Love Inspired Suspense July 2015 #1 (36 page)

Her eyes widened. “I'm distracting? I stood perfectly still and quiet while you putted. You're the one who cracked jokes trying to distract me, and when that didn't work you nudged the windmill to ricochet my golf ball back to the tee.”

He laughed. “I had to do something to even the playing field. How was I supposed to keep my eye on the ball when you were standing there looking so beautiful?”

She blushed. “Now who's trying to distract who?”

Cole leaned on his putter and studied her, knowing he was playing with fire but unable to come up with a single reason to stop as he watched joy bubble from her like a sparkling fountain.

“I'm beginning to think you asked your brother to join us so you wouldn't look so bad at the game,” she teased.

“No—” all at once, he could think of nothing except kissing her. He caught her about the waist “—that was to keep me from doing this.” He curled his arm to draw her to him. Her delicate scent invaded his senses, as it had been doing all night. Her lips shimmered in the spotlight shining down on them as he paused long enough for her to pull back. Her disarming smile touched a part of him he'd thought beyond reach and sent his already pounding heart thundering as their lips met.

She tasted of peppermint and chocolate, only sweeter. Much sweeter. She swayed toward him and joy and an intense possessiveness surged through him. Wrapping his arms around her, he drew her closer to deepen the kiss, only to be foiled by the blast of his phone. He managed to ignore it for two rings, until Sherri pulled back, a shy smile dancing on her lips.

“Aren't you going to answer that?”

He let out his best reluctantly acquiescent groan as he tugged the phone from his belt. “Hello.”

“Cole?”

The anxiety in his dad's voice stripped the grin from Cole's lips. “What's wrong?” He dropped his hand to Sherri's, clutching it like a lifeline as a horrible premonition rampaged through his mind. His dad hadn't called him in seven years. Not once.

“Eddie's gone.”

“What do you mean
gone
?” Cole demanded.

“I'll meet you at the truck,” Sherri whispered and hurried over to the kiosk with their putters and golf balls.

“I took him to the video store on Canyon to pick out a couple of movies while I ran into the grocery store. But when I got back, he was gone.”

Cole slowed his frantic stride and waited for Sherri to catch up. “Maybe he went looking for you at the grocery store.”

“That's what I figured, because the video store had closed by the time I got back to it, but I went up and down every aisle in the grocery store and even tried having him paged. I can't find him.”

“Have you tried his new phone?”

“He's not answering. I would have driven home to see if he started walking, but I didn't want him to find the car gone if he'd wandered off with a friend and came back. I've spent the last forty-five minutes searching every shop and corner of the parking lot.”

“Forty-five minutes!” Cole opened the truck door for Sherri. “Okay, we're on our way.”

“I tried calling the sheriff, but they said he had to be missing twenty-four hours—”

“I'll call. Was he still wearing the same clothes I saw him in?”

“And a navy blue windbreaker.”

“I'll make sure the deputies are on the lookout for him. Hold tight. We'll be there in a few minutes.” Cole hit Disconnect and tossed the phone to Sherri. “Dial the sheriff's direct line. He's in Contacts.” He rammed the truck into Drive and squealed out of the parking lot.

An instant later Sherri filled the sheriff in on the reason for the call and handed the phone back to Cole. “Yeah, sheriff. I need a BOLO on Eddie.”

“Your father already—”

“No, listen, sir, please. His sneaking off doesn't add up. Not tonight.”

“He's done it before. Addicts can't quit as easily as they'd like us to think.”

“Yeah, that's why we need every deputy on the lookout for him.”

The sheriff's sigh told Cole that his boss had to be regretting ever hiring him. “I'm sorry, Cole. We just got word of an infant being kidnapped from his home. If not for your father's call, I would've already called you to come in. We've put out an Amber Alert and notified State Police, but I need every available deputy on this. I can put out the BOLO, but that's all I can do.”

“We'll find him,” Sherri said, taking back the phone.

Cole wanted to believe her, but the burn in his gut said something was very wrong. “Eddie was happy. Had a fun night planned with Dad. Dad can be a lot of fun to hang out with when he wants to be. I can't see Eddie ditching him.”

Sherri reached across the seat and squeezed his hand. “We'll find him,” she repeated.

