Circle of Deception 2 (24 page)

Meg stopped her yelling to focus in on what she was saying. She was livid, and the lies this woman was spilling was only making it worse. “Well, how in the hell can you explain how she’s been talking to my daughter?”

“Kids make up friends all the time, maybe it was just a decoy for feelings she doesn’t want to express to you.”

“No,” Melia snapped. “Cienna has mentioned this friend that plays with them on the playground during recess. This is more than just their imagination running wild. She drew a picture of this woman.”

“Oh dear,” Principal Wilkes sighed.

“Oh dear is right,” Meg snapped. “You know what, get me my daughter and my niece, I’m taking them home now.”

“Mrs. Hanover, I don’t think...”

“I don’t care what you think right now. Get me the kids!”

“Okay, they’re at recess, we’ll find them and bring them in.”

“Recess, huh? This is even better, I’m going to that playground to see this Ms. Pierre.”

“Mrs. Hanover we can’t have you making scenes in front of the other children. You will have to wait here.”

“You try and stop me and see what happens, that is my child. I’ll go where I damn well please.”

Principal Wilkes conceded and walked out of the room towards the playground. Honestly, she understood Meg’s anger. If it were her, she would be the exact same way, that simple fact is the reason why she hadn’t called the police when things took a turn for the worst. She was almost as determined as Meg to get to the bottom of the playground incident.

When they arrived on the playground, Meg scanned the area looking for the two girls, and at first sight, she didn’t see either child. They looked for a few minutes before Cienna spotted them. She ran over and latched on to her mother, and Meg continued to look for Allison. She knew they always played together, so she couldn’t be far behind.

Meg looked around the sea of children searching for her energetic little girl, but still didn’t see her. After several minutes with no success, she bent down to talk to Cienna. “Cici, sweetie, can you help Aunt Meg? Do you know where Alli is?” When she shook her head yes, Meg smiled and rubbed her brown locks. “Good, can you show me?” When she shook her head no, Meg’s smile faded. “Why not? You won’t get in trouble, I promise.”

“I don’t know where she went. She left with Ms. Pierre.”

Meg felt the air leave her lungs and she slumped back. “Where did Ms. Pierre say she was taking Alli?”

“They didn’t tell me. Alli said she needed to go to the restroom and they never came back.”

“How long ago?” Meg asked, trying to hold back her tears.

“I don’t know. Are you mad at me for not telling? Mommy said not to leave with strangers, but she said we weren’t strangers.”

“No, baby,” Meg rubbed her face with tears in her eyes. “You did the right thing by telling me. Here, go with your mommy, I need to call Uncle Alex.”

Principal Wilkes began to scour the playground asking everyone what they had seen, but no one remembered seeing her leave. Meg watched, feeling numb as they questioned everyone in sight. They decided it was best to evacuate the rest of the children while they questioned the teachers present. Principal Wilkes walked back to Meg offering her apologies with a frantic look on her face, but Meg heard nothing. Before she could fully take hold of the situation, she slapped Principal Wilkes so hard it sounded off across the playground.

“This is all your fault! This is your school, my child was supposed to be safe here. You let someone take my daughter under your watch and I’ll shut this school down!”

Melia had secured Cici with one of the teachers and rushed back to Meg. She practically had to pry her off Principal Wilkes. Just as she was dragging her away, the phone rang. She looked down and saw Alex was returning one of their many calls and scrambled to answer it. He sounded upbeat when she answered it, but when he heard what Melia had to say, he grew grim. Before she knew it, the line went dead. Melia screamed into the phone, but he was gone. She tried calling back, but only got his voice mail.

Melia was able to restrain Meg enough to drag her into the school and sit her down to wait for the police to arrive. They sat in silence for over fifteen minutes until Alex came running in with Aiden close behind him. “Baby,” he called out. “What happened? Where is our daughter?”

“Alex,” she ran into his arms. “Ms. Pierre is real, she’s not imaginary. She stole our baby. She took her Alex, I want her back!”

Alex pulled her against him, letting his tears fall into her hair. He was so terrified about what could happen to their child, he couldn’t hide it this time. He was feeling helpless knowing there was nothing he could do. When one of the officers stepped in front of him, Alex turned and pushed Meg behind him. He walked off to talk to them, and Cienna came around the corner with one of the teachers. Aiden watched as Alex conversed with the detectives, and turned to Cienna, who looked frightened. “You know you were really brave for telling your aunt about Alli, right?”

Cienna shook her head, but kept it down. Aiden wanted to take her mind off the situation, so he offered to do something to entertain her. “Hey, would you like to color with Uncle Aiden?” she smiled and agreed readily. When he looked through his briefcase, he discovered he didn’t have any paper, so he looked into Alex’s to see if he did. While going through the papers, he ran across all the articles Alex had confiscated from Meg about last year and paused. Cienna looked at him with wondering eyes as he looked at them quietly. When she noticed one of the pictures, she pointed at it.

