Fatal Thrill Page 17

  When she’d filled in as much as she could, she returned the form to the nurse’s station. Miles and Charlotte departed to find a vending machine. Outside, the rain continued to come down and Jaya could see ice forming on the sidewalk and road.

  She folded her arms over her chest and rubbed them through the jacket. Jon came up behind her and put his arms around her. “How are you doing?”

  “I keep thinking this situation can’t get worse, and then it does.” She turned within the circle of his arms and looked up at him. “Tell me about your dad and this Thief River.”

  He led her over to the chairs and sat beside her, his hands locked together in his lap. “Before my parents divorced, we lived about twenty miles south of the river. My best friend, Isaiah, went missing one summer. We were twelve. The local cops didn’t take it seriously since he was Native, you know? They joked about him being on a vision quest or that he’d run away. I knew he would never do that, especially without his dog, Deke. He loved that dog.”

  “What happened?”

  “Cops didn’t believe he’d been kidnapped, so I went searching for him.”

  “Did you find him?”

  “Took Deke and we found evidence in the woods of a struggle. Isaiah’s keychain was there with his house key. When I told the police, they blew it off, so I called the FBI.”

  “No way! Good for you.”

  “Yeah, I lucked out and got connected to a guy named Strickland. Told him everything and, surprisingly, he didn’t shut me down, even when I gave my opinion about what the cops should be doing. He came out, met me and Deke where I’d found the keychain, and then talked to my mom and dad. Mom didn’t want me looking for Isaiah, but Dad gave his permission. He agreed that Isaiah had to be in those woods. Someone had kidnapped him. So Strickland and I took Deke and started combing the area. Went all up and down that damned river for two weeks.”

  “And?”

  “Never found him. My dad never said as much, but he was almost disappointed. Like it was some damned test or something.”

  Jaya felt his pain. Twelve years old, best friend kidnapped, the weight of the world on his shoulders, and his father couldn’t offer support.

  “It haunted me for years,” Jon continued. His voice grew softer, his mind far away. “Not being able to find Isaiah sort of took a chunk out of me, but Strickland believed in me. Told me I had skills and to think about a search and rescue career when I got older. I told my dad and he just laughed. Told me I sucked as a Lakota warrior and there was no way the white man would ever accept me into their world.”

  She grasped his hands. “Strickland was right and your dad was wrong. You’ve rescued a lot of people in your career, haven’t you?”

  “I did search and rescue for several organizations while I was in college. With my mom running a dog sanctuary, I had access to a lot of good tracking dogs. I learned how to train them and got certified. One time, I ended up helping the Feds in that same spot—Thief River. A kid had wandered off from a family of campers. We found the kid and something else as well.”

  “What?”

  “The cave that lost kid wandered into had…bones.”

  “Oh no. Isaiah?”

  A muscle in his jaw twitched, his face tight. “He was killed and his body was left there, and he wasn’t the only one—there were multiple kids whose bodies had been left to rot.”

  Her stomach flipped. “Oh, Jon, I’m so sorry.”

  “If I’d found that cave when I was twelve, maybe I could have saved my friend. Maybe some of those other kids as well.”

  “You can’t blame yourself for what a serial killer did.”

  He didn’t seem to agree. “I started tracking the asshole.”

  “Good. I hope you found him and shot his ass.”

  “I would have, but…”

  She gripped his hand and squeezed. “But what, Jon? You can tell me. No more secrets, remember?”

  He closed his eyes for a moment, a battle going on inside him. “The bastard set my dad up to look like he did it.”

  “What?” She nearly came out of the seat.

  His jaw was tight. His free hand rubbed up and down his pant leg. “The killer made it look like my dad was the one who murdered Isaiah and the others.”

  “Oh my god!” Jaya grabbed him and hugged him. He was stiff and unyielding. “What happened?”

  “The man who did it—and was never caught—was friends with my dad. He stole one of my father’s favorite weapons and left it inside the cave. When I found the lost kid, I also found Dad’s bow, and the FBI started an investigation, leading them right to my father. He didn’t do it, Jaya, and I’ve been trying to prove his innocence since, but so far, I’ve failed. My father is in prison because of me.”

