Cradle Of Secrets (20 page)

He wouldn't let up, Dylan thought. He'd fought for clarity. He'd asked God to help him find the right way, to give him strength. Inside, he felt it growing stronger and stronger. Not born of anger, but of resolve.

Aztec Corporation had already taken his beloved brother and the niece he had never even known existed before he came here. He wasn't going to let them take the only woman he'd ever truly cared for. And he did care deeply for Tammie. It almost amazed him that in such a short time his feelings had grown the way they had.

Yeah, he was going to make some noise, all right. And he knew just where to start.

T
he morning had come much too early, Tammie thought as she pulled herself out of bed. To say that she felt as if a Mack truck had run her over would have been an understatement.

She felt worse.

After a quick shower that did little to rouse her more, she pulled on a favorite pair of jeans and an oversized college sweatshirt. Her hair needed serious attention, but she didn't give it anything beyond putting it in a clip in the back of her head.

Serena had been quiet last night. Too exhausted to cry any more for her baby and her husband, she'd slept through the night, even without a sedative to calm her.

After pulling her sneakers on, Tammie decided to check on Serena to see if she was up to eating breakfast. As tired as Tammie was, she couldn't sleep. She didn't feel much like eating, either, but she could make pancakes and toast for whoever was up. Serena needed to keep up her strength, especially now.

Tammy stood at the top of the stairs and listened for movement downstairs. She didn't hear any, and figured everyone else must be still asleep.

As she turned and walked back toward the bedrooms, she thought of the way Dylan had held her last night, making her feel as if everything he said were possible. That he could fight against the seemingly invisible threat of Aztec Corporation, that they could be together without fear.

Oh, how she wanted to believe him. But how could she, if the very man responsible for bringing this cruelty to his family hadn't been able to?

She opened the door to Serena's room and walked inside, pausing only long enough to notice that the door wasn't locked. The blankets on the bed were disheveled, but the bed was empty.

“Serena?” she said quietly, walking toward the bathroom. The door was open. A tube of toothpaste lay uncapped on the vanity. A hairbrush had fallen into the sink instead of being put in its place. Two white towels were crumpled on the floor by the tub.

She swung around, toward the door, listening to see if she could hear Serena. Nothing.

Quickly, she ran to the stairs and descended them. Serena had to be somewhere in the house. Perhaps Tammie had slept longer than she thought.

When she got downstairs, she saw Dylan stretched out on the sofa in the living room. He hadn't slept in the room Susan had set up for him.

His eyes were closed, and his dark, thick hair was sticking up against the stark white pillowcase. He reminded Tammie of a little boy. But she knew he was so much stronger and more powerful than that.

Dylan had urged her not to give up on him, to pray for them to find a way out of this. But he'd also said he was going after the people responsible for doing them all harm. That meant Manuel Turgis. She couldn't bear to think of what harm would come to Dylan if he knocked heads with the Colombian gangster.

Pulling herself away from the sight of him, she moved toward the kitchen and pushed through the swinging door. The first time she'd been in the kitchen of the mansion was the day Serena had thrown the dinner tray. Susan had always been a little protective of the kitchen, telling her she wasn't doing her job right if Tammie felt the need to feed herself.

Tammie wasn't so easily intimidated now. The kitchen was quiet, but a scraping sound drew her toward the basement door. The door was cracked open an inch. Curious, Tammie opened it, just enough to listen for noise. Someone was downstairs.

“Aurore?” she called quietly.

No one responded.

Flipping the switch on the wall, she was greeted by a harsh light. She shielded her face only for a moment, until her eyes adjusted.

As cellars go, this was one of the mustiest, Tammie thought as she descended the stairs. Remnants of the long-ago fire were evident in places on the charred stone walls.

Noise was coming from the far end of the basement. Tammie moved between boxes that were piled up to the ceiling, keeping her from seeing what was causing the scraping against concrete.

“Susan? Aurore?” she called out, but got no answer. “Is that you?”

In the far corner stood a tall cabinet. None of the cans and boxes that filled its shelves seemed to have been disturbed. Yet the cabinet sat strangely askew to the wall, and the fingerprints in the dust on the cabinet showed it had been recently touched. Tammie quickly moved toward the sound she heard in that direction.