“What is it Cici?” Aiden asked in confusion.

“That’s her.”

“Who?” Aiden asked, studying the picture.

“Ms. Pierre, Alli went with her.”

Aiden looked down at the woman in the picture and gasped for air. He stared at the picture a moment longer and then over at Alex and stood suddenly. “I’m sorry, Cici, Uncle Aiden has to tell Uncle Alex something really important.” He raced to Alex and presented the picture breathlessly.

“Aiden this isn’t the time, I don’t want to look at that woman right now.”

“Alex, Amanda has Alli. Cienna recognized her from the picture.”

“That murdering bitch has my daughter? How is this even possible? They should have been watching her,” he screamed, and threw his fist into the wall.

“Alex,” Meg rasped. He looked in her eyes, trying to find the way to tell her what danger their child was in, and dropped to his knees. He couldn’t bear to tell her that her worst nightmare had actually come true. He just couldn’t. She walked closer to him and pulled the paper from his hand. He didn’t have to say the words, she knew from the look in his eyes what was going on, and she hit the floor. Meg passed out, and Alex scrambled over to lift her head from the floor. He pushed her hair back and sobbed into her shoulder as he held her close.

Aiden alerted all the officers that they knew who had Alli, but he was terrified. They had been looking for this woman for almost a year with no luck and now she had his niece. She could disappear from the face of the earth and they wouldn’t know where to look. He knew to fix this, he was now going to have to get everyone in the loop. He picked up his phone to call Melissa and within twenty minutes she was there wrapping her arms around both Meg and Alex.

Alex was hysterical and Melissa pulled him up and off to himself. “Alex, listen to me,” she placed her hands on his face. “There is so much that you don’t know, and so much I need to tell you. First of all, we’re going to get Alli back, Amanda is unhinged, but for some reason she loves Alli to death. She wouldn’t hurt her. Secondly, I think it’s time you talked to your father. I know you hate him, hell, I hate him, but he can make things happen. He would move heaven and earth to make sure either of these kids were safe.”

Alex looked at her with a grim expression and wiped his tears away. “Mom, I would make a deal with the devil to get my baby back. Look at my wife, I swore to never let this happen, now I have to fix it. If that means teaming up with Satan himself, then that’s what I have to do for them.”

“Go to him, see what he knows. I’ll take care of things here and I’ll take care of Meg until you return. I promise you son, we will find her.”

“Where is my son?”

“In good hands, they will bring him home when you get back.”

“They?”

“Alex, things will come out soon enough, you just go.”

Alex nodded his head and walked over to Meg. He held her in his arms and kissed her gently before running off with Aiden. He would explain things to him in the car. For now, he just needed to get to Ben before too much time could pass. His little girl needed him, and he was going to explore every possibility to get her back; even working with the man he hated.

Chapter Twelve

“Melia,” Matt called out and rushed into the house. “Melia, where are you? Where is Cici?”

She came around the corner to find him looking defeated. “She’s sleeping. What’s going on? Have they found out anything? Have they found any clues?”

“No, baby,” he framed her face with his hands. “I just wanted to be sure she was safe. It could have been her. It could have been our baby she took. When they called me, I was so scared. I just needed to be with her.”

“Go to her,” she smiled and stepped aside.

“Thank you, I know I shouldn’t just show up here. I just needed to see her.”

“It’s fine, go.”

Melia watched as he raced up the stairs and placed her hand on her stomach. It was times like these when she missed him the most. She wanted to be there for Meg, but she was exhausted, all the stress of the kidnapping added with her pregnancy had worn her out. After a while at the school, she gathered Cici and took her home. All the shock of the day had her little girl shaken beyond measure. In the car ride home, she slept the whole way and when they arrived home, Melia just scooped her up and placed her in bed. It was fairly early for them to sleep, but considering the day they had, she understood.

Matt stayed up with Cienna longer than Melia had expected him to, so she decided to just lay it down. She knew he would lock up when he left, so she left him to it. After changing into her bed clothes, she pulled back her covers and climbed into bed. Within minutes, she was drifting into her own little slumber. She had never gone to sleep so early in her life. It was only six and she felt like she had been through a whole day. She allowed herself to succumb to her needs fully when she felt it. The baby had taken her peaceful retreat and turned it into another upchuck session.

As she raced to the restroom, the light in the hallway flickered on. Matt poked his head into her bedroom only to find it vacant. When he stepped further inside, he looked around the room, remembering his old life and smiled. Everything was the same except for a few misplaced papers. He sat down on the bed and rested his head against the pillows. He closed his eyes for a second and then he heard something. When he sat up suddenly, he knocked her papers off the night stand. Cursing himself, he picked them up, and even though he wasn’t trying to, he glanced down and saw that they were records, medical records.

