Page 38 of The Sound of Secrets

I shook my head. “No. If I take the money, then he’ll have both me and Winnie in his hands, and he’ll ask for more money. This is going to be a never-ending cycle. They’re on a boat. I can feel it in my bones.”

“The FBI doesn’t want me to give him the money, either. This is bigger than a family disagreement, Channing. They want to set up a sting so they can arrest your father when he shows up for the money.”

I snorted and looked Win in the eye. He looked like he was at the end of his patience. “He’s never going to fall for that. Even if you arrest him on the spot, he still has Winnie stashed somewhere. He won’t tell you where she is with his life on the line. We have to outsmart him. We have to go get her.”

“Channing…” he trailed off and looked around the crowded brownstone in a helpless manner. “We’re surrounded by professionals. We need to let them handle this. We can’t risk putting Winnie in any more danger.” I could practically hear his “remember what happened last time we went off half-cocked,”even though he didn’t say it. Things went so wrong when we confronted his mother. It was no surprise he wanted to err on the side of caution.

I glanced at all the official-looking people surrounding us and pleaded with Win, “I’ll work with the authoritiesto catch my dad. I’ll do whatever they tell me to do. But you have to find the boat. Go get Winnie.” I took a breath so deep it made me lightheaded, and I let it out slowly. “Win. I trust you.” I really did. I was shocked by how much faith I had in this man. I guess in the time of crisis, my true feelings had nowhere to hide. “Please trust me.”

He was deathly quiet. I could sense hesitation in every line of his big body. He didn’t cover the stark fear that feathered through his stormy gaze. “You’re okay being used as bait? Because I’m not.”

“No. But I’m less okay with my father using me and Winnie as leverage against you. He’s used to me giving him what he wants. If you want to lay a trap for him, I have to be the one to lure him into it.”

We stared at each other, and for the first time I felt like I understood the saying, ‘having your heart in your eyes’. I could see everything Win felt for me in that tortured gaze, and I was certain mine were showing the identical emotions back.

I grabbed his face with my hands and whispered, “I’m going with the professionals. I’m going to be perfectly fine. You’re the one who has to be careful.”

We agreed to divide and conquer without words.

A flurry of activity began after I was allowed to respond to my father. He didn’t answer my phone call or respond to my text messages asking him where he wanted to meet. The feds guessed he didn’t want them to track his movements via phone. Everyone waited around silent devices in vain until there was an alert that someone was approaching the brownstone. I recognized theteenager on the skateboard right away. Win and I rushed down the steps to stop Ky just as he reached the front of the building. He was frowning and looking down at his phone seriously.

When he looked up, he was startled by the police presence and nearly dropped his phone. He caught my eye and told me, “I got a message from your old man. He said he can’t wait for a family reunion. I don’t know what that means, but I figured it was something you needed to know. Have you found Winnie yet?”

A family reunion? What did he mean by that?

I asked to see Ky’s phone, and he reluctantly handed it over. I felt the authorities hovering anxiously behind me and noticed Rocco was doing his best to hold them at bay.

“We’re working on it. This message is very helpful. Thank you, Ky.”

The only option for my family to be together was the facility where my mother lived. He was going to drag every Harvey into the mess before the day was done. He wouldn’t stop until he destroyed us all.

My heart broke when I realized he was going to make my mother choose between me and him. I knew good and well who was going to come out on top. But that didn’t stop me from preparing myself to save us both from him, the way I’d been doing since I was just a little girl.

Win

I stood next to the SUV where the feds planned to load Channing to rush her to her mother’s facility. There’d been no sign of her father or Winnie, and her mom wasn’t talking. There was no coherent plan about how they were going to draw Paul Harvey out into the open and arrest him for kidnapping and extortion. He seemed to think he could use his wife as a shield and his daughter as a tool. I wanted nothing more than for the man to burn in hell. He was just as malicious and cold as my mother. Neither cared who they hurt as long as the ends justified the means.

During the last confrontation that rocked my world, Channing took on my mother single-handedly while I rode to the rescue with backup. This time, I was the one going out on a limb based on her gut feeling, and she was the one showing up with an armed entourage. I felt better about leaving her in the hands of the authorities, but I was still nervous about sending her into an unknown situation.

I sheltered her until the last possible moment. Eventually, the head of the team told us they needed to get going. I kissed Channing on her forehead and whispered, “Be careful. I don’t care about the money. I need you to come back in one piece.” I pulled away. She looked up at me with shining eyes. Her emotions were scattered and hard to read. I knew she was deeply conflicted over facing her mother and making her part of her father’s greedy scheme. The timing wasn’t the best, but it never seemed to be on our side. I had to tell her how I felt, in case something went wrong and neither of us got the chance to be honest with the other again.

I grabbed her cheeks and used the pad of my thumb to rub her lower lip. She held my wrists and watched me with helpless eyes.

“Even if you don’t want to hear it, I need you to listen to me and believe me when I tell you that I love you like it’s breathing, Channing. I don’t have to think about it. I do it unconsciously, and I feel like I’ll die if I suddenly stop. You never imagined us being married, but you’re theonlywoman I’ve ever been able to picture as my wife. Be safe and come back home tothisfamily.” I desperately needed her to keep in mind she had more than one, and we needed her more than the one that was doing its best to destroy her.

She closed her mouth and let it fall open, as if she couldn’t find the right words to reply. I dropped a gentle kiss onto her soft lips and stepped back so the waiting authorities could hustle her into the SUV. She stared at me in shock until someone tried to shut the door. She moved to stop them and called my name in a panickedvoice. I put a hand over hers and calmly told her, “Save whatever you have to say until we have Winnie back and everything is settled. Right now, you need to focus on yourself.” I lifted an eyebrow and warned her before I closed the door, “That’s the last time I’m going to tell you that. When you come back, I need you to worry aboutallof us, because we’re in this together until the end.”

She looked stunned behind the dark glass. She put her palm on the window and I touched it with mine from the other side until the SUV pulled away from the curb. A fleet of police vehicles and unmarked sedans followed with flashing lights and sirens. It was quite the spectacle.

I was left on the sidewalk in front of the brownstone with Rocco, a few of his most trusted employees, and a befuddled white-haired teenager the police grilled like a common criminal. The poor kid really had the worst luck for being in the wrong place at the right time.

“Boss. Alistair is liaising with the local authorities near the cove, and other seaside towns nearby are searching the shipyards up and down the coast. He even organized a civilian search party already. There’s a lot of shoreline and thousands of boats. Narrowing it down to a specific one is going to take forever. And we don’t know for certain where he stashed Winnie. Channing hasn’t had a relationship with her father for years. All we have is a wild guess to go on.”

I shoved my hands into my pants pockets and narrowed my eyes at the man I trusted with my life. I was disappointed I could no longer trust him with my niece’s. I knew Rocco was trying his best to make amends for not preventing this situation from happening, but I wasn’t inthe mood to hear how impossible finding Winnie might be. I wanted results, not excuses or explanations for failure.

I looked at Ky and apologized for the rough treatment. “I’m sorry about all of this. From start to finish, you’ve been in a tough spot through no fault of your own. I’ll compensate you and your mother for the hassle however you both see fit. I appreciate you doing what you can to help my niece, even though adults around her have been less than respectful toward you. You’re a good kid, Kyser Kent.”

The teen spun his skateboard around with the edge against the palm of his hand and watched me with a guarded gaze. Once again, I felt this teenager was more formidable than his years should allow. His tone was cold when he told me, “I want to help you find Winnie.”

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