“I’ll find him, Mom.”
“No. He’s not here, Michael.” Her voice was deadly calm now and he turned to glance in her direction when she touched his arm. “I’m calling 911 and then your father.” That last word sent chills down her spine.
“What happened?” Michael’s facial features softened with the realization his younger brother might be in trouble, but his body remained rigid. “What happened to Nicholas?” One look at his expression, and she knew he knew something bad was coming.
After relaying the details to both the police and then Ryan, she felt emotionally drained. Ryan’s reaction tore through her like a devastating tornado.
Motioning for Michael to follow her to the couch she said, “I have to tell you something important, but I don’t even know where to begin.”
“How about the beginning, Mom.” His tone took her by surprise. It coaxed, but also demanded, like she spoke to Nicholas when she already knew part of the truth and he was trying to keep it from her.
Knots of denial worked their way up her throat. Did Michael already know?
She motioned again for him to join her, but he didn’t move. Something in the way he stared at her shocked her to the core. It was at that moment that something clicked inside her.
How, after all this time, had Steven found them? Her gaze lifted slowly to meet her teenage son’s. “Michael?”
The skin of her scalp felt as if it were being pulled from her skull, hair and all, the chilling sensation completely shaking her entire body.
“You?” Could he know the truth? Did he figure out the horrifying details on his own? She swallowed hard. Did he remember? Had he contacted his father?
When Ryan, finally stormed through the door, Makayla had learned more than she wanted to know.
Michael, her pride and joy, had come across his original birth certificate while doing a research paper in English about heritage and family trees. He’d seen a different name where it listed birth father. Steven Prichard’s. For months now he had been putting the pieces of the puzzle together without her knowledge.
It was his curiosity and one simple phone call that now placed Nicholas’ life in danger as well as his own. There was little doubt now. Although they’d searched all Nicholas’ favorite hiding places, they’d found no trace of him.
Nicholas was gone. She didn’t know how he’d managed to do it, but the truth tore at her soul. Her youngest son had been taken by a madman set on revenge.
Makayla sat with her head down, fingers twisted in her hair. Michael, who now had all the facts, sat as close to her as he could manage without being in the same chair, and tried to console her. He tried to make sense out of what he’d learned as well as what Nicholas now faced. “He’s my half-brother?” he said under his breath.
It was ironic. Nicholas had just turned five. The age Michael had been when Makayla took him and ran away from Steven.
***
“They already have several leads,” Ryan said as he walked to the kitchen table only long enough to stroke Makayla’s back and place a soft kiss on the top of her head. The police had arrived minutes before he did and were taking Makayla’s statement. He’d know this time was inevitable, but damn it. He’d felt sure there would be more warning.
Without another word, heavy footsteps carried him to his office in the back of the house. The room he’d set up with all sorts of computers and gadgets that he used for his investigative work. First thing on his list, was to get the security camera tapes ready to view.
He struggled to keep the dread from taking over, and tried to contain his own emotions now raging within him.
“Damn him!” Low, angry, almost animal in sound, his voice echoed off the walls. Nicholas was his son. His flesh and blood. How dare Steven lay a hand on his son.
After leaving the airport, Ryan had taken Makayla and Michael as far as Florida where he convinced Makayla to lay low. He already knew that Steven was heading for New York. His contact with the FBI advised him to set up camp for her own safety until some time had blown over and the Feds gathered enough evidence to clear her and put Steven away for life.
Some time had turned into over ten years. Steven kept evading the FBI. They just couldn’t get enough evidence to tie Steven to the drug smuggling and trafficking rings. The man was smart. Covered his tracks and kept his hands clean. But Ryan was counting on Makayla being the thorn in his side that would make him slip up. Steven never let anyone get the best of him.
It hadn’t taken long for Ryan to completely lose himself, heart and soul to both of the victims he needed to protect. Against the FBI’s wishes, he’d married Makayla and they’d had Nicholas soon after. Once he proved how Steven had lied and set up their fake marriage to protect the family money, Makayla was all too eager to break those ties. For her, getting rid of the last name Prichard was the icing on the cake.
His head fell in his hands as he stood before the window.
Lord, help me
. I’ve tried my best to keep them safe. But what now?
For several minutes, Ryan prayed for Nicholas’ safety, for Makayla’s understanding when she learned the truth about his identity, and for his own forgiveness for the thoughts now running through his head.
He wanted to kill Steven with his bare hands. He wanted to strip every ounce of flesh from his body and leave him for the wild animals to finish off. Each and every sinister act Steven had committed against another human being, he found himself now considering. And he knew it was wrong. He knew it went against everything he believed. For the first time in his life, he found himself struggling with his moral core.
The fact that Steven had his son tore his heart apart one tiny piece at a time, and left a gaping hole in its place. These holes, once full of love, compassion, and understanding, were filling quickly with vengeance. Knowing just what Steven was capable of, rocked him to the center of his being. If Steven found out, if he’d already discovered Ryan’s true identity…
No. He couldn’t bear to let his thoughts go there.
It was time to let Makayla in on the entire operation. Time to tell her who he was and how their first meeting years ago at the airport rental counter had been no accident or because of his macho code of ethics.
But first he needed to take care of security. His fingers shook as he punched in the numbers Harrington had given him all those years ago and he kicked over the trash can in frustration.
“It’s time,” he said. Then he shook his head. “No. Right now! Her location has been compromised.” Pausing, he waited for instructions. “No. We need full surveillance. 24-7. She can’t leave the premises without protection.”
Finally, with his point made, he hung up the phone with a heavy sigh. He hoped as long as Makayla was safe, Nicholas would be too. Makayla was the true prize. She was what Steven really wanted. Nicholas was only the bait. Once Steven managed to get his hands on both of them, he doubted either would walk away alive.
