by Lynn Shannon
“What is wrong with her?” he demanded. “She’s been crying for half an hour and won’t stop.”
“Give—” The word came out on a croak. Her mouth was dry. She licked some of the water off her lips. “Give her to me.”
Tara fought against the bonds holding her to the chair. The ropes bit into the delicate skin of her wrists.
“I’m not giving her to you. You’re going to tell me what to do.”
Was he insane? “Ken, please let me go. She’s scared.”
“She’s not scared!” he shouted. His face became mottled with rage. “I just don’t know what to do. You’re supposed to tell me what to do!”
His outburst terrified Maddy. The little girl arched away from him. He barely caught her before she hit the floor.
“Okay. Okay, I’ll tell you what to do.” Tara didn’t understand everything that was going on, but one thing was very clear: she needed to keep Ken calm. “Rock her. Side to side. She likes that.”
She took several deep breaths, hoping lots of oxygen would clear the fog from her brain. Her gaze swept across the room. They were in some kind of cabin. Through the windows, she could see towering pine trees. Near the front door sat Maddy’s diaper bag.
“She’s teething, so her mouth may be hurting. In the bag, I have ointment for it.”
Ken crossed the room and bent down. “Where?”
“In the front, left-hand pocket. You have to smear it on her gums.”
Someone groaned. Tara twisted her head, pushing past the sharp arc of pain. Dan sat in the corner of the room. He was unconscious and dressed in his work uniform. Dried blood stained the collar and matted in his hair. One of his eyes was black, and his shoulder jutted up in an unnatural position.
Maddy’s cries lessened as Ken spread the numbing medication. She started hiccupping, her face still red, her eyes swollen. Tara wanted nothing more than to scoop her up and run.
She had to get them out of here.
Ken smirked. “See. I knew she wasn’t scared. You tried to trick me, but I’m not an idiot.”
“I don’t think you’re an idiot.” She had to keep him calm. She also had to keep him occupied. Lord help me find the words. Tara twisted her fingers, feeling for the knots binding her wrists. “I just don’t understand why you are doing this.”
“Because Maddy is mine.”
No. He couldn’t be her father!
Don’t think about it. Get free. Get Maddy. Get out.
“But I don’t know how to take care of her,” he continued. “That’s why you’re here. You’re going to tell me everything I need to know.” He sneered with disgust. “If Vikki hadn’t been so foolish, we could’ve been together. We could’ve been a family.”
Her hands stilled. “You…you killed Vikki? Why?”
“She rejected me.”
Ken’s expression twisted into one Tara had never seen before. It was hard. Ugly.
Evil.
“I loved her. Since high school, I’ve loved her. When she moved in next door, it was fate. We started dating. Movies. Dinners. It was beautiful. Vikki told me she only wanted to be friends, but I knew it wasn’t true. She was mine. She just needed more time to realize it. After she became pregnant with Maddy, I told her it didn’t matter. I would marry her. I offered her everything. Everything! And she said no.”
Maddy jerked and started crying again. Tara’s heart shredded with every tear. “You can’t use a loud voice. It’s jarring. Walk with her. She’s exhausted, and if you walk and rock her, she’ll fall asleep.”
Ken sucked in a deep breath. He awkwardly patted Maddy’s back. “There now, my baby. No one could keep us apart in the end. No, no. You’re mine. You’re the best part of Vikki and now you’ll be with me forever.”
Tara’s stomach twisted in disgust. Ken’s obsession with Vikki had turned into something dark and perverse and, after killing her, he’d become fixated on Maddy.
The baby quieted, and he tossed Tara a smile. “I knew taking you was smart. I’ve read baby books and I’ve watched you for a long time, but there’s so much about Maddy I still don’t know. What other things can I do to calm her down?”
“She likes listening to people talk. It’s soothing.”
If Ken needed to learn how to care for Maddy, then she would use that to her advantage. The rough rope tore at the skin of her fingers, but one of the knots yielded. Tara wanted to cry with relief. Instead, she said, “Were you the one who attacked me in the grocery store parking lot?”
