know, for a genius you’re not making much sense. You left a note for me to follow, but you’re surprised to see me.” He shoved the dripping blond wig off her head, resting his hands on her shoulders. “What’s going on, Jane? If something’s wrong, why not just tell the authorities everything?”
“It was the only thing I could come up with. There wasn’t a way to write a note.” She didn’t dare look at him again. She kept her eyes focused on the scuff marks on his boots. She was just too shaky to think straight. “The picture was already in the book, so I decided to come here and hope.”
“Why tell the FBI where you were going at all? Kidnapping has serious consequences. Tell me where the boy is and where you stashed the money.”
“What are you talking about?” She’d kidnapped someone and had the money? “The kidnappers said they’d give him back if I did what they asked.”
His hands stilled and created two pools of warmth through her wet T-shirt.
She opened her mouth to ask about Rory but couldn’t. He let her go and turned away. But not before she’d seen the disappointment on his face. The same disappointment she experienced for not having enough courage to tell him about Rory.
Steve pulled his cell from his belt. “I’ve got to call McCaffrey and let him know I’m bringing you in.”
“I can’t go back to Dallas!”
“Oh, yes, you can. I don’t know how you got involved, but—”
She tried to take the cell from his hand. His grip was too firm so she kept her fingers wrapped around his. “Please, Steve, I need you to listen to me.”
“It’s a kidnapping.” He shook her hand from his, but didn’t dial the phone. “Every minute counts if we’re going to find the kid.”
“The kid? His name is Rory.” So he didn’t know. But why was he there? She couldn’t tell him about his son like this. She needed to think. Plan what and how. She hadn’t really slept in three days. Everything was getting jumbled in her head.
“Rory?” He wrinkled his brow. “You collected the ransom for Thomas Brant. The kid you and a couple of monsters abducted yesterday morning.”
Another kidnapping? A second little boy was missing? She stumbled against the washer and slowly slid to the floor.
Sweet mother of God, would she ever see her son again?
Chapter Two
“Are you okay?” Steve’s first instinct was to kneel down and pull Jane into his arms, but he couldn’t. She was a fugitive.
Wanted for kidnapping.
And no longer his.
“I’m so stupid.” Her hands covered her face and she burst into tears. More than tears. Her body shook from the force. She rocked back and forth like a woman keening for a lost child.
This near hysterical person was not the woman he had known four years ago. Jane hadn’t shed a tear as they parted ways or at any point in their relationship.
“I’ll never see…him…again,” she hiccupped.
“What in the world are you talking about?”
“My son, Rory. He’s gone. They took him. I can’t believe I… Oh, my God.”
When he couldn’t watch the stream of tears any longer, he knelt until she looked him in the eyes. “I don’t think I heard you right, Jane. You keep saying your son. The little boy that’s missing is Thomas Brant.”
“And Rory. They have Rory.”
“You’re saying they kidnapped two kids and one is yours?” He got back to his feet.
Her bottom lip trembled and her head dropped as she pulled her knees in close to her chest again.
Steve couldn’t have heard her correctly. He’d been up all night, drugged yesterday and his brain wasn’t working right. Were her words just the result of a drug-induced hallucination?
She had a son? Jane? His Jane?
Her dark auburn hair was plastered to her scalp, she was soaked to the skin, but she was still beautiful with those tear-filled eyes staring up at him. And very real.
Leaning on the doorjamb kept him upright, but he couldn’t think. He forced his hand to reach out. After a few seconds her shivering fingers wrapped around his and he pulled her to her bare, muddy feet. Then he moved, taking the short tiled hall in four steps with Jane following. He tossed his phone onto a chair, sinking onto its match. All his energy had been zapped right out of him when he heard those words.
She had a son.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” He croaked the question past a very dry throat, wanting to head to his dad’s wet bar and the bottle of Jim Bean hidden from view. “When did you get married?”
That guy was lucky. Jane was smart, beautiful and crazy in bed. He couldn’t think of her like that. The hell he couldn’t. She’d been with him first. Her kid was missing on top of being involved with the Brant kidnapping. Pull yourself together, Woods. You made your choice four years ago.
“His father is… He’s… I wanted to call you, Steve.” She closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. “I couldn’t tell you. They said not to involve any police or the FBI. I couldn’t risk it.”
“Wait, slow down. Let’s start at the beginning.”
If he couldn’t have a shot of whiskey, he might as well make it aspirin. Where did his mom keep them? He pushed out of the chair and stretched his stride to its limit, but stopped short of the kitchen.
“The beginning? Rory and I were going to the park.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you had a kid?”
“Why do you think you had the right to know? I thought it was better to just keep things the way you wanted.” She sat on the couch, looking as completely worn-out as he felt, but the words still managed to sting. “You were undercover and couldn’t be reached.”
Undercover for almost three years. A lot had happened to her while his life had been on hold.
“I thought we were friends.” Yeah, he knew the futility of the words as they left his mouth and didn’t need it confirmed by her look of you’re-just-being-stupid. “Don’t you think a significant thing like having a kid warrants a phone call?”
“The phone works both ways, buddy. You never called me, either.”
The truth flicked him like a bullwhip, inflicting small sharp pangs of guilt. Yeah, he could have found her. He had ways, contacts. But he’d avoided admitting his culpability, and then it seemed too late for a relationship.
“Wait a minute,” he said. “I couldn’t call you while I was undercover. You knew that.”
“I tried to write several times, but what could I say? You