Dad flagged them down the instant they pulled into the parking lot. “Did you talk to the sheriff?” he asked as Cole parked beside him and rolled down his window.

“Yes, but a baby's been kidnapped so they have more urgent priorities at the moment.” Cole glanced in Dad's car and noted the single bag of groceries. “Is that all the groceries you picked up? What took you so long to get back to the video store?”

“A lady needed my help.”

Right. Figured. He should've known.

“What do you think? Should I stick around here? It's getting dark. And he's more likely to remember the home number than my cell phone's if his phone's dead. And it's got to be.” Dad turned his phone screen their way. “I bought him a phone I can track, but I'm not picking it up. See?”

Or Eddie had deliberately scuttled the feature. The burn in Cole's gut spread to his chest. The situation was looking worse by the second. “Okay, you head back to the house. Call his friends. Ask them all to be on the lookout for him. Keep trying his cell. Sherri and I will drive around and look for him.”

“Maybe he caught up with a friend and lost track of time,” Sherri suggested.

Yeah, but Cole doubted it, especially if he'd wandered to the grocery to see what had been taking Dad so long and spotted him flirting with another floozy. “Let's hope they're walking the street, then.” He and Sherri trolled the area in ever-widening blocks.

When he neared Sherri's street, she said, “Why don't you let me off at my apartment and I can pick up my car? I wanted to bring it to my folks' tonight, anyway, and we'll be able to cover more ground that way.”

Cole slapped his hand on the steering wheel. “Why can't my dad ignore women for one lousy night? Eddie would be home watching a movie with him if Dad hadn't wasted who knows how long
helping
some desperate woman.”

“Your dad loves your brother and you. You need to forgive him. Holding on to your anger isn't helping Eddie.”

Everything in him stiffened. “This is exactly why I can't forgive him. The man cares only about himself.” Cole twisted his fisted hands around the steering wheel. “I should've known this would happen. I shouldn't have gone out tonight.”

Sherri glanced away.

“Hey.” Feeling like a heel, Cole reached across the seat and gave her hair a gentle tug. “I don't regret going out with you.”
Not really.
He traced the scar Eddie had left on her cheek. “Although why you'd want to get mixed up with me, I don't know.” He returned his attention to the sidewalks, a sigh seeping from his chest. “You deserve a lot better.”

She let out an unladylike snort. “You quit your job to pick up and move back to a town you never wanted to see again just so you could help your brother. And ever since you got here you haven't stopped looking out for me, too. What's not to appreciate?”

He shook his head. “You never cease to amaze me.” He squeezed her hand. “But I'd rather you stick with me, tonight. If Eddie was mad at Dad, he could've gone drug seeking. After what he did to you the last time, I don't want you to find him without me.” Cole drove past her apartment building.

“Cole, stop!” Sherri slammed her palm to his dash, her gaze fixed on his side window.

He rammed the brakes. “You see him?”

“There's someone in my car.”

Cole hitched his arm over the back of his seat and reversed far enough to pull into her apartment parking lot. As his headlights swept over her windshield, his breath caught. Eddie was in the passenger seat. “He must've come here looking for me.” Only Eddie was leaning against the window, his head flopped forward.

Sherri was already racing for her car, before Cole registered stopping his truck. She yanked on the door and when it didn't give, fumbled in her purse.

Cole raced to the driver's side. “It's locked, too!” He tried smashing the window with his elbow.

“I got the key,” Sherri shouted, yanking open the door and catching Eddie as he tipped out. “Help me get him to the ground.”

Cole hooked his arms under Eddie's and hauled him out. Under the harsh beams of Cole's headlights, Eddie's face looked deathly gray. “Is he breathing? He's not breathing!”

“Call 9-1-1.” Sherri pressed an ear to Eddie's chest, then pounded it hard and started compressions. “C'mon, Eddie. Don't you die on me.”

Cole punched the numbers. “I screwed up. I shouldn't have left him.”

“What's your emergency?” the operator came on and the words balled in Cole's throat, his gaze fixed on Eddie's lifeless face. “Hello?”

“My brother, he's not breathing. We need an ambulance.”

“Your location?”

