The Cowboy's Claim (21 page)

“I don’t like it,” Nick replied flatly.

“It’s the way we need to do it, Nick. I feel it in my heart. I need to approach her softly. You can be right outside and can come in if necessary. But, if she’s an innocent woman and my instincts are all wrong, I don’t want her upset.”

“Surely Fred wouldn’t have anything to do with something like kidnapping a kid,” Nick said.

“The last few times I’ve seen her, she’s mentioned that Fred is out of town.” Courtney thought of Abigail’s husband, a soft-spoken man who wore a veil of sadness about him.

Nick’s frown was evident in the illumination from the dashboard. “But, this still doesn’t make sense. How on earth would Abigail think she could keep Garrett in this small town and nobody would know? The minute she bought a box of diapers somebody would question it, since she doesn’t have any kids.”

“I don’t know,” Courtney replied. “It doesn’t make sense, and that’s why it’s possible this is just another wild goose chase. Abigail is a nice woman who suffered a terrible tragedy. I wouldn’t want to accuse her of something she isn’t guilty of.”

Courtney’s heart banged painfully hard as Nick pulled into the Swisher drive. The long drive led to a small ranch house. “I don’t see Fred’s pickup,” Nick said.

“And I don’t see Abigail’s SUV,” Courtney said, wondering if it was possible nobody was home. Was it Abigail who had been hiding in the park that day, watching Courtney and Nick as they’d played with Garrett? Was it possible the woman had dropped something in Courtney’s drink in an effort to harm her?

Had that been the beginning of some bizarre plan to steal Garrett away from Courtney? It sounded positively crazy, especially given Nick’s presence in town, in their lives.

“Maybe nobody is home,” she said as they drew closer.

“It’s lit up like somebody is home,” Nick replied.

He parked in front of the house, unfastened his seat belt and turned to her. “Are you sure you want to go up there alone?”

“Positive,” she said despite the nerves that screamed just beneath the surface of her skin.

“Unfortunately, you aren’t the boss in this particular situation,” he replied. “I’ll let you go to the door and talk to her, but I’m going to be right off the porch where she can’t see me, close enough that if you get into trouble I’ll be right there.”

“Okay, but I’m not expecting any trouble. Still, if there is trouble, trust me, I know how to scream.” Courtney stared at the house and thought she saw a shadow move behind the curtains at the front window. “Somebody’s home,” she muttered.

Drawing a deep breath, she got out of the truck and didn’t even look to see if Nick followed. She was focused solely on the idea that there was a possibility that her son was inside, that he needed to be back where he belonged...with her and Nick.

This thought forced a surge of strength inside her. If Garrett was inside, then she wouldn’t let anything or anyone stop her from getting to him.

As she walked toward the front door, she was aware of Nick blending into the shadows of the night and moving to stand just out of sight next to the front porch.

This was probably a waste of time, she thought as she stopped at the front door. Abigail had always seemed so nice, so normal. Courtney raised her hand to knock, but hesitated a moment. Was she mentally stringing together a series of events to Abigail in a desperate effort to find her son? There was only one way to find out. She rapped on the door and tensed as she heard footsteps approaching from the other side.

The door opened and Abigail greeted her with a startled look. “Courtney, what a surprise,” she said. “Can I help you with something? It’s a bit late for a social visit, isn’t it?” Abigail held the door tight in her hands only halfway open. But, in the space of the open door Courtney saw a couple of suitcases sitting just inside the door.

“Oh, are you going somewhere?” Courtney asked, trying to keep her tone light and friendly even though she wanted to storm through the door and search the house for her son.

“I told you the other day that Fred was on a business trip, but the truth is he’s in Dallas with his parents. We had a little spat about a month ago that kind of spiraled out of control, but everything is going to be all right now and I’m going down to his parents’ house to meet him.”

Abigail beamed at Courtney, and then her smile fell into a frown of confusion. “But, you never said why you’re here.”

At that moment a faint cry came from someplace behind Abigail. It wasn’t just any cry. It was the sound of an unhappy little boy...Courtney’s unhappy little boy.

“I’ve got to go now,” Abigail said, but as she tried to close the door Courtney stuck her foot in it so that Abigail couldn’t shut her out.

