I twisted and tried to pull away from him, but the world only grew darker and darker until I finally couldn’t see at all. And then…it was all over.
Chapter 18
Alexander
I got to the safe house only to find it completely empty. I ran through the rooms three times, convinced that they had to be there and I just wasn’t seeing them. But they weren’t there.
Knox knew better than to take a target out of the safe house without informing someone. Tierney must have convinced her to do something that was very important. Or exciting. Knox got bored easily sitting in a safe house. She could only take so much reality television before she went a little nutty.
Where would they have gone?
A sinking feeling filled my chest when I found the poster boards in Tierney’s room. She’d hidden them inside the closet, but it didn’t take much to find them. She was piecing together the case against Brendan Harmon, but it didn’t look like she was defending him.
It took me a minute, but I understood where she was going with all the evidence. She thought he was guilty, and she thought he had the little girl in some house that was part of a new building development project. And there was all this stuff about the Peterman family.
Did she think Brendan had taken the Peterman girl after all?
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!
I needed help on this.
I called David because I didn’t know whom else to call.
“They’re gone. Neither one is answering her cell phone. There’s something wrong!”
“I’m on my way.”
I paced the living room, the poster boards set up on the couch so that I could study them as I moved. There was a clue here, I knew there was. I just didn’t know what it was or what it meant.
David came in through the garage, concern etched into his face. I’d heard stories about David, about him and his brother, Ashford Grayson, the founder of Gray Wolf Security. From everything I’d heard, they were close, as close as two brothers could be. But they had a bit of dark history—just like the rest of us. We all knew about the car accident and its aftermath. No one talked about it, but we all knew.
Ash and David grew up in Austin, Texas where their father was a long time member of the Texas legislature. They were a close-knit family, one those ones that politicians often parade out in public with big smiles on their faces. The only difference was, it was true in their case. When Ash graduated college with a degree in political science and decided to join the Army, his parents couldn’t have been more thrilled. The dream was that he would one day follow in his father’s footsteps. David, too, was serving his country. After college, he joined the FBI.
And then things changed.
Their father was elected to Congress. There was a celebration that ran late into the night on Election Day. Ash couldn’t be there because he was deployed, but he managed to speak to his parents for a few minutes via satellite phone. If he had known it would be the last time…
David was driving the car. Their father was too tired, and he’d had a few too many to drink. And their mom, well, she just didn’t drive. The car hit a patch of black ice. It was Austin. In November. Not a common occurrence, but it was known to happen. The car flipped. Mom was declared dead on the scene. Dad lingered a few days, the press thick outside the hospital, waiting with baited breath. And David crushed his lower spine. Bone fragments were removed and his potential recovery was optimistic. But they missed a few and the inflammation caused paralysis from his upper thighs down. Doctors thought they could restore movement, maybe allow him ninety percent of his mobility. But he refused to undergo the procedure. He said the risk wasn’t worth it.
Ash thought it was guilt. And guilt he understood.
Maybe that was why they liked to work with operatives who were damaged in some way.
“What’s going on?” David asked.
I gestured to the poster boards. “I found these in Tierney’s closet. It’s the case she’s been working on, the boy I think is behind the death threats. His name is Brendan Harmon, and the cops think he’s behind the kidnapping of that little girl, Alicia Peterman.”
David glanced at the poster boards. “You think Tierney somehow convinced Knox to break protocol and go somewhere involving this case?”
“And I just got a call that Brendan Harmon walked away from a jail road crew this afternoon. That’s why I was headed out here, that’s why I’m pretty sure Tierney and Knox are in trouble.”
David touched my arm. “We’ll find them.”
He pulled out his cell phone and called the compound. I knew whom he was talking to by the look that came over his face. No matter what he needed to talk to her about, even when it was exceedingly important like this, he always got this look of peace on his face whenever he spoke to his wife. I found myself wondering if I looked the same way when I called Tierney. Probably not yet. But it was coming, I could almost feel it.
The conversation only lasted a moment. David glanced at me.
“The cell phone Knox has is the one issued to her through the company, right?”
“As far as I know.”
“It has a tracking device in it that Ricki should be able to use to pinpoint her location. As long as she has the phone on her, we should be able to find her very soon.”
I nodded. “Good.”
I began to pace again, staring at the poster boards. I knew the answer was there, right in front of my face, I just couldn’t see it. And then…
“Damn! It’s right there! The residential development project!”
Even as I said it, David got a call from Ricki telling him the same thing.
***
The real estate development was eerie. It was unnatural for such a place to be so empty and devoid of activity. But, according to what David had gotten from Ricki on the way over, the construction had been shut down because of financial problems. Peterman Construction apparently needed a huge influx of cash in order to continue operating.
That was not something I was expecting to learn. They appeared to be in good shape. They appeared to be one of those places that had always been there and would always be there. It was odd to realize there was something of that magnitude going on with them.
