by Laura Scott
Hope widened his eyes. “Daddy’s here?”
“Yes. We need to find a safe place for you while I go help him. Can you walk?”
“I don’t know.” He tried to stand, then fell back to the cot.
The binding around his ankles must have cut off his circulation. Gently, she rubbed his wrists and ankles, trying to restore feeling. Fresh anger surged through her toward the men who had done this to a child.
“New plan.” She stooped down. “Can you put your arms around my neck? I’m going to give you a piggyback ride.”
Jonah wrapped his arms around her neck and his legs around her waist.
She found a secluded room to put him in. “Can you be really brave for just a little while longer? Stay here and wait until I come back with your daddy?”
“I...I think so.”
“Good boy. Are you hungry?”
The look in his eyes confirmed her guess, and she handed a snack to him.
“I’ll be back soon,” she said and went in search of Liam.
* * *
The faint hope that Reva would respond to his plea that she give herself up seeped out of him, but he kept his expression blank, unwilling to give her any more advantage over him. As long as Jonah was in danger, he couldn’t make a move against her. Once Paige let him know that his son was safe, he’d act.
Why hadn’t Reva attacked him? It had to be something more than wanting to know what he had on her.
And then he got it. She was basking in the glory of self-aggrandizement. She wanted, no, needed, to be praised, to be lauded, even if it was only by herself.
He realized there was a second reason. She wanted to see his fear, to feel it.
People like Reva fed on the fear of others. He’d seen it in Afghanistan, where warlords forced others to bow to their bidding by threatening to do unspeakable things to their families. Fear was a powerful motivator.
If he allowed his fear to dictate his reaction to anything Reva said, he, Paige and Jonah were as good as dead. His best bet was to keep her talking.
Reva leveled a taunting gaze at him. “You’re scared, aren’t you? The big, bad ex-Delta is scared of little ol’ me. I love it.” Her laugh rang out, the shrill tone scraping against his nerves. “Imagine my surprise and grief when it comes out that you’re the one who killed those three who died in the so-called accidents. I’ll shed a few tears and tell everyone that you must have just snapped from the guilt you’ve been carrying all these years.”
“How are you going to arrange that?” he asked, going for bored. Don’t let her see she’s getting to you. That only feeds her power.
“I have friends all over, friends who can whisper to the right people that you hadn’t been right in the head ever since the accident. People will speculate that you were suffering from survivor’s guilt over those kids in the bus who didn’t make it and took it out on the ones who did. You even hired a private security team to look into it, when all along, it was you. You didn’t know what you were doing.”
Liam kept his tone bored. “Ever hear of something called evidence?”
“Oh, there’ll be evidence. I have the wire and other things I used to cause the accidents. They’ll conveniently turn up somewhere, maybe your gym locker or a storage place you rented. These things always have a way of coming out.”
He silently acknowledged that he was impressed by the glib way she presented it. Could she get enough people to believe the theory that he had been so overcome with regret and guilt that he had gone on a killing spree?
“What about the attempts on my life? How are you going to explain those away?”
“Why, you staged them, of course. What better way to divert suspicion from yourself?” Another of those trilling laughs that held not a speck of humor. “I should know. My little playacting worked out better than I’d ever dreamed. Even the governor himself sent flowers after my brush with death.” Pride resounded in her voice. She motioned to her left. “Come on out.”
At her command, two men, each of whom looked like he could have starred in a pro wrestling match, appeared.
“Hold him.”
The men took Liam’s arms. He jammed his elbow in one man’s gut, but the other delivered a punishing blow to Liam’s kidneys. He fell to his knees, breathing heavily. Remembering the knife in his boot, he reached for it and closed his hand around its hilt.
The first man, now recovered, grabbed Liam’s wrist and twisted it back, forcing him to drop the knife.
Reva came to stand closer and picked up the knife. “Nice toy. I believe I’ll keep it.” She made a tsking noise at Liam. “That was all so unnecessary. You may not believe this, but I don’t like seeing you in pain.”
“Right the first time.” He grunted out the words. “I don’t believe it.”
Though the men hovered nearby, she held up a hand, stilling them. “You always were smart, but not as smart as that little partner of yours.” She raised her voice. “I know you’re here, Paige. Might as well come out.”
“I came alone.”
“Liar.”
“Liam gets a bullet to the knee if you don’t show yourself.” Reva lowered the gun and pointed it at his right leg.
Paige walked out from behind one of the piles of crates. “Don’t hurt him.”
“Take her,” Reva shouted to one of the men, who grabbed Paige by the shoulders, while his partner did the same with Liam.
Paige gave a subtle nod in his direction. He understood that she’d found Jonah and that his son was safe. Fresh energy surged through him.
“Tell me what you have on me,” Reva ordered Paige. “I don’t mind shooting you in the leg before I kill you. I should warn you. I’m pretty good with this thing. Daddy taught me to shoot just around the time I could tie my own shoes. Marie was never interested, but I took to it right away.”
“You’ll kill us either way. That’s what you had in mind all the time, isn’t it?” Paige asked.
