She was so surprised she almost dropped the camera as she cast a look over her shoulder. She nearly called out “come in” before she realized how ridiculous that sounded. The door was locked, the security bar Quinn insisted she use firmly in place. Nobody could get into the room — including Quinn — unless she allowed it.
Carefully, Rowan lowered the camera to the bed and climbed to her feet. She was leery as she made her way to the door, padding on bare feet, her heart thudding so loudly she was afraid the individual on the other side could hear it.
She ran her tongue over her teeth, uncertain, and then moved to the peephole so she could look out. There was no one there.
She shifted from one foot to the other, antsy and agitated. On a whim, she looked again. The corridor was empty. Well, at least as far as she could see. Her angle wasn’t great. She could only see a few feet in either direction. There was definitely no one waiting for her on the other side of the door, though.
It would be stupid to throw it open and stick her head out. If the representatives from the Phoenix Society were trying to grab her, they might think this was their only shot. Of course, how they’d managed to get down the hallway in the first place was a mystery. Quinn made sure updated card readers were installed at every access point. Absolutely nobody who wasn’t employed by The Bounding Storm’s parent company should’ve been able to cross the threshold.
Then something occurred to her. Michael. He was the captain. He had a keycard that could gain him access anywhere. He could’ve easily fobbed one of the Phoenix Society peeps through the door. Right now, one of them — or perhaps all of them — could be waiting just out of her line of sight. If she opened the door to look, they would grab her. That wouldn’t go over well with Quinn, and she could hardly blame him. That was the stupid thing to do.
She took a step away from the door. Her phone was resting on the bed. What would a smart person do? A smart person would text their overprotective boyfriend and wait for him and the cavalry to arrive.
Something caught her attention on the floor before she could follow through. It was a folded piece of paper.
Her anxiety returned full force as she bent over to grab it. Even before she opened the note — for that’s what it was — she knew what it would say. She wasn’t disappointed, or surprised by the hastily scrawled message. Honestly, it was the only move they had left. They were obviously going to play that card, even though it seemed like a weak attempt.
If you want to see Sally alive, you’ll come to the abandoned building at the corner of Jesuit and Priest. Come alone. If you bring anyone with you, she’ll die.
That was it. That’s all the note said. There was finally an option in front of them. Unfortunately for Rowan, it was the only one she didn’t want to face alone ... and she didn’t see where she had much choice.
QUINN TOOK FRED’S COMPUTER TO HIS office so he could multitask. In truth, the second he separated from Rowan, the bitterness he’d been hoarding like gold started to dissipate. She wasn’t the one who deserved his ire. He understood that, accepted it. She was simply the only one who was handy and he needed to vent his rage.
He blamed himself. Who else should he blame? Fred was only involved in this case because Quinn asked him for a favor. He should’ve thought about what was best for his friend rather than what he needed from him. It was too late to change that, though. Hopefully he would have a chance to apologize.
As for Sally, her inclusion in this conundrum was more troublesome. Rowan said she was going to explain what was going on to her friend as soon as she got the chance. That opening never came, though. Before she could even get comfortable with what was happening, she found out she was living under a death omen. There was no way Rowan could volunteer that information to Sally. The overbearing chef would lash herself to Rowan to make sure she was never alone and take over even though she had good intentions. It would’ve been a nightmare.
So, now they had an even bigger problem. Sally was in the middle of this and she had no idea what was going on. She would push her captors to the breaking point. Quinn could only hope they proposed a trade before that happened. That would obviously have to be their move. They were fresh out of other options given what happened to Fred.
“Here you are.” Paul appeared in the open doorway, giving Quinn a jolt. “Where have you been? Oh, and why have you stopped answering your texts? We’ve been looking all over for you.”
Quinn was taken aback by the intrusion. “I ... what are you doing here?”
“Looking for you.” Paul’s expression was dark. “Actually, I’m looking for my daughter. I don’t much care what’s going on with you right now.”
The declaration cut to the quick. However, Quinn didn’t miss a beat with his recovery. It wasn’t hard to put himself in Paul’s shoes. If the older man had disappeared with Rowan and ignored text messages at a time like this, Quinn would’ve been livid.
“I’m sorry.” He held up his hands in capitulation. “I wasn’t thinking. I should’ve called you before we came back to the ship. It’s just ... there’s a lot going on.”
“Like what?”
“Like Fred has been stabbed and Sally is missing. She’s been kidnapped. The witness description seems to indicate that Spencer and one of the women — I’m honestly not sure which one, but it probably doesn’t matter — attacked Fred and took Sally. My guess is they want to use her as leverage.”
Paul was flabbergasted. “W-what?” He staggered to one of the chairs across from Quinn’s desk and sank in. “How can that possibly be true?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been wondering that myself. It’s definitely true, though. Sally has been taken and Fred is in surgery. I wanted to stay at the hospital, but I couldn’t swing that. We have to find Sally.”
Paul licked his lips and ran the new information through his head. “They’re moving now. How come?”
