Dangerous Abduction (O'Connor Brothers Book 2) (31 page)

“What happened to you, Marc?” She had to ask because he was so different.

“You really haven’t figured it out, have you? I guess it must be the blonde hair that makes you so stupid.” He laughed. “I didn’t change. I’m not Marc.”

He really had lost his mind. “If you’re not Marc, then who are you?”

He turned around. “He never told you about me, did he?” he spat at her. “So he was telling the truth. Oh well, I guess letting him die was probably a mistake.”

“Who’d you let die?” Marina asked.

“Who do you think? Marc.” He pulled a chair over in front of her and straddled it. “Let me tell you something about your loving Marc. He wasn’t an only child. As a matter of fact, he was a twin and guess what? I’m the twin.” Had he completely lost it or was he telling the truth?

“I don’t understand.” This had to be his imagination, some sort of delusion because of the drugs.

“You know the dumb blonde act is really getting old.” He pushed himself up off the chair and stood directly in front of her. He was doing it again. Making her feel stupid.

“I’m trying to understand what you’re telling me.” She really was trying to keep the tremor out of her voice, but when he stood over her, it was intimidating.

“I’m not Marc, you stupid fucking whore.” He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up until she was stood on the tips of her toes. “Your precious Marc is dead and has been for a long time.” He was hurting her, but what he was saying was starting to make sense. “I left him chained up in that trailer he wanted me to stay in, until he could tell you about me.” He ran the barrel of the gun slowly down her cheek. “So I knocked him out, chained him up inside, and left him there to die.” He laughed and his lips formed a sadistic smirk. “You didn’t even know the difference when I showed up after he told you he had to take that trip for work.”

“Oh. God.” It finally made sense. The major change in his personality, not wanting to touch her, treating her like dirt—the violence. “My God you... you... killed him and took his place.” Tears filled her eyes and sobs wracked her body so hard that she couldn’t catch her breath. All this time she’d been hating Marc for putting her through hell. He let go of her hair and pushed her back on the chair. Marc hadn’t become the monster she thought he was. The Marc she fell in love with was murdered by this crazy clone.

“Well look who finally caught on. I can’t believe you couldn’t tell the difference. I’m no where near the pussy that husband of yours was.” He picked up the whiskey and gulped from the bottle again as he tossed the gun on the coffee table. He was being pretty careless with the thing. She didn’t know much about them, but she was pretty sure you weren’t supposed to throw them around. “And you’ve got that kid of yours just as soft. I never got the chance to give him a good smack because the idiot I hired to watch him went and overdosed and the kid got away. Smart little bastard, though. He managed to find his way out of here but when I get him again, he won’t be so lucky. I need that kid to get what’s due to me.” It was then she realized once he found the box he was looking for, he was going to go after Danny again. Suddenly all her fear didn’t matter anymore—all that mattered was keeping this crazy monster away from her son. While he went on with his rant she slowly moved forward until she was within reach of the gun. It was as if it happened in slow motion.

She grabbed the gun off the table, he turned around and as she raised the gun, the door burst open and then...
Pop, Pop, Pop.

J
ames and John stood along the treeline in full view of the front entrance as the team of officers and Keith’s security team swarmed the cabin. Then he heard the gunshots and time seemed to crawl waiting for someone to come out. John held him back from running into the house, and he was struggling to get free but it seemed every bit of strength he had, was gone.

“James, you can’t go in there until it’s cleared,” Kurt shouted as he stood in front of him.

“I need to see if Marina’s okay. For fuck sake, let me see if she’s okay.” It was then he realized he was on his knees with John holding his hands behind his back and Kurt kneeling in front of him.

“She’s fine, James.” He heard the crackle through the earpiece and he couldn’t tell who said it, but all he knew was she was safe. He looked around Kurt and saw Rick walking with his arm wrapped around Marina. All the air whooshed out of him when he saw the splatter of blood across the front of her shirt.

“John, let me fucking go.” James struggled, but this time John released him and he was running towards Marina. When she met his eyes, he felt like his heart was going to shatter in two because she held up her hand to stop him.

