Wanting (34 page)

Rush focused on him for a
moment. “This is becoming tedious.”

“
Let her go and then you
can go on your merry way,” the other man on the roof said.
Sebastian recognized a skilled and experienced officer in the way
the man stood and spoke. Kevin Beck? Carrie’s supposed father?
“You’ve changed, Minton.”

“
Seventeen years in prison
will do that to a man. You’ve most likely changed yourself. I’m
sorry about Susan. She was a lovely woman.”

“
Even though she never
liked you.” Beck stepped closer to the abutment as Rush pulled
Carrie closer to the fire escape. “I should have listened to her.
Maybe things would have turned out differently all around. I have a
question. How did you get my daughter out of state so quickly? I
went to get her less than twelve hours after her mother died. And
she was gone. How did you do that?”

“
It took some cash and a
few connections. I should have killed her that night I killed her
mother. But I didn’t have time to search their apartment like I
wished. An overly nosy neighbor called in the disturbance before I
had the chance to find what I needed.”

Cold. Sebastian took a few
seconds to try to put it together. Sociopath, no remorse for what
he had done. Just annoyance that his plans had been thwarted.
Carrie meant nothing to him, just a means to an end.

That could be a good or bad
thing.

If he decided she wasn’t
useful to him, he could kill her just to distract them.

But then again, of all the
people on that roof, Carrie was the one that mattered the most to
everyone else. “Just let her go, Rush.”

“
Not going to happen,
lover boy. She and I are going to the alley, then taking a small
trip. Once I get what I want from her—and Kevin’s other daughters
in the TSP, I will release her.”

Sebastian was close enough
to see the resolve and fear in Carrie’s eyes. He was so proud of
her. She was holding herself together like the pro she was. Only
the way her mouth moved silently in the one-two-three-four count
betrayed her fear. “Carrie, do you know what he wants?”

“
The music box. But he says
it in evidence lock up. And he’s going to use one of my sisters to
get it. I have sisters. I didn’t know that.”

“
You do. I met them. They
look like you, talk like you. One even knows computers like you.
Not as beautiful as you, though.”

“
How touching. But you are
correct. Carrie here got the best of her mother, as well. All that
red hair. Madeline was a very beautiful woman. Pity. She and I were
once very close. Before Kevin and she, of course. But that didn’t
last long, did it? You and Susan were married less than a year
later. And had my little goddaughter Melody two years after that?
You were definitely a randy boy, dear Kevin. Always loved
redheads.” They were close to the fire escape. Too close. If he
pulled Carrie over the edge, Sebastian’s view would be blocked.
Rush would have an opportunity to do whatever he wanted with
Carrie, and no one could stop him.

Chapter 79

*****

Dan knew what was going to
happen. He’d been on the job long enough to have seen these types
of situations. He could predict the outcome and it wasn’t good. He
stepped closer to the abutment. He was half between Carrie and Rush
and Beck. Carrie’s father. The father she didn’t know.

Dan understood the pain the
man was feeling then. Hadn’t he felt something similar himself
every single time he’d had a redheaded victim dependent on
him?

Dan couldn’t describe the
determination that filled him. This bastard was not going to hurt
Carrie. He wasn’t. She didn’t deserve to suffer for something her
parents did seventeen years ago. It wasn’t fair to her.

Lorcan seemed to have a
good handle on the front position with Rush. And Beck—Beck was the
man’s reviled nemesis. The true target. The man Rush was performing
for. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. Dan didn’t have
time to figure out which. If he could get closer, he could possibly
get behind Rush—and Carrie—before they got to the fire
escape.

Beck must have had the same
thought, but Rush wasn’t letting him get too close. “Stay put,
Kevin. It would be so simple, you know, to take Madeline’s daughter
from this world. Just a simple squeeze here…”

Everyone froze.

Dan heard the door open
behind him, and recognized the sounds of Alessandra and Ed
identifying themselves as federal agents.

Lorcan yelled for them to
stay back.

They froze, weapons ready,
just this side of the doors.

What would this Rush guy
do? Four federal agents and a police detective had their weapons
aimed at him. He had limited choices, and none of the scenarios Dan
ran through his mind ended well.

Especially for Rush. Or
Carrie.

Chapter 80

*****

Carrie wasn’t stupid; she
knew what was likely to happen to her. Rush was so horribly
outnumbered; he was bound to feel the pressure soon. The only
question was what he would choose to do about it. “They are going
to kill you. You really aren’t going to be able to do what you
want. What is so important about the music box anyway?”

“
Hush, my dear. I’ll deal
with you later.”

“
Are you sure about that?
These people are good at what they do, Minton. That one is the
director of the St. Louis division of the FBI. He has a security
detail that follows him everywhere. I’m sure they will be here any
minute. There are three of them. That’s a lot of guns you need to
be aware of. Just tell me—what is in my mother’s music box. You
tell me that, and I’ll tell you where the key is.”

“
A floppy disk, my dear.
That is all. But I want it. It’s mine. And she stole it from me.”
He dragged her to the edge of the roof, her arm and side banged
into the railing of the fire escape hard enough to
bruise.

Carrie couldn’t help
herself. She looked down. She’d always hated heights, and her fall
in South Dakota hadn’t made it any easier.

But this time, her breath
caught. Someone was coming up the fire escape. Paige, and Dr. Jules
and a woman Carrie didn’t recognize.

Paige was alive. She’d
gotten out. And she wouldn’t have left without Calista. They were
safe at least.

“
That deal will leave me
little to go on, my dear. Tell me about what you remember of the
music box?”