  Her first instinct was to cry bullshit, but Jon actually believed all this was his fault—from Isaiah and the other kids’ deaths to his father ending up in prison for them. She could see it so clearly in his eyes and her heart broke. “You never told me any of this.”

  “There are a lot of things I haven’t told you because I didn’t want you to think I was…”

  “What?”

  He sighed and faced her. “A loser. A joke. A freak—take your pick.”

  She touched the side of his face, the muscle in his jaw going crazy. “I would never think that.”

  “What if I told you that Beatrice and I fear there’s an outside chance that the men who blew up your van and kidnapped Finn are actually after me?”

  Her jaw hung open. “What?”

  “The real killer has been in hiding for the past seven years. He knows I’ve been looking for him. It’s possible he, or some of his friends, found out about us and decided the best way to target me for payback was to target you.”

  “No, no, no.” Jaya wasn’t buying that. And she certainly wasn’t letting Jon take responsibility for yet another thing that could in no way be his fault. Talk about bad luck. “Finn’s kidnapping is my dad’s doing, not yours.”

  They sat in silence for a moment, both lost in their thoughts. Then Jon turned to her, his face a thundercloud of worry. “I know what I’m good at, Jaya, and I try to do the right thing, but some days, I feel like a Class-A fuckup. I have issues, and they’re not all about my dad or dysfunctional childhood. My brain is…” He grabbed his head like it hurt. “I thought my time in the service would straighten me out, but it made some things worse. I struggle with a lot of shit. Mental shit. You deserve better. You and the baby.”

  There was always this sadness about him—a layer of it, like sand stuck to his skin. She wanted to wash it away. To hold him and shush the mental beating he was always giving himself. To reflect the greatness she saw in him so he could see it too.

  She tugged at his hands, pulling them to her heart and holding them there “When this is over, Jon Wolfe, you and I are going to sit down with a giant pepperoni pizza and a couple tubs of ice cream and we’re going to put everything out on the table. Everything. No secrets. Cuz I have some ugly stuff I struggle with too. If, after we say our peace and divulge our dark sides to each other, we’re both still willing to move forward in this relationship, then we’ll make a plan to deal with our respective shit and build a better future for our kid. Deal?”

  His jaw relaxed a fraction. “Sounds good except for the pepperoni.”

  She feigned outrage. “You don’t like pepperoni pizza?”

  “I prefer Canadian bacon.”

  “Now that’s mental.”

  His lips barely moved in the beginnings of a smile. Not a complete one, just the hint, but she’d take it. “I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into, Jaya.”

  “Back atcha, but we’ve got a good thing here, the two of us. We stick together, we can move mountains. I’m sure of it.”

  He touched her hair, her cheek, his gaze sliding over every feature as if he were memorizing her face. “When I’m with you, I’m the luckiest guy on the planet.”

  He always knew the right words to
make her feel special. Wanted. Worth something. “I feel like maybe my luck is changing too, thanks to you.”

  How could Jaya still want him around after what he’d told her?

  Three hours later, Jon still wasn’t sure as he walked down the antiseptic-smelling hall with her behind the nurse who’d come to get them.

  Sean was out of surgery and had asked for Jaya in the recovery room. The nurse had told him no, that he needed to rest for a bit, but the man had raised a fit, yelling and jerking out his IV until finally, they’d agreed to get his daughter.

  Jaya strode with purpose, hair flying and hands balled into fists. What she intended to say to her father was still up in the air.

  “The bullet did not go through and damaged a small section of intestine,” the nurse said. “The surgeon was able to stop the internal hemorrhaging and remove the bullet with no problems. Your father does, however, appear to have a thirty percent blockage in his left ventricle and the injury put stress on his heart. Once he has sufficiently recovered from this surgery, it’s advisable for him to see a cardiac specialist. I’m afraid your visit needs to be limited to ten minutes.”

