His son.

He rolled the weight of those two words around in his mind, feeling them, savoring them. He’d actually felt like a father tonight. Or at least, the way he imagined being a father would feel.

And he had Melanie to thank.

In Cord’s entire life, no one had believed he was worth a damn. No one except Mel. And here she was believing again, after all that had happened, after all he’d done.

He wanted to lie down on the bed next to her and let the sway of the boat beneath them lull him into a dreamworld from which he never had to wake.

Too bad that wasn’t possible.

Vow to Protect
Ann Voss Peterson

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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To John, who holds my hand

while we watch our sons sleep.

And special thanks to the Middleton Police Department

for filling my notebook with answers

to my many questions.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ever since she was a little girl making her own books out of construction paper, Ann Voss Peterson wanted to write. So when it came time to choose a major at the University of Wisconsin, creative writing was her only choice. Of course, writing wasn’t a practical choice—one needs to earn a living. So Ann found jobs ranging from proofreading legal transcripts, to working with quarter horses, to washing windows. But no matter how she earned her paycheck, she continued to write the type of stories that captured her heart and imagination—romantic suspense. Ann lives near Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband, her two young sons, her border collie and her quarter horse mare. Ann loves to hear from readers. E-mail her at ann@annvosspeterson.com or visit her Web site at annvosspeterson.com.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Cordell “Cord” Turner—An ex-convict, Cord doesn’t believe he has much to offer. But when his father, serial killer Dryden Kane, threatens the woman he loved and lost as a teen, Cord can’t help making a vow to protect her…and the son he never knew he had.

Melanie Frist—When Cord was imprisoned for killing another teen in a gang fight, Melanie cut off all contact, even when she learned she was pregnant with his child. Now she will do anything to protect her son, from Dryden Kane…and from following in Cord’s footsteps.

Dryden Kane—When a horrible accident sets the notorious serial killer free, he takes stock of what is most important. And to him, the most important thing in the world is family. Right up there with manipulation, domination and control.

Ethan Frist—Like any nine-year-old boy, Ethan needs a dad.

Reporter Aidan Powell—He seems to have a source on the inside. Who is it?

Detective Reed McCaskey—He is determined to bring Dryden Kane down. Once and for all.

Detective Nikki Valducci—As ambitious as she is beautiful, she is determined to build her career on the capture of Dryden Kane.

Detective Stan Perreth—Someone is in the disagreeable detective’s sights. Dryden Kane? Or Reed McCaskey?

Officer Herns—He believes people who mess with serial killers deserve what they get.

Meredith Unger—The ace attorney wanted Kane as a client to share in his notoriety. With his escape, is the exposure getting too hot?

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Epilogue

Chapter One

Corrections Officer Dale Swiggum would have to tell his grandkids about this one.

Of course, it might help to actually have kids. Hell, it might help to have a regular girlfriend. But with this story in his arsenal, he was sure to impress that sexy little brunette who manned the checkout at the Piggly Wiggly.

He was going to be transferring Dryden Kane down to the county lockup to stand trial.

He leaned back in the driver’s seat and smiled. When he’d been notified of the transport just an hour ago, he knew the convict he was hauling had to be important. Most convicts were transported by bus in broad daylight when they had a court date. When an assignment came down in the middle of the night, it had to be something big. But Dryden Kane? The most notorious Wisconsin serial killer since Jeffrey Dahmer? That was bigger than even Dale could dream.

He peered out the bug-spattered windshield of the state van as the giant steel door slid open and four correctional officers led Kane into the underground garage. The killer looked small in his baggy, dayglow-orange jumpsuit. He did the prisoner shuffle, his legs shackled, hands cuffed and locked to a waist chain.

If Dale met him walking down the street, he’d never guess this average-size, good-looking guy with silver hair was a monster who had killed at least a dozen women. Hunted them like deer. And spread them out for the world to find.

Dale would have a story to tell, all right. He wouldn’t have to pretend he was “about something” as the cons liked to say. He was about something.

The correctional officers led the shackled killer into the back of the van. After securing Kane to the bench, two officers climbed into the cage with him. The third climbed up front with Dale, and the fourth joined the chase car.

Dale glanced at the officer beside him. Jerry Brunner was a brute with biceps and a bad attitude almost as big as a con’s. He gripped his shotgun like he meant to use it. He likely did.

Good thing Jerry was on Dale’s side.

The order to move out came over the radio. Excitement trilled through Dale like he was a boy dumping candy from his stocking on Christmas morning. He shifted the van into gear and fell in behind the unmarked car leading the low-key parade. The overhead door rose in front of them, and the three-vehicle caravan rolled out into the humid Wisconsin night.

The tires hummed along the highway, the sound buzzing in Dale’s ears like the adrenaline buzzing in his veins. The county jail and courthouse was only ten minutes away from the Banesbridge Prison, not much of a drive, but he’d soak up the feeling while it lasted. He glanced at Jerry. “How do you think we got picked for this?”

Jerry shrugged. The behemoth never had much to say. He probably had the IQ of that shotgun he was carrying.

The truck started over a low bridge crossing the Wisconsin River. The sound of the tires echoed hollow over the water below. It had been a rainy June, especially up north, and the river swelled high on its banks, the water deep and black as a hole.

Across the narrow span, a pickup’s headlights shone high and bright.

Dale squinted and averted his eyes to the white line on the outer edge of the bridge.

“Damn drunk,” Jerry said.

The lights bucked and swerved. His radio crackled to life as the lead car reported the drunk to the county sheriff.

The truck grew closer. It swerved again. Suddenly the glare headed right for the lead car.

Dale stomped the brake. The van skidded.

Ahead, a screech and sickening crunch shook the air.

The cage van veered sideways, rushing up on the wreck in front of them. Dale stomped the brake. The van was too heavy and moving too fast. He wasn’t going to be able to stop.

They hit with a wallop. The back of the van skidded around, through the guardrail. Another slam hit from behind, the chase car. The van hurtled over the edge of the bridge.

They hit the black water with a smack. The impact hurled Dale against his seat belt, whipping his neck back and then forward. His forehead slammed the steering wheel.

