Footsteps approached them and stopped. Turning back, Ame found that both Mary and Dakota followed her. Mary looked terrified. “What’s happening?”
“Two bombs have gone off in the basement. I have no idea if there are any more.”
Ame turned back to the building, watching suited firemen rush inside the structure. Several others dragged hoses free to douse the blaze.
“Everyone is out, right?” Mary asked hesitantly.
Gordon’s voice cracked. “We’ve accounted for everyone but two people.”
Ame looked from Gordon to Mary. She didn’t have to ask who was still in the building. Another roar shook the ground and the building. Moments later the sound of shattering glass echoed through the street. Ame struggled against her grandfather. “Mom! Dad!”
Gordon tugged her close to contain her. “Amelia, they wouldn’t want you anywhere near that building. You need to stay here where it’s safe.”
Tears slipped down Ame’s cheeks as she looked at Mary. Her grandma sobbed. Gordon wrapped his arms around both of them. They all looked up as a voice cracked over the radio of a nearby patrol car. “Engine 32, pull out. The structure could be unstable.”
“Give us a minute.”
“Engine 32, get out now. That elevator has already gone. One more explosion could level the building.”
Ame cried into Gordon’s shoulder. Her mom and dad gone? She had been so awful to her dad lately. He would never know just how much she loved him.
“Engine 32!”
“Coming, sir.”
Moments later the firefighters emerged through the gaping hole that had once been the rotating door. Ame gasped when she saw Sloan and Abbey’s limp forms draped across the shoulders of two firemen. Before they could cross the street, Sloan came to life, barking to be put down in a rough brogue. When he was set on the gurney he waved help way and slumped on the grass.
“My wife,” he croaked. “Please.”
The fireman gently laid Abbey beside him on the grass. Ame didn’t think she took a breath as she watched him gently stroke her mother’s cheek. Suddenly Abbey woke, her small body wracked with a violent fit of coughs. Sloan gathered her in his arms and held her close.
Ame felt Gordon’s grip loosen. It was all she needed. She ducked under his arm and took off through the crowd, bobbing and weaving around the personnel. Her blind dash didn’t stop until she reached her parents. “Daddy!”
She took a flying leap into Sloan’s lap. He nudged Abbey away just before Ame landed. Ame wrapped her arms around him tight as he hugged her to him. “Daddy, I’m so sorry for the way I’ve been lately. I love you so much,” she whispered.
“I love you too, Angel. All is forgiven.”
“What am I? Chopped liver?” Abbey protested to them, pausing for a moment for the paramedic to lace a line of oxygen into her nostrils.
Ame reached to carefully embrace her. “I love you, Mom.”
“I love you too, sweetheart.” She turned toward the building as she hugged Ame. “This might set our projects back. We can rebuild past this.”
“Thanks to your emergency procedures we can. We need to figure out who the bloody hell those men are and who they work for. They try to take our daughters then kill us. We need to stop them before they strike again.”
“Agreed.”
A couple of paramedics approached the family sitting on the side of the street. “We need to take you to the hospital, Mr. And Mrs. O’Riley. We’d like to have you evaluated.”
Sloan nudged Ame off his lap then struggled to stand. His knees buckled. “I agree with you.”
The paramedic waved for help. Three others hurried over pushing two gurneys with them. Helping the couple onto the gurneys, they secured them and wheeled them to the waiting ambulances. Sloan and Abbey each kissed Ame goodbye before they were loaded onto the vehicle. Ame watched them drive away before looking for her grandparents. Instead she was met by a hurt, confused glare from Dakota. “What is it?” she asked him.
“You told everyone your father was gone. But he’s been here in Minneapolis the whole time, hasn’t he? You lied to me. Why would you lie to me?”
“Dakota, I didn’t mean to. It’s just really difficult to explain why. Maybe someday I’ll figure out how to tell you. It’s just been easier for me to have everyone believe they’re not together anymore.”
