THE CRADLE CONSPIRACY (3 page)

He was lucky he hadn’t dropped Raven.

The jostling hadn’t caused a gasp or the slightest movement from her, and he didn’t like it. She’d been out too long. He glanced behind him. As dusk approached, the merciless sunlight dimmed somewhat. Even when he’d been in top shape, it would’ve taken him until full dark to reach Trouble. His leg wouldn’t hold out much longer.

A siren sliced the silence. Daniel tamped down the irrational urge to run in the opposite direction. He had to remind himself he wasn’t in a country where the national police could stuff you into a dungeon, and people forgot about you like you were never born.

He waited as the sheriff’s vehicle pulled a few feet from him.

A cop stepped out and rounded the car. Not your average small-town sheriff. This guy walked with precision and a determined quiet. He had the look of some of CTC’s operatives, and his narrowed expression took in the three of them. “You the one who tried calling 9-1-1? We caught the tower location, and this is one of the only paved roads around. You need some help? Your lady’s not looking too good.”

“She needs a hospital,” Daniel said, shifting her in his arms so the sheriff could see her head wound. “And I need to talk to you.”

The man took one look at the blood on her head and ran to his car. He opened the back door and helped Daniel slide inside the idling vehicle with Raven still cradled against him. The dog hesitated by the side door.

“Come on, boy.” Daniel tapped the backseat.

The dog hunkered back, then scampered into the desert.

“Trouble!” Daniel called.

The mutt didn’t stop, just disappeared behind a shrub bush.

Daniel sighed and gazed at Raven. The cop shut the door on them. “You want me to go after him?”

With a pang, Daniel scanned the empty landscape. Yeah, Daniel wanted the sheriff to go after the dog. Trouble had no water, no food, and it would be dark soon, but Raven was still unconscious. “She needs an emergency room. The dog lands on his feet.” At least Daniel prayed Trouble would.

“He yours? Will he go home?”

“I’m not sure either of us currently has a home,” Daniel said. “We met on the road.”

“I see.” The cop pulled onto the road and studied Daniel through the rearview mirror. “You wouldn’t be that drifter Milly mentioned who came through town yesterday?”

Daniel stiffened. He didn’t like the fact that someone had noticed him. He prided himself on being invisible to most, but the waitress had been way too friendly in that small-town-nosy kind of way.

“She didn’t mention you had a traveling companion. You gonna tell me what happened, and why you’re carrying an unconscious woman down a county road? Or did you find her along the way, too?”

At the suspicious tone in the sheriff’s voice, the hairs on the back of Daniel’s neck straightened. He didn’t need any more problems, so he told the man what he knew.

The sheriff cursed. “Those mines have been abandoned for years. I occasionally find some kids out there playing stupid games of truth or dare. One kid died because he couldn’t find his way out. The state should seal them up.”

“You need to get the carpet and the toy box out of there first. Maybe you’ll find some fingerprints.”

The sheriff plucked his radio speaker. “I don’t have a lot of help, but I can call in some assistance from Midland. If it’s not too dangerous to enter the mine, they’ll retrieve the evidence.” He waited a beat. “You say this woman doesn’t know her name? Do you believe her?”

Daniel met the sheriff’s gaze. He understood what the man was asking. “Wrapped in carpet held together with duct tape? She didn’t do that to herself. Yeah, I believe her.”

The sheriff zipped across the desert and soon reached the Trouble, Texas, Medical Clinic. Daniel carried Raven inside.

A grizzled doctor took one look at her wounds, grabbed a gurney, then wheeled her into a closed area. Daniel followed.

“You with her?” the nurse asked, obviously ready to evict him.

Daniel nodded. He wasn’t about to let Raven out of his sight. Not while she was so vulnerable.

The doctor immobilized her neck first, then bent down. “Can you hear me, miss?” he asked loudly.

She didn’t respond at first, until a child in a different examining room cried.

Raven’s eyes blinked open, and she stared up at the doctor in panic.

“Where am I? Where’s my baby?”

* * *

P
AMELA
W
INTER
EASED
the rocking chair back and forth, back and forth, her aging muscles aching as she held the child closer.

Squeak. Squeak. Squeak.
“Mommy’s going to take care of you.”

The baby cooed in her sleep, pursing those sweet little lips as if she were nursing. Pamela wished she could do it, but it was impossible at her age.

