Birthright (53 page)

He crossed to her, traced his fingers gently over her bruised cheekbone. “You know as well as I do that environment and heredity help structure an individual. Nature and nurture. He made his choices and they took him down
a different path from any you could've taken. Your genes, your upbringing, your own sense of self wouldn't have allowed it.”

“Would I have protected my father anyway? The father I knew and loved? If I'd discovered he was a monster, would I have protected him?”

“I know the answer. Do you?”

She sighed, reached for fresh mugs. “Yes. I wouldn't have been able to. It would have ripped me into pieces, but I couldn't have.”

“You found what you were digging for, Cal.”

“Yeah. Now it's exposed, in the air. And I have to put it on display. I don't have a choice.”

“No.” He took her shoulders, drew her back, kissed the top of her head. “You wouldn't.”

She turned as the phone rang. “Jesus, it's two in the morning. Who the hell's calling? Dunbrook.”

“Hello, Callie.”

“Hello, Dory.” Callie grabbed a pencil, scrawled on the wall by the phone.
Call the cops. Trace the call.
“How's the nose?”

“It hurts like a bitch. And believe me, you're going to pay for that.”

“Come on over. We can go another round.”

“We'll go another round, I promise. But you're going to have to come to me.”

“When and where?”

“You think you're so smart, so cool, so clever. I've been running rings around you for weeks. I still am. I've got your mother, Callie.”

The blood stopped pumping through her veins, iced over. “I don't believe you.”

There was a laugh, full of horrible humor. “Yes, you do. Don't you wonder which mother? Don't you want to find out?”

“What do you want?”

“How much are you willing to pay?”

“Tell me what you want and I'll get it.”

“I want my mother!” Her voice spiked. The wild rage in
it curdled Callie's stomach. “Are you going to get her for me, you bitch? You ruined her life, and I'm going to ruin yours.”

“They're only questioning her.” As she began to shake, Callie gripped the counter. “They might have let her go by now.”

“Liar! Another lie about my mother and I'll use this knife I'm holding on yours.”

“Don't hurt her.” Terror clawed icy fingers down her spine. “Don't hurt her, Dory.” She reached for Jake's hand, squeezed hard. “Tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it.”

“Call the police, and she's dead. Understand? Call the police, and you'll have killed her.”

“Yes. No police. This is between you and me. I understand that. Can I talk to her? Let me talk to her, please.”

“ ‘Let me talk to her, please,' ” Dory mimicked. “You're talking to
me
! I'm running the show now, Dr. Bitch. I'm in charge.”

“Yes, you're in charge.” Callie fought to keep her voice steady.

“And you'll talk to me. We'll talk about payment, about what you're going to have to do. Just you and me. You come alone or I'll kill her. I'll kill her without a second thought. You know I will.”

“I'll be alone. Where?”

“Simon's Hole. You've got ten minutes or I start cutting her. Ten minutes, and the clock just started ticking. Better hurry.”

“Cell phone,” Jake said the minute she hung up. “They're going to try to triangulate.”

“No time. She's got my mother. Jesus, ten minutes.” She was bolting for the front door.

“Hold it. Goddamn it, you can't go running out without thinking.”

“She gave me ten minutes to get to the pond. I can barely make it now. She's got my mother. She's going to kill her if I don't come. Now and alone. For God's sake, I don't even know which one she's got.”

He held on a moment longer, then pulled the knife from his boot. “Take this. I'll be right behind you.”

“You can't. She'll—”

“You have to trust me.” He took her arms again. “There's no room, no time for anything else. You have to trust me. I'm trusting you.”

She stared into his eyes and made the leap. “Hurry,” she said, and ran.

Sweat trickled down her back as she pushed the Rover to dangerous speeds on narrow, winding roads. Every time her tires screamed on pavement, she bore down harder. Every time she looked down at the luminous dial of her watch, her heart skipped.

It could be a lie, it could be a trap. Still she drove faster than sanity allowed, concentrating on her own headlights as they sliced through the dark.

She made it in nine minutes.

