The Leah Ryan Thrillers Box Set: Three Chiller Thrillers (Repo Chick Blues #1, Finding Chloe #2, Dirty Business #3) (Leah Ryan Thrillers Box Set, Books 1-3)

by Tracy Sharp

  “Because, Adrians husband has a lot of clout. He is the D.A in Philly, and the word is that he has political aspirations. He comes from a very powerful, prominent family in Philadelphia.”

  “So?”

  “Leah, you know the drill by now. He’s got the law and the media in his pocket.”

  “Well, he’s never dealt with the likes of us before, has he?”

  A slow smile spread across his face. “I think not. But he’s about to.”

  * * *

  Before we got to the truck, though, the office phone rang. Jack and I both eyed it, looking at each other, before he reached over and picked it up. We wanted to get out of there. Get to doing something. But at this stage in the game, that call could be from anyone.

  But it wasn’t just anyone. It was a woman named Jamie Holland. She’d been one of the young girls who had given her baby up to Adrian Mandell, once upon a time.

  * * *

  Jamie knew of Elena. In fact, she had been reading Elena’s blog for several months and was trying to get up the nerve to contact her, maybe ask her for help finding her son. Jamie was local, so Jack invited her along with us. She said she’d follow us in her car.

  We met her at a rest stop off I87. She was a small, dark haired woman with short cropped hair. She was standing against a silver Honda, arms crossed when we drove in. We parked in the spot beside her and climbed out of Jack’s truck.

  Her huge blue eyes regarded us with a mix of curiosity and caution. She was a pretty woman, but she wore trepidation around her like a cloak. Still, she stepped forward and offered her small hand to Jack first. “Jack and Leah.” She’d said it matter-of-factly. “I’m Jamie.” She offered her hand to me and gave me a tiny smile.

  I looked down at her and smiled back. She couldn’t have stood more than five-one. “It’s nice to meet you. Thanks for coming with us.”

  “Thanks for inviting me,” she said.

  We stood in awkward silence for a moment, not knowing what to say. The reasons for us coming together were not exactly cheerful ones.

  Finally Jack said, “Do you need anything at the rest stop while we’re here?”

  She shook her head. “No, thanks. I’m ready to go, if you two are.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to travel with us in our vehicle?” I asked her.

  “I’m fine in my car. Thanks.”

  Really, she didn’t know us at all, so it was a wise choice. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s get hit the road.”

  Elena was in Salem, NY. About an hour from Albany, Jack cranked the tunes while the sun beamed down all around us. We didn’t talk much, but both of us snuck peeks at the rearview and side mirrors. We didn’t know what to expect, but this woman left us feeling protective of her. I could sense it in him and I felt it in myself. Something about how she held herself so tightly, showing a brave face while peering between the bars of her defenses, made us want to protect her.

  Jack was excellent with direction, me, not so much. He found Elena’s house easily a ranch house on a sprawling stretch of land. Horses hung out within a round, fenced in area, regarding us with steady dark eyes.

  The cold air had turned frigid. The wind had picked up, turning a crisp winter day icy. The bright sun was deceiving as a bitter wind all but stole my breath away and left my skin feeling raw and stinging.

  A tall woman with shoulder length auburn hair came toward us, a smile on her face.

  “Elena?” I said, offering my hand.

  “Yes,” she said, choosing to hug me instead. It felt a little odd to me, but I let myself be gathered into her embrace for a few seconds.

  “Jack,” she said, turning her hug onto him.

  A car door slammed and I turned to see Jamie emerge from her Honda. She approached with her hands pushed deep down into the pockets of her black pea coat. The short locks of her hair were being tousled by the wind. She approached with her chin tucked slightly and her eyes moving between the ground and Elena.

  “And who might this be?” Elena said, smiling warmly, as if she were talking about a four year old.

  “Elena, my name is Jamie Holland.” Her voice was muffled by the wind.

  Elena nodded, her smile faltering just a little as she waited.

