Maggie and Jarrett’s gazes met. Their phones had been ringing all day, with Taylor’s friends calling as well their concerned parents. Kyle had called, too. He was still out looking for Taylor.
Still, there was an instant of fear reflected in both their eyes. What if she’d drowned? What if she’d really been kidnapped? Or worse . . .
Maggie nodded to him. Go ahead. Answer, she was saying. Her eyes were filled with concern and love not just for Taylor, but for him, too. Her love gave him the courage to answer the phone.
“Hello?”
“Mr. McKay?” The uneducated male voice sent a shiver of fear down Jarrett’s spine.
He glanced up at Maggie, immediately getting her attention. “Yes, this is he.”
“Mr. McKay, I’m going to give these instructions just once, so you listen,” the man said. “You listen, and that little girl of yours will be just fine.”
Chapter 18
Maggie exhaled as she sat on the edge of Jarrett’s bed. The mattress gave as if it were as weary as she was. All day she had been active making phone calls and driving up and down the avenue. Now there was nothing to do but wait, her energy spent.
Jarrett sat on the opposite edge, his back to her. Neither spoke. They were too tired, too stunned. Too scared.
Beyond the closed bedroom door, she could hear low voices in the living room. The FBI had been called in because of the ransom demand. They had camped out in the living room in case the kidnapper called again. The phone was tapped and a listening device had been attached to an extension. Right now the agents, two men and a woman, were drinking coffee and eating do-nuts Kyle had brought over before taking up residence in the kitchen.
The female agent, Jen Revel, had suggested Maggie and Jarrett get some sleep. Nine in the morning, the meeting time, would come soon enough.
Maggie had insisted Jarrett lie down, as well. He didn’t have to sleep, she’d told him over his protests, but he would need to have his full wits about him in the morning.
Maggie kicked off her sneakers and lay back, still in her white cotton work slacks and a pale blue tee. She could smell their mingled scents on the pillow. The night they’d spent together seemed like a million years ago.
Jarrett’s shoes hit the floor with a clump, clump, and he, too, lay back.
“Unbelievable,” he mused aloud. “Somebody kidnapped my daughter.”
“Jen says you were right, that spread in the magazine could very well have been what led the kidnappers to you.”
He swore beneath his breath. “I knew I never should have let them print that article.”
“You can’t blame yourself. Information gets printed whether you want it to or not sometimes. I’m sure the magazine never thought anything like this would happen.”
She paused. Jen had explained every step of the FBI’s kidnapping-with-ransom procedure and made her feel much better about the whole situation. She wanted to pass on that same confidence to Jarrett. “Jen told me this guy is small time. It’s obvious by the low sum of money he asked for. I mean, what’s a hundred thousand dollars? She says he’ll bungle it.”
“Did she say she could guarantee that my daughter would be all right?” His voice was thick, on the verge of tears.
Maggie rolled onto her elbow to face him. “She says in cases like this, they don’t harm the victim. They just want the money.”
Tears glistened in his eyes. “I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose her, Maggie. She’s all I have.”
“You’re not going to lose her.” For once, Maggie didn’t tear up, although she ached at Jarrett’s anguish. She brushed the blond hair from his eyes. “And she’s not all you have. You have me.”
He closed his eyes, seeming to try to get a hold of himself, and then opened them again. “Maggie, I know we’re going to get her back. But if, God forbid if—” He teared up again. “If we lost her, would you . . .” He swore beneath his breath and glanced up at the ceiling fan, slowly turning.
“Would I what?” She closed her hand over his.
“I shouldn’t even be thinking about this. Saying this.” His voice cracked. “My daughter’s gone and I’m worrying about myself.”
She knew what he was trying to say and she understood his quandary. She had experienced the very same feelings when Stanley and Jordan had died. She had wondered how she could be so cold as to think of herself and her own feelings when her loved ones were dead. She knew now it was human nature, plain and simple, the instinct to survive in chaos.
