Sweet Sin, page 19
“Good. What if they’re traveling under aliases?”
“Got that covered.”
Okay, then. I don’t ask any more questions. If Leif’s got it covered, it’s covered.
“Nothing on the flight manifests,” he says. “So we check the younger McAllister’s house first, right?”
“I don’t know. You said his father’s got better security.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m thinking that’s where we go then.”
“It’s your call. Your woman.”
Damn.
My call? So if I’m wrong, I may not find Savannah in time?
I rub my temples and then the back of my sore neck. “I don’t know, Leif. I don’t fucking know.”
Leif pierces me with his ice blue gaze. “What’s your instinct? Say you’re back on the inside, and you’re in this predicament. What is your instinct telling you to do?”
“The father’s house.” I say without hesitation.
“I’m on it.”
Leif plugs the address into his GPS, and we’re off.
36
SAVANNAH
We arrive at Declan McAllister’s home. A servant answers the door and lets us in.
Maggie McAllister, Miles’s mother, greets us. She’s a beautiful woman in her early sixties, but she’s meek and quiet.
Miles kisses her cheek. “Hello, Mother.”
“Miles.” She looks at me. “Savannah, how nice to see you again.”
I don’t speak.
“My mother is speaking to you,” Miles says.
Again, I don’t speak.
“Damn it, Savannah. Say hello to my mother.”
I will not obey him. I refuse. He can force himself on me. He can force this marriage. But I will not take orders.
And I pay for it.
With a blow to my head.
Before I know what’s happening, I’m on my knees in the marble foyer.
Maggie helps me up. “It’s easier to just obey,” she whispers in my ear.
I look at her—really look at her. She was no doubt married off at a much younger age than I am now. Probably eighteen, which is when they wanted me.
The look on her face is one of pure resignation. Understanding of her lot in life. Of the role she’s been hired to play.
Not hired, rather, but forced.
It’s her way of telling me to accept my fate. To play the role.
All my needs will be taken care of.
This I know. I will live in luxury…as long as I know my place.
To be the trophy wife of Miles McAllister. The wife that binds the McAllister and Bianchi families together.
I rise to my feet and stare at Miles, fire in my eyes.
Still I say nothing.
“You’ve chosen to play the hard way,” Miles says. “I expect by morning you’ll change your tune.”
Yes, I’m sure I’ll be raped tonight. Violated in the worst ways. Probably beaten. But only where no one can see bruises.
Maggie takes my arm. “Come on, Savannah. Let’s get you a hot beverage.”
I don’t want a hot beverage.
But by the grace of God, Miles doesn’t follow us.
Maggie takes me to the kitchen. “Boxy, could you prepare some tea for Ms. Gallo and myself?”
“Certainly, ma’am.”
Maggie gestures to a seat at the table. “Please.”
Why not? She’s trying to help me, after all. I sit.
“Would you like something other than tea?” Maggie asks.
I don’t say anything.
“You can talk to me, my dear.”
“Can I though?” I finally say. “Anything I say to you will go straight back to Miles.”
Maggie sits down next to me. Then she does something totally unexpected. She takes one of my hands in hers. “I love my son.”
I simply nod.
How could anyone love Miles McAllister?
“You will understand that one day. One day when you have children of your own.”
I don’t want to have children of my own. Not unless they’re Falcon’s children.
But she’s right. I’ve chosen my fate. I will have children of my own with Miles unless I can figure out how to get out of this—once Falcon is in the clear, that is.
“You may not love your children’s father,” Maggie says, “but you will love them. I understand that it’s hard to imagine that now, but you will eventually see that I am correct.”
I’m not sure what to say to that, so again I say nothing.
“I know how you’re feeling. I’ve been where you are. Your mother has been where you are. Try to look on the bright side. All your needs will be met from now until the day you leave this earth. You’ll live in riches beyond your wildest dreams.”
I snap my hand away. “Are you forgetting I grew up this way? I already know what riches beyond my wildest dreams are. I’ve chosen to live without them, Mrs. McAllister.”
“Yes, I suppose you have. I’d be lying if I said I knew what this was all about. My husband doesn’t tell me things about the business. But I will try to find out.”
“You can’t.”
Maggie looks at the table. “No, I probably can’t.”
“I need to speak to my father.”
“You will. Once the marriage has taken place and it has been consummated.”
“When is that going to be?”
“First thing tomorrow. Miles and his father already made all the necessary arrangements for the license and everything.”
I force back tears. “I don’t understand. They let me go five years ago. Why now?”
“I don’t know. Like I said, I’m going to try to find out for you.”
I resolve not to say anything else, but then I can’t help myself.
“You say you love your son.”
“I do.”
“You just witnessed him hit me with a force so hard I fell to the floor.” I touch my hand to my cheek. “I’ll probably have a bruise.”
“You may. But don’t worry about that.”
“How can I not worry about it?”
“Makeup. My maid can cover you with makeup. You’d be amazed at what she’s covered on me over the years.”
