Читать книгу Guarding The Babies - Sandra Robbins - Страница 14
ОглавлениеAn hour later, the last police car had left, and Holly locked the door. She used to feel safe in this house, but that was when she was a child and her parents were still alive. Now, with Ruth gone, too, the house was a sad reminder of what had once been a happy home. She doubted if she would ever experience the feeling again that she’d had growing up here.
The house she’d bought in Nashville had proved to be just that—a house, not a home—since she was seldom there. She had a maid, a cook and a gardener who took care of everything, and sometimes it seemed more like a hotel than a place where she belonged. Then there was her security team who hovered over her everywhere she went and a driver who was well trained in tactical driving that helped to avoid fans intent on following her.
At the thought of her security team, she grimaced. Bert Conley, the head of the team, had been upset that she’d insisted on going to Jackson Springs by herself. He’d wanted to send some men with her, but she’d refused. Now she wished she’d given in. At least she wouldn’t have felt so alone.
Thoughts of Cole hit her, and she closed her eyes. She hadn’t expected to see him tonight. Of course, Ruth had told her that he was now a detective with the sheriff’s department, but she was surprised that he’d come instead of letting someone else take the report.
For a few minutes, she stood there thinking about the man she’d known ever since she could remember. Cole Jackson, whose ancestors had founded Jackson Springs in the early 1800s, had been a part of her life since he declared himself her boyfriend in first grade. Through the years, that bond had grown into love that came into full bloom during high school.
Everybody in town had expected them to get married as soon as they graduated, but she’d had other plans. The country-music band that she and Cole had started had whetted her appetite for something bigger than local one-night gigs, and she’d wanted them to go to Nashville and try to make it. Cole, however, had no interest in leaving Jackson Springs. He had told her he expected to spend all his life there. That was when she knew they had different goals for the future, and she’d left to make it on her own.
And make it she had. Now she was at the top of the charts and booked on another tour. All she had to do was keep convincing herself that she’d gotten what she wanted. She’d thought she had, until Ruth’s death made her realize how important family was. She missed her sister and the telephone calls that lasted for hours sometimes. Ruth had always been her compass to guide her, and now she was left to provide that for Ruth’s children. The thought that she wasn’t up to the task troubled her. She practically lived on a tour bus—what kind of life was that for two small children? Leaving them behind didn’t seem like an option, either. She didn’t want to see them just in snatches between tours. And what about other issues? She had become somewhat accustomed to the constant presence of someone, whether a paparazzo or a fan, bent on taking her picture. She didn’t want Emma and Ethan exposed to that. It was overwhelming, even when the people on the other end of it were well-intentioned. And when they weren’t...
Tonight had just reinforced those concerns. The thought of the baby carrier the man wore sent chills down her spine. There could only be one reason for that—he had come to kidnap the twins. She could tell from the way Cole had avoided her gaze when she told him about the intruder having one that he thought so, too. This was no ordinary robbery. It had to have been an attempted kidnapping. Nothing appeared to have been touched in the house, and the intruder’s attention seemed to have been focused on the twins.
A shiver ran up her spine, and she wrapped her arms around her waist. She needed to check all the doors once more before going back to bed, but she wasn’t going to turn the lights off. She hurried to take care of that before heading back upstairs.
Five minutes later, she tiptoed back into the nursery. Emma’s quiet snuffle drifted across the room, and she smiled. She was grateful April had been one of the responding officers tonight. She’d been able to calm both children and get them asleep by the time she had to leave. Now they both slept soundly.
She, however, wasn’t willing to go back to her room and leave them. She turned the lock on the door, grabbed a quilt from the closet and settled herself in the rocking chair. As she pulled the cover up over herself, the memory of trying to ward off their attacker returned, and she blinked back tears. She had no idea where the strength came from to do that. It had taken over her body and filled her with a fierce resolve to protect her family. She could only hope that it would be enough to keep them safe—at least for tonight. Settling down in the chair, she closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep.
Hours later, she still sat there wide-eyed and unable to relax. All through the night, she’d watched the glow from the “Hickory Dickory Dock” clock on the wall, as the hands shaped like mice displayed the time. Now it was 6:00 a.m. and still too early for Mandy to be up, but she needed to speak with her.
Easing quietly from her chair, she unlocked the door and walked back to her bedroom. Once inside, she pulled her cell phone from her robe pocket and dialed the number of her assistant. It rang several times before Mandy answered.
“Hello.” The gravelly tone of Mandy’s sleep-filled voice came over the phone.
