by Sherry Lewis
“I sure hope you’re right.”
“So do I. Wiley knows to direct him to you if he calls?”
Jackson nodded. “But I think Holden would rather chew glass than talk to me.”
“Well, he’s going to have to talk to you if he calls. Patrice and Wiley have to make sure of that.”
“And in the meantime, we pray for a miracle and hope somebody has seen one of them?”
She nodded. “In the meantime, we pray for a miracle.” It wouldn’t be the first miracle she’d asked for, and it wouldn’t be the last. She just hoped this time someone would be listening.
IT WAS LATE AFTERNOON when Lucy and Jackson pulled into the parking lot of the Channel-Vu Motel, yet another in a long series of run-down motels along the shipping lines. This one was a two-story L-shaped building with a half-empty parking lot, potholes in the pavement, and a sad-looking neon sign with a couple of burned-out letters. How many more of these places would they have to check before they finally found Holden? Or were they once again chasing the wrong lead?
One after another, they’d checked motels, restaurants, fast-food establishments, Laundromats, convenience stores and anything else that looked promising, but nobody anywhere had seen Holden or Angel—at least, nobody was admitting to it. Lucy had been trying to keep their spirits up, but even she was fatigued and growing discouraged.
Doing her best to stay motivated, she walked with Jackson toward the office at the front of the building. Inside, a couple of vending machines hummed against one wall.
A buzzer sounded somewhere when they entered, and a second later a tall woman in her late thirties poked her head out from the back room and took their measure. Her red hair fell in corkscrew curls to the middle of her back, and the spandex top she wore looked as if it had been made for a much smaller woman.
When she saw Jackson, her eyes lit and she strode toward the counter running a tongue across lips covered with bright red gloss. She leaned onto the counter, pushing her breasts into the V of her shirt, and locked eyes with Jackson. “Well, hello. What can I do for you?”
If they hadn’t been so tired, and if they hadn’t been worried about Angel, the situation might almost have been comical. “We’d like to ask you a couple of questions,” Lucy said.
Shutters dropped over the woman’s eyes when she turned to look at her. “What are you, a cop?”
“As a matter of fact, I am.” She produced her identification and slid the pictures of Holden and Angel across the counter. “We’re looking for either of these two people. The man is a few years older than in the picture, and either of them might have changed their haircut or hair color.”
“I might have seen them,” she purred at Jackson, “but I can’t be sure.”
Jackson kept his eyes on her face. If he was tempted to check out her ample charms, he didn’t give in. “What would it take to make you sure?”
“Well, I don’t know.” She wriggled a little and her breasts popped up a bit higher. “What’s it worth to you to know?”
Lucy really wasn’t in the mood for this. “Listen, miss, we’ve been at this a long time, and this is really important.”
Once again, the woman tore her gaze away from Jackson’s and settled it on Lucy. Funny how the purr got lost in the process. “I got that, but if you aren’t willing to make talkin’ worth my while, it must not be worth all that much to you.”
Jackson dug into his pocket and tossed a wad of bills onto the counter. “Have you seen them?”
Slowly, the woman straightened and her hungry gaze settled on the money. With a small laugh, she stuffed a handful into her pocket and another batch into the already-crowded neckline of her blouse. “They’re in room 23 up on the second floor.”
Lucy’s heart skipped a beat. After all this time, all the questions, all the long nights, she wasn’t sure she’d heard right. “They’re here?”
“I said they was.”
Jackson glanced through the window toward the metal railing that lined the second-floor walkway. “Are they up there now?”
“Far as I know. I haven’t seen him leave today.”
“And the girl?” Lucy asked. “Have you seen her?”
“Couple of times.”
“Did she look all right? Was she healthy? Unhurt?”
The woman scratched lazily at a spot just beneath her bra strap. “Well, I didn’t take inventory if that’s what you’re askin’, but yeah, I thought she looked okay.”
Relief nearly took the legs out from under her and she could see the stunned disbelief on Jackson’s face. “What about the man? What kind of shape is he in?”
