She’d thought Gavin didn’t want her, only to find out he’d been devastated when she left. He hadn’t told her that he loved her, but she could tell he had feelings for her. They might not be as strong as what she felt for him, but it was more than she ever expected to have.
She thought that she would never fit into Gavin’s world or be the woman he wanted her to be. Now, she realized he didn’t want her to fit in. He wanted her to be herself. There would always be people with something rude to say, but if his family welcomed her with open arms, she didn’t really care what anyone else thought.
Things were going amazingly well.
A soft chirp distracted Sabine from her thoughts. It was Gavin’s cell phone. It had been remarkably quiet since they’d arrived. He’d done well in focusing on their vacation, too. She watched him reach for it and frown at the screen before answering.
“Hi, Dad,” he said. “Is everything okay?”
Immediately, Sabine’s stomach sank. They had called yesterday to check in and everything was fine. He’d told her that his parents would only call if there was a problem. She tried to will herself to relax as she listened to half of the conversation.
“What?” Gavin’s tone was sharp and alarmed. He shot up on the lounge chair, his worried gaze searching the ocean for answers he wouldn’t find there. “Are you sure? Did you look in all the closets and under the beds? He likes to play hide-and-seek.”
Sabine sat up in her chair, swinging her legs over the side to turn toward him. “What is it? Is Jared okay?”
Gavin wouldn’t look at her. He was totally focused on the call. “How did they get in the apartment?”
They? Her heart was racing.
“Did you call the police?”
“Gavin!” Sabine cried, unable to stand not knowing what was going on any longer. If Jared fell and skinned his knee, the police wouldn’t be involved. This was something far worse than she could imagine.
“No, that was the right thing to do. We’ll be home in three hours.” Gavin turned off his phone and finally looked at her. He had the shimmer of glassy tears in his eyes as he spoke. “Jared is gone.”
A strangled cry escaped her throat. “Gone? He’s missing? How?”
Gavin shook his head softly. “Not missing. Kidnapped. A ransom note was left.”
Sabine’s brain started to swim in panic. She could barely follow his words. She couldn’t possibly have heard him right. No one would take Jared. Why would anyone take Jared? “What?” she said, but she couldn’t understand his answer. Nothing made sense.
Gavin stood up and offered his hand to her, but she didn’t know why. “Sabine, please,” he said at last. “We have to get back to New York.”
She took his hand, standing slowly until she was looking into his eyes. His eyes. Just like her son’s. That’s when the fog in her brain cleared, and all that was left behind was red fury.
Her baby had been taken. Her sweet little boy, who had been nothing but safe under her care. Until now. Until he became the son of one of the wealthiest men in Manhattan. Then he was just a pawn in the games of the rich.
“Sabine?”
Her gaze locked on his, her lips tightening with anger. Gavin reached out to touch her face, but she swatted his hand away. “Don’t you touch me,” she warned through gritted teeth. “This is all your fault.”
It was as though she’d slapped him across the face. He flinched and stepped back. “What?”
“I never should’ve listened to you. You said he would be safe with your parents.”
“Of course. Why would I think someone would kidnap our son?”
“Because that’s the world you live in, Gavin. You might be appalled by the way we lived with our tiny apartment and our old, worn furniture, but you know what? Jared was safe! He was a safe, happy little boy who didn’t know what he was missing. And now he’s a rich little boy, scared and alone because being your son made him a target.”
“You think I’m the reason he was kidnapped?”
There was hurt in Gavin’s eyes, but she ignored it. She was too deep in her rage to care. “You are absolutely the reason he was kidnapped. What did the ransom note say? Did they want millions of dollars? They wouldn’t have gotten that from me, no matter what. I have nothing to offer, nothing anyone could possibly want, unlike you.”
“I don’t know what the ransom note said aside from the fact that they would call with instructions at 5:00 p.m. If we leave now, we can get back in plenty of time. Can you stop yelling long enough to pack and get on the plane?”
“You bet I can. I don’t want to be on the island with you for another minute anyway.” Sabine spun on her heel and ran from him, kicking pink sand as she headed for the stairs. She leaped up them two at a time until she reached the deck and raced for the master bedroom.
“What is that supposed to mean?” he said, charging in behind her.
“It means I wish I’d never run into Clay on the street. That the last two weeks had never happened. I should’ve gone home to Nebraska so you could never find me. If you weren’t a part of Jared’s life, I would have my son with me right now. This is exactly why I didn’t tell you that you were a father.”
The hurt expression on Gavin’s face quickly morphed into anger. His dark eyes narrowed dangerously at her. “That is a load of crap and you know it. You didn’t tell me about Jared because you’re a control freak who couldn’t stand someone else being involved in decisions for your son. You didn’t tell me because you’re selfish and you wanted him all to yourself, no matter what the cost to him.”
“You bastard! I was protecting him from the life you hated.”
“Yes, because it was so much better to suffer for your child and get sympathy than to give up your child dictatorship. Martyrdom doesn’t look good on you, Sabine.”
