Lies That Bind

by Shirley Wine

  Why had she not realised this before now?

  Needing time to process this, Brooke met Luke’s eyes above Rose’s head. ‘Where’s Rio?’

  ‘He’s helping the police with their enquiries.’

  Luke’s grim tone stirred renewed anxiety in Brooke. Was Rio somehow involved in tonight’s frightening events? The question burned on the tip of her tongue, but meeting Luke’s eyes, she caught the infinitesimal shake of his head and she refrained from asking. His expression sent goosebumps sidestepping across her skin.

  What does Luke know that I don’t?

  Rose gave a mighty yawn.

  Brooke stroked the girl’s hair. ‘How about I tuck you into bed?’

  Rose pulled away and looked up at her, eyes shadowed with fear. ‘I don’t want to sleep in my room.’

  ‘It’s okay, Rose.’ Luke crossed the space and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. ‘You and Otto can both sleep in my bed for what’s left of the night.’

  The girl’s relief was palpable.

  Frank shambled over to them and curved his good hand around Rose’s cheek. ‘I’m so glad to see you home and safe, Rosie girl.’

  The girl let Brooke go and hugged the old man. ‘I love you, Frank. You shouldn’t have waited up for us.’

  ‘I couldn’t sleep until I saw your pretty face again.’

  The love and tenderness in her dad’s husky words made fresh tears burn the back of Brooke’s eyes. She glanced at Luke and saw he too was moved. As she watched, he swiped a hand across suspiciously bright eyes.

  ‘Let’s get these kids settled,’ Luke said gruffly.

  ‘I’ll let you get them back to bed, and I’m headed there too,’ Frank murmured. ‘We’ll catch up tomorrow.’

  Brooke watched her dad turn and begin to walk away.

  ‘Frank?’ The old man turned to look at Luke. ‘Thank you for taking care of Brooke for me.’

  Her dad’s chuckle rumbled in the early morning quiet. ‘That’s okay, son, I only had to scrape her off the ceiling a time or two.’

  Rose looked from Frank to Brooke. ‘What were you doing on the ceiling?’

  The girl’s puzzled question made Luke and Frank both chuckle.

  ‘It’s a figure of speech,’ Luke said, grinning. ‘What Frank means is that Brooke got so wound up she was—’

  ‘—pacing the floor until she made me dizzy and she darn near wore a track in the floorboards.’

  ‘Really?’ Rose stared at Brooke. ‘You were worried about us?’

  Brooke moved quickly, framing the girl’s face between her palms. ‘Of course I was worried. I love you and Otto so much. We all love you, and we were all worried sick.’

  ‘You won’t send us away so you can marry Uncle Luke without any ’cumbrances?’

  The hesitant question speared Brooke to the heart, leaving her speechless. She heard the rasp of Luke sucking in a sharp breath, and she looked at Rose and asked, ‘Who told you that?’

  The girl looked down and then glanced up at Brooke, her eyes clouded with distress. ‘Grandma said there was no way you’d want Otto and me messing up your life.’

  The bitch!

  Anger ripped through Brooke. She struggled to keep the negative emotions out of her voice, but she would sure like to spend some one-on-one time with Margaret McLellan.

  ‘Your grandmother doesn’t know me, Rose, and she doesn’t know your Uncle Luke. If we thought like that, would we have searched all night until we found you and brought you home?’

  ‘True?’

  Brooke held the girl’s steady gaze. ‘True. What say we all get some rest now and we can hash this out tomorrow?’

  ‘Okay,’ she said around another yawn. The girl was drooping with weariness.

  After one veiled glance at Luke, Brooke walked beside Rose while he carried Otto. As he laid the boy on the bed, Otto stirred.

  ‘Uncle Luke?’ Otto cried, his voice pitched high and fearful.

  ‘Shhh, I’m here, lad,’ Luke murmured, stroking the boy’s hair. ‘You’re safe and back home.’

  The boy turned towards his uncle. ‘Don’t leave me.’

  ‘I won’t,’ Luke assured him. ‘I’m going to sleep right here beside you.’

  ‘What about Rose?’