  “Adrian Mandell stole my son from me eleven years ago.”

  Elena reached for her, took Jamie’s stiff little body into her embrace. “Thanks for coming, Jamie. I’m glad you’re here.”

  * * *

  Elena led us to the house. A wrap-around porch spanned the entire front of the house and disappeared around the back. Inside, the intoxicating smells of home cooking made me feel dizzy with hunger. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and my stomach protested loudly.

  Elena grinned at me as she closed the door behind us. “Hungry?”

  “You heard that, huh?” I said, moving a hand over my belly.

  “I’ve got homemade minestrone soup in the kitchen and fresh baked bread cooling on the table.” She gestured us into a large, homey living room with huge, fluffy furniture.

  “Guess we came on the right day,” Jack said.

  “Make yourselves at home. I’ll set the table,” she said.

  “I’ll help you,” Jamie said.

  “Sure,” Elena said. “You two hang out here, if you like.”

  “We can help too,” Jack said.

  “Having too many cooks in the kitchen is never a good thing,” Elena said. “We’ll be fine.”

  It was clear that Elena wanted to spend a few minutes with Jamie, alone. I was tired. I plopped down into a chair and watched as Jack roamed the living room, examining knick-knacks, photographs, and periodically looking out the window at the horses.

  I sighed. My eyes felt heavy. I could easily drop off to sleep listening to the normal, comforting sounds coming from the kitchen, and knowing that Jack was near me. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes.

  * * *

  “Leah.”

  In the space between waking and sleeping I felt my father’s hand gently shaking my arm. “Wake up, sleepyhead.”

  But it was Jack’s face I saw smiling at me. He was crouched down, looking at me at eye level, his eyes searching mine. “You’re tired, my friend.”

  “I know.” I felt disoriented, and it took me a moment to remember where I was.

  Jamie stepped in behind Jack, looking down at me. “You conked out.”

  “Yeah,” was all I said. I pushed myself up. My eyes felt as though they had sand in them and I blinked several times to moisten them.

  “Dinner’s ready,” Elena said from the dining room. “But I have three guest rooms. You’re all welcome to stay the night, if you like. You all seem pretty whipped.”

  We headed into the dining room toward the large, square table. It was a beauty, with pine knots showing through the varnish. The soup looked delicious and smelled even better. “That’s a really kind offer, but Jack and I will be fine,” I said. Although I really did want to lie down.

  Elena shrugged. “Okay. But the offer will still stand if you change your mind.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “All right. Find a seat and dig in.”

  We didn’t talk about baby brokers or stolen babies. We kept the conversation light, and it was the most relaxing, enjoyable meal I’d had in a long time. We all were aware of the need to chill out for a little while, because the topic we were about to discuss would take the energy out of us, and we’d all be emotionally drained by the end of the night.

  Finally, once the table was cleared and the dishes placed in the dishwasher, we settled into the living room with mugs of rich, strong coffee.

  Elena excused herself and the sound of the door off the kitchen opened, followed by the quick clicking of canine toenails on her tiled floor as two large German Shepherds made their way across the kitchen and into the room.

  “Bonnie and Clyde,” Elena said by way of introduction.

  “Gorgeous dogs,” Jack said, running a large hand over Bonnie
’s back.

  “Thank you. They’re my babies.” Elena sat on the couch and smiled, looking at the dogs with obvious pride.

  “Ooooh, aren’t you the handsome guy?” Jamie cooed at Clyde, and he rolled over on his back and offered her his belly.

  “Wow. I think he’s in love,” Elena said.

  Jamie looked up and the smile on her face was that of a little girl. She was lit up like a Christmas tree. I was betting that people didn’t see that smile all that often. That smile was reserved for creatures who would never judge, betray, or otherwise hurt her, which left most humans out.

  But the smile fell away when she remembered why we were all here.