“Are you asking me if I’ll stick around without the daughter who brought me here?” She said it because he couldn’t.
He nodded, his face taut with a mixture of emotions: fear, suffering, shame. “It’s not right for me to ask. It’s selfish and I—”
“We’re not going to lose our daughter. But no matter what, I’ll still be here,” she whispered. She leaned over and kissed his forehead tenderly. “I’ll be here if you’ll have me, Jarrett.”
Jarrett cupped the back of her head and urged her down to meet his lips. “I love you,” he said fiercely. “And when this is over, when we have our daughter back, we’re going to work this out, Maggie. I’ll do anything to keep you both—to have you both, to have the three of us together like it should have been.”
Tears slipped from her cheeks and fell on his. “You know how lucky we are?” she murmured. “To find each other again like this? To be given another chance?”
He smiled sadly, pulling her down to rest her head on his shoulder. “I know. Now let’s try to get some sleep. We have to pick up our daughter in the morning.”
~~~
“All right, Mr. McKay, do you understand our instructions?” Jen Revel, the FBI agent, spoke softly, but with an air of authority.
Jarrett was seated in the driver’s seat of his car, a briefcase on the passenger’s seat. As much as Maggie wanted to be in that seat, she knew she couldn’t go. The kidnapper had said Jarrett and Jarrett alone. Maggie would follow behind him, just out of sight with Jen in an unmarked car.
“I understand,” Jarrett said, upbeat. “I hand over the money, I take my daughter, and I get out of the parking lot.”
Jen nodded. “We come in. Block him off before he reaches the end of the street.”
“Then you beat the crap out of him, I hope.”
Jen laughed. “I’m afraid that’s against the law, Mr. McKay, but I know the feeling.” She squeezed his arm. “All right, sir, let’s go. You’ve got four minutes.”
Jen stepped away and Maggie crouched at Jarrett’s car door. “See you in five, with Taylor.” She kissed him.
“See you in five.” He flashed a smile.
It was forced, but Maggie would take what she could get right now. She backed away, and he closed his car door.
“Let’s go, Maggie.”
Maggie glanced up at the agent. She was tall, with a long blond ponytail. “I want you to let me out of this car just as soon as Jarrett has her.”
“Just as soon as he’s a safe distance,” Jen assured her as they climbed into the small blue sedan.
Maggie’s heart pounded as she slipped on her seat belt and watched Jarrett pull away. Jen let him get a full block down Ocean Highway before she followed him.
The meeting place was a mini-mart. Jarrett was to carry the briefcase to a dark blue van and exchange it for their daughter.
All Maggie could do now was pray fervently that nothing would go wrong, that Taylor was all right, that she and Jarrett would get away quickly.
“I see the van.” Jarrett’s voice came over the radio that lay on the seat between Jen and Maggie. He was wired, with a small microphone attached to the collar of his T-shirt so the agents could easily monitor the situation.
“Good,” came a male voice. It was one of the other agents. “You know what to do. Please don’t deviate from the plan, sir.”
“I’m pulling into a parking slot with one space between us now,” Jarrett said. He sounded calm, but Maggie recognized
the stark fear in his voice. She could feel it, taste its bitterness on her tongue.
“Excellent,” said the agent.
“It’s not nine. Should I get out anyway?”
“Sure, Mr. McKay. Take the briefcase with you. Be sure to leave your motor running.”
Maggie tightened her fists until her nails bit into the soft flesh of her palms. Jen pulled off on a side street a block away from the mini-mart. Maggie couldn’t see what was happening from there. All of the police had to remain out of sight for Taylor’s sake. Maggie could only hear what was happening.
“Here I go,” Jarrett whispered.
Maggie heard the car door open.
There was a pause.
“I’ve got the money,” Jarrett said stiffly. “I want to see my daughter.”
“Lemme see the money,” came a rough, nervous voice.
“Let me see my daughter,” Jarrett demanded forcefully.
