Authors: Maggie Thom
Bailey shuddered at the memories that came flooding back.
There had been no answers, just a whole lot more questions. Thankfully, Guy
chose that moment to return. The large, heavy wooden doors swung gently shut
behind him as he made his way over to her. He sat down heavily, propped his
elbows on the table and rested his head in the palm of his hands. His fingers
got lost in his shaggy brown hair. He breathed deeply several times.
She couldn’t take her eyes off
him. Three band aids covered the outside of his right hand from the wrist to
the base of his pinky. Surprised that she hadn’t noticed that before, she
reached out and barely stopped herself from touching him. She looked at her
outstretched fingers and then at him like she had anything to offer him. Slowly
she lowered her hand to the table in front of her. It didn’t stop her from
wondering what kind of day he’d had. She was guessing it hadn’t been all that
dissimilar to hers.
When he didn’t raise his head
after a few minutes, she realized that his breathing was a little too even, too
deep. She glanced at the clock over the bar. They only had about an hour and
half until the flight left if he’d managed to get them on the one he wanted.
Reaching toward him and thinking that was way too intimate, she placed her hand
on his leather clad, scuffed shoulder and gently shook him. “Guy.”
No movement and no change. She
tried again but was a little firmer in her shake and in her voice. When that
didn’t work she nudged him a little harder but she got little more than a
grunt. A woman jabbing her husband with her elbow caught Bailey’s attention.
She realized again they seemed to be the center of attention. Besides the fact
she didn’t like being in that position, they needed to be more inconspicuous.
Getting up, she smiled at the
people staring and rounded the table. Once she was beside Guy, she leaned down
and whispered in his ear, “time to get up, sleepy head. We’re attracting
attention and our flight is leaving soon.”
Another unintelligible sound.
Hissing through her teeth, she drove her tongue into his ear, pulled it out and
said, “let’s go, big boy. Now. Or you don’t get any.”
His head snapped back. She
snorted in disgust and headed to the exit. He blinked several times but soon
stumbled to his feet and followed after her.
“Where’s our tickets and boarding
pass?”
“We have to pick them up from the
airlines.” He swiped his hand down over his stubbled jaw. “Slow down. We’ve got
time.”
She just kept on cruising at
least until his hand halted her.
“What in the hell is your
problem? I’m sorry I fell asleep. I’m tired. I need my sleep. Yes, I’m a baby.
All right?”
She thrust her chin in the air
and turned her face away. “Get our tickets okay.”
He grabbed her arm and pulled her
into line with him. “All right. What’s got you all upset. I said I’m sorry for
falling asleep.”
“Like that’s going to bug me. I
could use some slumber too. Uninterrupted slumber.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“You. You wake up as soon as
there’s a sexual suggestion. Nothing else would open your baby blues.”
He groaned. “Since I’m not a
hundred percent sure what you’re talking about, did it ever occur to you that
maybe you tried several things that started waking me and it was the fifth or
tenth thing you did to wake me and not the suggestion of sex, that was
successful?”
Two young women blatantly stared
at Guy. He leaned close and whispered in Bailey’s ear, “I don’t know what sex
you were offering but I’m saying yes. And no I didn’t and wasn’t thinking of
another woman. Baby blues, huh?” He moved up to the open counter.
Bailey stood there stupefied,
until she heard the two women say, “Wow is he hot.” Then she moved up beside
Guy. Not quite daring enough to slide her hand into the crook of his arm, she
leaned in close so the two chicks would know he wasn’t available.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-FOUR
“Why’d you come after me?”
“Well I wasn’t going to let you
go wandering off in the airport.” Guy wanted to heave a sigh of relief now that
they were finally in the air but he just couldn’t quite shake his paranoia of
being followed.
“I meant why did you come and
find me in the first place.”
“Oh.” He looked down at the
newspaper he’d bought before boarding the airplane.
I owe my grandmother, my
step grandmother.
“I…I guess you could say I was
doing a favor for someone. I was intrigued. Of course, this turned out to be
more than I figured.”
They shared a commiserating
smile. Now that they were en route to Toronto, they both seemed to have let
their guards down a little bit. Guy knew he felt safer heading back to his own
territory. He just wasn’t sure if he was really making the right decision for
Bailey. What if he was taking her back to where it all began thirty years
before, only to find that the same threat was still there?
