Protecting Her Secret Son

by Regan Black

  “You know how he is,” Gary continued, his tone low and urgent. “He started putting two and two together and coming up with five. Over the last year, a couple deals failed and he’s unraveled a little more each time.”

  “He has no right to Aiden.”

  “Legally he does. A simple paternity test would prove it.”

  “No,” she breathed as her heart clenched. “He wouldn’t. He never even wanted children.” If she’d stayed, he would have made her terminate the pregnancy, by choice or by force.

  “He always wants leverage. Power. Once I learned you’d had a baby, I took measures to protect you and your son and put an end to his paternal rights. It was less than a year after the divorce when I realized he was having second thoughts about letting you go.”

  “What do you mean?” She needed to know and yet didn’t want to hear it. She’d broken free of Bradley and she refused to get sucked back into his life again.

  “I tried, Shannon. Please believe that I tried,” he pleaded. “Instead I made things worse.” He crowded her, the regret rolling off him in waves. “When you rescue Aiden, you plan to run?”

  She glanced at Daniel, her gaze drawn to him as unerringly as a magnet. “Yes,” she whispered.

  Gary followed her gaze. “But you love him.”

  Hearing such an assessment from Bradley’s oldest friend startled her. “Doesn’t matter.” A little voice inside her head called her a liar. “Aiden’s safety trumps everything else.” Even the broken heart she would leave here in Philly.

  Love. She couldn’t pinpoint a specific moment when her heart had tumbled eagerly to Daniel, free of the walls she’d built around it. She’d been infatuated with the man since she’d met him, a healthy feminine attraction had sprung naturally from there. Spending time with him and getting to know him this past week had become a strange and uplifting counterpoint to her worry and fear over her son.

  “It matters,” Gary said. “You never looked at Bradley that way.”

  “That’s a relief.” Daniel had turned, gave a thumbs-up while he kept the phone to his ear.

  “Don’t leave town,” Gary said abruptly.

  “I have to,” she said, forcing her gaze away from Daniel.

  “No. Stay in town at least a few days. I’ve—” Gary went quiet as Daniel joined them. His mouth thinned into a hard, pale line. “Are they moving in on the warehouse?”

  “They’re sending a team to check out your lead.” Daniel slid an arm around her waist. “We should go,” he murmured to Shannon.

  Gary agreed. “Take care,” he said to Daniel. “Stanwood won’t give up easily.” Suddenly he pulled Shannon into a fast hug. “You were a light,” he whispered. “And a wake-up call. Thank you.”

  The overwhelming sadness and resignation tugging at his features left her uneasy. She chalked it up to the strange meeting and the things he’d opted to keep to himself. “You should get out of here,” she said. “Thank you for helping me.” She backed away, with Daniel. “Then and now.”

  “But I didn’t.”

  The reversal had her digging in her heels. “Wait.” She looked around the park as a fresh wave of panic crashed over her. Had he really set a trap for her after all? “What are you saying?”

  Gary took off his sunglasses and stepped forward. “I waited too long.” His voice cracked. “Too long to get out of that life.”

  “Not her problem,” Daniel said. “Good luck to you.”

  “Listen.” Gary grabbed her arm hard enough to make her gasp and wince.

  “Careful,” Daniel warned. He extended an arm, holding Gary away from her. “You need to go on about your business.”

  “I’ve only made things worse for you.” His gaze, previously so erratic, zeroed in on her now. “To protect you and your son from any claim, I’ve confirmed his wild accusations.”

  “What’s he talking about?” Daniel asked her.

  “I never cheated on him,” she said. “You know he would’ve killed me.”

  “My commitment to the hasty divorce, my advice on the settlement.” Gary raised his hands in a helpless gesture. “He twisted it all into supporting facts.”

  She knew what happened when Bradley slid into a blind, irrational rage. If he learned the truth about Aiden, there was no telling what he’d do to her or her little boy. “Coming here, involving me was your exit strategy?”

