The Enemy's Son (2 page)

Well, hello. Her dad was missing, which was strange enough by itself, and now a hot stranger showed up to tell her about it.

She pulled over and waited. She felt rattled all right. As a reporter for the local news station, she could keep her cool in front of a news camera or an audience, even when an interview got heated. This evening, however, a short conversation with a lone man left her dizzy.

Cora wondered what Nick did for Keith – some kind of errand boy? Keith employed numerous people who seemed to lack an exact job description. A new determination filled her, and Cora decided to talk to her father about his employment and ask him to resign. Beg him, if she had to. He didn’t belong with these other men. The extra money wasn’t worth the constant worry, and she could support them both if need be.

Cora put the car in neutral, and watched until Nick’s red Mustang revved up and pulled out of the parking lot. She turned on her headlights in the fading daylight, hoping to mask her car, then turned around and followed him at a distance.

“I blew it,” Nick said to himself, shaking his head as he drove. Of course Cora could see he was nervous, lying, and completely knocked over by her beauty. She wore casual business clothes on the news, but tonight she had worn a thin flower shirt over a lacy red tank top and a black skirt. It was pretty and feminine with a hint of sexiness. And yeah, it probably stopped most men from thinking straight. He muttered some more and grabbed his cell phone to call his cousin on the handless speaker. “Adam.”

“Hey, why are you calling so soon? What happened?”

Nick sighed. “I talked to her for maybe five minutes and she took off. I think I made her even more suspicious.” He could hear sounds from one of the Mexican restaurants that Adam and his parents ran from Adam’s end.

“Man . . . Did you call Keith yet?”

“No, I’m headed back there to keep an eye on things.” They both paused. Maybe Adam had been wrong in thinking that Nick could help. He didn’t feel in control of the situation. This was his first assignment to prove himself loyal to the family again, and it couldn’t have gone worse. According to Keith’s expectations, of course. Nick got what he wanted, to meet Cora Evans face to face, but he doubted he made a good impression. He added, “Something’s bugging me.”

“What’s that?”

“Maybe bugging isn’t the right word . . . I’m afraid this situation with Jerry will end up involving more than we want people to know.”

Adam paused before saying, “Only if the cops get called in, and we don’t need to do that to help Jerry and his daughter. We got this.”

“I’m playing by Keith’s rules again when I wanted to take a stand.” Nick sighed. Doing anything more could get people hurt. Cora hurt. Then Nick asked out of the blue, more or less to change the subject, “Are you sure she doesn’t have a boyfriend?”

Despite the mood, Adam laughed. “When I looked through Keith’s file, I didn’t see anything about a romantic interest, just info on her job, Jerry, and college.”

“Tell me.”

“That bad, huh? Well, she majored in journalism and aced about every class, then jumped right into a job here in Eugene. Keith had a lot more info on Jerry, but I think you know most of the boring details. The only new thing I read was that he lost his wife before working for Keith.”

That was interesting. And sad. “How?”

Adam didn’t answer right away. “It’s a little strange, she died of cancer.”

“Hmm.” Neither wanted to talk about the coincidence. “I’m about to the house. I’ll talk to you later.” 

***

Cora felt more and more ridiculous, but kept on her course and parked a block from the Holloway house.
Something
had happened to her father. She couldn’t ignore the sickening feeling. The Holloways had a beautiful property lined with a tall fence and security system. Oddly enough, however, the front gate moved under her touch, unlocked.

She would bet money her dad was here, and since it was unlocked, this couldn’t really be considered breaking and entering, right? The real question was, did she care at this point?

She’d done her share of sneaking around for a good story, and this was far more important than her career.

She slipped in and hid among the shrubs along the fence, ignoring her pounding heart and tight stomach. So what if she threw up in his expensive landscaping?  Flowers bloomed on the bushes around her, soaking the air with heavy, sweet perfume and littering the ground with tiny white blossoms. The smell further twisted her insides.

She stilled in the shadows to watch the house. Darkness fell and she felt fairly confident that she could sneak around without being noticed. She crept across the property toward the house, using a rose garden as cover. Her heels were short but they weren’t made for walking in the damp grass. With her heels sinking into the soft earth, she kept low and made her way to the house.

They must not have been too worried about anyone trying to break in. Maybe their reputation kept thieves and other criminals at bay.

The glass decoration around the front door allowed her to see inside. Just an empty entryway. She made her way to a front window and peered in. At the movement inside, she jerked her head down and then, ever so slowly, peeked in from the edge. Two soft lamps lit the room inside, giving the space an artificial, orange hue.

Dad! She spotted her father’s salt and pepper hair and black-rimmed glasses. His normally warm face didn’t have a hint of a smile as he slouched down in a chair, looking defeated with his sagging shoulders. She’d been right, but she wasn’t happy about it.