  Her eyes dropped back to Clyde, and both her hands moved over him as he sat in front of her, guarding her. Even Bonnie moved up beside her and stretched out. It seemed that even dogs sensed her vulnerability.

  “I’ll start,” she said, not looking up at us.

  “Okay,” Elena said. “Take your time. There’s no rush here.”

  Jack and I both leaned forward, forearms resting on our legs. Jesus. Had we been friends for that long? We even moved the same way?

  “I was sixteen when I got pregnant. So was the boy. We were not prepared, of course, to be parents. I didn’t want to get an abortion. My mother died when I was only seven years old, and my father had no idea how to take care of a pregnant girl. He found Bright Futures in the yellow pages.” She paused, her eyes growing far away as she remembered. “The newspaper ad boasted a homey residence for unwed mothers who wanted to give their babies a bright future. All expenses paid. We didn’t have a lot of money, and it sounded like the answer we were looking for.”

  Elena nodded, her eyes tender, like she’d heard this same story over and over.

  “A representative of Bright Futures was sent to come to the house to speak to us. She told us that the adoption laws in NY were such that my baby would not be adopted right away, but instead could spend an indefinite amount of time in foster care.”

  Elena’s face grew hard and she glanced at the ceiling, then back at Jamie, still nodding. “Yes, that is the carrot they dangle in front of young, scared girls who want the best for their babies. They play on your fear that your baby will be stuck in a dirty house, filled with unloved children who are running wild in dirty diapers while the foster parents watch game shows all day and collect checks from the government for housing them.”

  “Yes.” Jamie’s eyes were alight with anger. “Exactly.”

  Elena looked turned to me and Jack. “It’s a common tactic baby brokers use to get the mother out of state where she’ll have no friends or family around her. Also, often times the adoption agency is being investigated for shady practices in the particular state the girl is living in, and so they need to get her away and into a different state where they haven’t been caught on to yet.”

  “Lovely,” I said. “These people have no conscience.”

  Elena shook her head. “No, Leah. They really don’t.”

  “It gets better,” Jamie said. “By the time I was in my ninth month of pregnancy, I was in a panic. I felt like just an incubator to them. They were completely disinterested in me and only interested in the baby. There was no talk of what would happen to me after I gave birth. They tried to get me to sign a document, stating that my signature would ensure that the adoption would be open and that I’d get pictures and updates on my son, and that the adoptive family and I would meet twice a year and on holidays and on his birthday so that I could see him. But something about the way they were so adamant about me signing made me hesitate, and Adrian became really angry. She started yelling at me. So I wanted to leave. I said I’d changed my mind.”

  I shook my head, imagining what it must’ve been like for a sixteen year old Jamie who was being coerced into signing a document that she really didn’t understand. I swallowed down anger.

  “Adrian slapped me across the face and called me a stupid little bitch. She said that my father would be responsible for all the room and board they’d provided for me, the clothes they’d bought me, the medical and legal expenses, and that she would sue him.”

  “Holy shit,” Jack said, getting up and beginning a slow pace around the room. “She’s diabolical. Just diabolical.”

  “These people are, Jack,” Elena said. “And Adrian is only one of them. You wouldn’t believe how many people there are like her out there, doing the same thing.”

  “What happened then,” I asked Jamie.

  Her face had become hard as stone. “I told her I didn’t care.”

  Jack and I looked at each other and laughed. She’d been a ballsy sixteen year old.

  “Oh, I bet that went over swimmingly,” I said.

  She grinned a little. “I told her I was keeping my son and she could do whatever she wanted to my father and me. We’d be okay somehow. I didn’t really mean to keep him. I just didn’t want to give him up to her. I just knew something was very wrong about the whole situation. So I said she wasn’t getting my son.”

  “Good girl,” Jack said.

  But we already knew that it hadn’t turned out well for her. That’s why she was here.

  “Yeah. Well, she stared at me for a long time, her face white. She spoke to me in a very even, low whisper then.”

  “What did she say?” I asked her, almost falling off the couch, because I leaned so far forward listening to her.

