Kingsley Baby Trilogy: The Hero's SonThe Brother's WifeThe Long-Lost Heir Page 5

  Or had he? How much longer would he hold on to her?

  With her other arm, Valerie reached out and grabbed a drainpipe.

  “Let go,” Brant said. “I’ll pull you up.”

  Let go? Not in this lifetime. Valerie closed her eyes, willing her strength. Her arms were on fire. She knew she wouldn’t be able to hang on much longer. In fact, if it weren’t for Brant’s grip on her wrist, she might already have plunged to her death.

  But still, something wouldn’t let her release the drainpipe. Something wouldn’t let her trust Brant Colter.

  “We can’t stay out here like this all night,” he said impatiently. “In case you hadn’t noticed, someone was shooting at you a minute ago.”

  “Was it you?” Valerie gasped.

  “Yeah, that makes sense.” His breath was beginning to tell from the strain. “I shoot at you one minute, and the next, I’m trying to keep you from falling off a roof. Now, turn loose before we both hit the pavement.”

  In spite of herself, Valerie glanced down. She couldn’t help herself. The ground seemed a million miles away. “How do I know you won’t drop me?” she asked desperately.

  “I guess you’ll just have to trust me, won’t you?”

  Valerie’s fingers slipped on the drainpipe. She was hanging on by hardly more than her imagination. “I’m falling,” she whispered. “Oh, God—”

  Just as her fingers slid from the pipe, Brant grabbed her other wrist, gave a mighty heave, and pulled her to safety. Valerie scrambled over the edge of the building and collapsed, panting from exertion and terror.

  “Come on,” Brant said, tugging her to her feet. “It’s not a good idea for us to stay out here in the open.”

  “I don’t hear any gunshots,” Valerie said weakly, allowing herself to be pulled up and along the roof toward the opposite side. “Maybe he gave up and left.”

  “Maybe,” Brant said, but he didn’t sound too confident. “There should be a fire escape around here somewhere. Let’s find it before he does.”

  “Who’s ‘he’?”

  There was a slight hesitation before Brant said, “I was hoping you could tell me.”

  “You’re the cop. I’m just a reporter.” A very frightened reporter.

  “You don’t have any idea who might want you dead?”

  “I’ve already told you what I think,” Valerie said. Brant located the fire escape and started over the side of the building, but her words stopped him. A break in the clouds allowed enough moonlight to filter through so that she could see his face. His eyes.

  She shivered.

  “I can assure you it wasn’t my father chasing you over that roof. He can hardly walk across a room without a cane these days.”

  “Yes, but as I pointed out yesterday,” Valerie replied, trying to ignore the coldness in his dark gaze, “he wouldn’t have to do it himself, would he? Your father must have a lot of contacts, on both sides of the law.”

  She could sense his anger in the darkness. It was almost a tangible thing, and yet there was another emotion that was perhaps even stronger. Valerie would almost have named it doubt—or even fear—if she didn’t know better. “We obviously aren’t going to come to any agreement on this subject tonight, so why don’t we concentrate on getting out of here in one piece? Agreed?”

  Valerie took a deep breath. “Agreed.”

  He extended his hand. “Come on, then.”

  Reluctantly, she reached out and took his hand. At the very moment her fingers touched his, a clap of thunder rolled across the heavens as the storm neared downtown. Valerie jumped back, as if she’d been burned.

  “It was just thunder,” Brant said, obviously mistaking her reaction for fear.

  “I—I’m glad it wasn’t a gunshot,” Valerie muttered. She ignored Brant’s offer of help and grabbed the ladder, stepping cautiously onto the first rung. The metal stair was fastened directly into the brick wall and looked as old as the building itself. Valerie fervently hoped the fasteners would hold. It had probably been years since the ladder had taken any weight.

  The metal creaked and moaned as they descended. Valerie was very aware of Brant, going down the steps in front of her. If he looked up, he would have an unobstructed view of her legs. For some reason, the thought made shivers run up and down her spine.