Quinn hadn’t given much thought to that question. “I don’t know. It does seem like a weird choice. Maybe they always planned on this move, though. Maybe they have an entire escape plan already in place. They had a car waiting when they took Sally. That seems to indicate pre-planning to me.”
“I would say so.” Paul stroked his chin. “Where is Rowan? She has to be freaking out.”
“She’s handling it better than me.” Quinn turned rueful. “I kind of melted down for a little bit. As for Ro, she’s locked in her room. She’s insisting on looking at photographs of Sally to see if the omen is present.”
“But ... how did she get new photographs of Sally?”
“Not new photos. Old ones. Sometimes the omen will pop up in old ones and that’s what she’s looking for.”
“Really? I didn’t know that was a thing.”
“It probably started happening after you left.”
Paul scowled. “I love how you always bring that up.”
Quinn shrugged, his lips curving in an unbidden smile. “It honestly wasn’t on purpose this time. I didn’t mean it as a dig. I’m not sure how reliable the phenomenon is. We can’t do anything until they contact us for the trade so I figure it can’t hurt to let her do her thing and take a bit of time for herself.”
“Fair enough. What about you? How are you feeling?”
“Not good. Fred’s not guaranteed to survive the surgery. I should be there with him ... and yet I can’t. I need to find Sally.”
“Because Rowan will have a broken heart forever if something happens to her.”
“That’s only part of it. I’m chief of security. Sally is my responsibility.”
Paul waited a beat, silent.
“But mostly because it will kill Rowan,” Quinn conceded, causing Paul to shake his head and laugh. “I love Sally, too. She’s been a good friend to both Rowan and me. She doesn’t deserve to be in this situation. She doesn’t even know what’s going on. We got distracted and didn’t tell her. She’s at a total disadvantage.”
“They have to know that killing her will get them noth
ing. They think we’ll trade Rowan for her and that’s what they’re holding out for. Of course, we can’t trade Rowan. What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to descend on whatever location they pick for the trade and take Sally back. That’s all we can do. I just don’t know why they’re doing things the way they are. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“It doesn’t,” Paul agreed, climbing to his feet. “What are you doing here?” He gestured toward the computer. “Do you expect to find answers?”
“Fred was running some long-term searches on Alexander Fletcher. I’m trying to figure out if he stumbled across anything that will be useful to us.”
“Have you found anything?”
“I just started looking.” Quinn clicked on the active searches the computer was running and rubbed his forehead as he stared at the screen. “I need to search through these and then get back to Rowan. I promised her I wouldn’t be gone long.”
“I’ll be going with you to check on her. I won’t be able to settle if I don’t see her with my own eyes.”
“Fair enough.” Quinn furrowed his brow as he sorted through the first information stream. “Huh. This is interesting. It says that Alexander Fletcher is the son of Henry Gibson Fletcher. Do you know who that is?”
When Paul didn’t immediately answer, Quinn slanted his gaze to him ... and found the man was as white as a sheet. “What’s wrong?” he asked, fighting a sudden wave of panic. “What is it?”
“Are you sure that he’s the son of Henry Gibson Fletcher?”
“Yeah. Why is that important?”
“Because ... well ... because ... oh, geez.” Paul slapped his hand to his forehead and started vigorously rubbing. “I can’t believe this is happening. Worse, I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. It makes sense now.”
“What makes sense?” Quinn was at the end of his rope. “What’s going on?”
Paul sucked in a steadying breath. “Henry Gibson Fletcher was my father-in-law.”
Whatever he was expecting, that wasn’t it. Quinn’s breath came out in a whoosh. “What? No. I ran Rowan’s mother back when I was looking for you. Her name was Caroline Gentry. She was from Michigan.”
Paul fixed him with a hard look. “According to records, my name is PJ Landis and I’m a famous author.”
“You are a famous author.”
“That’s not my real name, though. No one can tie Paul Gray to PJ Landis. I hired a very talented man to hide my identity. The thing is, I knew he could do it because he’d done it before.”
And here it was, the missing piece of the puzzle. “You hired someone to change your wife’s identity.” Quinn felt like an idiot when he said it out loud. “Of course you did. You were in hiding from the Phoenix Society.”
“Only kind of,” Paul hedged. “We were in hiding after the experiments. I told you how we met at college, how she was part of the experiments. The thing is — and I didn’t find this out until after the fact — her family insisted she be involved in the experiments.”
Quinn practically exploded. “Why didn’t you tell me that? This could’ve changed everything.”
“Because I had no idea that Henry Gibson Fletcher had anything to do with the Phoenix Society. I always thought he wanted Caroline to participate because of the money. Although, to be fair, she never mentioned that he was the one who pressured her. She just said it was a family member. Maybe it was someone else … like a brother.”
“The father is loaded, right?”
“Yeah, but he didn’t believe in subsidizing his children’s living arrangements once they were adults. He was a self-made man and he expected his children to take care of themselves. Caroline was struggling for money at the time and either him or the brother are the ones who told her she could find the money if she looked hard enough ... and then pointed her toward the experiment.”
