In the Heart of the Wind Book 1 in the WindTorn Trilogy (44 page)

The henchman cocked his head. “Why is that—if you don’t mind me asking, boss?”

Cheech shrugged. “I like cops better than I do Irish riffraff. And I like Irish riffraff a hell of a sight better than I do Liam Tremayne and his two upstart guttersnipes!”

“What about the other one? That surgeon?”

“Patrick?” Cheech inquired. He shrugged again. “If he wants the family business, maybe I’ll cut him in as a partner when the time comes.” He stood, put his hands behind his back and clutched them together as he stared out across the expanse of his formal garden. “In any case, I’m going to see done to Tremayne what he, himself, did to the Connors’ organization.

“As soon as Tremayne kicks the bucket, there’s gonna be a power struggle between that bastard lawyer down in Atlanta and old man Tremayne’s bitch daughter.” He turned to grin at his henchman. “I intend to see both of them lose!”

Bridget Tremayne
Casey reluctantly tore her eyes away from the guard strolling slowly along the pathway between her mother’s rose garden and the mansion’s brick patio. Bored, angry at her father’s tiresome tirade against Andrew’s incompetence in handling James, and only a bit worried about what might happen to the family should James ever be allowed to tell what had happened to him, Bridie sat in one of the lush, velvet Queen Anne chairs in the library and stared at the Monet over her father’s desk.

Her eyes wandered to the telephone, skipped away, then returned. A slight frown marred the perfection of her face as she tried to make up her mind on how she should react to what was happening. One part of her wanted to let it ride, let Andrew hang himself; another part wanted to act, to take matters into her own hands as she had with Kristen, and in doing so, replace Andrew in their father’s eyes as the offspring better suited to take over the Tremayne Group.

“He has to be found.” she could still hear her father shouting. “Damn it, Drew! Do you understand what damage he can cause?”

“What damage he may have already caused?” she had added only to have her father’s furious eyes scald her. She’d demurely lowered her eyes, face hot, hands clenched in her lap, but her own fury was directed toward her father, not Andrew.

“I don’t care what it takes,” Liam had bellowed. “Use every informant we have in the Florida Bureau and the FBI. Someone out there knows something!”

Bridget drew in a long, slow breath and reached her expensively manicured hand to the ornate, white French Provincial telephone. Her finger twirled the dial, careful not to break one of the bright red nails. She pursed her lips, cleared her throat and brought the receiver to her ear. The muted ringing at the other end made her hold her breath, made her heart beat heavily in her chest until the long-distance connection was made.

“Giles’ Seafood. Can I help you?”

She smiled. “I hope so. A while back, I ordered a special order of crayfish gumbo. Monsieur Giles prepared it himself, and I was very pleased with the order. May I order another?”

“How are you
feeling?” Ellen asked him as she lifted the cool glass of cola to his lips. Her right hand was beneath his neck, bracing his head.

James Gabriel Tremayne closed his eyes as the chill liquid flowed down his parched throat. He felt as though he were on fire, standing in front of the doors to a roaring furnace. Sweat was dripping down his face, running into his eyes. His head was throbbing—pounding really—and a ragged shudder shook him now and again. As the last of the cola dribbled into his mouth, he opened his eyes and looked up at Ellen’s pretty face.

“More,” he croaked. His eyes narrowed with pain. “Please?”

Ellen smiled and gently lowered his head to the damp pillow. She disappeared from his line of vision. He slowly turned his head and saw Mary Bernice and her husband looking at him, smiling. Shifting his gaze, he could see Edna Mae, Jenny Warrington, Carol Remington and, blinking to clear away the confusion, Martin Cobb. His brows drew together.

“Just felt like going for a ride,” Cobb joked as their eyes met.

Ellen came back toward him with a tall glass in her left hand. She knelt beside him and slid her hand under his neck, once more placing the glass to his chapped lips.

The tang of the soda pop flooded his mouth and he gulped more forcefully, consuming the liquid as fast as Ellen would allow.

“Easy does it, sweetheart. There’s plenty more if you want it.”

