Broken Ties Read online

  A shiver of anticipation raced through her small frame, and she smiled happily as she lifted her face back to the Christmas tree.

  Without warning, a large rough hand covered her mouth, a thick arm came around her waist, and Dolly slipped from her hands as she was lifted off her feet. She kicked her legs wildly and tried to wiggle free, but the pressure of his hand on her mouth increased and she grew dizzy from lack of air. The walls and floors tilted, the mirrored walls of the ballroom reflecting the Christmas lights and transforming them into a vivid whirl in her panicked mind.

  “Mama!” She screamed against his hand. “Papa!”

  “If they come, I will kill them,” he growled, and she stilled. She could not let this man hurt her parents.

  He tightened his grip on her, his arm digging painfully into her ribcage as he strode through the ballroom, down the backstairs, and out the door.

  Chapter Seven

  “Shhh. I’ve got you, Sidra. It’s okay.” Levi’s voice brought her back to the present, and she was surprised to find herself held tight against his chest while he murmured comforting words against her hair. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”

  A shuddering sob shook her, and she clung to him as she told him what she remembered.

  “I was just a little girl, looking at our Christmas tree and dreaming about what Santa would bring me. He came up behind me, picked me up, and walked out of the castle.” She tilted her head back to look at him. “I was petrified, and no one even knew I was gone.”

  The fear and confusion in her voice tore at Levi’s heart, and he wanted nothing more than to ease the aching loneliness in her eyes.

  He didn’t try to stop himself from kissing her. There was no reason to fight it. The need to comfort her was too strong.

  He caught her trembling lips with his own, swallowing her low hum of acceptance. Her loneliness, her need, her aching desire to be a part of someone else became his own, and he drank it in. She was his now, whether she knew it or not, and he would never again let her face her pain or fear alone.

  He was so lost in the kiss it took a moment for his mind to register the sound of the elevator moving upward. He whirled around, pushing Sidra behind him as he drew his gun and aimed it toward the doors.

  “D-d-don’t shoot,” the gangly, freckle-faced kid cried, his hands clutching a large manila envelope. Every freckle stood out in vibrant contrast to the pallor of his skin, and Levi cursed as he put the gun back in its holster.

  “Sorry, kid. What do you want?”

  He held out the envelope with hands that shook so badly Levi wondered how he kept his grip on it.

  “I-I have a delivery for Sidra Martin,” he stammered.

  “Who gave it to you?” Levi demanded as Sidra snatched it from his hand and ripped it open.

  “Some guy downstairs. He gave me ten dollars to bring it up here.”

  The office phone began ringing and Sidra hurried toward it, removing the contents of the envelope as she moved.

  “Tanner & Tanner Invest—” She stopped before asking shrilly. “Who is this? What do you want?”

  She looked down at the paper she’d removed from the envelope, and the color leached from her face. The phone slipped from her hand and she grasped blindly at the edge of the desk, her eyes wide with shock.

  Levi bounded across the room, catching her around the waist and sinking to her office chair with her on his lap.

  He grabbed the phone. “Who the hell is this?”

  Low foreign words filled his ears, hateful and guttural sounding, and obviously aimed at Sidra.

  “When I find you, you’ll be sorry you ever contacted her,” he promised before slamming the phone down.

  “He wanted to know if I got the picture.” Her eyes were still fixed on the paper in her hand.

  “Let me see it, sweetheart,” he coaxed, prying the picture from her fingers. He let out a low harsh curse.

  The dark-haired woman in the picture had not just been murdered but viciously tortured before being killed. Her body was riddled with wounds, blood smeared across her clothing and limbs. It was a horrible image, made eminently worse by the small blond child who knelt beside her, tiny hands covered with blood.

  “Shit!”

  He slapped the picture face down on the desk, and when Sidra would have reached for it, he caught her hands in his own. Tears stung his eyes as he brought them to his lips, wishing he had been there for her then. Wishing someone had kept her from touching the poor, tortured woman, wishing someone had kept her from witnessing it at all. No wonder her mind chose not to remember what happened. Why on earth would someone want to remind her of it now?