His mind drew a blank. “Sherri, what's the address?”

She shouted it out and Cole repeated it into the phone. The welcoming peal of sirens soon filled the air.

He dropped to his knees beside Sherri. “What can I do? Tell me what to do.”

She continued pumping Eddie's chest hard and fast. “Call your dad.” She looked up and his heart froze at the chill in her eyes.

“Oh, God, please—” The prayer died on his lips as he clutched his brother's hand. It was cold. Too cold.

FOURTEEN

T
he swirl of emergency lights in the darkness cast a sickly glow over Eddie's face. Sherri stepped back to give the arriving paramedic team room to take over. She'd gotten a pulse—weak, but there. Cole still clung to his brother's hand, willing him to live, and either ignoring or not hearing the paramedic's request that he step back.

She pried Cole's fingers from around Eddie's and pulled him away. “He's alive, Cole. You need to give them room to work. Okay?”

He turned to her, but seemed to look through her, unseeing.

“Cole, pull yourself together,” she said sternly, hoping to snap him out of his shock.

“What did he take?” Jeff, the paramedic intubating asked.

A deputy backed out of her car, holding up a half-empty bottle. “Oxycontin and whiskey, by the looks of it.”

That snapped Cole out of his daze. “No way. My brother was not drinking tonight.” Cole looked ready to pound the deputy for the mere suggestion.

Sherri tried to restrain him. “Cole, take it easy. He was drinking. I could smell it on his breath.”

His tortured gaze broke her heart. “But...why? He'd been happy when we left.”

The deputy made a notation on his notepad. “When a depressed person formulates a plan they think will fix their problems, they can often become unusually happy. That's when you really need to worry about them.”

“What are you saying?” Cole lunged for the guy. “That my brother planned to kill himself?”

Sherri clasped his arms. “Cole, it's okay.”

He flung off her hold. “It's not okay. My brother did not try to kill himself. He wouldn't.”

She held her ground, understanding how desperately he'd want to believe that, but needing him to focus on what mattered most now. No matter how much it hurt. “Cole, what's important is he didn't succeed. You have another chance to be there for him. You need to focus on Eddie.”

The deputy drew closer, a piece of paper and jackknife in his hand. “This your brother's knife?”

Cole took it and stroked the ivory inlay with his thumb. “Yeah. I gave it to him for his tenth birthday.”

The deputy showed them the scrawled note in his other hand. “It was used to pin this to the center of the steering wheel.”

Sherri's knees buckled at the message: You win.

Was this meant for her? Did Eddie feel as if he was competing with her for his brother's attention? She'd had no idea.

“Do you know what he could have meant?” the deputy asked.

Cole's gaze met hers, his expression utterly tortured. Neither said a word, but she knew he was regretting pulling her deeper into his family's problems. Every time he looked at her now, what he'd remember was that he'd been with her when he should have been with his brother.

And he wouldn't be able to forgive himself. She'd replayed Luke's shooting in her mind enough times to know that.

She stiffened her spine, stuffed her trembling hands in her pockets and forced herself not to give in to the turmoil thrashing through her insides. She didn't know how Eddie had jimmied her door lock, but that effort alone had convinced her he'd chosen her car to make a statement. He'd resented Cole not being here all these years. That much had been obvious. It made sense, too, that he'd resent Cole spending so much time with her now that he was finally home.

Sherri felt for Eddie. He was hurting, but the fact that he'd used the knife Cole had given him to pin this note to her car showed he'd clearly wanted to hurt Cole, too.

The paramedics loaded Eddie onto a gurney and into the back of the ambulance. “You riding to the hospital with us or following?”

“I need to go with him,” Cole said to her, his tone vacant.

“Yes, you do.”

“If you want to leave me your keys, we can drop your truck round to the hospital for you,” the deputy said.

“Thank you.” Cole handed over the keys.

Sherri stood and watched as the ambulance sped down the street, kept watching as the numbness seeped from her body and the trembling set in. She'd been afraid it would start before Cole left, escalating his guilt. She couldn't come between them. She wouldn't. Not again.

