Broken Promises (16 page)

“Understand?”

“Yes, I freaking understand.”
Control.
Dammit. You’re not a child.
She sucked in a deep breath, and
then let it out slow and easy. “Could you just find the guestroom
and get out of my face for a while?”

He pulled his iPhone from his pocket and
waved it. “Call me in an hour or I’ll be down here like white on
rice.”

“Spare me the clichés. But since you seem so
fond of them, don’t let the door hit you on the ass as you’re
leaving.”

He turned, took a step, then stopped and
shook his head. His jaw clenched, the muscles working. Apparently,
he had more to say but wisely refrained.

No, he picked up his go-bag and headed for
the door, his moment of indecision passed. Without a word, he left
her frozen stock-still and holding her breath, and slammed the
door. The sound was a shock, and with all her pent-up energy
drained, she collapsed on the bed. Shadow jumped into her lap and
started licking her face. “What the hell have I done, little
girl?”

~~*~~

Alex stomped upstairs and located the
guestroom. The white, ruffled bedspread and curtains were more than
a little on the girly side, and the walls were a hideous shade of
Pepto pink. Still, the room would do as long as he was in town. He
tossed the go-bag on the bed, then sat and tested the mattress.
Firm enough. It would do.

He’d made a hell of a mistake. One he’d
rectify as soon as Jackie and Cody were found. Speaking of which,
his supervisor was due an update. His forty-eight hours were almost
up.

He pulled up SAC John Riley’s number and
waited.

“Riley.” His boss’s voice was a rough growl.
Ominous beginning to the conversation, given what Alex was about to
tell him.

“MacGregor.” Alex sucked in a deep breath and
kissed his chances for career advancement good-bye. “I’m not gonna
make my deadline.”

“Didn’t figure you would. Been keeping my eye
on the case. Understand your nephew’s missing too. You still
convinced she was kidnapped and hasn’t done a runner with the
boy?”

“That’s
not
the kind of person my
sister is, sir. She’s stable. Her vet practice was doing well. Her
husband’s kind of a prick, but I don’t figure him for being
involved. These locals don’t know what the hell they’re doing. They
don’t consider this a kidnapping case. If you could—”

“You
know
the procedure. The Bureau
has to be called in by the local PD. What took them so long to call
an Amber Alert?”

“Official take was no vehicle was seen. So no
Amber Alert; however, they were talked into issuing one
eventually.”

“Rough. For your sake, I hope this wraps up
favorably and as soon as possible. As for your spot on the task
force… While I can’t hold it indefinitely, I’ll extend your leave
by a week. Keep me informed.”

“Of course.” A sense of relief shot through
Alex. Close call. “Thank you, sir.” Now there was just the small
matter of one pissed-off Mafia princess. A woman he could love,
given half a chance. Where the hell had that come from? Love wasn’t
a part of his career plan. No, Bette was the very woman who would
sidetrack his career if his boss discovered her background.

And if that jackass Spitz could find out, the
SAC certainly would…
if
it came down to the SAC’s need to
know.

In other words, if he continued to see Bette,
in spite of her current snit fit, sooner or later the SAC
would
need to know. She’d be thoroughly vetted, and the
truth would come out. Whether or not she was a part of the Spinelli
crime organization might not make a difference to his superiors.
True, they couldn’t prevent his involvement with her—free country
and all that—but marrying her could—and probably would—sink his
career.

~~*~~

So Dudley Do-Right Double-O had second
thoughts about bedding a dead Mafioso’s daughter. Well, screw him!
Bette pounded the pillow. Too bad pounding some sense into Alex
wasn’t an option.

And screw him she had…and enjoyed every
blissful minute of it…until his face grew tight as if he were
sucking a lemon and he pulled away. If it weren’t for Jackie and
her sweet little boy, the open road would be next on this chick’s
agenda.

Relationships—who needed ’em? Not her.
Relationships were a one-way street to a place called Motel Misery.
The best thing to do was hunker down and take care of her dog. Dogs
didn’t have second thoughts about loving you. They just responded
to love and affection and returned it unconditionally.

