Then his arms wound around Royce’s waist, and he clung. “I’m sorry, Royce, so sorry I made Mom cry.”
“Your mom’s a strong lady. She’s fine now. Remember, she’s already nagging you. About what, a bracelet?”
The kid held up his wrist where a telltale medical alert bracelet dangled.
“I thought you were perfectly healthy.”
“I am. I just have a really rare blood type. This is in case I ever got in an accident and needed a transfusion or something.”
Royce nodded, his mind starting to leap ahead. But the curtain slid back. Instead of a young, harassed doctor, Donald Graham poked his gray head inside their confined area.
“Did my mom send you back?” Jeremy asked.
The old man shook his head. “No, she’s taking a walk. Said to page her if you needed her.”
Damn them both, Royce wanted to page her, wanted to admit he needed her. He lifted a brow, still stunned by his father’s earlier admissions. “And?”
“An officer you talked to at the company wanted to come back, but the nurse resisted. So I’m bringing his message…” He glanced to the kid.
Royce wasn’t about to let him out of his sight. “He’s seen a lot tonight. He’ll be okay. What is it?”
“They rushed the ballistics test like you insisted. The gun you found at the scene was the one used to shoot Bart.”
Royce nodded, hardly surprised.
“And the gun used to kill the guard was a World War II Colt.”
“Bart’s gun.”
His father nodded. “Damn fool shouldn’t have confronted the burglar—shouldn’t have done it. And keeping that money in his safe…he was begging to be robbed.”
“Why had he been desperate for cash?” Royce asked the question he’d pondered for some time.
“For the little girl. His granddaughter. Maggie’s namesake. He wanted to help with her medical expenses.”
Royce brushed a hand through his hair. “Yeah, he would.”
“Good man.” Donald Graham dragged in a deep, steadying breath. “Stubborn old fool, but a good man.”
“So whoever killed him got away with all that money?”
“Probably blew it up his nose, too.”
“You think this was about drugs?”
Donald snorted. “Damn druggies. That guard involved, I had a drug test ordered for him a few days after the breakin at Bart’s, but he called in sick just about the whole week. Then shows up last night…”
Royce’s gut tightened, his instincts screaming at him. “That man was involved in drugs?”
“That was the rumor. I also suspected his involvement in the breakins at the company. But I never got the chance to prove it. He never took that test.”
“Because first he took off work and then he turned up dead?”
Jeremy shivered.
“You okay, kid?” Royce asked.
“Yeah, just cold.”
He wrapped an arm around the boy’s thin shoulders. Maybe the trail to the kid’s kidnapper wasn’t as cold as he’d thought. “You were going to check this out yourself, Dad?”
The old man snorted again. “I don’t have time to do everything.”
“So who’d you delegate this to?”
Chapter Fourteen
Sarah stepped back as Pamela tiptoed around the bed and brushed trembling fingers through her daughter’s strawberry-blond hair. “Baby, just a little while longer now…” Her brashy voice vibrated with excitement.
“The doctor’s releasing her soon then?” Sarah asked.
Pamela flashed an irritated glance at her, as if asking why she was still there. “He’ll have to. We’re leaving the country. I just got my passport photo taken.”
Sarah’s stomach flipped. “Really? Where are you going?”
Pamela’s fingers continued stroking over her daughter’s hair, but she glared at Sarah for a few moments before answering. Then with a shrug, she replied, “South America.”
“Just you and Maggie?”
Pamela shook her head, but her hair didn’t even move. “I wish.”
“A mother has to do whatever she can to save her child. I understand, Pamela.”
“What?” she rasped, her painted-on brows knitting together in apparent confusion.
Real or feigned? Sarah had to know.
“If your daughter ever has a chance at living a normal life, she needs a transplant.”
Pamela nodded. “I know.”
“With her rare blood type, a donor’s going to be hard to find.”
The other woman shrugged. “Not anymore.”
Sarah’s pulse tripped. “Not in South America?”
Pamela glared again, the mascara sticking her lashes together. “This isn’t any of your business.”
“You made it my business.”
Pamela stepped away from the bed and pulled the curtain around her daughter, keeping Sarah from her. “You’re crazy, lady. I haven’t done anything.”
“You haven’t? Jeremy and Maggie are the same blood type, and better yet, they’re cousins. He’s the perfect donor. You had the guard kidnap my son to save your child.”
Pamela bit off a bark of laughter. “Sheesh, doesn’t matter how rich you are, you can still be nuts. Donny proved that to me. Lady, I haven’t done anything to anyone.” She lowered her voice. “I’ve been so damned busy with my daughter…”
The hint of tears in the dark eyes weakened Sarah’s conviction. “But…”
But it didn’t make sense. Because if Pamela had hired the guard, she’d know Jeremy had escaped from him. She’d know the donor was gone.
Pamela shivered and pulled her worn cardigan around her body. “Somebody kidnapped your kid, lady?”
Sarah nodded, the fear rising up to choke her again.
“But he’s okay? You said he’s here…with Royce?”
