THE DEFENDER (14 page)

Chapter Fourteen

Penny watched her father—her
broken
father—leave. Yes, he’d pulled it together, but she’d spent countless hours in court and at home studying him. All in her quest to hone her skills and become an exceptional attorney. Just like him. She knew his moods, understood the jerky movements of his body language. His pinched lips added the final indicator that her father’s world had just been shattered.

And instead of blaming herself, she needed to glue that world back together.

Somehow she’d get Zac back. She turned toward the door Russ had closed behind him and picked up her phone. Promise or no promise, her brother’s life was now very much compromised. A game changer. Time to bring in her own investigators.

He’ll hate you for this.

No way around it. Not when the FBI couldn’t locate Colin Heath. A private investigator could move in ways the FBI couldn’t. Bend a few laws, pressure witnesses, forego warrants for every damned thing.

The FBI could not.

Without a doubt, they needed help.

Penny stared at the door, waiting for Russ to return, and absorbed the weight of what she wanted to do. It would break her promise. Something she’d prided herself on not doing.

This went beyond a broken promise. Her family could be destroyed and Emma’s heart broken.

She couldn’t let any of that happen.

The front door swung open. She faced Russ, squared herself for battle. He narrowed his eyes. Already suspicious. How well he knew her already.

“Your dad is on his way.”

Russ continued to stare at her, analyzing, looking for the tell. “Stop staring at me.”

“Tell me I can trust you.”

They’d just made love, maybe she’d considered it stress reduction at the time, but they both knew their relationship had changed because of it. There was meaning there now. The act itself was important and not just a one-off.

All her emotional walls had been battered today. “Can we not do this? Please?”

He waited a moment, rubbed one hand across his mouth, then let it fall to his side. “We’ll get this guy. There’s nowhere for him to go. I’m doing everything I know how to do.”

“I know you are. And I love that about you.”

“But?”

This might be her chance. “Sometimes it’s not about us and what we can do. Sometimes it’s about rectifying a situation. My brother’s life is on the line. This is more than a case to me.

“I know that.”

“Yes, but do you
understand
it?”

He puffed out his cheeks, let the air burst free. “Damn it.”

This was it. She rushed toward him. “Listen to me. I have resources that can help us. Put yourself in my place. What if this were your mother or father?” His head snapped back. “Exactly. Wouldn’t you want to do everything you could?”

“You want your investigator on this.”

“I know we agreed not to, but that was before. This is different.”

Something from the hallway bumped against the wall and he jumped, reached for his sidearm. “I need to check that.”

“Russell? Please. Let me do this.”

He marched toward the door, his suit jacket flapping as he walked. A man on a mission. “Do it. I don’t want to know about it. Nothing.”

Yes.
“Thank you. I’ll keep you out of it.”

* * *

B
Y
THE
TIME
Russ reentered the apartment, he had two technical agents in tow. Technical agents set up the phone intercepts to monitor all calls into the residence. Penny stood in the corner of the room, her back to the wall, arms folded, fingers gouging into her arms as she watched the men unload equipment.

“Gentlemen,” Russ said, “this is Penny Hennings. Penny, this is Ron Turner and Josh Gayner. They’ll be assisting.”

Hellos were exchanged, hands were shaken and the men got to doing what they did best while Penny attempted not to look spooked.

And damn if he didn’t want to wrap her in his arms and tell her he’d take care of it. That she had nothing to worry about. Egotistical? Sure. But he wanted to be the man who made things right in Killer Cupcake’s world.

Bum luck that Penny and the most important case of his career were solidly intertwined.

He focused on Penny leaning against the wall, taking it all in with eyes that lacked her normal fire. Dead eyes. Not something he ever wanted to see.

Heath had ripped this woman’s life apart, and so far all Russ had been able to do was watch. He breathed in. Time to stop watching.

“Guys,” he said, “we don’t have an exact time on the next call. Could be soon.”

“We’ll be ready,” Ron said. “No problem there.” He glanced at Penny and held up a cordless phone. “We’re replacing your phone with this one.”

Penny nodded, but by her drawn, pale face and spacey eyes, Russ’s guess was she didn’t have a clue what she was agreeing to. Didn’t matter.

