by B. J Daniels
He’d been seen. Shaken, he watched Ed Urdahl through the crack between the door and jamb. When he’d told Cassidy that Ed was looking for both of them, he’d been hoping it wasn’t true. But it was.
Had his father known already when Jack had called him? Had Tom Durand made up the story about being on his way to Catalina? Maybe the sound he’d heard in the background was his father’s private jet engine.
Which meant his father could be back in Houston. In fact, he could be looking for Jack at this moment. Apparently, there were already men out at the ranch waiting for him to return. There was no place safe. He and Cassidy were truly on their own.
“Okay, I’ll handle it,” Ed was saying into the phone. “I’ll let you know when I find them. I said I would find them. When I do, I’ll call and then you can tell me what you want me to do with them.” Ed held the phone away from his ear, but Jack could hear his father yelling, although he couldn’t make out the words.
What did his father plan to do with them? He still didn’t know why he had wanted to abduct Cassidy. What had he planned for Ed to do with her? And now the big question, what had his father just told Ed to do about him?
“Yes, I heard you. I’ll take care of it.” Ed finished the call without another word and pocketed his phone. He stood for a moment as if trying to remember what he’d been about to do before the call.
Jack didn’t dare breathe. Behind him he felt Cassidy’s hand rest on his back as if like him, she feared that the man would head for the closet next. He thought about pulling out the gun, but he feared he would give away their position. It was tight enough in the closet, especially with him holding the metal container.
Not only that, when Ed had reached to put his phone away, Jack had seen the gun in the man’s shoulder holster. Cassidy had, too, because he’d heard her startled intake of breath behind him.
Ed stood for a moment looking down at the desk before he walked around it and out of the office. Jack listened to his retreating footfalls, still holding his breath. If Ed suspected that Jack was hiding in the building, he would wait and catch him when he came out.
The sound of the old freight elevator clanked and groaned as if rattling the entire building as it descended. After a while, the night fell silent.
“Jack?” Cassidy whispered.
He shook his head, turning only slightly to motion for her to wait.
She nodded, but her blue eyes were huge and she still had her hand pressed to his back. He could feel her trembling. He was shaking just as wildly inside. What the hell was going on with his father?
Jack didn’t know how long they stood there. His mind was like a hamster on a wheel. What was his father involved in? Whatever it was, Jack and Cassidy were now up to their necks in it.
The building sounded as quiet as a tomb when he finally pushed the closet door open a little wider and looked out. Ed had left the office door open, but he’d turned out the light as he’d left. The hallway was empty.
Cautiously, he stepped out, motioning for Cassidy to stay where she was. If he got caught, he didn’t want her caught as well. He moved to the doorway and looked out. Nothing moved in the dim light of the hallway. No sound came up from the floors below.
Ed had taken the elevator. That meant he hadn’t expected anyone to be in the building, otherwise he would have sneaked in as they had. Jack felt a little better at that thought, which meant there was a good chance Ed wasn’t waiting outside for them. Jack had parked the truck away from the building and on a side street. Ed would have taken the main street to the office, so he wouldn’t have seen it.
At least that was Jack’s hope as he motioned that it was okay for Cassidy to come out now. He stepped close to her to whisper, “I think he’s gone, but we aren’t going to take any chances.” He held his finger to his lips and she nodded jerkily.
He could tell that she was scared. It had been a close call. Also, he was pretty sure that she’d heard what Ed had said. The big man was still looking for her. But now he was also looking for the boss of T.D. Enterprises’ son—Jack Durand.
From Cassidy’s expression, she hadn’t put that part together. At least not yet. He hoped she thought that the boss’s son was one of the men in the van.
“He had a gun and he knows we have the box,” Cassidy whispered, eyes big and round with fear. “What do you think is in it?”
He had no idea as he glanced at the battered and tarnished metal still tucked under his arm. It was a Pandora’s box. He feared what would come springing out the moment he opened it.
She still looked scared, but he was terrified of what his father had hidden inside an old locked metal container he’d kept for years inside a locked drawer. “Let’s get out of here.” Shifting the metal box to his hands, he heard that faint metallic rattle again from within.
Cassidy must have heard it as well. “Maybe we shouldn’t take it.”
Did he really believe the answer to why his father would have the probable future president’s daughter kidnapped was inside this box? But he now knew that his father had secrets—and some of them were apparently in this beat-up metal box.
Jack needed to know what he was dealing with—who he was dealing with.
CHAPTER SIX
“HOW IS SHE?”
“Sarah’s shocked and confused right now,” Dr. Ralph Venable said into the phone. “It’s to be expected.” He’d been regretting making this call, fearing the outcome, ever since he’d left Sarah. Buck would be home by now. At this point, Doc could only hope that she didn’t confess everything. “She’s having a tough time.”
Joe Landon sighed. “You know I never stopped loving her. When she went out to Montana to meet Buckmaster Hamilton and get close to his father, Senator JD Hamilton, I almost went after her, wanting to stop her. I was ready to run away with her and put The Prophecy behind us.”
