Reckless Hours: a Romantic Suspense novel (Heroes of Providence Book 3) (29 page)

* * *

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 makeshift 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 spider web 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, asshole!” 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 Providence 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. But even something as simply as girlfriend, a first step, didn’t seem right. They hadn’t had a chance to become anything yet. But she would.

“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, thank God!” 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.

“She has a nasty gash on her head that’s bleeding pretty bad,” someone said. “Are the paramedics here yet?”

She felt the rough skin of a cheek against hers and heard the voice she’d been longing to hear.

“She’s alive,” Dylan said, nuzzling her face and holding her close. “That’s all that matters.”

“Dylan?” Her voice sounded far away, even to her own ears, lost in the commotion around her.

“It’s over, Tammie. I have you.”

“You know, you do look a little like a—” she said, her eyes blinking at the bright light.

“What?”

Instead of answering, she smiled. “I’m so glad you found me.”

“Me, too.”

She closed her eyes and then opened them again quickly, grabbing his arm. “You’re not going anywhere, are you?”

Tears were streaming down Dylan’s cheeks. “Not a chance, lady. I’m not letting you out of my life.”

Awareness startled her. “Susan! Dylan, she took the baby. Susan was the one who took Serena and Cash’s baby. I heard them talking about it. The baby is in Colombia. Turgis has her.” A tear rolled down her cheek.

“Now that we have Susan in custody, we’ll be able to find Ellie. Don’t you worry about that.”

“How did you stop her?” Tammie asked, her eyes slowly closing.

“I jumped on the truck.”

Tammie’s eyes flew open. “You really are nuts! Do you know that, Dylan Montgomery? What is it with you and moving vehicles?”

He laughed, and it broke the tension she’d been feeling.

He’d found her. She wanted to believe that Dylan would find little Ellie, too. They had to.

“You’re going to the hospital to get that head injury taken care of,” Dylan said. He looked down into her eyes, and their gazes locked. “No one’s going to hurt you anymore. I promise you that.”

With that, she allowed herself to shut her eyes. She didn’t sleep. She heard the movements of the paramedics in the ambulance, felt the warm touch of Dylan’s hand holding hers. And she heard the comforting sound of his voice. And she knew she was safe.

# # #

• Chapter Eighteen
  

Dylan stared through the glass window into the interrogation room as the state police officer interrogated Susan. Sam Watson had already admitted to helping dig out the tunnel from the barn to the house—for a price, of course, with no questions asked and the promise of secrecy.

It hadn’t taken him long to give up the information, with a little pressure from the investigation team. But after three hours of grilling, Dylan was sure Sam didn’t know anything about Cash or the baby’s whereabouts.

Now it was Susan’s turn.

The door to the back room opened quietly. Tammie, Serena, and Aurore were led into the room by another officer.

“Has she said anything yet?” Serena whispered.

“She can’t hear you,” the officer said. “There’s no need to whisper. But if she says anything that you recognize, let us know, so we can continue asking questions in that direction.”

Dylan pulled out a few chairs and motioned for them to sit. Serena, who was still a little unsteady, sat down next to Aurore.

At first, Dylan questioned whether or not it was right for Serena to be present when Susan was questioned. If
Susan revealed information about any harm that was done to Cash or little Ellie, it would be devastating for all of them, but especially for Serena.

But they all agreed that Susan’s statements could touch on something that Cash might have mentioned to Serena in confidence, and that hearing something again could trigger a memory that would give them a lead to finding her family.

Tammie got up to stand next to him, all the while keeping her eyes glued to Susan, sitting on the other side of the glass.

“What were you doing there?” he heard the interrogating officer’s voice say through the speaker.

“Cleaning,” Susan answered, her hands folded across her chest.

“Don’t get smart with me. We know you have connections with Aztec Corporation and Manuel Turgis. We know you were planted in the Davco home for some reason. What were you after? Did you find what you were looking for?”

“Yeah, clean toilets. I’m a good housekeeper.”

“Things would go a whole lot easier for you if you cooperated with us. Just tell us where Cash and Ellie Montgomery are.”

The officer continued grilling Susan for over four hours. Although she stubbornly held on to whatever information she had, the sag in her shoulders and her slight slouch as she sat in the chair showed that she was getting tired.

She turned directly toward the one-way mirror. Although she couldn’t see them behind the glass and could only see her reflection in the mirror, anyone who’d watched enough episodes of
CSI
would know she was being watched.

“Look, the baby is safe,” Susan finally said. “She’s being well taken care of.”

“Where’s the baby?” the officer pressed.

She closed her eyes and sighed. “Colombia. And that’s all I’m going to say.”

“With who? Who has her?”

“That’s all I’m going to say!”

Serena could hardly sit still in the seat.

“I’m going to take her out of here,” Aurore said. “This is too much.”

“No,” Serena insisted.

Dylan could sympathize. It was hard enough for
him
to listen, never mind Serena. “If Susan knows where Cash and the baby are, it’s best we’re here to listen to any details she might give us.”

Dylan turned his attention back to Susan. Tammie had been quiet, taking in everything that was being said.

The officer in the interrogation room stood up. “We can help you, if you let us. If you want protection, we can give you that. But you have to cooperate.”

Her anger renewed, Susan abruptly stood up. The chair she’d been sitting in knocked over with the motion. “Don’t you people get it?” she yelled. “It doesn’t matter what I say or what you do. There is no protection from these people. And I’m as good as dead, just for being here. Forget about Cash Montgomery and the baby. They’re gone!”

In the end, the infor
ma
tion the police were able to get from Susan was at least enough for Dylan’s father to do some digging with his own contacts. He’d have to walk a fine line, but he’d do it. On the drive home from the police station, Dylan relayed to his sister what little information they’d gotten regarding key people in Aztec Corporation, in the hopes that she or their father could uncover more clues to Cash’s and Ellie’s whereabouts.