Made for You (7 page)

“You’ll go to prison for aiding and abetting if you don’t come clean,” Reese said. “Think about that.”

Dickey was looking more nervous by the moment, but he stuck to his story. “You can’t keep me. I didn’t do anything.”

“We can keep you here for twenty-four hours.” Reese started toward the door leading from the interrogation room. He paused and looked back at Dickey. “That will give you some time to think.”

The man set his jaw and remained mute. Reese held back a growl of frustration and left the room.

John was waiting for him in the room on the other side of the one-way glass. “He’s lying,” John said.

Reese gave a nod. “He knows something. I don’t know if it’s related to the girl or to the drugs, but something’s going on. I’m going to figure out exactly what that is.”

Chapter 6

Jill Petrova screamed, the sound ripping through the night.

Heart thundering, Kelley ran into the house she’d grown up in, toward the sound of her mother’s cry. Kelley bolted down the hallway leading to her parents’ bedroom. She clenched her Glock in a tight grip as she raced down the hall as fast as she could.

The hallway seemed to grow longer as she ran. Her chest ached and her lungs burned from running so long, so fast. She pushed herself harder as she ran farther and farther.

Jill let out another blood-curdling scream that nearly made Kelley’s heart stop.

Adrenaline pumped through Kelley’s body. This time she would kill her father before he murdered her mother.

Just when she thought she’d never get there, Kelley reached the end of the hallway. She raced around the corner, into her parents’ bedroom, and came to a full stop.

Ice chilled her veins and her mind spun.

Darrell Taynor, not Isaac Petrova, had his gun to Jill’s head.

“Don’t hurt my mother,” Kelley tried to shout but she was mute, as if her mouth was covered by duct tape, and she couldn’t get out the words.

“I’m going to kill her, Detective.” Darrell sneered at Kelley, a look of satisfaction on his face. “There’s nothing you can do about it.”

Both anger and fear rose inside Kelley. Fear for her mother… Anger that Darrell had his gun to her head and was going to kill her.

Kelley’s hands shook as she trained her weapon on Darrell.

From out of nowhere, ropes snaked around her like possessed vines, pulling her arms behind her back and tying her wrists. Her weapon fell to the floor and hit it with a hard
thunk
. The ropes squeezed her from her upper arms to her waist, and she almost blacked out from the pain of the rope crushing her wounded shoulder.

Kelley struggled to get free but the bonds were too tight. Fear for her mother magnified inside her and spun in a vortex of anger. She wanted to kill Darrell and save her mother.

She tried again to shout but now she was gagged, the rope holding cloth inside her mouth.

As she fought to get free to save her mother, Isaac Petrova eased from out of the shadows. Kelley stared in horror at the two men. Isaac stepped toward Kelley and he gripped the end of a belt. The buckle thumped on the floor as he dragged it closer to her.

He was going to whip her with the buckle like he had so many times before.

Kelley screamed and struggled, her gaze darting from Darrell to her mother to her father.

“No!” Her scream came out muffled by the gag as she tried to beg Darrell. She didn’t care that Isaac was going to beat her. She just needed to save her mother.

Isaac raised the belt and swung it at Kelley. Stars burst in her mind as the buckle struck her head and her knees went weak. He swung the belt at her again, the buckle striking her cheek. She felt the skin break open and blood poured down her face from the gash.

No matter the pain, she stared at Darrell instead of her father. She tried to beg him with her eyes.

With a smile of pure evil, Darrell watched Kelley as he pulled the trigger.

Kelley screamed behind her gag again as the sound ricocheted around the room.

But it was Laura Jones, not Jill Petrova, who collapsed to the floor. A hole gaped in Laura’s temple, a single drop of blood rolling out onto her white skin.

“Mommy!” Belle ran into the bedroom as she shrieked the word.

Kelley’s gag was suddenly gone and she too cried out, “Mommy!”

Isaac’s head swung as he turned his attention from Kelley to Jill who now appeared on her knees in front of him.

He dropped the belt and an iron fire poker was now in his hand.

Darrell’s laugh echoed in the background.