“Don’t... please. Just... don’t.” Marina sobbed and leaned against Rick as he led her down the pathway to the awaiting cruiser. James watched her get in the car and then it drove off.

“She didn’t realize he had two weapons and when she picked up one, he turned the other on her. Rick got him before he got a shot off. That was his blood splattered on her.” Greg stood behind him. “Give her some space, buddy.”

Martin Tapper was dead, and they were no closer to finding out what box he was talking about and what it had to do with Danny.

Marina was admitted to the hospital and refusing to see him. He just didn’t know why. All he knew was, Stephanie came to take Danny to Doug and Janet’s house, and nobody was telling him anything. Mason was spending the night with his parents because he was in no condition to look after him. So he sat in his living room staring at the wall wondering why Marina didn’t want to see him. 

“Why are ya sitting here feelin’ sorry fer yarself?” Nanny Betty sat next to him on the couch. “Dis is not like ya, Jimmy.”

“She doesn’t want to see me and I don’t know why.” James pulled his hands down over his face.

“I see.” Nanny Betty sighed. “Can I tell ya a story?” James turned to his grandmother and nodded.

“When I was sixteen years old, I was madly in love with dis handsome fella.” She smiled at him.

“Grandda?” James smiled.

“No.” She tilted her head. “Dis boy was my first love. I thought I was going to marry him someday. His family were very poor and me fadder wasn’t too happy about me seeing de lad, but me mudder put him in his place.” Nanny Betty chuckled.

“I guess you take after her, huh?” James forced a laugh.

“That I do. Anyway, we continued ta see each other fer over a year. Then his parents and two brothers died in a terrible fire. He had spent the night wit me so he wasn’t home.”

“I’m not understanding what this has to do with Marina.” James was shocked his grandmother admitted to spending the night with a man she wasn’t married to.

“Guilt my son. Tommy felt so much guilt about not being dere, he refused to see me anymore, and he left de province. I eventually got over him and fell in love wit my Jack but Tommy always held a piece a me heart.”

“I’m sorry, Nan but I don’t know how that compares to this.”

“She’s probably blaming herself fer not knowing de difference between her husband and his brother. She’s probably blaming herself fer his death, and she’s probably feeling all sorts of guilt fer hating him so much over the last few years. Remember, she thought her husband had beaten her, but really he was dying somewhere and she didn’t know.”

“How do you know that, Nan?” James asked.

“I overheard her tellin’ her mudder.” Nanny Betty smiled. “I went ta visit her, and I heard dem talkin’. Jimmy, ya’ve got ta think about it like this. She just found out the man she married died, and she’s mourning dat man.”

It finally made sense and he knew how it felt to lose someone you loved.

“I don’t know what to do, Nan. I love her and how can I be there if she’s refusing to see me?”

“Just give her time.” Nanny Betty said. “In de mean time you can’t be sitting here feeling sorry fer yarself. So clean yourself up. She loves ya and I know things will work out.” She took his hand in hers and kissed his cheek.

“I will, Nan, and thanks.” He said standing up. “Wait a minute. That guy you were talking about you said his name was Tommy. Are you talking about Tom Roberts?”

“My Tommy is long gone, and I don’t know Tom Roberts.” Nanny Betty patted his arm and left the room. His grandmother always said that people came into a life for a reason and sometimes they stayed forever, but other times they came to teach a lesson. Maybe Tom Roberts was going to be for both, whether Nanny Betty wanted to admit it or not. At the moment his only concern was Marina and how he was going to get her back. It had been twenty-four hours and it felt like he hadn’t seen her in months. His heart hurt, and he didn’t know if he could take the pain of losing someone he loved again.

Two weeks passed by and he was trying hard to get on with his life, but it was a struggle every day without Marina and Danny. He even missed the damn dog, but the worst of it was Mason’s constant questions about why Marina and Danny went away. He even asked if he’d done anything wrong. That almost killed him, to think Mason was blaming himself. The only one to blame for the whole mess was Martin Tapper.

