Gone Daddy Gone (Sloane Monroe Book 7)

by Cheryl Bradshaw

“Don’t you care about what happens to you?”

  “Do I look like I care?”

  He almost laughed again, but didn’t.

  “Will you tell me the boy’s name at least?” she asked.

  He pulled two new zip-ties out of his front pocket and fastened her hands back together without answering the question. Walking out of the room, he glanced over his shoulder before slipping out of sight. Her eyes were fixed on him, narrow and fierce, like she would stab him right through the heart if she could.

  He didn’t blame her, and he hated to admit he actually enjoyed her company. It was almost a shame she had to die.

  CHAPTER 40

  I stepped out of the shower and noticed my cell phone was lit up. I grabbed it off the counter and took a look. I’d received two photo messages from an unknown number. The first was an Ace of Hearts. The second was Gran, sitting on a hardwood floor, her wrists tied to the slats of a heater, painful to see.

  Me: Logan, is this you?

  Him: Bravo.

  Me: What do you want?

  Him: You know.

  Me: Me?

  Him: Yes.

  Me: Why?

  I waited. He didn’t reply.

  Me: Please, don’t hurt Gran.

  Him: What happens to her is up to you.

  Me: Tell me what I need to do.

  Him: Are you alone?

  Me: Yes.

  Him: How do I know you’re not lying?

  I snapped a photo of myself standing in the bathroom dressed in nothing but a towel and sent it to him. It was the last thing I wanted to do, but I couldn’t think of a better alternative.

  Me: Did you get the photo?

  Him: Yeah, doesn’t mean you’re alone.

  Me: Stop wasting my time and tell me what you want me to do!

  One minute passed, then two. When he still hadn’t written back after three, I feared I’d angered him.

  Me: Logan, please. I’ll do anything.

  Him: Meet me at the back of the Gatsby Automotive parking lot. One hour. Come alone. If anyone is with you, you’ll never see Cordelia again.

  Me: I need more time. The chief of police is here, a detective, and two officers parked outside. I can’t just walk out unnoticed.

  It was true, and they had all gathered together at Maddie’s place to keep an eye on me, and to plan their next move.

  Him: If you want her to live, you’ll find a way. See you soon.

  I clicked my phone off, slipped into the bedroom, and got dressed. The men were in the living room, talking amongst themselves. I glanced out the window. Two officers sat in a car on the street. If I tried going out my window, they’d see me. It was too risky. My best bet was to exit through the window on the side of the house, and that meant going through Maddie’s office. Problem was, I couldn’t get to it without going through the living room, where Coop and Nick were sitting.

  I strolled down the hallway, doing my best to act like everything was fine, and it worked until I saw Maddie eyeing me when I walked by. One look at my face and she tilted her head to the side, aware something was up. I tried giving her a nonverbal sign to keep quiet, but it didn’t work. When she opened her mouth to ask me what I was doing, and both men in the living room turned toward me, I knew I had to come up with something, and fast.

  “Maddie, I need to look up something on your office computer. Can you come help me?”

  I managed to appease her, and she slid off of the sofa and followed me into the office.

  “Shut the door,” I whispered.

  “Why?”

  “Just shut it, okay?”

  “What’s going on, Sloane?”

  “I have to leave without being noticed, and I need you to keep quiet about it.”

  “I don’t get it. What happened?”

  “Logan texted me. I was right. He’s the killer. He’s behind everything that’s happened.”

  I showed her the messages.

  “Whatever you’re planning on doing right now, and whatever he has asked you to do, it’s not a good idea. Don’t do it.”

  “I have to, Maddie. If I don’t give him what he wants, Gran will die.”

  “If you walk into his trap, you both will.”

  “It’s a risk I’m willing to take, and I don’t have time to sit here and argue about it. Help me or don’t. Either way, I’m going.”

  I lifted the office window.

  She placed both hands on her hips, and then pointed to a chair in front of her desk. “Wear my jacket, at least. It’s freezing out there. Do you have your gun?”

