Jax stared at Quinten, at the quarter-sized stain slowly growing on his shirt. He needed medical attention and hadn’t gotten any. Jax went to Quinten.
His son pointed the gun at Jax now. “Stay back! I said get her downstairs. Now do it!”
Afraid that Quinten would fire his gun and fighting to remain calm and clear-headed, Penny walked to the basement door on her own. At last, Jax followed. She took the steps down to an unfinished open space. At the far end, Quinten had framed in a rough wood room. No drywall. The plywood door had a locked latch.
“Unlock it.” Quinten gave his dad a key.
Jax took it numbly and unlocked the door. As he pushed it open, a young girl cowered against the wall.
Penny turned to Jax, furious that he’d allow this to go on. Maybe he hadn’t known about the others, only Sara, but he knew now.
“If you don’t do something to help us, I’ll kill you myself,” she hissed, leaning close to his face.
He blinked a few times, seeming to come out of his stupor. But he said nothing as Quinten gave her a shove and she stumbled into the room.
“No,” the girl wailed.
Penny forgot all of her own troubles and went to her, taking her into her arms. “It’s all right now, sweetie. You’re going to be all right.”
The girl only cried against her shoulder.
“Did he hurt you?”
Makayla rolled her head in negation. “He scares me. He made me come here and locked me in here.” She leaned her teary face back. “I want to go home. I want to see my mom.”
“You will. I’m going to get you out of here.”
The girl clung to her and Penny hoped she could make her promise come true.
Chapter 15
While the knowledge of Penny’s pregnancy crushed him, Kadin had stayed close to her and had seen her drive into the mountains. All the way to the dirt road where she turned, he fought between confound over her decision to go here alone and dread over the impeding birth of their baby. His baby. His second baby. By the time he parked along the highway, he realized loving another child wasn’t the crux of his issue. Fear of loving the second baby more was. He still struggled with so much guilt over not being able to save his little girl. He feared forgetting her, loving her less or not revering her enough.
The thought of holding a baby in his arms, a different baby, sent him into a cold sweat. Love and family. Could he love Penny? Did he already?
Could he love another child?
Imagining Penny’s stomach growing, how beautiful she’d be, Kadin felt the tug of something other than fear. Their baby had no face yet, but he could see Penny holding him or her, a tiny bundle. When he again thought of holding a baby—their baby, he felt the promise of love. But then his dead daughter’s face materialized and he had to withdraw.
Frustrated, Kadin got out of his car and hiked through the trees along the dirt road. At a clearing, he saw a house but no sign of Penny’s car. No sign of the black Jeep, either. There was no other way off this property other than the driveway. Had the cars been put inside the detached garage? Was Penny inside? Was the missing girl in there, too? He had to stop himself from going in alone.
Detective Cohen was on his way with more cops, but Kadin would not wait. If Penny and the child were inside this cabin, he’d do all he could to save them. But first he had to know more about this cabin and what he’d be charging into.
Back at his car, he used his satellite internet Wi-Fi hotspot to look up property records on his laptop. This house belonged to Dane Ballard. Jax had lured Penny here. Why do that? His DNA didn’t match the killer’s and he’d passed the lie detector test. He must be protecting someone. Dane? Dane was dead. Did he mean to draw Kadin here as well and kill them both? Kadin had to make sure he didn’t succeed.
Just when Kadin would have returned to the cabin, the detective arrived, driving up in the crime scene van and parking in the dirt driveway, blocking any exit or entry. Another van, this one black, parked behind that. As a SWAT team filed out armed with black-layered polymer and ammo, Kadin got out of his rental and approached the crime scene van, where Cohen had opened the side door. The cabin wasn’t visible from here. The driveway curved up into the trees, hiding them from sight.
“We’re going to surround the place,” Cohen said. “Let’s talk strategy from there.”
Kadin stepped up inside while the SWAT team jogged through the woods.
“I didn’t have time to get intelligence,” Cohen said with a frown.
