by Mallory Kane
She slumped. “They hung up.”
Jay glanced at the phone. Nothing showed on the display window except the battery indicator and the digital clock.
She took it away from him.
After he’d pulled back onto the road, Jay glanced at her. “So your plan is to trade me for your daughter?”
She looked at him, her eyes dark and haunted, but her chin held high. “What do you think? You’re a grown man. She’s just a baby.”
Jay allowed himself a wry smile at his earlier thought that he might be able to trust her.
“They told me they’d kill her. They’re keeping her in the dark. Katie hates the dark.” Her voice broke. “Will you help me?”
“How do you think I can help? I don’t know you. I sure don’t know them. What do you want me to do, offer myself to them?”
She met his gaze. “The Johnny I knew would have done anything in his power to protect a child.”
Jay’s heart slammed into his chest with the force of a blow. The Johnny she’d known.
“And you think I’m that man?” he asked. The effort of holding hope at bay inside him harshened his voice.
She held his gaze for a moment, her eyes wide and haunted. Then she shook her head. “I don’t know.”
An odd pang of hurt and disappointment sliced through his heart at her words.
It wasn’t hard for him to imagine how frightened and alone the child must feel. Ever since he’d awakened, wounded and lost, with murky water closing over his head, he’d been haunted by nightmarish visions of unrelenting darkness and suffocating panic.
But he’d also been comforted by the vision of a beautiful young woman, this woman. If he weren’t careful, she could make him believe in himself.
She moved to put the phone back into her pocket, and cried out softly when she moved.
“That was smart of you to record the call.”
She didn’t say anything.
Jay turned left, into what looked like a part of the swamp but was really a road. As many times as he’d driven this route, daylight, nighttime, rain, he still had trouble navigating the deep, narrow ruts.
Precisely two-tenths of a mile later, he turned again and pulled up in front of a broken-down cabin.
His safe house. It was ironic that he was here with this woman he didn’t remember who wanted him to give himself up for her child.
Paige winced in pain as the car came to an abrupt stop in front of an old abandoned shack. Ever since she’d regained consciousness and realized she was in a car with Johnny driving, she’d felt every bump in the road through her hurt shoulder. She couldn’t move it, and the pain radiating down her arm and up her neck was excruciating.
When the car stopped, she raised her head, biting back a moan. “Where are we?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Well, you can’t stop here. We have to find Katie—” She paused, realizing she had no idea where to even start looking.
Her plan had ended at Johnny’s door. She hadn’t considered what she would do after she found him. Now pain and exhaustion were making it hard to think.
Johnny came around and opened the passenger door.
“No, wait. Please. We have to go back. My daughter’s out there. They have her locked in the dark.”
“We can’t do anything until we see how badly you’re hurt. You’re just going to have to trust me.” He leaned down and looked at her. “Can you stand?”
“Of course I can.” Paige tried to move, but the seat belt held her trapped. She fumbled with the catch, her shoulder screaming with agony.
“Hold on. Let me.”
Johnny leaned over her and placed his large, callused hand on top of hers, stilling her desperate movements. She pulled her hand away and sat stiffly as he quickly and efficiently unbuckled the seat belt.
Then he slid his arms gently behind her back and under her knees.
“What are you doing?”
“Just let me carry you. You could have other injuries. You could have hit your head. You don’t need to be walking.”
Paige closed her eyes against the expectation of agonizing pain, and was surprised at the tenderness with which he lifted her into his arms.
She allowed herself to be carried. There was an awkward moment when he wrestled the cabin door open, jostling her shoulder, but soon he deposited her on a couch and went around lighting lanterns.
As light filtered into the corners of the room, Paige took in her surroundings. The shack was old and built of rough-hewn wood. The furnishings were sparse and stark.
At one end of the room were a wood stove and a counter with shelves that held a few plates and cups and pots. At the other end was a dark curtain that she figured must hide a sleeping area.
There was almost nothing to indicate that anyone lived here. But when Johnny lit the last lantern, Paige saw the sketches tacked to the wall in front of the couch.
These were dark slashes of charcoal, like nightmares brought to life under the artist’s pencil. Her heart twisted in compassion. How many times had he sat here, trying to make sense of the pieces of memory his mind fed him?
Her fertile imagination made her wonder if these were visions of his kidnapping. They evoked all her darkest emotions. Anger, fear, even hatred.
She couldn’t even imagine what he must have gone through. If the drawings were any indication, the place where they’d held him must have been a dark and frightening place.
She looked away, fear welling up in her throat until she thought she would scream. If they were holding Katie in a place like that…
“Can’t you hurry?” she asked, struggling to stand. Her knees collapsed beneath her as she reeled at the pain. “We have to find Katie.”
Johnny tossed the matches down on a table beside the last lamp he’d lit. “I need some light to look at your shoulder.”
“Fine. You’ve got light. Do something. My daughter is out there.”
He walked over to the kitchen area.
She gritted her teeth in frustration. “Aren’t you listening to me?”
