Sterling sprinted to his car. “I’ve got to get to Tyler’s school. Give me your keys!”
Ben’s throat tightened as realization instantly set in. Sterling was acting out of fear for Tyler’s life. “I’ll drive. You call the school. But Sterling, I sent a patrol officer to pick up Tyler.”
“I hope the officer gets there first.”
Behind the wheel again and speeding toward Tyler’s school, Ben could hardly contain the contempt wrenching his gut. How do those guys get away with wreaking havoc in the lives of good people? It’s not right. God, it’s not right.
Hearing the desperation in Sterling’s voice as she talked to the school secretary over her cell phone, Ben made a promise to himself: This time, Sterling and Lacey would get their happy ending.
Sterling hung up the phone and ran her hand through her dark tresses. “The school said the officer already picked up Tyler.”
“Good. I’ll call in an alert and we’ll take over.” Ben reached for the radio, but Sterling’s hand stopped him.
“You can’t do that.”
“What are you saying?” Ben could guess what Sterling meant. Even if he didn’t know her thoughts, the accusing look in her eyes gave her away.
“Haven’t you already caused enough damage?”
Stiff in his seat, Ben tried to control emotions sweeping through him. “What were you doing back there, Sterling? Why can’t you accept that this is a police matter? You should have told me. You should never have been there alone with those men.”
“Don’t you get it?” she fumed. “They’ll kill Tyler if the police are involved. I want the officer to simply take him to Lacey. That’s it. Then I’ll wait for Rutherford’s next move.”
It was no use. Silently, Ben kept his eyes fixed on the road. Everything inside him longed to hold her, touch her, protect her. But as long as Sterling saw him as the enemy, they would remain worlds apart.
Blocks from the school, a patrol car parked oddly on the side of the road, its doors gaping open, caught Ben’s attention at the same moment Sterling saw it.
“No, no, no!” Sterling slammed her fists against the dash.
Ben pulled his vehicle to a quick stop beside the other vehicle and ran to the open door, Sterling on his heels.
His blood going cold in his veins, Ben checked the officer who lay slumped against the steering wheel. “He’s unconscious.”
Sterling stared blankly up at him. “This is Tyler’s backpack. We didn’t get here in time, Ben. He’s gone.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll get on the radio. We’ll find those bastards.”
“How am I going to tell Lacey? I didn’t tell her the whole story. I was trying to spare her. I thought — ”
“Don’t do this to yourself.” Ben grasped her slim shoulders. The anguish in her face tore him open. “We’ll find Tyler.”
“No!” she shouted, wrenching away from his touch. “I have to do this. They’ll kill him if the police are involved. I can handle it. Just take me back to my car, please. I’ve got to tell Lacey.”
• • •
The trip back to her office had been eternal. Ben hung around the sisters’ office door as Sterling took a seat on the couch. She felt bitter ropes of helplessness tighten around her heart as she watched her sister sink into the couch beside her with the word of Tyler’s abduction.
“I know I should have told you about the threat, but I thought I was handling it, Lacey. I didn’t want you to worry.” The words, sounding so flat and empty, fell like lifeless petals from a dying rose.
“You had good intentions, sis. I don’t blame you. Everything will be okay.” Lacey pulled a spring jacket from Tyler’s backpack and drew it up close to her face.
Struggling with feelings of bringing this terrible thing to them, Sterling reached a comforting hand to Lacey. Although her sister seemed remarkably calm, Sterling sensed Lacey’s pain. The immense hurt surged inside Sterling like an enormous ocean wave, driving her to move to a place where she could contain it. Take charge and make things right. “Don’t worry, Lacey. I’ll get him back.”
“We’ll get him back,” Ben corrected. “This is still a police matter.”
“How can you suggest that after what’s happened?” Sterling charged, turning her face up to Ben. “If you hadn’t interfered, I could have handled the situation.”
