“Julie Edwards. I’m afraid she and my boys may have met up with an accident. They’re missing.”
The woman let them inside the dorm and turned down the stereo. “You must be Cameron Sutton. I’m Patricia Truitt.” She frowned at Cameron and Alexa. “How long has Julie been missing?”
“Since this morning,” Cam explained.
Alexa looked around the cheap apartment. “When was the last time you saw her?”
Patricia glanced at the ceiling as if seeking an answer there. “Last week?”
Cam and Alexa exchanged puzzled looks. Before Cam could ask another question, Patricia volunteered Julie’s whereabouts. “She’s been staying with Leo Harley at his camper.”
The sheriff had already checked Leo’s address. He was gone, too. Cam’s stomach started to churn. If Julie and the twins had just had a mishap while out riding, then Leo’s being missing didn’t make sense. But if Julie and Leo had taken off somewhere with the twins…
Cam could hardly believe he was thinking that Leo had betrayed him. Julie had vouched for him and he and Sandra had always thought of Julie as part of the family. He suddenly recalled that Julie had been in Boston when Sandra had been killed. Julie could have sent the telephone bills for the fake security guard’s reference to a Boston post-office box. And Julie could have faked her own attack to gain their trust and allay their suspicions.
But although she’d had the means and opportunity to commit the crimes, she didn’t have a motive. Nor did Leo have a motive, unless he was trying to force Julie to do something against her will by threatening the kids.
“Would you mind if we looked around her room?” Alexa asked.
“I don’t know.” Patricia hesitated. “Julie doesn’t like anyone to go in there.”
“We won’t touch anything,” Alexa promised.
Patricia walked over to an ashtray and plucked out a key. “I guess she won’t have to know.”
“We won’t tell her.” Cam tried not to get his hopes up as he opened the door and flicked on the light.
Beside him, Alexa drew in a breath. Horror tingled down Cam’s spine at the sight of the wall by Julie’s bed. His baby-sitter was insane. She had pictures of Cam and Sandra—with Sandra’s face cut out and a picture of Julie’s face replacing it. Julie had thrown darts at a picture of Alexa and Cameron taken at the wedding.
And now he knew Julie’s motive. She had a sick crush on him.
Over her dresser, she’d blown up a poster of Cameron’s face, tacked one of his old shirts under it and attached a pair of his jeans he’d forgotten he’d lost. On the ceiling were pictures and stories about the twins and the Levenger legacy that made his sons two of the richest little boys in the world.
Her voice shaky, Alexa grabbed his arm. “Don’t touch anything.”
Shaken and more worried than ever about his sons, Cam took out his cell phone. “I’m calling the FBI.”
IT TOOK MOST of the night for the FBI, the sheriff and Cameron to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Back at Cameron’s house they went over the facts.
Leo Harvey was Julie Edwards’s friend. He wasn’t too bright, but he’d had a crush on Julie and would do whatever she asked. He’d been dishonorably discharged from the military special forces after he’d failed to take enough care during his training on explosives.
The information about Julie made Cameron shake with anger and frustration. She had grown up in a series of foster homes and been sponsored by Judge Stewart, who’d recommended her to the Suttons as a baby-sitter. Unfortunately the judge had believed that Julie’s troubles with the law during her teenage years were long over, and he’d sealed her files.
Her college entrance exams showed Julie to have an exceptionally high IQ. Personality profiles showed her stable. But once the court ordered documents were revealed, several disturbing facts came to light.
Cam and Alexa read the file with the FBI over a pot of coffee in his living room. When Julie was fifteen her foster mother died under mysterious circumstances, and her foster father claimed Julie had made sexual advances on him. Julie claimed he made the advances, and in court Judge Stewart believed her.
Cam wondered if this was the second time she’d gotten away with murder after developing a crush on a man. That he had trusted her made him ill. That she had taken his sons made him frantic.
He tossed the file onto the table. “It still doesn’t make sense.”
Alexa squeezed Cameron’s hand. “She may have killed Sandra, thinking you’d turn to her. When you didn’t, she decided to try and get rid of me.”