“Did you honestly think it was Dan? Of course, I’ve worked hard to point the police in his direction.” He snorted. “Cops. They’re just like sheep. Plant some evidence, give a witness statement, and they follow it right where you want them to go.”
Plant evidence? The ropes loosened but not enough. She tugged her hands apart. The twine cut deeper into her skin and warmth trickled down.
“You put things in Dan’s house?”
“The clown costume. Some bullets. Just enough to make him look guilty.” Ken glowered at her. “If you hadn’t fought me that night in the parking lot, none of this would have been necessary. You screwed it up for me.”
She wasn’t sorry she’d fought back, but Tara regretted her actions drew Dan into it. “You tried to kidnap Maddy from the bridal store.”
“That was a setup. In order for it to be believable Dan was the kidnapper, he had to appear desperate.” Maddy’s head drifted down onto Ken’s shoulder. He kept walking. “But I was never desperate. I knew exactly what I was doing.”
Tara’s fingers, slick with blood, slipped off the rope. Please, Lord, help me.
“What about the truck that followed us?”
“I stole it from Travis’s garage. He and my brother, Wayne, go way back. Birds of a feather and all that. Again, it made the kidnapper look out of control.” He sneered. “I led you to Vikki’s house because I needed you to believe Dan was watching you. I took cigarettes from his ashtray and planted them. DNA doesn’t lie. Between what they’ve found in Vikki’s house and the evidence I planted in Dan’s closet, the case will be rock solid against him.”
She fumbled with another knot. Her fingers wouldn’t coordinate, the effects of the drug working against her. If she could only loosen it…
“The break-in at the West’s house was more planned.”
A smile broke across his face. “You bet it was. It took a bit of time, because I had to figure out how to get all of the men away from the house. I needed the storm to cover my trail when I knocked down the fence to let the cows out. Then I watched and waited.”
“How did you bypass the security system?”
“Which company do you think put it in? The people at work have no idea how vulnerable their systems are.”
The cybersecurity book on his coffee table. He’d hacked into the system at work and obtained the alarm codes.
“And the drug you used on me?”
He chuckled. “My brother. Having a drug dealer comes in handy sometimes. He supplied me with enough to keep Dan in line. Plus some for you and Deeann too. I was a bit worried when Grady’s mother made all that noise when she fell, but it worked in my favor. I knew exactly where you would go once you realized someone was in the house.”
He’d used her love of Maddy against her. Tara tightened her jaw and kept working the knots.
“She’s asleep.” Ken gently laid Maddy into the car seat he must have taken from the West’s home. He covered her with a blanket. “All right. Now it’s your turn.”
He picked up a pad and paper from the table. “I want to know everything. From the moment she gets up to the second she goes to sleep—”
A cell phone rang. Tara’s fingers froze as she realized it was coming from her sweater. “You have a cell phone on you.” His face turned beet-red, and he jerked the zipper to her pocket open. Curse words flew out of his mouth. “You stupid—”
His hand smashed into her face, cutting off the rest of his sentence. Tara’s head snapped ba
ck as pain exploded across her cheek. The edges of her vision darkened. She forced herself to breathe through the agony.
“It’s Grady.” Ken’s steps pounded against the cabin floor as he paced. He cursed again. “They can track you using cell phones. What am I going to do? What am I going to do?”
He reached behind his back and yanked out a thick blade with a serrated edge. Tara’s mouth went dry. “Ken—”
“Shut up,” he screamed. He lifted the sleeve of his shirt. Along his forearm, lines of cuts ran back and forth. He lowered the knife and sliced his skin, slowly and with exact precision. His eyes closed and his breathing slowed.
Her phone stopped ringing.
“I should destroy it.” He lifted the blade. Blood ran down his arm and coated his hand. “That will prevent them from being able to track it.”
No! He couldn’t destroy it. That phone represented her lifeline to help. The cell phone’s screen lit up moments before the ringing started again.
“Let me talk to him.”
He glared at her. “What kind of fool do you take me for?”