He thought of the young Joe and Sarah as they had been at nineteen. Such a beautiful couple. Joe had brought Sarah into the anarchist group with his handsome face and his passion, as well as his radical ideas.
“Why didn’t you go after her?” Venable asked, thinking how different things would have been if Joe had.
“Because she didn’t love me enough. She wouldn’t have renounced The Prophecy for me.” Venable heard the sharp edge of bitterness in the man’s voice.
“You don’t know that.”
Joe laughed. “Actually, I do. The night before she left, I told her I was in love with her. It didn’t make a damned bit of difference. She was determined to start a revolution and that meant going after the Hamilton who everyone thought would be the next president. And yet, years later, she tries to kill herself rather than go through with her own plan all because she’s fallen in love. She had what she wanted so to hell with the rest of us.”
Venable said nothing. There was nothing to say since it was true. Sarah had fallen for Buck and adored the children they’d had together. She had wanted to wash her hands of The Prophecy and had refused to go through with the plan.
There’d been only one thing to do after she’d failed at suicide and called him. He had wiped away the years with Buck and her children and taken her to Brazil to keep Joe from killing her.
“So,” Joe said now. “Are you going to be able to control her like you said you could?”
“So far she has done exactly what you require. She’s gotten close to Senator Buckmaster Hamilton again, encouraging him in his race for president.”
“She was briefly engaged to some cowboy named Russell Murdock,” Joe said angrily. “That wasn’t exactly in the plan.”
“But we took care of that when we exterminated the senator’s wife, Angelina. Just as I predicted, Sarah broke her engagement and moved onto the ranch.”
“I want them married,” Joe said through gritted teeth.
“You a
lso want him to win the election or all of this would be for nothing,” Venable pointed out. “You got me back to handle this, so let me.”
“Even if you can get the two of them married and Hamilton wins, I’m not convinced that you can make Sarah do what we need when the time comes. If she no longer believes in our cause...”
That was putting it mildly, Venable thought as he rubbed the gray stubble at his chin. There were days he felt just as she did. Like Sarah, he’d been on fire with fanaticism all those years ago. He’d believed that a handful of people could change the world. That they owed it to themselves and the world to make that change. He’d been full of confidence and brazen disregard for everything and everyone but the members of The Prophecy, the group he’d started since he was the oldest of them.
It was Joe, though, who not only adopted his radical views, but also pushed the others to do what they had to in order to get the attention they deserved.
When one of their bombs had killed innocent people and Mason Green and Wallace McGill had gone to prison, Venable had wanted to stop. This wasn’t what he envisioned.
It had been Sarah who had insisted they couldn’t quit. They owed it to Mason and Wally. They owed it to the lives they’d taken. They owed it to their country to try to change the things that were wrong with it but to do it peacefully.
That’s when she’d come up with the plan to make a real difference from the inside. Joe had been against it, but he’d gone along thinking Sarah would come back to him.
“From my source inside Hamilton’s campaign, I understand that Buckmaster is also having doubts,” Joe said. “We can’t let him do what his father did. He can’t pull out of the race.”
Venable thought of JD Hamilton. Sarah had done her part beautifully. No one could have predicted that JD would fall in love with some young girl and be willing to give it all up. Love, he thought with a curse.
“There are always variables that have to be considered. We can’t control everyone,” the doctor said.
“But we can control Sarah. That’s why I’ve taken things into my own hands to make sure she holds up her end of the bargain,” Joe said.
Fear wedged against his heart. Joe, bitter over how things had turned out with Sarah, had become a hothead who acted before he thought things out. “What have you done?”
“Taken necessary steps to see that Sarah doesn’t weaken. Otherwise, she is going to lose one of her daughters.”
“You kill one of the daughters and I can promise you Buckmaster will pull out of the race,” Venable said, furious with Joe. While the doctor had started The Prophecy, Joe, who was younger, stronger, more charismatic, had taken over. Joe hadn’t had the brains, but once he hooked up with Sarah, the two of them were a team and Venable had lost the anarchist group he’d founded—and any power he’d had. He had never been more aware of that than he was right now.
It made him question what he was still doing with them. He was an old man. He’d given his life to his research and The Prophecy. “You could destroy everything with this...maneuver,” he said, unable to hide his anger.
“No one said anything about killing her,” Joe assured him. “Unless it becomes necessary. Same with Sarah. You already protected her once. I suggest you not do that again.”
Venable swore. After Sarah had tried to kill herself all those years ago, and failing, had called him, he’d saved her by taking her to Brazil. Unfortunately, Joe had found out where they were and insisted Sarah be returned to Montana because Buck was talking about running for president.
He’d had no choice but to go along with it. Joe had made it clear that he would kill them both.
Now, though, he feared Joe was going to land them all in prison. “Joe, you can’t—”
“Don’t worry about it, Doc. You just do your part.”
