Vendetta (Otter Creek Book 10) Page 16
“Let’s talk about some safety rules.” Marcus spent a few minutes going over some basic things the kids could do to keep themselves safe. Then they discussed what to do if they were in danger.
By the time Caleb arrived, his elementary audience had dispersed to the study room or game room, more settled now that they had a plan of action to follow if they were afraid. He prayed that the plan would never have to be enacted.
Cade clapped him on the shoulder. “Tough session. You did a great job with them, Marcus.”
“I hope it was enough. They’re afraid, and I don’t blame them.”
“I can’t imagine these kids know any information worth a repeat of what happened to Van. Somewhere along the line, Van either saw something or someone he wasn’t supposed to see. You’ve done all you can to protect the little ones. The rest is up to the cops.”
But would it be enough, soon enough? Marcus wasn’t convinced. He worried over their safety.
His gaze sought Paige. More than anyone, she was a target and no one knew why. Was it connected to his past or something else? Marcus longed to spirit her out of town to keep her safe and knew she wouldn’t go. Forcing the issue would leave her grandmother alone and vulnerable. He wouldn’t do that to Jo or Paige. “Who is shadowing us this afternoon?” he asked Cade.
A quick smile. “You’re looking at the shadow.”
“Paige and I are going to see Seth Parks and Dalton Reagan, then heading to Burger Heaven before church.”
The operative’s eyes lit. “I love their burgers.”
He chuckled. “Me, too.” He reached Paige’s side as the last of the teen girls left to join her friends. “Ready to go?”
“As soon as I get my laptop and purse.”
Cade met them at Marcus’s truck. He was walking around the vehicle with a small, plastic device in his hand.
“What’s that?” Paige asked.
“Checks for tracking devices and bugs.” Cade turned the gadget around so Paige could see the display screen and demonstrated how it worked.
“The lights are green.”
“Green is good. Means the truck is clean.”
She turned, looked at Marcus. “You need one of those.”
Hadn’t been necessary before now, but she was right. With the price on his head doubling, he couldn’t afford to take chances any more. “I’ll talk to Zane about it.”
Minutes later, he parked in front of the Parks home. The flashy red Camaro the teenager usually drove sat in the driveway. “Looks like he’s home. I hope he’ll talk to us.”
Marcus rounded the front of the truck and opened Paige’s door. On the porch of the Georgian house, he rang the doorbell.
Seth’s eyes widened when he saw them. “Pastor Marcus, Paige. What are you doing here?”
“May we come in for a few minutes?” Marcus asked.
The teenager hesitated. “What’s this about?”
“We won’t take long,” Paige said. “I’m sure you have homework to finish.”
“More than I want,” he muttered as he opened the door wider.
Marcus and Paige sat on the brown leather loveseat while Seth took the recliner. “What happened to your hand?” Marcus asked, indicating the large white bandage covering his skin.
The kid swallowed hard, dropped his gaze. “Scratched it.”
“Big bandage for a scratch.” He wondered what Nick made of the injury because Marcus wasn’t buying Seth’s explanation.
“What do you want? I have to finish my homework before church.”
“Geometry?”
A grimace. “Among other things including English.”
“You don’t like English?” Paige asked.
“I hate to read.”
“Go see Del at Otter Creek Books. She’ll find you something fun to read.” Marcus had asked her help in finding books to entice a youngster struggling to read. The right book made a huge difference.
Seth shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Seth, did you hear what happened to Dalton?”
Fear lit his gaze. “Yeah. Is he okay?”
“We know you were with him that night.”
“I didn’t hurt him.”
“No one blames you. Did you see anything?”
“Like what?”
“A person hanging around the area.”
Seth started shaking his head before Marcus finished his statement. “I don’t know anything. You need to go. I got stuff to do.”
“The man who beat up Dalton is probably the same one who attacked Paige at the community center. He’s dangerous, Seth. You don’t want to mess with him.”
The teenager’s gaze darted to the finger marks on Paige’s throat. “Maybe he didn’t mean to hurt her.”
Odd thing to say. Marcus narrowed his eyes. “He tried to shoot her last night. He missed.” Not for lack of effort.
“What happened?”
“We went for a walk. Someone shot at us, then chased us to finish the job.”
“It might be an accident.” Seth sounded panicked.
“His shot barely missed us. I don’t think this was an accident. You need to tell us what’s going on.”
“How should I know?”
“Every time we ask you a direct question about these incidents, you lie.”
“I can’t. My dad will be home soon.”
“Are you worried your father will find out about the tutoring or that you’re involved with the attacks?” A shot in the dark, but maybe the kid knew more than he admitted.
Seth covered the bandage with his other hand.
Ah. Marcus leaned toward the teenager. “What’s really wrong with your hand?”
Silence.
“If Detective Santana looks under your bandage, he’ll find a burn, won’t he?”
“What’s going on?” James Parks strode into the living room, his expression dark. “Why are you in my house, Lang?”
“We buried Seth’s friend today.”
“As you can see, he’s fine. Why single him out?”
“We’re talking to the kids who frequent the center. Van’s death hit everyone hard.”
“If you say so. The kid was nothing but trouble.”
