Hearing the pain in his voice, she tried to turn, surprised again when he held her firmly in place. “Just tell me,” he said hoarsely. “Either way, it’s fine.”
Clearly it wouldn’t be fine. “I’m not going to answer you looking at this briefcase full of weapons. Let me turn around.” When he loosened his grip, she turned to see him hurriedly swipe a tear from his eye.
She raised her hands to his face, wiping away any lingering wetness with her thumb. “I’ve seen you cry before.” She smiled at him, tears threatening her as well.
“Well, that’s great. Uh, I don’t cry a lot, do I?” he asked uncertainly.
Laughing, Lizzie stretched up to kiss him. “No, only when absolutely necessary.”
He looked both skeptical and relieved. The resulting expression on his face was so endearing that she kissed him again.
“Now, as to your question. I know it seems strange, but I look at you and I don’t think about old and new Zach anymore. I don’t know how it happened so quickly…it just did. So, do I love you, Zach who doesn’t remember making love to his wife?” Her voice quivered slightly. “Yeah, I do. And I love Zach who has made amazing love to his wife many times. I love all of you, Zach.”
He searched her eyes, looking, she knew, for any sign that she was trying to spare his feelings. “And I love you. I knew from the moment that you raised those beautiful eyes to glare daggers at my—at Alistair. I knew deep inside that you were the one, even if it did take a while for me to accept it.”
He ran his hand through her curls, drawing her closer. “And it’s always going to be that way.”
Overwhelmed, she raised her hands to either side of his face again and kissed him. A kiss that started soft and increased in intensity until they broke apart, breathless.
“So, it was amazing, huh?” His teasing voice interrupted her fantasy about dragging him into the bedroom. “Lizzie?”
“What?”
“When we make love—you said ‘Zach who made amazing love to his wife.’ Amazing, that’s what you said.” He looked at her as though daring her to take it back.
Dropping her voice to her sexiest purr, she confirmed, “Amazing. Every. Single. Time.”
He took a step back and ran his hand along his jaw. Not the reaction she was hoping for.
“Whoa! That’s…uh, honey, that’s a lot of pressure for a guy. Not only do I not remember making love to you, but I don’t remember any actual experience with”—he raised one eyebrow—“you know.”
“Well, it will be my pleasure to teach you anything you need to know.” She sauntered forward. And yawned! She slapped a hand over her mouth, horrified.
He laughed. “Somebody needs her sleep.” Trailing his fingers along her collarbone, he smiled a sad little half smile. “And this isn’t really the time or place. I don’t feel completely safe here.”
He traced the neckline of her shirt. “I intend to devote my full attention to you when we first make love.”
His words hung between them, and sadness over the loss of their shared memories transformed to the heated anticipation of making love for the first time—again.
…
She stood by the lake, bathed in moonlight, her curls blowing free in the wind, a peaceful smile on her face. He enjoyed this rare moment when her guard was down, when she was free and unafraid. He advanced quietly, reluctant to disturb her.
She must have heard a sound because suddenly she turned, smiling lovingly at the sight of him. His heart filled with something he thought must be happiness.
“Zach.”
He saw her lips move in greeting and then watched in horror as darkness rolled in, consuming her before his eyes.
The darkness lifted and in her place lay the fallen man, drenched in blood, his eyes closed with the finality of death. Although no breath escaped his lips, Zach continued to search frantically for a heartbeat.
The dead man’s final words echoed in the night, “I love you, man.”
Then darkness surrounded them and the man disappeared, leaving him alone with his grief.
Zach jerked awake, heart pounding. Once again, he’d spent most of the night keeping watch over his family. It didn’t matter how many guards he had looking out for them, it didn’t seem like enough. Although Joey and the others were good, he felt most comfortable with Cole on duty.
He listened to the sounds in the condo and heard nothing but Lizzie talking happily over breakfast with their children. Assured that everything was fine, he took a quick shower and scrubbed away the remains of his nightmare.