Cam thought about the explosions at the stable and on the bridge. “And when that didn’t work, she became so enraged she tried to kill us both?”
“Maybe.” Alexa sighed. “You may not ever have been her target. Leo bungled the explosives. They may just have gone off at the wrong time. It was me she wanted to scare off, and when that didn’t work, she wanted me dead—so she could have you.”
“And now she’s taken the boys. But why?” Cam dropped his head into his hands. She could be anywhere by now, and the twins could be terrified…or worse.
Alexa tugged Cam to his feet. “Come on. You need a walk to clear your head.”
He followed her onto the porch. “Why did she take the twins?”
“I don’t think she’ll hurt them. She loves those boys.”
Cam knew that Alexa was trying to look on the bright side, but it wasn’t helping. “She loved me, too, in her sick way, but that didn’t stop her from almost killing me. I was an idiot to trust her. What kind of doctor am I that I couldn’t see she had problems?”
“You aren’t a shrink. And beating yourself up won’t bring the boys back.” Alexa pulled him down the drive as if compelled to keep moving. “No one suspected her. None of us.”
“She was right here in the house almost all the time. She seemed so innocent.”
“Where would she take the twins?”
Alexa was thinking more clearly than he was. The past couldn’t be changed. He had to let go of his mistake, concentrate on getting the twins back.
Cam’s cell phone rang. He answered it listlessly. “Hello.”
At the sound of Julie’s voice, Cam held the phone so both he and Alexa could hear. “If you want to see the boys alive, bring one million dollars in unmarked bills to the Bird’s Nest at noon tomorrow. Bring Alexa. If we see the law, your brothers or anyone but you and Alexa, you’ll never see the twins again.”
Cam’s heart pounded. “How do I know the boys are still alive?”
“Hi, Daddy.” Jason’s voice came over the phone and Cam’s heart clutched.
“I’ll see you soon,” Cam promised.
“I miss you,” Flynn said, and Cam knew he was crying. The boys sensed something was wrong. He’d never let them go away overnight before—not even with Julie.
“I miss you, too.”
The phone clicked before Cam even finished his sentence. He looked at Alexa and knew he couldn’t risk going back inside to the FBI. She wasn’t a good liar, and hope was written all over her face.
“Oh, God.” Alexa gripped his hand, her nails digging into his flesh. “Where’s the Bird’s Nest?”
“It’s an old silver mine in the mountains.”
Alexa frowned. “I can have my bank wire the funds. But can we get that much money changed into cash by noon?”
Chapter Thirteen
It turned out that dipping into Alexa’s trust fund wasn’t necessary, but Cameron appreciated her unselfish offer. The Senator kept a safe on the ranch’s premises, with cash for emergencies. Between that and Cameron’s withdrawal from the bank, they’d come up with the funds necessary to ransom the twins.
Cameron worried about the twins, hoping they weren’t terrified. Julie’s voice had sounded so tense and wild he couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t hurt them.
And he also worried about Julie’s request for Alexa to accompany him. If Julie wanted just money, there was no need for her to specify that Ale
xa should be there to make the exchange. So he didn’t say a word of protest when Rafe slipped Alexa a semiautomatic pistol.
In all likelihood, if anyone checked them for weapons, they’d only check Cameron. And if the weapon made Alexa feel more protected, he wanted her to have it. He knew her well enough to realize she wouldn’t have accepted the gun if she didn’t know how to use it. No doubt her exclusive European finishing school had taught marksmanship, as well as riding.
As partners went, he had every confidence in Alexa. She might be a bundle of simmering passion hidden by cultured poise, but in a pinch, she could think straight. And with the way his nerves jittered, he wanted all the calm around him he could get.
“How much farther?” Alexa asked. She pulled up, took a swig from her water bottle and tipped back her hat to look at him.
As usual, every hair was in place. Her lipstick and makeup were perfect. She’d even used makeup to hide the dark circles he knew were under her eyes.
Cam took his bearings from the ranch below and the mountains above. They rode a narrow trail toward the rugged high country. With trails this steep, they had to use cutbacks and couldn’t go in a straight line. “Several more hours.”
