Saving Love (The Piper Anderson Series Book 8)

by Danielle Stewart

  “Chris?” Sydney’s trembling voice came on the line.

  “Syd, are you okay? Tell me where you are.”

  “I don’t know where we are. I’m not letting him go with her. They’re going to Cuba with him. We’ll never get him back. I’m not letting him go.” Sydney’s voice grew louder as she spoke and Chris knew her well enough to know her cheeks would be burning with tears.

  “I know babe. I know you’re holding onto him. Thank you for holding onto him, Syd. But you have to let him go. She won’t hurt him but they will kill you, trust me. You have to let him go,” Chris pleaded as the tears welled in his eyes.

  “No Chris, I don’t care. Let them kill me. I’m not letting him go. Let him see what they are capable of. Let him see they are murderers. He’ll never love her, not if she kills me. You’ll find us both, Chris. I believe in you. You’ll find us.” With a loud pop of a gun the line went quiet. Chris collapsed back to the chair beneath him and screamed a primal and pleading roar.

  Chapter Seven

  Sydney’s hands jumped up to Little Chris’s ears at the sound of the loud pop in an effort to protect him from the noise.

  “I’m done with this bullshit,” Bo, the ox-faced bully with a gash across his forehead, barked as he holstered the weapon he just shot into the air. He charged toward Sydney with outstretched arms looking ready to pry the two apart. “I’ll rip her arm from her body and slip the handcuffs off that way.”

  Little Chris let out a squeal of fear as he clung to Sydney’s waist even tighter. They were sitting on the dirty floor of an abandoned building they’d broken into. It was some kind of a garage or car repair place. She was kicking herself for not trying to give Chris more clues. She wrapped her hands over Chris’s head as Bo approached.

  “Stop, Bo!” Diana screamed, stomping her foot and sending a puff of dust into the air. “We’re going to get rid of her but we aren’t doing it that way. Let’s just pull them apart and cut the cuffs. Then leave her here and we can still make the flight with my son.”

  “I don’t want to go with you,” Little Chris screamed through his frightened tears. “I want my daddy.”

  “You’re scaring him,” Sydney shot out as she tried to comfort Little Chris with a pat on his head. “I know you don’t want that. I know you’re his mother and you want to have a relationship with him. That won’t work if he’s afraid of you.”

  “Shut the hell up. We’d be halfway to Cuba by now if it weren’t for you handcuffing yourself to him. He thinks he should be afraid of me, but it’s his dad he should be afraid of. If either of you knew the things he’s done you’d be begging me to take you away from him. That’s why you called me, isn’t it? That’s why you tracked me down?”

  Sydney felt the words like a dagger to her heart. She didn’t know Little Chris had sought his mother out. She knew he was feeling left out and frustrated but she’d missed the fact that he was so desperate he felt he needed to look for his mom. “I’m sorry,” Little Chris whispered into her arm. “I’m sorry I did this.”

  “It’s not your fault. It’s going to be fine. I promise. Your dad will find us. I believe that.”

  “He’s really got you snowballed doesn’t he? You think he’s some kind of super hero or something? I can assure you he isn’t. He’s a monster. He doesn’t deserve a wife or a child. He deserves nothing,” Diana hissed as she clenched her fists together angrily.

  “My dad is a good man. He did bad stuff but he doesn’t do that anymore. He’s a good guy now.” Little Chris straightened his back and pursed his lips.

  “You think it’s that easy, little man?” Bo asked, folding his arms angrily over his chest. “Your dad destroyed people. He burned their houses to the ground. He robbed people of their last dollars. And that isn’t even the worst of it. You don’t know who he is.”

  Little Chris stopped crying for a moment to wipe his nose and perked up slightly at the bits of information he was getting. Sydney understood Little Chris wanted to know more about who his father had been, but she didn’t want it coming out this way.

  “No, don’t listen to him. He’s a liar,” Sydney said, pulling Chris tighter to her. “They just want to take you away. You belong with your father and me. You know that.”

