The Black Feather

by Olivia Claire High

  He’d known from the first moment he felt his control slipping that things were going to be different for him this time. Thad almost wished she would have refused to sleep with him; and then maybe he wouldn’t be so personally involved. Yeah, right, his brain scoffed. He wanted her to reciprocate as much as he needed to draw air into his lungs.

  He switched his thoughts, mentally listing the general facts of the situation up to this point. Wendell was now safe, but too ill to be of any help. Muriel’s disappearance might or might not be a good thing. He didn’t know where the phones were and the Montanes wouldn’t let up their relentless search no matter how many people they had to hurt.

  “A damn soap opera,” he muttered under his breath and headed back to Wendell’s room.

  He found Suzanne still sitting in a chair, sound asleep with the upper half of her body slumped over the side of her father’s bed. He shook his head and lifted her into his arms receiving a mumbled protest.

  “Don’t wanna.”

  “Hush now,” Thad softly scolded, as he laid her on the cot he’d asked for earlier.

  She curled on her side and pressed her head into the pillow. He slipped off her shoes, covered her with a blanket, and left the room as silently as he’d entered. He walked down the hallway, nodded to the man standing guard, and stepped outside for some fresh air.

  Thad looked around him. The clinic was more like an exclusive resort for people who wanted a private place to recover from whatever ailed them. Hidden in the mountains, the building sat amid thick foliage surrounded by a spiked wrought iron fence with security cameras and a twenty-four hour guard at the gate. It might seem like a prison to some, but for others the place meant more of a sanctuary. He supposed it depended on why you were here.

  There could be healing behind these walls, or there could be heartbreak.

  Which one, Thad wondered, would it turn out to be for Suzanne?

  Suzanne pressed the pillow against her ears trying to ignore the persistent ringing. She knew the sound came from her phone just as she knew it would be either Heather or Aaron. A quick glance at her watch let her know it wasn’t even dawn yet. They’d been calling and leaving text messages each more frantic than the last. They told her they contacted the owners of the inn and knew she’d left.

  Suzanne groaned wishing she could have told the proprietors to lie and say she’d gone for a day’s outing. But that wouldn’t have satisfied her friends for long. Now that they realized she’d left they were going out of their minds wanting to know if she was all right. Suzanne sat up knowing she couldn’t avoid talking to them any longer.

  She looked down at the cot wondering how she got there. She supposed she was so sleepy she must have crawled in here without thinking. She stared toward her father’s bed. His eyes were closed in sleep. She grabbed her purse and shuffled her way to his bathroom hoping to revive herself.

  Suzanne swallowed and grimaced. Her mouth tasted like she’d licked a shag carpet. She set her purse on the counter before turning on the water to rinse her mouth out. She splashed water on her face, rubbing the last residue of sleep out of her eyes before combing her hair.

  She pulled her phone out of her bag and held it in her hand for a few seconds wondering if she should wait for Thad to be here before she called Heather back. She shook her head. She knew he hadn’t been getting much sleep himself. She didn’t have the heart to call and wake him up just to subject the poor man to Heather’s dramatic ranting. She steeled herself and made the call.

  “Hello, Heather.”

  “Suzanne!” The name came out in a shrill yelp.

  “Thank God you called. You can’t know how upsetting it’s been for us knowing we couldn’t call the police. Where are you? Why did you leave the inn? Did the Montanes find your hiding place? Why haven’t you gotten in touch with us before now?”

  Heather riddled her with questions making Suzanne wish she could put the phone away from her ear.

  “I can’t tell you where I am, but I’m in a safe place.”

  “What do you mean you can’t tell me? This is Heather you’re talking to, remember?”

  “It’s safer for all of us if you don’t know. But I will tell you I’m with my dad.”

  “You found him? Thank the lord! What about the phones? Do you have them?”

  “No.”

  “I hope you’re not lying to me, girlfriend.”

  “Heather, for heaven’s sake. What a thing to say. Why would I lie to you?”

  “What do you expect me to think when you left the inn without telling me and waited so long to call? Aaron and I have tried to help you in every way we know how and this is how you thank us.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “I’ve gone way beyond being upset and since you’ve shown so little regard for my feelings I’m going to tell you something I’ve been trying to avoid. Maybe then you’ll understand where I’m coming from. We both know your father likes to gamble. He came to our house just before he disappeared and said he owed the Montanes a lot of money for his losses. He said they were going to kill him if he didn’t come up with the cash.”

  Suzanne sucked in a shocked breath.

  “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

  “Because I know how much he’s hurt you over the years. I didn’t want to add to that pain. Wendell begged us to help him. Aaron withdrew every cent out of our savings, plus we took a second loan on our house and gave him all the money.”

  “My God, how much did he owe?”

  “It’s quite a lot.”

  “How much, Heather?” Suzanne insisted, and gasped at the amount. “You’re right, that is a lot. I’ll give you what I have in my savings and take a loan on my house.”

  “I wish to God we’d never fell for your dad’s sob story and got mixed up in this.”

