Kate Sherwood - Dark Horse 03 - Of Dark and Bright (19 page)

“You need to get ten million dollars together by tomorrow at 11:00 a.m.,” the voice said. “You don’t have time for conversations.” And then the call ended.

Evan stared at the handset for a long time before gently replacing it in its cradle. He was dimly aware of some activity around Dan’s cell, but the rest of the room was quiet, watching and waiting. Waiting for him. To do what? To say what?

He felt Dan’s familiar hand on his shoulder, and squeezed his fingers to feel Dan’s other hand still laced with his own. “We’ll get her back, Evan,” Dan said quietly, and Evan nodded.

Then he turned to face Bill and Sam, and he let all his fierce determination show on his face. “Get her back,” he ordered. “Whatever it takes.”

“Absolutely,” Bill agreed. He turned and strode away, and Dekay followed him. Evan was left with Dan, and even though the room was crowded and busy, it felt like they were all alone. Evan let his head fall back to brace against Dan’s stomach, and Dan gripped Evan’s shoulder a little tighter. “We’ll be okay,” Dan said, and Evan had never wanted to believe anyone as much as he wanted to believe Dan.

J
EFF knew something was wrong. His mother was still there, but she was the only one he’d seen in hours. Dan and Evan—where were they? And Tat? Hell, even Chris had disappeared. Something was going on. Something bad.

He looked at the IV dripping medicine into his body and wondered if he could detach it. He supposed he could order a nurse or doctor to do it; he was mentally competent, so they couldn’t force him to stay in the hospital if he didn’t want to. But he wasn’t sure if he was up for the argument. He needed to save his strength for whatever it was that Dan and Evan were dealing with. He reached for the IV needle. He was pretty sure he could pull it out. Were his clothes still in the room? That would be the next challenge….

“Don’t you dare.” It was his mother’s voice, and he looked over to see her standing in the doorway, staring at his hand on the IV. “Don’t,” she repeated, and he had a sudden flash of them having a similar exchange when he’d been a little boy reaching for a forbidden cookie.

“What’s going on, Mom? Where is everybody? You can’t expect me to just lie here while something’s happening to my family.”

“You can’t expect me to stand here and watch the last member of
my
family killing himself,” she hissed as she walked closer. “The doctors were clear. This is worse than it would have been if you’d come in when you should have, but it’s not as bad as it could be if you don’t take care of it.” She shook her head. “And look at you. You’re as weak as a kitten. Your job is to look after yourself and get better. The boys are doing all they can, and they’ll let us know when they have news.” She looked like she maybe regretted that last sentence, and he didn’t blame her. She’d just gotten his imagination even more fired up.

“What the hell is going on, Mom?” He tried to sound calm and reasonable, and apparently she bought it.

But then it was her turn to get emotional, and he watched, stuck five feet away from her, as two fat tears rolled down her cheeks. “It’s Tat,” she finally said. “She’s been kidnapped. For real, this time. There’s been a ransom demand.” She stepped forward quickly and put her hand on his chest, pushing against him as he tried to stand. “Evan’s whole security department, the FBI, every police officer in the state—they’re all on the job. There’s nothing you can do, Jeff, and if you don’t look after yourself, you’re just one more thing for them to worry about.”

“Mom,” Jeff tried to say, but he couldn’t deny that he was weak. His mother was half his size, and she was holding him in the bed without too much trouble.

“No, Jeff. There’s nothing you can do. You’ll stay here with me, and we’ll worry ourselves sick together, out of the way.” She shook her head at him. “We don’t know what’s happening with Tat. But we can’t lose two of you at once, Jeff. You need to look after yourself first, and then take care of the boys.”

“They’re in the middle of a huge fight,” he groaned.

“You wouldn’t know it to look at them,” his mother countered. “They walked out of here like they were reading each other’s thoughts. Whatever the fight was, it’s over, at least for now.”

That was good. That was what Jeff would have hoped for. Maybe it stung his pride a little to realize they
could
take care of themselves without his interference, but mostly he was just relieved.

