by Joanna Wayne
Even if they were available, the photos might not be accurate at this late date, especially after the car crash.
“What about aliases?”
“If they’re known they’d be in there, too. Why?”
“I think Michele Ballentine may be the abductor whose prints we’re looking to find on that very sick photo.”
“Disney was right. This is a small, small world.”
An hour later Hawk left the building flying high. He had a lot more than Michele Ballentine’s name, rank and serial number, or the FBI equivalent thereof. He had hospital records and a collection of aliases.
Hopefully something from his cache would lead them to Michele. Even without the fingerprints, he had a strong hunch that she was the abductor and responsible for the calls and the disgusting photo.
He couldn’t wait to tell Alonsa, but maybe he should. Then he could tell her face-to-face and see her eyes light up when he broke the news that the investigation was now on solid ground.
One big worry still existed and there was no way he could prepare Alonsa for it. So he just had to hope that when they found Lucy she was still alive.
IT HAD BEEN SEVEN YEARS to the day since Todd had persuaded Michele to abort their baby. She should never have listened to him, should never have destroyed the tiny life that would have held the best of both of them. The baby would have bound him to her the way Lucy and Brandon had bound him to Alonsa. If she’d had his baby, he’d have stayed with her. They would have both left the FBI and he would still be alive.
Todd had gotten so upset with her when she’d done foolish things, but she only did them because she’d loved him so much. They both knew it was his fault that she’d been fired.
He was the one who’d manipulated the evidence. All she’d done was try to cover it up so that no one would know. She’d taken the rap for him. He should have been eternally grateful. Instead he’d dumped her for Alonsa.
But it was Michele he’d really loved. He would have realized that and come back to her if Alonsa hadn’t bewitched him with her lewd dancing and her tantalizing ways. He had come around a few times after she’d coincidentally run into him and Lucy in Central Park.
That had been after her plastic surgery to restore the damage caused by the car crash. They’d had sex. He hadn’t said he loved her even then, but she knew that he did. Only by then Alonsa had him too deeply in her clutches for him to escape easily. But he would have, if he’d lived that long. They were soul mates—meant to be together.
Alonsa had given Todd the daughter that should have been theirs. That’s why Michele had no choice but to abduct little Lucy. If anyone should have a part of Todd in her life, it was she.
Lucy was so much like him. Sweet and loving. And funny. Life wouldn’t be worth living without her. But Alonsa would never give up trying to get her back. That’s why Michele had worked so hard to set up her plan. Only…she’d have to wait to carry it out if Alonsa ran much later.
The doorbell rang. Michelle glanced at the clock. Twenty past two. Still time, but she’d have to work fast.
She walked to the door, took a deep breath and opened it.
“Alonsa, I’m so glad you could make it. I was afraid you might not show. Esteban said you were having all kinds of personal problems in your life.”
“A few.”
“Well, don’t worry. I’m very intuitive and I have a feeling all your problems are about to be over. In fact, I can almost guarantee it. And, I hate to ask, but would you mind pulling your car into my garage? I’m expecting the gardener any minute and he’ll need to blow the dirt and grass from the drive.”
Chapter Fourteen
“My car’s in the shop,” Keidra said, as Alonsa stepped from her car into the well-organized garage. “I’d take you through the back, except that I’d hate for my cluttered laundry room to be the first thing you see.”
“That’s fine. Actually I prefer using the front entry when I do the initial walk-through. It gives me a better overall feel for the client’s home and lifestyle.”
Keidra took a remote from her pocket and closed the garage as she led Alonsa back along the front walk and through the double mahogany doors she’d left open. Alonsa took an immediate inventory of the current décor and the features she’d have to work with. The outside had done nothing for her, but the interior held significantly more promise.
“I love the wide windows, and they’re on the east side of the house so they’ll let in the morning sun. The fireplace is a great asset. I can think of lots of ways to give it character. The built-in bookcases may have to go, though. They dwarf almost everything else in the room.”
