Whisper of Revenge (A Cape Trouble Novel Book 4) (13 page)

“Yes,” Elias said, ending that worry.  “Her ex-husband is
delivering what he can tonight, and I’ll have the rest in the morning.”

“Okay.”  Daniel braced himself for the hard question.  “Are
we sure Ian is alive?”

*****

This night might be even worse than last night.  Hannah
hadn’t known that was possible.

They should have guessed the kidnapper was too smart to give
instructions yesterday for the ransom drop.  “Wait for my call,” was all he’d
say.

Steadied by Elias’s presence, she had demanded to hear Ian’s
voice.

“Mommy?” he’d said tremulously.  “Mommy, will you come and
get me?”

“Yes.  Yes!  I swear!  Mommy will always—”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” he said, and
disconnected.

“Ian!”  Still holding the phone, she kept screaming his
name, tears pouring down her face, until Elias pried the phone from her hand
and gathered her, struggling, into his arms.

She knew he’d called Daniel, but all she could do was curl
into a corner of the sofa and shake.  The moment he was done with the call, he
dropped his phone on the coffee table, sat down beside her and lifted her onto
his lap.

Hannah struggled.  “What are you doing?  I’m too heavy!”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”  Elias shifted until he sat in the
same corner he’d plucked her from, and then adjusted her position until her
head rested on his shoulder and his arms enclosed her.

She stayed rigid for all of thirty seconds before collapsing
against him.  Somehow her hand had come to rest over his heart.  Hannah
concentrated with all her being on that steady rhythm, but the terror barely
retreated.  Feeling Elias rubbing his cheek against her hair, she whispered,
“I’m scared.”

“Of course you are.”  His arms tightened almost painfully
before he seemed to make an effort to loosen them.  “But think about it this
way.  Yesterday, we had no idea why Ian was taken.  Now we know.  The kidnapper
wants money.  Come morning, you’ll have every dollar of it ready to go.  You’ve
heard Ian’s voice, so you know he’s okay.  There’s no reason to think he won’t
be home tomorrow, once the hand-off is done.”

She listened for doubt, but didn’t hear any.

Mommy, will you come and get me?

“Do you think Ian believed me?”

“Of course he did.”  That hard cheek rasped against her
hair.  “Have you ever let him down in any important way?”

Well, she’d been close to late picking him up at daycare a
few times, but that didn’t count, did it?  And…she wished he didn’t have to
spend almost nine hours a day in preschool, not to mention the boring
weekends.  But she had to work, and most of his friends were in daycare because
their parents worked, too.  Anyway, Hannah knew from experience that if she
showed up unexpectedly at A Little Bit of Trouble, she always found him
completely engaged.  Happy.

So…no.

She shook her head.  Elias wore a V-neck, gray T-shirt,
which meant she was not only looking at the strong, brown column of his neck,
but seeing the hollow at the base of his throat and a hint of gold chest hair. 
She wanted to touch, except one of her hands was tucked behind his back and she
couldn’t move the other.  It tied her to his heartbeat.

What if he hadn’t come back after she sent him away?  The
thought was unbearable.  Had she really believed he wanted to go?  She’d seen
him pull back before, had even understood that opening himself to her the way
he had was a struggle for a man so accustomed to being a loner.  So, he had his
moments.  She was the one who’d freaked out.  Hannah realized she wasn’t very
good at trusting.  This…this was the closest she had come since her foolish belief
in Grady.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured.

His head tilted.  “About?”

“You know.  Me telling you to leave.”

After a minute, he said, “I’m sorry, too.”

She let herself nod.  Trust.

They stayed the way they were for a very long time.

*****

Hannah looked at the strange number on the screen of her
phone.  She held it up for Elias to see, and then their eyes met.

It was time.

After a deep breath for courage, she said, “Hello?”

“Step outside onto the front porch,
now
.  You alone. 
No hesitation.  I’m watching.”

From her position on the sofa, it was only a few steps to
the front door.  Skin crawling at the idea of the eyes on her, she scuttled
outside, leaving the door open.  Elias should still be able to hear her side of
the conversation.

