She picked up her phone to call Zeke, only to have it ring before she could. She hit the answer button. “Hello?”
She was met with silence for a moment before a whispered voice spoke. “I was at the party the other night. I saw what happened.”
“Who is this?”
“My name isn’t important. I know you’ve been looking for answers about the man Lisa argued with. I saw everything. I can give you the answers you’re looking for.”
Her heart leaped into her throat. “You saw the man Lisa argued with? What was his name?”
“I can’t talk about it over the phone. Meet me in the Café Brew Coffee Shop now. No cops. I’ll answer all your questions, but if I see a cop, I’m leaving.”
Her pulse pounded as the line went dead. Was this finally the break she needed? Was she about to discover who killed Lisa? Who Brady’s father was? And who was responsible for the attacks against her? She should call Detective Shaw and let him know about this meeting, but the caller had said not to involve the police. She grabbed her cell phone and shot off a text to Zeke with the information the caller had given her. He texted back right away that he was on his way and not to go without her. But he was more than twenty minutes away. She couldn’t risk the caller leaving if she didn’t get there quickly. And what would he do when he saw Zeke? He wasn’t wearing his deputy’s uniform, but he had cop written all over him. Hopefully, his presence wouldn’t scare off this lead.
She waited as long as she could and then reached for her purse, put her phone on voice mail and walked out. She couldn’t wait for Zeke any longer. Hopefully, he’d show up on time, but she couldn’t risk this lead walking out if he didn’t.
I’m going to find out who killed you, Lisa.
She raced down the hallway to the elevator and saw it was out of order. She pushed open the stairway door. It was faster to take the stairs anyway. Her office was on the sixth floor, so going down the stairs would be the easy part. Coming back up would be more difficult, but she wasn’t planning on returning, at least not today. She still needed to try to find a relative of Lisa’s, but this day had already drained her.
A figure moved above her, and she spotted someone hurrying from the floor above. She half turned just as he came up behind her and shoved her hard, sending her tumbling down the stairs. She reached for something to stop her fall, but her hands found nothing.
She hit the first concrete step, and pain ripped through her arm as she landed on it and then kept tumbling, slamming into each step as she fell. Pain stole her breath. She reached for the railing but wasn’t able to grab hold. She knew she was screaming, but all she could hear was the slamming of the hard surface against her skin and a ringing in her ears as she hit the bottom step. Her head was spinning, but she saw a figure approaching and knew he wasn’t there to help. She tried to move but could do nothing but cry out.
Suddenly, the door to the stairwell entrance slammed open and a figure turned and darted up the stairs. Someone knelt beside her and called her name.
Zeke!
Relief filled her even though his expression was full of concern. He hovered over her, his lips moving, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying as the darkness pulled her under.
* * *
She was a mess, but she was fortunate no bones had been broken. She’d fallen hard down a flight of stairs. He’d gotten to her offices as fast as he could but had been surprised to find her lying hurt on the stairwell floor. The image of a man standing over her was burned into his memory. He’d had the choice of checking on her or running after him. He’d chosen Kellyanne.
The paramedics were insisting she go to the hospital, but she was awake now, alert and refusing to go. She’d only lost consciousness for a few minutes, but they had been the most gut-wrenching minutes of his life.
“Kellyanne, please go to the hospital. You need to get checked out.”
“I’m fine,” she insisted, but she didn’t seem fine when she gasped in pain as an EMT placed an ice pack on her face. More bruises. She was beginning to look like she’d gone three rounds with a boxer, and he didn’t like it one bit. “Besides, I can’t leave Brady.”
“Brady is fine. I’ll go pick him up myself if I need to.”
Her eyes widened suddenly. “The caller. The man at the café. Zeke, did you go there? Did you meet with him?”
“No, I came right here to pick you up. You were supposed to be waiting for me.”
She fisted her hands. “He must think I didn’t want to meet him.”
“Or he used that call to lure you out and tried to push you down the stairs. Did you ever think of that? There might not be anyone with information. It might have all been a trap.”
“But if it wasn’t, I just lost my chance to find out the name of the man who killed Lisa.”
He rubbed his face. She was always so stubborn. “How did he know how to reach you, Kelly? How did he know you were looking for answers?”
She pondered that question for a moment. “I told Casey Morgan that I worked for DFCS. I gave her one of my cards with my number on it and told her I was looking for the man Lisa argued with at the party. Maybe she spread the word. She made me believe she wouldn’t, but she must have given the caller my information.”
“I’ll call the café. Maybe someone left a note. Or we’ll see if Shaw can get the security tapes. We can figure out if someone was even there and try to track him down. The important thing is you’re safe.” He squeezed her hand because it seemed to be the only part of her body that wasn’t injured. He couldn’t resist her pleas to check on the man at the café, even though he was certain it had been a trap to lure her out. If it would make her feel better, he would check the café out, but he insisted she allow the paramedics to finish with her first. While they were waiting, Detective Shaw showed up, questioning what had happened.
“I heard your name over the radio and came by. Are you all right?”
She looked up at him. “I will be.” She went through the events and Detective Shaw took notes.
