By now, the police had probably located the kid. His bargaining chip was gone. His money was gone. His wife would never speak to him again, and Ivy would marry Gil Dixon and live happily ever after. She probably wouldn’t even care that the money was gone as long as she had Gil back in her life.
No.
He couldn’t allow it.
If he couldn’t have the money, fine.
But if he was going to lose everything that mattered, Ivy would too.
40
GIL USHERED IVY into his house at 1:33 a.m.
Ivy had been amazing. She was so strong. She’d shed more than a few tears tonight, but for his part, he’d never bought into the idea that crying made someone weak.
He tucked Ivy close to his side. She was still on her feet through sheer force of will. She clutched her purse with the good fingers of her right hand. Her left she raised and brushed his cheek with it. He gave her a nudge toward his bedroom. “Go. Shower. Change. Get ready for bed. But come tell me good night so I know you didn’t fall asleep in the bathroom.”
She gave him a bleary nod. “Today was awful.”
“Most of it was.”
“Tomorrow, or, well, later today, will be awful.”
“Some of it will be.”
“I’ll have to talk to my mom.”
“You will.”
Ivy swayed. Maybe he’d walk her all the way to the bathroom door.
“But Tez will be fine?”
“He will.” The last report from the hospital was that Tez hadbeen given a strong dose of a medication with highly amnesiac properties. Tez remembered pitching, and he remembered the rain starting, and that was it. He had no memory of being taken, no memory of any of the time he was kidnapped, and, unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on who you talked to—no memory of who abducted him. He also had no memory of the SWAT team that rescued him. He was currently sitting in a hospital bed with his parents and siblings surrounding him, and Gil suspected it would be a long time before he saw Tez without his entire family present.
“How worried should I be about Preston?”
“That’s the ten-million-dollar question.” Ivy had the energy to roll her eyes at his remark. “I’m serious. That kind of money makes people do stupid things. We don’t know if he knows they played him. If he’s smart, he’ll walk away. Tonight. Every hour he stays nearby, he risks being caught.”
“Do you think he knows that we know he was behind it?”
“Hard to say. It’s possible they didn’t tell him. He could be under the delusion that he can still get out of it. But there’s nothing more we can do tonight. Sabrina will be back tomorrow with her grad students, and they’ll have your systems up and running in no time. Then they’ll analyze them, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Sabrina winds up writing a scholarly paper on malware from this. Now that Tez is safe, Sabrina will be like a geek at Comic-Con.”
That earned him a lip twitch but nothing more. Fair enough. Ivy was in no mood for any kind of humor. He couldn’t blame her. “Go to bed, Buttercup. Tomorrow we’ll sleep in a little. You’ll work with Sabrina to rebuild your systems. I’ll work with the FBI, the Raleigh PD, and anyone else I need to help me find Preston—and that includes the Tooth Fairy.”
There it was. Finally. The tension left her body. She put herleft hand around his waist, her right hand with her purse rested against his chest, and she smiled at him. A real smile that, even with her fatigue and sadness, carried a hint of teasing. “You always thought the Tooth Fairy was creepy. Would you really work with him for me?”
“For you? Anything. Always.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. Then her nose.
GIL’S LIPS BRUSHEDhers with the barest hint of contact before he pulled back.
Her disappointment must have shown on her face because he grinned at her before coming closer and speaking against her lips. “Go to sleep. We’ve got time.”
She wanted to argue, but she couldn’t. Her body ached everywhere, and sleep had never been more appealing. Still in his arms, she released his waist and twisted toward the bedroom door.
The sound of shattering glass and the alarm system blaring pierced her fog. Gil shoved her toward the bedroom. “Close the door. Call 911!”
