Beyond Revenge (The Ransom Series) (2 page)

Her Laugh

∞

In my dreams she
visits me,

gives me comfort,

reminds me.

She’s still out
there,

though I can’t see
her or feel her.

But I hear her.

The crescendo that
builds

from the simplest
smile on her face.

That beautiful
face.

The joyful sound
of her laugh.

∞

A door slams at the top of the stairs,
startling me awake.  In a matter of seconds
,
Robert is
down to the concrete floor approaching me with fiery hatred in his eyes.

He grabs my shirt, pulling me close to
him
and holding me there
.  I’m certain his fist is about to
introduce itself to my
face
when he suddenly lets go,
stepping back from me
and
breathing erratically.

“I’ve lost it,” he says, completely exasperated. 
“I’ve done everything in my power to find her, but I can’t do it on my own. 
You offered to help me, but how can I trust you?  After all you’ve done…”

He’s right in so many ways, but
fuck
if
I’m going to tell him that.  All I care about is Morgan.  “I’ll
find your daughter.  I’ll bring her back to us.  I don’t care what it takes. 
Even if it’s the last thing I ever fucking do, I’ll get her back.”

“I’m not letting you do this alone.” 
Robert’s circling me now.  I see the thoughts churning in his head.  “We’ll do
this together.  Every step of the way.  Prove to me that I can trust you. 
Prove that you truly love my daughter.”

I see part of him break inside in the
pained expression on his face.  He’ll never get over the fact that his daughter
fell in love with a criminal, with his enemy’s most important asset.
 
“I’ll prove it all to you, but we have to get moving.  Mark’s had
too much of a head start already.”

Robert stops and stares at me.  I can
feel his gaze penetrating into me, as if looking into my soul to determine
whether I’ve been sent here to play him or if I’m serious about helping him.  I
just hope he’s a good judge of character.

He releases a strained breath before
running his hands through his
graying
hair.  “Okay.”

He doesn’t sound like he’s convinced himself,
but he moves behind me to untie my wrists and ankles from the chair.

When I stand up and stretch my limbs
,
I feel the need to run up the stairs, out the door, and into the
world to find Morgan, but I know that isn’t how this is going to work.

Robert grabs me roughly by the
shoulder.  “Don’t fuck around with my family any more than you already have. 
I’m going to trust you enough
not
to tie you up, but
the moment you make even the slightest move against me or my wife, or if you
show any attempt at escape, I will not hesitate to kill you.”

I nod my understanding.  “Fair enough.”

He motions me to the stairs
,
and I don’t wait a second longer to make my way up them.  When I
open the door at the top, we emerge into a long hallway with cream-colored
walls and
tan tiled floors
.

I step to the side at the top somewhat
awkwardly, unsure of where to go in this place
that
I
never thought I’d
see
.  For a moment my eyes linger to
framed collages of photos on the wall.  I’m instantly drawn to largest of the
frames spotlighted in the center of the
hallway
.

It’s an entire frame dedicated to
Morgan
, pictures of her
being
held between her
parents, laughing with a group of friends, giving a thumb’s up through a
volleyball net, making a jump shot on a basketball court.  They are all of
Morgan, and she looks so happy, so content and innocent and perfect.

I have to look away.  Even in our
happiest times together over the last four months, her expressions have never
come even close to what I’m seeing in these pictures.  I have
truly
ruined her.  I
destroyed
her life.

“This way,” Robert directs me,
indicating down the hallway.

My senses become overwhelmed as we get further
into the house.  Beneath the path of destruction from Robert’s prior
outburst–the occasional toppled lamp, broken side table, and flurry of papers
strewn across the floor–I see what is a well-maintained and simply decorated
home, the furniture and décor lightly colored, warm and inviting.  The smell of
breakfast hits me: bacon and eggs with that hint of burning cheese.  Then I
hear it.

That laugh.

The most beautiful sound, Morgan’s
laugh, is audible from nearby.  It’s my most cherished sound, the one that I’ve
tried to elicit from her in any way I can every possible day, and it’s coming
from somewhere in this house.

I’m convinced when we turn the corner
at
the dining area that she’s going to be there.  Morgan will be
standing there waiting for me
,
and this will have all
been a joke or a dream.  We escaped and made it back to the Whitford household
to gather Morgan’s things so the two of us
could
start
our life together.

I round the corner, excitement sparking
life in my blood as I hear the trickle of the sound again.  Then my eyes meet
hers.

Morgan’s mother.  I recognize her from
the pictures on the wall, her long dark brown hair unmistakable.

With one look at me
,
the smile on her face fades, the laughter snipped out to silence. 
She drops the
magazine
she was
reading on
to the counter and cowers back against the fridge behind her.

I must look absolutely fucking crazy
right now.

“Sorry,” I say quickly, putting my
hands out in front of me and stepping back a couple feet.  I try to shake her
laugh out of my head before returning to meet her gaze.  “You just sound so
much like her.  Your laugh.”

Either my words or my
tattooed
and rough
appearance have upset her, because it takes
only
a moment for the tears to well
up in
her eyes
and
for her head to drop into her
hands
before
her entire body start
s
shaking from the force of her sobs.

There’s nothing I can do but stand there
as Robert takes his wife in his arms, soothing her cries with his hand on her
back and giving me a nasty glare over her shoulder.