Ben shook his head. “You’re something else, you know that? If you weren’t so hell-bent on doing everything yourself, maybe this could have been prevented. You interfered in an investigation.”
“I’m just trying to do my job.”
Ben stretched his hands out, imploring. “We’re on the same side, Sterling. And we’re wasting precious time. Let me call the department for help.”
Sterling felt her hold on her emotions slipping, and steeled herself to Ben’s frustration. Shaking and exhausted, she drew focus and stared out into the night. “No.”
“Lacey? Are you going along with this madness?”
Sterling couldn’t face her sister’s tear-weary face, but she heard her answer. “I believe in Sterling.”
“Well, I think you’re making a mistake. I can’t force you to let me help, but you can’t stop me from doing my job, either.” Walking toward the door, Ben added, “You know where to find me.”
Sterling choked back the urge to call out to him. Facing one of the hardest days of her life, she stood in the lonely abyss of longing to reach for help and fearing to need it.
In Ben’s wake, Michelle interrupted Sterling’s thoughts. “Sterling, a call for you on line one.”
Reaching for her phone, Sterling stared into Lacey’s sorrowful face and squared her shoulders. No one is going to destroy my sister’s happiness. I’ll make sure of that. “This is Sterling.”
“Ms. Aegar, this is Cummings. You’re going to get another chance to save your nephew’s life. But it’s up to you to cooperate. Do you intend to give me what I want?”
“Let me talk to Tyler.” Sterling stood in the trembling air and shared in her sister’s glimmering hope.
“Are you going to cooperate?” Sterling could see the man’s gritted teeth in the persistence that sharpened his voice.
“Let me talk to Tyler,” she insisted, her heart pumping like a jackhammer inside her chest. “You’re not getting anything unless I know he’s all right.”
Silence on the other end of the line echoed in her ears for what seemed like infinite forevers. Was she blowing her only chance to save dear little Tyler?
“Hello?” Tyler’s tiny voice tore at Sterling’s heart.
“Tyler, it’s going to be okay, sweetie.”
“That’s it.” Only Cumming’s gruffly snide voice came back to her. “Now listen to me. If you don’t do exactly as I say, without the help of that cop friend of yours, that’s the last time you’ll ever hear your nephew’s voice. Understand?”
“Completely.” Numbing fingers of ice gripped Sterling’s gut.
“At nine o’clock tomorrow morning, be at this phone. I’ll call with instructions.”
Sterling’s heart clinched. “Why wait? Let’s get on with it.”
“Nine o’clock tomorrow morning.”
The dial tone droned in her ear mercilessly. Hanging up the phone, Sterling glanced from her sister to the clock on the wall. Eight o’clock. Oceans of time stretched between her and the morning.
• • •
Still dressed in her work clothes, Lacey wrapped herself in a fleece throw and leaned against Nicholas on the couch. “So Tyler’s kidnapping is why you’re here.” She turned her fact to search his for answers, fearing the worst.
“Lacey, I told you I’m here because you need me and I want to be here, especially now.” Nicholas stroked her cheek and shook his head. “But I’m going to leave for a w
hile.”
Lacey stiffened. “What? Where are you going?”
He wrapped his arms tighter around her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t say that very well. I’m here for you, but right now I’m going to go be with our son. I know this is hard. I can’t promise everything will be as you want it but I can promise he won’t be alone. And we have to trust that Sterling and Ben will do their best to bring him safely back to you.”
Tears slipped down her face and Nicholas bent to kiss her. A gentle touch to her lips that quieted the fears in her chest. “Thank you. I’ll be waiting. For Tyler and for you.”
“I know.”
Chapter Fourteen
After finally convincing Lacey the best thing for her son would be for her to try to get some sleep in her own bed, Sterling sat alone in the glow of the desk lamp, the rest of the office dark and still.
With nothing but time to keep her company, thoughts sifted through her nearly always present defenses, again stirring difficult emotions.
“I can’t do it, Dad.”