What she found shocked her. Behind the cabinet was an opening the size of a small doorway, just large enough for her to get through. Stones that had made up the wall had been knocked out, leaving a jagged opening that she had to crouch to fit into. The walls around the doorway were charred and still smelled like old ash. It made her skin crawl, but she pressed on.

She looked back toward the opening to the basement and wondered if she should get Dylan. He'd be angry with her for going down here alone. She could almost hear him scolding her about being careful. But behind that concern, there'd be warmth in his eyes. Warmth and concern that spoke of his feelings for her.

But he'd been sleeping so peacefully that she didn't want to wake him if this turned out to be a false alarm. Besides, whoever was down here might be gone. She moved down the narrow tunnel. Aurore had said that this was how she'd escaped during the fire. Obviously she'd been mistaken about it being sealed off.

This had to be how the people from Aztec Corporation had been able to move unnoticed into the house and kidnap little Ellie. How no one in the house could have known this was still here was beyond Tammie's comprehension.

A door at the end of the tunnel slammed closed.

“Who's there? Serena, is that you?”

There was only a sliver of light behind Tammie that gave any light at all in the tunnel. But Tammie didn't need much to recognize the person who came into view.

“Susan?”

“You shouldn't be down here, Tammie.”

“I was just thinking the same about you,” she said.

It was then that Tammie noticed the shovel in Susan's hand. She gasped, filling her lungs with musty dirt, and gauged the distance to the door she'd come through in the basement. She could make a run for it. Scream for help. If Aurore was in the kitchen, surely she'd hear. Maybe Dylan would hear.

“All this time, it was you. You took little Ellie,” Tammie said, keeping her eye on Susan.

“She's safe. She's being well taken care of.”

Relief washed over Tammie at the thought that her little niece was alive.

Tears stung Tammie's eyes. “Where is she? Where is my sister's baby?” she demanded.

“Does it matter? You're never going to see her. If you'd have stayed out of Serena's life, we could have dealt with this quietly. Now you and your boyfriend have ruined everything.”

“Take whatever you want. Serena will give it all to you. Just return her baby,” Tammie pleaded.

The sound of Susan's laughter was closer. Tammie inched her way back toward the basement, using the dirty walls as a guide in the dim light.

“Where is she? Tell me where the baby is!”

A scrape on the floor told Tammie that Susan was much too close. She turned toward the basement opening, ready to bolt. She'd only managed to take a few steps before her world turned to darkness.

“I
t didn't take long for you to get comfortable here,” Aurore said, coming into the living room. “You're receiving packages now?”

Dylan had just finished folding the last blanket and dropping it on top of the pillow when she came into the room, holding a package in her hands.

“Sorry, I didn't hear the doorbell or I would have gotten it,” he offered.

Aurore looked at the address on the package. “You will tell me if you find anything, won't you?”

“Too much has gone unsaid for too long. There's no reason to keep secrets now.”

She nodded, handing him the package and leaving the room without another word.

He'd hated the look on Tammie's face last night, when she came into the living room. He recalled the way she'd looked as she stood by the window in the moonlight. Her beauty stole his breath away every time he looked at her. But last night, she'd looked haunted. If all it would take to keep her safe was to hold her in his arms, he'd surely do it. But he knew that wasn't enough.

How many missed opportunities had Aztec Corporation had to get to her? God had been with her that day the boat exploded. He'd spared her, and Dylan thanked Him for His mercy. Otherwise, Dylan would never have known Tammie, never have fallen in love with her. That seemed unimaginable now.

He'd prove her wrong, he'd decided last night as he tried to get comfortable on the sofa. Nothing about this house put his mind at ease. He'd been right to trust his gut instinct that Tammie shouldn't stay here. And yet, was she really safe outside these walls?

Dylan dropped down to the sofa and ripped the seam on the large envelope that had been couriered to the Davco mansion. His partner in Chicago had been his liaison with the computer system he was using to gather information about Aztec Corporation.

Sonny had been his eyes and ears on the other end, trying to find out how it all tied in with Cash. When he called her to tell her about Cash and the baby, she'd broken down and sobbed, but promised to relay the information to their parents so that he could continue to work on finding Cash and the baby.

He thought about what it must have been like for Sonny. It couldn't have been easy to tell his Mom and Dad about Cash and Serena's marriage. His parents were such traditional people that no doubt they'd been brokenhearted that Cash hadn't included them on such a joyous occasion. And then to learn they were grandparents, and that Ellie was missing, too. Part of him wished he'd been there to help Sonny break the news to them.

