Broken Ties Read online

  Levi could be demanding, exasperating and abrasive, but he was also handsome, caring and gentle. She had been half in love with him since the day Teddy brought her to the office, introduced her to Levi, and announced he was hiring her. Levi had protested mightily, but Teddy stood firm. In the end, she thought, even Levi was glad he had. After all, she was all that remained in the aftermath of their final blow-up and those dreadful moments when everything had changed.

  She pulled away from him, sitting back against the brown suede sofa as her eyes roamed the room around her. They were in the loft apartment where he lived above the Tanner & Tanner Investigations office, a space she had been in only a handful of times, and never when he was here. She’d been sent up to get coffee when they ran out downstairs, retrieve a sandwich or some other item he’d forgotten to bring down, or use the telephone while they waited for a repairman to fix the one in the office.

  “I need you to tell me exactly what happened tonight.” Although Levi spoke in the quiet, coaxing tone he used with the most nervous of witnesses, she knew it was more command than request.

  The pale glow of the Christmas lights once again reflected in his dark eyes, and a sudden chill shook her. She pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them protectively.

  “A man came up to me. I tried to tell him someone was waiting in the diner for me, but he grabbed me and put a rag over my face. I don’t know what happened then. I don’t know what he did after that.” An edge of hysteria crept into her voice, and she took a shuddering breath, trying to calm her racing heart.

  “Nothing else happened,” he said, his dark gaze softening when she looked at him. “I saw him follow you around the corner. I was worried, so I went after you. I was almost to you when I saw him grab you. He picked you up and tried to run, but he dropped you. You’ll probably be sore as hell tomorrow. But that’s it. He didn’t have time to do anything else.”

  She couldn’t speak past the lump in her throat, so she nodded her head in understanding. Thank God Levi had decided to follow her. She hated to think what could have happened if he hadn’t.

  “The two of you were talking when I came around the corner. What were you saying?”

  “He asked if I was waiting for the bus to Reynolds Park, and I told him yes.”

  “Reynolds Park? How did he know that’s where you were going?”

  “I figured it was a lucky guess. I’d just missed the bus to Barrington Station, so the next logical guess would be Reynolds Park.”

  “That makes sense.” He paused. “Have you ever seen him before?”

  “No.”

  “Did he say anything to make you think you were more than just a random victim?”

  “You mean, some proof he wouldn’t have taken just any girl who happened to be there?”

  “Yes.”

  “No, I don’t think so. Why? Do you think he wanted me specifically?”

  “I’m not sure, but I’m leaning that way.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because there was a car waiting for him, and he wasn’t the driver. They pulled away too fast for him to have been the driver. It had to have been waiting out of sight for him to bring you there.”

  “Why in the world would someone target me, of all people?” That was the craziest idea she had ever heard, but she could tell he believed it, at least partly.

  “I don’t know. Do you?”

  She shook her head. “No. But I’m not even sure I believe that’s the case. I think he was probably just some sicko looking for a victim.”

  “No, something’s off in that scenario. He didn’t look like someone looking for a victim.”

  “What did he look like, then?”

  “He looked like an assassin looking for a target.”

  She laughed nervously. “You’ve been watching too many action movies.”

  “I’m telling you, there was something too calculated and well-rehearsed about it all for me to think it was a chance abduction.”

  “Because he had a car waiting for him? Maybe he’s just some rich guy with a driver who helps him get his kicks.”

  “How often are you alone there at the bus stop this time of night?”

  “I’m usually there earlier, but I’ve been late every night this week. I’ve taken the bus to Barrington Station instead of Reynolds Park, where I live.”

  “If he’s been watching you, he would know that.”

  She shivered with fear. Had someone been watching her?

  “Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary at home or anywhere else?”

  “No.” She gasped as something came to mind. “Yes. Just last week, a car was parked outside my house for a while. It was a dark four-door sedan with tinted windows. I thought it was someone doing surveillance on my neighbor. He’s in the middle of a lawsuit, and his attorney warned him it might happen. He knows where I work and that you do that sort of thing, so he asked me about it. I confirmed it, and two days later the car was there in the road. Do you think that could it have been the same man?”

  “Anything’s possible, and we aren’t taking any chances. If this guy has been stalking you, he knows where you live and work. He probably even knows where you spend your spare time.”

  “Stalking me?” she squeaked.

  “Yes. I’d say he’s probably been doing it for a while and knew you would be at the bus station tonight. If not in time for the early bus, then the late one. He didn’t just guess where you were going. He already knew.”

  She felt the blood drain from her face. Was that why he’d seemed so familiar? Why his voice alone sent shivers of fear through her?

  “He’ll never get that close to you again, Sid. I promise you that.”

  “I told him my husband was in the diner, that I was meeting him there. No wonder he laughed. If he’s been following me, he knows I don’t have a husband or anyone else waiting for me. He must know I’m all alone.”

  “You aren’t all alone.” His voice was gruff as he moved to kneel in front of her. He cupped her face in his hands and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. “I’m right here with you, and I’m not letting anyone hurt you.”

