Wanting (PAVAD) Read online

  Chapter 78

  ******

  Sebastian heard everything that was said, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting Carrie away from that guy. They could sort out the particulars later. He doubted anyone saw him yet; the three were all focused on each other. The main doors to the shelter opened. Sebastian could barely recognize the man who came through the doors. The smoke was too thick from the fire next door and with the setting sun, visibility was poor. A second later he saw the yellow shirt Reynolds had been wearing. The older agent nodded at Sebastian, signaling he was ready for whatever happened.

  That could buy them time. He didn’t know where anyone else was, but they were somewhere. And he was counting on it. “Minton Rush! Put your hands where I can see them.”

  Sebastian held his weapon steady as he crossed the rooftop to the bricks separating him from the roof next door.

  Rush focused on him for a moment. “This is becoming tedious.”

  “Let her go and then you can go on your merry way,” the other man on the roof said. Sebastian recognized a skilled and experienced officer in the way the man stood and spoke. Kevin Beck? Carrie’s supposed father? “You’ve changed, Minton.”

  “Seventeen years in prison will do that to a man. You’ve most likely changed yourself. I’m sorry about Susan. She was a lovely woman.”

  “Even though she never liked you.” Beck stepped closer to the abutment as Rush pulled Carrie closer to the fire escape. “I should have listened to her. Maybe things would have turned out differently all around. I have a question. How did you get my daughter out of state so quickly? I went to get her less than twelve hours after her mother died. And she was gone. How did you do that?”

  “It took some cash and a few connections. I should have killed her that night I killed her mother. But I didn’t have time to search their apartment like I wished. An overly nosy neighbor called in the disturbance before I had the chance to find what I needed.”

  Cold. Sebastian took a few seconds to try to put it together. Sociopath, no remorse for what he had done. Just annoyance that his plans had been thwarted. Carrie meant nothing to him, just a means to an end.

  That could be a good or bad thing.

  If he decided she wasn’t useful to him, he could kill her just to distract them.

  But then again, of all the people on that roof, Carrie was the one that mattered the most to everyone else. “Just let her go, Rush.”

  “Not going to happen, lover boy. She and I are going to the alley, then taking a small trip. Once I get what I want from her—and Kevin’s other daughters in the TSP, I will release her.”

  Sebastian was close enough to see the resolve and fear in Carrie’s eyes. He was so proud of her. She was holding herself together like the pro she was. Only the way her mouth moved silently in the one-two-three-four count betrayed her fear. “Carrie, do you know what he wants?”

  “The music box. But he says it in evidence lock up. And he’s going to use one of my sisters to get it. I have sisters. I didn’t know that.”

  “You do. I met them. They look like you, talk like you. One even knows computers like you. Not as beautiful as you, though.”

  “How touching. But you are correct. Carrie here got the best of her mother, as well. All that red hair. Madeline was a very beautiful woman. Pity. She and I were once very close. Before Kevin and she, of course. But that didn’t last long, did it? You and Susan were married less than a year later. And had my little goddaughter Melody two years after that? You were definitely a randy boy, dear Kevin. Always loved redheads.” They were close to the fire escape. Too close. If he pulled Carrie over the edge, Sebastian’s view would be blocked. Rush would have an opportunity to do whatever he wanted with Carrie, and no one could stop him.

  Chapter 79

  *****

  Dan knew what was going to happen. He’d been on the job long enough to have seen these types of situations. He could predict the outcome and it wasn’t good. He stepped closer to the abutment. He was half between Carrie and Rush and Beck. Carrie’s father. The father she didn’t know.

  Dan understood the pain the man was feeling then. Hadn’t he felt something similar himself every single time he’d had a redheaded victim dependent on him?

  Dan couldn’t describe the determination that filled him. This bastard was not going to hurt Carrie. He wasn’t. She didn’t deserve to suffer for something her parents did seventeen years ago. It wasn’t fair to her.

