Only Just Begun

by Vella, Wendy

  “She was kidnapped one day right outside her school.”

  His jaw was tight, and she knew the memory was causing him pain.

  “I’m so sorry, Ted. Don’t tell me if it hurts too much.”

  “I sometimes worry that I’ll forget her.”

  “Never.” Mandy laid her hand on his heart. “She’s always in here.”

  “The kidnappers said to bring the money to a place. They wanted Dad to take it. He did, but she wasn’t there. When the cops found her, she was dead.”

  She’d lost someone she loved, so Mandy knew what he was feeling. But her father hadn’t suffered like his sister had.

  “I went a bit crazy, knowing how scared she must have been. How much she wanted to come home but couldn’t. I blamed everyone, especially Dad and Mom. Then I left. I kept moving, needed to put distance between myself and them. Finally, I arrived in Ryker Falls. Something about this place got to me from the start, so I stayed.”

  He looked down at her, and the devastation in his eyes made her heart ache. Lifting an arm, he pulled her close so she was pressed to his side.

  “Maybe you need to understand nothing could have been done to save her, Ted. And stop punishing yourself and your family.”

  His sigh came from his toes. “Maybe.” He touched the beads on his wrist. “This was hers; I’ve never taken it off.”

  “I’ve seen you touching them.”

  “I don’t know why I do that. Habit maybe,” he shrugged.

  “They reassure you.”

  “Perhaps.”

  “What was she like? Emily.”

  He talked and talked about the little sister he’d lost so young, and when he stopped, they just sat there in silence. But it was a peaceful silence, and she hoped a healing one.

  When he started snoring, she slipped out of his arms and eased him sideways onto a cushion. Mandy took off his shoes and covered him in the blanket. Ted never stirred.

  She stood there looking at him, watching the gentle rise and fall of his chest, and traced the lines of his face with her eyes. She acknowledged her love for this man then. He’d come to her to talk, and Mandy knew that meant something; she just wasn’t sure what.

  Looking at the clock, she saw it was late so decided to go to bed. Ted would wake and leave or be there when she woke. She didn’t want to analyze tonight. Tomorrow would be soon enough for that.

  She woke to the feel of hands sliding up her body.

  “Sssh, Mandy, it’s me.”

  He was naked, his large body warm and aroused against hers.

  “Ted, what are you doing?”

  “I need you.”

  And with those simple words she was lost. He kissed her until she was eager for more. He then stripped her, and they made slow, sweet love to each other.

  When Mandy opened her eyes as the sun filtered in through her bedroom curtains, he was gone.

  Chapter 36

  “Don’t you think he’s the cutest, Mandy?”

  “He is, Bailey. Really cute.”

  Benjamin was playing in his pen, and Bailey was looking at him with the adoring eyes of a parent who’d never seen a more beautiful child before.

  “Cutest nephew I’ve got,” Luke said. He had a few days off firefighting duties and was helping Mandy with painting today.

  Mandy ran her roller down the wall, applying primer. It wasn’t a terribly taxing job and allowed her thoughts to focus on Ted.

  He’d made love to her last night. Unlike the other times, this was slow, and he had been thorough. Kissing every inch of her body until she’d begged him to take her. So many times, he brought her to the brink, until finally she yelled at him and he’d thrust inside her. She’d felt his lips in her hair as sleep had dragged her under. Her back had been pressed to his front, her head pillowed on his arm.

  Mandy had never believed she’d sleep with a man. She’d done that and more with Ted, and now he’d ruined her. She wanted to experience that again… many times, with him.

  He’d left her this morning without a word, and while she understood he probably needed to go back to the lodge, she wondered if he’d reappear tonight.

  She’d asked him what he wanted from her, and he’d said nothing. So why had he turned up on her doorstep last night? Why had he made love to her? What had that night meant to him? Was it just another brief moment in what Mandy now thought of as their affair?

  Her head hurt thinking about it. Relationships, or lack of them, were complicated.

  “I’m getting a soda, anyone want one?” Mandy wiped the paint off her hands.