“How’s our boy doing?”

He looked past Ellen to see Doc Remington smiling down. Doc bent over him, his left hand braced on the shelf behind the pull-out bed. “Feeling kinda shaky, Gabe?”

He licked his lips as Ellen withdrew the glass. “Where?” he managed to get out.

Doc shrugged. “We’ll be in Columbia, South Carolina, in about an hour, I think. We’re goin’ be stopping soon so Edna Mae can call Virgil to let him know how things are.”

His breathing stopped and his eyes flared. “Annie?” he gasped, trying to sit up only to have both Ellen and Doc push him back down. “Annie?” The one word was a whimper of pure fear.

“Annie is safe, Gabe,” Ellen told him. “Virgil’s watching over her.”

He violently shook his head, ignoring the crush of agony. He struggled to get up. “I have to go back!” His voice was dry, cracking, hoarse. “They’ll hurt her! They’ll—”

“Gabe,” Doc said in a stern, no-nonsense voice, “Annie is in a safe house in Des Moines and only Virgil knows where she is. Nora’s taking care of her, so there’s nothing for you to worry about.”

Tears filled his eyes. Didn’t these people, these wonderful, good and decent people, know what his family was capable of doing? Didn’t they realize the first person Liam would send his goons after would be Annie? Didn’t they understand the fury with which his family would react to what had been done? He tried to push himself up in the bed, to twist away from Ellen’s gentle restraint and Doc’s grasp on his legs.

“They’ll go after her,” he cried. “I can’t let them hurt Annie.” His eyes pleaded with Doc. “She’s all I’ve got!”

“And she’s safer than you are right now,” Doc snapped. His eyes were on Gabe’s face. “Dick? He’s starting to withdraw.”

Ellen’s hands were on his perspiring face, holding him, trying to get him to calm down, to look at her. A furious trembling made his body quiver. His teeth chattered even as he begged her to let him get up.

Ellen let go of him and stepped back, allowing Dick to move into her place.

“It’s all right, Gabe,” Dick said. “We’re going to help you through this.”

“Annie!” he yelled, struggling to get away from the needle coming toward him. He fought; he pushed away from the two men; he spat at them until he felt a third man’s hands on his ankles, pinioning his legs.
“Annie!”
The needle slid into his arm and he howled with frustration and fear and hopelessness.

“Take it easy, son,” Doc told him. “Everything’s going to be all right.”

“Gabe?” Doc asked, looking deeply into his eyes. “Gabe?”

“Jamie,” he whispered, his speech slurred. “My name is Jamie.”

“All right. Jamie. I want you to listen now, and don’t interrupt. Marty’s told us what they were giving you and most of it we already have on board. Once we get to New York, we’ll get the rest of your medications so we can begin weaning you.”

“New York?”
What the hell is the old man talking about?

“We’ve got a friend in Watertown in upstate New York,” Dick explained. “She’s a doctor, too, and she’s going to look after you until you’re well enough for Annie to join you.”

“Can’t go back,” he mumbled, feeling the numbness spreading throughout his system. “Can’t ever go back.”

“You don’t have to,” Doc assured him. “We can get Annie to you and the Tremayne’s won’t ever know about it.”

“They’ll...come...after...you...” He had to tell the old man. He had to warn him and the others. “My father will—”

“Shit and go blind,” Edna Mae yelled. She pushed Dick Warrington aside and bent over to look at Gabe. “You listen to me, Gabe James or Jamie Tremayne or whatever you want to call yourself. We didn’t come two thousand miles to rescue you just to have that son-of-a-bitch kidnap you again! I don’t know where you got all that fake identification from before, but The Badger has provided you with new documents and I’ve already purchased two one-way tickets to Australia for you and Annie, or whatever the hell the name is on
her
documents. Nobody, and I
mean
nobody, is ever going to find you again. Do you hear me?”

He stared up through the fog of the drugs at the little old lady. Her eyes were flashing behind the glass of her spectacles and her face was set in a furious, stubborn scowl. He wasn’t sure if she was quivering with rage or if it was the drugs making his vision waver. It didn’t matter. He could see how angry she was and how adamant, and he tried to smile, but his mouth wouldn’t obey.