  “Is she okay?” the kid asked from the elevator, reminding Levi of his presence.

  “She’ll be fine.” He looked the boy up and down. “What’s your name?”

  “Danny Ryan.”

  “Well, Danny Ryan, I need you to come over here and answer some questions about the man who gave this to you.”

  “Yes, sir.” Fear gleamed in his eyes, but he didn’t hesitate to come closer. “I’m sorry I brought it up here, man. I didn’t mean to upset her. I didn’t even know what it was.”

  “Who gave it to you?”

  “I told you, he was just some man downstairs. I didn’t know him. I never even saw him before.”

  “What did he look like?”

  “He was kind of short, and not fat but big. Like a football player. He had no neck.”

  “Dark hair?”

  Danny nodded, and Levi cursed, certain it was the same man who had attacked Sidra last night.

  “Yeah. He had black hair and black eyes, and his face was smooth as a baby’s butt. He didn’t have any face hair at all.”

  Danny ran a finger over his own budding mustache as he made the last proclamation in disdain. Obviously the kid was proud of the smattering of whiskers on his upper lip.

  “He had an accent,” he continued. “Must have been foreign or something.”

  “What did he say?”

  “ ‘Hey, kid, you want to make ten dollars? Run this envelope upstairs there. Give it to no one but Sidra Martin.’ ”

  His fake accent was a dead ringer for Dracula, but it was a far cry from what the man actually sounded like.

  “Is he waiting downstairs for you?”

  “No, sir, he got in a big black car that was parked at the curb, and it drove away.” He shot Sidra another worried glance. “What was the picture of, anyway?”

  “Nothing you want to see, believe me.”

  Danny shrugged. “Can I go now?”

  “Yeah, get out of here.”

  The kid was pressing the elevator button before the words were out of Levi’s mouth. As the doors closed behind him, Levi turned his attention to Sidra, who still sat silent and pale on his lap.

  “Do you think that’s me in the picture?” she asked pitifully.

  “Yes. Do you?”

  “Mmm-hmmm.” She nodded.

  “Do you know the woman?”

  “No.” She shook her head, reaching for the picture.

  “You don’t need to see it again.” He whisked the picture into the drawer and slammed it shut.

  “I might remember something if I look at it long enough.” The wounded uncertainty in her voice broke his heart. “How could I forget something that horrible?”

  “I told you, the mind protects itself from things it can’t handle.”

  “I don’t think it will be able to protect me much longer.” She turned toward him. “Someone obviously wants to remind me of what happened.”

  “They could be trying to warn you away from remembering.”

  The phone rang and Levi snatched it up before Sidra could. “Listen, you sick son of a—” he growled.

  A long pause answered his greeting. “I take that to mean they got to her already.” Teddy’s voice was somewhat wary.

  “Ted?” He leaned back in the chair, shaken to hear Teddy’s voice after all these months. He closed his
eyes against the memory of those moments when he hadn’t been sure he would ever hear it again.

  “You sound weird. Is Sid okay?” Teddy demanded.

  “Sidra’s fine.” It was a lie. She was far from fine, but he didn’t want to explain it to his brother. Suddenly, Teddy’s greeting hit him square in the eyes, confirming the suspicions he’d had since finding the coin. “What the hell do you mean, ‘they got to her already’?”

  “If you don’t know, it isn’t something I can explain over the phone. We need to meet in person.”

  “She was nearly abducted last night, her house was ransacked, and someone sent her a picture of a gruesome murder. If you know anything about any of that, you’d better start talking right now.”

  “What? Someone tried to abduct her? Levi, listen to me. You’ve got to get her away from there as fast as possible.” He was quiet for a moment, and Levi knew he was probably running his hand through his hair in frustration. “Bring her here. Mom and Dad left this morning for Annie’s. They won’t be back for a week.”

