“No,” Denise hissed. “Into the garage and in the car. You drive.”
“Denise, I’m seeing double. I can’t drive.”
Erica felt Denise move in front of her. She cracked her eyes and saw feet. She looked up. Denise’s upraised fist, curled around the gun, made her flinch. “Get up,” the woman ordered.
“I can’t.” She licked her lips. “And if you hit me again, I’ll be down for the count.”
Denise pointed the gun in Erica’s face. “Then I’ll kill you now.”
Erica knew if she got up, she’d black out again. And who knew what Denise would do at that point. “I thought you needed me,” she said.
Denise’s frustration was evident on her face. “I do.” She walked to the window and looked out. “I can’t believe this. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Just one more day and I would have been gone.” She turned back. “Only now if you don’t answer the door, they’re going to know something’s wrong.”
“I’m pretty sure they already know.” So why weren’t they knocking the door down? “Where’s Molly?”
“I don’t know. She was kidnapped, remember?”
Erica’s fingers balled into a fist—it was all she could do not to use her last bit of strength to plant it right in the woman’s face. That wouldn’t help. She had to stay calm and in control if she wanted to see her daughter again.
“You just threatened that if I didn’t do what you wanted, I’d never see her again. Don’t bother denying that you took her.”
“She should have been mine in the first place.” Denise opened the door in the kitchen that led to the garage. “Get in the car.”
“If you’d get me some ice, it might help. But if I move now, I’ll just pass out.”
Denise blinked at the change of subject. Erica had done a brief course on hostage negotiation. She’d taken it out of curiosity when she’d become a skip tracer. Now she did her best to remember everything from the class. Unfortunately, she was having trouble focusing. Her vision dimmed.
No, no passing out. Stay awake.
Cold filled her palm. She looked down at the ice pack Denise had fixed for her. Guess she didn’t want Erica passing out after all.
Erica placed the ice against the back of her head and winced. It hurt and felt wonderful all at the same time. “You said you killed him. He knew, didn’t he?” she whispered.
“What?” Denise stumbled back like Erica had jolted her with a Taser.
“Your father. He knew what you’d done. And the secret killed him.”
Bitterness hardened Denise’s eyes, and she lowered herself into the chair behind her. “He found out on his first visit. It wasn’t like I could hide her. He was horrified.” Her lips thinned. “But I convinced him Molly was much better off with me. I told him how her own father didn’t want her and how you were too messed up to be a good mother.” A slight smile curved her lips. “When Dad saw how wonderful Molly and I were together, he let it go. He fell in love with her just like I did and was the best grandfather ever.”
Was she crazy? Erica looked into her eyes and saw no sign of insanity. Just anger that she’d been caught, and a desperation to escape that sent shards of fear slamming through Erica. Desperation was not a good thing for a woman with a gun in her hand.
Gun.
Erica stilled. Her gun was in her purse. Her head still throbbed, but the debilitating nausea had passed. However, Denise didn’t need to know that.
The pounding on the front door resumed. “Erica? Come on. What’s taking so long? Are you all right? Open the door. I need to talk to you.”
Denise jumped and cursed.
“I’m coming,” Erica called, looking at Denise as she stood on wobbling legs. Would Denise really shoot her?
“Hey,” Max yelled, “you’ve got me worried, you two. Open the door or I’m going to kick it in.” She heard the fear in his voice.
Denise aimed the gun at the door, and Erica screamed, “Max, she’s got a gun!”
The bullet pierced the wooden door and Erica dropped to the floor in case Denise decided to swing the gun around in her direction. Pain throbbed through her, blackness threatened once more and she closed her eyes, fighting desperately to hang on to consciousness.
“Denise!” Max called. “Put the gun down.”
“Go away!”
“It’s all over. We know you took Molly. The cops are pulling in now.”
Denise panicked. “No! No. No. No.” She fired the gun again and again into the door, bullets sending wood fragments flying. “Go away! I’ll kill her! Go away!”
Erica rolled into the kitchen and under the table to the opposite side.
Max kicked the door down and spun into the foyer as Denise pulled the trigger again. Erica moved from her position under the table and tried to scramble toward Max. “Stay still!” Denise screamed at her. She slammed the end of the barrel against Erica’s head, sending another wave of lightning through her brain. A cry escaped her and she sank back to the floor.
Max rolled into the next room, taking refuge behind the wall.
Erica felt sick wondering what she should do, desperate to figure out how she could help Max help her. If her head would quit pounding, maybe she could think.
“Denise, put the gun down,” Max said.
“Move to the other end of the table and sit,” Denise ordered Erica, holding her weapon against Erica’s temple. Erica swallowed hard as she moved at a slow, deliberate pace. She could see Max’s foot in the mirror above the fireplace. She couldn’t believe he’d burst through the door like that. He could have been shot.
The phone rang.
Denise jumped. She kept the weapon trained on Erica as she backed up two paces and grabbed the handset. Erica noticed how she held the gun like she knew how to use it, and that she kept Erica between her and Max’s line of fire should he come around the corner of the door.
