A Billionaire's Redemption

chapter 17

Gabe had just about had it with Melinda and her bizarre antics. The whole clinging, crying, I’m-so-weak-and-in-need-of-saving female act from her was wearing very thin with him.

Willa could cry and cling to him and even call him her knight in shining armor, and it made him feel like a conquering hero. He knew without question that underneath her soft exterior was a brave, strong woman. And yet, she still needed him and was willing to depend on him. Unlike Melinda, who’d never needed anyone in her life and scorned any female who did “need a man.”

Willa had faced down the disapproval and outright condemnation of literally everyone she knew with quiet grace over the past week. She’d stood up to her attacker, James Ward, at great personal cost, and she’d stepped into her father’s shoes without batting an eyelash.

Melinda was frankly just being mean. The good news was it appeared that Agent Delaney was on to his ex’s tactics. She blandly ignored Melinda’s tears and pleas that it was all too upsetting to think about, and pushed her relentlessly for details. Melinda might have finally met her match. Although truth be told, he’d stack Willa up against Melinda any day and bet on Willa to win.

Willa’s strength was quiet. Unassuming. Deep within her. It wasn’t something she needed to put on display, and she had no need to prove she was tougher than everyone else. Unlike Melinda, who apparently felt an overwhelming need to bully everyone around her. Funny how he’d never perceived it as bullying before, but that was ultimately what it was. Thank goodness Willa had come along to make him see his ex’s true colors. Who knew how long it would have been, if ever, before he would have caught on to Melinda without Willa’s shining example.

Funny how he thought he’d been running around rescuing Willa, when all along, she’d been rescuing him.

Finally, an exasperated Agent Delaney left Melinda’s room. On cue, Melinda’s waterworks and hand wringing stopped cold.

Better now?” Gabe asked drily. He felt bad as soon as the sarcasm left his mouth. The woman had been kidnapped and traumatized. She had a right to be messed up. Just because he’d rather be with someone else was no reason to be nasty with her.

She answered stiffly, “The local police will be here in the morning to question me. I need you to be here for that.”

Insecurity and Melinda Grayson went together like hot sparks and dynamite. What in the hell was going on with her? “What’s the deal, Melinda? Why all the theatrics with the authorities?”

Like they’re going to take me seriously any other way?”

Since when doesn’t everyone take you seriously?” he snorted.

She threw him a rare, startled look. It dissolved into a thoughtful expression, and he took advantage of her distraction to say, “I have to go.”

Where are you off to in such a rush?” she snapped.

We’re not married anymore, Melinda. That’s frankly none of your business.”

A woman, then. One of your usual bimbos?” she sneered.

Like he planned to share the intimate details of his love life with her? He clenched his jaw against the angry retort struggling to escape his mouth and turned to leave.

Behind him, she commented snidely, “Face it, Gabe, you’re never going to find happiness with a woman. You never have quite been able to give them what they really need.”

He paused. Looked back over his shoulder. Smiled. “Thank you for that note of derision. It was exactly what I needed from you.” He nodded pleasantly. He had indeed meant the comment sincerely. She was making it easy for him to cut whatever remaining emotional ties lingered between them. And it felt good. Really good.

Melinda’s ability to snare people in her web and hold them there was truly extraordinary. She was a master at manipulating people, and had just demonstrated her uncanny ability to put her finger on people’s Achilles’ heels and exploit them to her own advantage. He would be forever grateful to Willa for proving Melinda wrong. It felt like a ten-ton weight had lifted off his chest now that he no longer believed the crap his ex-wife spouted at him about his inadequacies with relationships. He was finally free of her web.

More power to Melinda and her head games. She may have survived a horrific ordeal, but he was done with her.

* * *

The bitch was alive? Not possible! Her car went off the cliff!

