by Liz Johnson
“You can’t go in there, sir.”
“I’m going to see Denise Engle.”
The little woman with big blond hair waved her finger at him. “She’s in a meeting. You can’t see her.”
Seriously? He’d faced down an entire terrorist cell in Lybania. And this woman thought she’d stand between him and the only person who might be able to give him answers about his family?
He stepped around her, never quite touching her, but showing her just what he was capable of doing. He wouldn’t hurt her, but he wouldn’t hesitate to restrain her.
Looking afraid, she tripped away from him, and he gave her a simple nod, affirming that she’d made the right choice.
Denise’s name hung on a black plaque on the outside of her door. He didn’t bother knocking or even pausing. He barely refrained from kicking down the door, just to vent some of his rage. Wrenching the handle and putting a shoulder into it, he crashed through.
Three stunned faces stared at him.
“I need a word,” he said, ignoring the couple on the near side of the desk.
Denise stood, wiping flat palms down the sides of her skirt. “Would you give us a moment, please?”
The man and woman scurried out of the office like scared chipmunks.
Good. That’s what he was going for. Intimidating. Daunting. Fire-breathing.
Maybe that was everything Kristi didn’t want. But right now it was what she needed. And it was what he knew how to do.
Taking a deep breath through his nose, he let it out in a harsh burst. “Cody and Kristi have been taken. I think you know who is responsible.”
She opened her mouth, looking like she was about to protest, but he cut her off with a wave of his hand. “Don’t bother to deny it. They’re gone. You’re going to help me find them. I want. My wife. And son.”
Tears sprang to her eyes, but he didn’t have any sympathy for them. He couldn’t feel anything but the acute loss of his family, the hole where they should have been.
“Tell me everything you know.”
“I don’t know anything.” But her voice shook, and she immediately labeled herself a liar. “I don’t know much.”
Fear and anger warred inside him, battling for an outlet. But yelling and punching a wall wouldn’t bring Kristi and Cody back.
God, give me strength. Give me courage. Show me what to do.
He’d done everything he knew to keep them safe. But it hadn’t been enough. Was this just another reminder that he wasn’t the one for Kristi? That he couldn’t be the one she needed? Or was this his opportunity to show her he could be there for her?
He had no answers.
Clenching shaking fists to his stomach, he narrowed his eyes and leaned in closer to Denise. He managed to keep his voice low but his meaning unmistakable.
“Start at the beginning.”
Tears gushed down her cheeks, her eyes and the tip of her nose turning red. “I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know why he wanted the list.”
“Who?”
“Loughlin. Bernard Loughlin.”
“Who’s that?” But his mind was already running through the list of names of the donors at the Palm Springs benefit. B. Loughlin. He’d been in the picture with del Olmo.
She hiccupped, and he invaded her space even more until she spilled like a fire hydrant. “He’s a real estate mogul in Beverly Hills. He offered me half a million dollars for the list of transplant patients. Of course, I turned him down.”
“Of course,” Zach muttered under his breath.
“I said I couldn’t,” she protested. “But…”
“But?”
She caved. “But then he offered me a full million. And he threatened to have the bank foreclose on my mom’s house if I didn’t cooperate. She was behind on payments, and they were sending her notices, so I gave him the first name on the list.”
“Greta Gammer.”
She nodded, wiping her hands over her eyes and sniffling hard.
He could drum up no sympathy for her. “And then?”
“And then, after what happened to her, he said if I didn’t give him the next names, he’d tell my supervisor what I’d done. And I would never work again. I could be convicted and sentenced to federal prison. Don’t you see? I had to tell him.”
“You gave him my son’s name.” He seethed the words through clenched teeth, everything inside him demanding that he make her see just what she’d done. Cody needed to be under a doctor’s care, and every second he was out of the hospital increased the chance that he wouldn’t make it back alive.
Unacceptable.
“Why? Why is he killing the kids on the donor list?”
“His son needs a new heart. But he has additional complications that make him less than an ideal recipient.” She bit into her lips until they disappeared. “Most likely he’ll never make it to the top of the list.”
“Unless everyone in front of him dies first.”
“Yes.” It was more sob than actual word. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what he would do. I thought he would try to buy the parents off.”
“Oh, he did.” The image of the Gammers’ broken faces flashed before him. “But when he realized that everyone else loves their kids as much as he does, he went off script.”
Zach leaned back and covered his face with his hands. “Why did he take Cody now, after the surgery?”
She choked on another sob. “His son is getting worse. And—and this is just a guess. But I think he wants that heart.”
Zach squinted at her, trying to understand what he’d just heard. Surely no one could be that depraved. He’d seen the very worst in the world—but he couldn’t fathom the idea of a man kidnapping and killing a little boy to steal his heart.
“Could a heart even survive a second transplant?”
She lifted one trembling shoulder. “No one’s ever tried, as far as I know. But I doubt it. A heart is a muscle, and it needs time to recover after the trauma of transplant. I don’t think it would work. But his son is running out of time—he doesn’t have long enough to wait for another suitable donor.”
