The Marriage Profile (21 page)

Amid all the chaos, Angela went for her gun.

“Drop it, Ms. Mason,” Del Brio said, swinging the gun back toward them. “Drop it, or I shoot Wainwright square between the eyes.”

“Don't listen to him, Angela,” Justin told her. “Think about Lena. She needs you. You give him your weapon and he's going to kill us both, anyway, and then who's going to save Lena?”

“Erica,” Del Brio screamed out. “Erica, where in the hell are you?”

“I'm right here,” the redhead said as she came rushing into the barn behind them.

“Relieve Ms. Mason of her weapon,” Del Brio ordered.

Once Erica had taken her gun, she moved over to stand beside Del Brio. “I slit the tires on their truck like you said. And I got this guy who's sweet on me at the club to drive my mother to the bus station. I gave her money to go visit her sister down in New Orleans like you said. So we're all set to go.”

“Can't you get that kid to stop crying?”

Erica picked up Lena, but the child continued to wail. “I told you the little brat doesn't like me.”

“Then make her like you,” Del Brio ordered. “Take her outside while I finish these two off.”

“If you think you've got problems now, Del Brio,” Justin told him, “try adding the murder of two cops to your list of crimes. And every law enforcement agency in Texas will be after you. And you, Ms. Clawson, will be an accomplice.”

“Don't listen to him, Erica. Go outside.”

When Erica hesitated, Angela added, “If he kills us, you'll go down for it just the same as if you pulled the trigger.”

“Shut up! You think you two are the first cops I've ever killed?” Del Brio countered. “Now, do what I told you, Erica. Get the kid out of here.”

When the woman started to leave, Angela grabbed her head and screamed.

Erica jumped, which made Lena wail louder. “What's wrong with her?” Erica asked. “Why's she holding her head like that?”

“How the hell do I know?” Del Brio fired back.

“It's the visions,” Angela said on a gasp, and prayed she'd learned something from watching the phony psychics in carnival shows.

“What visions?” Erica asked.

“She's psychic,” Justin explained. “Sometimes she gets these visions of things that happened or are going to happen. How do you think we knew where to find Lena? Angela saw this place in a vision.”

“It's a bunch of hogwash,” Del Brio claimed.

“What kind of vision are you seeing now?” Erica asked, her eyes wide.

“Blood. Lots and lots of blood. And dogs, big dogs hunting, chasing someone.” Angela closed her eyes, covered her mouth as she feigned horror. “The screams! Oh, God,” she said, opening her eyes. “They're tearing flesh from your bodies.”

Erica paled. “Oh, God! Frank, I hate dogs. You know I hate dogs,” a panicky Erica ranted. “Please, Frank. Let's get out of here. We've got enough trouble on our hands with this kid.”

Del Brio hesitated a moment, then relented. “All right, go get in the truck with the kid while I lock them in here.” After scooping up both Justin's gun and Johnny's, Del Brio closed them in the barn and locked it.

The moment the door closed, Angela raced over to Johnny. “He's unconscious and he's lost a lot of blood,” she told Justin.

“See what you can do for him while I try to get us out of here.”

She ripped off her jacket and used it to try to stem the flow of blood, while Justin found a rake and used it to break the lock on the rotting door. Within minutes her jacket was soaked and her fingers were bathed in the warm, sticky blood. “Hurry, Justin. If we don't get him to a hospital soon, I don't think he's going to make it.”

 

“Did you get him?” Haley Mercado asked Agent Sean Collins when he entered the room where he'd instructed her to meet him. Finally, she would be free of Del Brio and the FBI, and she would get her precious baby girl back.

“Sit down, Haley.”

“I don't want to sit down,” she told him, not liking the look in the agent's eyes. “I want you to tell me you've put Frank Del Brio behind bars like you promised me.”

“He got away.”

“No,” she cried out. “You promised me that if I helped you, that if I taped those conversations and got you the information you needed that you would lock Frank away,” she said, tears of anger and frustration streaming down her
face. “You promised me that if I did my part, you'd help me find my little girl, that you'd leave my father and brother alone, that you'd let me have my life back. Well, I did my part. I got you the information you needed. Now you have to keep your end of the bargain.”

