Stop at Nothing (8 page)

“I don't like this,” Kyle muttered as Abby drove her Camry down the pothole-ridden rural road. They were approaching an abandoned power station tucked back from the road and mostly obscured by weeds that had grown high in the uncultivated fields during the decades that the building had stood vacant.

He could see why the guy had chosen this location—it was secluded and deserted, making it easy to hide his activities from any potential witnesses. Kyle's skin began to prickle in warning, the ways this exchange could go south playing through his mind. So, yeah, he didn't like it. Didn't like it one damned bit.

He could tell by the way Abby gripped the steering wheel that she was just as anxious about the setup as he was. That said, he had to give her props for having a few conditions of her own for the exchange.

She'd agreed to hand over the flash drive containing all her findings, but the pass code to get past the encryption wouldn't be turned over until Emma was safely in the car and they were on their way. And she'd threatened that if the abductor tried to get by the encryption on his own, it would erase the data. Kyle had no frigging clue if that was even possible or if Abby was just bullshitting the guy, but it sounded plausible to him, so hopefully the bastard would buy it as well.

And if not, Kyle had his own contingency plan in place. One that would've made Abby furious had she been aware of it. When she'd gone to take a quick shower and change her clothes, he'd taken the opportunity to make a couple of phone calls. The first one was to his brother Joe. And the next—as much as he hated to do it—was to his brother Gabe. Joe had insisted that they have more than one person on standby near the exchange site and had reminded Kyle that their elder brother had a lot of surveillance experience, especially since he'd taken on the task of investigating the local cop-hating extremists who were growing more vocal and threatening in their activities.

Although Joe was too diplomatic to say it, Kyle had a feeling that including Gabe was Joe's way of forcing his brothers to come to a truce. Yeah, good luck with that. As long as Gabe kept treating Kyle like he was the devil incarnate, there was no chance in hell they'd be knocking back a few beers together anytime soon. But for all their differences, Kyle had to admit that the one thing they
could
agree on was that
nobody
threatened one of their own.

“There it is,” Abby announced, jolting him from his thoughts.

The dilapidated cinder-block buildings came into view, most of their grime-covered windows broken. The reservoir that had once fed the power station was now almost completely dried up, leaving a great gaping hole in the earth that had partially filled with trash and tangled weeds. Chunks of concrete jutted up from among the rubble, evidence that someone at some point had attempted to bulldoze the ruins of the power plant. But based on the state of the place, those efforts had been abandoned long ago.

“Why do I suddenly feel like I'm in one of those cheesy horror movies?” Kyle muttered, that prickle of warning he'd been experiencing since setting up the exchange now squirming relentlessly beneath his skin. He shifted restlessly, his ass twitching with apprehension.

“There should be a maintenance building,” Abby said, squinting through the windshield. She pointed at a squat building that sat on the outskirts of the campus. It was one of the few structures that didn't appear to be in complete disrepair. “There.”

She came to a stop just out of the line of sight of anyone who might've been in the building and turned toward Kyle, her already fair skin a shade paler than usual, her delicate features drawn with anxiety.

“You'll stay close?” she asked.

“I won't let you out of my sight.” He cast his gaze over the terrain and nodded toward another building nearby. “I'll be right there, covering you. Okay?”

She nodded, her lips pressed together in a grim line.

Abby looked so frightened that Kyle wanted to drag her into his arms and assure her that everything would be fine. But he wasn't entirely sure that his kiss would be welcome. Instead he settled for cupping her cheek and letting his thumb smooth over her skin for just a moment.

“I'll see you soon,” he told her, forcing a grin.

She covered his hand with hers. “You'd better.”

* * *

Abby watched Kyle steal away, silent as a wraith, to take up position. When he was in place, she put the car in gear and inched forward toward the maintenance shed, her heart hammering. When she was within about two hundred feet of the shed, her phone pinged with a text message notification. She glanced at the phone that lay on her thigh.

Close enough. Keep your hands on the wheel.

She immediately stopped and put the car in park, putting her hands at ten and two on the steering wheel. She trained her squinted gaze on the door to the maintenance shed while monitoring their surroundings in her peripheral vision for any approaching threats. The sun was at just the right angle to hit the dust and road grime on the windshield and obscure her view.

The door of the maintenance shed suddenly creaked open a crack, and Abby straightened, all of her senses immediately on high alert. The door continued to swing open at a maddeningly slow rate, but at last she saw movement from the shadows within.

