It looked like they were in the clear. Deshaun’s murder had now officially been closed and it wouldn’t be investigated any further. Her relief was palpable, and as Kat left the station, she said a silent thank you. She couldn’t believe how much she had risked over this whole mess, but she knew she would do it again in a heartbeat. She loved her job, was good at it, and had never done anything like this before. And never again! She thought to herself wryly. She hated lying to her colleagues, and while she felt no remorse as far as what happened to Deshaun was concerned, it did go against everything she believed in to prevent justice running its course.
She’d stayed late at work today, trying to catch up on some of the paperwork she’d let slide while she’d been looking after Kyle. Her boss had made a couple of comments recently and she knew that she was going to get hauled in soon for a reaming if she didn’t get on top of it.
Starving, she’d tried to call Kyle to see if he wanted take-out but he hadn’t answered his phone. Guessing that he was probably sleeping, she’d gone by the Chinese restaurant on her way home and grabbed them both some food. The smell of it now as she walked up the stairs to Kyle’s apartment was making her stomach growl.
Slipping her key in the door and pushing it open, she was surprised to find all the lights were off. Flicking them on with one hand and placing the hot food on the counter with the other, she walked through the apartment to his room and knocked on the door. Not getting any reply, she gently pushed the door open, not wanting to wake him.
All thoughts of stealth left her as soon as she realized he was not in his bed. Checking the whole apartment, which didn’t take long, she realized he was not there. Leaving the food to go cold on the counter, she checked the bathroom and realized his toiletries were gone. Dammit! She should have known better than to leave him alone! There was no doubt in her mind at all where he had gone; she just hoped she wasn’t too late.
Running out of the apartment and letting the door slam behind her, she ran to her car. Her hands were sweating on the steering wheel as she drove, way too fast, to the airport. She had to stop him. He was capable of anything in the frame of mind he was in at the moment. She’d just gotten him out of one mess and it certainly wasn’t so he could turn around and jump straight into another one!
He’d obviously had this planned, but he’d given nothing away when she’d left for work this morning. For all she knew, his flight could have left hours ago but she had to try. Praying all the way to the airport, she dumped her car outside the terminal, risking getting towed. She had no time to go try and get parking.
Inside the terminal was a mass of heaving humanity, with thousands of travelers seemingly without any apparent structure. Where was she going to start? Just about every major airline flew to London and the check-in desks ran the full length of both sides of the building. What on earth had she been thinking? She chided herself. There was no way that she would be able to find him in this place, even if he hadn’t already checked in. Her heart raced as she felt the clock ticking inside her head. Overwhelmed and hopeless, she knew she had to try.
The departure board was just a few steps away, and she quickly scanned it. She decided to start with the desks that had flights to London leaving soon. Delta, United and British Airways all had flights leaving in the next couple of hours and she knew that that their check-in desks would be open.
The crowded terminal loomed before her as she felt herself jostled about. Walking as quickly as she could, struggling not to run, she checked Delta and United, searching the full length of the check in lines. Nothing.
Knowing that the chances were getting slimmer by the minute she moved on to Southwest. No sign on him. If he wasn’t in the British Airways line then she was out of luck. Holding her breath until she’d walked the entire length of the line, her shoulders fell when she realized he wasn’t there.
That was it, then. There was nothing more she could do. He was on his own. She slowly shook her head and turned toward the exit doors. Taking a final glance around the terminal before giving up, she was walking away when she saw him, hurrying towards her with his head down, looking at the paperwork in his hand. Stepping in front of him, he mumbled an, “Excuse me,” as he went to step around her, barely looking up with a quick glance. He did a double take then, when he realized it was her. A moment passed, their eyes locking.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, clearly shocked.
Crossly, she replied, “Shouldn’t I be asking you that question? What do you think you’re doing?”
He sighed. “You know what I’m doing, Kat. I’m going to find Tara.”
Sarcastically, she replied, “Oh, really? Silly me. I thought you were going to a foreign country to take on a murdering bastard on your own, totally unprepared.”
“Ha. Very funny,” he shot back, though he wasn’t laughing. “This has got to end, Kat.”
She nodded slowly. “I know it does. But is this the way to do it?”
He smiled now, sadly. “Is there any other way?”
They both knew what they were talking about now, and that as long as Sergei was on this earth Tara would never be free.
Knowing she was going to regret it, but knowing she would regret it more if she didn’t, she said, “Okay. But you’re not going alone. I’m coming with you.”
Kyle laughed, shaking his head. “No, you’re not!”
Kat nodded, her mind made up. “Yes. I am.”
“No. You’ve risked enough for me over the past few days, I will not let you risk any more. Why would you want to go, anyway?”
Kat thought a moment before replying. “Because it’s the right thing to do. And I’m not doing it just for you, I’m doing it for Tara, too. What this monster has put her through is unthinkable and she deserves our help. There’s no other way, is there?”
Kyle shook his head. “No. Even if we let the authorities in the UK know what’s going on, and if they take us seriously, this guy knows how to cover his tracks. There’s no way they would be able to stop him in time.”