  I pulled up my shirt, showed it to her.

  “If you expect me to let you walk out of here without me saying anything to anyone, you need to tell me where you’re going first,” she said.

  “We’re meeting at Gatsby Automotive in ...” I glanced at the clock on the wall. “Forty-five minutes.”

  “And then what happens?”

  “I have no idea.” I handed her my phone. “Wait twenty minutes, then give this to Coop and tell him where I went.”

  “No way, you should keep it.”

  “Just give it to him, okay? Let me take yours.”

  She reached into her pocket, handed it to me. “How are you getting to Gatsby’s? You’ll never make it on time on foot.”

  “I requested an Uber. He’s picking me up on the next street in a few minutes. I need to go, right now.”

  Worried, she wrapped her arms around me. “I don’t like this. I don’t want you to go.”

  I climbed out the window. “I’m not saying I’ll be able to reason with him, but I need to try at least. We have history. I’ll find a way to get through to him if I can. I’ve been in worse situations than this one, and I’m still here. Gran’s life is on the line. I’m not letting anyone else die because of me.”

  She sighed. “Fine. What can I do?”

  “Distract the cops outside so I can get out of here.”

  She nodded. “I’m on it. Please, be safe.”

  CHAPTER 41

  Logan sized me up and down. “You look a lot different.”

  “So do you,” I said.

  And he did—tired and old, wasted, the years of drinking taking a toll in the form of lines and creases on his face, a face that in our youth had once been more handsome than all the rest.

  He leaned against a black sedan, tapping on the side of his gun with a finger. “Why did you cut your hair off?”

  I shrugged. “Why does it matter? It’s my hair. I needed a change.”

  “Yeah, well, it looked better longer.”

  I focused the conversation on what mattered. “Where is Gran? Is she here?”

  “She’s back at the cabin. It isn’t far.”

  The cabin. I guessed it was far enough.

  “Is she alive?”

  “For now. Hold your hands out in front of you.”

  “Why?”

  He shoved me against the car. “Shut up, and don’t ask questions.”

  I pressed my arms together, pushing them in his direction. He laced a zip-tie around my wrists, pulling it so tight I winced.

  “Now what?” I asked.

  “Now you get in the car.” He escorted me to the passenger side and opened the door. “Hang on. Don’t get in yet.”

  “Why not?”

  He reached inside my pockets, felt beneath my clothes, finding my gun, which I expected. He stuck it in his coat pocket. “Nice try. Where did you hide your cell phone?”

  Maddie’s phone was a bit trickier, and tiny, one of the smallest I’d ever seen. I’d tucked it inside one of the cups of my bra. As long as I didn’t have to bend over or move too much, I assumed there was about a fifty-fifty chance it would remain in place, and if I could keep it on, I could be tracked.

  “I don’t have my phone. I didn’t bring it with me.”

  He smacked my head against the side of the car—hard. “Liar! Where is it?”

  A car turned down the street, shifting Logan’s attention. He gra
bbed me, jerking the two of us out of sight. He pressed the barrel of the gun against my cheek. “Who did you tell? Who knows you’re here? I’ll kill you right here, right now, if you lie to me again.”

  “No one knows I’m here. You’re being paranoid.”

  He pressed his other hand against my throat and squeezed. “Stop lying to me! Who’s in the car?”

  Gagging and struggling for breath, I said, “I ... don’t ... know ... Logan. I swear.”

  The car drove past the automotive shop and kept on going, turning into a residential neighborhood.

  “See, I told you.”

  I thought about Maddie, guessing she wouldn’t keep quiet long. If I wanted to get to Gran, we needed to go. Now. “I gave you what you wanted. I came. I want to see Gran.”

  He jerked on the door handle and shoved me inside. “Oh, don’t worry. You will.”

