Kelvin looked shocked, then laughed. “Ain’t that just grand? The ranger got himself a daughter and now she’s gone. I could make a mint of money turning that into a country-western song, if I had a mind to. Probably make it bigger than Garth himself with a song like that.” He mimed strumming a guitar.
Grey grabbed the man by the shirt and yanked him up so that his feet barely touched the ground. “I want a straight answer. Yes or no, did you have anything to do with taking my daughter?”
Kelvin’s face purpled, and a vein pulsed at his temple. “The answer’s no. But seeing as how you’re so overcome with grief, I wish I had.” He pulled away and then spat at Grey’s feet. “You ain’t got no call to come after me like that. I ain’t done nothin’ to you. It’s you who owes me, seein’ as how you got me kicked out of the army. You were just mad that I was better’n you. Never could take anybody besting you. No, you couldn’t.”
Once again Grey ignored the man’s words, which wasn’t difficult as they were a flat-out lie. “If I find out that you had anything to do with Lily’s kidnapping, I’ll come after you like fury and you won’t like it. You won’t like it a bit.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Consider it a promise.”
Rachel tugged at his sleeve. “Let’s go. He’s not going to tell us anything.”
She was right.
“Nice seein’ ya,” Kelvin called as they walked away. “Hope you find that little girl of yourn.”
Grey nearly turned back at the taunt, but Rachel kept him moving forward by pressing on his arm. “What did you make of him?” he asked once they were out of earshot.
“Small-minded and petty. Resentful over your success. At the same time, takes pleasure in other people’s misfortunes. Likes to rub their face in it. But I think he was genuinely surprised when you asked him about Lily’s abduction.”
“What makes you say that?”
“He used penny words.”
“Penny words?”
“Small words. They weren’t planned. If he’d been lying about being involved in the kidnapping, he would have used bigger words, ones designed to impress us and draw our attention away from the lie.”
Grey thought about it. “That makes sense, though I’m not sure Kelvin has an extensive vocabulary. I guess I wanted it to be him.”
“Me, too. He’s the kind of man who inspires dislike. What happened between the two of you?”
“Kelvin always had to be number one. We were both in the same group, looking to make rangers. Another guy and I made it. Kelvin didn’t. Neither did a bunch of others, but they took it in stride. Kelvin wouldn’t let it go. One night he came after me and the other man with a broken bottle and said he was going to take out our eyes with it. I believed him. I took him down, restrained him, then reported him. He served six months in the brig and was dishonorably discharged. I haven’t seen him since.”
“No wonder he dislikes you.”
Grey’s lips twisted. “Hates is more like it. He could have been faking his surprise. Before he was shipped Stateside, he vowed he’d get even with me, however long it took. Maybe taking Lily is his way of doing it.”
“We’ll do a deeper background search on him.” She glanced about. “There’s a diner on the corner. I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry.”
Grey resented any time they took away from searching for Lily but recognized that Rachel was right. They needed to refuel. One of the ranger maxims was to eat when you can because you never knew when you’d get your next meal.
They were seated quickly and ordered burgers and fries. After their food arrived, Grey watched as Rachel put away hers in record time.
“You look like you haven’t eaten in months, but you didn’t have any problem downing that burger and fries.”
She looked up, surprise widening her eyes. “You’re right. I don’t usually eat this much. But today I was hungry. Really hungry. Maybe it’s because I’m out in the field. I haven’t done that in a while.” Melancholy settled in the tiny lines fanning from her eyes and bracketing her mouth.
“Why not?”
“It’s a long story,” she said and wiped her mouth. “You don’t need to hear it.”
“Maybe I want to hear it.”
“Trust me. You don’t.”
Once more Grey wanted to know the story behind Rachel Martin. Everything about her shouted mystery, a puzzle to piece together.
He’d always been good at puzzles.
* * *
Grateful that Grey let the subject drop, Rachel remained silent for the next few minutes.
He didn’t need to know what had kept her from the field for the past three years. Learning that she had been part of a case involving a child’s death would only make him doubt her abilities. He had enough worry on his mind as it was.
She turned in her seat and studied the strong lines of his face. Handsome, he was not, but appealing? Absolutely. A nose with a slight bump, a chin that jutted forward and a jaw that promised he didn’t back down and didn’t back off. Add unruly blue/black hair and dark eyes and you had yourself a man any woman would give a second look.
He put her in mind of the rugged-looking soldier she’d seen in a recruitment poster.
And what was she thinking, cataloging his features like that? She hadn’t looked at another man since her fiancé had abandoned her. Romance was out of the picture for her. For good.
In a determined effort to get her mind off the client and his all-too-compelling looks, she let her gaze take in the fields. Lush green spread in every direction, the bounty of a wet spring. Low-lying bushes, maybe peanut, marched in rows, a money crop for whoever owned the land.
She spread her arms to encompass the beauty. “There was a time when I would have thanked the Lord for this.”
“Why not now?”