“Grady will keep calling. If I don’t talk to him, he’ll immediately know something is wrong.”
Ken’s mouth flattened into a hard line. He flicked his wrist. The knife whizzed past her ear and embedded in the wood behind her. She gasped. The handle was even with her face. One centimeter over and it would have cut her.
He closed the distance between them with angry strides and yanked the knife from the wall. She froze. The blade’s edge caressed her cheek and then the line of her jaw. It hovered over her carotid artery.
“Okay, Tara. I’ll let you talk to Grady, but if you breathe one word to him about what’s happening I’ll kill Maddy’s loving uncle right in front of you. I’ll send this knife straight into his throat.”
She locked her muscles and willed herself to meet his gaze. His eyes were dark voids of emptiness.
“Deal.” Her voice didn’t tremble with the lie, even as her mind raced. “I won’t say anything.”
How was she going to tell Grady they were in trouble without tipping off Ken?
Grady hit redial on his phone. This was his third time calling Tara. Two sets of eyes—Jason’s and the dog’s—watched as he paced the cabin. He’d already talked with Luke, and sent him a photograph of Jason’s drawing identifying Ken Hastings as the man who attacked Tara in the parking lot. Still, he wouldn’t be content until he was able to alert her.
“Hello.”
He let out the breath he’d been holding in a rush. “Tara, where are you? Why didn’t you answer the phone?”
“I was changing Maddy’s diaper. Hoy, boy, it was a doozie. Karma really got me on that one. I shouldn’t have fed her those beans yesterday.”
Grady froze. His throat tightened to the point of nearly closing. Somehow he managed to choke out, “Better you than me.”
She laughed, but it was strained. “Chicken. Anyway, everything’s okay here. Any news on your end?”
“No. Nothing.” He let frustration color his tone. “We’ve hit a bunch of dead ends.”
“You’ll get there. I’d better run. Maddy needs to go down for her nap.”
“Other than the beans situation, she okay?”
“She’s fine. We both are. I’ll see you when you get home.”
Before he could answer, Tara hung up. Grady immediately called Luke. “Get someone out to my parents’ house.”
The urgency in his voice caused the dog’s ears to stand up. Over the line, Luke snapped out orders and said, “What’s going on?”
Keeping his fellow ranger on speaker, Grady toggled to view his apps. “Tara’s in trouble. I just talked to her on the phone and she used my old undercover rescue word.”
Karma. Using it had saved his life, but it hadn’t spared the officer he’d been with. The idea of Tara or Maddy being hurt or killed sent a wave of heart-stopping panic rushing over him. “I think Maddy’s with her. She said they were fine, but she could've been lying.”
“Maddy?” Jason grabbed his arm. “As in Maddy Spencer?”
“You know her?”
“She’s the daughter of one of my combat buddies. Marcus died in an IED attack. The woman robbed in the parking lot of Burks was Maddy’s adoptive mother?”
Grady nodded. A map appeared on his cell phone screen. A blue dot blinked. “I’ve got the phone’s coordinates, Luke. Tara gave me permission to track her phone after Maddy was kidnapped at the bridal store. I’m sending them to you right now.”
“I grew up around here and know these woods.” Jason leaned over to look at the phone. “There’s a cabin there.”
“We’ve been running Ken Hastings through the system since you sent me the drawing,” Luke added. “His mother owns a piece of property in that area. I’ve got law enforcement dispatched to that location, but they are thirty minutes out.”
“I know a shortcut. We can be there in fifteen, less if you’re a fast runner.”
Grady hesitated. Jason was a former marine with several medals to his name, but he obviously knew Maddy and he’d known Vikki. Could he be trusted?
“You’ve done a background check on me. I’ve never had so much as a traffic ticket.” Jason’s mouth tightened. He lifted his shirt to reveal a sidearm. “That’s my buddy’s daughter in there. You need backup and I can provide it.”
Grady was going with his gut. “Done. Let’s go.”
Fifteen
Tara talked until her hoarse throat nearly gave out.
“She likes colorful toys…her favorite lullaby is…she hates bananas.”
