His Lullaby Baby

by Airicka Phoenix

  Hanna bobbed her head rapidly, making her escaped strands wave in the air around her face. Sean was more subdued, but the excitement was unmistakable.

  Addy turned back to Toby. “Please watch them. Don’t let them be a burden or loud or rude or—”

  He kissed her. It was swift and silencing.

  “Ew!” they heard Hanna squeak.

  Toby never looked away from Addy. “They will be angels. I will make sure of it. Now stop fussing.”

  But it would be the very first time ever that she wouldn’t have her babies home. Aside from Sean going camping, they had never been away from her. It was daunting and terrifying, and completely nerve wrecking.

  “Where are you guys going?” she asked, even though he’d already told her.

  “We’re going to catch a ferry to Victoria Island,” he repeated with the patience of a saint. “Spend Saturday whale watching and then do some exploring. You can too if you come.”

  Addy shook her head. “No, you guys go and have fun and bring me back a t-shirt.” The last part was her feeble attempt at humor that failed when her wobbly grin slipped. “Watch them, please? They’re my whole world and—”

  “I got this,” he promised quietly. “I won’t let anything happen to them. I promise.”

  Believing him, she focused on the other two in the room. “Listen to Toby, understand? Don’t go anywhere or talk to anyone or touch anything…”

  “Mom, we’re okay,” Sean murmured gently. “I’ll watch Hanna.”

  Eyes burning, she turned away quickly and marched to where she’d put her credit card. She returned and pressed both into Toby’s palm.

  “I’m paying for the kids, okay? That includes the room. I mean it!” she snapped sharply when he started to protest. “Just make sure you guys have fun.”

  There was annoyance on his face, but he stowed the card into his back pocket. “Anything else, Sargent?”

  “Yeah.” Reaching up, she cupped his face and brought him down for a long, thorough kiss. “I’m going to miss you.”

  His free arm snaked around her middle and he bowed her into him to deepened the kiss. The thorough assault had her head spinning and her breaths coming out in pants by the time he drew back.

  “Call me.” His voice was low and gruff. “A million times if you have to.”

  Promising she would, she led the group to the front door and watched with a growing hollowness as they climbed into Toby’s truck and drove off.

  The moment she shut the door, a chill passed through her. An eerie sense of emptiness and fear. Every corner of the house seemed to echo with a silence she was sure had never existed at Macy’s. The absence of another living soul for miles made her skin crawl.

  Unwillingly, she made her way deeper into the house, following the last path her children had made from the kitchen. Once she was in the doorway, she just stood there, at a loss of what to do next.

  Saturday, she spent the entire day cleaning. She scrubbed every inch of the inn down from top to bottom. It was amazing how much she managed to get done without having to pause to cook meals or worry about why it was so quiet—a terrifying thing when one had children.

  It was around noon when the phone rang. Certain it was Toby, she practically decapitated herself rushing to snatch it up. She was breathless by the time she shoved the device to her ear.

  “Hello?” Silence responded, a long, quiet silence that made her frown. “Toby? You there? Are the kids all right?”

  Wondering if maybe they’d been disconnected, she hung up and dialed his phone. It rang four times before he picked up.

  “Hey!”

  “Hey, did you call just now?”

  There was screaming and laughing in the background, and the roar of the ocean.

  “No, we’re about to set out to see the whales. I was going to call you afterwards. Why? Everything okay?”

  “Yeah, no, everything is fine. I guess maybe it was just the wrong number. Are you guys having fun?”

  “Loads! I’ll tell you everything when I call you back, okay?”

  Agreeing, she hung up. Then stood there staring at the phone a moment. Chalking it up as nothing, she returned to the silver she’d been polishing.

  It was three in the morning when the hand closing over her mouth woke her out of a dead sleep.

  Chapter 20 ~ Toby

  The phone at the inn went to voicemail after the seventh ring. Addy’s cellphone did the same after four. Toby stared at his own device with an overwhelming surge of concern that soured any excitement he’d been feeling only moments ago at the prospect of hearing Addy’s voice.