Noooooo! The scream echoed off the vehicle’s interior. Fists pounded the steering wheel until blood came. Crimson. Mesmerizing. Beautiful. It should have been her blood. Willa Merris’s blood. It would be her blood soon. Very soon. Speculative eyes studied the security guard lounging against the stucco wall of the hospital. A hundred to one that one of the windows above the guy was her room.

There were ways to get around security guards, though. A giggle escaped at how easy it really was to fool them. The giggle turned into laughter and the laughter to hysteria. Oh, yes. Little Willa would pay for surviving, most of all.

* * *

Gabe tossed and turned most of the night, fretting over Willa. It was enlightening how his worried thoughts never once turned to his ex-wife. No question about it. He was slam-dunk, plumb-tuckered in love with Willa Merris. A goner. And nothing had ever felt half this great in his entire life.

Melinda would no doubt accuse him of having a midlife crisis. Part of him replied that if she was right, bring it on. But most of him knew without a doubt the accusation would not be true. His emotional growth had frozen in his late twenties when he’d gotten tangled up with Melinda. Willa had set him free and got him moving forward again. Finally.

When light finally began to show dully around the curtains, he threw on jogging clothes and went for a run to work off some of the residual stress of nearly losing Willa last night. It was a cloudy, threatening morning with heavy gray clouds scudding low across the sky. He’d gone several brisk miles and circled back to his house when he spotted the white news van parked in front of it. Paula Craddock got out as he approached.

Don’t you ever give up?” he asked her.

Never. I always get my story.”

What story are you after this time?”

What’s going on between you and Willa Merris?”

I thought you were a hard news reporter. Isn’t that a little too gossip-column for you? What happened? Did you get demoted to the society page?”

Avoiding the question, are we? Then am I to assume you two are having an affair?”

I believe one of the parties in a relationship has to be married for it to qualify as an affair, Ms. Craddock.”

I’m going to report that you two are an item,” she threatened.

He shrugged. “You can report whatever you want. Just remember my attorneys will hold you to the strictest interpretation of what constitutes slander or libel.”

He’d had enough of her, and jogged up his sidewalk to his front door. She called after him, “I always get my story, Gabe. You can’t stop me.”

Whatever. He slammed the door on her threats and took a quick shower. He grabbed a bagel on his way out the door and was relieved that the news van had disappeared by the time he pulled out of his driveway in the Escalade. He drove to the hospital eager to see Willa. He felt like a twenty-year-old kid in love for the first time.

Come to think of it, this was the first time he’d ever really been in love. Melinda had fascinated him and posed an irresistible challenge, but he’d never felt this bubbling-over joy and complete sense of rightness before. Part of him wanted to shout his love to the rooftops, and another part had gone entirely still and quiet. At peace. It was miraculous.

He headed for the third floor of the hospital and was satisfied to see the security guard at Willa’s door nod alertly at him as he stepped out of the elevator. He stopped at the nurses’ station and asked, “Is Willa awake yet? How was her night?”

She’s still sleeping, sir. I just came on duty, but I can check her chart for you. The night doctor and doctor coming on shift should be starting their rounds momentarily and will wake her up. You can ask Dr. Pitts how she did last night. He was her on-call physician.”

Gabe was amused that the nurse pointedly told him nothing about Melinda. But then, he had just as pointedly not asked. He spotted a pair of doctors in white lab coats coming down the hall and headed for them to check on Willa’s condition.

Early for you to be here, Mr. Dawson,” the one with the name Felix Pitts, M.D., embroidered over his pocket said.

I was worried about my girl. She was pretty rattled last night. Did she sleep all right?”

Like a baby. Assuming her condition doesn’t change throughout the day today, we ought to be able to release her later. Will she be coming home with you? We’ll want someone with her to monitor her condition for a few days.”

I hope she’ll come home with me. I plan to ask her to marry me. Almost losing her has shown me just how deeply I care for her.”

Congratulations, Mr. Dawson,” Pitts said warmly.