Her cheeks flushed red with anger. She didn’t know what to say to him. There wasn’t anything else to say. She turned her back on him and focused on packing and getting home to her son. She threw open her bag and chucked everything within reach into it. Whatever was too far away wasn’t important enough to worry about. By the time she had her things together, so did he. He was standing at the front door, a car waiting for them in the driveway.
She couldn’t speak. If she opened her mouth, she would say more horrible things. Some she meant, some she didn’t. It was probably the same for him. Yelling made her feel better when she felt so helpless. Instead, she brushed past him to the car, giving her bags over to the driver and climbing inside.
The ride to the airport was just as silent. Her anger had begun to dissipate; this wasn’t the time to start blaming and arguing. That time would come later, when Jared was home safely and she could think of something, anything, but her son’s welfare.
The plane was well on its way back to New York before she so much as looked in Gavin’s direction. There was only a foot between them, but it could’ve been miles. “Listen, fighting isn’t going to get us anywhere, so let’s call a truce until this whole mess is over.”
Gavin’s fingers flexed around the controls with anger and anxiety, but the plane didn’t so much as waver under his steady command. “Agreed.”
“What else did your parents say when they called?”
“They had taken him to the park and then brought him home to take a nap before lunch. My mother said she fell asleep herself on the chaise in the living room. When she got up to check on him, he was gone and the ransom note was left on the bed.”
“No one else was home?”
“My father was in his office. Nora had gone out to pick up groceries.”
Sabine shook her head and focused her gaze on the miles of ocean between her and her baby. “How can someone just walk into a multimillion-dollar apartment building and walk out with our son? Did no one see him? Not even the doorman? Surely there are cameras everywhere.”
“Whoever it was didn’t go through the front door. They probably went in through the parking garage. There are camera
s all over, but it requires a police request for them to pull the surveillance tapes.”
“And?”
“And,” Gavin said with a heavy sigh, “we haven’t called the cops yet. The note threatened Jared’s safety if we involved the police. I want to wait and take the kidnapper’s call tonight. Then we might have a better idea of who we’re working with here. At that point, we might get the NYPD to come in.”
Sabine wasn’t sure if she liked this plan or not. This was her first involvement with a kidnapping outside episodes of Law & Order, but calling the cops always seemed to be step number one in those situations. But perhaps Gavin had more insight into this than he was sharing. “You said ‘a better idea of who we’re working with.’ Do you know who might be involved in this?”
Gavin shrugged, the dismissive gesture making her angrier than she already was. “It might not be anyone I know. With this kind of thing, it could just be some random creep out to make a quick buck in ransom money. You were right to say that claiming my son made him a target. It did. I hadn’t really considered that until now.
“But I can’t help but think this is someone I know. Jared isn’t common knowledge yet. I can’t be certain, but I’ve got a pretty short suspect list. Despite what you might think, I don’t go around ruining my competitors and giving them reason to hate me.”
“Who, out of those people, would despise you enough to kidnap your son?”
“Three, tops. And that’s a stretch.”
“And how many,” Sabine asked with a tremble in her voice, “would be willing to kill your son for revenge?”
Gavin turned and looked at her, the blood draining from behind his newly tanned skin. “No one,” he said, although not with enough confidence to make her feel better. “No one.”
Eleven
Truthfully, Gavin only had one suspect on his list. As the time drew close for the call from the kidnappers, he was fairly certain who would be on the other end.
They had arrived safely at the airport and made their way to his parents’ apartment as quickly as they could. His parents looked nearly ill when they walked in. His father’s larger-than-life confidence had crumbled. His mother looked paper-thin and fragile. This had shaken them and it was no wonder. Their home, the one they’d shared for over thirty years, had been tainted by someone bold enough to stroll inside and walk out with the most precious treasure in their possession.
Sabine and his mother hugged fiercely and then went to sit together on the couch. His father paced in the corner, staring out the window at the city that had somehow betrayed him. Nora brought a tray with hot tea and nibbles that no one could stomach touching. Gavin just sat and waited for the call.
When the phone finally rang, Gavin’s heart leaped into his throat. He answered on the second ring, gesturing for silence in the room. They had not called the police, but if the four nervous adults swarming him weren’t quiet, the kidnapper might think the mansion was overrun with investigators and hostage negotiation teams.
“Hello?” he choked out.
“Gavin Brooks,” the man said with an air of confidence that bordered on arrogance. Gavin didn’t recognize the voice, but he hadn’t spoken to his primary suspect. “So glad you could come home from your luxury vacation for our little chat.”
“I want to talk to Jared,” Gavin demanded as forcefully as he could.
Sabine leaped up and sat beside him on the couch. They hadn’t really spoken much since their fight, and things might be irrevocably broken between them, but in this moment, they were united in finding their son and making sure Jared returned home safe and sound. He reached out and took her trembling hand in his. He was just as nervous, just as scared as she was, but he was better at not showing it. Holding her hand and keeping her calm was like an anchor on his own nerves. It kept the butterflies in his stomach from carrying him off into the sky.
“I bet you do. But you’re not in charge here. I am. And you’ve got a couple hoops to jump through before that’s even on the table.”