To her credit, Alexa bit back a groan. Instead, she glanced at her watch. “We better get moving.”
“You think I’m making a mistake, don’t you?”
“By not calling in the law or your brothers?” Alexa shrugged. “It’s your call, Cameron. They’re your boys.”
She’d said “your boys,” not “our boys,” and that bothered Cam almost as much as second-guessing Julie’s intentions. The more he knew of Alexa, the more he saw in her to love. She had a sassy way about her, but wasn’t too pushy. She had sense when it counted, and her prim attitude disappeared when he removed her clothes.
And she adored the twins. She might spend his money with a heavy hand, but she hadn’t thought twice about offering her money to save the boys. Complex, confident and interesting, she may not have been the right woman for him, but nonetheless, she’d stolen his heart.
She rode beside him without complaining, although he knew she had to be sore. Back straight, eyes bright and curious, she looked eager to meet up with Julie Edwards.
“What’s the plan?” Alexa asked him.
Cameron shrugged. “We give Julie the money. She gives us the twins.”
“I want to see the twins first.”
Cameron shook his head. “Julie holds all the cards. I won’t put my sons in danger.”
“And she has no reason to give them to us, unless you demand to see the boys first.”
Cameron nodded. Alexa had a point. He might not care about the money, but he wanted to keep his boys safe. If that required playing the hard-ass, he could do it. All he had to do was recall his boys’ last words to him, and anger fired through him. How dare Julie put his sons through such an ordeal? There could be long-term emotional consequences. Nightmares. Pain.
Damn her. Why hadn’t he noticed Julie’s attraction to him? She’d held on to him too tightly after he carried her from the portable toilet, but he’d thought it was fear that made her clutch so. And at his wedding when she’d burst into tears, he should have seen that her tears weren’t of joy, but heartbreak.
He’d been too involved with Alexa to notice or think about Julie Edwards—especially since he’d never had a romantic thought about her. He’d never encouraged her craziness. Another woman would have gotten over her crush and moved on.
He clenched and unclenched his fist as he led his horse around a hummock. Up ahead the trail leveled off for a mile or two before it climbed again toward the mine. He forced thoughts of the past away and surveyed his surroundings. Even up this high, the mountain grasses were green, the forest lush. A stream, an offshoot of a waterfall, trickled nearby, and he saw a white-tailed deer pause to drink from the stream. Startled by the deer, a rabbit scooted for cover. A blue jay took flight. It was hard to believe that in all this peace, his children were in danger. He would never forgive Julie for frightening his babies.
Stop it.
He needed to keep his wits about him. Enough about revenge and could-have-dones and should-have-seens. Berating himself wouldn’t help the twins.
He smelled smoke long before they rounded the final bend and saw smoke curling from the mine entrance. Eager, he pushed forward. He wanted the exchange over with and the boys back in his arms.
“Hold it right there, Doc.” Leo Harley stepped out of the trees, a rifle aimed at Cameron’s chest.
Cameron eased his mount to a halt. “Whatever you say. I just want the twins back.”
Leo ignored Alexa. “Climb down, Doc. I need to make sure you aren’t armed.”
Cameron held his arms wide and tried to appear harmless. “I don’t have a weapon.”
“Let’s make sure, Doc.” Leo came forward and frisked Cameron efficiently. Then he motioned them toward the cabin. “You can walk the rest of the way.”
Alexa dismounted and started to loop the horses’ reins to a low-hanging tree branch.
Leo shook his massive head. “Bring the horses.”
Alexa did as he ordered. “What do you want me for?”
Leo shrugged. “Julie’s orders.”
“You take orders from a woman?” Alexa asked in an attempt to drive a small wedge between the accomplices.
Leo snarled, and fear and pride lit his tone. “Julie always gets what she wants. Anyone who stands in her way gets hurt.”
Cameron didn’t make any threatening moves and did as Leo asked. “Are the twins hurt?”
“Naw.” Leo shook his head. “She keeps the brats sleeping so they won’t be any trouble.”
