I cut my gaze and stare out of the window, repeating her words in my head. Out of this city. I would have said the exact same thing forty-eight hours ago and I guess that should be comforting. She is thinking like I was thinking. Even Liam was screaming we had to leave fifteen minutes ago. But together. We were supposed to be together.
Thirty-minutes later, I’ve spent the drive replaying conversations I’ve had with Meg in the past, looking for warning signs, but there isn’t much to go on. We exit the cab at a chilly subway station and I eye Meg’s blue jeans, black knee-high boots and black leather jacket with envy. “Where to now?” I ask, hugging myself and not looking forward to being braless in a subway, especially at whatever time it is. I don’t even know.
“I left my car in Albany.”
“How far is that?”
“Three hours, and one stop where we have to change trains. That is, if we can catch the last train out at 12:30. Otherwise we have to find a cheap hotel and hole up, which gives anyone looking for us time to organize.” She eyes her dainty silver watch. “We’re cutting it close. We’d better run.”
We dart forward, and unbidden, Liam’s voice plays in my head, run to me, Amy, not from me. I’m trying, I think. I really am trying and I hate the hell I must be putting him through.
An hour later, Meg and I have finally completed the short trip from one stop to another and have boarded the train to Albany, settling uncomfortably into the hard plastic seats, with cool air rather than heat blasting me from a vent somewhere above. With no one near us for several rows front and back, we are in the perfect place to talk without eavesdropping.
I lean against the window and face her. “Tell me about Chad. Tell me everything.”
“He’s everything to me and I’ll do whatever it takes to get him back.”
She says the words with conviction and emotion, so why am I struggling to believe her? “How did you meet him?”
“I was a full-time student working at a diner to pay the bills when he started coming in during my shifts. We’d flirted quite a bit. Still, he never asked me out. I wasn’t sure what to think. Then one night this creepy customer was drunk and he tried to...he was inappropriate. Chad punched him and I was rattled. Really rattled. It reminded me...” She cuts her gaze a moment and draws a breath. “I had some bad stuff with my stepfather and I left the diner in the middle of my shift. Chad came after me, clearly worried. No one had worried about me for a very long time, but he hadn’t ever asked me out and I was afraid he just felt sorry for me. Like he had some kind of hero complex about saving damsels in distress. But I found out later he was worried about his job and my safety.”
My brows dip. “His job? What was his job?”
“He told me he did high profile consulting that required complete anonymity and confidentiality.”
“Meaning what?”
“I don’t know.”
I officially sympathize with how Tellar felt with me when I said the same thing to him. “You mean you married him and never knew what he did for a living?”
“I just thought it was a government security thing or something to that effect. New York has plenty of--”
“New York. Are you telling me my brother lived in New York?”
“Yes. A few blocks from you. He told me you were in a witness protection program.”
Witness protection? Was I? Could that be true? “Did he go by Chad?”
She shakes her head. “David Chad Wilson. He told me he preferred Chad, but his legal name was David. I didn’t know any differently until the night we moved you to Denver.”
“What happened that night?”
“He told me he was the reason you were in hiding, and...he told me about the fire.”
“Did he tell you who set it?”
“No names. He said his work had put him in the cross-hairs of some very rich, very powerful men, who thought he had something they wanted. I didn’t ask a lot of questions of Chad. It was simply part of being with him and at the time of his confessions he was in crisis mode to move you and us before it was too late. I figured I’d ask for more details when we were safe.”
“So he felt you were both in harm’s way, too?”
“Oh yes. And it was destroying him to think he’d put me in danger by marrying me, not that we were really married. He’d used an alias.”
Her voice cracks and guilt twists in me over how I’ve doubted her. “He had to. You know he had to.”
“Yes. I just wish he’d have told me. I love him. I do. I’d do anything for him. I’d die for him, Amy.”
I think of Liam’s words. Anyone who wants to hurt you has to come through me first. He’d die for me and I can’t let that happen. “No one else is going to die. I...my parents...”