“You’ll be fine, my precious girl.”

Pamela let her wrinkled hand stroke down the soft cheeks of the healthy eighteen-month-old baby. So healthy when...

No. Pamela wouldn’t think that way. Everything would be fine. She’d done what she had to do.

The television filtered through the room. Another game show, one she’d watched nightly for twenty-five years. The recliner near the fireplace mocked her with its emptiness.

This wasn’t the home it was supposed to be. She wasn’t supposed to be alone. She was supposed to be here with her husband, with their new daughter. A perfect, happy family. A second chance. A do-over after the horrific way their first attempt at parenthood had turned out. She’d believed her husband had changed. He’d certainly been quieter toward the end. He hadn’t used his fists or his threats as much after Christopher left.

Until earlier that day before her husband died.

Pamela hummed a lullaby and touched the rosy cheek of the beautiful baby in her arms. A perfect daughter. Unlike Christopher, the child from hell. A child with no conscience who, even when he grew up, never felt the need for one.

Thank God his father had finally found an alternative. After yet another stupid stunt, he’d told Christopher to choose the army or jail. Christopher had picked the army, so now he was trained to kill, with no conscience to stop him. Pamela shivered, even though the temperature hadn’t turned cold. Every day she prayed she’d get a telegram, or a knock at the door, along with a military chaplain saying her son was dead, and the world was a safer place for it.

What a blessing that would be.

A key sounded in the lock. She tensed. Her husband was dead. Her son was gone.

No one should have a key.

“I’m home.”

Oh, my God. Christopher.

Pamela vaulted out of her chair, clutching the infant in her arms. What was
he
doing here? Her son wasn’t due for leave from deployment for another six months.

She couldn’t deal with his horrible temper, his manic and depressive rages. Not now. What was she going to do? He’d kill her if he found out the truth about what she’d done. She settled the baby in the nearby cradle and rose from the rocker.

He could
never
find out.

Heavy steps clunked across the hardwood floor. She bit her lip.

The tall, strapping man, as handsome and dangerous as his father, strode across the room, the once long, shaggy hair now cut military short. He dropped his duffel in the marble-covered foyer.

“No hug for your baby boy?”

He gave her a smile. A smile she hadn’t seen since he’d become a teenager.

She allowed herself a smidgen of hope. Was the good Christopher back? She embraced him carefully like one would a cobra. He could be that lethal.

Her son stared at her. “Is the baby sleeping?”

She nodded, her throat closed off in fear. Would he be able to tell?

With a grin, he crossed to the cradle and stared at the infant. “She’s even more beautiful than her pictures. Chubby, rosy cheeks. You’ve been plumping her up. I’m glad. She was so pale in the last set of photos.” He kissed the top of the baby’s head. “I’m home now, kiddo. Anyone messes with you, and they’re dead.”

Pamela turned so he wouldn’t see the tears trailing down her cheeks, tears that were an all-too-common occurrence these days. Her arms felt empty again. She picked up the baby and then faced her son. Forcing a false smile into place, she reached a trembling hand to Christopher. “I’m glad you’re home,” she lied. “Safe with us. Safe and sound.”

“I opted out early. I’m back for good.”

She tried to swallow down the terror that clutched at her heart. This wouldn’t work. She couldn’t keep the truth from him forever. Someone would tell him, or he would guess.

Why was this happening?

Pamela hadn’t thought he could leave the service before his five-year enlistment was up. Nothing had worked out like she’d planned.

Everything was so hard now. So wrong.

The baby squirmed in Pamela’s arms and opened her striking green eyes.

“Hello, beautiful,” he said, scooping up the baby from his mother’s arms.

He walked across the room, past the darkened hearth, then sat in his father’s chair, an obvious act of defiance to the man he’d hated.

Christopher examined the infant in his arms. “She reminds me of someone. Who do you think?”

Pamela swallowed, unwilling to answer. She had to get him out of here, away from the baby. She would have to come up with some way to hide the truth.

The television volume rose as a news banner flashed across the screen.

Breaking news. Trouble, Texas.

The picture of a battered and bloody woman took up the entire screen.

Pamela almost cried out in shock at the sight. With a trembling hand, she grabbed the remote and pressed the volume control so she could hear.

