Chapter Seven

“Dad?” The word burned through Dane, along with a torrent of emotions. Love and fear being the most prevalent. “Am I dead?” Tobey asked while looking around the room.

“No.” Dane reached for the boy, but his arms were still bound.

“But you’re in heaven, and now I’m with you.”

Dane smiled, realizing why his ten-year-old was confused. At another time, it might have been funny that anyone thought Dane would have ended up in heaven.

“I’m not dead, Tobey.”

“But mom said—”

“Your mom thinks I’m dead. Everyone thinks I’m dead. It’s a long story, and I’m so sorry I had to leave you, but I did it to keep you and your mother safe. I love you, and I didn’t want to leave. Do you understand?”

“I didn’t want to leave, either, but a man walked up to me at the park and grabbed me.”

Caroline must be losing her mind. And rightfully so. Tobey was in the worst kind of danger. None of the men wore masks. That meant they weren’t planning to let him walk out of this, even if Dane cooperated. The only way to guarantee survival was to get them out of there.

He tugged again at his restraints which were securely tied to the cold steel chair. The muscles in his injured leg spasmed in reply to the movement. Even if he could manage to free himself, he wouldn’t be able to run fast enough to carry Tobey away. He didn’t know where they were or how far he would have to run to get help.

Basically, he was screwed. Unless…

As much as he would gladly rip Lena limb from limb for her role in this, she might be his only hope. She’d seemed genuinely surprised to see his son brought in. He knew better than to trust her. She’d played her part perfectly and could still be manipulating him by playing good cop.

Even so, he was too desperate to give up the thought.

“Are we going to die?” Tobey asked.

The last time Dane had spoken to his son, Tobey had been almost five. He’d chattered about kindergarten and counting to a hundred. That was the Tobey in Dane’s mind. At the soccer field, he’d seen how much his son had grown physically, but he wasn’t prepared for the maturity and directness of his questions.

He’d never had the opportunity to be a father to a ten-year-old. He didn’t know what to say.

“No,” Dane answered, hoping like hell it wasn’t a lie.

“If we don’t die, will you come live with us again?” He frowned. “Mom is married to Randy now.”

Right.

“I don’t think that will work. But I am going to get us out of this, and we’ll figure something out, okay?” No need to worry about how to get out of an uncomfortable reunion with his wife at this stage of the game.

“Are you a super hero?” Tobey asked.

“No. If I were a super hero, I would have used a super power to break us out of here, and we would be chatting over a bowl of ice cream.”

Tobey smiled slightly, and Dane felt like maybe he did have some super powers, after all. He’d been able to make a scared little boy smile in the middle of a crisis.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but I want you to know this. I love you. You are the most important thing in my life, and everything I’ve done and will ever do is to keep you happy and safe. Okay?”

Tobey nodded. “Mom told me you died because you needed to do the right thing.”

Dane swallowed so he could speak. “It was something like that.”

It was good to know Caroline realized it had been the right thing. She hadn’t agreed with him when he’d wanted to go to the FBI to blow the whistle on his employer’s illegal activities.

She’d wanted him to stay out of it so it wouldn’t disrupt their perfect world. She hadn’t realized their perfect world was already crumbling under their feet.

When Dane’s employers threatened his family to keep his mouth shut, he knew he had to do something. Unfortunately, that something had led him to faking his death and walking out on his strained marriage and his only son.

“I’m glad you’re not really dead.”

“Me, too.” He winked at Tobey and got another smile. “You’ve been very brave. Don’t worry, okay? It’s going to be fine.”

How it would be fine, Dane wasn’t certain. But he had given up his life to keep this child safe once before. He wouldn’t hesitate to do it for real this time.