  When they neared the ground, Brant jumped from the ladder, then placed his hands around her waist and lifted her down, holding her for a fraction longer than was necessary. Valerie turned in his arms and looked up at him.

  A flash of lightning illuminated his face briefly, so that Valerie could see the distinct angles and planes of his features, the tiny cleft in his chin, the darkness of his eyes. She’d seen that face in her nightmares for more than thirty years, but it had never frightened her more than it did at this moment.

  She had the wildest notion that he was going to try and kiss her, and wondered what she would do if he did. Push him away? She wanted to believe that she would, but at the moment, that didn’t seem a likely prospect. Not with her heart pounding away inside her. Not with her skin tingling in awareness where he touched her.

  “We shouldn’t be here like this,” he said softly. “It’s too dangerous.”

  “I know.” Her teeth chattered in spite of the heat. He wasn’t talking about the gunman, and they both knew it. But he took her arm anyway, and pulled her into the deeper shadows of the building. As quietly as they could, they made their way around to the street.

  “Where do you think Harry is?” Valerie whispered.

  Brant shrugged. “Harry Blackman can take care of himself. Right now, we have to get you out of here.”

  “How do you know Harry?” she asked in surprise.

  “I could ask you the same thing,” he said dryly. “But another time. Come on.”

  He pulled her out of the shadows, and they ran across the street to the parking lot. Valerie dug her keys out of her purse and used the remote to unlock her car. Brant opened the door for her, and she slid in.

  “Aren’t you coming?” she asked in alarm.

  “Not yet.” When she hesitated he said, “Get out of here. Hurry.”

  “But—”

  “Go.” He slammed the door and stepped back. Valerie started the engine and peeled out of the parking lot. In her rearview mirror, she saw Brant run across the street, heading back to the warehouse.

  Was he searching for the gunman? she wondered. Or meeting an accomplice?

  * * *

  BRANT DREW HIS GUN and entered the building through the front door. He paused at the foot of the stairs, listening for sounds of the intruder, but all he heard was the dull hum of the air-conditioning system. He started up, watching the shadowy corners and crevices above him. When he got to the fifth floor, he pushed open the stairwell door and peered out into the deserted hallway.

  As he stood listening, faint sounds came to him from the end of the corridor. Shuffling papers. A voice muttering an oath. Brant stepped cautiously out of the stairwell and made his way down the hall to the open door of Harry Blackman’s office.

  Blackman stood behind his desk, cursing a blue streak as he flung files around the office helter-skelter. A small trickle of blood oozed down the side of his face unnoticed.

  For a moment, Brant went unnoticed, too. Then Blackman looked up and saw his gun.

  “Well, hell,” he said and sat down heavily in his chair. “Who are you?”

  “Police officer,” Brant replied, flashing his badge.

  “Who the hell called the cops?” Blackman demanded. “The chick? Where is she?”

  “Safe, for the moment. And no one called me,” Brant said. “I was in the area and heard shots.”

  Blackman gave him a skeptical look. “No cop is ever in this area unless he has extracurricular business to attend to.” His gaze narrowed. “Wait a minute. Wait just a damned minute. I know you.”

  “Sergeant Brant Colter. Memphis Police Department.”

  “Colter. I knew it.” A strin
g of expletives burst from Blackman’s mouth. He looked at Brant in disgust. “You wouldn’t happen to be Raymond Colter’s boy, would you?”

  “Nephew.” Brant put away his gun and walked into the office, stopping just short of Blackman’s desk, which was littered with papers and files.

  Blackman sat back in his chair and steepled his fingers beneath his chin. “That’s right,” he mused. “Raymond’s boy is some kind of hotshot D.A. or something. I read about him in the paper the other day. Said he’s running for Congress. Who would have thought a little snot-nosed brat like him would have ever amounted to a hill of beans? But then, that kid had the makings of a politician, even back when I worked for Raymond. Always real devious-like. Always snooping around in other people’s business.”

