by Ivy Wonders
He looked like a deer in the headlights. “Well, I don’t need them to see how this lock works.”
“Well, there might be fingerprints on that lock.” I couldn’t wait for Arrie to come. He’d make sure these morons didn’t mess anything up. “I want you two to wait for my son’s father to get here before you do any more investigating.”
Looking sheepish, he ducked his head then went out to his patrol car, stopping only long enough to get his partner to go with him. I heard him whispering about me being an amateur sleuth that would get them into trouble if they gave me any reason to.
And the man was right.
Standing at the door, not even feeling the cold as the wind blew past me, I waited and watched for Arrie’s car to pull in. And in a few minutes, he did. Bolting out the door, I ran to him as fast as I could, needing the strength I knew his presence would give me.
Arrie caught me as he jumped out of the car, which he’d parked sideways behind the police car. “Reagan, what happened?”
I started crying as he held me. I couldn’t help it. My entire body shook; my head felt as if it would burst. “Someone took him, Arrie. Right out his bedroom window. Someone—”
Holding me tight, Arrie didn’t wait for me to say anything more as he shouted to the cops who sat in their car. “Hey, get out here.”
Looking like a couple of bumbling idiots, they came up to us. “Sir, what’s your name?”
“Dr. Arslan Dawson. Look, I saw a man sitting out here in a black, four-door Ford Taurus at fifteen minutes after midnight tonight.” Arrie looked one of the men dead in the eyes. “Listen closely; perhaps record this or write it down. This is your man, guys.” Arrie looked at me. “Tell them the name of the man who had an eight-year-old daughter—a patient of yours— that passed away waiting for a heart.”
“John Haney.” I couldn’t breathe. “Shit. He called me the other day. He was upset about Thanksgiving and his daughter not being there. I hung up on him—he shouted for me to wait, but I didn’t. I hung up. He wanted to talk, and I wouldn’t listen. This is my fault, all my fault!”
Arrie held me tight. “Hush. This isn’t your fault. And we know this man’s name, and that’s half the battle right there.” Looking back at the police, he asked, “And you’re still standing here because?”
The two looked confused. “Um, oh yeah.” One of them took a little initiative. “I’ll get on that.” He glanced at Arrie’s car, blocking them in. “If you could move that, it would help.”
I had to let Arrie go so he could move his car, and then I went back inside. I needed to get my cell and see if Haney’s number was still on it. “Officers, I think I’ve got his number on my cell. You’ll need that.”
Arrie pulled up, parking next to my car. When he got out, he came inside, where the officers had followed me. He saw me with my phone in hand. “You said he called. You’re looking up the number?”
“I am.” I searched the call history and found it. Showing it to the officers, I said, “Here.”
Arrie took out his cell. “I want that number too.”
Both officers looked at him with stern expressions. “Sir, you need to let us handle this,” one of the officers cautioned. “You don’t want to say something that might make him angry—he might hurt your son if he’s angry.”
Arrie looked irate as he slammed his fist against his palm. “Look, I want you to contact this man right now and offer him a million dollars to release our son. I want you to tell him there’ll be no charges filed against him for kidnapping if he’ll settle for the money—got it?”
I looked at Arrie and felt incredibly lucky to have him back in my life, caring for our child. Looking up, I thanked God for putting everything in place for us. “Thank you,” I whispered, not knowing exactly who I was thinking.
Arrie seemed to understand and put his arm around me. “We’re going to get him back, baby. Don’t worry.”
We have to get him back.
Chapter 19
Arslan
Although my mind teetered on the verge of pure panic, I knew I had to keep it together for Reagan and our son. “Let’s get you dressed, baby.” The officers had gone to join the other members of the police force to find John Haney, leaving us alone.
I’d never seen her this way, and it nearly killed me. So frail, so completely terrified, Reagan looked as if she could blow away at any moment. When I pulled her up from her seat on the sofa, she collapsed in my arms.
Picking her up, I carried her to her bedroom, where I sat her on the bed. “I’ll pick out some clothes for you, and then help you take a shower. We’ve got a lot to do. I need your mind sharp, baby. Skye needs us both to stay sharp, focused, and thinking of everything we can to get him back home, safe and sound.”
Taking a deep breath, she put her face in her hands. “I’ve never been so afraid, Arrie. Not ever. What if he’s hurt? What is he’s crying? What if that man is doing something horrible to him right now?”
“Don’t.” I went back to pick her up, holding her tightly. “Don’t think like that. The man I met was distraught, but I don’t think he’s going to hurt Skye. I think he just wants to scare you. If I offer enough money, I feel certain he’ll give him back.”
The color of her green eyes paled as she looked at me. “He thinks I killed his daughter, Arrie. He’s told me that numerous times. I think he means to kill our son. I really do. And I’m so damn afraid he’s already done it.”
I couldn’t think that way; couldn’t let her think that way. “Stop. This isn’t going to help. We have to believe with all our hearts that our son is alive. We can’t ever stop believing that. You know how important it is to keep up morale when faced with life or death situations, Reagan. Use your training to help you get through this.”
