Dylan pulled out a few chairs and motioned for them to sit. Serena, who was still a little unsteady, sat down next to Aurore.
At first, Dylan questioned whether or not it was right for Serena to be present when Susan was questioned. If Susan revealed information about any harm that was done to Cash or little Ellie, it would be devastating for all of them, but especially for Serena.
But they all agreed that Susan’s statements could touch on something that Cash might have mentioned to Serena in confidence, and that hearing something again could trigger a memory that would give them a lead to finding her family.
Tammie got up to stand next to him, all the while keeping her eyes glued to Susan, sitting on the other side of the glass.
“What were you doing there?” he heard the interrogating officer’s voice say through the speaker.
“Cleaning,” Susan answered, her hands folded across her chest.
“Don’t get smart with me. We know you have connections with Aztec Corporation and Manuel Turgis. We know you were planted in the Davco home for some reason. What were you after? Did you find what you were looking for?”
“Yeah, clean toilets. I’m a good housekeeper.”
“Things would go a whole lot easier for you if you cooperated with us. Just tell us where Cash and Ellie Montgomery are.”
The officer continued grilling Susan for over four hours. Although she stubbornly held on to whatever information she had, the sag in her shoulders and her slight slouch as she sat in the chair showed that she was getting tired.
She turned directly toward the one-way mirror. Although she couldn’t see them behind the glass and could only see her reflection in the mirror, anyone who’d watched enough episodes of CSI would know she was being watched.
“Look, the baby is safe,” Susan finally said. “She’s being well taken care of.”
“Where’s the baby?” the officer pressed.
She closed her eyes and sighed. “Colombia. And that’s all I’m going to say.”
“With who? Who has her?”
“That’s all I’m going to say!”
Serena could hardly sit still in the seat.
“I’m going to take her out of here,” Aurore said. “This is too much.”
“No,” Serena insisted.
Dylan could sympathize. It was hard enough for him to listen, never mind Serena. “If Susan knows where Cash and the baby are, it’s best we’re here to listen to any details she might give us.”
Dylan turned his attention back to Susan. Tammie had been quiet, taking in everything that was being said.
The officer in the interrogation room stood up. “We can help you, if you let us. If you want protection, we can give you that. But you have to cooperate.”
Her anger renewed, Susan abruptly stood up. The chair she’d been sitting in knocked over with the motion. “Don’t you people get it?” she yelled. “It doesn’t matter what I say or what you do. There is no protection from these people. And I’m as good as dead, just for being here. Forget about Cash Montgomery and the baby. They’re gone!”
In the end, the information the police were able to get from Susan was at least enough for Dylan’s father to do some digging with his own contacts. He’d have to walk a fine line, but he’d do it. On the drive home from the police station, Dylan relayed to his sister what little information they’d gotten regarding key people in Aztec Corporation, in the hopes that she or their father could uncover more clues to Cash’s and Ellie’s whereabouts.
As soon as they got back to the mansion, Dylan pulled the portrait of Eleanor Davco and Serena off the wall and brought it down to the living room.
“The wall looks so empty now,” Serena said, looking at the place where the portrait had hung for years. The days since she’d cleared her body of the drugs she’d been given had been hard, but she was thinking and talking more clearly now. While her depression over Cash and the baby was still evident in her crying bouts, she’d managed to hold herself together during the interrogation for the sake of working toward getting her family back, and had only needed to leave the room for an hour or two to rest.
“Tell me again what Byron did?” Tammie asked, brushing the dust off the top of the picture frame.
“Susan never said why she’d been planted here,” Dylan said. “I’m guessing it was to find the third painting. If I’m right, this portrait is not the original painting that was done on this canvas. The stolen painting was probably given to Byron, but never delivered to its final destination. I think that’s why Turgis put so much pressure on Byron.”
Tammie frowned. “I don’t get it. Why would Byron keep the painting? If Manuel Turgis was so upset about it, why not just give the painting to him?”
