Blood Blade Sisters Series (39 page)

Chapter Twenty-one

Brynne arrived at the deserted gazebo a few minutes early. There was always something going on in the park, but at this end, so late at night, there was no one about. A perfect place for a ransom exchange.

Brynne’s eyes strained to see in the darkness. She couldn’t make out much. The moon was full, but the abundance of shrubbery and the clouds that kept passing across its surface created pockets of inky blackness that no amount of staring would penetrate. All she could hear were the distant sounds of other park-goers enjoying their festivities, an occasional hoot of an owl. She knew Richard and Lucy were hidden in the darkness beyond the gazebo. She longed for some sign from them but knew that any sound they made would betray their presence and position.

So she waited. It was almost time. A few minutes more.

A rustling sound drew her attention to her left.

Finnegan Taggart stepped out from a cluster of large bushes. He didn’t come out all the way, but kept his back nearly touching the shrubs. Brynne didn’t wait for instructions. If he wasn’t going to come to her, she sure as hell would go to him.

He met her gaze, not flinching or wavering as she stalked toward him. He didn’t seem to fear her at all. There were no weapons in his hands. Good.

Brynne marched up to him and swung, her fist connecting with his face before he had a chance to blink. She hit him hard enough to make his head snap back, hard enough to make her hand throb in protest. Perhaps not the wisest course of action. It was her gun hand. But striking the son of a bitch had been immensely satisfying.

Taggart massaged his jaw, but he didn’t retaliate. He didn’t even look angry. Just resigned.

Enough of this!

“Where is my daughter?”

“Where is the money?”

Brynne sneered, letting every ounce of the contempt and disgust she felt for him show on her face. “I have it. But I’m not handing it over until I see my daughter.”

Taggart nodded as if he’d expected that and turned his head toward the bushes. He whistled three sharp notes and then, before Brynne could register his intent to move, he stood toe to toe with her. He grasped her arm to pull her nearer and whispered in her ear.

“I had no choice in this. I did the best I could for you and your family, I swear it.”

Brynne glared, shoving his hand off her arm. “By stealing my daughter?”

“It would have gone far worse for her if I hadn’t been the one to do it,” he whispered urgently.

A twig snapped and the bushes parted to reveal a scruffy man with a sneer on his face and an evil gleam in his eyes. His hand gripped Coraline’s shoulder tightly.

“Momma!” Coraline tried to run to her, but the man hauled her back.

It took every ounce of self-control she had and some that God must have lent her, to keep from running to her daughter. She had to keep her wits about her, had to do this right.

“Hi, chickabiddy. It’ll be okay. Momma needs to talk to these men for a minute.”

“The money,” Taggart said.

Brynne went back to the gazebo and retrieved the book from where she’d stowed it under a bench. She shoved it into Taggart’s waiting hands, her breath coming in short, seething bursts. She tried to calm down, slow her heart rate. If she didn’t gain some control, these blackguards would get the best of her.

Taggart flipped open the book and quickly flipped through the stacked bills. “It’s all here,” he said to his associate.

“Good. Then I guess we’ll be going.” He backed into the bushes, and took Coraline with him.

“My daughter,” Brynne said, fear squeezing her heart in a vice-like grip that nearly brought her to her knees.

Taggart turned to the thin man with a confused frown. “She paid the ransom. Let the little girl go.”

“Well, mate, we have a small problem with that. They’ve both seen our faces now. Can’t have them running off to the pigs now, can we? Unless you want to spend your golden years in a cell.”

“Let her go, Haddon. I didn’t sign up for kidnapping or murdering women and children.”

“You signed up to do whatever was needed. But if you object, an extra body is no never mind to me.”

Brynne had had enough. “Well, you’ll excuse me if I have a slight objection.”

She pulled the gun from her skirt pocket, but the material slowed her down. By the time she had her gun pointed at the thin man’s head, his was pointed at Coraline’s.

Brynne froze, the sight of a gun pressed to her baby’s head paralyzing her.

Taggart drew his gun but didn’t seem able to decide where to point it. Instead, he aimed it somewhere near the middle, his eyes darting between the two of them.

Coraline whimpered in fear. The sound pierced Brynne’s heart.

The hammer of a third gun cocked and Brynne’s gaze quickly darted to the side, and registered another of Taggart’s associates with his gun aimed at her head. The tall, thin man sneered at her. She ignored him and returned her attention to Coraline and Haddon.

“Drop it nice and easy, missus,” Haddon instructed.

Brynne slowly bent down, lowering her gun to the ground. She laid it down gently and raised her hands to show they were empty. A slight movement over Haddon’s shoulder caught her attention and she glanced into the darkness, taking her time standing back up. Richard stood with his gun trained on the thin man. His eyes darted to the side and Brynne’s followed. Lucy materialized from behind a tree, her gun pointed at Taggart.