But leaving Tammie wasn't an option. She was a target, as well, and the last thing Dylan was going to do was allow the hit men to get another chance at her.

Opening the envelope wide, he spilled the contents onto the coffee table and began to rifle through them. Matt had been quick with his search, for which he was grateful.

This is totally off the record, buddy,
Matt had scribbled on the back of a computer-generated report.
You know Paulson will have my head if it makes it back to him I helped you on this.

Captain Paulson hadn't been all that thrilled with Dylan taking leave or the reason for it. He'd be even less thrilled if he found out that Dylan had dragged a member of his department in on it.

He turned the computer paper over. The first pieces of paper were random police reports on the staff at the mansion. As he'd suspected, Sam Watson had a record for theft, but it was so far back in his youth he was sure Byron Davco had probably overlooked it—if he'd even known.

The second report was on Aurore. Nothing earth-shattering there. Not even a parking ticket. Just random information about her birth and place of residence. She had indeed lived in Eastmeadow her whole life.

The last one was empty. On the bottom, Matt had scribbled,
Thought this was
real
interesting. Who is she?

“Certainly not who she says she is,” Dylan muttered to himself.

He pulled out the file that Sonny had sent him yesterday. He'd managed to download it and read most of the contents, but today he was looking for something altogether different. He searched the photographs, mostly of Manuel Turgis at various functions in Colombia. Frustrated, he tossed the reports on the floor and spread the pictures out on the coffee table.

“Aurore?” he called out.

He recognized the face of one of the people in the picture. It wasn't a shot of Manuel Turgis, but rather a picture taken at an Aztec Corporation function. Sonny had circled the face of a man in the crowd, a Colombian businessman who'd been arrested for drug trafficking in the U.S. and extradited back to his native country to appear on charges he faced there. The picture barely showed the person standing about ten feet behind him. But now that Dylan knew what to look for, the face was unmistakable.

“Aurore?” he yelled, getting to his feet quickly.

He didn't wait for her to return his call. Instead, he pushed through the kitchen doors and found her standing by the stove, a teapot full of steaming water in her hand.

“Where's Serena?” he asked, still holding the picture.

“I assume she is in her room.”

“And Susan?”

“I don't know. There are no plates in the sink, so she never brought Serena her breakfast. That's unlike her—”

He cut her off impatiently. “Have you seen Tammie this morning?”

“Isn't she still asleep?”

Dylan bolted from the kitchen, ran through the house and went up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He didn't know which door was the one to Tammie's room, so he opened every door in the hallway until he found the one that had her suitcase sitting by the bed.

“Tammie?” he called. The bed was unmade. Her bathrobe was flung across the rumpled blankets.

He looked around the room. The door to the bathroom was open, and he could see that she wasn't in there.

Aurore came running into the room, out of breath. “What's wrong?”

“Where's Susan? If she's not with Serena, where would she be?”

“I don't know. She usually tells me when she's going to leave the house. I assumed since she wasn't with Serena that she was doing laundry.”

“Where is that, exactly?”

“The laundry room, through the kitchen.”

“Is there access to the basement there?”

“No, just in the kitchen. Why?”

Dylan made his way down to the next bedroom door and pushed it open.

“The doors should be locked,” Aurore said, her face filled with panic.

“Serena's not in her room.”

As if she needed to see for herself, Aurore ran down the hall and into Serena's bedroom, checking the bathroom to see if she was inside.

“Serena! Oh, no, they've taken her!” she cried.

Dylan's feet were barely touching the stair treads as he raced downstairs, taking note of the large picture hanging on the wall.

Byron Davco had to have known his family was a target when he insisted Eleanor and Serena pose for that portrait. Serena had said he used to look at the picture and say it was all he had left of Eleanor and the child he never had a chance to love and raise.

He'd known, and yet he'd allowed this travesty to go on all these years without seeking another way out. He'd allowed gangsters into his home, to bully and destroy his family, terrorizing them, threatening their safety. All the while, he'd kept them in danger instead of facing his mistakes head on and taking his punishment for his illegal dealings.

It wouldn't be Christian of Dylan to despise the man for his deeds when it was clear he'd also tried, albeit without success, to keep Tammie and Serena safe. If it were his family…

Dylan stopped at the foot of the stairs and turned to look up at the portrait of Eleanor Davco and Serena.