Isaac brought the iron poker down—

Kelley woke up with a scream, sitting bolt upright in her dark bedroom as she fought against her sheets that were twisted around her like heavy ropes.

Heart thundering, she breathed in harsh gasps as she came to her senses. It was just a dream… Only a dream… Except that Jill and Laura really were dead.

Kelley’s stomach felt sick as she touched her chin where Isaac had split the skin with the belt buckle. But there was only the pale thin scar left over from that day. The last day he’d ever beaten her because she’d fled that same night.

And he’d murdered her mother the very next morning.

A tear rolled down Kelley’s cheek, over the fingers that still touched the scar. She could almost feel the burning pain from when the belt buckle had sliced her skin. But it meant nothing. She’d give any amount of pain, any amount of scars, to have her mother back.

With a deep, shuddering breath, she moved her fingers away from her cheek. When she glanced at the clock she saw that it was just after two a.m. She pushed away the tangled sheets and slid back down into bed, beneath her bedspread. She lay on her side, her head resting on her pillow.

She didn’t want to sleep… Didn’t want to see her mother’s and Laura’s dead faces again. For hours, she lay awake and stared into the darkness, trying to banish the images of Laura being murdered and Isaac starting to swing the iron poker at her mother’s head.

Still in her nightgown, Kelley walked down the hall from the kitchen where she’d just nibbled on some toast for breakfast while drinking down a big mug of coffee. She passed her home office as she headed to her bedroom where she was going to change into the clothes she planned on wearing today.

She was so tired…she hadn’t been able to sleep since the night Laura was murdered. Like last night, every other night she’d also been having nightmares. Her father and Darrell Taynor went in and out of her dreams, her mother’s and Laura’s dead faces burned into her mind.

The guilt that weighed so heavily on her would likely never go away and she’d have to live with it. Finding the man who had abducted Belle was something she had to do.

Her cell phone rang in her pocket and she pulled it out to see that it was Reese. Ever since her grandmother had stopped by, she’d been dreading hearing from the old woman again.

It was with some relief that she said, “What’s up, Reese?”

“Checking in on my favorite partner,” he said. “What are you up to?”

“I’m going to the shooting range in half an hour.” Kelley paused in the middle of her bedroom. “The doc let me out of my sling yesterday and I want to get some practice in with my left hand.”

“Damn it, Petrova.” He sounded irritated. “You need to be resting your shoulder.”

“Just try and stop me.” Her tone was probably a little waspish, but she didn’t care. She hated this feeling of being coddled. “Tell me about the Taynor case.”

He ignored her request. “How are you getting to the range?”

She frowned. “Nikki is going to drop me off and then she’ll pick me up when I’m finished.”

“Call her and tell her I’m taking you.” Reese said the words like it was an order. “It’s my day off, and I need to get some time in on the range. I’ll see you in thirty.”

Kelley opened her mouth to tell him that she didn’t need him watching over her, which was exactly what he was doing, but he’d disconnected the call. She held her phone out and glared at it. Grudgingly, she called Nikki and told her she didn’t need a ride after all. Nikki made a crack about hot detective partners and Kelley almost hung up on her. But there was no arguing that she was right—Reese was damned hot.

As she got ready to go, she let her hair fall loosely because her shoulder still hurt too much to pull her hair into a ponytail. She dressed in a white scoop-necked T-shirt, her favorite soft and comfortable faded jeans, socks, and sturdy leather shoes. She stuffed her wallet with her credentials, cash, and credit cards in one pocket, shoved her keys in another, and then put on small silver earrings.

When she was dressed, she slid on a belt and a holster with her Glock. Trying not to jar her shoulder, she carefully shrugged into a sapphire blue blouse to cover her service weapon. She walked past her treadmill that she kept in her bedroom. It was frustrating not to be able to go jogging in the mornings. The treadmill just wasn’t the same, but she was still using it to help keep in shape.

