by Laura Scott
Obviously being forced to give and obey orders helped mold him into the man he was today. So she had no business complaining. Besides, she didn’t care if he yelled at her, as long as they found her brother.
She closed her eyes and prayed again for Bobby’s safe return. Feeling a little more optimistic after her prayer, she sank back in her seat and stared again at her phone. If only Bobby would call or text her again.
“Let’s stop for dinner,” Declan suggested. “We need to refuel, and besides, if we’re going to find your brother, we need some sort of plan.”
“Really?” She glanced at him, afraid to hope. “You’ll help me find him?”
A wounded expression flitted across his face before he nodded. “Of course I’ll help you. Why wouldn’t I? The only reason I left you alone in the first place was that I had to report in to work to talk to the feds.”
“I know, but I thought you were mad at me.” She couldn’t explain how she was used to being controlled by anger and fear. If you do exactly as I say, I’ll let you stay overnight at your girlfriend’s house. But if you disappoint me, you’ll be grounded for a month.
She shook off the memories, reminding herself that her father had been gone for over six years. She missed her mother, even though her mom had been kept under her father’s thumb as much as Tess had been, if not worse.
“I’m not mad at you, frustrated maybe,” Declan said, pulling into a well-known diner. “All I wanted was for you to wait for me so I could keep you safe.”
“Yes, well, sitting in that hotel was driving me crazy,” she admitted. “I needed to do something to find Bobby. But I checked everywhere I could think of without any luck.”
“Where did you go?” Declan asked as he climbed out of the vehicle.
“The batting cages, a couple of other parks. And then the houses of his two best friends. Mitchell’s house was my last resort.” Tess tried to keep the depths of her despair from her tone.
“Come on, let’s get something to eat.”
She followed Declan inside the restaurant, and soon they were seated across from each other in a booth off to the side. She didn’t think she was hungry, but the scent of food made her stomach growl.
“Everything looks so good,” she murmured, looking through the glossy menu.
A few minutes later, a server came to give them water and to take their order. Tess treated herself to a thick juicy burger while Declan ordered the pot roast.
As soon as they were alone again, he leaned forward, pinning her with his crystal-blue gaze. “There have to be other places where your brother could be,” he said in a low tone. “He must have other friends, besides the two we’ve already checked out.”
“He doesn’t talk to me about his friends,” she admitted, toying with her straw. “He always seems so alone.”
“What activities is he involved in at school?” Declan pressed.
“He was dropped from the baseball team when his GPA dropped to less than 2.0,” she said. “Most of his baseball buddies stopped hanging around with him after that.”
“Tough break. I can see why he might be falling in with these other guys.”
“Really? Because I don’t get it at all,” Tess said, tossing down her straw with a disgusted sigh. “Those boys come from rough backgrounds, and I just don’t understand why Bobby would think that living with me is so terrible.”
“Tess, it’s probably not about you at all,” Declan said, reaching across the table and taking her hand. “He must feel abandoned by his other friends, so he’s picked the few guys who accept him for what he is.”
She understood what Declan was saying, but inside she still rejected the concept. “Bobby struggles with school and I tried to tutor him myself, but that didn’t work. So I hired someone else to do it, but he refused to go. If he had stuck it out with the tutor, he might not have been dropped from the team.”
Declan gently squeezed her hand. “You can’t go back and change the past,” he pointed out. “Right now we need to find Bobby and keep you both safe. Are you sure there isn’t anyplace else he would go? A girlfriend that you might not know about? Some other place he likes to hang out, maybe to be by himself?”
She shook her head and shrugged. “I’d be the last to know about a girlfriend.” The thought only depressed her more, so she shoved it away. “I checked all the places I could think of. I’m out of ideas for the moment.”
Declan held her hand, his comforting touch filling her with solace until the server arrived with their food. As hungry as she was before, she found that her appetite had suddenly vanished. The few bites of her burger sat like a lump in her stomach.
“You need to keep up your strength, Tess,” Declan reminded her.
“I know.” She nibbled on a French fry in an effort to get something solid in her stomach. But as soon as Declan was finished eating, she pushed her half-eaten food away. “I’m ready to go,” she announced.
She was impressed that he didn’t harp on her again about eating. He paid the bill and she followed him out of the diner back outside.
“There used to be an old arcade in the old neighborhood,” Declan said as he slid behind the wheel. “Maybe we should check that out before we go back to the hotel.”
“Sure,” she agreed, feeling a slight flare of hope. “Bobby loves video games.”
“What kid doesn’t?” Declan asked drily.
He didn’t say much as they drove back to the neighborhood, and even with Declan beside her, she couldn’t deny feeling nervous at the blatant looks thrown their way as they walked through the arcade.
She blew out her breath when she realized Bobby wasn’t there.
“Maybe he’s at the hotel waiting for you,” Declan suggested after they left.
“I wish he’d call me again,” she said.