  “Not exactly.” Gary studied his shoes. “I was going to leave you word, so you could be prepared. He changed my timeline with the kidnapping.”

  Daniel’s phone chimed with a text message. “Site looks promising. They’re taking a closer look, getting into tactical position,” he said, checking the text message. He nudged Shannon closer to the edge of the park. “We need to get going.”

  “Remember they’re experts,” Gary said. “You’ll hear from me.”

  “Why don’t you come with us and fill her in on the way?” Daniel suggested. “The reunion may do you good.”

  Gary took a step toward them. A thundering bang tore through the pleasant autumn afternoon, followed by another and one more. Three gunshots, she realized too late.

  Someone shouted, “Gun!” as people scrambled for safety. She watched, horrified as blood bloomed over the center of Gary’s shirt.

  “No!” Shannon’s scream joined the swell of those around her, and what had been an idyllic setting devolved into chaos. Daniel pushed her down behind the meager shelter of a bench, covering her with his body as the gunman fired again, hitting the bench, the tree behind them.

  Gary slumped to the ground, his face gray with shock and pain. A few paces away, Shannon saw the gloating, familiar face of the shooter. “Bradley!”

  Her ex-husband tossed the gun toward his victim, her friend, and gave her a sarcastic finger wave before he pulled a hood up over his head and joined the others fleeing the park.

  “Oh, Gary.” Shannon pressed her hands to his chest, praying she could slow the bleeding. “Hang on.” She looked at Daniel. “It was Bradley. I saw him.”

  “I’ll call it in.”

  “Too late.” Gary coughed, blood sputtering at his lips. “F-forgive me.”

  Daniel had his phone to his ear, rattling off information and a request for an ambulance. Uniformed officers approached at a run from all angles, guns drawn.

  “I saw the shooter,” she said when the first officers were close enough. “It was Bradley Stanwood who shot this man.” Good thing her ex had left. She felt like she could kill him with her bare hands.

  “Hang on, Gary,” she ordered fiercely. She could feel the life draining from him. “Hang on. I mean it.”

  “Cold.”

  Daniel, on his knees opposite her, checked Gary’s pulse and gave her a grim look.

  She heard sirens. “You hang on. Help is coming.”

  “Shan—” Gary coughed. “Cold,” he rasped. His eyes fluttered open and when he met her gaze, his vision cleared and he seemed completely lucid. “Case. Don’t let him walk.”

  “I won’t, I promise you,” she said, though she had no idea what he meant.

  Daniel jumped up, waving over the paramedics.

  “You know.”

  “Shh. Save your breath,” she pleaded.

  He grabbed her hand, his grip tighter than she expected. “You know.” His eyes fixed, unseeing, on a point beyond her and though the paramedics rushed in, she knew he was gone.

  Daniel guided her out of the way as more authorities moved into position to secure the area. She buried her face in his solid shoulder, but she didn’t cry. “He was my only friend during my marriage.”

  He stroked a hand up and down her spine, soothing her.

  “I think I’m out of tears,” she murmured. “It was Bradley. He was in a gray hoodie.”

  “You�
��ll give the police the description, let them handle it.”

  His easy touch, that calm, calm voice settled her. “What’s happening at the waterfront? Do they have Aiden?”

  Daniel showed her his phone. “Still working on it.” He raised a hand, signaled a nearby police officer.

  It took more time than she wanted to spend, giving her initial statement of the murder and a description of the shooter. How she knew both the shooter and the victim. How they knew each other. Why they were in the park to begin with. Why they needed to leave.

  Finally, after a call came in from someone up the food chain in the police department, they were released. She still couldn’t shed any tears as the shock set in, making her muscles quiver as they walked back to Daniel’s truck.

  “He killed his friend,” she stammered. The blood on her hands startled her as Daniel opened the passenger door. She caught her reflection in the side mirror and refused to get into his truck. “My murderous ex still hasn’t gotten his hands dirty. No, he put it on me.”