His gut twisted into an intricate circuit of tiny knots as the truth tore at the lining of his stomach. He truly loved Makayla and the life they had made. Now it was all on the line. All in the hands of a man that didn’t deserve to breathe, much less be allowed to walk this green earth without chains.
Shocked beyond belief, Makayla sat at the kitchen table in a paralyzed state.
“Sweetheart, are you gonna be all right?” Ryan couldn’t stand to watch the expressions running across her face. The first was confusion, but that quickly turned to surprise. And then the final one ripped at his heart. Her eyes glazed over, as if she’d checked out.
After several brutal moments of silence where the ticking of the clock made a bullhorn sound quiet in comparison, her focus lifted to him.
“All right? Is that what you asked me?” She paused, and he held his breath. “How can you even be so bold after what you just told me? Our entire marriage has been nothing but a lie, some kind of freaking undercover operation. You honestly believe I could come out of this lie all right?”
Makayla sprang up off the chair like a toy Jack in the Box, and he shuddered as the chair went crashing to the floor. The thwack of wood hitting the tiled floor echoed around the room. He’d never seen her like this. She was always calm, slow to anger, and completely composed. Now she stood before him with fire in her eyes, having to take slow deliberate breaths of air.
“We are both guilty of lies, Makayla.” He couldn’t stop the words. They just slipped out and he instantly regretted his mistake.
“Oh, no, you don’t. Apparently, you knew my problems from the beginning. Shoot. Probably understood my predicament better than I did. It’s not the same. So don’t even go there.” She paced up and down, struggling with every word.
“I told you the truth from the beginning. That I was running from my husband,” she said, stopping to pin him with a glare, hands on her hips.
“That wasn’t the entire truth.” What the hell was wrong with him? Why was he goading her like this? The last thing he wanted was to upset her further. The most important issue here was to find Nicholas. But his raging emotions were in complete charge of his common sense. Was he striking out at her in resentment or fear for his son’s life?
“I can’t believe this!” She’d never looked so angry. “All this time, all these years, I felt sorry for you. Felt like I was doing you an injustice by putting your life in danger each and every day that passed. I actually worried about what satanic torture Steven would put you through if he found us together.”
“Yeah, me too.” Ryan managed to duck just in time to avoid a plate flying at his head. One of the very plates they had bought for that first Christmas together over ten years ago. But he held his ground.
“Get out.” Her lips trembled.
“I won’t leave you and Michael.” His voice low, he made his intentions clear. “As soon as we get Nicholas back and put Steven where he belongs, I’ll do as you wish. But until then, you’re stuck with me.”
She breathed in a sigh of frustration. “Fine! But I don’t have to be in the room with you.” That said, she spun around and stalked out the door to the living room.
Ryan pushed his hands through his hair before turning to the man who had been sitting quietly at the table watching the scene unfold. Wide-eyed, Eric McCoy was trying his best to act unaffected by the display, but his red face said it all.
“Don’t let her out of your sight.”
“Got it. Boy, she’s a spitfire.” McCoy took one last quick sip from his coffee cup and stood to follow her into living room. Eric had worked with Ryan, or Robert Shaw as he’d been known back then, for over five years in the Houston field office before venturing out on his own and starting up a top notch security agency. Ryan trusted his friend to carry out instructions without question. Legal or not. That’s why Ryan hired him to be Makayla’s shadow. The FBI was taking their sweet time getting everything lined up, especially where she was concerned. The lead agent had his own suspicions about Makayla and her involvement in the disappearance of their son. Ryan couldn’t afford to wait for the asshole to get on the same page. Steven didn’t play with a full deck and Makayla didn’t quite understand the magnitude of her situation. The two truths together were a sure fire way to disaster.
“Yes, that she is. And so much more.” Ryan shook his head. Her spunky do-it-herself attitude was going to get her killed. Steven’s operation was not the one she remembered. He’d gone off the deep end after she left. There was speculation that he may have had something to do with his own mother’s death.
“More drugs and dirty money are filtering through Steven’s business and the Sureno Brotherhood is now at the top of Steven’s contact list.” Ryan felt his chest tighten.
“Isn’t that the group out to find one
Robert Shaw
and brand his forehead with a big M?” McCoy lifted a brow.
“That would be them. They tend to find great pleasure in torturing their enemies. This ritual is a great way to link themselves to the Mexican Mafia and show their loyalty. I’m sure they’d have a field day pumping my body with over a hundred rounds before beheading me. I gotta say, I’m not too keen on them using my head as a trophy to display at their gang meetings.”
“You’re safe, Ryan. Robert Shaw’s the one who did the major damage to their drug smuggling, and practically shut down their human trafficking operation. As long as Ryan Carter plays it smart, Robert Shaw has nothing to worry about.” McCoy let out a sick laugh, clearly thankful he wasn’t the one needing to keep his identity hidden.
“Yeah, let’s try and keep it that way.” Ryan drew in a deep breath. “You know what bothers me the most now? Steven’s suspected dealings with the doctor harvesting human organs from those orphans. Things just don’t get any worse or sadistic.”
“You’ve got that right. He’s one sick SOB. But look at his history. Any person who’d do that to his own father, needs serious mental help. I’m talking drugs. Strongest dose available. And restraints. Lots of restraints. I know there was alleged abuse of the worst kind in that family, but to actually skin someone alive? Sheesh…”
Ryan forced the images from his mind. He’d seen the crime photos McCoy was referring to and the scene was beyond grotesque. “Anything out of the ordinary, McCoy, don’t hesitate to act first and call later.”