Love, Lattes and Danger Read online

  Holly and Tyler walk out of the store and hop in the SUV.

  Tyler starts up the car and pulls out of the parking lot. “Now we just have to find a place to paint it.”

  “Shouldn’t be that much of a problem,” Piper says.

  We get back on the highway and look for a side road. It doesn’t take long. We pull over and Tyler and I do a quick tape job then spray down the vehicle. He grimaces with the first sweep of white paint.

  “I feel your pain, man,” I sympathize.

  “Yeah.” His response is glum.

  “I know you aren’t doing it for me. But again, I want to thank you. I’ll always owe you for this.”

  “Enough to get out of my life?”

  Why don’t you get out of mine? I rub at the tension in the back of my neck and take air deep into my belly. If it wasn’t for Tyler, I’d still be trying to figure a way to get my little girl back. “I won’t leave my daughter.” I spray a swath of white paint across the hood.

  “Don’t you mean you won’t leave her mother?”

  Anger does a slow build through my system but I fight it back. “You have a clear field with Piper.” I force the words through stiff lips. The tension has moved from my neck to my heart, a physical pain. I just don’t need this right now. Not on top of Amy.

  Tyler gives me a disbelieving look and makes sharp jerky lines of white. We finish in absolute silence. Without waiting for the paint to dry, I rip off the tape, throw open the door and climb in.

  Everyone is staring at me, except for Piper who’s looking at her clasped hands. They probably heard the whole conversation.

  Did I hurt Piper’s feelings? God, I hope not.

  Rustle. Rustle. “What do you want, little Angel?” Piper puts her up on her shoulder and the baby reaches for me.

  I take her in an awkward grasp and put her against my shoulder. She wiggles around until her cheek is pressed against mine, one little hand on my chest and one on my shoulder. “You heard, didn’t you?” I whisper to her.

  She gurgles. My heart turns over. “I can’t have your mother, but I’ll never leave you,” I breathe into her ear.

  She snuggles closer. For a few stolen moments, I find peace.

  Chapter 19

  I wake to the buzz-saw effect of Mr. Dunn’s snores. I wipe drool from my chin, unsure if it’s mine or Angel’s. Everyone seems to be asleep except Tyler and since he’s driving, I fervently hope he’s awake.

  I lean forward as far as I can without bothering the baby. “How close are we?”

  “We’ll be there in another two hours.”

  “Seen anything suspicious?”

  “I’ve periodically heard a helicopter overhead, which may or may not be looking for us. That was a good idea, to paint the car.”

  “Thanks.”

  Angel stirs and whimpers.

  “We need to stop somewhere for formula and diapers.”

  “There’s a department store up ahead, I’ll pull in.” Tyler turns on his signal and pulls up in front of a popular chain where people are streaming in and out.

  “I’m awake. I’ll get it.” Piper’s voice is still tinged with sleep around the edges. She stretches and gets out of the van.

  Gramps comes awake. “Where are we?”

  “Two hours out.”

  “You made good time.” He yawns and straightens. “How about if we hit a drive-through and get something to eat?”

  “Good idea,” I say, though I’m still not hungry. Every time I think of Amy, my stomach turns.

  Piper hurries back to the vehicle, takes Angel, and changes and feeds her.

  We pull off for gas, go through a drive-up and we’re back on the road. Two hours later, we’re driving up the dirt lane to Mr. Dunn’s cottage. A plane circles low, its lights cutting through the night sky.

  “Turn off your lights,” Mr. Dunn directs.

  “Sir, I’m not sure I can stay on the road. It’s dark as pitch out here.”

  “I’ll drive. I could drive this road blindfolded.” Mr. Dunn leans forward in the seat.

  “That’s pretty much what you’ll be doing,” Tyler mutters.

  They exchange places. True to his word, Mr. Dunn drives the SUV up the twisty road with no mishaps. I let out the breath I’ve been holding when we reach the top.