Unfortunately, the thin man caught sight of Lucy as well.

“She’s not alone!” He aimed at Lucy and fired.

All hell broke loose.

When his associate fired at Lucy, Haddon swung his gun around to Lucy as well. Brynne reached for the knife at the small of her back. The second his attention was off her, she mouthed “Down!” to Coraline.

Coraline, her eyes wide in her pale little face, twisted in Haddon’s grip and went limp.

Startled when his captive suddenly dropped from his grasp, Haddon swung his gun back toward Brynne. Her arm shot forward and she loosed her knife. With a sickening thunk, it buried itself deep in his chest. His mouth slowly dropped open, his eyes staring at the blade sticking from his ribcage. Then he crumpled to the ground, his gun falling uselessly from his hand.

A gunshot went off over Brynne’s head as she scrambled forward to gather her daughter. Another shot. Coraline wrapped her arms around her mother’s neck and Brynne hunched over her, putting her body between her daughter and any harm that might come their way. Two more shots fired. Lucy shouted, her voice the only sound in the sudden silence.

Brynne kept Coraline’s head tucked in her neck so she couldn’t see the carnage that lay around them and crept to Richard’s side. The thin man lay bleeding and silent on the ground. Richard stood over him, kicking his gun from his hand.

The hand that held his own gun trembled and his haunted eyes stared down at the man he’d killed. The first man he’d ever killed, Brynne was willing to bet. She reached over and took the gun from his hand. He released it, turning to her with an air of shock.

“Thank you for protecting us,” Brynne whispered.

Richard’s face cleared, his shock and horror replaced with such an expression of overwhelming love that Brynne’s knees nearly buckled. He pulled them into his arms, kissed Brynne on the lips and Coraline on the forehead, and held them both tight. Coraline loosed her grip on Brynne and reached up to Richard. He took her in his arms and gently kissed her cheek.

Coraline wrapped her arms about his neck. “I knew you and Momma would come,” she said, her voice barely audible.

Richard cleared his throat, which, Brynne had no doubt, was likely as clogged with unshed tears as her own. “There was never any doubt,” he answered, hugging her tight.

Brynne searched for Lucy and saw her a short distance away, her gun still trained on Taggart. Taggart had his hands up, more as if he were fending off the torrent of words coming from Lucy than as if he was surrendering to her.

“Stay here,” Brynne said, grabbing Richard’s gun.

“Brynne…”

“I’ll be fine. Besides, you need to start dealing with them,” she said, jerking her head over her shoulder. Lamplights flashed in the distance and the murmur of voices floated to them. The gunshots must have been heard by someone who had naturally alerted the authorities. They would very shortly have a lot of explaining to do.

Brynne hurried toward Taggart and Lucy, who were locked in a passionate argument. Lucy glanced over, saw Brynne coming their way, and turned back to Taggart. A few more furious words, a lingering, regretful look on Taggart’s part, and he lunged away, sprinting off as fast as his feet would carry him.

Brynne ran the rest of the distance to her sister. “Why did you let him go?”

“It wasn’t his fault, Brynne.”

Red-hot fury burned through Brynne, inflaming her cheeks with a literal heat she could feel pouring from her. “He took my daughter! He put us all through hell!”

Tears streamed down Lucy’s face. “It would have been worse if he hadn’t.”

Brynne made a Herculean effort to contain her rage, but the events of the night had left her with little patience for Lucy’s infatuated ramblings.

Lucy pressed on before Brynne could get another word out. “His associates were going to take her, ransom her to regain some of the losses they suffered at your hands. Finn couldn’t talk them out of it. The best he could do was be the one who took her.”

Brynne sputtered, so furious she couldn’t force a coherent sentence past her lips.

“Think about it, Brynne. Please. Just stop and think. Coraline knew Finn. She trusted him.”

“Yes, which made it all the more easy for him to take her. He took her from me, Lucy! You aren’t her mother so maybe you’ll never understand the hell I’ve been in since the day she disappeared.”

“I love her, too!”

“Then how can you defend him to me?”

“Because I know him. He never would have hurt her. He did what he did to protect her.”

“That bastard—”

“Think about it. Was she harmed at all? Does she even seem frightened? How would she have been if one of the others had taken her? With him, she was safe. He took care of her, made sure she was well looked after. Would that have happened if one of the other men had taken her?”

Lucy had a point, but Brynne was not willing to forgive Taggart. “He could have come to us, told us what they were planning. Instead, he went through with their plan. What if something had gone wrong?”

“He didn’t have a choice. They already questioned his loyalty. He didn’t even know of the plot until it was already underway. That’s why he left so abruptly. He needed to intercept them, be sure that he was the one who took Coraline. So he could keep her safe.”

