Helen’s expression turned dreamy again. “I located him some time ago. I didn’t know if he’d want to see me, but it turned out that he’d been looking for me, too.”
“He sent a sample of his DNA to one of the databases,” Addie said.
“Yes. We became close very quickly. It was as if we’d never been apart. He needed me, you see. And I needed him.”
Addie lifted her gaze to the photographs. “You told him about my mother?”
“I told him everything. He needed to know that there were people who would try to keep us apart. He came to me as soon as Naomi made contact. We knew she would discover the truth sooner or later, and we’d already lost so much time together. We didn’t want to lose each other again.”
“So you manipulated him into running her over with his car. Your own son.”
Helen’s eyes glittered. “My son would do anything for me as I would for him. I won’t let anyone take him from me again. Not Naomi Quinlan. Not Ethan Barrow. Not even you, Addie.” She turned her head toward the hall but kept her gaze on Addie. “Where are you, Danny?”
A disembodied voice said softly, “I’m here, Mother.”
* * *
THE GUN IN his back prodded Ethan forward. Hands clasped behind his head, he moved down the hallway and into the front room. Addie’s eyes widened at the blood on the side of his face, but the raised weapon in her hand never wavered.
“Drop your gun,” Ethan’s captor told her. “Do it now or your boyfriend gets a bullet in the brain.”
“Don’t do it, Addie,” Ethan warned. “He’ll kill us, anyway.”
The man clipped him in the back of his head with the gun so hard Ethan stumbled forward. His captor pushed him to his knees and aimed the barrel at his skull.
“Okay, okay.” Addie’s gaze was still on Ethan as she bent and placed the gun on the floor.
“Slide it away,” the man ordered.
Addie did as she was told. When she straightened, her gaze flicked to Helen. “Does David know you’re here? Is he in on this?”
“I don’t want to talk about David,” she said. “I didn’t want any of this to happen. You have to know that. But you left me no choice. You couldn’t leave well enough alone.”
“So he doesn’t know,” Addie said. “But he must suspect. That’s why he sealed the case files. That’s why he questioned Naomi’s neighbor about the comings and goings from her house. The weight of those suspicions is what put him in the hospital.”
“David is going to be fine,” Helen insisted. “I’ll find a way to make it up to him.”
“Just as you plan to make up all those missing years with your son?” Ethan said as his gaze met Addie’s. “You want to know why he’s been following you? All those years of love and attention that Helen lavished on you should have been his. That’s why he follows you. That’s why he torments you. He’s just a jealous little boy.”
Roby pressed the gun into Ethan’s nape. “Stop talking.”
“You’re too jealous to realize that your own mother is manipulating you,” Ethan taunted. “You think she cares about you? She doesn’t. She’ll throw you away as soon as you’ve done her dirty work.”
Helen stepped forward, eyes blazing. “That’s not true, Danny. Don’t listen to him. This is all for you. Everything we’re doing is so we can finally be together. Please, son. Stick to the plan. It’ll all be over soon.”
“Who came up with this plan?” Addie asked as her gaze shifted to Daniel Roby. “Make no mistake, she’s already thought this through. She’ll put all the blame on you, Danny. Getting rid of Naomi, getting rid of us...it’s all part of her plan. She’ll convince people you’re crazy. She’ll have you put away just like she did James Merrick.”
Helen must have sensed a weakening in her son, because she said quickly, “Just do it. Don’t think about it, sweet boy. Just do what has to be done and then set this place on fire. Burn it to the ground so that nothing can be traced back to us. Afterward, go to the cabin and wait for me just as we planned. Do it, Danny. Do it for your mother—”
Her plea was cut off by a loud crash. The front door flew open and Matt Lepear, flanked by two officers, stood with his weapon at the ready as he quickly sized up the situation. Ethan used the diversion to grab Daniel’s arm and bring him to the floor. Seizing the gun, he put a foot against Daniel’s throat as he took aim.
Meanwhile, Addie lunged for her weapon and then for Helen. The woman collapsed to the floor and buried her face in her hands. “What have I done? Oh, Addie, what have I done?”
“It’s a little late to worry about that now.” Addie was numb to Helen’s remorse. The pain would come later when the dust had settled and yet another loss set in. She turned to Matt. “I see you got my text.”
“Yeah, you okay?”
“I’m fine, but Ethan needs the EMTs.”
“No, I’m good.” He jerked Daniel Roby to his feet and turned him over to one of the officers. Then he crossed the room to Addie. His eyes were dark and deep as he gazed down at her. “Thanks for coming to my rescue.”
“Always.” For a moment she was mesmerized by that stare. “But we should both thank Matt.”
