Egan Cassidy's Kid

“Would it have made a difference?”

“More than you know.”

“More than—are you saying that you would have cared, that you would have wanted to be a part of our lives?”

“I’m saying that if I had known I had a child, I would have found a way to prevent what happened to Bent.”

“What—what happened to Bent?”

“A man who hates me, a man with whom I endured months of hell in a Vietcong POW camp, a man who has spent over twenty-five years searching for a way to destroy me, has kidnapped our son.”

Chapter 3

Maggie couldn’t feel her body. Numbness claimed her from head to toe. She could hear the roar of Egan’s words as he continued speaking, but she couldn’t understand what he was saying. Suddenly the room began to spin around and around. Maggie reached out, grasping for Egan, but before she could grab him, she fainted dead away.

Egan caught her before she hit the floor, lifted her into his arms and carried her to the sofa. By the time he laid her down and placed a pillow under her head, she opened her eyes and moaned.

“Oh, God.” She tried to sit up, but Egan placed his hand in the middle of her chest and forced her to lie still.

“Are you all right?” He hovered over her, wishing so damned hard that he didn’t have to put her through the nightmare that lay ahead of them. It was unfair that Maggie was suffering because of him.

“I’m all right.” When she looked into his eyes, she smiled weakly. “Really. I’m okay. I don’t know what happened. I’ve never fainted before in my entire life. Not even when I was pregnant with— Oh, God! Bent!” She reached up and grasped the front of Egan’s shirt. “Bent’s been kidnapped by someone who wants to destroy you. This man knows…he knows that Bent is your son. But how?”

Egan helped Maggie to sit up, then eased his big, lanky frame down beside her on the tan-and-cream striped sofa. He ran his hand across the smooth silk fabric, but what he wanted to do was pull Maggie back into his arms. Comfort her. Tell her how sorry he was that this had happened. Beg her to forgive him.

“You put my name on your son’s birth certificate,” Egan said. “Cullen got hold of a copy. And he also has pictures of Bent. He told me that the boy looks a lot like I did when I was eighteen.”

Maggie nodded. “Bent does resemble you. He’s only fourteen and already six feet tall. He has your gray eyes. Your black hair.” Maggie’s quivering hand lifted ever so slowly and reached out toward Egan’s face. “Why, Egan, why?”

They stared into each other’s eyes, each seeking understanding, each sharing a realization that no parent should have to accept.

“He—he…this man you call Cullen, he’s going to kill Bent, isn’t he?”

Maggie’s hand dropped to her side. She sat very still. Egan could hear the sound of her breathing. Silence hung between them like a heavy veil.

“I won’t lie to you, Maggie.” He had never lied to her. Never pretended to be anything other than what he was. Never made her promises he knew he couldn’t keep. “I’m sure that’s Cullen’s plan.”

Maggie gasped loudly and the agony on her face was almost more than Egan could bear. For just a split second he had to close his eyes and shut out the sight of her.

“But Cullen won’t harm Bent,” Egan said. When Maggie’s eyes cleared and she looked to him for hope, he amended his statement. “Not yet. He’ll want me there. To watch.”

Egan shot up off the sofa. How the hell had this happened? He’d been so careful all these years, making sure no woman became important to him, so that Cullen wouldn’t have anyone to use against him. He had given up what most men wanted—a wife, children, a real home—in order to prevent this very thing from ever happening.

Pacing the floor, he forked his fingers through his hair and cursed under his breath. “I’ll move heaven and earth to stop Cullen,” Egan vowed as he halted his prowl and faced Maggie. “I’ll find a way to save Bent.”

Squaring her shoulders, Maggie lifted her chin and glared at Egan. “What did you do to this man to make him hate you so much? Can’t you undo whatever it is you did?” Although she sat perfectly still, her hands folded primly in her lap, there was just a hint of hysteria in her voice. “You can’t let him kill…kill my…” Tears glazed her soft, brown eyes.

Egan rushed to her, dropped down on one knee and grabbed her hands. “If I’d only known about Bent, I could have—”

Maggie jerked away from him, shoved him aside and rose to her feet. “Don’t you dare blame me for this! You keep saying if only you’d known about Bent, as if it’s my fault that he’s been kidnapped by some lunatic who wants to punish you.” She pointed directly at Egan, who rose from his knees to his full six-foot-three height.