Matt felt his head spinning as he looked from the papers to the bathroom door. He stood up with the papers in his hand and walked closer to the door. He felt his anxiety mounting as he reached for the knob. Just as he placed his hand on it, she swung the door open. Her eyes were watery, and she drew in a deep breath when she saw him standing before her. He placed his hand on her shoulder and she closed her eyes feeling his closeness. The sound of his voice caused her eyes to fly open.

“’Mel, is there something you want to tell me?” He held the papers up for her to see. “I wasn’t snooping, but we have things to discuss.”

“I was going to tell you, I just couldn’t find the words. I wasn’t going to keep you from either of our children.”

“That’s not the problem. Why did you feel like you couldn’t come to me? I’m here for you, I’ll be here.”

“I know,” she sighed.

“Look, you don’t have to worry. I’m not abandoning you. I wanted to ask you if you wanted me to stay here tonight. With everything going on, I would feel better being with the two of you. I’ll sleep in the guest room, and we can discuss what this all means later if you would like.”

“I would like that,” she smiled.

“I’ll be back. I have to go out to Alex and Meg’s and gather some of my things, but I’ll be back. Do you need anything?”

Her heart was screaming
yes
,
I need you
, her brain was telling her to grab him, but her mouth said “no, I’ll be fine until you get back.”

Matt ran his hand down her cheek and looked into her eyes before walking away. She could still see the man she married, the loving, caring, and protective side of him. Although it wasn’t her ideal solution of having him back in the house, at least he would be there for the night. After that they could work on whatever it was going to take to restore them to the family they once were. She hoped once he knew what she was feeling, he accepted her true intent.

While Melia pondered her life, she stared straight ahead until the ringing of her phone broke her thoughts. When she realized it was Meg calling to ask her out to their house, she threw on some clothes calling for Matt the entire time. “Matt, don’t leave me. They need me out there too, Meg says it’s important.”

When Matt heard her, he rushed up the stairs excitedly. “What happened, did they find Alli?”

“No,” she sighed. “I think she just wants us there for support.”

“Do you feel up to that? How’s the baby?”

She smiled at his tenderness and smoothed her hand down his neck. “I feel fine. I need to do this for my sister. She’s always there for me, and she is in terrible distress. I need to think of her right now.”

Matt grinned at her genuine offer and grabbed her hand. “Well, it’s settled, I’ll drive you there. Let me get Cici and you meet us downstairs.”

Matt disappeared down the hall and into Cienna’s room, while Melia got herself together. She was a mess, her hands trembled at each button. When she felt something behind her, she jumped gasping loudly until she turned and saw it was only Matt. He took her hands in his and pulled her to him swallowing her in a strong embrace. “It’s okay, I promise you, it will all be okay.” She closed her eyes believing in his words and after a few minutes, she slid her hand down and linked her fingers with his. For that moment in time she forgot their problems and focused on how good it felt to feel his support, his love.

***

Alex sat down in front of the glass and sighed. He couldn’t believe it had come to this. He swore that he would never have to see or talk to this man ever again, that his children would never have to know him, but here he was. When he looked up and saw Ben sitting in front of him, he huffed and placed his hand on the receiver to begin their visit. “Well, well, well, to what do I owe this visit? The prodigal son has finally graced the heartless bastard with his presence. What is it now? Do you want to blame me for world hunger?”

“Shut up! Just shut up, I don’t even know why I came here.” Alex stood to leave. Ben looked at him and didn’t see one shred of the confidence he usually saw in Alex and straightened his expression. He knew then, it had to be serious.

“Son, what’s going on? Has something happened?”

Alex reclaimed his seat and exhaled deeply. “Amanda has Allison. She grabbed her from school today.”

Ben looked as if his world had been shattered. “How could they let this happen? That school is supposed to be one of the best! I would have never let her get in there if I knew it wasn’t safe! I want the whole staff fired!”

Alex knew his rantings were all just a desperate attempt to keep from displaying his real feelings. He knew that Ben loved Alli and Cici more than he ever loved anyone, including his own children. The news had to be tearing him apart. Alex looked to Ben and saw a vulnerability he had never seen before, he actually felt for him for just a split second. Alex allowed him a few moments to react, and then he grew tired of the ramblings. “I’ve heard enough! Do you know anything about this woman? Anything at all that could lead me to my daughter?”

Ben looked him in the eyes as if he came to a realization and stiffened. “Son, I don’t know anything right now, but I will.” When Ben stood and vacated his seat, he left Alex tapping on the glass, trying to get him to come back. He ignored his son and kept walking towards the back with new determination flowing through his veins. No, he didn’t have the answers, but he knew exactly where to find them. On the way to his cell, he spread the word to his personal gang of thugs that it was time to strike. He had been planning something all along, and now it was time to put it in motion.

