Sweet Seduction Shield (39 page)

"I couldn't
get Andrews," Harvey added.

Ryan blinked,
sucked in a deep breath. His pulse thundered in his neck. I tried
to count it. I couldn't keep up. It petrified me. My hand snaked
out and wrapped around his wrist in an effort to feel his pulse
there.

"I'm sorry,"
Harvey said, the words almost lost to the sound of Ryan's and my
breathing.

"How long have
we got?" Ryan asked, and there was a calmness there that chilled me
to the bone.

I didn't hear
Harvey's reply. The freezing, icy lake I'd fallen into, upon
hearing the first words of torment out of Harvey's mouth, swallowed
me whole; drowned me. Panic seized my lungs, constricted my heart.
My eyes darted to the doorway of the room.

"Daisy," I
said, the horror of only now realising the consequences of
everything Harvey had divulged making my body tremble and my vision
blur. I staggered from the bed, Ryan trying to keep me upright.

I barely heard
him say, "You are dead to me," as he swiped the phone closed.

He held my
eyes for a suspended moment, then urged, "Get Daisy. Now!"

I stumbled on
the way to the door, banged into an armchair, and then the dresser.
Ryan righted me every time I faltered. His hand on my arm firm, as
steel glinted in the low lights of the hallway, wrapped in the palm
of his other hand.

A gun.

Why had I sat
and listened to that phone call? Why hadn't gone for Daisy as soon
as Harvey mentioned the ledger. A piece of evidence he shouldn't
have known about yet. Ryan had never told him what I possessed. But
then Harvey had been the leak, he'd told ex-detective Simon Andrews
that we were retrieving something from the Birdcage. Of course he'd
known what it was. Hell, Ryan had even guessed that the leak had
come via ASI. And of course, Nick and his men trusted Harvey Stone,
as much as Ryan had trusted him, until tonight.

A cool breeze
met my bare legs, froze the tears, I hadn't realised I'd shed, on
my cheeks. My feet slapped on polished wooden floorboards, the
sound of Ryan's harsh expletive rang out in my ears, joining the
blood thundering through my veins inside my head.

A hollowness
started to expand inside me, chilling icy tendrils of absolute
fear.

Daisy's bed
was empty.

The window off
to the side was open.

My mind
stalled. My breaths followed. But my heart? It bled, as I screamed,
and Ryan caught my body when it fell towards the floor.

"No. No. No.
She can't be gone! No."

"Marie."

"No. No. No.
Not Daisy. Not my Daisy-girl."

"Marie!"

"Daisy!" I
cried, trying unsuccessfully to get to my feet. Something was
holding me back, or holding me up. I couldn't tell. I fought it,
jerked my shoulders free, offered a shove with the palms of my
hands. "Daisy!" I shouted. "Where are you?!"

"Marie! Tiger!
Focus!"

My eyes
flicked to Ryan's, unexpected calm brown stared back at me.

"I need you to
stay with me, babe," he said, in a more level voice.

I nodded, head
and neck stiff, but my eyes locked on his.

"It's only
just happened," he pointed out. "You checked her less than half an
hour ago."

I nodded
again, the movement more fluid.

"They won't
have gone far," he added. "I need to follow. Find a trail. Get her
back."

Another nod, a
deep breath of air sucked in which seemed to dim the ache that had
set up home inside my chest.

"I'm calling
Nick," Ryan murmured, hands still on both my upper arms. "Can you
stand?"

"Yes," I
whispered. Ryan nodded.

He pulled his
cellphone out of the waistband of his trunks. He hadn't dressed.
Like me, he was in the same clothes he'd worn to bed. He strode
over to the window and looked outside, the phone to his ear.

"Nick. Andrews
has taken Daisy," he announced into the device, and hearing the
words aloud broke what fragile hold I had on my heart. A sob tore
from my lips, making Ryan swing back around and look at me.

The moment his
eyes found mine I could breathe. It hurt. Fuck, it still hurt
though.

"We can't wait
that long," Ryan was saying, as he walked towards me and then
herded me from the room, back towards ours. He picked up my jeans
from the floor and handed them to me, while he found his own and
began to get dressed.

