Rescuing His Secret Child

by Maggie K. Black

  She didn’t know if Mr. Grand had some softness or personal code when it came to children or if whoever had hired him had told him not to hurt kids. But she’d barely been on the front half of the train for a few minutes when Mr. Grand had tossed a blanket at her and told her to cover her son’s face and shield his eyes. She had, cradling Zander to her chest and covering him in the blanket like she used to when he was a tiny baby and she’d rock him to sleep.

  Then any tiny sliver of hope Erica had had that Clark wasn’t actually dead withered and died as she watched Lou half drag, half carry a bloody body in a blue suit, with a large head wound, through the first-class lounge and toss it out the back door onto the tracks. Her heart was too horrified to beat. Dizziness had swept over her, worse than any morning sickness had ever been.

  He could’ve disposed of Clark’s body at any time. But instead Mr. Grand had made sure she’d seen. He’d wanted her to see. He’d wanted to make her see it was her fault a man she’d known and grown up with was dead.

  Since then she hadn’t been able to get that image and knowledge out of her mind.

  Lord, have mercy. Be with Clark’s family, his friends, his constituents and everyone he loved. Please, get everyone else out of this alive and unharmed.

  Who would do all this for a laptop? What could ever be on that laptop—even one belonging to a diamond mine—that would be worth killing for?

  Now the two-car-long train continued its journey north through the night. Zander played in his tent. Erica’s brother sat on the floor opposite her. Although their kidnappers had left her and Zander free to roam the small space, Lou had tied Tommy’s legs together, probably to keep him from running again. But so far he’d left Tommy’s hands free. She guessed so he could help her with Zander.

  Tommy’s head was bowed as if trying to get any sleep he could. How had he not managed to hide the gun? Considering all the stuff her brother had smuggled in and out of the house past their mother, how had he managed to let Mr. Grand see the gun? She sighed and reminded herself that his friend was dead and she couldn’t imagine what he’d been going through keeping her son safe.

  To her right, the blond-haired young woman named Julie sat at the stolen laptop, her fingers typing furiously, while Mr. Grand stood over her. To her left, Lou stood over them, periodically and lazily waving his semiautomatic in their direction. She didn’t see the young, gangly Rowan anywhere and wondered if he’d been assigned the job of keeping his weapon trained on Bob, to make sure the engineer did as he was told. Or if something worse had happened to Rowan.

  Bob, what did they do to get you to do this? Did they threaten you? Hurt you? Pay and bribe you? If only she could get to him, maybe she could get him to stop the train.

  Erica stretched, thankful her hands and feet hadn’t been bound. Had they only bound Tommy’s legs because they thought he was a threat and she wasn’t? It was not like there was much she could do against a crew of people with weapons. It was not like they had the ability to overpower them and take the train. Or like she was about to risk her and Zander’s lives by jumping out of the train in the middle of nowhere.

  No. For now all she could do was sit on the floor, letting the unspoken threat of the gun-wielding thug on the door and the vulnerability of the precious child playing quietly beside her keep her rooted in place, while her mind took in all the information it could as she prayed and waited for when she could make her move.

  My family and I are not going to die here, Lord. Not like this. Please, let me know when to act. Let me know what to do.

  At least she now had far more information than she had about what was going on. The fact Mr. Grand kept popping periodically into the front engine and one of the sleeper cabins made her suspect he had a satellite phone or some other way to contact the outside world and was still in touch with either an accomplice or whoever had hired him. From the snippets of hushed conversation Erica had been able to overhear, it seemed Mr. Grand wanted Julie to find and download the contents of the laptop before he handed it over to his client. It also seemed like she wasn’t having any success.

  Zander slipped out of his tent and went over to the window and looked out. His small figures danced along the ledge. She held her breath a moment, but nobody stopped him. Thank You, God. If Zander’s safety had depended on him sitting still, I don’t know what I’d do.

  She glanced at her brother. Tommy inched his body closer.

  “You okay?” she whispered.

  Tommy nodded. “Yeah. Zander’s been great, and they’ve treated us well. But...” His voice trailed off as pain filled his eyes.