  CHAPTER 42

  A short time later, we followed a dirt road to a small cabin in a wooded area beyond Park City. It was perfect—desolate and run down. The kind of place where a person could be taken and never found. Logan walked me into the house and down the hall to the bedroom.

  “You get one minute,” he said. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

  He stepped out of the room, but I knew he was probably just around the corner, didn’t go far, leaving me to assume he was standing around the corner, listening in on the conversation.

  “Gran!” I dropped down in front of her, wishing my wrists were free so I could give her the kind of loving embrace we both needed. “Are you all right?”

  She looked fatigued and weak, but tenacious. He hadn’t broken her spirit. She looked both happy and sad to see me at the same time. “You shouldn’t be here.”

  “I had to come.”

  “No good can come of it. He knows about the boy. That’s what this is all about.”

  “I know. He killed Shelby.”

  “What? I don’t understand. Why?”

  “And Cade is in the hospital too. Logan shot him in the head.”

  Gran tipped her head, motioning me to come closer.

  “You need to get out of here if you can,” she whispered. “If he killed them, he’ll kill you too.”

  “Not without you. I think I can reason with him.”

  “I don’t think so, Sloane. Have you looked at him—really looked at him? There’s something there, in his eyes, a different man than before, and he was never a good man to begin with.”

  She was right. The moment I laid eyes on him, I’d seen the snap.

  Logan entered the room with a wide grin on his face. He had what he wanted just the way he wanted it, and he was satisfied. “Time’s up, ladies.”

  Hoping to appeal to him, I questioned why I couldn’t remain with Gran longer. “I’m here, Logan, just like you wanted. No one knows where to find me. Can’t I have more time?”

  “Sure, you can. I’ll give you the same amount of time you gave me with my son.”

  And before I could stop him, he aimed the gun at Gran and fired.

  CHAPTER 43

  The bullet struck Gran in the chest. I lunged toward her, but before I reached her, Logan was on top of me, grabbing the back of my shirt. He shoved me out of the way and stood over Gran’s body. “Did you really think I believed your story about your husband being the one to decide to give my son away? You’re a shrewd, rigid woman. Always have been. It was you. It was you all along.”

  Gran’s breath was slow and shallow. She gasped for air, struggling for even the smallest breath. It was then I realized why he had kept her alive. It was the ultimate payback, bringing me there so I could watch her die, so I could suffer just as he had suffered.

  He raised the gun again, this time to her head. I crawled toward her, throwing my body on top of hers. He turned to me, laughing. “There’s nothing you can do for her now, but hey, maybe you’re right. Maybe I shouldn’t make it easy on her. Let her bleed for a while. Let her writhe in pain.”

  He leaned against the wall and glared at me. “I think it’s time we talk about our son, don’t you?”

  “What about him?”

  “So you don’t deny it?”

  “Why would I deny it now? What would be the point?”

  “Want to know his name?”

  The cards, the quotes—it was clear to me now. “Is his name Ace?”

  He clapped his hands. “Well, well, gold star for the little sleuth.”

  “How did you find out about him?”

  “The woman who raised him died last month. She had breast cancer. Before her death, she called him into her room and said she had something to tell him. He was raised to believe she was his mother, his bio mother, and before she passed she thought he deserved to know the truth. She gave him the name of his real parents. All she had was our names, but it turns out, with all the technology out there nowadays, that’s all he needed to seek us out.”

  “It’s not possible. How would she know what our names are? It was a closed adoption. The paperwork was sealed.”

  “The caseworker at the agency was good friends with the adoptive mother. The caseworker thought Ace was a good match for the woman because she knew you’d never try to take him back. She also knew I’d never step in because I didn’t know he existed.”

  His words shocked me. “His adoptive parents knew who we were all these years and kept it quiet.”

  “After the woman died, he found out where I lived and drove out to California to meet me.”

  “I don’t understand. This is the first I’m hearing about it. He’s done nothing to reach out to me. Why?”

  “Guess you could say it was a lucky roll of the dice. He found me first, and said he wondered what I was like.”