“Turgis put a lot of pressure on Byron. Perhaps he’d wanted to leave town after Eleanor became suspicious of his dealings, but Turgis wouldn’t let him. We’ll never know for sure. But Turgis needed Byron to continue his illegal dealings here. Without his help to launder money, his operation would stop.”
“But my father continued working with Turgis,” Serena said. “He gave him money. He wanted me to give him the family fortune.”
“My guess is that whoever the original painting was supposed to go to put pressure on Turgis. I don’t think this was ever about money. It was about power. Byron defied him by wanting to leave the organization. When Turgis refused to give him his freedom, Byron withheld the last painting, and that made Turgis lose face with his customer. He needed to make Byron pay for that. If Byron commissioned the artist to paint over the original painting with the portrait of Eleanor and Serena, this was Byron’s only bargaining chip.”
“It all makes sense,” Aurore said. “He used to look at that painting and cry, saying it was all he had left. But what he meant was that it was all he had left to ensure his family’s safety.”
With the edge of a knife, Dylan pried the canvas away from the frame. “That’s right. As long as Byron had the painting, they were assured some element of safety.”
Aurore held the other side of the portrait. “The artist who painted this portrait died in a car accident not long after the painting was finished. There was no way at that point to find out information regarding the painting that Turgis was looking for. Byron had commissioned so many portraits from this artist that Turgis didn’t know which painting was the portrait he was looking for. Only Byron knew.”
As Dylan inspected the paint on the borders of the canvas, he said, “Byron was a smart man. Turgis would have killed the entire family from the start if he’d been able to get his hands on that painting.”
Tammie took a soft cloth and brushed dust off the front of the painting as she stared at the images. “Then why all those years of extorting money?”
“To ruin Byron,” Aurore said. “When the statute of limitations was up on the art theft, Turgis was under bigger pressure from his buyer to get the painting back. Susan must have been planted here to find it. Only she never figured out it was right under her nose the whole time. None of us did. Only Byron knew. And, of course, he must have known that if Serena had given back the painting, she was as good as dead, too. So he left that part out of his letter, hoping the family fortune would be enough to satisfy Turgis.”
“And it may well be,” Dylan said. “The painting was stolen a long time ago. Who knows if the original buyer is even still alive?”
He used the knife to pick at the paint on the border and then peeled a small piece back.
“What do you think?” Tammie asked.
“I can’t tell for sure, but it looks as if this canvas was reused. Only a professional will be able to remove the paint and see what’s underneath.”
“So what do we do now?” Serena asked. “How can we use this to get Cash and Ellie back?”
Dylan dropped the knife onto the coffee table and propped the painting up against the wall. “We do what Byron was too afraid to do. We go after Turgis and dangle the painting right in front of his face.”
>
Serena gasped. “But they’ll kill Cash and Ellie!”
“We have to be realistic” he said delicately. “Susan said the baby was being taken care of. But Cash might already be dead.”
Silence filled the room.
Tammie came up beside him and touched his arm. He wanted to take comfort from her, but they had to move beyond what might be to what they actually knew, to be of any good to Cash and Ellie.
Dylan cleared his throat. “The fact remains, we know where to start. If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to find Cash and Ellie. I’m going after them. If Ellie is in Colombia, then that is where Cash went. I’m sure of it.”
“Then I’m going, too,” Tammie said resolutely.
He shook his head. “No, you’re staying here. I know you all want to help with this but we have to be careful. It’s much too dangerous to have all of us showing our faces on their territory.”
“I can’t just sit here and do nothing. This is my family, too. I want to do something,” Tammie insisted.
“I know you do. And you will. We just have to be careful. But don’t you worry, I have a plan. None of us are going to sit back while Cash and Ellie are left in the hands of those gangsters. I’m going after them and I’m going to make sure they don’t hurt anyone in this family again.”
“You mean, we’re going after them,” Tammie said.
