Executive Protection(45)

Around the back, he kept to the side of the house, the roar of the river a hundred yards from there. He saw the balcony he’d seen in the picture. There were stairs leading up to it. He tried the sliding glass door on the lower level. It also was locked.

Lucy trailed behind him, searching the darkness in case anyone appeared. They crept up the stairs. The blinds covering the windows on the lower level were all closed.

Trying the balcony door, the handle turned. Thad looked back at Lucy and mouthed, “Stay here.” When she nodded, he pushed open the door. He heard a television from somewhere down the hall that played a cartoon.

An instant later, a man’s form jumped out from the enclave of the kitchen, holding a pan. It was Layne. Thad blocked the swing and then drove his fist into Layne’s sternum. When Layne grunted and bent over slightly, Thad grabbed his wrist and used his weight to force him backward, slamming him against the stainless-steel refrigerator.

Thad pounded Layne’s wrist to the metal refrigerator door until the frying pan dropped and clattered to the tile floor. Then he rammed his knee into Layne’s chest and chopped his throat with the side of his hand. That sent Layne to his knees.

Pointing his gun at Layne, he demanded, “Did you hurt her?”

Lucy appeared inside the kitchen. Seeing that he had Layne under control, she ran down the hall toward the sound of the cartoon. She vanished into a room, and Thad heard Sophie begin to cry and say her name.

“I’ve got you,” Lucy said, emerging into the hall carrying the crying child, who clung to her. “I won’t let you go, I promise.”

Something in Thad shifted, the love Lucy had for the child touching the cold spot in his heart. Sophie trusted her and returned the love. The sight of them and the realization of that love choked him.

Sophie wailed unintelligible things, a patchy account of what had happened to her. Layne had come into her room and put something over her mouth that made her go to sleep. She woke up here, and he’d threatened to kill her if she made a single sound.

He’d drugged her. A child. That was so dangerous. What if he’d given her too much? Fury roiled, and Thad had to force himself to stay under control. The only positive in this was that Sophie hadn’t been aware of what happened to Rosanna. She may have heard the struggle and perhaps Rosanna screaming, but she hadn’t seen her body. Still a traumatizing experience, but it could have been worse. She’d woken in a strange place, kidnapped by Layne, a man she didn’t like. She’d been scared.

Rage propelled Thad to kick Layne, planting his boot on his chest and banging him backward against the refrigerator.

“Why did you do this?” Thad needed him to talk about the man who’d taken pictures.

Layne looked up at him, lip bleeding.

“Why?” Thad yelled.

Lucy put her hand on Sophie’s head, making sure she didn’t see what Thad did to Layne, and then talked into the girl’s ear to calm her.

Thad leaned down and yanked Layne’s head back with one hand and pressed the barrel of the gun to his temple. Layne was no hardened criminal. If he’d killed Rosanna, it was a crime of passion.

“Tell me now,” Thad said.

Layne looked up at Thad’s face, at his eyes, and relented. “I was paid.”

Just as he’d thought. “Who paid you?”

“You’re Thad Winston, aren’t you?” Layne asked rather than answering.

Had he recognized him from a picture or because of who his mother was? Maybe both.

“He warned me that you might come after me,” Layne continued.

“Who paid you?” Thad repeated.

Leaning against the refrigerator, Layne stretched his legs out in front of him and wiped his lip. Thad kept the gun aimed at his head but allowed him to get more comfortable.

“He wouldn’t tell me his name,” Layne said. “He just offered me a lot of money.” Layne explained about the call he’d received and although he’d been skeptical, he’d met the man an hour later, when he’d given him cash.

“Half today, half after the child was delivered,” Layne said.

“What did the man look like?” Thad asked.

Layne thought for a moment. “He wore a hat and sunglasses. He wasn’t as tall as you and had on a dark suit.”

That wasn’t much to go on and Thad hadn’t gotten a good look at the man who’d watched them before he drove away, which had been right after he’d been spotted. He hadn’t seen the license plate, either. “After you had Sophie, what were you supposed to do?”

“He was going to contact me to arrange giving her to him. He hasn’t yet.”

Thad had gotten here in time. “How was he going to contact you?”

“My phone. Cell phone.”

Thad searched him. Not finding the phone, he scanned the kitchen.

Finally having calmed Sophie enough to put her down, Lucy picked up a cell phone from the kitchen island and showed it to Thad.

Layne had agreed to kidnap a young girl for money without knowing who hired him or why. He hadn’t set out to murder Rosanna. He’d been desperate for money. And once embroiled in the plan to kidnap Sophie, there was no turning back.

Hearing sirens outside, Thad was assured of Layne’s arrest, but without a solid lead to identify the man who’d paid him to kidnap Sophie. He could only vow to protect Sophie from further harm. And that came with another kind of danger—one to his heart.