Wickedly Dangerous (32 page)

A hard, stony burn of anguish began to bubble up into his throat, and it erupted as a single, pleading word. “Barbara?” he whispered.

This time she did hug him; a quick peck on the cheek accompanying the unexpected gesture. She gave him one of her most wicked smiles and a wink, and said, “I've got this, Liam.” Then took a step forward to bow low to the throne.

“Your Majesties,” she said loudly, to be heard over the desolate keening, “I have had an idea.”

The queen raised an eyebrow. “If it will bring peace to my throne room, I will consider almost anything. Come, tell Us.”

Baba walked up the stairs and spoke in quiet tones to the queen and her consort, whose shrewd face first showed surprise, then a kind of sharp-edged glee as he sat stroking his dark beard. The queen's stern visage was harder to read, but she glanced from Melissa to Maya to the little girl and back to Melissa again, nodding her head sagely.

“I like it,” the queen said finally, gesturing at the guards to bring Maya closer to the throne. “It is fitting.”

Baba fetched the child, quieting Liam's involuntary protest with a quick headshake and a mouthed
trust me.
A devious grin peeked out at him from a sideways glance, then disappeared beneath a more serious facade.

“If you will assist me?” the queen requested her consort, and the two of them descended gracefully to where Maya and the girl waited, exchanging silent expressions of mutual dislike. The queen and king each put a hand out to touch the chest of one that stood in front of them, and when they clasped their own hands together, a sparkling curtain of mist enveloped them all in a translucent rainbow of magic. When the energy cleared, two little dark-haired children stood where there had previously only been one. Of the Rusalka there was no sign, just a wet spot on the floor and a fierce scowl on the face of the second Hannah.

“Aw, shit,” the pseudochild said. “You have got to be kidding me.”

The queen's steely glance silenced any further complaints. “Considering that the penalty for your actions is normally either death or banishment,” she pointed out, “you should consider yourself lucky that you are only being required to serve out a sentence so benign. If you are kind to this poor Human and behave yourself, perhaps in a few hundred years when the mortal is gone, I will consider returning you to your original form. Perhaps. And rest assured; I will be watching you.”

Sullenly, the former Rusalka marched across the swirling inlaid tiles to stand next to Melissa. Immediately, the woman's face brightened and she stopped crying, ignoring Liam and everyone else to put her arms around the girl she believed was hers. In her radiant smile, he could almost catch a glimpse of the old Melissa, before life and her own fragile spirit had so cruelly betrayed her.

“Fear not,” the queen reassured Liam. “We shall take most good care of your former lady, and make sure she has all that she requires.” She raised a questioning brow. “Unless you would prefer to take her back to your world, of course. Although, if so, the ‘child' could not go with her.”

Liam couldn't think of anything more hurtful than to deprive Melissa of her daughter one more time. And experience had proven that mortal medicine was unable to help her fight her demons. Perhaps the magic of this world could do better, now that she was no longer under the Rusalka's control. He merely shook his head. “Thank you, no, Your Majesty. I am content to leave her in your tender care.”

Baba stepped forward once more, causing the queen to let slip the tiniest breath of a sigh. “Was there something else, Baba Yaga?” she asked. “I tire of this, and wish to move on to lighter, more amusing pursuits.”

Liam couldn't blame her. He was ready to be done with this whole thing himself. Of course, being done here still meant facing the music back at home. He bit back his own sigh, suddenly feeling as tired as if they truly had been lost in the Otherworld for half a lifetime. Only the discipline of years on the force kept his shoulders straight and his back firm.

“There is one more small boon I would ask of you, Majesty, but not for myself.” Baba gestured from Melissa to Liam. “When the Rusalka forced Melissa to return to the mundane world and accuse Liam of the crimes Maya herself had committed, she did great damage to his reputation. This was the intent, of course, but now, the damage is done.”

The king leaned forward, obviously intrigued. “As a keeper of the law, that is most undesirable. And all men value their reputations. But the woman is clearly too damaged to trust with the task of undoing her ill words. What is the boon you seek?”

Liam's whole body tensed, not knowing what Baba could possibly have up her sleeve this time, barely daring to hope.

Baba waved a languid hand around the circle of courtiers that surrounded them. “Any of these, your faithful subjects, could easily don a glamour that would make them look and sound like Melissa. If you could send someone back with us to recant her earlier accusations, that would be most helpful, and both Liam and I would consider your debt to us in this matter repaid completely.”