Reva shrugged. “Would you rather die now or later? Makes no difference to me either way.”
“I’d rather not die at all.”
FOURTEEN
Paige made her move. She rammed her elbow up and back, catching the man who held her in the chin. The crack of bone told her she’d made hard contact. Blood spurted, then sprayed, its warm stickiness coating her shoulders and neck. Couldn’t be helped.
Taken by surprise, he released her.
She spun so that she now faced him. The hate-filled glare in his eyes promised retribution. Too bad. She wasn’t going to give him time to exact it.
“I ain’t gonna take it easy on you ’cause you’re a woman,” he said as he wiped his chin.
“I don’t expect you to.”
She struck out with her foot, aiming at his chest. When that didn’t faze him, she followed up with another kick, this one to his knee. That brought results as he clutched his injured leg.
He gave a guttural groan.
He moved in, and she danced away, sparing a glance to see how Liam was doing with his opponent. Liam was well over six feet, rangy with lean muscle, but his opponent had bulked-up shoulders and arms thick as tree limbs.
“Worried about your man?” her opponent taunted. “You should be. He’s no match for Cable.”
The Cable in question was at least six four, with arms ropy with muscle and sinew. He probably outweighed Liam by fifty pounds or more. The glint in his eyes said he was relishing the fight.
Paige put it out of her mind. Right now, she was too busy ducking fists the size of Virginia hams. A blow from them could easily knock her out.
He had a tell, a muscle in his jaw twitching, when he was about to throw a punch. She used that and came in hard and fast before he struck her, catching him in the gut with her own fists. Though she lacked his power, she had speed and agility on her side. The stunned expressio
n in his eyes when she hit him gave her a fleeting satisfaction, but he wasn’t down.
Neither was she.
She looked up, expecting to see Reva hightailing it out of there. Instead, the woman stood to one side, avid gaze riveted on the fights, reminding Paige of spectators watching battles to the death in ancient Rome.
She’d deal with Reva soon enough. Right now, she had to make her man angry enough to lose control.
“Big guy like you ought to be able to take on one puny woman. Guess you’re not so tough after all, huh?”
Nostrils flaring with insult, he charged. She was ready and reversed the energy of the attack in a move known as irimi nage. He went down hard, his head hitting the concrete floor with a reverberating thud. She wasted no time in securing his hands in flex ties.
Liam had disabled his opponent and had him on the ground, a knee in the man’s back. “Was it you and your partner who vandalized my house and threatened my son?” He yanked up the man’s head.
“Yeah. So what?”
“I’m going to take special pleasure in seeing both of you put away for a long time.” As Paige had with her man, Liam bound the man’s hands.
The two men were out, but Reva was still very much a force to be reckoned with.
She broadened her stance, her .357 Magnum held on Paige and Liam. “Bravo. You are both to be congratulated on taking out those two fools. It’s a good thing I stuck around to make sure the job was done right this time. If I’d done that earlier, you wouldn’t still be around getting in my business.” Without further fanfare, she fired.
Liam fell to the floor.
Paige’s heartbeat faltered at seeing Liam fall. Rage such as she’d never known filled her. She advanced toward Reva when she saw Liam wink. Reva had missed the shot. Renewed hope gave her the energy she needed, so when Reva raised the revolver again, Paige didn’t give her time to use it but kicked it from the woman’s hand, then delivered a right cross to her jaw.
Reva was down. For her own good, Paige hoped she stayed that way.
Paige secured Reva’s hands behind her. She pulled out her cell and punched in 911, gave her name and the address.
“Where’s Jonah?” Liam asked.
“I’ll get him.” Minutes later, she returned with a frightened-looking Jonah in her arms. She set him down, and he ran to his father.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah, buddy. It’s me. How ’bout a hug?”
Jonah wrapped chubby arms around Liam’s neck. “You won’t send me away again, will you?”
“Not on your life. I can’t get along without you. You’re my best buddy.”
“The bad men told me that you weren’t coming,” Jonah said, a break in his voice, “but I knew you would. I told them that, but they just laughed.”
Upon hearing that, Paige wished she could put a hurt on the men again. Wanting to give father and son time together, she gave a statement to the police when they arrived. Reineke showed up shortly after the locals. Predictably, he wanted to know why she and Liam hadn’t called him when Liam first received the call regarding the kidnapping. Paige soothed ruffled feathers and explained that they weren’t certain Jonah was being held at this location and that they had had to act fast if they were to save him. It was a feeble excuse at best, and she flushed. But when Reineke continued to harp on their going off on their own and not involving the police, she’d had enough.
“What would you have done if it had been your son, Detective? Would you have called the cops for backup or would you have gone after him yourself?”
That quieted his objections.
Liam, Jonah and Paige were finally allowed to leave the factory. After they had Jonah checked out at the hospital and his rope burns were treated, they returned to the house. By tacit agreement, Liam and Paige postponed any discussion about the case.
