“I know,” Isaac agreed, his voice soft.
Adam was on the phone to the taxi company before Isaac even finished the two words. “I need to know who’s driving the taxi with the license plate number GSO049.”
“Why do you need to know?”
Instead of getting angry, Adam explained the situation, adding, “If you could just get me that information, you might help save a woman’s life.”
A pause. “Seriously?”
“Never more serious in my life.”
“Give me one second to pull up the screen on my computer.” Adam heard the clicks in the background. He wanted to be standing over the guy’s shoulder so he could see what he was looking at. “His name is Henry Reston. If you’ll hold, I’ll try to raise him on the radio.”
“I’ll hold.”
Again, time seemed to crawl, but in reality took only about sixty seconds. The man came back on the line. “He said he dropped your woman at six-oh-four Persian Avenue.”
“That’s only about five blocks from here.”
“Said she got in another car.”
“Another car. Can you ask him what it looked like?”
“I asked him that, seeing as how this woman is in trouble. He said it was a white Beemer. Four door.”
“He didn’t happen to get the license plate, did he?”
“Nope, but he said the woman acted scared and jumpy, then saw a kid in the backseat and grabbed him in a big hug.”
Adam sent up a prayer of thanksgiving. Simon was alive. The man spoke again. “He actually followed them to a building downtown.”
“You’re kidding. Where?”
The man gave Adam the address.
“Could he identify the driver?”
“I don’t know, I’ll ask him.”
“Thanks for your help. You and Henry may have just saved this woman’s life.”
“No problem.” A pause. “Hey, will you call me if she’s all right? My name’s Scooter.”
“Of course, Scooter.”
“If she ain’t, don’t call.”
“Yeah. I’ll be calling you real soon.”
“Praying it’s so.”
Adam hung up and called Ralph. Thankfully the man seemed to keep his phone nearby. “Ralph, I’ve got a witness who says he saw them take Dani to this address.” He rattled it off. “Can you get a team out there?”
“On the way.”
Isaac looked at Adam. “You should be a detective.”
Adam shrugged. “You know I was a cop before I was with the marshals. I learned how to run down a lead.” He grabbed his coat and shook Mrs. Gillespie’s hand. “Thank you so much.”
“Of course. I do hope everything turns out all right.”
“It’s going to take more than hope to make this turn out all right.”
34
Joe had parked the car and led them up the steps of a large farmhouse. Several acres of land surrounded the house out back with trees bordering the land. Inside, the place had been gutted and gave new meaning to the term “open floor plan.” Dani looked around and realized the main area had been made into some kind of office. The kitchen opened into the den area. Supporting beams held up the ceiling. Two rooms had been left at the end of the hallway. Stairs at the end of the den disappeared into a second floor. She guessed the entire area to be somewhere around five or six thousand square feet. It looked more like a warehouse with a kitchen than a house.
Joe pointed to a small table and chairs in the kitchen breakfast nook. “Sit over there and keep quiet.” Without another look in her direction, he carried the locked black case she’d pulled from the safe-deposit box to a larger conference-sized table that sat in the middle of the room.
She finally noticed the smells. Ink. Smoke. Alcohol and ammonia? Dani gripped Simon’s hand. His flushed cheeks and glassy eyes worried her. Somehow, she had to find a way out.
Simon let go of her hand, bypassed the table and chairs, and slid down the wall, holding his stomach. He leaned his head against his knees.
“Oh God, help me, please,” she whispered. “Help me help my son.” Joe still turned his weapon in her direction every few seconds, but he knew as well as she did she wasn’t going to do anything that put Simon at risk. Any more than he already was.
Dani ignored the chairs and went to sit beside Simon. He resisted her efforts to pull him into her arms and she let him be. He was miserable and in pain. He gave her a small shove. “Sit in the chair, you’ll be more comfortable.” Dani eyed him. “Please. Go. Just do it, will you?”
Dani moved to sit in the chair. If it would bring him some kind of peace of mind, she’d do it.
