Now, finally, she was picking sides. But she’d done it much too late.
Taking a deep breath to control her anxiety, wishing she had Chance beside her, Alanna forced herself to move back toward the station’s bullpen, toward Kensie and Colter.
As soon as she rounded the corner, there they were, crowding around her, fear and hope in their eyes that quickly turned to disappointment when they saw Alanna’s face.
Kensie swallowed hard and clutched her husband’s hand. Then she reached for Alanna’s hand, too, always the big sister, even when Alanna didn’t deserve it. “We’ll find another way,” she croaked, but her voice was full of fear. “The police are already combing the woods around our cabin, looking for trails. They’ll find something.”
Chance, obviously sensing Alanna’s distress, pushed his way through the crowd until he was beside her, his big head nudging her arm. Rebel hurried over, too, slipping in between, so she could press up against Colter and Kensie at the same time.
Alanna stroked her dog’s fur, letting his calming presence relax her too-rapid heartbeat. She looked past her family to Peter and Tate, who were standing a few steps away.
Peter stared back at her with sympathy in his eyes, no obvious sign of the distrust he had to be feeling after all of the things Darcy had said about her. Beside him, Tate looked more pensive, but Alanna was surprised to see that he didn’t seem angry or distrustful, either.
“What Darcy said—”
Peter stepped closer, cutting her off. “You did your best. I’m sorry she let you down.”
She blinked back at him and for half a second, it felt like it was just the two of them in that station. She could see in his eyes that he understood, that he hadn’t ever believed she was trying to let Darcy go. A smile trembled on her lips, remembering his frustration in that moment back in the cabin and knowing he’d chosen to believe her.
It faded just as fast as reality rushed back in. Elysia was still missing. Without Darcy’s help, how would they find Johnny? Without Darcy’s help, how did Johnny expect to care for a newborn while he was on the run?
“He never planned to,” she realized aloud.
“What?” Kensie asked, leaning closer, probably recognizing the excitement in Alanna’s voice.
“Without Darcy, Johnny’s not trying to re-create a family anymore. He’s looking for revenge.”
Kensie and Colter shared a worried glance, maybe because they’d already decided Johnny had grabbed Elysia out of revenge. They were probably worried it meant Johnny saw Elysia as expendable.
It was more than simple revenge, though. Darcy was all highs and lows, lots of excitement followed by periods of depression. But she always acted with love, even when it was misguided. And until now, she’d stood by all of her “children,” no matter what. Johnny followed her lead when it came to his mood swings, but his emotions were always all or nothing. Love or hate. Once the pendulum swung, it was hard to send it back.
He’d treated her like his best friend growing up, the little sister he was so happy to have by his side no matter what. When she’d left that note, all that love had twisted into fury. There was no in-between for him.
If Johnny had given up on rebuilding a family, then his entire goal was revenge. It meant Tate had been right when he’d asked what use revenge was if she didn’t know it was Johnny. But with the kids rescued, of course they’d eventually figure out it was him. What Johnny needed her to know now was how to find him. What he needed was a reason to make her come. He’d found the reason. And she knew where to go.
Johnny had returned to where it had all started. He was at their cabin in Desparre.
Chapter Eighteen
“Why are we out here?” Tate demanded, zipping his coat up to his chin.
Alanna looked around the circle of people she’d hustled out of the station and into the snow. Kensie and Colter had Rebel between them, and the dog looked as curious as her owners in the darkened parking lot. Peter stood beside her, absently petting Chance and waiting for her to speak, his narrowed eyes telling her he already suspected what was coming.
When she’d told them all she needed to go outside for some fresh air, she’d hoped Tate would stay inside. Some part of her had hoped Peter would, too. Because if either of them refused to go along with her plan, her niece could be in more danger.
“Maybe you should go in and warm up,” Alanna suggested, trying to sound sincere.
“You figured out where they are, didn’t you?” Tate demanded.
“What?” Kensie gasped, clutching her hand. “Really?”
Alanna stared back at the big sister who looked so much like her and nodded. “I think so. But...” Her gaze darted to Peter and Tate. “Johnny understands the Alaskan wilderness the way Darcy does. We grew up learning to shoot in case of trespassers or a rogue bear. Despite my carelessness a few days ago, we were taught how to spot signs of a potential avalanche. We learned how to use the wilderness to our advantage.”
“Like firing at an overhang of snow and burying a team of police officers who thought they were well hidden?” Tate stared, assessing her like he was still trying to determine if the people who’d raised her were that in tune with their surroundings or she’d somehow given away their presence.
“Johnny was better than any of us,” Alanna continued, ignoring the unspoken question—Tate was either going to have to trust her or she wasn’t letting him in on her plan. “I can’t have officers trying to surround him. Not with Elysia in the way.”
Peter took her hand. “We’ll be more careful about—”
“No.” She turned toward him, Kensie’s desperate face in her peripheral vision. “What I said before, about Johnny looking for revenge? I’m the one he thinks did him wrong.”
“We’re not going to let him hurt you,” Colter hissed.