“I'm sorry,” Collins told her and placed a comforting hand on her back as she sobbed. “I'm afraid I have more bad news for you.”

Haley jerked her head up at that. “What? What is it?”

“Your father's been shot. He's lost a lot of blood and he's in a coma at Mission Creek Memorial Hospital. It doesn't look good.”

She'd already lost her mother, and now her father. “But how? My father wasn't supposed to have anything to do with that shipment. How could your men—”

“It wasn't us. It was Del Brio.”

Haley felt the color drain from her face. “How?”

“Your father apparently has been following Del Brio for some time, and when Del Brio escaped from us, your father knew where he'd go. So your father was waiting for him. According to Sheriff Wainwright and Angela Mason, Del Brio was going to kill them. Your father saved their lives, but Del Brio managed to get off a shot and your father was hit.”

Haley wasn't sure how she knew. Perhaps it was something in Agent Collins's hazel eyes. Pity. Regret. She wasn't sure. But she knew there was more. “What is it you haven't told me?”

“Your daughter…Del Brio took her with him when he escaped.”

“No!” Haley heard the anguished cry of an injured ani
mal, and not until Agent Collins had called in agent Annabelle Harte did Haley realize that the cry had come from her.

“Feeling better?” Agent Harte asked after she'd calmed down.

Haley shook her head and forced herself to get a grip. “I'm okay.” Or as okay as she could be knowing that Frank had her precious little girl. She stood and prepared to leave.

“Where do you think you're going?” Agent Collins asked.

“To find Frank and get my baby back,” she told him honestly. What other option did she have? She couldn't leave Lena with Frank.

“I'm afraid I can't let you do that,” Collins insisted.

“You can't stop me,” Haley informed him, and started for the door.

“Wyatt! Henderson!” Collins called out and two tall, solid men that she recognized as other federal agents blocked her path.

“What do you think you're doing?” Haley demanded.

“I'm taking you into custody,” Collins said.

“I'm not a prisoner. I haven't done anything wrong. You can't hold me.”

“Actually, I can,” Collins told her.

Furious and frustrated, she said, “You're going to hold me here while that—that monster is out there somewhere with my baby?”

“If I let you walk out that door, you're a dead woman, Haley. If Del Brio took your daughter, it means he knows you're alive. It's only a matter of time before he figures out that Daisy Parker is Haley Mercado.”

“I don't care about me. I just want to get Lena back.”

“Then you're going to have to trust me,” Collins told her.

“I trusted you once, and look where's it's gotten me. My father's dying, and my daughter's with a madman.”

“I won't let you down again, Haley. I promise. But if you want to stay alive and help your daughter, you've got to trust me. Will you do that?”

Haley nodded. But she didn't trust him, she admitted in silence. The man she should have trusted, wished she'd trusted, was Luke Callaghan. If only she had told him about their child, she thought. Somehow, someway, she would get Lena back, she vowed. Whatever it took, whatever she had to do, she would do it. She would get her daughter back.

 

“Has Angela called?” Justin asked Audrey Lou as he exited his office and dumped a stack of files on her desk.

“No, your missus hasn't called since the last time you asked me—which happened to be only ten minutes ago.”

“It was fifteen minutes,” he countered, and didn't bother correcting her about Angela no longer being his missus. “And since I was tied up on another call, you wouldn't have been able to put her through. So I was just checking.”

“Uh-huh,” she said, and fixed him with a you're-lying-through-your-teeth look. “Why don't you just call the woman and get it over with? Better yet, do us all a favor and go see her. You've been like a bear with a sore paw since you left her place and went back to your ranch.”

“I don't need this kind of grief,” Justin told her, and went back into his office and slammed the door. He didn't need it because he knew it was true. He'd been restless and miserable since he and Angela had agreed that, with Del Brio on the run, there was no longer any reason for him to continue staying at her condo. That had been two days ago, and he hadn't heard a word from her since. Feeling caged and restless, Justin grabbed his hat and headed out the door. “I'm going out for some lunch.”