  Lorcan seemed to have a good handle on the front position with Rush. And Beck—Beck was the man’s reviled nemesis. The true target. The man Rush was performing for. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. Dan didn’t have time to figure out which. If he could get closer, he could possibly get behind Rush—and Carrie—before they got to the fire escape.

  Beck must have had the same thought, but Rush wasn’t letting him get too close. “Stay put, Kevin. It would be so simple, you know, to take Madeline’s daughter from this world. Just a simple squeeze here…”

  Everyone froze.

  Dan heard the door open behind him, and recognized the sounds of Alessandra and Ed identifying themselves as federal agents.

  Lorcan yelled for them to stay back.

  They froze, weapons ready, just this side of the doors.

  What would this Rush guy do? Four federal agents and a police detective had their weapons aimed at him. He had limited choices, and none of the scenarios Dan ran through his mind ended well.

  Especially for Rush. Or Carrie.

  Chapter 80

  *****

  Carrie wasn’t stupid; she knew what was likely to happen to her. Rush was so horribly outnumbered; he was bound to feel the pressure soon. The only question was what he would choose to do about it. “They are going to kill you. You really aren’t going to be able to do what you want. What is so important about the music box anyway?”

  “Hush, my dear. I’ll deal with you later.”

  “Are you sure about that? These people are good at what they do, Minton. That one is the director of the St. Louis division of the FBI. He has a security detail that follows him everywhere. I’m sure they will be here any minute. There are three of them. That’s a lot of guns you need to be aware of. Just tell me—what is in my mother’s music box. You tell me that, and I’ll tell you where the key is.”

  “A floppy disk, my dear. That is all. But I want it. It’s mine. And she stole it from me.” He dragged her to the edge of the roof, her arm and side banged into the railing of the fire escape hard enough to bruise.

  Carrie couldn’t help herself. She looked down. She’d always hated heights, and her fall in South Dakota hadn’t made it any easier.

  But this time, her breath caught. Someone was coming up the fire escape. Paige, and Dr. Jules and a woman Carrie didn’t recognize.

  Paige was alive. She’d gotten out. And she wouldn’t have left without Calista. They were safe at least.

  “That deal will leave me little to go on, my dear. Tell me about what you remember of the music box?”

  Carrie’s gaze met Sebastian’s. He nodded. He wanted her to stall the man. So she would. She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. She would not think about him and what they’d done together over the last few weeks. Would not think of her silly fears from only an hour before. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying again to compose herself. She counted, one-two-three-four. She opened her eyes.

  That was it!

  The last thing her mother had ever given her was that tiny porcelain doll. Inside that doll had been a necklace. An odd-shaped necklace Carrie had never been able to identify.

  Because it was…a key.

  To a handmade music box her mother had kept on her dresser. Her mother would use the key to wind the box. It would take one, two, three, four twists of the key. Then the tinny sounds of Ode to Joy would play.

  Carrie used to love Ode to Joy. As a little girl, she’d twirl and twirl and twirl around her mother’s bedroom to that song.
That love had stopped around the time her mother died. She’d never remembered why. Until now.

  “Minton?” Carrie whispered. The man glanced down at her very briefly. Someone else moved—that man Kevin. He got closer. What was he planning to do? And when had Sebastian gotten so close? “Minton? I know something you don’t…”

  The whisper worked. Something did, anyway. His attention shifted down to her. Held. “What, my dear? You really do look much like Madeline. But you have your father’s eyes. Quite a beautiful woman, you are. The best of your parentage.”

  Carrie looked at him, looked at Kevin Beck. Her father. She knew it deep inside. Her attention focused on him for the longest time, then shifted to the man six feet behind and to the left of Kevin. Sebastian. Her Sebastian.

  It was now or never. If someone didn’t act fast this tableau would be swarming with police and firefighters. The other agents she suspected were down on street-level—Agent Len and the rest of Edward Dennis’s security detail—would be able to hold the fire responders off for only so long. They couldn’t risk the runaway shelter and the mental health clinic too much longer. Not with the type of blaze in the building next door.