  What he was like was a living, breathing nightmare, one from which I thought I could protect my son.

  “After he saw you, he could have reached out to me. Why hasn’t he?”

  “Because I told him the truth about you.”

  “What truth?”

  “I told him what you did, that I never knew he existed. I said you didn’t want him. You gave him up without even giving me a chance. I never had a say in the matter. You decided what was best for the both of us and did it without my permission.”

  “That’s not true; that’s not what happened. You weren’t around. You don’t know how hard it was for me at the time.”

  “Hard for you?”

  He slammed his fist into my jaw, and I reeled back, my head smacking against the wall behind me. The copper taste of blood filled my mouth.

  “There’s no point in lying now,” he said. “It’s just you and me here. There’s no one around to judge you for what you’ve done. No one except me.”

  “Are you saying you became so enraged over me hiding him from you that you decided to lash out, shooting anyone who has ever mattered to me?”

  He hung his head. “No. It’s not that simple.”

  “Explain, because it seems simple enough to me.”

  “He’s dead, Sloane. My boy is dead.”

  Dead? No. He couldn’t be.

  “How? You said you just saw him?”

  “I did. We met, hung out for the day, and before he left, I invited him back. He said he’d come out again the following weekend. The next weekend came and went and he never showed. I called. He didn’t answer. I texted. He didn’t reply. I thought maybe I had the weekend wrong, and maybe he meant to come in two weekends, but when that weekend went by and I still hadn’t heard from him, I decided he must have changed his mind. I wasn’t about to lose my son a second time. I drove to Idaho to the farm where he was living.”

  “And did you find him?”

  “I found his family, his fake family. The man who raised Ace had no idea he’d been in contact with me. He didn’t even know his wife had told the boy the truth about who his parents were.”

  “And Ace, where was he?”

  Logan shook his head. “Already dead. He had told the man he was going out of town for the we
ekend, which means he was coming to see me just like he said he would. About an hour into the drive, a car swerved into his lane, some stupid broad looking at a text message on her cell phone. She slammed into him. He didn’t have his seatbelt on. Went right through the windshield.”

  “I ... I don’t know what to ... I can’t believe—”

  His anger surged. “Oh, yeah? Which part, Sloane? Which part can’t you believe? Because you know which part I’m struggling with the most?”

  I didn’t even need to ask. I already knew. After Ace’s death, Logan must have decided if I hadn’t kept our son from him, he’d still be alive, and the course of events wouldn’t have played out the way they did.

  “You see now?” Logan seethed. “You destroyed my family, so I destroyed yours.”

  “Shelby was innocent, Logan. They were all innocent. If you wanted to kill someone, you should have just killed me.”

  Except he couldn’t. His rage festered until he was blinded by it. He wanted me to suffer as he’d suffered.

  “I came to find you after it happened, and wouldn’t you know, I discovered you had a new family now. You ditched our kid and then went and raised another one with someone else. That girl, Shelby, she wasn’t even your blood.”

  “I didn’t raise Shelby. She was a teenager when I met her.”

  “We could have had a happy life, the three of us. You ruined it. You ruined it all.”

  “A happy life!” Wrists still bound, I managed to raise my shirt just enough to show him the scar he’d inflicted so long ago. “Remember this? Remember the man you were then, the man you still are now? I would rather my son leave this life knowing he was loved than to have spent a single moment with the man you really are!”

  He grabbed the collar of my shirt, yanking me forward, our faces pressed against each other. The cell phone tucked beneath my bra came tumbling out, clanking on the floor.

  Eyes wide, Logan snatched it. “You kidding me?”

  I snapped my foot back, sweeping it through the air, smashing it into the side of his face. It was one of the moves I’d come to master in jiu jitsu over the years, the martial art I learned after I had left Logan, vowing never to be helpless again. He may have been big and tough, built like a Mack truck, but I’d struck him with all the force I had, jolting him long enough for me to get to steady myself.