* * *

As the paramedic pushed open the back door of the ambulance, Cole spotted his dad waiting outside the ER doors and clenched his jaw to clamp down the fury threatening to explode out of him. The paramedics yanked out the gurney with Eddie's unconscious body, looking whiter than death, strapped on top. Dad stood frozen, his gaze fixed on the passing gurney, but making no move to check on his son.

Clambering from the truck, Cole diverted his attention back to Eddie.

Dad caught him by the shoulder as he passed. “How is he?”

“Alive, no thanks to you.” Cole jerked free of his hold. If Dad had been giving Eddie the attention he craved, this wouldn't have happened.

They wheeled Eddie to a private room in the ER, and a nurse directed Cole to a waiting area. A few minutes later, Dad joined him with a clipboard full of forms. Cole fisted his hands and paced, wanting to lash out at him for letting this happen. But Dad's hollowed-out look gnawed at his insides, that and knowing he was as much to blame for Eddie's suicide attempt as his father. Maybe more. Eddie clearly resented how much time he spent with Sherri. He should've been home with him tonight, not with Sherri. Still...

“You couldn't have ignored women for one night?” Cole ranted. “Eddie probably went looking for you after the video store closed and saw you flirting with some floozy half your age.”

Dad didn't look up from the paperwork he was filling out, but his fingers turned white where they gripped the pen. “Not everything is always what it seems.”

“Clearly. You say you would've loved to come to my graduation. Yet, you didn't. As if anyone was stopping you.”

“Your mother told me you didn't want me there.”

“What?” Cole reeled. How could—?

Dad squinted up at him. “That's not how you felt?”

Cole's cheek twitched, giving away too much.

“Every time I drove Eddie into Seattle to spend the weekend with your mom, I asked to see you. She said you didn't want to see me.”

Cole shrugged. That much was true. After the first couple of requests, he'd made a point of not being around when his dad showed up with Eddie.

“I figured I deserved the cold shoulder and it would be wrong to pressure you to change your mind, so I stayed away. But if I'd known you would see me, I would've been there in a heartbeat.”

Cole squirmed at this complete one-eighty to what he'd thought his father felt. “In a heartbeat, if you didn't have a date. Right?” He hated the bitterness in his voice.
Holding on to your anger isn't helping Eddie.
Sherri's words whispered through his mind. And, yes, in his head he knew God wanted him to forgive his dad, but somehow that felt like condoning what he'd done.

Dad returned his attention to the clipboard, not rising to Cole's goading.

“He's in here.” A nurse ushered a young woman pushing an elderly woman in a wheelchair into the waiting area and then turned to Dad. “This woman was telling me about your good deed this evening and I told her that you were here. I thought you'd like to hear how well she's doing.”

He smiled at the woman, hunched sideways in the wheelchair, her arms curled against her chest. “How are you feeling?”

The woman nodded and smiled. “Better.”

The young woman reached over the patient's head, offering her hand. “I'm Lucille. Her daughter. Thank you so much for helping Mom find her nitroglycerin and staying with her until the ambulance came.”

Cole's eyes widened. He hadn't been hitting on someone?

“It was no trouble at all,” Dad said magnanimously, but Cole didn't miss the hitch in his voice. No doubt thinking about Eddie.

The women left, and Cole reamed out Dad. “Why didn't you set me straight when I accused you of flirting with some woman while Eddie was waiting for you?”

“Would you have believed me?”

Cole flinched.
No. Probably not.
Sherri's voice whispered through his mind once more.
You need to forgive him.
He blew out a heavy sigh. “I'm sorry. I've been so angry with you for the way you treated Mom that I haven't treated you any better.” He pressed his clenched fists to the sides of his leg, forced his fingers to straighten. Inhaled. “Can you forgive me?”

Tears sprang to Dad's eyes as he pulled Cole into a bear hug. “I'm sorry I hurt you. I've missed you so much.”

Cole soaked in the love pouring from his dad like a parched desert soaked in water. “I've missed you, too.” Except as he stood there wrapped in his father's arms, his thoughts returned to Eddie. If his brother hadn't run away in a snit because of their dad, then he really had taken those pills because of him. Cole stepped back.
You win.
Was Eddie that jealous of the attention he'd shown Sherri?

Jealous enough to be behind the attacks against her?

