Dangerous Attraction Romantic Suspense Boxed Set (215 page)

Suddenly the import of what he’d just admitted hit her. “So Helen threatened to
kidnap
her own daughter?” Keelin asked, her mind already whirling.

“I guess you’d call it that.”

“And now someone
has
. Why not your ex-wife?”

“Someone Cheryl trusted,” Tyler reminded her.

Keelin pulled back slightly, so she could look into the pale eyes that were for once open and vulnerable.

Why did he do it?

Why?

Now that I know, everything is ruined.

His daughter’s remembered thoughts spinning in her own head, she asked, “Are you certain that Cheryl didn’t somehow find out about her mother?”

He sighed. “I can’t be certain of anything. Something was wrong between us for a few days before she ran. We even argued the night before. Cheryl made accusations…but she wasn’t clear about what I’d done. I thought maybe someone had put an idea in her head that Harry Smialek’s death was my fault or something. But underneath…”

He didn’t have to say that he thought Cheryl might have suspected her mother was alive. But how to know for certain?

“At one time you knew Helen better than anyone in the world. Could she actually hurt her own child?”

Tyler tightened an arm around her and slid long fingers around the back of her neck. “I don’t know. I don’t seem to be certain about much of anything any more.”

Their mouths met in a kiss filled with repressed passion and infinite tenderness. Keelin was moved. Filled with longing, she at the same time wanted no more than this gentle melding. This proof that they were closer than she ever suspected was possible. Tyler broke the kiss and sighed her name.

“Ah, Keelin.”

She pulled his head to her breast. And though his physical warmth stirred her, the emotional bond they were forming was far more potent. He had opened up to her with his deepest, darkest secret as she had to him earlier. Their mutual trust had to mean something.

The words of her grandmother’s legacy drifted into her mind.

Dreams are not always tangible things, but more often are born in the heart. Act selflessly in another’s behalf, and my legacy shall be yours.

Love was that legacy, Keelin knew – the unexpected love she felt for Tyler Leighton – though she worried that she had not truly acted selflessly as Moira had advised. She had nearly as much at stake here as did Tyler.

He had his daughter.

She had her very soul.

How long could a love born in the desperation of the human heart last? she wondered. If not for Cheryl running away, they would never have met. If not for Tyler’s grief over his missing daughter, he would not be so open.

What about when the child of his heart was returned to him? Would he have room for
her
, as well, Keelin wondered?

Not that it mattered, for as she had told herself before, they were worlds apart.

And yet, sitting in the dark, the lake breezes curling the thin material of her dress up along her legs, wrapped in arms that she never wanted to leave, Keelin couldn’t quite see that anything mattered but love.

SOME TIME LATER—TYLER COULDN’T SAY how long for certain—he realized that he had dozed off cocooned around Keelin, dazed by her warmth. With awakening came the remembrance that he no longer had any secrets. Uncomfortable at having opened up so completely to the woman in his arms, he felt the need for some space.

And yet, he said, “Keelin, we’d better get inside,” as softly as if they’d just made love.

The mental comparison betrayed him and he grew increasing uncomfortable as she stretched and wiggled her bottom against him as she slid to her feet. Splashed by moonlight, she seemed dreamy-eyed…and yet her smile was a bit distant, not quite reaching her eyes.

He followed her up the stairs to the top of the bluff. They crossed the lawn side-by-side, and he was careful not to touch her. She seemed equally tentative. An awkwardness hung between them even as they entered the house in mutual silence. As she glided through the dining room, he busied himself locking up the French doors.

“I’d better check the front,” he said, brushing by Keelin in the foyer.

He’d snapped the dead bolt in place when he happened to look down. The breath caught in his throat. A plain white envelope sans postage but bearing his name was caught beneath the door. Like a madman, he ripped it free and tore it open.

“Tyler?”

As he unfolded the sheet of pasted letters, he glanced up and their gazes locked. He swore he could feel strong emotions pour from her to him, as if they were psychically united. He felt her support…and something far deeper.

Discomfited, he focused on the third ransom note.

