He clenched his fists, wishing he’d been just a little faster. There was nothing left to do but drive home and hope Makay called soon. Yet what else had he expected? To chase Lenny down and beat him to a bloody pulp? It’d sure make him feel good, but it wouldn’t protect his mother or Makay.
What had Lenny meant by saying that Makay was with him? Harrison didn’t believe for a second that Makay felt anything but disgust for the man, but it worried him more than he could put into words that she seemed to be missing. He couldn’t lose her now, not after how far they’d come.
He dialed Makay’s number. Still no answer. “Call me, please,” he said when her voicemail beeped. “I’m about ready to file a missing persons on you.”
He replayed the scene with Lenny in his mind. Something bugged him about it, but he couldn’t pinpoint what. Wait. It was the backpack. As it swung off Lenny’s shoulder, he’d spotted that same crazy blue monster that Makay had clipped on hers.
“Makay’s backpack,” he murmured. Most of the times Harrison had seen her, she’d had the backpack, except at the dance club, and it had been with her stuff in his room that morning. The odds that Lenny would have the exact same blue monster was unbelievable, so that meant he’d seen her today.
Panic filled Harrison. The backpack and Lily’s assertion that Makay was going to deal with her problem had to mean that Makay went to confront Lenny. She
was
in danger. He mentally kicked himself for not having his mother leave the money so he could follow Lenny.
Too late. Too late.
The words reverberated in his head, mocking him.
He hadn’t the faintest idea where to find her. Or Lenny.
Harrison pushed on the gas. Maybe she’d left a clue at his apartment or at Brette’s.
If he hurts her, I’ll . . .
He couldn’t finish the thought.
Back at his apartment, he found his mother in his living room, her cell pressed to her ear. She beckoned to him, covering the bottom half of the phone. “You’re going to want to hear this. It’s Blaine Cooper.” She pressed the speakerphone button and put a finger over her lips.
Harrison had to wrack his brain to remember who Blaine Cooper was. Oh, yes, his mother’s old boyfriend, the father of the child she’d placed for adoption, the man who’d threatened Makay if she ever returned to blackmail him again.
“Like I said,” the man’s voice sounded hollow through the speaker, “I was really angry when she came to see me today. I mean, I work for my father-in-law, and my wife can be vindictive. I admit I was glad to have the money back, and I wouldn’t be calling at all—that girl made her own choices—but when I counted the money after I got back to work, I found an address she’d placed inside. I guess it was there so I could send my guy to that creep blackmailer’s house. Maybe she hoped I still would after I told her no. Stupid child. Like I’d risk my position to do that.”
“Then why did you call?” his mother asked, her voice deceptively soft.
“Because she returned the money and because of what we . . . Look, I know she means something to your son. She seemed pretty determined to get that guy, and I thought you should know. Maybe you can talk some sense into her. She’s screwed up, but she did give me back my money. What you do with the information is up to you.”
Harrison had the sneaking suspicion that maybe Cooper felt guilty for the way he’d treated Makay, but right now he was more interested in the address than the man’s disclaimers. “Get the address,” he mouthed to his mother.
“Well, she does seem to be missing,” she said. “Can you give me that address?”
Harrison took out his phone and tapped out the address as Cooper recited.
“Thank you for calling, Blaine. I appreciate it.”
“That’s okay. I knew where your husband worked, and a guy there—Chad, I think it was—gave me your number. I told him you were interested in looking at some carpet. Anyway, this better be the end of it.” Anger deepened Cooper’s voice. “If I ever find out who put him onto us . . .”
“It’s probably better that we don’t talk again,” Harrison’s mother said. “Have a great life.”
“But—”
She clicked the off button and met Harrison’s eyes. “How’d it go? Was Makay with him?”
“No, but he had her backpack. The same one she had here this morning.”
“Oh, no.” Her hand momentarily covered her mouth. “I’m sorry. But maybe now that he has the money, it’ll be okay.”
“You forget about the other target and that strange phone call to her friend.” He lifted the phone. “I’m going over there. I have to be sure.”