“Have your boyfriend throw his car keys to you.  Not for the
rental.  The Land Rover.”

Which had only been returned by the police yesterday
evening.  He had to be watching.

Standing just inside where he couldn’t be seen, Elias gently
tossed her the keys.

“Now his phone.”

She passed on the message.

“Throw his phone as far as you can.”

Hannah did, flinching when she heard the small crunch as it
hit pavement.

“Where is the money?”

“It’s…right here.  Inside.”

The instructions kept coming.  The strap biting into her
shoulder,  she carried the duffel bag filled with bills to the Land Rover and
set it in the cargo space.

“Disconnect the call and throw your phone away.”

In instinctive protest, she cried, “But—!”

He was gone.  Hands shaking, she did as he said, only then
seeing the mobile phone lying almost beneath the Land Rover.  It wasn’t
anything fancy.  A
throwaway
was Daniel’s word.

She had barely unlocked and climbed in when it rang.

*****

Watching his Land Rover back out of the driveway, hesitate
and then turn up the street, Elias ran out and grabbed Hannah’s undamaged
phone.  Daniel Colburn answered his call instantly.  He listened to the terse
summation.

“He’s separated her from anything with GPS.  Unless you
added it to—?”

Elias squelched the brief hope.  “No.”

“All right.  Which did she go way?”

“South, then immediately turned east at the corner.”

“Probably toward the highway.  I’ll put out the word to
watch for her.”  Cape Trouble police officers and county deputies waited in
strategic locations, all in family rather than squad cars.

The sound of the engine told Elias that Daniel was already
driving.  Like others, he’d borrowed a car to escape notice – but this wasn’t
what they’d anticipated.  Hannah could already have passed unseen.  The
kidnapper hadn’t only escaped the reach of GPS, he had isolated her.

Elias looked hard up and down the street, at parked cars,
house windows reflecting the sun’s rays.  His gaze ended up at the one home for
sale, which would have provided an ideal location for someone watching to be
sure Hannah follow instructions.  But nothing moved there that he could see. 
The garage door didn’t rise; he heard no car starting up within a couple block
radius.

On a raging storm of helplessness, he stood in the middle of
Hannah’s small lawn, and knew there was not one single thing he could do to
protect the woman he might have cursed by his attention.

*****

Gripping the steering wheel so hard she wasn’t sure she’d be
able to pry her fingers loose when the moment came, Hannah drove slower than
she should on a highway with a speed limit of fifty-five.  She would press down
harder on the accelerator…then have a mini-burst of terror because she knew
herself incapable of normal reaction time.  What if a deer ran out in front of
her?

A minute ago, she’d gotten the finger from a teenager who’d
thrust his hand out the window as the stupidly low-slung car tore by at a
suicidal speed.  Her heart tried to beat its way out of her chest.  If she got
rear-ended—

Don’t think about anything going wrong.

This two-lane highway took a winding route alongside Mist
River, going east into the foothills of the coastal range.  In the twenty miles
or so between the outskirts of Cape Trouble and North Fork, the county seat,
there were only a few minor roads turning off, most gravel.  Houses were
scattered up in the woods, but not visible from the highway. Only brief
glimpses of the river interrupted the dense forest pressing close to the
highway on each side.

Despite the silence, she wasn’t alone. 
He
had told
her not to disconnect the phone, because then she could have used it to call
someone else.  Elias.  Having laid the phone on the passenger seat, she kept
sneaking looks at it.

Yesterday, he hadn’t even given her a chance to ask whether
Ian would be wherever she was going.  Twice now, during this surreal drive, she
had demanded to know, but there was no answer.  If he didn’t return Ian…

Daniel had thought it essential that he be able to watch the
exchange, but the kidnapper had won – Hannah would be alone.

Hyperventilating, she tried to calm herself.

Mumbled words had her snatching up the phone.  “What?”

“You’re paying attention to how far you’ve driven?”

Her eyes flew to the mileage on the dashboard.  What if
she’d gone too far?  Relief mixed with her stew of other emotions.  “Yes.”

“Why did you do this?” she whispered.

“Because I’m angry.  Because I need the money.”