He stuck a cup under her nose, a cup filled almost to the brim with a dark liquid. The sweet, hot smell of brandy hit her. “What’s that for?”
“Drink up. You’ll need something to numb the pain.”
“I can’t be drunk. I haven’t eaten all day. What if they call?”
“I’m sure if they call you’ll manage. Now drink it.” His harsh voice brooked no argument.
Paige shot him a venomous glance and reluctantly took the chipped cup. Her throbbing shoulder was sending waves of nauseating pain through her. The idea of stopping it for a little while was seductive.
She drank. The fiery stuff gagged her. She coughed, then drank some more. When she’d managed to down about half the cup, he took it and set it aside, then sat down beside her.
She tensed.
“Why did these people send you to find me? Why would they think you knew where I was?” he asked as he laid his hand on her shoulder.
Paige didn’t want to answer that question. She was stuck here, dependent on him. She had to have his help. If she told him the truth about why they’d kidnapped Katie, he might not believe her. He might not want to help her.
“That’s a good question,” she said, hoping he’d drop the subject.
“I’m listening if you want to give me a good answer,” he said, smiling slightly. “Tell me about us.” His hand gently traced the line of her shoulder, running over the place that hurt so badly, the place where she knew something was wrong.
“Us,” she repeated wryly. She was feeling woozy from the brandy, but at least every breath wasn’t total agony now.
“You said we met seven years ago.”
“In Jackson Square. I was on my way to work. I went to school during the day and worked at night.”
Johnny was feeling her shoulder with both hands now, his touch at once familiar and alien. They were Johnny’s gentle, caring fingers, but back then his ha
nds had been soft.
Now rough calluses scraped her skin, and his arms were bronzed by the sun. He was different.
It was a very interesting difference.
“You asked if you could draw me.” She smiled sleepily. “You said I had a classic face.”
“You do.”
She lifted heavy eyelids to find his gaze roaming over her eyes and nose and mouth. It felt like gentle fingers tracing her features. His lashes shadowed his eyes as his gaze lingered on her suddenly dry lips. She licked them.
He frowned, then blinked. “I don’t think your shoulder is completely dislocated. That’s good,” he said, putting a hand on either side of her shoulder, where it hurt so bad.
“Have you ever done this before?” Paige didn’t like the way her words were coming out. They were slow and slurred. But she did like the way Johnny’s hands felt. The warmth of his roughened fingers was comforting. They seemed to soak the pain right out of her.
“Let’s say I have some experience. Tell me what happened after I drew you.”
His hands were gently massaging her shoulder. It hurt, but not as much as moving it herself did.
“I was seventeen. You may have been twenty-one.” She was back there again, sitting in the hot sun during the day while his talented hands created magic on paper. Then at night in her apartment, those hands created magic on her body. She closed her eyes as the memories stirred sweet yearnings inside her. “We fell in love.”
She had trusted him, but he’d broken her heart.
“You promised me you’d come back for me. You gave me this ring.” She started to hold up her left hand, but Johnny was squeezing her shoulder.
“I waited and waited. I watched out the window for days.”
The old familiar ache began in her chest. “But you never came back.” She licked her lips and let her eyes drift shut. “Never came back.”
Paige’s gently slurred voice cut a deep furrow into Jay’s heart. Something shifted inside him. The painful emptiness that he’d carried around ever since he’d woken up alone began to throb.
She’d waited for him. And he hadn’t come back. She took a short sobbing breath. “Now Katie is out there. Oh, God. What if we never find her?”
“We’ll find her,” he murmured, concentrating on her shoulder. He hoped he could get it back into place without harming her. He’d watched the doc on the oil rigs do it a time or two.
Paige’s voice penetrated his thoughts. “You never told me your family was rich as Croesus. You were just Johnny Yarbrough.”
Jay stilled. “Rich as Croesus?”
“Sure.” Paige giggled again. “Yarbrough Shipping. Tons of money. More than enough to pay a two-million-dollar ransom. But they don’t want a ransom. Just you.” She took a sobbing breath.
“Just hang on a minute, Paige.” Jay got ready to slip her shoulder back into its socket. He knew the brandy wasn’t going to help much. He tightened his grip and looked at her. Her eyes were drifting closed. She looked lovely and vulnerable.
He slipped his hand under her arm and lifted and pushed.
Paige shrieked, then fell, limp, into his arms. She’d passed out.
Grateful that she was out of pain for the moment, Jay sat there, his hands cradling her awkwardly, unused to the human contact, but strangely and deeply affected by the feel of her in his arms.
Her satiny skin, the delicate curve of her neck and the petal-soft line of her cheek called up sensations in him that he never remembered feeling.
Three years was a long time to be alone and lost.
On an impulse that he didn’t want to examine too closely, he pulled her closer, burying his nose in her hair. An ache of longing twisted his insides.
Something felt so right about holding her, about breathing the faint scent of gardenias that clung to her and threatened to draw up memories which drifted away before he could catch them.
He didn’t understand half of what was going on. Why would someone kidnap Paige’s daughter and send her to find him? Who were these people who were after him?
