A Family Like Hannah's

by Carol Ross

  “Give me my grandson. You have no right to keep him from me.”

  Hannah could see Penny was trembling, and her tone held the sharp edge of someone very angry and desperate. She tightened her hold on Lucas.

  “You’re right, I don’t. But Tate does, and he’s told me personally that it’s not a good idea for you to spend time with Lucas unsupervised.” Hannah was stalling, trying to figure out how to proceed. There was no one else in the parking lot. Where was Viktor?

  Penny huffed, her eyes were darting around wildly.

  “I’m leaving with my grandson and you’re not going to stop me.”

  Her worst fear materialized as the woman pulled out a gun and pointed it at Hannah’s chest.

  She had never been more grateful for Dr. Voss’s coaching than she was at that moment. In a perfectly calm voice she asked, “Lucas, where is Viktor? Did he bring you today?”

  “Yes, he watches my lessons just like you and Uncle Tate do when you bring me.”

  That meant Viktor should be noticing any second that Lucas was missing. She had to keep stalling.

  Penny laughed, and the sound was startling. There was a crazy, demented harshness to it. She felt Lucas flinch.

  “Viktor isn’t coming to save you, girlie, if that’s what you’re hoping for. Now, I’m taking my grandson and leaving. Lucas, get in the car or so help me, you will regret it. And you know I mean it, you little brat.”

  She heard Lucas gasp and then choke on a sob.

  That was it.

  Hannah saw red.

  This woman would have to take her out before she ever harmed another hair on Lucas’s head.

  “Stay behind me, Lucas, buddy, okay?”

  * * *

  TATE WAS WORKING on his amended recommendations for the board when his phone rang.

  “Hey, Viktor, what’s up?”

  “Tate, you must come quickly. Penny... I bring Lucas to swim lesson. She has gun... Said she’d hurt Lukie if I didn’t go to equipment room...lock on door not so good, though, and I get out. But Lukie—he is gone.”

  Tate had started moving through the house as soon as Viktor mentioned Penny’s name. He hung up and dialed 911 with one hand and scooped up his wallet and keys with the other. The realization hit him that she had been watching. She’d been at the zoo and probably in Garner, too. And yesterday, as he walked Lucas into swim lessons he’d felt this weird tingling along his scalp. He hadn’t shrugged it off.

  He’d called to make sure Penny was still in rehab, feeling unsettled when he’d learned she wasn’t there. Trying her Colorado number several times, no one ever answered. Then he phoned a couple of her neighbors, and they all vouched for her being back there.

  But Penny was clever.

  That was something people often underestimated about her—her intelligence. Tate included, obviously. Just because someone was an addict, that didn’t make them stupid.

  * * *

  THE POLICE? Hannah heard the sirens, and wished with every fiber of her being that they were coming to her and Lucas’s aid. Thankfully, Penny seemed momentarily frozen, waiting for the sirens to glide on by. But in the next instant, flashing lights appeared as two police vehicles pulled into the parking lot.

  She felt a few seconds of respite before she absorbed the rage on Penny’s face.

  “Now you’re going to smile and act like everything is fine, or I will shoot you. You hear me?” she ordered. Her hand was back in her bag, but Hannah was well aware that it still held the gun.

  In her periphery she saw two officers heading their way. She recognized them—anyone who lived in the valley would recognize them. There weren’t very many cops in Rankins and one of them was a friend.

  “Hannah?” he called out.

  “Hey, Pete.” She answered a bit too loudly with a friendly smile, deliberately calling him by the wrong name.

  She and Jared Berkeley had been in the same class in school, same group of friends, often hanging out together on the banks of the Opal River. Jared could turn a baseball into a rocket with a flick of his wrist, and their junior year Hannah had seen him shoot the stem off an apple at a firearms competition, defeating the then current state champion—Pete Chambers.

  “Everything okay here?”

  Penny narrowed her eyes at Hannah in warning.

  “Yep. We’re good.” Hannah kept the smile on her face.

