What was she talking about?
That man didn’t want her! Why she wasn’t even in the same league with all of those beautiful and glamorous recording artists and movie stars he probably hung around with on a daily basis. Why would she even think that a man like him would give her the time of day? How could she even think such a thing?
But she thought it. And it wasn’t just a passing thought either. Shefeltit.
But then, as he was holding her, she lifted up her head from his broad shoulder and saw something strange. “Wait a minute,” she said.
Hawk had gotten lost in the feel of her in his arms so much so that he had a delayed reaction to her words. Then he realized she had said something and he pulled back. Her face,her sweet face, looked as if she’d had an epiphany. “What is it, Janita?”
“When I got out here, that’s when I saw the van speeding off with your mother. But now I realize. . .”
“You realize what?”
“I didn’t see your mother in that van.”
Hawk was shocked. “What do you mean you didn’t see her?”
“I saw a fur coat as that van door was closing. But I didn’t seeher.”
“What are you saying, Janita?” This concerned Hawk. But when she turned her back to him and looked where the van had been positioned at the end of the alley, and then she turned back toward him and looked at the opposite end of the alley, he was confused. “What is it?”
That was when she looked at him. And she had such an earnestness in her eyes that it stunned him. “What if she wasn’t in that van? What if they made it seem as if she was in that van by making sure I saw that fur coat before they fled so that Iwould focus on that particular van as the getaway vehicle? But what if your mother was in a different vehicle stationed out of view on the other end of this alley, and it was already gone when I got out here?”
“But why would that matter?” Hawk asked.
“Because that means that my brother and I were chasing the wrong vehicle,” she said. “We were chasing the ghost train rather than the train.”
Hawk was floored. “And you and your brother and even the cops would be looking at all the wrong info on cameras because everybody would be looking for a van,” he added.
“A dark-blue van,” Janita said as she was nodding her head, “which made it even more specific.”
“Where was the van?”
“Back there.” She pointed toward the end of the alley.
“Let’s go,” Hawk said as he began running toward the opposite end of the alley from where that van had been seen. Janita ran with him.
But it all turned out to be a dead-end run. There were a few cameras at businesses on that end of the alley, and the businesses gladly showed them what they had once they realized a Webster was asking.
But it all turned up blanks. There was plenty of traffic, but nothing suspicious at all. Not one vehicle stood out as odd at all. No blue vans at all either, which, if Janita’s theory was right, was why the kidnappers made certain she saw that van. And there were no other vans in the frames during the time from that scream in the dressing room to when Janita made it out in that alley.
And besides, they didn’t know what vehicle they were searching for anyway!
When they made it back into that alley, the police had arrived and was waiting for equipment to search for them inthat sunken hole. And Von, devastated, was being held back by police tape. But when he saw Hawk and his sister walking up that alley, he tore through that tape and ran so fast to his sister’s side that the police officers running after him couldn’t catch him.
“Oh, Nita, you’re alive!” he cried out as he grabbed his sister and pulled her into his arms.
“Of course I’m alive,” she said, confused as she pulled back from him. “What’s wrong with you?”
As Von told her what happened, Hawk was touched. Tears were in her little brother’s eyes. He loved her so much. And in that moment, given the kind of woman he was seeing her for too, Hawk understood why.
But what Hawk didn’t understand was why he placed his hand around her waist even as her brother was hugging her. As if she belonged to him even beyond and above her own baby brother. Which was insane. He didn’t even know her like that! But that was exactly how he felt. It was as if he suddenly had an outsized sense of possessiveness toward Janita. But was it only because she rescued him?
He couldn’t say if that was all it was because he didn’t know. But he didn’t remove his hand.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
After answering questions from the police, Von drove Janita and Hawk to his sister’s house, expecting to drop her off and then take Hawk Webster to his parents’ home.