The fireworks will go off at Navy Pier at 10:15 Friday night. Wait at the north end of the Crystal Gardens with the goods in a backpack for a trade. Come alone if you don’t want anyone to get hurt.

“What does it say?” she asked anxiously.

“Forty-eight hours.”

Taking the threat seriously, he refolded the ransom note and slipped it into his pocket. He would have to go alone. That meant he couldn’t divulge the details lest Keelin take it into her head to follow him. She was desperate to redeem herself for something that wasn’t even her fault.

Better that she live with her past not fully resolved than not live at all.

Chapter Ten

ANOTHER DREAMLESS NIGHT LEFT KEELIN praying that Cheryl had merely been sleeping soundly. The other possibility, that some real harm had come to the girl, was too terrible to contemplate. She rose, staring unseeing at one of the windows where the morning light poured into the bedroom.

Gradually focusing, she stared at the square of brilliance and at the massive tree trunk beyond.

And suddenly another window took shape in her mind.

Tied and gagged, Cheryl had nonetheless been able to
see
the last time Keelin had tuned into her. And she’d been staring at what lay outside the living room window.

A church steeple!

The image that kept eluding her the day before.

Keelin flew out of bed, pausing when the room shifted slightly, but she quickly regained her equilibrium. Her head barely hurt any more.

Freshening up in record time, Keelin dressed with a renewed sense of purpose. Tyler couldn’t keep her from returning to Wicker Park with him! She almost felt like going it alone, taking a taxi and letting him wonder what she knew.

Almost.

It still galled her that he’d refused to show her the ransom note the night before. Had refused to divulge any information other than the Friday night deadline. He knew she was committed, for heaven’s sake. Nevermind that he swore he was only trying to protect her from herself.

She’d believed him when he said he trusted her. So why couldn’t he have proved as much?

The smell of fresh coffee assaulted her nose when she left Cheryl’s room. Normally a tea drinker herself, Keelin occasionally indulged in a cup of the stronger stuff. And so she swept into the kitchen and made straight for the mug tree, noting that not only was an exhausted-looking Tyler at the table, but his ex-wife, as well. Nursing a mug of coffee, a belligerent expression detracting from her beauty, Helen was still in her bathrobe.

“Have you heard anything from your Mr. Weaver?” Keelin asked, her voice tight with irritation left over from the ransom note issue.

She filled a mug for herself. Tyler’s eyebrows shot up as he watched.

“He’s not my Mr. Weaver and yes, he checked in,” Tyler groused. “He found a woman who
maybe
saw Cheryl but couldn’t remember where.”

Keelin softened when she realized how frustrated the man sounded. Perhaps he did have her best interests at heart by not wanting her along on the ransom drop. Only she didn’t happen to agree with the decision.

Leaning against the counter where she’d stacked the wine bottles the day before, Keelin said, “The apartment is across from a church.”

“What?”

“The apartment where Cheryl is being kept.”

“You know where my baby is?” Helen demanded.

“Not exactly. Not yet.” Keelin looked to Tyler. “But now we can find it.”

“What are we waiting for?” Taking the mug from Keelin’s hand, Tyler set it down on the counter and turned her toward the front door.

“What about me?” Helen asked, getting to her feet. “I can’t go dressed like this.”

His expression cold, Tyler said, “
You
weren’t invited.”

“She’s my daughter, too!” Helen screamed. “I may have been at fault letting her get lost the first time, but she was in
your
custody when she ran away and got herself kidnapped. What kind of a parent does that make
you
?”

Helen’s emotional outburst struck a responsive chord in Keelin and she regretted suspecting her. No matter what mistakes the woman had made, she did seem to care about what happened to her daughter. Still, she didn’t try to convince Tyler that they should take his ex-wife along. No more wanting to be in Helen’s company than he did, she kept her peace as they started off.

They were well on the road before Tyler opened up the conversation. “We had it out this morning. I told Helen that when we found Cheryl, I planned on telling her that her mother is alive…
if
she doesn’t already know.”

“Then Helen won’t be able to blackmail you any longer.”

“No. She’s off the gravy train. She’ll have to take me back to court to get another penny out of me. I won’t make things easy for her. Or for myself.”