Pain split his skull. Fog fluttered around him. He struggled to clear his mind, to focus. Voices erupted from the cage. Next to him, Jerry slumped in his seat, something dark glistening on the side of his head. Light from the shore fractured and prismed through the shattered passenger window.

Dale struggled to clear his vision. He forced his mind to focus. They needed help. The radio. He grabbed the radio.

Screams erupted from the cage in the back of the van. “Open the cage! Open the damn cage or we’re all going to drown!”

More shouting. The jangle of keys. A gunshot split the air. Then another.

Dale ducked in his seat. He grabbed for the rifle clutched in Jerry’s still hands. His head ached so hard, he could hardly cut through the pain to think.

Had one of the C.O.s shot Kane? Or was Kane the one with the gun?

The van felt like it was moving. Drifting. Riding the river. Dale looked up, trying to get a view of the cage in the rearview mirror. The bridge abutment loomed outside the windshield. Concrete scraped along steel. Black water leaked into the van, covering his shoes, inching to his knees. The van’s nose dipped low.

They were going down.

He tried to keep the panic from breaking over him like the cold sweat dampening his uniform. He couldn’t hear anything from the back. Not another shot. Not the jangle of shackles. Leading with the shotgun, he looked over the seat.

The back of the cage hung open. The dark shadow of a single man slumped on the floor. And judging from his size and the deep-blue color of his uniform, it wasn’t Kane.

The killer was gone.

Chapter Two

Cord Turner didn’t get invitations. Not to parties. Not to bank credit. Not to anything. Fine with him. He didn’t expect to be invited to anything. Hell, he probably wouldn’t go if he was. So when he plucked the square white envelope from his afternoon mail and pulled out an invitation to a wedding reception, he had damn good reason to be confused.

Questions buzzed in his mind and drowned out the music playing over his tinny kitchen radio. He stared at the thick white card in his hands, his blunt fingernails coarse and stained against the delicate white embossing. He didn’t know anyone who was getting married. Certainly not anyone who would invite him. Hell, he didn’t know anyone at all—at least not anyone worth knowing—and he’d like to keep it that way.

He opened the card.

Your presence is requested at a reception celebrating the recent marriages of Sylvie and Bryce Walker and Diana and Reed McCaskey. Black tie required.

He moved his eyes to the bottom of the card. There was no signature, no name identifying the party’s host, simply a single line.

“The father of the brides.”

Cord let the card fall from his hands. During his eight years in prison, Cord had only met a handful of men whose evil radiated in the air around them like heat from a blast furnace. And although he’d never met Dryden Kane, he’d known the killer was such a man the first time he’d seen a picture of Kane’s dead ice-blue eyes.

Ice-blue eyes Cord had inherited.

No doubt Cord’s half sisters Sylvie and Diana had nothing to do with planning this party. They would want even less to do with their father than they would want with Cord.

He picked up the card and thick, foiled envelope. He needed to get rid of the damn thing. Diana’s cop husband already suspected him of scheming with Kane based on nothing but the fact that the killer’s blood was flowing in his veins. One whiff of this invitation and Cord’s parole officer would give him a violation so fast he’d be back in the system before the evening news.

About to stuff the card into the envelope and crumple the whole thing into a ball, he noticed a slip of paper still tucked inside. He flipped the envelope upside down. The paper dropped to the counter. A severe black scrawl marred white vellum.

“Melanie Frist will be your date. I’ll give her a personal invitation.”

The name hit Cord like a kick to the gut. His pulse throbbed in his ears, overwhelming the radio commercials leading to the three-o’clock news.

How did Kane know about his past with Mel? And since the killer was in prison, what did he mean by a “personal invitation”?

Cord eyed his cordless phone lying among his other mail on the kitchen counter. She wouldn’t want to talk to him. She hadn’t visited him in jail, hadn’t attended his sentencing, hadn’t visited him in the more than eight years he’d spent behind bars. And he would bet she hadn’t tried to look him up in the two years since he’d been paroled. She wasn’t going to change her mind about seeing him now.

But did that matter in light of a threat from a serial killer?

He ran his gaze back over the scrawled note. He’d seen evil. He’d smelled it. He’d lived it. And one of the first things he’d learned in the joint was you never turned your back on it.

He picked up the telephone and punched in the four numbers before setting it back down. If Mel had caller ID, he doubted she would pick up. Not if she saw his name on the screen. He’d have to drive to her house. To face her.

Fishing his truck keys from his pocket, he tried to ignore the jittery feeling that seized him low in his stomach. He reached to switch off the radio. The urgent tone of the announcer’s voice stopped him cold.

“The Banes County Sheriff’s Department has issued a warning to all residents in southern Wisconsin after an accident early this morning claimed the lives of an unidentified man and four officers from the Banesbridge Correctional Facility and hospitalized one additional officer. The accident involved a convoy that was transporting incarcerated serial killer Dryden Kane from the prison to the Banes County jail to be arraigned on new charges stemming from the copycat-killer investigation. The sheriff’s office is dragging the Wisconsin River bed, but the serial killer’s body has not yet been found. If alive, Dryden Kane is considered armed and extremely…”

Cord didn’t wait for the rest. He raced for the door, his truck keys’ sharp edges digging into his palm.

WHEN MELANIE STEPPED out the door of her house shortly after arriving home, the main thing on her mind was retrieving the day’s collection of mail-order catalogs, credit card offers and bills from the box.

All thoughts of mail vanished the moment she saw Cord.

He slammed the door of a small gray pickup and strode up the sidewalk. He’d been a boy of eighteen when she’d last seen him. Now he was a man. The baby fat was gone from his face, replaced by sharp angles and hard planes. Tattoos covered thick, strong arms that strained the sleeves of his T-shirt. Powerful thighs filled out faded jeans.

A wave of heat washed over her, followed by panic. “Why are you here?”

He closed the gap between them. Swirling with light blue the color of a winter sky, his eyes drilled into her. Eyes that hadn’t changed. Not one bit. “We have to talk.”

Alarm writhed inside her. She couldn’t stand here and talk. What did he expect to chat about? How he’d nearly ruined her life? How he’d broken her heart? “No. No we don’t.”