“Arrie, I can’t just stop my mind from coming up with things! And I’m not being irrational—why would he take our son if not to hurt him?” She pulled out of my arms then ran into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. I heard her throwing up and decided to leave her be for a moment.
Going to her chest of drawers, I found her some clean undergarments then went to the closet to get her something warm to wear. A pair of black slacks, a forest-green sweater, some black flats—she’d be comfortable and presentable if we had to do a press conference.
I’d do anything we had to in order to get our son back. If I needed to up the offer, I would. If the man didn’t respond to money, then others would. I wasn’t going to stop at anything to get Skye back home.
Decisions came quickly. He had twenty-four hours to respond to my offer. If he didn’t respond before then, I’d change the offer to twice as much—only I’d open that reward up to anyone who could give us information that led to getting our son back.
As I headed back to the closet to see about getting a sweater or jacket for Reagan, I saw a black case on the top shelf. Pulling it down, I discovered it was a handgun case.
Taking it with me to the bathroom, I knocked on the door. “Reagan, can I come in?”
“Yes,” came her weak reply.
When I opened the door, I found her sitting on the floor in front of the toilet. “You have a gun?”
She nodded. “The key to the box is in the top drawer of my nightstand. The bullets are in another drawer. The third one in my chest of drawers, inside a black sock. I’ve never used the gun, but it’s registered to me. I bought it when I moved out of my parents’ house.”
“We might need this. I’m putting it back where I found it for now, though.” I thought about how the weapon might come in handy if it came to it. “If the cops can’t get our son, I will. I’m not waiting around either.” I turned to walk back out to put the gun away, making sure to hide it so no one would find it if they did a thorough search of the apartment.
“Arrie,” Reagan called out, stopping me. I looked back at her. “Thank you. For everything. I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“I don’t want you to even think about
that.” I smiled at her, then jerked my head at the shower. “Do you need me to start that for you, or do you have this?”
She got up and went to the shower. “I’ve got this. I can trust you. If I can’t trust anyone else, I can trust you, Arslan Dawson. I wish I’d always understood that.”
“Better late than never.” I went to put the gun back in the closet and thought about calling the piece of shit who had my son. Knowing the police thought it a bad idea, I weighed my options.
A little father-to-father communication, paired with the offer of more money than that man would make in a lifetime, might be the best thing to do. I couldn’t leave Skye with that man for much longer. I had to find Skye before I lost my grip on sanity.
If he hurts my son, so help me God.
After putting the gun away, I went to sit on the bed, putting my mind to other things. The doorbell rang, and I got up to answer it. When I looked out the peephole, I saw another set of officers standing there in the porch light.
Opening the door, I prayed for good news. “Did you find him?”
Both shook their head, and I stepped back to let them in out of the cold. “We found Haney’s home. No one’s there. We haven’t had any reports of his car yet, but it’s early. If we don’t find them shortly, we’ll be putting out an Amber Alert. Once the sun rises and we get the public on our side, we’ll have much better chances of finding them.”
“Did you go inside his home?” I asked. I knew they might not have the proper paperwork to do that just yet.
“We woke up a judge and got a warrant to search his home,” the other officer told me. “There are men on the scene there now. But I can tell you, he’s not there, and there’s no way of knowing if he even went there with your son. At least not until the prints come back from the lab.”
The other cop took over. “That’s what we’re here for. We need some prints off your son’s things. That way we have them to compare to.”
I scanned the room and found his Kindle on the dining table. “There should be prints on that over there.”
One of them had a small case in his hand that I hadn’t even noticed. “I’ll get the prints.”
Reagan must’ve heard us, as she called out from the bedroom. “Arrie, can you come here, please?” Heading her way, I found her dressed. But as she turned around, I saw she’d been unable to do the zipper that went up the back of the sweater. “Can you get this for me?’
“Sure, baby.” I zipped it up then turned her around. Slipping my arms around her, I hugged her, hoping to settle us both a bit. “They’ve gotten into his house. No one’s there. Has that man ever mentioned anything else about his personal life to you? Think of everything. Do you know where he worked when his daughter was your patient?”
“I can get someone from the hospital to find that out, I think.” She pulled back to look at me. “Arrie, do you think you could hire a private investigator too?”
“I’ll get one as soon as possible.” Looking at the window, I saw the first signs of light. “The sun’s going to be up soon, and the city will get back to work. I’ll get us the help we need very soon.”
“Good.” She rested her head on my chest. “I love you.”
Running my hand through her damp hair, I whispered, “I love you too. Come on, let’s go to the bathroom and I’ll braid your hair like I used to.”
“We’re going to head out, Dr. Dawson,” one of the officers called out. “We’ll let you know if we find anything.”
Reagan looked at me. “What did they come here for?”
“Skye’s fingerprints.” I ran my finger along her jawline. “I let them take them off the Kindle.”
Nodding, she whispered, “Smart.”