Declan’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You mean he already called you once?”
“Yes.” She quickly explained that all she could hear was Bobby saying her name, before the call had been cut off.
“If he called once, I’m sure he’ll call again,” Declan said confidently.
She wished she could be so sure.
As Declan pulled up in front of her hotel, she turned in her seat to face him. “Thanks again, for everything.”
“I’ll walk you up,” he said.
Since arguing would be a waste of breath, she slung her purse over her shoulder and took the steps up to the second floor where her room was located.
She pulled out her room key intending to unlock the door, but before she could slide it into the slot, she realized the door was already ajar.
“Get back,” Declan said, putting out his arm to prevent her from going inside.
“I’m sure I closed it behind me,” she said.
Declan held his Glock ready as he kicked the door until it was wide-open. He stayed along the edge of the wall, checking the small bathroom area first, before going farther into the room.
Tess hovered in the doorway. Even from there she could see that someone had been inside her room. Her small suitcase was lying empty on the floor and the few items she’d packed, clothes and toiletries, had been scattered carelessly around.
For a moment she could only stare at the mess in horror. Who would have done such a thing? And why?
She had no idea, but it was clear she wasn’t safe here.
And the way things had gone so far today, she was beginning to believe she wouldn’t be safe anywhere.
SEVEN
Declan scowled as he went through Tess’s small hotel room making sure the perp wasn’t still around, hiding. He was glad Tess hadn’t been here when this happened, but he didn’t like the fact that someone had obviously followed her here, either.
Once he’d cleared the room, double-checking eve
rything, he glanced back at Tess and gestured for her to come inside. “Let’s gather your stuff together. We need to get out of here.”
Thankfully she didn’t argue and between the two of them the task didn’t take long. But even when she had the suitcase packed, he went over to the doorway and stood, scanning the parking lot for any sign of danger.
Was the person who’d ransacked her room still hanging out somewhere nearby?
He couldn’t afford to discount the possibility.
There were several cars in the parking lot, and he took his time inspecting them, making sure each one was empty. Or at least appeared to be empty. From his perch on the second floor, he could see into the front row of cars that happened to be parked nearby. But there were still a half dozen vehicles he couldn’t eliminate as potential threats.
“Stay behind me,” he said in a low tone. “We’re going to take the east set of stairs down to the ground level. You’ll have to carry the suitcase so that I can hold my gun just in case.”
“I understand,” she murmured. “The suitcase isn’t heavy.”
He let out his breath and made his move. The sun had disappeared behind the trees, giving them a hint of dusk as protection. Full darkness would have been better, but he wasn’t about to wait around any longer.
Keeping close to the wall of the building, he led the way down the east stairway. As soon as they were on the ground level, he breathed a little easier.
“Stay down as much as possible,” he instructed as he eased along the sidewalk in front of the building, using the parked cars as protection. He was glad he’d parked in the front row, and as soon as they’d reached the vehicle, he opened the passenger-side door for Tess and urged her inside.
He tossed the suitcase in the backseat and then jogged to the driver’s side. Once he was behind the wheel, he jammed the key in the ignition, cranked the engine and backed out of the parking space, mentally braced for the sound of gunfire.
But there was nothing but silence as he headed for the street. Still, he didn’t fully relax until he’d driven a winding path through the subdivision, making sure they weren’t followed, before he headed for the highway.
“Where are we going?” Tess asked.
Good question. He glanced over at her, wishing she’d just come and stay with him, but knowing she wasn’t about to change her mind. “Another hotel, only this time, we’re not telling anyone where you’re staying.”
Tess grimaced but nodded. “All right. But I didn’t tell anyone where I was staying, either.”
“Any idea what the intruder was looking for back there?” he asked.
“I have no idea. From what I could tell, there wasn’t anything missing. I had my purse with me, so they didn’t get any cash or my credit cards.”
“You didn’t put the name of the hotel on your neon-green flyer you taped on the front door of your house, did you?”
“No, the sign simply asked Bobby to call me as soon as possible.”
He was glad she hadn’t been more specific. First he had to rescue her from his old neighborhood and now this. As if they hadn’t had enough danger so far today? A wave of frustration hit hard.
“I don’t get it, why would anyone take the risk of breaking in?” Declan tried to make sense of the series of events. “If they were trying to get you, they would have been better off staking out the place and waiting for you to be in there alone.”
So much for his attempt to keep her safe.
“I don’t get it, either,” she admitted.
“What about earlier today? Did you notice anyone following you?”
She shook her head. “I had the taxi driver take me all over the city, and I didn’t notice anything unusual.”
Declan drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, thinking back to that beige car he’d noticed in the old neighborhood. “I’m pretty sure I saw your neighbor Allan Gray after we left Mitchell’s house. Could be that he followed you earlier. Otherwise how would he have known you’d be there?”
“Allan?” Tess echoed with a frown. “I didn’t see him.”
