CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Rowan’s body trembled as she held up the phone for Brent to see. Someone was calling her with Heather’s phone. The kidnappers? That was the only thing that made sense. Heather had called her with her cell phone right before she was shot. In the craziness following Heather’s death, Rowan hadn’t asked if Detective Taylor had found her sister’s phone. The homicide detective didn’t need to use Heather’s phone to contact Rowan.
Her gaze locked with Brent’s. “What do I do?”
“Answer the phone, but put it on speaker.” He ushered her to the seat behind her desk. Good thing, too. Rowan was pretty sure her knees were ready to give way.
Following Brent’s instructions, she tapped the speaker button. “Rowan Scott. Who is this?”
“Doesn’t matter who’s speaking. What matters is that I have your niece. If you want to see her again, you’ll do exactly as I say.”
Brent motioned for her to keep talking as he grabbed his phone and texted someone. Probably Zane or one of the other tech people at Fortress. “How do I know you have my niece? I want proof that she’s alive or I’m hanging up and calling the cops.”
An aggravated growl came through the phone’s speaker. “Hold on,” the man snapped. There was some fumbling, then footsteps indicated the caller was on the move.
At the growing sound of a child crying, Rowan clamped a hand over her mouth. Tears burned her eyes. Alexa. Rowan would recognize her cry anywhere.
“Talk to the kid. Can’t guarantee she’ll say anything,” the man grumbled. “All she does is cry.”
Tears slid down Rowan’s cheeks. “Alexa?”
A gasp between sobs. “Aunt Ro.”
“Are you all right, sweetheart?”
“I want Mommy,” Alexa sobbed.
Brent pulled Rowan into his arms.
“She’s not here, baby.” Oh, man. Listening to her cry broke Rowan’s heart. She leaned against Brent’s chest. “I’ll see you soon, though.”
“Please come get me, Aunt Ro. I want to come home.”
“It won’t be long, Alexa. I promise.”
Alexa’s voice faded as the caller moved farther away from the girl.
“Satisfied?”
Rowan took a few seconds to try and steady her voice. She refused to let this criminal know how upset she was. She didn’t know anything about dealing with the criminal class, but it just seemed logical to not give this guy the upper hand. “What do you want?”
“Maxwell’s records.”
Rowan stiffened. Records? Did he mean the flash drive? That wasn’t exactly a record in her mind. It was a simple file and not one worth killing for. Brent squeezed her, a silent warning to be careful what she said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Jay didn’t confide in me. We barely tolerated each other.”
Silence greeted her statement.
Guess she’d surprised the kidnapper. What on earth was he looking for if not the file that Heather had left in her care?
“Records of transactions,” he snapped.
Rowan frowned. Seriously? He thought Jay Maxwell would have left anything like that with her? This guy obviously didn’t know Jay all that well. “If I had them, I’d give them to you. I don’t care anything about Jay’s business. I just want Alexa back safe.”
“Then you better find those records. You have forty-eight hours. Find them or this pretty little girl will disappear forever. And no cops, lady.” The call ended.
Her gaze locked with Brent’s. “What am I going to do? Alexa’s life and safety depend on me finding these records. I don’t know what he’s talking about or where to start looking. Jay hated my guts. He’d never trust me with sensitive information.”
Brent cupped her face between his warm palms. “We’ll figure it out, baby. This guy is after records of business transactions. They have to be at his work or hidden in the Maxwell house.”
She sighed. “Guess that’s why someone tore apart Heather’s house. It must not have been the flash drive after all.”
“Might have been both. And since he’s demanding the records, he didn’t find what he was after or someone else got there first.”
Chill bumps surged over her body as she fought down the panic threatening to bring her to her knees. If someone else had taken the records, how would she find them soon enough to free Alexa?
Brent leaned down and kissed her gently. “I won’t rest until I find your niece and free her.”
“How do you know we’ll find her?”
“The kidnapper thinks you have something he wants. He’ll keep coming back around to you because he figures you have the best chance to get what he wants without attracting undue attention from the cops. Tell me about Alexa, sweetheart. Since I’ll be spending a lot of time with her when we get her back, I’d like to know something about her.”
“Alexa can be shy with people she doesn’t know. Once she knows you, though, she’s a regular chatterbox. She has the sunniest personality and a really great laugh. I can’t tell you how many times I went to see her and she would make me feel better with her smile and laugh.”
“Who does she get her personality from?”
That question startled a laugh out of her. “Heather. I never knew Jay to be like that in all the years he was married to my sister. He was always taciturn, determined to have things his way.”
“Do you know how his employees viewed him?”
“I can’t say for sure. I only talked to a couple of them in the past two years and that was a passing conversation when I came by to pick up Heather and Alexa for an outing.” She brushed a kiss over his mouth. “Thanks for giving me a minute to get my emotions under control. What do we do now?”
“Call Taylor.”
“What? No! The kidnapper said not to call in law enforcement.” She couldn’t take the chance on losing Alexa.
Brent wrapped his arms around her. “Taylor needs to know, sweetheart. We can’t tie his hands by holding back information that may help us find Alexa sooner.”
“Fortress can find her faster than the police.”
“Probably. But we need as much intel as we can get. The faster we obtain that information, the sooner you’ll have Alexa back in your arms. Taylor will also be able to do something that we can’t.”
“What’s that?”
“Build a case to arrest this guy and put him away for good. If he gets away with this, you and Alexa will never be safe. He’ll keep coming after you to prevent you from talking.” He stilled in her arms. “Unless you expect me to kill him.”
The breath froze in Rowan’s lungs. No, a thousand times no. She would never ask him to kill someone for her or Alexa. That was wrong on so many levels she didn’t know where to start. “I would never ask that of you, Brent. I value you too much to ask you to compromise your principles.”
Disbelief gleamed in his eyes.
Rowan tightened her grip around his waist. “That is not who you are. You’re not a killer.”
A snort. “You know what I’m capable of, baby.”
“When it’s necessary,” she insisted. “You aren’t a murderer for hire. You’re a protector.”
“There are many people who would disagree with your assessment of my character.”
“Then they are fools, Brent. You’re not an assassin.”
“Thanks,” he murmured.
“If we call Detective Taylor and tell him what’s going on, what will he do?”
“Call the feds.” Brent held up a hand to stem her protest. “He has to call them. The feds have jurisdiction over Alexa’s kidnapping and they are experts in these kinds of cases.”
Rowan thought about that for a moment, striving to calm the panic clamoring in her chest. “Are they better than Fortress?”
“No, but we want them on our side.”
“Are you sure this is the wisest course of action, Brent?”
“It’s the only choice we have unless we plan to operate totally outside the law.”
“Can you do that?”
“Yes. It’s not the smartest thing to do, however. We don’t have time to waste fighting with our own law enforcement agencies. Sometimes they actually help.”
“But not often, right?”
He lifted one shoulder.
Rowan squared her shoulders and nodded. “Make the call.” She just hoped she hadn’t made the biggest mistake of her life, one which might cause her to never see Alexa again.