“Louie told me that you once wanted to be a lawyer,” Ryan said in a quiet voice. There had been other hints dropped by Louie about Liz’s past and he hadn’t followed up on anything. Now he found he wanted to know everything. “Why did you give it up?”
She lay facing him, propped on one elbow. “Circumstances. When it was time to enter law school, fate intervened. Besides, writing for children gives me far more satisfaction than arguing the rights of defendants in a courtroom.”
“Fate intervened. What does that mean?”
Taking her time, she traced the shape of his biceps with one finger. “A few weeks before I was to enter law school, I discovered that I was pregnant.” She raised her eyes to his.
“Pregnant.”
“Yes.”
She’d pulled up the sheet and covered her beautiful breasts after they’d made love. He’d thought her endearingly modest. They hadn’t turned on a lamp in their haste to get to her bed. Now, he wondered if there were signs, not that he’d care. As a lover, she was warm and responsive and giving. And oddly innocent. “Was it a love affair gone wrong?”
“It was never love, although I thought it was the real thing at the time.”
“Did the baby not survive?”
“Or did I have an abortion, you ask? No, neither.”
“Am I asking too many questions?”
She touched his mouth with the tips of her fingers, smiling softly. “You’re a lawyer. That’s what lawyers do.”
“I don’t want to ask anything you don’t want to tell me, Liz.”
She shifted, settling back on two pillows propped against the headboard. “When I was a senior in college, I got involved with a married man. Here’s a joke. He was a judge.”
Ryan now lay propped on one elbow, facing her. “I bet he was older than you, too.”
“A lot,” she said dryly. “I know what you’re thinking and it’s probably true. I was looking for a father figure. But what I was thinking was that he was handsome and sophisticated and wise, and why in the world had he chosen me?” She touched her chest with her fingers.
“Because you were special? And intelligent, beautiful and young? Just a guess,” he said with a shrug.
“I discovered he was married when I told him I was pregnant.” She turned her face to the window. “I will never forget that evening. We never went anywhere that he might be recognized—which shows how genuinely dumb I really was. I’d prepared a special meal in my apartment. He’d said he loved me, many times, so I assumed that he’d be pleased about our baby.” Her laugh was short and humorless. “Not only was he displeased, but he was furious. He accused me of deliberately trying to trap him into marriage. He said I was a scheming little—well, he used a word that I hate—and that he already had a wife. She was in academia as well and spending a year in Europe. He said that he wasn’t about to be stuck with child support for the next eighteen years and I was to get an abortion immediately.”
Ryan forced himself to breathe evenly, wishing to have just five minutes with the bastard. “But that wasn’t an option, right?”
She looked at him. “I seriously considered it. I even made the appointment and showed up at the clinic. Gina went with me.”
“Were you going to get rid of the baby thinking to continue the affair?”
“I was going to get rid of both the baby and the judge.”
He didn’t know if she was aware that her hands were cradling the place where her child had once been. He placed a hand over hers. “What happened?”
“When it came right down to it, I couldn’t do it. But I was lucky,” she said. “Many young women who screw up and find themselves pregnant don’t have options. My father left a trust fund. I had enough income to live on, so I went to work in a bookstore, mostly to keep myself from thinking and brooding over what a fool I’d been, and it gave me something to do to pass the time.”
“Did you intend to keep the baby?”
“No, although I wanted to with all my heart. I knew what a childhood without both parents was like. I couldn’t subject my child to that.” She pulled one hand from beneath his and turned his palm up, linking her fingers with his. Her eyes, when she looked at him, were too bright. “Giving him up was the hardest thing I ever did in my life. It was sheer hell.”
“But very unselfish.”
“It didn’t feel unselfish. It just felt painful.”
He could imagine her anguish. And now that he knew, he understood why she was so protective of Jesse. Why she fretted when Gina neglected the little girl. Why guilt would kill her if anything happened to Jesse now. And why it was so difficult for her to trust a man. Any man.
“He had black hair,” she said in a dreamy voice. “And probably dark eyes, but you don’t know so early. Seven pounds, six ounces, twenty-one inches long. He’s ten years old and lives in Denver today.”
“Wow.”
She turned so that their faces were almost touching. “I had a chance to be a mother and I gave it away, Ryan. If something happens to Jesse or Jennifer, I just don’t think I can survive it.”
“We’ll find them, Liz.”
She lifted a shoulder in a helpless little gesture. “I keep worrying about Austin’s mental state. He has to find a way to get Jesse away from here. That has to be the purpose of this crazy stunt. If he uses the car he rented, he’ll have to be on public roads. He can’t fly. So what would he do? I keep asking my—”
“The boat.” Ryan sat up abruptly. “Curtiss Leggett’s boat.” He threw off the sheet and hit his forehead with the heel of his hand. “That’s it! Son of a gun, why didn’t I think of it before? I knew there was something—”
“You think Austin has them on a boat?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“I can’t see Curtiss Leggett being a party to a kidnapping.”