  “I wished you hadn’t, either. I’ll never be able to find enough words to thank you.”

  “Words aren’t going to do much good. We need those phones. Are you going to help us get them?”

  “I’ve already promised to pay you the money Dad took. What are you going to do with the phones?”

  “Give them to the Montane brothers.”

  “Heather! You can’t be serious.”

  Suzanne’s legs felt so shaky she had to lean against the counter.

  “Oh yes I am. Thanks to your ungrateful parent, the Montanes have threatened to kill us if we don’t get those phones for them. They know we’re friends with you. We tried to protect you. That’s why Aaron took you away. Now I’m asking you to help us before we end up wearing cement boots.”

  “Please don’t say such things. I’d give the phones to you, but I meant it when I said I didn’t have them. Thad helped me.”

  Heather hissed into the phone.

  “I thought you said he was a double-crossing rat.”

  “My dad had me jumping to all the wrong conclusions. Thad really is trying to help me. His people found Dad. He’s very ill, Heather. Remember how worried I was when I saw all that blood at the motel? Well, Dad suffered some serious cuts from that broken window, and then he got an infection. He’s delirious, and so far I can’t get anything out of him about where the phones might be.”

  “What about that Muriel? Have you asked her?” Heather demanded without offering a word of sympathy for Wendell. But Suzanne supposed she couldn’t blame her friend after what her father had done to them.

  “I would have, but she ran off before I got here to Dad.”

  “Well, isn’t that wonderful? It’s nice that you and your daddy are both safe while, Aaron and I are left here just waiting for the Montanes to pounce.”

  “Heather, I’m so sorry. What if I took a picture of my dad showing how sick he is? You could send it to the Montane brothers. They’d only have to look to know he’s really out of it.”

  “They don’t want a damn picture, they want those phones!”

  Suzanne recoiled at her friend’s desperate shriek.


  “I’m just trying to think of what I can do to help.”

  “I have an idea if you really mean what you say.”

  “Of course I do.”

  “The Montanes might get off our backs if we gave them a token of goodwill.”

  “I don’t have a lot of money and I certainly don’t know what else we could offer them besides Dad’s phones.”

  “I do.”

  Suzanne frowned.

  “What?”

  “You.”

  Seventeen

  Suzanne wandered out of her father’s room feeling sick with worry for her friends and scared to death for herself if she did succeed in going to the Montanes. She thought it’d be impossible to get out of here without being noticed, until she went outside for some air and saw a bakery van.

  She swore her brain must be on automatic pilot when she hoisted herself up and climbed into the van before she even registered what she was doing. She wedged her way between the rows of shelves holding covered trays of donuts, Danish rolls, and wrapped sandwiches. She wondered if the driver locked up every time he left the truck. She got inside with surprising ease, but getting out might be more difficult.

  Suzanne didn’t know where she’d end up, but at least she’d be out of Thad’s reach. Her heart ached for what she was doing to him again. Would he ever forgive her even if she explained that she had no choice but to put her friends first after what her father had done to them? Could she make Thad see that while she cared for him deeply, she’d only known him for a short time compared to Heather who’d been part of her life for years?

  Suzanne was pretty sure Thad would be hounding them as soon as he’d discovered she was gone. He’d want to stay in touch despite their mistrust of each other. She could only hope he would understand why she ran away from him once Heather explained the situation. Thinking of what she’d promised to do for Heather made her body prickle with nerves.

  Caesar Montane wanted the damning phones, but he also wanted his daughter back and would stop at nothing to have his revenge on her for running out on him. God only knows what he would do to the daughter of the man who threatened to destroy his criminal empire. Would offering herself as bait bring Heather and Aaron the reprieve they needed? Perspiration glossed Suzanne’s skin, as she tried not to think about the terrible things Thad and Dewey said about the Montanes.

  Was she about to embark on a mission of mercy for her friends, or end up taking a path to her death?

  It didn’t take much time searching the premises for Thad to know that Suzanne had left the clinic. The only vehicle coming through the security gate during the time she must have disappeared was the bakery van making a delivery to the cafeteria. It looked like the driver had driven away with yesterday’s stale bread and one very resourceful lady.

  So, as much as Thad hated to admit it, his run away woman had run away again. This made three times now that she’d managed to elude him. Three times was a strike out and it looked like he was on the losing side. He didn’t like losing and he especially didn’t appreciate being made to look like a fool, which thanks to Suzanne outwitting him was exactly how he felt.

  Thad decided he’d better rethink his profession if he couldn’t do any better than this. Maybe Heather wasn’t so far off when she said she wouldn’t trust him to watch her dog. And speaking of that woman, he knew she was trying to locate Suzanne herself. Would the two women be in touch with each other?

  Suzanne had gone to her friend before when she needed help in getting away from him. Now that they’d finally found her father she gave every indication she wouldn’t run away again. So why did she leave without telling him? What was so important it couldn’t wait?