She saw nothing in the field, in the water, in the trees. It didn't stop her from bolting out of the car, swinging over the fence.

“Dory! I'm here. I'm alone. Don't hurt her.”

She walked toward the water, toward the trees with fear skating up and down her spine. “It's between you and me, remember. You and me. You can let her go. I'm here.”

She saw a light flash, spun toward it. “I'll do whatever you want me to do.”

“Stop right there. You made good time. But you could've called the cops on the way.”

“I didn't. For God's sake, she's my mother. I won't risk her just to punish you.”

“You've already punished me. And for
what
? To prove how smart you are? Not so smart now, are you?”

“It was my life.” She moved forward on legs gone weak and trembly. “I just wanted to know how it happened to me. Wouldn't you, Dory?”

“Stay where you are. Keep your hands where I can see them. Marcus Carlyle was a great man. A visionary. And he was smart. Smarter than you'll ever be. Even dead he's better than you.”

“What do you want me to do?” Her eyes were adjusted now. She saw Dory, her face ugly with bruises and hate. And sensed something—someone else—just at the edge of her vision. “Tell me what you want me to do.”

“Suffer. Stay where you are.” Dory stepped back, into the shadows. Seconds later a form rolled forward, halfway to the edge of the pond.

Callie saw a glint of blond hair, a hint of pale skin, and started to spring forward.

“I'll kill her. You stay back or I'll kill her.” She held up a gun. “Look at this! I said I had a knife, didn't I? I seem to be mistaken. This looks like a gun. In fact, it looks like the same gun I used to nearly put a hole in your very sexy ex-husband. I could have, you know.”

She shone the light so Callie was forced to shield her eyes from the glare. “It would've been easy. I'd already killed Dolan. That was sort of an accident. I'd intended to knock him out. An impulse thing when I saw him sneaking around—just as I was sneaking around.”

She laughed, poked the bound-and-gagged form with her foot. Callie thought she heard a soft moan, and prayed.

“But I hit him harder than I meant to. Seemed the best thing was to dump him in Simon's Hole. I hoped you'd get blamed for it, but that didn't work out.”

I'll be right behind you,
Jake had said, she remembered. Trust him. She had to stay calm and trust.

“You burned down Lana's office.”

“Fire purges. You should never have hired her. You should never have started poking around in something that didn't
matter
to you.”

“I was curious. Let her go now, Dory. There's no point in hurting her. She didn't do anything. I did.”

“I could kill you.” She lifted the gun, trained it on Callie's heart. “Then it would be over for you. But that's just not good enough. Not anymore.”

“Why Bill?” Callie inched forward as Dory stepped back.

“He was handy. And he asked too many questions. Didn't you notice that? What's this, what's that, what are
you doing? Irritated the hell out of me. And he kept wanting to know about the grad classes I was taking, about my training. Just couldn't mind his own business. Just like you. Why, look what I found.”

She shoved with her foot again, and another bound figure rolled toward the water. “Running rings around you. See? I've got both your mothers.”

J
ake came in from the east side of the woods. Quiet and slow, without a light to guide him.

Letting her go alone had been the hardest thing he'd ever done.

He kept low, straining his ears for any sound, his eyes for any movement.

The sound of voices made his heart trip, but he forced himself not to spring up and run toward them. He was armed with only a kitchen knife now. It had been the closest thing to grab, and time was all that mattered.

He shifted direction, moving through the dark toward the sound of voices. And stopped, heart hammering, when he saw the human outline standing in front of an oak.

No, not standing, he realized and, signaling for silence, crept closer.

Two figures, two men. Callie's fathers were bound to the tree, gagged. Their heads sagged onto their chests.

He held up a hand again as he heard the indrawn breath behind him.

“Probably drugged,” he whispered. “Cut them loose.” He passed the knife to Doug. “Stay with them. If they come to, keep them quiet.”

“For Christ's sake, Jake, she's got both of them.”

“I know it.”

“I'm going with you.” He closed a hand over his father's limp fingers, then gave the knife to Digger. “Take care of them.”

