Dana told Bev that she would call her back. The plan was to decline her sister’s offer using work as an excuse. However, she changed that plan after Sin called to give her the latest update on the investigation.
Still upset with him, Dana’s manner was cool and formal. He ignored her attitude and added the bit of information that reversed her decision to spend the weekend with Bev.
“James is headed back to Tiburon,” he informed her.
As she drove along the highway with Sin, Dana wanted to treat him with indifference, but her anger toward him had faded. The man had simply tried to help her in his own way. Her thoughts turned to what was supposed to happen today.
“So have they taken Heflin in yet?”
“I don’t know. They hadn’t earlier when I was over there. We’ll ride by the building and find out what’s happening. I want to see the man who kidnapped my daughter and niece marched out of the building onto the public street in handcuffs—that is if we haven’t missed it already.”
“I certainly hope not.” Dana was more than anxious to see the culprit who planned the abduction get his comeuppance.
When they pulled onto the street on which Tech Play’s building was located, they were met by an array of police cars blocking their way. The area was cordoned off.
“What’s going on?” Dana’s brow furrowed. “Let’s go see.”
Sin found the first available parking space and pulled into it. The two of them walked hurriedly toward the building. As they neared it, he questioned an officer who was directing the growing crowd of curious gawkers.
“What’s happening?”
“There’s trouble ahead. Now keep moving.” The officer answered sternly.
“What kind of trouble?” Sin persisted.
“Can’t say.” He waved them on.
“I heard on my car radio that there’s a hostage situation in there,” someone said over Sin’s shoulder. The stranger nodded toward a building.
Sin turned to Dana. “That’s where Tech Play is located.”
“Do you think that it has something to do with Heflin?” Dana wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
Sin withdrew his cell phone as they continued to move closer to the building. He dialed James’ number. His voicemail answered.
“Who are you calling? Agent Conway?”
“I’m calling Starr, but he’s not answering.”
“James?” Startled, Dana drew back. “What would he know about it? You said that he’s in Tiburon.”
“No, I said that he’s headed back to Tiburon” Sin hit repeat dial.
Dana came to a dead stop. Sin was ten steps ahead of her before he noticed. Turning, he saw her standing in the middle of the sidewalk, arms tightly folded and staring daggers at him.
“You lied,” she spat at him. “Where is James?” Dana demanded.
They now stood across the street from the building. Sin nodded toward it.
“He’s in there.”
****
James was pissed. He had definitely misread Robert Heflin. Having observed the man over the last few days he never would have pegged him as threatening or dangerous, but it looked as though he had been wrong.
From his position on the office floor where he had been forced to sit, James glanced up at Heflin. He was leaning against a desk pointing a gun at him and three other hostages. The weapon had been wrestled from one of the men he was holding—a FBI agent who had come to escort him out of the building. James figured that any promotion that the agent had been expecting had gone out of the window. The guy hadn’t even had the chance to handcuff Heflin before he found himself staring down the barrel of his own gun, or so one of the other hostages had told him. James hadn’t witnessed the incident.
He had been watching from an upstairs window when the Feds pulled up to the building. Knowing what was about to happen, he made his way down to the Tech Play offices on the pretense of doing some cleaning. He wanted to be a witness to Heflin being taken into custody.
Nearly all of the employees had gone home for the day, but as usual Heflin was among the last people to leave. James had busied himself in the area next to the suspect’s office when the two agents entered. He heard the commotion, but by the time he stepped out into the central area it was too late. Heflin had one of the officers in a choke hold with a gun pointed at his head. The officer who had accompanied him was backing out of Heflin’s office with his hands up.
Patty, one of the Tech Play employees had also been working late and had become one of Heflin’s unwilling victims along with James. That made four people who the computer whiz turned abductor could use as bargaining chips, but James couldn’t understand to what purpose. There was no way that the FBI would be letting Heflin walk out of here a free man holding two of their agents at gunpoint, and he had to know it. Heflin would be lucky if he walked out of the building alive. The sharpshooters were probably on the roof waiting for a good shot right now.
James looked from Heflin to his fellow captives. Patty had been sobbing hysterically, but now she sat quietly in wide-eyed shock.
One of the agents tried to engage Heflin in conversation, a tactic that he probably learned in a hostage negotiation class. The other agent kept eyeing one of the two guns in Heflin’s possession. It was lying on the desk beside Heflin and belonged to the second officer. He had been forced to relinquish it to him when his partner was threatened. James had the feeling that the second officer was trying to figure out a way to get to the weapon. If he failed he risked putting all of their lives in jeopardy. James returned his attention to Heflin.
Despite the dire situation he seemed a little too calm. James didn’t like that. Any normal person in his position would be as nervous as hell.
Earlier Heflin had been enraged. He had ranted about being railroaded by a system that favors the rich and famous over the average citizen. He had sworn that he would die before he’d let the authorities put him in jail.