  “What’s wrong?” Damon peered into his face as Toby stuffed his phone away.

  “Addy’s not picking up.”

  Ripping off twisty bread with his teeth, Damon chewed and considered this a moment. “Maybe she’s sleeping or out.”

  Both were a possibility, yet the nagging feeling continued to persist.

  “I don’t know.” He rubbed a hand over his mouth. “I just got a bad feeling.”

  “What’s going on?” Cole moved away from the crowd clustered in line for breakfast and joined the small group.

  “Addy’s not answering the phone.”

  Cole checked his watch. “It’s eight. Maybe she’s sleeping in?”

  “That’s what I said,” Damon said. “First weekend without kids, I’m sure she’s got a lot of sleeps to catch up on.”

  Toby shook his head. “She doesn’t sleep in. She’s up before I am. Something’s wrong.”

  “What could be wrong?” Cole asked. “She’s completely isolated.”

  Toby straightened. “Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of.”

  He peered over to where Sean and Hanna were standing with the other kids, laughing at something Owen was saying. He started to call them over.

  “Leave them,” Damon cut in. “I’ll bring them home later. You go on and call us when you get there.”

  Patting his brother on the arm in gratitude, Toby hurried out of the restaurant. He dug out his keys from his pocket as he maneuvered his way down the sidewalk in the direction of the cars. The door on his truck shrieked, reminding him he’d been meaning to WD-40 it for ages. The worn leather rustled as he slipped behind the wheel. His cane was tossed into the passenger’s side seat.

  It had started to rain. A light drizzle coated the windshield as he pulled into traffic and started home.

  He stopped for nothing, not even gas. Every so often he tried the inn again or Addy’s phone and continued to get her soft voice telling him to leave a message. He tossed his phone in frustration. The thing hit the dashboard and tumbled uselessly to the floor of the passenger’s side.

  Five hours and a ferry ride later, he broke through the Willow Creek boarder and shattered every speed record racing to the inn. Gravel flew beneath his tires as he swung into the driveway and killed the engine next to Addy’s minivan. He grabbed his phone and cane before making his way to the door.

  “Addy!” Silence. “Addy, you home?” He shut the door and moved deeper into the foyer. “Your van’s in—”

  “Run, Toby!”

  The frantic warning was met with a crack followed by a sharp cry of pain. A chair creaked. Boots scuffled on linoleum.

  Rather than heed the warning, Toby moved in the direction of her voice. His cane thumped loudly with his hurried strides. Its presence had never pissed him off more than it did in that moment.

  He spotted Addy immediately. In the pale light of day, she practically glowed in her white nightgown. Her dark hair lay in tangled waves around slender shoulders and framed her ashen features. Her eyes were wide, the only other color on her face besides the smear of blood around her nose and mouth, and trickling from the gash on her cheek. She sat stooped in a chair in the center of the room with her hands balled in her lap and tears running down her face.

  “Addy!”

  She met his gaze. Then dropped them to scan the area around his legs. They jerked back up to hi
m once more, panicked and questioning.

  The children, he realized. He started to assure her that he hadn’t brought them when his brain took that moment to take in the full picture beyond Addy, like the gun kissing her temple and the steady hand wielding it.

  Jonathon Montgomery met Toby’s gaze with quiet amusement. An eyebrow rose over heavily hooded eyes in question, like he was mildly curious to Toby’s presence there.

  “Get away from her,” Toby warned, keeping as calm and rational as possible. “You don’t want to do this.”

  Jonathon continued to stare, amused now. “Does that ever work?” But he lowered the gun away from Addy’s temple and Toby exhaled. “You’re Toby. We’ve been waiting for you.”

  Toby nodded slowly. “All right. Let her go and we’ll talk.”

  Jonathon chuckled, exposing the most perfect set of teeth Toby had ever seen. “I’m not an idiot and this isn’t a movie. You can’t negotiate with me.”

  “Okay, then tell me what you want,” Toby countered.

  “My kid,” Jonathon said without missing a beat.