“Excuse me, would you like
anything to eat or drink?”
They both took the offered juice
and cookie, wolfing it down before the flight attendant had even moved forward.
He caught her looking at him, guilty looks turned into amused ones.
“Well, that ought to knock off
the twelve hour hunger.”
He looked out the window at the
darkening sky and the black clouds. It made him think of his attacker and
wonder if they’d shaken him at last. Graham hadn’t heard back from Detective
Bean yet as to whether he’d been arrested or not.
Guy shoved his hand through his
disheveled hair, he dropped his head back and breathed out with a sigh of
disgust.
This is getting crazy!
He thought back to his
conversation with Graham just prior to getting their tickets.
****
“Where the hell are you and
what’s going on? Are you all right? Of course you’re all right. You’re talking
with me. Dammit man, don’t do this again. The man you wanted me to track down,
a Mr. John Denori. Warrants for many different cons - theft, fraud, assault, outstanding
warrants for questioning on three attempted kidnappings occurring in 1978, 1979
and 1980. Sound familiar?”
“Attempted?”
“No details except, they weren’t
successful. Well it sounds like he did what he was supposed to successfully but
it turns out that in each case a family member/relative was behind the
abductions. Someone figured it out and he was fingered for the attempted
abductions. Sick.”
“No wonder he wants Bailey. I’m
sure she’s the last link to his kidnapping her and trying to sell her on the
black market. I’m assuming that’s what his ring was?”
“Yeah but it looks small time.
More of an,
I’ve-got-a-family-member-that-is-threatening-my-inheritance-money-I-want-them-removed,
kind of scam.”
“Jesus, there are some sick
relationships. Makes you wonder.” Guy stared off into space, his mind trying to
fit some pieces of the puzzle together. “Before we go too far with this I need
two tickets to Toronto. There’s a flight leaving in about an hour and a half.
Can you get us on it?”
“Yes. But you need to fill me in
on what’s happening.”
“Did you get a hold of Bean?”
“Yeah, that ungrateful s.o.b. He
acted like he was doing me a favor instead of the other way around. Dick.
Anyway, I haven’t heard back from him. Doubt I will so I’ll hack into the Edmonton
Police files later to see if they have arrested Mr. John Denori. Sorry I can’t
give you a definite.”
After he filled Graham in on all
that had happened, he asked him to do him a favor.
“Graham, I need you to do some
searching for me. It may take you a while and I need everything kept so silent,
there’s not a whisper of it anywhere. Okay?”
“You know me I don’t share spit
with anyone.”
“I know that Graham, but no one
can trace you. And before you tell me you never leave a trail, I need you to
make sure. These are some serious people and the person I want you to do some
checking on may have connections and be into something that no one will
believe.”
“I’m taking it you know this
person. So before I let you tell me, is this going to put my life in danger?”
“It might. Want out?”
“Hell, no. I just like to get
prepared for excitement if it’s coming my way.” He sighed. “I live such an
exhilarating life that this will feel like a walk to the washroom. I look
forward to this trip. Thank you, my friend.”
Guy laughed. “You are so odd,
Graham. Must be why we’re friends. Thanks. The person that I need a complete
history on is Geoffrey Caspian.”
A long slow whistle met that
announcement. “Oh, really. Well the good old chap is showing his true colors,
eh? I’ll get right on it. Be careful. I don’t like the fact that family might
be involved in this dirty stuff.”
“Me neither.”
****
What are you going to do about
it?
“What are you doing?”
Startled, that she was asking him
the same question that was going through his head, he frowned at her. “What?”
“You’re twisting that package
like you’re going to either try to make a taut rope or you’re going to rip that
aluminum foil package in half.”
Looking at his hands he saw that
he was mangling the wrapping from his snack. “Just thinking.”
“Care to share?”
No, because all I have are
hunches. And I don’t want to scare you away from your family.
“Just that this week’s been
crazy.”
She snorted, which reminded him
that if he was finding it nuts, she had to be just about certifiable with what
she’d gone through.
“I should have asked before now,
how are you holding up? With losing your mom and all?”
She glanced at the newspaper he’d
stuffed beside him. Seeing the direction of her look, he pulled it out and
offered it to her. She shook her head.