Dakota looked around at the television cameras surrounding them. “Good luck with that. I was hoping we were friends. That you could trust me. But it’s okay. I need to get back to work. Later.” He stormed off through the crowd leaving a baffled Ame in tears behind him.
Chapter Four
Within twenty-four hours the O’Riley’s living room had become the recovery center for Sloan Enterprises. Robert, Bartholomew, Logan, and Ashleigh were already buzzing before Gordon and Mary brought Sloan and Abbey home from the hospital. Maggie and Vicki were also there to keep the swarm of children from getting in the adults’ way.
Sloan glanced around at the laptops perched on the coffee table, end tables and any flat surface that would work. At this moment he couldn’t be more grateful for his friends.
“There is a support structure around the building,” Robert offered. “There’s also a crane hired to start tearing it down once we’re given the signal from the authorities. It’ll be soon. The structure isn’t sound.”
“I’ve contacted the insurance company,” Logan followed. “Our employees and those of our tenants will be paid their salaries until we can relocate. I also have some temporary facilities and permanent real estate opportunities if you don’t want to rebuild on the current site.”
“And all the complexes are up and running,” Bartholomew added. “Sven was able to bring them back online almost immediately.”
Sloan gave them a weak smile. “Thank you all. You’ve kept us up and running and I appreciate that. Unfortunately, those aren’t the answers I’m really seeking.”
“Three bombs, Sloan,” Gordon near growled. “No fatalities. The building has already been inspected for that. That’s how we discovered it’s structurally unstable. Our visitors didn’t count that our security cameras download their footage to an offsite facility.”
“And?” Sloan pried.
“We’re still running their images through the international databases. Whoever they are, they’re in deep.”
“Gordon, wait,” Ashleigh interjected as she shifted her daughter to her other knee. “The computer picked something up.” Handing the little girl with bouncing blonde curls to Logan, she tugged the keyboard off the tablet and gave it to Gordon. Ashleigh cracked a smile at Logan. “By the way, she needs changing.”
“No kidding.” Logan stormed toward the bathroom, scooping the diaper bag up as he went. His daughter cooed as they disappeared.
“Your husband changes diapers?” Vicki scoffed. “How’d you get him to do that? Robert runs the other way. Sprints. I kid you not.”
Robert shot Vicki such a dirty look that it could have made him a widower. Ashleigh shrugged with a grin. “I trained him well.”
“What do you see?” Sloan questioned, attempting to redirect the group conversation back to Gordon.
The older man studied the tablet. “Oliver Tartan. International hired gun. His cronies are Sam Draxton and Chad Langford. Yes, it took a while to find them because essentially they’re ghosts. Faked their deaths six years ago.”
“I’ve never heard of these men.” Sloan tugged a quiet Abbey to him and gently kissed the top of her head. She had gotten such control over her PTSD since Afghanistan. After the day before, he was surprised she wasn’t climbing the walls. Instead she was just quiet, listening to everything going on around her.
“I haven’t either.”
“What do they want with us?”
“Like I said, they’re hired guns. They’re working for someone else. Let me see who. Ashleigh, could I have the keyboard, please?” Gordon reached for the keyboard that went with the tablet. He settled into
a dining room chair, snapped the keyboard back to the tablet and began to type. Sloan took Abbey’s hand and wandered behind Gordon to watch him. The older Irishman sat back in the chair and breathed a long line of colorful curse words under his breath.
“What did you find?” Sloan inquired.
“They’ve worked frequently with the Butcher. I’m sure that’s who they’re with now,” Gordon answered.
Robert turned toward them from his place on the plush leather sofa. “We keep hearing about this Butcher guy. Who is he?”
“He’s a British spy who’s gone independent lately,” Gordon began. “He’s so good there are no known photos of him. At the very least, those who take his photo are executed. He began working for the British during the Troubles. That’s about the extent of what I know of him. We’ve never crossed paths probably because we were the enemy to each other.”
“When did he surface?” Sloan asked.
Gordon offered him a slight smile. “About the time you came to Liam and me.”
