Witchchild

by Carole Mortimer

  He had sat up with the two policemen who were monitoring the telephone for several hours, but it seemed only the real crazies called at that time of night, and he had grown sickened by their warped minds, eventually coming wearily up to his room.

  All had been silent upstairs, and he wondered briefly how Hal and Laura were faring together. Laura was treating her new husband rather like a stranger she had to be polite to.

  Leonie's door was firmly closed against him. Not that he could blame her; he had promised to get Holly back, and so far he had failed miserably. He had told her she would never know another day's unhappiness, and yet her heart had been broken because he hadn't recognised how dangerous Spencer was.

  He had turned sharply into the nursery, moving about the room touching everything that was Holly's, wondering if her golden head would ever rest inside the cot again, tightly gripping the cot sides as thoughts of his beautiful daughter took him through a nightmare of broken images that were too unbearable to contemplate. Those bastards, with their sick warped minds, had conjured up the images he had been fighting all day. They would get Holly back, they would.

  He had staggered blindly into his bedroom, almost falling down on to the bed in his agony of grief.

  And then the door had opened and a slight figure in a pale nightgown moved amongst the shadows the moonlight cast over the room.

  Hawk had sat dazedly as Leonie came down beside him to take off his shoes and lay them neatly to one side, completely still as she deftly unbuttoned his shirt and stripped that from his shoulders with coolly impersonal hands, offering no resistance at all as she helped him back on the bed until he leant back against the pillows, her tiny hands dealing with the fastening of his denims before they too were gently eased off his body. And she hadn't stopped there, black undershorts joining the neat pile of clothes before she pulled back the covers and arranged them over him.

  He had watched as she moved about the room putting the clothes in their appropriate places, shirt and underwear in the laundry basket, his trousers neatly hung in the closet. And through it all she hadn't said a word, neither did she speak as she moved the covers slightly back before climbing into the bed beside him.

  She lay there still, her head resting against his shoulder, her hand on his chest, and they were farther apart than if they had been in separate rooms.

  And neither of them had any intention of falling asleep tonight.

  They both lay in the darkness, eyes wide open, living in their own individual hell, more like strangers than lovers. Because Leonie like this was a stranger to Hawk, the same stranger who had offered to let him take Holly away with him when he left. He hadn't realised just how far that woman had receded during the last few days until she appeared once more. And this time he didn't have the strength to reach her.

  But he had to find the strength, because no matter what happened, Leonie was going to be his. He loved her, damn it; he couldn't live without her!

  'No, Hawk,' Leonie stared at him in horror. 'Send him away!' She shook her head in frantic denial of the suggestion he had just made.

  He remained unmoving. 'Do you know the effort it took to actually get him to come out to the house this afternoon?'

  'I don't care,' she choked. 'Send him away! How can you even contemplate the two of us getting married now, when our daughter is missing?'

  'Why not?' he shrugged.

  Because Holly could be lying dead somewhere, her beautiful eyes closed for ever, or maybe they would just never know what had happened to her; Michael seemed to have done a good job of disappearing—why shouldn't he make Holly just disappear too? And Hawk had brought a man here to marry them!

  He was a monster, a cold, unfeeling—No, he wasn't, she realised brokenly, he was the man who loved her so much he had been willing to do anything to break her out of the cold shell she retreated to so that the pain shouldn't touch her.

  But she had to feel that pain if she were to love, and she did love Holly and Hawk so very much.

  He was watching her now, trying so hard to appear unaffected by what he was forcing on her, but now she could see the anguish in his eyes, the utter despair he was trying to keep from her:

  She held out her arms to him. 'I still think Las Vegas sounds a romantic place for a wedding. Will you take me there when this is all over?'

  They held each other so tightly it was painful, and Leonie wasn't sure if the tears she tasted on her lips were Hawk's or her own.

  'I love you, Hawk,' she choked, feeling a sudden freedom that gave her heart the lightness of having wings. 'I love you so much,' she repeated raggedly.