“Mel, please. I know it’s a shock to see me. I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t have a damn good reason.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and forced herself to stand her ground. If only she could hop in her car, drive away and avoid this entire reunion. But she couldn’t. Ethan would be getting off the bus any minute.

Ethan.

Her mind stuttered.

This was worse than an uncomfortable reunion. Worse than reliving a broken heart and shattered dreams. Much worse. This was Ethan’s future in jeopardy.

She glanced down the street. A red convertible streaked down the pavement toward them, moving too fast in the residential neighborhood. A squatty white mail truck stopped at the opposite curb. No sign of a bus.

She had time.

She swung her focus back to Cord. If he was still anything like the boy she’d once loved, he wouldn’t leave until he’d said his piece. Her best bet would be to hear him out then cut him off. “Why are you here?”

He cleared his throat as if preparing to launch into a rehearsed speech. “You have to get out of here.”

She didn’t know what she’d expected him to say, but it wasn’t this. “Why?”

“A man is after you. A bad man. You understand what I’m saying?”

She didn’t have a clue. “Who’s after me?”

“Dryden Kane.”

She couldn’t have heard him right. “The serial killer?”

“He escaped this morning.”

“I heard.” In the world of serial killers, Dryden Kane was as infamous in Wisconsin history as Dahmer and Gein. But while Kane was a very dangerous man, especially to women, there were thousands of women in southern Wisconsin. “Why do you think he’s after me?”

“Because he told me.”

Now he was really freaking her out. “What are you up to, Cord? Why are you saying this?”

He raked a hand across short sandy-brown hair. “I don’t know how the hell to explain. I can still hardly believe it myself.”

She fought the urge to grab him, to shake him. “Just say it.”

“Dryden Kane is my father.”

“Your father?” She let her arms fall limp to her sides. It couldn’t be true. Could it? “You always told me you didn’t know who your father was.”

“I didn’t. Not until about two months ago.”

“And it’s Dryden Kane? You’re sure?”

“Have you seen a picture of Kane recently? I look just like him.”

“That doesn’t mean—”

“Yes, it does. I had a DNA test done after I found out.”

She felt sick to her stomach.

“You have to come with me. Kane might be on his way right now. Understand what I’m saying?”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Mel, you have to.”

“I want you off my property.”

“You’re not listening.”

“I’ve heard enough.” She needed Cord gone. Right now.

“You have to get out of here.”

She intended to. Just not with him. When Ethan got home, she’d whisk her son off to a safe place and hold him tight to her heart. Whether Ethan thought he was too old for hugs or not.

“Kane is dangerous.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” Her stomach balled into a hard knot. She’d struggled so hard. To lift herself out of the violent world she’d grown up in. To give Ethan a real future. And now this. “How dare you bring this stuff back into my life? How dare you bring Dryden Kane down on my head?”

“I’m sorry, Mel. I’m so sorry. But right now you have to get out of here. You have to come with me.” He reached out, trying to grasp her arm.

She yanked it away. “If you don’t leave, I’m calling the police.”

“Call them.”

“What?”

“Call the cops. Go with them. I don’t care. You just have to get out of here before Kane shows up.”

“Okay. I’ll call them. Now go.”

“I’ll stay until they get here.”

“Not necessary.” She gave the traffic a quick glance. Something caught her eye beyond the building afternoon glut of panel vans and sports cars. A flash of yellow turning off a side street.

“He might be watching us right now.”

“I don’t want your help. You’ll only make things worse.”

“Listen, I’ve seen what guys like this can do, what they enjoy doing. It ain’t nothing nice.”

“Leave me alone.”

“I’m not leaving until I know you’ll be safe.”

She glanced down the street again. Behind a blue minivan and a white sedan, the bright yellow school bus barreled toward them.

“What are you looking for?”

A thick ache lodged in her throat. “Nothing. Nothing at all.” The school bus rumbled up the street, desperation drilling deeper into her bones the closer it came.

Chapter Three

Lines dug into Mel’s smooth forehead as the school bus’s brakes squealed to a stop at the bottom of her driveway.

Cord had expected her to be upset to see him. He’d expected her to be scared. He hadn’t expected her to be more nervous about a damn yellow bus than she was about Dryden Kane.

The red stop sign swung out from the driver’s side, and the door opened. A skinny boy shouldered a backpack far too big for him and clomped down the bus steps. He hopped onto the pavement and started up the drive’s slope. Looking up at Melanie, he offered her a little smile, a playful light twinkling in his ice-blue eyes.

Eyes identical to Cord’s.

Identical to Dryden Kane’s.

Cord jerked back as if he’d been kicked in the grill. He fought to regain breath, to regain thought. “How old is he?”

Melanie tensed beside him, but she didn’t answer.

“How old is he, Mel?”

“Ten.”

Ten years old. He didn’t have to ask if the boy was his son. He knew. Down to the marrow of his bones, he knew.

“I found out the day you killed Snake.”

And she hadn’t told him. She hadn’t come to see him in jail. She hadn’t come to his trial. She hadn’t even answered his phone calls.

The boy ambled up the driveway toward them. Lanky and skinny, he moved as if he was growing too fast for his coordination to catch up. Eight more years, and he’d be eighteen. Legally a man. The age Cord was when the kid had been conceived. When Cord had been thrown in prison.

He tried to speak, to move, to do anything that didn’t involve standing and staring, but he came up empty.

“I had to get him away from the neighborhood. I didn’t want him to live that life, to spend his Sundays in a prison visiting room like I did. I didn’t want him to follow that path. I—”

He held up a hand to cut her off. She didn’t have to explain. “You were right not to tell me. You were right to give him a better life.” The life they’d planned together before he was arrested. The life Melanie had dreamed for them both.

Her gaze burned hot on the side of his face. “Don’t say anything. Please. He doesn’t know you’re his father. I told him his father died.”

Cord had died in prison. He’d died every day since he’d killed Snake. “He won’t learn it from me.”

The boy crested the drive and started up the walk. The afternoon sun slanted down on his face and illuminated the dusting of freckles sprinkling the bridge of his nose, almost invisible under the remnants of his summer tan. His sandy-brown hair fell low on his forehead, straight as straw, refusing to cooperate with its new back-to-school cut. And though not large, his ears perked out from the sides of his head as if on alert.

