Childfinders Inc - Hero For Hire Part 25

"He'll outgrow that," Chad commented, brus.h.i.+ng off his hands without realizing it.

She noted the gesture and smiled. "It used to be worse." When Chad raised his eyebrows, a habit she found herself getting accustomed to, she elaborated. "After Robert died, Neil got it into his head that he should step into his brother's shoes." She shrugged dismissively. At the time, she'd found the idea almost comical. "Something like the prince trying to take over his brother the king's position. Neil was very serious about it. It took me a while to make him realize that it wasn't going to happen between us."

She laughed softly to herself. Chad waited to be let in on the private joke.

"I think Neil had a difficult time understanding that, unlike the women he was accustomed to, I found him quite easy to resist. I mean, I like him, but certainly not in that way."

He had no idea why that pleased him or why seeing her standing there, barefoot, struck him as vulnerable and stirring at the same time. But he knew he wasn't about to spend time puzzling it out. He had things to do.

"If you'll give me the tape, I'll take it over to Rusty before he gets busy with something else." He waited for her to remove it from her purse. Slipping it into his pocket, he crossed the room to the door. "I'll give you a call if he comes up with something or if there's any news on our end," he promised, opening the front door.

She stood, debating with herself before she finally gave in. "Come back."

He stopped and I turned around to look at her. "Excuse me?"

Did what she'd said sound as pathetic to him as it did to her? But she couldn't help herself. "After you drop that off at the office, come back."

For a second he didn't see the point. "There isn't anything more that can be done tonight, Veronica."

And then he saw her eyes and understood.

"I know. I... I just don't want to be alone tonight." She ran her hand along the doorjamb, trying to still the nerves that had been jumping around these past two days. "Maybe this sounds foolish to you, but I feel better when you're around. I feel that this nightmare will be over soon."

No one had ever said that to him before. He tried not to make too much of it. She was under stress and he was a realist. Optimism came at a high premium, one that he usually wasn't up to paying.

But he found himself agreeing to her request. "I suppose I can be your rabbit's foot for the night. I just need to stop by my place and get a few things after I drop off the tape."

She nodded, placing her hand on the door to close it. He was halfway down the walk when she called after him. "Chad." When he turned, she seemed to flush ruefully. The softest smile he'd ever seen graced her lips. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

He was a man comprised of instincts, of hunches and gut feelings, and right now, all three were warning him that he was venturing into dangerous territory.

Territory that was completely unfamiliar to him. If he had any sense, he'd back away and stick with what he knew. Finding kids, getting the job done. Not holding someone's hand through the night. He wasn't good at that, wasn't meant for that.

Relations.h.i.+ps, any kind of relations.h.i.+ps, meant opening yourself up. Making yourself vulnerable. Waiting to be disappointed. He sighed.

He was making something out of nothing. The woman was afraid and with good reason. If staying the night with her, if talking and figuratively holding her hand helped her through it, then he would stay the night. She was going through h.e.l.l, and it was the least he could do for her. He figured that was the end of it.

Chapter 11.

He was being watched.

It wasn't anything Chad had detected out of the corner of his eye or in his rearview mirror. No suspicious vehicle tailing him, no glimpse of someone hiding in a doorway to set him off. But it was still there, that feeling. A strange p.r.i.c.kling at the back of his neck, a tension in his spine that experience had taught him was his sixth sense.

Someone was watching him. The question was who and why.

He doubted it had been for very long. The feeling had kicked in just a few seconds ago. He was pretty sure whoever it was hadn't followed him from Veronica's.

After all, he hadn't gone directly home. Stopping at the agency, he'd found that Savannah had gone home for the night. She'd left a note addressed to him saying she'd get in touch the moment there was anything to report. But Rusty was still there. The tape he'd left with his younger brother was as yet a work in progress, but Rusty had managed to uncover the faint sound of children laughing in the background.

"Might just be a TV on in the room," Rusty told him.

"Or the kids we saw playing in the park," Chad had speculated out loud.

Rusty nodded, getting back to the program he was painstakingly employing. "Or maybe something else," he threw in.

It was the "something else" that nagged at Chad as he drove to his apartment.

Just as the feeling of being watched nagged at him now. The stairs leading to his third-floor loft were out in the open with a view of the carport where he'd parked his vehicle. Chad took the steps slowly, thumbing through the flyers he'd gotten out of his mailbox as if they rabidly held his attention. Giving whoever was watching him the impression he was preoccupied.

When he reached the landing, Chad abruptly turned around.

And saw someone he'd just as soon forget standing at the base of the cement steps.

The figure was thinner, the shoulders slightly stooped now, instead of thrown back in arrogant pride. The face bore the mark of every one of the twenty years that separated then from now.

His father stood looking up at him.

Chad swallowed an oath. His first thought was that Rusty had given their father his address, but he knew Rusty wouldn't have, knowing how he felt. Neither would Megan. It didn't matter how Jerome Andreini had found out where Chad lived, he was here. And Chad didn't want him to be.

"What are you doing here?" The question with its dangerous edge was spoken barely above a whisper.

The older man flinched at the coldness that encircled each word. He licked his lips nervously, climbing a couple of steps. Still gripping the handrail, he stopped and looked up again.

"I came to see you. I thought maybe Russell didn't tell you I was looking for you."

"He told me." Chad made no move to unlock the door, wanting nothing to be misconstrued as a silent invitation. "And his name's Rusty. Everyone calls him that." His eyes narrowed in contempt. "But you wouldn't know that, would you? You didn't stay around long enough to learn anything about him."

Jerome licked his lips again, his breathing growing more shallow. "The divorce-"

"The kidnapping," Chad corrected coldly. "Whatever you didn't find out about your other kids was because of the kidnapping, not the divorce.'' The anger he was trying to keep in check simmered close to the surface. "Can't exactly stick around and be a father to them after kidnapping the oldest, now can you?"

Bending even further under the contempt he sensed, the elder Andreini climbed the remainder of the steps, coming to stand before his son. Almost as tall, he gave the impression of being smaller. The years had not been kind. He began to reach out for Chad, then seemed to think better of it.

"The state's said I paid my debt."

No, he wasn't going to be taken in, Chad swore. In his day, Jerome Andreini had been considered a charmer. Able to get what he wanted by his gift of gab and his attractive packaging. There was no evidence of that man now, but Chad had no doubt that, given the opportunity, the silver tongue would at least partially return.

He could go practice on someone else. There were no feelings worth saving between them.

"Well, the state's a little more forgiving than I am." His father opened his mouth to say something, but Chad didn't want to hear it. "The state didn't lose two years of their life, didn't accidentally come back to the 'scene of the crime'

without knowing it to see their mother so messed up she was on the verge of being inst.i.tutionalized, now did they?"

The once bright blue eyes, so like his own, darted toward the door behind him.

"Chad, please, can't we go inside?"

Chad hesitated. Then, biting off a curse, knowing he should just walk in and slam the door on this stranger with the same last name as his, Chad unlocked his door and left it open as he stormed inside.