Jarod's Heart (King Brothers Stories #2) (31 page)

“We know,” they all said together.

She let out a small laugh before she continued, “Well, she was doing the pee-pee dance, and I figured she’d never be able to hold it long enough to make it to one across the yard. The line was pretty long, too. I knew she didn’t want to have an accident in her costume, so it was easy to get her to go in the house, which was much closer.”

“Pee-pee dance?” James asked

“It just means she had to go really bad, Dad,” Josh laughed.

“Oh.”

“Anyway, as we were going through the utility room, Aiden was there. He said that Charlie had asked him if he would take Jessica to the corn maze to see him.”

“Aiden Lawlor?” James clarified.

Swallowing the lump in her throat caused by her embarrassment over such stupidity, she nodded her head. It took a moment to get herself together.

Josh rubbed her foot again and encouraged, “You’re doing great, Lauren.”

Trying to push the horror of seeing Jessica heading to the parking lot instead of the corn maze with that horrible boy, she continued to explain what she’d witnessed.

“He was talking to her like he knew her, and she went willingly, with no signs of panic like she’d displayed at the harvest dinner. I thought she was fine. I’m such an idiot. Jarod, I’m so sorry.” She started crying and clutched Jessica tighter, who snuggled more deeply into the side of her body.

Jarod bent down and kissed her forehead, whispering, “You couldn’t have known, love.”

The endearment had her heart speeding up for all to hear, thanks to the monitors attached to her body.

“What happened next, Mrs. King?” said Dane, who’d been quiet until now. Lauren had forgotten about the man until he’d spoken up.

“I tracked their progress halfway to the corn maze when my attention was distracted by some kids screaming in the haunted house. I only took my eyes off of her for a moment, but when I looked back, they were no longer heading for the maze. He’d switched direction and was heading toward the parking lot, so I ran to catch up. By the time I got there, I yelled at him. He stopped and turned, but before I could ask him where the hell he thought he was taking her, something smashed into my head. When I woke up, we were in the trunk of a car.”

Jarod entwined his fingers in the hand that she had resting on Jessica’s back and kissed her knuckles. Her wrist was bandaged where the duct tape had worn away her skin. He gently placed soft kisses on the gauze. “I would kill that bastard all over again if I could,” he said through clenched teeth.

“I know,” she whispered.

“No one else was there? Just Brad?” Jason asked this time.

“He was the only one there.” She thought for a moment, remembering Jessica’s terror and her knowledge of the
rules
, which Lauren explained to everyone.

“Jessica already knew him, Jarod. She was terrified of him.”

Jarod glanced at his little girl and frowned.

“That explains her behavior at the dinner, too,” James said. “Brad had come in with Eli before you’d arrived. He must’ve spoken with her, maybe threatened her.”

“He’s dead now. We’ll never know what happened,” Jason confirmed.

She watched as light dawned in her husband’s eyes and he shook his head. “Why didn’t I see it before?” he asked himself quietly.

“Because you were too close to it,” Dane said. “He’d manipulated the situation from the start. He put you in a position that he could control because you trusted him. He banked on your friendship to blind you to what was really happening in Timbisha. If it weren’t for the FBI’s informant, we wouldn’t have known exactly where to look.”

“What do you mean by ‘we’? I thought you were retired?” Jarod asked.

Dane sighed. “I am, but when my niece came to me with suspicions about the sheriff’s department being connected to Timbisha’s drug problem, I made some calls. I’ve been consulting on the task force for a while now.” He grinned. “But I’m glad it’s over now.”

“Your niece?” Josh asked.

Dane looked around the room. Lauren wasn’t sure whether he wanted to speak or not, until he finally admitted, “When my sister’s husband died, I came to Timbisha to be near them, but, in order to do that, I had to take an early retirement from the bureau. Thankfully, James hired me on quickly, so I was able to stay near the only family I have left.”

Lauren had a feeling she knew his niece. “Marguerite Theroux is your niece, isn’t she?”

Dane chuckled. “Are you sure you don’t want to go into private investigation, Mrs. King?”

“She’s sure,” Jarod answered for her. He kissed her forehead and sighed. “Keep going, Dane. The pieces are fitting together now, but I want you to confirm Brad’s relationship with Derek.”

With a nod, he continued. “It’s a simple one, really. Derek had the means to distribute the meth through his mining company, and Brad took advantage of Derek’s need for cash.” Dane ended on a shrug.

“And Trapp? How did he and Miranda play into all of this?” James asked.

“I can answer that one, Dad,” Jarod said. “Michael Trapp was the producer.” At his father’s blank stare, he added, “The cook, like the Walter White character in
Breaking Bad
. He was the scientist behind the production of the drug. I knew Trapp in school. He was pretty smart in science and chemistry, but he hung out with the wrong crowd, made a lot of poor choices growing up. And Miranda knew him from school, too. I’m sure once she realized how much money was involved, she began to take a piece for herself.”

James thought for a moment and said, “We need to find out what’s in that bear.”

“What bear?” Lauren asked. When James pointed to Jessica, Lauren finally noticed the blue stuffed animal stuck between the two of them. “She had this when we ran out of the house.” She fished it out from between their bodies. Jessica didn’t seem to realize it was gone, she was so deeply asleep.