Royce. She didn’t have to fear for Jeremy’s safety. Royce had him. Then she glanced to the doorway, and she knew who was in danger as she faced a cold-blooded killer.
“Donny, I’ve got my suitcase packed and in the car…” Pamela stared hard at her ex-husband. “It’s too late, isn’t it? Whatever money you laid your hands on, you already blew it up your nose.”
“Shut up!” Although pitched low, his voice vibrated with anger, and madness swam in his gray eyes. “You’ve said too much already. Damn big mouth running all the time—that’s why I left you!”
“You left me for a high, Donny, for the drugs. But you didn’t just leave me, you left your sick daughter. Never supporting us…till now. What’d you do, Donny?” Dread pulled her face into a tight mask of disapproval.
“Shut up!”
Sarah surreptitiously glanced around the room, looking for an escape route, certain she’d need one. But Donny blocked the only exit, the door.
“Donny…”
“You should be happy for once. I stepped up just like you wanted me to. I took action to take care of my little girl. First, I went to Grandfather, asking him for
the money. He refused.”
Pamela nodded. “He knew how you’d use it, where it would go. Hell, Donny, you still owe people. And those are debts you can’t not pay and stay alive.”
“I was working on that, smuggling drugs in through the business for them. But the old man caught on to the missing inventory and increased security. So I got Patterson hired. But he couldn’t keep his nose clean. And I needed money faster than we could get it into the country.”
“You were stiffing those men?” Pamela grimaced.
Donny chuckled. “They won’t find me, not where we’re going.”
Pamela pressed a trembling hand against the curtain wrapped around her little girl’s bed. “We’re not going.”
“Yes, you are! And so are you, cousin!” Donny said with a sneer.
Sarah had hoped he’d forgotten her. She swallowed hard, forcing down the panic. “Donny, be reasonable.”
He laughed again, a higher-pitched noise bordering on hysteria. “Reasonable?”
He edged away from the door, moving into the room, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. “What’s reasonable about any of this? Life’s not fair, cousin. You’ve always had it easy, always had everything. Money. Power. A healthy son.”
She barely suppressed the shudder of revulsion as he neared. “Royce has Jeremy. He’s safe.”
“Royce,” he spat out the name, his face twisting with resentment. “Always the damned hero. Face always in the papers, on the news. Grandfather always gloating about his godson and looking at me like I was dirt.”
She stepped back, hoping to edge around him to the empty doorway. “I’m sorry, Donny…”
“You will be. And so will Royce. You aren’t the only one with a copy of your adoption record, Sarah. I have one, too, from the safe. It states place of birth— Winter Falls. I beat Royce there, the son of a bitch. I found you first, then I found out you had a son. Me and Patterson broke into the doctor’s office—only one in the whole damned town. And then I knew how you would help me, Sarah. But Royce kept getting in the way. Damn him. Not this time. He won’t be a hero this time. I’ll beat him again!” He withdrew one hand from his pocket, and a shaft of sunlight glinted off the barrel of a gun.
Pamela gasped. “Donny!”
The gun shook in his fist, his finger too close to the trigger. Sarah closed her eyes, holding in tears of fear and frustration. “Donny, it’s over now. Put the gun down.”
“No, it’s not over, cousin. Not until I say it’s over. I found some of the money that double-crosser stole from me—”
“From Grandfather, you mean.” Sarah’s stomach lurched as his confession sickened her. “You had that man rob your own grandfather, had him kill him…”
Sweat tricked from Donny’s brow. “No, he was just supposed to clean out the safe. Old man kept the combination on his ink blotter. Everybody knew. But Lionel got caught. He had to shoot him, but he only gave me a little cash, said that’s all there was. He should have known better than to lie to me!”
Behind the curtain, the little girl shifted against the bed. Donny’s finger twitched.
Sarah edged toward the door, Donny moving with her as if they danced some choreographed number. “So that’s why you killed him?”
“I hate liars and cheats! Then he lost the kid, too. Couldn’t even hang onto a kid. And he lied about that, too, taking me to that shed like he didn’t already know the boy was gone. Lying to me, constantly lying to me. He needed to die! I had to kill him, so I shot him with Grandfather’s gun. He deserved it!”
“Nobody deserves to die, Donny. Please put down the gun…” She backed out of the room and into the hall.
He shook his head, the black hair sticking to the perspiration gleaming on his forehead. “No! Not until Royce brings me your son.”
Sarah’s eyes burned with tears she refused to shed. “He won’t do that, Donny. You know Royce. You know how much he loves kids.”
“But he loves you more. I saw it in his eyes the other day, in the conference room. For your life, he’ll bring me the boy.” In his other hand he withdrew a cell phone. “Call him.”
She shook her head even as her stomach churned. She wanted to talk to Royce again, to tell him she loved him. As she should have told him before. But she wouldn’t make that call. “No.”
He lifted the gun, pressing it against her chest. “Oh, I think you will.”
“I thought you understood a parent’s love, Donny. I’d die for my child.”