Alarm zapped through Cameron. Although sleeping boys couldn’t be frightened, the danger of overdosing two-year-olds was very real. Judging medication for children was done by weight, but it wasn’t an exact science. A little too much could cause brain damage, lead to a coma—even death.
He’d brought his medical bag with his bedroll, but out here in the wilderness, he could do very little. He consoled himself with the knowledge that Rafe was standing by with the helicopter. A quick call from the radio or cell phone would bring his brother flying in within minutes.
As they walked up to the mine entrance, Leo eyed Cam’s bulging saddlebags greedily. “You brought all the money?”
Remembering Alexa’s concerns, Cam kept his voice reasonable but firm. “You can count it after I see that the twins are safe.”
Leo pushed him forward with the gun. “That’s not Julie’s plan.”
Cameron held his ground. “I don’t give a rat’s ass about Julie. Can’t you see that she’s using you?”
Pointing a gun at Alexa, Julie stepped out of the mine, her face angry, her cheeks wet with tears. “You never did care about me, Cam. I took care of your children and you never even thanked me for all I did for you.”
At the wild look in Julie’s eyes, Cam damned himself for his careless words. He’d let anger and fear do his talking, and he had to try to repair the damage. Try to start a fight between Leo and Julie. He chose his next words—an outright lie—to the unstable Julie with extreme care. “I thought you loved Leo.”
Julie wiped away her tears, but her gun stayed pointed at Alexa. The college student’s voice rose an octave, almost to a screech. “You thought wrong.”
Leo’s meaty lips turned down. “But you said—”
“I said what I needed to say to get you to help me,” Julie boasted. “And I don’t want to hear any complaints out of you. We’re going to be rich, Leo. Now—” she faced Cameron “—bring me the money.”
“First we want to see the twins,” Alexa insisted. Leo started toward the mine.
“Forget it. I give the orders.” Julie held up her hand, stopping Leo. Her voice turned eerily calm. “No way is she taking my babies and my man. Kill her, Leo.”
Leo looked from Julie to Cameron, his face red with rage. Eyes lit like a fuse, lips twisted with hum
iliation, he looked ready to explode.
Cameron waited, balancing on the balls of his feet, bunching his muscles, ready to attack.
Leo had finally figured out that Julie had used him. Julie didn’t love him. And the knowledge boiled into fury.
Cameron watched Leo’s eyes fill with hatred. Then Leo raised his gun, pointed it at Alexa, tightened his finger on the trigger.
Cameron shoved Alexa aside and lunged for Leo’s weapon, knocking Leo’s wrist into the air. A bullet whizzed by his head, and then the two men rolled onto the grass, pummeling each other with their free hands.
Cameron focused on the hand holding Leo’s gun. He took a blow to his chin, but he didn’t release pressure on Leo’s wrist. His knowledge of anatomy came in handy. Leo’s wrists might be massive, but the bones could only take so much pressure.
At the sickening snap, Leo roared like a bull, slamming his forehead down. Cameron ducked at the last second, avoiding a broken nose. He brought his knee up, hard. Straight into Leo’s groin. Leo twisted, and Cam’s blow glanced ineffectively off Leo’s massive thigh.
Somewhere Leo found a rock. He raised it over Cam’s head, ready to strike a killing blow.
Several gunshots sounded, and simultaneously, a huge red spot stained Leo’s shirt. The rock dropped harmlessly to his side and he keeled over, unconscious.
On shaky legs, Cameron stood and took his bearings. Alexa lay on the ground, the gun she’d shot Leo with resting on her thigh. She motioned with the gun for him to go. “Julie’s getting away with the twins. Go.”
Cam heard Jason and Flynn cry out sleepily from the mine. He paused halfway between his sons and Alexa. Alexa looked a little pale, but then, she’d just shot a man. Torn between helping Alexa to her feet and going to the twins, he hesitated. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Get the boys.”
Figuring Leo was no longer a danger to Alexa, Cameron scooped up Leo’s gun and followed Julie into the mine. He burst inside, and his eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness. Empty tin cans of food, candy-bar wrappers and sleeping bags littered the floor.
A cot stood in the corner. It was empty.
Little Boys Blue Page 18