Five

by Blythe, Jane

  “Really?” Abby thought all of those things sounded wonderful, but she still didn’t want to leave Ariyel. “How much longer do we have to stay here?”

  “I don’t know, but hopefully not much longer.”

  Abby wanted Ariyel, but if she couldn’t have her sister, then she at least wanted to feel like her sister was close by. Whenever Abby was scared or sad, Ariyel would tell her stories. “Angela, can you tell me a story?”

  “Sure.” Angela picked up Arianna and Abby moved over to make room on Angela’s lap for the baby. “Which one?”

  “Hansel and Gretel,” Abby replied immediately. That was her favorite. Ariyel always used a funny voice for the witch, so it wasn't too scary. Settling back, she listened to Angela tell the story and hoped that they could see Ariyel again soon.

  * * * * *

  12:06 A.M.

  This was quickly going from bad to worse.

  The cops were in talking to Ariyel.

  That girl was going to be the death of him.

  Breaking her down hadn’t been easy. Malachi had locked her in the blackout room for two solid days before returning the first time. She’d refused to do as she was told. After giving her some water so she didn’t dehydrate, he’d left her for another three days. That time when he came back, her spirit had been extinguished and she’d done as he’d ordered.

  In total, she’d spent nearly a month in that room.

  Over time, she had stopped resisting. She had learned that he was her master. She had learned to be obedient, become completely compliant, let him do whatever he wanted to her.

  The first time he took her, she had fought so hard she had kneed him in the groin so badly he could barely walk for a week. After that, he had restrained her, but still she fought, and it was never all that pleasurable. But her learned obedience had changed her, she started just lying there and letting him do what he wanted to her. It was never about pleasing them. It was always about pleasing himself, so he liked his women to do as they were told. And Ariyel had come to learn that lesson perfectly.

  She had learned to be a good daughter.

  But was she still a good daughter?

  What was she telling the police?

  Was she backing up that brat, Alice, and saying he had abducted them?

  Was she backing him up and saying they really were his daughters?

  Had she admitted the little girls existed?

  Perhaps it had been a mistake to lie about them, but he’d panicked. That police officer had caught him off guard. He’d spotted the cops earlier; his internal radar had pegged them immediately. But he hadn’t thought they were there for him. He hadn’t known Alice had it in her to try to get help.

  Too bad it hadn’t been that pretty woman who had interviewed him. She was hot. Detective Hood, the other detective had said her name was. If she’d been the one to talk to him, things would have turned out differently. He would have been able to manipulate her a lot easier than he could a man. Women were a lot more pliable, especially with his mixture of good looks and charm.

  The police obviously believed Alice’s story since they wouldn’t let him see either her or Ariyel.

  Even if Ariyel backed him up, the police wouldn’t let it go.

  They would search this entire hospital and find the little ones. That would be proof he’d lied. The little ones would almost definitely affirm Alice’s story. And given enough time, Ariyel would, too.

  The police would find out the girls’ real identities. Then they'd send them back to their old families. And he’d have nothing.

  Losing Arianna would hurt the most.

  He could always find more pretty girls, but Arianna was his daughter. His blood daughter. The police had no right to take his baby from him, but they would. They would take all his girls and then they would throw him in prison.

  He couldn’t accept that.

  He wouldn’t accept that.

  They could take his girls, but they couldn’t take his freedom.

  He didn’t want to do it, but he was going to have to cut his losses and run.

  The police already had Alice and Ariyel. It was only a matter of time before they had Angela, Abby, and Arianna. He could try to find the little ones, but chances were, he wouldn’t be able to do it in time. And every second he stayed here gave the police more time to find out the truth about his girls and how he got them.

  This was killing him, but he knew it was what had to be done.

  He would disappear. He’d have to. There was a chance the girls could locate his house. So he’d have to leave it.

  Leaving the house would be almost harder than leaving his girls.

  That house meant a lot to him.

  It was where it all started.

  Where everything started.

  He had been born in that house. Lived there his entire life. It had shaped him into the man he was now.

  Malachi couldn’t imagine that house not being a part of his life.

  If there were any way he could remain there, he would.

  Maybe he could give it a little time. Stay at the house and see how things played out. In reality, it wouldn’t be all that likely that the girls could ever find the place.

  He wasn't sure yet, but if there was a way to not have to leave, then he would find it.

  Now, though, he needed to get out of here.

  Before he could leave, he’d have to create a little diversion.

  The cops had told hospital security to keep an eye on him, so he’d have to do something about that so he could slip away.

  He already had a plan.

  Taking a deep breath, he said a silent goodbye to his girls—hoping it would only be a temporary separation. He could always return to get them at a later date.

  There were two little boys playing with a ball in a corner just a few yards from where he was currently sitting.

  He could take advantage of that.

  Children had little accidents all the time. He should know, he had several daughters. They weren’t usually good at paying attention to their surroundings. Sometimes they broke things.

  No one would think twice if the little boys’ ball were to break a window.

