Cradle Of Secrets (21 page)

Startled, she tried to move again, but her legs wouldn't budge. Panic rose up inside her like the swells of the ocean during a storm. It continued to build, even as realization hit that she was inside a box that was too small for her to stretch out.

Too weak to push against the walls, she was vaguely aware that she was being raised into the air. The voices sounded closer, but she couldn't hear much of what was being said above the banging of her pulse against her temple. Pain followed every throb.

Slowly, she reached her hand up and touched the spot that throbbed. She winced at the pain. Her hand came back wet and sticky.

The Lord will keep you from harm and safeguard your life,
Tammie prayed silently.
He will guard your coming and going now and forevermore.

Her stomach lurched with every movement of the wooden box. Bile rose up in her throat and stung the back of her mouth. Tammie braced her hands as best she could against the walls of the box, trying desperately to keep panic from taking over. She had to stay calm. She had to think of a way to save herself, or there was no chance of getting out of this alive.

“I'm sorry, Dylan,” she whispered as tears stung her eyes. She'd pushed him away last night. He'd opened up to her, stood there with his emotions open and raw, and she'd pushed him away. What was worse, she hadn't opened up her heart to him and told him that she loved him. And she did. Of that she was certain.

The box suddenly twisted as if it were falling, making Tammie dizzy. Her head slammed against the wall again, and she was instantly plunged back into darkness.

D
ylan's Jeep was stuck in a cluster of cars. Main Street was littered with papers and debris, as if it were the day after the big Mardi Gras parade. Trucks were fighting for space, trying to load what furniture and antiques hadn't sold back onto their wagons so that they could head out to the next auction.

“It's a nightmare down here right now,” the officer directing traffic said. “We're detouring everyone until after one o'clock today.”

“I can't wait that long,” Dylan said, and quickly filled him in on who he was and what had been happening down at the Davco mansion.

“I can't allow you in there without a police escort. I can't risk other people getting caught in the crossfire if it comes to that. Pull over to the side. We're waiting for backup.”

“Tammie could be dead by the time the state police get here.” Dylan ground out the words. “I'm not waiting.”

The church's parking lot was empty. Dylan pulled his Jeep in and parked. The state police barracks were a good twenty minutes away. Susan could be long gone by then.

The police officer was still directing traffic around the auction grounds, trying to calm dealers who were eager to get their goods out of town and on to the next auction.

Frustrated, Dylan climbed out of the Jeep and slammed the door shut. He was wasting precious time that Tammie might not have.

It wouldn't take him as long to navigate his way through the traffic on foot, but it might make getting away harder if Tammie was hurt when he found her.

And he
would
find her. He knew just where to start. By then, maybe backup from the state police would have arrived.

He rounded a corner and raced down a lane toward the area where he'd seen Aztec Corporation's tents. The landscape of the auction grounds had already changed, and the temporary landmarks he'd cataloged the other day to find his way around were no longer there.

Dylan spotted Susan, exactly where he'd suspected she'd be. She was sitting in the passenger side of a large truck that blended in with all the others that were lining the aisle. Two men were on the back of the flatbed, stacking crates and boxes.

At first, she didn't see him. But he didn't care if she did. In fact, he wanted to look her in the eye, let her feel cornered and scared, the way she'd made Serena feel all these years. All this time, Susan had been the vehicle on a path of destruction for both Serena and Cash. She'd been the one to take Ellie from the house through that tunnel and bring her God only knew where.

Before Dylan could even allow himself to think about the baby, he needed to find Tammie. She was here. He was sure of it. And if she was still alive, they were taking her with them.

Oh, please, God, let her still be alive.
He couldn't lose her now.

Maybe it was better that the state cops hadn't arrived. They wouldn't be able to search for Tammie without a warrant. But Dylan could find probable cause before they came on the scene.

Cardboard boxes and wooden crates lined the aisles, waiting to be loaded on trucks. He ran through the aisles, staying behind other trucks and keeping an eye on Susan so that she wouldn't see him before he was ready. Given the sheer volume of crates, Dylan knew that looking for Tammie was going to be like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. For all he knew, Aztec Corporation could have already loaded a truck that was long gone.