“The Lord and I parted ways a few years back.” When the truck sped up unexpectedly, she braced herself. “What’s going on?”
The grim look on Grey’s face told her that whatever it was wasn’t good. “No brakes.”
“Did you shift it into low gear? Pull the emergency brake?”
He gave her a what-do-you-think look. “Hang on.”
She hung on for all she was worth. In a few minutes they would reach the ridge where the road veered sharply downward.
Grey managed to avoid the other cars, honking madly, warning them to get out of the way.
Rachel stared at the impossibly steep grade as it snaked down to the valley. What were they going to do? Determinedly, she kept her eyes open, refusing to give in to the impulse to shut them.
Grey white-knuckled the steering wheel. In response she clutched her hands and struggled to breathe through the tightness in her chest.
Sweat dribbled down her face, even though she was colder than she’d ever been. She tried to swallow. Found that she couldn’t.
She knew better than to try to talk with Grey. He needed every ounce of concentration. And what would she say? Hey, think we’re going to die in another minute or two?
Instead, she held on and wished she still believed in prayer.
THREE
Grey swerved in and out of traffic, narrowly missing a semi pulling a tractor trailer.
When a blinking red light loomed at an intersection with a county road, he honked the horn, its blast reverberating through the air. Dear Lord, please bring us through this. The prayer didn’t make it past the lump lodged in his throat.
Other drivers veered left or right as the truck barreled through an intersection. He gave a silent thanks that there were no more lights on this stretch of highway, but he couldn’t avoid hitting other vehicles indefinitely.
They were speeding toward an oncoming SUV filled with children. At the last minute he wrestled the truck out of the path. Prayer and fear mixed liberally at the near miss, and a breath shuddered fro
m him.
The truck was gaining speed with every moment, rendering his attempts to control it increasingly ineffectual.
As they careened down the hill, Rachel pointed to a turnoff for truckers to check their brakes. “There! To the right.”
Calling upon every bit of strength he had, Grey muscled the truck to the turnoff and let it come to a stop at the uphill grade.
She didn’t move, her hands gripped together. “Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For saving our lives.”
The credit belonged to God, but Grey only nodded. Then he said what had to be said: “That was deliberate. Someone wanted us dead. Or at least banged up really bad.”
“You’re right.” She said the words calmly enough, but he could hear the careful control in her voice as though if she said too much, too fast, she would shatter.
He guessed the adrenaline was draining from her body, as it was his, making them both vulnerable to a churn of emotions. Even now feelings crashed and eddied within him, a maelstrom of gale-like forces.
He’d seen it before. Soldiers on the battlefield were no more immune to the pump of adrenaline than were civilians. He’d learned to let the roil settle. For now he used the time to offer a silent prayer of gratitude to the Lord for delivering them from what had probably been certain death.
She lifted her gaze to his. “You were praying, weren’t you?”
“I find it helps.”
She didn’t answer. Not that he’d expected one. She’d already told him that she wasn’t a believer.
He didn’t fault her for that. Everyone had to find their own way in life. For him, praying to the Lord offered not only comfort but courage, as well. He needed both.
He pulled out his phone, punched in 911. After he’d given the information, he climbed out of the truck, rounded it and helped Rachel out on the other side.
Reaction had set in. When she started to tremble, he pulled her to him, pressed her head to his chest.
After a long moment she looked up. “Sorry. This isn’t me. I don’t usually fall apart like this.”
“No need to apologize. Speeding down a hill in a runaway truck is enough to rattle anyone.”
He wouldn’t be able to check the brake line here. He’d have to wait until the truck was towed to a mechanic, but there was no doubt in his mind that the line had been cut. Brakes that had been in working order less than an hour earlier didn’t suddenly fail with no explanation.
His first thought was of Victor Kelvin. Kelvin could have seen Grey and Rachel stop at the diner. It wouldn’t be a stretch for the man to slide under the truck and cut the brake line. Kelvin had made it clear that he held a king-size grudge against Grey.
“You think Kelvin did this, don’t you?” Rachel asked.
Recalling the hatred in the man’s eyes, Grey fisted his hands at his sides. If Kelvin were in front of him now, Grey didn’t trust himself not to shake the truth from him. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”
“But we can’t know. Not yet. You were already in someone’s crosshairs. Whoever shot at you this morning could be responsible for this, too. You’ve managed to become mighty unpopular in only a day.”
“It’s a gift.”
Despite his light words, Grey was losing the battle to hold on to the beliefs that had seen him through some of the darkest hours of his life. The Lord had helped him endure three horrific months as a POW, but if he failed to bring Lily back, he didn’t know if his faith could sustain the blow.
* * *
Two hours later, after making yet another statement to the police and looping them in to the investigation to find Lily, Rachel and Grey were on their way in a new rental truck, this time to the mechanic where the damaged truck had been towed.
“Think of it as progress,” Rachel said. “We’ve made someone angry enough to try to kill you one more time.”