At the top of the stairs, Aurore demanded, “Tell me what's going on! What do you know?”

“How long has Susan been with you?”

Aurore thought about it impatiently and then said, “Seven, eight years now.”

“Right after the statute of limitations was up.”

“What?”

“Turgis isn't after the Davco money. He's after the last painting.”

He raced through the kitchen and pulled the cellar door open. The basement light was on. The damp smell of old air and cement slapped him in the face. Aurore had said she'd used a secret tunnel from the basement to the barn to escape during the fire, but that it had been closed up when the mansion was rebuilt. Closed up at the time, yes. But that didn't mean it hadn't been dug out and rebuilt.

This house was big enough to work on at one end without someone hearing it being done on the other. Maybe that was the real reason Sam Watson had worked at night. Although nothing had come up in the report about him, that didn't mean Susan hadn't paid him off. Someone had to have been helping Susan move through the house unnoticed by Serena and Aurore. As drugged as Serena had been kept, it made sense that she hadn't heard any commotion.

But Aurore was another story. The woman's senses were as sharp as a knife. Only someone who was familiar to her could move through the house and manipulate her into thinking she was safe.

Fear clutched at him, rendering his legs nearly paralyzed as he moved down the cellar stairs, toward the darkness. Someone had turned the light to the cellar stairs on, but otherwise, the cellar was drenched in darkness, broken only by small slivers of light from the windows that hung high on the cellar walls.

Still, he moved. It wasn't about him or Cash now. It was about Tammie.

He'd been on many ops during his tours in the Marines. While there had been times he wasn't so sure he'd be coming home, the Lord had always kept him strong and he'd made it to see another sunrise. It was the same with him being a cop on the streets of Chicago. Some good men and women didn't make it home. A split decision that turned out to be wrong, or even a right one in the wrong circumstances, meant bad news for a loved one.

He'd always known the risks, and accepted them. God was with him, and if He decided it was his time to join Him, then so be it. Dylan had prayed and had made peace with that a long time ago. But the very thought of losing Tammie completely shut him down.

Dylan didn't have a gun with him, and even if he did, in this darkness he wouldn't have been able to make out what to shoot. He moved by instinct. His foot struck a box, and he stumbled. He put his hands out front to lead the way.

He'd just about decided to turn around and search outside when he heard a moan.

Heart racing, he moved through the darkness, searching the strange shadows with wide eyes until he found a figure on the floor. Relief shot through him as he dropped to the floor, but it was short-lived.

“Serena?” he said, turning her over. He couldn't see her face, but her eyes shone in what little light there was. They were rolled back in her head. “Serena, where is Tammie?”

She offered no response. She felt like dead weight in his hands, a sure indication that she'd been knocked out, either by force or by drugs. Hearing Aurore's footsteps on the stairs, he quickly laid her on the floor again and stood.

“Serena's back here!” he called out before moving toward a cabinet that looked out of place. And the dark shadows behind it.

The cement was cold and damp as he ran his hand up and down the doorway to see if he could find a light switch. Air from the basement seemed to be being sucked into the hole. He finally found a switch and turned it on.

The tunnel was long enough to reach what he assumed was the barn. It must have taken a long time to dig it out again without Aurore knowing. At the far end, a ladder was propped up against the wall. An opening above the ladder allowed natural light to spill into the space below.

Dylan took a few steps into the tunnel and stopped short, crouching down to look at a dark stain on the ground. He pressed his hand against the stain and felt wetness. When he brought his hand up to his nose, he thought he'd die. He knew the smell of this liquid all too well.

It was the smell of death.

 

Tammie's head felt as if it had been split wide open, like an overripe melon. As hard as she tried, she couldn't pry her eyes open. She was resting on something hard, with her legs pulled awkwardly to one side underneath her. Her back hurt from being in the odd position, so she tried to stretch out her legs to relieve the pain. But her feet were stuck, unable to move from where they were.

Somewhere outside of
wherever
she was, she heard voices. It was a woman, one who sounded strangely familiar, and two men. The woman sounded angry, but Tammie couldn't make out what she was saying. Suddenly the floor beneath her shifted and she was thrown to one side, knocking her arm and head against a hard wall.

“I told you to be careful!”

Susan?
The wall she'd fallen against was made of wood. She felt the rough grain beneath her fingers as she moved her hand against it. What was Susan doing here?