No wonder his ex-wife had appeared so truculent. Her source of income was gone. And Keelin had imagined all that concern was for Cheryl. More fool she.

“So tell me about the dream.”

“I didn’t dream last night,” Keelin said. “I woke up remembering the church steeple from the dream I had when we were returning from Wicker Park.”

“What about other details?”

He didn’t need the ones about Cheryl’s being tied and gagged, Keelin assured herself. “She was looking at the television, then out the window. That’s all.”

She wondered if he noticed the color stealing up her neck. Burning, Keelin shifted and sank lower in her seat, grateful that Tyler didn’t pursue it. To her everlasting gratitude, he didn’t say much the rest of the way to the Wicker Park area.

After crossing the six corner intersection, he said, “I’ll turn at the first side street and drive straight. I’ll stay methodical unless one of us spots a church.”

The first church they encountered stood across from old mansions and two-flats. Several more blocks of zigzagging the area, and they spotted a second church. Keelin looked to the other side of the street.

“A six flat,” she murmured. “And it has a stoop!”

Tyler immediately pulled the Jaguar into the only available parking spot on the block.

Keelin’s pulse lurched as they approached the building. The church’s steeple lay directly across from the third floor apartments. Tyler held the outer door open for her. When she saw the chipped marble stairs in the vestibule, her excitement rose.

He quickly inspected the mail boxes and bells. “Look, no name on 3B.”

“That must be it.”

The inner door didn’t close properly, so they walked right in. With each step upward, Keelin’s heartbeat accelerated and she sensed Tyler’s tension increase. When they rounded the second landing, she put a hand on his arm. His features were set in a grim line and yet somehow his glance told of so much more. Hope for Cheryl. Gratitude toward her.

Upon reaching the second landing, Tyler held a hand out, indicating she should stay back. Keelin complied. She tried to breathe normally, but each intake of air was forced.

And when Tyler knocked on the door to 3B, she forgot to breathe altogether.

No response.

Tyler knocked again, harder.

Nothing.

His third set-to shook the wooden panel in its frame, but still it roused no one.

“Damn!” His fist shot into the door. “We’ve got to find someone with a key.”

Just then, the door across the way cracked open. Behind the chain, an elderly lady peeped out. Keelin recognized the woman even as she said, “Go away before I call the police!”

“I saw her before,” Keelin whispered to Tyler. “I mean Cheryl did when she tried getting away.”

“I don’t mean anyone harm,” Tyler assured the neighbor. “I’m just looking for my daughter.”

“No one there. Left earlier.”

“Maybe Cheryl is inside alone.” Tyler raised his voice. “Cheryl, baby, are you in there?” he called, putting his ear to the panel.

Keelin strained but heard not the slightest sound. Disappointment filled her until Tyler tried the knob and the door opened readily. He stepped inside the apartment. She followed directly behind him.

“You can’t go in there!” the elderly neighbor called after them.

Keelin looked around, recognizing the shabby furniture in the unoccupied living room. The doors to the bedrooms and bath stood open. They were unoccupied as well.

“Damn!” Tyler exploded. “They’ve moved her!”

“We were getting too close,” Keelin proposed. “Or perhaps Jack Weaver did last night.”

Tyler didn’t try to hide his disgust. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”

Keelin wanted to put her arms around him, but the stiff way he held himself was anything but an invitation. Comforting him could wait a while. She followed him into the hall and noticed the elderly lady was still peering out at them. No doubt she paid attention to anyone coming or going.

Keelin caught Tyler’s arm to stop him from running off. “This man is looking for his child,” she told the woman. “The people who rented that apartment are holding her against her will. We need to find them, but we don’t know their names or what they look like.”

The silver-haired head shook vigorously. “I can’t help you.”

“You must have seen something. Think hard,” Keelin pleaded. “We’re talking about a fourteen year old girl.”

“Don’t wanna get involved,” the neighbor muttered, though she appeared torn.

“Please.”

The woman looked them both up and down as if judging the veracity of their story before making up her mind. “Don’t know any names. They were only there maybe two weeks. In and out a lot. Never got a good look at
him
, though.”