Feeling better, he smiled as he threw on clean clothes, thinking about Lizzie. She’d wanted to take her weapons to bed, telling him he’d better not think he was the only one who’d be packing heat. Apparently she watched too many gangster movies. He’d assured her that no, they would both be armed. Just not when she was half asleep. He’d promised to prepare her for battle in the morning.
As he left the bedroom, he was annoyed to hear Grant’s voice. “Lizzie, I mean it. I don’t want Sam staying with you. It’s not safe.”
The world according to Grant, and as much as Zach hated to admit it, he might be right. At least for today.
“Look, I’m not going to be separated from Sam, so forget it. We’ll stick to our normal arrangement.”
“Lizzie…” Grant pointed his finger at her in frustration.
“Don’t point your finger at my wife,” Zach said pleasantly. Sam held her arms out to him and he scooped her up. “We don’t want the young lady picking up bad habits.”
“Daddy!” Sam smacked her hands on either side of his face and planted a sloppy kiss on his lips, demanding his attention. Hmm, apparently she took after her mom. He smiled despite Grant’s presence.
“Hey, Princess.” He returned the kiss with nibbles along the little girl’s jaw, inspiring uncontrollable giggles. Smiling wider at the other man’s frown, Zach turned his attention to Lizzie. “What are the normal arrangements?” He’d be damned if he’d dance around his ignorance of their everyday life just because Grant was here.
“Well, normally today would be Grant’s day and we’d get Sam back this evening, but…” She paused at his nod.
“We do have a lot to take care of today with the move and putting security measures in place,” Zach said calmly. She wrinkled her brow, then nodded in understanding. They’d taken care of security measures at the house, but they needed to take care of the items in the briefcase.
She turned back to Grant. “Today’s going to be a little crazy with us moving back into the house. Sam can spend today with you and we’ll pick her up this evening.”
“Fine.” Grant reached for Sam and Zach handed her over with a playful toss that had her laughing again.
“You’ll need to take one of the guards with you.”
“I will. You don’t have to worry. Her safety means everything to me.” Grant stared at him. “It’s not personal.” He lowered his voice. “Based on what you said, you’re the target.” He placed a kiss on Sam’s head. “I’m worried.”
Zach couldn’t fault the guy. He was the target. He and Daniel. And Grant’s vow to keep Sam safe rang sincere.
“Hey, little Miss Sam.” Grant smiled at his daughter. “Dad has to work for a while, so how about we have your favorite babysitter, Jenny, come and play while I stay at the penthouse with you and work?”
Zach raised a quizzical brow. Lizzie nodded. “Jenny is great.”
As Lizzie kissed Sam good-bye, Zach nodded to Cole. When Grant left, Zach’s most trusted employee followed.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Zach sat on the couch, elbows on his knees and hands clasped, lost in thought, as Lizzie watched and worried. She recognized the warning signs. The darkness from his past weighed on him. Occasionally in their life before Alistair, Zach’s normally cheerful, even-tempered disposition was threatened by moments when his personal demons wrestled for control. For the hundredth time she chastised herself for not pushing him to
share his nightmares with her.
Although now she didn’t need to ask what troubled him. He was blaming himself for everything, certain her life would be better off without him.
The raid on the Forrester compound had yielded nothing helpful except evidence of a chemical lab in the warehouse—and even then it was impossible to determine the exact nature of the drugs. Not only had Alistair and Desiree disappeared, but so had everything else. Papers, personal items, the tapes of Sam…nothing remained but confused servants. They’d left no trail—physical, paper, or electronic—to follow. But that didn’t matter. Zach was certain New York was Alistair’s intended destination.
There was surprisingly little information about Alistair Forrester to be found. Although Kyle had searched diligently, they knew only that Alistair had been born in 1940 in Texas. He’d gone to work for the government after graduating from college. Then the trail stopped. No record of a marriage or children. No income tax records. No driver’s license.
His records were so thoroughly inadequate that there was no doubt in Zach’s mind that they’d been intentionally purged—and purged by someone with power. It wasn’t easy to wipe out someone’s existence so completely.