A shrill
bling
filled the room, followed by a rattle on the coffee table. Penny’s cell phone. She leaped for it, fumbling it with shaking hands.

Russ held his arms out. “Relax. He said he’d call on the other line.”

Penny checked the screen. “Blocked number. He always calls on a blocked number.”

Hell.
They’d already gone to a judge for emergency authority to track the calls into Penny’s cell phone; Russ just wasn’t sure if the judge had signed off yet. If not, they were set up on the wrong phone. “Answer it. Put it on speaker.”

Penny pressed the button. “Hello?”

“It’s me.”

Male voice. Sounded like Zac.

“Zac?” Penny shrieked.

“I’m fine,” he said, his voice firm, maybe more hoarse than usual.

Fatigue.

Or they beat the hell out of him.

“Oh, Zac. I’m so sorry. So sorry.”

Crashing sounds erupted from the other end. Phone falling?

“I’m sure.” This from another male voice.

Heath.

“That’s your proof of life,” he said. “I will contact you tomorrow morning. Be ready to hand over Elizabeth or your brother dies.”

“Wait. Where will you call me?”

“I’ll find you.”

The line went dead.

Russ spun to the surveillance guys. Kidnappings were their specialty. “What the hell is he doing?”

“Buying time,” Ron said. “Any idea for what?”

“No. If anything, he’d want to speed it up. The longer he gives us, the more time we have to find him. And pump information out of our witness.”

* * *

A
FEW
MINUTES
shy of 7:00 p.m., Penny rode the elevator to her office with Brent by her side. Needing to distract herself until Heath’s next call, she decided work might be a welcome relief. Uselessly sitting in her apartment while the FBI swarmed the city in search of her brother would drive her insane, and Russ had no intention of letting her help. Too dangerous, he’d said.

Aggravating man.

Still, there’d been progress. As expected, Randy Jones had, in almost record time, given up his brother as the courthouse shooter. So much for family loyalty. The only problem was the brother had disappeared right along with Heath.

And since Russ wouldn’t accept Penny’s help, she’d done the only thing she could and scheduled a meeting with one of the firm’s full-time investigators.

She glanced at Brent, who leaned against the side wall staring up at the blinking numbers as the elevator climbed. With nothing to say, Penny went back to her distorted image in the metal doors. Or maybe that stretched mess resembling her body being pulled in both directions was really her. Russ on one side and her family on the other. All wanted the case to be over, but for very different reasons.

If only they could all have their wishes. Catching Colin Heath would do that. Only, the man was making it difficult. And one thing Penny didn’t like was difficult people.

The elevator dinged and Brent held his arm out. “I know,” Penny said. “You first.”

Thankfully, their ride over had been quiet. No inquiries from him regarding this late visit to her office after her brother had been violently snatched off the street. Even if Brent had asked, she wouldn’t provide any information.

Not about this meeting.

This meeting would hopefully bring her closer to Zac.

Penny handed her key card to Brent, who swiped it at the entrance to Hennings & Solomon. After six, the place went on lockdown. Something that, in the past, irritated her because she’d always forgotten her key card. Now? No complaints.

Inside, Brent cleared the first office, then the others in the corridor. Penny waited, only slightly agitated that her life had become a series of starts and stops that left her no further than she’d been the day—two days even—before.

“You’re good,” Brent called.

She stepped into the hall, where he stood just outside her office door. “Thank you. I have a meeting with Jenna Hayward. She’s an employee. She’ll have a key.”

Any further details regarding Jenna’s employment would remain untold. For all Brent knew, Jenna might be another attorney rather than the firm’s drop-dead-gorgeous private investigator. A former Miss Illinois, Jenna knew how to use her physical assets to get the Hennings & Solomon crew whatever they needed.

Penny hoped that trend would continue with this assignment.

Leaving Brent in the hallway, she slipped off her suit jacket, ditched the stilettos and folded up the sleeves of her blouse. She rolled her neck, let her head hang for a second, hoping the stretch might relieve the blinding throb slamming into her skull. No good. Exhaustion did that to her.