“Damn right,” Matt agreed. His gaze went back to the images on the wall. Then he took in Helen’s huddled form on the floor. “Is that—”
“Yes.”
He shook his head. “What have you gotten yourself into this time?”
“It’s a long story,” Addie said. “Twenty-five years in the making.”
Matt’s gaze shifted to Ethan and then back to Addie. “How about you give me the short version.”
“In a minute,” she murmured as Ethan pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
Chapter Sixteen
The next day, Addie stood on the Battery watching the waves roll in. Behind her, the sun was just setting over the Ashley River, casting a gilded glow over the cityscape. A breeze blew gently across the water, stirring the scent of jasmine from the walled gardens along East Bay. It was the perfect time of day, when shadows lengthened and anticipation settled like a velvety whisper.
She felt his presence before she heard her name. She turned to search the walkway, her gaze moving quickly through the tourists until she found him. He was dressed in his usual dark suit, but he’d taken off his jacket and tie, loosened his collar and rolled up his sleeves. Addie’s heart quickened at the sight of him. Like her, he still wore the cuts and bruises that punctuated the end of their investigation. Addie wanted to go to him, to wrap her arms around his waist and lay her head against his shoulder, but she held back. If he was coming to tell her goodbye, she needed to be stoic.
“Thanks for meeting me,” he said.
“Of course. I’ve plenty of time on my hands. You heard Gwen canceled the training session?” When he nodded, Addie said, “I guess she needs time to process everything that’s happened.”
“I’m sure she’s concerned how all this will affect her bottom line, which is probably why she worked so hard to get us to back off the investigation in the first place.”
“Do you think she knew your dad was innocent?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Her ego may not have let her entertain doubts about her profile. In any case, it’s over now.”
Addie paused. “Did you see your father today?”
“Yes.”
“How did it go?”
Ethan stared out over the water for the longest moment. “I knew what to expect. I knew nothing had changed for him, and yet a part of me—the kid who watched his hero disintegrate twenty-five years ago—hoped that the truth would somehow set him free.”
“You’re free,” Addie said. “You always believed in his innocence. You never gave up. All those years I thought your father killed my mother. And then to find out that the woman I trusted more than anyone in this world did what she d
id to your father. Helen and David Cutler were everything to me after my mother died. They helped raised me. It’s because of David that I became a cop. And now I know that he helped cover up Helen’s crimes. Out of loyalty and guilt and maybe love, but...” She broke off. “His reasons don’t matter. I’m sorry, Ethan. I’m so sorry.”
He took her face in his hands. “You’ve nothing to be sorry about. None of this is on you or me. We were both collateral damage.”
“It’s a lot to process. I feel like I’ve lost my family all over again.”
He gazed down into her eyes. “You’re not alone, Addie.”
Her heart started to pound. “I don’t want you to worry about me, okay? I’ll be fine.”
“What if I want to worry about you? What if I don’t want to be alone?” He dropped his hands to his sides and turned back to the water as if were suddenly unsure of himself. “There’s an opening in the field office here in Charleston. I’m considering putting in for a transfer.”
Addie laid her hand on his arm. “Don’t do that. Not for me. You’d kill your career with that transfer.”
“Someone wise once told me that a career is not the worst thing a person can lose.” He turned back to her, his gaze earnest. “I’m not asking for a commitment. I’m just asking for another chance.”
She closed her eyes and let the breeze and his voice wash over her. “Welcome home, Ethan.”
* * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from K-9 Defense by Elizabeth Heiter.
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K-9 Defense
by Elizabeth Heiter
Chapter One
“I’m still alive.”
Three simple words in a note. A note signed by the sister Kensie Morgan hadn’t seen in fourteen years had sent her in a frantic rush across 3,500 miles. Kensie had left a brief message on her boss’s voice mail, telling him she needed some time off, then called her family. They’d been less supportive.
But this time, Kensie had to believe, the lead could be real.
The hope had buoyed her from one layover to the next, warmed her as she stepped off the plane in Alaska. For early October, the temperature was way colder than she’d expected, and it had only gotten worse as she’d paid for her rental pickup truck and headed north.
Desparre, Alaska, was the kind of place you came to to drop off the map. The sort of place no one would think to look—and even if they did, they might never make it out.
After her GPS had given up and she’d made a half dozen wrong turns, she’d finally been able to get directions from a local into town. Now Kensie shivered as she stepped out of her truck for the first time in four hours. Her heavy down jacket was no match for the windchill, so she tugged up the collar as strong gusts whipped her long hair around her face. There was no avoiding the snow covering the walkways, so Kensie trudged through it. Her next stop after the police station was going to be for a new pair of boots.