I slipped the
denim over my frozen legs robotically. Glad for something to do
with my trembling hands.

"Harvey Stone
was the leak," Ryan said, a weight of sorrow and shock mixed in
with those words. "His family," he added, and had to clear his
throat. "Can you check on them too?"

My fingers
struggled with the shoelaces on my sneakers, but I finally managed
to do them up. I stood and faced Ryan, the emptiness inside
consuming me, as he held the phone to his ear with his shoulder,
and checked the chamber of his gun. He slid the weapon into a
holster, attached to his belt. His police badge hung next to it. He
lifted tired, but determined eyes to mine.

"Just get here
as fast as you can and I'll let you know what I find." The phone
call ended and he stood facing me across the small room, a million
miles away.

"What now?" I
asked, wringing my hands in front of my chest.

"I want to ask
you to stay here, lock the doors and windows, and wait for my
call."

I shook my
head and took a step toward him, but he breached the gap and had
one hand around the back of my neck, and the fingers of the other
pressed into my lips, before I could open my mouth.

"But I won't,"
he added. "Stay close. Do as I say. And don't make a sound."

I nodded, my
heart - what was left of it - in my throat, my breaths coming in
short, frantic huffs.

He led the way
out of the bedroom and towards the front door. His large, hot, safe
palm wrapped around my hand. The contact reassuring, when nothing
should have been able to remove the doubt and fear. I was still
panicked. Still one second away from full-on meltdown. But I
trusted Ryan. I trusted him to get my daughter back, and while he
did it, I wouldn't breakdown.

There'd be
time enough later. I sucked in a deep breath, squared my shoulders
and lifted my chin.
Hang in there, Daisy-girl. Mummy and Daddy
are coming.

He cracked the
front door, his hand on his gun - still holstered at his hip - as
he peered outside. The suburban street was eerily silent,
yellow-orange street lamps provided a surreal illumination, making
everything glow in an otherworldly light. Ryan glanced over his
shoulder, made eye contact, held me up with that simple, but
intense look.

His eyes said all there needed to be said.
We'll get
her back.

Mine said,
I know, I trust you.

He blinked,
nodded his head, and then turned back and pushed through the
door.

Nothing came
at us. Not a sound rang out on the still night air. The street
stood in stasis like my heart; like my body it was encased in ice.
But this was not my icy shield of confidence. This was black ice,
dark and dreadful. Filled with fear.

I hated it. I
despised feeling this level of angst again. But I gripped it
tightly, all the same, and used it to keep me going. To keep me
standing. To keep me putting one foot in front of the other in
front of the other. I had no shield of my own to call on. I leaned
on Ryan, while I used that bleak, black ice to prop me up.

Knowing it
could shatter into a million pieces at any second.

We rounded the
side of the house to Daisy's window. Footprints embedded in the
soil beneath the windowsill. Big, masculine boots. I couldn't
hazard a shoe size, but I was betting they were ex-detective Simon
Andrews' boots. Ryan crouched down and picked up some dirt between
his fingers, rubbing it back and forth. Then turned and cocked his
head at an angle, glancing across the dew covered front lawn.

"There," he
said, raising his dirt stained hand and pointing with a finger.

I leaned down
to his level, getting a clear line of sight at what he was
indicating. More boot prints across the lawn, heading towards Gulf
Harbour Drive.

"He might have
a car on the main road," Ryan suggested, pulling out his keys from
his front jeans pocket and handing them to me. "You drive, while I
follow his trail on foot."

He wouldn't
leave my side for second, coming with me to open the garage door
and helping me into the car. Then he led the way back down the
driveway, and onto the road. I followed at a snail's pace behind
him, as he ran for a bit, then walked, then crouched down again,
reaching out to touch the ground.

It was taking
too long. I wanted to push the accelerator down and go full speed
along the street. But where to? If Andrews had a car, where had he
taken my baby to? And if he didn't, what was he doing to her now?
Was she scared? Of course she was. Was she hurt?

