Touch of Fate (Bennett Sisters Book 2) (14 page)

He didn’t have to wait long to hear Sam hollering for John to hurry up. He knew it would be just a matter of minutes before he came into the room and found John, succumbing to the same fate. Richard resumed his hiding spot behind the door and waited. The knob turned, and Sam walked in to his trap, just like his offspring had, unaware harm awaited them in their own home. He plunged the needle into Sam’s neck and caught his fall too. Sam’s eyes widened, branding the look of horror into Richard’s brain for the rest of his life.

The drug he’d procured from the black market paralyzed Sam. The doses he’d got were set to Sam’s weight, not the kid’s. He wanted Sam alive to watch what he had planned next. He didn’t care if the kid saw or not. Sam’s eyes moved back and forth, resting on John, and then trying to look at him from the corner of the eye. Richard whispered, “I can’t wait until Abby gets here.”

He could see the need to scream in Sam’s eyes even though nothing came from his mouth. The drug wasn’t going to last long. He’d need to make sure Abby came to him before the drug wore off. He only had two needles and hoped to kill Sam while he was still under the drug’s influence. Richard dragged him down to the cellar and tied him into the awaiting chair, facing the small cot he had moved down there. Sam was going to have a front row seat. Richard smiled at the thought.

“Time to go get my girl,” he said to Sam as he patted him on the head like a dog. “Don’t have too much fun until we get back,” he chided, and left him alone with his thoughts in the cellar.

Richard returned to the boy’s room and took in his appearance. He knew he’d have to kill him, but he would have fun making Abby beg for his life. Richard walked around the unconscious boy, looking for something that was going to draw his mom’s attention to the fact he was here and waiting. He decided on the intricate watch. He had seen pictures of her wearing the same one. “Yes, this will be enough to get her to come looking.”

He unfastened the watch and left through the back of the house to give it to the one person he knew would call her. The little old lady had been jittery when he had tried to give her the rent money the same day cops converged on the lake cabin. His presence, along with the watch, all but assured him that the spitfire would be on her way.

He returned to the house after leaving the old lady. He had watched from the shadows as she picked up the phone and made her call minutes after his departure. Richard returned to the house to wait. He was going to use a different tactic with Abby. He had the kid’s baseball bat in hand, peering out the window as he waited for her arrival.

Chapter 18

Abby kept herself busy, helping Emma clean the kitchen and stripping and replacing the sheets from their bed. Emma had produced a stash of Abby’s clothes, which she’d left over months before. She’d changed into her comfortable jeans and had just pulled out a mop to start on the kitchen floor when she glanced at her watch. Two hours had passed, and she hadn’t heard a word from them. Her fingers trembled as she went to her cell phone lying on the counter and punched in Sam’s cell number. No answer. She left him an urgent message for him to call. She tried John’s, too, but got the same thing. No answer. She dropped the mop and pushed through the kitchen door as Jake was walking toward her.

“I can’t reach either of them. They’ve been gone two hours, and they won’t answer their phones.”

“Abby. I’m sure they’re just bonding, but they have been gone a long time. We probably should find out where they are.” Jake said with the same quotation marks around bonding that John had made earlier.

“Oh god, they’ve killed each other. That’s why they aren’t answering the phone.” Deciding that she couldn’t take anymore, Abby went to put her shoes on. “I’ll kill them both, if they just got side tracked,” she mumbled.

Jake stood in the hall, as she was coming back out of the bedroom door. “It’s okay, Abby. We can track them with John’s watch. Just come down into my office.” An invisible weight lifted from her shoulders.

“Thank god you’re such a nerd.” Jake chuckled and threw his arm around her shoulder, leading her down the stairs. When she reached the door to his office, her cell phone rang. “Thank god,” she whispered as she pulled it out and hit talk.

Abby’s shoulders slumped. She thought she was going to scream. It wasn’t her men on the other end. A sweet old voice chimed through the receiver.
Mrs. A
. “I’m sorry, Mrs. A. I can’t talk right now. I’m in the middle of something.”