“And if I don’t come with you, you’re going to go on your own anyway, aren’t you?”
Knowing the answer before she’d even asked the question, she wasn’t surprised when Kyle nodded.
Kat nodded. “That’s decided, then. Now, where do I go to get a ticket? You’re paying, by the way.”
Forty-Five
She’d slept fitfully, haunted by dreams of Kyle and her daughter, and had already been awake when Joey opened the door and brought her some breakfast.
“When can I see Sergei?” she said, trying one more time to get any bit of information about her fate.
He set the breakfast tray down on the dresser, ignoring her question as he had all the others.
Tara stood up and got between him and the door. “I said, when can I see Sergei?” She asked it again, more forcefully this time.
His only reply a smirk, Joey pushed her out of the way.
“Please tell him I need to see him. I need to know what’s going on,” she said, reaching for his arm, standing in front of him again.
Joey’s smile widened as he pulled his arm from her hand. He moved closer to her, and she could smell his horrible breath as his face came within inches of hers. She tried not to flinch, not to let him feel her fear.
“Get out of my way, bitch,” was all he said before leaving her alone again and locking the door behind him.
***
Sergei was feeling particularly pleased with himself. It was all coming together nicely. Tara would get her punishment and he would get all those who’d complained when she’d left back on his side. The damage would be repaired and the game would continue with renewed vigor, meaning more players and more money. And Tara would be dealt with, once and for all.
As he thought of the finality of his plan, the end for Tara, his mind turned to his daughter. He was sitting in his office enjoying the silence. It was nice when Anna wasn’t here, quiet.
He’d been stunned
when he’d found out Tara was pregnant and his first reaction was that he would need to get it taken care of. Having a child had never been in his plan, and he wasn’t one to change direction after a course had been charted. He had made a nice business for himself, and he had all the money he could want.
But when the surprise had worn off, he’d started to think about the possibilities. He knew that one day he would want to take more of a back seat in the business, enjoy the rewards that he’d worked so hard to earn. But the question of who would take over when that time came had never occurred to him until then. As he pondered the possibility of having a child of his own, he’d realized it was a perfect solution, really. An heir. Obviously, with his new plan formulated, he’d hoped for a boy and had felt a bit disappointed when Tara had given birth to a girl, but an heir was an heir and he would make do.
Once his plan had taken shape, he’d never had any intention of letting Tara raise her. She was far too valuable to him as a prize and, in any case, no child of his would ever be raised by a whore. He’d had no qualms about telling her the baby had died. If she’d known the truth, she would have been incredibly hard to manage and would no doubt have been an emotional mess. No, doing it that way had allowed her to grieve quickly, ensuring the shortest time possible spent away from her main priority, servicing his clients. This way, she was able get over it and return to work as quickly as possible. The cruelty of it, for both Tara and his daughter, hadn’t even occurred to him.
He’d bought this house in the Dorset countryside, hidden away from his London life, and as soon as she’d been born he had packed her off with Monika. He’d barely had anything to do with her for the first few years of her life, and at times he almost forgot about her existence.
He’d never been sentimental, and a baby held no interest for him. He couldn’t say he had ever felt any desire to be a father, and that hadn’t changed when Anna had come into the picture. For most of her life, she’d held no more interest for him than any of his other business ventures.
He was interested in making sure she was doing well, and would be capable of taking over the business when it was time. Monika provided him with monthly reports on her progress and as long as she performed well at school he had been pleased. As a teenager now, he realized that the time was drawing near that she would be learning about the business, beginning to take part, and just lately he’d been making more of an effort as the time was coming when he would need to introduce her to her future life.
He had a lot invested in her and there was no way that he was going to let Tara spoil all that. She had served him well as bait but he’d never had any intention of letting her anywhere near Anna. As far as Anna was concerned, her mother was dead and that was the way it was going to stay.
That he would have to get rid of Tara once and for all was obvious. She knew about Anna now and she would not forget, never be able to let it go. But he wasn’t going to make it easy on her. She had put him through far too much and she needed to suffer before he put her out of her misery.
“Joey!” he shouted, knowing he wouldn’t be far away.
“Yes, boss?” He immediately appeared in the door of his office.
“I need you to go to London and pick up the players. There are six of them,” he said as he handed Joey a list. “They will all meet at the Casino tomorrow morning at ten and come back down here with you in the limo.”
Joey looked down at the list and nodded. “Will you be okay down here on your own with Tara, sir?”
Sergei chuckled. “Yes, Joey. Thank you for your concern, but I can handle Tara.”
***
He watched as Joey drove away from the house. It was just the two of them now. Shutting the front door, he turned and looked up the stairs. It was quite sad, really, he thought.. They’d been together a long time. It was a shame it had to end like this. Walking up the stairs to Tara’s room, he opened the door. Tara was sitting at the dresser, staring out the window, and never even turned as he entered.
“You’re never going to let me see her, are you?” she asked him.
Sergei shook his head. “No, Tara. Did you really think I would?”
She just shook her head. “So why am I here?” She turned to look at him.
