Reckless Hours: a Romantic Suspense novel (Heroes of Providence Book 3) (28 page)

Dylan stopped at the foot of the stairs and turned to look up at the portrait of Eleanor Davco and Serena.

At the top of the stairs, Aurore demanded, “Tell me what’s going on! What do you know?”

“How long has Susan been with you?”

Aurore thought about it impatiently and then said, “Seven, eight years now.”

“Right after the statute of limitations was up.”

“What?”

“Turgis isn’t after the Davco money. He’s after the last painting.”

He raced through the kitchen and pulled the cellar door open. The basement light was on. The damp smell of old air and cement slapped him in the face. Aurore had said she’d used a secret tunnel from the basement to the barn to escape during the fire, but that it had been closed up when the mansion was rebuilt. Closed up at the time, yes. But that didn’t mean it hadn’t been dug out and rebuilt. This house was big enough to work on at one end without someone hearing it being done on the other. Maybe that was the real reason Sam Watson had worked at night. Although nothing had come up in the report about him, that didn’t mean Susan hadn’t paid him off. Someone had to have been helping Susan move through the house unnoticed by Serena and Aurore. As drugged as Serena had been kept, it made sense that she hadn’t heard any commotion.

But Aurore was another story. The woman’s senses were as sharp as a knife. Only someone who was
familia
r
to her could move through the house and manipulate her into thinking she was safe.

Fear clutched at him, rendering his legs nearly paralyzed as he moved down the cellar stairs, toward the darkness. Someone had turned the light to the cellar stairs on, but otherwise, the cellar was drenched in darkness, broken only by small slivers of light from the windows that hung high on the cellar walls.

Still, he moved. It wasn’t about him or Cash now. It was about Tammie.

He’d been on many ops during his tours in the Marines. While there had been times he wasn’t so sure he’d be coming home, he’d made it to see another sunrise. It was the same with him being a cop on the streets of Providence. Some good men and women didn’t make it home. A split decision that turned out to be wrong, or even a right one in the wrong circumstances, meant bad news for a loved one.

He’d always known the risks, and accepted them. But the very thought of losing Tammie completely shut him down.

Dylan didn’t have a gun with him, and even if he did, in this darkness he wouldn’t have been able to make out what to shoot. He moved by instinct. His foot struck a box, and he stumbled. He put his hands out front to lead the way.

He’d just about decided to turn around and search outside when he heard a moan.

Heart racing, he moved through the darkness, searching the strange shadows with wide eyes until he found a figure on the floor. Relief shot through him as he dropped to the floor, but it was short-lived.

“Serena?” he said, turning her over. He couldn’t see her face, but her eyes shone in what little light there was. They were rolled back in her head. “Serena, where is Tammie?”

She offered no response. She felt like dead weight in his hands, a sure indication that she’d been knocked out, either by force or by drugs. Hearing Aurore’s footsteps on the stairs, he quickly laid her on the floor again and stood.

“Serena’s back here!” he called out before moving toward a cabinet that looked out of place. And the dark shadows behind it.

The cement was cold and damp as he ran his hand up and down the doorway to see if he could find a light switch. Air from the basement seemed to be being sucked into the hole. He finally found a switch and turned it on.

The tunnel was long enough to reach what he assumed was the barn. It must have taken a long time to dig it out again without Aurore knowing. At the far end, a ladder was propped up against the wall. An opening above the ladder allowed natural light to spill into the space below.

Dylan took a few steps into the tunnel and stopped short, crouching down to look at a dark stain on the ground. He pressed his hand against the stain and felt wetness. When he brought his hand up to his nose, he thought he’d die. He knew the smell of this liquid all too well.

It was the smell of death.

* * *

Tammie’s head felt as if it had been split wide open, like an overripe melon. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t pry her eyes open. She was resting on something hard, with her legs pulled awkwardly to one side underneath her. Her back hurt from being in the odd position, so she tried to stretch out her legs to relieve the pain. But her feet were stuck, unable to move from where they were.

Somewhere outside of
wherever
she was, she heard voices. It was a woman, one who sounded strangely familiar, and two men. The woman sounded angry, but Tammie couldn’t make out what she was saying. Suddenly the ground beneath her shifted and she was thrown to one side, knocking her arm and head against a hard wall.

“I told you to be careful!”

Susan?
The wall she’d fallen against was made of wood. She felt the rough grain beneath her fingers as she moved her hand against it. What was Susan doing here?

Startled, she tried to move again, but her legs wouldn’t budge. Panic rose up inside her like the swells of the ocean during a storm. It continued to build, even as realization hit that she was inside a box that was too small for her to stretch out.

Too weak to push against the walls, she was vaguely aware that she was being raised into the air. The voices sounded closer, but she couldn’t hear much of what was being said above the banging of her pulse against her temple. Pain followed every throb.

Slowly, she reached her hand up and touched the spot that throbbed. She winced at the pain. Her hand came back wet and sticky.

Her stomach lurched with every movement of the wooden box. Bile rose up in her throat and stung the back of her mouth. Tammie braced her hands as best she could against the walls of the box, trying desperately to keep panic from taking over. She had to stay calm. She had to think of a way to save herself, or there was no chance of getting out of this alive.

“I’m sorry, Dylan,” she whispered as tears stung her eyes. She’d pushed him away last night. He’d opened up to her, stood there with his emotions open and raw, and she’d pushed him away. What was worse, she hadn’t opened up her heart to him and told him that she loved him. And she did. Of that she was certain.

The box suddenly twisted as if it were falling, making Tammie dizzy. Her head slammed against the wall again, and she was instantly plunged back into darkness.