Lamplight flooded the area and shouts from the police filled the night. Brynne slipped her gun into her pocket. “We’ll talk of this later.”

She turned her back on Lucy and went to join Richard, who was trying to explain what he was doing in the middle of the night surrounded by dead bodies. The fact that he was a very respected member of society who was accompanied by two women, had a child clinging to his neck, and pointed out the false book full of money tucked firmly into the waistband of one of the deceased went a ways in his favor. When Brynne assured them she could produce the ransom notes, the officers agreed to accompany them back to the house for more questioning.

Brynne took Coraline back into her arms and sighed a deep breath of relief. She had her baby back again. The man she loved was by her side. Nothing else in the world mattered.

Chapter Twenty-two

Brynne blinked in surprise at the visitors who stood at her front door.

“Well, are you going to let us in?” Cilla asked.

Brynne threw herself at her sister with a happy shriek that brought half the household running. The next several moments were filled with hugs and kisses and exclamations of surprise and delight as Brynne, Cilla, and Lucy were reunited. Cilla’s husband Leo and Richard stood awkwardly nodding at one another and Coraline was on the floor already playing with her new cousin who toddled around the foyer, looking with interest at his surroundings.

Once the bedlam of their reunion had died down a bit, Brynne ushered them all into the parlor.

“What are you doing here?” Brynne asked.

“You didn’t think I’d miss my big sister’s wedding, did you?”

Brynne hugged her again. “I’m so glad you came. I never dreamed you’d be able to.”

“Well, I also heard that Blood Blade had decided to visit the east coast. I reckoned maybe I’d better scurry my tail up here and find out what was going on.”

Brynne frowned, wondering how Cilla could have known about her latest banditry activities.

“Lucy may have mentioned a nightly excursion or two in her letters,” Cilla said, leveling Brynne with a pointed look. “Why didn’t you send word you were in trouble?”

Brynne sighed. Her younger sister still thought Brynne needed looking after. But that was one of the things Brynne loved about her. Aggravating as it might be. “Because there was nothing you could do to help, and I had the situation under control.”

“Really?” Cilla pulled out a newspaper clipping.

Brynne unfolded it, revealing the article that had been written after Coraline’s kidnapping. “It was taken care of. Coraline is safe and sound.”

Cilla’s glance darted to Lucy. “And the elusive Mr. Taggart?”

Lucy’s head jerked up, all joy from her sister’s arrival fading. “I haven’t heard from him.”

Lucy stood and gathered Cilla’s little boy in her arms and took Coraline by the hand. “I think I’ll take the children to the kitchen for a treat.”

Brynne watched them leave, her frown of concern lightening when she gazed at Cilla’s son.

“He’s precious, Cilla.”

Cilla broke out in a proud grin. “Isn’t he? You don’t mind that we named him Jacob, do you?”

Brynne reached over and squeezed her sister’s hand. “Not at all. I think Jake would be happy to have his nephew bear his name.”

“Good. Well, now. Tell me what’s really been going on.”

Brynne filled her in on the past several months, from her decision to bring Blood Blade out of retirement to the showdown at the park the night they got Coraline back. Cilla listened, nodded, and cut right to the heart of the matter.

“Lucy is still pining for Taggart then?”

Brynne sighed. “Yes. It’s been more than a month with no word, no sighting of him. I think she still holds out hope that he’ll come back.”

“And how would you feel about that?”

“I don’t know. If you’d asked me before all this…I…don’t know.”

Cilla nodded. “Do you believe his version of the events?”

“Again, I don’t know. It does make sense. And if I’d had to choose between Coraline being in his care or with one of the others…” Brynne shuddered. “Coraline came to no harm. She doesn’t have nightmares, doesn’t seem overly affected by the incident. So he must have shielded her well. For that, I am grateful. But, suffering through those days that she was missing…” Brynne sighed again.

“Well,” Cilla said, leaning forward to grab her sister’s hand. “Nothing we can do about any of that now. Let’s focus on something a little more fun. We’ve got a wedding to prepare for.”

Brynne flushed and glanced at Richard. He and Leo appeared to be getting on well, a fact for which Brynne was thankful considering the hullabaloo that had occurred when Richard had discovered Leo had been married to Brynne, even if it was in name only.

“At least we don’t have to worry about this groom bolting,” Cilla said with a wink.

That startled a laugh out of Brynne. “I hope not.”

Richard met her gaze across the room. His smile warmed her inside and out. This time, her wedding would be real. And
legal
. She’d be walking down the aisle to stand beside the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. A small part of her still mourned for Jake, would always mourn for him. But Jake was her past. Richard was her present, her future.

And she couldn’t wait to begin her life with him.