“Who’s that? Who is that crying?” she asked. Her heart beat loudly in her ears as Garrett’s cries grew louder.

Abigail smiled, and in the hazy glow of that smile Courtney realized the woman had lost all touch with reality. “That’s my boy, Jason. You haven’t met him. He’s been sickly for a while, so I don’t take him out much.”

“Since I’m here, could I meet him now?” Courtney wondered just how distant Abigail was from the real world. “You know, I have a little boy, too.”

“Oh, yes, I know. Sweet little Garrett. Jason is just about his age.”

“So, can I meet your Jason?” Courtney felt as if she was about to explode. There was no question that the child in the house was Garrett, and thankfully there was no reason to believe that he was in any real danger.

But it was obvious Abigail had suffered some sort of delusional snap, and that meant there was no way to second-guess what she might be capable of.

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt for you to meet my Jason,” Abigail said. She opened the door wider to allow Courtney into the neat living room. As she closed the door behind them, Courtney wondered where Nick was and if he’d heard any of their conversation. Had he heard Garrett’s faint cry?

She followed Abigail down a hallway, her heart beating so fast she felt as if she might be on the verge of a heart attack. She drew a couple of deep breaths to steady herself. Garrett had stopped crying, but she could hear his little voice gibbering softly as they approached the first doorway.

“He’s a good boy, and of course he’s missed his daddy since Fred has been gone. But, both Fred and I agree that it’s important that a child grows up in an intact family.”

Abigail ushered Courtney into a bedroom that had been set up as a nursery complete with teddy bear curtains and wallpaper border, a rocking chair and a crib. And in the crib Garrett pulled himself up as they entered, and his eyes lit with happiness as he held his arms out to Courtney. “Mama!”

Courtney’s knees nearly sagged in relief to see him not only healthy but also obviously not tremendously traumatized as he leaned down and picked up a plastic book. “Toy,” he said. She fought the impulse to run to him, to grab him up in her arms and flee out the door.

Poor Abigail. She needed help. Courtney had no idea what had happened between Abigail and Fred, but it was easy to guess that when Fred left, Abigail had snapped.

She turned to look at the woman and gasped as she saw that “poor Abigail” held a large butcher knife in her hand and blocked the door of the bedroom.

“You can’t have him back,” she said as she advanced a couple of steps toward Courtney. “He’s mine now. He’s going to make everything all right between me and Fred. When I lost my baby, they told me I couldn’t have any more. Even though Fred told me it didn’t matter, it did. But, now I can give him Jason, and we can be a family.”

Courtney could hardly tear her gaze off the knife. “But, Abigail, he’s not yours. He’s mine.” Where was Nick? As Courtney looked into the depths of Abigail’s brown eyes, she realized she was in trouble, that there was no way Abigail intended for her to leave the bedroom with Garrett.

“He needs Fred and me, not you. You’re just a single woman trying to raise him on a waitress’s tips. He deserves more than that.” Abigail took another step toward her, and Courtney’s heart leaped into her throat.

“You left the toys for him, didn’t you?” she asked.

“They were good toys, the kind he deserves to have. My Jason deserves the best. He deserves nice toys and two parents.”

“He has two parents,” Courtney protested, stepping backward and away from the crib, but aware that she was slowly backing herself into a corner. “He has me and he has Nick.”

Abigail’s smile held no humor. “Nick Benson? What kind of a father could he be? Here one minute, gone the next. If you would have died in that car accident, it would have made everything much easier. You shouldn’t have come here tonight. If you would have waited another thirty minutes, I would have been gone and you wouldn’t have had to die. Now you know I can’t let you leave here alive.”

Fear shuddered through Courtney as Garrett stood up in the crib once again and called to her. She didn’t look at her son. She didn’t want to take her gaze off the woman who held the wicked knife and was coming closer...closer still.

“Even if you kill me, Nick will never let you have Garrett.”

“His name is Jason, and trust me, the last thing Nick Benson will want is to be saddled with a kid and try to be a single father. He’s got enough on his plate with his boozed-up brother and the other one in jail.”

