AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Just the one child?” It had occurred to Ace that it was possible that he could have other siblings, siblings that his biological mother had chosen to raise.
“Only one,” Ainsley confirmed, “a son whom she’s estranged from—and who’s missing from the area since he was seventeen.”
“But this Jake Anderson was raised right here, in Mustang Valley?” Ace waited for his sister’s nod before adding, “And he’s my age?”
“As far as we can determine.”
“That’s odd. That I don’t know him, I mean. You’d have thought we would’ve crossed paths growing up, wouldn’t you? In school or playing sports? You know how it is around here. Small enough that everyone’s at least aware of others in the same age range.”
Ainsley nodded. “I do. But I also know how isolated, how insular those AAG people are. What I saw at the Marriage Institute...”
“Did someone actually hurt you there?” Ace asked, his protective hackles rising as he realized that she must have glossed over some of the more harrowing details in her earlier account. “I would’ve thought I could at least trust Santiago to keep you safe.” He knew that his sister and the PI had a past, but it had been obvious, even from his distracted vantage, that there were still lingering feelings between the two.
Ainsley waved off his concern. “Whatever we went through, it was more than worth it to figure out what those charlatans were really up to and how Micheline was connected. And as far as Santiago goes—he was...he is amazing.”
“So you two are back together?” At her nod, he smiled. “Well that’s some good news, at least. Isn’t it?”
A little blush dawned in her cheeks. “The best.”
“Then I’m glad for you both,” he said, smiling to see his sister happy. She deserved that much and so much more, and Santiago was a good man. “But about this Jake Anderson—”
“What I was getting at,” she hurried to add, “is that with the center so far from town and full of so many of her followers eager to do her bidding, I’m betting she kept her son isolated, had him homeschooled out there so we’d never meet him.”
“Makes perfect sense, if she was trying to hide her crime—and a kidnapped child—right under our family’s noses.”
“But that still doesn’t tell us why she took him in the first place,” Ainsley said, “or how she’s involved with what’s been going on around here lately.”
“Yet you’re absolutely sure she is?”
“Oh, yes. If you’d been there to hear her, if you’d seen the sly look on that woman’s face—” Sighing in frustration, Ainsley shook her head. “We think—our siblings and I—that somehow, Micheline’s behind our father’s shooting. She probably had one of her minions do it, just the way she must’ve put Watts up to sending out that email.”
Ace’s gut told him Ainsley might be right. Bizarre as it sounded, it made a kind of twisted sense that a woman who’d hated a man enough to steal his child might still despise him enough to try to kill him, even decades later. “Why now, though? And to what end?” he asked.
“We don’t know. So far there’ve been no demands for money, no blackmail attempts or anything like that, so whatever this big plan is, we have no clue.”
“Have you confronted her and questioned her directly? Has anyone?”
Ainsley made a face. “It’s a complicated situation. I’ve spoken to the police, of course, about what I overheard, but they’re telling me it’s way too nebulous to act on. She might’ve been speaking of those seminars she does, or some other project related to her self-help business—”
“Her cult, you mean.”
“Right,” said Ainsley. “The police are looking into her background, keeping an eye on her activities, but until they have something solid, they’d rather we don’t tip our hand by letting her know we’re on to her.”
“So we sit around waiting for this woman to do more damage?” Ace asked, hating the idea. And hating even more the idea that he might actually share this woman’s DNA. And what about his biological father? He frowned, deciding he was better off never knowing which of her hangers-on had sired him, since neither the sperm donor nor Micheline had chosen to be his parent. Neither one had put in the sweat equity the way that his true mother and father, Payne and Tessa Colton, had.
“For now, we wait,” Ainsley agreed, “and watch for her to make another mistake.”
“Well, you’ll have to forgive me,” he said sarcastically, “but after forty years of her not slipping up, I wouldn’t pin too much hope on Micheline Anderson suddenly tripping up and tipping her hand one minute before she’s ready.”
Chapter 12
Left alone inside her cramped room, Sierra fought a battle tougher than any opponent she’d ever gone up against in the ring.
But if she’d learned anything from the fugitives she’d spent so many years recapturing and taking into custody, it was that pleas, panic and desperation would only trigger the use of heavier restraints. And since she was under the care of medical practitioners convinced they were acting in her own best interest, that was likely to include some kind of drugs that would leave her in a stupor.
So gradually, she struggled to slow her breathing, to ride out the pain and nausea until they dissipated. The emotions were much more difficult to master, the shock, fury and the panic she felt at the idea of her home, her very life, destroyed while she lay here trapped and helpless to fight back. And helpless to prevent the violence from spilling over.
A fresh wave of dizziness engulfed her as her mind exploded with memories of last night’s drive-by shooting. She heard the screeching of the black car’s tires and saw the light reflected off a lowering window. She stiffened as gunfire erupted all around her. The next thing she knew, the back of her head was throbbing and the cameraman’s blood was hot and slick on her hands. Blood that so easily could have been her own or even Ace’s.