“Tell me what you know,” he said, letting himself sink back into his pillow. “About Tat. What’s going on?”
Chapter 15
“
W
E’VEgot a tentative location,” Bill said, bursting into the office

where Evan and Dan had been sitting quietly. Dan was pretty sure that Evan had been praying, and he’d thought about giving it a shot himself, but decided against it. He didn’t believe, and there was no point pretending he did just because it would give him some temporary comfort.

Dan and Evan stood up simultaneously. “Where?” Evan demanded.

 

“Come on, we’re taking a command vehicle out there. I’ll explain on the way.”

Dan let himself and Evan be escorted outside and shown into the back of a large RV. Instead of beds and tables, the space was filled with computers, except for the weapons rack next to the large back door. There was a team of men dressed in black uniforms sitting on utilitarian benches, but otherwise it was just Dan and Evan, Bill, and the driver.

The engine had been running when they’d climbed in, and as soon as they were seated the RV started to move. Dan could see flashing lights coming through the windshield, and realized that they were part of a police convoy.

Bill Albanese was sitting next to them, and apparently he was ready for business. “We traced the signal to the cell phone tower it was coming through. They’re out in the country, so there’s just one tower—no way to triangulate. But we got an approximate range from the tower based on the signal strength, and we’ve drawn a radius out around it, and there’s only three buildings in that space. Two of them are luxury homes; there’s only one that anybody would call a ‘cabin’. So that’s where we’re headed.”

“And when we get there?” Evan had his calm face on again, but Dan could feel the tension running high and hot beneath the surface.

Bill grimaced. “We’re trying to sort that out now, with the FBI. They’re getting surveillance video—satellite and high-flying helicopters. If anybody tries to leave, we’ll follow them. If they stay put, we’ll surround the place, and then we’ll try to negotiate them out.”

“And if that doesn’t work? If they won’t negotiate?” The emotion was thrumming a little closer to Evan’s surface now, and Dan reached out to find Jeff’s traditional grip on Evan’s neck. It seemed to have magic powers when Jeff used it, and Dan figured they could use all the magic they could find right then.

“If they won’t negotiate, we’ll have a decision to make,” Bill said quietly. “Krista’s phone is still live, and we’re picking up bits of their conversation. They sound tense, but fairly professional.” He turned to Dan almost apologetically. “We haven’t found anything to suggest that it’s
not
your father and brother-in-law that we’re dealing with, so we’re using that as a working theory. And they both have histories of being pretty calm under pressure. That works in our favor. If they know they’re surrounded, hopefully they’ll have sense enough to come out peacefully.” He looked back toward Evan. “But we’ll have snipers set up, and men in place for quick extraction, if we decide that becomes necessary. Our absolute goal is Tatiana’s safe return.”

He turned back to Dan, and he looked pained again. “We’re not sure how to treat your sister. There was no sign that she was an unwilling participant in the initial kidnapping. But she seems to have had a change of heart. We’ll treat her as gently as we can. But we have to go on the assumption that she’s armed and dangerous, until we can prove otherwise.”

“She’s eight months pregnant,” Dan said. “There’s a baby to protect.”

 

“We’re keeping that in mind,” Bill said.

Dan nodded. He felt strangely ambivalent about that side of things. Tat, he was worried about. Krista… he had no idea how he felt about her. She was his blood. She’d lived with him for fifteen years, longer than he’d ever known anyone else. And he saw so much of himself in her. Saw who he would have been if he hadn’t been rescued, first by Justin, then by Jeff and Evan. He couldn’t deny the connection to her. But he also knew that he’d never be able to forgive her if anything happened to Tat. Maybe wouldn’t be able to forgive her at all, because something already
had
happened to Tat. Her naïve innocence, her assumption that the world was a safe place; that had been shattered. Dan remembered the fear in her voice over the phone, the way she’d
apologized
, for Christ’s sake, as if this was somehow her fault… he wasn’t sure that was something he could let go of. He wasn’t sure he could ever look at his sister the same way again, knowing she’d done that to Tat. And he wasn’t sure how Tat would ever be able to look at him, knowing he’d brought this into her life. Once the shock wore off, Dan wasn’t sure Evan was going to forgive him, either.

But that was all something to worry about later. If this cost him Evan’s trust, that was something he’d have to deal with. The important thing was getting Tat back safe and sound.