“No.” Her voice is soft, reluctant. “They didn’t make it, honey. Chad had nightmares over their loss and he’d wake up screaming. And I don’t know what happened, but he went nuts when he needed to move you to Denver. He was terrified of losing you, too.”
My gut clenches. Did I cause all of this by taking the job at the museum?
“I helped him get the note to you in the museum and set you up in Denver,” she continues. “We were going to do the same thing we did before and live near you, but we weren’t there long before he said he had to take a trip. He was supposed to be back in a day and he never returned. He just vanished. I didn’t know what to do. He’d set up certain things to help you and I only knew pieces of the puzzle to fit together for you and me. And he’d left me money, but I knew it wouldn’t last forever. I was trying to maintain your cover, but I didn’t fully understand.” She shakes her head. “I tried, Amy. I did, but I was scared and--”
I grab her hand, grateful for her help. “It’s okay. You did fine.” But nothing is making sense any more now than it has for six years and I feel like I’ve lost Chad in the same instant I’ve found him. “Are you sure Chad was kidnapped?”
“Yes. Absolutely. When you disappeared, I was confused. I started to think maybe Chad had simply left me. It was easier to deal with than thinking he was dead. I didn’t have a lot of money, but I went back to New York. It was the only link I had to you and Chad. I knew you’d been with Liam, so I took a job in the building next to his home and got to be friends with a waitress at one of the restaurants he frequented. People buzzed about him when he was in town, but he wasn’t there. You weren’t there. Looking back, I think me taking that job was a mistake. Either they already knew who I was and were watching me or they were watching Liam for you and found me because I was there. I don’t know. Something went wrong or right. Maybe it’s good because now we know he’s alive.”
“You still haven’t told me how we know he’s alive.”
She reaches into her purse and pulls out a 5 x 8 sealed envelope. My heart starts to race and acid burns my throat as I take it and lift the seal. Inside is a note and a small cellphone. I pull out the plain white note card and open it.
We have Chad. You have what we want. Get it for us or he dies. You have five days. Don’t make us kill him. We’ll be in touch.
The world is spinning again, spinning and spinning, and I can’t think. Adrenaline spikes in my blood and I can’t catch my breath.
“I don’t know what they want,” Meg says. “I don’t know. I had to get to you and I heard Liam was back in his house. I thought you could be there and you might know and --”
My gaze rockets to her. “You set Liam’s house on fire to get to me?”
“I read up about how to cause electrical fires that would be slow, and--”
“So you did it.”
“I had no option. I had to get you out if you were inside. You have to see that. You have to want to save Chad the way I do. Please understand. Please. I’m sorry.” Her bottom lips quivers and huge, trembling tears drip from her eyes. “I’m alone, too. He’s all I have. I have to save him.”
I start to shake all over and it’s like her tears are my tears, and they streak my cheeks. “He’s
alive?”
“I hope so. I think so. He has to be.”
“He’s alive,” I repeat and suddenly we are hugging each other, both sobbing uncontrollably.
“Yes. He’s alive. I hope he’s alive. We have to keep him that way.”
“We will,” I vow. “We will.” And memories of Chad flood my mind and I find myself rejoicing in his life, and mourning my parents all over again.
How long we hold each other, two aching hearts, trying to survive, I do not know. But the vow to keep Chad alive is what burns inside me with as much heat as the fire that once almost stole him away. “We have to call Liam,” I say, pushing back from Meg and swiping at my eyes. “He can help. He will help and he has the resources to find Chad.”
“No. That’s why I had to get you out of there the way I did. I know you trust him, but Chad didn’t, Amy. He was freaking out about Liam. He’s got to be a part of this.”
“No. That makes no sense. He’s protected me.”
“Why? To gain your trust? To get answers? Think about it, Amy. How did you end up in first class going to Denver? And why was a billionaire on a commercial flight?”