Over the past hour he had grown more composed. For the past ten minutes all he had done was lean against the desk, holding a gun on his hostages. His eyes were blank as he ignored the chattering agent and stared pass him into space.
A short while ago, a professional negotiator had approached the outer office, trying to work his way into the smaller one in which Heflin had moved his captives. Heflin had grown agitated and told him to back off. He did.
Observing Heflin, James sensed that the drama might be coming to an end. The computer whiz had the stance of a man who knew that his situation was hopeless.
“It’s all over, isn’t it?” James said to him quietly.
Heflin’s eyes shifted to James. He could see in them the signs of a desperate man. He knew that Heflin was considering suicide. However, Patty misinterpreted the meaning of James’ question.
“You’re going to kill us?” she shrilled as she started to panic. “Please! I’ve got children! I’m sure everybody in this room has somebody who loves them. Don’t do this!”
James could feel himself react physically to Patty’s words: everybody in this room has somebody who loves them. Unfortunately, that wasn’t true in his case, but Patty did and she needed to be there for her children.
“I don’t think that he’s going to kill us,” James told her in an effort to soothe her fears.
Understanding his meaning this time, she looked alternately relieved and concerned.
“You’re going to kill yourself?” She asked incredulously.
Heflin gave a self-depreciating snort. “Lady, I’ve been a dead man for quite some time.”
James couldn’t disagree with his assessment. Robert Heflin knew that he had no way out. Divorced and deep in debt, he was a very depressed man who had foolishly turned one federal offense into two.
Heflin wasn’t getting any sympathy from James. The man had decided to solve his problems by victimizing children. He deserved whatever he got. So when the negotiator stood outside of the room trying to make another attempt to try to get H
eflin to release his hostages, momentarily distracting him, James made his move.
Standing outside of the building, behind the line that the authorities had set up to contain the crowd an officer standing nearby shouted, “Shots fired in the building!”
Dana’s heart nearly stopped. Fear settled in every pore of her body as she gripped Sin’s suit jacket. James was one of the hostages in that building! Had he been harmed? Suddenly the disagreement which had separated the two of them seemed petty when faced with the reality of the moment. All she could do was pray to God that James would walk out of that front door alive.
She began to tremble and Sin put a comforting arm around her. Glancing up at him, she could see worry lines marring his handsome face.
“You like him, don’t you?”
Sin shrugged. “Well, let’s just say that over the past few weeks he’s grown on me.”
Seconds ticked by, but they seemed like hours as they stood in the crowd watching the SWAT team spring into action. In full regalia they stormed through the front doors and swung on ropes from the top of the building through the plate glass windows, breaking them. Glass showered the street.
Shortly after the authorities stormed the building, a sobbing woman was hustled out of the front door supported by several officers. A man broke through the police line and rushed toward her calling out “Patty!” The sobbing woman fell into his arms.
A few more excruciating minutes passed and a man in handcuffs was brought out. Surrounded by a score of federal officers, he was hustled into an official looking vehicle parked at the curb.
“That must be Heflin,” Sin said with some satisfaction. He kept his eyes trained on the car and its passenger until it drove away with a screech of the tires.
Dana continued to concentrate on the entrance to the building, but no one else emerged. A shot had been fired, but the emergency crew standing by had not been summoned inside. She figured that must mean something.
“Where’s James?” she mumbled anxiously.
“He’s coming out,” Sin said with certainty.
The words had hardly left his mouth when James Starr’s towering figure appeared in the doorway. Dana could feel the tears of relief start to flow. Without thinking, like the man had before her, she forced her way through the police barrier and ran toward James shouting his name
His head snapped up as he heard the voice that he had tried unsuccessfully to eradicate from his every waking thought. He dismissed the sound as an illusion until he saw Dana sprinting toward him. Tears were streaming down her face. He couldn’t believe that she was here!
Forgetting every angry promise that he had made to himself about not seeing her again, James rushed to meet Dana half way. They fell into each other’s arms and the kiss they shared declared to all that these two people shared something special.
CHAPTER 31
Eight weeks had passed since a stranger named James Starr walked into Dana Mansfield’s office. At the time neither of them would have ever guessed how much they would change each other’s lives.
As Dana sat beside James headed for the San Francisco airport, she reached out and pinched his cheek lightly. Surprised, James gave a hearty laugh.
“What was that about?”
“I just wanted to make sure that you were real.”
“Yeah, I’m real. We both are, and it’s so good to have you here beside me.”
Dana was more than pleased with what he said. It was a sentiment that a while ago she doubted that she would ever hear from him.
Her breach of trust had been a serious barrier between them, but after his escape from Heflin and their reunion, they had talked incessantly and had reached an understanding. Truth and trust would be the foundation on which their relationship would be built. Without either, there was no way it could survive
James felt that his life had been spared for a reason. He had been given a second chance and he had no intention of blowing it.