“If he’s planning to perform another surgery, he’d have to keep Cody alive, right? Long enough to get a doctor and operating room in place?”
“Yes.”
The knot in his chest loosened just enough for him to catch his breath.
Cody could still be alive.
Zach prayed that Kristi was, too.
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know.”
“Denise, you’re going to go to jail for selling the names and for your part in that little girl’s death. You can’t change that, but maybe you can save two other lives. And maybe the DA will look kindly on that.”
Fear pulled her features tight across her face, her mouth nothing but a white line, her chin quivering. “I told you he’s in real estate—he must have access to lots of properties! But…” she added, clearly thinking out loud. “If he was looking to hide out, he’d want somewhere secluded. He said something once about a cabin. In the woods. He mentioned there wasn’t cell service there. That’s all I know. I swear.”
It wasn’t much. But it was everything he had. He ran from the room, already punching his phone to call Jordan.
“You in trouble again, Ziggy?”
Zach didn’t have time for Jordan’s teasing, so he bypassed the joke and got straight to the real trouble. “Kristi and Cody have been kidnapped. I need you to find me a remote cabin owned by a man named Bernard Loughlin who lives in Beverly Hills.”
His feet pounded on the tile flooring as he burst into the open. But the fresh air didn’t slow his breathing or the painful thudding in his chest. He had to get to his car and find that cabin.
Jordan, like the brother he was, didn’t ask any questions. He simply began typing, his fingers pounding on the keyboard on the other end of the call. “Loughlin. Bernard.”
“Yes.”
“Just a second. You said Beverly Hills?”
“Yes. But it might be in San Diego or Orange County.” There weren’t many spots without cell service anywhere in Southern California, but it didn’t make sense to go any farther with a kid who needed constant medical attention.
Zach reached for the handle of his car door, only to realize he was still carrying Cody’s blanket. Chucking it in the passenger seat, he slid into the car and drummed on the steering wheel. “Come on, Jordan. What have you got?”
“He owns a bunch of property, but it’s mostly commercial.”
Zach wanted to cry and scream. He settled for slamming his fist against the wheel. He didn’t have time to lose.
He couldn’t lose.
He couldn’t lose Cody. Or Kristi. Or their silly dirty dishes in his sink.
He couldn’t lose car shows on the TV or sweet smiles over a bowl of cereal.
He needed them.
“Got it. Fishing cabin on Lake Cuyamaca near Julian. It’s about an hour outside town.”
“Text me the address?”
“Done.”
Zach hung up without the normal niceties. Jordan would understand. It was time to go get them. But he couldn’t go in alone. Calling on his hands-free unit, Zach tried to reach Detective Sunny Diaz while he sailed out of the parking lot and toward the interstate.
“This is Diaz.”
“Zach McCloud here. My wife and son were just kidnapped, but I know who took them and I have a pretty good idea where he went.”
*
Kristi banged her head against something hard, but she couldn’t tell if the resulting ringing was from the metal or inside her head. Everything ached, especially her throat, and she reached to massage it, only to find her wrists bound together in front of her.
Her surroundings rocked, and she crashed against the wall again. This time, she realized she was in a moving vehicle. If the cavernous bay was any indication, it was a stripped-down van. And if she had to take a shot, she’d guess it was black.
The interior was dim at best, the windows painted over. There was only a sliver of light through a crack where the double doors didn’t quite meet. The light fell on a hospital-issue brown sock.
Fear seized her, and she threw herself forward, wrapping both hands around the sock and fighting tears when she realized there was a foot inside it.
She tiptoed her fingers up Cody’s leg, to his hand and beyond. Careful not to bump the sutures that held him together where they’d spread his ribs, she found his neck and his cheeks and his ruffled hair.
He was warm and breathing.
She couldn’t contain a quiet sob—a mingling of relief and terror.
Someone had taken her son. Stolen him when he most needed to be under a doctor’s care. But at least he was still alive.
“Cody? Cody, buddy?”
“Momma?” His voice was little more than a breath, but she’d accept it and be grateful for it.
“Bud, are you hurt?”
“I can’t see.”
She found his arm and squeezed it. “I know. It’s dark in here. But we’ll stop soon.”
“Where are we going?”
If only she knew. If only she could tell someone where to find them. How to save them. “I don’t know. But we’re together.” Her voice cracked, and she fought the urge to curl into his side as he lay on some sort of makeshift mat.
“It’ll be okay,” he said.
“I know.” But she was lying. She knew no such thing.
“Zach is going to come get us,” her son assured her.
Zach.
His name rang through her mind over and over. A silent prayer for deliverance from whatever madman had taken them. God, send Zach to save us. Before it’s too late.
They were on a clock. Cody had to have his medications at regular intervals, on time and always in the right dosages. His body required help to accept the alien organ. Without it he’d be lost.
The trouble was, she had no idea how much time had passed since he’d had his last dose.
Not that she had any medication to give him anyway.