I laugh, not flustered at all. “You don’t know Liam Stone.” I think of the one car in his garage. “He came from nothing and he skimps in areas other people wouldn’t.” And while I haven’t figured out fully why that is, it is, and that’s my answer.
“How did you get into first class?”
“I don’t know. Maybe Liam paid to get me there.”
“Exactly. Don’t you get it? Chad said he was trouble and we had to get him away from you.” She grabs my arms and her voice quakes as she insists, “Liam Stone is the enemy.”
Chapter Fifteen
Meg’s words hang in the air and she stares at me expectantly. I’m not sure what she expects me to say or do but I have a fleeting memory of the moment Liam had ripped the center of my dress with the dagger and I can almost feel the gentleness of his touch and kiss when we’d finally landed on the mattress. To me, Liam Stone is a man of infinite possibilities, but all of them still equate to one simple fact. He’s the man I love.
“We have to do this on our own,” Meg insists when I apparently don’t speak up soon enough.“We can’t trust anyone.”
“We don’t even know what they want…unless there’s something you haven’t told me.”
“You’re his sister. You have to know. Why else would he hide you like he did?”
Why? Is she serious? “I’m his sister who was barely eighteen when she listened to her family being burned alive. I was ushered into hiding with no explanations.”
She shakes her head, rejecting...what? My claim? The events? “You have to know what they want,” she insists.
“I don’t. Who was the man who met me outside the hospital? Surely he knows.”
“What man?”
Right. She met Chad years later. “Did you meet any of Chad’s friends?”
“He had no friends. I think that’s why we needed each other. He was alone. I was alone.”
My heart twists with how much her words remind me of me and Liam. “Looks like we’re starting from scratch, and that isn’t a good thing. I’ve spent six years trying to put together a puzzle without pieces. Now we have five days.”
“Four days. Now we have four. What are we going to do? We have to figure it out.” Her voice rises and she’s starting to sound hysterical. “They think I know what they want. I don’t know. I thought you’d know. What do we do, Amy?”
Call Liam, I think, but she’s so off the deep end I don’t dare press to involve him. I grab her arms this time, leveling her in a stare. “We’ll be okay.” I nearly cringe at the words I’ve forbidden Liam from saying to me. “We’ll figure it out.”
She inhales and lets it out on a choppy nod. The attendant passes and I release her to grab him, eager for a blanket. “Fifteen dollars for a blanket and pillow,” the uniformed man informs me.
I feel myself pale and some of the bravado of seconds before fades. I have no money, no phone, no resources.
“I got it,” Meg offers quickly and pays the man for a pillow and blanket for each of us.
Unwrapping mine, I snuggle beneath it, and remind myself that one phone call to Liam, and my situation changes. I’m choosing to give away control, and that is control, as he would say. My confidence returns.“What’s the plan once we get to your car?”
“We don’t have one.”
Wonderful. Terrific. “Do you have money? Can we get a cheap motel?”
“Yes. I have enough.”
“Albany isn’t a huge place and it’s a logical location to get off the train from what I could tell from looking at the destinations in the train station. Believe me when I say I’ve learned the hard way that logical choices are dangerous. We should pick a large metropolitan city outside of New York and then stop to rest.”
“Yes. Okay.”
Now she has the “okay” disease. It’s almost as bad as the “do nothing” disease I’ve lived for six years. I sink back into the seat.
“So what’s the closest big city?”
“Philadelphia, maybe.” She frowns. “It’s kind of backtracking so that might be smart. But really why hide out? They’ve found us already and they have Chad.”
“What happens when they decide they don’t need us but we know too much?” I ask.
“Right. Big city it is.” She takes out her phone and checks the internet. “Philly is less than four hours.”
“Philly it is then,” I agree.
I settle my pillow under my head. “We should try to sleep. It’s still a long drive on no rest.”
She hugs me. “I’m so glad you’re here.” Inching backwards, she tilts her head and drags her hand down my long, blonde hair. “You’re beautiful like he was.”