“I want to leave,” Denise said into the phone. “I have my car in the garage. We’re going to get in it and leave.”
Did she really think the police would just let her drive off? That Max wouldn’t stop her? “Denise. It’s over.”
Her former friend stared at her and snapped, “Stay still.”
Erica obeyed, cradling her head, acting weaker than she felt. She needed time to build her strength while making Denise think she was still wobbly. She also needed to come up with a plan.
“What are you going to do, Denise?” Max called from the den.
“I’m thinking.” She stopped at the window and peered out from the side. “They probably have snipers ready to shoot me the minute they get a clear shot, don’t they?”
“Probably,” Max said. “That’s standard procedure.”
“They won’t shoot if you surrender,” Erica said softly.
“Surrender? Not a chance. My little girl is waiting on me.”
Erica swallowed the sob that threatened and bit her lip. She drew in a steadying breath as she inched her fingers toward her purse on the table.
Max sat on the other side of the kitchen wall and prayed. Prayed for Erica’s safety and for the wisdom to know what to do with the woman holding Erica hostage. He sent a text to Katie telling her the layout of the house, the situation in the kitchen and the fact that he didn’t have a plan but was thinking.
Katie texted him back.
Sit tight. Negotiator coming. For now it’s U and me.
Sit tight? Not likely.
He kept his eyes on the mirror that gave him a pretty good view of the kitchen. He could see Denise still had the gun on Erica, but he couldn’t see the table where Erica sat.
Erica would be all right. She had to be.
His phone vibrated.
Give me more details on the layout.
The home phone rang until Denise grabbed it and disconnected it. She tossed it on the table almost within reach of Erica.
Then Denise’s cell phone started up.
He texted Katie back everything he could see.
Katie wrote, She won’t talk to me.
Max called, “Denise. Will you please talk to the detective?”
“No. I won’t listen to another word from her. She’s just trying to stall me and keep me from getting out of here.”
He sent another text to Brandon, asking him to get the police in New Mexico to check on Molly at Denise’s residence. He wouldn’t put it past Denise to have Molly moved even as she was involved in a hostage situation.
“Will you at least talk to me?” He wanted her talking, not working on a plan.
“There’s nothing to talk about. I need to think so I need you to shut up.”
He paused for a moment, praying for the right words. “All I want is for Erica to be safe. I’m not a cop. I’m not a negotiator. And I really don’t care if you get away as long as Erica’s safe. Will you let me help you? Can we help each other?”
For a moment she didn’t answer. He moved slightly to his left, hoping for a better visual, even though it meant putting himself closer to the line of fire.
With the shift, he could see more of the kitchen. And he could see Denise. She held the gun steady on Erica. All he needed was a distraction. If he could get her to move the gun away from Erica even for a split second, he might be able to get a shot.
And it would have to be the best shot he’d ever made.
EIGHTEEN
Erica glanced at the clock as her fingers crept toward her purse. Her first two attempts had been interrupted. But she had to do something. Distract Denise. Get her gun. Something. She managed to hang the phone up, but so far it had remained silent. The waiting dragged across her nerves like nails on a chalkboard.
“How does Lydia fit in with all of this?” she asked.
Denise scowled. “That brat. I tried to help her out. I paid her to do something worthwhile, and she betrayed me.”
“Betrayed you? How?”
“She figured out who Molly was and was going to go to the police. I could see it in her eyes.”
The phone rang, cutting into Erica’s confusion.
Denise snatched the handset. “Stop calling me!”
Erica could suddenly hear Katie’s voice—Denise must have hit the speaker button. “Denise, we have to talk or we won’t be able to resolve this,” Katie said. Erica nearly wilted hearing her friend’s calm voice.
Denise tensed up, a vein in her forehead jumping. “You either arrange for me to leave here with a live hostage or you get to clean up two dead bodies. Your choice.”
A slight pause. “I’ll have to talk to my superior about that.”
“Then I suggest you start talking. You have thirty minutes. If you don’t give me the answer I want at that time, then it’s over.” She hung up. Denise screamed, “Get out of my house, Max! Get out!”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“You want me to shoot her? I’ll shoot her right here and right now!”
“If you do that, you have no chance of ever seeing Molly again,” Max said. “None.”
Erica swallowed hard as she watched Denise lose hold of some of her control. She needed her to get it back before she did something even crazier than what she was already doing. “Denise.”
The woman looked at her. “What?”
“Why? Just tell me why. What did I do to make you hate me?”
Tears sprang to Denise’s eyes, and hope burned in Erica’s chest that the woman might still have some feelings of warmth toward her.
“Because you had it all, and I got squat.”
Erica’s hope dissipated. Confused, she shook her head. “I don’t understand. What do you mean I had it all? My parents worked 24/7—you had parents at home who loved you. For me, money was always tight, but you never seemed to lack—”
“At school,” Denise hissed as she shook the gun in Erica’s face. Erica prayed it wouldn’t go off during the rant she could see coming. “You were the popular one, voted most likely to succeed, voted prom queen, had the best grades.” She contracted her empty hand into a fist. “I was nothing next to you. The boys didn’t notice me, the teachers compared the rest of the students to you and then Andrew asked you out…” She stopped and dropped her head, but the gun never wavered. “It was just too much.”
