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“No, no, you’re not. There was a problem at the church—a big hole in the roof. I think I tree limb fell on it. So we’re not having the wedding today after all.”
“Oh, no!” Tyler’s voice was soft. “Is Kara very sad?”
“She’s fine, Ty.”
“No way, Dad. Shemustbe sad. She looked so pretty!”
Kara’s face appeared in his mind’s eye, the way she’d looked when he’d seen her before. Pale, shaken, devastated. He’d attributed it to worry over Tyler. And he still thought that was the main cause. But it took Tyler to remind him she’d also been stood up at the altar today. And she’d learned that her husband to be didn’t love her.
The woman was an angel. She didn’t deserve the hell she was going through right now. Tyler’s innocent reminder of that added a layer of pain and a ton of guilt to the burdens already weighing him down.
“It’s okay, Dad. I’ll make her feel better soon as you come get me.”
He swallowed hard and focused on his son. “And I’ll come get you just as soon as I can, hon. But it might be just a little while yet. Are they being nice to you?”
“They’re okay. Not much fun, though. And the lady—” he lowered his voice to a whisper “—she’s kindaweird.”
“You be a good boy, Ty. Be just as good as you can be, and I’ll come for you very, very soon. I promise.”
“I wish you could come now. Dad, Kara is still gonna be my new mommy. Isn’t sh–”
“Tyler? Ty?” Nothing. Dead air.
“He disconnected,” the technician called. “Didn’t give us enough time to trace it.”
Jim nodded, lifted his head, looked at his chief. “We have to call the D.A. Get him to drop the child pornography case against Vinnie. It’s the only way he’ll let Tyler go.”
The chief pursed his lips. “It’s a child-porn charge, Corona. You willing to let him walk on that?”
God, he wished Kara were there.
“We’ll get him on kidnapping. Assault. Attempted murder. He tried to kill Colby and he bashed my skull in with a tire iron. Thirty-six stitches, that’s gotta be convincing. Attempted murder of two cops is no small potatoes. He’ll do more time for that than he would have for the kiddie porn anyway.”
Wade shot him a look. “You’re kidding me.”
“It’s true,” Caleb said. “Sick system we have, isn’t it?”
“I don’t like it or agree with it,” Jim said. “But it’s what we’ve got.” He nodded to his chief. “Get the D.A. on the phone. We have to move on this as fast as possible. I want my kid back.”
“Yeah, okay. Just one question, Corona. And.. .hell, you don’t know how much I hate having to ask it.” He pursed his lips. “Does Tyler realize he’s been abducted?”
“No. He thinks I asked those two animals to take him.”
The chief nodded. “Then he wasn’t blindfolded?”
Jim felt his entire being go cold. He knew what was coming.
“Vinnie isn’t stupid. He’s not going to go to all this trouble to weasel out of one set of charges only to set himself up with even more serious ones. He thinks Colby’s dead so he’s in the clear on that. No one to testify. Which leaves you and Tyler as the only witnesses to the kidnapping.”
Jim lunged at his boss and had him by the collar before he even realized he was moving. “Don’t you even—”
“Ease off, Jim!” Caleb gripped his shoulders and tugged him off. Wade stood beside him, glaring at the six officers about to draw down.
The guys had his back. Hell, that was a shocker.
He released Chief Wilcox.
“I know you don’t want to face it, Jim,” Wilcox said, smoothing his shirt. “I know, believe me I know. But you can’t turn a blind eye to the truth either. There’s no guarantee that giving Vinnie what he wants is going to get Tyler out of there alive. He’s got to tie up lose ends. Which means Tyler, and then you. Hell, your boy might be safer if you stall a little. They’d have to keep him alive then. And it would buy us some time to track him down.”
