Second Chances: A PAVAD Duet (33 page)

“
Collateral. I need to
speak to his mother.”

“
For what? What do you want
from her?” A shadow passed by the six-inch basement window. Small,
faint, just enough for Ed to understand that he wasn’t alone.
Reinforcements were waiting to enter. Waiting for his signal. A
second signal, more exact, came next from a tiny laser light cupped
in someone’s hand. Ed’s focus was to shift. Protect Nate. Let Fin
and the rest of his team handle Schild. No matter how much Ed
wanted to be the one to take down the bastard, Nate was far more
important.

“
Just a two minute
conversation with Dr. Glendower.”

“
You can just have your
conversation with me. I’ll convey it to her, when I return her son.
You have to know you’ll never get to her. You’re good enough at
what you do to know how this works.” A red laser light centered on
Schild’s forehead for the briefest second. Ed knew what it meant.
Someone—possibly more than one someone—had Schild sighted, and they
wanted Ed to know that. One shot, and Nate would be free, Schild
dead.

But Ed didn’t want him
dead; he wanted him to face responsibility for the fear, pain and
death he’d caused to those who didn’t deserve it.

But Ed’s wanting that took
a definite backseat to Nate.

Marianna ran back toward
Ed’s estate, her thoughts on Nate and only Nate. Her baby, the one
child who’d seen far too much. He didn’t deserve to be used as a
weapon against
her.

The house was dark, silent.
Where were the agents that Ana had said were out there? Where was
Ed? And what had Hugh done with her son?

She bit her lip against the
scream that wanted to escape. Her son’s name.

A strong arm—a male
arm—wrapped around her from behind. A gloved hand went over her
mouth, and she was pulled tight against a hard male chest—by a
prosthetic arm.

Fin.
Thank God. Fin would help find Nate. Find Ed. Keep them both
safe.

“
Mari, you should have
stayed with Ana and the boys. You have to be quiet, don’t make a
sound.”

She nodded, and the arm
around her loosened slightly.
Nate?
She mouthed the question.

Fin leaned closer,
whispered in her ear. “They’re all in the basement. Schild has a
gun; Ed is armed, as well. Armitage, Camden, and Elwood are in
position around the basement. We have a line on Schild from two
points. He’s not getting out of there alive unless he cooperates.
And Ed…Ed is in position to protect Nate when—or if—it becomes
necessary.”

“
I need to be there.” She
said it as quietly as she could, but on this she wasn’t
budging.

“
You
can’t
.
You could endanger both him and Ed if you run barreling in there.
Ed is the best at what he does, and my team isn’t insignificant,
either. We’ll get Nate, but you can’t go in and distract everyone.
You
know
what can
happen. Nate and Ed could be caught in the crossfire. No one wants
that.”

Marianna closed her eyes
and took a deep breath. “I need to be as close as possible. My son,
he’ll need me when this is over. And Ed. Please, Fin.
Please.”

He nodded. Fin was a
parent, too. “Sadie and Maria are set up on the perimeter. You can
stay with them, if you promise to
stay
put until they tell you
otherwise. Remember, you have six other kids who need you. Trust
me, trust
Ed,
to
bring the seventh back to you.”

It was the hardest thing
she’d ever done, but when he took her to the dark van that Agent
Ritchie was using as a mobile HQ, just on the outside of Ed’s
property, Marianna entered the van instead of running to where her
son waited.

“
Schild,
can you tell me
why
, at least? Why such an elaborate plot? I assume you followed
all the women who transferred from Indianapolis? Why?” Ed wanted to
get him to open up, to perhaps diffuse the situation
without
someone else
getting hurt. Even Schild himself.

“
Just
something to do, Director. Do you know many years I worked at
Indianapolis
before
these women showed up? Marianna had only been there for four
years. Dr. Brewster, about the same. And Cody, Samantha, and Kelly
Reynolds? They were
children
when I started with the ATF. Yet they just waltz
in to Indianapolis and out to St. Louis. Agents and technicians,
support staff—
all
were thrilled that the great and powerful Assistant Director
Ed Dennis was riding in to town to pick and choose the best of us
to join his new team.”

“
Wondering who I’d pick? At
that point I already had the team I wanted in mind, based on
specific criteria.”

“
Marianna Glendower,
Allison Brewster, Merrick Cody, Samantha Gareth, and Kelly
Reynolds—everyone suspected it would be them, you know? The golden
team. Bosses favorites all around. And Eric Gareth? No surprise he
was selected. He’d been fast-tracked to the top, everyone knew
that.”

Marianna. Allison. Cody.
Samantha. Kelly. Eric. “What about Payton Asher?”

Had Schild’s composure
flickered?

“
What about her?”
Suspicion, the first emotion other than apathy, was faint in
Schild’s voice.

“
You
mentioned the others, and left Payton Asher out. Twice. I wondered
why. Did you know that
she
was the last one evacuated from the lab? That for
close to twenty minutes everyone assumed
she
—and two other women whom you have
probably never even heard of—was gone. Payton was carried out in a
fireman’s arms. She was damned lucky. Was that part of your
plan?”

“
Who said I had a
plan?”

“
I notice you’re not
denying that you’re responsible for what happened at the lab. For
shooting Kelly Reynolds. For nearly beating Merrick Cody to death?
Why did you do that? Did you plan it ahead of time?”

“
There
was no
plan.
I’m
not a sociopath. Or a common criminal.”

“
Then
what would you call yourself? Are you telling me you just drove
down here for the day or weekend, found one of the women and
decided to extract a little revenge? That’s taking stalking to a
whole new level. Tell me something, how long did you watch them?
Watch
Payton
?”