“Strung out, probably. I’d be careful if I was you.”
“Strung out on what?”
“How would I know that? I didn’t get it for him.”
Lucy wouldn’t have put money on it. “Do you have any ideas what he might have taken?”
The woman grinned. “Honey, there are so many drugs around this neighborhood, he could be on anything or everything. He tosses out enough beer bottles every day to keep half of this neighborhood happy. But like I said, if you’re planning to go in there, you want to be careful. He’s got one gun for sure, and I seen a knife in his boot the other day. I can’t swear that’s all, either.”
Lucy’s relief quickly turned to caution. She glanced at Jackson to make sure he was still breathing, and took another look at the layout of the rooms and the approaches available to them. “If you’re smart,” she told the woman, “you’ll get into the back room and stay there. And don’t get any ideas about calling room 23.”
“You got it.”
Lucy hoped she was telling the truth. All of their lives could be in danger if she wasn’t.
Keeping away from the windows, she moved to the other end of the foyer and pulled out her cell phone to call for backup. Before she could complete the call, Jackson crossed to her and took the cell phone out of her hands. “Don’t call yet, Lucy. Please. Let me talk to him.”
His request didn’t surprise her. She’d have been surprised if he hadn’t asked. “I’m not going to let you walk in there, knowing that he’s high on whatever and armed. That’s crazy.”
“Look.” He took her arm and tugged her away from the ears of the curious hotel clerk. “We’re talking about my brother, here. I know him better than anyone else, and I know he won’t go quietly if a bunch of cops show up and start issuing orders. If he blows, Angelina could get hurt, and I haven’t spent all this time and gone through everything we’ve done to lose her now.”
“I know how you feel, Jackson—”
“How can you? That’s not your brother in there, and it’s not your niece, and you’re not the one responsible for making sure they both come out of there in one piece.”
“No, it’s not my brother. And no, Angelina is not my niece. But I love you, Jackson, and if you still think this is just a job to me, you’re sadly mistaken.”
“Then let me go up there. Let me try,” he said, handing back her cell phone. “If I’m not back in a few minutes, you can come in and get me.”
She understood his need, but he was asking too much. Unbelievably, he walked out of the office and into the parking lot, leaving her no choice but to follow. “I can’t do that,” she told him as she followed him toward the staircase. “Not only is it completely against regulations to let a civilian walk into a dangerous situation, but I don’t want something to happen to you. What if Holden is whacked out on drugs? What if seeing you sets off something inside of him? He could take you and Angelina out together. How could I ever live with that?”
He reached the bottom step and turned back to face her. “If your backup arrives, Holden might not make it out of there alive. How can I live with that?”
She growled in frustration and raked her fingers through her hair. “Jackson—”
“Twenty minutes.” He climbed a couple of steps and grinned down at her. “He might just open the door and ask me inside for a beer.”
; She wasn’t about to let him go upstairs alone. “Do you honestly think that will happen?”
“Look at it this way. We’ve been fighting with each other for years, but we haven’t killed each other yet.”
Even his grin couldn’t wipe away the ominous dread. “Do you know what could happen in twenty minutes?”
He started climbing again and spoke over his shoulder. “I have to try.”
“And if I lose you?”
“You won’t.”
“You can’t promise that,” she snapped. “You have no way of knowing how he’ll react to seeing you.”
“Lucy—”
“No. No!” They reached the second floor and she quickly stepped in front of him to block his way. “For a dozen different reasons, I can’t agree. It’s crazy, Jackson. It’s irresponsible and far too dangerous.” She had no way of knowing whether or not she was getting through to him, and she would never know. Before either of them could speak again, the door to room 23 burst open and a young girl raced out onto the walkway. A split second later, a tall man with dirty blond hair stumbled outside after her.
Grabbing the girl’s arm, he jerked her roughly toward the open door. He said something Lucy couldn’t hear, and Angel shook her head frantically.