He drew her into his arms and kissed her soundly on the lips. “I do like the sound of that.”
All of them vowed there’d be no more secrets between them.
And later that evening, Dylan sat in the same chair he always sat in, by the window overlooking the garden in the backyard. Tammie found him there, looking intently out into the woods.
“You were right, Dylan.”
He turned to her. “About what?”
She shrugged. “It’s a done deal for me, too. I love you.”
He smiled wide and opened his arms to her. She climbed into his lap as she had the other night, and was enveloped by his warm embrace. She was safe and secure. And she was in love. “I love you, too, Tammie.”
He kissed her lightly on the lips and stroked her hair back from her face gently with his fingers. She wanted so much more. But there was time for that when they were ready.
“Do you think we’ll really find them?” Tammie asked.
He kissed her head and answered honestly. “I don’t know. But I’m so thankful that I found you.”
She closed her eyes and thought about how good that was to hear. And for the first time in a long time, Tammie finally felt that she was home.
#
The story continues with DESPERATE HOURS, Sonny and Gil’s story as they escape with Ellie from Colombia.. Order your copy here: http://amzn.to/2cMNz5w
Dear Reader:
I hope you enjoyed Reckless Hours, book 3 of the Heroes of Providence series. I have loved writing this series and getting to know these sexy heroes! If you enjoyed the story, please leave a review at your online retailer to let other readers know and tell a friend about the series. Readers are always looking for a new series to read.
Next up is DESPERATE HOURS, book 4 of the Heroes of Providence series. Dylan’s kid sister, Sonny travels to Colombia to rescue the niece she’s never met only to be stopped by a determined bounty hunter who has a heart she can’t resist. I’ve included an excerpt of DESPERATE HOURS in the back of this ebook.
I am still writing Cash’s rescue, but oh, I’m so excited about that one too! FINAL HOURS will be released later in the year, followed by the conclusion of the Heroes of Providence series COLD HARBOR, which will rap up the series. Of course, I’ve said that before. When I wrote DAKOTA HEARTS, it was only supposed to be 5 books and it ended up being 10 because I just loved those sexy McKinnon men! But for right now, Heroes of Providence will only be a total of 6 books.
If you don’t want to miss a single release, make sure you sign up for my new release newsletter at http://eepurl.com/xhxO5 and follow me on BookBub for new releases and sales https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lisa-mondello.
All my best,
Lisa Mondello
Ebooks by Lisa Mondello
HEROES OF PROVIDENCE
Material Witness
Safe Haven
Reckless Hours
Desperate Hours
Final Hours
Cold Harbor
DAKOTA HEARTS
Her Dakota Man book 1 of Dakota Hearts
Badland Bride book 2 of Dakota Hearts
Dakota Heat book 3 of Dakota Hearts
Wild Dakota Heart book 4 of Dakota Hearts
His Dakota Bride book 5 of Dakota Hearts
Dakota Wedding book 6 of Dakota Hearts
His Dakota Heart book 7 of Dakota Hearts
Dakota Cowboy book 8 of Dakota Hearts
One Dakota Night book 9 of Dakota Hearts
Dakota Homecoming book 10 of Dakota Hearts
TEXAS HEARTS
Her Heart for the Asking - book 1 Texas Hearts
His Heart for the Trusting - book 2 Texas Hearts
The More I See - book 3 Texas Hearts
Gypsy Hearts - book 4 Texas Hearts
Leaving Liberty – book 5 Texas Hearts
His Texas Heart - book 6 Texas Hearts
The Wedding Dress - book 7 Texas Hearts
Texas Hearts Box Set (Books 1-3)
FATE WITH A HELPING HAND
All I Want for Christmas is You - book 1
The Marriage Contract – book 2
The Knight and Maggie’s Baby – book 3
My Lucky Charm - book 4
Tempting Fate Box Set (books 1-3)
SUMMER HOUSE
Moment in Time book 1 Summer House Series
Moment of Impact book 2 Summer House Series
Moment of Truth book 3 Summer House Series
Moment of Trust book 4 Summer House Series
RODEO KNIGHTS
Her Knight, Her Protector
Nothing But Trouble (Contemporary Western Romance)
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DESPERATE HOURS by Lisa Mondello
book 4 of Heroes of Providence Series
Bounty hunter, Gil Waite is after Sonny's brother. All he cares about is "finding his fugitive" and collecting his money. But Sonny Montgomery is after so much more. Her precious baby niece, Ellie, who was kidnapped by a Colombian drug lord. She won't betray her family by falling in love with the one man who has the power to destroy her family. But she needs to escape Colombia and has no choice but to trust Gil, a man whose rugged exterior hides the heart of a hero she can't resist.