  “We need to be getting out of here before they step up the hunt. Let’s get some shut-eye then we’ll head out first thing in the morning.” Mr. Dunn fumbles with the keys, unlocks the cottage door, and everyone straggles in.

  I start to protest that we need to leave now. A look from Piper silences me. She’s right. Mr. Dunn needs the rest.

  “I’m not about to drive down that lane in the dark, so I’ll crash here, too,” Holly declares.

  “The more the merrier,” Piper replies.

  “I’m going after Amy,” I say.

  Quiet descends like a blanket. Finally Piper asks, “How? Where will you go?”

  “I’m going to head up the coast till I get to Texas then cut over into Mexico. I’m going to pull my boat so that as soon as I get Amy, we can hit the sea. That is if I can use someone’s wheels.”

  “Take my truck.”

  “Thank you, Piper.”

  “Why don’t you wait till morning?”

  “I can’t.”

  She rubs my arms. “I understand.”

  She hands me the keys.

  “Thanks.”

  My phone rings. “Hello.”

  “I believe you have something of mine and I want her back.”

  Stranger.

  “And do you have my sister?”

  Piper clutches me convulsively. The color falls from her face. The homey sound of the old refrigerator humming in the kitchen breaks through the strained silence.

  “Craven does. And you know how much he loves mutants.” He gives a mad, maniacal laugh.

  “What do you want, Stranger?”

  “A trade, of course.”

  “I’ll give myself for Amy.”

  “Joel, you are worthless to me. I have your sperm frozen. I can take Amy and make you both a father and an uncle of a new little mutant with her eggs or you can give me back the baby. And if you don’t, after I get the eggs harvested, I’ll see how Amy does with a little more DNA implants. Your mother wasn’t strong enough for my little experiments. Maybe Amy will be.”

  Bile rises in my throat and I choke. Never once did I consider the possibility that he would have frozen my sperm. Stupid on my part, I always assumed he would harvest from another mutant or use his own sperm, which would be nearly as bad. And to use my poor sister for more experimentation... I shudder. “You’re mad, not to mention what you are suggesting is incestuous.”

  “Oh come, Joel, it’s not like I’m asking you to do the physical deed, though it’s been done through history from time immortal. And animals have no issue with it. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Just bring me the baby.”

  “Where?”

  “I’ll call back with instructions.” He hangs up.

  “What does he want?” Piper asks, her eyes huge, her hands trembling. She knows. Of course, she knows.

  “He can’t have her. You can’t have her.” She comes at me, fingers extended like claws, ready to fight like a wild thing. I grasp her hands and hold them in place. “Do you have a doll?”

  “A doll?” She looks at me blankly. “No.”

  “Pip, Mattie is stored away in the chest. It’s Piper’s doll from when she was a little tyke,” Mr. Dunn explains.

  “Oh, oh, I see. I’m so sorry, Joel. I just wasn’t thinking.” She sinks into the chair. “Does he have Amy?”

  “Craven does.” Everything is out of kilter. I can’t focus. Their voices come from a long way off. I don’t want to believe what Stranger has suggested, but he would do it in an unnatural heartbeat to further his research.

  “Is he threatening to harvest Amy’s eggs if he doesn’t g
et Angel? Does he really think you’d make the trade for that?” Piper asks.

  “That and more.” My voice sounds hollow. The words come from a long way off.

  “Where would he get the sperm?”

  I look at her. She springs to her feet. “That monster. Surely, even he wouldn’t go that far.” She races to me, throws her arms around me, and croons. “It’s alright. You’ll get her back, Joel.”

  I nod, silent.

  “When do you leave?”

  “He’ll call me with instructions.” I step out to the small patio behind the cottage, inhale deeply of the salt air, feeling dirty and sick. Piper follows me and takes my hand. Together we listen to the rise and fall of the ocean and the gentle sighing of the wind through the pine. After a while, the ocean works its magic.

  “I’m okay, Piper.”

  “Of course you are.”

  She kisses me on the cheek and we go back in.

  “You might as well get what rest you can. Do you think you’ll be able to sleep?”