  A guard stood outside the door but seemed to know who they were and didn’t put up a fight as they crossed into the room. Sean looked like death warmed over. His skin was the color of ashes, his lips pale and thinned into nearly straight lines.

  His cloudy eyes, however, lit up when he saw Jaya. “There’s my girl.”

  He held out a hand and Jaya rushed to him, grabbing it. The nurse looked Jon over from head to toe. “You be family, then?”

  Not yet, but he wasn’t leaving Jaya’s side.

  Opening his mouth to reply, he was cut off by Jaya’s resounding, “yes.” Jon glanced over as she whirled to face the nurse. “He’s my fiancé.”

  Sean seemed slightly amused and a bit surprised. The moment the door shut behind the nurse, he squinted at Jon. “You look like trouble.”

  Jaya gently swatted at her father’s arm. “Takes one to know one, and the only person in trouble here is you. What on earth have you gotten yourself into this time, Dad?”

  “Did you find it?” His chest heaved with his breathing. The nearby monitors beeped a rapid rhythm. “The cross?”

  “Really? I just announced Jon’s my fiancé and that’s the first thing you’re going to ask me about?” She shook her head, looking at Jon like I told you so. “Unbelievable.”

  Sean patted her hand lightly with his free one. “I don’t see a ring on your finger.”

  Jon was going to buy her the biggest ring she’d ever seen if she truly did want to marry him. “We’re working on it, sir.”

  A heated look came from the sick man. “She deserves the best, you know.”

  Jon met his glare straight on. “And I intend to provide that for her.”

  “She needs someone she can rely on.”

  Like you? he wanted to say, but held back the impolite reply. “Yes, sir. I’m well aware of that.”

  Jaya cleared her throat. “She is standing right here, for your information, and I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself, but maybe I’d like a couple of the men in my life to not make things more difficult.”

  She said the last half of the sentence with gritted teeth, directing it at her dad. He tried to chuckle, but ended up with a coughing fit.

  Jaya offered him water and Jon adjusted the bed and helped the man sit up well enough to drink it.

  A grimace crossed Sean’s face and he patted his side where heavy gauze covered his surgical incision. “Guess I lucked out.”

  “Is that what you call it?” Jaya chastised. “Luck?”

  “Don’t let Percy get his hands on the…cross,” he said, breath still ragged. “You have to find Finn.”

  “We think he’s in North Carolina,” Jon told him. “Did you send him back to the States after you found the cross?”

  A head bob. “I was trying to sell it, but I didn’t want him…caught up in this.”

  Jaya sighed. “A little late for that. Why’d you bring him if you knew this could happen?

  Sean looked confused. “I didn’t. He showed up at the bed and breakfast the night I checked in.”

  “He followed you here?”

  Sean nodded.

  “Who shot you?” Jon asked. “Who kidnapped your son?”

  “Bloody Fitzpatrick blackmailed me. He was supposed to help me find a buyer without raising any flags. Instead, he got himself killed and me shot.”

  “The men who killed Fitzpatrick shot you?”

  Sean fiddled with the edge of the sheet. “Mercenaries. They work for a black market Frenchwoman named Moreau. She buys and sells stolen jewels from all over the world. She only wanted the cross for the emeralds.”

  Jon and Jaya exchanged a look. Could the woman in the grave be this Moreau?

  “Where did you find the cross?” Jaya asked. “Did you steal it from someone? Is that who kidnapped Finn or was it this Moreau?”

  “The cross wasn’t stolen, baby. I always knew where it was, I just didn’t want the Catholics or English to get their grubby hands on it.”

  Jaya looked like she was going to smack him for real. “You knew where the cross was all these years?”

  “I’m the one who put it in its hiding place. After your grandpa passed, I found it in his safe. It had been right under my nose all along, but I hid it and left it alone, knowing there were too many people after it. The French, the Pope, our own family, those rotten Doyles. I thought it could be an insurance policy for us. A safety net if we ever needed it.”

  “Doyles?” Jon asked. “The bed and breakfast owners?”

  Sean made a disgusted face. “Lot of family inbreeding there.”