They knew nothing about Desiree.
Lizzie frowned, remembering how Zach had slammed his hand into the wall and then apologized profusely for losing control.
He lowered his head to his hands and she moved to kneel before him. Placing her hands on his knees, she called his name. He looked up at her with haunted eyes. She took his face in her hands, her heart breaking as he closed his eyes and lost himself in the comfort of her touch.
“Zach,” she whispered, “we’ll get through this.”
…
“Are you ready?” Zach asked twenty minutes later.
Lizzie was glad to see his confidence had returned. The glint in his eye told her he was still bowled over by her impressive display of knife-throwing skills, demonstrated before Daniel awoke from his nap. Upon learning she had no firearm experience, he’d been reluctant to arm her with more than electronic support—her high-tech watch contained a tracker and a panic button. However, after she bested him in knife-throwing, he’d conceded her choice of weapons as well.
She smiled at the sight of Daniel patting his dad’s face. The man might be carrying lethal weapons, but he was just a big teddy bear in the hands of his son. She joined her boys at the door. Zach extended one arm to pull her into a family embrace. Then, with Reade to escort them, they headed home.
They’d just pulled into their driveway when her phone rang. She looked at Zach. “It’s Grant.” She tapped answer. “Hello?”
“Hi, Lizzie. This is Jenny.”
“Jenny?” Her voice showed her surprise. “It’s good to hear your voice. Is everything okay?”
“Uh, my mom is sick and I need to take the rest of the day off. Grant had to go to a meeting. He thought you wouldn’t mind picking up Sam a little early.”
Happiness filled her, washing away any annoyance at Grant for leaving Sam with a sitter. After all, Cole was there. “No, I’d love to pick up Sam early. As soon as we drop Zach and Daniel off at the house, I’ll head over.”
Hanging up the phone, she smiled. “I need to pick up Sam. She’s coming home early today!” Even though she’d only been apart from Sam for a few hours, she missed her terribly.
She couldn’t wait to have all of her family safe at home.
…
Zach called Cole to let him know Lizzie was on her way with Joey, and he replied with military precision, “All right, sir.”
A pretty formal reply for a friend. Although he supposed he didn’t really know Cole anymore. Zach sighed. He refused to be daunted by the prospect of rebuilding his life. He knew how lucky he was to have it back at all.
Nervous that Lizzie was out of his sight for even a short period of time, he reminded himself that she had Joey and another trusted guard with her. In addition, Cole would return home with them. She’d laughed at him for surrounding her with so much “muscle.” He smiled, appreciating her attempt to lighten his mood, and vowed to divest her of her need for gangster jargon as soon as possible.
As he checked the security precautions throughout their home, concern gnawed at the back of his mind. Something wasn’t right. He had three guards at the house. Sophie had surprised them with homemade cookies and was upstairs with Daniel. Everything seemed fine at home.
Ten minutes later, he was back on the phone calling Cole again. “How’s everything? Lizzie should be there in five minutes.”
“Everything is quiet here, sir.”
Sir.
Three minutes later, as he and Reade reviewed security, his sense of foreboding hadn’t abated. Just as he decided to check in a third time, a call came from Kyle.
“Reade, would you check in with Cole while I take this?” Zach asked. A minute later, Zach ended the call.
“A couple matching Alistair and Desiree’s description was seen at a fancy New York City restaurant last night.” Zach ran his hand along his jaw and stared at Reade. “A local police officer saw the be-on-the-lookout that went out. Said he noticed the old man because he was an ass, berating the waiter.”
The description matched Alistair perfectly—both physically and in the man’s pompous attitude.
“What did Cole say?”
“He said everything’s fine. You’re right, though, he sounded tense.” Reade frowned. “What exactly did he say to you?”
“Everything’s quiet here, sir.”
“That’s strange. Cole never calls you sir. Goes back to his military days. Hell, maybe the babysitter was annoying him.” Reade chuckled, but the humor didn’t reach his eyes.