“Because you need to pay for what you did to me. What better place to do that than where your daughter spends her days?”
“Did I not do enough? You had me from when I was a child. You took me from my mother and you broke me. Not once in all those years did I ever try to leave or do anything to hurt you. Why would you do this to me?” Tears were streaming silently down her face now as she spoke. The agony on her face didn’t move him, and she turned away
“I didn’t take you from your mother, Tara, she gave you to me. You know that. I did you a favor. I looked after you, made sure you had anything you could ask for and you betrayed me.”
“You took my baby from me.”
“You were too young to be a mother. She’s had everything a child could want, and more. She goes to the best schools, mixes with the best people, has everything she needs or wants. What mother wouldn’t want that for her child?”
If he’d been human, Sergei would have felt a moment’s remorse at the look of pain in her eyes as she crumpled on the bed under the weight of her sorrow. But he wasn’t human, and he felt nothing.
***
Any hope that Tara had held drained away now, and she felt a depth of sorrow she had never known. She knew that her life had ended then and that whatever Sergei had planned, it didn’t matter as she was already dead inside.
Part of her had always known that she would never see her daughter but she’d known, without a shadow of a doubt, that she would rather be dead than try to live her life knowing she was out there but out of her reach. She would die happy sure that she had done everything she could to find her again. She couldn’t help but think of Kyle now, hoping that he was okay, hoping that Kat had caught up with him in time and saved him from himself. She couldn’t bear to think that Kat hadn’t gotten to him in time and that he could be sitting in a jail cell somewhere or, worse, dead. She had deliberately closed her mind to him over the last few days. Thoughts of him were more than she could cope with, her despair so complete that it left no room for other emotions. It had been a choice in the end, and she had chosen her daughter. There really hadn’t been any doubt that she would, in the end.
Forty-Six
They’d managed to get another ticket for Kat, just about maxing out Kyle’s credit card in the process. The problem had been getting her passport in time. They’d had less than two hours after buying the ticket until the flight was due to leave, nowhere near enough time for Kat to get back to her apartment, pick up her passport and get back to the airport. Thankful for her badge, she’d approached one of the uniformed officers at the airport and, with the benefit of a marked squad car and flashing lights, they’d managed to get to her apartment and bring her her passport with minutes to spare.
“So, what’s the plan?” Kat asked after they’d unbuckled their belts when the seatbelt sign had gone off and they were airborne.
“Well, the first thing we have to do is find out where she is.”
“And how do you propose to do that?”
“I know where Sergei’s flagship casino is, and that’s where he has his primary office, Tara told me. That’s where we’re headed.”
“And what do we do when we get there?”
Kyle smiled tightly. “Whatever we have to.”
***
Kyle waved away the stewardess as she brought the food tray through the aircraft. He had no appetite, and hadn’t for days. Even if he had wanted to, the knot in his stomach wouldn’t have let him eat anyway. He didn’t think he would be able to even think about food until Tara was with him, safe.
His shoulder was throbbing and he reached into his carry-on for some painkillers, grabbing a bottle of water to wash them down. Swallowing them, he leaned his head back against the headrest, closi
ng his eyes, only to have thoughts of Tara rush in. At least I’m on my way, he thought, as the miles passed beneath him.
He felt better now. Calmer. Since discovering Tara’s note, he’d felt like his nerve ends had been exposed, and he’d been completely unable to shake it off. Now, though, he was on his way. He was doing something, and it felt good. He wouldn’t stop until he found her.
It was because of him, because of his blindness that she had gone to find her daughter alone. Maybe if he hadn’t been so wrapped up in his own pain she would have been able to tell him about the messages. When he’d read in the note what Sergei had been doing, he’d known that he would end up with blood on his hands.
Kat was sleeping, her head resting against his uninjured shoulder. He was overwhelmed with gratitude towards this woman, who had put so much on the line for him. That she was willing to come with him was above and beyond what he could expect from their friendship, and yet she hadn’t hesitated calling her boss and telling him she needed some personal time and jumping on a plane with him. That she hadn’t found a good man yet never ceased to amaze him, but then any man who deserved to have her would have to be very special, indeed. Apart from that one time, right at the beginning of his relationship with Lori, there had never been anything romantic between them. They just didn’t feel that way about each other, but the friendship that had resulted was something that he was very grateful for.
It was comforting to have her beside him now as he looked out of the plane window at the darkness outside. He really should try to rest. He had no idea how long it would be until he had the chance again but the thoughts were swirling around in his head like a sandstorm. He rested his head against the bulkhead and closed his eyes. This would have to do. There would be time to rest once Tara was home. Safe.
Forty-Seven
The clock in the hallway struck midday. It was time. His guests would be arriving soon and he needed to make sure everything was ready. Going to his private living room at the back of the house, he checked to make sure that everything was in order. He’d told Joey to make sure everything was set up before he left and he was pleased to see that he had done as instructed. The couches had been removed and in their place sat a large, round poker table. Six leather-backed chairs had been placed around it and several packs of unopened playing cards sat in the center.