David drove, and I sat forward in the passenger seat. I felt like I should be doing something, that I should be the one in charge. We drove into the development, and I spotted Knox’s SUV almost right away. One of these big, black SUVs stuck out like a sore thumb in the empty, debris-dotted landscape.
David pulled to a stop beside the SUV. I jumped out before the vehicle had stopped moving, slapping my hand against the window as I looked inside, searching for any signs of life. There weren’t any. In fact, Knox’s cell phone was still sitting in the console.
“Fuck!”
David came up behind me and said something, but I didn’t quite catch it. My attention had already moved to the houses that were in various degrees of finished. It was dusk, the sun about to go down behind the structures. Only one of the houses had lights on inside.
Bingo.
I slipped the gun I was so grateful I’d chosen to wear today out of the holster under my jacket and ran toward the side of the house. The front door was ajar, suggesting someone had recently been coming and going. I was careful to stay out of the line of sight of the windows as best as I could, making my way along the southern edge. I wasn’t sure what David had done, but I saw him out of the corner of my eye going around the far side of the house. I wasn’t sure David had ever done any fieldwork in the past. I’d heard he was just a technical guy. I hoped he knew how to stay out of the way.
I ran around to the back of the house and found another open door. I held my gun off to the side of my body and peeked around. It opened into a kitchen, but there didn’t seem to be anyone around. I stepped inside, moving as cautiously as I could. The kitchen was one of those open designs that flowed directly into the living room. It made me nervous, all that open space around me, but
I managed to get to the corner of the stairs without running into anyone.
David came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder just as I was about to go up. I glanced back at him and he gestured toward the other side of the living room where we could see lights coming from a side room. I nodded, assuming he meant he was going to go check it out. I began to climb the stairs as silently as I could.
Almost immediately upon reaching the top of the stairs, I heard muffled noises coming from several of the bedrooms down the hall. I hesitated, not sure which direction to go. The house was fairly large with three branches of the hallway cutting off from this point. I decided to go forward first, but found myself simply standing outside the master bedroom which was filled with temporary bedding for as many as five people, but was currently empty. I backtracked, carefully making my way to the branch again.
I went left this time. There were three bedrooms down this direction. The first door on my right was open. I peeked inside and saw the little girl whose face was all over the news these last few weeks. Alicia Peterman. She was dressed in a frilly little pink dress, sitting in the center of a bed with a doll on her lap. She didn’t see me, and I didn’t draw attention to myself because I didn’t want her to alert a nearby guard who could give my position away. I quickly passed the room and headed toward the other two doorways. They were both closed. I paused outside the first, silently turned the knob, and pushed the door open. The room was empty.
My heart was pounding so hard in my chest that I was afraid someone could actually hear it. I almost felt as though I was back in Afghanistan, working my way through an insurgent infested building. I approached the last door in this hall, my gun at my side. I pushed the door open and waited for gunfire to ensue. Nothing. I peeked around the corner and saw Knox, sitting on the floor, furiously working to get the cable ties off her wrists.
“Hey,” I whispered, quickly moving behind her as I tugged a knife from my pocket. “Where’s Tierney?”
“He just came and took her.”
I cut her wrists free and then moved to her ankles.
“How many?”
She shook her head. “He caught me by surprise. I was standing out by the truck, watching the house. And he clocked me from behind.”
“Why were you outside?”
She just shook her head, climbing to her feet. “We should go find her and talk about it afterward.”
She led the way out of the room, walking low and to the side as she had been trained. I followed, my gun ready to protect not only myself, but her, too. She didn’t have a weapon, but she had no problem charging ahead unprotected.
We crossed the head of the stairs and made our way down the other hallway. It was designed just like the last, with three doorways. The first two were closed. Knox opened each and jumped out of the way so that I could cover her. They were both empty. Just as we turned out attention to the last, I heard Tierney’s voice.
Without thinking, I charged forward. I paused just inside the doorway, taking in the scene unfolding in front of me. Tierney was on her back, kicking at the man leaning over her. As I watched, she jabbed her fingers into his eyes. He cried out and wrapped his hands around her throat. They were struggling, moving around so much I was afraid to use my weapon. And I was determined to use my weapon. I found myself imagining the same scene I’d seen in my head a million times since Vanessa’s attack, since reading through the file the prosecutor had assembled and stupidly left out on her desk. Instead of firing, I approached the bed, turned my gun around, and slammed the butt into the back of his head. He immediately stiffened and fell to the side, unconscious.
“Tierney!”
I gathered her up in my arms. She was stiff at first, but when she realized it was me, she softened, a little moan escaping her lips.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I thought I could find her.”
“You did, baby. You did good.”
I picked her up, handing the gun to Knox. She guided us down the hallway to the room where I’d seen the little girl. David was there, quietly coaxing the child off the bed. We headed toward the stairs. Halfway down, we heard the front door slam and a voice call out.
