The Inheritance (The Donatelli Series) (36 page)

Fred left muttering to himself and talking to his attorney, and a minute later, Maria walked outside the courtroom with Fred’s parents.

“You cheated on our son?” asked Fred’s mother.

“If Fred had treated me with respect, I wouldn’t have felt the need. I can’t count Fred’s other woman or the number of times he cheated on me. I know that’s no excuse, but it doesn’t matter now. Robbie loves you and thinks of you as his grandparents, and I hope this won’t change your relationship with him.”

“We love him, too, Maria.”

Fred stood down the hallway, glaring at Maria. “Bitch,” he yelled.

His father shoved him on the open elevator, and the elevator doors closed on Fred’s swearing. Thank God she hadn’t brought the kids.

“That was brutal, but we accomplished what we set out to do,” said Gerry.

Blade motioned toward the elevator door. “He lost his kids—all his kids—and he still has to pay up. I’d say he got exactly what he deserved.”

On their way out to the car, Blade’s cell phone vibrated. When he answered, Nick said, “The high school called. Molly left after her first period class. Her friend said it was for a modeling gig, that she’d be back by lunch period.”

“We’re on our way,” said Blade. Instead of driving to Boeing Field, to Cara’s plane, he drove directly to Gig Harbor, to Peninsula High School. He broke every speed limit along the way, making the hour plus ride in forty-seven minutes.

Maria was so scared Blade could almost taste it, and he knew they’d made a big mistake leaving Molly here in Gig Harbor while the rest of the family was in California. High school or not, they should have taken her with them.

Molly’s best friend, Kellie, a cute little blonde, sat in the office with the principal and Lucas. “Did you call the cops?” Blade asked.

“Apparently,” Lucas said with a little sneer, “they don’t come out when a kid skips school.”

“Shit,” Blade said under his breath.

Kellie’s words tripped out quickly, “Molly didn’t want to go alone, and I knew if I skipped school my dad would kill me. The woman said she only had room in her car for one person, so I couldn’t go anyway.”

A woman?
Blade could only think of one woman who might be involved in the take-over of Banner-Covington, if this was connected. And he had a feeling it was.
Vanessa Milhauser?

Could be.

“Did this woman speak with a New York accent?” Blade asked the kid.

“Yeah. She had short, spiked, blond hair, a bunch of earrings in both ears, and she talked kinda fast. She said she was with some big agency in New York.”

“Vanessa Milhauser,” Blade and Maria said together.

Blade called Lonnie and asked him to fax a picture of Vanessa Milhauser to the school. Minutes later, they had a positive ID on the person who took Molly, and Blade was on the phone with Lonnie again. “You said Hans Belzer was Vanessa’s stepfather. Can you find out who her natural father is or was. It’s urgent, Lonnie. We have a missing kid here, and we think Vanessa took her.”

Lucas called the cops again, trying to convince them that this wasn’t a case of a kid skipping school. Someone had tricked Molly into going with them.

According to the kids who saw Molly leave, the woman drove a little red sports car. If Vanessa had someone with her, she’d left him somewhere. How long had they been hanging around, waiting for the right time to take the kid?

Blade’s uncle had to be behind this. Seventy years old, give or take a couple years, and the guy was still after his father’s money. He probably wanted his diamonds back, too, but Blade wouldn’t give him shit.

Maria’s eyes were filled with worry, but she was the picture of composure, gently pulling details from Kellie. Molly had met Vanessa at the mall, where she’d gone with Kellie the week after Maria and the boys left for California. A security guard had gone to the mall with them, but he didn’t go inside the stores, and he didn’t know Molly planned to model for anyone.

They’d underestimated the enemy.

The guard handed his phone to Blade. “It’s Nick.”

“Hey, Blade, Teresa just called Angelo. She went by your house to get something, and she said there’s someone at Aunt Sophia’s house. The position of the drapes has changed and the garage door is up a couple inches. She wanted to go down and check it out, but Angelo told her to stay put until he got there.”

The cops still hadn’t arrived, but if the cops went in there with guns blazing, Molly could get hurt. Blade asked the guard to take him to his duplex to get his Harley. Maybe he could create enough distraction to get Molly out of that house in one piece.

Maria didn’t approve of his plan, but Blade hugged her and tried to reassure her. Then he left with the guard. He had to get that kid out of there before she got hurt.

They raced out to the duplex, where Blade grabbed his jacket and helmet. In seconds, he had the Harley out of the garage and roaring down the street. He had one of those headsets on under his helmet, so he could coordinate things with the guards, like Lucas had out at the park when Sunny got killed.

He stopped at the mouth of the street and waited until Lucas told him the guards were in place, then he revved the engine and rode up the street like he owned the place. He saw Molly’s face in the window downstairs. She opened the window and knocked the screen out. The kid was half out before Blade got there. Molly jumped on the back of the bike and held on tight to Blade as he raced down the street.

On the main road, a red sports car appeared out of nowhere behind him, and he yelled, “Hold on, Molly.” He raced down the street and around the corner to the park, the car still behind him. Going through the parking lot to the turn-around at the end, he slowed and cut through the trail between the trees, a place he knew the sports car wouldn’t fit. He stopped way back in the trees and handed Molly his cell phone. “Hide and call 911 while I get rid of the guy in the car.”

Molly disappeared in the woods, and Blade wondered what he’d gotten himself into. The cops were nowhere in sight, and the guards were all back at Sophia’s house. And he had to draw that car away from the park. Away from Molly.