It was like staring at a photo of himself as a child.

Numbness gave way to heat swirling in his head and burning down the back of his neck. An empty feeling hollowed out under his rib cage.

“Hey, Mom.” The kid gave Melanie another small smile, as if the two of them shared a funny secret, a special joke. Then he looked at Cord, focusing on the tattoos ringing Cord’s biceps and stretching down his arms. Barbed wire. A headless snake. The writhing forms of dragons. The lines thick and chunky, more symbols than art.

What was the kid seeing? Did he notice the resemblance? The eyes they shared? The rectangular chin? Or was he just seeing the ex-con? The criminal? The man with no future?

“Ethan, this is Cord.”

Ethan. His son was named Ethan.

The boy nodded. “Hi.”

Cord willed his voice to function. “Hi.”

“Cord was just leaving. And so are we.”

He managed to tear his eyes away from Ethan and direct them to Mel. The void in his gut seemed to widen. “I’ll follow you to the police station. Make sure you get there safely.”

She looked away. “Do what you want.”

“You’re a cop?” Ethan’s eyebrows dipped low over his eyes.

“No.”

“He’s someone I knew a long time ago. That’s all.”

Cord nodded. That was all. He’d killed the rest as surely as he’d killed Snake. As he’d killed his own future.

Tires screeched, the sound echoing from the street.

Cord spun around just as a police cruiser whipped into the driveway. Three cars followed. Jolting to angled stops, the cops hunkered down behind the open driver’s doors, guns drawn.

“Police!” a voice barked, deep and threatening. “Hands up! As high as you can reach! Now!”

Cord’s mouth went dry. He raised his hands, stretching as high as he could. The familiar mix of adrenaline and humiliation tightened his throat and coated his tongue.

Movement shifted and rustled from around the house and yard. Cops fanned out from their cars, semiautos and rifles leveled on him, Kevlar vests dark and oppressive in the early-September heat.

A cop approached Melanie and Ethan. In less than a second, he whisked them away from Cord and out of the line of fire.

At least they wouldn’t be hurt. Cord could focus on that.

“Keep your hands above your head and slowly turn around.”

Hands high, Cord pivoted. He turned slowly, allowing them to see he had no bulges of weapons in the waistband of his jeans, no reason to believe he was dangerous. As much as he wanted to ask why they were doing this, he kept his mouth shut. He knew how cops thought. He was an ex-con. He had nothing coming. Not even an explanation. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to egg them on by demanding one.

“Keep turning.”

He turned another 180, until he was facing back toward Melanie.

She crossed her arms around Ethan’s chest and held him tight, protecting him. The boy watched with wide eyes, as if he’d never seen a scene quite like this. No doubt he never had. It sure as hell wasn’t a scene from his world.

It was a scene from Cord’s.

“Put your hands on the top of your head,” the cop ordered.

Cord did as he was told, lacing his fingers together the way he’d been taught.

“Down on your knees. Take it slow.”

Cord lowered himself. One knee and then the other hit the pavement. He didn’t have to wonder how Ethan saw him now. He just hoped it wouldn’t take the kid long to forget him.

“Down on your belly. Arms away from your body. Palms facing up. Cross your ankles.”

Cord had done this maneuver enough while in prison to perform it in his sleep. He flattened himself to the ground and crossed his legs. Cheek pressed against the hot driveway, he moved his arms wide, palms up.

Boots scuffed the concrete around him. A hand grabbed his arm and bent it behind his back. A steel handcuff closed around his wrist. The cop grabbed his other arm, cuffing it to the first. The inflexible bands of steel bit into his wrists, bruising his flesh. Hands patted his sides and legs. Once satisfied he was clean, the cop rolled him to his side.

“Rise to your knees.”

Cord struggled into a kneeling position at the cop’s feet.

“Cross your ankles.”

Cord did what he was told. Why didn’t they take Melanie and Ethan away? Why didn’t they take them into the house where they didn’t have to watch, where the fact of what he was wasn’t in their faces? “What is this about?”

“Shut up.”

He should have known better than to ask. He had nothing coming. The old prison saying was just as true on this side of the razor wire.

A dark green sedan crept up the drive and stopped behind the cruisers. The door opened and a dark-haired detective climbed out.

The last time Cord had seen Reed McCaskey, the cop had been marrying Cord’s half sister Diana on the shores of Lake Mendota. Cord hadn’t been invited, not to the wedding and not to the small reception held on a boat afterward, but he’d stood in the shadow of the park shelter anyway and watched, though to this day, he didn’t really understand why.

McCaskey made his way through the parked cruisers and stopped behind the cop who’d been shouting the orders. “This isn’t Kane.”

The cop gave him a frown. “You sure?”

“Yes. But bring him to the downtown district office. We need to have a talk with him anyway.”

The patrol cop nodded. “Parole violation?”

“Possibly. And helping his father escape.”

Melanie didn’t move. In her embrace, Ethan scuffed the rubber sole of his shoe against the pavement. As if sensing Cord’s gaze, the boy raised his eyes.

Then looked away.

MELANIE HELD ON to Ethan’s shoulders, a tremor seizing her and questions spinning through her mind. Just an hour ago she’d had her life just the way she’d wanted. A great job at the lab. A secure home for her son. A sane and safe neighborhood in which he could grow up and thrive.

And then Cord had walked back into her life and brought all her worst nightmares with him.

She looked down at the top of her son’s head. Ethan had no idea Cord was his father, but that didn’t prevent him from watching Cord’s arrest with wide eyes, soaking in every detail. She had to get him out of here. She’d spent her life making sure he didn’t have to witness this kind of thing, that he didn’t have to grow up in the world she did. She turned to the police officer who had shunted them out of the line of fire.

“Can I take my son inside?”

“In just a moment, ma’am. Detective McCaskey will want to talk to you first.” He nodded his head in the direction of a tall, dark-haired man wearing a police department polo shirt.

The detective wound his way through officers and cars and stopped in front of her. “Do you know this man?”

“Yes. I mean, I did. A long time ago.”

“Was he threatening you?”

“No, of course not.”

“You can answer honestly. We can keep you safe from him.”