Oh dear God,
please
. I closed my eyes and hung my head down on the
steering wheel, the engine reverberated through the car, slamming
into my jumbled head.

The passenger
door opened, and Ryan slipped in, scaring the ever loving crap out
of me. I squealed. The door slammed shut. His hand landed on my
knee with a soft thud.

"Breathe," he
instructed, but didn't wait for my gasped breath of air. "He's
taken her to the beach on foot."

"Where's his
car?"

"Either there,
or back up on Gulf Harbour Drive. But..." He hesitated, intent
brown eyes staring right into my own. "Marie, he doesn't want
Daisy. He wants the ledger." Ryan reached around the back of his
shirt and pulled the blasted fucking book from the waistband of his
jeans.

I stared at
the horrid thing. My stomach roiling, my heart clenching, my life -
and Daisy's- flashing before my eyes. Without this ledger I had no
deal with the Crown Prosecutor. My ticket to freedom would be
gone.

I lifted my
eyes from the worn leather cover and stared directly into Ryan's
understanding ones. There was no question. No need to think
twice.

"Let's go give
it to him."

Ryan nodded
and indicated what way to go on the road, that would lead us to the
beach at Okoromai Bay.

I don't know
how long Andrews had had Daisy, and he was clearly still on foot,
taking the shortcuts through the reserves to get to Shakespear
Regional Park, where Okoromai Bay was found. In contrast, we had to
travel by car on the roads, making our route longer, despite the
SUV taking the corners at high speed. But I was guessing he would
still reach the beach before us, given his head start and lack of
four wheels. I prayed Daisy was holding it together.

Shit, I prayed
Daisy was just alive and unharmed.

Ryan reached
forward and opened up the glove compartment in front of him, then
keyed in a code on an electronic pad, making a little LED light
blink red.

"What's that?" I asked, needing something to concentrate on
other than all the possible things this
ex-cop
could be doing to my child.

"GPS. Nick
will be tracking us now at ASI control."

That was good.
I nodded. Yeah, that would help. If we got to her in time and dealt
with Andrews.

Ryan squeezed
my knee through my jeans.

"You're doing
great, Tiger. Hang in there."

Tiger
.

I nodded
again, it seemed to be all I could do.

The tyres
crunched over grains of sand blown across the carpark, I switched
the headlights off, but Andrews would have seen us coming along the
main road that led into the beach long before now. If he was here,
he'd know we were now here too. The engine ticked over quietly, it
had hardly built up any heat in the short drive here, but I had
gunned it.

I wrapped my
arms around my t-shirt covered upper body, as the chill wind off
the sea seeped through the worn weave of my top. I dreaded to think
how cold Daisy was, just in her PJ's and nothing else. I turned
back to the car to see if there was something to wrap her in when
we got her back, my mind only allowing me to think of a positive
outcome or I would drown beneath that black ice shelf that hovered
above.

But Ryan had already pulled a woollen blanket from the back
seat and had it clasped in one of his hands, the other resting on
his still holstered gun. I paused, my eyes taking all of him in,
feeling a strange sense of unity, a welcoming sense of
family
with this wonderful man. Feeling a
connection that went deeper than skin, that I felt inside my chest,
could see inside my mind.

I reached out
a hand and took the blanket, crushing it to my chest.

"Ready?" he
whispered. I blinked. He just nodded his head and clasped my free
hand.

We approached
the toilet block, as it seemed to be the only obvious shelter on
all of the beachfront. Waves gently rolled up over the sand, stars
twinkled in the dark night sky. A shell crunched beneath my shoe
and I glanced down. Daisy would have liked to collect seashells
here. Instead she'd been denied that happy moment, and now would
only be reminded of this evil night when she thought again of
beaches and the treasures to be found there.

I vowed to
make happier memories for her, like I'd tried to make for Ryan at
his mother's house.

Ryan stopped
us in the shadow of the toilets, we both strained to hear a sound
over the rush of waves and gentle breeze in the air. He inched
closer to the corner, intending to sneak a glance around the edge,
but before he'd made it a voice called out; cheerful, playful...
vile.

"Come out!
Come out! Wherever you are!"