Alias: Daddy Page 15

  “Peachy,” Kerrie answered. Roman and she joined him in the hall. “I tried inviting you to this little come-as-youare-party at 3 a…m., but got no answer.”

  Cage grimaced guiltily. “After yesterday’s all-nighter, I turned off the bell on my phone, but I had my beeper on. I guess I just didn’t hear it.”

  “At least one of us got some sleep,” Kerrie said. Somehow being awake to see the dawn two mornings in a row ought to be romantic. Revitalizing. Not grisly. “Do they know how he got in here yet?”

  “Apparently he planted a bug in the foyer, a listening device. The security people say whoever deactivated the alarm did so with the code. Did you tell anyone what the code was?”

  Kerrie didn’t have to answer him, the color draining from her face did that. Dear, God, she’d stood right in the foyer and told Roman the code was the girls’ birth date. And Loverboy had been listening. A sickening chill dragged the bottom from her stomach and she had to throw her hand over her mouth to keep from gagging. The monster knew when her babies were born! She shuddered. She’d brought this new horror on her family. It didn’t matter that she’d done it innocently.

  She led the two men into the living room and sank to the sofa. Roman sat beside her. Cage took the chair across from them.

  Kerrie drew a calming breath. “I can’t figure out why he didn’t kill us in our sleep.”

  “He’s playing with us.” Roman spoke softly, but his words were as disturbing as stones dropped in a glassy pool. “Telling us he can get us no matter what precautions we take.”

  She clenched her hands together in her lap, trying to hide their trembling. “What are we going to do?”

  “Maybe now you’ll consider a safe house?” Cage said.

  Kerrie glanced at Roman and their gazes locked. Fear stood bold in the depths of his golden eyes. This man feared few things, much as she feared few things. Loverboy was one of those few things. Kerrie shook her head. “That’s no answer, Tully.”

  Roman concurred. “I know what has Irish concerned. Arnie Schmidt specialized in guarding people. He was one of the best in the country. Somehow Loverboy ambushed him.”

  “Are you saying Seattle PD can’t do better?” Cage asked offended.

  Roman leveled a cool stare at him. “Can you give me a one hundred percent guarantee my children will be safe, Detective Cage?”

  Cage blinked first. “Well, I—”

  “Look, whatever we decide—” Kerrie interrupted “—I want my babies and my mother to survive this with as little trauma as we can manage.”

  They all fell silent. This was the second morning in a row Roman hadn’t shaved. He rubbed his whiskered jaw, considering their options. What they needed was a place with high security. What they needed was someone who could be trusted, someone who understood firsthand the danger Loverboy presented. Someone who wouldn’t underestimate the killer’s intelligence and cunning.

  He thought he knew the ideal place. The ideal person. He looked at Kerrie. “I have to leave for a while. Don’t make any decisions until I get back. I won’t be long.”

  Kerrie’s heart lurched. She didn’t want him to leave. But she didn’t know how to ask him to stay. As he stood and moved away from her, she clenched her hands tighter. Why was it less personal to need him sexually than it was to need him emotionally?

  ROMAN WAS RUNNING on pure emotion. He didn’t want to use Kerrie’s telephone until he was sure there weren’t any more listening devices. Wouldn’t risk Loverboy getting hold of her telephone records for incoming and outgoing calls.

  He took a taxi to his hotel. In his room, he called a local number and spoke with an old friend, collecting on a long overdue favor, then packed his clothes. When his newly ordered car arrived, he checked out of the hotel.

  Next, he visited the department store he’d patronized the day before. His third stop was a pay phone. He stood on the street corner, his leather coat collar turned up. The day was overcast and crisp with a breeze as bitter as his rage for Loverboy.

  He dialed the familiar number in Middleburg, Virginia, and spoke quickly to the man who was as much father as friend to him, explained the situation and gave him an updated report on the investigation. Satisfied with the outcome of the call, he next phoned a travel agent, then lastly, Sophia Sommerville and made sure the girls were safe.