“I was thinking the same thing. I can’t wait to hear all your ideas, but why don’t we have a cup of tea first? That way I can tell you what I like and how much I can afford to spend. You can take it from there.”
“An excellent idea.”
“We can sit in the breakfast area. It’s one of the rooms that need a drastic update. The wallpaper border is absolutely gauche. But you’ll see that for yourself in a minute.”
She led Alonsa through the family room and into a spacious kitchen with a magnificent view of Keidra’s pool area. The breakfast nook was tucked away in an alcove just off the west corner of the room.
“You just take a seat, Alonsa, and start letting those creative juices flow. I’ll get the tea. It’s herbal, orange with just a whisper of mint.”
“It sounds wonderful.”
“Do you take sugar, lemon or cream?”
“Lemon.”
Keidra returned almost instantly with the tea. She scooted into the chair opposite Alonsa’s.
“I see what you mean about the border,” Alonsa said. “That’s easy to fix. You might want to choose a new fabric for these chairs, as well. I’ll come up with some options for you.”
She sipped her tea. There was more than a squeeze of lemon in it and some unidentifiable herb that left her with a metallic taste on her tongue. Keidra, however, seemed to be enjoying hers.
Alonsa took another sip. It went down better that time. Keidra talked a mile a minute while they finished their tea. Alonsa tried to concentrate on what she was saying but the afternoon sun was shining through the window and making her so sleepy she could barely hold her eyes open.
“I’m thinking I need brighter colors all through the house. My daughter is six and she loves bright colors. Would you like to see a picture of her?”
“Shhhure.”
That didn’t come out right. Her tongue felt like a ladle slapping against her gums. She must be coming down with something because suddenly she was feeling dizzy and light-headed. She might have to call Esteban to come get her and drive her home.
Keidra stuck a photo in front of Alonsa’s face. “This is my Lucy. Isn’t she a pretty girl? She looks just like her father.”
Horror seeped through the murky corners of Alonsa’s brain. This was the exact same photo the kidnapper had sent her except that there was no dead baby and no blood blooming in the grass.
Keidra had the unaltered photograph. But, how could she? Only the abductor had that. Keidra wasn’t the…
Oh, God. Her heart pounded as the horrific truth pushed through her mind’s confusion. Keidra was the deranged woman behind the torment. She had Lucy.
Alonsa struggled to focus on what Keidra was saying.
“Todd was mine first, Alonsa. He loved me until you cast your spell over him. I was going to have his daughter. He made me kill my baby. My poor dead baby never got a chance to live.
“That’s why I had to take Lucy from you. But don’t worry. I could never hurt her. She’s part of Todd.”
This was crazy. Alonsa tried to stand, but her legs refused. It was if they’d been disconnected. Her arms were numb, as well. She’d been drugged. That was the taste she couldn’t identify in the tea.
“Too bad we can’t chat longer, Alonsa, but I don’t have much time. The school bus will be coming soon and I don’t want Lucy to
find you here. As soon as we leave, I’ll call a friend to come over and pick her up. She’ll watch her until I return from the drive you and I are going to take to Lake Houston.
“My car is waiting in a quiet, isolated spot where no one will see us or hear the gunfire when I shoot you. Then I’ll just shove your body into the lake and leave your car so that it looks like a carjacking and robbery gone bad.
“I’ll never get caught. I know all the ways to keep from it. The FBI trained me well before they ruined my life.”
Keidra slung Alonsa’s handbag over her own shoulder and then grabbed Alonsa beneath the armpits and began to drag her dead weight away from the table and through the laundry room.
Alonsa tried desperately to escape Keidra’s grasp, but the connection between her muscles and brain had totally shut down.
Rubber gloves, a roll of duct tape and a pistol had been set on top of the clothes dryer, just steps from the door that led to the garage, ready and waiting to help Keidra finish her gory deed.
Alonsa had to fight back. She couldn’t die like this, not when she’d just found Lucy. She had to live for her and for Brandon.