A ragged sob burst from Abby's lungs when Emma finally took a tentative step into the sunlight, blinking against the brightness and bringing a hand up to shield her eyes. She looked horrible—her hair was dirty and matted, her clothes bedraggled and torn. There was a tear in her pantyhose at the knee and she was missing one of her black leather pumps. But at that moment she'd never been a more welcome sight.

Emma's face twisted with emotion when she saw Abby's car, and she took a few hurried steps forward before coming to an abrupt halt and sending a frightened look over her shoulder.

Abby seethed with anger at the man who even now held her sister captive. Every instinct was to launch out of the Camry, run to her sister, and rush her to the safety of the car, but Abby forced herself to remain where she was, gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles, waiting for her instructions. After what seemed like an eternity, her cell phone pinged with another text message.

Get out of the car.

She unlatched her seat belt instantly and threw open the door, grabbing her Glock from the compartment in the door as she got out, raising her weapon and aiming it at the door of the shed.

Her sister began to sob hysterically when she saw Abby and looked as though she might collapse with relief.

Abby's heart twisted with sorrow and outrage. That bastard was going to pay.

“Emma, sweetie, it's almost over,” she called out. “Just do what he tells you, okay?”

Emma visibly worked to rein in her emotions and nodded, sending another glance over her shoulder.

“Come on, you bastard,” Abby muttered. “What next? Just tell me already…”

Abby's phone suddenly rang, startling her. She answered without even looking at the number. “What now?”

“I will ignore your rude greeting for the sake of our business relationship.”

Abby frowned and glanced at the display screen. “Hamilton?”

“You were expecting someone else?” he drawled.

“As a matter of fact, I'm waiting for your goon to give me the exchange instructions,” she snapped. “But don't worry, I'll be chatting with
you
later, you son of a bitch.”

She hung up before he could respond. The phone rang again in an instant. This time Abby looked at the number. It was blocked. “Tell me where to leave the flash drive,” she said without preamble.

“There's a cinder block about halfway between your car and the shed. Leave it there and take your sister. Then you will text me the encryption key.” Abby started to hang up, but before she had the chance he added, “And, Deputy, if you have failed to uphold your end of the bargain, if the data isn't there, if the encryption key is a fake, it won't be just your sister in my crosshairs.”

Not bothering to acknowledge the threat, Abby ended the call and shoved the phone into the back pocket of her jeans. She strode forward without hesitation, her gun still raised and at the ready. When she reached the cinder block, she pulled the flash drive out of her front pocket and held it aloft, turning slightly to make sure the abductor saw it before squatting down to place it on the block.

As she stood, she motioned for her sister. Emma ran forward, throwing her arms around Abby's neck with such force that Abby stumbled back a few steps. She gave her sister a quick, one-armed squeeze, keeping her eyes on the shed. “It's okay, Em. It's over. Now let's get you home.” She felt Emma nod and released her. “Go ahead. Go get in the car.”

Abby slowly backed toward her Camry, her gun still trained on the maintenance shed, but there was no movement. When she heard the car door slam and knew Emma was safely inside, she hopped into the driver's seat and set her gun on her lap before throwing the car into reverse and peeling out, the car's tires sending up clouds of dust and gravel in her haste to get her sister away from the scene.

She heard Emma whimper quietly in the passenger seat and slowed slightly, not wanting to terrify her sister any more than she already had been. When Abby was far enough away that the weeds once more obscured her view of the shed, she whipped the car around so that it was facing the opposite direction and put it into park.

She grabbed her phone and typed in the encryption key as promised, but her thumb hovered over the text button for a moment, debating, wondering if Emma's abductor would make good on his threat if she failed to keep her end of the bargain. Was she willing to risk that? She still had two backup copies of the data. She could still expose these bastards for what they'd done.

Abby cursed under her breath and tapped the screen, sending the encryption password and praying she'd made the right call.

A split second later, the back door of the Camry opened and Kyle dove inside, startling a screech from Emma.

Abby reached for her, sliding a hand down her arm. “Shhh, sweetie, it's okay!” she assured her sister. “It's okay. It's just Kyle. You're okay. You're safe.” Then she turned in her seat to look at Kyle. “Did you see him?”

He shook his head. “No. The guy's a ghost. I went into the shed after him the minute you took off, but he was already gone. Don't ask me how the hell he got out without me seeing him. The only other entrance to the damned place was padlocked.” He ran a hand down his face, scrubbing at his stubble. “There's plenty of evidence that he'd been holding her there, but I didn't find any sign of
him
. I couldn't even find any trace of which direction he'd gone. No tire tracks, no markings of any kind.”

