by Becky McGraw
“You, okay, baby?” she asked with concern, hoping she hadn’t hurt his back.
“No, I’m not okay…” he said then opened his glittering brown eyes, and she tensed then tried to push herself off of him, but he held her tight, and added in a choked voice, “I’m better than I’ve ever been in my whole fucking life…thank you for giving me another chance, Jess.”
“I’m giving myself another chance too, Wade…I’ve been miserable without you too. I’ve been cramming so much into every day, just to avoid thinking about you, about us, I’m totally fricking exhausted.”
“I’m sorry for putting us through that, baby…I was a moron,” he said then grinned and that dimple she loved popped out in his cheek.
Unable to resist, she leaned forward and kissed him there. “Have I ever told you how seeing that dimple turns my knees to jelly?”
He grinned wider deepening the indention, and she shoved on his shoulder to sit up then said, “I shouldn’t have told you that…now you have a secret weapon,” the she got up and said, “Where’s the shower?”
“Hand me that cane over there by the chair, would you? I want to personally show you where the shower is,” he said and gave her another grin. “You look like a rookie at soaping yourself up, and I’m a pro, so I’ll show you how it’s done.”
Jess swallowed hard as she stopped by the chair and saw the cane. The fact that he had to use one caused her heart to pinch in her chest. With a trembling hand she picked it up and carried it over to him, and set it by the bed. Her face must’ve reflected her feelings, because he swung his legs over the side, then grabbed her and pulled her to him. “It’s not bad anymore, darlin’….I was using a walker. I’m actually doing pretty good, because I haven’t had much else to do but work out…and drink.”
“Well the working out is gonna continue, but the drinking isn’t,” she told him sternly.
“Yes ma’am…I know it was dumb,” he said then hugged her and put his head on her chest. “I’m not a drinker usually, Jess…it’s just been so fucking hard without you.”
“Good…then you don’t need to drink anymore, because I’m here now…and Angel and I need you strong.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Wade was amazed at what went into packing up a tour bus to hit the road with a band. They all had luggage and instruments, and various other things to make the bus seem like home for the next six months…not to mention all the baby stuff they had to pack for Angel. But was damned excited and proud of Jess, because Take My Breath Away was at number three on the country record charts, after only being released on the radio two weeks ago.
She and the band were frantically writing and perfecting other new songs to fill up the CD the record company was hounding them to cut. He’d been on daddy duty a lot, and loving every minute of it. His baby girl had started verbalizing more and she made sounds these days that sounded a helluva lot like da-da, and when she did it, his heart got so big, it almost busted through his chest. Life was damned good now, and he was gonna make sure it stayed that way.
Jess met with Travis, Doug and the Feds yesterday, and they told her they were going to pick up Ray Turner today at the record company in Nashville, and file the charges against him. They were going to freeze all of the accounts that Doug had discovered, plus a few more, including his personal accounts. According to the agent they met with, there was over half a million dollars between the accounts, and they were going to release the majority of it to Jess, as soon as things were settled, and they could prove it was hers. She hadn’t been kidding when she said Ray Turner had been robbing her blind. God only knew how much of the money he’d already spent.
After Wade finally picked up the check for his rodeo earnings, he deposited it in his account, then he sent Cassie and Luke a check for the fair market value of the land they’d given him. He didn’t feel right taking it, since he couldn’t work for them anymore. The house would be finished in a month or so, according to the contractor, but Wade wasn’t sure, when, or if, they’d be able to move in, since they’d be on the road.
Once he figured out how all this opening act, country star, thing went, he’d talk with Jess and figure out what they needed to do with the house. He knew one thing though, they needed a home base somewhere. Angel needed roots, and they needed a place they could go to unwind, when Jess wasn’t on the road.
Jazzie walked by him with her arms piled with pillows, and bumped him with her shoulder then said, “You gonna stand there like a bump on a log, or you gonna get your butt in gear and help?
“That load you have looks awfully heavy, sugar…wouldn’t want you to pull anything,” he said with a grin, then grabbed the pillows from her and walked toward the bus using his cane. He knew she was just messing with him, because she could. Jazzie always gave him hell, and he didn’t mind at all, because he figured out if she gave someone hell, that meant she liked them.
“Hey, Tony,” he yelled up the steps of the bus, “Come and get princess’s pillows would you?”
He poked his beaky nose over the top of the pile of pillows then grinned and said, “We need another bus just for Jazzie’s stuff.”
“Yeah, and Jess isn’t far behind her, but nobody beats my baby girl…she has more gear than both of them combined,” he chuckled and shoved the pillows at Tony.