“Holden!” Jackson’s voice echoed and brought both of their heads up in a snap.
In horror, Lucy watched Holden grab Angel and hold her in front of him like a human shield. “What the hell do you want?”
If he had a weapon in his other hand, Lucy couldn’t see it, but she couldn’t take chances. Trying to avoid startling him, she pulled out her cell phone and began dialing.
“Drop it!” Holden shouted. “You’re not calling the cops on me. I’m not going back to jail. Not ever again.”
Jackson shot a pleading glance at her and Lucy argued with herself for only a moment. She should make the call, but she couldn’t take the risk. Holding her cell phone in two fingers so he could see it, she drew on all of her strength to keep her voice calm and steady. “I’ll just put it away.”
“No! Drop it. Right there where I can see it.” His eyes were wild and frightened, but not nearly as frightened as Angelina’s.
Lucy bent slowly and lowered her phone to the ground, praying for a distraction so she could grab it again. She took a mental inventory of the weapons at her disposal. She didn’t routinely carry her sidearm, especially when working so closely with a civilian, so her revolver was in the locked glove box of her car—too far away to reach. Her phone was out of commission, and she was facing a potentially armed suspect alone.
She’d screwed up royally this time. She just hoped Jackson and Angel wouldn’t pay the price for her mistakes.
Carefully holding both of his hands in plain sight, Jackson took a step closer to his brother. He drew one breath after another and willed himself to remain calm. “Come on, Holden. Let her go so we can talk.”
“I don’t have anything to say to you.”
“How do you know? I might have something to say that you want to hear.”
Holden let out a drunken laugh and spit over the railing. He must have tightened his grip on Angel because she let out a frightened whimper and her terrified eyes met Jackson’s. Those old memories came back to haunt him. Holden young and frightened and looking at him just like that, begging him silently to make everything all right.
“When have you ever had something to say that I wanted to hear?” Holden shouted.
“Look, I know it’s been a while, but things change. People change.” He inched another step closer and shifted a little to his right, hoping he could block Holden’s view of Lucy long enough for her to grab her phone, just in case. He’d seen Holden in rough shape before, but never this rough and never this angry.
“I came to tell you about Wiley,” he said, grasping at every thought that ran through his head. “He had surgery the other day and he’s in bad shape. How about the two of us go somewhere and grab a beer so we can talk?”
“I don’t care about him. When has he ever cared about me?”
“He cares. He’s just Wiley, you know? Remember when he bought you your first horse?” Jackson somehow got a laugh out of his throat. “I was looking at old pictures last night and found that one. You remember the one I’m talking about?” He moved again, a little forward, a little to the right, and willed Lucy silently to understand what he was doing.
“You remember?” Jackson said again. “That one where Mom was trying to get on the horse and Dad was trying to help her? He was three sheets to the wind and she kept sliding off before she could get into the saddle?”
Holden wiped sweat from his face with his bare arm, but he didn’t look away and he didn’t loosen his grip on Angelina. “I remember. What about it?”
“I was just thinking about how hard the two of us laughed. It was great.”
Holden looked at him uncertainly. “Yeah, it was. But that was a long time ago.”
“Yeah. It was, wasn’t it?” Jackson inched closer still. “I know we had some rough times, but we had some good times, too, didn’t we?”
Holden sniffed and ran his free arm across his forehead. Cold steel glinted in the sunlight, and Jackson’s blood ran cold. He didn’t know whether to hope Lucy had seen the weapon or pray that she hadn’t.
“Don’t screw this up,” he said evenly. “Please, Holden. Don’t let things get ugly.” Memories flashed through his mind like photographs and he prayed for the words that would keep them all safe. “Look at your daughter, man. She’s scared to death. Is that really what you want?” He kept his voice low and even, his movements slow and steady. “Don’t you remember what it was like when Dad went on one of his binges? Don’t you remember how scared we used to be? Remember hiding under our beds so he wouldn’t find us?”