A door opened and she looked up as the woman entered the room. Dani gaped. “Jenny?”
Joe smirked. “Dani, meet Butterfly.”
Jenny gave her that sweet smile that had often brought Dani comfort in the past year. Now it made her skin crawl as though she had a million tiny ants just beneath the surface of her skin. “Hello, Dani.” She glared at Joe. “You left me.”
“You didn’t give me a choice.”
Dani’s gaze jumped between Joe and the woman she’d called a friend. “I don’t understand.”
Jenny shrugged and moved closer, fingering her necklace. Five black beads, one white and five red. “I tried to get you to leave Kurt, but you just wouldn’t do it.”
Dani was having trouble processing, so she simply stared. This time the woman she thought was her friend, her best friend, sighed. “The women’s shelter pamphlet?”
“Oh.” She frowned. “Why did you want me to leave Kurt?”
“Because we were much better suited for one another than you and him.”
While her fear wanted to swallow her, anger also started to rear its head. “I won’t argue with that. And for the record, you know I tried to leave him. I told you what happened.”
“Yes, Kurt and I had quite the laugh over it. Who do you think warned him you were planning to run?”
Dani couldn’t breathe. The betrayal was just too much. “Then why give me the pamphlet? Why help me set all that up if you were going to just tell him? He almost killed me and Simon!”
Jenny frowned back. “Exactly.”
Dani flinched. “But … why?” She just wanted answers. Her life had taken such a twisted turn, she wasn’t sure she could think straight.
“Because Kurt had what I wanted. Money, position, power, respect, everything. If you were gone, I would move in to comfort the grieving man. I’m very good at comforting men and convincing them that they’re not bad people, just misunderstood. And they’re very good at being grateful and taking care of me.” Her expression darkened. “Except Stuart. Stuart just wouldn’t let go of his fascination with you. It was maddening.” She turned her sultry smile on Joe. “But Joe knows my true worth, don’t you?”
He winked at her and turned back to the box.
Dani was stunned. All fear had left her. Numbness had set in. How had she surrounded herself with such deviant people? She hadn’t. She’d married one, and while he’d isolated her on the one hand, his actions had brought these people into her life.
She couldn’t help compare her past life—life with Kurt—with her present. Adam, Summer, Isaac, Tori, David—
If she and Simon somehow got out of this, she would make sure they surrounded themselves with people who loved others rather than people who loved self and used others. She looked into Jenny’s eyes and wondered why she’d never noticed the emptiness before.
Because she hadn’t been looking. Because she’d been so grateful to have someone who seemed to care, someone she could call friend. So desperate she hadn’t looked beneath the surface. Her stomach twisted. And part of her just wanted to give up. To throw her hands up and declare herself done. She wanted to stop fighting and let them win because she was almost too exhausted to care anymore.
“Who used whom?” she asked.
Jenny lifted a brow. “What do you mean?”
“Stuart,
Kurt, and now Joe. Who’s using whom?” Jenny frowned as though the question was beyond her. Dani sighed. “You moved into my neighborhood. Was that just a fluke?”
“Of course not. After Stuart got me out of the Bloods, he set me up in that house.” She closed her eyes as the mere memory brought her joy. “I’d never seen anything so fancy. At least, not that wasn’t on television. But to live there? Oh my, what a dream. Fancy house, perfect man? I was set.” Her jaw tightened and she opened her eyes. “That is until I found out why he wanted me there.”
“To spy on me.”
“Yes,” she hissed. “I was in love with him, I would have done anything for him, and all he wanted from me was to spy on you.” She sighed. “So, I figured it was some kind of phase he was going through. You were married to his brother. He’d get over it, right? I’d give him time and he’d realize he was wasting his time.” She shook her head. “Nope. Then I met Kurt and figured out who the alpha male was in that relationship.”
“So you moved in on Kurt.”
“He didn’t mind.” She gave Dani a wicked smile. A smile so evil it made Dani sick.
“And now Joe?”