  Jared kept walking, but she could see he understood because his hand had shifted toward his hip. The other officer was still moving, too, flanking them, and she knew he had caught Jared’s nonverbal cue. She braced herself, planning out her next move in her mind.

  It took Penny a few seconds to realize that Hannah had somehow sabotaged her. Penny looked at Jared who was still closing in. Using that hesitation in her favor, Hannah turned and enveloped Lucas in her arms. She dropped to the ground and, covering his little body with her own, she rolled right off the edge of the sidewalk until they were under Viktor’s pickup. A series of loud pops ensued and she squeezed Lucas tightly as she inhaled the scent of grease and counted—one, two, three, four...

  Two more pops sounded and she had no idea if anyone had been hit. She couldn’t see anything from beneath the pickup where she’d rolled with Lucas. But she thought someone must have been hit because now she heard Jared calling for an ambulance and someone was screaming.

  * * *

  EVEN THOUGH HE’D been expecting as much, the lights of the emergency vehicles and the crowd of people caused a wave of fear inside Tate as he pulled into the parking lot of the community center. His eyes zeroed in on the ambulance where he spotted Hannah standing by a gurney with Lucas held securely in her arms. She was talking to someone as paramedics tended the patient lying there. Tate climbed out and ran toward them.

  Hannah looked up and saw him, and he felt a flood of such relief that it nearly left him breathless. They were alive, and Lucas looked well and whole with his face buried in Hannah’s neck.

  “Lucas,” he called out. “Are you okay? Is he okay? Are you okay?”

  “We’re fine.”

  “Uncle Tate,” Lucas cried out his name and reached out to him. Tate took him into his arms, the feeling of joy indescribable.

  “Tate, we’re fine, but Viktor—” she broke off.

  Tate noticed him then, stretched out on the gurney. Viktor’s normally fair complexion looked gray and blood oozed from somewhere because bright red splotches seeped through white bandages on his chest. Tate gently touched his friend’s arm.

  “Viktor?” he asked but got no response.

  He flicked his eyes toward the paramedic across from him. “Is he going to be okay?

  “He was shot, but we’re taking care of him.”

  Tate watched helplessly as they loaded the man who was a like a father to him into the ambulance. Hot tears burned his eyes as worry clutched at this chest.

  He felt Hannah tug on his sleeve, but it took a few seconds for the motion to register. Her voice sounded sharp in his ear. “Tate, come on—move, we’re going to the hospital.”

  He followed Hannah to her SUV. He deposited Lucas into the backseat where he scrambled into the booster seat Hannah had borrowed from someone weeks ago so Lucas would always be safe in her car.

  Safe... How...?

  He debated about whether he should talk in front of Lucas and then decided he’d probably seen much of the action anyway. “What happened? Where’s Penny?”

  “Grandma shot Viktor, Uncle Tate. Why would Grandma make Viktor dead?”

  Hannah answered. “He’s not dead. Remember, he opened his eyes and smiled at us? The doctors are going to make him better at the hospital.” She cut hopeful eyes toward Tate as she confidently maneuvered the vehicle out of the parking lot.

  Tate marveled at her comp
osure, sealing his belief that Hannah was the strongest person he’d ever known. She could have died—Lucas could have died. Viktor... A bout of nausea caused him to break out into a cold sweat.

  “The police have her.”

  “Why would Grandma shoot Viktor?” Lucas repeated.

  “Grandma is...sick, Lucas.”

  “She’s not very nice, is she?”

  “No, buddy, she’s not.”

  “I know. She smelled like whiskey. That’s why I called the police.”

  She glanced at Tate, then into the rearview mirror.

  “You what, sweetie?”

  “When Grandma came and got me I could smell the whiskey smell. You told me, Hannah, that if I ever smelled that on anyone that I should never ride with them. That it would be an emergency. So I called the police.”

  “I did say that, Lucas. And you’re right, it certainly was an emergency. But how did you...?”