“I have been thinking on it. Using a rifle took planning. Someone had to know where I’d be and when I’d be there. Tampering with the brakes seems more a spur-of-the-moment thing.”
“Taking advantage of an opportunity,” she mused aloud. “Two different ways of trying to get rid of you. Two different killers?” It made sense, but it wasn’t definitive. “Could be that you have two factions that want you dead.”
“Comforting thought.”
“We aim to please.” She angled herself toward Grey. “And then there’s Jenae’s murder. A totally different weapon from the rifle fired at you.”
“Maybe the kidnapper’s trying to throw us off.”
Rachel had been thinking on it. “Maybe this isn’t a simple abduction case.”
“I’m not naive, Rachel, so give it to me straight. Do you think Lily was taken with the intention of selling her?”
Darkness swirled through her as she recalled stomach-turning cases of babies being sold on the black market. Memories, each more horrifying than the last, played free and loose in her mind. “I don’t get that vibe. There’s more going on here than we know.”
“In the Stand, terrorists committed what were called tiger kidnappings. Take a child or another loved one and then force the father to kill to get the child back. What they had those men do was obscene.” He lowered his gaze, then looked up with eyes that suddenly seemed old.
“Did you ever find the children?”
“Sometimes.” But the bleak expression in Grey’s eyes told her that at least some of those kidnappings hadn’t ended well. She could only imagine the horror those memories evoked, including causing him to wonder what was in store for Lily.
“Don’t go there,” she said, voice sharp. “We don’t know what’s going on. Until we do, don’t put yourself through that.”
The more they talked, the more Rachel thought about the why. Why take Lily but not ask for ransom? Why try to take out Grey when he would logically be the one to pay the ransom—the nonexistent ransom?
She turned it back and forth in her mind. Nothing made sense. It didn’t help that both she and Grey were dropping with fatigue. She doubted he’d slept since he’d gotten the telegram.
Grey’s eyes bored a hole through her. “Nothing. Nothing to tell us where Lily is. Nothing to tell us who took her. I thought you were supposed to be some kind of hotshot at this stuff.” Accusation underscored every word.
Rachel didn’t hold it against him.
Given the day he’d had, he deserved to rail and rant or maybe just break down. But she knew enough about special-ops soldiers to know that breaking down wasn’t in their wheelhouse. Especially rangers. They just kept going, whatever the challenge, whatever the task.
She wished they’d found something—anything—to point to who had taken Lily, but they’d come up empty on all fronts. Fear that they wouldn’t find the little girl scraped at her heart with nasty claws, drawing blood invisible to the eye.
Despite her earlier pep talk, she knew that the longer a child was missing, the less likely it was that she would be found alive.
“After everything that happened today,” he said, the bleakness in his eyes more guilt-producing than his anger, “we’re no closer to finding Lily than we were at the beginning.”
“‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’ From now on, that’s our motto.”
“Beckett, right?”
“Right.”
“Sorry about earlier. You’re all right, Martin.”
“So are you.”
He was more than all right. The insistent voice inside her head had her pulling back from the path her thoughts were taking. “Let’s go,” she said, more brusquely than she’d intended.
* * *
Grey knew he’d been wrong to come down on Rachel as he had. She hadn’t deserved the back side of his tongue. She was keeping it together, keeping him together, despite all that had happened
.
The day had passed with a kind of surreal intensity: being shot at and then tossed off a building, finding Jenae’s body and nearly dying in a runaway truck, and, finally, the punch-to-the-gut knowledge that Lily was out there and he had no idea where she was or even if she was still alive.
The trip to the mechanic’s garage where the truck had been towed had yielded nothing. By the time they’d arrived, the garage was closed. And even if there was evidence of brake tampering, what then? Unless whoever had done it had been incredibly careless, there’d be nothing to tie him to the act.
Grey wanted to pound something—or someone—in frustration.
“Do you have a place to stay tonight?” Rachel asked.
“The house where Maggie and I lived.”
“We’ll start fresh in the morning.” She favored him with a critical look. “Get some rest. You look like you need it.”
He didn’t take offense at the order. He’d been going flat-out since receiving the telegram and begrudged even an hour spent away from the hunt for Lily, but he recognized the truth behind Rachel’s words. He wasn’t any good to anyone, least of all Lily, if he didn’t take care of himself. That meant food and rest.
“You’re right.”
“We’ll find something tomorrow. I promise.” Immediately she shook her head. “And I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. But I can promise to do everything in my power to bring Lily home.”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For being honest.”
He knew there were things she wasn’t telling him, like why she’d left the FBI, but he also knew that she’d tell him the truth about finding Lily, straight and unvarnished, however hard it was.
It was nearing dusk by the time they reached S&J. The setting sun painted a soft blush on the clouds that drifted over the rolling hills in the distance.
He let Rachel out to pick up her car. To his relief, she didn’t suggest sharing a meal. She must have sensed his need to be alone, to gather what he could of his bruised emotions and try to make sense of them.
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