“Hey, Brendan! Where the fuck are you?”
We stopped where we stood. Knox gestured for David and me to retreat back up the stairs, but I wasn’t about to leave Knox—already wounded—alone with the unknown perp. I handed Tierney to David and gestured for him to go back up the stairs. He gave me his gun and silently encouraged the little girl to follow him. Tierney was on her feet now, so David scooped the girl up into his arms.
I gestured for Knox to take one side of the stairs while I took the other. We descended together, side by side. The guy came around the corner just as we reached the bottom of the stairs. The look of surprise on his face was almost comical. Then Knox swung her gun and connected with the temple on the right side of his head. He went down like a block of wood.
I dragged him into the living room and tied him up with the cord from a nearby lamp. Then Knox and I cleared the rest of the house, not really in the mood for any more surprises. David, Alicia, and Tierney came downstairs.
“The police are one the way,” David announced.
They arrived not five minutes later, led by Detective Snider. He immediately took charge, barking orders to the uniformed officers around him. Then he came up to me.
“I guess thanks are in order,” he said.
“Not to me. Tierney did all the work.”
The detective looked her over. “It was a pleasure working with you, Ms. Michaels. Nice to be on the same side for a change.”
“It was.”
An ambulance arrived and the attendants checked out Knox, Tierney, and Alicia. I stood out in front of the house with David as we waited, reluctant to take my eyes off of Tierney any more tonight.
“Good work, Alexander,” David said. “I hope you understand why I had to take you off this case.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I assume it won’t be an issue in the future.”
I studied Tierney’s face and inclined my head in the positive. “You don’t have to worry about that.”
I was a one-woman man—and Tierney was about all I could take at the moment.
Jack and Leslie Peterman arrived a few minutes later. I watched as they made a fuss over the little girl, taking in the grief and the relief I saw on both their faces. But then Detective Snider approached them.
“Your daughter appears to be in good health,” he assured them both.
“Thank God!” Mrs. Peterman cried.
A couple of uniformed officers chose that moment to bring Brendan Harmon out of the house. Mrs. Peterman caught sight of him and I saw—quite clearly—the fear and anger that crossed her eyes. Detective Snider must have seen it, too. He gestured to two uniformed cops, who were sitting nearby. They walked over and took Mrs. Peterman by the arm.
“What are you doing?” she demanded.
“We are placing you under arrest for conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping, and extortion.”
“Excuse me?”
“What’s going on?” Jack Peterman demanded, lifting his little girl into his arms.
“Your daughter informed us that her mother came to visit her multiple times during her stay in this house,” Detective Snider said, “and we have other evidence that suggests Mrs. Peterman and Brendan Harmon were working together.”
“What? Why?” Jack Peterman demanded.
His wife refused to look him in the eye.
Over the next couple of days, it would be revealed that Mrs. Peterman had been having an affair with Brendan Harmon. The two of them hatched the plan of kidnapping her daughter in order to create sympathy for her campaign and to make it appear that her husband, caught up in a financial disaster with his business, had concocted the kidnapping to put his creditors off long enough for him to find another way to get the money needed to fix his situation. The plan had been for Leslie Peterman to take the lit
tle girl and flee the country with Brendan Harmon, but he’d been arrested much quicker than they’d expected. That was why it was so important to Brendan to be freed on bond. But then he was rearrested before Mrs. Peterman could get up the capital they needed, further hampering their plans. That was why there were death threats against Tierney and why the drug cohort had come to the safe house and threatened her. They needed Brendan out of jail.
I couldn’t help but think about Jack Peterman. I felt for the man. His whole world was crumbling around him and he hadn’t seen it coming. At least he got his little girl back.
Chapter 19
Tierney
Alexander and I were tangled together in his bed. He lived in a cute little cottage on the grounds of the Grayson mansion, a cozy little place that always smelled heavenly thanks to his culinary skills. We’d shared chicken piccata tonight with a decadent chocolate mousse for dessert. He was right about one thing. If I kept eating his food, I would surely gain a hundred pounds by the end of the year!
We had sort of, kind of, moved in together without really making it official. The thing was, I was not excited to go back to my place after seeing that woman vandalizing my living room. It made me wonder how Vanessa survived day in and day out with all the fears that plagued her world. I didn’t think I could.
And Alexander…he needed to be here, on the compound, in order to make himself available for his work. He assured me that it wouldn’t be a forever sort of thing, just until David got the company off the ground and figured out how to make things work a little easier. Alexander had great respect for David, and I found that I really liked him and his wife, Ricki. They were a cute couple, and they were clearly very fond of all the people who worked for them.
I was actually thinking of a career change myself. I wasn’t satisfied getting the bad guys off anymore. David had mentioned something about needing someone on staff who could help them walk the fine line between law, order, and its opposites. I don’t know if he was serious or not, but I liked the idea of a change of pace.
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