Ben laid down in his cell for less than an hour before the guards came to open it up. “Come on sunshine, it’s time for yard time,” the guard laughed and tapped the bars. Ben stood and strutted out of his cell with a sadistic smile on his face. He was walking right behind the guard and in an instant, he was gone. The guard turned, looking around in amazement and then shrugged his shoulders. He knew Ben couldn’t have gotten far, and there was no way he was getting out. The place was like Fort Knox, no one had ever successfully broken out.

Ben ducked behind the wall waiting for the coast to be clear, when it was, he slipped out and walked towards his personal hiding spot. Before walking all the way in, he sighed and clasped his hands together. Walking around the corner, an ice pick was placed in his hand, and he laughed sinisterly. When the lights flickered on, there stood five of his men with Sean tied to a chair. Ben eased up on Sean close enough to feel him breathe on his cheek. Sean shivered when he felt his closeness and Ben snarled.

“Don’t cry now,” he smacked him hard. “I haven’t begun all I’ll do to you. You are going to start telling me what I want to hear, or you’re going to start losing things.” Sean whimpered and Ben grabbed the back of his head lacing his fingers through a huge amount of his hair. “Start talking or the next step will be to shove this pick through your nostrils.”

“I don’t know anything! I swear I don’t know where she is.”

“Wrong answer,” Ben snapped and plunged the pick into his forearm. Sean screamed in angst, and Ben laughed. “I never thought this would feel so good. Now, shall we try again? Where is your mother and where has she taken Allison?”

“She has Alli?” Sean uttered through his pain-laden voice. “When did she take her? You have to get her away from that woman.”

Ben took the pick and poked him in the thigh. When Sean screamed out once again he slapped him. “Don’t you think I know that? You know something and you’re going to tell me. I have all day to sit here and make you talk.” When Ben drew back to stick him again Sean closed his eyes and shuddered.

“I swear! They don’t tell me anything. They never did, they don’t trust me.”

“Why not? Wasn’t it you who killed my Maria? Didn’t you rape that girl? You’re just as rotten as they are.” Sean screamed as he felt the pick traveling down and opened his eyes when he saw Ben stop hovering just above his knee cap. “Now, one last chance, tell me what you know or you’ll never walk again.”

“I swear I don’t know anything. This is a mistake!”

“Wrong answer,” he stabbed his knee and smiled as the blood trailed down his leg. As the blood gushed on his hands, Ben began to shake. He had done what he had been dying to do for quite a while now, but he was still no closer to finding Allison or Amanda. When he turned and saw Sean near unconsciousness, he grabbed him around the collar and held him up. “If you have any decency, you’ll tell me where that child is. If anything happens to her, you will never see another sunrise.”

“I don’t know,” he hissed. “I only know about a warehouse I used to meet them at, but she left there after killing Maria.”

“Damn!” Ben screamed and released him. “This tells me nothing! I should have had surveillance set up at that school, at their house! I was careless! I should have...” he paused, thinking about the gifts he sent over. “The tablet, the tablet!” he screamed and ran out of the space.

Before he could get all the way out of the room, Sean called out behind him. “She will be alone. She trusts no one.”

Ben raced down to his cell and searched the place flipping everything in sight until he located what he needed. He had people sneaking things in for him during his entire stretch, and they had brought in a cell phone. Only his lawyer Broderick knew about it, and he was the only he ever contacted on it. He was sure to always keep it concealed just in case someone ever tried to roll over on him. If discovered, it would add more time to his sentence, and he couldn’t afford that.

Ben looked at the phone with trembling hands. He had never been so nervous in all his life. He dialed Broderick’s number nervously awaiting his response. When he answered, Ben almost dropped the phone on the floor dripping with anticipation. Once he explained his theory, Broderick rushed off the phone to alert Melissa. After ending the, Ben flopped down on the bed with his head in his hands. How the situation got this bad was beyond him. If he hadn’t jump-started this whole thing by trying to meddle with Alex, they wouldn’t be in this situation.

All the years of ruthless business deals and intimidation of others for his own personal gain was coming back to bite him. Now his innocent and sweet granddaughter was paying the price for all of his past misdeeds. If only he had let go of Maria when she left none of this would have happened. Now he felt completely to blame and if anything happened to Allison, he would never forgive himself.

Now that he had possibly started a rescue attempt for his darling Allison, all he could do now was sit back and wait. He knew receiving news was going to take a while, but he would wait up all night if he had to. His family needed him, and whatever he could do to help he would.

***

Meg sat numbly rocking herself back and forth on Allison’s bed, staring out the window. She blamed herself for not getting there sooner. If she had only insisted that they keep her out of school until the drama was averted, then her little girl would be safe in her arms. She scanned the room filled with all of her things and collapsed onto the bed.