“No, he wasn’t threatening. He was warning me.”

“Warning you? About what?”

She glanced down at Ethan. “Can we talk about this another time?”

The detective followed her gaze. His eyes narrowed on Ethan. Then, as almost a reflex, he glanced back at Cord. “I think I understand.”

A tremor lodged in Melanie’s chest. She should have known he’d figure it out. Ethan looked so much like Cord, it was frightening. The resemblance had stolen her breath on more than one occasion. And now, seeing the two of them together, McCaskey would have to be blind not to see that they were father and son.

And that that fact meant Ethan was Dryden Kane’s grandson.

The thought squeezed the breath from her lungs. She couldn’t accept that Ethan shared that monster’s blood. She couldn’t even start to wrap her mind around it. She could only pray the detective wouldn’t comment. “We were just leaving when the police arrived.”

“Why don’t you pack some things and we’ll see what we can do as far as protection is concerned? We can talk more after you’re settled.”

She nodded. She could do that. She would pack some of their things and take Ethan away.

She forced her feet to move up the sidewalk and steps to the front door of the house. She couldn’t stop shuddering. Gritting her teeth, she opened the storm door and held it wide for Ethan and the detective, trying not to look back as the officers escorted Cord into the backseat of one of the police cars.

A sob thickened deep in her throat, but she refused to let it loose. She’d been through bad things in her life, and she’d get through this, too. For Ethan she could get through anything.

Leaving Reed McCaskey in the great room, she steered Ethan through the hall and into his bedroom. She pulled a duffel bag out of his closet and spread it open on his bed. “Pick out some clothes, games and books and stuff, too. Okay?”

“How long are we going to be gone?”

“I don’t know, sweetheart. A few days. It shouldn’t be any more than that.” At least she hoped not. “What do you say we go to a place with a pool? Just you and me? It will be fun. Like a vacation.”

“What about school?”

Ethan always pretended he didn’t care about school. But she’d always suspected he enjoyed seeing his friends and working on school projects more than he let on. “Tomorrow is Friday. You’ll only miss a day. You’ll be back in school next week.”

“And your work?”

She couldn’t imagine her supervisor at the lab would be thrilled with the short notice, but it couldn’t be helped. “I could use a day off with my favorite guy.” She slipped an arm around him and squeezed him close, bending down to kiss him on the forehead.

“Mo-om.” He rolled his eyes.

Her lips relaxed into a smile. That was the Ethan she knew. “Make sure you pack your swimming suit.”

“Can we stay up in the Dells? At one of the water parks?”

“Maybe.” At least Ethan was focusing on the bright side. She only wished she could do the same. But dread gathered inside her like clouds of an approaching thunderstorm.

A storm she couldn’t escape.

CORD LEANED BACK in the hard chair in the interrogation room and glanced up at the camera positioned in the corner. It stared down at him, its lens an accusing eye waiting to capture his confession. The only problem was he had nothing to confess.

The only thing drumming through his mind right now was concern for Melanie and thoughts of the son he never knew he had.

The son he would never know.

The door to the interrogation room burst open, and a sour-looking cop with jowls that drooped like laundry hung to dry stepped into the room. He closed the door behind him and ran his gaze over the tats on Cord’s arms. His upper lip curled in disgust.

Cord was used to the contempt of cops. Long before he’d gone to prison, he’d been the wrong kind of kid, not a hardcore gang banger but close enough. At least in most cops’ eyes. He returned the cop’s glare with a Murder One stare of his own.

The cop was the first to break the silence. “Time to talk, dawg.”

Cord hadn’t been called dawg since he was behind bars. A memory this cop obviously wanted him to relive. “And you are?”

“Detective Stan Perreth.” He glanced down at his watch. “You have five minutes to come clean, or I’m calling your parole officer. I hear your friends are throwing a par-tay in your cell and everyone’s coming. You understand what I’m saying?”

This guy was a riot. A regular prison jargon stand-up show, albeit a little cleaner than the language flying around the joint. “How about you call my lawyer first?”

“Why? You got something to hide?” Perreth plunked into a chair and leaned close. Table shoved to the side of the room, there was nothing between him and the cop. The odor of cigarette smoke emanating from Perreth’s clothing and breath was enough to make Cord crave a rollie of his own, though he’d kicked the habit when he’d been paroled. “It’s in your best interest to talk,” Perreth said.

Right. “I don’t see how it’s in my best interest to have anything to do with you.”

“You should want to talk to me, punk. I can see to it that Melanie Frist and her boy are safe. Or should I say, your boy?”

Cord’s gut clenched. He wasn’t surprised Perreth noticed the resemblance. One look and anyone could guess Ethan was his son. But Cord didn’t like the implication that Mel and Ethan’s safety hinged on him confessing to something he didn’t know about and didn’t do. “Is that some kind of threat?”

“I’m just saying if you help me, I’ll be more inclined to help you. That’s how the world works.”

That might be true. But it still didn’t tell Cord what he was supposed to be confessing to in order to earn Perreth’s favors.

A sharp knock sounded, and the door opened.

Cord never thought he’d be happy to see his brother-in-law. He sure as hell didn’t have a stash of good feelings for Reed McCaskey, but after chatting with Perreth, McCaskey seemed like a long-lost friend. At least he didn’t think McCaskey would resort to using Mel and Ethan to get what he wanted.

A female detective with the face of a supermodel and the edgy stare of a barracuda stepped into the room behind McCaskey. Cord had met her before, on the same day McCaskey and Diana had dropped the news that Kane was his father.

She stood behind McCaskey, letting him take the lead. But she was no shrinking violet. She had more in common with a sleek and beautiful Doberman pinscher with a keen eye for weakness and no qualms about attacking.

McCaskey nodded to Perreth. “We’ll take this, Stan.”

Perreth shoved his chair back and puffed out his chest. For a moment Cord wondered if he was going to get the chance to watch a cop pissing match, but Perreth turned and stomped from the room without lowering his fly.

McCaskey and Valducci assumed the chairs facing Cord. Plunking a stack of files on the table at his elbow, McCaskey took the lead. “We need to ask you a few questions.”

“And here I thought you dragged me in here for a social visit. You know, a little catching up among family.”

