скачать книгу бесплатно
For a little while longer, anyway.
“Educate her the hard way, Gerald. Send her running from her estranged husband, and she will run right where we want her.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
Clarence didn’t bother answering that. He had no doubt whatsoever that Rachel would cooperate once the truth sank in about the baby. Simply put, the child was what mattered most to her. Not her super-cop estranged husband that she hadn’t bothered to contact in over a year. Not her warped sense of devotion to be a do-gooder for the sake of society.
The baby was Rachel Dillard’s Achilles’ heel.
And he would use it to break her.
Clarence placed the phone back on the wall, knowing that Gerald would do what he had been told. Hopefully, this time he’d manage it without the mistakes. Of course, Clarence did have a margin for error.
All seven pounds and three ounces of him.
It would be interesting to watch Rachel beg for the child’s life.
Chapter Three
Rachel looked out through the rain-streaked windshield and spotted the picturesque log cabin. It was nestled in a thick grove of moss-strewn oaks, making it difficult to see from the road.
Difficult, but certainly not impossible.
And that explained why Jared parked the car at the back of the cabin where it would be out of sight.
“This place belongs to a friend,” Jared explained as they made a dash for the back porch. “We can use it as long as necessary.”
Rachel wondered if the friend was a man or a woman, but she quickly pushed that question aside. His relationships, personal or otherwise, were no longer any of her business. After all, she and Jared had called it quits months ago. He was a healthy, red-blooded, thirty-two-year-old male, and it was likely—very likely—that he’d been seeing other women.
While the rain pelted them and the lightning slashed across the sky, Jared fished a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. The place was musky but dry, and a lot larger than it looked from the outside.
Well, sort of.
The combined living and kitchen area was large enough to accommodate two people, but what Rachel didn’t see was a separate bedroom. The double bed tucked away in the corner seemed to be the sum total of the sleeping quarters. Hopefully, they wouldn’t have to spend the night.
“We’ll be safe here until it’s time to meet Aaron Merkens?” she asked.
“We should be.” After Jared entered the code on the wall pad to disarm the security system, he grabbed a towel from the closet near the door and tossed it to her. “I figure you’re the safest woman in America right now. Esterman will do just about anything to keep you alive. You’re his get-out-jail-free card. Or so he thinks.”
Yes. But her supposed safety came at a huge price. Esterman would only want her alive as long as she could be of service to him.
All bets were off after that.
“I asked if we would be safe,” Rachel clarified. She watched as he lifted a laptop from the top shelf of the closet and set it on the pine table. “That plural pronoun included you.”
With an almost amused look on his face, he brushed past her so he could plug the modem line into the phone jack on the wall. She caught his scent. The wet leather of his jacket. Faint traces of soap.
He still used the same shampoo.
It had always reminded her of the sea. And sex. But then a lot of things about Jared still reminded her of sex.
He was so unlike the other guys she’d dated in college. No comparison really. He was basically a grown-up bad boy who’d won his share of fights, some with his fists. The tiny scar on his chin and the other on the edge of his right eyebrow were evidence of that.
Like the rest of him, his hair was a bit untamed, a little too long—with a natural style that fit his personality to a tee. No glossy polish. No pretenses. Just a man who had a unique way of reminding her that she was very glad indeed to be a woman.
Even now, with all the uncertainty of the moment, she still had the same reaction to Jared that she usually did. Much to her disgust, he pretty much stole her breath. God knows how many times that had happened, so she couldn’t blame it on the adrenaline. All he had to do was walk into a room and she melted into a puddle of…something.
Something that Rachel quickly pushed aside.
Those days of lust and great sex were over. They were on the brink of a divorce and their lives were in turmoil. This wasn’t the time for the-way-we-were musings.
“I appreciate the plural pronoun, and the concern for my safety,” Jared commented. “But I seriously doubt Esterman wants to tangle with me.”
Rachel wasn’t so sure. Tangling seemed to be something that didn’t intimidate Clarence Esterman, and that was only one of the reasons why the thought of his going free chilled her to the bone.
She checked the time. It was nearly twelve-thirty. In a half an hour she was supposed to be on the stand to testify about all the incriminating documents and memos she’d observed her boss shredding. Since there were no other witnesses, she was essentially the prosecution’s case. Yet, here she was, in a remote cabin at least thirty miles from the courthouse. The district attorney’s office and dozens of other people were probably in an uproar by now.
“I can build a fire if you want to dry off,” Jared offered.
“No thanks.” Despite the rain, the room was muggy and warm, which wasn’t unusual for a Texas spring afternoon. However, that combined with the spent adrenaline was making her feel woozy. She definitely needed a clear head for the things they were about to face. “I’d rather try to figure out how we’re going to find the baby.”