  Kid. Not kids, Toby realized with some confusion and interest. Either Jonathon didn’t know about Hanna or he didn’t care. Whichever it was, Toby decided he wouldn’t bring the girl up.

  He shook his head. “Even if I could, I wouldn’t.”

  Jonathon snorted. “That wasn’t a request. That was my demand. I want my son.”

  “Can’t do it.”

  The gun lifted and the barrel gouged into Addy’s temple.

  “Let’s try this again.” Jonathon shifted, widening his stance. “I. Want. My. Son. Give him to me and I might reconsider splattering my traitorous whore of a wife’s brains all over the kitchen wall.”

  It was a struggle not to react, to not rush across the room and tackle the man way from Addy. But Toby stood his ground.

  “You kill her there is nothing stopping me from killing you,” he told the man evenly. “Lower the gun.”

  Jonathon sighed. “I can see this will get us nowhere.” His gun arm dropped down to his side. “So I will make you an offer. Bring me my son and I won’t kill you both.”

  “No.” Toby didn’t even pause to consider the request.

  Rather than anger, Jonathon laughed. “I like you. You’re a man of honesty. It’s the one thing no one mentioned when I asked about you. Hardworking, loyal, funny, smart, kind, but not honest. I think it’s something a lot of people take for granted.”

  That surprised him. “You asked about me?”

  Jonathon nodded slowly. “Yes, of course, I had to. I had to know who was fucking my wife. She’s a bit of an easy whore, but no one’s perfect. I’ve been looking into you and your family, and this charming little town of yours for several weeks now.”

  “How?” Toby blurted. “We only just sent the divorce papers.”

  Jonathon grinned. “I have a detective friend who has been monitoring Addy’s missing person’s report. When it got pulled up and he called me, I had to stop and wonder why a hole in the wall town in the middle of nowhere would be looking at my wife’s file … unless someone there had seen her. I had an investigator look into the matter and, low and behold, there was an Addy and Sean who moved to Willow Creek five years ago.” He paused to narrow his eyes. “Personally, I’m not a believer of coincidences.”

  Inwardly, Toby cursed himself for being such an enormous idiot. He should have realized.

  “What makes you think you’ll get away with this?” he asked instead, needing to stall until he thought of a better plan. “The police will know it was you.”

  “If I kill you both,” Jonathon corrected. “But I’m hoping you’ll come to your senses and just walk away. I will take my wife and my son and you will never have to worry about any of this again.”

  “Never going to happen—”

  “Okay.” Addy’s quiet whisper startled them both. “We’ll go with you.”

  Toby started. “What?”

  Wet, puffy eyes met his. “He will kill you!” she croaked. “This is the only way we’ll all win.”

  “Smart girl.” Jonathon stroked a hand through her tangled hair. “You always were smart. Sometimes too smart.” The fingers clamped down and yanked, jerking her head back with a violence that made her neck crack. Addy cried out. “Don’t be smart, Addy. You know how I feel about you thinking. We both know I’m stronger, and smarter, and I will not hesitate to prove it by any means necessary.”

  “I … I’m not,” she choked out. “I just want all of this to be over.”

  His hand untangled from her hair. “Good. Get Sean here now. Then we are going to get into the car and drive home where I will be keeping a very close eye on you.”

  Nodding, Addy rose unsteadily to her feet. “I just … I need to call Toby’s family and tell them—”

  “Or!” He grabbed her arm and yanked her back into her seat. “We can all just stay here and wait for him to get home.”

  That had been her plan, Toby realized. She was going to call and tell whoever answered not to bring the kids, just like she had when she’d called out a warning for him to run. She was going to sacrifice herself and him to protect the children. It didn’t bother him. He would have done it himself, but it did infuriate him that Jonathon wasn’t as stupid as he looked.

  “He’s not coming home,” Toby lied. “He’s spending the week with my brother.”

  “Damon?” Jonathon asked without missing a beat. “And his beautiful wife Willa and their children Owen and Kari? Or did you mean Jared and your sister Calla and their son Colten?” He smirked when Toby tensed. “Like I said, I know everything about you.”