  ‘She’s here and Brooke is sleeping right beside her,’ Luke murmured his gaze holding Brooke’s across the bed. ‘You’re both safe.’

  Brooke nodded as she helped the sleepy girl into the wide bed. It was going to be a tight squeeze with four of them in the king-size bed, but one glance at Luke and she knew he needed to be as close to the two kids as she did.

  Once they were in bed, Luke leaned across both children and caught her hand, intertwining his fingers through hers, as if to assure himself that even if he slept, he could safeguard them all.

  Exhausted by the night’s high-stakes drama, Brooke slept.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The rumble of male voices woke Brooke. She opened her eyes and blinked in the weak sunlight streaming in through the window. Even as it registered on her sleep-fuddled mind that the rain had stopped, the disquieting events of the night came crashing back. She raised herself on one elbow.

  Rose and Otto were still sleeping.

  Moving with care, she extricated herself from the tangled sheets, slipped into her robe and crept out of the room, and quietly eased the door shut.

  She sniffed; the air was redolent with the rich scent of Arabica coffee. She followed the sound of voices and found her dad, Luke and Rio sitting around the kitchen table, talking and drinking coffee.

  She blinked but Rio was still there.

  Still half asleep, she drifted across to the coffee-maker, lifted a mug from the tree and filled it with coffee.

  Luke rose and pulled out a chair for her. She sank into it, sipped her coffee and closed her eyes to savour that first invigorating taste. Luke’s hand slid under her hair and gripped the back of her neck. She leaned into him, relishing the reassurance of his touch.

  ‘You okay?’ he murmured close to her ear.

  She nodded. Maybe now, but the terror of the night was still far too close. Unanswered questions swirled through her mind. She took another fortifying sip of coffee.

  Luke poured himself another coffee, then raised the carafe to her dad and Rio. They both shook their heads and Luke brought his coffee to the table and sat on the chair beside her.

  Brooke’s eyes flicked from Luke to her dad before resting on Rio. ‘Why are you back here?’

  ‘Easy, Brooke, Rio’s not the bad guy here.’ Luke’s hand slid under her hair again before he scooted his chair closer.

  ‘So who’s going to fill me in on what went down?’ She glanced up at Luke before her gaze settled on Rio again. ‘So why were you helping the police with their enquiries?’

  ‘I witnessed the kidnapping.’

  Brooke’s jaw sagged as she stared at their housekeeper. ‘You saw them stealing Rose and Otto?’ Her voice rose on the question. ‘And you didn’t stop them?’

  Rio held her gaze without flinching. ‘I considered it, but thought it safer not to alert them that there was a witness.’

  She shook her head, scarcely able to believe what she was hearing.

  Rio sighed, reached across the table and touched her hand. It took everything she had not to jerk away.

  She searched his eyes and only saw sincerity.

  ‘I don’t know what woke me, Brooke, but I knew damn well that something bad was afoot.’ He shrugged and frowned, his bushy brows almost concealing his eyes. ‘I crept down the hallway and saw them. There were three of them, all heavily armed, and by the way Rose and Otto were lying limp and unresisting as they were being carried, I suspected that they’d drugged the kids—’ Rio looked away, shaking his head. ‘What to do? I was unarmed and it seemed to me that trying to take on three guns was odds on that Rose, Otto and everyone else in this house would end up dead.’

  ‘Oh my God.’ Horrified, Brooke stared at Rio.
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  ‘Precisely. Against three armed men, none of us stood a chance.’ Rio squeezed her hand. ‘I thought it better and safer to let them take the kids and leave unhindered.’

  ‘I, for one, think he made the right call.’ Luke put an arm around her shoulders, pulled her off her chair and onto his lap, holding her tightly against him.

  ‘Why not go after them?’ she demanded not entirely convinced.

  ‘Have you looked outside, honey?’ Luke asked. ‘There’s floodwater everywhere.’

  ‘I took a calculated risk.’ Rio leaned across the table and looked directly into her eyes. ‘We’re miles off the beaten track out here. Had those men seen headlights in their rear-vision mirror, they couldn’t help but know we were onto them. Otto and Rose could well have ended up being tossed into the floodwaters.’

  ‘And knocked out—’ Brooke shuddered and bile stung the back of her throat. She pressed a white-knuckled fist against her lips.