“They start young with the luggage, that’s for sure,” Tony agreed then turned with the pillows to walk down the aisle.
Once Jess tossed the last little suitcase in the compartment on the side of the bus and closed the hatch, she stood there grinning at him with her hands on her hips. “Let’s get this show on the road, sugar,” she said with a wink, then jumped up and down clapping her hands. He walked over there and dropped his cane, then picked her up and hugged her fiercely. “I’m so damned proud of you, sugar.”
“I’m proud of me too…this has been a long time coming, and I have to pinch myself to believe it’s really happening,” then she pinched his cheek, “And that you’re coming with me.”
“I’m your bodyguard, he told her, where else would I be?” he said in a low gravelly tone, then kissed her lingeringly.
“All right you two, you’re holding up progress here, stop sucking face for a few minutes so we can load up. There’s a nice big queen size bed for you at the back of the bus,” Jazzie told them standing near the bottom step with her arms crossed under her breasts.
Wade chuckled, then sat Jess back on her feet and picked up his cane. “You getting, Angel?” he asked Jess.
“I thought you’d already loaded her on the bus?” Jess said with alarm.
He shook his head and told her, “No, you had her inside with you and Tamara, while you packed up your makeup kit.”
“Where’s Tamara? Jess said and frantically looked around for her nanny. Even though Wade was going to have Angel most of the time, he was going to be the stage manager, so he’d need help too, which is why she’d still invited Tamara to come with them.
Jazzie came back out of the bus and ran over to them. “What’s wrong?”
“Have you seen Tamara and Angel?” Jess grabbed her shoulders and asked, and the tears in her eyes told Wade she was really worried.
“Last I saw her, she was sitting out on the grass holding her, while we were loading,” Jazzie said then turned to Tony, who was on the second step hanging out of the bus, “Tony, check the bus and the bathroom, see if Tamara or Angel is in there,” then she turned back to them and said, “Hurry, let’s go check the condo.”
“I locked it up already!” Jess yelled behind her, but took off running anyway.
Wade looked at Denver, who was standing there with a frown and asked, “What kind of car does Tamara drive?” he asked shortly.
“White Toyota, I think…didn’t really pay attention, when she got here this morning. I think someone might have dropped her off.”
“Go ask the others and see if they know, do you mind?”
“I’m on it…” Denver said then hurried up the
steps of the bus, and Wade walked swiftly toward the parking lot.
Five minutes later, the whole crew was back by the bus standing in a circle, because none of them had found any sign of the baby or Tamara. Wade was on the phone with the police, and Jess was laying on the ground curled up in a ball, wailing like she was dying. That’s what Wade wanted to be doing too, but he had to keep it together so they could find their daughter. Jazzie was kneeling beside Jess trying to comfort her, which was never going to happen.
He saw Jess jerk, then she started scrambling to get her hand in her pocket to find her ringing cell phone, then she put it to her ear and answered it. A guttural wail came from her that sounded like something deep inside her had just died.
Wade ran over there and jerked the phone from her hands, then said, “Who is this?”
“This is Ray Turner,” the man on the other end said smugly, then told him, “As I was telling your beautiful girlfriend, I’m not very happy that all my bank accounts have been frozen, because she felt the need to try and have me put in jail, after all I’ve done for her.”
“All you’ve done for her, asshole is make her life a living hell, and steal her blind. She doesn’t owe you a damned thing, and if you wind up in jail, it’s because you belong there.”
Ray tsked into the phone, then said smugly, “Well if you lose your little lamb, then it must be, because you deserve it.”
A roar worked itself up from the bottom of Wade’s soul and erupted into the phone like lava from a volcano, “What the fuck have you done with my daughter?!?!?”
“She’s perfectly fine, a beautiful little Angel…and she’ll stay that way, but I want my five hundred thousand dollars that’s frozen in those accounts, and I want it now, if you want her back.”
Heat and bile burned Wade’s throat and he said rawly, “Motherfucker, if you touch a single hair on my baby girl’s head, there won’t be a place on God’s green Earth you can hide. I will find your ass and I will make you wish you were dead before I kill you.”
“Oh, such big talk, from someone with such a little brain…don’t fuck with me, and you’ll get your daughter back. Get that money together, and call me back at this number when you have it,” he told Wade then the line went dead.
Wade crushed the phone in his hand and wanted to throw it badly, but he didn’t, because it was the only connection between them and the sonofabitch that had their daughter. The band members crowded around them for a group hug, and Wade pushed through them when he heard sirens a short distance away.
