Across the room, Archie steps from the conference room, a smile wide on his face. I tug out of Liam’s arms and run to him, then engulf him in a hug. He starts to pull away, but I hold on tight for another heartbeat, needing this connection to my childhood. A time when, as complicated as life was, things were simpler. A time when, though I now know that I’d been naive, I’d understood the people around me.
When I finally release him and step back, I find the Sykes family butler smiling down at me. “I cannot tell you how relieved I am that you’re safe, Miss Jane. I won’t say that all is well,” he adds, his eyes softening, “because we both know that it isn’t. But you are here and you are whole, and that is a very good beginning.”
Despite everything, I smile. Yes, I’m standing in the middle of a criminal organization’s safe house. Yes,
criminal
. Because even though an argument can be made that everything Deliverance did to rescue kidnap victims skirted against but never crossed any legal boundaries, there is no question that kidnapping Colin pushed them well into criminal territory, no matter how justified that action might be.
Dallas is at risk. So are Liam and Quince and all of the team, including Archie.
So, for that matter, am I. Accessory after the fact. I’d been married to an Assistant United States Attorney long enough to know that much at least.
And yet I’m here because even though I believe Dallas, I have to face Colin. With a sigh, I turn back to Dallas, my heart twisting a little when I see the expression on his face. Not just concern, but pity.
“I can handle it,” I tell him for the umpteenth time. “More important, I can’t move on until I hear it all from you guys, and then talk with him.”
“I know.”
I nod firmly, steeling myself. “All right,” I say. “Tell me everything.”
Liam and Dallas look at each other, and I can see the unspoken communication pass between them. Dallas nods, then takes my hand. “Conference room,” he says. “We’ll lay it all out for you.”
And he does.
I sit numb in the leather chair as he and Liam flash documents up onto a screen, run through a timeline, and describe fact after fact after fact. They don’t bother to speculate—they don’t need to. The evidence is too damning. And each additional piece of information is like a stab through my heart.
Proof that Colin was in London at the time of the kidnapping—and that he’d used a false passport to enter the country.
A computer hard drive with damning emails between him and Silas Ortega, one of the six men who physically grabbed me and Dallas that horrible night seventeen years ago.
Proof that Colin wasn’t in Boston as he’d told me when Ortega was murdered before he could cut a deal with the Feds. Instead, Colin flew to South America—which was where Ortega was being held.
Cryptic conversations picked up on a bug planted in Colin’s Brooklyn house. Conversations that suggested that Colin was in the process of liquidating his assets in order to disappear.
And on and on and on it went with dozens and dozens of little facts that at first just swam into my brain, but then connected together to form a picture.
I didn’t know why he would do such a horrible thing to Dallas, much less to me, but by the time Dallas said, “That’s it. That’s everything we have so far.” I was convinced. I might not know the why of it, but I was certain that Colin—my birth father—had been our Jailer.
“Are you okay?”
“I—” But I can’t get the words out. Instead, a wave of nausea rises up inside of me, and I stand in sudden panic—and then vomit all over Dallas’s shoes.
“Jane.” He is on his feet immediately, pulling me close and holding me tight. Then he pushes back. “You shouldn’t do this.”
“No. No, I was just—thank you,” I say as Liam hands me a glass of water. “It was just all too much. But I’m okay. Really.” I wrinkle my nose and glance
When I finally release him and step back, I find the Sykes family butler smiling down at me. “I cannot tell you how relieved I am that you’re safe, Miss Jane. I won’t say that all is well,” he adds, his eyes softening, “because we both know that it isn’t. But you are here and you are whole, and that is a very good beginning.”
Despite everything, I smile. Yes, I’m standing in the middle of a criminal organization’s safe house. Yes,
criminal
. Because even though an argument can be made that everything Deliverance did to rescue kidnap victims skirted against but never crossed any legal boundaries, there is no question that kidnapping Colin pushed them well into criminal territory, no matter how justified that action might be.
Dallas is at risk. So are Liam and Quince and all of the team, including Archie.
So, for that matter, am I. Accessory after the fact. I’d been married to an Assistant United States Attorney long enough to know that much at least.
And yet I’m here because even though I believe Dallas, I have to face Colin. With a sigh, I turn back to Dallas, my heart twisting a little when I see the expression on his face. Not just concern, but pity.
“I can handle it,” I tell him for the umpteenth time. “More important, I can’t move on until I hear it all from you guys, and then talk with him.”
“I know.”
I nod firmly, steeling myself. “All right,” I say. “Tell me everything.”
Liam and Dallas look at each other, and I can see the unspoken communication pass between them. Dallas nods, then takes my hand. “Conference room,” he says. “We’ll lay it all out for you.”
And he does.
I sit numb in the leather chair as he and Liam flash documents up onto a screen, run through a timeline, and describe fact after fact after fact. They don’t bother to speculate—they don’t need to. The evidence is too damning. And each additional piece of information is like a stab through my heart.
Proof that Colin was in London at the time of the kidnapping—and that he’d used a false passport to enter the country.
A computer hard drive with damning emails between him and Silas Ortega, one of the six men who physically grabbed me and Dallas that horrible night seventeen years ago.
Proof that Colin wasn’t in Boston as he’d told me when Ortega was murdered before he could cut a deal with the Feds. Instead, Colin flew to South America—which was where Ortega was being held.
Cryptic conversations picked up on a bug planted in Colin’s Brooklyn house. Conversations that suggested that Colin was in the process of liquidating his assets in order to disappear.
And on and on and on it went with dozens and dozens of little facts that at first just swam into my brain, but then connected together to form a picture.
I didn’t know why he would do such a horrible thing to Dallas, much less to me, but by the time Dallas said, “That’s it. That’s everything we have so far.” I was convinced. I might not know the why of it, but I was certain that Colin—my birth father—had been our Jailer.
“Are you okay?”
“I—” But I can’t get the words out. Instead, a wave of nausea rises up inside of me, and I stand in sudden panic—and then vomit all over Dallas’s shoes.
“Jane.” He is on his feet immediately, pulling me close and holding me tight. Then he pushes back. “You shouldn’t do this.”
“No. No, I was just—thank you,” I say as Liam hands me a glass of water. “It was just all too much. But I’m okay. Really.” I wrinkle my nose and glance
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