  ‘I thought it safer to watch, get descriptions of the car, it’s rego, and the men involved. I passed this info to Matt, and he alerted the police and they laid a trap to rescue the kids. They have the resources and the personnel to set up armed road blocks on every road leading away from here. I let them know what they were likely dealing with.’

  ‘And that’s damn good reasoning to my way of thinking.’ Her dad leaned over and touched her arm.

  ‘So why did you organise the search here?’

  Rio shrugged. ‘Matt insisted. Those thugs disabled our phone and we had to use the radio to alert the main homestead and have Matt alert the police. He insisted we search all the outbuildings.’

  ‘Even though you knew the kidnappers were well away from here.’

  ‘There’s a little more to it than that, Brooke.’ A grin lightened Rio’s expression. ‘Matt took one look at Luke, the way he was chomping on the bit, and decided it was wise to give those pricks a decent head start so Luke couldn’t foul up the police operation.’

  ‘Well thanks a bunch.’

  Brooke caught Luke’s disgruntled expression and changed the focus of the discussion. ‘So where did the police catch up with them?’

  The convulsive way Luke’s arms tightened around her waist and Rio’s scowl was enough to warn Brooke that the children’s recovery hadn’t been straightforward.

  ‘Just this side of Tuakau.’

  Brooke twisted on Luke’s lap so she could see his face. ‘What went wrong?’

  Luke shrugged. ‘Not wrong, but terrible just the same.’

  ‘An unmarked police car cruising in the area spotted the car and followed it. The officer kept the car under surveillance and when it pulled into a house, the Armed Offenders Squad swooped. There was a tense standoff before everyone in the house surrendered.’

  ‘Don’t expect me to weep. Where were Rose and Otto?’

  ‘They were found in the boot of the car, bound, gagged and terrified.’

  ‘Who would do that to two children?’ she asked, looking at each man in turn.

  ‘Thugs with no conscience.’ It was Rio who answered.

  ‘Who?’ Brooke balled her fists, filled with a primal fury. She wanted to tear someone limb from limb with her bare hands.

  How dare thugs invade our home, steal and terrorise our children.

  ‘Duncan McLellan?’ she demanded.

  ‘For sure,’ Luke said, his expression as grim as she’d ever seen it.

  ‘So what do we do now?’ Brooke asked.

  ‘Let the police do their job.’ Rio pushed away from the table after giving her a stern look. ‘And we do what I suggested when I first came here, increase the security surrounding this house. Now who wants what for breakfast?’

  The thought of food made Brooke’s rebellious stomach churn. She pushed off Luke’s knee and strode out onto the verandah, in desperate need of fresh air.

  Holding onto the verandah rail as if for dear life, she stared out over the expanse of water that obliterated all the lowlying pasture land. Stubs of posts rose a few centimetres above the muddy water, the only visible sign of fences and cattle yards. To the left only the top half of a loading race was visible, its submerged state the result of twenty-four hours of relentless rain.

  Luke found her there.

  Brooke turned and leaned her back against the rail so she could see his face. ‘What are we going to do? Wait until McLellan strikes again?’

  ‘I don’t think that’s likely.’

  ‘You were so sure he wouldn’t stoop to anything illegal either.’

  ***

  Luke raked a hand through his hair. Brooke’s judgement was fair. He had become complacent, but after last night all bets were off. Now, he needed to make sure Otto and Rose stayed safe while the police did their work. The knot in his throat tightened. ‘I’m sure McLellan won’t try and pull a similar stunt.’

  Brooke turned on him, her eyes flashing with temper. ‘And why is that?’

  ‘Because last night he not only failed, he betrayed his hand.’

  Brooke sagged against the rail, rubbing a hand against her temple. ‘I didn’t consider that angle.’

  ‘Kidnapping is a damn serious offence so rest assured, the police will comb through every detail, no matter how trivial, until they solve this crime.’

  Luke didn’t know how, but he did know it would be resolved. In the meantime it was up to him to make life right for Otto and Rose, and for Brooke and, loath as he was to admit it, for himself.

  He refused to live looking over his shoulder, always wondering when, or if Duncan McLellan would strike, and neither should the rest of his family.