The doorbell rang and she headed from her bedroom to the living room. She opened the front door to see Reese on her doorstep. A flutter went through her belly for the first time ever with him. It was different from the warm, squishy feeling in her belly she’d gotten when he’d cooked dinner for her. Even compared to how sexy he was the other night, she never remembered him looking so good as he did right now. He wore a black Stetson, an open western shirt over a black T-shirt, Wrangler jeans, and black boots. He had a day’s growth of stubble and his blue eyes were studying her in a way that made her feel like he was seeing her in the same way—as something more than just a partner.

But then it could have been her imagination or wishful thinking. Treading those waters was dangerous, something she had to keep reminding herself.

“Ready?” He gave her a smile that made her insides do funny things that they shouldn’t be doing.

“Yes.” She nodded as she patted her holstered Glock. “Let’s get to the range. I can’t wait to shoot something.”

He gave her a grin. “That’s the partner I know and love.”

Even though she wasn’t wearing a sling now, she still needed to baby her shoulder, so she let him help her up into the truck.

As he drove to the shooting range, she drilled him about the Taynor case. “Has the case progressed at all?” When he frowned at her question, she knew it had. “There’s something you’ve found,” she stated.

Reese gave a slow nod. “All of the leads have ended up in dead ends until yesterday.” He hesitated as Kelley sat straighter in her seat. “We’re pretty sure that Taynor has ties to a drug cartel in southern Arizona.”

Her eyes widened. “And you didn’t tell me?”

“I wasn’t certain until today.” Reese explained what had gone down with Bill Dickey and Stan Driscoll yesterday. “It wasn’t until this morning that Dickey finally caved in and gave us what we needed to know about Taynor and the drug smuggling ring he’s involved with.”

“I want in on this, Reese,” she said and could hear the stubbornness in her own voice. “For all we know, since he has ties to a cartel, he could be across the line with that little girl.”

“It’s possible.” By Reese’s expression, she could tell that he was as frustrated as she was. “But we had a damned good lead from a snitch that he was still here locally,” Reese said. “Taynor must have left not long before we got to the house where he was stashing drugs and cash. So as far as we know, he’s still in Prescott. Our snitch told us there’s something in the works, which is the only reason why Taynor hasn’t left town yet.”

She shook her head. “How has he eluded us for so long?”

Reese glanced from the road to her. “I think there’s a good chance he was prepared for something to go down and found a place to hide out until things cool off. He may have planned on kidnapping Belle all along.”

“Damn him,” Kelley said through gritted teeth.

She frowned. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of it earlier, but something important just occurred to me.”

“It could have been the concussion that made you forget,” he said. “So what did you remember?”

“During a conversation I had with Laura, she mentioned a foster brother.” Kelley frowned. Usually she recalled conversations easily, but this one wasn’t coming to her as clearly as normal. “This foster brother was bad news and he’d scared her when he’d come around.”

Reese’s brow furrowed. “When we checked out Taynor’s background we saw that he’d been in the foster care system in Phoenix, but nothing came up about a foster brother who Taynor had been heavily involved with.”

Kelley tilted her head to the side. “At the time, Laura hadn’t wanted to go to the police and file a report because she was not only scared of Taynor but of his foster brother, too.” Kelley pushed strands of hair behind her ear. “She was afraid that either one of them would kill her if they were arrested and let go for any reason.”

“Do you remember the foster brother’s name?” Reese asked.

For a moment Kelley thought about it. Her jaw ached from clenching it so tightly as she mentally dug for the information. “I’ve never had a problem with my memory.” She wanted to scream in frustration. It seemed that the more she tried to think of it, the more her brain caused it to elude her.

“Hey.” Reese glanced at her. “Concussions can take some time to heal. Be patient with yourself.”

She shook her head, still thinking about the conversation with Laura. The name finally came to Kelley and she blew out her breath. “Johnny Rocha.” She gave a mirthless laugh. “His friends called him Johnny Rocket, but she wasn’t sure why.”

“Probably has something to do with drugs,” Reese said, looking thoughtful.

She nodded. “I think the next step is to track down Taynor’s foster brother.”

“I’ll get hold of John and see if he can start in on it.” Reese pulled his phone out of his holster and pressed a speed dial number before holding the phone to his ear.

Kelley listened as he spoke with John but wasn’t sure what John said when Reese spoke with him.