The Perfect Couple (47 page)

"I don't want to talk to some smartass private detective," he said.

Jonathan could tell the man was about to hang up and hurried to stop him. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? It's just...I know what this guy's capable of."

There was a moment of silence, during which Jonathan sensed the police chief wavering. Ultimately, he didn't hang up, but his tone was pretty damn defensive. "We've been working in conjunction with Sac PD ever since the call came in, okay? And they've been doing all they can to get the information we need. They just found Tommy Tuttle five minutes ago. He wasn't at work, where he was supposed to be. He was at some triple-X

movie house in Del Paso Heights. That's not the type of place you announce you're spending the afternoon. And it's definitely not the type of place where a man cares whether or not he's getting a call, even if he has his hands free to answer it."

Jonathan rubbed his face. "I get it. I didn't mean to offend you. I'm just...freaked out. This guy has no conscience."

"I understand that. A woman and child are in danger. I sent three squad cars the second I got the location, and I'm heading over in a fourth.

We should be there any minute."

"Where's there? Can you give me the address?" Jonathan asked. "I'm just pulling in to town. I'll be right behind you."

The chief hesitated. "Maybe you should let us handle this one."

"Now that Tommy's available, I can get hold of him, too, Chief."

"Fine," he said with a sigh and recited the address. "But you'd better stay out of our way or I'll have your ass thrown in jail right along with his."

Colin had a knife in his hand. The shadow of it loomed large against 308

the wall. Zoe was afraid Sam would see it, wanted to shield her from the terror. But she didn't need to. Her daughter was no longer responding.

"Colin, don't do this." Zoe kept her voice low as she watched him advance. "Sam needs a doctor. Do the right thing for a change and get her some help."

"Now you want a favor?" he said. "After you busted my nose?" He kicked her in the leg. It wasn't a full-force blow; it was more to make his point. But the damage he'd already done to her jaw made any jolt so painful spots began to dance before her eyes.

"Would you rather I'd hit your wife?" she gasped.

He didn't answer.

"Come on, Colin." Zoe licked her lips, drew enough breath to speak again. "You can have me, do what you want with me. But first you have to let her go."

"She can't leave even if I do let her go. And I don't want you anymore.

You've always thought you were too good for me. But you're no better than my sister or my mother. I don't know why it took me so long to realize that. I want my wife. I want to go home."

"Then go home, Colin. Leave us here to die and go." Zoe didn't much like that option, but at least it would buy her some time--time to continue working at the ropes, time for Jonathan and the police to find them.

"Shut up," he snapped. "My head hurts too much to listen to you."

"But--"

"Shut up!" Squatting next to them, he grabbed Sam by the hair and put his knife to her throat.

Sam came to long enough to open her eyes, but she didn't fight him or cry out. She didn't look like she had the energy.

Her gaze settled on Zoe in a silent good-bye, and Zoe's heart began to pound harder. "Not her, Colin. Kill me instead. Please!"

"I'm not letting you off that easy," he said. "She's what you love. So she's what I'm going to take from you."

With an agonized scream, Zoe fought the ropes, struggling to stop what she had no power to stop. Then she squeezed her eyes closed because she couldn't bear to watch. She thought it would all be over, that Sam would be dead in an instant. But then a gun went off somewhere near the doorway, and it was Colin who dropped.

The deafening blast seemed to echo for several seconds as Colin lay writhing on the floor. "What the hell?" he cried.

Zoe blinked, once, twice, three times. She expected a man in a uniform, or maybe Jonathan, to be standing in the doorway. But it was 309

neither. A middle-aged woman with an attractive haircut and dark, tortured eyes slumped against the wall.

"God, that hurts!" His breath coming in short gasps, Colin rolled over to see who'd shot him and started to laugh. "It's you," he said, the words as bitter as any Zoe had ever heard. "My own mother. Who would've thought you'd trouble yourself to come all the way from L.A.?"

Petite and well-groomed, Tina Bell could've walked out of a Nordstrom ad, except that she wasn't carrying a fashionable purse to match her shoes. She was holding a pistol. "I came as soon as Sheryl called me."

"I guess I owe her one." His breath rattled in his chest. "How'd she know where to send you?"

Tina put down the gun. "She told me Tiffany said you were on your way to Tommy's cousin's house."

Tiffany had betrayed him? He couldn't believe it, wouldn't believe it until he'd had a chance to talk to her. "And you remembered our families having Thanksgiving here."

