Lullabies and Lies - By Mallory Kane Page 0,31
She had to do something.
“I’ll tell you what, Emily. I’m really worried that Janie has gone round the bend this time.” She felt a familiar flush as the heart medication took effect. “And I’m getting too old for this. You know what I’m going to do?” She smiled as Emily cooed in her sleep.
“That’s right. I’m going to call Mia. She’ll help me make sure you’re safe. Out of Janie’s reach.”
SUNNY THREW HER PURSE and Emily’s pink diaper bag into the passenger seat of her car.
She ducked her head and ran back toward the house as the rain intensified. All she needed was her suitcase.
Then, over the downpour, she heard the crunch of a footstep on gravel.
Just like the night Emily had been kidnapped.
Panic streaked through her. She jerked her head up. A bulky form loomed over her and a rough arm grabbed her.
“No!” she shrieked, kicking, elbowing—anything to stop the assault. “Help!”
“Shut up!” A hand that smelled of motor oil and cigarettes clamped over her mouth.
She clawed at it, tried to bite it, but he was too strong. He dragged her up the steps and through her front door. She struggled not to lose her footing.
He kicked the door shut and pushed her against the banister. “All right, Loveless! I warned you I’d pay you back.”
She could barely see through her wet plastered hair, but the man’s bulk and his voice were familiar. Dread filled her at the hatred that blasted her.
“Get off me! What do you want?”
“You know what I want!” The voice was harsh and furious.
Sunny wiped her face with trembling hands, and squinted at the bulky form in the light from the front porch. The short haircut, combined with the familiar voice, told her who he was.
Burt Means!
Her pulse hammered. The last thing he’d said to her was etched in her memory.
You’ll pay for this, he’d mouthed at her as the guards had led him out of the courtroom.
“It’s you! Where’s my baby?” she managed to say as he grabbed her shoulders.
“Your baby?” he thundered, shaking her.
His hands were punishingly strong. Pain shot through her bones. She could barely think.
“Stop it!” She tried to kick him. “Get off me!”
“It’s my kid! Don’t mess with me! Where’s my kid?”
Sunny went limp with horrified shock. “You don’t have her?” Was he lying? Had she heard wrong? Confusion and dread turned her stomach.
“You hid her, didn’t you?” he yelled. “When you heard I was getting out. You knew I’d come after her—and you!”
He shoved her away and lifted his hand as if to hit her.
Sunny cringed and recoiled.
“You ruined my life and took my kid. Well, you won’t get away with it.”
She held up her hands to ward off his blow. “Oh, my God, you really don’t have her? You didn’t have that woman call—?”
He paused. “What woman? Stop lying! I saw you put the diaper bag in your car.”
“No! Please,” she cried. “I swear I don’t know where she is.” Her chest cramped. She couldn’t draw a full breath.
Burt didn’t have her baby!
He shoved her toward the staircase. “Is she upstairs? You’d better start talking, and fast.”
If Burt didn’t have Emily…
Her breath hitched as fear and grief enveloped her. “She’s not here. I thought you’d taken her—or Brittany had.” She looked at the hulk who towered over her. “But you’re not the one who attacked me. You’re too big.”
Burt wrenched her arm and stared at her for an instant, then his lip curled in a snarl. “You’re a smart one, aren’t you? Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going through every inch of this house, and if that kid’s not here, you’re going to take me to her.”
“I can’t—” Sunny cried out as Burt twisted her arm until her shoulder burned with pain.
“Well you better, ’cause if you don’t…” His snarl turned into a leer. “Before we’re done tonight I’ll make you beg me to kill you.”
GRIFF PUSHED AWAY from the hotel room’s writing desk. He’d spent the past half hour studying his missing child database, looking for similarities between Sunny’s case and others, the way he did each time he heard of another missing child. He wanted to scroll down to the bottom of the file and look at the first case entered there. But that case wasn’t relevant to this one. He had a job to do, a missing child to find. This was no time for wallowing in grief and self-recrimination.
He rubbed his stubbled jaw. He was having trouble concentrating.
It had been a long