  “Clark...” she finished, then shot a glance toward Zander. “I’m so sorry.”

  Tommy closed his eyes and nodded. “I keep asking why him and not me.”

  “Me, too.” She reached into the gap between them for her brother’s hand. He squeezed it. Then she pulled back. “How did you get away?”

  “There was some kind of panic in the front engine,” Tommy said. “The engineer needed help detaching the train. Everyone was distracted. Mr. Grand and Lou ran off. They left me alone with Julie and Rowan. I didn’t think they’d shoot me—I just had a hunch they might not. So I seized the moment, scooped up Zander and ran. I’m just sorry I didn’t get farther.”

  “It’s okay,” she said. “You did more than enough.”

  He nodded but she wasn’t sure he believed her.

  “Where’s Rowan now?” she asked.

  Tommy shrugged. “No idea. Front engine, I think.”

  “I told Uncle Tommy about the soldier, Mommy,” Zander told her as he turned from the window. “And how he helped us.”

  Tommy nodded. “He sounds like a good guy.”

  He’s more than a good guy. He’s Nick. My Nick. And you never told him I was pregnant. And yeah, maybe you had your reasons, but now I’m worried that I’m never going to see him again and he’s never going to know that he has a son.

  Words tumbled through her mind, but for now she’d keep them to herself. She’d tell Tommy that Nick had been the one to save them after this was all done. For now, she didn’t need that argument. She’d tell Nick the truth, too. Soon. She had to grab the hope of that and hold it tightly.

  Zander’s attention turned back to the window. The finger tapping grew faster.

  Mr. Grand leaned over Julie’s shoulder and barked something. Then he grabbed her by the shoulder. His voice rose. Whatever he thought was on that laptop, he wanted Julie to find it faster.

  Erica nodded in their direction. “Any idea what that’s all about?”

  “Clark had been going on for weeks about this whole idea that the North Jewels Diamond Mine investigation was corrupt from the start,” Tommy said. “He just found the whole idea that a mine was funneling diamonds to organized crime to be preposterous. And when he found out that the guy who headed the investigation—Trent Henry—was the older brother of your idiot ex-boyfriend, Nick, that settled it for him. He started digging until he found something.”

  Clark had dug up evidence that Nick’s brother had botched a major investigation? That didn’t seem likely. “What did he find?”

  “Offshore bank accounts with large amounts of money in them. Proof that diamonds had instead been sold to some overseas buyers. All the proof—bank account numbers, trace numbers, smuggling routes—are all supposedly on that laptop.”

  Well, at least that would explain why someone would steal the laptop and why Mr. Grand was in such a hurry to copy the data. There was no limit to what an enterprising criminal could do with information like that.

  “Then who brought the laptop on the train?”

  “Apparently, a whistle-blower.” Tommy shrugged. “Clark said she contacted him. The mine is very isolated, and all electronic communications are monitored. The information was too sensitive to be sent electronically. So she smuggled it out on a laptop. Apparently,
the plan was that Clark would then get it from the baggage compartment at Moosonee.”

  Only she didn’t get off in Moosonee. She’d been ordered out of the train in the middle of nowhere with the crew.

  “But how was that even supposed to work?” Erica asked. “Only the person who checked the case in to the cabinet can check it out again...”

  But the words trailed off her tongue even as she spoke them. She was the person responsible for enforcing that rule. She was the person Clark would’ve asked to take the case out of the cabinet for him. Had Clark set this whole thing up counting on the fact that he’d be able to sweet-talk Erica into breaking that rule for him? Was that why he’d invited her son and brother along for this trip? To distract her or somehow help convince her that he was a nice guy and she should do this favor for him?

  “Tell me you didn’t know about any of this before you got on the train with Zander,” Erica said. “Please, tell me you didn’t let Clark talk you into something stupid and put my son in danger.”

  His face paled, and the look of guilt that crossed it was one that she knew all too well and told her everything she needed to know.

  “Oh, Tommy.” A sickening feeling filled her heart. “What did you do?”