Carrie’s gaze met
Sebastian’s. He nodded. He wanted her to stall the man. So she
would. She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. She would not
think about him and what they’d done together over the last few
weeks. Would not think of her silly fears from only an hour before.
She closed her eyes for a moment, trying again to compose herself.
She counted, one-two-three-four. She opened her eyes.

That was it!

The last thing her mother
had ever given her was that tiny porcelain doll. Inside that doll
had been a necklace. An odd-shaped necklace Carrie had never been
able to identify.

Because it was…a
key.

To a handmade music box her
mother had kept on her dresser. Her mother would use the key to
wind the box. It would take one, two, three, four twists of the
key. Then the tinny sounds of Ode to Joy would play.

Carrie used to love Ode to
Joy. As a little girl, she’d twirl and twirl and twirl around her
mother’s bedroom to that song. That love had stopped around the
time her mother died. She’d never remembered why. Until
now.

“
Minton?” Carrie
whispered. The man glanced down at her very briefly. Someone else
moved—that man Kevin. He got closer. What was he planning to do?
And when had Sebastian gotten so close? “Minton? I know something
you don’t…”

The whisper worked.
Something did, anyway. His attention shifted down to her. Held.
“What, my dear? You really do look much like Madeline. But you have
your father’s eyes. Quite a beautiful woman, you are. The best of
your parentage.”

Carrie looked at him,
looked at Kevin Beck. Her father. She knew it deep inside. Her
attention focused on him for the longest time, then shifted to the
man six feet behind and to the left of Kevin. Sebastian. Her
Sebastian.

It was now or never. If
someone didn’t act fast this tableau would be swarming with police
and firefighters. The other agents she suspected were down on
street-level—Agent Len and the rest of Edward Dennis’s security
detail—would be able to hold the fire responders off for only so
long. They couldn’t risk the runaway shelter and the mental health
clinic too much longer. Not with the type of blaze in the building
next door.

Someone had to do something
to break the stalemate. And Carrie knew the truth. Her biological
father wouldn’t with her endangered. And neither would Dan. He
couldn’t. He’d never risk being the one to hurt her. And neither
would Sebastian. He loved her too much to risk her.

Carrie looked away from
him. Her gaze met Edward Dennis’s, then Alessandra’s. She could see
them both tense. They knew she was planning something. She nodded
just a tiny bit. Alessandra nodded back.

“
I know where the key is.
And you’re never getting it,” she yelled. Carrie ripped the gold
chain from around her neck and threw it over the side rail. She
jerked out of the man’s arms and flung herself over the side after
it, to the metal stairs below.

Chapter 81

******

Dan watched in horror as
his girl went over the side of the roof. He couldn’t move, could do
nothing. Couldn’t help her, couldn’t stop her.

He’d never felt as helpless
as he did in that moment. Except once, except when he’d opened his
eyes in a Kansas City hospital and his sister had told him his
girls were gone.

Rush cursed, struggling to
find his feet. He did, his weapon still pointed at Beck. Hatred
twisted Rush’s face, more than evident in the street lights. Beck
was moving, running to the roof and his daughter.

His daughter.

This man had just found his
daughter. And now this Rush bastard was going to take that away
from him. Take a daughter from Beck and a father from
Carrie.

Dan wouldn’t allow that. He
couldn’t. What if it had been his girls?

He was moving toward Beck
as the first shots rang out.

Chapter 82

******

Sebastian saw it all happen
and knew he could do no damned thing about any of it. He was too
far away. Rush fired, the bullets striking Reynolds before anyone
could react.

Sebastian’s shots struck
Rush mid-chest, as did Alessandra’s, and Dennis’s. The body fell
over the brick barrier and was gone.

Like Carrie’s.

Oh, God. Carrie.

“
Carrie! Carrie!” Sebastian
was at the rail in seconds, leaving Reynolds to the care of Dennis
and Al.

He didn’t want to see what
he knew he would. He couldn’t. He hopped the bricks to the fire
escape, hoping she was ok, somehow. Some way.

There she was. Right there.
Alive and Breathing. In Paige’s arms, with Julia Bellows fussing
over her, one of Beck’s daughters behind her. “Thank
God!”

He had her in his arms as
fast as he could. “Bellows, the roof now!”

The small doctor didn’t
hesitate, climbing over Sebastian and up the ten foot ladder and
disappearing onto the roof. Leaving Sebastian with Carrie. “Paige,
go help! They’ll need it…Reynolds…Dan…he…”

Carrie had her arms around
his neck and she stiffened, tried to pull away. “Dan? What
happened? Who is hurt? Sebastian?”

He pulled her against him
again. “Reynolds was hit. I don’t know how bad, baby.”

“
We have to get up there.
To him!” Carrie pulled away again.

“
Just give me a second,
ok?” To reassure himself that she was alive and whole and hadn’t
just fallen over the side of a roof. Or dove.

He’d never forget the
moment she’d looked at him and he knew she was going over. Knew
that she thought that was the best choice. And knew she was going
to do it.

“
Hey! People! Let’s move!
In case you missed it, the damned block is on fire!” Strong hands
pulled her out of his arms and Sebastian fought. Until he saw the
yellow of the first responder’s uniform. That was all it took to
remind Sebastian where they were and what was happening.
“Move!”

“
Get medical help to the
roof!” Sebastian set Carrie aside, set his personal feelings aside
and did what he had to do.

“
Already on its way! Now
get moving!”

Chapter 83

******

Kevin put pressure on the
holes in the man’s side where the woman—a doctor,
apparently—instructed him to. “Why did he do it?”

The man was dying in front
of him because he’d dove in front of him. Kevin couldn’t understand
it. The doctor didn’t look up from her work, even when the
firefighters tried to pull them away from the man.