  “Yes, you belong with a crazy woman, a drug addict uncle, and a murderer,” Diana hissed, taking two steps closer to Sydney and Little Chris.

  “A murderer?” Little Chris asked, shaking his head and furrowing his brows in disbelief.

  “Yes, your father has killed people. He’s looked men in the eye and murdered them. Strangers and family alike. Did you not know that about him?” Bo asked with a misplaced smile.

  “Stop this,” Sydney demanded. She had learned a lot about Chris’s past and the only murder she’d ever known of is the one he’d committed in the gap of time when he’d disappeared from work and then reappeared just in time to save her from her stalker boyfriend Caleb. He went to save a friend, Piper, from being killed by her father. He killed a killer and Sydney had managed to get right with that once she’d heard the circumstances. She didn’t want to hear anymore, not out of context like this.

  “You are a smart boy, Chris, you deserve to understand which one of us would be better for you to live with. I think if you knew what your father had done to people you’d want to come live with me. We could start over and you wouldn’t have to hide out anymore as a punishment for all the sins of your father. You could be free.” Diana’s face was lit with hope and appeared somewhat soft around the edges but her eyes were still manic.

  “Don’t listen to her,” Sydney whispered. “Your dad has made mistakes but he is a better man now, you know that.”

  Bo, ignoring the orders of his sister, charged forward and grabbed Sydney by the hair and yanked her head back. “Grab the kid and pull them apart. I’m done with this. There are bolt cutters there, cut the handcuffs.”

  The noise of Sydney’s own screams of pain and Chris’s terrified shrieks grew to such a high level Diana couldn’t say no to Bo’s demand. She too rushed forward and began pulling her son away from Sydney’s desperate arms. Despite her efforts, Diana and Bo proved too strong, and within a few minutes of fighting Little Chris and Sydney were split apart, linked only by the tether of the handcuff that was about to be chopped apart by bolt cutters.

  As the metal tool snapped down and separated the handcuffs, both Sydney and Little Chris fell backward. Sydney had no other plan. She had no way to keep Chris with her besides the handcuffs. She didn’t fear for her life, if they killed her and left her here the only thing that scared her was she couldn’t think of any other way to keep Little Chris safe long enough for Chris to find him. She couldn’t be physically stronger than these two people so the only thing she might be able to do was to play to their weakness.

  Before she could craft her plan, Little Chris was already diving into a plan of his own. He was a bright boy, very astute and able to tune into people well. It was something Sydney loved about him, and right then he was using that skill to the fullest. “If you kill her I’ll try to get away. Every day, every chance I get I’ll try to get away from you.”

  Sydney, who’d kept herself fairly composed for the sake of Little Chris, was now on the edge of falling apart.

  “He took everything from us, we need to take something from him,” Bo hissed to his sister and she, too, looked unconvinced, so Little Chris worked harder.

  “Mom, we can live a regular life but I’ll never be able to do that with you if you hurt her. If you want me, then you have to leave her here and leave her unhurt.”

  At the sound of her boy calling her Mom, everything seemed to slide off her shoulders, and she opened her arms to Little Chris. “Okay, son, I promise we’ll leave her. As long as I have you, that’s all I care about. That’s all I want.”

  A grumbling whisper passed over Bo’s devious looking face. Sydney didn’t believe he’d be willing to leave her alive. “We’ll tie her up. If she calls the cops right from
here we’ll never get to the airstrip in time.”

  “Fine, tie her up,” Diana said, not able to take her eyes or arms off her son. He was closer to her now and finally free from Sydney’s grip. There were stars in her eyes and Sydney took small solace that it didn’t seem like this woman would ever hurt Little Chris, but she was taking him away.

  Bo pulled Sydney up, roughly at first, but then calmed at the sound of Little Chris’s protest. He plopped her down into a chair behind a broken desk and began rifling through the crooked drawers and shelves for a way to secure her. When he yanked out a roll of duct tape Sydney silently sighed with relief. He secured her ankles to the legs of the chair with copious amounts of tape and, as he came up for her arms, she crossed them obediently at the wrists and worked to distract him. “He’s going to hunt you down. He’s going to get his son back and make you pay.”