Threading his way through the trees to the road, Blade revved the engine until he saw the red car. There were two people in the car. He’d met the woman in New York, and the man looked vaguely familiar.

“I left Molly at the park,” he said into the headset. “She’s hiding in the trees, and the guy in the car just found me. There’s two of them, a man and a woman. I’m taking them back toward town, and I hope to hell they don’t decide to start shooting.” He’d made himself a target to save a scared kid. The kid was okay for now, but he wasn’t so sure about himself.

Blade headed toward town, threading his way between the cars, leaving the sports car several cars behind him. Watching in his rear view mirror, Blade kept a close eye on the car. They must be desperate to try to trade Molly for his inheritance, and he knew that was what they intended to do.

So far no shots had been fired, and he prayed none would be fired, because he was out in the open, with no protection whatsoever. His helmet and leather jacket wouldn’t stop a bullet.

“This is Deputy Loring,” said the voice in the headset. “Take him through the parking lot to the right just over the Purdy Bridge, by the Texaco station. Go past the station and the restaurant. We’ll block him off there. How close are you?”

“I’m on my way down the hill right now. About two miles.”

Blade rode around and through the traffic that had stopped for the traffic light in Purdy, working away from the red sports car and, he hoped, away from any flying bullets. As soon as the light changed, he gunned the engine and roared through the Texaco station parking lot and past the restaurant. The pavement was torn up, and he had to slow down to weave his way through. He’d nearly reached the end when the sports car turned off the road behind him. A car backed out in front of the red car, forcing it to stop, and another car pulled up right behind it, blocking it in.

Michael and Vanessa had no place to go, and four armed officers had their guns drawn and pointed at the car. Blade rode slowly back toward them to get a good look at the uncle who’d played a priest, who’d bilked his own parents out of millions, who’d kidnapped an innocent young girl to get the inheritance he wanted for himself.

Blade turned off the engine and stared at his uncle. He didn’t remember his father well, but this man looked so much like him it was uncanny. “Uncle Michael, I presume.”

“The estate belongs to me and my daughter.”

Lonnie hadn’t gotten back to him on Vanessa’s natural father, but Blade suspected there was a connection to Michael, especially when he realized that she was the woman who’d taken Molly.

“You want the company stock or the whole thing? How much can you spend from prison? Or do you need that much to hire a defense attorney?”

“Molly came with me willingly,” Vanessa told the officer. “I have connections to a modeling agency in New York.”

Maybe she did, but Blade knew that wasn’t why she took Molly. “You’ll need a defense attorney for the murder charge.”

Her eyes grew. “What murder charge? I don’t know anything about a murder charge.”

“Shut up, Vanessa.” Michael snapped the words.

A voice over Blade’s headset said, “We have Molly. She’s scared, but okay.”

“Thanks, Lucas. Michael Banner and Vanessa Milhauser are in custody. Unless they brought more people with them, it should be over.”

“The feds are on the way. They’ve been after Michael Banner, aka Mike Covington, aka Micah Milhauser, for years.”

Blade’s inheritance started this ball rolling. If Colin Jacobs had never called, Blade would never have met his grandfather and never known he had an uncle. Colin Jacobs wouldn’t be dead, Sunny would never have found him, and Molly wouldn’t have been lured away for what she thought was a modeling contract.

Would Maria have married him without the money? Yes, because she loved him, but he wouldn’t have pursued her. How far he’d come these past few weeks, and not just with the inheritance. He had someone who loved him, and no amount of money in the world could buy Maria’s love. She didn’t care about the money. She cared about
him
.

He felt like the luckiest man on earth.

<>

Maria listened to Lucas talking on his headset to Blade. Her heart still pounded with fear for Molly’s safety, but she’d been plucked out of the woods by the park and was being taken to Nick and Cara’s house. Maria was on her way there, too. Blade had risked his life to get Molly away from those people. If they’d waited for the sheriff’s deputies to get into place, someone could have gotten hurt or killed.

Lucas drove Maria to Nick and Cara’s house. She jumped out of the car and ran inside before Lucas turned the engine off.

Maria hugged Molly tightly. “I’m okay, Mom.”

“You had us scared half to death.”

“I’m sorry. She said I was perfect for this modeling gig and wanted to take some pictures to show her boss in New York.”

“Honey, if you want to model, it’s okay with me, but only if you go through a reputable agency. And no reputable agency would take you out of school or do anything without a parent’s signature.”

“Well, actually... Grandma signed for me, but she didn’t know what she was signing.” Before Maria could digest that, Molly rushed on. “Mom, you should have seen Blade. I heard him coming, and the woman went upstairs, so I climbed out of the basement window and he rode right up on Grandma’s lawn to get me. It was so cool.”

Cool?
Molly was still shaking, so Maria held onto her.

Little Max tried to push between them. Bridget picked him up. “Come on, Max. Let’s go answer the door.”

Blade walked downstairs to the bedroom level calling, “Where’s my girls?”

“Right here,” Molly said, and Blade came in with his arms open wide enough for them both. Seeing him, Maria knew things would be all right. Molly was okay and Blade wasn’t hurt, and they were going to be okay.

She held onto Blade and kissed him. “Molly, meet your new stepfather. We were married on the way back from New York. You can help me plan a church wedding here in Gig Harbor, so we can celebrate in style.”

“Mommm, why didn’t you tell me?”