“Dad!” Seth protested. “He wasn’t like that.”
“Go to your room. We’ll talk later.”
The teen flinched, glanced at Marcus.
“If you want to talk, call me,” he said. What more could he do? He didn’t want to cause Seth trouble with his father.
He nodded, slid a quick glance at his glowering father, and hurried from the room.
“Next time you want to talk to my son, you go through me first.”
“Do his teachers have to talk to you first?” Marcus asked, his tone mild.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“He’s sixteen. He knows how to speak up when he doesn’t want to talk.” He’d delayed answering questions for several minutes.
“He’s a stupid kid who doesn’t know better than to open his mouth when someone wants to pin something on him.”
Marcus frowned. “I didn’t accuse him of anything. What happened to his hand, Parks?”
A snort. “The kid’s accident prone. Time for you to go, Lang. Some of us actually work for a living.”
Cheeks burning, he helped Paige to her feet. On the porch, he released her hand and nudged her toward the truck. When she was out of ear shot, Marcus turned back to Parks. “Don’t corner or scare Paige again,” he warned softly.
A sneer from Parks. “Or what?”
“You’ll deal with me.”
“I’m not afraid of you.”
“That’s your second mistake. The first was bullying the woman I care about. Stay away from her, Parks.”
“We have more influence in this town than you can possibly imagine. That means your job isn’t secure, Preacher. All it takes is a few words in the right ear, and your days at Cornerstone are over.” He jabbed a finger in Marcus’s chest.
He
grabbed Parks’ hand and twisted. When the man gasped, his face losing all color, Marcus said, “Paige means more than my job.” With a final twist, he released Parks and stepped back, ready for retaliation. Instead, Parks spun around and slammed the door.
Marcus slid behind the wheel and cranked the engine, feeling sorry for the man’s family. From watching the interaction between Seth and his father, it appeared Parks bullied them as well as everyone else.
“What was that about?” Paige asked.
“I warned him not to corner you again.”
Her jaw dropped. “Marcus.”
“I care about you, Paige. I won’t allow him or anyone else to hurt you.”
“He’ll cause trouble. I don’t want rumors about you floating around town.”
“The grapevine is already buzzing.” About more than she knew.
“What about?”
“Rumor says we’re living together.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Her head whipped his direction. “Wait. That’s what Mayor Parks confronted you with, didn’t he? Marcus, you should go back to the parsonage. The mayor will stir up trouble at church. Gram and I will be fine with Mason at the house.”
“I’m not leaving you and Jo.”
“But he’ll go to the deacon board and make accusations.” She sounded close to tears. “They might ask you to resign.”
He kissed the back of her hand. “I told the deacons before I moved into the B & B. They understood I was concerned about your safety and gave their approval as long as Mase and Nicole stayed, too.”
“What about the congregation? Some will believe the worst.”
“Most won’t.”
“I don’t want to hurt your ministry.”
“Baby, everything will be fine.”
“And if it’s not?”
“I’ll handle it. The one thing I can’t handle is leaving you and your grandmother to fend for yourselves.”
“Promise you’ll tell me if staying with us becomes a serious problem. We’ll work out a different arrangement.”
“You have my word.”
By the time he parked in front of the Reagan house, Paige was no longer teetering on the edge of tears. A moment after he rang the bell, Jacob and Matt, Dalton’s younger brothers, opened the door.
“Pastor Marcus.” Jacob grinned, relief in his eyes.
“Hi, Jacob, Matt. We need to see Dalton.”
The boys looked at each other, then back to Marcus and Paige. “We don’t know where he is,” Matt said.
Marcus stilled. “When does he usually get home from school?”
“Before us. We called his cell phone, but he doesn’t answer.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
An invisible band tightened around Marcus’s chest. “If you give me his number, I can talk to him later.”
“Sure.” Jacob rattled off the number.
“When will your mom finish work?” Paige asked.
“After 10:00,” Matt said. “She’s working a double plus cleaning tonight.”
Marcus grimaced. Too long for these boys to be by themselves. Someone needed to stay with the kids. He also didn’t want to alarm their mother in case Dalton was in a dead cell zone. The explanation rang hollow. None of his calls had dropped in Otter Creek. “Is it all right if Paige goes inside with you for a few minutes? I need to call a friend.”
Matt tugged her inside. “We have a new video game. Want to see?”
“Have you had a snack since you’ve been home from school?”
Head shakes. “We were waiting for Dalton. We always eat a snack together.”
“Are you hungry?”
“Yeah!”
“Let’s take care of that first. Then we’ll talk about your homework.” As Paige pushed the door almost closed, she motioned for Marcus to go on.
To avoid being overhead by the boys, he left the porch as he grabbed his cell phone. When the call was answered, he said, “Dalton Reagan is missing. He was supposed to be home two hours ago. His brothers have been calling his cell, and he’s not picking up.”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” Nick Santana said, voice grim.
Rather than wait for the detective to set the wheels in motion through legal channels, Marcus called Zane.
“What do you need?” was the tech guru’s greeting.
“To ping a cell phone. A fourteen-year-old boy hasn’t been heard from in two hours. His brothers called, but he’s not picking up.”