Gabe took a step toward Willa’s room to peek in on her when a door across the hall swung open. Melinda gushed, “Gabe? Oh, my God. You want to marry me? That’s incredible! I knew you’d never gotten over me. I never got over you, either. Of course I’ll marry you again. This time for good. This time let’s have a big, gaudy wedding to make up for that dinky little thing we had last time.”

He stared at her, speechless. She thought he wanted to marry her? She’d never gotten over him? Huh?

The elevator slid open behind him, and Agent Delaney and the new sheriff stepped out of it. “Oh, good. You’re awake,” Agent Delaney said to Melinda. “Glad to see you’re here, Mr. Dawson. Saves us any more theatrics like last night’s.”

Melinda’s eyes narrowed at the FBI agent as she abruptly sagged against Gabe, forcing him to catch her body weight, lest she fall over.

Why don’t we take this into Dr. Grayson’s room?” the sheriff suggested.

Cursing under his breath, Gabe was herded into Melinda’s room, his ex clinging to him like a barnacle, to endure another session of Weird Melinda Interrogation. He cast a longing look over his shoulder at Willa’s room before the door shut behind him.

* * *

Willa stared up at the ceiling of her room in utter shock. Gabe had proposed to Melinda? And she’d accepted? That didn’t make any sense, but she’d heard it with her own ears. No mistake about it.

Nothing in Willa’s life had prepared her for this sense of free fall. It was as if the entire planet had dropped away from beneath her feet. She was rushing through space toward oblivion and there was nothing to hold on to. No safety. No Gabe. Just blackness and falling. She’d been a fool to think that his attention was anything more than pity and guilt over what happened.

Sick to her stomach, she curled into a fetal ball, in too much agony even to cry. She breathed in jerky gasps as grief ripped her in two and then in two again, over and over until she was torn into tiny, scattered shreds.

He loved Melinda Grayson. Was going to re-marry his ex-wife.

Her life was over. No one was who they seemed. Not her father, her mother, the “good ladies” of her parents’ social circle, James Ward...or Gabe.

She’d lain there for several minutes when the phone next to her bed rang, causing her to jump sky-high. Automatically, she reached for it, pulling the old-fashioned plastic receiver to her ear.

Hello?” she managed to croak.

A raspy voice, obviously disguised or altered in some way, said, “Get away from your security guards. Meet me at your house in an hour.”

Who is this?” she mumbled.

The caller ignored her question. “One hour,” the caller added.

Or else what?” she asked, past really caring.

Or else I’ll start killing your students. One by one, I’ll strangle the life out of their little bodies. And I’ll make them scream first. Lovely screams of pain and terror. The animals in your garden were all right...but to kill a child by slow degrees...” The caller let out a groan of nearly sexual pleasure.

Willa’s eyes went wide with revulsion and fright. The caller could have threatened her mother, or even Gabe. Those would have been the obvious choices. But no. Innocent five-year-olds who barely knew her were at risk. Yes, indeed, the caller knew her very well to harm kids if she didn’t comply.

Don’t believe me? Let’s listen to one of your little brats cry, shall we?”

She heard a sharp crack like a palm across a cheek, followed by the wails of what sounded like a small child. Her blood froze in her veins at the sound. This monster had one of her kids?

The children of Vengeance hadn’t done anything to anybody. The school year had been barely two weeks old when her father had died and she’d had to take a leave of absence. The sounds of crying in the background turned her gut to jelly.

She had to save that child. She ought to call the police, but what was the point? They didn’t believe anything she said anyway. Not to mention that unlike most of the guys on the force, she had no one to go home to. No family. She would be no great loss to anyone.

Frankly, she didn’t much care if she lived or died right now. Losing Gabe on top of everything else was the last straw. Her spirit was broken. She was finished. She couldn’t take any more. She was sick of being a pawn, sick of being jerked around by other people. No, she would personally deal with this bastard once and for all.