“He left before you got there,” Emma said, her voice shaking. “He left a radio in the shed with me, to give me instructions.”

“Damn it!” Abby hissed, smacking the steering wheel in her frustration.

“We'll call it in on the way to the hospital and get a team out here to process the crime scene and sweep the woods,” Kyle promised. When she huffed angrily, he reminded her, “We don't have the equipment or resources to track this guy down right now, Abby. But Emma's safe—and we need to keep her that way. Let's just get her to the hospital, and we'll sort out the rest.”

Abby gave him a curt nod and fastened her seat belt, then slammed the car into gear and punched down on the accelerator, not wasting any more time in getting the hell out of there. She reached down to stow her gun, but her sister placed a filthy hand on top of hers.

“Please,” Emma said, her voice thin and trembling. “Keep it there.”

Abby sent a smile her sister's way and nodded, but as soon she turned her eyes back to the road, she clenched her jaw, her fury making her blood boil. She lifted her gaze to the rearview mirror, catching Kyle's for a moment and seeing the same steely resolve she was feeling. Without a word, he reached out and briefly placed his hand on her shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze. Her heart swelled as a storm of emotions washed over her, gratitude for his strength and support chief among them. Tears choked her, but she swallowed them back, needing to maintain her brave front for Emma's sake.

She glanced at her sister. Emma was curled up in the seat in a fetal position, her eyes wide and unfocused as she stared at nothing in particular, the trauma from her ordeal written in the creases in her beautiful face.

Abby's grip tightened on the steering wheel as fury once more surged through her veins.

Oh yeah. She couldn't
wait
to have that chat with Hamilton.

Kyle paced restlessly in the hallway outside Emma's hospital room, waiting for Abby to emerge and share information on her sister's condition. The woman had looked like hell and had clearly been in shock when they made the exchange. The sight of Emma or any other woman in that condition, so wan and forlorn, would've been enough to make Kyle seethe with rage, but the fact that she was Abby's sister made him want to tear that fucker limb from limb.

And it pissed him off to no end that the son of a bitch had slipped away without a trace. As soon as Abby had gone into the hospital room with her sister, Kyle had called his brother Joe to see if they'd had any better luck in apprehending Emma's abductor. They hadn't. They'd been in position, planning to catch the guy if he tried to run, but they'd never even caught a
glimpse
of him.

Where the hell had he gone? How had he gotten by all of them?

His brothers were going to check out the shed and the surrounding woods before the investigative team showed. With any luck, they'd find something that would give them a lead. They needed something—
anything
—to go on.

Recalling the pain and guilt—yes,
guilt
—in Abby's eyes when she'd met his gaze in the rearview mirror made his chest ache. Abby blamed herself for what happened to her sister, which was bullshit. Yeah, so she'd taken on this contract, but how the hell could she have known what she'd find? Or that her own brother-in-law would be involved? If anyone was to blame, it was that pompous asshole for putting his family in jeopardy just to make a buck.

Kyle balled his hands into fists at his sides, wishing he could get his hands on Curtis Maxwell and have a little chat about protecting the woman and son he was supposed to love. Of course, if that guy in the picture Abby had received really
was
Maxwell, then someone else had had a point of their own to make—and a far more emphatic point at that.

His brows drew together in a frown as Kyle mulled over the facts as he knew them so far so that he could relate them to his brothers when they arrived at the hospital. But something just wasn't adding up. Chief among his concerns was who the hell had sent that picture from New Orleans. If Maxwell and his buddy Whitmore were in league with the human-trafficking ring that Kyle had been on to down south, their reach was far greater than probably anyone realized.

He abruptly quit pacing, dropped into one of the stiff vinyl-covered chairs that dotted the long hallway, and leaned his head back against the wall. He needed to bring Abby in on the investigation he'd started in New Orleans and get another look at the data she'd discovered. As soon as she handed it over to the feds, he'd be out of it. The idea of those assholes hurting more innocent people, destroying more lives with their perversity, rankled at him all the way down to his bones.

With a frustrated groan, he pushed up from the chair and resumed his agitated strides.

“Hey!”

The familiar sound of his brother's voice brought Kyle's head up. He'd expected to only see Joe and maybe Gabe, but his stomach sank when he saw their father marching toward him, a dark scowl making him look more ominous than ever.

Great. Here we go…

“You guys okay?” Joe demanded.

Kyle briefly glanced toward his father, then nodded. “Yeah, we're good. The doctors are checking out Emma now. Abby's in there with her. Did you guys find anything?”