  His hands cradled each side of her face. 'Enough to marry me even if—even if it's just going to be the two of us?' His gaze was intent.

  If Holly were dead. She knew that was what he was trying to say. She refused to accept that anything that final had happened to Holly, but she knew she would marry Hawk anyway, that to be without him now would mean returning to being only half alive. It might be safer that other way, but she needed Hawk to make her truly alive.

  She needed to tell him that, and there was only one way for him to be really sure. 'Ask your Mr Simpkins to come in and marry us now,' she told him softly.

  His breath left his body in a raggedly relieved sigh, his arms tightening about her. 'There is no Mr Simpkins,' he admitted brokenly. 'Just the man who loves you very much trying to reach you in the only way I knew how!' He stared down into her eyes. 'Tell me again that you love me,' he encouraged huskily.

  'I love you, Hawk,' she repeated obediently. 'And that's the last time you can meekly expect me to do your bidding,' she added with some of her old spirit.

  He gave the ghost of a smile. 'There's still so much I need to know.'

  Leonie knew he was thinking of the way Laura had become withdrawn too. Her sister was so distant from Hal today that he might have been a stranger to her and not the man she had loved enough to wait a year for.

  They needed to get Holly back as much for Laura's sake as for their own and Holly's.

  'I—'

  'Hawk, I'm sorry to interrupt,' Jake said harshly, 'but I need to talk to you.'

  They turned to looked at the other man, Leonie's eyes widening at how drawn and totally beaten Jake seemed, with dark shadows beneath his eyes, as if he too hadn't slept for some time, his face pale, his cheeks hollow.

  He didn't seem able to look at her, his attention was concentrated on Hawk. 'I went back to London to look for Stephen again last night and this morning,' he revealed stiltedly.

  Hawk nodded. 'Any luck?'

  The other man swallowed hard. 'No.' He drew in a ragged breath. 'You see, the thing is—' He looked as if he were in torment.

  'What is it?' Hawk demanded sharply. 'Has something happened to Stephen?'

  Jake's mouth tightened. 'If he's the one responsible for taking Holly I'm going to kill him!' he stated flatly, his eyes blazing.

  Hawk's sudden tension was also her own. What on earth did Jake mean? Of course Stephen hadn't really got Holly. The younger man hadn't had that much to do with the baby, but she was sure he had no reason to harm her.

  Hawk felt as if someone had punched him in the chest. Stephen had Holly? He couldn't imagine what had caused Jake to even think that, let alone that it might be true!

  'It's because of the money.' Jake collapsed on to the sofa, his face in his hands. 'If I hadn't told him he wouldn't get any more money from me none of this would have happened!' His shoulders began to shake as he sobbed.

  Hawk put Leonie firmly to one side, going down on his haunches beside Jake. 'What the hell are you talking about? Stephen wouldn't do a thing like this for money,' he shook his head.

  'You don't know what he's capable of.' Jake too shook his head. 'None of us really do.'

  'What are you talking about?' Hawk's control snapped as he grabbed hold of Jake's shirt-front and shook him. 'Why do you think Stephen might have taken Holly for money?'

  'Because Stephen is a drug addict
.'

  Hawk released Jake slowly, turning to look at June as she stood in the doorway, aware of Leonie's stricken gaze on him as he shook his head disbelievingly.

  'It's quite true,' June said softly as she came into the room and closed the door behind her. 'I should know—my son died of a drugs overdose,' she added quietly.

  Hawk heard Leonie give a pained gasp, as nausea washed over him. 'Jake?' he prompted harshly, his breath catching in his throat as the other man slowly nodded. 'Stephen?' he said disbelievingly. 'Surely he isn't stupid enough to have—'

  'It's the intelligent ones who always believe they can experiment with drugs and then just give them up any time they care to.' Once again it was June who answered him, sitting beside Jake now, her hand resting sympathetically on his. 'They believe that right up until the day they realise that it isn't fun any more, that they need the drugs so desperately they'll do anything to get them. If you can realise and accept that while the drug possesses them they're no longer your child you stand a chance of helping them, of understanding them; my husband couldn't, and he died of a heart attack at only thirty-eight.'