  “I told Grandma I needed to go to the bathroom before we went from the community center. When I was in the bathroom, I saw my swim teacher and asked if I could use his phone. He made a weird face but gave me the phone, so I pressed 911 like we practiced, Hannah. I told them it was an emergency and that I was at swimming. Then I gave the phone back and Grandma yelled at me to hurry up and come out.”

  Hannah used a palm to cover her mouth and Tate could see that she was stifling a sob.

  He reached into the backseat and took Lucas’s hand. He placed the other on Hannah’s knee. Lucas’s tiny fingers felt so cold. “Lucas, I’m so proud of you, little man.”

  “I love you, Uncle Tate. I didn’t want to go with Grandma. I want to stay with you.”

  “And you’re going to, buddy—forever. Just like I promised.”

  Hannah pulled into the parking lot of the hospital. “Me, too, Lucas. So, so proud of you. You did great.”

  “I love you, Hannah.”

  “I love you, too, Lucas.”

  “Thank you for saving me. Hannah stayed on top of me on the ground, Uncle Tate. So I wouldn’t get hurt.”

  Hannah unbuckled her seat belt and scrambled out of the car. She opened the backseat and gathered Lucas into her arms. “Oh, Lucas,” she wrapped him in the hugest bear hug and kissed his cheek. “I think you’re the one who saved us all.”

  They hurried into the hospital where Hannah saw one of the nurses, Denise Manson, outside the emergency room doors.

  “Denise, there was a man just brought in here.”

  “Yes, do you know him?”

  “He’s... Yes.”

  “His name is Viktor?”

  “Yes.”

  Denise moved around the counter and picked up a clipboard. “What’s his last name?”

  “Kovalenko,” Tate said, stepping up beside her and then spelling it out.

  “Are you a family member?” Denise asked.

  “Yes. He’s like my dad. He was my legal guardian when I was growing up.”

  Denise nodded and said, “That’s family where we come from, isn’t that right, Hannah?”

  Hannah had never been so glad to be from a small town in her life. Denise took Tate firmly by the elbow and led him through the double doors.

  Hannah sat in one of the low, padded chairs right outside the doors and settled Lucas on her lap. He closed his eyes and rested his head against her shoulder, and she was absolutely certain she couldn’t love this child any more even if he was her own.

  Not for the first time, she wished she could have said yes to Tate.

  * * *

  TATE STARED DOWN at Viktor where he lay in his hospital bed, a gut-wrenching mix of worry and anger churning within him. The doctor said he’d been really lucky. He’d lost some blood, but the bullet had gone into his shoulder without inflicting significant damage. Right now he was sedated for the pain because they’d had to remove a few bullet fragments.

  According to the police officer who’d talked to him after the doctor, Penny had wildly fired several shots up into the air. She’d screamed at the officers to back off but wouldn’t lower her weapon. Officer Berkeley had been about to shoot her when Viktor had appeared in the parking lot.

  Officer Berkeley said Viktor hadn’t even hesitated when he’d spotted Penny, but instead had charged in her direction. She’d turned the gun on him and fired, whereupon the officer had taken the opportunity to tackle her.

  “Where is she now?”

  “She’s incarcerated in one of our jail cells, Mr. Addison.”

  “Good. Don’t let her go.”

  “No, sir, we won’t. I don’t think she’ll be getting free for a very long while.”

  Tate nodded but couldn’t help wondering if he would ever really be free of Penny or the damage she continued to inflict.

  “I hate to ask you this, but we’re going to need you to come down to the station and answer a few questions.”

  * * *

  HANNAH WAITED AT Tate’s house. Viktor was staying the night in the hospital, but the doctor felt confident he would be released within the next day or two. She’d slipped a movie in the DVD player and Lucas had fallen asleep on the sofa next to her with Cuddles held firmly in his arms. He hadn’t even stirred when she had put them both to bed.

  After kissing him on the forehead, she flipped on the walkie-talkie and headed downstairs to wait for Tate. It wasn’t long before she heard him come through the door leading from the garage. The grim look on his face filled her with concern.