McCaskey didn’t react. Next to him, Nikki Valducci leaned forward, as if she was anticipating the taste of blood and was just waiting for McCaskey’s go-ahead to take a piece out of him.

In contrast, McCaskey leaned back in his chair, the picture of calm control. “Where were you last night, Turner?”

“This again?” Cord really had to start documenting his every move. Maybe then his brother-in-law would get off his back. “Why don’t you just tell me what you think I did this time so I can get right to denying it?”

“Have you been in contact with Dryden Kane?”

He thought of the invitation and the scrawled note that had sent him racing to protect Melanie. “Are Melanie Frist and her son in a safe place?”

“They’re in protective custody.”

Cord blew a breath through tense lips.

“Answer the question, Turner. Have you been in contact with Dryden Kane?”

As long as Mel and Ethan were safe, the invitation didn’t matter. All admitting to receiving it would do was give McCaskey an excuse to violate Cord’s parole and send him back to serve the rest of his fifteen-year term behind bars. “Have I contacted Kane? No.”

McCaskey’s eyes narrowed to dark slits. “Then how did you know Melanie Frist and her son were in danger? Or did you just make that up?”

So much for avoiding a parole violation. “Kane sent me an invitation for a wedding reception. You and Diana and Sylvie and her husband are the guests of honor.”

A muscle twitched along McCaskey’s jaw. “And what does Melanie Frist have to do with this?”

“She’s supposed to be my date.”

“And your son?”

Cord wanted to think that Kane didn’t know about Ethan. But seeing that the killer seemed to know about everything else, it was probably wishful thinking. “If you take me back to my apartment, I’ll turn it over to you.”

“No need. The lieutenant probably secured a warrant to search your apartment by now.”

A search warrant. This had gone farther than he’d guessed. “What exactly do you suspect me of doing?”

“I imagine you’ve heard about this morning’s accident. The one involving your father.”

“I heard.” Since he’d learned Kane was his father, he’d followed stories of the serial killer in the local news. He’d heard how Kane had controlled another serial killer from his prison cell like a puppet master. He’d heard how, even though locked behind bars, he’d tried to kill his daughter Diana—Cord’s half sister and McCaskey’s wife. And of course, there was the accident. “It’s been all over the news.”

Detective Valducci shifted in her chair with the impatience of an attack dog pulling at her chain. “When is the last time you saw Eddie Trauten?”

A wave of heat washed through Cord. He kept his expression carefully frozen.

McCaskey gave his cover-girl partner an approving glance before narrowing his eyes on Cord. “Recognize the name? Or did he go by a nickname at Waupun?”

If he could, he’d pretend he’d never heard of Eddie Trauten. But after sharing a cell with the whiney little skinhead for six years of his sentence, it might be a little hard to pull off the lie. “What the hell does Eddie have to do with this?”

“Your cellie drove the stolen pickup that slammed into the motorcade transferring Kane. His truck went into the water along with the cage van. The Banes County sheriff fished his body out of the water this morning.”

“And Kane? Have they found his body yet?”

“You know they haven’t.”

Somehow he knew McCaskey would say that. This morning just got better with each passing minute. “I don’t know where Kane is. I didn’t have anything to do with Eddie breaking him out.”

McCaskey gave him a humorless smile. “Somehow I’m not inclined to believe you.”

“I don’t care what you’re inclined to do, it’s the truth.”

“The truth? I’ll bet. You ex-cons wouldn’t know truth if it bit you.” Valducci smiled showing the teeth she’d no doubt like to do a little biting with.

He was over his head. So far over, he was drowning. “I need to talk to my lawyer.”

McCaskey offered a casual shrug of one shoulder. “You sure you want to do that?”

“Why? Are you going to give me the same line as the last detective?”

McCaskey raised a brow. “Line?”

“Yeah. The old chestnut about helping you so you’ll help me. You know, that if I want Melanie and Ethan Frist protected, I’ll have to confess to whatever you want me to confess to?”

“Is that what Perreth said to you?”

“Pretty much.”

That muscle started working again. Apparently there was more bad blood between McCaskey and Perreth than a simple pissing match could explain.

McCaskey leaned forward, elbows on tabletop, fists clasped at chin level. “Melanie Frist and her son are in protective custody, and they’re going to stay there. The only skin you have to worry about saving is your own.”

“Okay. Then I’d like my lawyer to help me save it.”

“Meredith Unger, right?”

He’d told McCaskey and Valducci to call his attorney when the detectives suspected he was the copycat serial killer. “You have her number in one of those files?” He nodded at the stack looming on the table.

McCaskey kept his eyes riveted to Cord’s. “There’s one thing you might want to be aware of before you have a heart-to-heart with Meredith Unger.”

“And what’s that?”

“She has a conflict-of-interest problem you might want to consider.”

What kind of game was McCaskey trying to play this time? “I’ll bite. What’s the problem?”

McCaskey’s black eyes drilled into him, as if watching for his reaction, eager to see how he’d take the punch line. “Meredith Unger is your father’s attorney. She represents Dryden Kane.”

Chapter Four

In prison, when an inmate needed a weapon he could make disappear fast, he filled a sock with something heavy, a handful of batteries, a can of beans. One good swing, and the weapon, known as a slock, could level a man. The revelation that Cord was sharing his attorney with Dryden Kane hit him like a slock to the dome.

One corner of McCaskey’s lips lifted in something only a hair short of a smile. “You still want to call your lawyer?”

“I’ll pass.” When he’d seen Kane’s reference to Melanie in the note, he’d wondered where the serial killer had learned of their history. And although he couldn’t prove anything, he didn’t wonder any longer. “You can’t think I had anything to do with Kane’s escape. I’ve never met the man.”

“But your attorney has.”

Cord wiped a hand across his forehead. Sweat already dampened his cropped hair. A sign of nerves that McCaskey would no doubt interpret as guilt. “I haven’t talked to Meredith Unger for ten years.”

“There are a lot of coincidences here, Turner. Coincidences I’m having a hard time swallowing. Meredith Unger. Eddie Trauten.”