  “I’m so sorry.” Tommy’s eyes begged her for forgiveness. “Clark was nervous and wanted someone with him who he trusted to have his back! He said bringing Zander would make it look more natural.”

  Instinctively her hand rose and it took more self-control than she realized she had to lower it again instead of decking him.

  “You gave them leverage over me!” Her whispered voice grew louder. “You gave them a way to use the most important thing in my life to threaten and force me to do what they wanted me to do!”

  “I had no idea about Mr. Grand,” Tommy said. “Or the hijacking or any of it. Neither did Clark! You’ve gotta know I’d never do anything to hurt Zander. I’d give my life for that kid!”

  “Enough talking!” Mr. Grand waved the gun in their direction. “Both of you. Or I’ll tie you up and gag your mouths. Is that what you want?”

  No. Erica shook her head, pressed her lips together and dropped her gaze. Anger burned inside her, spreading like a determined fire through her veins. Of all the stupid things her brother had done, this was by far the worst. But she couldn’t let emotion take over. She needed to focus. She had to find a way out of here. But her mind spun. It seemed like every answer she got opened up new questions. In life she’d always been drawn to a scientific and philosophical rule called Occam’s razor that stated the simplest solution was usually the right one. Or as she used to joke to Nick when trying to help him cram for an exam or finish whatever last-minute homework assignment he’d forgotten to do: KISH—Keep. It. Simple. Henry.

  There was nothing at all simple about this. Sure, Clark had always had a flare for the dramatic and maybe the whistle-blower had had good reasons for agreeing to do the drop-off that way. But it was all too cloak-and-dagger. It was all too complicated. Why use a train to do the handoff? Why risk not being able to get the case from the secure storage cabinet? Had the story Clark told Tommy even been true?

  No, there had to be something else going on.

  What am I missing, Lord? What can I not see?

  Nick’s unbidden face filled her mind. The way his lips had felt brushing over hers. The way his hand had felt when their fingers linked. The curve of his arm when she’d lain against him. His arms around her.

  The stirring in her core when their eyes had first met had been like a tremor shaking the walls of her heart that had grown stronger with each passing moment they’d been together. Being next to him had been like a dream she’d never let herself have. She liked him. She cared about him. She missed him. She’d... She’d never fully closed the part of her heart that he’d opened.

  “Mommy! Look! There’s something coming!” Zander called out.

  Erica looked up, feeling her brain switch in an instant from the lovelorn girl she’d once been to the woman she was now.

  He banged his palms on the window. “Come see!”

  “Get down!” Mr. Grand shouted. He waved his gun at the little boy, whose nose was now pressed up against the windowpane. But it was like her son was so fixated on what he could see outside that he didn’t even hear him. Zander got like that whenever he was excited about something.

  Mr. Grand’s voice rose. “I said get down!”

  “It’s okay. It’s okay. Let me!” Erica sprang to her feet. The last thing she needed was Zander’s tendency to get hyperfocused on things to put his life in danger now. Her hand brushed his back. “Zander, honey. Come on. We gotta sit down.”

  “No! Can’t!” His head shook. A wide, excited smile spread across his face that belied everything about the situation they were in right now and she didn’t know whether to be thankful or worried. Probably both. “Look! Someone’s coming!”

  “No, honey, I’m sorry.” The words flew from her mouth automatically and sadly as her hand brushed his back. “Nobody’s—”

  But even as she spoke she felt the words freeze on her lips. There was a light. A single bright light shining behind them in the darkness. Her heart leaped. What was it? What was she seeing? She didn’t know. All she knew was that something was cutting through the storm and shining in the darkness, and it was coming toward them. And suddenly she felt an unsettling fear creep up her spine. What if Zander was right, that this was a rescue and they’d just alerted the criminals to the fact that it was coming?

  “Come on, Zander.” She slid her arm around his waist. “Let’s get down. Let’s get away from the window.” She scooped him up, spun him around and pushed him into Tommy’s arms. Zander squirmed. His uncle held him tight.