“How do I know that you really have him?”
“If I don’t...who does? You haven’t misplaced your son, have you?”
“Is he okay?”
“For now. I haven’t harmed a hair on his handsome little head. If you want to keep it that way, you’ll do exactly as I ask and not involve the police. If you call the cops, we’re done negotiating and you’ll never see your little boy again.”
Gavin nervously squeezed Sabine’s hand. She smiled weakly at him, confusing his gesture as one of reassurance. He felt anything but sure. “I’m not calling the police. I want to keep this between you and me. But I have to know. What, exactly, do you want, Paul?”
The man on the other end of the line chuckled bitterly. “Aww, shoot. I was hoping it would take longer for you to figure out who was behind this. How did you guess it was me? I thought you’d be ruining the lives of half a dozen people right now, but you narrowed the field pretty quickly.”
Paul Simpson. He had been right on the money with his original guess. Roger’s irresponsible only son was the heir to Exclusivity Jetliners. At least until his father signed over the company to Gavin on Tuesday. The looming deadline must have pushed Paul too far. He had no choice but to act. That left little question of what his ransom demand would be.
“Only a handful of people knew I was going out of town. Even fewer knew that I had a son. That’s not common knowledge yet.”
Gavin had mentioned the trip to Roger when they spoke on the phone Thursday. He’d mentioned taking Sabine to Bermuda and that his parents would be watching Jared. That’s when Roger had graciously offered the jet. If Paul was listening in on their conversation, all he had to do was wait for the right moment to slip in and steal away their son. He had handed his enemy the ammunition to attack him and didn’t even realize it.
The only plus to this scenario was that Paul was spineless. Or so he seemed. Roger didn’t have much faith in his son. When he snapped, Paul jumped to attention. That said, Gavin wouldn’t have given him the credit to plan a scheme like this, so maybe he was wrong. He wouldn’t push Paul to find out.
“Ahh. Well, mistakes are bound to be made in a scenario like this. Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about any of that because this is going to go smoothly and without issue.”
Somehow, Gavin doubted it. “What do you want, Paul? You still haven’t told me what you’re after with all this, although I have a pretty good guess.”
“It’s simple, really. First, you’re going to call my father. You tell him that you have to back out of the merger deal. Give him whatever excuse you want to. Aside from blackmail, of course. But end it, and now.”
The sinking feeling in his gut ached even more miserably than it had before. His dream of having his own jet fleet was slipping through his fingers. Everything he’d worked for, everything he’d built toward in the past few years would be traded away for his son. Gavin hadn’t been a father for long, but he would do anything to keep Jared safe. If that meant losing Exclusivity Jetliners, that was the price he would pay. But that didn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt.
He should’ve seen this coming. Paul had silenced his complaints about the sale recently. Roger had thought that he had finally convinced his son to see reason, but the truth was that Paul was quietly looking into alternatives to get his way. Going around his father was the best plan. But it wouldn’t solve all of his problems.
“If I don’t buy the company, your father will just sell it to someone else.”
“No!” Paul shouted into the line. “He won’t. If this falls through, he’ll give me the chance to try running the company on my own. Then I can prove to him that I can do it and he won’t sell.”
Gavin wanted to tell Paul he was delusional, but he couldn’t. The moment Jared was safely in his arms, he’d have the NYPD swarming this guy and hauling his ass to Rikers Island for the foreseeable future. He wouldn’t be running a company anytime soon.
“After I call Roger and canc
el the deal, we get our son back?”
“Not exactly,” Paul chuckled. “First, I have to confirm with my father that the merger is out for good. After that, I need a little financial insurance. I expect to see you at the bank bright and early in the morning—and yes, I am watching you. You’ll withdraw a million in small bills and put it into a backpack. I’ll call again in the morning with the rendezvous point.”
“And then we get Jared back.”
“And then,” Paul sighed in dismay, “yes, you get your precious little boy back. But first, phone my father and call off the deal. I’ll be calling him in half an hour, and I expect him to share the disappointing news when I speak to him. You’ll hear from me at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow.”
The line went dead.
Gavin dropped the phone onto the table and flopped back into the cushions of his couch. He was fighting to keep it together, but inside, it felt as if his world was crumbling. His son was in danger. The one person he believed was in his life for good could be permanently snatched away on the whim of a ruthless man. His dreams of owning private jets were about to be crushed. The woman he cared for blamed him for all of it and might never forgive him if something went wrong. She was already one foot out of his life, he could tell.
But nothing he could say or do would guarantee that Jared would be handed over, unharmed. Or that Sabine would ever look at him with love in her eyes again.
She was watching him silently from the seat beside him. He was still clutching her hand, worried if he let go, he’d lose her forever. “Well,” she said at last. “What did you find out?”
“Is Jared okay?” his mother asked.
“Yes, I think so. I know who has orchestrated this and why. I don’t have any reason to believe that he won’t return Jared to us safe and sound as long as I meet his demands.”
She breathed a visible sigh of relief. “Who has him?”
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