Jonah insisted that Paige stay for his favorite dinner of mac and cheese and hot dogs. Three bedtime stories and numerous glasses of water later, he was down for the count.
Working in tandem, Liam and Paige cleaned up the kitchen. When they were done, she said, “It’s not over.”
The killer had been caught, but the blackmailer was still out there. Until he or she was stopped, Liam and his son would never be safe.
* * *
Liam’s euphoria at being reunited with Jonah took a nosedive after he’d put his son to bed. Accumulated tension and fear had taken their toll, and he desperately wished he could put the whole thing behind him.
But Paige was right. It wasn’t over.
Not yet ready to talk about what came next, he thought about Reva. “Reva was just a kid back then. How did she go so wrong? Maybe if I’d stayed in touch with her after Marie died, things would have been different.”
“She made her choices a long time ago,” Paige said. “They’re finally catching up with her.”
“‘They that plow iniquity and sow mischief shall reap the same,’” he murmured, quoting a Scripture from the book of Job. It was a perfect caption for Reva’s life. “I’m surprised I remembered that.”
“I’m not.” Paige’s voice was soft. The moment hung, imbued with feelings neither was ready to give voice to.
The chirp of his phone interrupted the shimmer of feelings that remained. Liam glanced at the display and saw it was Detective Reineke. He put it on speaker so that Paige could hear.
After asking about Jonah, Reineke got down to the purpose for his call. “Ms. Thomas admits to everything except luring you and Ms. Walker to that trailer and trying to blow you up. Could be that she’s lying, but I tend to believe her. Looks like you may have another enemy out there, Mr. McKenzie.”
“Thanks, Detective. I appreciate you letting me know.” Liam hung up and looked at Paige. “What do you think?”
“I think he’s right. The blackmailer had reason to want you dead. You stood in the way of continuing to bleed Reva for money.”
“Okay,” he said at last. Reva had been caught, but the person who had set the murders in motion was still out there.
“Reva said that she’d started receiving the threats six weeks ago,” Paige reminded him. “Sam Newley died just around then. I keep coming back to that.”
“Me, too,” Liam admitted. “Sam would never have been involved in blackmail, though. It wasn’t his style.”
“No. I didn’t know him very well, but I could see that he was a straight-arrow kind of guy. You can’t deny the timing, though. Could Sam have seen Reva doctor Pope’s water bottle? Maybe that’s what turned him so thoughtful on the drive home.”
“Sam wouldn’t have let Pope take the fall for something that wasn’t his fault.” Liam was very certain of that.
Paige’s brow dipped in thought. “Maybe he felt sorry for Reva. She was just a kid. There was nothing he or she could do to bring back the kids who died. If Pope had been in danger of going to jail, it might have been different, but he was never charged with anything.”
Liam brooded over it. “That sounds like Sam,” he said finally. “He always wanted to think the best of people. It was part of what made him such a good friend. Maybe he was waiting for her to come forward.”
“Who would he have told?”
“At one time, he and I were tight. I think he would have come to me, but we lost touch.” Liam shook his head at his neglect of their friendship. “I joined the army, then Delta. After graduating from college and medical school, Sam started his research. We both promised that we’d catch up someday, but it never happened. And then he got sick.”
“What about his brother? Would Sam have told him?”
“Jerry was more than six years younger than Sam, so they were never even in the same school.”
“Sam knew he was dying,” Paige said slowly. “Maybe he didn’t want to take that secret with him and decided he had to tell someone. Who better to tell than hi
s brother?”
“It makes sense. Could Jerry have had the brains to pull it off?”
“Blackmail doesn’t take brains so much as cunning and the willingness to do what most of us would consider unthinkable.”
Liam thought about it. “How do we find out?”
Paige leaned in close. “Here’s what we do.”
* * *
“I don’t like it,” Liam said after Paige shared her plan with him.
“You don’t have to like it,” Paige said, her patience straining. She and Liam had been over this again and again. “You only have to go along with it. Just like I did with you when you were meeting Reva.”
“Playing dirty,” he muttered.
“It’s simple. I call Jerry, say that I have something important to tell him. He invites me over and I give him my proposition—either he pays me or I go to the police with the information that he was the blackmailer. If we’re right about him, he’ll go along with it. Or he’ll try to stop me. If he doesn’t react, then we know we’re on the wrong track, but I’m pretty sure we’re right.”
“And you think he’s just going to let you waltz in and accuse him of blackmail?”
“No. I think he’s going to deny it, then finally admit that I’m right. Just like with Reva, he’ll want to boast about how smart he was, how he’d fooled everyone. I’ve got a digital recorder in a pin that I’ll wear.”
“Why don’t I do it?”
“Because he’ll be suspicious of you. Me?” She lifted her shoulders in a dismissive shrug. “I’m just a woman.”
“I still don’t like it.”
“I’ll be fine.” She knew he was worried and did her best to help him see this was the only way. “We don’t have any real proof to connect Jerry to the blackmail except a hunch. We need a confession. Once we have something to take to the police, they can find evidence against him. He’s not smart enough to have covered all his tracks.”