  It was nearly eleven when he returned to Kerrie’s house. He’d been gone over two hours, longer than he’d expected. Cops still swarmed the grounds and inside. Curious neighbors stood near the yellow crime scene tape, apparently oblivious to the chilly wind. He wouldn’t doubt they staved the cold off by entertaining one another with tales of the gruesome murder.

  Roman found Kerrie in the girls’ room. She stood at the dresser, one drawer open, her hand inside, tenderly stroking an item of toddler clothing. The act was personal, private, her emotion filling the room. She’d changed into jeans and a long-sleeved, faded denim shirt. Her hair floated around her face, a fiery cascade of wavy curls that accentuated, instead of softened the strain around her mouth and eyes.

  The sight of her this way, all vulnerable and needy and scared, caused his heart to skip, and he had to remind himself that although Loverboy’s attack last night had brought them together as parents, it didn’t change anything between them as man and woman.

  His body still ached to ease itself within her. Maybe it always would. He cast the thought aside. He was strong enough to overcome the feeling. The want. The need.

  He was.

  “Hi.” Her spirits lifted at the sight of him, but her body responded to him on a more erotic level, as if it were a separate entity. She curbed her awareness of it, of him. She shut the drawer and turned full toward him. “Cage and I haven’t been able to agree on what will keep the girls and Mom safe. Tell me you’ve come up with an idea.”

  He grinned at her. “I have, actually.”

  “Great.” Relief swept her. “Tell me.”

  “Not here.”

  Kerrie started to protest, then realized he was concerned that Loverboy might have planted other bugs. The search for them was ongoing.

  “The only people who will know about this plan are you, me, your mom and Charlie Wong.”

  Kerrie’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “I can’t tell Cage?”

  Roman shook his head. “No.”

  The cop in her objected to his exclusion of her partner, to the implication that Cage couldn’t be trusted, but the mother in her dominated today. She knew the fewer people in on their plan, the safer her family would be. She wasn’t about to gamble with that. “Okay, when do we start?”

  “Immediately—as soon as you get the kids and Glynna packed.”

  Glynna and the kids. Not her. Roman wasn’t trying to take her off this case. He understood she wouldn’t go. That she had to be in on catching Loverboy. The wall around her heart shifted. He might not love her, but he respected her. Every day, in every way, he was proving himself a man she could be proud to call the father of her children.

  Her children. Reality squeezed her chest. She was going to have to be separated from them until Loverboy was caught. It was the only safe and sane solution. But the thought of not seeing her babies every day. No, she wouldn’t think about that. Whatever Roman’s plans were, the separation would be hard on the girls, too, harder still if she allowed them to view her fear or her sadness or her anger. “Are there laundry facilities where they’ll be?”

  “Yes.”

  She moved with purpose to the closet and hauled out a huge duffel bag. “A week’s worth of clothing should be plenty, then.”

  As soon as she had the bags packed, they loaded them beside his in the trunk of his rental car and drove to Sophia Sommerville’s.

  Charlie Wong let them in and reported that all was secure, then told them the others were in the den. Roman asked Charlie to join them there. Sophia and Glynna were seated on the sofa watching the girls play on the floor at their feet.

  Gabriella let out a squeal of d
elight the second she saw, “Moman” and “Mommy.”

  Surprising everyone, she raced right to Roman and let him scoop her into his arms. Maureen made a beeline to Kerrie, grasping her pant leg in one hand and her pink bunny, that she’d been halfheartedly sharing with her sister all day, in the other. She peered shyly at Roman through Kerrie’s legs.

  Roman, grinning from ear to ear, hugged Gabby and kissed her cheek. She laughed, then squirmed. “Down.”

  Roman squatted, lowering her chubby legs to the floor, but before he released her, he produced the new yellow bunny from inside his jacket. “Look what I found.”

  “Gabby, bunny.” Her eyes, so like his, rounded in surprised delight. She snatched the toy from him and toddled to Maureen.

  Maureen released her grip on Kerrie and touched her sister’s toy with her free hand. “Gabby bunny.”

  “My bunny,” she added, hugging her own toy. Both girls plopped down on their bottoms and began chattering in their own special language.

  Glynna was the first to break the moment. “I hope you’ve come to tell us we can finally go home.”