“Yeah. Once he told me about the money and how I could help him keep up with you through Stuart, I couldn’t turn him down.” She glanced over her shoulder. “What’s taking so long? Open it up already, would you?”
Joe shot her an irritated glance. “I’m kind of in the middle of making sure the buyers are on the way.”
Jenny sauntered away as though Dani had just bored her completely.
Simon shifted beside her. She pressed a hand to his head to get his attention, but realized he was already looking up. “Can you hang on just a little longer? We’re going to get out of this. Adam will find us,” she signed.
He nodded and did the same. “It just hurts. Bad.”
Dani tried to slow her racing thoughts. She needed to get to a phone. “We may be on our own, Simon. We may have to rescue ourselves.”
He studied her for a long time, then gave a slow nod.
“Hey,” Joe said. “Butterfly, the buyers will be here any minute. Let’s get this done.”
“How can you do this?” Dani bit her lip, then blurted, “Did you arrange to have Kurt killed so you could keep all the money?”
Joe snorted and moved to stand in front of her. “No, I didn’t even know about his money until I got his letter.”
Dani frowned. “What letter?”
Joe reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. He held it up and began to read.
“‘Hey Joe, guess this is it, man. I guess I’ve gone and done something stupid or someone has betrayed me and killed me. Either way, that leaves me in quite a quandary. You see, I may be dead, but my wife is still alive. She and Simon. And that just can’t be. So, I’ve got a plan, but I’m going to need you to implement it. You’ve bugged me for three years about how you could pay me back for saving your hide, not once, but twice. Well, here’s how you can make things even. I want Dani and Simon to join me in the hereafter. Wherever that may be. My idiot brother has been lusting after my wife since the day he met her. There’s no way that’s going to happen. So, yeah. I’m asking you to kill her. Sorry to be so blunt, but I’ve never been one to mince words.’”
Dani began to shake, the shivers racking her.
Joe frowned. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I’m terrified and cold and worried sick about my son. And now you’re reading a letter from my husband asking you to kill me and Simon. It’s … just … a … reaction. Keep going.” She clasped her hands together and prayed Simon wasn’t paying attention.
Joe kept reading. “‘You may be asking what’s in it for you. Here it is. I know you need money. Well, I’ve got lots of it. Plus a house. In a safe-deposit box is a new will, notarized, signed and witnessed by my lawyer. Dani doesn’t know about this one. But in the will, I leave you everything to the tune of two million dollars. This will is dated after the will that gives Dani everything, so the old will is null and void. It’s all legal. No court of law will be able to find anything wrong with it. You ought to be able to get out of that trailer and take care of your sister just fine. Or gamble it away. I don’t really care just as long as Dani’s dead. And you can kill Simon too, if he’s in the way.’”
Dani thought she was going to be sick. So this was how the man who’d promised to love, honor, and cherish her had arranged to have her killed even after his death.
Joe didn’t look up as he finished the letter.
“‘The combination for the box with the will and some other things you can have—yeah, the plates are in there—is my birthday, October 3rd. 1-0-3. Got it? Don’t let me down, Joe. I’m counting on you.’”
Joe folded the letter and looked at Dani and Simon. Dani was stunned. Her heart beat in her chest like a trapped bird. Her breath felt short and she wondered if she’d pass out. No, she couldn’t. She had to get Simon away from these people. “What are you going to do?”
“First, I’m going to open the box.” He placed it on the table and spun the numbers. She heard the soft click. Joe gave a triumphant smile and opened the lid. With a reverence that made her nauseous, he lifted three wrapped rectangular shapes from their resting place, one by one and set them on the table. Then he pulled a manila envelope out. When he had the flap open, he removed the papers from the envelope. “The new will. Shall I read it?”
“Please don’t do this,” Dani whispered.
“Too late, Dani. I owe Kurt to fulfill his last wish.”
“Not to mention collecting a lot of money,” she spat.
He shrugged. “Yes, that too. I’m looking forward to spending the rest of my days on a small private beach.” He looked down at the paper, tossed aside a blank top sheet, and gaped.