  Her threats worked perfectly as Bo leaned in close with angry eyes and spoke in a hiss. “I welcome it. Let him try. Your Prince Charming is a murderer and a criminal. He deserves to die and I’ll be happy to be the one to kill him. He’s got no soul.” As he spoke he spun the tape around her crossed wrists and then split the end with his teeth.

  Though she didn’t really care what Bo thought of Chris she felt the urge to defend her husband’s metamorphosis. “He’s different now. All those things are behind him.”

  “You can’t put massacring your parents behind you.” Bo tossed the tape to the ground and slammed the chair backward against the wall.

  The hard thump sent pain shooting through Sydney’s head, but it was nothing compared to how the words had impacted her. “What are you talking about?” she asked, partly trying to keep them here for as long as she could and partly because she’d never heard what had happened to Chris’s parents and didn’t believe for a second he was involved.

  “Just before Christmas he lost his mind and murdered his parents. The only reason he wasn’t caught was because he owned half the town and the other half was glad his father was dead. His poor mother was just a casualty the town could live with. It was the final straw for Diana and she bailed. He’s a lunatic. It’s just a matter of time before you’re next.”

  “And what, you’re just playing hero for your sister and rescuing her son from him? By all accounts, it seems you two are the lunatics and the kidnappers.” Sydney kept her face angry and tried to ignore what Bo was saying. Chris had been a lot of things but surely he wouldn’t kill his parents. She wouldn’t let that penetrate her mind, or at least she’d try not to.

  “I was only in this for one thing. Payback. I got a piece of that this morning. I’d have killed you if circumstances were different and gotten the best revenge possible. My sister wants her kid; I want vengeance. Christian Donavan and his family ruined my life and pushed my sister over the edge. He can change his name and change his address but that doesn’t change who he is.”

  “Bo, we need to get out of here. Let’s go.” Diana was peering out the door, listening for any noise on the deserted street. He looked down at Sydney one last time and then headed for the door himself. The conversation had distracted him enough to tie her up in a way she knew how to get out. Chris had shown her, though she mocked him wildly for it, how to escape duct tape handcuffs, zip ties, and other restraints. She knew if she crossed her arms at the wrist while the tape was applied she’d be able to spin her hands in toward herself and the tape would loosen enough to work her arms out.

  “Sydney,” Little Chris called before they stepped out the door. “Tell him I’m sorry.”

  “No,” Sydney called back through tears. “You tell him you love him next time you see him.” Her words were cut short by the slamming of the door, but she hoped he’d heard all of them. She waited until she heard the revving of the engine and the sound of rocks being kicked up as they pulled away, before she moved. Spinning her arms back the way she’d been taught, like magic, the tape loosened and she pulled her arms free. It hurt more than the times she’d done it with Chris because Bo had used more tape, but she was relieved to know it really worked. She leaned down and began pulling the tape off her ankles. Her clothes were filthy, handfuls of her hair had been yanked from the root, and her arms were scraped and tired, but she was alive. And alive meant she could still help save Little Chris.

  When her legs were free she hobbled to the center of the room and looked for something to help her. She needed to contact Chris and the police but clearly this old auto shop had been out of commission too long to have any means of communication. She hurried out toward the street and looked up and down the long empty road. This service station was the only thing to be seen on the long stretch of road, and across the street were just miles and miles of cornfields.

  She’d been forced to keep her head low during the car ride and couldn’t say for certain which way they’d come in. Nor could she determine if there would be anything within running distance to help her. As she looked up toward the sky, trying to determine how much light she had left, she heard the rumble of a car engine. Her heart jumped at the thought of Diana and Bo; perhaps they’d reconsidered leaving her alive. But over the crest of the small hill to her left came a blue rusted pickup truck, whose engine seemed to be screaming with age.

  Without much thought, she hurled herself out in front of the truck and waved her hands frantically. She heard the wheels lock up and watched the rear end fishtail as it came to an abrupt stop just feet from her.