Cord let out a breath. He couldn’t deny the apparent connection between him and Kane through his attorney. He couldn’t deny his own connection to Eddie Trauten. But maybe he didn’t have to. Maybe those connections were the point. “I don’t know what you think of me, McCaskey, but I’m not a stupid man.”

McCaskey narrowed his eyes. “Go on.”

“If I wanted to help someone like Dryden Kane escape from prison, I wouldn’t set up my own cellie to do it. The prison yard is a big place. There are a lot of punks I could recruit for the job. Punks that would force you cops to at least break a sweat before you tied them to me.”

“I’m listening.”

“I don’t want Dryden Kane out. The only thing he is to me is a threat. A danger to Melanie. And a danger to my son.”

McCaskey watched him with sharp, nearly black eyes. A slow, agonizing minute ticked by before he finally pushed back from the table, the legs of his chair screeching across the linoleum tile. He glanced at Detective Valducci and then back to Cord. “We’ll be back.” He stood and walked out, Valducci in his wake, letting the door thunk closed behind him.

Cord forced a breath of stale air into his lungs. He was probably over his head on this one. Hell, he’d been over his head since before he was born. Unfortunately, unlike the gang bangers he’d hung out with as a kid and the cons he’d done time with, he was smart enough to recognize the fact that he was drowning in sewage.

Just not smart enough to do anything about it.

The door opened and McCaskey entered alone. “I just heard from the officers searching your apartment.”

He let silence lie between them as if waiting for Cord to acknowledge something incriminating they’d found in an effort to explain it away.

Too bad nothing like that existed. “They found the invitation I told you about?”

“They did.”

“And the note threatening Melanie Frist?”

“Yes.”

“You’ve looked through my apartment. I’ve told you everything I know. So am I under arrest?”

“No. You can go.”

Cord nodded but he didn’t let himself feel relief. Not yet. “Will Melanie and Ethan be protected?”

McCaskey drilled into him with that black gaze. “You have my word.”

Cord slumped against the back of his chair. A trickle of sweat ran over his temple and wound around his ear.

McCaskey might have thrown him a life preserver this time, but Cord had the feeling this ordeal was far from over.

CORD STOOD IN THE OPEN DOOR of his apartment and looked at the mess the cops had made of his place. In the joint, the inmates were obsessed with receiving respect. The smallest slight, like one of the dawgs failing to say “what up?” in the yard was an affront to one’s manhood. It was times like this that made Cord grateful he didn’t have that respect/disrespect hangup. Life as a con and an ex-con was easier once you acknowledged you didn’t much respect yourself. At least then it wasn’t a bitter pill when others didn’t respect you, either. “Cord Turner?”

He spun around, expecting to see a cop coming back for a second try at strewing his belongings over every inch of floor. Instead a bookish man with a smart-ass smile and wire-rimmed glasses peered at him from the hallway.

“Who the hell are you?” Cord asked.

“Aidan Powell. I’m with the Capital Times.”

A reporter. Cord almost groaned out loud. “Why are you here?”

“I’ve heard from a reliable source that you are the son of Dryden Kane.”

Cord felt sick. He knew reporters would eventually unearth that fact. With the building media frenzy over the serial killer, it was inevitable. But he’d hoped it would take longer than this. “Who told you that?”

“Is it true?”

He grabbed the door. “If you insist on answering my question with a question, you can do it through a closed door.”

He held up a hand, blocking the door. “Wait.”

“You’re going to tell me who is spreading this crap?”

“I heard it the same place I heard that Kane also has a grandson. A kid by the name of Ethan Frist.”

Cord pushed the door aside. Reaching out, he grabbed the reporter by the shirt. “Where did you hear that?” Heat crept up his neck. Pressure built in his head.

“Does Kane know?”

“Tell me where you heard it.” He hadn’t even known he had a son until a few hours ago. But a reporter knew? A reporter who would write about it in his rag for Dryden Kane to see. If the monster didn’t already know he had a grandson, he would now. Cord gave the guy a shake.

The guy’s glasses flew, landing somewhere in the mess strewn over Cord’s apartment’s floor. His eyes widened, as if he had finally figured out he’d made a mistake. “Hold on.”

“I want an answer,” Cord demanded.

“Hey, back off.” Powell’s voice trembled along with his chin. “Everybody knows. Not just me.”

“Everybody?”

“The TV news crews have had it for the past half hour. I’m the only one who cared enough to get a confirmation.”

A half hour? After Cord had left the police department, he’d had to hop a bus back to Mel’s house to get his police-rummaged truck. He’d driven back to his apartment in silence, unable to stomach anything but the worries being broadcast in his own mind.

He tightened his grip on the reporter’s shirt, pulling the crisp cotton taut around the little worm’s throat. “Did you hear this from the police?”

The reporter’s eyes flared.

Bingo.

“Who in the police department gave you the information?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

“What do you mean you can’t tell me?”

“I promised confidentiality. I can’t reveal my source.”

The guy was scared to the point of pissing his pants. But he chose to protect his source instead of his hide?

Maybe there were idealists left in the world.

Cord released the reporter’s shirt, letting him fall back against the door like a sack of laundry. “This isn’t just some kid. This is my son. When this hits the airwaves and newspapers, Kane could see it. And if Kane knows about him…” What would the monster do? Cord didn’t know. But he sure as hell didn’t want to find out.

Aidan Powell picked himself up, straightened his shirt and put on his glasses, then swallowed a few times before meeting Cord’s eyes. “That’s not all Kane will find out.”

“What else?”

“The boy and his mother are staying at a hotel on the west side of town. The TV cameras are over there now.”

Staying in a hotel? They weren’t merely staying. They were hiding. Hiding from Kane.

And now the serial killer only had to switch on a television set to find out where they were?

As soon as Cord had seen Mel and his son, he knew he had to walk away. He wasn’t the kind of man who could be a father. A husband. He couldn’t do anything but drag Ethan and Mel down.

But he couldn’t walk away—not quite yet.

He might not be able to be part of the family, but neither was he going to sit by and let anyone hurt Ethan or Mel.

Especially not a sick bastard like Dryden Kane.

MELANIE WATCHED ETHAN cross the pool deck and jump cannonball style into the swimming pool. A splash of chlorine-scented water hit the deck in front of her and spattered her legs.