  “He knew me,” she whispered. “And I think I knew him.”

  “What do you mean? You know who he is?”

  She shook her head. “No, not him. But something about him. It was familiar.”

  A chill swept through her, and she closed her eyes against the terror it brought.

  “Tell me what you think you know about him.”

  “He had a very thick accent.”

  “What kind of accent? Spanish? French?”

  She shook her head as he ran through a list of the most common languages. “No. Closer to French, maybe, but I’m not sure.”

  “Did he say anything in another language? Maybe we could have a translator tell us what language it was.”

  “Good-bye, Princess. Adieu, princesse.” The foreign words formed on the tip of her tongue, and she closed her eyes tightly as they spilled from her of their own accord. When she opened her eyes, her heart was pounding and she was shaking like a leaf. She had not only just spoken a language she’d never heard before tonight, she’d understood it when the stranger spoke it. How had she only just realized that he hadn’t spoken English at all?

  “I have to go home.” Panic made her speak in short, quick breaths as she surged to her feet, and her eyes searched the room for her coat and purse. “Where are my things?”

  “You aren’t going home.” His tone brooked no argument, but she ignored that fact as she caught sight of her belongings.

  Her hands shook so badly she could barely grasp the strap of her purse, but she somehow managed to loop it over her shoulder and head for the door.

  “Good-bye, Levi. Thank you for your help.”

  At his bark of laughter, she looked back to find him shoving his arms into the sleeves of his coat, dark eyes burning with fury.

  “I hope you don’t really think I’d let you l
eave here alone. If you’re going home, I’m going with you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean just what I said. You aren’t leaving here alone. I’m staying the night with you, tonight and every night, until I’m certain no one is after you.”

  Although she knew she should protest, she remained silent as her knees went weak with relief. Thankfully, he placed a hand at her elbow and led her back to the sofa before she could crumple into a helpless, quivering heap.

  “Stay here,” he commanded. “I have to pack a bag.”

  She closed her eyes as he left the room, and the stranger’s voice whispered through her mind.

  Good-bye, Princess.

  She felt the large hand close over her mouth as his arm came around her waist, lifting her off her feet. The doll she’d been holding slipped from her grasp and fell to the floor, the sparkle of Christmas lights dancing across its vinyl skin and blond hair.

  “Mama!” she tried to scream, but the sound was muffled as he dashed through the door to the car waiting just beyond the drive.

  “Wave good-bye, Princess,” he said as he yanked open the back door and shoved her inside the vehicle.

  Chapter Three

  “No!” Sidra cried, springing upright.

  Levi rushed into the room, gun drawn. He breathed a sigh of relief when he realized she was safe, but worry filled him as he took in her pallor and the dazed look in her eyes.

  “What is it?” he demanded as he holstered the gun.

  “It’s happened before.” Shock made her voice low, emotionless, and she stared into the distance.

  “What do you mean, it’s happened before? Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” Anger surged through him, making his voice gruffer than he intended. His fingers closed over her arms. “I would never have let you walk out alone. I would have protected you, Sidra. Didn’t you know that?”

  She shook her head slowly, confusion darkening her eyes, and he cursed long and loud as he leapt to his feet and began to pace the room. Why hadn’t she told him before now? How could she not have known he would do all he could to keep her safe?

  “No, Levi. No.” She shook her head again, some color returning to her face. “I think I was a child the first time.”

  He stopped mid-stride and stared at her. “You think? What does that mean?”

  “It means I’m not sure it actually happened or if I just imagined it.”

  “So this is something you just remembered or imagined tonight?”

  She nodded, her teeth catching at her bottom lip.

  He let out a long breath, trying to focus on this new idea.

  “Okay. Well, let’s assume it’s true. How old were you?”

  “Young. Maybe five or six years old. I don’t know.”

  “How old are you now?”

  “Twenty-six?”

  He didn’t miss the questioning tone in her voice.

  “Are you telling me or asking me?”

  “Neither,” she said with a heavy sigh. “I can’t tell you because I don’t know. I wouldn’t ask you because you don’t know.”

  “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

  “I was discovered alone in the restroom of a rest area on I-95 near Orlando. The woman who found me there took me to the local authorities, but no one ever claimed me, and I spent the rest of my childhood in foster care.”

  “What about before then?”

  “I don’t remember anything before that.”

  “Nothing at all?”

  “I remember bits and pieces, things I’m not sure are memories. They might be just wishful thinking.” She smiled ruefully and shook her head. “I’ve always had one particular memory of a pretty brown-haired woman with a wide smile and kind blue eyes. My heart wants to believe she’s my mother, but I’ve never understood how someone who looks so kind and loving could leave her child alone on the side of the road. I have a vague recollection of a bedroom with tiny purple flowers on the wallpaper and a white canopy bed with a ruffled spread. And I think I remember riding a carousel on a brilliant green lawn. I’ve always had a penchant for fairy tales, daydreaming about being someone else, so no one’s ever given much credence to my recollections. Not even me.”