  Someone had to do something to break the stalemate. And Carrie knew the truth. Her biological father wouldn’t with her endangered. And neither would Dan. He couldn’t. He’d never risk being the one to hurt her. And neither would Sebastian. He loved her too much to risk her.

  Carrie looked away from him. Her gaze met Edward Dennis’s, then Alessandra’s. She could see them both tense. They knew she was planning something. She nodded just a tiny bit. Alessandra nodded back.

  “I know where the key is. And you’re never getting it,” she yelled. Carrie ripped the gold chain from around her neck and threw it over the side rail. She jerked out of the man’s arms and flung herself over the side after it, to the metal stairs below.

  Chapter 81

  ******

  Dan watched in horror as his girl went over the side of the roof. He couldn’t move, could do nothing. Couldn’t help her, couldn’t stop her.

  He’d never felt as helpless as he did in that moment. Except once, except when he’d opened his eyes in a Kansas City hospital and his sister had told him his girls were gone.

  Rush cursed, struggling to find his feet. He did, his weapon still pointed at Beck. Hatred twisted Rush’s face, more than evident in the street lights. Beck was moving, running to the roof and his daughter.

  His daughter.

  This man had just found his daughter. And now this Rush bastard was going to take that away from him. Take a daughter from Beck and a father from Carrie.

  Dan wouldn’t allow that. He couldn’t. What if it had been his girls?

  He was moving toward Beck as the first shots rang out.

  Chapter 82

  ******

  Sebastian saw it all happen and knew he could do no damned thing about any of it. He was too far away. Rush fired, the bullets striking Reynolds before anyone could react.

  Sebastian’s shots struck Rush mid-chest, as did Alessandra’s, and Dennis’s. The body fell over the brick barrier and was gone.

  Like Carrie’s.

  Oh, God. Carrie.

  “Carrie! Carrie!” Sebastian was at the rail in seconds, leaving Reynolds to the care of Dennis and Al.

  He didn’t want to see what he knew he would. He couldn’t. He hopped the bricks to the fire escape, hoping she was ok, somehow. Some way.

  There she was. Right there. Alive and Breathing. In Paige’s arms, with Julia Bellows fussing over her, one of Beck’s daughters behind her. “Thank God!”

  He had her in his arms as fast as he could. “Bellows, the roof now!”

  The small doctor didn’t hesitate, climbing over Sebastian and up the ten foot ladder and disappearing onto the roof. Leaving Sebastian with Carrie. “Paige, go help! They’ll need it…Reynolds…Dan…he…”

  Carrie had her arms around his neck and she stiffened, tried to pull away. “Dan? What happened? Who is hurt? Sebastian?”

  He pulled her against him again. “Reynolds was hit. I don’t know how bad, baby.”

  “We have to get up there. To him!” Carrie pulled away again.

  “Just give me a second, ok?” To reassure himself that she was alive and whole and hadn’t just fallen over the side of a roof. Or dove.

  He’d never forget the moment she’d looked at him and he knew she was going over. Knew that she thought that was the best choice. And knew she was going to do it.

  “Hey! People! Let’s move! In case you missed it, the damned block is on fire!” Strong hands pulled her out of his arms and Sebastian fought. Until he saw the yellow of the first responder’s uniform. That was all it took to remind Sebastian where they were and what was happening. “Move!”

  “Get medical help to the roof!” Sebastian set Carrie aside, set his personal feelings aside and did what he had to do.

  “Already on its way! Now get moving!”

  Chapter 83

  ******

  Kevin put pressure on the holes in the man’s side where the woman—a doctor, apparently—instructed him to. “Why did he do it?”

  The man was dying in front of him because he’d dove in front of him. Kevin couldn’t understand it. The doctor didn’t look up from her work, even when the firefighters tried to pull them away from the man.

  “Dan has been hurting for so long. And he loves Carrie. Who are we to question what he did?” The doctor was an odd one; Kevin had no difficulty seeing that. She was calm and cool and after telling him that Carrie was safe with his daughter Melody, she’d insisted he stay put and help her. The other man, Dennis, was taking charge of the scene, ordering the cops and first responders around like commands were second nature for him. They probably were.