Excerpt:
The man put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. Sonny tried to cover Ellie’s ears, but the baby was flailing as she cried.
“I don’t think anyone is going to appreciate your breaking their eardrums.”
“It’s hot and we’re sitting ducks here,” he said. “It’s time to go.”
A car rolled to a stop in front of them. The man stepped off the curb and opened the back door, gestur¬ing for her to get inside.
“This is our ride. Get in.”
She shot him a disbelieving look. “Are you out of your mind? What makes you think I’m going to get into a car with you before I even know who you are?” Sonny asked, knowing full well that she had no other option.
“Gillespie Waite. You can call me Gil.”
“That’s it?”
“I introduced myself.”
“I’m not getting in that car until you tell me what I want to know. People have a bad habit of disappearing in this country and this baby and I are not going to end up on that list.”
He stared at her, considering what she’d said. “You don’t have to be afraid. I’m not
here to hurt you.”
He smiled and for a fraction of a second, he didn’t look as suspicious as he had in the airport.
“And?” she pressed.
“I was hired to find your brother. Cash Montgomery is your brother, isn’t he? He was arrested in Miami on drug trafficking charges and then fled before his hearing.”
“Says you. My family and I know he was framed. Who hired you?”
“His bail bondsman. You can take up the ‘framed’ theory with him and the federal prosecutor when I haul his ass—.” He glanced at the baby. “When I bring him back to Miami.”
“What’s the bail bondsman’s name?” Sonny couldn’t remember the name offhand but she was sure she’d rec¬ognize it if he told her. She wanted to know if Gil really knew it or if he was just giving her a line to shut her up.
“Does it matter?”
‘To me it does. You’ve just ruined my chance of getting this baby out of Colombia safely.”
“You said that before.” He leaned forward and whis¬pered in her ear, “I wouldn’t go yelling that too loudly. Especially since something tells me you’re not exactly running on the right side of the law right now.”
She stifled her defeated sigh. “The name?”
‘Telling you the name of the bondsman isn’t going to change the fact that you and the kid need to get into the car before we draw any more attention to ourselves than we already have. As I’ve told you, these guards are trigger-happy. We may have fooled them inside the airport, but we won’t get lucky like that twice.”
“You call me missing my plane lucky?”
He continued, his voice booming over hers. “All they need is just a hint of a reason to put some pressure on that trigger and let those bullets spray. It doesn’t even need to be a good reason. And they don’t care how much of a mess they make. Get my drift? ’Cause they’re not going to do the cleaning up.”
She did know. She knew what kind of people her family was dealing with. It pained her to think that Cash had fallen into the hands of men who were so willing to do him harm, the likes of which had already been done to Lucia.
Gil held the door to the backseat open. Sonny fixed her eyes on him, taking in the hard look of challenge on his face. She was up to that challenge, but how could she drag Ellie into it? If she screamed, the authorities would come running and she had no doubt it would end in bloodshed, just like Gil said. Every instinct she had told her it was a bad idea to go with this man. Isn’t that what self-defense classes taught women? You’re as good as dead if you get into the car?
Reckless Hours: a Romantic Suspense novel (Heroes of Providence Book 3) Page 22