But right now, with her in his arms, the biggest mystery to him was why he’d had her and ever let her go.
She was brave. She was beautiful. She evoked a fierce protective urge in him that made him want to slay dragons for her.
What kind of man had he been to walk away from her?
As badly as he craved information about his past, Jay wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer to that question. He wasn’t sure he liked the man he’d been, the man who had left her alone.
She stirred, and he reluctantly set her away from him. He looked critically at her shoulder. Everything seemed to be in place.
“Oh wow,” she muttered. “That hurt.”
“Can you move it?” he asked gruffly.
Paige frowned and shook her head as if to clear it. She tentatively lifted her arm, wincing. “It’s sore,” she said, “but not hurting so much.” She looked at him, her eyes heavy-lidded. “Thank you.”
Jay gave her a quick nod and got up. “You need to sleep.”
“No, we have to go find Katie.”
“After you rest a while.” He gently pushed her down and slid an old throw pillow under her head. “I need to think. If my family is rich as Croesus, maybe they can help us.”
She sat up again. “We can’t tell anybody,” she insisted. “They’ll hurt her.” She stood and swayed, putting her hand to her head.
Jay wrapped his fingers around her upper arms. “Listen to me.”
She glared up at him. Her eyes were sleepy but her chin was high.
“Knew I couldn’t count on you. Should’ve told ’em you wouldn’t care.”
Her words stung him. He had no idea who he was or what he had done to her, but he was sure she hadn’t deserved it.
“Okay, Paige. We’ll do it your way. What’s your plan?”
Her glare could have burned him. “Go find Katie.”
He looked down at her. “Where do we start?”
She blinked. “We…I…don’t know.”
Jay wanted to pull her into his arms and comfort her. He wanted to tell her everything would be fine. But he knew he couldn’t promise her that.
“Your fault, Johnny. Your fault. Why’d you run? They wanted you. I could have my baby back.”
Fighting, running, protecting her, had all been instinct. Maybe he shouldn’t have. Maybe he should have somehow subdued the two men and tried to find out some information.
He shook his head. He’d done the only thing he could do under the circumstances.
He set her back down on the couch and crouched in front of her. He touched her chin, forcing her to look at him. She opened blurry eyes.
“Listen to me. Do you want to go to the police? I’ll take you.”
“No! They said they’d kill her. No police!”
Jay studied her. “Okay. Then there’s nothing we can do tonight. We’re safe here.”
“But she’s not. She’s alone.” Her voice broke.
His heart ached for her, for her child. Nobody knew better than he did the true meaning of alone.
He pushed a silky strand of hair off her cheek. “I know. We’ll go as soon as it’s light. We’ll figure out who these people are, and why they did this.”
“You’re a Yarbrough,” Paige murmured. “Worth millions.”
He looked at the woman whose face haunted his dreams and finally gathered the courage to ask the question that had been burning inside him ever since she’d first told him about her child.
“Why did they take your daughter?”
She bit her lip and stared off beyond him, her eyes slightly unfocused from the effects of the brandy.
“They—they wanted me to lead them to you.”
Jay shook his head. There had to be something more. “But why you? Why your daughter?”
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he knew. It was the only answer that made sense. He couldn’t even form the thought to himself. His knowin
g was more visceral, subconscious, deeper than words.
Pain shot through his head, and he clenched his jaw to keep from running to escape the darkness and fear that danced across his vision.
“Paige?”
She looked down at her hands. “I guess they thought you’d cooperate.”
He touched her chin, forcing it up with a finger that trembled. “And why would they think that?”
Slowly, she met his gaze. When she spoke, her words were almost soundless.
“Because she’s your daughter too.”
Chapter Four
“Well, you’re certainly your father’s daughter,” Serena said, carefully avoiding a dusty wooden box and wrinkling her nose. The abandoned warehouse smelled as fishy and moldy as it had three years before.
She could almost feel dust and grime settling on her Versace dress. “Not only do you have his eyes, you have his irritating stubbornness.”
The child flashed her sapphire-blue eyes at Serena and pulled the hideous orange-and-green afghan closer around her. “I’m my mom’s daughter,” she said, her little chin jutting up. “My daddy’s gone.”
Serena snorted. “Smart-mouthed too, Katie. Well, your daddy is not gone…yet.”
“I want to talk to my mom.” Katie’s eyes glistened with tears.
Good. Serena was glad to see that the little girl was scared and upset. She needed information from her, information about her father.
Serena liked to keep the upper hand, and so far, her irritating stepson had twice managed to elude Leonard’s men. She was anxious for them to take care of Johnny and Paige. Then she would arrange to be at some highly visible meeting or event while the child was eliminated.
“I want my mom. You can’t keep me here. It’s—it’s against the law.”
“Oh, really?” Serena laughed and took a long drag off her cigarette. “You’re quite funny. Against the law indeed.”
“It is. I saw it on TV. It’s kidnapping. And they caught the man and they put him in jail.”
“Smart like your father and grandfather, too,” Serena muttered, then looked at her watch. Biting off a curse, she dialed a number on her cell phone.