She needed Hawk, needed his strength and his training. Needed his bravery and confidence. He’d know what to do.
Failure is not an option.
The words hammered against her skull. She couldn’t fail her children. There had to be a way to escape.
She kept pushing, desperately trying for even the slightest of responses from her limbs. But they were in the garage now. Keidra draped Alonsa over the back of her vehicle and slipped her hands into the gloves. Then she took Alonsa’s keys from her handbag and unlatched the trunk, leaving no doubt as to what was coming next.
Once she was stuffed in the trunk, there would be no way for Alonsa to get out. No way to save herself. No way she’d ever see Lucy again or…
“Hawk.”
His name sounded almost distinct as it slipped from her mouth.
“Your lover can’t save you now, Alonsa.”
Hawk had been her lover. A tender, exciting, marvelous lover, and she wanted to live to make love to him again and again. He didn’t think he was the man for her, but he was the only man for her. She could make him see that, but first she had to survive.
Her paralyzed limbs banged against the bumper of the car as Keidra shoved her inside. In what seemed mere seconds, Alonsa’s wrists and ankles were bound and strips of tape were stretched across her lips.
There was a loud clunk of metal on metal and everything went dark. Alonsa heard the hum of the car’s engine and the rattling sound of the garage door as it lifted.
Failure is not an option.
Only this time it was.
HAWK HAD THE PEDAL to the metal as he took the corner near Michele Ballentine’s residence in the Woodlands. If he’d called Alonsa the minute he’d left Sylvia Colby he wouldn’t be in this predicament. He could have caught up with her before she played into the hands of a dangerously unbalanced woman.
Thankfully his instincts had kicked in and he’d called her when he was halfway home. When she hadn’t answered, he’d phoned Linney. The second Linney mentioned Keidra’s name and said that Alonsa had gone to see her on business, it all clicked for him. Keidra was one of the aliases Michele had used before.
Esteban had supplied her address and had explained that Keidra had specifically requested to work with Alonsa. There was a chance Keidra Shelton was a legitimate customer, but Hawk’s gut feeling shouted she wasn’t.
He turned onto Michele’s street. There was no sign of the cops even though he’d called 911 from the highway and told them he was about to kill someone at Michele’s address. That usually brought immediate results from law enforcement.
His luck turned and he spotted Alonsa’s car emerging from a driveway midway down the block. He roared toward it, adrenaline firing through him like dynamite as he pulled into the driveway and blocked the moving car.
There was no sign of Alonsa.
Grabbing the pistol he’d been licensed to carry, he jumped from his truck, pointing the weapon at the driver’s head as he raced to the car.
“Put the gun down and get off my property,” she demanded.
He kept the weapon aimed at her head. “Where’s Alonsa?”
That’s when he saw the small black pistol in her right hand. “You’re not going anywhere, Michele. Now take me to Alonsa before I pull this trigger and blow you though the friggin’ wall.”
“I’m FBI,” she said, “and I’m ordering you to get out of my way.”
“You really are bucking to make my day.”
His finger tightened on the trigger. A knocking clatter yanked his attention away from Michele.
Alonsa, or maybe Lucy. Someone was alive inside the trunk. His heart started bucking inside his chest as he rushed toward the rear of the car.
Michele turned, aimed her weapon at the trunk and fired, penetrating the metal with a bullet shot at close range.
Something snapped inside Hawk, releasing a fury that hurled him into instinctive action. He shot the gun from Michele’s hand in a split second and cornered her, pushing the barrel of his weapon against her right temple.
“Shoot me now, navy boy. Go ahead. It won’t save Alonsa. That’s Lucy kicking around in the car. Her man-stealing mother is already dead.”
Hawk’s chest felt as if it had been struck with a million jagged fragments of shrapnel. He’d failed Alonsa. The one person in his life who’d ever touched his soul and he’d lost her to a lunatic. Lost her without ever having given their love a chance.
His grip tightened on the pistol, his mind and soul mired now in the fierce intensity of survival that had become second nature to him. He’d never wanted to pull a trigger more.