“The sheriff’s office revealed the woman was found in an abandoned mine west of Trouble. Referred to as Jane Doe, she cannot identify herself due to a head injury. They’re asking anyone who knows or has seen this woman to contact them immediately.”

Pamela dropped the remote. She glanced at her son, then swayed. “This can’t be happening. That woman is supposed to be dead. She tried to steal my baby.”

Chapter Three

“Open your eyes, darlin’. Please.”

Daniel’s soft, deep voice soothed Raven’s senses. She wanted to do what he asked, but she couldn’t seem to function. She hurt too much. The rhythmic pulses slammed in her temples like a bass drum reverberating through her mind. She wanted to let sleep overtake her again, except for some urgent feeling that drove her to wake up and move. She needed help for some reason.
His help.
For something very important...

Dazed, she struggled to lift her lids. Through her lashes, unfamiliar images coalesced. The room was dark, save a low light glowing from above the headboard. An IV and monitor were hooked up by her bed. Panic started, then she heard someone speak again.

“That’s it. Wake up now. Just a little more.”

It
was
Daniel. What a relief. She knew his voice. Trusted his voice.

A callused finger traced her forehead, and she peered blearily over at the fuzzy double image of the man sitting beside her.

“There you go. Keep those beautiful eyes open.”

“Daniel.” His face, handsome and troubled, held her enthralled. He was familiar. The only thing that was. She reached up and touched his cheek, the one with the scar.

He clasped her hand in his and drew it away. “Don’t exert yourself. Are you really awake this time?” he asked. “Awake enough to answer some questions?”

“I think so,” she croaked.

Daniel gave her a small smile, and she could see the relief in his eyes.

“But I don’t know where I am.”

“We’re in Trouble, Texas, at their medical clinic. You had me worried, passing out like you did.”

She licked her lips. Her mouth was so dry. “My head hurts. I can’t think straight.”

“I’ll tell the nurse. Want some water?” he asked.

“Please.”

He cupped her head and held a straw next to her lips. With one sip, the cold fluid coated her throat. She smiled at him. He knew just what she needed.

Even that small movement made the throbbing restart. She lifted her hand to her temple and encountered a bandage. “What’s this? What happened?”

“Before or after the cave-in?” he asked.

“Cave-in?” Hazy images of darkness and falling rocks assailed her. The scent of panic and fear, from a...a dog and Daniel. Dust. Blood. There were some memories there, but none were very clear. She touched the bandage once more. “How did I do this? Did the rocks hit me? What was I doing in a stupid cave anyway?”

“I don’t know the answers to all your questions, but falling rocks only did some of the damage.” He leaned forward, glancing at the curtain. “Look, I don’t have much time before someone comes in, but I do want to help you. Can you try to think about being in the mine shaft before it caved in? Do you remember who hurt you?”

“Someone hurt me?” She furrowed her brow, trying to reconstruct the strange images in her mind. “Why would anyone do that?”

“Think. What do you remember?” he asked.

“My name is Raven.”

“Raven’s not your name.” The man’s expression held nothing but pity. “We made it up because you were panicked about not remembering yours.”

“That’s crazy.” She dug her fingernails into his palm. “That’s the only name I know. And I know you. You were holding me and telling me everything would be all right. We were in the cave together. You held me. I remember you.”

He squeezed her hand. “I was only holding you to calm you down. I’m sorry. We never met before today.”

“It doesn’t seem possible. You’re...you’re Daniel. I know you.” She grasped at the small straw of sanity remaining. “I was in your arms. How can you deny we know each other? Why are you lying?”

The curtain surrounding them was yanked back, the sound of the metal rings scraping like nails on a chalkboard.

A man in uniform entered the room. “Yeah, Adams, that’s something I’d like to know. You sure looked involved with her when I saw you.”

“I was trying to save her life. What was I supposed to do? Dump her and run?”

“No, but you informed the charge nurse you were together when you arrived. You were in the exam room the whole time. Didn’t look like a total stranger situation to me. So what gives?”

A deep-seated fear took hold in Raven’s chest when anger rose to Daniel’s face.

He slowly stood and faced the lawman. “My dog found her, and I tried to get her help. End of story.”

“I also warned you not to come back here alone with the Jane Doe. You make a habit of going against the law? You got a prison record somewhere I should check out?”