“The man who pushed you. Did you recognize him? Was it the same man from the day care?”
Zeke answered that question. “It wasn’t the man from the day care surveillance. He was wearing a hood, but it came off while he was running away. The man who pushed Kellyanne down the stairwell had blond hair. The guy from the surveillance had dark hair and looked older.”
“This wasn’t the man from the grocery store either, or the one I saw Lisa arguing with at the party. I didn’t get a good look at the man who shot at me, but I don’t think it was him.”
“That means we’re looking for more than one person. Whoever is behind your friend’s murder has people working for him.”
Kellyanne stared at him, her eyes wide with fright. “Lisa did say in her message that he was powerful.”
“I don’t care how powerful he thinks he is. He won’t get away with this. I’ll talk to security in the building to find out if they have any footage of this man. I’ll also take care of calling the coffee shop.”
“Thank you,” Zeke said, shaking the man’s hand.
Kellyanne’s cell phone rang, and she dug through her purse for it. He was amazed that thing had survived this attack without being smashed to bits. She scrunched her face as she checked the caller ID. “It’s Brady’s day care.”
Zeke was surprised they would be calling. “But you didn’t take him there today.”
“I didn’t. I asked Mrs. Reynolds across the hall to watch him.” She answered the call, and he heard a frantic voice respond.
He grabbed the phone and put it on speaker. “What happened?”
The voice that responded was choked and crying. “That man. He came back demanding for us to let him have Brady. I told him Brady wasn’t here and tried to give him your number.”
His gut clenched, and he sensed something bad was coming
.
“He pulled a gun. He demanded to know where you lived, but I don’t have your address.”
“What did you tell him, Alice?” Kellyanne asked, her face full of fear.
She sobbed. “I’m so sorry, Kellyanne, but he threatened the kids.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I didn’t have your address, but I told him you live next door to Lisa.”
Her eyes grew wide, and she stared up at him. “He’s going after Brady.”
* * *
Kellyanne pushed the paramedic away. “I have to get to him.”
“We’ll take my car,” Detective Shaw stated, and she and Zeke followed him to his police cruiser. He used his radio to call to see if another cruiser was closer, but they were only minutes away.
They climbed inside and headed toward her apartment building. Worry riddled through her. Had he found her apartment? Had he taken Brady? She pulled out her phone to call Mrs. Reynolds to warn her that someone might be on their way to try to snatch Brady. The call went right to voice mail. That couldn’t be good.
“What was the point of this?” Detective Shaw asked. “Were they trying to keep Kellyanne busy while they snatched the baby? Or did they target her to tie up loose ends?”
Zeke shook his head, but she saw worry on his face, as well. “I don’t know, but Brady is obviously in danger.”
She bit her lip to keep from crying out.
It only made sense that this was the doings of the mysterious father, the man Lisa had confronted at the fundraiser. Who was he? And what would he do with Brady if he got his hands on him?
They reached the apartment and rushed up the stairs. Zeke drew his gun and pulled her aside as he and Detective Shaw went up first. Mrs. Reynolds’s door was standing open. She motioned to Zeke, who nodded that he saw it too. Suddenly, Kellyanne remembered Alice had told the intruder she lived next door to Lisa. Next door. Not across the hall.
Zeke pushed open Mrs. Reynolds’s door and glanced inside. Detective Shaw followed him. As the men moved through the apartment, Kellyanne spotted Mrs. Reynolds sprawled across the kitchen floor.
“Whoever was here is gone,” Shaw stated as he and Zeke returned and holstered their weapons.
Kellyanne hurried to Mrs. Reynolds. She was bleeding from a nasty gash to the head and was unconscious but alive.
“Brady.” She hurried into the spare room where Mrs. Reynolds had a crib set up for the kids she periodically watched. Kellyanne burst into the room.
The bed was empty.
Brady was gone.
She screamed and fell apart. Zeke hurried behind her and held her up as tears flooded her. They’d taken him. They’d taken Brady.
She should have known she wasn’t up for this. She wasn’t mother material.
“We’ll find him,” Zeke promised. He held her shoulders, forcing her to face him. “We will find him. They won’t get away with this.”
But they had gotten away with it. They’d killed Lisa and taken her son. And she still had no idea where Lisa’s mysterious flash drive was hidden. There was no proof of the affair.
Shaw appeared at the door. “The lady’s waking up.” He rushed back to the kitchen, and Zeke followed him. Kellyanne remained by the door to the spare room. Her legs wouldn’t work. She couldn’t move. Brady was gone and nothing else mattered.
She’d lost another child.
“I’ve called for an ambulance,” Shaw stated. “Ma’am, are you okay? Do you know where you are?”
Mrs. Reynolds sat up, and with a little help from Zeke and Shaw, she made it into a chair. Her eyes were wide with shock, and she grimaced in pain. “A man... He pushed me inside...demanded to know where the baby was.”
And she’d told him. She didn’t want to blame Mrs. Reynolds. She wasn’t in any condition to fend off an intruder, especially one that was armed, but a wave of anger rushed through her.