“So you stole my child?” Erica stared at her. The conversation was working. Denise seemed to have forgotten about Max. Erica dared a glance at the door and saw nothing.
The woman’s head snapped up. Eyes blazing, she asked, “Do you know why my husband left me?”
Erica blinked at the sudden change in topic. She racked her brain to remember what Denise had said about the man she’d been married to for such a short time and why he’d left. “I guess I assumed it was another woman.” She frowned. “But now that I think about it, I don’t think you ever said.”
“Because it was too shameful. Too…awful.” Erica simply looked at her. Denise waved the gun toward the ceiling, then let her hand drop to her side. “I can’t have children. That’s why he left me.”
Erica swallowed hard. She hadn’t known that. Even as the reality of what had happened sank in, she was nearly overwhelmed with gratitude. Molly was alive. She’d been with a woman who loved her.
Loved her enough to commit murder for her.
“They know you have her, Denise. It’s only a matter of time. The only way this is going to end well is if you let me go.” She swallowed hard and forced the next words out. “I’ll push for leniency. We’ll prove you were in a depression, that you weren’t thinking clearly. I won’t press charges.”
Denise stared at her. “You would do that?”
“Yes,” Erica lied. “Yes, I’ll do that if you’ll just put the gun away. We’ll walk out of here together.”
“No.” Denise shook her head. “You’re lying.”
“Denise, in all the years you’ve known me, have I ever lied to you? Ever?”
Denise hesitated as she thought. Then she swallowed. “No. I really don’t think you have.”
“Well, I sure wouldn’t start now.”
A tear rolled down Denise’s cheek. “I thought after a while, you would stop looking for her. That you would get back to a life without her.” Denise lifted the gun to Erica’s head again. “Why couldn’t you just let her go?”
Max felt his heart stop in his chest at the sight of that gun against Erica’s head once again.
They were running out of time.
He held his phone out with the camera option on and, although, it was awkward, managed to snap a picture. He pulled it back in and looked at it. He texted the picture to Katie.
Her immediate reply:
Can Denise see front door?
Not at moment. Can u hear?
Yes. We have ears. Erica’s doing good. Working on a distraction.
I can give u that.
What do u have in mind?
He answered in four short words.
She responded, Too dangerous.
Only choice. Get ready.
Don’t do anything stupid.
He almost smiled. It was too late. In an incredibly short period of time, he’d fallen in love with a woman he could probably never have. But he planned to do his best to convince her she needed him in her life. Because he sure needed her.
That is, if they both got out of this mess alive.
Motion at the front door caught his eye. A uniformed SWAT member nudged the front door open with his foot.
“This is ridiculous.” In the mirror, he saw Denise move toward the kitchen door, giving her a perfect view of the front door, too.
He held up a hand to the SWAT member. The man froze.
Max shifted. Now that Denise had moved, he could get a better view of the kitchen. Denise stood next to the garage door. Erica still sat at the table between them. He could get off a shot, but if he hit Denise and her finger pulled the trigger, she wouldn’t miss Erica.
He kept his hand up, silently telling the SWAT members to stay back. If Denise saw them, she’d panic.
A scraping sound from the kitchen drew his attention away from the phone.
“What are you doing?” Denise sounded frantic, worried. “Sit down.”
“I’m not sitting here anymore.” Erica sounded calm. Too calm. “I’m walking out that door and going to get my daughter.”
“Sit down!” the woman hissed. “I’ve already sent a text to the person who has her and he’s moving her. You’ll never see her. Never!”
Max peered around the corner, his heart pounding out his fear for Erica. What was she doing?
Almost faster than he could blink, Erica grabbed her purse by the strap and swung it at the weapon in Denise’s hand as she dropped to the floor.
Max yelled, jerking Denise’s attention from Erica. She spun toward him, eyes wide with fury. A crash from behind him made him duck as Denise pulled the trigger. He fired back in her direction.
Two more shots sounded and then there was a brief second of eerie silence before chaos erupted and the SWAT team swarmed in. One of them kicked the weapon away from Denise, who groaned and coughed as she was cuffed.
“Clear the rest of the house,” the man ordered.
In a few short minutes it was deemed clear, and EMTs were allowed to enter.
The second he was allowed to move, he flew to Erica’s side and helped her out from under the table. Pale and trembling, she leaned against him. “She has Molly. She took my baby.”
“I know, but we’re going to get her back.” Shielding her from the sight of Denise and the paramedics working on her, he tried to lead her from the room.
Erica resisted, pulling away from him. “What is it?” he asked her.
She didn’t answer. Instead, she walked over to the woman who’d betrayed her in a way that he couldn’t fathom. Denise was conscious, but her breathing was labored. She looked up at Erica and grimaced. She gasped out again, “Why couldn’t you just let her go?”
Erica’s fingers curled into fists and Max wondered if he’d have to step in to keep her from belting the woman lying bleeding on the floor.
But Erica simply said, “If you thought I could do that, you didn’t know me at all.”
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