“Why are you angry?  What did I do wrong?”

He didn’t answer, but she knew.  She had turned to Elias
Burton instead of him, whoever he was.

He’s crazy
.

And that made this so much worse.  If all he wanted was
money, he had no reason not to return Ian.  But if his rage drove him to hurt
her, he had to know how easily he could deliver the killing blow.

“You’re coming up on a viewpoint overlooking Mist River.”

She’d never stopped there, but had noticed it, barely a wide
place to accommodate one or two vehicles at a time off the narrow highway.

“Pull into it.”

“All right.”

The time of day contributed to her isolation.  Mid-morning,
traffic was scant on this two-lane highway.  The turn-out was on a curve,
limiting her sight-line in both directions.

“Set the emergency brake.  Turn off the engine.”

“Where is Ian?”  Swiveling her head, she couldn’t see any
movement.  She rolled down the window a few inches and heard a burble of water
over rocks.  A car was coming, too.  Her stress level climbed…but the sedan
passed without slowing, the driver not even looking her way.

“The rear hatch where you put the money is unlocked.”

“Yes.”  Hannah was breathing like someone who’d sprinted
full-out for a mile.  “I’ve done everything you said.  Please.”

“Keep doing it,” he growled, his voice less muffled. 
“Unfasten your seatbelt and get down on the floor.  Face down, cover your head
with your hands.  If you see me, you die.  If you see me, your little boy
dies.  Do you understand?”

“Yes.  Yes!”  She pushed the release to move the seat back
as far as it went, then maneuvered to squeeze onto the floor, hunching forward
half onto the passenger side.  Contorted to fit into a space not meant for a
human being, with her weight on her elbows and her hands locked behind her
head, she was completely vulnerable.  He could be here already, looking down at
her.  She’d hear the door open…but she couldn’t allow herself to look.

The wait was excruciating.

*****

Daniel glanced at the man in the passenger seat of the
borrowed sedan.  Elias Burton.  Against all the rules, Daniel had paused in
front of Hannah’s house and waved Elias to jump in.  He of all men understood
the torture the guy was undergoing.  The woman he loved suddenly gone, at the
mercy of a monster.

His fingers flexed on the steering wheel.  “Ian’s a nice
boy.”

There was a little silence.  Elias’s back hadn’t yet touched
the seat.  He leaned forward against the seatbelt as if willing them to move
faster.  Since Daniel wasn’t even driving the speed limit, the other man’s
frustration was understandable.

“He is,” Elias said at last, hoarsely.  “I’ve never been
around kids.  I hesitated to get involved with a woman who has one.”  He shook
his head.  “Of all things, the kid is artistically gifted.  We…hit it off right
away.”  He swallowed.  “Ian’s so bright and happy.”  His voice broke.  “Do you
know what you’re doing?”

“The best I can.  We don’t have any choice now but to let
the drop happen.”

A county deputy swore he’d seen the Land Rover turn east on
the Mist River Highway.  He’d known better than to go after it without
permission.  Daniel had had him wait a couple of minutes, then follow.  If he
caught up to her, he was to pass without interfering.  They were operating
under radio silence, using cell phones only.

Daniel was currently driving the same direction, but hanging
back as he waited for her to be spotted again.

His own tension was pulled tight.  Elias’s must be close to
snapping.

*****

Hannah heard a footfall.  Not lifting her head to look might
be the hardest thing she’d ever done.

It was weird, though.  Where had he come from?  Straining to
hear the faintest sound, she’d swear someone was prowling around the Land Rover
peering in windows.  At one point, she knew he paused for a long time by the
passenger door, staring down at her.  The hair on her nape prickled.  What if
he had a gun in his hand?  What if—?

A car passed.  Was it her imagination that it slowed briefly
before speeding up again?  The phone, still lying on the seat beside her,
stayed silent.

And then…and then, he tested the doors.  Opened one on the
other side and then slammed it.  Absolutely rigid, she didn’t move except for
an involuntary shudder.  If he was testing her, she couldn’t fail.  But…why was
he being so slow?  Shouldn’t he have grabbed the money and taken off?