Kellyanne knew the truth. This was her fault. She’d been the one to leave Brady here unprotected while she went off pursing her answers. What did it matter who had attacked her as long as Brady was safe? It didn’t matter. Not anymore.
“It’s okay,” Zeke said, his voice kind and tender. “You did what you could.”
He pressed a towel from the counter against the gash on her head as she continued to try to form words to explain what had happened. “I had just put Brady down for a nap, but I realized I’d forgotten the diaper bag. He must have seen me with it.”
“You were outside?” Kellyanne asked.
“Just in the breezeway. When I realized I’d forgotten the diaper bag, I wanted to return to my apartment to get it. That’s when he saw me and pushed me back inside.”
Kellyanne’s heart hammered in her chest. She glanced at Zeke, who locked eyes with her. They were both asking the same question. “Mrs. Reynolds, where was Brady when this happened?”
She looked at Kellyanne, and the cloudiness seemed to fade from her eyes. “In your apartment. I knew you would be home soon, so when he started falling asleep, I carried him over there and placed him in his bed. I was going to sit with him until you got home. When the man demanded to know where he was, I told him he was gone, that you’d picked him up and left.”
Kellyanne bolted from the apartment and across the hall. Alice had said she’d told the man Kelly lived next door to Lisa, not across the hall, so he must have thought Mrs. Reynolds’s was the right place, especially once he saw the bag with Brady’s name written on it and the crib in the spare room.
She threw open her front door and rushed inside, stopping when she spotted the tiny figure in the portable crib sleeping soundly, his gentle snoring tugging at her heartstrings. He’d had no clue what had taken place. She turned and fell right into Zeke’s embrace as so much emotion struck her—relief, gratitude, love. She bent down and picked Brady up, and he fussed at being woken, but she didn’t care. She needed to hold him in her arms to prove he was okay. He hadn’t been taken. He was safe because of Mrs. Reynolds’s quick thinking.
Zeke pulled them both into a hug, but one thing was certain. Both Kellyanne and Brady had been targeted today.
* * *
“Kelly, I hope this incident has convinced you that you need to take measures. You need to leave town, come back to Courtland with me,” Zeke said.
Detective Shaw had made his report and processed the scene, and Mrs. Reynolds had been taken to the hospital for overnight observation. She’d given a good sketch of the man who’d attacked her, and with both her testimony and the daycare workers’, the police would hopefully be able to identify and capture this man soon. Detective Shaw had confided to Zeke that the name the man had given at the day care was most likely an alias and that they hadn’t yet been able to locate him or confirm his identity. Until they did, Kellyanne and Brady were still in his sights...and Kellyanne still had no idea where the flash drive they were after was hidden.
Zeke had to convince her to return with him.
She started to object, but he didn’t let her finish.
“If not for you, then think about Brady. I don’t know if they want him because he’s proof of an affair, or if they just want to use him to force us to turn over the evidence we don’t have. You have to keep him safe. After today, it’s obvious that someone is targeting him. We can protect him better in Courtland than here. We’ll have your family and your brothers and the entire sheriff’s office on his side.”
She turned and bit her lip. She was so against returning that it made him think she was going to be stubborn, but she needed to do this. She needed to get out of Austin. Returning to Courtland made the most sense. He’d seen the way she’d wilted when she’d thought she’d lost Brady. He never wanted to see her like that again. He would protect both of them no matter what.
“Listen to me. I know this is something you don’t want to do, although I confess that I do
n’t understand why. But we have to protect Brady. And I have to protect you. We have to think about him now, put his safety before your own needs and desires.”
She turned to look at him, and guilt flooded her expression. Finally, she nodded. “You’re right. I have to think about his safety first.” She glanced at Brady and then back at Zeke. “I’ll go pack.”
He breathed a sigh of relief once she disappeared into the bedroom to pack her suitcase.
Finally. Now maybe he would be able to keep her safe.
FOUR
Kellyanne watched as the familiar landscape passed by. They’d left for Courtland right away. Brady was in the car seat in the back of her rental car while Zeke drove. As much as she enjoyed being with Zeke, returning to Courtland was the last thing she’d wanted. She missed her family and had lots of good memories of growing up in Courtland and the Silver Star Ranch, but those memories were often overshadowed by her family’s incessant prying into her life. They couldn’t seem to accept that she was a grown woman with her own life, even now that she lived hundreds of miles away. She needed the distance from them to keep her sanity, yet here she was, jumping right from the frying pan into the fire by asking for their help.
Zeke had been right to convince her to come. She had Brady to think of now, which meant she had to put aside her own wants. She was a mother now, at least for the time being. She had to put his needs and safety first. If she’d done that before with her baby, Zeke would be a father. She glanced over at him smiling and drumming his finger to a song on the radio, oblivious to the fact that he’d fathered a child he knew nothing about. Despite her previous desire to tell him, she couldn’t do it now. She and Brady needed him.
She spotted the turnoff approaching that would take them to Silver Star, and she braced herself to face her family, but Zeke bypassed the turn and continued straight.
“Josh asked us to come by the sheriff’s office before the ranch,” he told her when she started to ask.
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