Inside the building with Robert Heflin holding a gun on him, James charged the gunman with the two agents joining in. Caught off guard, Heflin had fired his gun in an effort to shoot him, but James had deflected the weapon and had put a death grip on his wrist, forcing the gun from the culprit’s fingers, breaking one of them in the process.
One of the officers took charge of the gun lying on the desk, while the second officer delivered a blow to Heflin’s midsection that doubled him over rendering him helpless.
“Why would you do something so foolish as to charge him?” Dana had asked when she was told about his heroics.
“Because the others had families who needed them and I had nothing to lose.”
His answer tore at her heart, but her response was swift. “You had me.”
James smiled as he remembered those three words. They had been like an oasis in the desert.
Outside of the building, the couple had clung to each other as if the other one might disappear. Sin had intervened in their joyful reunion.
“I called Agent Conway and he said they were taking Heflin down to the police station for questioning. I’m going down there. Do you two want to go with me?”
“I think I’ll pass,” Dana had told him.
“And I’ve seen all of him I want to see today,” James declared.
“Alright then, but Starr, I want you to know that you have one very satisfied customer.” Sin gave him a happy grin and thumbs up.
“Glad to hear that.” James was equally as satisfied.
The two men gave each other a hearty handshake and Sin turned to walk away. Dana stopped him and planted a kiss on his cheek.
“Thank you.”
Sin feigned confusion. “All I did was pick you up from the airport.” He started walking toward his car, then turned back and pointed to James. “But you owe me.”
James was now returning the favor as he took the exit that would take them to the San Francisco Airport. There they would proceed to the air strip where the private airplanes departed and landed. Sinclair’s wife and two youngest children would be landing shortly, and so would Darnell, Thad and Nia.
With the capture and confession of the ringleader of the kidnappers, the media had resumed its frenzy. However, this time the focus was on Robert Heflin, Jack Spencer—who had turned on Heflin to strike a deal—and Andy Vega who he had also turned in for good measure.
Only a few diehard media types remained at the gate to the cul de sac and to avoid them, the arrival home of the Stewart and Reasoner families had become a clandestine affair. They were landing in San Francisco instead of on the Peninsula, and then would be driven home.
Sin was paranoid about the media or paparazzi following him to San Francisco and making them aware that the families were back. He had asked James to act as a personal body guard and come with him to escort his family back to Carmel. James had agreed.
Sin and he left the cul-de-sac disguised as Webb Starr security guards. When they arrived at the San Francisco airport, a florist delivery van with darkened windows was waiting for them and the families. It would be used to move everyone past the gate without raising suspicion.
The plan hit a snag when Dana asked to come along. James objected at first, citing the trip was business. She reminded him that he had agreed that Ray could meet them at the airport to hitch a ride to the Peninsula so that he could be with her sister at the Stewart house.
“All he wants to do is save himself a two hour drive,” she pointed out. “My reason for coming along is better than his.”
“Oh, and what is that?”
“I want to be with you.”
She donned a security guard uniform, tucked her hair under the cap and passed through the gate as easily as the two men. As James pulled into the airport area and showed the attendant his credentials, he couldn’t help but think how effective her argument had been.
****
As Thomas Hardman relaxed in the back seat of the taxi that would take him to the airport he reflected on the success of his trip
. He wasn’t a man who believed in miracles, but it seemed there was no other explanation to explain what had happened to him. He didn’t know what to expect when he came to the States, but he had gotten much more than he deserved.
His life had been a kaleidoscope of colors, mostly gray and black. His place in hell had been reserved long ago. Redemption for most of his transgressions would be impossible. Yet there was one thing in his life that had always remained constant—his love for his family. He wanted to protect them at all costs, no matter what price he had to pay.
His time in California had been well worth it. The bastards had been caught. One of them might not survive, and Hardman had no regrets for his part in that. His work here was done.
He was on his way to catch a charter flight out of San Francisco, for the first leg on his long journey. It was time to go home.
CHAPTER 32
Ray smiled broadly as he stood next to James and Dana inside the small terminal. They were watching the airplane piloted by her Uncle Gerald come to a stop on the tarmac. Everyone in the Stewart and Reasoner families could rest easy. Justice had been served.
The aircraft carrying the families had landed a few minutes ago, but none of the passengers had disembarked. Ray was excited. He couldn’t wait to see everyone and to join Bev in Carmel. There was no doubt that the coming home celebration would be a joyful one.
He glanced at the looming figure of James Starr, who stood with arms folded like a sentinel, looking every inch like a body guard. Ray was proud of his friend. He knew that in the security business it had been his partner who had handled the investigative division, but despite the tragedy of having lost his mentor James had pushed forward and handled the job like a champ. Nate would have been proud.
The name of Webb Starr moved center stage in the security world; James’ professional success was assured. From the look of it, his private life wasn’t suffering either. The furtive glances being exchanged between James and Dana made it obvious that these two were headed for a love match. Ray was happy for them.
Strangers Page 20