“I didn’t mean to imply that this is your fault.”

“Then why don’t you place the blame where it belongs,” she glowered at him, anger and hatred gleaming in her eyes, turning them from brown to black. “You’re the reason my son was kidnapped, the reason his life is in danger. You—” she jabbed her finger into the air, pointing it in his direction and then at herself “—not me.”

“Maggie, let me explain.” He held open his hands, the very act a plea for her understanding.

“Explain what? That you’ve lead such an unsavory life, such a wicked life, that you have evil men, capable of murder, searching for ways to punish you.” Maggie flew toward him, her arms lifted, her hands cupped into taut fists. “The hard, cruel world you chose to live in, the ungodly way you chose to make a living is the reason Bent’s life is in danger.” Maggie hurled her fists into Egan’s chest. “You’ve never cared about anyone—ever! You’ve lived only for yourself, never wanting or needing me or my child. You don’t deserve to be a father!”

Her slender, white fists flayed him repeatedly. He barely felt the blows in a physical sense, but emotionally he felt as if Maggie had stripped him down to his bones, with one angry, cutting accusation after another.

He stood unmoving, allowing her to vent her frustration, to beat her fists against his chest until she was spent. He deserved her hatred. She was right. It was his fault that Cullen had kidnapped Bent.

When Maggie’s blows lost their strength and she seemed barely able to raise her hands, Egan wrapped his arms around her. If only she would allow him to hold her, to comfort her, then perhaps he could find some small amount of comfort himself. Her head lay against his chest as she sucked in her breath, gasping for air. Uncertain how to proceed, Egan lifted one hand to her head and caressed her hair. He remembered how much he had loved Maggie’s long, mahogany-red hair.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’d give anything if I could have spared you.”

As if suddenly realizing that the man who held her was the enemy, Maggie disengaged herself from his embrace and shoved him away. “I don’t want your apologies. Saying I’m sorry now is too little, too late. All I want from you is for you to save Bent.”

“I’m going to do everything—” Egan’s cellular phone rang.

Maggie jumped. “Would he call you on your cell phone?”

“No. There’s not any way he could get this number. All the phones issued to Dundee agents have restricted numbers and operate with a scrambling security frequency.”

Maggie laughed, the sound harsh and brittle. “You’re still in the cloak-and-dagger business, aren’t you?”

“Look, I need to get this,” Egan said, then removed his small cell phone from the clip on his belt. “Yeah?”

“Egan, I’ve called in our top six men,” Ellen Denby, the CEO of the Dundee agency, said. “And I’ve put in a call to Sam to alert him that you’re going to need not only manpower, but that he’ll need to use all his connections to make sure we head up this operation and we get full cooperation from the FBI. By the way, are you already in Alabama?”

“Thanks for handling things for me,” Egan said. “And, yes, I’m in Alabama, with the mother of my child.”

“Any word from the kidnapper?”

“Not yet. But it’s only a matter of time.”

“I’ve already called in a few favors of my own,” Ellen told him. “I’ll have a dossier a foot thick on Grant Cullen by morning. I’ll know what toothpaste he buys and how many times a day he uses the john.”

“Have the men on standby,” Egan said. “As soon as we hear from Cullen, I want to move in quick and hit him hard.” When Egan heard Maggie gasp, he glanced across the room at her and their gazes locked. “My one and only objective is to rescue my son. Getting Cullen will be a bonus.” Egan saw the startled look on Maggie’s face, the shock in her eyes, the very minute she realized that in order to save Bent, Egan might have to annihilate his abductor.

“When you’re ready to move, just let me know,” Ellen said.

“You’re the best, Denby.”

“Yeah, and don’t you ever forget it.”

Egan hit the Off button and returned his cell phone to its nest on his hip. “I work for a private security and investigation firm based in Atlanta,” he explained to Maggie, who was staring at him questioningly. “I’ve been with them for a couple of years now. Most of the agents are former special forces or former lawmen, all highly trained professionals. My boss has just called in the top six men at Dundee’s to be ready to act on my command, once we hear from Cullen.”