The sooner that happened, the sooner she could take the stand. And the sooner she’d know if the baby was actually their baby. Rachel didn’t want to think beyond that. One step at a time was all she could handle right now.
He draped his jacket over the back of a chair, the drops of rain sliding off it and spattering onto the hardwood floor. “Like I told you in the car, I’m hoping Aaron Merkens can give us a starting point.”
Yes. That would prevent them from having to take the needle-in-a-haystack approach, but it still wasn’t very reassuring. After all, Sasha Young had been in prison, and Merkens was her friend.
“You think you can trust him?”
“No way in hell.”
She almost wished Jared had hesitated. The fact that he hadn’t meant the meeting that was supposed to take place in seven hours might just be a trap.
Maybe Esterman had known they’d find Merkens and try to get information from him. And if Esterman had known that, then he also could have arranged for the cops to be there to take her back into protective custody.
Talk about the ultimate irony. When it came to her testimony, Esterman and the cops were now on the same side. Both would do just about anything to get her to take the stand. One, however, wanted her to lie.
With his back to her, Jared peeled off his wet shirt and hung it over one of the other chairs to dry. “Remember Mason Tanner, the P.I. I’ve used for some of my cases?”
“Sure.” When she and Jared were still together, Turner came to the house a couple of times. “What about him?”
“He’s helping us out. A lot. I’m having him check out the park where we’re meeting Merkens, and he’ll try to make sure it’s safe. I can’t leave you here by yourself. You’ll have to come with me.”
Rachel hadn’t considered staying behind to be an option, anyway. As difficult as it was to be around Jared, it would have been impossible to do this solo.
“What about this leak in the department you mentioned earlier?” she asked, trying not to look directly at him. It seemed a little too intimate to be so close to him while he was half naked. Instead, she straightened the stack of old magazines in the center of the table.
It didn’t help.
Her body still knew he was half naked.
“A couple of weeks ago someone put a tap on my phone at work.” He extracted the envelope from his jacket and tossed it next to the magazines. “Then I caught this officer over in homicide, Sergeant Colby Meredith, trying to access some security files. Files that would have told him the location of the safe house where you were staying.”
“Sweet heaven.” Rachel had never heard Esterman mention this particular person, but he had a lot of people on his payroll. “You confronted Meredith?”
“Sure did. He only recently transferred in from Austin, so he covered for himself by saying he wasn’t familiar with the files and accidentally typed in the wrong code. I didn’t believe him for a minute, so I’ve been watching him. But I figure Esterman put Meredith in place to find you so he could have one of his hired goons personally deliver the news about the baby. When Meredith wasn’t successful, Esterman had no choice but to use me as a middleman.”
Of course. They probably hadn’t wanted to involve Jared since he was a cop, but he was one of the few people who could get to her. That one little detail had embroiled him in all of this.
He turned to type something on the keyboard, and Rachel saw the scar. An angry slice across his chest, just below his heart. She actually took a step back, to put some distance between her and that brutal reminder of what had happened nearly eighteen months earlier.
“Pretty disgusting, huh?” she heard him say.
Only then did Rachel realize she’d been staring at his chest.
Unable to answer him, she merely shook her head. Disgusting wasn’t the right word. More like distressing. The injury had nearly killed him. In fact, the doctors told her that his heart had stopped beating while he was in surgery.
Jared shrugged and went to the closet. He grabbed two T-shirts off hangers, slipped on one and handed the other one to her. “They tell me it’ll fade with time.”
The scar would, yes. The memory of it wouldn’t. Nor would the rift it had caused between them.
In the end, the event that had caused that scar had also cost them their marriage. For Rachel, it had been easier to fall out of love with Jared than to risk another nightmare like that. She’d had enough nightmares to last a lifetime.
Rachel changed her shirt in the tiny bathroom and hung the other up to dry. She turned to leave, but first made the mistake of glancing in the mirror. No makeup. Her hair was soaking wet. She was much too pale. She looked even worse than she felt—something she hadn’t thought possible.
“We’re connected to the Internet,” Jared called out. “Think you can try to find out some information about Sasha Young’s last known address?”
“I’ll try.” Glad that she could do something to get her mind off their situation, Rachel went back into the room and took the seat in front of the computer.
Jared moved the envelope closer to her, and she noticed the address written on the outside. “I got that from Aaron Merkens,” he explained. “It’s supposedly a rental house on the south side of town, but it could be bogus. There was no phone listing for it. While you’re doing that, I need to call Tanner.”
Jared took out his cell phone and walked into the kitchen to make his call. Rachel didn’t waste any time. She used some of her CPA knowledge and located the real estate tax records for the county. With any luck, the actual owner of the property would be listed.