“You’re not giving up, Sterling, are you? Not my little girl.”
“But I’ve been working on this stupid back flip for hours, days, and I still can’t do it.”
“What are you afraid of? That’s what you need to figure out, sweetie. Then you’ll do the flip.”
“It’s just too hard.”
“Nothing is too hard for you, once you decide to do something. You can’t just give up. Come on, make me proud. What are you afraid of, Sterling?”
“I don’t want to do it anymore and you can’t make me. I’m sick of trying. I’m not your little girl. I’m twelve years old. If you can’t be proud of me even if I can’t do a stupid back flip, then I don’t love you anymore.”
Guilt prickled Sterling’s conscious and she shifted uncomfortably in her chair. She’d run away from her father that night. Hearing him calling to her to say goodbye as he went to work, she’d locked her bedroom door and refused to answer. How could she have known she’d never have another chance to tell him she loved him?
A tear drifted down her cheek and dropped onto the paper on her desk, leaving a small damp spot. The ache inside her heart grew, forcing her to make a choice: stay in the pain and ride it out or shut down.
“Mind if I come in?”
Startled, Sterling looked up to see Ben leaning casually against the doorframe. With deliberate effort, she shoved deep down the heartache echoing through her. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
“I knocked.”
“I guess I was busy working,” she offered, nervously running her hand through her hair. Feeling raw, she tried to shield her eyes from his probing look.
“Are you all right, Sterling?” Ben rounded her desk to sit on its top, too close. He stroked a lock of hair back from her face, sending her heart fluttering at the touch of his skin. His twilight-warm eyes beckoned her to trust him with her heartache. “Why are you sitting here in the darkness?”
“I’ve just been thinking.” Ben’s beard was a dark stubble on his chiseled cheeks, and Sterling guessed he’d put in a long day, too. “You’re here on business, aren’t you.”
Eyeing her carefully, Ben let his hand linger on her shoulder. “I figured I’d find you here. Your apartment is a mess. You wouldn’t want to bother Lacey, and you’re a workaholic. It was an easy guess. But you haven’t answered my question. Are you all right?”
Why did he have to always put her on the spot? “I’m fine. What do you want?”
Ben seemed to sense she wasn’t going to let him inside her deepest thoughts. His eyes went dark and he let his hand drop from her shoulder.
“I want to talk sense into you. Trust me, Sterling. Let me set up a tap on this phone. Let the police handle this. You can’t beat these guys alone.”
Sterling sat silent, listening to the muffled sounds of the street below. The immense weight of everything she’d been fighting during the last fourteen years bore ruthlessly down on her. “I am not going to let these bastards win. And I don’t want you or anyone else getting in my way.”
“They’ve contacted you, haven’t they?” On his feet, Ben stared down at Sterling, daring her to hide the truth.
She couldn’t look away. “Yes. They’re going to call tomorrow morning with instructions for exchanging Tyler for the key and the memory card.”
Ben pulled Sterling to her feet. “You’ve got to let me help you, Sterling. What are you afraid of?”
Stunned, Sterling felt Ben’s words reverberate through her back to the time her father asked the same question. Her eyes locked to his, she stood unable to make a sound. Her knees wobbled and she struggled to make sense of the moment.
Drawing her into his arms, Ben rubbed his cheek against her hair. “You’re in a pretty tough place, aren’t you?”
Reluctantly resting against his solid chest, Sterling let the beating of his heart soothe her frazzled nerves.
Ben was so right, but that didn’t mean she would back away. “You can stay if you want, but you have to promise to let me handle this case my way. It’s the way it has to be.”
“You’re asking a lot, you know. It could mean my badge,” he answered, still holding her close.
“It’s something I have to do on my own. If anything happens and the police are responsible, well, I could never forgive myself.”
“When is it going to be enough, Sterling? When are you going to stop living in the past and stop being afraid? You can’t let fear shape your life.” Holding her at arm’s length, his eyes begged for so much more than an answer and Sterling’s heart beat savagely in her chest in response.