His finger trembled against the trigger. “Then I guess you will—”
ROYCE PACED the sidewalk outside the hospital, his cell phone pressed to his ear. “Damn it! I can’t believe you lost him!”
“Lost who?” his father asked.
Royce swallowed a groan and snapped the phone shut. Who hadn’t he lost? Jeremy. The kid was safe inside with a couple of Royce’s trusted friends from the force. But Sarah…where the hell had Sarah gone? As much as he needed to see her, she wasn’t who he looked for, though. “Donny—the sniveling bastard!”
The old man laughed. “Yeah, that’s about it. Having him talk to that guard…”
“I had tails on all of them. Pamela, Alan and Donny.”
“Even me?”
Royce nodded. “I wasn’t taking any chances.”
Donald Graham sighed and rubbed a hand around the back of his neck. “Smart. I always knew you were smart.”
“I knew it was one of them. But Donny didn’t seem to have the brains or guts to pull off something like this, even though I knew he had the most motive.”
“I saw his face yesterday when the lawyer said all the money had been stolen from the safe…”
Royce barked out a bitter laugh. “Yeah, he was shocked. His accomplice had held out on him.”
“You think Donny robbed his own grandfather?” Donald’s face flushed with mottled color. “I can’t believe that. He was with me the night it happened, working late at the office.”
Royce smiled, relieved that he’d figured out who was responsible. “An alibi. He hired Lionel Patterson, the guard. Probably promised him a cut, but Patterson kept more than his share, which Donny found out at the reading of the will. So last night Donny killed him.”
“This is Donny we’re talking about, Royce. Weak, dependent Donny—”
“He’s desperate. People are capable of anything if they’re desperate enough, even killing.”
Chopper noise cut off the old man’s reply, and Royce glanced overhead as the helicopter headed for the roof. “That wasn’t aero med.” And those were the only ones authorized to land on a hospital. So if not for medical attention, why would the beat-up helicopter be there? Because someone had paid him.
He’d just found Donny…at the hospital. And since Sarah was missing…. If her cousin got her to the roof, Royce knew he’d never see her again. Never get to tell her he loved her. Never get to make her those promises she deserved…
“I’ve gotta get to the roof.” His glance traveled up the side of the building.
“The elevator…”
“Not fast enough. Not in this old building.” And he reached for the ladder of the fire escape.
“Royce!”
The iron ladder had baked in the morning sun, the metal scalding hot beneath his palms. Royce dragged himself up until he gained the first landing. Then he looked down at his father, the old man’s face creased with worry.
“Yeah, Dad?”
“Be careful!”
He couldn’t make that promise because he’d risk breaking the other one he’d made to Sarah. To protect her with his life.
SARAH DRAGGED her feet, stumbling on the steps as Donny forced her up the stairwell, the gun barrel digging into her back. “Where are you taking me?”
“Away for now. Then I’ll call Royce, and we’ll make the switch. You for the boy. And money, I’ll need money, Sarah. You have so much of it, you won’t even miss a couple of million.”
Sarah gritted her teeth. Money. He cared more
about the money than his daughter, even now. How much did he owe? “I’d miss my son, but you’re not getting him!”
He pushed harder, and she fell, slamming her knees into the steel treads. A fist in her hair dragged her to her feet. “Come on, cousin. Don’t slow me down. I hear the chopper.”
Sarah’s heart palpitated. “Chopper?”
“Why’d you think we were going up? To jump? Oh, no, as long as I’ve got you, I have options.”
Sarah shook her head, pulling against the hand still tangled in her hair. “No! How are you going to get your daughter now?”
“My ex is desperate. She’ll meet me where and when I say. We’ll get Maggie to the doctor in South America, not as quickly as I had planned. But I’ll get her there.” Sweat dripped off his lip and trickled down his chin.
“Donny, give up. I’ll help your daughter financially. And we’ll get you some help, too. You can beat the drugs.”
He laughed, the high-pitched sound of hysteria again, and madness flickered in his gray eyes. “You can’t beat drugs, Sarah. Can’t beat ’em.”
So that was how he’d dropped the pocketknife Royce had found on the shore. Drugs made him shaky, nervous and irrational. “Was that you on the ferry? Is this the gun you pressed to my head?”
He snorted. “That fool Patterson again. Risking you seeing him. I’d already gotten into the boat. He was dangerous, Sarah. I put the note in your car. He’s the one who called, who got pushy. And he already had that money from Bart’s safe…”
“He probably owed your suppliers, too.”
“He doesn’t owe anybody anything now. Enough talk!” He whirled her back around and shoved her toward the next flight of stairs. “Almost there. Almost to the chopper. I found enough money on Patterson to pay the pilot, but I need more, Sarah. What do you have?”
Since she had realized he couldn’t be persuaded to give up, she’d been waiting for an opportunity to escape. She dug her fingers into her pockets, wrapping them tight around a folded piece of paper. “There’s the cashier’s check I had made out for the ransom.”
He reached, but she jerked back, flinging her arm over the railing. The paper slipped through her fingers and floated down the stairwell.