Don’t hurt that poor baby,” she pleaded in a whisper, eyeing the security guard who was watching her now from over by the door. “It may take me a little while longer than that to get there, but I’ll be there. I promise.”

The phone clicked and a dial tone buzzed in her ear. Crud. How was she supposed to get away from the brute squad hovering over her like protective bears? Panic made her jumpy, and a need to bolt and run for home threatened to overwhelm her at any second. She felt like she might throw up. Hang on, sweetie. I’ll come save you. I’ll figure out a way.

She lay there for several minutes racking her brain for an escape plan, but to no avail. Gabe had surrounded her with too much effective protection.

If she was going to take care of this mess herself, she had to ditch them, too. Besides, they’d gotten all chummy with Gabe since she disappeared yesterday. Was there no one at all whom she could trust? Her gut answered with a resounding no.

In the meantime, that poor child was depending on her. Panic and despair clawed at her. But then, her door swung open, and a pair of doctors stepped inside. Inspiration struck. She didn’t know much about medicine, but she figured faking double vision and a terrible headache, oh, and drowsiness, would alarm them enough to run some more tests.

Sure enough, it worked like a charm. After about one minute of examining her, one of the doctors ordered her taken down to the imaging department for an emergency MRI.

An orderly pushed her in a wheelchair while her two inside-the-hospital bodyguards walked alongside. The guards had to stay outside of the MRI area and the orderly pushed her through a pair of swinging doors. One hurdle crossed; inside guards ditched. Now, to get out of here and somehow dodge the outdoor contingent of security.

She asked for a restroom visit before she went into the MRI machine and a female technician was happy to let her go. Thankfully, the bathroom had a window. It was small and fairly high, but as soon as she was alone, Willa climbed up on the counter and slid it open. It would be tight, but she could make it. And this side of the building was not the one her room had opened out onto. Hopefully, Gabe hadn’t insisted on exterior guards on every side of the darned building. Scrambling awkwardly, she fell through the small window, mooning a bunch of birds that flew up, squawking, as she hit the grass.

Grabbing at the back of the gown to cover her bare backside, and crouching low, she darted out into the parking lot, ducking behind cars for cover. Rain threatened in the pregnant clouds overhead, but so far none had started falling. Thankfully, she lived only a dozen blocks from the hospital. Running barefoot was painful, but it wasn’t like she had any choice. And it felt good to move. Her instincts had been screaming at her to do exactly this ever since that phone call came in.

A nut ball was hurting an innocent five-year-old, and she was the child’s only hope. It was up to her to stop it from happening. Spurred by that knowledge, her feet flew across pavement and grass like the wind.

It was still early, and the streets were mostly empty. She alternated between jumping behind shrubs and racing along the sidewalk like she always went for a morning run in a hospital gown. If anyone had been watching her, they’d have surely thought she’d lost her mind. She just hoped she could reach her house before someone called the police on the lunatic woman running down the street.

She figured she had five to ten minutes before the MRI technician went looking for her, and notified her guards that she’d gone missing. Feeling the pressing weight of the ticking clock, she sprinted the last block to her house and ran around back to fetch the spare key hidden in her messy garage.

She burst into the house. “Hello?” she called. “Are you here? I came like you wanted.”

Silence was her only answer. Where was the caller? Where was that poor baby? She’d made it home in under an hour. Now what?

Frantic, she went to her bedroom and dressed quickly in jeans, a T-shirt and running shoes. She ought to call the police, but then the sound of that slap and the wails that followed stopped her. This was her fault. Her problem to solve. Not the police’s. She paced, wringing her hands. Her security guards would be here any second looking for her. She couldn’t let them find her, but the caller obviously planned to contact her here next.

She jumped about a foot in the air when her phone rang. She pounced on the receiver. “Hello?”

I can’t come to your house. Those thugs of yours might spot me. Meet me at the Darby College Bell Tower in ten minutes.”

But I don’t have a car,” she replied, feeling dense.