“So we’ve never crossed paths and I’ve never heard of him. Suddenly he’s sending men to kidnap our daughters and kill us. What is the sudden vendetta? And against who?”
“He didn’t try to kill us,” Abbey realized.
Sloan turned to caress her face. “Luv, we were in that burning building.”
“We weren’t supposed to be. You were supposed to be golfing and I was supposed to be at a meeting at city hall. We never changed our schedules in the computer system. However, Gordon, Bartholomew, Robert, Logan, Ashleigh and Vicki were all supposed to be there according to their calendars. He had access to Sloan Enterprises’ computer systems. He wasn’t targeting us, he was trying to kill our family.”
“It looks like this could be another situation like MacPherson, lad,” Gordon advised. “It seems that the Butcher is targeting those you love to make you bend to his will just like that bloody Scot did.”
“Should we relocate everyone?” Bartholomew asked. “I can call my mom and Big Liam. There’s plenty of room on the ranch for us.”
“I don’t want to disturb the honeymooners yet by dumping the entire clan on them.” Gordon shook his head. “I will call Liam though. I have to admit. Having him on this side of the ocean has been wonderful and he’s head over heels in love with your mother. It’s just a shame we had to lose your dad. He was a good man, B.”
Bartholomew shrugged sadly. “He died peacefully in his sleep. The heart attack was quick. I’m just happy Mom is so happy.”
Gordon looked at Sloan. “Are you all right with staying put?”
“No,” Sloan admitted. “However the Butcher hacked into our systems. It wouldn’t take long for him to find us. Our best course of action is to defend ourselves the old fashioned way and just fight back. And find out who this man is before one of us is dead.”
Sloan felt Abbey shudder at his words. He hugged her close to comfort her. He wasn’t going to lose her. He glanced around the room at his family. He wasn’t going to lose any of them. The Butcher would have to kill him first.
»»•««
Ame stared at the high school building and frowned. She didn’t want to go inside but it wasn’t for the normal reason. She had already seen the strange stares directed at her as she walked up the sidewalk. She should have protested with her mom to let her stay home from school just one more day. When she saw the hollow, haunted look in Abbey’s face she just couldn’t. With a sigh Ame tugged the door open and stepped inside.
Her foot barely touched the tile when she was confronted with the same sharp glares. Dakota wasn’t the only one to witness Ame hugging her dad when he and her mom were rescued from the burning wreckage of Sloan Enterprises. So did about a half dozen television reporters. They all filmed the little family reunited and replayed it for two whole days. And by her classmates’ reaction they had all seen it.
Ava found her before she reached her locker. “Are your parents all right?”
“Yeah. Mom is a little shaken,” Ame answered.
“No kidding. Do they know what happened?”
Ame paused. Could she tell her best friend about the bombs? No. “It’s still under investigation.” She let her backpack drop down her arm and unzipped it to get her books out.
“Here comes Chelsea and her shadows,” Ava warned under her breath.
“Just fantastic.” Ame scrambled to get her things. She tossed her bag in her locker and slammed it shut. Spinning around she sighed. Too late.
“So, Ame, I saw you on the news,” Chelsea cooed as she twirled a blonde lock of hair between her fingers. “You were hugging some guy. Did you see it?”
“Of course I did,” Ame growled. “I lived it.”
“The reporter said it was your dad. He was sitting beside your mom. I recognized her but she was in a power suit, not a beat up pair of jeans and a T-shirt.”
“What’s your point, Chelsea?”
“Why did you tell us that your dad was gone and living in Europe? You lied to everyone.”
“It’s really none of your business why I lied. It’s personal. It’s between my dad and me.”
“Do you really expect us to believe that? It makes no sense. If he was my daddy, I would tell everyone I knew. Your daddy could buy the whole school. He funds the scholarship program. He’s building us a new recreation center. And you wear those awful plain uniforms. One phone call and you would never have to serve detention ever. You could do anything you wanted.” Chelsea’s smirk was devious. “We could be the best of friends.”