His mother clutched at his sleeve. “No. Just wait.”
“I can’t. What if she’s in trouble?” He pulled away from her. “Don’t worry. I’ll be careful.”
“Better take my other car,” she said, pressing the keys into his hands. “The Beetle stands out more—at least it would to him.”
Harrison drove quickly to the address. There was no sign of the red Jag, and he didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. He drove slowly around the block as he considered his options.
A bright blue Sebring caught his attention along the side of the road, the back seat full of boxes. Definitely Makay’s car and not outside Brette’s where they had left it. He drove back around and parked on the street where he could see the building’s entrance. Before he could decide what to do, the red Jag pulled into the parking lot.
<><><>
S
herry Matthews stared at the door to her son’s apartment for ten minutes as the shock of his leaving and of hearing from Blaine Cooper rendered her unable to move. It almost seemed as if the years had peeled away and she was again facing that terrible decision that had changed all their lives. Her heart was breaking.
She had done it for the baby and for herself, but most of all for Harrison because he was so little and she loved him fiercely. She already knew how hard it was to raise a child alone, and she hadn’t wanted to cheat him out of the little she had left, the bit she’d worked so hard to give her precious boy. The decision had been the right one for him—look where he was now. Not on some street corner selling hash, but an engineer at a prestigious firm. She’d believe that it was the right thing for her daughter as well—two stable parents who wanted more than anything to have a baby of their own.
Except now there was Makay, whose birth mother had undoubtedly thought the same thing when she’d placed her baby.
Maybe my daughter isn’t okay, either.
And Harrison was heading into danger. She knew it with every inch of her mother’s body. Her son. In danger.
No. She would protect him at all costs, as she always had.
Sherry picked up her phone and dialed.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I
t took Makay an hour and fifty minutes to work her left hand free. Bloodied and bruised, but free. In another ten, she had untied her legs and pulled the chair to the kitchen counter where she found a knife in a drawer and was able to cut the arm with the cast free.
Get out!
her mind screamed.
Before he comes back.
She would get Nate and call Harrison to decide what to do. A spurt of joy leaked into her thoughts. She wouldn’t have to make the decision alone.
Yet Lenny had that file on her, and as long as he did, he had power over her. He’d been distracted and left in a hurry, so maybe he hadn’t cleaned up the file from the bed. She had to try. She left the room and hurried down the hall, her heart aching with hope and fear. Hope that the file was there and fear that Lenny would return before she got out with it. If it wasn’t, she’d have to try the files on his computer to see if he’d hidden the safe combination there. Before, when she’d trained with him, he’d kept a file on his hard drive that contained all his passwords and account numbers. If she could get into the computer—and she knew enough of his old passwords to hope that was a possibility—she’d be able to find that list and maybe open the safe. But would there be time?
Disbelief filled her when she found the file still on the bed. She was so emotional at the sight that she couldn’t even sob with relief. Sweeping up all the photos and papers, she shoved them back into the manila folder.
Hurry. Hurry.
Finally she finished, and all she needed now were the contents of her backpack on the floor in the kitchen, especially her wallet and car keys. She’d find a plastic sack there to carry everything.
Something caught her eye—the corner of a photograph peeking out from under the bed. There might be more. She fell to her knees and began a quick search. What she found stunned her further. Six boxes of drug paraphernalia nestled under the bed. More of it than one person would ever use: pipes, smoking masks, bongs, syringes, roach clips, vials, small zipper storage bags, and digital scales.
He’s not just using. He’s got to be selling.
Selling to kids like Nate. Horror filled her. Growing up, she’d been around more druggies than anyone should ever know, some as young as ten or twelve.
Just get the photograph.
She swept up the picture and one more that had fallen under the bed and bolted from the room. A minute later, her hand was on the knob of Lenny’s front door. Her body ached all over and her head pounded.
He’s selling drugs to kids.
Lenny had taken her phone, but she could get out and call the police. Maybe they’d make it here before he moved everything and put him away for a long time. Or maybe selling drug paraphernalia wasn’t illegal. It would depend on what else was in the safe. He had snorted something earlier, she was sure.