Gabe shook his head. “We didn't find shit. Maybe the investigative team will uncover something we missed.”

“Well, I think when Abby comes out, we all need to have a good long sit-down,” Mac informed him.

Kyle bristled at his father's tone. They'd been planning to go to the sheriff after assuring themselves that Emma was okay. But the Old Man's goddamned condescending tone and his typical way of talking to Kyle like he was a fucking twelve-year-old raised Kyle's hackles in an instant.

“Abby's been through one hell of an ordeal,” he snapped. “You might try a little compassion for once.”

“Compassion?” Mac echoed. “What the hell are you trying to say, boy?”

Joe sent a pleading look Kyle's way. “C'mon, man. Not here.”

“No, Joseph,” Mac said, waving a hand at his son. “Your brother clearly has something to say to me, so he might as well get it off his chest.”

Now it was Gabe's turn to try to intervene. He ducked his chin a little and said quietly, “Dad, maybe we should save this conversation for—”

“Go on,
Agent
Dawson,” Mac said, ignoring Gabe. “You got something to say, get on with it.”

Kyle shook his head, not bothering to hide his disgust. “Whatever. This is bullshit. I'm not doing this with you here.” He started to go around his father, muttering, “You don't get to be the center of attention today,
Sheriff
.”

Mac grabbed Kyle's arm, keeping him where he was. “Just what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Kyle lifted his gaze to his father in open defiance. “It means this is Abby's case. You don't get to barge in and save the day and get your name in the papers.”

He heard one of his brothers curse under his breath but didn't turn to see which one it was. Hell, it might've been both of them.

Mac's eyes narrowed, and he studied Kyle for a moment. “You think I do this for the recognition? You think I do
any
of what I do for my own glory?”

“Well, don't you?” Kyle shot back, wrenching his arm from Mac's grasp.

“This is not the time or place for this conversation, Kyle,” Joe hissed, peering up and down the hallway.

Kyle acknowledged Joe's warning with a glance. He sure as hell hadn't intended to dredge up old issues that'd been lying dormant, building pressure just below the surface all these years. But now that a fissure had appeared in his resolve, there was no way to keep the hurt and anger from erupting. “Since we were kids, all you've ever done is talk about the Dawson history, the Dawson legacy, how our family was the law in Fairfield County even before it
was
a county. It was always about carrying on the family tradition and doing right by our family name.”

“There's nothing wrong with being proud of where we came from,” Mac reminded him.

“No, there's not,” Kyle hissed. He took a menacing step forward in open challenge and jabbed his finger into his father's chest. “But when you let your pride and vanity get in the way of caring for your dying wife, you need to reexamine your priorities!”

“Jesus, Kyle!” Gabe spat. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Mac actually jerked at Kyle's accusation, his normally stoic face twisting with emotion as he took a step back. “How dare you.”

Kyle continued to advance, on a roll now that he'd started. “Where were you all those nights when Mom was going through chemo? When she was zoned out on pain medication and calling out your name?”

Mac looked visibly stricken, his face drawn. “You mother was the most important thing in the world to me.”

“Yeah right,” Kyle scoffed. “She was so important to you that you abandoned her to spend more time on the job.”

Kyle didn't quite know what hit him until he saw Mac's furious face looming over him. Then the pain in his jaw came on full force. But then Mac's rage subsided and a look of profound sorrow came over him. “If this is how you see what happened, then it's no wonder you hate me.”

As Joe helped Kyle to his feet, Mac turned to Gabe. “You tell Abby I came by,” he muttered. “And when she's ready to talk to me, bring her to the station so we can get this sorted out.”

Gabe nodded, still looking a little dumbfounded by what had just occurred. The three men watched their father lumber down the hall, his broad shoulders hunched forward.

“You're a fucking idiot,” Gabe muttered as soon as Mac was out of earshot. Then he turned his own angry gaze on Kyle. “Do you think you're the only one who was devastated by Mom's death?”

Kyle flinched at his brother's question. “Of course not,” he said. “I just don't understand how Dad could be so cold about it. He just sat there at her funeral, didn't show any emotion at all. And then he walked away from us and left us to deal with everything on our own.”

Gabe shook his head. “Someday you should try to get to know the Old Man. Because you don't know shit.”

“I know he abandoned us,” Kyle shot back. “Just like he abandoned her.”

Gabe turned on his heel to leave but paused, turning back to his younger brother. “You know why he was working all those hours, Kyle?” he asked. “So we could pay Mom's medical bills. They'd already gone through their savings, retirement, and our college funds. They'd even taken out a second mortgage on the house. He was trying to save her life, you dick.”