The water felt nice on her skin, cool, and for a moment she wished she were wearing her swimming suit instead of the T-shirt and shorts she’d changed into. The prospect of slipping into the pool, lounging in the hot tub that bubbled under fake palm trees or taking her son’s challenge and trying out the slide that curled around the circumference of the indoor water park beckoned on the edge of her mind like a seductive dream.

She rolled her shoulders, trying to relieve the tension aching in her back and arms. Her shirt stuck to her skin, damp with sweat.

If only this really were a vacation, a time to relax with her son instead of just a way to take Ethan’s mind off the fact that they were hiding from a serial killer. If only she could dial back time to yesterday, when she and Ethan had a normal life, a good life, filled with neither hair-raising excitement nor tragedy. But if-onlys accomplished nothing. The only real avenue she had was to pray the police would catch Dryden Kane, pray Ethan would never find out the monster was his grandfather, and pray that Cord would stay out of their lives.

She glanced at the police officer standing a few yards from her at the edge of the pool area. Reed McCaskey had assured her that an officer would stay with them until Kane was back behind bars or dead. She should feel safe. Secure. But the vague dread that had started with Cord’s appearance at her house continued to build.

She had to get her mind off Kane and off Cord if she was going to hold on to her sanity. She focused on Ethan, on the unbridled fun he and the other children were having. On the far side of the dome, kids crawled over a wrecked pirate ship and zipped down slides springing from the hull.

And beyond them, through the window, something moved. A face peered through the glass.

A gasp caught in Melanie’s throat. She stepped closer to get a better look.

A woman stared through the window, scanning the pools and water slides. A bright light turned on behind her, illuminating a van parked along the curb. A van with a cable-news logo emblazoned on the side.

The media?

She glanced back at the warehouse-size room. Ethan perched on top of the longest waterslide, getting into position to take its winding ride into the pool.

Could the media have found out Ethan was Dryden Kane’s grandson? Could they be planning to tell the world?

She inhaled a breath of humid, chlorinated air. She couldn’t let herself panic. If they knew, there wasn’t anything she could do to change it. But she’d be damned if they were going to get footage of her son to go along with the story.

She crossed the pebbled surface of the pool deck to where the cop was keeping watch. “A cable-news crew is outside.”

The cop gave her a surprised look and glanced around the pool area. “News crew? Where?”

She pointed at the news crew just as the reporter peered through the window.

He shrugged a shoulder. “They’re probably covering some event or something. Don’t worry.”

“An event? Do you see an event going on in here?”

“You think they’re taping you?”

“No, I think they’re taping my son.”

Pushing out his lower lip, he nodded in a glib way, as if the whole situation was nothing more than an interesting joke.

Didn’t he know what kind of monster he was protecting her and Ethan from? “You aren’t taking this seriously.”

“I’m taking it plenty seriously. You need to calm down, ma’am.”

Calm down? Not until she knew her son was safe. Not until this damn mess was over and her life and Ethan’s were back to normal. “Tell them to leave.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Why not? I thought you were here to protect us. If you aren’t, I want an officer who will.”

“I’ll talk to hotel management. They can ask the reporters to leave the property.”

“Do that.”

He gave her a sideways smirk. He clearly thought she was overreacting.

Fine. Let him think what he wanted. As far as she was concerned, nothing she could do was overreacting if it meant keeping Ethan safe. She turned back to the pool to find Ethan.

“Where are you going?”

So suddenly he’s concerned? She looked back at him. “Why? Are you worried about protecting us now?”

“You don’t have reason to be so hostile.”

“By disregarding the danger my son is in—danger that news exposure will make worse—you’ve given me plenty of reason.”

The cop’s good humor slid from his lips. “I didn’t disregard anything. And if you really wanted to keep him safe, maybe you shouldn’t have hooked up with Dryden Kane’s son in the first place.”

He thought she brought this on herself? On Ethan? He thought they deserved this? Her legs shook. Her hands balled into fists.

She tried to breathe, tried to control herself. “I want those cameras out of here. I’m going to get Ethan.” She’d call Detective McCaskey the moment she and Ethan got to their room.

She turned back to the pool, expecting to see Ethan at the bottom of the slide.

He wasn’t there.

A jolt of panic raced along her nerves. Ridiculous. She’d seen him just a second ago. She’d only taken her eyes from him for a moment. He had to be here.

She scanned the wet heads and slick bodies of kids splashing, scampering and sliding.

No Ethan.

Her heartbeat grew faster, thumping in her ears. She ducked around concrete palm trees. She raced across the deck of the pool, dodging children, circling tables. She had to stay calm. Had to find her son.

A pair of black swim shorts with orange flames licking up the sides caught her attention.

Ethan. He stood on the other side of the pirate ship, just behind one of the smaller slides.

Her knees flagged with relief. Willing her trembling legs to carry her, she started across the pool area toward him. “Ethan?”

He was too far away and the pool area was too loud. He would never be able to hear her. He stepped away from the slide, toward a group of tables and chairs gathered around the entrance to the hotel lobby and atrium. Nodding his head, he seemed deep in conversation with a redheaded man.

A man who looked strangely familiar.

Panic rose in her throat like bile. She tried to control herself, tried to get a grip. The man talking to Ethan had red hair and a beard. There was no reason for her to be afraid. No reason for her to panic.

“Ethan!” Her shriek mixed in with the laughs and yells of children and disappeared in the constant roar of fountains. She started running, dodging scampering children, circling the first pool.

The man looked up, focusing on her with blue eyes. Eyes so much like Ethan’s. Eyes so much like Cord’s. Yet eyes that glinted cold and hard and emotionless.

Dryden Kane put his hand on Ethan’s arm.

A scream rose in her throat. Surfaced to her lips. She had to reach Ethan. She had to save her son. Her baby.

The water park stretched forever, an obstacle course of pools and children and concrete jungle plants. She was so far away. Too far away.

“Kane!” A voice boomed through the room. Not hers. Not the cop’s.

Cord’s.

He burst into the water park through one of the lobby doors and stormed past Melanie. He raced for Ethan, raced for Kane. “Get away from him, you bastard!”

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