  ‘What is McLellan so scared of?’

  ‘If I knew the answer, we may have been spared the nerve-wracking events of the last twelve hours.’

  ‘You’re sure he’s responsible for your sister’s death.’

  ‘You can ask that after last night?’

  Brooke stared up at him, her wide-eyed expression one of absolute horror. ‘You think he intended to harm Rose and Otto?’

  ‘What other explanation is there?’

  ‘But they’re only children!’

  ‘Maybe, but they’re children whose returning memories have their grandfather rattled enough to commit—or at the very least pay someone to commit—a serious felony.’

  ‘Uncle Luke?’

  Rose’s shaky question made him turn. One look at her expression was enough for him to know she’d heard a good deal of their conversation.

  Damn! She does not need to hear me airing my suspicions.

  Luke opened his arms.

  Rose ran into them, and he hugged her tightly. He felt as if he’d aged twenty years in the last twelve hours. He could never recall being so damn frightened, and God knows, he’d worked some hairy gigs in his time. Then, only he was involved, only his life was in danger if any situation went sour.

  Last night, danger had come too damn close, and it involved his family. And the woman he loved more than life itself.

  Loved? He loved Brooke?

  Their eyes met and held above the girl’s head. The love he saw in Brooke’s eyes threatened to bring him to his knees. What a moment to face this realisation, with his arms full of trembling, still scared little girl.

  A silent laugh shook him.

  ‘You okay, Rosie girl?’ He looked down at Rose, and held her away a little so he could see her face. ‘You know exactly when to wake up. I heard Rio talking about blueberry pancakes.’

  ‘Rio sure knows what we like.’

  Brooke, her smile wide and reassuring, leaned around Luke to ask Rose, ‘Is Otto awake?’

  Rose wriggled free of Luke’s embrace. ‘Yeah, he’s using the bathroom. He says his legs are hurting real bad.’

  Luke shared a worried look with Brooke. That moment of silent communication eased a knot in Luke’s gut. With Brooke at his side, he no longer had to tread this unfamiliar path alone.

  ‘I’ll go along and see if he needs a hand.’ He turned to leave. />
  ‘Luke?’

  He glanced back over his shoulder.

  ‘Make sure Otto uses his chair this morning,’ Brooke said, ‘and neither of you need get dressed. Let’s enjoy a late brunch in our PJs.’

  He nodded and strode down the hallway to the bathroom, his brow knotted with worry. Otto sure as hell didn’t need a setback. As soon as he saw the boy, Luke knew Brooke had called it right. ‘Are your legs hurting?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Otto grimaced.

  ‘Brooke suggested you rest them so wait here while I get your chair.’

  He went into Otto’s room to retrieve the wheelchair, taking care not to disturb, or touch anything else. The police were sending a team out later to dust both of the kids’ rooms for fingerprints. And this made him angry all over again. How dare those thugs scare the bejesus out of two already traumatised kids?

  ‘Here’s your chariot,’ Luke joked to cover his concern.

  His face scrunched in obvious pain, Otto sat in the chair sighing heavily.

  ‘Otto, Otto!’ Rose’s excited screech echoed down the hallway. ‘Come and have a look at all this water.’

  The boy jerked to attention. He took off, tooling his chair at breakneck speed down the wide hallway and out onto the verandah. Luke shook his head, grinning as he followed the boy at a more sedate pace. Was his worry about after-effects of last night’s adventures unnecessary?

  He joined the others on the verandah.

  Rose and Otto were talking and laughing, excited and in awe of the huge expanse of the swirling brown floodwaters stretching over the fertile river flats as far as the eye could see.

  Luke’s amused gaze locked with Brooke’s over the kids’ heads. Rio calling them all in for breakfast broke that moment of shared intimacy.

  ***

  ‘Another pancake?’ Luke asked.

  Brooke shook her head, laughing as she pushed her plate aside. ‘They were delicious, but I couldn’t possibly eat another mouthful. Dad?’

  ‘Me either.’ Frank pushed aside his plate.

  Luke chuckled as Rose and Otto squabbled over the last pancake. ‘Why not cut it in half.’