  “But, Mommy! What if it’s Soldier Nick? What if he’s coming to help us?”

  Mr. Grand’s head snapped up. He signaled Lou. “Go. Take care of it.”

  Lou nodded and disappeared down the first-class cabin. No... Lord, please... Then Mr. Grand yanked her by the arm and spun her around. He put one hand on her shoulder. With the other he pressed a gun into her ribs. “Come on. You’re with me. If anyone tries anything funny, you’re getting shot.”

  She glanced back at Tommy and then at Zander, thankful that Mr. Grand had positioned the weapon in such a way the little boy wouldn’t see it. “I’ll be right back. Don’t worry. You be good for your uncle.”

  “It’s the soldier, Mommy!” Zander’s eyes grew wide and filled with hope. “It has to be!”

  She didn’t know whether to hope her son was right or to worry that he could be.

  Mr. Grand walked her through the train car. Lou had shoved the back door open. The light came closer. She watched, fear mounting inside her. A man on a motorcycle drew closer. Lou leaned out the back door and fired. The motorcycle wove and dodged around trees and rocks, through the rain, evading the bullets flying toward him as he edged closer and closer to the train. And even with a helmet on, she knew every line of his form, his shoulders, his arms...

  It was Nick.

  Zander was right. The soldier, his daddy, the only man she’d ever loved and ever lost was coming toward them in the darkness.

  “Shoot him!” Mr. Grand bellowed. “You can’t let him reach the train!”

  Lou fired again. Nick returned fire, his bullets striking so close to the back of the train that she thought for a moment he might actually take Lou down before the thug’s bullet could reach him. Then suddenly Nick stopped firing. The gun paused in Nick’s hand. As she watched, one of Lou’s bullets hit its mark, a spark seeming to strike the motorcycle in the darkness. The bike flipped end over end.

  “Nick! No!”

  He was thrown like a rag doll from the motorcycle as it crashed in the darkness.

  EIGHT

  Nick’s eyes closed and prayers crossed his heart as he felt his body fly helplessly t
hrough the air. He wasn’t even sure what had happened. He’d actually thought he’d had it for a moment. He’d honestly thought he’d be able to catch up with the train, take out the thugs and somehow force it to stop. Instead he’d felt the motorcycle being yanked out from under him as suddenly and violently as if a grenade had gone off beneath him.

  One image seared like a photo across the darkness of his mind.

  Erica.

  He’d seen Erica, standing there, framed by the doorway like a picture in a cameo or a locket, her flaming red hair highlighted by the light of the train surrounding her. She’d been standing behind the criminal who was firing at him. That had been his downfall. He’d realized two things at once. One was that if he fired and missed, or the bullet ricocheted, she could be hurt or worse. The other was that somehow he’d be okay if her face was the last thing his eyes ever saw.

  Lord, please get me out of this alive...

  His body curled, instinctively and protectively, thankful for the limited protection his fatigues and Liam Bearsmith’s helmet and gloves gave him. Then he felt the impact of rock and earth smacking his body. His head snapped against the train tracks. The sound of the helmet cracking sounded like a whip in his ears. He lay there for a moment, pain radiating through his body. Then there was nothing but the rain beating down against him and the sound of the train pulling away, taking Erica and Zander with it.

  He groaned, crawled onto his knees and yanked his helmet off. He let the cold rain beat against his head, run down his face and wash the hot tears of frustration from his eyes. He dropped to his knees. A deep anguish that eclipsed any pain his body was feeling moved through his core as a prayer for help ripped from his mouth as he cried out to God.

  Erica and her son were gone. They’d been taken. Kidnapped. Stolen. Ripped away by killers. And he’d failed to save them. Now what? He couldn’t chase after Erica and Zander on foot. And the walk back to the other half of the train would be long and painful. What other option did he have but to admit defeat? He dragged himself to his feet. The fact that he’d failed her weighed down on him like the X-ray vest he’d found himself under as a kid when he’d broken both a leg and a wrist after a spectacular wipeout on his brother Jacob’s bike.