  “They knew you had the cross?”

  “Hell no. Our families go way back, and they’ve been searching for the cross for generations, but didn’t know I had it.” He chuckled but it was strained. “Lorna will piss her pants if she finds out my dad and his before him had the thing all along. But she and Paddy were after it and hired Fitzpatrick to find it. I just didn’t know my old friend wasn’t really my friend. He only wanted to steal the cross from me.”

  “Why now?” Jon asked. “Why unearth the cross now and bring it back to Ireland?”

  Sean sighed, looking down at his hands, still gripping Jaya’s. “I planned to sell it to pay for Kala’s expenses.”

  That took Jaya aback. Her mouth worked, but nothing came out.

  “I know, I know,” Sean said. “You don’t believe it, but it’s true. I saw how hard it was on you and Finn. He told me your business was taking off and you had a chance to expand it big time, but your finances were drained every month due to your mother’s health. I hesitated to take the cross out of hiding and find a buyer, but you need help, Jaya. That cross is worth a lot of coin. It can pay off your debts, and keep you afloat with your mom’s expenses. I contacted Fitzpatrick, who told me to bring it here. He ended up dead, I sent Finn away, and it all resulted with Paddy and the mercenaries coming after me, so I went into hiding. Got shot along the way. You know the rest.”

  Not all of it, Jon suspected.

  He wasn’t sure if she believed his supposed self-sacrifice. She didn’t soften like most daughters would upon hearing their dad was looking out for them. “It’s worth 177 million dollars, and don’t tell me you weren’t skimming some of that for yourself. What I need is for you to come home and help me take care of mom, not pay me off to do it for you.”

  Sean’s eyes fluttered closed for a moment. “I don’t have any money, Jaya, and I don’t know how to take care of your mother.”

  “And you think I do?” Jaya pulled her hand away. “Do you understand the guilt I feel having to put her in a home? The anger I have at a disease, for Christ sake? I’ve taken care of everyone from the time I was old enough to walk, and now I need help, Dad. Real help. Money is nice, but what I need is my father.”

  Moisture seeped out the corner of Sean’s right eye. “I
don’t know how to be…that man.”

  How many people in the world felt the same way? Jon had experienced the exact same feelings about having a child, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to use the same excuse to abandon or neglect the kid. “Parenting doesn’t come with a handbook, and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t feel like they’re dog paddling in rough waters when they have a child. Doesn’t mean you can’t figure it out or learn how to become a better father to Jaya and Finn. Lots of people do it.”

  Sean’s eyes snapped open. “I suppose you know all about having kids, do you?”

  Jon glanced across the bed at Jaya, beautiful in her outrage. “I’m about to.”

  Now she softened. All the pent up anger and fear just evaporated as she met Jon’s eyes.

  He hadn’t meant to blow the big surprise, but she didn’t seem to mind, her lips curving in a small smile.

  “Wait just a minute, here.” Sean looked back and forth between them. “Are you saying…?”

  Jaya nodded. “You’re going to be a grandfather in about seven and a half months, Daddy.”

  Sean’s face did all kinds of theatrics as he processed the news. “Holy Moses.”

  “Yeah,” Jon said, “so you need to be there for Jaya and Finn. Their mom, too. Our baby’s counting on you.”

  A knock sounded on the door and Miles stuck his head in. “Percy’s here.”

  Jaya waved him in, Charlotte following. “I nicked some clothes from Kieran for your dad,” she said. “And we brought grapes.”

  “Grapes?” Jaya queried.

  Charlotte waved her one good hand. “Don’t ask. It’s an Irish thing.”

  Miles set down the bag that presumably held the clothes Charlotte had stolen from their host at the black site farm, and Charlotte nodded at Jaya’s dad. “Good to see you made it.”

  Jaya made hasty introductions, and Jon brought Sean back to the moment. “Mr. O’Sullivan, I don’t know if Percy’s found the cross or not, but you need to tell us everything you can about the Trelawney crypt and the people who shot you, and you need to do it fast. If Percy ties our hands, there’s nothing I can do to help you.”