  Bailey said she would take Benjamin home for his nap.

  “I’ll have one, thanks,” Luke said.

  She took the steps up to her apartment with Ted still inside her head, opened the door, and found her worst nightmare sitting there pointing a gun at her.

  “I told you I’d find you.”

  Ted had woken with Mandy in his arms, feeling calmer and more rested than he had in weeks.

  Last night he’d seen her in that dress, looking like an angel, and his first thought had been mine. She’d been talking to the bank manager, smiling, and Ted had wanted to grab Andrew and beat the shit out of him. Jealousy, he’d soon realized, was an extremely uncomfortable emotion. He’d followed her when he realized she’d left the party, needing to see her.

  She’d opened the door to him with her hair curling around her cheeks. Her feet had been bare, as had her legs, and she wore a soft pink bathrobe that came to her knees.

  Hunger had rocked him back on his heels, and he’d known then why he was there. Quite simply, he couldn’t keep his distance any longer from Mandy.

  He’d drunk tea and talked to her about Emily, and it had felt right to do so. He’d then slept, waking in the early hours of the morning on her sofa. He should have left her to sleep; instead, he’d woken her up and worshipped every inch of her lovely body, and she’d been with him every step of the way.

  He could still feel the warmth of her pressed into him. He’d woken early like he always did and spent some time watching Mandy sleep, just because he could. As he lay there, he realized he felt calmer inside being near her. Almost like she balanced him out. The craziness that was sometimes his life didn’t touch him while he lay there.

  He couldn’t deny it any longer. Mandy Robbins was important to him. He’d even say vital.

  He’d left, washed and dressed for work, and tried to focus. The task had been almost impossible. So he sat at his desk and thought about Emily, allowed her inside his head, something he rarely did, and that hadn’t hurt as much as it usually did either. Talking about her had helped him. He knew that because the pain inside him was still there, but it had eased, and that was because of Mandy too. Because of her he’d started changing for the better.

  At 11:00 a.m. he headed downstairs to say goodbye to his family.

  “Don’t be a stranger, son.” His father hugged him.

  “I won’t be this time, Dad. Promise.”

  He hugged all his family and said he’d enjoyed their stay, even to his mother and Anthony.

  “I’ll bring Rita next month,” Toby told him.

  “I’d like that.”

  As he watched his family roll out the gates Ted had a feeling he’d turned the corner of acceptance with them too. He’d stop blaming them for something they’d had no control over.

  Maybe you need to understand nothing could have been done to save her, Ted. And stop punishing yourself and your family. Mandy had said that last night, and she was right.

  The need to see her, to tell her what he now knew was inside him, had him getting in his car and heading for Tea Total.

  “Hey, Luke, Mandy about?” he said, entering the shop.

  “Hey, Ted. It’s weird, she was here, then went for a soda thirty minutes ago, and hasn’t returned yet.

  “Maybe she’s taking a phone call?”

  “I went up to her apartment to find out where she was, she didn’t answer my knock, y
et I never saw her leave and her car’s still there.”

  “Did you call her aunts?”

  “Tried that, but they’re not answering.”

  “But she could have slipped down the side of the shop?”

  “It’s possible, but knowing Mandy, she would have told me if she wasn’t coming back, especially as she promised me a soda.”

  That was true. Mandy would never promise and not deliver.

  “You think she’s sick? Could it be her diabetes?” The thought made Ted’s stomach clench. Was she upstairs in some kind of pain?

  “She didn’t look sick or say that she was, and I watched her eat earlier.”

  “Okay, thanks, Luke. You going to lock up?’

  “Sure. I’ll just finish this coat, then head home. You call me if she’s got a problem.”

  “How do you know she’d tell me if she has a problem?” Ted asked.

  Luke gave him a slow smile. “She looks at you like Rory looks at Jake.”

  “No way,” Ted said, when inside he did a mental high five at the thought.

  “Teddy Bear, you’re head over heels for that girl, you just haven’t realized it yet. And Mandy, well, she’s changed, and it’s my belief you could be contributing to that.”