Would they have had time to get Tammie out of here that quickly? He didn't know when she'd been taken or that she'd been taken here. But if Susan was here, in the open, it was a good bet Tammie was, too.

Dylan slowly moved around a smaller truck, trying not to rouse the suspicions of the Aztec crew.

Susan lifted her head, and her eyes widened when she spotted him. Sliding over to the driver's side of the truck, she gunned the engine and shifted into gear.

“Hey, whatcha doing?” one of the workers on the ground said, quickly moving out of the way to keep from getting flattened by the truck.

Hatred shone in Susan's bright eyes. He'd seen it in her before, but never this way, never with this purity that made her intentions so clear.

She revved the engine and beeped the horn once, signaling to her crew. “Forget the rest!” she yelled out the open window. “Let's go!”

“We're not done!” one worker said. He was still holding a box in his arms, but when he turned and saw Dylan running toward him with determination, he dropped it. “Let's roll!” he yelled, waving to his partner and jumping into the cab.

Dylan didn't move from the center of the lane. There were so many trucks littering the aisle that Susan would have to crash into them and then run him down to get away.

“Give it up, Susan!” he yelled.

He looked straight into her eyes, saw the contempt she held for him, and then ran toward the truck at full speed.

 

Tammie's eyes fluttered open at the sound of an engine whining close by. Her head ached, and she was finding it hard to make sense out of where she was. A small sliver of light shone through a tiny crack in the wood, but that was all the light she was afforded. Where was she? What had she been doing? She couldn't remember.

Suddenly, whatever she was resting on lurched forward. The enclosure she was trapped in bounced back and forth, knocking her arms and head against the sides.

She cried out once, closing her eyes against the white, blinding pain.

Dear Lord, save me!
This couldn't possibly be the end.

How could it be, when she'd only just found love? She'd never told Dylan she loved him. Even as they stood in the living room last night and it was clear that Dylan felt the same for her as she did for him, she hadn't uttered a word. There had been no walls between them, and the emotion they felt for each other had been evident, even if the words hadn't been spoken.

She did love Dylan. It had hit her like a bolt of lightning hitting a mighty oak, slicing it in half. She was in love with Dylan. From the moment she'd met him, he'd dug under her skin, tearing away that protective layer she'd had to protect her from pain.

And then she heard his voice, and all she wanted to do was weep with relief. But at the same moment, realization collided with fear. If she was in danger, so was he!

“Dylan!” she called out. Her voice seemed muffled inside of the box.

The stench of exhaust fumes filled the tiny space she was in. She coughed and gasped, trying to pull fresh air into her lungs. But with every breath she took, the only air she got was poisonous exhaust.

 

Dylan's mind was made up. Susan wasn't getting away, even if she plowed that truck right over him. And he was counting on her wanting to do just that.

It might be Susan's intention to run him down, but if she thought she'd succeed, she was in for a big surprise. She'd let her hatred and her greed get in the way of her judgment, and Dylan knew he could use that to his advantage.

People were scurrying around him, yelling at him to get out of the way, as Susan shifted the truck into gear and advanced. But Susan had misjudged the width of the lane and the number of trucks on both sides. Dylan ran, quickly assessing the distance between an open flatbed truck in front of Beaumont's tent and the truck Susan was driving. As she plowed forward, Dylan shifted right, climbing on top of the empty truck.

As he'd suspected she would, Susan veered toward the truck he was on, in an effort to knock him off. She was playing right into his hands. He held tight to the wood, and just as she rammed the truck, he leaped forward, jumping onto the running board and grabbing the steering wheel through the open window.

“Let go, you fool!” she yelled at him. But Dylan held tight against Susan's attempts to turn the steering wheel left, to bring the vehicle close enough to one of the other trucks to knock him off.

He was stronger, and managed to distract Susan just enough that he could turn the wheel to the right, sending the truck straight into a large boulder. Before the truck hit, he jumped from the running board and immediately tucked his body under to roll until he settled against a large crate of linens some yards away from where he'd jumped.