“That’s all right. I did.” He explained what he’d learned.
“I suspected you would.” Cohen moved closer to the counter where another detective had booted up a laptop. “Jax is in there now?”
“He must have a strong motivation to be involved,” Kadin said. “I think he’s protecting someone close to him.”
“It can’t be his brother,” Cohen said. “The DNA isn’t a close match to his.”
There was only one other person who could motivate Jax that powerfully.
Cohen leaned over the countertop to navigate the laptop through some satellite images. “What are you thinking?”
“That Jax would only protect his son. He’s a selfish guy, except when it comes to Quinten.”
Cohen straightened to pin Kadin with a deeply thoughtful look.
One of the other detectives returned from outside to sit before a laptop.
“The perimeter is secure, sir,” he said with his back to them.
“Look up Quinten Ballard,” Kadin said to the man. “Find out if Jax Ballard is his biological father.”
Quinten’s mother had abandoned him, and Jax had raised the boy. Had Jax adopted Quinten? That would explain why the DNA didn’t resemble Jax’s.
The man at the laptop glanced back as though needing confirmation. A young adult deviating into child crimes did seem shocking, if not a stretch.
“Do it,” Kadin said.
The man looked at Cohen, who nodded and then faced his laptop. Within minutes they had a copy of an adoption paper in front of them.
“I’ll be damned,” Cohen marveled, looking up at Kadin. “You’re brilliant.”
That was what losing your family to reprobates like this did to a man. Made him strive to be smarter and then to be smarter than the criminals. Always get a few steps ahead of them.
Quinten Ballard had used his father’s truck, had stored rope in the closet, had killed Sara Wolfe and had abducted Makayla.
“Take a look at this,” the detective in front of the laptop said.
Kadin and Detective Cohen moved to see the screen better. Quinten had been sent to a private school his last year of high school. A boarding school for troubled teenagers. Quinten didn’t have a juvenile record, but Jax had sent him, anyway. He’d been having problems with the boy. Must have been having problems for a while.
“And this.” The detective brought up an old news article about a complaint from a neighbor, who claimed Jax’s son had taken and mutilated their cat. There had been no proof and the matter had been dropped.
“Penny never mentioned anything unusual about Quinten,” Kadin said.
“Killers like this can put on a normal face when they have to,” Cohen said, stating the obvious.
Quinten had played the role of a together kid, happy with his loving father, on his way to college and a promising future. But inside, he hid a monster.
“Jax didn’t know about Sara Wolfe until her body was found.” Kadin spoke his unraveling thoughts aloud. “He must have been shocked and in denial that his son could have done it.”
Cohen nodded. “But he also had to have a good idea that his son could be the one responsible. The truck. The fire...”
“The rope,” Kadin added.
Cohen nodded, meeting his gaze and then taking
in the rest of his face. “Nothing surprises you anymore.”
Unfortunately truer words were never spoken. What could shock him more than losing his daughter and wife to violence?
“Let me go in first,” Kadin said, without acknowledging the observation. “Jax might let me in and keep Quinten subdued long enough for me to find Penny and Makayla. Once I confirm they’re either there or not, then we move in for an arrest.”
Kadin stepped out of the van. The property ran up a steep rock outcrop in back, and the SWAT team had already disbursed into the woods to surround the house and barn.
While that would ensure Quinten’s capture, there would be no guarantee Penny would make it out of there alive. Penny, and most likely Makayla. Would he reach them in time? Penny—pregnant with his child. He didn’t have one child to save. He had two. He dared not let the fear of failing interfere now. He had to succeed. His entire being vibrated with determination. And to see their abductor punished. Especially if he thought he could get away with murder. The face or identity of the killer didn’t matter to Kadin, boy or man. The fact that he preyed on innocent children did.
“How do you know he’ll let you in?” Cohen asked.
“Follow me.”
He led Cohen to his car and used his cell to return the call he’d ignored while waiting for Cohen.
