Worth Any Price

by Jacqueline DeGroot

  But then he remembered Toby and that there were things she’d had to do that no one would tell him about. And now, he had used a key he wasn’t supposed to have, and walked in on this!

  Quietly, he slid down the wall and went into Toby’s room. He hesitated for just a second before he made his decision. Yes, he definitely wanted to hurt her. He wanted to hurt her as much as she’d hurt him. Taking the son she adored would hurt her. It would kill her. And Rand? Well, she would never forgive him for being there and being the reason she was so distracted that she hadn’t heard someone come into her house and take her son. Again.

  Chapter Forty-three

  Kel couldn’t find Laura and he was frantic. By the time he’d made it to his office, he’d had four messages from her on his voice mail. The first said she’d try his cell number. The second said the cell number had been busy. The third said she was moving out of the beach house that afternoon, and the fourth said she had something very important that she had to show him. He realized that he really needed to get call waiting installed on his cell phone.

  He tried the beach house number, then he tried to reach her at her parents’, but the person who answered was only able to tell him no one was at home. He’d asked about Kayla and had learned that Laura had picked her up at two. He decided on the spot that he was going to get that woman a cell phone whether she wanted one or not!

  He finally had a description and an old photo of Satterfield and it was now being circulated through the media. His car had been found just a few blocks from the house Laura and Kayla had just moved out of. The whole city was on alert as cops were being called in to help canvass the area.

  He was holding onto the palm tree stirrer in his pocket so tightly that he snapped it in two. Where the hell was she? Where would she have gone?

  He called her father’s realty company. No one had seen her all day. He finally tracked down her brother’s number and he said he had no idea where she was, but that she had known there were renters coming to stay at TIDES AWASTIN’ tomorrow, so she must be moving into another place.

  Yeah, he already knew that part! But where? Where the hell was she moving?

  On a hunch he drove to her house on Masonboro Loop. When he saw her car in the circular drive, he slumped and put his head back against the headrest. He closed his eyes tightly and actually fought tears.

  His mind flashed to a memory of Laura eating an ice cream cone with Kayla on the deck and he remembered having a dickens of a time keeping his eyes off of her trim legs showcased by her camper-style shorts. She had been so busy talking to Kayla that she hadn’t noticed her ice cream start to drip down her thumb. She had stuck her pink tongue out and licked it along the length of her hand. He had wanted so desperately to feel that tongue on him. Anywhere, but mostly . . . . He saw her when she’d been sitting on the sofa across from him sipping wine while he had talked about his mother. He saw her as she’d looked in the pool, her hair slicked back from her face as she’d looked up at the stars. He saw her holding Kayla and crying with her about her nightmare. He saw her face just before he’d entered her in the sleazy motel room.

  Damn! Why couldn’t he keep his mind on his work? Thoughts of her were making him crazy. He had always told himself that he would not get involved with a woman like this. If it ended badly, he would be the one in pain. Well, what the hell was the difference? He was already in pain. And he didn’t like the feeling one damned bit.

  He reached for his cell phone and punched in the number for her house. And since when had he been able to do that? Numbers weren’t his thing, half the time if he remembered them at all, the numbers were usually reversed. While it rang he fingered the piece of the palm tree in his pocket. The sweet, breathy and cultured voice of the woman who was never far from his thoughts came on the line.

  “Hello?”

  “I’ve been looking all over for you. Couldn’t you have told me where you were going?”

  “I didn’t know for sure where I was going. I was hoping to reach you after I finished working out.”

  I could give you a workout, certain muscles would think they were in Heaven.

  “I’ve been on my cell phone a lot today, I’m sorry I’ve missed your calls.”

  “Any luck at the spa?”

  “Yeah, that’s where it all started. He was watching all of you, disguised as a woman. I’ve interviewed his wife and we found the boat he used the morning he came back to find your underwear.” The tone of his voice had hollowed. He hated thinking how he had let her down and what could have happened to her and Kayla that night.

  “Who is he?”

  “His name is Harold Francis Satterfield. He’s been using his middle name in both a male and a female version. At the gym he was known as Frankie.”

  Goose bumps crawled along her flesh as she remembered the note and made the connection to the sweet old lady perpetually cleaning the locker room and bathrooms at the spa.

  “Frankie? The cleaning lady?”

  “Yeah. What do you know about her, rather him?”

  “I saw her all the time. I even spoke to her, er him a few times.”

  “Definitely a him. His wife verifies it, although she does say that he likes to dress up as a woman on occasion.”

  “Arrrgh! That really frosts me! The only reason I joined that club is because I don’t like men watching me when I’m working out. Not that I’m shy or anything, but some of the positions are . . . well, pretty suggestive.”

  He envisioned her doing bench presses on her back, straddling the bench, thighs spread wide—he’d often seen the line of sweat marking a woman’s opening when he’d been stair stepping just scant yards from they were working out and knew exactly what she meant. It was the main reason most guys worked out at a gym instead of at home.