Besides, who could trust a man who didn’t
like dogs? That should’ve been her first clue to Alex’s real
character. He was a grown man and way past the time he should’ve
gotten over what had happened when he was a kid. As if Shadow, who
didn’t weigh an ounce over sixteen pounds, could or would hurt him.
As if…

Said Sheltie curled up in Bette’s lap and
gazed up at her with a devoted doggie expression. She sighed. That
she and the Sheltie bonded so quickly still amazed her. As a breed,
Shelties were known to be loving and sweet companions, but they
tended to be shy and usually took several days to bond with new
caregivers, especially if they’d been ill-treated. By all
indications, Shadow hadn’t been mistreated, and for that, Bette was
thankful. There should be some kind of hell reserved for those who
abused children and animals.

As for fainthearted men like a certain FBI
special agent… Well, he could just go back to Chi-town and—

No, she’d forgotten one important fact. Alex
was living through his own hell right here and now. First his twin
and now his sister and nephew—no wonder he was edgy and
uptight.

Cut the man some slack.

Losing her mother and father in the fire had
nearly killed her. Alex had already suffered one loss, and the fear
his sister and nephew were already dead and lying in a field
waiting for their bodies to be discovered was too much. More than
anyone should have to handle.

Maybe she should apologize for being such a
bitch.

Or maybe he should apologize for using
her.

But maybe she’d used him too. A little.

Okay, time to pull up her big girl panties
and take the high road in the relationship, at least until his
sister and nephew were found. Since the local cops were basically
useless, she and Alex needed to work together. The personal stuff
would just have to wait.

Chapter Seventeen

Upstairs in the guestroom, Alex booted his
laptop and accessed the ViCAP database. He entered the parameters
of his sister and nephew’s disappearances and waited. What he
discovered was plenty of disappearances of women Jackie’s
approximate age and even more of children Cody’s age, even some
mother and child abductions together, but not a single documented
disappearance of both a mother and child occurring as separate
incidents.

As bad as he hated to consider the
possibility, maybe Spitz was right in assuming Jackie had dumped
her unfaithful husband, run off with the guy with the cat, and then
snatched her child at the first opportunity. Given what he’d
learned about Brad’s infidelity, Alex wouldn’t blame her if she
dumped the jerk, but why like this? Any competent divorce attorney
would’ve advised her to sit tight, sue for divorce, and take Brad
for all he was worth. And if she was actually going to pull a stunt
like this, she would’ve warned her brother upfront.

What was the alternative? Brad was
responsible for doing away with Jackie and had their son hidden
away. In cases like this, it was almost always the husband. And if
that were the case, then his sister was already dead. That thought
set his stomach to burning and cramping. Intending to check out the
hall bathroom, he set aside the computer and headed for the door.
What he needed was some Pepto.

He stopped short as a sharp knock sounded.
Mentally, he groaned. What did she want
now
? Another chance
to unleash her ferocious and basically unjustified temper? “Yeah?”
He whipped open the door.

Bette stood with fist upraised ready to knock
again or maybe to bust him in the chops. The dog stood beside her,
wagging its bushy tail for all it was worth.

“Sorry.” Her eyes widened, and she pulled
back her fist.

“It hasn’t been an hour.” He gave the words a
bit of a growl, hoping she’d just go away and leave him the hell
alone.

Her damned fine breasts rose as she sucked in
a breath. “I came to apologize, you jerk.”

“For what? Seeing as how
I’m
the
jerk.” Ready for her next retort, he clenched his jaw.

“While I won’t argue the point”
—
she wrinkled her nose and continued
—
“I got to thinking.”

“Since when did thinking enter into your
modus operandi
?”

Her eyes flashed with a touch of anger.
“You’re not making this easy.”

“
Easy?
” He tried to tamp down his
anger and failed. “Nothing about you is easy. Not since we first
met.”

“I just knew you’d have to dredge up that
night.” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and
crossed her arms over her breasts. “I thought maybe I should, like
you said, cut you some slack. You’re under a lot of stress. Plus, I
kept something from you, and you had a right to be pissed off. No
matter what happened between us
before
, we need to work
together to find your sister and Cody.”