How much more pain can I possibly
cause this family?

She eventually
pull
s herself together,
stepping
back from
Robert and wiping the tears from her eyes before looking at me again.  “Sorry. 
I get like this when I’m reminded of her.”  She crosses the kitchen and offers
her hand to me.  “I’m Cindy.”

I’m completely taken aback by this
woman’s actions.  She wants to shake my hand?  After everything I’ve done,
she’s greeting me like
I’m
a normal human being and
not a monster?  Did Robert even tell her what I told him last night?

I accept her offer, grasping her hand
lightly in mine.  Her skin is warm and, in a strange way, comforting.  “Leo.”

Cindy smiles at me, though the
expression doesn’t reach her tearful eyes.  “I hear you’re going to help get
our girl back.”

Part of me wants to think that she’s
including me in the “our” of her statement even though the likelihood
isn’t
high.  It doesn’t lessen my resolve, though.  “We’ll find her. 
I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Our hands release
,
and she steps back from me
.  She
grab
s
a coffee mug from the cupboard and
fills it
from the
coffee
pot.  “Robert told me you’ve
tried to protect her.  He told me about… the possibility of a baby, and that it
was Morgan’s decision.”  She offers the steaming cup to me, her hand shaking
slightly.  “Will she make it through this alone?  Does she have anyone else to
look after her?”

Guilt pierces through me.  This poor
woman is offering me coffee while discussing the fate of her daughter, a fate I
have very much played
a part in
and affected.

I accept the cup, and when she motions
to a small tray
of
sugar cubes and creamer
,
I politely shake my head.  “She’s strong.  She’ll get through
this.”  I take a moment to think about how to answer Cindy’s second question. 
“I don’t think she’ll be alone.  The man who was trying to help us is likely
with her or nearby.”

Robert looks at me questioningly.  “Who
is this man?”

“Jack Pearce.  Mark’s friend of many
years.  He’s a doctor, so I’m sure Mark will want to keep him close to her.”  I
can hardly
look at them as I finish the thought. 
“Mark will need him for what’s coming.”

It takes a moment for my words to
register with Robert.  Cindy understands instantly, shutting her eyes long
enough to take in and release a deep breath.

When she has composed herself again,
Cindy motions me to the table.  “You both need to eat something if you’re going
to have any chance at finding our girl.”

Something stirs within my chest,
breaking through my numbed heart.  Maybe I am included in the “our” of her
statement
.

It’s
strange to be taking a seat next
to Robert at the dining room table with my cup of coffee as I’m being served
bacon and eggs for breakfast, preparing to talk about how to track down a
psychotic criminal mastermind and the innocent young girl he stole from us.  We
eat in silence until the table is cleared, making space for the wealth of information
I’m
about to pour out of my mouth and spill
everywhere.

I spen
d
the
entire day describing in detail everything that happened when Morgan was held at
the prison and Mark’s headquarters.  There were moments in which I could tell I
was making Robert and Cindy uncomfortable, but we all knew these were things
they needed to hear.  They’ve been waiting months to find out what happened to
their child, and as much as it was painful for me to relive some of those
memories, for both good and bad reasons, I did what I could to shed light on
what happened to Morgan, telling them not only of what Mark did to her, but
also about how we fell in love.

Cindy was tearful throughout, though
she never
broke down and
fully cried.  Robert was
stoic and hardened against
my stories
, just as I
expected he would be.  He asked endless questions and took notes the entire
time.  He pulled out a map for me to mark the locations where Morgan was held,
both in New Mexico: the prison out in the desert and the headquarters in a
town
on the western edge of the
state
.

Robert grilled me about Mark’s other
locations, his faith in my honesty waning when I told him there
we
re none.  Mark wasn’t one to have multiple houses or headquarters
throughout the country.  His
most recent
base of
operations was in New Mexico.  Even if he did
have an
other
location
and held her there
, he’d never take her
somewhere I’d know about.  Wherever he’s hiding her, it’s completely off the
radar and unknown to me.

But someone on his crew has to know
something.

“We need to go at them, every one of
Mark’s guys on the street.  Put me in a room with them
,
and I’ll make them talk. 
They may not know exactly where
he is now, but someone
will have information about where
he
went after he took her from me
.”

Robert looks at me from across the
table, rubbing his fingers under his chin, deep in thought.  “You know I’m not
letting you do this alone, right?  I’ll need to go with you, and New Mexico is hours away.”  He stands up and grabs his cell phone from the counter.  “I’m
going to call in some vacation time.  They’ve been pushing me to take some time
anyway since this all started.  We leave first thing in the morning.”

Just the thought of getting out of here
to start the search is enough to spike my blood with eager adrenaline.  Waiting
until dawn is going to kill me.  I’m ready to do this now.

Robert pulls a pair of handcuffs out of
a cabinet in the living room and hands them to me.  “We have a spare room you
can sleep in, but you’ll handcuff yourself to the bed frame.  Do you
understand?”

I wish this man would trust me, but I
understand his cautiousness.  “That’s fine.”

“I’ll take him to the room,” Cindy
chimes in.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.  You
don’t know–”

“I’ll be fine, Robert.  Go make your
call.”  After a moment of hesitation
,
Robert
reluctantly
agrees
, and Cindy motions for me to follow
her.  “This way, Leo.”