  “I’m sorry, honey. From now on, I guess it’s better to just work out at home. I think we’re close to catching him though. How’s Kayla?”

  “She’s sunning on the deck outside of the work room, reading one of her books.”

  “Can I come see you?”

  “Yeah, I wish you would in fact. I have something I need to show you.”

  “Okay. I’ll be right there.”

  He got out of his car and walked up the steps. When he rang the bell scant seconds later, he saw the surprised expression on her face through the side panel when she came to open the door.

  “What, you didn’t believe me?” he quipped.

  She shook her head. “It just never occurred to me that you’d call from your car, in the driveway. Why didn’t you just come in?”

  “I didn’t want to see you.”

  “Why not?”

  “You’re starting to affect me rather badly.” He ran a finger down her cheek past her jaw line. “I want you,” he whispered. Then pulled her close for a mind-numbing kiss. When he pulled away her eyes were glazed. “Now, what did you want to show me, and I am fervently hoping that it’s something under your sweat suit.”

  She blushed, and looked down at her damp shirt. “I’m afraid that you’re not going to like what I have to show you, or the reason that it came to be in the house.”

  She told him about the doll falling out of the closet and then showed him the note. She watched him cringe as he realized the meaning it conveyed. “He wants you,” he said simply.

  “That’s what I kind of thought it meant, too.”

  “What’s this about how it got to be in the house?”

  She told him about the night that she hadn’t been sure the alarm had been set, and how it turned out that it had been, but not at the time she thought she’d set it, and about the night she had been sure the front door had been locked when he’d said it hadn’t. Then all hell broke lose in terms of his tongue. He just couldn’t hold it in any lo
nger.

  “Are you crazy! Do you think this is some kind of a game? Why aren’t you being more careful? This is serious! Deadly serious! I cannot believe you were not constantly checking those alarms! You need a keeper! You should have taken your father up on his offer—you need a bodyguard more than anybody I know! Do you want to be his trophy!”

  She just stared, eyes wide as his mouth spewed out one thing after another. The tirade did not appear as though it was ever going to end.

  Then he started pacing and more came out, only these were anguished. “He could have had you, he could have taken you. You could be his prisoner, doing any number of his perverse demands. You could be dead right now!” She saw his shoulders shake and then he whispered, “You could be dead. Kayla, too.”

  She touched his shoulder and made him turn back to her. His face was wet, his jaw clenched. She walked into his chest and his arms wrapped around her and held her tight.

  “I’m sorry, Kel. I’m so sorry. But I had to tell you the truth.”

  “That’s twice that he’s been in your house after Kayla was returned. Twice that we know of!”

  “You know who he is now. I’m sure you’ll catch him.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t want to use you as bait!”

  “Well, Kel what do you want me to do?”

  “Why don’t you go live with your parents for a few days? Landfall is very secure and your parents have servants.”

  “This house has a whole new alarm system.”

  He held her at arm’s length and looked down at her. His mouth opened. But she stopped the expected comment with her fingertips on his lips. “I know, I know, what good does it do if I don’t engage it?”

  “His boat was found just three doors down. Less than half a mile from here! You can’t stay here. Not with him on the loose. He’s changing, he’s morphing.”

  “What?” she asked.

  He told her about the conversation he’d had with Ben Atkinson that morning. Finishing with, “You can’t stay here.”

  “Okay, if you feel that strongly about it, I’ll leave tomorrow.”

  “No. Tonight.”

  “I can’t move Kayla again today, it upsets her each time we move. Tomorrow we’ll go to my parent’s, I promise.”

  “Then I’m staying here tonight. And in the meantime, I’m sending over a few officers.”

  “Is that really necessary?”

  “Read that note again, Laura. What do you think?”

  He was angry again and she didn’t know how to handle it. She did know that it stemmed from his feelings of inadequacy when it came to protecting her.

  “Whatever you say.”

  “I’ve got some things I have to do, I’ll be back shortly. But I’ll definitely be staying here tonight. Before I leave, I want to say hi to Kayla.” He walked through the room to the French doors that opened onto the deck. He saw her nestled in the hammock as he stood framed in the open doorway. He could tell by her breathing that she was asleep. Laura came to stand beside him. He turned and gave her a cursory kiss on her temple. Stopping to hold her cheek in his palm while he shook his head, he muttered, “You’re killing me Laura. Tying me into all kinds of knots. I’ve never felt like this. You scare the daylights out of me.” He dropped his hand, turned, and went back into the house.

  He left to go back to his office. What was going on with him, he thought as he drove through rush hour traffic. He would have used his lights to move through it faster, but he needed some time. Some time to think.

  I am losing it. I am not handling this very well. He had to admit that the reason was Laura. And the fact that he was in love with her. Shit! He’d told himself that this was not going to happen!