C
allie's heart went numb. The mother who had birthed her, the mother who had raised her. Now both their lives depended on her. “You . . .you're right. You've run rings around me. But you didn't do this alone. Where's your father, Dory? Can't you face it, Richard? Can't you face it even now?”

“Figured that out, did you?” Grinning widely, Dory gestured with her free hand. “Come on out, Dad. Join the party.”

“Why couldn't you leave it alone?” Richard stepped out beside his daughter. “Why couldn't you let it stay buried?”

“Is that what you did? Just accepted. Never looked? How long have you lived wondering, Richard? How can you let this happen now? You're just like me. He took you. Never gave you a choice. Never gave anyone a choice.”

“He did it for the best. Whatever he was, he gave me a good life.”

“And your own mother?”

“She didn't know. Or didn't want to know, which amounts to the same thing. I walked away from him, walked away from my father and what he was doing.”

Her palms were sweating, and still they itched for the knife in her boot. She could kill, she realized, to save her mother—her mothers—she could kill without hesitation. “And that was enough? Knowing what you knew, you did nothing to stop it.”

“I had a child of my own to think of. A life of my own. Why sully it with scandal? Why should my life be ruined?”

“But you didn't raise that child. Dorothy did. With plenty of influence from Marcus.”

“It wasn't my fault,” he insisted. “I was barely twenty. What was I supposed to do!”

“Be a man.” Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Dory watching Richard. Probe the right spot, she ordered herself. Carefully, carefully. “Be a father. But you let him step in and take over. Again. He twisted her, Richard. Can you stand there and let this go on? Can you be a part of it? Can you protect her now, knowing she's killed?”

“She's my child. Nothing that's happened was her fault. It was his, and I won't let her be hurt now.”

“That's right. Not my fault,” Dory agreed. “It's yours, Callie. You brought it all on yourself.” She glanced down at the women sprawled at her feet. “And them.”

“All you need to do is go away for a few weeks,” Richard said. “Disappear long enough to stall the police investigation so that I can get Dory somewhere safe. So I can arrange for Dorothy's release. Without you, they lose their most vital link. That's all you have to do.”

“Is that what she told you? Is that how she talked you into spying on the house, into helping her blow up the trailer? Is that how she convinced you to help her do this tonight? Are you so blind you can't see she's only interested in causing pain? In revenge?”

“Nobody else has to get hurt,” he insisted. “I'm asking you to give me time.”

“She'll just lie.” Dory shook back her hair. “She'll say what she thinks you want to hear. She wanted my grandfather to pay. My mother to pay. Everyone to pay. But she'll pay now.”

Crouching, she held the gun to one blond head.

“Dory, no!” Richard shouted even as Callie sucked in air to scream.

“Which one will you save?” She shoved the other figure into the water. “If you dive in after her, I'll shoot this one. If you try to save this one, the other drowns. Tough call.”

“Dory, for God's sake.” Richard lurched forward, only to freeze when she swung the gun at him.

“Stay out of this. You're pathetic. Hell, let both of them drown.” She shoved the limp body into the pond, then aimed the gun at Callie. “While you watch.”

“Go to hell.” Braced for the bullet, Callie prepared to dive.

She sensed the movement, barely registered it as Jake rushed out of the trees. She was in the air, over the water, when she heard the shot.

She felt the sting, a quick bite of pain across her shoulder, but she was in the water, swimming desperately to where she'd seen the first of her mothers slide under.

She still didn't know which one.

But she knew she'd never save them both.

She filled her lungs with air and plunged. She was blind now, diving deep into the black, praying for any sign of movement, any shape.

Her lungs burned, her limbs went heavy and weak in the cold water, but she pushed down, farther down. And when she saw the glimmering shadow, gritted her teeth and kicked with all her strength.

She grabbed hair, pulled. With no time to use the knife, she hooked a hand under rope, using it to tow as she kicked hard toward the surface. Lungs screaming, muscles weeping, she hauled the dead weight up.