Ryan was up now and reaching for his pants. “I don’t think Austin would ask permission, but Curtiss has a Bertram that could easily cruise for days, long enough to get Austin to his destination. And there’s a way to find out fast.” He rammed his arm through a shirtsleeve. “I can put in a call to Steele and have him check the Galveston marina where Curtiss docks his boat.”
“Is he as skilled operating a boat as his father?”
“No. And that’s why we have to hurry.”
Steele picked up his cell phone on the first ring. “Ryan, I was just about to call you. We’ve spotted the SUV and you’ll never guess where.”
“Galveston?”
“Uh, yeah,” Steele said after a surprised moment. “It’s parked at the yacht club and we’re in the process of checking the people who’re registered for rooms there tonight.”
“Send somebody else to do that,” Ryan said, sweeping up his car keys. “Go down to the marina and find Curtiss Leggett’s Bertram. If it’s put out to sea, notify the Coast Guard to try and intercept it. If not, see that it doesn’t leave the dock. Meanwhile, Liz and I are on our way.”
The water was cold. Jennifer fought her way up to the surface, gasping from the shock as much as the need for air. She’d dived near the place where Jesse had jumped, or so she hoped. And prayed. The water was filthy, slick with the oily stuff that boats gave off. And now that she was in the water, she realized how slim the chances were of finding Jesse. Little kids who couldn’t swim could drown in a heartbeat.
Can you swim, Jesse?
Above her on the boat, Austin was cursing and pacing, but he wasn’t jumping in to save his daughter, Jennifer noted with disgust, although he was looking real crazylike over the side of the big Bertram. It was all going to be up to her. She took a frantic look around and then drew in a deep breath, prepared to dive.
“Jennifer, here I am.”
Jennifer thought her heart would jump right out of her chest. The words came in a hissing kind of whisper, but it was Jesse, no doubt about it. And she had enough sense not to say it loud enough for her nutty dad to hear. Jennifer squinted across the black water, trying to locate her. Beneath the dock were countless pilings which made it difficult to spot anything, especially a little kid.
“Where are you, Jesse?” She kept her voice as low as possible. Not that there was much chance of the nutcase hearing anything. He was still ranting and raving and he hadn’t even had the brains to turn off the engines. Actually, he was calling Jesse’s name over and over. Maybe he got some credit for that, she thought.
“I’m over here. I’m holding a big thing that’s sticking out of this pole.”
A hook or cable thingy of some kind. Good. “Okay, hold on. I’m swimming over there. Say something else so I’ll go in the right direction.”
“Like what?”
“Just keep talking. Say a poem.”
“One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.”
Good choice. Jennifer almost chuckled, except she was too cold. “Way to go, love bug. Did anybody ever tell you you’re the bravest little girl in the whole world?”
“I’m really cold, Jennifer.”
Jennifer guessed that from the unsteady way she was talking, but she was talking. Hallelujah. And from the sound, she knew she was getting closer. She gasped when something brushed her leg underwater and realized she’d bumped right into Jesse.
She was so glad that she threw her arms around her, almost sinking herself. Jesse was hanging on to a large steel hook driven into the side of a barnacle-covered piling. She’d be all scratched up when they were finally out and dried off, but she couldn’t afford to think about that now. And she wasn’t going to sink as long as she didn’t get too cold to hang on to the hook while Jennifer tried to figure out how to get them out of the water and find a safe place without Austin spotting them. How she wished she’d been able to find those life jackets. They’d sure come in handy right about now.
“He made my mommy have that accident,” Jesse whispered in her ear. “He ran right into the back of our car.”
“Oh, baby…”
“He told me not to say a word, but he was going to hurt you, too. So I jumped.”
Jennifer held up a finger. “Shhh, I’m glad you’re talking again, but you need to save it for when we get home safe. Now, listen.” She put her lips next to Jesse’s ear. “We’re gonna have to get out of this cold water, love bug. Here’s the deal. Your daddy might see us if we try to climb up on the pier right here, so we need to move among the boats that’re docked until we’re sort of away from him. I guess you can swim, huh?”
“Uh-huh. I had lessons. Aunt Lizzie made me.”
Thank you, God, and thank you, Aunt Lizzie. “Okay. I’m going to help you as much as I can, but I need you to swim the best you ever have. Think you can do that?”
“Yes.”
“Good girl.” This kid deserved a medal if and when they managed to get out of this mess. Between Gina and that stupid Austin, they’d created an awesome little girl. Why he would put her at risk was a mystery. But no time now for figuring out mysteries or idiot fathers.