Sirens screamed as several police cars and one ambulance surrounded them, blocking the street and rolling onto the lawn. About time they arrived.
“Drop your weapon and move away from her,” a cop called.
Hawk hesitated and then a clunking noise came from the trunk of the car, louder this time. Lucy.
“Arrest this woman on murder charges,” he said, dropping his gun and moving swiftly to kick in the lock and swing open the truck.
He spotted Alonsa and his breath left his lungs in a rush of heart-stopping relief. She was huddled against a spare tire in the back right corner of the trunk, arms and ankles bound and her mouth taped shut. But her eyes were open and she was breathing.
Blood rushed to his head and his heart seemed to reconstitute itself as he bent over her and removed the tape from her mouth. Her gaze locked with his as he gathered her into his arms.
“Luce…”
“I know, baby, I know,” he whispered. Only he didn’t know where Lucy was or what they might find.
Alonsa tried to talk but her words were slurred, her pupils enlarged and her eyes glazed, clear signs she’d been drugged. “It’s okay. I’ve got you, baby,” he crooned as he removed the bindings and searched for bullet wounds. There were none.
“The lady’s been drugged. She needs an ambulance,” he called. “Hop to it.”
She also needed a man who wasn’t afraid to take a chance on love. It had taken almost losing her for him to realize how badly he wanted to be that man.
He leaned over and put his mouth to her ear, not even sure she’d comprehend what he was saying, but knowing he had to say it.
“I love you, Alonsa.”
He wasn’t sure what Alonsa mumbled in response, but it sounded like I love you, too, and that was great by him.
The BIG YELLOW SCHOOL BUS stopped behind the line of police cars as they were wheeling Alonsa into the ambulance. She managed to turn her head just enough to see a little girl hop off. Alonsa’s heart jumped to her throat. Lucy. It was her Lucy.
Mere yards away. Alive. Healthy. Blood zinged through Alonsa’s veins and her heart swelled until it seemed it would burst out of her chest and float to the heavens.
Lucy showed no sign of reco
gnizing Alonsa. That was okay. They had plenty of time to get to know each other all over again. Alonsa’s prayers had all been answered. Lucy was coming home to stay.
Tears of happiness welled in her eyes and started to stream down her cheeks. When she turned back to Hawk, she saw that the eyes of her big, brave, unemotional cowboy were spilling over, as well.
He squeezed her hand and pressed his lips to her forehead. “Looks like you’ve got your daughter back.”
Thanks to a miracle wrapped in the heart and soul of her cowboy warrior. A hero all the way.
Epilogue
Two months later
“Mom, Brandon’s feeding his sandwich to Carne,” Lucy called from the kitchen.”
“Am not.”
“Are so.”
Alonsa sat in the living room with Linney, loving the sound of her children’s voices even when they were arguing. It still thrilled her every time she heard the word Mom come from her daughter’s mouth.
The argument between them ended in an outburst of giggles.
Linney smiled. “They sure sound like siblings.”
“They act like it, too. It took a while, but even the counselor is impressed with the progress Lucy has made in adjusting to having us as her restored family. She’s sleeping well, eating like a little pig and, best of all, she’s happy. She’s even started remembering things from before she was abducted.”
“Cutter said Hawk is amazed at how quickly she and Brandon bonded.”
“They’re great together, though sometimes Brandon is a bit jealous at having to share me.”
“I suspect he would feel that way at times even if Lucy had been here all along.”
“That’s what the counselor says.”
“Do you have any new information about how Michele was able to abduct Lucy without anyone seeing her?”
“Yes, because she’s admitting everything and claiming innocence due to her emotional instability.”
“Temporary insanity?”
“Something like that. If what she told the prosecutor is true, she’d met Lucy a few months earlier when she ran into her and Todd in Central Park. When the fight started near where we were standing, apparently Lucy became frightened and dashed away from the kids. That gave Michele the opportunity she’d been waiting on while she was spying on us.”