Quinn needed to expend some building energy so he got up and started pacing. “So ... Henry Gibson Fletcher — one of the richest men in the country — is the father of Alexander Fletcher and the grandfather of Rowan.”
“He’s never met Rowan,” Paul countered. “He cut Caroline out of his life when he found out we were getting married. He didn’t think I was good enough for her. We didn’t want Rowan to have that sort of negativity in her life. We were afraid she would spend all her time trying to please him and there was no pleasing that man.”
Quinn nodded as he paced, things coming together. “Caroline participated in an experiment being run by her brother. She didn’t know he was in charge. Then Caroline fell ill and died when Rowan was a child. Now her brother — I’m guessing she didn’t see him regularly just like her father — is trying to take Rowan. This all ties back to family, not the experiment. Although I’m sure that plays into it. How come you didn’t tell me he was your brother-in-law?”
“Because I didn’t know. Caroline never talked about her brother. The few times she mentioned him, she never brought up a name. She had no love for him. She said he was a horrible person. She even called him a sociopath once or twice. She called him ‘Bucky.’ I guess it was some sort of family nickname. I never even knew his name was Alexander.”
“You still should’ve recognized the name Fletcher.”
“You said it yourself. Fletcher is a common name. It didn’t even occur to me. Once Caroline changed her name, I never thought of her as anything other than Caroline Gray. We built a life together. I loved her more than anything. It just didn’t occur to me that her father could possibly be involved. I mean ... why would he? He cut us off. Why would he care?”
That was a good question. Quinn had another one. “Is he still alive?”
“As far as I know.”
“Then we need to get him on the phone.” Quinn strode toward the door. “We need to talk to him and I need to get the truth out of Michael. This is all starting to make sense ... except Michael’s part in all of it. I want to know if he’s working with them.”
“And if he is?”
“I’ll kill him for touching Sally.”
“And if he isn’t?”
“He’s our best shot of having a number — or at least a contact — who can get us through to Henry Fletcher. That’s the guy we need on our side right now.”
“Why?”
“Because I have a feeling he’s the only one who can control his son.”
“And what if he’s an enemy, too?”
“Then we’ll deal with it another way. I don’t know what else to do.”
Paul nodded without reservation. “We should check on Rowan first. I just want to see her.”
“That makes two of us. We’ll take the roundabout way to Michael’s office. She’ll want to be part of this.”
18
Eighteen
Rowan was their first stop by mutual agreement. Neither one of them wanted to be separated from her for too long. It turned out to be a good decision.
“Baby, I’ve got big news.”
Quinn felt more hopeful than he had in weeks when he strolled into Rowan’s room, Paul following in his wake. He pulled up short when he realized the room was empty.
“Not much room here, huh?” Paul muttered, glancing around. “How do you guys manage this?”
“Technically this is her room. We just spend our nights here. I have my own room, but I’m virtually never in it. My contract is due to be renewed soon and I’m negotiating a suite for us in the package,” Quinn answered automatically. “Where is she?”
Paul slid his eyes to Quinn, noticing for the first time that Rowan wasn’t present. “Maybe she ran out to get something.”
“I told her to stay right here.” The fury that had been threatening to overflow earlier returned with a vengeance as Quinn eyed the camera on the bed. “I don’t know why she would leave.” He was frustrated when he scooped up the camera and looked at the digital window on the back. Rowan had taken another photo of herself and the omen was still there.
Paul looked over his shoulde
r and frowned. “I don’t like this,” he muttered. “Why is the omen there?”
Quinn forgot that Paul could identify the symbol. He was the first one, other than Rowan of course, who had ever seen it. “It’s been there for days. We told you.”
“Yeah, but I thought it would’ve disappeared by now.” Paul was beside himself. “She’s still in danger.”
“Yeah.” Quinn turned his attention to the laptop and the photos she’d pulled up. “She was checking us, wanted to make sure we would be okay. I don’t understand ... .” He trailed off when he saw the sheet of paper on the table. A sense of dread threatened to overwhelm him as he snagged it, his heart skipping three beats when he read the message. “Son of a ... .”
Paul grabbed the note from Quinn before he could shred it, all the color draining from his face. “What do we do?”
“She obviously left the note behind so we would find it and follow.” Quinn stared at the wall for a long beat before moving to the safe in the closet. He kept a gun there just in case. “We’re going after her.”
“Well, of course we’re going after her. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. How are we going to do it?”
“You’re going to call Nick and tell him what’s going on. Get Dave and his men over there. You and I are making a stop before we head out.”
“Where are we stopping?”
“I already told you. We have to talk to Michael.”
Paul was incredulous. “You want to scream at your buddy for betraying you before we find my daughter? What are you thinking?”
“That Michael might have inside information,” Quinn replied simply, tucking his weapon in the waistband of his pants and pulling his shirt out to cover it. He was unnaturally calm, something that only served to make Paul more nervous. “At the very least, he can tell me what Spencer is thinking.”
“What does that matter?” Paul challenged. “You’re going to kill him anyway.”
Farewell Seas Page 55