“You’re okay with that?”
Maggie looks around the kitchen. Boxy is at the counter, but no one else is present. “Savannah, of course I’m not okay with it. But I’m a shell of what I once was.” She closes her eyes, smiles softly, and then opens them again. “Did you know I was in beauty pageants when I was in high school?”
“No, but I can see how you might’ve been. You’re still a beautiful woman.”
“I had looks on my side for sure,” she says, “but the reason I did so well in pageants was because of my talent. I was a virtuoso pianist.”
I stop my jaw from dropping. “I had no idea.”
“I haven’t touched the piano in decades. Declan couldn’t have a wife who outshined him. But I had dreams once. Dreams that I was forced to let go of. It can be done, Savannah.”
“With all due respect, you’re older than I am. Women are no longer objects in this world.”
“They were no longer objects when I was married to Declan,” she says. “But I did not have a choice, just like you don’t have a choice. Marriage to these people represents a lot more than just a simple alliance of families.”
“What else?”
She frowns. “I can see your father kept you in the dark about many things. And of course he would.”
“I don’t care about any of this,” I say. “This family stuff took both my brothers away from me. I don’t want it to swallow me too.”
She sighs, giving me another look of resignation.
She can’t answer. How could she?
It has already swallowed her up. She had to let go of her dreams, of her talent.
Now she simply exists.
She’s not living. She’s waiting to die.
“I want more,” I say, strength returning to my voice.
“I can only give you this advice,” she says. “Do not anger your husband.”
The fact that she used the words your husband instead of my son is not lost on me. Already, she has let part of her son go. She probably had to for her own sanity.
I’m on the pill. I have been for ages, but he can keep me from my pills. Somehow I have to get away and get an IUD. At least I don’t have to worry about it tonight or tomorrow. I have the pills in my purse. But as soon as I can get away, I’m seeing a doctor. I will not bring Miles’s baby into this world if I can help it.
37
FALCON
The McAllister house stands imposingly at the end of a long, meandering driveway, guarded by towering wrought-iron gates that swing open to grant access to the privileged few. The meticulously manicured landscape surrounding the property is comprised of velvety green lawns that stretch out in all directions, adorned with vibrant flowerbeds bursting with colors and carefully sculpted hedges.
The house itself is a sprawling mansion, made of equal parts stone and stucco, with large floor-to-ceiling windows fitted with tinted glass. Elaborate balconies and verandas, supported by intricately designed columns, adorn the front of the house. The roof is tiled with ceramic.
Way different than the ranch house where I grew up. This is not a welcoming house, like mine was.
This is a house that says Keep Out.
Light fixtures illuminate the exterior, and ornate ironwork and stone add elegance while also echoing its unwelcoming message.
“Yeah,” I say to Leif. “We’re not getting in there.”
Leif glances around the area. “Are you kidding me? I got through worse than this when I was in Afghanistan. One time I used a sharp piece of stale bread to make an escape from a guarded cell. I got my friend Buck out too.”
“Shit, man.”
“Crazy, I know. But I couldn’t save my pal Wolf. He was tortured, and he died in the worst way.”
“Fuck. I’m sorry.”
“Ancient history.” He turns the car around. “We’ll park a few blocks away.”
“I’m not armed.”
“Not a problem. I’ve got everything we’re going to need in my trunk.”
“She may not even be in there,” I say.
He keeps his gaze focused on the road ahead, but I feel it penetrating me as if he were looking me straight in my own eyes. “Do you want to proceed? Tell me something. Do you feel her?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Think about your time inside, Falcon. Think about what you learned. You had to rely on your sixth sense. It’s what I had to do as well as a SEAL.”
I close my eyes, try to concentrate. “Yeah, you’re right. I knew when a threat was imminent, but how am I supposed to know if Savannah’s in there?
“You already do. You told me to come here rather than to the kid’s house.”
He’s right. I did. And for the life of me, I can’t feel shit now.
“Your call,” Leif says. “We can try to find her in there, or we can go somewhere else.”
I breathe in, hold my breath a moment, try to clear my mind.
The only time I had to try to clear my mind during the time I was incarcerated was at night. I needed my sleep. If I didn’t get my sleep, I wasn’t at my best the next day, and some inmates—myself included—learned to smell weakness a mile away.
But this—this clearing of my mind while awake—is new to me.
I attempt it, and I try to feel Savannah.
I jerk my eyes open. “Let’s go in.”
“You think she’s here?”
“Leif, I don’t have a fucking clue. I’m not sure I feel her. But I’m using logic. This is the most likely place she is. We know she hasn’t flown anywhere, and as you say, this has more security than Miles’s actual place.”
“You got it. We’re in.”
We get out of the car, and Leif opens the trunk. He hands me a black ski mask and a black hoodie. “Put these on.”
I zip the hoodie. “I feel like I’m getting ready to do a SWAT mission.”
“You are. The only difference is that we don’t have anybody at our backs.”