  And Amy had died because one of those doped-up bastards had been so high they didn't know what they were doing!

  But accepting that Stephen, a boy he had been so close to he had almost been like his own son, was also one of those mindless addicts, was impossible. Memories of the fair-haired angel he had looked as a child as he had enticed Hal into one piece of mischief after another flashed into his mind. Not Stephen—he couldn't believe it!

  And if he couldn't believe it how much more painful it must have been for Jake.

  He looked at the other man, at the way he stared sightlessly in front of him, all trace of the teasing flirt he had always been completely erased. Because he knew that everything June had said about Stephen was true.

  'Why?' he groaned. 'Stephen didn't need drugs!'

  'He does now,' Jake said dully. 'And he does anything to get them. He even had me bring some through Customs for him once from a friend of his in Mexico.'

  Hawk's eyes narrowed. 'When?'

  Jake gave a ragged sigh. 'About a month ago. Hell, I know more accurately than that,' he said bitterly. 'It was exactly four weeks ago.' He looked up at Hawk with darkened eyes. 'Yes, the day before I gave you my notice,' he acknowledged. 'The package got damaged in my case, and when I realised what was in it I confronted Stephen with what he'd made me do. He didn't care that I'd broken the law, betrayed a friend, he just wanted the drugs so that he could shoot up again! He won't go into a clinic, refuses to accept that there's anything wrong with him. He dropped out of college because he would rather be in his flat pumping drugs into his body. I tried, I really tried to help him,' he choked, his hands clenched tightly together. 'But I finally had to admit that there's nothing I can do, that he won't let anyone help him.'

  'He has to want to help himself,' June put in quietly. 'It's the only way.'

  Hawk was finding it almost as difficult as Jake must have done to come to terms with Stephen's addiction. He had always despised people who took drugs, hated them because one of them had taken Amy's life. But he had never known one personally before.

  And from what he had been able to tell of Stephen since his arrival here he was becoming recklessly careless, mixing drugs and alcohol. He was going to kill himself if he didn't stop soon.

  And he might have Holly!

  Leonie had always known June's husband and son were dead, she had been drawn to the other woman because of the tragedy, but she hadn't realised just how much of a tragedy it was until now. Poor June!

  But what if it was Stephen who had Holly, a drug addict who could become desperate enough to do anything?

  'Hawk, you have to find him!' Leonie clutched frantically at his arm.

  He turned to her like a man in a daze, and after the shock he had just received she could understand the emotion, made all the more traumatic because his first wife had been killed by a drug addict, a fact she was sure Jake was well aware of, his guilt about Stephen extending much further than the drugs he had unwittingly taken into America illegally. Jake had to be fully aware of how unsympathetic Hawk would be about Stephen's plight.

  How unsympathetic they would both be if Stephen did have Holly and she were to be harmed!

  'Oh, I'll find him,' said Hawk in answer to her plea. 'And if he has Holly, I don't care how much I cared for him in the past, he'll regret the day he ever crossed me!'

  Jake stood up. 'I'll come with you.'

  'No, I—Okay,' Hawk accepted tightly as the other man looked determined. 'You can tell me the places you've already tried!'

  'Jake's been through hell since Stephen turned up here with Hal.' June spoke softly once the two women were alone. 'He blames himself, of course. We all do.'

  'Sorry?' Leonie gave a pained frown, still caught up in thoughts of Stephen having Holly.

  'Parents,' June explained sadly. 'When a child becomes an addict like Stephen or my Robert did we always think there must have been something we could have done to prevent it, that something we did must have caused our child to turn to drugs.'

  Jake's need to change the way he had been living his life? But Leonie wasn't interested in hearing this now, she just wanted to think positive thoughts about having Holly safely back with her!

  'It isn't usually that way at all,' June shook her head.