  Malachi didn’t want to get too close, and he was only going to get one shot at this. When the guard’s head was turned, he carefully eased a ball of elastic bands from his pocket. Abby was obsessed these days with finding any and all elastic bands around the house and adding them to the ball. He had confiscated it in the car on their ride here. At the time, he hadn’t known that that simple act was going to end up saving him.

  When the little boy facing the window went to toss the ball to his friend, Malachi rolled the elastic band ball toward the children. The boy who had his hands up to catch the ball his friend had thrown to him, noticed something coming toward him and transferred his attention away from the ball.

  Just as Malachi had predicted, the ball connected with the glass, shattering it into a million tiny glass shards. While everyone’s attention snapped immediately to the children and the broken window, Malachi headed for the door, without running. He didn’t want to draw attention to himself.

  Outside, the cold night air invigorated him.

  Leaving his car behind, on the odd chance the police had already linked it to him and had him followed, Malachi ran.

  * * * * *

  12:12 A.M.

  “He’s gone,” Ryan told his partner as he walked back into the office where they had set themselves up. They’d been busy working when they’d heard the shattering of glass. He’d gone to see what had happened, finding two young boys and their very embarrassed mother apologizing profusely for her sons accidentally breaking a window while their dad was being treated for a suspected heart attack.

  “Malachi?” Paige asked.

  “Yes, the guard got distracted when some kids broke a window, and when he looked back at where Malachi had been sitting, he was gone,” he explained.

  Paige shot to her feet. “We should
go and look for him.”

  Ryan blocked the door. “Jack didn’t want you near Malachi. You stay here and I’ll go and look for him.” He didn’t necessarily agree with his brother on this one. They all knew Paige was more than capable of taking care of herself, but he also understood that Jack was just being overprotective. Wondering whether Dr. Bruce Daniels could be Sofia and Paige’s stalker had them all remembering the eight long days Paige had spent in a coma following her attack. Right now, he was happy to go with better safe than sorry where his partner was concerned.

  She glowered at him. “One, Jack is not the boss of me. Two, I was nice and did as he asked and haven’t gone near the man. Three, I'm sure he’d rather we went after Malachi than let him get away. And four, I am not letting you go after him alone. Jack’s not the boss of you either, Ryan,” she added.

  He knew that, yet his big brother had been bossy all throughout their childhood and adolescence that sometimes he was so used to Jack bossing him around that he went along with it. But Paige was right, they couldn’t let Malachi just walk out of here. “All right, let’s go.”

  Outside, they both shivered. Neither of them had grabbed their coats. “He can't have gone far.” Paige scanned the parking lot. “Ryan, over there.”

  Following his partner’s pointed finger, he saw what had caught her attention. A man was running, dodging between cars as he went. Without a word, they both pulled out their guns and took off after him. The man they were chasing disappeared as they got closer, so they split up.

  He was weaving his way slowly through the parked cars. That Malachi had run seemed like proof he was guilty. And if he was guilty of abducting four girls, holding them prisoner for five years, and impregnating one of them, then he was capable of anything.

  Up ahead, he saw a shadow dart behind a truck. Cautiously, he followed. The figure had gone by the time he rounded the truck, but he became aware of a presence behind him at the same time he heard Paige shout his name.

  “Malachi, don’t!” Her gaze was directed to someone behind him, and her gun was pointed in the same direction. “Put the gun down.”

  “You’ve already got the girls; I've got nothing to lose,” Malachi replied.

  “Ryan, duck!” Paige shouted a split second before a gunshot pierced the night air.

  Ryan felt the bullet go whizzing by as he took his partner’s command seriously and dropped to the ground. Paige fired off a shot, and he heard footsteps pounding behind him. Before he had a chance to climb to his feet, he heard the revving of an engine. Headlights glowed, their beam falling on Paige.

  He immediately knew that something was wrong.

  The car was moving too quickly.

  Heading straight for Paige.

  His partner was still staring in the direction Malachi had fled, preparing to run after him.

  The car roared, and Paige turned, finally registering that it wasn't stopping.

  Ryan launched himself off the ground and at his partner, tackling her to the ground just as the car rocketed past. If he hadn’t pushed her out of the way, the car would have plowed right into her. If she hadn’t been killed outright, she’d have been left fighting for her life.

  Images of Paige lying so badly beaten she was barely recognizable were seared into his mind. The guilt he felt over her attack hadn’t diminished in the four years since it had happened. He’d apologized several times. In fact, an apology had been the first words he’d spoken to her when she’d finally woken up. She’d been conscious less than an hour at the time, so weak she couldn’t lift her head off the pillows, and her voice was so faint that he’d had to hold his ear practically right over her mouth to hear her. She’d told him not to blame himself, but how could he not? As partners, they were supposed to have each other’s back, but he’d let her go off on her own knowing someone was after her and that she wasn't one hundred percent focused.

  Now he kept his body protectively over Paige’s, and scanned the parking lot for any signs that the car was returning. When he was satisfied that it wasn't, Ryan lifted himself a fraction of an inch off her. “Paige? Are you hurt?”