“We have each other,” I say. “That’s all we needed when we were kids.”
Of course, when we were kids, the worst we had to deal with was Burlington Hays stealing our lunch money.
“True enough.” Leif pats me on the back. “We’re going to get her back, Falcon. We’re going to get her back.”
I simply nod.
I have to believe we will, because I don’t know that I can live if we don’t.
Leif hands me a pistol, fully loaded, and I shove it in my waistband.
He’s already armed in his ankle holster, and he takes another piece as well, shoves it in his belt.
Then he hands me a burner phone. “Turn your phone off.”
“I can’t. What if Savannah tries to get hold of me?”
“We can’t risk their security tracing your signal.”
“I… I can’t do it.”
“You have to.”
And here’s where the difference between Leif and me lies. He was a member of the Navy, an elite SEAL, and he had the most up-to-date technology at his fingertips.
I was an inmate. I didn’t have a phone inside. I didn’t have to worry about it being traced.
I relied on handmade shivs and my fists.
“Where do we go first?”
“We need to breach the perimeter,” he says. “And we need to do it without being seen.”
“That seems impossible.”
“It’s not. We can do it.” He grips one of my shoulders with his firm hand. “You’ve got to believe in this, Falcon. You’ve got to believe that you have justice and the good of everything on your side.”
I breathe in slowly, and then I nod.
Leif nods back and then pulls out a bag of what looks like beef jerky.
“You need a snack?” I ask.
“Nope. These aren’t for me, and I don’t suggest you eat them either.”
“What are they?”
“Beef jerky laced with canine tranquilizer. For the guard dogs.”
“It won’t hurt the animals, will it?”
He shakes his head. “Nope. They’ll just take a little snooze. That’s all we need.”
“Do we even know if there are dogs?”
“Nope. We haven’t cased the place yet. My guess is there will be guard dogs. Every top-notch security system uses human guards, guard dogs, a wired and wireless entry system, and then of course the most basic thing. A big ass fence.”
We’ve already seen the fence. It’s six feet tall, black wrought-iron. With a locked gate.
“I didn’t see a guard at the gate though,” I say.
“There isn’t one. Odd, yes. If it were me, I’d have one. But it’s probably a remote-controlled gate. If it’s digital, and I’m betting it is, I should be able to hack the code.” He holds up a gadget that looks kind of like a cell phone.
“Where the hell do you get all these things?”
He glances around. “I’m outfitted by the Wolfe family. They’ve got the highest tech in security. They’ve had to, to keep their fathers’ victims safe. And even then, it hasn’t always worked. I could tell you stories about what happened to Kelly.”
“Fuck.”
“Another time, man. First things first. Kelly’s home safe, behind locked doors and behind our dogs. I’ve got a security system that’s better than this one.”
“Do you?”
“You better fucking believe it.”
He grabs a few other gadgets, none of which I recognize, but I don’t bother to ask what they are.
“So what do we do first?
“This all appears to be electronic, so once I isolate the code, I can disable all the cameras and all the sirens.”
“And open the gate?”
“And open the gate.”
I draw a breath, very aware of the pistol that I’ve never fired in my waistband.
It’s been eight years since I fired a gun.
Last time was when Hawk and I were out doing target practice and we stumbled upon those drugs.
I have to believe it’s like riding a bike. It will come back to me.
I pull the gun out of my waistband, feel it in my hand, consider its weight.
It’s a Sig Sauer. Not a brand I’ve ever shot. I prefer Smith & Wesson or Glock.
“You okay?” Leif asks.
“Just getting to know the piece.”
“Let’s hope you don’t have to use it. But it’s your basic nine-millimeter.”
“Yeah. Just been a long time is all.”
“You’ll be fine. If push comes to shove, you’re going to be glad you have it.”
“I hate leaving the damned phone in the car. Savannah may try to get in contact with me. Or Raven. What if Raven’s bloodwork comes back?”
“Falcon, Raven’s bloodwork will come back. And it’s either going to be good news or bad news. When you get the news isn’t going to change that.”
He’s right of course.
“But Savannah…”
“It’s doubtful Savannah will have a chance to get in touch with you. But if she does, and we find out she’s not here, you’ll see the message when we get back.”
“It might be too late by then.”
“Fine. Bring your damned cell phone. But turn it off. Turn it off until I have the system disabled.”
I sigh in relief. I open the car door, grab my cell phone, look to see if there’s any news. There isn’t, so I click it off and shove it in my pocket.
“Thanks,” I say.
“Don’t thank me. I still have to disable the damned thing.”
38
SAVANNAH
“Let me show you to your room,” Maggie says.
“You mean to your son’s room?”
She shakes her head. “He won’t touch you tonight. Not until you’re legally wed.”
“Really? I suppose I should be thankful for that.”
She doesn’t look at me. In fact, it’s almost like she prefers not to look at me. “It’s a one-night reprieve, Savannah. Enjoy it.”