His loyalty brought tears to her eyes and she nodded a quick thanks to the brother-in-law who’d risked his life for her before he’d even known her to help Kensie bring her home. “I don’t think he will. He’s not trying to just lure me close enough to shoot me. He spent the past five years ignoring me. This is his way of reaching out.”
Kensie let out a huffed breath, then leaned into her husband over Rebel.
Alanna kept her eyes locked on Peter, willing him to believe her, praying he’d have enough trust left with Tate to keep his partner quiet, too. “He wants to talk.”
“Talk?” Peter asked, eyebrows raised. “And then what?”
“I know Johnny,” she said instead of answering. “If we give him the opportunity to take me instead of Elysia, he’ll jump at that deal.”
“There’s a better way than trying to make a trade,” Peter insisted.
“Aren’t we getting ahead of ourselves?” Tate asked. “Where is he keeping Elysia? Let’s do some surveillance. We can—”
“You’ll never get close to him,” Alanna insisted. “But I can. I can go there and convince him to leave her behind. I just have to go with him.”
“What?” Kensie stepped forward and Rebel did, too, giving a sharp bark in response to Kensie’s distress. Kensie grabbed Alanna’s arm, turning her so they were face-to-face. “I don’t want to lose you again.”
“You won’t,” Alanna said, forcing herself not to blink or shift her gaze. “He hates me right now, but I’m still his family. As long as I don’t betray him by bringing the police, he’ll go with me. He’ll leave Elysia. I know he will.”
“Alanna.” Her name sounded like a sigh as Peter moved so he was in her line of sight, too. “You can’t know how anyone from the Altier ‘family’ is going to respond anymore. Things have changed.”
“You saw what happened in that cabin,” she told Peter. “Darcy turned her weapon on you, but she ran instead of risking that she’d hit me. After everything that happened, Johnny is still her son. He’ll do the same.”
Kensie and Colter shared a worried glance and Peter’s gaze lifted to Tate’s, his forehead crinkled with doubt. Tate gave a short, hard nod and Alanna felt her whole body relax.
They believed her. They’d follow her plan. She let herself smile, because she knew it could work. Johnny had only grabbed Elysia to get back at her. He’d never hurt a baby. But no way did he want to raise one all alone.
“You can still go inside,” Peter told Tate softly. “You don’t know anything. You don’t have to be a part of this.”
Tate shook his head, the expression on his face a mix of anger and determination. “We’ve come this far because Alanna could predict what Darcy would do. If Johnny knows this place half as well as she does, he could disappear way too easily.” His gaze darted to Kensie and Colter and then back to his partner. “Our department is good, but situations like this need one of two things—a good hostage negotiator or a full-time tactical team.” He looked at Alanna. “I’ll bet on our hostage negotiator.”
“Thank you,” she whispered. Then she took a deep breath and looked at her big sister. “He’s at the cabin where we used to live. He must be. It’s the only place he can be sure I’d know to look. I’ll go up there and get in the car with him. We’ll drive away and leave Elysia there. That way, he can be sure anyone coming after us will go into the cabin first. He’s good at watching for tails. He’ll see if anyone follows us.”
“What happens if it doesn’t work?” Peter demanded. “What happens if he tries to run with both of you?”
“I won’t do it.” Understanding that Johnny would probably be armed and there might be a situation where she had no choice, Alanna added, “If I have to get in the car with both of them, I’ll signal you. Then you stop the car. Otherwise, you go in the cabin and get Elysia.”
“What about you?” Kensie asked.
“Once we’re far enough away, Johnny and I will talk things through. I doubt I’ll be able to get him to turn himself in. But he’ll know I won’t stay with him forever, just like I didn’t stay with the Altiers forever. He’ll have to let me go.”
They all stared back at her with worried expressions and she insisted, “I told you, he won’t hurt me. He might take a while to let me go, true. Then he’ll be a fugitive, because I can’t bring him in if he doesn’t want to go. But I’ll be okay. I promise.”
Chance whined, shoved his big head against her arm a few times, like he was begging her to be honest.
She stroked his fur and kept her expression even. Darcy would have been able to see through it, but the woman had raised her. Kensie had only known her for ten years, five of them as a little child and five as a woman torn between two worlds. But no longer. Today she was going to prove where she belonged.
If she didn’t live through it, then at least she’d die looking after her niece the way Kensie had looked after her.
* * *
THIS WAS THEIR best shot.
Peter believed it, but he didn’t like it. If this were any other case, he’d bring in his team. He’d trust them to do their jobs better than a group of civilians. Proceeding by the book would have meant officers surrounding the cabin, bringing in a state SWAT team if they had time. It meant keeping higher-ups abreast of every single movement of the operation. It meant Alanna would stay safely outside, far away from danger.
As much as he wanted that last part, Alanna was right. They wouldn’t have captured Darcy without her. Darcy and her husband had taught Johnny how to shoot, how to hide, how to fight. Right now, sending Alanna into danger was their best shot at getting Elysia back to her parents safely.
Since Kensie and Colter hadn’t immediately nixed Alanna’s plan, they knew it was true, too. From the way they were staring at each other—fear, hope and helplessness all over their faces—they didn’t like it any better than he did.
Of course, they didn’t have to do it completely Alanna’s way.