“They’re taking prints from Haney’s house. If he took Skye there, his prints will be on something.” I wasn’t feeling optimistic about that. The man would be a fool to take him to his home. And even if he had taken him there, what help did that do us? All that mattered at the moment was that he wasn’t currently there.
Leading Reagan into the bathroom, I had her take a seat at the vanity. “Hand me that comb.”
She picked it up and handed it over. “Here you go.”
Running it through her damp curls, I sighed. We’d just gotten everything back, and then it had all gotten swept out from under us again.
As right as we seemed to be for each other, why did things have a way of not working out for us? Were we cursed? Did that curse spill over to include our only child? And what could be done to end this thing?
Reagan looked at me in the mirror. “Arrie, being who and what we are, do you think either of us has the capacity to take Haney’s life if it came to that?”
I didn’t know about her, but I knew how I’d felt the moment I’d heard someone had taken my son—a son I hadn’t even gotten the chance to know yet. “I could kill him. I could do it with my bare hands.” There wasn’t a single doubt in my mind. I could easily wring the man’s neck for what he’d done.
Reagan had another question. “If one of us kills him, will we go to jail?”
I didn’t know for sure. “You let me deal with it. That way if anyone has to go to jail, it’ll be me.”
She closed her eyes, her whole body exuding an aura of pain and sadness. “If it comes down to me having to do it, promise me you’ll take care of Skye. And promise me you’ll never take him out of my parents’ lives.”
“Nothing is going to happen to you, Reagan.” I didn’t even want to think about that. “And no matter what happens, I would never take Skye away from the people he loves.”
When she opened her eyes, I saw the tears welling up in them. “I just want him back home. Safe, with both of us. I want to let him know you’re his father. He needs to know he has you now. If you’d been here this whole time, he might not have ever been taken.”
“We have no way of knowing that, Reagan.” It wasn’t like she’d heard Skye being taken; why would I have heard it? “The fact that I left when I did gave us the jump on things. If I hadn’t left last night, I wouldn’t have noticed him lurking about in his car. We know who has him because of that.”
Maybe we aren’t cursed after all. Maybe we’re blessed.
Chapter 20
Reagan
The waiting was terrible—that, and my imagination. The most horrible thoughts would pop up in my head. My poor son, tied up. My baby boy, bleeding. Bile welled up in the back of my throat, but I gulped it back down as I looked at Arrie.
Focusing on him brought me back to the here and now. He braided my hair then laid the long braid over my left shoulder. “There, that looks pretty. We’re going to have to go public with this soon, Reagan.”
Blinking, I knew that meant a hell of a lot more than just asking for people’s help to find our son. “I need to call Mom and Dad. They shouldn’t hear this on the news.”
“You also need to ask that woman who watches Skye to come over here to stay while we’re gone. Just in case he comes home somehow.” Arrie put his hands on my shoulders, turning me around to face him. “If he gets free, Skye might make a run for it. He might show up here.”
I wouldn’t be waiting around to see if that actually occurred. “I’ll get Phyllis over here. What’s the plan, Arrie?”
“I need to do a search for private investigators. After that, I need to talk to the police department about setting up a press conference first thing this morning. While I’m doing that, I want you to get on social media and alert everyone you know in this area.”
Sounded smart. “I’m on it.”
We spent the better part of an hour getting those things done, and then I called my mother. “Morning, Reagan. What has you calling so early?”
“Mom, you need to sit down if you’re not already doing so,” I warned her.
“Reagan?” she asked, and I heard her taking a seat. “What is it, honey?”
“Is Dad near you?” I figured he should be there to help her when she got the news.
�
��He’s right here,” she said. “I’m putting you on speaker so he can hear you. This sounds important.”
Nothing had ever been so important. “Okay, around three this morning, Skye was kidnapped. Someone came in through his window and took him. It was a man whose daughter had been a patient of mine. His daughter passed while waiting for a suitable heart to arrive for transplant.”
Stunned silence took over the line. And then there was shouting. “I’m going to find that son of a bitch, and I’m going to kill him!” my father yelled.
“I’ve been thinking that same thing.” The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. “And there’s a little bit more. Skye’s father just found out yesterday about our son. He’s here with me. We’ve notified the police and they’re already searching for Skye, but his father’s got some plans for how we can get him back. So you’ll be seeing us on television shortly, as we’re insisting the police set up a press conference.”
“You told him?” Mom asked.
“Yes, but it was a bit more complicated than that.” I didn’t know exactly how to explain what had happened. “He saw us. He figured it out on his own. And we want to let Skye know as soon as possible who his father is.”
My father had one question. “Is he going to be in his life now?”
“He is going to be in our son’s life, and mine. We’re going to get married and become the family we should’ve been all along.” I still felt like a fool for making things go on so long.
“Baby, we need to get down to the station,” Arrie called out to me from the living room. “Get Phyllis over here, please.”
“Okay, guys.” I had to wrap things up. “We have to get going. I’ll update you whenever we hear anything, or you can come meet us at the station.” After a brief goodbye, I hung up.
I went out to the living room and found Arrie ready to go. “Is she on her way over?”