“You know what? There. That’s another good reason for me to lie. You’re right. My dad is worth ten times what your dad is. So is my mom. My mom doesn’t sit around and lust after the pool boy like your mom does. My mom works alongside my dad not because she has to, but because she loves being with him. And I wear this uniform because I don’t fear the school, I fear my dad. He is the most loving man I know but he’s also very strict. I don’t want to disappoint him. So yes, I lied. Like I said, the reason is none of your business. I don’t want everyone to see me as Amelia O’Riley, the daughter of billionaires. I want everyone to see me as plain ol’ Ame who likes to draw and laugh, the girl who loves her big, crazy family. I want everyone to see me as me. But now, none of you will, and that’s sad that you all judge people by their parent’s incomes and not by what’s inside.”
The hallway suddenly was silent. Every pair of eyes were on her except they no longer held judgment. They held astonishment and shame. Her gaze locked with Dakota’s. He opened his mouth to say something to her. Wrinkling her nose she frowned. “Excuse me, I have to get to class,” she huffed. Spinning on her toe, she strode off to her home room with Ava at her side leaving the rest of the school gaping dumbfounded.
“That was amazing,” Ava gushed.
“It never should have had to be said.” Ame trudged into the classroom and slumped in her seat. She let go a heavy sigh. Just before she had opened her locker she noticed Chelsea flirting with Dakota. The way he smiled, there was no doubt he was enjoying the conversation. She opened up her textbook as she tried to push the away the disappointment. Instead it felt like it punched her in the gut. She should have known he wasn’t interested in her. He was just being nice.
The day passed by quickly. Students Ame barely recognized stopped her to tell her just how brave they thought she was. She did everything she could to avoid Chelsea and Dakota. Whenever she saw either of them she redirected her steps. She definitely didn’t want to see them together again. Her poor little heart couldn’t take it.
Stepping outside of the school, Ame was stunned to find her father’s Hummer waiting for her. Sloan sat behind the steering wheel, his eyes focused on the tablet in his hand, a bouquet of roses and a box of chocolates sitting on the dash. Both teenage girls and mothers alike stopped to stare at him. Ame pushed past the slowly growing crowd. “Dad, what are you doing here?”
Sloan frowned, confused, at the females gathered behind her. A slow grin curved
his lips. Obviously he doesn’t mind the attention. “Your mom was taking a nap. I thought I’d come instead. You know, since your little secret isn’t much of a secret anymore. Hurry up and get in. Your siblings are waiting.”
“Right.” Ame scuttled around the vehicle and jumped in the passenger side. Sloan slowly pulled from the curb and wound down the lane to the next building.
“So, how was school?” he asked.
“There’s no use in hiding you anymore. So you can come to my events now.”
“Sorry, Angel. Even though it would be nice to know why you wanted me to stop.”
“Mom never told you?”
“No.”
“Oh. I found out about your…umm…alternative lifestyle. And that biologically, my last name isn’t O’Riley. It’s Morrison.”
“It’s O’Riley, Angel. Tom Morrison is dead and gone.”
“Isn’t he sitting in the driver’s seat of this car?”
“No. He hasn’t for a very long time. And I plan to keep it that way.”
“It’s all so confusing.”
“I know. Just remember, your mother and I love you and your siblings more than anything in the world. We will do everything in our power to give you a normal life.”
“Well, lying had another benefit. If everyone knew we were close, they would treat me like I was privileged because you’re rich.”
“Amelia, you need to be yourself. Money shouldn’t affect how you act. That’s what I’ve been trying to teach you.”
“I know. That’s what I sort of told the entire school.”
Sloan glanced at her from the corner of his eye. “Really?”
“Yeah. Someone filmed it and put it on YouTube. I think they thought I was going to throw a punch instead.” She pulled her cell from the pocket of her jacket and found the video. Then she handed the phone to him. Sloan parked the Hummer in front of the elementary school then pressed play. A proud smile filled his face. “That’s my lass.”
“Thanks.” Ame took the phone back from him and stuffed it back in her pocket. She paused. “Is Mom all right?”
Family Ties Page 5