  Kerrie glanced at her mother in amazement. Glynna looked perfectly composed. A few hours ago, she’d been atremble with fright, awash in tears.- Now, there was a determined glint in her soft green eyes, an acceptance in the tilt of her head, defiance in the jut of her chin. Roman was right about the Muldoon women having fortitude. She hoped her mother had enough to accept the news that home was not where she’d be going.

  Kerrie asked, “Is Dr. Jon still here?”

  “No, I sent him to his office.” Glynna scratched absently at her heel. “He had ‘sick’ people to see.”

  Kerrie suppressed a smile, then glanced guiltily at their hostess. “Er, Sophia, Roman and I need to speak to Charlie and Mom. For your own safety it’s better if you don’t hear any of what is said.”

  “I see.” Sophia levered herself up off the sofa. Her fierce brown eyes full of understanding. “You know, I need to get Professor Plum some cat food.”

  Charlie walked her to the door, waited for her to don her mauve coat, then saw her safely to her car. The second he returned, Roman and he rechecked all the locks, then rejoined the women again in the den.

  Kerrie took the spot Sophia had vacated and Roman and Charlie sat opposite the women in recliner chairs.

  “Perhaps now someone will tell me why we had to chase Sophia out of her own house.” Scarlet dots stood out on Glynna’s cheeks. “Why didn’t we just go home and talk?”

  Kerrie told her about the listening device found in the foyer and their concern that there might be others. Glynna flinched. Kerrie grabbed her hand. “It’s all right, Mom. Roman has a plan.”

  Roman leaned forward, his arms resting on his legs, his gaze leveled on Glynna. He wore a solemn expression, but a muscle twitched at his temple as he explained to her the arrangements he’d made. “You’ll be flying to Middleburg, Virginia, this afternoon.”

  “Virginia?” She glanced at Kerrie, who could only nod. She, too, was hearing this for the first time.

  “Yes. You’ll stay at the mansion of my friend Philip Waring,” Roman said. “His house is the most secure place I can think of, and Loverboy won’t know where you’ve gone. Where to look for you. Only the four of us and Philip know about this.”

  “Okay.” Glynna frowned thoughtfully. “Waring? Why does that name sound familiar?”

  Roman closed his eyes. Kerrie cleared her throat “His daughter Wendy was Loverboy’s first victim.”

  “I see.” Glynna studied Roman a moment “Then Mr. Waring knows the dangers of taking us in?”

  Roman nodded his head gravely. “Only too well.”

  She sat straighter “What about his wife? Other family members—won’t they be endangered by our presence?”

  “Philip is a widower. Wendy was his only daughter. He’s a good man and he’ll watch over you as if you were his own family.”

  “Well, then.” Glynna started to stand. “If we’re flying out this afternoon, we’d better go home and pack.”

  Kerrie waylaid her. “I’ve already packed. We’re leaving from here, Mom.”

  Glynna settled back onto the sofa and looked down at herself in dismay. She had on the sweat suit she usually wore over her tennis outfit. “I’m not traveling dressed like this.”

  “No one expects you to. I packed your navy pantsuit and your makeup.”

  “Where are they?”

  “In my car,” Roman said “You’ll be able to change at our next stop.”

  “Which is?”

  “It’s a surprise.”

  “This day has been full of those.” Glynna smiled wryly. “I’ve heard Middleburg is a charming area, close to the nation’s capitol and yet rural with spectacular horse farms and wineries.”

  Roman nodded. “Philip makes his living with his stud farm.”

  “Interesting.” Glynna reached to scratch her heel and stopped in midmotion. She stared at Kerrie with a dawning look in her soft green eyes. “Oh, my. I am taking an unexpected trip, but it’s definitely not going to be a honeymoon.”

  “Mom, I’m so sorry.” Kerrie felt directly responsible for this. It was her work that had visited this evil upon them. Now her mother’s plans with Dr. Jon would have to be put on hold indefinitely, as she’d been putting them on hold for three years already.

  “Don’t be silly. It’s not your fault some madman is loose in this city. We’ll do what needs doing to stay safe.” She stood and everyone else did the same. She began putting Maureen’s coat on her, while Kerrie did the same to Gabby. “Well, Kerrie Carleen, I take it we are leaving now on this adventure?”