  Laura watched him leave from the front window. How was it that now, whenever she thought of that night, she didn’t remember the seedy, dusty, damp-smelling room or think of the streaked television screen with the camera hidden behind it, but thought instead of Kel and where his lips had been and the wonderful place he had taken her with his talented lips and tongue.

  Was it the same reason she had taken to putting a drop of Kouros on her bra so she could be around his smell all day? She went to the back of the house and out onto the deck to check on Kayla. She was asleep in the hammock under the eaves, her book and Winnie the Pooh tucked under her arm. She bent and kissed her on her sweat-dampened cheek. Then she walked over to the railing to admire the flowers in her garden below and the Waterway beyond. She loved living here. It was her home. It had been in the family for generations. But, if it wasn’t safe, she knew she had to leave. She looked down the Waterway trying to envision three doors down and the place where Kel had said they’d found the boat, and she shivered. Could he really be this close?

  The man hidden in the tall grasses of the marsh was fixated on the woman leaning over the railing looking down into the water. He knew she couldn’t see him, but even if she could, he looked like any other fisherman camouflaged and in waist-high waders. He even had a rod in his hand and a creel on his hip, but he wasn’t at all interested in the fish swimming around his legs.

  The rod in his hand shook as anger pulsed erratically through him. That fucking bitch! The man she had just been on the deck with, the man whose unmarked cruiser had just been parked in front of her house, was the exact same man from the motel room! The man she had taken into her body. At his bidding!

  He was incensed and the jealousy that flared through him heated his blood. He told her not to involve the cops! How dare she? How dare she enlist that cop to be a whore to? Letting that man see her, touch her, lick and kiss her as part of his fucking job! Ohhh! He was livid. And on top of that, they took his fuckin’ boat!

  Chapter Forty-four

  Kel was exhausted by the time he got back to Laura’s. He had arranged for off duty personnel to be with Laura and Kayla whenever he wasn’t there to protect them. He set up patrols for the houses on the Waterway around hers, and he had the shore patrol continually cruising that stretch of the Waterway. At his office he had checked and double-checked a huge pile of lab reports. They had plenty of evidence against Satterfield, if only they could catch him.

  He still had no idea where that deviant douche bag could be. He’d called Cayce and Rand and alerted them to what was going on in case a note turned up for Meggie or Paige. They both assured him that they were going to stay close to home and watch out for their women until Harold Satterfield was caught. Rand had said that he was on his way over to Meggie’s now for what he hoped would be an evening of romance and debauchery.

  He and Laura had a late dinner and Kel feel asleep reading Kayla a bedtime story. Laura had let her stay up late just so she could see him.

  Three hours later his cell phone rang. Toby had been taken from his bed. The Voyeur had struck again and Meggie was beside herself. He grabbed his gun and badge case, kissed Laura on the lips, and ran for his car.

  He was mystified. He had thought Laura was the target. This had caught him completely off guard, and he knew that Rand had been stunned too.

  Something wasn’t right here. There was no note. And even though he had been making love to Meggie and totally focused on that, he found it hard to believe he wouldn’t have heard someone opening and closing the front door, unless they’d had a key. Since Meggie had just had the locks changed, how was that possible?

  He asked her if she’d made any copies. She said no. He asked her where the copy was that had come with the lock set. It didn’t take him long to discover that it was missing from the key ring in her kitchen drawer.

  When Kel got there, he told him what he suspected. And the two of them went off in search of Thomas. An hour later they found him drunk on the first hole of Wilmington National Golf Course, smashing the swing camera to smithereens.

  When Thomas saw Kel an
d Rand coming up the slope he bolted, but he was too drunk to put one foot in front of the other fast enough and Rand easily overtook him and tackled him. Then Kel had to jump into the fray to keep Rand from choking Thomas to death.

  They found Toby asleep in Thomas’ truck. By the time they had everything sorted out for the night, Kel was impatient to get back to Laura. He had officers lock Thomas up for the night. Meggie and Rand had some major decisions about how all this was going to be handled in the morning— decisions that didn’t involve him, thank God. Poor Thomas, he had whacked the swing camera until it was no more than a handful of metal pieces, surely as the assistant pro, he knew it had been broken for weeks and unable to record Meggie and Rand?

  Chapter Forty-five

  The tree frogs suddenly stopped their incessant chirping and something about it unnerved Laura. She had only moments to react before the door to her bedroom silently swung open. She thought that maybe Kel was home, but something about the stealth of the movements in the hallway alarmed her. Kel would not have wanted her to be afraid, he would have called out or boldly entered the house when he returned.

  “Who’s there?” she called and she gasped when a man’s form filled the shadowed doorway.

  “It’s Frankie, Laura. The man who idolizes you.” A tall man stepped into the room and she saw his face. The eyes and lips were familiar but the unshaven jaw line confirmed that Frankie the cleaning woman, was indeed Frank, The Voyeur. He was slovenly in his appearance, wearing rumpled, dirty chinos and a sweat-stained shirt pulled tight over his big gut.