  “What the hell are you doing?” the driver screamed as he hopped out of his truck and barreled toward her. His big belly was tucked into his overalls and his straw hat gave Sydney the impression he’d come right from his farm fields. His dirt stained fingernails and the sun-baked leathery skin on his neck all told the same story. Despite his anger, his aged face turned quickly to concern at the sight of Sydney’s disheveled clothes and hair. “Are you hurt?”

  “I need to use your phone please. I have to call the police. They took him. I tried to hold on but they took him.” Sydney had felt fairly composed until this moment. She heard her panicked voice and realized she might be in shock.

  “I don’t have my cell phone, ma’am, but this is my farm here. My house is just up the road. I’ll take you.” He ran around the passenger side and flung the door open, gesturing for her to get in. On any other occasion, hopping in a truck in the middle of nowhere with a stranger would have been against her better judgment. But this was her quickest path to help Little Chris. She raced toward the truck and in the blink of an eye they were racing down the road and pulling into the long dirt driveway that led to the farmer’s house. He rushed inside with impressive speed and came out with his phone, fumbling it into her hands as she exited the truck.

  With shaking hands she punched in Chris’s number and fought the urge to vomit as she prepared to tell him how she’d failed. At the sound of his voice she felt her legs buckle and fell to her knees. “I’m so sorry, Chris. I tried to hold onto him. I tried but I couldn’t and they took him. You have to get him. You have to go get him.”

  “Sydney, I can’t understand you. You have to get yourself together. Tell me where you are,” Chris demanded, a sharp edge to his voice. “I’ll find him but you have to tell me where you are.”

  “I don’t know,” she sobbed, handing the phone to the farmer who’d knelt down beside her. She heard him giving an address and some directions. When he tried to hand her back the phone she waved him off and folded herself in half over her knees, putting her face in the dirt of the driveway. She’d let Little Chris go. She let two people take him away. By marrying Chris she’d been charged with caring for his son; he’d become a son to her. Her job was to keep him safe, even if it meant giving her last breath to do so. She’d failed. She’d let him go. And all she could do was let the cool dirt below her cheek catch her tears.

  Chapter Eight

  The two-hour drive southwest turned into exactly one hour and twelve minutes. Jason was a skilled driver and the sirens blazing atop his SUV had clear
ed a path for Chris and him to reach Sydney’s location as quickly as possible. As they pulled into the farm’s dirt driveway they saw a half dozen police cars with their blue lights flashing. The local police had been alerted immediately and had already begun the search for Diana, Bo, and Little Chris, but so far no sightings had been reported.

  Chris hopped from the car before Jason could put it in park. He raced toward the back of the open ambulance and prayed that Sydney wasn’t injured too badly. He met his wife’s blank eyes as he rounded the corner, and the sight of her stole his breath. Her normally beautiful hair was limp with dirt and frayed at the ends. She’d cried through her makeup and it left circles under her eyes. There was a lump on the side of her head and her clothes were torn and filthy. With a gray wool blanket over her shoulders she sat on the back bumper of the ambulance and looked right through him.

  “Syd,” he whispered, hurrying toward her and then slowing as his movements had her jumping. “Are you hurt? You need to go to the hospital and get checked out.”

  “She’s refusing,” the tall and too skinny EMT interjected as he flashed a small pen light in her eyes.

  “I want to help find him,” Sydney mumbled as she shoved the EMT’s hand away from her face. “I’ve told the cops everything. They are headed to an airstrip somewhere. They missed their first flight out because I slowed them down and now they’re trying to catch another one. I told them everything.” Her words spilled from her mouth frantically and her blank stare turned to fast blinking eyes.

  “You did good, Syd, so good.” Chris tried to comfort her with his hand on her shoulder but she shook him off as well.

  “I didn’t. I should have fought harder to keep him. He was right there in my arms and I couldn’t hold on. It’s all my fault. I never should have chatted with her at karate practice. I should have listened to you and been more careful.” She slammed her hands to her forehead, angry with herself.