“Don’t you backtalk me either,” Edna Mae told him. “All I want to hear from you is a ‘yes, ma’am’ and that you’ll let us take care of everything. Is that clear, young man?”

He was sinking beneath the drug and could hear James calling to him, begging him to help. Could hear Jimmy’s cautioning voice warning him not to cause these people trouble. Could hear Gabe’s angry denial of what was happening, his furious warning that he’d be the death of these good people.

“Jamie?” Doc inquired. “Do you understand that you’re safe, son?”

Safe?
There was no such thing with his family, he thought grimly, his mind swirling with grief. As long as he was alive, and not in the hands of Liam Tremayne, no one was safe. Especially not the people who cared so much for him, they were willing to risk their own lives. And most especially, not Annie.

He wanted to cry. He wanted to curl up and die. But more than that, he wanted to keep these wonderful people safe. Only he could do it. Only he could prevent the horrible retaliation he knew was, at that moment, being planned in the mansion in Miami.

“Yes, ma’am,” he forced himself to say. “I’ll let you handle it.”

Doc let out
a long sigh and looked at Dick, who nodded tiredly. Both men glanced at Edna Mae and found her frowning fiercely. She was staring at James Gabriel Tremayne, her eyes locked on his closed eyes and still face as he slipped into a deep, troubled sleep.

“What’s the matter, Miss Edna?” Dick asked. “Don’t you believe him?”

Edna Mae shook her head.

Even after the
call came in from Virgil telling her everything was fine; even after Virgil also told her Jake and Mel were safe and on their way to Iowa, Annie Cummings James knew something was going to go wrong before she could see her husband.

“There ain’t no reason why the two of you can’t be married for real now,” Nora had told her. “His wife’s gone and you two can be safe wherever Edna Mae sends you. There ain’t nothing standing in your way now, dear.”

But Annie could sense something else waiting, lurking, insidiously prowling around their lives trying to disrupt the building peace. She didn’t know what it was, when it would come, or how it would reveal itself, but she knew it was there nevertheless. She didn’t think it was his family that would bring about this new problem. Somehow she knew in her heart it would be Gabe. But what he would do, when he would do it, was beyond her understanding and foresight.

“He’ll run away again,” she found herself telling Nora. “He’ll leave and I’ll never see him again.”

“You don’t know that,” Nora had comforted her, but Annie could see the same fear in the older woman’s eyes.

“He’ll think he’s protecting me and he’ll run, Nora.” She’d covered her face with her hands and had spoken through the barrier of her fingers. “He’ll keep running until they either catch him again or kill him.” Her sobs had been pitiful. “He’s going to do something. I know he is. I can feel it. He won’t ever come home!”

“We received a
call from Des Moines, Mr. Tremayne,” Danny O’Callahan said into the phone as he spoke with Andrew. “There are five people James was really friendly with out there.”

Andrew heard paper rattling and knew the man was looking at his notes. “And?” he snapped through clenched teeth.

“One is an Iowa State trooper named Kyle Vittetoe. He lives with his sister—”

“I don’t give a rat’s asswho he lives with,” Andrew screamed. “Who else?”

“Neither the trooper nor his sister have been seen for nearly a month now. I think it’s safe to say they were involved. I believe the man pretending to be David Boudreaux was probably the trooper.”

“All right,” Andrew snarled. “I’ll buy that. Now I want to know who the old lady is!”

“It may have been the woman who lives across the street from James. Both her and her husband are missing, too. Your father thinks it was this Mueller woman who was masquerading as Mrs. Boudreaux and her husband who was driving the ambulance. As for the nigger man and woman who were the chauffeur and ambulance attendant, chances are good that they’re Delbert and Mary Bernice Merrill. The nigger bitch worked with James in Iowa.”

“And are they gone as well?”

“Yes, sir. There are some more people that haven’t been seen, but I don’t think there’s any more involved in this than those I’ve already mentioned.”