But she couldn’t muster a reasonable answer. Gathering her senses back under her reins, she stepped out of his arms. “Do we have an understanding?”
Ben ran his hand through his thick, dark locks and sighed. “God, you’re a tough one. Have it your way. But I’m staying right here tonight.”
• • •
Exactly how it happened, she wasn’t quite clear about, but sometime during the endless night, Sterling ended up with her head resting in Ben’s lap. Rousing herself from a shallow sleep, she stretched and gazed up into his deeply blue eyes. For a moment, tenderness washed over her responding to the rich sincerity that lived there.
Then it struck her and her heart clenched. Tyler’s life rested in her hands.
“I guess I dozed off,” she managed. “Sorry. What time is it?” Stiff from her cramped sleep on the couch, Sterling slowly pulled herself together and withdraw from the intimate space she so readily fell into around Ben. She couldn’t let anything dilute her focus.
“It’s nearly eight, and there’s nothing to be sorry about,” Ben answered, idly scratching his head. “I dozed off, too, for a while. Got anything to eat around here?”
“There might be some crackers out there in the coffee area.” Sterling stretched and walked to her desk. Eating was the last thing on her mind. Every muscle, every cell, perched in anticipation of a ringing phone.
Ben, intent on making coffee, nodded to Lacey as she passed him on her way through the outer office door.
Sterling’s heart wrenched at the sight of Lacey’s red and swollen eyes. “It’s going to be all right,” she assured her sister.
“I’m scared, Sterling. I just keep thinking of Tyler with those awful people.” Lacey’s voice broke and she sunk into the couch. She drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “But I’m okay. I have confidence in you. And you’re right, everything will be okay.”
Sterling looked at her watch, then up at the clock. Nine o’clock would come. She would deal with the creeps. Nothing could keep her from bringing Tyler back. She was a well-trained professional and she had everything to lose. That made a formidable combination that would ensure she would kick butt.
Sterling drumm
ed her fingers nervously on the wooden desk, sounds of the coffeemaker so casually making coffee in the other room. If only she could feel more hope and less pain. It threatened to eat away at her, like a rat gnawing on a raveled piece of twine.
Without warning, Sterling caught a sense of Ben’s intense presence, and she looked up to see him saunter back into her office. His eyes seized her gaze for a brief, suspended moment. Solid and assured, he not only drove her to madness, he comforted her. The thing he offered, without knowing, asked her to yield the walled-off places in her heart and soul to the gentleness of something that would sustain and fill her.
The shrill jangle of the phone sliced through the air and Sterling reached to answer it.
“Hello.”
“Ms. Aegar, are you ready?”
“I am.” Jerry’s voice made her skin crawl, but he didn’t scare her. It was the other man she worried most would harm little Tyler.
“Get in your car and drive to the corner of Oak and Maple. Come alone.”
There was no time for questions, with only the sound of the dial tone abruptly humming in Sterling’s ear.
She steadied her racing heart with a long breath.
“I can come with you,” Ben offered, regarding her with the devotion of a truly trusted friend.
“No, you can’t.”
His gaze never faltering told her he understood in a way only he could. “You know I’ll be right here. All you have to do is call me.”
• • •
Sterling parked her car in a nearly empty parking lot lined with small shops and looked around for something to clue her of her next instructions. Surely it would become obvious what she should do next. Perhaps a car would pull up beside her and one of the men would walk up.
But there was nothing. No sleazy scumbags, no Tyler, nothing glaring out a message telling her what to do.
Subtle signs of the day’s beginning popped up around her as shopkeepers opened their shops for the day. A jogger and his dog ran past her car. It struck a surreal note in Sterling’s head. Such an ordinary-appearing day continued around her, yet she felt as though she stood on the brink of Hell.
Dancing with Detective Danger Page 15