  Toby forced a laugh. “Even if you tried to hurt Willa or Calla, or those kids, it won’t be me you’d have to deal with. Damon and Jared will rip you into tiny pieces. That’s if you can get through the rest of us first. You don’t seem to realize just what kind of family you’re dealing with.”

  “Why would I hurt them?” Jonathon countered, actually sounding appalled. “I don’t want them. I just want my family back. I want my son. A father has a right to raise his son, don’t you think?”

  Not if that father is you, Toby wanted to say. Instead, he said, “Why not just go through the courts like everyone else? Why come here and go through all this?”

  “Because I have absolutely no intention of giving Addy a divorce. She either stays with me or, well, there is no or. I was raised to believe a man and wife should work their problems out in private and for the wife to love and obey her husband. I have spent a great deal of time, money and effort training Addy to be perfect. I refuse to let her go. She just needs to be reminded who’s in charge. Isn’t that right, love?”

  Addy flinched at the stroke of his knuckles along her cheek. Her bottom lip wavered, but she bit it down and turned her face away.

  Jonathon’s eyes narrowed, but he lowered his hand. “Seems I will have my hands full.”

  There were so many things Toby wanted to do in that moment. Bashing the other man’s head in with a stool was one. The other was getting Addy as far away from him as possible. So far, he’d been unable to do either. Instead, he stood there like an idiot, cursing his leg, the distance and everything else standing in his way.

  Feeling uniquely helpless, Toby focused on Addy, trying to decide what he could do to get to her without getting either of them shot. But he calculated fifteen feet between them, which normally wouldn’t have been too far, except it was hindered by his lack of swiftness. That exact moment would have been the perfect opportunity to make his move. Jonathon was staring at Addy. His attention wasn’t even on Toby. He could have easily been taken down if Toby’d had full use of his legs.

  Brown eyes glassy with raw terror met his. It contradicted with the set line of her jaw and the tense determination thinning her lips. Lips that opened and mouthed, “Go!”

  Toby shook his head. “So not happening.”

  “He’s going to kill you,” she choked out. “He’s not going to�
�”

  Blunt fingers cut into her jaw, twisting and wrenching her head back.

  “That is enough of that,” Jonathon hissed. “It’s rude to talk about a person as though they’re not there.”

  “Let Toby go,” she breathed. “I will go wherever you want, just—”

  The fingers tightened until she cried out.

  “Worried about your lover, sweetheart? Isn’t that sweet?” He straightened. Deliberation furrowed his brows, pulling his green eyes into contemplative slits. He turned his head a notch and surveyed Toby a long moment. “I think I have a better idea.” In a fluid sweep, the gun was yanked up and pointed square at Toby’s chest. Beneath his jacket, his heart gave a vicious kick that Toby concealed behind a mask of calm indifference. “Why don’t I put you both out of your miseries? This way, Addy will have nothing to focus on, except being the proper wife I expect.”

  It was a struggle not to shift, to give nothing away as he stared down the barrel of a Desert Eagle. It was only the fear of leaving Addy and the kids at the mercy of that asshole that kept Toby doing anything truly heroic, like flipping Jonathon off.

  “How exactly is this going to play out?” he asked. “You kill me and take Sean and Addy. Then what? Do you really think they won’t track you down?”

  “I told you, this isn’t a movie. I’m not going to monologue for you and spill my heart out. I’m really not interested in whether or not you understand. I want my son and my wife, and I always get what I want. It’s as easy as that.”

  The hammer cracked back. The sound painfully too loud in the deafening silence. It seemed to tear a hole through time itself as everything shrieked to a grinding halt. It hadn’t been like that the first time he’d been shot. It had happened so fast he had barely had time to react when the pain had splintered through him. Standing there, waiting for it was a whole different experience. But he didn’t run. He couldn’t even blink.

  The bang tore through the room, muffling the scream and the hurl of Addy’s body straight at her ex. Her thin arms coiled around his and she shoved his aim wide.