  Ted went for, “It’s complicated.”

  “Most good things in life are, bud. It’s how you uncomplicate them that matters. That, and the thought of living without her. How does that prospect sit with you?”

  “Not so good,” Ted had to admit. In fact, it shocked him how “not good” the idea of not having Mandy in his life felt.

  “Carpe diem, Ted.”

  “Seize the day? You been spending time with Mr. Goldhirsh?”

  “Something like that. Now go and find her. It’s only been thirty minutes, so she’s possibly just got distracted.

  “Leaving, and thanks.”

  “No sweat. Sometimes we just need someone to clear the way for us.”

  “You’re a smart man, you know that, Luke? We lose sight of that because of your loudmouthed brothers.”

  Luke’s laughter followed him out the building. He climbed the stairs and banged on her door.

  “Mandy, open up, it’s me, Ted!”

  She didn’t answer, so he hammered harder on the door. If she’d been sleeping, he would have woken her. He tried the door; it was locked.

  There was no window for him to look in, so he went back down the stairs. Her car was still parked behind the shop. Something felt off, he just couldn’t work out what. Pulling out his phone, he called her. It went to voice mail.

  Getting back into his car, he drove to the Robbins house. The sisters’ car was there. Maybe they’d picked her up and brought her here?

  Knocking on the front door, he stepped back to wait. Miss Marla answered with a smile.

  “Hi, Ted, what can we do for you?”

  “I’m looking for Mandy, Miss Marla. You seen or heard from her?”

  “We haven’t. You come on inside now. I’ve just put the coffee on.”

  “Oh, I—” A shriek came from inside. He passed Miss Marla on the way to Miss Sarah.

  She was standing by the counter, hands clasped to her mouth, her phone on the floor. She was white as a ghost.

  “Sarah, what’s happened!”

  Ted reached her. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, he held her upright as she swayed.

  “It’s Mandy,” Miss Sarah whispered. “He has her.”

  “Who?” Ted demanded.

  “Logan Hall, the man who killed her father.”

  “No!” Miss Marla sagged against Ted’s other side.

  “He c-called me.” Miss Sarah started to cry. “Demanded money, said he has our baby and will kill her if we don’t deliver what he wants.”

  Ted tried to think clearly, work his way through the panic that knifed through his body. Not his Mandy. No one could be allowed to hurt her.

  “What’s the time frame?” Ted remembered his family receiving a call like this when Emily was kidnapped.

  Don’t let this happen to someone I love again.

  He acknowledged it then and loathed himself for not telling Mandy last night.

  “He’s calling back with those details. You have to find our girl,” Miss Sarah begged him. “He said no police, or he’ll hurt her.”

  No police or your daughter will die. Those words had been spoken to his father. Emily had died anyway, even though they followed the instructions.

  “We’re not playing by his rules,” Ted said, pulling out his phone. He called Chief Blake and Dylan, telling them it was urgent and that they needed to come to Mandy’s apartment.

  His voice sounded tight and raspy, as he battled down the panic. Something had happened there, and he felt that her apartment held the answers.

  Not Mandy too; he couldn’t lose her like he had Emily.

  “Let’s go.” He ushered the women out to the car.

  They drove in silence, reaching Mandy’s place in a matter of minutes. Chief Blake pulled in behind him, and Dylan a second later.

  “What’s going on, Ted?” Chief Blake moved to stand beside his driver window. Head of the Ryker Falls police, he was a well-respected man in town, and one Ted trusted. Not overly tall, he didn’t carry a big build, but he was tough and wiry and not to be messed with.

  “Mandy’s been kidnapped by someone from her past,” Ted said after Dylan had climbed in the passenger side. “Miss Sarah took a call confirming it not long ago.”

  The back door opened, and Chief Blake climbed in beside Mandy’s aunts.

  “Okay now, you need to explain this to me from the start. I know you can both do that, because neither of you are the kind to panic,” Chief Blake added.