  Without saying a word he walked in and lowered himself onto the sofa. Worry seemed to have exaggerated his beautiful features; his mouth was tight and tiny lines stood out around his eyes, even the light crease that was always evident between his brows had formed into a deep furrow.

  “Tate—”

  “My mother tried to kidnap her own grandson.” His voice was rough with emotion.

  It was just as she’d expected, yet Hannah still felt ill. She dropped onto the sofa and placed an arm around Tate’s shoulder.

  “Talk to me,” she said. “Tell me.”

  “There was a letter.”

  “What kind of letter?”

  “A letter demanding a ransom for Lucas’s safe return.”

  “Tate—”

  “There’s more.”

  His voice held an edge and so much...coldness. Tingling began at the nape of her neck as he continued to relay details in the same icy tone.

  “They also found a formula—a recipe.”

  “A recipe?” she repeated the word with a whisper, but somehow she knew what he was going to say.

  “Yes. The correct dosage of sleeping pills needed to put a forty-pound, six-year-old child out for days. Or forever. Just mash it up and add it to a glass of milk.”

  Her stomach roiled as this information sank in.

  “So either way—ransom paid or not...it seems my mother,” he spat the word, “planned to drug her own grandson.”

  * * *

  TATE KNEW OF course that Penny had issues, but he realized now that he’d always believed somewhere deep inside that she was redeemable. That was what had compelled him to keep trying to help her, save her, even protect her at times when in reality he’d been enabling her.

  As he had gradually risen to the top of his sport, he’d tried to take care of Lexie as much as possible—sending money, gifts, cards and letters. And money for Penny. Always money. He admitted now that’s all she’d ever really wanted from him, and that fact hurt. Which was crazy, because he’d known it. Or he thought he had.

  Still, after all these years, after all the disappointment, he’d held on to a kernel of hope that someday she would get better. He’d blamed her addiction and her own sorry past for so much of her behavior.

  But this... This was his fault. Hannah co
uld have been killed, Lucas could have been killed, Viktor...

  He was surprised at how much it hurt to finally, truly let her go, and with that realization came another. His worst fear had materialized. He would never truly be free.

  “I’m so sorry. Is there anything I can do?”

  * * *

  TATE STARED BACK at her, but Hannah could tell he didn’t really see.

  “No,” he said.

  Dread, thick and menacing, overtook her as she watched Tate mentally check out on her.

  “Tate—”

  “We’re leaving.”

  “What do you mean you’re leaving?”

  “As soon as Viktor is well enough—he and I and Lucas... I’m so glad you said no to me, Hannah, because eventually I would have ruined your life, too. It was stupid of me to believe that I could ever have a normal life. That we could be a normal family. That I could ever have... We’ve got to get away from Rankins.”

  He stood up. “Thank you so much for staying with Lucas and for all of your help. I’ll, uh, I’ll let you know our plans as soon as I’ve finalized them.”

  He turned and left the room, and Hannah knew that with this one painful, critical decision he had proved her suspicions once and for all; when the going got rough, Tate bolted.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  THE FBI HAD been called in because Penny and an accomplice had been charged with attempted child abduction, which was a federal offense. Added to a slew of other federal charges, it looked as if Penny would be serving some substantial prison time.

  Hannah had gone into work early again so she could hang out with Lucas that afternoon while Tate and Viktor had a meeting with two FBI agents. She and Tate agreed it would be best for them to carry on as if things were fine until he was ready to leave town. Which it turned out wouldn’t be quite as soon as he had anticipated.

  As usual, Lucas opened the door for her as soon as she stepped up on the porch.

  “Hi, Hannah.”

  “Hey, Lucas. Wanna go feed the koi with me before we get started on those paper airplanes?”

  “Yes.” His face transformed with a wide grin. “We have grapefruit.” Remarkable how much he looked like his uncle when he smiled, although she hadn’t seen much smiling from Tate lately.