  “I won’t be going with you, Mom.”

  “Why not?” she challenged. The first sign of trepidation flicked through her eyes.

  Roman stepped up to Glynna and helped her with her coat. “We don’t want Loverboy to know the girls and you are gone until it’s too late. With the precautions I’ve set up, we should be able to guarantee that. Charlie will be accompanying the twins and you.”

  “And what are Kerrie and you going to do?”

  “I’m moving in with her.” Roman glanced at Kerrie, then back at her mother. His voice rang with heartfelt fierceness. “I promise you, Glynna, I’ll keep her safe.”

  Glynna took his hand in both of hers, and gazed up at him. Her own eyes glowing with the strength of her determination. “And I promise I’ll keep our little girls safe.” As though someone were walking on her grave, Kerrie felt a sudden bone-chilling fear. Would either of them be able to keep their promise?

  Chapter Thirteen

  It seemed to Kerrie that Roman’s previous car, the one needing four new tires, had been a typical rental compact. Its replacement, this elegant Lincoln Continental, was anything but snug. The backseat more than accommodated her mother and herself with the twins between them. She could actually stretch her legs. But the part she liked best was the opaquely tinted windows; if Loverboy was following them, he couldn’t see them.

  Roman, at the wheel, and Charlie Wong, monopolizing the front passenger seat, were chatting in voices too low to be heard above the twins’ jabbering. Kerrie sat directly behind Roman, who still hadn’t told them where they were going, where it was that Glynna could change into proper traveling clothes. Neither had any of them asked. At this point they trusted his judgment. Had to trust his judgment. Their lives depended on it.

  She glanced at his intense expression reflected in the rearview mirror. For a split second his golden gaze locked with hers. Her pulse skittered. She blinked and looked out the window at her side, trying to concentrate on downtown Seattle’s looming vista, instead of on the sexy, passionate, generous man whose very glance could command her heart Her body.

  Her hand brushed against the buttery smooth leather of the seat, pulling her back to her perusal of the car. For the first time, she realized how richly potent the pearl gray leather smelled. How new it smelled. A frown tugged her eyebrows. What r
ental company leased brand-new Lincoln Continentals?

  In the front seat, Roman and Charlie fell silent. Gabriella tugged on Kerrie’s sleeve. “Mommy,” she said. “I wanna sit wiff Moman.”

  Maureen said, “We go bye bye wiff Moman.”

  Gabby stretched her hands toward him, indicating she wanted him to lift her into the front seat, and whined, “Moman.”

  “You can’t sit with Roman right now, sweetie.” She hugged the child to her side and kissed the top of her head. Each little girl was strapped into a seat belt; their safety car seats had been abandoned for this ride. “Roman’s driving.”

  In the mirror, Kerrie saw the grin in his eyes, the pure delight such a small moment gave him.

  Maureen nodded at Gabby. “We go bye bye wiff Moman and Mommy and Gammy.” She snuggled against Glynna’s arm.

  “And Tarlie,” Gabby added, pointing to Charlie.

  Kerrie’s heart swelled with love, and she realized, like Roman, she also cherished these small moments. Sadness and anger stripped all warmth from the thought. She would soon be putting her babies on a plane that would take them a couple of thousand miles from her. For how long? How long would it be before they caught Loverboy? How long before her children and she were reunited?

  They weren’t even on the plane and her heart felt bereft. Her arms empty. She stroked Gabby’s silken hair with one hand, stretching to caress Maureen’s cheek with the other. Maureen giggled and twisted out of her reach, burrowing her face against Glynna’s side. Glynna chuckled and grinned at Kerrie. Kerrie laughed, too, but tears stung her eyes.

  She glanced quickly toward the window and blinked them away. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t break down in front of the girls or her mom. That she’d send them off with as brave a face as she could put on the situation. By all she held dear, she intended to keep that promise.

  “We’ll be there in just a minute,” Roman announced, exiting the freeway at Seneca and advancing onto Sixth Avenue in downtown Seattle.