They were still within earshot of Austin, but as they were under the pier, he couldn’t see them. She was getting ready to push off, to head away from the Bertram when she realized that he’d stopped yelling. What now? She strained, waiting to see, trying not to think what might be in the water getting ready to take a taste of them. Then, she heard a splash and saw a big cushion from the hatch floating a few yards from them.
Oooh, she wanted that makeshift life raft. But not enough to show herself and somehow wind up a kidnap victim again. “Stay here, Jess.” She took a deep breath—it was going to be awful—and dived toward the cushion, planning to grab it from underneath and drag it back to where Jesse waited. Okay, she had it in her grip. She began to tug on it and realized he’d tied a rope to it. It was like the creep was fishing for them!
Damn! Sorry, Dad. Just let me and Jesse get out of this alive and I’ll never cuss again.
Abandoning the idea of the float, she swam back to Jesse. In a minute, she had her breath back. “No choice, love bug. We’ve gotta swim for it. Try not to swallow this nasty water. Ready?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Okay, you know the plan. Let’s roll!”
The risky part was getting away, unseen, from the Bertram. Once they cleared that slip, it would be relatively easy to keep out of sight. She eased away from the piling and glanced back to see Jesse following in a respectable doggie paddle. Good girl. She had dark hair, which would be a little more difficult to spot if Austin had an eagle eye, but as for herself…
“Blondes have more fun,” she muttered and took in a mouthful of water.
But they were clear now, and in another minute or two, were hanging on to the line of another cabin cruiser, a big one. The trouble was, it was really cold. April was not the month to swim, not even on the subtropical Texas coast.
“I’m really c-cold, J-Jen.” Jesse’s teeth were chattering.
“Three more boats and I think we can get out, Jesse. Ready?” And when they did, she’d need something to dry this little girl off.
Please let there be something.
By the time they reached an area of the marina that Jennifer considered safe, she was using a life-saving technique to pull Jesse along. Say a thank-you for her own swimming lessons, she thought. When she had kids of her own, she’d have to remember. Swimming lessons. As soon as possible.
She chose a boat that had a ladder left out. Her dad would never allow that, as it was an open invitation for someone to climb aboard. Okay, two uninvited guests, but she sure wasn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth. “Can you climb up, punkin-pie?”
Jesse couldn’t. Jennifer cast an anxious look over the keel of the boat trying to spot Austin. From where they were, it didn’t seem as if they were visible to him, but movement of any kind once they cleared the keel and made it into the pit of this boat might change that. It was a chance she had to take. Jesse couldn’t stay in the water another minute.
She pushed at the little girl’s tiny rump, literally shoving her up the steps. She was helpless to keep her from tumbling to the deck like a rag doll. Jennifer cleared the ladder herself in seconds. With Jesse lying still and spent on the deck, she searched the boat frantically for anything—anything!—to cover the little girl. The careless owner had left his hatch cover unlocked. Inside she found only life jackets. Not much warmth there, but better than nothing. Grabbing a couple, she draped them over Jesse until she could find something better. She’d lost her shoes; they both had, but she still wore her jeans and a skimpy little T-shirt. Jennifer wasn’t sure whether you should leave wet clothes on or take them off in a rescue situation. But without adequate covering, it seemed dumb to take them off.
“Are you okay, Jesse?” she asked, gathering her up into her arms. Holding her close, she squeezed water from the dark curls, then took both small hands in hers, rubbing briskly and tucking them into her own armpits. She’d read somewhere that a person’s armpits were very warm. “Talk to me, Jess.”
“C-cold.”
“I know, baby. Jen’s gonna fix that.” But oh, Lord, how? She tucked the little girl back among the life jackets and sat back on her heels, shivering. They had to have something to cover themselves.
Her own body was chilled to the bone. Rubbing her arms briskly, she tried to ward off the strength-sapping effect of the cold. Here on the Gulf, there was always a breeze. She’d known it to be worse, but any wind was too much when you were wet.
Looking around, she searched for a blanket. But there was nothing. Only a pile of something that looked like a net. A fish net. She kicked it in her frustration and realized it was soft. Shaking it out, she found it holey and smelly, too, but it was better than nothing. She lay down beside Jesse, keeping the life jackets in place around and on top of her, donning one herself, then she draped the netting over them, folded over and over again. Fortunately, the thing was huge, and by the time she’d used it up, she realized they would soon be relatively warm. Not totally dry, but not cold enough to endanger Jesse, either. They were hidden, too, in case Austin started looking for them. Then she settled down with her arms around the love bug—body heat was good, she’d read that, too—and waited for daylight when there was bound to be somebody showing up. People who liked boats were early risers.