“Ah,” the queen said, bestowing a wintery smile on them both. “Easily done, and most clever.” A satisfied look revealed that she felt she'd gotten the better of the deal. Baba had told him that those of the Otherworld hated being in debt to anyone, the queen most of all. Liam suspected Baba could have asked for a great deal more, but he was too relieved to protest. While the fake Melissa was in town, he could also have her sign the divorce papers he'd had sitting in his desk for the last two years. It would finally be over.

As the queen picked a noble to accompany them back wearing Melissa's face, and chose a few trusted guards to escort them to the doorway they had entered through, and then close it once and for all behind them, Liam gathered the children together. The more time they spent in his company, the less muddled they seemed, although Baba said that eventually the time they'd spent in the Otherworld would soon fade to a distant dream.

Baba looked down at the dark-haired girl and said, “I'd like to have you come and live with me. Would that be okay? I have a lot of things to teach you. The land where I live is very different from here, but I think you'll like it. And we can come back here and visit if you'd like.”

Preternaturally calm eyes stared back up at her. “I'd get to live with you?” Hannah asked. “In the sunlight place?”

Baba nodded. “Yes. And there are stars there too. You'll like stars.”

“All right,” the girl said, as solemn and reserved as a judge. With her big round eyes and wise-beyond-her-years expression, she reminded Liam of an owl. They shared the same unblinking, somewhat disconcerting gaze. Liam hoped that Baba would remember to teach her how to laugh while she was at it.

“Oh, there is one thing,” Baba said with a hint of concern.

Hannah waited patiently. She'd undoubtedly learned the hard way that people were full of surprises, and had lots of practice bracing herself for the unpleasant.

“I live with a
really
large dog. Who is occasionally a dragon. Do you think that would scare you?” Baba seemed to hold her breath. Liam knew he was holding his.

The little girl glanced around at all the various monstrous shapes and sizes of creatures that made up the queen's court. A tiny sliver of a smile snuck onto her rosebud lips. “I don't think so,” she said quietly. She put her hand in Baba's.

“Good,” Baba said, blinking back something that looked suspiciously like tears. “Then let's go home.”

BABA FELT A
little bit like the Pied Piper when she and Liam walked out of the cave entrance, followed by Hannah, Mary Elizabeth, the other missing children, and Petey, with Fake Melissa bringing up the rear. The bright light outside made her steps falter; she was temporarily blinded after her time under the muted Otherworld skies and the murky darkness of the caverns. Beside her, she heard Hannah give a tiny muffled squeak as she saw the sun for the first time since she was an infant.

Penelope Callahan was sitting on a rock, talking to the three Riders. They made an unlikely picture; the well-tailored society wife with her pearls and designer clothing and the motley and exotic bikers in their white, red, and black leather. But they all shared identical expressions of joy as they took in the sight of Baba and her company, and she breathed a sigh of relief to see them all safe and sound. Koshei was nowhere in sight, which was undoubtedly for the best.

“Mama!” Petey broke away from the rest of the children, who still seemed somewhat dazed and lost, bolting across the stony ground to be enveloped in his mother's frantic grasp.

“Thank god, oh, thank god,” Penelope said, over and over, tears running down her face. “Oh, my baby. Thank god, thank god.”

Baba thought it might be a bit more appropriate to thank her and Liam, but under the circumstances, she didn't really mind.

“Hello, boys,” she said cheerfully. “Did you miss me?”

Alexei shrugged shoulders like small mountains. “What, you went someplace? We didn't even notice.” But a big grin split his craggy face. “I see you found what you were looking for. Run into any trouble?”

Baba and Liam exchanged glances. “Piece of cake,” she said.

“Yeah,” Liam agreed. “Piece of cake.”

Mikhail snorted. “Why don't I believe you? On the other hand, you're here, you got the children, and neither one of you is quacking or saying
ribbit
, so I'm guessing it all worked out okay in the end.”

Baba thought about poor, broken Melissa, trying not to think about how seeing her like that had affected Liam. He'd barely said a word since they left court, carrying the smallest child out in silence.

“Depends on your definition of okay, I guess,” she said somberly. “But mostly, yeah.”

Alexei had been quietly counting heads. “Hey,” he said. “Don't you have an extra kid here?” He bent down to look at them all.

Hannah stared at him coolly, clearly unimpressed by his huge size. The boy broke away from the older girl holding his hand and ran up to Alexei to tug on his braided beard, making everyone laugh. Alexei just sighed and swung the boy up onto his shoulders.