Daniel blanched, darkness in his eyes once more. “You go ahead and check.”

“I intend to,” the sheriff shot back. “Now, why don’t you wait outside, while I have a talk with this lady you claim not to know.”

Raven gripped Daniel’s hand. He was her only touchstone. “Please, don’t make him leave.”

“I’m Sheriff Galloway, ma’am.” His gaze sliced across Daniel. “It appears you’ve been the victim of a crime. I need to ascertain the threat. I said, step away from her, Mr. Adams.”

Daniel glanced at their intertwined fingers. “Why don’t you let the lady decide, Sheriff? She doesn’t look all that eager to be alone with you.”

“I said move away.” Galloway grabbed Daniel by the arm. “Don’t press me. You’re two seconds from a cell.”

Daniel yanked his arm from Galloway’s grasp and pushed aside the curtain.

“Don’t leave, Adams. I’m talking to you next.”

Not attempting to cloak his obvious fury, Daniel settled against the wall just outside the partition.

Raven couldn’t believe what was happening. None of this made sense.

“That man claims he doesn’t know you, ma’am,” the sheriff said, pulling a small notebook from his uniform pocket. “Yet you say you
do
know him. Which is it?”

Her gaze went back and forth between the two men. “I...I don’t know.”

“Did Adams hurt you?”

Did he?
She was already injured when she came to in the mine. She pressed her hand against her head. That damned throbbing was getting worse, scrambling her thoughts. “I...I don’t think so.” She blinked hard against the blur Daniel’s face had become. “I think he just helped me. I can’t really remember what happened before the cave-in.”

“So he could have put you there?”

“No. He specifically told me he didn’t do that.”

“What?” Galloway strode out to Daniel. “Okay, Adams, that’s it. You’re coming with me until I sort this out.” The sheriff slapped a cuff on Daniel’s wrist.

Daniel stilled, his face stiff as he stared at the silver bracelet. “Great, just great. Good Samaritan bites the dust one more time. When will I learn?”

Raven stared at him in handcuffs, horrified. Her mind whirled in confusion. She didn’t think he had hurt her, but could she be wrong? Nothing made sense.

His gaze went flat, the light behind his eyes dimming. Expressionless, lifeless, soulless. Instinctively Raven reached out to him, needing something, anything to hold on to, but Daniel turned away from her. “I guess I know where I’m headed. Thanks, sweetheart.”

The sheriff snagged his prisoner’s free arm and snapped the second cuff closed, pinning his arms behind him. The loud click echoed in the room, and Daniel’s jaw throbbed, his neck muscles bunched together. He didn’t look back at her.

She wanted to call out to Daniel, but she didn’t know what to say. She just couldn’t remember. She had to be Raven. Didn’t she?

Then why had he lied about not knowing her?

“I...don’t...remember.” The words stuttered from her. Desperation clawed at her insides.

The sheriff gave her a sympathetic grimace. “If Adams is telling the truth, he’ll be out soon. If not...you have nothing to be sorry about. You’re safe now.”

Sheriff Galloway escorted Daniel out.

The nurse whipped the curtain closed, shutting her in. Alone. Abandoned. The cream-covered cloth fluttered still, a barrier to the world. She wrapped her arms around her body, trying to stop the aching loneliness. Her hands and heart felt empty.

She turned to her side in the bed, staring at the curtained wall. She didn’t blink. Her vision grew blurry. Why couldn’t she remember? Try as she might, just a few glimmers sifted through her. A fuzzy dog’s face, a toy box,
and Daniel.

She sighed. Daniel. What had she done? Why hadn’t she defended him? Why hadn’t she fought to make the sheriff understand that she felt safe with Daniel? She reached out her hand, wishing his strong fingers were there for her to grasp.

Her belly clenched. She had the unsettling feeling she’d just made a terrible mistake in letting Daniel go. She curled into a ball. Her fingernails bit into her palm.

Oh, God, what had she done?

* * *

T
HE
NIGHTMARE
WOULDN
’
T
end. Raven knew she was asleep, but she couldn’t escape. Wrapped in a carpet. The dust, the dirt, the blood.

She fought against the memory suffocating her, struggling to break free from the prison. Her hands clenched at her side. Not carpet. Sheets.

The clinic. And a presence watching over her. She could feel its malevolence.