“What do you mean?”
“I heard her in the background, all sickly sweet, calling our little Sam ‘Pooh Bear.’”
Pooh Bear.
“He doesn’t have a lot of patience for…”
Zach didn’t hear the rest of his words. He’d already grabbed the electronic tracking gear and was sprinting out the door to the SUV, calling instructions to the guards. Reade reached the car only seconds behind him.
Zach initiated the call as they climbed into the vehicle. By the time the connection was made, they were already speeding down the long driveway. As the phone finally rang, they were swinging out onto the street. They’d hit eighty miles per hour by the time Zach heard her voice. “This is Lizzie Weston. I’m not available now…”
No answer.
Chapter Forty
Lizzie swept into the penthouse and stopped abruptly, barely noticing when her phone began to vibrate in her jacket. Grant and Jenny were bound and gagged in front of the fireplace. Sam… Her heart dropped. Sam lay unmoving on the sofa, her head resting on the lap of a young woman who ran the muzzle of her gun lightly back and forth along the little girl’s temple. Lizzie’s knees threatened to buckle at the sight of the macabre caress.
“Sam!” She lunged toward her daughter, terrified, only to be grabbed from behind and jerked back, held in an iron grip.
“Now, Maggie—oops! I mean Lizzie.” The woman laughed. “Calm down. Your girl is fine. She’s just taking a little drug-enhanced nap.”
She stared in disbelief at the brunette with the girlish ponytail. Desiree? Her eyes narrowed, hatred battling with fear at the sight of the tramp who’d pretended to be her husband’s fiancée. She saw movement to her left. Joey and Cole entered, followed by another of Alistair’s gun-wielding men.
“Sorry, Lizzie,” Cole spat. His eyes sliced to Desiree, frustration and anger evident, before he looked back at her. “I thought she was a damned teenage babysitter. I wasn’t cautious enough.”
They stared at each other.
Lizzie wrenched free from her captor and attacked Cole, pummeling him with small fists. “You were supposed to keep Sam safe! You were supposed to keep her safe…” Her shrill accusations faded to a low keening cry. She collapsed against his chest, wrapping her arms around him as t
hough she might fall without his support. “You were supposed to protect her,” she whispered. Her hands slid helplessly from his body as she was pulled away in apparent defeat.
…
Zach and Reade were halfway to the penthouse when the panic button alarm sounded. Although he already knew she was in trouble, the low buzzing of the alarm relieved some of his fear. She hadn’t answered her phone when he called, but she was able to warn him using the panic button hidden in her watch. That’s my woman.
Reade’s eyes remained glued to the GPS tracker on the portable command center. “No movement yet. We’ll have men in place at each exit in less than five minutes.” He glanced at Zach. “Still nothing from Cole or Joey.”
Examining the data as it came across the computer, he continued to update Zach, who drove like the proverbial bat out of hell.
But instead of fleeing hell, he was driving directly into the hands of the devil.
…
“Don’t worry, Lizzie. Alistair isn’t really interested in Sam. As long as you do as you’re told, Sam will be safe. So will you. It’s Thomas we want.” Desiree smiled graciously. Gesturing to Cole and Joey, she ordered Alistair’s lackeys around. “Tie them to those chairs.” She inclined her head toward furniture Lizzie recognized from the penthouse’s formal dining room.
As her orders were followed, Desiree rose from the couch, placed her gun on the coffee table, and removed the brown wig. Using her hands to shake out her hair, she groaned with pleasure. “Finally. I despise being brunette.”
Finger combing her blond hair into place, she smiled at Lizzie. “I don’t know how you tolerate it.” Examining Lizzie closely, she pursed her lips, a delicate frown wrinkling her brow. “Although I will admit, the curls are somewhat becoming—if you like that look.”
Picking up the gun, Desiree turned to Grant. “I’d like to say it was a pleasure, but I’d be lying.” A hard look came over her face as she gestured to Alistair’s men. “Let’s go.”
Comes the Night (Entangled Suspense) Page 21