This was not how it was supposed to work out. She’d prayed that Cody would be saved. She’d waited for a heart to become available. She’d done everything she could to protect him.
And now this.
This unknowing. This fear. This utter and literal darkness.
How could this be the end for them both?
And it would be. She wasn’t foolish enough to think that they’d have any use for her after Cody was gone. And he would be gone if help didn’t come.
Lord, please. Please. Send help.
Squeezing her eyes shut against the tears that pooled there, she leaned against the cold metal of the van’s wall and imagined Zach’s face. The warmth in his eyes and the tenderness in his smile filled her. The fervor of his last kiss still fresh on her lips battled the chill that seeped through her lightweight T-shirt.
She might never see him again. In fact, it was a strong likelihood that their last kiss had been their last ever.
Regret consumed her. She could have taken any of a dozen opportunities to tell him that she loved him. She should have found the words to tell him how much she wanted what they had on paper to be as real as the feelings in her heart.
Could-haves and should-haves.
Useless.
And utterly painful.
She slumped against the unforgiving floor just as they hit a pothole. It jarred her shoulder, and she cried out, a pathetic mewl at best.
“Momma?”
“Yeah, bud?”
His voice got softer, more childlike. “Don’t worry. Zach is coming. He promised he’d take care of us, and he does what he says.”
“Yeah. He’ll be here soon.”
She spoke the words because she wanted them to be true. But the flicker of doubt that had been inside her since Aaron had failed to come home fought for control. Maybe he wouldn’t come. Not because he didn’t want to but because he couldn’t find them.
But her son’s words rang through her. His faith was so sure. So certain. He didn’t doubt Zach’s arrival. Because he didn’t doubt Zach.
Maybe that was why she’d failed to tell her husband what was in her heart.
She doubted he’d come back.
In that moment Cody was sure enough for the both of them. There was no hesitancy in his tone or stutter in his words. He trusted Zach. And she did, too. But whether he would find them in time to save them remained the question.
So she was going to have to keep them alive until then.
The thought shot through her like a forest fire. Zach would come. He’d promised. It was her job to make sure that they were alive when he got there.
The van’s wheels squealed as it lumbered to a stop. A car door slammed. Scurrying toward the rear doors, she lay on her back and lifted her feet. When the door opened, if she could get enough force, she could slam it into their kidnapper. If she could knock him out or knock him off balance, maybe she’d be able to grab the keys and take the van back to the hospital.
She waited for the sound of the door unlocking. But there was nothing but footsteps growing fainter, like they were headed away from the van.
Minutes ticked by until her back ached and thighs cried from the awkward position. But the driver didn’t return.
And then suddenly the side door was wrenched open with the clang of metal against metal. The setting sun flooded the interior, stinging her eyes, and she twisted away from it.
“Get the girl.” The voice was high-pitched but not feminine. She didn’t recognize it.
As the spots in front of her eyes stopped dancing, she focused on the speaker’s face. Dark eyes and narrow features. She knew this man. At least she’d seen him before. In the pictures from the fund-raiser. He was the one they’d dismissed as not prominent enough.
But he was clearly crazy enough.
“I’ll get the kid,” he said to his cohort.
“Please, don’t. He needs a doctor.”
She crawled toward him. “Please. He’s my son.”
“I know. And you’ll do exactly what I tell you or you’ll watch him die.”
The other man, who had stalked her in the mall and then attacked her at the hospital, grabbed her arm and jerked her free of the van. The angry sneer on his face was enough to tell her that it would be no use arguing with him either.
The shorter man—Loughlin, she was almost sure—had pulled an EMT’s gurney even with the van and slid Cody onto it. Leaning over her son, he smiled down at the boy like an uncle. A highly deranged one.
“How you feeling? How’s your heart?”
“All right.”
“Good. That’s real good.” He patted Cody’s head like he was a puppy. “Now, listen close. You’re going to do everything I say, okay?”
Cody looked toward her, and she tried to catch his gaze. “It’ll be okay. I love you, little man!”
Loughlin raised his voice. “Everything I say. Understand? First, I want you to swallow this pill.”
“A-and if I don’t?” Cody managed to say. Kristi’s heart twisted for her son, so clearly scared but still trying to be brave—to be like Zach.
“If you don’t, I’ll hurt your mom.”
What kind of monster would say that to a child?
Cody whimpered, and Kristi fought to find her feet, but the guy from the mall pushed her back down.
“This is your immunosuppressant. You need this.”
Kristi couldn’t see the pill to confirm, but she prayed the man wasn’t lying. If he wanted her son’s heart, then he had to keep it safe and healthy inside Cody. She was counting on that. Praying it was the case. “It’s okay, honey. Take the pill.”
“That’s a good boy. Now we wait for the doctor. This heart belongs to someone else.”
SIXTEEN
Zach’s car skidded to a stop about a hundred yards from the clearing where GPS promised he’d find Loughlin’s cabin. He imagined he could make out the lights from the windows through the trees. Big green pines served as cover as he stepped out of his car. He’d made only one detour on the way out of town—to pick up his weapons.