Don’t you have a bicycle? Run for all I care. But get there.”

How did the caller know she had a bike? “You have to let that child go. I won’t cooperate unless you promise.”

Fine,” the caller snapped. “I don’t want the brat, anyway. It’s you I want. You and I are taking a little trip.”

Where are we going?”

Where else? To where you and your damned family ruined me. The Vacarro Field, bitch. A fitting ending for the Merrises, don’t you think?”

Huh? The line went dead and a dial tone resumed in her ear. Confused, she nonetheless ran for the garage and her bicycle. Even with wheels, getting to the bell tower in ten minutes would be close. Not to mention her security team would likely show up here at any second and prevent her from saving that child. They hadn’t heard the fury in the caller’s voice, the sick pleasure at the thought of causing pain. They didn’t realize that her caller was dead serious. But she did. Oh, how she did.

She yanked her bike off its hooks in the garage and headed through her backyard. At least it would blend in on the campus and be hard to spot in the crowd of students pedaling to their eight o’clock classes. The bike had the added advantage of letting her go cross-country and not having to stick to streets that were no doubt already crawling with freaked-out security guards.

Eyes watering from fear and from the wind whipping past her face as she pedaled for that poor baby’s life, she managed to reach the edge of the campus. She guided the bike toward the broad, grassy park surrounding the tall brick clock tower in the middle of campus.

A few fat raindrops splatted onto the pavement around her. What else could go wrong today? She was about to get drenched. As the reality of facing the psychopath at the other end of the phone in person loomed, common sense finally began to kick in. Or maybe that was panicked survival mode kicking in. She overrode the impulse by reminding herself that a child’s life hung in the balance. Her life was worth nothing in the face of that. If she had to sacrifice herself to save an innocent, so be it.

Still, meeting this person on her own was unquestionably stupid. She had no skill at talking down a deranged lunatic. She should have called the police. Told her guards. Gotten some sort of backup. But the sound of crying echoed in her ears, and spurred her onward despite her doubts. She’d figure out something.

Now what? She was almost to the bell tower. One more street to cross, then she’d have to get off her bike and walk it across the grass to the base of the bell tower.

And then she spotted it. A beat-up white van parked at the curb to her left. It started to roll forward directly toward her. The driver had seen her. Desperation and a very belated sense of fear for her life finally penetrated the fog that had enveloped her since she’d heard Melinda Grayson accept Gabe’s proposal in the hall outside her room.

The van pulled up beside her. She wasn’t getting in that thing unless the driver turned that child loose this instant. The passenger door swung open and she stared into the maw at the familiar face.

Get in,” the driver snapped.

Let the kid go,” she retorted.

The driver laughed and tossed a tape recorder outside at her feet. While she stared in shock, the driver clapped once, in loud imitation of slapping someone, and then let out a perfect rendition of a small child wailing in pain and fear.

She’d been tricked? Willa took a step away from the door.

Ah, ah, ah. Not so fast, Willa.” The small black circle of a pistol barrel came into view, pointed directly at her. She stared in horror at the promise of death staring at her. “Get in the van. Now.”

Everyone knew never to get in a car with a criminal. It was infinitely smarter to get shot in a public place where medical help and police would be summoned rapidly than it was to allow oneself to be taken someplace isolated where the kidnapper could torture and kill at their leisure and there was no hope at all of rescue.

Thing was, Gabe didn’t love her. He was going to marry Melinda. This person could still kidnap and kill her students at some later date, and Willa firmly believed the threat. Her or the kids? She had nothing left to live for, and the children had their entire lives in front of them. It was a no-brainer.

If I go with you, you have to give me your solemn promise that you’ll never hurt any of my students. That you’ll leave them completely alone. Promise?”

Fine. Whatever. I promise.” The driver looked around outside nervously. “Now get in.”

She stepped off her bike, laid it down on the grass and slid into the passenger seat. The van pulled away from the curb.