Blood dripped down her fingers as she worked the last knot, one stubborn tangle of rope in her way. Her hand cramped, and she stole precious moments to stretch it out.
Ken stood from the chair and yawned. He tucked the pen and pad into his pocket. “I think I have enough. None of this seems too complicated.”
“But I haven’t told you about when she’s sick.”
“And I wish we had more time, but it’s getting late. Someone is eventually going to find Grady’s mother and realize you’re gone. Once that happens, they’ll track your phone.” His gaze flickered over the room. “My grandfather left me this place. I’m going to be sorry to see it go.”
Ken ambled over to the only closet and opened it, then removed a huge can.
Tara sucked in a sharp breath. “What…what are you doing?”
He tipped the can over. The scent of gasoline filled the space.
“I’m finishing what I started.”
Grady’s bum leg burned, but he didn’t slow down. Ahead of him, the dog—Connor—jumped over a log. He followed suit, and his boots slipped on the mud and pine needles. His shirt was soaked in sweat he barely noticed. His mind had one focus: getting to Tara and Maddy.
Please, Lord. Please don’t let me be too late.
Jason skidded to a sudden halt, his chest heaving, and winced. Grady probably wasn’t the only one in pain.
“The house is in a small clearing through those trees.” He crouched behind some bushes, and Grady joined him. “We’ve got the high ground, so we should be able to assess the situation before going in.”
A hundred yards away sat a cabin with a tin roof. Windows faced the front and side. There was no cover between them and the house. Anyone standing guard would see them coming.
He texted Luke. The response came right back.
“Backup is here in fifteen,” he whispered.
“We hang tight till then?”
It went against Grady’s instincts. He wanted to rush the house and get Tara and Maddy out of there, but without knowing more, he could just as well kill them.
“If we try and approach now, we could create a hostage situation.” He pointed to the truck next to the cabin. “Is that the vehicle you saw on the night of the attack?”
Jason nodded.
The door to the cabin opened and Ken appeared, carrying a car seat. Maddy was tucked inside, her curly hair bounc
ing with his steps. Grady’s hands clenched into fists. He was going to make sure Ken spent the rest of his life in a prison cell.
He set the baby down in the yard and went back inside.
“What’s he doing?” Jason whispered.
Grady rose. He didn’t like this. Assessment time was over.
“Get the baby,” he ordered. “I’ll get Tara.”
He streaked across the clearing, his weapon in his hand. Footsteps behind him meant Jason was following suit.
A scream rang out inside the cabin.
Tara.
No, no, no. The word pounded in his head as his boots tore up the distance between him and the cabin. Jason scooped up the car seat and ran toward the trees. The dog trailed behind him.
Grady shoved on the wooden door, but it didn’t budge. He lifted his foot and slammed his boot into the wood right above the lock. Red-hot pain shot up his thigh.
“Tara!” he screamed.
He reared back and repeated the movement. This time the wood splintered and the door burst open. Grady bolted in, his gun raised.
And froze.
Ken stood in the back of the cabin. He held Tara in front of him. His arm wrapped around her waist and trapped hers next to her body. Her face was pale, her hands raw and bleeding. Rope dangled from one wrist. A long cut ripped through her right pant leg. Blood soaked the fabric.
Ken held a knife to her throat.
“Put down your weapon, Ranger, or I’ll slit her throat.”
His voice was silky soft. Menacing. Ken was cornered, and like any cornered animal, he was at his most deadly.
Sweat dripped down the back of Grady’s neck. His boot slid across the floor as the urge to rush over and tear Ken limb from limb wrestled with his law enforcement training. “No one needs to die today.”
Tara’s mouth moved, but Grady couldn’t make out the word. A moan came from the corner of the room. Dan was tied to a chair, unconscious and beaten. The scent of gasoline burned his nose. With a jolt, Grady realized what word Tara was mouthing.
Fire.
“It’s over, Ken. Don’t make things worse than they already are.” Grady calculated the shot. He couldn’t make it without risking Tara. “We can all walk out of here.”