Discomfort ticks down my spine and I manage an awkward, “Thank you, we should rest.”
She nods and shrinks down in her seat.
I roll to my side, giving her my back and I cannot shake her choice of words. As beautiful as he was.
***
It’s several hours later when we exit the train station and reach Meg’s expensive grass-green Volvo. “Chad bought it for me,” she says, reading the question in my eyes.
“Nice choice,” I murmur, but as I settle into the plush leather seat, thankful for the seat warmers, the car bothers me. I was barely surviving most of the time and Chad paid cash for her Volvo, and he had to pay to park in Manhattan. It doesn’t feel right, but then Chad couldn’t just hand me extra money. It would have brought attention to him and me.
With my driving time coming up, I can feel the heaviness of exhaustion in my body, and I close my eyes, willing myself to rest since I hadn’t on the train. I have to consider my health and I need a clear mind to decide what to do next. Four days is all I have left to discover what has been a six year mystery. And even if I do, it won’t be as simple as figuring out what these people want. It’s figuring out how we get these people what they want and how not to get killed in the process. I wonder why in Meg’s panic she hasn’t thought of this.
I will an image of Chad to my mind and a smile curls on my lips when I can clearly see his face. Chad...
I wave goodbye to my best friend Dana as she pulls her Volkswagen out of the drive and I run up the stairs, stopping dead in my tracks on the top step, my eyes going wide at the sight of Chad sitting in the corner on one of the two outdoor chairs.
“Chad!” I rush him and he’s on his feet at the same instant I fling myself around him. “I can’t believe you’re here.” He’s been away forever it seems, first at college and then in Egypt. “Is Dad with you?”
“Yeah, but you know, he and Mom have to catch up.” He wiggles a brow. “At least they have a door. Those tent sessions they used to have could get awkward.”
I laugh and we settle into the seats. He kisses my head. “How’s school?”
“Miserable,” I confess. “I want to be in the field wit
h you and Dad. So does Mom.”
“Finish school. It’s good for you.”
“You left college.”
“Dad needed me in the field and I didn’t leave. I’m working for school credit and you know I have windows of time when I’m in class.”
“Right. I guess.”
He sighs.“How’s Luke?”
“He took off to college in Austin.”
“Good thing I’m not there much. Don’t like the way the bastard looks at you. He’s lucky I don’t beat his ass.”
A hotspot forms in my chest. I’ve missed how he protects me. I miss our family. “Why do you hate him so much?”
“He’s a user, known for bed-hopping and then bragging afterwards. I don’t want you becoming a conquest.”
“Like you don’t bed-hop.”
“Out of necessity and because I’m not a one woman kind of man. I don’t live a life that supports a girlfriend, but I don’t brag and I don’t make promises I can’t keep.”
Because he’s a goodbye waiting to happen. “When do you leave again?”
“Two days.”
The hotspot is now an ache. Two days. “Oh.”
“We’ll be back for your eighteenth birthday.”
In six months. I guess I’m supposed to cheer up now.
A loud sound jolts me and I sit up. “What happened?”
“We need gas,” Meg announces, and I glance around to find we’re at a gas station and her door is open. “You’ve been asleep about an hour.”
“Asleep,” I repeat, and frown with Luke’s name in my head. Luke. I know why I dreamed of my brother, but why does Luke keep showing up in my dreams? At least they are dreams, not flashbacks with blackouts, I remind myself.
“Want anything from inside?” Meg asks.
My stomach rumbles. “I need a snack, but I think I’ll go to the bathroom.”
“Just get whatever you want and put it at the register.” She climbs out of the car and shuts the door.
Grabbing my purse, I go still with a memory. My fake boss in Denver was named Luke. My fist balls over my racing heart. Chad had been trying to tell me he was alive. Don’t like the way the bastard looks at you. He’s lucky I don’t beat his ass. No. Chad, being bossy, macho Chad, had been trying to tell me he was about to beat Liam’s ass.