  “Tell me what you know.”

  “There isn’t time, bro. If someone is already trying to get to her, if they’ve really done what you said, they’re not going to stop. They’re going to keep on until they succeed.”

  “Succeed in what, terrifying her?”

  “No.” Teddy’s voice was choked with emotion. “They don’t want to scare her, Levi. They want to kill her.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “I’ll explain when you get here. It shouldn’t take you more than three hours. If you’re not here in four, I’m sending out a search party.”

  The urgency in Teddy’s voice convinced Levi he was telling the truth.

  “We’ll be there,” he said, pulling Sidra to her feet as he hung up the phone.

  “Where are we going?” Sidra cried as he started for the elevator, her hand clasped in his.

  She sounded terrified, and he wondered if he could get away with telling her only part of what Teddy said.

  “Teddy knows something about what’s going on, and he’ll tell us if we come to him.”

  “Why would Teddy know anything about this?” she demanded.

  “I don’t know, Sidra,” he said impatiently. “That’s what we’re going to find out.”

  His eyes surveyed the sidewalk and street in front of the building for a glimpse of the man who had sent the picture. When he saw no one fitting the description Danny had given them or what he himself remembered from the evening before, he pulled open the door and motioned her outside.

  “I don’t know how long we’ll be gone,” he said as he pulled the car out of the parking lot. “I keep a bag in the trunk and have a few things at my mom’s. We’ll swing by your house and grab your clothes and Coda.”

  “I can’t just leave town!” she cried.

  “Why not? You have no family. I’m your boss, so it isn’t like you’re going to lose your job.”

  “I have commitments.”

  “Commitments? What kind of commitments?”

  “I told you, I volunteer at the nursing home.”

  “The nursing home?”

  “Quit repeating everything I say!”

  “You’re a volunteer. That means they can live without you, right?”

  “I can’t leave without at least speaking to them.”

  “Fine. Call them.” He tossed his phone on her lap.

  “No, I have to go there. You have to take me.”

  “What the hell’s going on, Sid?”

  She sighed heavily.

  “Carlotta Strauss is there.” She held up her hand when he opened his mouth to speak. “I know you’d like to question her, but I can’t let you. That’s why I didn’t tell you where she was. She has dementia, and I don’t want you to upset her with a bunch of questions she doesn’t have the answers to.”

  “So you think I’d just rush in and bombard an elderly Alzheimer’s patient with questions she can’t answer?”

  “Yes.”

  “I like to think I have a little more finesse than that,” he grumbled.

  “I just don’t want her badgered.”

  “Have you ever seen me badger an old woman?”

  “No, but I’ve never seen you draw a gun on a kid getting off the elevator either.”

  He threw his hands up in the air, and she reached to steady the wheel.

  “Levi!”

  He grabbed the wheel from her and gave her an angry look.

  “I didn’t know it was a kid. For all I knew it was the same man who tried to abduct you and ransacked your house.”

  “Do you think it was the same guy both times?”

  “Judging by the description, it was.”

  “So he knows where I live, where I work. How do you know he isn’t following us right now?”

  She shot a frightened glance behind them.

  “He isn’t.” Levi had made certain of that. There was no one following them. Maybe Teddy was wrong and the man just wanted to frighten her. If he wanted to kill her, wouldn’t he have just waited for them to exit the building?

  “Will you take me to see Carlotta?”

  “Will you find out if she remembers anything?”

  Sidra nodded, and turned to stare out the window. He smoothed his hand over her hair.

  “You don’t have to push her to remember. Just ask her if she does.”

  “I know,” she said, then admitted, “I’m just not sure I’m ready to hear what she might remember.”

  He understood how she must feel. Twenty-four hours ago, she had no past she could remember. Today, the past was closing in on her, and it was terrifying.

  “Where’s the home?”

  “Freemont Street.”