“Mandy, this is Holly. I’ve had a problem here in Jackson Springs. I know you’re visiting your parents and that today’s your mother’s birthday, but I wondered if you could come today when the party is over. I really need your help.”
She could hear the squeak of bedsprings as Mandy sat up. “What’s wrong, Holly?”
The fear she’d felt during the night returned as she related what had transpired. When she’d finished, she spoke again. “I shouldn’t have come here alone. I need you to help me with the twins, and I need the security team in place.”
“I’ll get in touch with Bert right away, and I’ll be there tonight.” Mandy spoke with the efficiency she’d displayed ever since Holly had hired her three years ago. “Do you want me to call Aiden, too? He’s in Chicago today finishing up the details of your concert there.”
Holly bit down on her lip at the mention of her manager, Aiden Hudson, and thought for a moment before she responded. “You can call him to update him on the situation, but tell him to get everything worked out in Chicago. If you can get here and Bert can get security in place, we should be okay.”
“Okay, I’m on it.” Mandy paused for a moment, then spoke. “Are you sure you’re all right? I can skip my mother’s birthday party if you’d like.”
“No, don’t do that. Enjoy being with your family. Just get here afterward, and please apologize to your folks for me. I’m sorry to pull you away from your visit. I promise I’ll make it up to you with more time off.”
Mandy gave a soft chuckle. “No need for apologies, Holly. You are way too good to me, anyway, and they know that. Don’t worry. I’ll leave after the dinner party tonight.”
Smiling, Holly disconnected the call, checked on the twins to make sure they were still sleeping and headed downstairs. Ten minutes later, she poured her first cup of coffee and carried it into the den. She was just about to take a sip when she heard a vehicle stop in front of the house. She eased over to the window and pulled the curtain back to peer outside. An unmarked police car sat in the driveway. As she watched, Cole climbed out and walked up the front steps.
She waited for him to knock, but when he didn’t, she walked to the door and opened it. He stood bent over on the porch, his attention directed to the lock on the door. He gasped in surprise at the sight of her, his body jerking. He staggered backward. Holly tried not to smile, but the look of shock on his face reminded her of how he’d looked when they were children and she’d mistaken a copperhead for a milk snake and picked it up.
At the sound of her laughter, he clenched his jaw and straightened to his full height. “What’s so funny?” he growled.
“You are,” she said. “The expression on your face reminded me of the time I picked up that copperhead.”
A small grin tugged at the corner of his mouth, and his shoulders relaxed. “Yeah. I remember that day. I thought you were going to be bitten before I could get to you.”
A warm rush filled her as she remembered how he’d raced to rescue her. “You always looked out for me, Cole.”
He pursed his lips but didn’t say anything. Finally, she cleared her throat and spoke again. “What are you doing skulking around on my front porch so early in the morning?”
He took a deep breath as if to clear his thoughts and gave a slight nod toward the door. “I wanted to check out the door again and see if I overlooked anything last night to determine how your visitor got in. I thought I’d do it before you got up so that I wouldn’t disturb you.”
“And did you find anything?”
He shook his head. “No. The lock doesn’t look like it’s been jimmied, and all the other doors were locked. You said your intruder pulled this door open when he ran out. Are you sure you locked it before you went to bed last night?”
“Yes. I remember testing it twice to make sure it was secure.”
Cole rubbed the back of his neck and frowned. “None of the windows had been opened or broken. He had to come in this way. Maybe he had a key.”
Her eyes grew wide. “How would that be possible?”
Cole shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe he’s a former employee who worked on the ranch for Michael or for your dad. He might have found a key to the house and kept it. Or he could have picked the lock. A good burglar can do that easily.”
“We both know he wasn’t here to rob me, Cole. He wanted the twins.”
His forehead wrinkled as he studied the lock and then nodded. “Yeah. I think you’re right.”
Although it was early summer, there was still a nip in the air in the mornings. Holly shivered and wrapped her arms around her waist. “While you’re trying to make sense of this, would you like a cup of coffee?”
Cole’s mouth opened as if he was about to speak. Then he exhaled and shook his head. “No, thanks. I don’t want to bother you.”
At his clear reluctance to come inside, a sharp pain pierced her heart and she winced. What had happened to them? They’d been best friends since childhood, and now they were barely able to tolerate being in the same vicinity. Things might have ended badly for them in the romance department, but it was time they salvaged their friendship.
“It’s no trouble, Cole,” she said. “We ought to be able to share a cup of coffee for old times’ sake.”
An undecided look flashed in his eyes, and she was sure he was going to tell her no. Instead, he nodded. “You’re right. I’d love a cup of coffee.”