She squeezed her eyes tighter, unable to battle the unexpected terror seizing her body and her mind. She swallowed and forced herself to open her eyes.

“Daniel?” she mumbled, praying he was there, despite her letting him down.

Her blurry vision focused. A man stood above her, his face half-hidden by a surgical mask. Not Daniel though and not the doctor who’d treated her before.

“Who—”

Before she could ask, he pressed his fingers around her throat, then clamped his other hand over her mouth and nose. He tightened his grip, cutting off all air.

Please, God. She couldn’t breathe. She twisted against him, each movement sending shafts of pain and light through her brain. He pressed harder, then braced himself and used his knee to hold her to the bed. He was crushing her windpipe.

Panicked, she grappled for the call button, but he yanked it from her hand. White spots filled her graying vision. She couldn’t die this way. She wouldn’t.

Frantic, relying on pure instinct, Raven used all of her remaining strength to drive the flat of her palm into the man’s nose as hard as she could. She heard the crunch of breaking bone.

Her attacker yelled and stumbled back, blood spewing over his mask.

A string of expletives exploded, and he slammed his fist into her head. Pain like a thousand pieces of shrapnel penetrating her skull shattered her control, but she had one chance to live.

Screaming for help, she clutched her head and curled up to protect herself.

Shouting and approaching footsteps sounded from beyond the curtain.

“Damn it!” Her assailant, wearing a white doctor’s coat over jeans, shoved through the curtain, covered with his own blood. He slammed a metal cart to the side and barreled over the doctor.

Raven struggled to take in air through her damaged throat. She heard frantic cries to call the sheriff, and the thud and crash of more bodies and equipment hitting the floor.

The doctor staggered to her side, blood streaming down the side of his face. “Are you all right? What happened?”

“That man tried to kill me,” Raven croaked. “I need Daniel. Someone please get me Daniel.”

The doctor yelled out some orders then bent over her. “Stay with me, Raven. Don’t give up.”

She blinked through the agonizing pain. All she wanted to do was sleep. She couldn’t keep her eyes open. She sucked in a shallow breath. She should have trusted her gut. She should have trusted Daniel.

She
had
made a horrible mistake. She just prayed Daniel wouldn’t hold it against her.

* * *

T
HE
JAIL
CELL
was too small.

Daniel lay rigid on the bunk and stared at the tiles on the ceiling, counting the dotted patterns within them. He refused to look at the gray cinder-block walls, and he sure as hell wouldn’t look at the bars holding him in this prison.

Cringing and screaming on the floor, fighting off phantoms only he could see, would go a long way to convincing Galloway he had a psycho on his hands. If Daniel didn’t get out soon, he wouldn’t be able to hold it together. That time was coming closer every second.

His gut filled with panic until one mind-blowing thought intruded. Raven was vulnerable, and he couldn’t help her from in here—or from the psycho ward.

He’d tried not to let her get to him.

Who was he kidding? She already had.

Daniel gritted his teeth, sat up and stared through the bars, clenching and reclenching his fists, his knuckles turning white. His hands were clammy, and he fought the urge to rock in place. He rubbed his wrists. At least the sheriff had finally removed the cuffs. Just in time. Daniel had been ready to throttle Galloway to get the keys.

He hadn’t done it. He’d maintained control.

Barely.

When the bars had clanked closed, the crisscross of scars on Daniel’s back had started to burn. He’d promised himself he’d never be in this situation again. Never be incarcerated. Never be captive and powerless again.

He wiped the sweat from his eyes, restless, edgy, like he was jumping out of his skin. He should have left Raven at the clinic and moved on. He didn’t even know her. She was none of his business.

An image of her pain-filled eyes haunted him, though, hitting him harder than the echoes of remembered screams in his mind. Stronger than the memory of his torturer’s laughter. The snap of the whip. The sound of bones breaking. Those were all trumped by Raven’s small whimper of pain and the way she’d looked at him with such trust.

Good God, lady, don’t depend on me.

Unable to sit still any longer, Daniel rose and grabbed the cold steel bars and shook them, testing the lock. Nothing gave at all. He was trapped. Trapped again. He crumpled to his knees, unable to fight his demons anymore. His fingers ached from gripping the bars, and an animal sound of terror rose within him.

His shoulders shook, and he struggled not to break. Not that it mattered anymore.