“Jess, I need that FBI guys phone number, now,” Wade said, because he wasn’t waiting around for the local yokels to find his daughter, he needed bigger guns. Jess told him the guys name, and he looked through her numbers and found it, then called him.
When the man answered, Wade told him without preamble, “You must’ve tipped him off by freezing the accounts, Ray Turner kidnapped our daughter and wants the money in those accounts in exchange for her.”
The man on the other end groaned, then told him, “There was a damned accident on the interstate and our guys got backed up in it. I’m sorry.”
“There’s no sorry about it, I want my daughter back, and you’re gonna help me get her back,” Wade said forcefully. “Whatever it takes…Whatever. It. Takes.”
“Of course we will, where are ya’ll?”
“Jess’s condo, and the Dallas P.D. is here, so hurry up, before we have a cluster fuck here,” Wade told him then hung up the phone, and walked toward the police cars pulling up to the curb by the bus.
Jess was still sobbing uncontrollably behind him, but he couldn’t console her, it wouldn’t help anyway, she was inconsolable, just like he was. Wade approached one of the officers, who was speaking into a microphone on his shoulder, and waited for him to finish then told him, “This is a federal thing, so the FBI will be here in a few minutes.”
“Oh, yeah? Who are you?” the man looked him over, then met his eyes again.
“Wade Roberts, the kidnapped baby’s father…this is part of an investigation that the feds have been working on involving Ray Turner. Turner is who kidnapped her.”
“How do you know that?” the cop asked him and pulled out a notepad to start scribbling.
“He just called us and told us he has her…” Wade told him shortly.
“You know what kind of car he drives?”
“I have no idea, but the woman that actually took Angel, might have been in a white Toyota, and no I don’t know the plate number. Her name is Tamara something…let me see if Jess knows.”
The cop eyeballed the freshly painted tour bus at the curb, and grinned, “Jess Sparks?”
“Yeah, that’s Angel’s mother,” he told him and the cop grinned wider.
“I love her new song…” he said then Wade growled and walked toward where Jazzie had Jess in her arms on the curb.
Wade leaned down next to her and asked gently, “Baby, do you know what Tamara’s last name is?”
Jess looked up into his eyes and the depth of the sorrow there took his breath away. He sucked in a breath and ran a hand over her cheek, “You need to help me, sugar…we’re gonna find her, but you have to help.”
She nodded then her voice was hoarse and wobbled when she told him, “It’s Tamara Young. I have the application she filled out when I hired her in the apartment…Jazzie can you go get it? It’s in my bedroom in the filing cabinet, top drawer.”
“Sure…be right back,” she said then hopped up and sprinted to the condo.
Wade stood back up and turned back to the cop and saw him writing again, “You got that?”
“Yeah, Tamara Young…and she was the nanny right?”
“Can you run her name and see what kind of car she drives?” Wade asked hopefully.
“If you give me an address, I probably can…let’s see what’s on that application.”
Wade looked around and saw other officers interviewing the rest of the band, and then he saw five or six black cars pull up into the parking lot one after the other, and breathed a sigh of relief. The agents got out of the cars and stalked purposefully across the courtyard toward them. Black cars, black suits, black glasses, hopefully not black hearts too, because from right here, they looked like clones, spit out of the government agent machine in Quantico, Virginia, or wherever they manufactured them.
Wade needed help from people who gave a shit. He needed Beau, Gabe, Cole and anyone they knew and trusted who could help them find Angel. When he saw Jess push up from the curb and run toward one of the agents, she must’ve recognized, he stepped to the side and made a quick call to Beau, and told him what had happened. Beau was going to call Gabe and Cole, then see if he could meet them in Dallas too.
Hanging up the phone, he searched around until he found Jess again, talking to one of the agents, with Jazzie by her side, and he walked over to them, and put his arm around her shoulders. “What’s going on?”
“We ran the address Jess gave us for Tamara Young, and it’s bogus, her name might be too, because that didn’t come up either.”
“Shit…did you check her references, Jess?” Wade looked down at her and asked.
She looked up at him with anger mixed with misery in her eyes, and told him shortly, “Of course, I did. Every one of the four references she gave me gave her glowing reviews…” she said then her posture deflated and she added, “But that could have been a set up too.”
“How did Turner contact you?” the agent asked.
Wade reached in his pocket and pulled out Jess’s cell phone and handed it to him. “He called on Jess’s cell phone, and said to call him back on it when we got the money together.”