  When he turned at the next traffic light and headed in the direction of the nursing home, she breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Thank you.”

  “No need to thank me. I can tell she means a lot to you.”

  “She was the closest thing to a relative I had growing up. The main goal of the organization Carlotta worked with was reuniting families. I was the only one in any of the homes I lived in who didn’t have a family to be reunited with. The other kids got presents from relatives at Christmas, went on visitation, things that at least gave them hope they had a real home to return to one day.” She turned toward him. “Carlotta was the only constant in my life, the only thing that kept me from feeling entirely alone. The least I can do is to try to give her the same thing now.”

  “She doesn’t have a family?”

  “She never talked about anyone. We didn’t talk much after I aged out of the system, but we exchanged cards during the holidays with little notes about the year. Her card was the one and only Christmas item I bought each year. The last card I got from her was written by a nurse at the nursing home just after her stroke. Carlotta had dictated parts of it, and the nurse filled in the blanks.”

  “What kind of blanks?”

  “Not the kind that answered any of the questions we have.” She shrugged as they stopped in front of the nursing home. “Basically, it just told me where she was and why.”

  “When was that?”

  “Two years ago. She’s gotten much worse since then. She rarely remembers who I am.”

  “But you keep going.”

  “Of course, I do. I can’t abandon her now.”

  The air inside the nursing home was so thick with the odors of floor cleaner and disinfectant it burned his nose and brought tears to his eyes. He barely breathed as they made their way down the hall, but Sidra didn’t even seem to notice the smell.

  She spoke to several nurses and residents, smiling sweetly as a large, gruff man asked if she’d brought him a milkshake.

  “Not today, Mr. Whitley,” she answered. “Dr. Johnson wants you to work on your diabetes. Remember?”

  “’Course I remember, little lady. I just want a milkshake. You’re gonna bring me one next time you come, right?”

  �
�I’ll try, Mr. Whitley, but I’ll have to talk to the doctor first.”

  His eyes narrowed at Levi. “Hey, man, did you bring me a milkshake?”

  Levi shook his head, and the man shuffled down the hall, mumbling under his breath as he went.

  Glancing at his watch, Levi realized that if they didn’t hurry night would fall before they reached Gulfview. He had no desire to try to keep one eye on the road and one eye in the rearview mirror in that circumstance. Too much could happen on a two-lane road after dark, especially between towns that rolled up the carpet as soon as the sun went down.

  “We’ve got to pick up the pace a little, Sid. The longer we’re here, the more likely we are to be spotted, and we don’t want to lead anyone here who might not have connected you to the place already.”

  Obviously, that thought hadn’t occurred to her, because she paled a bit, before giving him a nod of agreement. Just outside Carlotta’s door, she stopped and put a hand on his chest. Earnest brown eyes stared into his.

  “I ask the questions,” she reminded him. “Got it?”

  “Got it.”

  She pushed open the door, letting her usual bright smile spread over her face. Why had he never noticed until now that it wasn’t always as genuine as it seemed? Had he been that busy fighting his attraction to her and fuming about her relationship with Teddy?

  “Good afternoon, Mrs. Taylor,” she said to the white-haired woman lying in the bed nearest the door. “How are you today?”

  She straightened the woman’s sheet while the woman stared blankly at the ceiling.

  “What the devil are you doing bringing men into my room?”

  Levi’s gaze moved to the woman sitting in a wheelchair in front of the window. From her close-cut salt-and-pepper curls to her sensible navy blue shoes, she bespoke efficiency and professionalism. A dark blue polyester skirt and striped button-up blouse completed her outfit, and he nearly smiled. Sidra rarely showed up for work in anything other than modest, dark-colored dresses or skirts and blouses, and matching pumps. Until this morning, he had never seen her in jeans or anything remotely casual. He sincerely doubted Carlotta Strauss had ever been the beauty Sidra was, but she was obviously the person who had given Sidra her sense of style and decorum.