  “Shh.” Daniel reached behind the seat for a bottle of water, pouring it over her hands and rubbing away the worst of the blood. He dried her hands with a work towel and rummaged around for a jacket to cover her ruined shirt.

  “He tried to tell you something at the end,” Daniel said, checking his mirror so he could pull out of the parking space.

  “I didn’t understand all of it.” She would need some time for Gary’s words to sink in. “I think he said something about a cold case. He said I knew, but I don’t.”

  Daniel reached across the seat and rubbed her shoulder. “Leave Bradley to the cops. They’ll track him down. Let’s focus on making sure Aiden comes home with you tonight.”

  “I believe it,” she said, earning a smile.

  She thought it would be bliss to stick around and see that smile frequently, if only on the job site. Could she stay here in Philly with her son once this was over? Much as it irritated her, she knew the answer was dependent on her ex. If the cops caught him, she could rest easy, unless he slipped through their grasp.

  Her phone rang and her hands tensed. The caller ID showed the number blocked. “It’s him. Bradley.” Who else would it be? The kidnappers had their hands full with a looming attack.

  “Speaker,” Daniel said.

  “And the record button.” She was a pro by now, though she’d happily have gone a lifetime without needing to develop this particular skill.

  “Good afternoon, Shannon,” Bradley’s voice filled the truck cab. Now she could hear the foul canniness behind the smooth, polished tones. “How’s your day?”

  “You won’t get away with murder,” she said. “Or kidnapping.”

  “Darling, I already have. Everything that matters to you is under my control. You said so yourself.”

  “I did.” It shamed her to admit it in front of Daniel, but she had said those words shortly before she married a nightmare of a man.

  She expected him to be right. He was right in reference to Aiden. Still, she glanced at Daniel and knew her ex was wrong. Over recent days, she’d come to care for the man tasked with keeping an eye on her. Daniel mattered. Gary had called it. She was in love with Daniel, and Bradley would never have him.

  More than that, she mattered. She’d changed, learned the hard way to value herself. She wasn’t the mousy, timid wife Bradley Stanwood had neatly pinned under his thumb like a butterfly to a display board. Her real journey had started that day in the hospital. Her ex had no idea who she was now or what she could accomplish.

  “Would you like to hear how you can win back your son?”

  “I’m not negotiating with you.”

  “You don’t have to,” he said. “He served his purpose for me.”

  She could hear the sneer in his voice and her memory pushed the image to the front of her mind. In the past, she would have cowered. Today it pissed her off and made her ready to fight.

  “You’ll rot in jail for kidnapping and murder. This time the charges piling up around you will stick.” She paused, making sure her voice wouldn’t crack. “Bring me my son and turn yourself in.”

  “No can do, my darling. What if I told you I sold your son to clear my escape route?”

  The barb struck true and she had to work to hide it. “An ugly story told by an uglier man,” she managed.

  “I was everything good for you.” His tone slithered over her skin, leaving a clammy chill in its wake. “You were nothing until I married you.”

  Again true. She’d let him swallow her identity in one quick wedding ceremony and paid the price every day of their marriage. She was too angry to care that he was airing all of her failings in front of Daniel. “I can only be happy I’m no longer the wife of a murderer.”

  “You know, I didn’t expect your greed,” he said in a tone gone thoughtful. “Or your cleverness.”

  Daniel gave her a look, arched an eyebrow. Greed, he silently mouthed the word. She shrugged, unable to immediately put Bradley’s nonsense into any sensible context.

  “Give it up. I want my son back.”

  He gave a harsh bark of laughter and she bobbled the phone. “We all want something, don’t we?”

  “It’s over,” she snapped. “Give the order to release Aiden and let your lawyers handle the rest.”

  “Lawyers.” Bradley cursed. “They can’t be trusted. Greedier than wives, every last one of them. Your son—” he snarled the word “—is out there for the taking.” The line went dead on his awful laughter.

