Page 89 of The Restaurant on Plum Island
“Uncle Sam asked me if I’d mind hanging on for a while longer as we needed to trap the man behind this,” Shay told them. Her eyes shone with excitement. “The men who took the place of the actual kidnappers all introduced themselves and told me to say juice box if at any time I needed them.”
“You knew the whole time!” Alex looked at his niece in disbelief.
Ethan felt so much pride for his daughter but also a bit of anger that she’d put herself in danger. His eyes narrowed in on Sam. Ethan was definitely furious with Sam for using his daughter, Carly, and Alex as bait.
“I did!” Shay said, nodding excitedly without a hint of remorse. “Uncle Sam said that I couldn’t tell you or Carly, or Shaun would smell a rat.”
“Well, you most certainly proved you’re not a rat, Shay.” Carly’s eyes shone with pride for Ethan’s daughter. “You were marvelous.”
“Up until Shaun actually got there.” Shay’s voice dropped, and her eyes darkened with fear.
“Oh, honey,” Alex jumped in. “You were so brave. I was so proud of you. The courage it took for you to stand up to him…” He pulled her into his arms and hugged her. “You were awesome.”
“I agree with everything your uncle just said,” Carly added to her support for Shay. “I don’t know if I could’ve done what you did.”
Shay smiled and wiped a tear from her cheek.
“So your men were planted at the house, and you had Shaun’s men captive,” Ethan went over the mission. “Who were they?”
“The two PIs that Shaun was blackmailing with the money he put into offshore accounts that the PIs didn’t know about,” Sam answered Ethan’s question. “The other two were mercenaries.”
“So that’s another reason the PI’s weren’t talking,” Ethan guessed. “Shaun was blackmailing them.”
Sam nodded. “Now, thanks to the evidence and systems Daphne and Parker stole from Shaun, we have enough to put him away for the rest of his life.”
“You should write a movie about this, Ethan,” Alex told him. “And maybe Carly and Parker will star in it.” He grinned. “You can get Parker to play Shaun as payback for having this information and not coming forward sooner so me, Shay, and Carly wouldn’t have been abducted.”
“Daphne, could you take Shay to meet Lilly?” Ethan asked her.
Daphne nodded and led Shay from the room.
“Sam…” Ethan began. “I want to start by saying I’m furious that you used people I care about as bait. I know you think they were safe, but anything could’ve gone wrong.”
“Ethan…” Sam began.
“No!” Ethan held up his hand. “Let me finish. But thank you for finding Shay, Carly, and Alex as quickly as you did. I fear that Shaun meant for them to succumb to the same fate as Beth.”
“He was going to lock us in a burning house?” Alex and Carly spluttered in unison.
“But he didn’t!” Ethan pointed out, looking at Alex’s and Carly’s eyes wide with disbelief. “Thanks to Sam, which is why I’m going to let go of my anger toward him.” He looked at Sam. “Do you know if it was Shaun who killed Beth and made it look like an overdose?”
“I’m afraid that part is true,” Carly answered for her uncle. Ethan noticed her and Alex exchanged a concerned look.
“What?” Ethan asked, alarm bells going off in his head.
Alex and Carly exchanged a look again, and Carly nodded at Alex.
“Ethan, Shay saw Shaun inject Beth that night.” Alex’s words sent a blast of shock through Ethan. “He made her swear never to tell anyone that she knew him or Daphne and threatened her family.”
“He did that to a ten-year-old?” Ethan’s throat felt raw. “Thank goodness Shay has been in therapy since that day.”
“Daphne told me that Shaun told Shay he was trying to help Beth before Shaun gave Shay a milkshake that knocked her out,” Sam told Ethan.
“That’s why Shay didn’t wake up when I took her from the burning house.” Ethan’s voice was low.
“I think she only realized what he’d done today,” Alex told Ethan.
“She figured it out right before Alex clocked Shaun,” Carly said, pride shining in her eyes as she looked at Alex.