  “Right now, I feel like I could sleep forever.” Asleep, I won’t have to deal with the ugly realities that loom all around me.

  She digs out blankets. The girls take the couch and the spare bed. Tyler and I crash on the living-room floor.

  It seems like no time at all has passed when I smell coffee and bacon and see the first light of dawn stealing through the window. I straggle into the kitchen along with the rest of the bedraggled crew.

  I yawn so wide my jaws pop. Piper shoves a cup of steaming coffee into my hands. “Thanks.”

  “What’s the plan again? Do we really have to leave you here?” she asks.

  The others are already pulling out chairs. Holly is holding her head up with her hands. It’s been a long twenty-four hours.

  I look at my phone and will it to ring. “It’s the only way. Mr. Dunn will take everyone on the fishing boat and sail straight to the Bahamas. If Stranger thinks I’m bringing him Angel, it should be safe. He certainly offered me enough incentive.” I set my coffee cup down. The bitter caffeine has my stomach rolling. “Amy and I will meet you there.”

  “What if he tells you to fly in to wherever he’s meeting you?”

  “Then that’s what I’ll do. But it’ll be easier if I have wheels and the boat. I’m going to shoot for putting the boat in along the Texas coast. I don’t want to tangle with Mexico’s officials unless I have to.”

  “But, Joel, Texas is peppered with Ziccon’s offshore rigs.” Piper pushes back a loose strand of hair that slid perilously close to her breakfast plate.

  “Good point.” I take another sip of coffee. This time the caffeine settles more comfortably on my jumpy stomach. “Louisiana might be safer.”

  “Holly, are you driving everyone to the dock?” Once at the docks in town, everyone—except Holly—will board Mr. Dunn’s fishing boat, which has been converted into a tourist junket.

  As we talk, I take a cautious bite of eggs. I’m still not hungry but I need to keep my strength up for my daughter’s and Amy’s sakes.

  An hour later, we’re loading the vehicles. My boat is tied to Piper’s old truck. I just hope it has shocks. We stand around the car talking, awkward. There’s so much to say that can’t be said.

  Finally, I say, “You better get going.”

  “Goodbye,” Tyler says and shakes my hand.

  Mr. Dunn reaches over and gives me a hug. “Goodbye, son. We’ll be seeing you soon.” Holly waves.

  “Goodbye, Piper.” I want so badly to take her in my arms.

  “Be careful, Joel.” I swear I see the same flicker of frustrated desire in hers.

  I steel myself, lean forward and kiss the downy softness of the baby’s head. “Be a good girl, Angel.” I turn on my heel and stride away.

  For the first time, I hear the baby cry.

  Chapter 20

  The sound stops me in my tracks. It pierces my heart. What does the child want from me? Doesn’t she realize I rescued her, that she’ll be happy with her mom?

  Then I shake my head at the insanity of my thoughts. For all her intelligence, she’s just a baby, a baby who wants her daddy. I sigh and open the cab door. My chest hurts, as if my heart has a hole in it. Gulls screech overhead, the sound almost as forlorn as my child’s. You, Piper and Angel belong together, they seem to say.

  I glance at the SUV. Piper is soothing the crying baby and looks almost as distressed as Angel. Our gaze meets. Time stands still and the world recedes.

  Then Holly starts the car, backs out, and the contact is lost. I watch the SUV till it winds around the last curve and is lost to sight.

  Now all I can do is wait. “Call, you asshole.”

  Forty-five minutes later the phone rings.

  “Do you have the merchandise?”

  Merchandise my ass. The man is talking about my daughter. “Yeah. I got the merchandise.” I look through the truck window at the doll wrapped in Angel’s blanket.

  “The exchange will be made on the Texas side of the border just before you cross into Mexico. Be there by nine in the morning.”

  “Where on the border?” Nerves under my skin quiver and jump.

  “You’ll be apprised.”

  “Since there’s a lot of border to cover and you aren’t telling me where, give me till evening.”