Makay’s urge to flee increased. Lenny could be back at any moment and catch her. Yet if he came and saw her gone, he would move his real blackmailing files and whatever else he had in that safe, and while she might go free without the folder hanging over her, Lenny would continue ruining other people’s lives. So many lives ruined. Lives like Sherry’s. Like her father’s and stepmother’s.
How could she be a mother to Nate and hope to be anything to the straightlaced Harrison if she didn’t take a stand for what she really believed was right? She made the decision quickly, engaging the top lock on the door. It wouldn’t hold under an assault, but it might give her time to think of something.
In the kitchen, she found a stapler and secured the three open edges of her folder so nothing would fall out. With a marker she wrote:
Confidential. Please return to Makay Greyson.
Then she added Lily’s phone number because she didn’t want anyone calling her phone if Lenny still had it. If she could open the safe, she’d take everything to the police, but not this folder. There was still Nate to protect. Lenny might say that he logged into sites as her, but she’d take his laptop, and surely the police would be smart enough to figure out who had really been in charge.
Still, she was guilty, even though at first she’d been too young to understand the consequences and afterward too afraid of Lenny to quit. Would the police want to prosecute her as well? If they interviewed the people Lenny had blackmailed, they would all point their fingers directly at Makay. While she wanted to make restitution, she had to think of Nate. Maybe she’d have to drop the evidence anonymously where the police could find it. Or maybe Harrison could turn it in while she disappeared for a while.
Out on the balcony, she tossed the folder down, hoping to have it land behind a large barbeque the bottom floor resident kept on a small cement patio. Instead, it turned in the air and landed on the second floor balcony between a planter and the cement wall of the balcony.
She groaned.
Well, at least it’s safe from Lenny for the moment.
Makay went to the computer and booted it up. There was a password, but Lenny wasn’t very creative and had used a combination of several passwords from years ago. In a few moments, she was in. “Now where would you put that file?” Makay’s heart had settled into a fairly even rhythm, but each passing second she listened for something at the door with dread that slowed her fingers on the keyboard.
She found the file marked
charity,
the same name he always used. The safe was the third password from the top of the list. She tore a piece of paper from a notebook by the computer and jotted it down before grabbing several plastic grocery sacks and running to the master bedroom.
Hurry, hurry, hurry,
her mind said. Her hand shook as she punched in the combination. Eternity seemed to pass until the door finally swung open. A foot high stack of thin files greeted her, along with several bags of white powder. She opened one folder and saw that it was similar to those he’d given her, except it had real names, phone numbers, and addresses. Photographs of houses and cars and people in the targets’ families. Detailed notes, including what he would tell Makay. She also bet there were lots of Lenny’s fingerprints.
Plenty to convict him.
Using a grocery sack to cover her hands, she shoved everything inside the other bags. No time to look to see what was most important. Then she ran back to the kitchen, grabbed the laptop, and headed for the apartment door. She was beginning to think she’d made it when the door opened, jerking to a halt as the top lock stopped its progress.
“Makay!” Lenny yelled through the open crack. “What do you think you’re doing? Let me in!” A loud
thump!
sounded as he threw his weight against the door.
In that single instant, Makay’s heartbeat jumped into terror mode. The files were one thing, but the drugs quite another. She knew too well how that world worked. Not only would she have to deal with Lenny, but with his supplier if they felt she’d learned too much.
The balcony.
She whirled and one of the plastic sacks burst open, spilling files over the carpet.
Leave them.
She was halfway to the balcony when she heard the door crash open. She tugged on the sliding glass door, throwing it open.
“Stop!” Lenny appeared in the kitchen doorway. He dived for her, grabbing her hand holding the sack and pulling her to the ground. The laptop that had been under her arm skidded across the floor. His fist pounded the side of her head. As the back of her head slammed against the tile, Makay supposed she should be grateful he hadn’t used the gun. She lashed out with her cast and landed a solid blow on his face. Agony shuddered up her arm.