Jax answered.
“Am I invited to the party?” Kadin asked, watching Cohen go tense with uncertainty.
“Penny’s here. We need to talk about my brother.”
“So you arrange for us both to meet you here?”
After a lengthy pause, Jax said, “You’re here already?”
“You didn’t think I would be?” Kadin saw Cohen relax when he saw that Kadin had this under control.
“Well...good. Come on up, then. We’re waiting for you.”
Jax, Penny...and Quinten. What was Jax thinking? He’d go to prison for conspiracy if he helped his son cover up a crime.
“I’m only giving you fifteen minutes,” Cohen said.
“Done.” He’d do this in five.
Kadin drove up the dirt driveway, the van moved out of the way enough to allow him passage. Parking next to Penny’s car, he got out, tempted to remove one of his pistols.
The door opened and Jax greeted him with a smile, a practiced smile, one he often wore and one that Kadin recognized as false. He stepped up the stairs and entered the house.
The first thing he saw was Quinten, and no sign of Penny. The bloody T-shirt explained enough. He noticed other things, like the rich furnishings in a spacious great room marred by used frozen dinner packages, crumbled paper towels, quarter-full glasses of curdling milk, empty bottles of beer and dirty dishes piled high in the sink. He couldn’t tell which smelled worse. Maybe all of it combined to foul up the air. Someone had been living here awhile, and it hadn’t been Jax.
“Where’s Penny?” Kadin asked Jax, feigning nonchalance so that Quinten wouldn’t be alerted to all he knew.
Quinten began to move his hand toward the back of his pants. Kadin put his hand on his left-side pistol.
“Wait!” Jax said.
“You shouldn’t even be here, Dad,” Quinten said to him.
“Why are you?” Kadin asked.
Jax turned from his son and his struggle for what to say fluttered across his face, eyes blinking, mouth open and forming words that wouldn’t come out.
“She’s downstairs,” Jax said. “She’s fine. Safe.”
“Well, that’s good, Jax. Is there a reason why she wouldn’t be safe?”
Quinten’s hand lowered to his side, and smugness curled up one side of his mouth.
“N-no.” Jax eyed his son, clearly confused over how to handle his lunatic son.
“I know about Dane.” Kadin went on with his ruse. “Is this where he brought Makayla Moore?” He started toward the basement door.
Quinten didn’t stop him from opening the door, which clued Kadin into enough. When he reached the top stair, he pivoted and stuck his foot in the opening just as Quinten tried to close the door. Then, drawing his pistol and firing, he shot Quinten in his knee.
With a guttural shout, the boy dropped, falling backward, his gun sliding across the wood floor.
Kadin stood over him, having drawn his second pistol and aiming it at Jax while he aimed the other between Quinten’s eyes.
“Quinten.” Jax began to cry, an ordinarily together man crumbling, finally realizing there was nothing else he could do to save the only son he’d ever had.
“I want you alive to stand trial and go to prison for what you did,” Kadin said to Quinten.
Stepping over him, he kicked the fallen pistol across the room, where it slid underneath the trash-cluttered sofa.
Tucking one of his pistols away, he kept his aim on Jax. “Down the stairs.”
Ballard wiped his eyes and went to the basement door. Before following, Kadin shot the lock mechanism.
“Kadin!” he heard Penny yell.
At the bottom of the stairs, he shoved Jax back and went to the enclosed room.
“Stand back!” he shouted. Allowing a few seconds, he shot out the padlock and swung the door open.
Penny crouched with her arm around Makayla, who was crying against her shoulder.
“It’s okay, you’re safe now,” Penny said to her, rubbing her arm. “Come on.” She coaxed the girl to leave the cell.
Kadin’s insides ripped and pulled with the emotion racing through him, relief, bittersweet triumph and anger. Yes, anger. Fury consumed him that he couldn’t have done this for his daughter.