They rode in silence for far too long. It was too easy to imagine worst-case scenarios, too easy to let the panic creep in. But Dan had no idea what he could say to break the tension. He felt like he was on thin ice himself, only part of the proceedings because Evan had insisted on it. It wasn’t his place to try to direct the conversation. So they drove silently, and by the time they pulled to the side of a rough dirt road, Dan was practically vibrating with unspent adrenaline, and he could tell Evan was just as bad. They needed to move, but they couldn’t make any of this about them. What they
really
needed was to do as they were told and stay out of the way.

Bill had been speaking to people on the way up, and seemed to know what was going on. “A perimeter has been established, and infrared shows four live bodies in the cabin. Two of them are moving around more than the others; we’re assuming those are the males. The other two are together.” He glanced at Dan. “It could be that Krista’s been assigned to keep Tat quiet, or it could be that she’s now a hostage herself. We haven’t heard enough over the cell to be sure.”

“So, what now? You try to negotiate?” Evan seemed anxious for things to start moving, and Dan couldn’t blame him.

“That’s right. There was talk of storming the place, but we’ve decided against it. We don’t know enough about what’s going on inside. For all we know, Krista’s got a gun on Tat as we speak, and she could pull the trigger before we got inside. And they’ve got the windows boarded up, so the easiest entrance is unavailable.” He gestured for them to follow him. “I’ve got clearance for you to come up a little further, as long as you stay out of the way. I’m a civilian too, and this is a police operation. I’ve got good respect and good communication going, but I’ve got no real authority here.”

Dan followed Evan and Bill up to the back of a black van filled with communication equipment. “They’ve got the batteries out of their phones,” Bill said quietly. “To keep us from tracking them. I guess they didn’t know Krista had one.”

Just then, one of the FBI agents stepped out from behind the makeshift shelter and started toward the cabin. He was wearing heavy body armor and a helmet, but he still seemed incredibly vulnerable. Dan wondered how he was keeping his pace so steady, so relaxed. When he got about thirty feet from the cabin, he raised a megaphone to his mouth. “Attention in the cabin. This is the FBI. We have the property surrounded.”

Dan’s eyes were drawn to the screen showing the heat patterns of the people inside the cabin. They clustered together more tightly, and he could imagine guns being drawn and pointed. He held his breath, waiting to hear the sound of a bullet being fired, but finally exhaled into the silence.

The man lifted the megaphone again. “Come out of the cabin with your arms raised over your head. As long as you do not behave aggressively, you will not be harmed.”

There was no response, but Dan could see one of the shapes moving on the infrared screen. They were too close together, too blurred at the edges for Dan to be sure who was doing what. Then one of the FBI technicians said, “The cell phone connection is dead. She’s hung up on us.”

Another technician said, “We’ve got sounds of a struggle. Voices indistinct.”

 

There were a tense few moments as everyone waited, then a phone rang. “Mr. Kaminski’s cell line,” one of the technicians said. “Patch it through to me,” the man with the megaphone called, and he pulled out his own phone.

Sam Dekay, the FBI agent, appeared at Dan’s side with a set of earphones. “We’d like you to listen in. See if you can identify the speaker. Give us any information that comes to you.”

Dan nodded. It was a relief to have something to do. He put the earphones on his head and heard the negotiator’s voice. “My name’s David Bennett. My goal here is to help this situation end peacefully. I’m going to need your help to make that happen.”

Dan hadn’t been sure he was going to be much use at this task, but as soon as he heard the voice on the line, he knew. He listened to the man say, “Well, you’re going to be a big part of that too,” and he nodded toward Dekay.

“My father,” he said softly. “Richard Wheeler.” He saw Dekay’s nod, then went back to focusing on Richard’s words.

“Let me describe the situation in here. I know you’ve probably got those fancy cameras showing it to you, but let me make it crystal clear. My young associate is lying on the floor. And this cabin has no basement, no space underneath it, so you can’t get to him from below. And he’s got a lovely young lady lying on top of him, shielding his body with her own. He’s got a gun to her head, and he’s ready to pull the trigger.” Richard paused, as if he was enjoying what he was saying. “And my lovely, pregnant daughter, the same bitch who gave away our position, is standing right by my side. You might be ready to throw her life away, but what about the little baby? What’s the press going to make of that?”