Page 21 of Two Hearts
“Why what?”
She thought about that for a moment, but couldn’t come up with a single answer.Instead there were a dozen pecking at her mind.Why was he going to quit?Why had he lied to her?Why had she never known about this old car of his?Where had he been keeping it?What else had he been hiding from her?She gave her head a shake, deciding there was no time for all of this now.Later, though, they were going to have to have some serious discussions.She yanked open the passenger side door of the car—a mid-seventies model Ford Mustang—and got in.
A second later Jack was behind the wheel, and the car roared to life.The stick shift was on the floor, in between the leather bucket seats.New carpet covered the floor—in fact, the inside of the car had been totally renovated.Right down to the CD player in the dash.
“So…you’ve been…what?Restoring the car bit by bit?”
“Hmm?”He glanced her way, then nodded.“Yeah, for a couple of years.Most of the parts are original.”
“Looks like it’s almost done.”
“Just need a set of white-wall tires and a paint job.”
“What color?”she asked on impulse.
“Black,” he said without hesitation.
Black.She swallowed hard.She’d have expected her husband to be more of a beige kind of a guy.Or maybe powder-blue.But black?
She had a suspicion that this car was one of his passions.One he’d kept hidden from her.But it was reassuring to know that he did have some.Passions, that is.
“Where are we going?”
“JW’s already called for search units to be sent out here.He’ll head back to headquarters with his charge…maybe with a side trip to Memorial, depending on how hard you kicked the poor slob.”
“Notthathard,” she interjected.
“Here.”Jack leaned over the backseat, brought out a huge contraption and set it in her lap.Upon closer inspection, she identified it as a spotlight.“Shine that out your window as we go.See if you can spot anything out there on the swamp.”
She found the on button, aimed the thing and hit it.It sent a powerful, wide shaft of light out onto the swamp as the car rolled slowly onward.
“We’ll drive around the perimeter, see if we can spot any sign of that boat, or a car waiting somewhere along the edges.”
She strained her eyes to see, and realized she was hanging on his every word.“Will we find either of those things?”
Jack glanced sideways at her.“I doubt it.I imagine they had a car hidden somewhere on the far side, and are already heading back down the highway by now.”He reached over, clasped her shoulder, closing his hand around it.“He won’t kill them, Grace.He wants to use them.Obviously, he knows this guy we took can give us information on him.Testify against him.That’s why he wants him back.Otherwise he would leave the poor bastard hanging out to dry.That’s the way his kind work.But as long as it’s a risk to him, he’ll do what he has to in order to get his buddy back—and right now, that means taking good care of Charlie and Hope.”
She turned to watch his face as he spoke.He looked at her, taking only quick fleeting glimpses of the road, but for the most part, looking her right in the eyes.As if he knew, somehow, that helped her to believe him.She could see in his eyes that he was saying what he honestly believed.
“Will you trade this…this witness to get them back?”
For the first time his gaze flickered.“It won’t come to that.”
“But if it does?”
“It won’t be up to me, Grace.I would do it in a minute, but it won’t be up to me.”
He stopped the car and took the light from her, flicked it off and set it on the dash.Grace licked her lips, blinked at the tears that threatened, but Jack gripped both her shoulders now and stared straight into her eyes.
“Even now, they’re punching this guy’s name into a computer back at headquarters, Grace.Within the hour we’ll know where he lives.We’ll have the names and addresses of his friends, relatives, lovers, ex-lovers, enemies and casual acquaintances.We’ll know where he eats, where he walks, what he drives, where he hangs out and how many times a day he goes to the bathroom.We’ll have his driver’s license number, his credit card numbers, his Social Security number and his shoe size.We’ll get him, Grace.And we’ll get your sister back safe and sound.”
Swallowing hard, she nodded.
“Say it,” he told her.
“We’ll get Hope back safe and sound.”Then she closed her eyes and the tears she’d been fighting all night long finally broke free.“God, we have to, Jack.I love her so much…”
His arms slid around her, and he pulled her close to him, held her gently.“I know, I know.”