  “You okay?” Daniel asked after another few blocks. “We’re almost there.”

  “I hate him.”

  “He is hateable,” Daniel agreed.

  “I won’t dwell on it, I promise. It just needed to be said.” She forwarded the recording to Grant as she struggled to make the conversation with Gary fit with Bradley’s taunts.

  “Also sounds a little crazy.”

  “Another facet he hid well before we exchanged vows.”

  “And after?”

  She appreciated the gentle invitation in those two words. He would listen, let her vent and steer her back on track. She shook it off. A minute spent thinking about Bradley was a minute wasted.

  “That’s in my past,” she said defiantly. “I have to focus on Aiden and our future.”

  What would that look like? She still hadn’t decided how far she would need to run to escape her ex-husband’s reach.

  “Someday I suppose I’ll have to tell him who fathered him.”

  Daniel gave a low whistle. “If that day comes, you’ll find the right words.”

  Three blocks from the address Gary had given them, a policeman in a yellow safety vest stood by a detour sign in the middle of the intersection. Behind him, others were setting up barricades.

  Daniel rolled down his window, refusing to make the turn. The cop stalked up to the truck window, aggravated. Seeing Daniel, his expression cleared. “Leave it to you, Jennings, not to follow the rules.”

  “Got the mother of the kidnapped boy here,” Daniel answered, as if he reunited mothers and missing boys every day.

  Well, yes, she supposed he did just that, without the extenuating circumstances of kidnappers most of the time. The policeman radioed ahead before sending them through.

  “Almost there,” Daniel said.

  Her heart was in her throat as they pulled over, adding Daniel’s truck to the long line of police cars and emergency vehicles with lights flashing. An ambulance waited half a block closer to the warehouses. She closed her eyes, praying no one would need treatment here.

  She stopped right there on the street, caught Daniel’s hand. Bradley’s words were ringing in her head and she had a sudden fear this would go down all wrong. She didn’t want to leave anything unsaid.

  “Thank yo
u.” She pushed her sunglasses up to her hair, not wanting any barriers between them, no room for misinterpretation. “I wouldn’t be here in one, sane piece without your help and compassion.”

  “Not true.” He shook his head. “Shannon, you’re the strongest, bravest woman I’ve met.”

  If anyone had ever said those words to her, she couldn’t recall it. “I must be a late bloomer.”

  He grinned. “Let’s go get Aiden.”

  “One second.” She pressed up on her toes and set her lips to his. “For luck,” she whispered aloud while her heart whispered, “For love.”

  Chapter 6

  Daniel kept her hand in his as they carefully walked closer to the convergence of emergency and tactical responders. Regardless of the hell she must have endured in her marriage, he knew these days were the darkest of her life. Yet her resolve seemed to deepen with every hour of the ordeal.

  Belief could do that.

  He understood death, had brushed against it too often. He’d lost friends and coworkers. In high school, a beloved classmate and varsity baseball teammate had committed suicide, sending a shock wave through the community. The first fatality he’d dealt with as a candidate with the PFD had been a motor vehicle accident, the driver dead on impact, long before the truck and rescue squads had arrived. He’d even lost a mentor on the job when a fire had shifted on them while they cleared an apartment building.

  That day had been a personal hell for him, and it still didn’t come close to what Shannon had just survived. What could possibly be going through her mind after her ex shot and killed her friend? Daniel didn’t know how close she and Gary had really been, but in that moment, hearing she was out of tears, he’d wanted to strangle her ex with his bare hands.

  “There’s Grant,” she said, pointing up ahead.

  The nightclub owner met them halfway and pulled Shannon into a big hug. He held her at arm’s length and studied her. “You holding up?”

  She swallowed, her gaze darting to the warehouse at the end of the pier. “I keep telling myself there are cameras all over the park. Daniel and I are confident the police will find him.”