When he'd recovered from the impact of hitting the ground, he saw smoke seeping out of the hood of Susan's truck. The truck was a good twenty yards away from him. Within seconds, the small stream of smoke had turned into a black cloud that filled the air with fumes that stank. She wasn't going anywhere. At least not in that vehicle.

The man on the back of the truck jumped down. Even though he was unsteady on his feet, he ran through the tents and into a neighboring field that had been used as a make shift parking lot for the auction. Dylan didn't pay him any mind. If the state police wanted to go after him, he'd let them. He wanted to make sure Susan stayed put.

He walked toward the truck and saw that Susan was holding her nose and blood was pouring down her shirt.

“Give it up, Susan!” he said when she fumbled with the ignition, trying to turn the engine over. “It's done!”

The man who'd climbed into the passenger's seat was knocked out, a spiderweb imprint on the windshield clearly marking the spot where he hit his head.

“You ruined everything!” she screamed as she abandoned her efforts to start the truck. “You're going to pay for this!”

In the background, Dylan heard the sound of sirens. The cavalry had arrived.

He climbed back up on the running board. “Where is she?”

“Find her yourself!” she spat back.

“Tell me where Tammie is!”

But Susan's eyes glazed over, and then rolled back as her head slumped back against the seat.

“No. Wake up!”

Dylan jumped down from the running board, keeping an eye on Susan while he assessed the area. If they were moving her and they wanted it to go unnoticed, they'd put her in a box or crate.

It took a minute for the dust to clear and the police officers to make their way down the lane toward the accident. As he waited, he searched the area, trying to figure out where Tammie might be. Heart pounding, he assessed his options until the officers were there. He immediately introduced himself to the state police and identified himself as a Chicago police officer.

“Did you find your girlfriend yet?” one officer asked.

The word
girlfriend
didn't quite seem right to Dylan. He didn't want a girlfriend. He wanted a wife, a life partner. He wanted Tammie to be that for him. He wanted to be a part of her life in a way he'd never wanted to share his life with a woman.

“No, but I'm guessing she's in one of those crates,” he finally said.

The question of what Tammie was to him, what place she had in his life, was something he'd work out with her. And when he found her, he'd plead his case. No matter what danger was involved, no matter what kind of threat Manuel Turgis and his crew imposed, Dylan wasn't going to give up on Tammie and him. He was going to fight, and fight hard, to make Tammie see that they belonged together.

Three officers pulled Susan and the other man out of the truck. Susan was moaning with pain as blood ran down her face.

Dylan climbed on the flatbed and began tapping on the crates.

“Don't move,” the officer said to Susan when she yanked her arm away. When he'd subdued her enough to get handcuffs on, he asked, “Where's the girl?”

Susan, belligerent to the core, just spat blood on the ground.

“She's in the back of the truck,” Dylan said, sizing up the boxes. “The ones on top are too small. She can't fit into any of these.”

He was joined by another officer.

“Help me move these,” he said, trying to keep panic from building up inside him. What if she wasn't here? What if they'd already killed her?

He forced himself to breathe as he and the other officer handed cardboard boxes and wooden crates down to the people standing on the ground. He got to the bottom of the stack and slipped his fingers under the crate. The weight felt about right when he and the officer started to pick it up, but it was too small.

“Let's crack this one open,” the officer said, reading Dylan's mind. “Someone hand me a crowbar!”

It took an exceedingly long time, to Dylan's mind, to pull the top off the crate. It had been secured shut with long nails that refused to give under force. His heart pounded and his mind shut down as he tried not to imagine what horrors he might find if Tammie was indeed in the box. He braced himself as he and the officer pulled the cover off the crate.

“Oh, Lord in heaven!” he cried.

 

Wood splintering into pieces pulled Tammie from the place she'd gone after her world went black. She didn't want to open her eyes. Her body hurt too much to move. But as fresh air surrounded her, awakening her senses, she took in a deep breath to revive herself.

She was vaguely aware of voices around her, but she didn't have the strength to move until arms wrapped under her knees and her back and lifted her out of her wooden prison.