Lauren kissed her forehead. They’d been through so much in the past twenty-four hours that it was no wonder Jessica had crashed.

“Let me take that, Mrs. King,” Dane said.

She handed it to the ex-FBI agent and watched as he squished the bear between his fingers. Right before Dane was about to pry open the stuffed toy’s belly, James cleared his throat.

“You can’t rip it open like that. My granddaughter will be devastated, and she’s been through enough. We need to get someone in here with some scissors and thread to repair it.”

Dane raised his eyebrows in disbelief before nodding his agreement.

“I’ll go see what the nurses can do for us,” Josh said before he left the room.

Lauren smiled to herself. If anyone could get a nurse to do surgery on a teddy bear, it would be Josh. He’d probably get a phone number or two in the process.

JAROD WATCHED AS
Josh hurried out of the room to charm a nurse into doing his bidding. His eyes swung back to Lauren and he saw red again.

She had a bruise running along the side of her left cheek and a cut on her swollen bottom lip. The bruises on her neck were unmistakable—fingerprints where Brad had tried to choke her.

Jessica hadn’t fared any better. While Josh had cleaned her up a bit in the waiting room, the evidence of her ordeal was obvious. She too had some bruising, but it was her emotional state that had suffered the most damage. She now clung to her mother like a lifeline, snuggling deep into Lauren’s side. He watched as her little fingers tightened and loosened in Lauren’s hospital gown. Even in sleep, she burrowed into the shelter of her mother’s protective body. Every now and then, a small whimper would issue from her lips.

How he wasn’t breaking things and howling like a madman was beyond him. Somewhere between Timbisha and Tonopah, he’d realized that he couldn’t live without either of them. Speeding down Highway 95 into Las Vegas, he’d vowed to never let Lauren go. He’d lost one wife and, by God, he wouldn’t lose another one. Lauren had become his everything.

Even bruised, beaten, and shot, she was the most beautiful thing he’d seen. Watching Jessica claim her as her mother made him realize just how much he loved them both.

Love?

He’d thought he would never love another woman, but damn it, he loved Lauren more than he’d ever loved another woman in his life.

His mother was right. What he’d felt for Miranda had been nothing more than a teenager’s infatuation, as immature as the boy he’d been. He’d let the divorce sour his outlook on the female persuasion, another sign of his immaturity.

Now, looking at the two battered and bruised women lying together in the hospital bed, his soul ached. They were his, and he’d failed to protect them. He vowed never to risk them again.

Giggles from the hallway drew him out of his rumination. Josh’s low voice was charming as he and a very blonde nurse came through the doorway. She was attractive, even in her nurse’s scrubs, and she was carrying a small kit in her hand.

“Valerie has agreed to perform surgery on Teddy,” he smiled.

“Surgery,” she giggled while shaking her head. “Let’s see the patient.” She then turned startled eyes to all the men in the room and whispered an “Oh my” under her breath.

James handed her the bear while issuing directions to preserve the toy as best she could, for his granddaughter’s sake.

“Let’s see what we’ve got in here,” she murmured as she delicately cut the seams.

All eyes in the room watched as she broke through the threads and opened up the teddy bear’s stomach. She pulled out a white envelope. With a question in her eyes, she handed it to Jarod.

Josh said, “Thank you, Valerie. You have a delicate hand, but do you think Teddy will have a scar?”

Jarod kept his chuckle to himself. Josh knew how to get women to do what he wanted without even trying.

When she was done, James took the bear from her and carefully placed it back in Jessica’s sleeping arms, while Josh walked the flirtatious Valerie back to the nurses’ station.

Jarod turned the object over in his hands. It was an average, legal-sized white envelope that had been folded into thirds. He slid his finger through the top, tearing open the seal. He retrieved a key, a blue card, and a sheet of paper containing the name of a bank, a safe deposit box number, and what looked like passwords. There was also a short list of names on the page; Brad Anderson and Derek Lawlor were among them.

There was nothing else.

“What is it?” Lauren whispered just as Josh was returning from his errand.

Jarod held up the key and explained to the room what was on the paper. “According to this, they put the safe deposit box in Jessica’s name. Her social security card is here, too,” he said in amazement.

“We better get that to my people at the bureau,” Dane said, holding out his hand. When Jarod just stared him down, Dane sighed. “Jarod, it’s evidence in a federal investigation and you know it. You weren’t planning on keeping that money, were you?”

Actually, the thought had crossed his mind; there was a certain poetic justice in keeping the cash. Brad had killed Miranda, Trapp, and Avery, and then kidnapped his wife and daughter before dying over it. The irony that Jessica would beat him at his own game wasn’t lost on Jarod.

Plus, he didn’t like taking orders from Dane. He eyed his father’s bodyguard for a moment, trying to take an unbiased look at the man. Dane was usually one or two steps ahead of Jarod on cases, which had always irritated him. But if it hadn’t been for Dane’s past, his contacts with the FBI, and his niece, Jarod wouldn’t have gotten his family back.

“Thank you,” he said, handing over the envelope. “My wife and I owe you one, Dane.”

Dane looked down for a moment before clearing his throat. “Just doing what I can, Jarod.”

There was an uncomfortable silence before Jarod smiled and said, “Next time, fill me in on what you know so we can work together. I can use the help now that I’m down a deputy.”