“No. I… it’s just my mom had an
obsession with the news. I always thought that she was just a control freak but
I wonder if there could be something more to it. Any ideas?”
“I don’t know. Any particular
part she used to read?”
“Cover to cover. And every major
newspaper she could get her hands on. The weird thing was that when I was
throwing them away, the ones from years gone by, I remembered where I was on
some of those dates.”
“Oh.”
Turning, she faced him. “Yeah.
Like where we lived. I learned to connect where we were at, to a date. It gave
me something to do. It kept me from thinking about what was going on in my
life.” She twisted her hands together. “Every time we moved. Every time we
screwed someone over. Every time we did something that made my stomach feel
like it was full of battery acid, I can tell you the date. Ask me to remember
when something good happened and I… don’t know. Sad eh?”
“It had to be tough being on the
go all the time.” Guy restrained himself from reaching out to touch her,
knowing she needed to keep talking and any sympathy on his part would shut her
up.
“You have no idea. But at some
point it became an expectation. You never really unpack. Never get too excited.
Too attached. Because it will all change.” She knocked her knuckles together.
“Okay, enough about me. Tell me something about you. Did you move around a
lot?”
He couldn’t look away from her
questioning gaze. He shifted several times in his seat.
“Ants in the pants? Guess I hit a
nerve. Easy to talk about me but don’t share with the pathetic life story of the
girl if you can’t beat it. Hmm?”
“No, I probably can’t beat your
story but mine’s not so pretty either. Let’s just say I was the result of a bad
situation.”
He ignored her arched eyebrow for
a moment before giving in. “My mother was a maid for a wealthy family, she was
said to have been raped. It was hushed up. She was given the boot. Until I was
nine I lived with my mother and grandmother. Then my mom was killed in a car
accident. My grandmother was a bit nuts and devious. She was blackmailing the
rich family, telling lies and slandering them. She wanted money. My step
grandmother, who had become the head of the mansion, basically bought me. She
paid the old woman and next thing I knew was that I got to grow up in a
beautiful old monstrosity of a house, where I was treated like gold.”
“So your real grandmother didn’t
want you and figured you were a good way to get rich? How long did you live
with her?”
“A few days.”
“Your step grandmother put up
money right away for you, even though you weren’t related?”
“Uh. No.”
“Okay, I’m confused.”
He met her compelling gaze. He’d
never told anyone about his upbringing before. “The day after my mom died, my
real grandmother put me in the foster care system. It took my step grandmother
over a year to find me and to stop the old bat from screwing with my life.”
He didn’t realize his hands were
clenched into fists, until he felt the soft feel of her palms gently touching
him. Taking a deep breath, he allowed her soothing touch to calm him. “So can I
compete with your upbringing? No. Do I know what it’s like to be shipped around
and unwanted? Yes. Do I know what it’s like to be a pawn in an ugly game? Yes.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered but it
didn’t hide the depth of emotion behind it nor the tears that filled her voice.
It almost choked him up that she
could feel for him when he’d only had it bad for a short time. She was still
living her hell. Opening his hand, he flipped it over and clasped hers. They
sat in silence for a long time, as they both stared off into space, enjoying
their sense of camaraderie.
A long time later he looked down
at the long, seen-better-days brown hair lying on his shoulder. Her breathing
was deep and even. She was sleeping hard. He covered his yawn with his palm. He
knew he must have snoozed a bit too because he didn’t remember her leaning
against him. Not wanting to wake her he settled back against the seat and
carefully adjusted her head, so it laid more snugly against his chest. His arm
slipped around her. It felt too comfortable. Too natural. Getting involved with
a client was a big no-no and had never been an issue for him before. Something
told him that this was no longer just about keeping her safe so she could
reunite with her family.
He stared out the window,
watching the grey clouds below them. The fact that he was headed home gave him
a moment of reprieve. The tightening in his gut started to ease, to unwind, at
least slightly. Then his mind shifted to all that had happened, to all that was
still to come and to all that needed to be done. To figure out who was behind
it all. The acid rolled and clawed his insides as though a cat was clawing up a
curtain to get away from an enemy. If what he suspected was true and with
knowing what Bailey still had to learn, he was going to have to hurt the one
person who he felt was saving him. And he was going to end up drowning her in
the hell of who might really have been the one to have her kidnapped.