  “She said I could take the clothes I came in with, and I could leave right then. But I wouldn’t be given any cab fare or bus fare home. I’d have to find my own way, in the mid-January deep freeze. And that she doubted my father would be very happy with me leaving there when they were only trying to provide my baby with a better life, but if I wanted to disappoint him and make his life miserable and throw him into poverty I was welcome to do that.”

  “Unbelievable,” Jack said, he had stopped pacing and stood watching her, his face incredulous.

  “I never signed the document. So they drugged me. One of the women who worked there had given me a bottle of water. I didn’t think about it then, but she made a show of opening it for me.”

  “Of course,” I said. “So that you wouldn’t realize that it had already been opened when she’d placed the ground up pills in it.”

  Jamie gave a slow nod. “Yeah. It was tasteless. Unless I was just so freaked out that I never noticed that it didn’t takes quite right. But by the time I’d gotten my things together, the things I’d brought there, I was swaying and staggering. The woman who gave me the water helped me to the bed and told me to lie down for a little while, just until I felt better. She said that I was just upset.”

  When I awoke the next morning my baby was gone. They sent me to the bus station in a cab with a bus ticket home. Nobody said anything to me. Nobody wished me a nice life. They had me wait on the doorstep in the freezing cold, and when the cab came to pick me up, nobody even opened the door to wave goodbye.”

  We were all silent, watching Jamie, unbelieving. Her story was unbelievable, but we all believed it. Human beings just didn’t treat people the way that Adrian treated the young, pregnant girls in her homes for unwed mothers. But Adrian clearly wasn’t human. She was some other species entirely.

  “And your son,” I asked her, though I already knew the answer.

  She just shook her head, silent.

  * * *

  Jamie did decide to stay the night at Elena’s house. They had a connection, and I was happy to see Jamie with somebody who could support her after the emotional scab she’d just ripped from her heart.

  When we pulled up in front of the house Jack placed a hand on my arm. “You doing okay, Kicks?”

  I nodded. “I’m fine. Just really, really tired.”

  “Yeah. Me too. Take your time waking up in the morning, okay? We both need the extra sleep.”

  “Right.” I climbed out of the truck. “I’ll call you in the morning.”

  “Stay cool, Kicks.” He watched my face, looking for som
e indication that he should stay with me.

  I smiled at him and winked. “You know it, baby.”

  I closed the truck door and made my way to my own front door, excited about seeing Pango, but feeling the same old gap in the center of me open. I was in a dark mood, and the lump in my throat, threatening tears close behind it, was pissing me off. If I allowed the floodgates to open I was afraid they’d never close. I needed to keep a cap on those tears at all costs.

  Pango did a happy dance on the kitchen floor when she saw me through the window in the door.

  “Hey, baby girl.” I ran my hands over her head and back. “Don’t go far, okay?”

  I let her out and she trotted toward the woods to do her business. I waited for her, not having the energy to keep her company. I gazed out into the darkness, then looked up at the black sky, at the stars winking down at me, and breathed in the chilled air. With a sinking feeling I realized that the sadness, the pit of darkness that yawned out of me now and then, was inevitable. Most times I can fight if off. Tonight it wasn’t working.

  I couldn’t take it. Not now. Because if I didn’t do something soon, within a short period of time it would feel too much like I was dying.

  I dug my cell out of my jacket and turned it on. I’d had it off the entire day, not wanting the temptation.

  There was a single text message from Lucas.

  My heart fluttered and I felt a grin come to my lips, and felt the first feather light stirrings that perhaps everything would be okay.

  And underneath that, the tiny voice whispering to me that this was barren terrain that I was about to visit again. That I’d crawl away from it when I discovered that the fresh, cool water I was seeing was only a mirage, and that my inevitable, unquenchable thirst would return.

  When I clicked on view and read the message, which said, I want to see you, that voice of reason vanished and I felt okay again, the pain fading.

  * * *