  Thad had deliberately left word with both the guard and nurses on duty that he planned to spend the night on one of the couches in the waiting room at the clinic in case Suzanne needed him. The only thing they could tell him this morning was that Suzanne had come out of her father’s room shortly after dawn saying she was going to the cafeteria for some coffee.

  Thad knew a machine provided that when the place was shut down for the night. They assumed she’d stayed there. He didn’t chastise the guard, although it would have helped if someone bothered to tell him when Suzanne left her father’s room. Thad knew it was the man’s job to watch Wendell, while he was personally responsible for keeping tabs on the slicker than slick Suzanne.

  He yanked his phone out of his pocket and called the front gate, fighting down his anger.

  “This is Novak. Has the bakery van left yet?”

  “No, but I see him coming right now.”

  “Don’t let him leave. I have reason to believe he’s carrying something I’m looking for.”

  “Do you want me to do a search?”

  “No, that would be my job.”

  Thad jogged out to his truck just as his phone signaled a call from his office. “Novak.”

  “I did that background check on the Martins you ask for and if they might have any connection to the Montanes,” a female voice said. “I think you’ll be interested in what I found.”

  Thad listened and the more he heard, the tighter his hand gripped the phone.

  The van slowed down and stopped. Suzanne could hear the driver and the guard talking, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. Several seconds ticked by. Why was it taking so long to get going again? The driver made daily deliveries, so he must have full clearance to come and go without this much delay. Suzanne pushed herself back trying to scrunch her body into tight space when the back doors suddenly flung open bringing in a rush of cool morning air along with Thad’s chilly sounding words.

  “I know you’re in here, Suzanne.”

  “Listen mister, are you sure the woman you’re looking for is hiding in my van?” the driver said. “I’ve got a schedule to keep, so I can’t be hanging around here all day.”

  “She’s here. Come out on your own, or I’ll come in and drag you. Which is it to be?”

  Suzanne peeked out from behind a box and began to crawl toward the exit, trembling as every inch brought her closer to the two men with very different expressions. The wide eyed driver turned to Thad.

  “I hope you don’t think I knew about this. I had no idea she was in there.”

  “I know you didn’t,” Thad ground out, grabbing Suzanne by the arm and jerking her to the ground.

  “I can explain,” she said, wincing in pain from his hard fingers.

  Thad ignored her and motioned to the driver. “You can go now. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”

  His hand tightened on her arm as he forced her to walk to his truck where he shoved her into the cab before climbing in behind the wheel.

  “I can explain,” Suzanne said again. “I called Heather. She and Aaron are in danger. They loaned my dad a huge amount of money to pay off his gambling debts to the Montanes. They need my help. I know you two don’t trust each other, so I hid inside the van because I was afraid you wouldn’t let me leave.”

  The words tumbled out of her in a rush. A muscle tweaked along Thad’s jaw while he stared straight ahead. He stopped, yanked open the door, and practically lifted Suzanne bodily off the front seat. He marched her into the clinic and down a hallway where he shoved her into a janitor’s closet.

  “Stay,” he ordered, pointing to a stool.

  He gave the one word command as though he might be speaking to a dog that had disobeyed him.

  “In here? Thad, I can’t. I told you about Heather. I have to help her. She’s counting on me.”

  “I suspect you’ll be receiving a call from her in a while. Don’t use your phone until then.”

  Suzanne lunged forward as he started to close the door.

  “You can’t leave me in here,” she yelled and pounded on the door when she heard the sound of a lock being clicked into place. She staggered back and plopped down on the little stool.

  “Now what?”

  Heather cowered in one corner of her couch cringing a
t the rage in Thad’s eyes, as he leaned over her. He looked ready to tear something apart. Mainly her.

  “I want to know what Suzanne planned to do for you, and I want to know now.”

  “I . . . I don’t have any idea.”

  His big hands balled into fists.

  “I’ve never hit a woman before, but so help me God if you don’t give me some answers pretty damn quick you’re about to become the first.”

  “I really don’t know where she is.”

  Heather hurried on avoiding his question.

  “Suzie was supposed to call me if she could get away from you. I haven’t heard from her. I swear.”

  Thad had the information from his agency and he remembered what Suzanne had told him, but he wanted to hear Heather’s version.

  “I asked you what she was going to do to help you, not where she is. Why did she want to leave on her own and without me knowing?”

  Heather licked her lips.

  “Aaron and I are having some problems. Suzie offered to help us.”

  “Where is your husband now?”

  “He’s passed out in our bedroom. Had too much to drink. We need a lot of money. Suzie said she’d pay, but what we’re really after are the phones her dad is carrying.”

  “Why?”

  “Aaron is addicted to gambling. I’ve begged him to get counseling, but he won’t. He didn’t realize the loan shark he’s been involved with was affiliated with the Montane brothers. When they found out I’m such good friends with Suzanne, they began to threaten to kill us if we didn’t get those phones. That’s why we kept hoping her dad would call her again. We thought we had him when she confided to me that he and Muriel were at that motel.”

  “So you’re the reason they left in such a hurry. Did you tip off the Montanes the day we had lunch? Is that why Suzanne and I were followed?”