  The women huddled together in the back seat both nodded.

  “Do either of you know who kidnapped her?”

  “We do, his name is Logan Hall.” Miss Sarah drew in a deep breath before she continued. “Mandy’s father grew up next door to where we lived. He was like our little brother. Then he moved away, but he kept writing to us. When we came to Ryker Falls, we told him about the move. Eventually the letters stopped, but we never forgot him.”

  Miss Marla took up the story.

  “We got a call from a Detective Stiller one day; he said that Brian Carter, Mandy’s father, had been murdered by Hall. Apparently, Brain owed the man money and they got into a fight over it. They’d found a letter in his possessions stating that if anything happened to him, they were to call us, as we’d look after his daughter.”

  “What’s her name?” Ted rasped.

  “Amanda Carter,” Miss Marla said softly. “The detective said if we didn’t take her, she’d end up a ward of the state. We didn’t hesitate, as neither of us had children. We flew out to get her.”

  “Okay, we have that part. Now move on to why you think she’s been kidnapped and by whom,” Dylan said. Like Chief Blake, he was scribbling in a notebook.

  Her name was Amanda Carter. He didn’t care who she once was, she was his Mandy now, and he had to get her back. To contemplate any other scenario wasn’t possible. He wouldn’t lose another person he loved. He acknowledged that now… had to, because the pain in his heart thinking about Mandy out there somewhere with a murderer was enough to derail him. But he wouldn’t allow that; he’d stay focused, for her.

  “She saw him murder her father. He used to take her with him at night when he sang. Often, she’d sleep in the car. She saw that bastard murder her father and testified at nine years of age to put him away.” Miss Marla said. “His lawyer managed to convince the judge he’d been defending himself, and it was his word against Mandy’s. He wasn’t in prison long, but before he was led out of the courtroom, Logan Hall said he would come after Mandy when he was out.”

  “And now he has,” Dylan added.

  Ted couldn’t begin to understand what kind of life Mandy had lived with her father, sleeping in a car at night. So much he didn’t know about her. But you will.

&
nbsp; “I won’t let him hurt her.” His word came out in a growl. “That can’t be allowed to happen again.”

  “We’re getting her back, Ted.” Dylan looked at him.

  “We have to,” he managed to get out.

  “I don’t know how he could find her after so long.”

  Ted heard the devastation in Miss Sarah’s voice.

  “It’s my fault,” he said, coming to a sick realization. “My family, and all the photos. Someone rang and asked the lodge who the woman in the photo with me was, and they told him. I did this to her,” Ted said

  “Her name was changed, Ted,” Dylan said. “He had to have somehow recognized her.”

  “The fault is mine.”

  Chapter 37

  Mandy was terrified. It filled her body and had since she’d walked into her apartment and seen Logan Hall. But alongside that fear, another emotion was starting to take hold. Anger, the wonderful heat of it giving her strength. This man had already taken so much from her; she would not allow him to take more. Her life had just started, she’d just found the Mandy she wanted to be, and she’d found Ted.

  “Your boyfriend is going to set me up.”

  Logan Hall hadn’t aged well. His face was bloated, and folds of skin nearly covered his eyes. His hair was pulled back in a steel-gray tail. Not much taller than her, he was no longer the lean man she remembered.

  “He’s not my boyfriend.”

  “I’ve been watching you.” His eyes narrowed as he sent her a look before continuing to pace the room they were in. It was a house, Mandy could tell that by the layout and furnishings. He’d clearly come prepared and rented it. She just wasn’t sure where it was. She thought they were still in Ryker Falls, as they hadn’t been driving that long. Plus, if he wanted ransom money, then surely he wouldn’t leave there? How would he get the money if he did?

  “How did you find me?”

  “Your father always talked about these sisters. I couldn’t remember their names, and then I saw them on the news talking about the Hosking family. The Robbins sisters, Marla and Sarah, and I remembered then. I found your picture in the paper. Your name was Mandy Robbins, so my guess was it had to be you. When I saw you, I knew I was right.”