While she waited for the file to load, she glanced at the envelope. She already knew it contained the photos of the dead woman and the baby, but she was almost afraid to find out what other surprises it held—especially since they were dealing with Esterman here.
Trying to ignore the envelope, Rachel quickly scanned the tax information on the screen, but it wasn’t good news. The owner of the rental property was a corporation. Probably a dummy company at that. If Esterman owned the house, he was too smart not to bury that information under layers of paperwork.
She fed in the next search to try to find out more information about the corporation, while toying with the flap on the envelope. Rachel tried to talk herself out of opening it, but even knowing that the contents could break her heart, she couldn’t stop herself. The first thing she saw when she glanced inside was the photo of the baby.
It took her a moment just to find her breath and longer to steady it. As if it were fragile and might shatter in her hand, she lifted it out and placed it neatly on the table next to the computer. She hadn’t really looked at the image when Jared tried to hand it to her in the bedroom at the safe house, but she studied it now.
The tiny round face was perfect. Beautiful. A delicate mouth. A spattering of bronze-colored hair on his head. The color of Jared’s hair. Of course, that meant nothing. Lots of babies had brown hair.
He could be anyone’s child. Anyone’s. And Esterman could be using him the same way he’d used dozens of other people over the three years she’d worked for him. Still, Rachel couldn’t seem to take her gaze off that precious little face.
His eyes were closed in what appeared to be a peaceful sleep. She prayed that it was indeed peaceful, and that he had no comprehension whatsoever of the danger he was in.
God.
He was in danger because Esterman had chosen to use him as a pawn in a very sick game.
But was this her baby?
Was this the child she’d desperately wanted but had given up hope of ever having?
The memories of her infertility blended together with the tormenting thoughts of the baby. Looking back on it, Jared had never seemed as committed to having a child as she had. He hadn’t objected. Not really. But then, he hadn’t poured his whole heart into it, either. He’d proven that when he refused to let her use the fertilized embryos immediately after they separated. He hadn’t wanted to bring a child into a broken relationship.
Or so he said.
At the time, his steadfast refusal had felt like the ultimate slap in the face. It still did. If she hadn’t gotten involved with the undercover investigation into Esterman’s wrongdoings, she almost certainly would have pursued the issue in court. That was the only reason the embryos still had been in storage. So, in a way it was her fault that Esterman had been able to carry things through to this point.
She touched the photograph again, running her fingertips over the baby’s mouth. His lips were pursed slightly as if he’d just had a bottle. That brought on another wave of fear and panic. Were they feeding him? Was there anyone to hold him when he cried?
Rachel wasn’t even aware that she was crying until she felt a tear slide down her cheek. More followed, and though she tried to choke it back, the sound of her sob cut through the room.
Jared was suddenly there, next to her. He didn’t reach out for her. Thank God—she didn’t think she could handle that right now.
“I’m sorry,” Rachel whispered, shaking her head. “I tried to hold it together.”
“No apology necessary.” He slid his hands into the pockets of his jeans and rocked back on his heels. “I know this isn’t easy for you.”
“Still, the tears won’t help. They never do.” She swiped the rest of them away. “You’re the only man who’s ever seen me cry. You know that?”
“Women tell me that all the time.” Jared smiled. “I’m not sure it’s a compliment.”
It was the right thing to say. A lighthearted and typical Jared comeback to diffuse an otherwise tense moment. Rachel wanted to give in to it, to sit there and let him comfort her. But she couldn’t. If she took that kind of comfort from him, it would be too easy to fall back into the same old patterns.
Jared was still a cop. A cop who put duty above anything else, including his own life.
And that would always be there between them.
Rachel stifled the rest of her tears and returned to the computer. But Jared didn’t move. He stood there staring down at her. When she lifted her gaze to his, she saw that his immobility wasn’t just because of her tearful reaction to the photo.
“Did you get through to Tanner?” she asked.
Jared nodded. “We couldn’t talk long. He had to make another call.”
“What’s wrong?” Rachel held her breath and waited for an explanation.
“Tanner just told me that the cops found Sasha Young’s body a couple of hours ago.”
“Oh.” It hit Rachel a lot harder than she would have thought it would, and the breath swooshed out of her. Moments earlier, Sasha Young had been simply a possibility. A potential piece of a puzzle.
“She was murdered,” Jared continued. “Strangled. Her body was dumped in the Guadalupe River, but some fisherman spotted it and called the cops.”
As horrible as that was, Rachel knew he wasn’t finished. There was more. “And?”
“Tanner knows the medical examiner, so he got the guy to give him a preliminary report. Miss Young recently had a C-section.” Jared looked her straight in the eye. “He estimates the surgery was done about a week ago.”