“What is it?” Butterfly moved in close and looked over his shoulder to read. “What is this?” she cried and snatched the paper from his hand.
Dani stood, her trembling finally under control. “What is it?”
“This! This is what it is!” She shoved the paper at Dani who read it.
“Gotcha!”
35
“As soon as we know where they are, will you be ready to roll?” Adam asked.
“We’ll be ready.” Ralph Thorn barked orders on the other end of the phone, then came back on line to Adam. “The address the taxi driver gave us checked out, but they weren’t there. We’ve got video footage from traffic cams showing us the vehicle, but Joe’s no dummy. He’d know we’d track him with the cameras.”
“Then what is he doing? Is it a trap?” Adam’s belly clenched as his mind scrambled to figure out what Joe was doing. “He’s luring us with the cameras while going behind the scenes somewhere? Dani and Simon don’t have time for us to be following a wild-goose chase.”
“I’m open to suggestions,” Ralph said.
“You know Joe. Where would he go?” Adam asked.
Ralph sighed. “I thought I knew Joe. Obviously not.” He paused. “Wait a minute.”
“You thought of something.”
“Yeah.”
“What?”
“I’m checking something.”
Adam waited, impatient, breath whooshing through his lungs, desperate to find Dani and Simon. “Well?”
“The white Beemer was stolen and has been abandoned. But Joe’s car is on the move.”
Adam felt a surge of excitement. “He’s in his car and you can track it.”
“As long as he doesn’t disable the GPS in it.”
“He doesn’t know we’re on to him, though, so he’d have no reason to disable it.”
“Unless he’s just being extra cautious, and let’s hope that’s not the case.”
“Hey!” Jenny’s yell brought Dani’s head up. “Where’s Simon?”
“What?” Dani blinked. She swiveled to look where she’d last seen Simon.
His empty spot mocked her. Her heart lifted. He’d taken advantage of the adults’ d
istraction and slipped off. “Oh Simon,” she whispered. Oh please God, get him to safety.
She stood and Joe shoved her back into her chair. “That’s what I get for being nice.” He shot a dark look at Jenny. “Find that kid. He can ID us.”
Dani ran to the nearest window. “Go, Simon, go.”
A hard hand jerked her away. “Get outside and find that kid,” Joe yelled at Jenny.
With a murderous glare toward Dani, Jenny bolted through the door. Joe threw Dani back into the chair, grabbed the paper he’d thought was going to be Kurt’s will, and shoved it at her. “What’s this? Gotcha? Gotcha? Where’s the will?”
Dani pushed the paper away. “How am I supposed to know? I didn’t have anything to do with this. I just wanted to live my life with my son and forget the last twelve years ever happened. You and Kurt dragged me into this!”
Joe grabbed his head and pressed. “I can’t believe this. Kurt wouldn’t do this to me,” he roared. “He wouldn’t!”
“Why not?” Dani said quietly. She stared at him. “Why not you?”
Joe froze and stared at her. “What do you mean?”
“Kurt picked on anyone he considered weaker than himself. If you let him know about a weakness, he would exploit that.”
“Just like he did with Faraday,” Joe whispered.
Dani knew he was talking to himself, but she answered him anyway. “What?”
“Nothing. Nothing.” Then he pulled his gun and started shooting.
Adam heard the gunshots as he pulled to a stop at the base of the drive. A rambling house loomed before him. Ralph pulled in behind him, along with other law enforcement officers who’d been ready to move when called. Adam shoved open his door and pulled his weapon, prayers on his lips. God, please don’t let them be dead. Please.
He moved toward the house, hunched over and running. David moved beside him. Isaac branched out around to the side of the house. FBI agents followed, weapons ready, fanning around the house.
Adam knew the SWAT team was setting up, a hostage negotiator was on the way, and pretty soon Adam knew he would be relegated to the backseat when the ASAC, possibly even the SAC, arrived and took over.
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