  If Blackman expected Brant to come to his cousin’s defense, he was in for a big surprise. “Looks like you took a pretty mean hit,” he said grimly. “Mind telling me what happened here?”

  “You know as much as I do,” Blackman growled. “You heard the shots. Someone fired into my window. I went after him, he coldcocked me and got away. End of story. At least until I get my hands on the slimy little bas—”

  “Did you get a look at him?”

  Blackman shook his head. “Hell, no. Sucker jumped me from behind. Hit me in the back of the head.”

  “Then how did you cut your forehead.”

  Blackman’s expression grew even darker. “I was standing at the top of the stairs when he jumped me. Damned lucky I didn’t break my neck.” He wiped a sleeve across the cut without flinching.

  Blackman was tough, no question. At least two hundred and fifty pounds of solid muscle. Taking him out, even from behind and in darkness, would have been no mean feat. It would have been easier just to shoot him, but obviously, he hadn’t been the target.

  Which meant Valerie had been.

  “What kind of work are you doing for Valerie Snow?” Brant asked.

  “That’s privileged information.”

  “This is a police investigation. Valerie Snow’s life is in danger, and I’d appreciate your cooperation. In fact, I’m going to have to demand it.”

  “That so?” Blackman leaned forward, his eyes flashing fire. “All right, let me level with you, then. Valerie Snow has a thing about the police. She doesn’t trust cops, especially ones named Colter, and neither do I. Your uncle did a real number on me, and I haven’t forgotten. You’re the last person I’d tell squat to.”

  Brant could feel his own temper rising, but he tried to hold it in check. “You may not have a choice. I could get a warrant to search your office, seize your files, shut you down indefinitely. In short, I could make your life miserable, Blackman, if I’ve a mind to.”

  Blackman cocked a dark brow. “Yeah? Well, what else is new. The cops have been harassing me for years, ever since Raymond fired me. If you’ve got questions, you go to my client for answers. But I doubt she’ll tell you anything.”

  Brant doubted it, too. Blackman was right. Valerie Snow didn’t trust him, and for one simple reason: he was Judd Colter’s son.

  He had a sudden flash of the way she’d looked earlier, gazing up at him. The way she’d felt in his arms. He’d wanted to kiss her. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d wanted to kiss a woman so badly. She was beautiful and mysterious and tough as nails. A potentially lethal combination if Brant had ever seen one, but that knowledge didn’t lessen his attraction for her. Just the opposite, in fact.

  Who was she? he wondered again. Who was she, really?

  Brant started to question Blackman further, but then he spotted the corner of a file jutting out from beneath Blackman’s desk. Brant stooped and picked it up, glancing at the handwritten label on the folder. Naomi Gillum.

  He handed the folder to Blackman. “This what you’re looking for?”

  Blackman grabbed the file and opened it. The contents, whatever they had been, were missing, and with another explosion of expletives, Blackman flung the empty folder to the floor.

  * * *

  VALERIE LET HERSELF into her duplex and turned off the alarm system, thankful she’d had the presence of mind to have one installed when she’d first moved in. Her apartment had been broken into numerous times in Chicago, and she’d learned the hard way that a good security system could save a lot of wear and tear on her nerves.

  Well, her nerves had certainly taken a beating tonight, she thought wearily, slipping out of her shoes as she headed for the kitchen. Someone had shot into Harry Blackman’s office while she’d been inside. There was a chance, of course, that Harry had been the target, but she didn’t think that was likely. Not after the bus incident yesterday.

  Twice. Twice in two days her life had been threatened.

  Or maybe someone was just trying to scare her. When she thought about it, that seemed the more reasonable possibility. After all, she lived alone. Other than the alarm system, she took no particular safety precautions. If someone really wanted to kill her, would it be all that difficult to do?

  Valerie shivered. In fact, it would be quite easy. She was all alone. She could go missing for days, and there wouldn’t be a single, solitary soul to look for her. To ask questions. To worry and wonder about her whereabouts.

  The only person who had ever really cared about her was her mother, and she was gone now. Valerie had no one.