Holden shifted uncertainly and Jackson knew he was getting through on some level. “Don’t you remember how much we hated him for hurting us? For hurting Mom? Come on, man, do you really want to be like him? Do you want Angelina to feel that way about you? It doesn’t have to be that way. You can put the knife away and let go of her. You don’t have to be like him. It’s your choice.”
“You’re just trying to take my kid away from me again,” Holden argued. “Trying to make me look like a nobody in front of her. But she came looking for me. She wants me around, so don’t try to make it sound like she doesn’t.”
A flash of movement behind Holden caught Jackson’s eye. It disappeared before he could focus on it, but it appeared again a second later and he realized that Lucy must have slipped away and come up the other set of stairs.
Jackson’s heart plummeted, knowing that she must have called for backup and they had only minutes left. Holden took advantage of Jackson’s brief distraction and turned sharply, dragging Angel off balance, causing her to scream.
Jackson lunged at the same moment, aiming for the hand holding the knife and hoping he’d moved quickly enough to catch him unaware. If not, he might have just made the biggest mistake of his life.
HORRIFIED, LUCY WATCHED as Jackson dove at his brother. The flash of the blade as they tumbled over each other made her almost physically sick. But frightened as she was for Jackson, Angelina was her first responsibility.
Moving as quickly as she could, weapon drawn, she lunged from her hiding spot and went after the frightened girl who was falling in the tangled mess of arms and legs as the brothers went down. She tried to decipher where Jackson ended and Holden began, tried to find the blade in the scramble, but she was losing focus.
She pulled herself up sharply and slammed the impersonal walls into place. She couldn’t let another child die on her watch. She couldn’t even allow Angel to be injured. Somewhere in the distance, sirens began to wail, but they wouldn’t arrive in time to help her. She was on her own.
Keeping one eye out for the knife, she grabbed Angel by the arm and jerked her upright forcefully enough to break Holden’s grip. The girl staggered to her feet, wide-eyed and obviously
terrified, but free and in one piece.
Battling tears of relief, Lucy shoved her toward the stairs. “Go on. Try to get into the office and wait there until the other officers arrive.”
But Angelina remained rooted to the spot, frozen, shaking, too frightened to move.
“It’s going to be all right,” Lucy assured her. “Now, go on. Get out of here so I can stop them from hurting each other.”
Angel’s eyes shot to hers, but she managed a nod and limped quickly toward the staircase. The poor kid. All she’d wanted was a father. That shouldn’t be too much to ask.
The sirens drew closer and Lucy tried to get a bead on Holden, but they were thrashing around too much. Every time she thought she had him, she had Jackson in her sites instead. The only thing she could see clearly was Holden’s hand still holding the knife and Jackson’s trying to break his grip.
“Houston PD,” she shouted. “Drop the knife. Drop it right now.”
Obviously too high to think, Holden fought like a wild man. He bucked under Jackson’s weight, tried to slam his knee into Jackson’s groin, fastened his teeth around Jackson’s hand and bit. With a roar of pain, Jackson rolled away, holding his bleeding hand against his chest.
Holden lunged after him with the knife. “You son of a bitch! You tricked me. You tricked me! You brought the cops here. What do you want? You want me dead?”
“Drop the knife!” Lucy shouted again. She couldn’t let herself see the hurt in Jackson’s eyes. She couldn’t worry about his wounds. She couldn’t let herself remember that this wild man with the knife was the brother he loved. If she thought about any of that, she’d weaken.
Writhing in pain, Jackson staggered to his knees and Lucy plunged forward, standing over his brother with her weapon ready. “Drop your knife, Holden. Don’t make me do something we’ll both regret.”
Pure animal hatred flashed through his eyes, but he finally, reluctantly, loosened his grip on the knife and let it fall. Lucy kicked it out of his reach just as the first patrol car turned into the parking lot, then she reached down and hauled Holden to his feet. Close up, the resemblance to Jackson was stronger, and tears stung her eyes for his loss, for his disappointment.