  “No,” came the somewhat breathless reply. “Let me up.”

  “We have to get you inside.” He stood quickly, yanking Paige up with him and pulling her toward the door.

  “Ryan, wait,” Paige protested, trying to wiggle out of his grip. “Malachi ran off, we have to go after him.”

  “Someone just tried to kill you.” Fear made his voice harsher than he’d intended. “Right now, keeping you alive is more important.”

  Dragging her with him, he hustled her quickly back to the hospital, keeping himself between her and any potential threat that still lurked in the dark parking lot. As they walked, he pulled out his phone and called for backup and a crime scene unit.

  Jack and Xavier met them at the door. “What happened?” Jack demanded.

  “Someone tried to kill her,” he replied, shoving Paige inside.

  “What?” Jack asked disbelievingly.

  “Malachi made a run for it, so we went after him. He took a shot at me, but Paige fired back and he ran off, then someone tried to run her over with a car,” Ryan explained, feeling shaky now that it was over. He wasn't the only one who was shaking. As what had nearly happened sank in, Paige had gone pale and was visibly trembling.

  “Are you okay?” Xavier asked Paige.

  She nodded.

  “Can you take her and get her some water and warm her up?” Ryan asked Xavier.

  “Sure thing. Come on.” Xavier put an arm around Paige’s shoulders and led her farther inside the safety of the busy hospital.

  “Did you get a look at the car?” Jack asked.

  “No, it happened too fast, and it was dark. All I was thinking about was getting her out of the way.”

  “Her stalker?”

  “That would be my guess.” He shuddered. “The car was aiming right for her. She’d be dead if I hadn’t knocked her down.”

  “But you did knock her out of the way, and she’s okay,” Jack reminded him firmly.

  “He’s left her alone for four years. Why come back now?” They needed the stalker caught. He viewed Paige as a threat to Sofia, but if he succeeded in killing Paige, he could easily pick another target, go after someone else Sofia cared about. Thinking of his wife, he wasn't looking forward to telling her about what had happened. Sofia would blame herself, and he hated to see her beat herself up over something she had no control over.

  “I don’t know. But the why isn’t really important. We need to find him before he succeeds in killing her. I'm going to call Mark and ask him to come and examine Paige. She says she’s okay, but she’s in shock, and she might have an injury she doesn’t realize yet.” Jack was already pulling out his phone.

  “Yeah, good idea,” Ryan agreed. He’d feel a lot better if he knew for sure that Paige was all right. “And we’re going to have to call everything in. Malachi fired at us, and Paige fired back when he didn’t respond to her command to lower his weapon. We can't keep this unofficial any more. I already called for a unit to come and contain the scene, should be here any minute. And we’re going to need to go through the hospital’s security footage, see if we can get anything on the car that tried to hit Paige.”

  “Mark’s on his way,” Jack announced a moment later, shoving his phone back into his pocket.

  “Cops just showed up,” Ryan noted as he saw a unit pull up outside.

  After quickly showing them where the shooting had taken place, he headed to the office to check on Paige. Xavier had put her coat around her shoulders and a blanket on her lap, and she was sitting with her head in her hands.

  He crouched in front of her. “How are you doing?”

  Drawing in a deep breath, she responded, “I'm okay, Ryan, really. Thank you, you saved my life.”

  “And you saved mine,” he reminded her.

  She nodded distractedly. “But Malachi still got away.”

  “But now we know he
did it. No reason to run and then try and shoot us if he was innocent. How did your talk with Eliza go?” Ryan asked Jack.

  “Malachi messed with her head. She’s completely terrified, but she’s backing him up at the moment,” Jack replied.

  “And she confirmed the existence of the younger girls,” Xavier added.

  “We had to stop talking to her because she became hysterical, but Xavier should try again. She seemed to respond better to him than to me,” Jack explained.

  “We should get Laura to try talking to Maegan.” Ryan broached the topic slowly, knowing his brother’s instincts would be to say no. “I know you want her to rest, Jack, but we need to find this guy—he’s dangerous, and if Eliza has been brainwashed, then Maegan is still our best source of information. She trusts Laura, and she’ll be more likely to open up to her than to any of us,” he reasoned.

  Jack looked conflicted. He was extremely protective of his wife, which was no wonder given everything Laura had been through. And Ryan, too, felt protective of Laura. She was practically his sister. But they needed to end this quickly before anyone else got hurt. The longer Malachi was out there, the greater the chances he’d try this again.

  “Okay,” Jack relented with a sigh. “She can talk to Maegan. I don’t like it, but you're right. Malachi is dangerous, and Maegan is our best chance at stopping him.”

  “We’ve identified Maegan and Eliza,” Paige told the others. “Once we knew their first names, that they were abducted on the same day, and how they were taken, it didn’t take long. Maegan’s name is Maegan Masters, and Eliza’s is Eliza Donnan. We should contact their families, let them know the girls have been found and are safe.”