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“Why hasn’t Mills called? Or the police?” I pulled at my hair.
“Jonah’s strong, Doc,” Ryan said. “He’ll be all right.”
“I can’t lose him now. I just can’t. I don’t know how I’ll go on.”
“If Wendy loved our dad the way she said she did, she won’t hurt one of his kids,” Ryan said.
Talon jolted on his bar stool. “Oh my God…”
“What is it, Tal?”
“Oh, God,” he said again. “Melanie…”
Talon had never called me Melanie before. Always Dr. Carmichael or Doc. His use of my first name couldn’t signify anything good. I inhaled, gathering what courage I had left. “What is it?”
“If Wendy was in the group, this future lawmakers club, with my father and my three abductors… What if she was somehow involved in my kidnapping?”
I heard the words Talon didn’t say. If what he proposed was true, and if Wendy had been involved in his abduction, she certainly wasn’t above hurting one of Brad’s children.
I rubbed my shoulders as cold fear pressed through me. My breath came in rapid pants. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t see…
I fell into Talon’s arms.
Chapter Thirty
Jonah
Wendy stared at me, but I couldn’t read the look on her face. My vision was still too blurry. She advanced toward me.
“Brad, you know as well as I do that what happened to your son was your own fault.”
What? Fiery rage pulsed in my veins. How dare she blame my father for what happened to Talon? I opened my mouth to say as much but then closed it quickly.
Had Wendy orchestrated Talon’s kidnapping to punish my father?
Had she been telling the truth? That my father had an enemy? And that she was the enemy?
Then again, that would contradict what Larry had said—that Talon was never meant to be taken. Larry’s story made more sense, as Talon and Ryan had gone searching for Luke Walker that day, and there was no way that Tom and the other one, whichever name he was using at the time, could’ve known where they had gone. Wendy couldn’t have known either. She lived in Denver, not Snow Creek, at that time.
What could I say to get the most information out of Wendy?
“It was not my fault, Wendy,” I said. “You and I both know the truth.” I had no idea what truth I was speaking of, but maybe she would start talking.
“The only truth I know, Brad, is that we are meant for each other. We have always been meant to be together. And I will use whatever means I must to make you see that ultimate certainty.”
While I was thinking about how to respond, she stalked toward me, pushing me down supine on the bed. She began unbuttoning my shirt. “It’s time, Brad. It’s time for you to impregnate me. I’m ovulating, ripe as a tomato ready to fall off the vine. I’m ready to take your seed, to start making your true heir.”
My vision was finally coming back. She looked at me with a mixture of love and madness, her blue eyes filled with emotion unreadable. There was no way we were having sex.
I exerted my strength, sat up, and pushed her away. “No. Not after what you did to my son. Maybe we had a future at one time, Wendy. But when you harmed my son, you ended whatever was between us.”
“And I told you, what happened to your son was your own fault, not mine. You were the one who refused to surrender to our love. You needed to be punished.”
“So to punish me, you harmed an innocent little boy. You’re a monster, Wendy. A monster, and I cannot love a monster.”
Tears emerged in Wendy’s eyes. “Everything I’ve done, I’ve done out of love for you. How do you not see that?”
And then an idea popped into my mind. “Wendy, I’ll make a deal with you. You tell me exactly how the attack on Talon was orchestrated. Be totally honest so I can punish the people involved. If you do that for me, I will give you the child you so desperately want.”