  At the wistfulness in her voice, Levi had to fight the urge to pull her into his arms. It broke his heart to imagine a little girl with blond hair and large brown eyes, alone and frightened, tossed aside by parents who didn’t want her.

  He and Teddy had grown up in Gulfview, a small town near the Gulf of Mexico, in a drafty Victorian they shared with their parents, younger sister, and spinster aunt. Their paternal grandparents lived in a small farmhouse outside the city limits, and at least a dozen other Tanners were spread through town. He couldn’t imagine growing up with no family at all. Just the past few months of self-imposed exile had nearly killed him.

  “I lived in homes all over the state. Some of them were filled with other kids, but in most of them, it was either only me or just one other child. The others always stayed behind when I left, and I never saw them again.”

  She was staring at her hands, which were clutched so tightly the knuckles were white, and he felt a sick dread in the pit of his stomach as he wondered just what kind of life she had lived in the homes of strangers. Had she had any stability in her life? Had she ever had anyone who loved her?

  “Did you change homes much?” he asked, hoping he was wrong in his suspicions of how alone she had really been.

  “I was fifteen when I ran away from one home. It was number thirteen.” She tried to smile, but failed miserably. “Turns out it was as unlucky as you’d expect.”

  He couldn’t bring himself to ask her to elaborate, so he focused on the number of homes she’d been in instead.

  “Thirteen homes? That couldn’t have given you time to form any kind of bonds with anyone in any of them. Did you ever have anyone constant?”

  “Only Carlotta, the woman who took me to and from each new home, and she would check up on me every few months. She would decide if I stayed or left, and more often than not, I left.” She took a shuddering breath before continuing. “She retired the year before I aged out of foster care, but she called me a few times the first few years, just to see how I was doing. She’s in a nursing home now.”

  “Did she ever suspect you may have been kidnapped as a child?”

  “She never mentioned it, and until now I never considered it.”

  “Tell me what makes you think it happened.”

  Levi watched her intently as she described what she thought was a memory. Her brandy-colored eyes grew dark with fear and confusion, and he wished he could ease her mind, but he had no idea what to say. No empty platitude or lame assurance was going to make her feel better or heal the pain of the past.

  She had worked for him for four years. How could he not have known something so important about her? Part of the reason he was good at his job was his ability to read people, to gauge their sincerity and state of mind. Yet he had never once noticed the hint of sadness that tinged her eyes or the way she hid behind that quiet, reserved grace of hers, using it like a shield to keep him from seeing any flicker of need. He had lost all objectivity the first time she spoke his name in that soft, lilting voice of hers and placed her delicate hand in his. His immediate flicker of attraction had burst into flames, and he had been blinded by his desire and his certain knowledge that she belonged to Teddy.

  That had been the first bone of contention between him and his brother, and from there, it had all gone downhill. By the time everything went to hell in a handbasket, Sidra was the only one left, he was half in love with her, and he couldn’t imagine how he would have dealt with all of it without her.

  Just like the day he met her and hundreds of days since, all he could think of now was how much he wanted to kiss those soft, full lips.

  “Are you even listening to me?” she asked, cocking her head to one side.

  Without considering the consequences, he lowered his
mouth to hers and kissed her with years of pent-up passion.

  ****

  She had been kissed a time or two in the past, but never so deeply and thoroughly as this. And never had she welcomed a kiss so much. He knew it, too, judging by the low growl that sounded in his throat as he deepened the kiss.

  When at last they broke apart, they were both breathless and dazed by the desire that arced between them. Even as she was trying to gather her composure, she felt him pull away from her, saw his eyes darken with remorse.

  “Sid, I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have done that. You’re scared and vulnerable, and I took advantage of it.”

  “You’re sorry you kissed me?” She wished she didn’t sound quite so horrified by his words.

  “Yes. No. Jeeze, Sid. I’m sorry I kissed you now. You were nearly kidnapped tonight. You were knocked out by chloroform. You couldn’t possibly be in your right mind.”

  “So you think I kissed you back because my judgment was compromised by my being chloroformed?” She fought to regain a grip on her dignity.

  “Yes.”

  “I’ve thought about kissing you an awful lot before today.” That admission was proof of just how far gone her mind was at the moment.

  “You have?” He sounded like a vulnerable schoolboy, shocked that the object of his crush reciprocated his feelings.

  A smile spread across her face, and she nodded.

  “Yes. And I’ve never been chloroformed before.”

  “But Teddy—”

  Frustration bubbled up inside her as the smile slipped from her face. How long was he going to cling to his foolish notion that she and Teddy were more than friends? They had never given him any reason to believe it. Yet, he had never been able to get past his own stupid assumptions that they were lovers. She opened her mouth to tell him just what she thought about his pigheaded refusal to see the truth, but before she could speak, he stood and moved to the kitchen.

  He came back moments later with a glass of whiskey in one hand and a can of soda in the other. He set the soda on the end table nearest her and swallowed the whiskey in one gulp.