She grinned and stepped back for him to enter the house. “Good. Come on back to the kitchen.”
He followed her through the house without speaking and stopped just inside the kitchen door. She motioned for him to have a seat at the table. She refilled her cup and poured one for him before she turned back and set them on the table.
“Black. No sugar or cream,” she said with a smile.
He picked up the spoon she’d placed on the saucer and began to stir the hot coffee. He smiled as he glanced up at her. “You remembered how I take my coffee.”
“And why wouldn’t I?” she said with a laugh. “We’ve probably consumed gallons of coffee together through the years.”
He chuckled and nodded. “Yeah. I guess we have.” They sat in silence for a few minutes as they sipped from their cups. Then he set his mug down and lifted his head to stare at her. “How have you been, Holly? Other than losing your sister and Michael, I mean.”
She shrugged. “Okay, I guess. I miss Ruth. No matter where I was or what I was doing, we talked every day on the phone. Sometimes, I pick up my cell phone to call her before I remember that she isn’t going to answer.”
“I know how you feel.” His gaze drifted around the kitchen. “I really miss coming here. I would stop by on my way to work several times a week, and Michael and I would have a cup of coffee together. Ruth used to join us, but after they adopted the twins she was busy all the time.”
Holly smiled at the memory of how excited Ruth had been the day she called to tell her that the adoption had finally gone through and they were picking up Emma and Ethan that afternoon. “She went through so much with all the in vitro treatments she had, trying to get pregnant. But she said all her disappointments disappeared the first time she saw the twins.”
Cole picked up his cup and stared at her over the top. “And now you have them. How have you been dealing with it?”
Holly shrugged. “Okay, I guess, but I have a lot of help. At first, I thought I couldn’t do it. My lifestyle doesn’t lend itself to raising children. I thought about terminating my rights and letting someone else adopt them, but then I knew I couldn’t. They are Ruth’s children, and they’re all the family I have left. And after what happened last night... It makes me wonder why on earth I thought I could come here alone and take care of them.”
Cole set his coffee back down. “You did a great job protecting them last night. But it would probably help if you had someone here with you.”
She nodded. “That’s why I called my assistant to cut her stay at her parents’ home short and come help me. I hated to do that, but I’ll make it up to her.”
“What about security? I know you have a team. I think they should be here, too.”
“They will be soon.”
Cole took one last drink from his cup, set it down and pushed to his feet. “Good. I’m glad you’re going to be protected. I’ll have the officers continue to patrol by here, and if you’ll give me your cell phone number, I’ll have my partner get in touch with you if we turn up anything about your intruder.”
Holly realized he had just let her know he wouldn’t be getting in touch himself or seeing her again before she left. Trying to keep her voice steady, she recited her number and watched as he programmed it into his phone. Then, without speaking again, he rose to leave.
Unable to let him leave like that, she followed him to the front door. Just as he reached for the doorknob, she called out to him. “Cole, wait.”
He stopped and faced her. “What is it?”
She licked her lips and clasped her hands in front of her. “Ever since you arrived last night, you’ve acted like I’m just another victim of a crime you’re investigating. Cole, we’ve known each other since we were children, and for years I was closer to you than I was to anybody else. I don’t want us to be reserved with each other. I would like for us to be friends again.”
He stared at her with a skeptical look on his face. “Friends? How can we do that? You broke my heart, Holly. I don’t have any desire to be friends with you again.”
She blinked back tears. “I know I did, but that was ten years ago. Surely you’ve moved on by now. Ruth told me once that you were serious about a woman from Gatlinburg.”
He shook his head. “It didn’t work out. There’s nobody in my life right now. You, on the other hand, are featured on magazine covers all the time on the arm of a handsome singer or movie star at red-carpet events.”
“That’s all arranged by my publicity team,” she responded. “Most of the men I go out with are less interested in getting to know me and more concerned that I’m going to get more attention from the paparazzi than they are.”
Although she’d hoped to lighten the atmosphere with that final comment, he didn’t smile. “Sounds like you have a really tough life. But it’s just what you always wanted. You left Jackson Springs to find it, and now you’ve come back to rid yourself of the last hold that this place has on you. I hope you’re able to find a buyer right away.”
The flat tone of his voice stung her. “The Realtor doesn’t think she’ll have trouble selling the ranch. Its location is a real asset. It’s in a valley surrounded by the Smokies, which makes it a prime example of a vacation home. So once I get everything cleaned out, the twins and I will be on our way back to Nashville.”
He nodded. “Have a safe trip.”