Cole paced the room, trying to wrap his head around that thought. What if Ted had been telling the truth? Eddie had been in more than a few of the photos Ted had snapped of Sherri over the past few months. And they only had Eddie's word that another guy had goaded him into raiding her ambulance and going to the drug house. He could've paid off a friend to make the phone calls, to pull that stunt in the mall and then blame it on Ted when they were caught, to sic the Rottweiler on Sherri.

Cole shook his head. Where would Eddie find a guy with a Rottweiler who could home in on Sherri on command and ignore everyone else?

The nurse returned and ushered them into Eddie's room.

He was still unconscious, but from Cole's experience in Seattle, waiting to question addicts who'd been given Narcan, it meant Eddie would soon be alert. He'd wake up swinging but be lucid enough to answer questions.

The doctor at his bedside hooked his stethoscope around his neck and turned to them. “You're welcome to stay with him. He's stable, but we don't know when or if he'll regain consciousness.”

“If?” Dad's voice cracked.

“I'm sorry to be so blunt,” the doctor continued. “His vitals are good, but we don't know how long he was in cardiac arrest before the paramedic revived him. I'm afraid he could have suffered significant brain damage.”

Cole closed his eyes, a lump balling in his throat.

“I've ordered an MRI, which will give us a better picture of where he's at,” the doctor added then left with the nurse.

Dad sank into a chair beside Eddie's bed and clasped his hand. “We don't want to lose you, son. We need you. You hear me?”

Cole took up a chair on the other side of the bed and echoed his father's sentiments. “I should call Mom. She'll want to be here.”

Dad brought Eddie's hand to his lips. “I already did. She's on her way.”

* * *

Someone shook Cole's shoulder, and his head bobbed up from his chest, his stiff muscles screaming in protest as he jerked to a sitting position. “Is Eddie awake?”

A different nurse than the one who'd taken care of his brother last night smiled down at him. “Yes, and your father wants you to hurry.”

It had still been dark when Cole had retreated to the visiting area, but now bright sunlight filtered past the window blinds. Apparently he'd done more than just drift off for a few minutes.

Dad intercepted him outside Eddie's room. “He says he didn't take any pills. That he was drugged. And he's babbling about some picture you showed him.”

Cole's heart rioted. He rushed past his dad, replaying last night's scene through his mind. But nothing gelled. He'd been so focused on Eddie, thinking he'd tried to kill himself, desperately afraid he'd succeeded, that all he could remember of the scene was Sherri's clearheaded determination not to give up on trying to save him. He should have called her last night, updated her on how Eddie was doing.

Dark circles ringed Eddie's sunken eyes, but they shone with a glint of determination as he strained to push up onto his elbows. “It was the guy in the picture you showed me, Cole.”

Cole rested a hand on Eddie's rail-thin arm, urging him to still, wishing he could do the same to the urgency clambering up his chest. He needed information. Reliable information. Because if Eddie was telling the truth about not taking those pills—Cole's heart missed a beat—someone had tried to kill him. “Tell me everything you remember.”

Eddie's eyes darted every which way as he strung together odd bits of memory.

Trying to make sense of them, Cole had to wonder how much of Eddie's story was in his imagination.

“Where did you go when you left the video store?” Dad prodded.

Eddie's eyes suddenly aligned, and he nodded vigorously. “Yes, the video store. He came in when I was checking out action movies. And he said
doing
weird.”

Cole met Dad's eyes over Eddie's sweating, jerky movements. But his frown-shrug said he couldn't make sense out of what Eddie was saying, either.

“Doing weird?” Cole repeated.

“Yeah, he doesn't say it like us. Not dew-ing. He says doy-ing.”

“O-kay.”

Eddie pulled at his hair, looking equally frustrated that they weren't following his logic. “That's how the guy who tipped me off about Sherri's ambulance talked. I've never heard anyone else say
doing
that way.”

Cole's pulse skyrocketed. “The bald guy did this to you?”

Eddie shook his head. “He wasn't bald.”

“But you said—”

“I know, but this guy had hair and was better built. Except I couldn't shake the way he said
doing
out of my head. I spied on him around the end of the video rack and when he turned to leave, I saw his face. He was the guy in the picture you showed me.”