“Is he avoiding his siblings?”
“He’s a responsible kid, Z. The father’s not in the picture, and the boys pitch in to help their mom who works two, sometimes three jobs to make ends meet. Dalton’s brothers are too young to be alone for long. He was in the community center minutes before Paige’s attack, and he’s the one we rescued in the woods.”
“Give me the number.” When Marcus recited the number, Zane said, “Hold.”
While he waited, he scanned the neighborhood. It looked like a great place to raise kids. He’d like to live in an area like this one day, raise a family of his own.
He frowned. Did Paige want a family? Although she hadn’t mentioned having kids, she was great with them. If he and Paige could stop dodging bullets or running for their lives, he would ask.
“I’m sending the location of the cell to your email,” Zane said. “Take someone who doesn’t mind pulling a trigger. Don’t go on your own.”
“Nick Santana should be here soon.”
“He’s good. Blackhawk is better. Just because I pinpointed Dalton’s cell signal doesn’t mean the kid is with his phone. You might need a tracker.”
“Thanks, Z. I owe you.”
“Not even close, Marcus. You have a lot more favor cards to redeem. Let me know if you need anything else.”
As Marcus ended the call, Nick parked in the Reagan driveway.
“Anything new?” Nick asked as he climbed the porch stairs.
“I asked Zane to ping Dalton’s cell. He sent the coordinates to my email.”
“Pull it up.”
The email showed the coordinates and a map with the cell phone’s location marked by a red dot.
“What’s Dalton doing there?” Nick snapped. “I told him not to go back.”
Good question. “Let’s find out. Zane suggested we take Ethan.”
Nick called Ethan and asked the police chief to meet them at the entrance to the Croft driveway.
“Let me tell Paige where we’re going.” Marcus looked for Cade, saw him parked two houses down. He motioned to him.
Seconds later, the operative jogged up to the porch. “What’s up?”
“Dalton’s missing. I asked Zane to ping his phone. I’m going with Nick and Ethan to check it out. I need you to watch over Paige and the Reagan boys.”
“I’ll take care of them. Be careful, man.”
He nodded and walked into the house with Cade on his heels. He found Paige in the kitchen, sitting with the boys as they inhaled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and milk. She glanced up, unspoken questions in her eyes.
“I need to leave. Cade’s going to stay with you.”
“Hi, Cade,” Matt said.
“What’s going on, buddy?”
“We’re eating a snack before we have to work on dumb old homework.”
The operative grinned. “I’m not fond of homework, either. I like peanut butter sandwiches, though.”
Jacob scrambled to his feet. “Want a sandwich? I make good ones.”
“Sounds great. Thanks, Jacob.”
Paige walked to Marcus’s side as the boys worked together to make Cade’s snack. “What did you find out?” she asked, voice soft.
“Zane gave me the location of Dalton’s phone. Nick and I will check it out with Ethan.”
“Come back to me unharmed, love.”
He brushed her lips with his, hoped she meant the sweet name she’d called him. “If there’s a problem, do exactly as Cade tells you to.”
“I will. P
lease, don’t worry about me. Just be careful.”
He wanted to be the one by her side, but he needed to help Dalton. He looked up to find Cade’s gaze on him. Without saying a word, the other man gave a short nod, conveying a silent promise to protect Paige no matter what it took.
Another soft kiss, and he returned to the porch and Nick. “I’m ready.”
“Ride with me.”
He hesitated. “I have to watch the time, Nick. Church night.”
“I’ll either bring you back or have another officer take you.”
With a nod, he climbed into the passenger seat of the SUV, buckling in as Nick sped away from the Reagan house. “Am I raising an alarm for nothing?”
Nick flicked him a glance and turned on his blue-and-white lights without the siren. “He’s a minor who was attacked by a man we suspect attempted to murder your woman. You’re not overreacting.”
“I hoped you’d tell me I was wrong.”
“I’d rather waste my time hunting for a kid who left his phone on silent than assume he was fine and be wrong.”
Minutes later, Nick turned into the long drive of the Croft place. He parked beside Ethan’s vehicle.
“Coordinates?” Ethan said.
Marcus showed him the email from Zane along the with map.
The police chief keyed the coordinates into his cell phone, studied the map he’d pulled up a moment. He grabbed a heavy-duty flashlight from his vehicle and walked toward the woods. “Stay behind Nick, Marcus. Walk in my steps. Do not veer off on your own. I don’t want to waste time rescuing my pastor.”
“Yes, sir.” He’d never live it down if Ethan had to extract him from the woods because of his own stupidity. Not only that, the police chief would tear strips off his hide, not something he ever wanted to experience. Marcus had listened sympathetically as several officers in his congregation talked about the verbal reprimands from their commander-in-chief.
Ethan’s powerful flashlight swept the ground in front of him. When they’d traveled a quarter mile from the driveway, he held up his fist. “Wait.” The police chief walked ahead with silent steps further. A moment later, he called out. “Nick, Marcus.”
Marcus and the detective pushed through shrubs into a small clearing. Ethan knelt on the ground next to the prone form of Dalton Reagan.