Her next words were something a mother never wanted to hear. Mrs. A didn’t know her words would spike up Abby’s fear higher than she’d ever thought possible.

“Hi, Mrs. A. It’s nice to hear from you again.” Abby filled him in on what Mrs. A said as Jake started pushing buttons on his monitor, trying to get a fix on John’s watch.

“Uh, yes, dear. He just left my house. You remember me telling you that Mr. Smith had given me the locket, well when he showed up with this watch; I knew it had to belong to either one of your sisters or someone in your family. Would you be a dear and check to see if anyone lost theirs?”

Jake’s monitor beeped and indicated John was at Mrs. A’s house. Abby dropped the phone onto the counter as her hand went to cover her gaping mouth. “No..,please, dear god. No.”

Jake picked up the phone. “Sorry about that, Mrs. A. It seems John is missing his watch. Did Mr. Smith by any chance tell you where he was going?”

“No, sorry, dear. He mentioned leaving town, but he seemed to be headed back in toward town.”

Abby pulled herself from her morbid thoughts, and a spark of hope shot through her system. “Mrs. A, I’ll be there in ten minutes. Do you mind holding on to his watch until I get there?”

Jake stared at Emma, his brows knit and his head tilted. He was probably wondering why the watch was so important to her when her son and lover were missing. She’d have to clue him in on the way. She grabbed the phone from the counter and Jake’s arm, heading toward the door before Emma stopped them and brought reality crashing back down on her.

“Where ya’ll headed in such a hurry?”

Abby walked toward Jake’s SUV, with Emma by her side, she told her about John and Sam not answering their phones, and how John’s watch had turned up at Mrs. A’s.

“Wait,” Emma screamed and ran back in the house only to walk out moments later with an ankle holster and gun. “You might need this.”

“Emma, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Pull it together, Abby. They need you.
Her thought pulled her from her despair, and she refocused on getting her men back.

“You need to set up your guys to watch Emma. We’re going to need Butch and Mike to help us.” Abby climbed into Jake’s SUV. She turned her attention back to Jake as he walked Emma back up to stand on the porch. They were in a tight embrace, and their kiss could have sizzled an egg like the pavement on a hot summer day. Abby didn’t have to read lips to know what Emma said. She felt it in her heart for Sam. Abby pulled her cell and called Mike, who happened to be with Butch, and filled them in on what had happened and where they were going.

She was getting her men back, even if that meant killing the bastard, and she wasn’t opposed to that. This asshole needed to pay.
You don’t screw with the people I love and get away with it.

Chapter
19

Abby wasn’t sure when she had turned from forensic investigator to playing the lead investigator into her own hell, but she found some comfort that the guys were with her and wouldn’t let her down. Thank god, Mike had told the captain it was his plan, when he’d called it in. Abby couldn’t believe both of them had been unable to overtake the older man and had been kidnapped. That thought alone scared her into stepping up her game. The moment she’d touched the watch, she had seen what he’d done to her son. He had stuck a needle in his neck, knocking him unconscious at her own damn house. At least that was in her favor. She smiled. She knew that house like the back of her hand. She knew every possible way to get in and the best way to advance on it to hide her movements. Mike had touched the object and got the same replay, telling the others about the state they were in. After seeing the way her son had fallen over, she knew something had paralyzed him. She hit her speed dial, calling in her trusty computer friend. Ted answered on the first ring.

“Hey, doll face. Do you need another favor?”

“You know me too well, Ted. I need you to run something through your computer but not just that. I need you to swing by the doc’s office, pick up what I need, and meet me on Jenks, the street next to the woods. Can you do that for me?” Her hands trembled as she held the phone up to her mouth. She couldn’t stop the fear rolling out of every pore of her body.

“Well, let’s start with what you need in the computer. Your wish is my every command.” She needed to remember all of the times he had helped her lately. She really needed to do something special for the guy. Maybe she’d sic Mrs. A on him and get him set up with a girl.