The scary part to Courtney was that she could tell that Abigail believed everything she was saying. She thought that all she had to do was kill Courtney and then Nick would agree to let her take Garrett and she’d go try to reconcile with her husband.

Where was Nick? Courtney didn’t want to scream. She didn’t want to traumatize Garrett. Frantically she looked around, seeking something she could use as a weapon, something that might provide some kind of self-defense against the knife. But, there was nothing, nothing that stood between herself and a desperate, crazy woman with a knife.

Chapter 14

N
ick fought against an edge of panic when the two women disappeared into the house. He wasn’t sure whether to barge into the front door or somehow try to figure out exactly where in the house they had gone.

He finally decided to circle the house and peek into the windows and see if he could get a handle on Courtney’s location. He wasn’t sure if Garrett was inside, he wasn’t sure if Courtney was in trouble or not, but he was comforted slightly by the fact that the bit of conversation he’d initially heard had sounded friendly and so far there had been no screams or panicked cries coming from within.

Unfortunately, his trek around the house told him nothing. All the shades were pulled down tight, not allowing him even a little peek inside.

When he could stand it no longer, he returned to the front of the house and grabbed the doorknob, breathing a sigh of relief as it turned and the door eased open. There was no sign of either Abigail or Courtney, but he heard Abigail’s voice coming from someplace down the hallway. And what he heard chilled him to the bone.

He raced down the hall and turned into the first bedroom. In an instant his brain absorbed what was before him. Garrett stood in a crib, and Abigail was advancing on Courtney, who stood in the corner, her green eyes nearly black with terror.

“Abigail!” He yelled her name, and when she whirled around he saw the knife she held in her hand.

“You can’t have him,” she shrieked as she raced toward him, the knife raised high for attack. He instinctively raised his hands in front of him in defense, shocked when the knife sliced through his forearm.

As she attacked again, slashing the knife with homicidal intent, he dodged the weapon and tried to grab her wrist. Abigail wasn’t a big woman, but she was a woman driven by desperation and adrenaline.

He finally managed to grab the wrist that held the knife, but she twisted out of his grip, and he groaned in surprise as he felt the knife pierce through his chest.

He was vaguely aware of Courtney running to the crib and pulling Garrett into her arms even as Abigail moved to cut him again.

Someplace in the back of his mind he knew the wound on his chest was fairly deep and bleeding badly. He couldn’t let her win. This was about his woman and his child. He couldn’t allow a crazy woman to harm the two people he loved more than anyone or anything else.

With a roar of rage, and using the last of his strength, he tackled Abigail to the floor, grappling for the knife. Abigail screamed in outrage as he finally managed to pin her arm to the floor.

“He’s mine,” she cried. “I deserve to have him. He’s my Jason.”

“He’s my son,” Nick said with a low growl of anger. “And his name is Garrett.” Nick had never hit a woman in his life, but as Abigail continued to fight him, struggling to get her arm free to attack again, Nick slammed his fist into her jaw.

She grunted as if in surprise and then slumped unmoving on the floor. At that moment Cameron Evans flew through the door, his eyes wild as he took in the scene before him.

Nick got up from the floor slowly, feeling a bit light-headed as he offered a weak smile to the sheriff. “I guess we went off like the lone rangers, but we managed to get the job done.” He smiled at Courtney, who gave him a tremulous, tear-filled smile back.

“Mama,” Garrett said and then pointed at Nick. “Dada.”

Nick’s heart swelled so full in his chest he couldn’t breathe. Dada. Garrett had called him Dada. The light-headedness slammed into him, and he felt himself falling. He knew he was going to lose consciousness, but it was okay. Courtney and Garrett were safe, Cameron was here and all was right with the world.

* * *

Courtney sat next to the hospital bed, her fingers worrying a stray thread on the bottom of her blouse. It had been an endless night. Even though they’d managed to save Garrett, when Nick collapsed on the floor, Courtney had nearly fallen down herself.

He’d been bleeding from nicks and a large slash wound on his arm, but it was the cut on his chest that had scared her to death as she wondered what kind of damage had been done.

After that, things became blurred in her head. An ambulance had arrived to whisk Nick away, Abigail was taken into custody and Garrett had cried and fussed as if aware of his mother’s emotional stress.