  No, that wasn’t really true, she thought, as she poured herself a glass of wine. Her father cared about her. At least, he once had. Maybe he would again if she were to free him from prison.

  Is that the real reason why you’re doing this? she asked herself grimly, pausing to stare at her reflection in the window above the sink. So you won’t be alone?

  Valerie wanted to believe her motives were completely altruistic: that she was working to free her father because he was an innocent man. Truth to be told, however, she knew her reasoning was a lot more complicated than that. She knew that freeing her father was a way of freeing herself—from the feelings of guilt and unworthiness that had followed her throughout her entire life.

  Wasn’t that why she had yet to go see her father, to confide to him what she was doing? To ask for his help? It wasn’t really to spare his feelings or to keep from giving him false hope, as she’d told herself. It was because she was afraid to face him. Afraid to look into his eyes. Afraid of what she might see.

  “He is innocent,” she whispered, and repeated the mantra in her head as she’d done many times in the last six weeks. Then, as if to further affirm her conviction, she opened one of the canisters on the kitchen counter and removed her mother’s diary, leafing through the pages, tracing with her fingertip the words she now knew by heart.

  Cletus was not always the best husband to me nor the perfect father to our little Violet, though I know he loved her as much as I do. Maybe more so, because he was willing to go to prison in order to save her life.

  A man like that can’t be a murderer. I know, with every fiber of my being, that he did not kidnap that poor little boy. He did not murder Adam Kingsley.

  The police set him up to take the fall, and my own brother, God have mercy on his soul, helped them do it.

  I can do nothing but sit by helplessly, day after day, month after month, year after year, while Cletus’s life slowly slips away in that awful place.

  If I came forward, even now, and told the police what I know, not only would Cletus’s life be in danger, but so would mine and Violet’s.

  That’s why we left Memphis in the first place, why I had to sever all ties with Cletus. Because the threat is still there. The men who framed Cletus would do anything, even murder an innocent child, to keep the truth from coming out.

  Only in the pages of my journal, where I know no eyes but my own will see these words, can I reveal the secret of what happened the night Adam Kingsley was kidnapped.

  A newspaper clipping slipped from the pages of the diary and floated to the floor. Valerie knelt and picked it up, spreading the article open on the tiny bar tha
t separated the kitchen from the living area. She stared down at the yellowed newspaper photo of herself and Sergeant Judd Colter.

  In all these years, Valerie had never forgotten the way Judd Colter had looked at her the night her father had been arrested, the terror he had instilled in her. Only when the cameras had been trained on him outside their home had he shown her kindness and compassion. Only then had he acted as though Valerie were anything more consequential to him than a speck of dust.

  He’d used those cameras to his advantage. He’d used her, and for that Valerie despised him. For that, he would have to pay.

  She took a sip of her wine, grimacing at the bitter taste. Judd Colter had fooled a lot of people back then, but he’d never fooled her. The image he portrayed to the public was very different from the man who had terrorized her family. She’d seen the other side of him that night. The dark side.

  Valerie shivered, remembering the coldness in his eyes.

  Remembering her hatred of him.

  Remembering what she had to do.

  Unbidden, an image of Brant Colter materialized in her mind. She thought about the way her heart had quickened at his nearness earlier, the way her stomach had fluttered in awareness when he’d looked at her. The way she’d wanted him to kiss her.

  But how could she possibly be attracted to a man who looked so very much like Judd Colter? How could she even entertain the notion that he might not be like his father? He was a Colter, wasn’t he? He was a cop. They were all the same. They stuck up for each other. They protected one another at any cost, even if it meant sending an innocent man to prison.

  Even if it meant threatening a woman and her small child.

  Was Brant Colter really any different? When push came to shove, regardless of what she found out, would he side with her against his family, his friends, his own father?

  Valerie very much doubted it.

  The doorbell rang, and she jumped, startled from her reverie by the unexpected sound. Cautiously, she walked to the front window and glanced out. A beige sedan she didn’t recognize was parked in her driveway.