“It's a long story,” Baba said, one hand resting on the little girl's shoulders. They couldn't keep calling her Hannah; it must pierce Liam to the heart every time he heard it. “This is . . . um . . .”

“Babs,” Hannah said, in her soft tenor voice, like water running over mossy rocks. “Like Baba Yaga. Only shorter, because I'm shorter.”

Baba felt something twang and strum inside her own heart; some unidentifiable magic she couldn't put a name to nearly as easily as the girl had named herself. It was as if a piece she hadn't even known she was missing had suddenly settled into place. She gave a brief, affectionate tug at the girl's pixie hair.

“You'll grow,” she said. “Now how about you help me get all these other kids back to their parents?”

*   *   *

IT WASN'T QUITE
that simple, naturally. Once they'd walked back to the road, Liam had to figure out the logistics of three adults and five children. The Riders would stick to their bikes, of course, but the children couldn't ride with them. In the end, Penelope took Petey in his car seat, as well as the older girl. Baba drove Maya's car—since she obviously wouldn't be needing it again—along with the newly renamed Babs and the little boy. Mary Elizabeth was proudly awarded the shotgun seat in the cruiser.

Before they set off, Baba stuck her head in the cruiser's window and suggested to Liam that he use the radio to call Nina, and ask her to have all the children's parents assemble at the sheriff's department.

“Are you sure?” Liam asked her. “Don't you remember the zoo that we walked into the last time?”

The wicked grin put in another appearance, making his pulse quicken as it always did. “I do,” she said. “And I'm thinking we might as well have as big an audience as possible for your triumphant return. We wouldn't want anyone important to miss it now, would we?”

*   *   *

THEY DROVE SLOWLY
down the back roads, in deference to the kids who didn't have car seats, and to give Baba's predicted welcoming committee plenty of time to arrive. Sure enough, when their bizarre convoy of three motorcycles, two cars, and a sheriff's cruiser pulled up to the front of the building, the parking lot was full. Stepping inside the entrance, Liam felt the noise and commotion hit him like a tidal wave, threatening to knock him over with its hectic force. But he strode in with his head held high, waving casually at Nina sitting in her dispatcher's booth.

“McClellan!” Clive Matthews rushed to cut him off before he could get any further into the room, where clots of anxious parents milled around restlessly. “You have a lot of nerve calling all these people in here. You have no authority! In case you've forgotten, you've been suspended!” His pigeon chest thrust out indignantly as he squawked at Liam.

Oh, this is going to feel wonderful
. Liam and Baba stepped apart, revealing the children who'd marched in behind them, hidden by the bulk of the Riders, Penelope, and Fake Melissa, who faded back to stand against a bile-green wall.

“I thought it would be best to get these kids back to their parents as soon as possible,” Liam said calmly.

Matthews's jaw dropped, and for what might have been the first time in his life, the board president was actually speechless. The room erupted in pandemonium, with parents racing forward to embrace their lost angels, deputies and board members beaming and clapping each other and Liam on the back with hearty abandon. In the background, Liam could hear Nina on the radio, broadcasting the news of the children's return to anyone with a police scanner.

Eventually, things returned to something vaguely resembling order, and everyone clambered for an explanation of how Liam had rescued the children. He'd been thinking about this in the car on the drive there, and remembered one of the theories they'd tossed around before discovering that Maya was behind the entire thing.

“It turns out Peter Callahan was collecting the children to sell to a group of foreign pedophiles; powerful men in the Middle East who would pay him huge amounts of money and make useful connections for his drilling business,” Liam said with a straight face. “Thankfully, he hadn't completed the deals yet, so the children were still waiting to be shipped out. It looks like his assistant Maya was helping him the entire time; it may even have been her idea, since it turns out that her entire life's history was a lie.”

Hell—it was pretty farfetched, and he knew it. But compared to the truth, it was downright believable. Besides, there was no way for anyone to prove it
wasn't
true.

Clive Matthews's chins quivered indignantly. “How dare you accuse Mr. Callahan of involvement in this atrocity? He's been a fine upstanding member of our community, and he has worked hard to bring new jobs and prosperity into this area.” He looked around, as if expecting Peter to appear over his shoulder in his usual spot, but the businessman was conspicuously missing.

“Actually, he is a greedy bastard and a child stealer,” a new voice said clearly, ringing out over the hum and buzz of the crowded room. Penelope Callahan stepped forward, her hands resting protectively on Petey's small shoulders. The purpling bruise on her cheekbone made a livid contrast to her otherwise neat appearance.