With that, he turned and strode toward the front door. When she heard it close, a sad feeling engulfed her. She hadn’t expected seeing Cole again would be so hard. She was being truthful when she’d said he was the best friend she’d ever had, and lately she’d come to miss that.
With a sigh, she picked up the coffee cups and carried them to the sink. Cole had no interest in being her friend, and she would just have to accept that. After all, she had no one to blame but herself.
At least she knew he would do his best to keep her and the babies safe—for the twins’ sake and in honor of Ruth and Michael’s memory, if nothing else. That was what mattered the most. Cole might not trust her anymore, but the twins were counting on her, dependent on her in every way.
She wouldn’t—couldn’t—let them down.
* * *
Cole didn’t look back as he drove away from Tumbling Creek Ranch. Once, it had been a second home to him, but now he felt like a stranger there. He’d held on to his attachment to it while Ruth and Michael were alive, but now it was Holly’s, and she was going to sell it.
That shouldn’t have surprised him, but somehow it did. How could she get rid of the land that her father had loved so much? But then, she had severed all connections with everything in this place, except for her sister, when she left years ago.
He clenched his jaw as he thought back to that time and how he’d felt when she’d broken off their engagement and moved to Nashville. To her credit, she’d begged him to go with her, to stay in the band that they’d started together. But in his heart, he knew he didn’t have the talent that she had, and he also didn’t have the dream of making it in the music industry. He supposed, in the end, their relationship had turned out the only way it could. She’d left, and he’d stayed.
Now she said she wanted to be friends, but that was never going to happen. He could just hope that the ranch would sell right away and she’d be gone. Back to Nashville and out of his life for good.
Shaking the troubling thoughts from his head, he directed his attention back to the road. With summer just having begun, tourists had flooded into Jackson Springs to spend some time in the Smokies. The sight of so many cars on the road made him smile as he drove into town. Ten minutes later, he walked down the hall of the sheriff’s department and entered his office.
His partner, Dan Welch, had the day off, and Cole settled behind his desk to do some paperwork he’d been putting off. He tried to push his conversation with Holly from his mind and forced himself to concentrate on the papers in front of him. He had no idea how long he’d worked and was shocked to look up a while later and see that it was almost lunchtime. He stood up and stretched his back, which had grown stiff while he was hunched over his desk, and was about to leave his office when the phone rang. The light on the base showing the various lines coming into the office indicated a call on line one from the receptionist. He picked up the receiver and answered. “Hey, Brenda. What’s up?”
“You have a call on line one from a young woman, Cole. I’ll connect you,” she answered.
Almost immediately, he heard the click that told him he’d been connected to the caller. “Detective Jackson speaking.” For a moment, he didn’t think anyone was there, and then he heard a throat clearing. He waited for someone to say something, but there was silence on the line. “Can I help you?”
“Yes,” a voice replied but didn’t say anything else.
He frowned as he tried to determine if he’d ever heard the voice before and decided he hadn’t. It was definitely a woman’s voice. And she sounded afraid.
“What do you need?”
The caller took a deep breath. “I think they’re trying to kill me, because I know too much.”
Her voice trembled, and Cole sat up straight in his chair. “Who’s trying to kill you, and what do you know about?”
“I don’t know all their names, but...” She paused, and when she spoke again, her voice was laced with panic. “He’s...he’s found me.”
“Where are you?” Cole asked. “I’ll come for you.”
“No! I have to go!”
With those words, the call disconnected. “Ma’am, where are you?” he yelled into the phone, but there was no answer.
He punched the button that connected him to Brenda’s phone, and she answered right away. “Cole, do you need something?”
“Have our tech guys see if they can find out where that last phone call came from, and tell them it’s urgent. Let me know as soon as they have something.”
“I’ll get right on it,” she said before ending the call.
For the next fifteen minutes, Cole paced the floor in his office as conflicting thoughts ran through his head. What if the girl on the phone had been lying? Some people enjoyed giving a false police report, and she could be one of them. On the other hand, though, she had sounded really frightened.
When the phone rang again, he grabbed the receiver. “Brenda? Any word on the call?”
“Yes. The call came from a cell phone and pinged off the tower near the old water plant. They placed her somewhere in the vicinity of that mall on Sturgis Road.”
“I’m on it,” Cole said before he slammed the phone down and headed out the door.
He knew he was probably on a wild-goose chase. How could he possibly identify a girl when he’d only heard her voice? Something in the way she spoke, though, told him that she was serious about being in danger. He’d heard fear in people’s voices before, and hers definitely told him she was afraid.
Whether or not he’d be able to find her, he had to try.