He hadn't planned to go to Angela's. But once he was behind the wheel of the new truck he'd bought to replace the Bronco, he found himself heading for her condo. When he turned onto her street, he still had no idea what he was going to say to her. And for once the sight of Ricky Mercado exiting Angela's driveway didn't infuriate him. In fact, when the other man passed him and tipped his head in acknowledgment, Justin did the same. With Ricky's father still in a coma and the situation with his sister and missing niece, he actually felt sorry for Ricky, he admitted.

Thinking of Ricky's family troubles made him take a look at his own family. The Wainwrights would never be the perfect family. But as messed up and maddening as they could be at times, at least he still had them alive and well and nearby, Justin conceded. Exiting the truck, he walked to the door of her condo and rang the bell. What he didn't have and wanted, he realized, was Angela.

“Justin,” she said, her voice a breathless whisper as though she'd been rushing around.

He removed his hat and asked, “May I come in?”

“Of course,” she said, and opened the door wider. “I was in the den, making a list of things I need to take care of. Any word yet on Del Brio?”

“Not yet,” he said. “I came by to thank you for your help and tell you what a remarkable job you did, finding Lena the way you did.”

“Not very remarkable,” she murmured. “Del Brio still has her, and we don't know where they are.”

“But thanks to you, we know it's Del Brio who has her.” He took her hands, held them in his. “The other reason I came by was to tell you that the FBI is insisting that I leave the kidnapping case for them to handle. Haley really is alive and apparently she's been working with them for some time to help them nail Del Brio. I would
have come by to let you know sooner, but they've had me buried in red tape because of that bust they bungled.”

“Yes, Ricky told me about Haley and the deal she cut with the FBI to save him and his father. The FBI promised her that they'll get Lena back,” she said, her voice impossibly sad. “I can only imagine how poor Haley must feel. How worried she must be about her little girl. Why, if she were my baby, and someone had stolen her from me, I…” Angela's voice hitched, and the look in her blue eyes before she pulled her hands free and turned away nearly broke his heart.

“Hey, it's all right,” Justin soothed. He placed his hands on her shoulders and gently squeezed. “Despite what happened the other night with Del Brio, those FBI guys are good. They'll find her,” he said. He'd barely managed to finish the thought when he spied the two suitcases sitting on the floor beside the counter. Everything inside him went cold. A knot the size of Texas formed in his stomach. She was leaving. What a fool he'd been, he realized, to think that they might have a chance, that maybe they could make things work.

Angela turned around, gave him a puzzled look. “What's wrong?”

“Not a thing,” he told her, unable to keep the bitterness from his voice. “I see you've decided not to stick around Lone Star County any longer than you have to.”

“Actually, I'm going back to San Antonio to get some more of my things. Agent Collins has decided to allow me to work with him to locate Lena.”

“I see,” Justin said. She was sticking around but only long enough to help the FBI. “Well, I don't want to keep you, so I'll get out of your way. Goodbye, Angela. Take care of yourself,” he said, and started for the door, afraid
if he didn't get out of there, he'd make an even bigger fool of himself by begging her to stay for him.

Angela burst into tears, deep, gut-wrenching sobs.

Justin stopped cold and spun around. At the sight of her standing there, her shoulders heaving and tears flowing down her cheeks, he rushed to her. “Angel, what is it? What's wrong?” he asked, wiping her damp cheeks.

“What's wrong is that I—I'm p-pregnant with your child. And I love you,” she said in hiccuping sobs while tears continued to fill her eyes and spill down her cheeks. “And…and the t-timing is all wrong because when you loved me and wanted me to have your b-baby, I couldn't get pregnant. And now that you don't love me and c-can't wait to get me out of your life, I'm pregnant.”

Stunned, he needed a moment for her words to sink in. He cupped her face in his hands, forced her to look at him. “Repeat what you just said.”

“I'm pregnant,” she said on a sob. “I saw a doctor yesterday and she confirmed it.”