Abby paused. She’d do anything to keep one of her family member’s safe, but it still didn’t sit right with her to bring the computer geek into her danger. Heck, her family had taught her to take care of herself long before she joined the force. Even with all of that knowledge, her voice trembled as she spoke because she had no choice but to pull him into her chaos.

“I need to know what paralyzing agent is running around in the black market. I need the side effects, the length of duration, and then I need for you to do whatever you have to do, to get me the antidote.”

“Hell yeah. This one is much better then running a stupid phone trace. Do you need any fire power too?” His excitement came through the line like a living thing, and Abby knew he meant well. It did nothing to settle her nerves.

“No, I think Mike and Jake have that covered. Besides, I have Emma’s gun attached to my ankle. I’m not going in unarmed.” She knew they’d do whatever she asked as long as it kept her safe. She really didn’t want to wait on Mike. He would want to go in with guns blazing and shoot the bastard himself.

“Well, I think the name of the drug you’re looking for is called suxamethonium chloride. It only lasts about an hour and is easily counteracted with atropine. That shouldn’t be too hard to get my hands on. I’ll meet you in fifteen minutes.” He disconnected the call and all Abby could do was wait.

They waited at the destination, far enough from her house that he wouldn’t notice and next to the woods so that she could enter from the side of her house near the water. It would give her enough cover going in to get to the outside stairs leading to the basement. Richard Daley wasn’t leaving that house alive, not after threatening John and Sam’s lives. She still owed him for all of the lost years. Abby paced and twisted her hands as she waited on the reinforcements.

Jake walked to her and threw his arms around her. “Everything is going to be okay, Abby. We have the element of surprise on our side. He doesn’t know about your ability of psychometry. He won’t even think that you know what happened and if I had to bet, he’s going to be expecting you to come through the front door.” Jake pulled her close.

She relaxed in his brotherly hold, even though it did little to calm her nerves. His little pep talk did give her an idea. Abby pushed out of his arms. “You’re right. He’s going to be expecting me to come to the front door, and he isn’t going to be expecting Butch or Mike. They could work as my diversion so I can get into the basement.” She just about jumped up and down. “You’re a genius.”

Jake placed his hand on her shoulders. “You aren’t going in alone, Abby. I’ll send Butch and Mike to the front door, but we don’t want to scare him into doing anything rash. We can’t afford for him to hurt either one of them. Emma would never forgive me.”

“Fine, Jake. He won’t even hear us coming, but the bastard is mine. You only interfere when I say; otherwise, you stay out of sight. Abby pasted her hands on her hips while the terms of her conditions sank in.

“Abby, I’ll interfere when I damn well please. I’m not going to let you get hurt. We don’t know if he’s armed or not. We already know the damage he can do. Look at the hostages he has. It ends today, here and now. Whether you take him out or I do. It’s going to be over. Do you understand?” Jake crossed his arms over his chest and looked down on her as if she were a child. She’d take what she could get.

“Understood.”

Reinforcements arrived, pulling up and parking next to them. Even Ted arrived at the same time. Abby ran to Ted as Jake discussed their plan with Butch and Mike. Abby stole a glance at her big brother. His face was red, and his arms were folded, plastered across his body.
He’s not liking my plan
.

“You got what I need, wizard?” She slid up to him, rubbing her shoulder to his.

“Only if you’re talking about my ability to get what you need, my lady.” He bowed and handed her two capped syringes containing the clear liquid. She didn’t want to inject Sam or John, but she would to save their lives.

“I need you to have EMS on standby. Have them roll in silent and wait until the dust clears. I’ll feel better if they’re nearby if the antidote doesn’t work.”

“When did you turn commando on me? It’s such a turn-on.” He bumped her shoulder again.

“While you were stuck behind your computer screen, sexy,” she chided. “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be able to do my rescues. You’re my Tonto.” Abby leaned in and placed a quick kiss on his cheek before returning to the men who were now talking in hushed tones. She wasn’t sure she was going to like what they were cooking up.