  'June, I'm really not—'

  'Interested,' the other woman acknowledged softly. 'I can understand that. I just wanted you to realise that Stephen is sick, that his actions aren't ones he would normally make. Drug addicts aren't normal. Stephen needs help—'

  'I need my daughter!' cried Leonie in an anguished voice. 'I need her back with me safe and well. I need her with me so that I can watch her grow up, to see Hawk's eyes gleam with pride when she takes her first steps, calls him Daddy for the first time, begins school, brings her friends home for tea, meets the man she wants to marry! That's what I need!'

  June got up wearily. 'I know you do, love. I know you do,' she choked. 'I really don't believe Stephen has her,' she shook her head.

  'You don't think he's that dangerous yet?' Leonie pounced desperately.

  'All drug addicts are dangerous,' June said heavily. 'But if Stephen was so desperate for money he kidnapped Holly you would have received a ransom demand by now.'

  That was true, it had been thirty-six hours now since Holly had been taken; if Stephen were that desperate for money to feed his habit then he would have contacted them hours ago. That brought her right back to Michael again. He wasn't desperate for money, just to enjoy making her suffer, as he had always done.

  God, she couldn't bear this! How was she supposed to live until the time Michael called them with his ransom demand!

  Hawk stared grimly into the unlit fireplace, absently stroking Tulip as she lay on his legs, barely conscious of the two policemen who had been at the house ever since that first night, only the loud ticking of the clock sounding louder and louder in his head. Time. Surely it was something that had to be running out?

  He hadn't mentioned it to Leonie, but he knew she had to realise they should have heard from someone by now.

  His expression softened as he glanced at her, her head resting against his arm as she dozed restlessly, the first sleep she had had in almost forty-eight hours. She looked like a child herself; she wasn't strong enough to take any more pain.

  And yet here they sat, waiting for the telephone call that would bring their daughter back to them.

  He and Jake had spent the afternoon trying to find Stephen, barely talking to each other, both filled with a grim purpose. Hawk didn't doubt for one moment that if they had found Stephen with Holly Jake would have been the one to go for the younger man's throat.

  As the afternoon dragged on he had become more and more convinced that Stephen knew nothing about Holly's disappearance, and with that acceptance had come his compassion for Jake, the realisation that it could so easily have been
Hal in Stephen's condition. As Jake had said to him so long ago, there were much worse things Hal could have told him than that he was in love with a woman who was older than him and whom he had only known for three weeks!

  If only someone would call! Most of the crazies had had their cheap thrill by now, and all that was left was the loud tick-ticking of that damned clock!

  He and Leonie had kept close to the telephone all day, one or both of them taking every call, although he had tried to spare Leonie from the really sick ones. What was wrong with people, that they had to twist a knife that was already deeply buried in their hearts!

  But Leonie was sleeping now, and for that he felt grateful. He knew that—

  He stiffened as the telephone rang again, and Leonie came instantly awake. Both of them were on their feet within seconds, waiting for the policeman's nod of assent before grabbing up the receiver.

  The muffled voice on the other end of the line could have belonged to anyone, and Hawk wondered if this weren't just another of those sick calls. Then he tensed.

  '—the tiny mole on her right shoulder,' the hollow-sounding voice taunted.

  Hawk nodded frantically to the two listening policemen, clutching Leonie's hand in a grip that must have been painful but which didn't even make her wince, her whole attention riveted on his telephone conversation.

  'What do you want?' he demanded harshly.

  'So you believe I have her,' the muffled voice jeered.

  His hand tightened about the receiver. 'I know you have her,' he conceded raggedly.

  'Very well,' the voice was briskly impersonal now. 'I want her mother to bring—'

  'No!' he rasped, shaking his head in fierce denial. 'I'm not letting you near Leonie!'

  'Hawk—'

  He shook his head at Leonie as she would have cut in. 'I'll bring you whatever you want,' he spoke savagely into the receiver.

  'Not good enough, I'm afraid,' that hollow voice taunted. 'It has to be your precious Leonie.'

  Hawk drew in a harsh breath. 'I said no.'