There. There was a definite
shift in Schild’s behavior. Was Payton the
true
reason he was here? Why he had
done all these acts?

“
Why don’t you ease up on
Nate’s arm a bit? He looks a bit uncomfortable there, and you don’t
really want to hurt him. Right, Nate?”

“
It is starting to hurt a
bit, sir. Mr. Schild. Can you just loosen up a little?
Please?”

Nate was earning even more
of Ed’s respect with the way he kept himself calm. The way he was
using his head.

If Schild accepted the
request, it showed Ed that there was a possibility of negotiation.
If he didn’t, it indicated that Schild had no concern for Nate’s
wellbeing whatsoever. Then Ed would give the signal to the snipers
outside the window.

Schild tightened his hold
on Nate, jerked the boy a few inches closer to his
chest.

That gave Ed all the
information he needed. He nodded, a subtle tilt of his head that
only someone looking for would see. McLaughlin’s snipers would
understand. But Ed needed to get Nate as far from Schild as
possible. Ed took a step toward his left, hoping Schild would be so
focused on him that he would unconscious mirror Ed’s actions. Ed’s
gaze flicked toward Marianna’s son. Stared for a second. Nate took
in a deep breath, then blinked twice. Then twice again. And twice
again.

Schild sidestepped to his
right. Nate instinctively went the opposite direction, putting a
few more inches between himself and Schild.

But Ed wanted more. He
shifted to the left again. “What about Payton,
Hugh
? Was she who you really came to
see? She’s a sweet woman. Beautiful in that All-American
girl-next-door kind of way. Did she return your interest? She’s
probably a good fifteen years younger than you are. Did she rebuff
you? Tell you no?” A flash of insight hit him as the other man
started showing real agitation. “Or did she even
realize
you were
attracted to her? That you were in love with her. And then she just
left you, didn’t she? Without a backward glance?”

“
She went
with her friends. They talked her into it. That damned Kelly
Reynolds and Merrick Cody,
always
with her. Payton had
family
in Indiana, she had friends.
She didn’t need to move all the way to St. Louis. They pushed her,
pressured her. In time, she would have…” Schild shook his head,
ruthlessly pulling himself back together right in front of Ed’s
eyes. Had he not been a sociopathic bastard with a possible
aggression disorder, Ed would have admired his
control.

But it also told him that
Schild knew he wasn’t getting out of there, and had no regard for
anyone else in the room. It was time to push some buttons. And it
was going to escalate, probably sooner than later. He had to get
Nate down, out of the way. And fast. Schild shifted the gun, aiming
it at Nate, as if he knew what was being planned.

Schild shook his head from
side to side and tightened his hold on Nate yet again. “They didn’t
have any right to convince her to leave. It should have been her
decision, and had it been, she never would have left. Not
Payton.”

Ed gave the signal to the
agents outside. As soon as he moved, got Nate out of the way it was
going to happen. “Let’s be honest, here, Hugh. A woman like Payton
Asher? She didn’t even look twice at you. Did you even work the
same shift? Or was it two ships passing in the night? Did you see
her in the cafeteria, the hallway at shift change? Did she even
know your name? Let’s face it, she
chose
to leave you because a man like
you barely even existed in her world!”

Ed lunged for Nate,
tackling the kid just as two shots rang out.

Marianna heard the shots
and her heart froze. Where was Nate? Where was he? Was he ok? Had
he been hurt? Oh, God, where was Nate?

Maria Angel, one of the
agents on Fin’s team, restrained her before she left the van. “No,
Dr. Glendower, you can’t go out there. Not yet.”

“
My son!”

“
Is fine. Agent McLaughlin
just radioed that your son is fine. A bit bruised from where
Director Ed tackled him, but all in one piece.”

“
He
tackled
him? Is Ed ok?”

Angel hesitated. “Dr.
Glendower…” The sound of sirens split the air.
“Marianna—”

“
What? Ed’s hurt, isn’t
he?” She closed her eyes, took a deep breath. “I need to go to him.
And to my son.”

She ran up the drive. Nate
ran out the front door when he saw her. “Mom! Mom!”

There was blood on her
son.

“
Nate! Oh baby. You’re
bleeding!”

“
It’s not
my blood; it’s his. And Ed’s. He knocked me down, got me out of the
way. Oh Mom, they
killed
that guy. Schild! He was nuts! You should have
seen Ed. He was like the guys on TV.”

“
Honey, how badly was Ed
hurt?”

Nate started shaking as the
adrenaline hit him. She wrapped her arms tighter around him. “I
don’t know. He was talking to Uncle Fin. They’re putting him on a
stretcher in the kitchen. I don’t know. He knocked me down when
that guy started to shoot. I closed my eyes and stayed still until
Ed told me I could get up.” Her baby’s voice started to choke up.
“He didn’t even blink, Mom, when that guy had the gun. And he
was
chatting
when
it was over. He was covered with blood, and obviously hurting, and
he didn’t want
me
to be afraid.”

The emergency responders
rolled the stretcher out Ed’s back door. Marianna grabbed Nate’s
hand and they both ran to Ed’s side.

He reached out a hand.
“Mari, sweetheart. Are the boys all ok?”

“
They’re fine. They’re with
Ana. Ed…how bad are you hurt? There’s blood all over
you.”

“
Through
and through. Most of it is Schild’s. Will probably require some
sewing me back together. But nothing to hinder what we talked about
earlier.” He smiled, obviously trying to reassure
her.
“It’s over. Everyone
will be safe now. And I’ll be ok. In a few days, you and I will sit
down, and actually relax together, for once. Then maybe we’ll take
the boys to a movie, out to eat, or to the ball field. Have a
normal day together. What do you think, Nate, that sound like
fun?”