Keith Holloway paced in front of Jerry, using curt gestures to articulate his speech. She didn’t see either of Keith’s two brothers, but a large, muscle-bound teenager stood behind Jerry. Nor did she see Alexander Pierce, the only other employee or relative she knew of the family. All the better, because she couldn’t stand the man and did just about anything to avoid him. He slicked his hair back, and if that weren’t enough, he had overly thick eyebrows, a long nose, and a permanent sneer. The combination made him scary and creepy at the same time.

She couldn’t tell if her dad was trapped there, or if he could leave. His hands were in front of him, free. The big teenager behind him was simply standing there. Maybe Keith was upset about his budget or something.

What, really, was she doing? How could she help her dad without knowing what he was involved in? If she truly felt something criminal was going on, she decided she should get help. If only she could hear them.

Sudden shame hit her and she stepped back, deciding to leave. As soon as she got back to the fence line, she’d call 911. The police would come, she’d get her father out safely, and demand that he quit his job and all involvement with the Holloways. She should have been more persistent when he refused before.

“Good evening, Cora.” A low, hard voice spooked her as two hands clamped down on her shoulders. He pulled her back and spun her around.

She might have screamed. She tried to run but his grip was too tight.

Light from the window fell on a hard, frowning face. So here was Alexander Pierce. He didn’t give her much room, but stepped close and stared down into her face. She’d never been able to tell his eye color before. Now she saw that was because the pupil was so large it crowded out the dark blue around the edges.  

She could
smell
him.

“What are you doing here?”

“My father.” She gritted her teeth together and jerked free of his hands. “I want to know what the hell is going on in there.”

He smiled.

“Then I’ll take you inside to see.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her around the house and through the front door, ignoring how she pulled away from him and tried to punch his arm.

She yelled for him to let go, but found she was either getting dragged or walking with him. He swung open the front door and pushed her in first.

The smell of cigarette smoke hit Cora one step into the dim hallway. Ahead of them, Keith stepped out of the study, shutting the door behind him, and cast a disapproving look at her through his cigarette smoke. The man was
tall
and strolling down the hallway with one hand in his pants pocket. He seemed to have a self-inflicted ugliness, caused by his lined smoker’s face, angry eyes and oversized gray mustache.

Her stomach felt ready to hurl. She prayed she wouldn’t pass out. She could do this. She could keep her head on straight and get out here.

“Are you this rough to all your company?” Cora asked while trying to pull her arm away from Alexander. Keith ignored her comment.

She glanced back and saw Alexander share a look with Keith. It was like she wasn’t there.

“How perfect is this?” Alexander’s voice filled with pleasure over himself. “I think we need to go ahead with my plan now that she’s here.”

Her vision did black out for a second.

Keith nodded. “All right. Bring her in here.” He led the way down the hallway, reopened the study door and ushered them in. She almost tripped. Alexander caught her and pushed her down into one of the two leather chairs facing the desk, next to her father.

“Cora?” Surprise and fear registered on Jerry’s face, pushing Cora’s heart rate up even faster.

Keith jerked his head toward the hallway and then stepped out with Alexander, leaving Cora and Jerry sitting in the study under the watch of the third, younger, man.

The idea of calling 911 right now hit Cora just as she realized she had left her cell phone in her purse, back in her car. She didn’t think she could get to the phone on Keith’s desk across the room before the big blonde tackled her from behind.

“Dad, what’s going on?” She slipped her words through her clenched teeth. With his peppered hair raked in different directions, Jerry looked hung over he was so roughed up. Desperate. She’d seen him this way before when they lost her mother.

“Oh, Sweetie, why did you have to come here?”

She reached over to grab his hand. It was shaking.

“I was worried about you.” Her voice cracked and she stopped, trying to hang onto her control. “What is going on?”

“I can’t explain everything, I’m sorry, but you’re not safe. We have to get you out of here. Let me do the talking when they come back.” Jerry looked like he wanted to comfort her, but he glanced back toward the man watching them. It looked like a warning not to say anything. “It’s my fault. I’m so sorry. I’m in a lot of trouble.”

She’d figured that part out already. They were both in trouble.

“What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything wrong, but they think I did. Things look bad, I’ll admit, but I didn’t. I still have to fix it, though.” Jerry’s rambling perplexed her.

She needed some facts here. “Dad, what did they accuse you of doing?”

Hushed, he replied, “I didn’t steal their money. I’m an honest man, I work hard. I thought I had proved myself to them.”

“Maybe this is a misunderstanding,” she offered. While she couldn’t imagine talking their way out of this one, she wasn’t sure what else they could do.

Jerry lowered his head into his hands, mumbling.

“How much are we talking about here?”

He shook his head, not bothering to sit up. “Someone’s been skimming money for the last five years, right under my nose.
Right under my nose!
How did I miss it?”

This sounded serious, and her dad had a very good question. How did he manage their finances and miss that? Someone had to be pretty clever to embezzle money for five years without the accountant noticing.