“I don’t need a partner…” Just barely, he
refrained from finishing that sentence and saying a partner who
doesn’t know her ass from her elbow about investigating a
kidnapping.

“Yes, you do.” Her chin rose, and her dark
eyes flashed, reminding him how stubborn she was, given the
chance.

“You and that dog are distractions. Just keep
your butt in your apartment, and let me handle the investigation
end of things.”

“Fine. Where were you going when I knocked on
the door?”

“How do you know I was going anywhere?”

“You opened the door the instant I knocked.
You had to be standing right there.”

“I was headed—” He broke off, refusing to
admit to an unsettled stomach. She’d jump on the least sign of
weakness, and the last thing he needed was her mockery or
sympathy.

“All right, then, head wherever. You should
know, since the authorities released the office as a crime scene,
I’m going in to straighten up. The locum will need help, and Jackie
will need us to keep the practice going until she comes back. Got
it?” She nodded as if to emphasize her point.

“Yeah, I got it. And if that SOB comes back
for you…?”

“Then I’ll aggravate him to death, like I do
you.”

“Good luck with that. Works for me.” Brushing
by her, he started down the hall; then a wave of shame hit him,
slowing his steps. He stopped and turned. “I didn’t mean that.”

Bette gazed up, her brown eyes shining with
tears. “I know.” She closed the short distance between them and
slid her arms around his waist, resting her cheek against his
chest. “I’m sorry I’ve been a bitch. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you
about my family, and I’m so sorry this has happened to yours.”

Alex swallowed hard. Bette’s anger he could
contend with, but this soft, gentle side touched him on a level
that unsettled him and left him more than a little confused. This
side of Bette he could love. Make a life with.

“Let me help, Alex. I feel so responsible.”
Her dark gaze was as sincere as any he’d ever seen. “If I’d just
stayed with her, maybe the two of us could’ve fought him off.”

Two women, both on the small side, wouldn’t
have had a chance. He caressed Bette’s cheek, then said, “And maybe
you’d both be dead.”

“No!” She let out a gasp and banged her small
fists against his chest. “You mustn’t say that word. I—”

“I don’t want to believe it either.” In spite
of their infrequent contact over the years, he loved his sister.
She and her son were all the family he had left. And no way would
he give up trying to find them, even if it meant searching every
square inch of Ontario County.

“We can’t give up. You have to let me help
you. Even if it’s, I don’t know, go-for type stuff.”

“Uh-huh.” He nodded slowly, resigned to the
fact that she was going to help whether he wanted her to or not.
“You gonna dig holes? Think maybe they’re underground?” No joke.
Many a “collector” had been found to have a fortified cellar or a
modified torture chamber where he kept his victim, sometimes for
years. All he could hope was that Jackie and Cody were still alive.
His body gave an involuntary shudder at the thought of either being
tortured.

“What is it?” Bette’s brow furrowed. The
concern in her voice rang true and resonated on a deep level.
Already she knew him well enough to gauge his reactions. “Let’s
just say I know too much. Seen too much.”

“Guess it’s like they say, sometimes too much
knowledge isn’t necessarily a good thing.”

“Never more true than in this case.” His
throat dry, he choked out the words.

“So tell me what you need me to do.” She
gazed up at him, her expression sincere. “And I don’t mean go hide
in my apartment.” She nodded at his open laptop. “You’ve already
been working on something. Find anything we can use?”

Damn, but the woman was determined to help.
“It’s more what I haven’t found.” He moved the laptop from the bed
to the dressing table. It’d have to do for a desk. Best not work on
the bed—not with Bette in the same room. “I didn’t find a single
instance of a woman being abducted that was later followed by her
child’s abduction, except in cases of custodial interference. And
that’s not the case here.” He went on to tell Bette about the FBI’s
Violent Criminal Identification and Apprehension Program database,
or ViCAP, for short, and how he’d only found the more common cases.
Basically, nothing with a profile like Jackie’s abduction.