He heard what Joe didn’t add. “Do your part—or else.” He hated the fear that crowded his lungs and made breathing next to impossible. He wasn’t sure how many days he had left.
But he knew one thing for sure. He didn’t want to die at Joe’s hands. If he couldn’t control Sarah, he knew Joe would. For her sake as well as his own, he had to get through to her. If he didn’t, her former lover would.
* * *
CASSIDY FLOPPED INTO the passenger seat of the pickup and closed her eyes. They’d run the last block in the darkness, the only sound the pounding of their soles on the pavement.
Now she tried to catch her breath. Her heart hurt it was thumping so hard. This was too real. She’d seen the man’s gun. She’d heard him on the phone. Jack was right. Nothing was going to stop them.
She opened her eyes and looked over at Jack as he started the engine and pulled away from the curb. “What do they want with me?”
“I would imagine money. But with your father apparently a shoo-in for the presidency...” He glanced over at her as he took a turn, then another through the empty industrial area.
There weren’t any other vehicles on the dark streets, making it seem even more sinister. Cassidy realized she was shaking. Nothing like this had ever happened—nothing even close. Maybe she should call her father. Or even the police.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the glint of the metal box Jack had found in the locked drawer. “You think the answer is in there?”
He shrugged as he took another turn. His gaze kept going to the rearview mirror.
“We aren’t being followed, are we?” she asked, hating the way her voice broke as she twisted in the seat to look back. The street was black behind them. No lights of another vehicle. “Did you see someone?”
“No, just not taking any chances,” Jack said, anxiety in his voice.
Once they’d left the industrial area behind and reached a busy four-lane road with other cars and lighted buildings, she felt a little safer. But then again, now they wouldn’t know if they were being followed or not.
“I’m thinking I should call my father,” she said.
He shot her a surprised look before he said, “If that would make you feel better.” He seemed to hesitate a moment. “You might want to wait until we look in the box. Right now we don’t have a lot of information to give him.”
Cassidy bit at her lower lip. Jack had a point. “Where are we going?”
* * *
WHERE WERE THEY GOING? Jack would have loved to go out to his ranch, but that was out of the question. Ed had people watching it.
He glanced over at the box he’d placed on the passenger side floor at her feet. It was time to find out exactly what they were up against. He reminded himself that the box might not have anything more in it than petty cash—just as his father had said. Except there’d been that metallic sound inside it.
“Maybe we should open it now,” Cassidy said, reaching for the box at her feet. Jack swung into the parking lot of an all-night diner. He parked in the back where his pickup couldn’t be seen from the street. “I’m hungry. How about you?”
She looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “You want to eat now? If the reason someone is trying to kidnap me is in that box, then I want to open it.”
Jack saw that there was no getting around this. Whatever was in the box, she was going to find out. “Okay. I’ll break the lock and then we’ll take it inside so we can actually see the contents.” He could see that he didn’t have a choice. “I have some tools in the back.”
He popped the trunk and got out. His movements felt as if he’d fallen into a vat of molasses. He found a screwdriver, stood for a moment listening to a rustling in a nearby oak tree. Taking a steadying breath, he closed the trunk. The Texas night air felt heavy with heat and dampness.
As he slid behind the wheel again, Cassidy handed him the metal container, treating it as if she thought it was a bomb that could go off without warning. Jack thought that might not be far from the truth
.
* * *
“CAN’T SLEEP?”
Sheriff Frank Curry turned from a dark corner of the porch as Nettie opened the screen door a little wider. “Just counting stars.”
Nettie knew her husband too well. She came outside to join him, letting the screen door close behind her. “It is a beautiful night all right,” she agreed. The moon was a golden sphere on the horizon. More stars than a man could ever count speckled Montana’s wide and deep navy velvet sky. A light breeze whispered its way out of the Crazy Mountains to rustle the leaves of a nearby cottonwood. The mountains were a violet outline against the sky.
He smiled as she glanced over at him. “Yes, it is.” Frank looked like an old-timey Western sheriff with his gunfighter mustache. His blond hair was graying, the skin around his eyes more wrinkled, but he was still the big strong man she’d fallen in love with in her teens. Now both in their sixties, they’d spent a lot of ridiculous years apart because they’d married the wrong people.
Fortunately, they’d come to their senses and were now together for what was left of their lives.
“So how many stars did you count?” she asked, knowing that wasn’t what he’d been doing out here. Something had been bothering her husband for months now. He’d even talked about retiring. She worried that he would. He loved catching bad guys. Frank wasn’t one to retire.
“I counted a few before I started worrying about things,” he admitted with a laugh.
She could pretty much guess what was bothering him, but waited for him to tell her.
“I happened to see Russell Murdock earlier today.”
Nettie smiled to herself. She loved being right. But then again, while she knew her husband, this mess with Sarah and Russell and Buck had been going on for over a year and worming a hole into Frank.
“I thought he left town,” she said, encouraging him to talk.