“When he knew his plans had been discovered,” she told her avid listeners, “he took our own son to sell too. And when I tried to stop him, he beat me up.” She pointed at the undeniable evidence. “The man is a criminal, and I want him arrested for assault, if nothing else.”

Liam held his breath, waiting to hear someone say that Callahan was in the hospital, accusing his wife of running him down with the family car, but apparently, he hadn't been seriously hurt. Too bad.

“Oh, ah, oh dear,” Matthews stuttered. Molly walked up and handed Penelope some paperwork to fill out, and turned to the board president, saying artlessly, “I assume this means you'll be reinstating Sheriff McClellan immediately, and giving him some kind of award, right? He's the town hero now.”

Liam thought Matthews was going to choke on his own tongue, but the man managed to nod, his complexion an alarming ripe-tomato red, and say, “Yes, yes of course.” Then Matthews pulled himself together and added, “That is, if the matter of the very serious charges against him are cleared up. There's still that, you know.”

But his relief was short-lived as Fake Melissa stepped forward and confessed to making up the entire thing after Maya blackmailed her. She apologized so abjectly, it made it easy for Liam to insist that he wouldn't be pressing charges. Once that was dealt with, he had Molly take Fake Melissa back to his office to wait for him. A few signatures on a stack of papers, and he would be free. Although free for what, he wasn't sure.

Belinda and her parents came over to talk to him and Baba, Mary Elizabeth holding tight to her mother's hand. The girl still seemed a bit foggy, and remembered only hazy nightmarish images between the time Maya had snatched her from her backyard until she had seen the sheriff across a strange room, but Liam thought that was just as well. Children were resilient, and Mary Elizabeth had the best medicine of all to heal her, the loving arms of her family. Mariska and Ivan beamed from ear to ear, their smiles so wide it was as though the sun had come out after months of only clouds and rain.

He watched Belinda hug Baba, who seemed taken aback for a moment, but also warily pleased. But then, he reminded himself, her life probably hadn't included many hugs up until now.

“Thank you so much for everything you've done,” Belinda said, tears of joy sliding down her cheeks. She looked down, noticing the quiet little girl standing by Baba's side, drinking in all the unaccustomed chaos and humanity with wide brown eyes. “Well, hello! Who's this?”

Belinda looked at Liam, baffled. “Was there another missing child we didn't know about?” She glanced around the room, as if looking for another set of exultant parents.

Baba nodded. “Yes and no. This is my daughter, Babs. Maya stole her before she came to this area. I followed Maya here trying to find out what she'd done with Babs, and that's how I got involved with this whole thing.”

Belinda's mouth formed a stunned “Oh, my.” She struggled to keep a straight face. “How interesting.”

“And once she realized I was here, Maya kept trying to get me in trouble, tampering with my herbs and spreading nasty rumors about me, to keep me from discovering where she was keeping Babs and all the other children. She must have seen Peter Callahan and his connections as a way to make an even bigger profit on the children she stole.”

Mariska shook her white head, smiling indulgently. “So that's your story and you're sticking with it, eh?” Belinda grinned, obviously pleased with the neat fairy-tale ending.

“Well, we're very glad you came to town, no matter what brought you here,” Ivan said, patting Baba's arm fondly, and beaming down at the little dark-haired girl.

Belinda suddenly looked alarmed. “Oh, dear. I never did the last impossible task! Is that going to cause a problem?”

Liam raised an eyebrow at Baba. She hadn't mentioned anything about impossible tasks to him. Of course, getting information out of her was something of an impossible task in and of itself. He was still trying to get a straight answer on whether or not there was something between them. Well, clearly there was
something
. But what, he still didn't know.

Baba looked around her at the joyful crowd, at Liam restored to his rightful place, and then down at the small child holding resolutely on to her hand. She winked at Belinda and said. “I think between us we've managed to achieve even more than three impossible things. I suspect that tradition has been more than satisfied.”

Seeing the Ivanovs and Belinda so happy, and Mary Elizabeth safely home where she belonged, Liam could feel his own face breaking into what was no doubt the first genuine smile he'd let out in days.

Then Ivan said in a calm tone, dropping the words into the conversation like tiny, Russian-accented bombs, “I suppose now that you've gotten your daughter back, and all the children have been returned to their parents, you'll be leaving us.”

And Liam felt the smile slide away, to the place where things go when dreams die.