Her plan was probably going to save Elysia’s life. But it was probably also going to destroy what was left of Peter’s career. It would take down Tate with him.
Thinking about either of those things put a pain in Peter’s chest, but Tate knew what he’d agreed to, understood what was at stake. If it meant giving Alanna the life she deserved with the people who loved her, the way it should have been all along, Peter could accept giving up what he’d only recently discovered was his life’s calling.
What he wasn’t willing to do was risk Alanna’s life.
She could be right. She knew Johnny best, knew what he was capable of and, hopefully, where he’d draw the line. Whatever their sins, the Altier “family” had loved each other. But love that had turned into hate was dangerous. It was unpredictable.
They could trade Alanna for Elysia, make sure the infant was safe. But they needed a backup plan, needed something to trade Alanna for, too. Peter wasn’t willing to risk Johnny driving off with her and having her disappear again from everyone who loved her.
Peter’s family could really annoy him sometimes. His parents still treated him like a teenager. Their encounter with Alanna at the coffee shop hadn’t been the first time they’d seen him around town with someone, assumed he was on a date and told the woman how badly he needed to settle down. His siblings weren’t much better. They were all older than him, all happily married with kids and certain that what they had was all that was missing from Peter’s life. That if he would only hurry up and find the right woman, settle down and make a couple of babies, he’d forget all about the reporter job he’d left behind, forget how hard he’d fought over the past year to be accepted at the Desparre PD as an equal, rather than a possible liability.
No matter how little he sometimes felt they understood him, they loved him. They supported him. And he’d gotten their support his entire life.
Alanna deserved the same thing. She deserved to watch her niece grow up safe and happy and surrounded by her real family.
If he was being honest with himself, she made him see what his family was always insisting he needed. If she lived in Alaska, he could imagine dating her, could imagine one day marrying her and making babies, little miniature versions of her, maybe with his eyes.
It wasn’t meant to be. But he wasn’t going to let Johnny decide her future. Even if it couldn’t be with him, Alanna deserved to have her own babies and watch them grow up safe and happy, too, surrounded by the family that had waited and searched for her for fourteen long years.
“I have a plan, too,” he announced, making everyone’s head swivel his way. Even Rebel and Chance looked up at him expectantly.
“Colter and Kensie, you should drive Alanna back to my place. Drop the dogs off there and wait for my call. Then Alanna should take her rental and you two should follow at a distance.”
Chance and Rebel looked from him to Colter and Alanna, as if waiting for their reply. When there wasn’t an immediate rebuttal, Chance barked and Rebel followed suit, like they didn’t approve of the plan.
“Sorry,” Peter told the dogs, as a smile broke free, the first one he’d felt since they’d gotten the call from Kensie. “But you two need to stay home this time.” He looked at Tate. “I’m going to tell the chief that Alanna has good reason to suspect the baby is at the first cabin we went to, the one where Darcy started the avalanche. I want you to go there with them, keep them looking. Keep them out of the way.”
Tate shook his head. “I know what you’re doing. You want to keep me out of trouble, hopefully save my career. But it doesn’t matter. If you pursue this on your own and I looked the other way, it’s the same thing as going with you. Face it. I’m in this. I’m with you.”
“I want you to make sure the police go. I want you to make sure they’re out of the way long enough for us to pull this off.”
Tate crossed his arms over his chest. “Where exactly am I supposed to say you went?”
“Tell them I’m going to make sure Alanna
and her sister don’t try to get to Johnny first.”
Tate shook his head. “You’re trying to make things better for me and I appreciate it. But do you really think the chief will believe that I didn’t know what was really happening? It would be better if I came with you. What if you need backup?”
“We’ll be okay.” He wasn’t sure it was true, but this was about more than just doing whatever he could to salvage Tate’s career. It was also about getting his partner out of the way. Because trying to take down a criminal without backup or following procedure was one thing. But what the rest of his plan entailed? Not even the closest partner would agree to it.
“I really don’t think—”
“It’s the best way,” Peter insisted, knowing he needed to put this in motion fast before he thought better of it, too. He headed for the door, then pivoted back toward Alanna, Kensie and Colter, who were all standing immobile, like they hadn’t absorbed his plan yet.
“Get moving,” he told them. “Then wait at my place until you get my call that the rest of the department has cleared out. I want them far enough away that if anyone calls them to a situation at the old Altier place, they won’t be able to respond quickly. But I also want to do this now, while it’s still dark. Hopefully give us some element of surprise and keep Johnny off-balance.”
His gut knotted at how badly this could all backfire and he tried to ignore all his training, all his common sense screaming this was a mistake. “Go,” he insisted again, and finally Colter and Kensie nodded, heading for their trucks.
Rebel followed, but Alanna stayed where she was. She shook her head mutely at him, studying him too closely like she knew he wasn’t telling her everything.
He wasn’t going to give her time to figure it out. Moving in close, he looped an arm around her waist, pulled her to him and kissed her.
Her arms slid around his neck and she half leaned, half fell into him as Chance gave a sharp bark. Then she was kissing him back, the desperation in those kisses telling him that what he’d planned was necessary.
Alaska Mountain Rescue Page 17