She collapsed into her desk chair and inhaled.
Focus on Zac.
Pushing through the fatigue would be the only way to get her brother back. To restore her family. Give her parents the gift of their middle child.

As of thirty minutes ago, her mother had been medicated. The heartache had been too fierce, and fearing a total breakdown, Mom’s doctor had made the rare house call and administered a sedative.

Got any to share, Doc?

Someone knocked and Penny swiped at the tears threatening to tumble. She glanced up to see Jenna at the door in a black leather dress that looked more dominatrix than investigator. Her long sable hair hung loose and her lips curved into a smile as she nodded toward Brent. Brent didn’t seem to mind the view of Jenna’s backside.

“Big boy,” she said.

“He is indeed. Close the door.”

As she closed the door, Jenna offered Brent a finger wave. “Bye, sweetheart.”

Penny let out a long breath. Then again, this was why they’d hired Jenna. She had power and a fearlessness that Penny admired and, at this moment, craved.

“You look awful,” Jenna said.

“I know.”

“I’m sorry about Zac.” She sat in one of the guest chairs and dug her battered calfskin notebook from her purse. “Tell me what I can do.”

“Colin Heath.” Penny pulled a folder from her desk drawer and handed it to Jenna. “This is everything I have on him. Please photocopy that file and give it back to me. I need you to help us find him. I don’t care what it costs. Dad is giving us carte blanche.”

Jenna lips puckered. “This is the guy who has Zac?”

To keep her hands busy, Penny folded them on the desk. “Yes. We find him and my guess is we find my brother. He wants me to swap one of my clients for Zac.”

“Ouch.”

“That’s putting it mildly. He says he’ll contact me again in the morning, but I don’t know when or by what means. He said he’d find me.”

“Will the feds share their info?”

She thought back to Russ and his insistence that he not know any details regarding her investigator. “No. This is just us.”

Jenna nodded. “Sure. I love cleaning up fed messes.”

For a brief second, Penny considered that statement. “The lead on this is Russ Voight. He’s an excellent agent. One I trust.”
And just made love to.
“If Zac’s safety weren’t involved, I’d let the FBI—with Russ as the lead—handle it. Zac’s a deal breaker for me.”

“Understood.” Jenna rose. “I’ll get on this now. See what I can dig up. I have some friends in the finance world.” She grinned. “A few owe me favors and they may know Heath.”

“Which is why I adore you.”

Jenna leaned over the desk, squeezed Penny’s hand. “You know I’ll do whatever I can. Whatever deal needs to be made, I’ll make it and get you information.”

Penny stared up at the beautiful Jenna and didn’t doubt any of what she’d said. Still, the words bounced around in a hollow place in Penny’s chest. Only Zac coming home would fill that space.

“Thank you,” she said.

Jenna marched out of the office and, sensing Penny needed alone time, closed the door behind her.

Whatever deal needs to be made, I’ll make it.
Coming from Jenna, it sounded so confident. So righteous. Maybe it was. Maybe Penny was too deep into this to know.

So much trust had been put into the FBI, into Russ. Penny believed in his abilities, but he had to play by the rules. As an attorney, she understood the boundaries of the law. In Heath’s criminal mind, boundaries were meant to be tested. In Russ’s mind, and Penny’s, they were forced to work within them.

Whatever deal needs to be made, I’ll make it.

Penny rocked back in her chair, rolled her head from side to side. Trapped in the middle of this was Elizabeth and her son. So many lives at stake. Lives in Penny’s care. Immense pressure.

If she could come up with a way to keep Elizabeth and little Sam safe
and
get Zac back, this thing might work out. Capturing Heath would make the scenario perfect, but he’d managed to be a tough opponent.

At some point, she’d handed Heath control. She wasn’t sure when, but slowly, he’d seized power.

Take it back. Right now. Take it back.

Penny sat forward. She needed to get ahold of Colin Heath. Quickly. And dummy her, she’d failed to mention it to the person who could make that happen. She picked up her desk phone and dialed Jenna’s cell. “Hi. Sorry. I forgot something. There’s a man named Simon Caldwell. He’s in prison. Murdered my client’s husband. There are notes on him in the file. I need to get a message to Colin Heath. I think Simon will know how to find him.”