Her fingers tingled from the cold and she clenched them into tight fists in her pockets, hoping the motion would also ease her nerves. She’d planned to make the store where her sister’s note had been found her first stop, but when she couldn’t find it, she’d given up and headed into the main part of town.
Kensie glanced around, taking in the assortment of buildings—post office, clothing store, bar, drug store, grocery store, church. She felt like she’d stepped back in time to the eighteen hundreds. The only thing missing was horse-drawn carriages. But it was probably too cold for horses. Even the monstrous all-weather truck parked up the street seemed ill prepared for Desparre once winter descended.
Chicago got cold, but after not even one day in Desparre she was longing for the ridiculously cold-but-not-this-cold windchill off the lake.
With the exception of a guy playing with his dog down the road, she was the only fool outside. Kensie hustled, careful not to slide in the snow as she yanked open the door to the tiny police station. Her stomach churned as reality set in. She was finally here.
This time will be different, she told herself, trying to bolster her courage.
The officer behind the counter looked up as she entered, but she wasn’t sure if the scowl on his face was for her or the blast of cold air she brought inside. “Can I help you?”
Desparre probably didn’t get a lot of outsiders, so she was going to stand out here. Kensie had gotten the same questioning looks each time she’d stopped to ask for directions on the outskirts of town.
If her sister Alanna really was here, maybe she’d be the one to find Kensie.
If only it could be that easy. But fourteen years of bright, painful hope drawn out for days or years and then dashed in yet another dead end, in yet another godforsaken town, told her that nothing about finding Alanna would be easy.
But if the note was real...
The hope that bloomed inside her now brought tears to her eyes.
The officer stood and rushed to her side. “Are you okay? Do you need help?”
She blinked the tears back and prayed her voice would be steady. “I need to talk to someone about the note you found from Alanna Morgan.”
Frown lines dug deeper, creating grooves across the officer’s forehead. He looked like he belonged in a rocking chair with a couple of grandkids on his knee, not wearing a police uniform. “Why?”
“I’m her sister.”
The flash of emotions on his face was quick, so quick Kensie might have missed them if she hadn’t seen them so many times in her life. Surprise, discomfort and pity first. Then something hard and distant—law enforcement probably learned to compartmentalize to keep themselves from going crazy case after case, victim after victim.
“You shouldn’t have come all this way. Didn’t you talk to the FBI?”
The FBI had spoken to her and her family, of course. They’d been the ones to call and inform Kensie about the note found in Desparre in the first place. But that didn’t matter. “I needed to see for myself.”
The frown was back, this time mixed with worry, but the officer nodded, patted her on the arm and then said, “I’ll be right back.”
He disappeared through a door marked Police Only and Kensie took a deep breath.
You can do this, she reminded herself. She was just out of practice. It had been years since the last lead on Alanna.
Standing in a police station now took her back to her childhood. All those years of waiting in hard plastic chairs, her mom’s hand clutching hers way too tight,
as they prayed for any shred of good news. Her dad standing stiffly beside them, his arm wrapped around her brother, holding him close as if that could keep him safe. Officers catching her gaze and then looking quickly away. Kensie’s palms damp and her heart thudding way too fast.
Missing Alanna. Knowing it was all her fault her little sister was gone.
“Ma’am?”
Kensie looked up, realizing her eyes had glazed over as she’d stared at the floor, getting lost in her past. She stiffened her shoulders, tried to look like the professional woman she’d become instead of the terrified thirteen-year-old who always reappeared whenever she heard Alanna’s name.
She held out a cold hand, shook hard and stared the new officer directly in the eye. Let her know she couldn’t be sent off with a “sorry” and a pat on the back.
“I’m Chief Hernandez.”
From the slight grin the chief gave, Kensie’s surprise probably showed. She was young for a police chief, likely only a few years older than Kensie’s twenty-seven.
But there was wisdom in her steady gaze and strength in her handshake.
“Kensie Morgan. I want to see the note that was left at the store.”
Chief Hernandez held out her other hand and Kensie reached for the computer paper.
It was a photocopy, but her heart beat faster at the slanted cursive handwriting. She read it aloud. “My name is Alanna Morgan, from Chicago. I’m still alive. I’m not the only one.”
“You recognize the writing?” the chief asked, skepticism in her voice.
“Alanna’s? No.” How could she? Her sister had been five years old when she’d been kidnapped out of their front yard. At five, everything had been big sloppy letters, forming words that were often misspelled. There was no way to know what Alanna’s handwriting looked like now. If she was really still alive, she’d be nineteen.
Nineteen. The very idea made pain and longing mingle. What would a nineteen-year-old Alanna look like? What had happened in all the years between? Kensie had missed all of her sister’s milestones.
Criminal Behavior--A Thrilling FBI Romance Page 20