John called him every day to let him know how Marina was doing, but no matter how many times he texted her, she never returned his texts or calls. It was killing him, but according to John, Marina was seeing a therapist to help with her trauma. He just wished she’d talk to him, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen anytime soon.

James returned from work exhausted and irritated, and Mason wasn’t in the best of moods either. James had told him several times to pick up his toys, but Mason didn’t seem to want to do anything. He knew what was bothering the kid and there was nothing he could do about it. Marina hadn’t been bringing Danny to daycare, so Mason was really missing his best friend. For the fourth time, James told Mason to pick up his toys as he went to answer a soft knock on the door. Mason whined as he slid off the couch to the floor.

“Mason, if I have to ask again I’ll pick them up and they’ll go in the garbage,” James said firmly as he opened the door.

“I want you to be my daddy and I want to come home.” James stood in the doorway his mouth hanging open as he looked down at Danny and Cloud. He looked around outside but there was no sign of Marina or anyone else.

“Danny, how did you get here?” James had to plug his ears when Mason came squealing into the foyer. The two boys were jumping up and down and Cloud seemed just as excited as he jumped up and down.

“I missed ya, buddy.” Mason hugged the dog.

“Danny, does your mom know you’re here?” James crouched so he was eye level with Danny.

“No, I told Mommy I wanted to come here, and she said maybe soon but I didn’t want to wait. So I left Unca John’s and came home.” It melted his heart to know that Danny considered his house home.

“You shouldn’t have come here without telling someone, buddy,” James said.

“I was tired of waiting to see you, Daddy.” Danny looked down at the floor.

“I missed you too, but you can’t just run off without telling anyone.” James pulled out his phone to call his brother. Maybe this would force Marina to talk to him or maybe it could push her further away.

M
arina gazed out through the window of her sister’s kitchen and realized it was the first time she’d been back in Hopedale since the whole mess happened. Her life had been turned upside down by all of it, but there was one thing she could finally do. She could finally stop hating Marc. He wasn’t the one who put her through hell the last couple of months of her marriage. He did love her, and if it wasn’t for his crazy twin brother they’d be raising Danny together but then where would that leave James. God, she missed him so much but in her confusion she couldn’t pursue a relationship with anyone.

The therapist she was seeing was helping a lot. She’d suggested that Marina talk to James but she kept putting off facing him. She really didn’t know why but being so close to where he lived was making it hard not to run straight to his house.

“Marina, where’s Danny?”

She turned around to see her sister searching the back garden for Danny and Cloud. Marina slid open the patio door and called out to him, but he didn’t answer. She tried calling out to the dog but there was no sign. She started to shake and ran out into the garden calling to Danny. Where the hell was he?

“Danny, answer me now.” She didn’t even realize she was shaking from the cold until her mother brought out her jacket.

“He has to be around here,” Janet said. “Put this on and we’ll take a walk up the road.”

The level of panic she was feeling was making her heart pound in her chest, and she was struggling to pull on her jacket. Her father opened the door as John pulled his cell phone out of his pocket to answer it.

“Wait!” John held up his hand as he listened to the caller.

From John’s side of the conversation Marina found out that whoever it was had Danny. She relaxed until John put the phone in his pocket and wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“Where is he, John?” Marina asked, but in her heart she knew the answer.

“He’s at James’ house. Danny told him he wanted to go home.” John met her eyes and her stomach flipped. It was time to face James, but was she ready?

“I’ll go get him.” Doug opened the door.

“No. Dad, I’ll go get him.” Marina snatched the car keys out of her father’s hand but before she got through the door, John stopped her.

“Marina, before you go just listen.” John grasped both her hands in his. “James loves you and he loves Danny, and it’s obvious Danny wants to be there or he wouldn’t have run off, but I can’t let you go over there if you’re just going to take Danny and not talk to my brother. He already went through hell when he lost Sarah and for what it’s worth, losing you is harder on him because he knows you’re still there. So if you’re not ready to talk to him, let me go get Danny and Cloud.” John held out his hand for the keys, and she stared at it.

“Rina, you know you belong with James. Don’t throw this away because you’re scared.” Stephanie stepped up next to her.