Penny screamed just before his distraction cost him Jax’s attempt to hit him over the head with something. He stuck out his arm to block most of the blow but had to stagger to collect himself.
Penny charged out of the room, grabbing Jax’s arm when he would have tried to strike Kadin again.
“You can’t have her!” Jax shouted.
From the stairway, Quinten appeared, hanging on to the railing, knee soaking his jeans with blood, hand trembling as he held his pistol.
Kadin wanted to kill him so badly he could taste the tinny sting in his mouth.
Jax moved in front of Kadin’s pistol just as he would have fired to immobilize Quinten once again. But Quinten shot and the bullet hit Jax, going all the way through him and plugging a hole into the plywood as Kadin leaped out of the way, landing on his side as Jax’s surprised eyes went wide and he put his hand over the gush of red on his chest.
Kadin checked on Penny and the girl. Penny had taken hold of Makayla and moved them behind the plywood wall, craning her neck to see Kadin and Jax.
“No!” Quinten wailed, his true feelings for the only person who’d ever cared for him coming out in wrenching breaths. He fell to the floor and crawled toward Jax, unable to use his injured shoulder. Jax had trouble breathing at this point.
Kadin rose to his feet, gun ready as the SWAT swarmed the basement. He held his hand up for them to stop. In a half circle around Jax and Quinten, they did.
Quinten held Jax’s head on his arm and Jax looked up at him.
“I’m sorry,” Quinten cried.
“I...love...you,” Jax barely got out. Then he gurgled and could take no more breaths. He died in his son’s arms, Quinten sobbing with his forehead against his dad’s.
Kadin crouched and took hold of the gun Quinten still held, easily removing it. Handing that to one of the SWAT men, Kadin tapped Quinten’s cheek with his pistol.
With pain from more than his gunshot wound contorting his face, the eighteen-year-old looked at Kadin.
“Why?” Kadin asked. He just wanted to know. Why had Quinten done this? Kidnap and kill Sara Wolfe. Attempt to do the same with Makayla.
“Why?” he repeated.
Quinten’s eyes squeezed shut. “I couldn’t help it,” he wailed some more. “I don’t know. I didn’t want to.” He sobbed more. “I didn’t want to.”
But he had. The evil monster inside had made him.
“People like you have to be stopped,” Kadin said grimly. Then looked up at the nearest SWAT cop. “Arrest him.”
Standing, he went to Penny and the girl, who’d both moved out of the room, Penny covering the girl’s eyes as she held her against her.
Kadin put his hand on the back of Penny’s head and leaned to kiss her hard. She took the kiss and gave back, her arm sliding around his neck. Her breath came with a mix of passion and relief. She kissed his mouth several times before he drew back, aware of the young girl below who still cried.
“I’m glad to see you,” she said.
A surge of love overcame him. “I’m glad to see you, too.” She had no idea. Or maybe she did.
He caressed her cheek with his thumb and then knelt before the girl, gently taking her hand when Penny let her go.
Her crying eased as she looked at him.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
She nodded unsteadily.
“These policemen are going to take you to your mom now.” Where she belonged. Where she should never have been taken from.
With two great gulps of air and a giant sob of gladness, Makayla threw her little arms around his shoulders and didn’t let go. She squeezed him as though he were her lifeline, as though she understood that he had just freed her from horror, that he would see that she’d be returned to her sheltered, innocent life. Dolls awaited her. Birthday parties. Sleepovers. Princess socks and comforters. Prom. Graduation. All of it.
Her soft crying came from relief, from returning to the arms of love.
Having to fight the burn of his own tears, Kadin stood with her, holding her carefully so as not to disturb her liberating float back to innocence. He caught Penny’s streaming eyes before he took the girl upstairs. She knew what this meant to him.
He wanted to kiss her again.
Detective Cohen waited outside. Kadin didn’t want to let the girl go. He felt as though she could be his daughter, alive and well. Saved.
A Wanted Man (Cold Case Detectives Book 1) Page 23