"Yes. For my own peace of mind, I tried to stay away, but I couldn't do it. I'm your mother, Colin. I will always be your mother."

"So you came to kill the monster you created?" He attempted another laugh but couldn't quite manage it.

Tears filled Tina's eyes as she sank to her knees. "I didn't come to kill you, Colin. I came to save you from yourself. I've been trying to save you all along. But now--" her gaze shifted to Zoe and Sam "--now I can see I'm too late."

Using the wall for support, she pulled a cell phone out of her jacket pocket and called 9-1-1, but it didn't take more than two minutes for the police to arrive. And, to Zoe's relief, Jonathan was with them.

Zoe's daughter was in the same hospital bed she was in. After what they'd been through, she couldn't let Sam out of her sight, even though she was safe and would be fine.

Smoothing her daughter's hair, she managed to kiss her temple despite a broken jaw. The morphine she'd been given numbed the pain. The doctors were planning to wire her mouth shut in the morning so it could heal properly; they'd already set her hand in a cast.

It would be a while before she was back to normal, but she was alive.

She had Sam. And Jonathan sat sleeping in the chair by her bed. She had no idea what would happen, but there was something between them--something that hadn't been there with anyone else.

"Mommy?" Sam murmured.

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"What, baby?"

"Where's Colin?"

"He's in a different hospital."

"Will he live?"

Zoe hoped not. Colin didn't deserve to breathe the same air as other people. Not after what he'd done to Toby and Sam and those other children--

and to his own father. Fortunately, Toby was doing better. The doctors expected a full recovery. The same was true for Sam. But the other two children...

"Probably. You were in treatment earlier, when Detective Thomas came in, but he said the bullet missed Colin's heart."

"Because he doesn't have one," Sam grumbled.

Zoe chuckled softly. "That's true."

"So...will he go to prison?"

"For the rest of his life, baby." She didn't mention the death penalty, although she believed it would be a possibility. "You don't have to be afraid of him anymore."

"What about Tiffany?"

"Tiffany's dead. She drove her car over an embankment. They found her maybe an hour ago."

"I don't know how to feel about her," Sam said.

Zoe stared up at the ceiling. "Neither do I."

"Do you think Colin will be sad?"

"Detective Thomas said he cried like a baby when he heard."

"So maybe he loved her after all."

"As much as he was capable of loving."

Sam snuggled closer. "I thought I'd never see you again."

"I couldn't have settled for that."

"Where's Anton?" she asked as if she'd only just noticed he wasn't around.

Zoe considered her answer. A lot had changed in the past ten days.

She'd seen Sam's real father, spoken to him, accepted money from him and thought she might tell Sam about him someday. She no longer needed his money for a reward but she had a feeling he'd want her to keep it. She planned to talk to him about it. Besides everything that had changed with Franky, she'd also broken off her engagement to Anton, moved out..."I guess he's at home."

"He's not going to come see us? He doesn't care that we're here?"

"Unless it's already been reported on the news, he doesn't know. We--

we're not together anymore."

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Sam lifted her head. "You broke up?"

Zoe nodded. "After what happened to you, I realized that we weren't...what we should've been."

Sam didn't react right away. "Does that make you feel sad?" she asked tentatively.

Zoe shifted her gaze to Jonathan and saw that he was no longer sleeping. His eyes were heavy lidded, but he was watching them, listening.

"No, that doesn't make me feel sad."

"Good. So it's just us again?"

"For now," she said.

She laid her head back down. "Does that mean I can have another dog?"

Zoe hugged her tighter. "Yes. And I'll never take him away from you again."

"I'm sorry about Anton. I--I know you wanted to marry him. I tried not to screw it up for you, but--"

"You didn't screw it up. It's better like this. But we should probably have someone call and tell him you're okay. Or maybe we'll do it ourselves, in the morning. Make sure he's heard."

When Sam fell silent, Zoe thought she'd drifted off to sleep. But then she spoke again, in a whisper this time. "Your P.I. friend seems nice."

Zoe met Jonathan's steady gaze--and his smile. He was sitting near the window, had Sam's back to him. "He is nice."

"I love the way he looks at you," she said.

Zoe loved the way he touched her, too. Just seeing him there made her crave physical contact, if only the brush of their hands. "How does he look at me?" she asked.

Sam's voice sounded dreamy. "Like he thinks you're beautiful..."

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ISBN: 978-1-4268-3745-6

THE PERFECT COUPLE

Copyright (c) 2009 by Brenda Novak.

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, MIRA Books, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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