  “I’ll give you till two PM, and, Joel? Don’t mess with me. I’d have no problem at all making another dolph from your and Amy’s DNA. And maybe remove Amy’s legs and substitute a fluke.”

  The contents of my breakfast threaten to come up. I swallow hard. It takes every ounce of self-control I have not to react. “I understand.”

  He doesn’t answer, just clicks off.

  Glad to finally be doing something, I hop in the cab and turn the key. The engine starts with a noisy grumble and the vehicle jolts down the dirt drive, the shocks every bit as bad as I feared they would be.

  It’s not like I won’t be seeing Piper again, I tell myself. It just feels like it. The good thing is, Stranger isn’t going to be looking for them on the water in a tourist junket. The fist clenched around my heart loosens. No matter what happens, Piper and Angel will be safe. No price is too high to pay for that.

  I drive straight through the day and night, stopping only for gas and an occasional jolt of caffeine.

  It’s closing in on two and I haven’t yet heard from Stranger when the traffic up ahead jams, slows, then stops. It’s probably an accident. I crane my head out the window but can’t see anything. Twenty minutes later, we begin to creep forward. In another twenty, I can see they’re checking drivers’ licenses. Crap. Stress pounds an irregular rhythm through my skull. Why didn’t I think about getting a fake driver’s license? I don’t even have an ID. I swipe at cold beads of sweat forming on my forehead.

  I look in the glove compartment for Piper’s registration. I find it under a handful of napkins and several ketchup packets. The slow crawl continues. Up ahead is a row of stopped police cars.

  Three cars are ahead of me. They inch forward. A policeman motions me forward, the next one motions me, too. The third holds up his hand. I roll down the window. “What’s going on, officer?”

  He looks first at me then at his cell phone. They must be after someone. Apparently, this isn’t a random license check. “Good afternoon, sir. I need to see your registration and driver’s license.” I hand him the registration.

  “This says the truck belongs to Piper Dunn.”

  “Miss Dunn is a friend of mine. She loaned me her truck to pull my boat.”

  He nods. “I still need your license.”

  This is it. This is when everything falls apart. I’ll never see Angel or Piper again. I’ll start out in a police cell and end up in a government lab being zapped and cut on.

  “Sir, your license.”

  “Sorry.” I shift in the seat and pull out my wallet. I open it, then exclaim, “Oh, crap. Sir, I’m sorry. I left it at home.�
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  He gives me a disbelieving look.

  “Yeah, dumb I know.” I hit my forehead. Will he believe me?

  He glances at the wrapped up doll on the seat with the blanket pulled around her face. If you don’t look too closely, it does look like a baby.

  He steps closer and leans in, intimidating. “Ten miles up, you’ll find an old dirt lane on the right hand side of the road with a pine tree growing on the left. Follow it till you get to an old deserted barn. Pull in.”

  “What the heck are you talking about?” I ask, bewildered.

  “It’s where you’ll make the exchange. Now move along,” he barks and motions me forward.

  I put my foot on the pedal and move out, the truck sputtering white smoke.

  What the hell just happened back there? I hit the wheel with the palm of my hand. My God, Stranger has someone on the payroll in the police department. For a moment my hands tremble. How can I possibly win over this man? I push the air out of my lungs and straighten. I will because I must.

  I put my mileage meter on zero. When it rolls over to nine, I start watching the right hand side of the road. Minutes later, I see it. A dirt road with a pine tree at the side.

  I turn off onto the bumpy dirt road, which winds back to another narrow dirt lane. At the end of it is a deserted old barn that looks like it could fall down in the next strong wind.

  I stop in front of it. I’m in view of the highway where anyone can see me. I put the truck in park and get out to open the barn door.

  I pull on the decaying wood. The whole thing comes off its hinge. “Shit.” I stumble under the weight and go down.

  Dazed, I push off the boards. Once free, I move my arms and legs to make sure nothing is broken.

  I’m relieved to find all body parts are completely functional.

  I pull to my feet and move lumber out of the way till I’ve cleared a path. I can only hope the damn barn doesn’t cave in on the truck.