Maggie held her breath.
She thought she heard the sound of another door opening. It squeaked like rusty metal.
“Taylor?” Jarrett said, his voice catching in his throat as if he was choking.
Jen reached over and squeezed Maggie’s hand.
“Daddy?”
Maggie covered her face. “Thank you,” she whispered fervently. She felt as if a leaden weight had lifted from her chest. Taylor was safe! Her baby was safe!
“Take your damned money,” Jarrett said.
The other man made a sound as if the air was knocked out of him. Had Jarrett thrown the briefcase at the kidnapper?
“Let’s go home, sweetie,” was the next phrase that came over the radio.
“Okay, Dad.”
Taylor sounded shaken, but all right.
Again they heard the slam of a car door, almost simultaneously followed by the sound of squealing tires. “Taylor, climb over. Get into your belt,” Jarrett urged frantically. “I’ve got her!”
Jarrett’s old black BMW squealed around the corner. In the distance, police sirens howled.
Jarrett stopped the car in the middle of the street beside Jen’s sedan. Maggie threw open the door of the unmarked car and ran for Jarrett’s.
“Taylor!” Maggie yanked opened the passenger door and lunged inside, her arms widespread for her daughter.
Maggie felt Jarrett’s hand on her shoulder as she took Taylor into her arms, seat belt and all. “I’m glad you’re back safe, sweetie,” Maggie managed around the lump in her throat. “I love you, Taylor.”
“Me, too,” Taylor choked through her tears. “I love you, too, Mom.”
~~~
“She asleep?”
Jarrett stood in the center of the living room and ran his fingers through his hair the way Maggie loved to watch him do. “Sound asleep. Light off. She’s not in the least bit afraid. She says the kidnappers were too stupid to be scary.”
Maggie smiled. The police and FBI were gone and they were alone again. Of course there would be more interviews and then the trial, but it looked like a pretty tight case against the kidnappers. “She’s tough,” Maggie agreed. “Tough like her dad.”
“Tough like her mom.” He walked toward her. “I’d still like her to see that counselor Jen recommended, but I really think she’s going to be all right. She says she knew we were coming for her, so she wasn’t afraid.”
Maggie put out her arms and looped them around his neck. The radio was playing softly from a cabinet missing one hinge—another of Jarrett’s furniture assemblies that didn’t go right.
Maggie and Jarrett slowly turned in a circle, their arms tight around each other.
“Don’t know much about history. Don’t know much biology,” came the Sam Cook's melodious voice over the radio. It was an oldie but a goody.
“But I do know that I love you,” Jarrett sang softly in her ear.
Maggie smiled, determined she wouldn’t cry. She wanted the tears to be over. She wanted a new life, another chance at happiness, and she knew that chance was right here in this house.
“Maggie?”
They still danced, slowly turning in a circle, just like when they were back in school. “Jarrett?”
“Want to marry me?”
Her heart leapt in her breast, but she kept her tone casual, matching his. It was fun. A game. Things had been so serious for them since they’d been reunited that, somehow, this seemed right. “Sure.”
“Tomorrow?”
She grimaced. “I have to work late. The next day?”
“No problem.”
Their gazes met, followed by their lips. Maggie closed her eyes, reveling in the feel of his mouth against hers and his breath mingling with hers until it was one.
“I do love you,” he whispered. “You know that?”
“I love you,” she echoed.
He pulled back, catching her hands so he could look into her eyes again. “And you really will marry me?”
She was grinning, too. “I really will marry you.”
“Then I have an engagement present for you.”
Maggie crinkled her forehead. “A what?”
“An engagement present. Not a ring.” He gestured. “But something just as good.”
She laughed. “How can you have an engagement present? We just decided we were getting married a second ago.”
“I’ve been saving it. Come on. You’ll see.” He grabbed her hand and led her out the door, into the darkness and down the steps.
“Where are we going?” Maggie looked back up the steps. The deck light was on, illuminating the second-story living room balcony. “We can’t leave Taylor.”