# # #

• Chapter Seventeen
  

Dylan’s Jeep was stuck in a cluster of cars. Main Street was littered with papers and debris, as if it were the day after the big Mardi Gras parade. Trucks were fighting for space, trying to load what furniture and antiques hadn’t sold back onto their wagons so that they could head out to the next auction.

“It’s a nightmare down here right now,” the officer directing traffic said. “We’re detouring everyone until after one o’clock today.”

“I can’t wait that long,” Dylan said, and quickly filled him in on who he was and what had been happening down at the Davco mansion.

“I can’t allow you in there without a police escort. I can’t risk other people getting caught in the crossfire if it comes to that. Pull over to the side. We’re waiting for backup.”

“Tammie could be dead by the time the state police get here.” Dylan ground out the words. “I’m not waiting.”

The church’s parking lot was empty. Dylan pulled his Jeep in and parked. The state police barracks were a good twenty minutes away. Susan could be long gone by then. The police officer was still directing traffic around the
auction grounds, trying to calm dealers who were eager to get their goods out of town and on to the next auction.

Frustrated, Dylan climbed out of the Jeep and slammed the door shut. He was wasting precious time that Tammie might not have.

It wouldn’t take him as long to navigate his way through the traffic on foot, but it might make getting away harder if Tammie was hurt when he found her.

And he
would
find her. He knew just where to start. By then, maybe backup from the state police would have arrived.

He rounded a corner and raced down a lane toward the area where he’d seen Aztec Corporation’s tents. The landscape of the auction grounds had already changed, and the temporary landmarks he’d cataloged the other day to find his way around were no longer there.

Dylan spotted Susan, exactly where he’d suspected she’d be. She was sitting in the passenger side of a large truck that blended in with all the others that were lining the aisle. Two men were on the back of the flatbed, stacking crates and boxes.

At first, she didn’t see him. But he didn’t care if she did. In fact, he wanted to look her in the eye, let her feel cornered and scared, the way she’d made Serena feel all these years. All this time, Susan had been the vehicle on a path of destruction for both Serena and Cash. She’d been the one to take Ellie from the house through that tunnel and bring her God only knew where.

Before Dylan could even allow himself to think about the baby, he needed to find Tammie. She was here. He was sure of it. And if she was still alive, they were taking her with them.

Oh, please, let her still be alive.
He couldn’t lose her now.

Maybe it was better that the state cops hadn’t arrived. They wouldn’t be able to search for Tammie without a warrant. But Dylan could find probable cause before they came on the scene.

Cardboard boxes and wooden crates lined the aisles, waiting to be loaded on trucks. He ran through the aisles, staying behind other trucks and keeping an eye on Susan so that she wouldn’t see him before he was ready. Given the sheer volume of crates, Dylan knew that looking for Tammie was going to be like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. For all he knew, Aztec Corporation could have already loaded a truck that was long gone.

Would they have had time to get Tammie out of town that quickly? He didn’t know when she’d been taken or that she’d been taken here. But if Susan was here, in the open, it was a good bet Tammie was, too.

Dylan slowly moved around a smaller truck, trying not to rouse the suspicions of the Aztec crew.

Susan lifted her head, and her eyes widened when she spotted him. Sliding over to the driver’s side of the truck, she gunned the engine and shifted into gear.

“Hey, whatcha doing?” one of the workers on the ground said, quickly moving out of the way to keep from getting flattened by the truck.

Hatred shone in Susan’s bright eyes. He’d seen it in her before, but never this way, never with this purity that made her intentions so clear.

She revved the engine and beeped the horn once, signaling to her crew. “Forget the rest!” she yelled out the open window. “Let’s go!”

“We’re not done!” one worker said. He was still holding a box in his arms, but when he turned and saw Dylan running toward him with determination, he dropped it. “Let’s roll!” he yelled, waving to his partner and jumping into the cab.

Dylan didn’t move from the center of the lane. There were so many trucks littering the aisle that Susan would have to crash into them and then run him down to get away.

“Give it up, Susan!” he yelled.

He looked straight into her eyes, saw the contempt she held for him, and then ran toward the truck at full speed.

* * *

Tammie’s eyes fluttered open at the sound of an engine whining close by. Her head ached, and she was finding it hard to make sense out of where she was. A small sliver of light shone through a tiny crack in the wood, but that was all the light she was afforded. Where was she? What had she been doing? She couldn’t remember.

Suddenly, whatever she was resting on lurched forward. The enclosure she was trapped in bounced back and forth, knocking her arms and head against the sides.

She cried out once, closing her eyes against the white, blinding pain.
This couldn’t possibly be the end. How could it be, when she’d only just found love? She’d never told Dylan she loved him. Even as they stood in the living room last night and it was clear that Dylan felt the same for her as she did for him, she hadn’t uttered a word.

There had been no walls between them, and the emotion they felt for each other had been evident, even if the words hadn’t been spoken.

She did love Dylan. How that was possible in so short a time, she didn’t know. But she was sure of it. It had hit her like a bolt of lightning hitting a mighty oak, slicing it in half. She was in love with Dylan. From the moment she’d met him, he’d dug under her skin, tearing away that protective layer she’d had to protect her from pain.

And then she heard his voice, and all she wanted to do was weep with relief. But at the same moment, realization collided with fear. If she was in danger, so was he!

“Dylan!” she called out. Her voice seemed muffled inside of the box.

The stench of exhaust fumes filled the tiny space she was in. She coughed and gasped, trying to pull fresh air into her lungs. But with every breath she took, the only air she got was poisonous exhaust.