  “Is he going to make it?”

  “I hope so. I really hope so. Let’s move him! Now!” The woman stood and let the paramedics strap Reynolds into a brace. They’d carry him down the fire escape and to the waiting ambulance below.

  Kevin wasn’t a religious person—they took the kids to church when they were little, but Kevin wasn’t a real praying man. He prayed now. Prayed he’d have a chance to thank this man.

  Kevin followed the doctor and the paramedics down the escape. The fire responders were ushering everyone off the roof. The fire was starting to spread to the runaway shelter. They’d been fortunate, apparently. Whatever Rush had set had been slow burning and a heavy smoker. Designed to distract, not destroy completely. To buy him time to find Carrie and get her out of the building unnoticed.

  Now if Reynolds was just as fortunate.

  Within four minutes the responders had the roof clear and Reynolds was being carried away in an ambulance.

  Melody and Brynna met him on street level. Kevin grabbed each of his daughters by the arm and pulled them away from the commotion. Hugged them. “Where’s your sister?”

  “Agent Lorcan is taking her to the hospital to be with her friend. I guess he’s a mentor of Carrie’s. A close friend.” Brynna was shivering, the excitement of the scene too much for her. She was used to staying in the precinct. Forensics, especially computer crimes were where she was comfortable. This kind of world would be hard for her.

  “Which hospital?” Kevin ushered the girls toward his vehicle, still parked two blocks away where he’d left it.

  “Memorial.” Jarrod, Melody’s partner, said. Kevin was thankful the cool and efficient detective had come with the girls.

  “Let’s go.”

  “Dad? What happened up there?” Melody asked.

  Kevin shook his head. He wouldn’t talk about it now. He had to find his oldest daughter first.

  Chapter 84

  ******

  Carrie paced the waiting room, counting the one-two-three-four out in her head. Would she ever forget the origination of the beats? Ode to Joy? Somehow she doubted it.

  Sebastian was beside her, his eyes watching every move she made. She couldn’t loo
k at him. If she did, she was afraid she’d break down.

  Dan was dying.

  Dying. Protecting her.

  Just like her mother had. Madeline had pushed her into the closet, with the tiny doll Carrie had been forbidden to touch before that day. Had told Carrie to never make a sound. So she didn’t. She’d done what her mother had told her to do.

  She looked at everyone gathered around her. Alessandra had stayed behind at the scene to help there with Agent Len. Edward Dennis was pacing the waiting room, opposite of Carrie. He and Dan were such close friends. This had to hurt him, too. Dan had other friends. Had anyone thought of them? “Did anyone call Josh? Hell and Georgia?”

  Dennis nodded. “They’re all on their way. So is the rest of your team.”

  Because Dan might die. And everyone needed to be there for him. For each other. In case. “When will we know something?”

  Dr. Jules stood and approached Carrie. “Carrie, sweetie. It’s going to take a while. Dan…Dan was hit five times. They’re going to repair the damage. Then he’ll be in recovery. Why don’t you sit down? Take a breather. You’ve had a pretty rough day.”

  Carrie nodded. Dr. Jules had always pointed out reason to her. She sank into the chair beside Sebastian. She still couldn’t look at him. If she did, she knew she’d lose control completely.

  And that was something she just couldn’t afford to do.

  ***

  Why wouldn’t she look at him? Had she looked at anyone besides Dr. Bellows since they’d arrived at the hospital? Why?

  No one had touched her except Dr. Bellows. Not since the fire escape. He had tried. But she’d pulled away. Why? Was it just her way of coping? Her shoulder bumped his and he put his arm around her. She trembled against him, twisted her fingers in the material of his sleeve. She still didn’t look at him. Her foot tapped and tapped, faster than he’d ever noticed before. But she was holding herself together. She was. He pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. He was so damned proud of the way she’d handled herself tonight.