The more he thought about it, the more he figured that her neighbor had to be the key. But he shouldn’t have said anything until he’d gotten proof of his license plate, like he’d originally planned. “Do you know what kind of car he drives?”
“I’m not sure, some sort of sedan, I think,” she said in a doubtful tone. “But I can’t be positive. I guess I don’t make it a habit of spying on my neighbors.” He knew what each of his neighbors drove, but being aware of those sorts of details was part of his job. Normal civilians like Tess didn’t live that way. He reminded himself to look up Allan Gray’s vehicle later. “Gray went to Greenland High School, too, and apparently he was in my graduating class. Did you know him back then?”
“Yes, I knew him in high school, although not very well. I think he might have been in my physics class, though.”
Declan was surprised to hear they shared a class together. “Did he ever ask you out?”
“No, why would he?” She let out an exasperated sigh. “It’s not as if I was a popular kid back then. I studied all the time because my father wouldn’t accept anything less than straight A’s. I spent way more time in the library than I did anywhere else. In fact, that was part of the reason I was so surprised that Steve asked me to prom. Little did I know how he planned to end the evening.”
Declan frowned, remembering that night he’d stumbled upon Steve Gains attempting to force Tess into having sex with him. He was very glad he’d gotten there in time to prevent anything from happening, although truthfully, Tess had managed to save herself without a whole lot of help from him. The memory of the way she’d kicked Gains and then taken off running brought a reluctant smile.
But he was more interested in what Allan Gray was doing back in high school. “I don’t remember Gray at all,” he confessed. “I meant to stop at home to find my yearbook to see if anything might jog my memory. Do you know what he was involved in back then?”
“I’m pretty sure he was involved in the drama club,” Tess said slowly. “I vaguely remember he asked me to join, too, so that we could be stagehands together. At the time I thought it might be fun, but my father put an end to that idea pretty quick.”
This was the second time she’d mentioned her father, and Declan was beginning to realize that Tess hadn’t achieved the status of being class valedictorian because it was something she wanted to do, but because her father expected it. “Did your father want you to be a doctor?”
Her lips thinned and she shook her head. “No, that was my dream. He wanted me to be a lawyer so that I could go into politics like he did.”
“That’s right, I remember now. Your dad was the town mayor, wasn’t he?”
“Yes.” The pinched expression on her face gave him the impression that these were not happy childhood memories. And since she’d been through enough, he decided to steer the conversation back to the situation at hand.
“So you knew Allan back in high school, which makes sense. But how is it that he ended up living next door to you?”
Tess was silent for a moment. “I don’t know the exact details. But I do recall there used to be an elderly couple who lived next door, and they put their house up for sale after they decided to move into an assisted-living facility. I’m sure the price was reasonable, and I guess Allan figured it would be a good investment. I know for a fact that he’s only lived there for about two years.”
“Hmm, interesting.” He wondered how much of Allan’s decision to buy the place was related to the fact that Tess lived next door. Was it possible Gray harbored a secret obsession for Tess that had spanned ten years?
If so, Declan could only imagine what Allan Gray was capable of doing if he discovered Tess didn’t return his feelings.
* * *
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nbsp; Tess rubbed her temple, trying to massage her headache away. She didn’t want to think about Allan Gray or the fact that her neighbor might have been near the scene of her earlier accident.
She stared down at her phone, willing Bobby to call.
“We’ll stay at that hotel up ahead, if that’s okay with you.”
“Sure, why not?” She glanced up and noticed that the hotel wasn’t all that far from where her church was located. “Wait, pull in here,” she said quickly.
“What? Why?” Declan asked, but he did as she asked and made a sharp right turn into the church parking lot.
“I need to go inside for a moment,” she said, opening her door.
“Hang on a minute,” Declan protested, lightly grasping her arm. “Are there services tonight? Is there some religious holiday that I don’t know about?”
“No, I just need a few minutes of peace and quiet, that’s all.” She didn’t want to explain the urge to go inside the church that she’d gone to for solace after a particularly difficult argument with her father. “Please let me go inside. I promise I won’t be long.”
“If you’re going, then I’m going with you.” Declan’s expression was pulled into a tight frown, as if he didn’t appreciate her request for a little side visit, but while she felt bad, the need to go inside outweighed her guilt.
She tugged on the door, glad to find that the church wasn’t locked. Pastor Tom normally locked the place down overnight, but since the hour was only seven-thirty in the evening, the doors were still open. She headed down toward the front of the church and slid into the fourth pew on the right, where she normally sat during services.
Closing her eyes, she prayed for strength and support, followed by the Lord’s Prayer. When she finished, she was conscious of Declan standing in the back of the church and couldn’t help wishing he’d join her in prayer.
But he wasn’t a Christian, at least as far as she knew. Was that part of the reason that God had brought Declan back into her life? Not only to keep her safe, but so that she could show him the way to being a Christian?