“I didn't know,” Kyle murmured, suddenly feeling like the world's biggest asshole. All the years he'd blamed their father for abandoning their mother when she'd needed him most, and Mac had just been doing his damnedest to save the woman he loved, a last-ditch effort to find the miracle cure that would keep her with them. And he'd failed. Nothing he'd done had made a difference. Knowing his father and his stubborn belief that failure was not an option, Kyle realized the weight of this particular failure must've been crushing.

“Of course you didn't know,” Joe said, running a hand over his dark brown high-and-tight hair. “You were thirteen. Mom and Dad didn't want you to worry about anything more than you already were.”

Kyle glanced back and forth between his brothers. “Why didn't any of you guys tell me what was going on?”

Gabe managed a sad smile, his chin trembling a little to Kyle's utter astonishment. “Because you're our baby brother,” he managed. “Dad's not the only one who's always tried to protect you.”

As Kyle watched Gabe walk away, he began to feel a little light-headed. It was as if everything he'd built his world on had suddenly shifted. All the rage and resentment that had fueled him, had guided his decisions for going on twenty years, had been based on the misplaced anger of a grief-stricken teenager who'd been kept in the dark by the family who loved him.

At that moment the door to Emma's hospital room opened, and Kyle turned to see Abby standing in the doorway. Her face had never been a more welcome sight. He desperately wanted to gather her into his arms, bury his face in her golden hair, and let her sweet love envelop him and heal all the places where his soul felt broken.

* * *

Kyle looked like hell. And Joe didn't look a whole lot better. What the hell had happened out in the hallway? She'd heard their voices—Kyle's in particular—raised in anger. She'd been expecting to see Gabe and Mac standing outside the hospital room as well and found herself glancing up and down the hall.

“How's Emma?” Kyle asked.

“Um…” She frowned. “She's going to be okay. No physical injuries besides the contusion on her head. Apparently, a car ran the limo off the road about ten miles from her house, and she struck her head when the car went into a ditch.”

“What happened to the driver?” Joe asked.

Abby shook her head. “Emma wasn't sure. She said she blacked out and woke up in the maintenance shed.”

“We need to check to see if there was an accident called in for a car fitting the limo's description,” Kyle said to his brother. “If not, could you get a car out there to take a look?”

Joe gave Kyle a terse nod and immediately got on his phone, calling in to the Sheriff's Department.

Abby narrowed her eyes at Kyle, studying his dazed and distracted expression. “You okay?” she asked softly, coming to him and placing a hand on his chest before she realized what she was doing.

He nodded and shrugged dismissively. “Yeah, sure. I'm good. Just had a lovely conversation with Mac. Always a good time.”

She'd never asked Kyle what had happened to strain his relationship with his father, and he'd never volunteered the information. But she had a feeling that when she saw Mac next and explained how she'd lied to him and taken on her sister's abductor, she'd probably learn firsthand. Mac had become a surrogate father, the man she turned to for advice, for support. He was gruff and emotionally closed off, sure, but he was a good mentor, a good man. Which made the rift between Mac and his son all the more baffling to her.

Joe pocketed his phone as he came back toward them. “As luck would have it, a guy called in a possible accident earlier this morning. Dispatch sent someone out a couple hours ago and found the driver dead behind the wheel, single gunshot wound to the head.”

Abby's gaze snapped to Kyle's. “I need to talk to Mac, tell him what's been going on.”

And wouldn't that just be a load of fun?

She tried not to think about how furious Sheriff Dawson would be when he learned the truth. Abby could hear him now, his booming voice filling the room, disappointment and betrayal in his eyes.

Kyle traded a look with his brother, but then he nodded. “All right. We shouldn't leave Emma alone though.”

“You guys go ahead,” Joe told him. “Sadie's going to bring Tyler to see his mom as soon as the doctors give the all clear. I'll stay here and keep an eye on the room in the meantime. When you're at the office, ask Tom to send a deputy to come and relieve me tonight.”

Abby felt such a rush of relief and gratitude that she threw her arms around Joe's neck and hugged him tightly, then pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Thanks.”

“No worries,” he assured her. “You're family, Abby.” When her eyes widened, he added after a covert glance at his brother, “We take care of our deputies.”

Her heart sank a little at the clarification, even though she had no right to think he'd meant anything more. Still, she wasn't displeased when Kyle reached for her hand and kept her close as they left the hospital. Or when he continued to hold her hand as he drove her car to the Sheriff's Department.