“We’re not leaving her. It’s in the garage.” Jarrett fished a pair of keys from his surf shorts and wiggled them in the old lock. It was a small garage, from outward appearances, barely large enough to fit a car.
“What are you doing?” Maggie laughed, enchanted. This was just like Jarrett, full of surprises. Always trying to make her smile.
He started to push up the door. “Close your eyes and let me get the light.”
Maggie closed her eyes, becoming more and more curious. She heard the click of what sounded like an overhead light switch with a string pull. A second later he was beside her again.
“Ready?” He sounded like a little boy with a big surprise.
She laughed. “I’m ready already!”
“Look.”
Maggie opened her eyes and stared in shock. “Oh . . .” she breathed.
There, hidden in the tiny garage, was the ‘68 red Mustang convertible Jarrett had owned in high school. They’d shared their first kiss in this car. They’d fallen in love in this car. Sure, they’d just been kids, but the love had been real. Maggie knew that now.
“You kept it?” she breathed, still not sure she believed it really was the car.
“I didn’t drive it after I came back from Spain,” he confessed, emotion filling his voice. “I just couldn’t, not without you.”
“But you didn’t sell it?”
“Couldn’t bear to part with it, not even when I was short on cash when Taylor was a baby. I guess somewhere in my subconscious I always knew you’d forgive me. You’d come back.”
Maggie stepped toward the convertible and brushed her hand along the smooth, red hood. The cool metal sent a shiver through her as memories of the past flooded her—the recollection of what it had felt like to be in love for the first time, the thrill of riding with the top down, the wind in her hair, Jarrett at her side.
“Get in,” he urged.
She started for the passenger side.
“No, the driver’s seat.”
She glanced up. “But that’s not how it was. I never drove your car.”
He tossed her the key, already pulling open the passenger door. “No, that wasn’t how it was, but things are going to be different this time, aren’t they?”
Maggie walked around, opened the door, and slid in. “Yes,” she said, unable to stop smiling. “They’re going to be different. Better.
Now that we have Taylor.”
“Now that we’re older, and hopefully a little smarter about things.” He winked.
Maggie rested her hands on the steering wheel for a moment, breathing in the scent of the leather upholstery he had kept clean all these years. Then, meeting his gaze, she leaned over the seat. His lips met hers. This time she wasn’t flooded by old memories, but imagined the new ones they would make together.
EPILOGUE
Twelve Years Later
The phone rang, waking Maggie from a deep sleep. She reached for it even before she opened her eyes. After all these years of being a physician, even now that she was rarely on call, she was instantly alert. “Dr. Turner.”
“Mom?”
Maggie sat up on the edge of the bed and flipped on the bedside lamp. “Taylor?” she said anxiously. She glanced at the clock; it was almost two a.m.
Behind her, sprawled out on the bed asleep, Jarrett muttered something about phone calls in the middle of the night.
Maggie sensed the tightness in her daughter’s voice. “What is it, Taylor?”
“Mom, I need you. John’s on his way home from that business trip, but his flight doesn’t arrive for another two hours. Then he’s got to come from the airport.”
Maggie climbed out of bed and searched for her clothes on the floor. It had been hers and Jarrett’s wedding anniversary the previous day. They had shared wine on the beach last night, built a sandcastle, made love on the living room floor, then here in the bed. The room was a mess.
“What’s the matter, Taylor?” Cradling the phone on her shoulder, she grabbed a pair of jeans and hopped on one foot to slip into them.
“It’s the baby, Mom. I’m in labor.”
“Okay,” Maggie spoke calmly, though her heart pounded. This was her baby. Her baby was having a baby. “You’re sure?”
“Mom, really?”
Maggie smiled. She knew that tone well, that Mom, I’m not stupid tone. She grabbed the corner of the pillow Jarrett was wrapped around and tugged. “Jarrett, wake up. The baby’s coming.”
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